1800. } 
tertiumde milio. Tterum hac eadem caula 
centum oves, altera vice quafdam pelles 
martirinas. Cumg@ue feparavit fe a co- 
mite, quatuor libratas, ovium emendi cau- 
fa, abilla accepit.”"—Foa. MabvillonAnnal. 
Ord. St. Bened. t.4. 1.61, 2.6. Paris1707, 
fol. p. 574. 
Donatus Acciajuoli thus writes relative 
to the price of Plutarch’s Lives: ‘* Pre- 
tium minus octoginta aureis effe non po- 
tet ;°> and foon after: ‘* Ex traétatibus 
Senece jam epiftolas invenimus, pro qui- 
bus fexdecim aut faltem quindecim petun- 
tur aurei.”” Card. Fac. Papienfis Opera, 
epiff. 106, Franc. 1614, fol. p. 542. 
. Antonius of Palermo bought of Poge7 a 
copy of Liwy for 120 golden florins ; and 
thus exprefles himtelf relative to the bar- 
gain to his fovereign Alphonfus: ‘* Illud 
a prudentia tua fcire defidero, uter, ego 
an Poggius, melius fecerit. Is, ut villam 
Florentiz emeret, Livzum, quem fua manu 
pulcherrime fcripferat, vendidit; ego, ut 
Livium emam, fundum profcripfi.” ZL. 
w. epift. 5, Card. Quirini de optimor. Scrip- 
tor. Edit. Ge. ex recenf. 7. G. Schelhora. 
Lindau, 1761, 40. p. 105. 
Pope Nicholas V. bid tor St. Mathew’ s 
From the Port-Folis of a Man of Letters. 463 
Gofpel in Hebrew no lefs a fum than 5000 
ducats, : : 
The Biblical Concordances were offered 
for fale to Rob Gaguinus for 100 golden 
florins. Ep. 20 ad Guil. Fichetum—See 
Fean de la Caille’s Hiftoire de Vimprimerte 
et de lalibrairie, a Paris, 1689, 4to. p. 3. 
Francifeus Philelpbus Petro Perleoni Salatems 
Quanti liber emi poteft, dicit. 
‘‘ Familiares Ciceronis. Epiftolas quas 
petebas: venales invenimus. Eas fi ha- 
bere cupis: ducatos decem mittas oportet. 
Id enim pretii omnino fe velle dicit libra- 
rius Melchior: nec alius huiufmodi codex 
apud alium quenyuam venalis reperitur. 
Codex vero harum epiftolarum et pulcer 
ef et novus, et fatis emendate {criptus. 
Rem paucis tenes: Tu quod fieri velis 
fignificato literis. Vale, ex Mediolano, V, 
Idus Septembres (143.). 
In the year 1462, the bible was fir& 
printed by Faw/?, and copies of his edition 
were fold in France at 60 crowns 3 a ma- 
nufcript copy having before coft from 400 
to 500 crowns. Bougine’s Handbuch der 
algemeinen Literargefchichte, &c. vol. z- 
Zurich, 17895 p. 75> 


ORIGINAL POETRY. 
ea 
Some ACCOUNT of the POET RAMLER. 
KARL Witwerm RAMLER was bors in 
1725, at Kolberg, and became profefior 
of fine literature (may belles lettres be thus an- 
ghicized?) ina military academy at Berlin. 
In concert with Leffing, he there edited two 
ancient poets of the Germans, Logan and Wer- 
nike. His Lyrical Anthology contributed 
much to fharpen the tafte of his countrymen, 
by the perpetual improvements of diction 
which almoft every poem received from the 
delicate dexterity of his file. Sixteen odes 
of Horace he vernacularized with exquifite 
felicity ; and compofed many original imita- 
tions of them. His oratorios, which Graun 
fet to mufic, would have been warmly 
admired, but in the country of Klopftock. 
in 1774, he tranflated the critical works of 
Batteux, which he accompanied with taftefal 
additions. 
Ramler’s odes were firft collected apart in 
37723 they had been compofed on feveral 
occafions, during the preceding fifteen years. 
Their charaéter is peculiarly Horatian, The 
Chiabrera of the Italians, and the Baptifte 
Rouffeau of the French, have travelled in the 
fame walk, with backwarder fuccefs. The 
fatires and epiftles of Horace have been rival- 
led by Boileau and by Pope ; his odes by Ram- 
ler alone. A fevere critic would, however, 
objeé&t that the lyric works of Ramler have 
too much the character of imitations. Apollo, 
Venus, the Mufes, and the Graces, feem at, 
home in the court of Auguftus, and among 
the temples of ancient Rome 5 but they 
haunt only with a conventional propriety the’ 
opera-houfe* of Berlin. Bacchus may for- 
bid Achelous from fpoiling a cup of Falerni- 
an; but there is a pedantic ingenuity in evole- 
ing them to brew fome negusf. Nenie, al- 
though in faét an imitation of the well 
known 
Paffer, delisie mee puelley 
of Catullus, is free from this fault; the 
ideas are perfeétly modernized, and the ten- 
der delicacy, if not the trimnefs, of the mo- 
del has been well attained. 
Ramler was fortunate in the feafon of his 
bloom: the great Frederic reigned: and the 
panegyrics{ of dis admirers, in the eftima- 


* Ode IIT. +OdeIX. f Ode XXX. is 
the moft fortunate of thefe. 
tion. 


