a 
at Rome, 1471, 1471. 1480; the third 
does not appear to have been known to 
Maittaire. : 
Silius Italicus, per Damian. Benessam ; 
this edition is praised by Drakenborch. 
Silius Italicus, Heinsi. 
Silius Italicus, Christ. Cellarii et Arn. 
Drakenborch. Traj. 1695. 
Suius Italicus, curante Arn. Draken- 
borch. Traj. 1717; a very celebrated 
ed_tion. 
. Silius Italicus, curante Jo. Bapt. Le- 
febvre de Villebrune. Par. 1781, 8vo. He 
460 Account of the Infe of Cardinal Stephen Borgia. 
{D> ec. I $ 
certainly took great pains to collate the 
former editions; but he is rash and un- 
founded in many of his conjectures, and 
speaks with unmerited contempt of the 
learned German editors who preceded 
him. 
Silius Italicus, cura Ernesti, 2- vols. » 
Lips. 1791-2. It contains a valuable 
disquisition on the merit of Silius. 
Silius Italicus, cum nous Rupert, 
2 vols. Gotting. 1795, @ critical and 
valuable edition. . 
MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
Some account of the LtFE of CARDINAL 
STEPHEN BORGIA. By FATHER PAU- 
LIN DE ST. BARTHELEMY. 
‘TEPHEN Borgia, cardinal of the 
.3F Roman church, bearing the title of 
St. Clement, prefect of the congregation 
de propaganda fide, &c. &c., was born 
on the third of December, 1731, at 
Veletri, formerly the capital of the 
country inhabited by the Volsci, and at 
present one of the finest cities of Italy. 
The same city likewise boasts of having 
given birth to Octavius Augustus, whose 
meckness, benificence, and liberality, Ste- 
phen endeavoured to imitate; and in or- 
der the better to impress on his mind 
the remembrance of his virtues, he caused 
a marble statue of that emperor to 
be erected in the vestibule of his pa- 
lace. 
The family of Borgia is of Spanish ex- 
traction; but we are ignorant of the cause 
which led them to abandon thew country 
for Italy. 
The subject of the present memoir 
passed the first years of his life, under the 
agmmediate care of his father Camillo 
Borgia, by whom he was taught the rudi- 
ments of geography and numismatics. 
Scarcely had he passed his infancy, when 
he was sent, about 1740, to Fermo, to 
Alexander Borgia, his uncle, whose pupil 
he became. His chief study was at first 
sacred and profane history. Under such 
an able master, however, he was not 
confined merely to store up im_ his 
memory a knowledge of dates, facts, 
and events; but was accustemed to in- 
vestigate the causes, the motives and 
the end of human actions; and thus was 
laid the foundation of that vast know- 
Jedee, and profound erudition displayed 
even in his most early productions. He 
afterwards gave himselfup to the study of 
* 
philosophy, and particularly of logic and 
metaphysics. | 
He obtained a degree in 1750, being 
then only in the 19th year of his age. 
During the same year he was received 
into the academy of Cortona, and_pré- 
sented to the public a work entitled: 
Monumento di Papa Giovanni XVI; 
Roma, 1750. This work, while it dis~ 
played the extent of his abilities, gave to 
the learned world a presentiment of what 
he would one day become. ‘To this first 
production worthy of a riper age, suc- 
ceeded a ‘dissertation inserted m the 
Ephemerides literaria of 1751, under the 
title of Dissertazione sopra un antica is- 
crizione vinvenuta nell’ isola de Malta, 
REL IGA 5.8 ; 
Towards the end of 1752, he was ad- 
mitted a member of the Academy of Phi- 
lology at Fermo; and about the same 
period published his History of the Town 
of Tadino, in Umbria.’ Stephen Borgia 
was already well known to the learned _ 
men‘of his age; several of whom, and 
among others Gori, were his intimate 
friends. 
These literary labours did not, however, 
divert him from more abstruse studies; 
he defended with much celebrity several 
public theses, and soon after took his de- 
gree as Doctor of Divinity. , 
Like many others, his ambition was 
not yet, however, sufficiently gratified ; 
and this title, which he regarded as mere~ 
ly nominal, did not tend to make him re- 
lax in his studies. He pursued them, on 
the contrary, with increased ardour, par- 
ticularly the investigation of antique me- 
dais and antient manuscripts, to obtain 
which he spared neither trouble nor ex- 
pence. 
It was at this period he conceived the 
idea of forming.a private museum in his 
; _ palaces 
