96 M A G 
through a good telefcope, they would appear to he multi¬ 
tudes of fmall ftars like the milky way. Boyle's Works, abr. 
Vol; i. p. 293, 
MAGELLANIC A TER'RA. See Patagonia. 
MAG'ERBACH, a town of theTyrolefe: three miles 
fouth-well of Stambs. 
MAGERGONG', a town of Hindooftan, in Candeifh: 
fifty-four miles fouth of Indore. 
MAG'GEL, a river of France, which runa into the 
Demer four miles above Died. 
MAG'GER SUN'D, a ftrait of the North Sea, between 
the ifland of Maggeroe and the continent. 
MAG'GERI, a town of Hindooftan, in Myfore: twenty- 
one miles welt of Bangalore. 
MAGGERO'E, a large ifland near the coaft of Lap- 
land, faid to be the molt northern land in Europe. Lat. 
71. N. Ion. 24. 55. E. 
MAG'GI, a town of Tunis: forty miles fouth-well of 
Gabbs. 
MAG'GI (Jerome), a lawyer, philologift, and engineer, 
was born at Anghiari, in Tufcany, in the earlier part of 
the fixteenth century; he lludied at the principal Italian 
univerfities, and while young acquired an intimate ac¬ 
quaintance with antiquities and polite literature. He had 
icarcely attained to the age of manhood, when he was fe- 
le&ed by his tovvnfmen as their ambaflador at the court of 
Florence. In 1558, he was appointed judge at Amatrica, 
in the kingdom of Naples; but his ufual refidence was in 
the city of Venice, where he wrote the greater part of his 
learned works. Of his legal ftudies, the fruit was A Com¬ 
mentary on the Four Books of Juflinian’s Inlfitutes. In 
general literature, his principal work was Variarurn Lec- 
tionum feu Mifcellaneorum ; which was elegantly written, 
and which proves him to have been thoroughly acquainted 
with the bell ancient and modern authors. He appeared 
as a theologian, in a treatife De Mundi exulfione, et de 
Die Judicii, commended by Dupin for its learning and ele¬ 
gance. He alfo gave fignal proofs of his talents as a poet. 
But the work by which he acquired the greatefl reputa¬ 
tion, was relative to the fubjeCi of military engineering, 
.entitled Della Fortijicatione delle Citta, which contains a de¬ 
scription of many ingenious machines and inftruments of 
his own invention. On account of his lkill in this depart¬ 
ment of fcience, he was lent to Cyprus, when threatened 
with invafron by the Turks ; and his fervices as an engi¬ 
neer were of great ufe in the celebrated fiege of that place, 
and enabled it to hold out a long time, and with vail de- 
ftru&ion to the enemy. At length it fell, and Maggi was 
carried by the Turks as a Have to Conftantinople, where 
he underwent much hardlhip. In the gloomy folitude of 
a dungeon, he wrote two pieces, entitled De Tintinnabulis, 
and De Equuleo ; the latter (On the Rack) was probably 
fuggefted to him by the reflection on the tortures to which 
he was daily liable. He was at length, and at the moment 
.when negotiations were carrying on for his deliverance, 
Itrangled in his prifon, Mar. 27, 1572. Bayle. 
MAG'GI (Charles-Maria), an Italian poet of fome re¬ 
putation, was born at Milan in 1630, and was fecretary to 
the fenate of that city. He died in 1690; and his works 
were publiflied in the following year by Muratori, at Mi- 
Jan, in four vols. i2mo. 
MAG'GIO,yi A dry meafure in Italy, containing about 
a bulliel and a half. 
MAGGIO'RA. See Lago Maggiora, vol. xii. p. 84. 
MAGGFORE, an Italian adjeCtive, from major, Lat. a 
word now naturalized in the Englifh language, anti fyno- 
nymous with greater ; thus a major 3d implies a greater or 
fharp 3d, as a minor does a lefs or flat 3d. Thele degrees 
of comparifon are of very frequent ufe in mulic, the va¬ 
riable intervals amounting to five; viz. the femitone, the 
tone, the 3d, the 6th, and the 7th. With regard to the 
,tone and the femitone, their difference of major and minor 
can only be exprefled in numbers, as we have no notes to 
fhow them in our fyftem. The femitone major is the 
interval of a fecond minor, as from B to C, or E to F, and 
MAG 
its ratio is 15 to 16. The major is the difference between 
the 4th and 5th, and its ratio 8 to 9. The three other in¬ 
tervals, namely, the 3d, 6th, and 7th, differ conflantly 
from each other by a femitone front the major to the minor. 
Thus, the 3d minor confifts of a tone and a half, and the 
3d major of two tones. There are fome Hill fmaller inter¬ 
vals, which are called major and minor in theory, as the 
quarter-tone, and the comma; but, as thefe intervals can 
only be exprefled in numbers, they are imaginary diltinc- 
tions, and ulelefs in practice. 
A mode or key is alio faid to be major, when the 3d 
above the key note is major; that is, confiding of four fe- 
mitones above the bafe ; and minor, when the 3d above 
the key-note confifts but of three femitones. See the ar¬ 
ticle Music. 
MAG'GOT, f. \_magrcd, Welch ; millepeda, Lat. maSu, 
Sax.] A fmall grub, which turns into a fly.— Out of the 
Tides and back of the common caterpillar we have feen 
creep out fmall maggots. Ray on Creation, 
From the fore although the infect flies. 
It leaves a brood of maggots in difguife. Garth, 
Whimfey; caprice; odd fancy. A low word. —She pricked 
his maggot, and touched him in the tender point; then he 
broke out into a violent paffion. Arbuthnot. 
To reconcile our late diflenlers. 
Our brethren though by other venters. 
Unite them and their different maggots. 
As long and fhort (licks are in faggots. Hudibraf, 
Sometimes ufed adjeftively: 
Taffata phrafes, filken terms precife, 
Three-pil’d hyperboles, fpruce affectation. 
Figures pedantical, thefe fummer flies, 
Have blown me full of maggot oftentation : 
I do forfwear them. 
Hencefprth my wooing mind (hall be expreft 
In ruffet yeas, and honeft kerfy noes. Shakejpeare. 
MAG'GOTTINESS, f. The ftate of abounding with 
maggots. 
MAG'GOTTY, adj. Full of maggots.—Capricious; 
whimfical.—To pretend to work out a neat Tcheme of 
thoughts with a maggotty unfettled head, is as ridiculous 
as to think to write ltraight in a jumbling coach. Norris. 
MAGGS, a town of Egypt: thirty miles fouth of 
Aboufaid. 
MAGHARE'E, or Sev'en Hogs, a duller of fmall 
iflands, on the weft coalt of Ireland, at the fouth fide of 
the entrance into Tralee Bay. Lat. 52.19. N. Ion. 9. 55. W. 
MAG'HERA, a town of Ireland, in the county of 
Derry : fixteen miles fouth of Coleraine. 
MAGHERAFEL'T, a town of Ireland, in the county 
of Londonderry, confiderable for its linen-manufaCture : 
thirteen miles welt of Antrim, and thirty fouth-eaft of 
Londonderry. 
MAG'HREMORE B A'Y, a bay on the fouth-eaft coaft 
of Ireland : five miles fouth of Wicklow-Head. 
MAGHU'SE, a lake of North America. Lat. 62. 20. N. 
Ion. 98. 30. W. 
MA'GI, or Ma'gians, a title which the ancient Per- 
fians gave to their wife men or philofophers. The learned 
are in great perplexity about the origin of the word Magus, 
Mayo?. Plato, Xenophon, Herodotus, Strabo, &c. derived 
it from the Perfian language, in which it fignified a priefl, 
or perfon appointed to officiate in holy things ; as druid, 
among the Gauls; gymnofophijl, among the Indians; and 
levite, among the Hebrews. Others derive it from the 
Greek fuya?, great; which they fay, being borrowed of 
the Greeks by the Perfians, was returned in the form of 
iaayo?j but Voffius, with more probability, brings it from 
the Hebrew fEUl, haga, to meditate; whence D'JHDj 
maagkim, q. d. people addicted to meditation. 
The ancient Magi, according to Ariftotle and Laertius, 
were the foie authors and confervators of the Perfian phi- 
lofophy; and the philofophy principally cultivated among 
1 them 
