= 
” i) 
1902.] 
( 363 
ee 
NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 
eee 
WATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.« 
(Continued from our laf. ) 
HE National Inflitute has juft pub- 
lithed the fixth volume of the Notice 
of theManufcripts extracted from the natio- 
.nal library and from the other great libra- 
vies of Paris, The clafS of literature and 
fine arts is to draw up an account of them. 
The greater part of the pieces which com- 
pofe it, are the fruits of the labour of its 
members; among the names of whom it 
affords pleafure to fee affociated thofe of | 
fome members of the Academy of Belles: 
lettres, who died before the publication 
of ther notices. 
The volumes of notices and extracts of 
the manufcripts contain. works of three 
different kinds. Sometimes they are fim- 
ple notices or deferiptions of the manu- 
{cripts, which defcribe their ftate, charac- 
ter, value, the ufe to be made of them, 
and fometimes variant readings. Some- 
times they are extras rather than notices, 
which give publicity, either to entire 
pieces, when they are not of too great extent, 
or to important paflages, when they are not 
of a nature to be printed whole. And, 
laftly, the pieces publithed in thefe volumes 
proceed, fometimes, from the. affortment 
ef pure notices, or of that of fimple ex- 
tracts, when the examen of manufcripts 
gives place to the differtations on the cha-~ 
raéter which is proper to them, on their 
authors, on the motives from which they 
wrote, and on the advantage which may 
refult from their labours. Thefe preliimi- 
nary diflertations are indifpenfable, when 
“it ‘is neceflary to appreciate the manu- 
{cripts preferved in our literary depéts. 
On the above plan is a differtation found 
at the head of a notice of numerous manu- 
{cripts, which contain the hiftory of the 
animals of Ariftotle, tranflated into Latin, 
either from the Arabic or the Hebrew ; or 
in other words, and to generalize the quei- 
tion, it was neceflary to enquire into and 
difcufs the advantages which may be ex- 
pected from tranflations of Greek authors, 
made: into Syriac, into. Arabic,.or into 
Hebrew.. 
Few are fo uninfructed as not. to know 
that. the: bet Greek ciafics have been 
tranflated into Arabic. But-we are not 
fuffiiciently 
thefe tranflations,. and the greater or lefs 
advantage that may be derived from.them, 
in confulting them. Citizen Camus has 
mac le profound refearches on thele two 
peinis ; he has collected things which will | 
a) 
~~ 
raquaipted with the hifory of 
! 
appear new to many eet and even to 
the learned. He has proved that it would 
be dangerous to place too implicit a confi- 
dence in the Arabian tranflators, and te 
take them only for guides ;_ we muit aid 
ourfelves with the lights of criticifm, when 
we would follow them without the rifgue 
of ranning into errors. ‘This is the ee 
method of making advantageous ule of 
their writings, to correct detective- texts, 
or to fill up /acunes. 
Citizen Du Tueit has inferted in ibis 
volume confiderable portions of colleétions 
of the letters and opufcies of two Greek 
authors; one named Theodore the Hyrtace- 
nian; the other Theodore Prodromus; the 
latter flourifhed in the 12th century, the 
former in the 13th. ; 
Among the letters of Theodore Podro- 
mus, there is one which may throw fome 
light on the epoch at which the {mall pox 
came to affiitt mankind. Onthe fubject 
of a manufcript which contains fome let- 
ters of Innocent III. our colleague has 
collected fome details on the lite of Robert 
de Couvgon, acelebrated perfonage in the 
hifliory of the relations of France with the 
court of Rome. 
Citizen LevesQue, member of the 
clais of moral and political {ciences, has 
introduced, as well by a notice, as by the 
tran{ci iption of a number of texts, an : 
unpublished Greek Romance, written in 
Tambic verfes, by Nicetas Eugenianus, 
under the title of Amours of Drofilla and of 
Charicles. 
_ Citizen AMEFLHON has continued fome 
very curious notices, which he has inferted 
in the preceeding volume, concerning the 
antient Greek caemifts, and the factions 
which troubled the regency of Charies VI; 
Citizen LANGLES has been employed in 
making extracis proper to enlarge ou 
knowledge of that country which now fixes, 
or lately did fix, the attention of all E Europe. 
He has pubiithed from mat sete an 
hiltorical defeription of tie canal of Egypt, 
by Magryzy, and by other Arabian au- 
thors. i heir texts are printed in the cri- 
ginal language ; ; and the execution of the 
hee volume does honour to the prefics 
of the printing-ofhce of thevepubdlic. But 
the pait of the Arabic text, which fills up 
a pretty large {pace, and the Greek texts 
printed im very great number in this 
volume, are particular! y remarkable for 
doing honour to French typography ; ; they 
ferye to hes that this typography, fo cele- 
brated unucr the tile of the printing-cfiice 
ot 
