liar relation to this gentleman's province, in the miniftry, which is, the fuperintendance over the univerfities and feminaries of learning. We cannot, nevertheless, help thinking, that the nature of the government under which he lives, and the operation of the fole hand that moves its fprings, muft have fhackled him a little in treating this matter, and hindered his expatiating, as a liberal and generous mind would wish to do, on fuch a noble theme.

XIII. Gefchichte, &e. i. e. An Hiftory of the English and French in the Eaft-Indies. Part I. By M. DOMK. 8vo. Leipfic. 1777. In this firft volume, the Author gives an account o the voyages and expeditions of the English in the Indies from the year 1600 to 1745, and of the French from 1503 to the fame period. In a fucceeding volume he propofes to treat of the commerce of these two nations from the year 1745 to 1762, and then to confider feparately that which each. of them has carried on from 1762 to the prefent time.

XIV. Abhandlungen einer privat gefell Schafft in Boehmen, &c. i. e. Memoirs of a private Society of learned Men in Bohemia. Publifhed by M. de BORN. 2d vol. Prague. 1776. There are fifteen Memoirs or Differtations contained in this volume on fubjects of various kinds, relative to Natural Philofophy, Natural History, Civil Hiftory, Antiquities and Philology.

XV. Memoires pour fervir à l'Histoire des Infectes-i. e. Memoirs relative to an History of Infects. By M. DE GEER. The fixth Part. Stockholm. This part of Baron DE GEER'S noble work contains thirty plates, in which are reprefented the following infects: 1ft, the mufca, which comprehends four families and twenty-one new fpecies, 2d, the firatiornys, a new genus, 3d, the nemotelus, 'a new genus, which confifts of four families and is divided into fourteen new forts or fpecies4th, the tuabanus, two families and three new fpecies-5th, the afilus, two families and three new fpecies-6th, the empis, two new fpecies-th, the conops, two new fpecies-8th9th-10th-11th, the bombylius, hyppofea, oeflus, and culex12th, the tipula, four families fifteen new fpecies-13th, the coceus, two families and one new species.

XVI. Kurzgefafte Nachricht von dem Etablissement der Saltzburgifchen Emigranten, &c. i. e. A Short Relation of the Settle ment of the Saltzburg Emigrants at Ebenezer in the Province of Georgia in America. 8vo. Hamburg. 1777. This being the relation of an eye-witnefs of the growth, progress, and flourishing state of the colony in question, is, therefore, more worthy of attention than many elegant defcriptions compofed at a distance: it was communicated to the Editor by M. Van Reck, who went with the Saltzburg emigrants to America, in the character of commiffary. XVII. The

004

XVII. The Hebrew Bible of Father HoUBIGANT, in four Volumes, Folio, with Preliminary Difcourfes and Critical Notes, has met with fuch univerfal efteem among the learned, that the bookfellers Varentrap and Venner at Francfort formed the defign of reducing the labours of that eminent critic to a fmaller compass, and thus rendering the purchase easier to many, who were excluded from access to them by the high price of the Paris edition of this great work. For this purpofe they have published,, apart, the Preliminary Difcourfes and the Critical Notes of F. Houbigant (without either the Hebrew text or his Latin tranflation of it) in an elegant volume in 4to. and offer it to the public at the rate of 24 French livres, the large paper, and 16 the fmall. This ufeful undertaking will, no doubt, meet with the fuccefs it deferves.

XVIII. Eloge des Femmes des Anciens Germains, &c. i. e. An Eulogy of the Wives of the Ancient Germans and of the other Inhabitants of the North. By M. SCHUTZEN. 8vo. Hamburg. 177. Though this be only a new edition of a book, which was received in the moft favourable manner, a few years ago, the corrections and additions, with which it now appears, render it, in fome measure, a new work. We know fo little of the lives, manners, fentiments and characters of the ladies of antiquity, that all attempts to complete the hiftory of that amiable fex must appear highly interefting; and it must be acknowledged, at leaft, that the extenfive erudition of the Author of this eulogy has drawn from ancient records a large treasure of materials for this purpose. Nor can we fay, that he has employed them clumfily, though they are fufceptible of being wrought into a better form.

ITALY.

XIX. Differtazione intorno alle Obfervazioni Solftiziali, &c. i. e. A Differtation on the Solftitial Obfervations that were made in Auguft 1775, at the Gnomon of the Cathedral of Florence. By the Abbot LEONARD XIMENES, Firft Mathematician and Engineer to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Correfpondent of the Academy of the Sciences of Paris, &c. in 8vo. Leghorn. 1776. Thefe obfervations, which demonftrate the knowledge, fagacity, and industry of the celebrated Author, are defigned to prove, it, that the opinion of those philofophers, who confider the plane of the ecliptic as immoveable, is without foundation-2dly, that the angle of the ecliptic is not diminished, during the courfe of a century, either a minute or 88 feconds, as fome modern geometricians have supposed *-3dly, that the

The Chevalier de Louville, in a Memoir prefented to the Royal Academy of Sciences, in the year 1716, endeavoured to prove, that the obliquity of the ecliptic diminishes at the rate of a minute in 100 years.

diminution

diminution of 47 feconds and a half, which refults from the calculation of Mr. Euler, is not exact-and laftly, that the real fecular diminution of the obliquity of the ecliptic is not above 35 seconds.-This is fuch a nice point in the fphere of calculation, that it is good not to be too positive, however plaufible the refult may be that is prefented by the most careful obfervation: for our Author, himself, has not always found the fame refult in the obfervations and calculations he has made at different times. In a Memoir prefented to the Academy of Sienna in 1774, he fixed the fecular diminution, now under confideration, at 29 feconds, but has fince found reafons to change his mind.

XX. Opufcola interfanti l'Agricoltura-i. e. Interesting Opufculi, or Effays relative to Agriculture. By the Abbot FERDINAND PAOLETTI. 8vo. Florence. 1777.-This fmall publication ought not to pafs unnoticed, were it only on account of the information he gives us with respect to the culture of Siberian barley, which is which is one of the principal articles of which it treats. About five years ago, a Swifs gentleman, whofe name is Waltravers, fent to Florence a certain quantity of barley from Siberia, which was fown in the neighbourhood of that city, and has been finee cultivated in feveral parts of Italy, with the utmost fuccefs. Our Author has made feveral trials with this grain, and the result of his experiments and obfervations proves ift, that this barley fucceeds in every kind of foil, whether in flat or mountainous places-2dly, that when it is used for feed, the half of the quantity, that is generally required of common barley, will be fufficient,-3dly, that it comes to maturity 15 or 20 days before every other kind of barley,-4th, that it makes good bread,-and, 5thly, does not degenerate after having been repeatedly ufed as feed. The two other articles that are mentioned in this little work, as having employed the researches and obfervations of the curious Abbot, are, the culture of the Iris of Florence, whofe ufe is fo well known in phyfic and painting, and the method of treating and curing the vines that have been beat down and damaged by hail.

XXI. The Bookfellers of Sienna have in the prefs an Hiftory of America, in 10 Volumes, 8vo. which comes down to the present time, and contains an exact Defcription of that Part of the World, as alfo of the Plants and Animals it produces, enriched with Maps and Cuts, elegantly engraved.The Author of this work lies yet concealed, which infpires a certain degree of diffidence: while the hiftories of America by Robertfon in Britain, and Roubeau in France, will be bought on the credit of their names. XXII. Differ

XXII. Differtazioni Iftoriche, i. e. Hiftorical Differtations_on
the Antiquities of Allipha. By M. J. FRANCIS TRUTTA, Ca-
non, &c. 4to. Naples. 1776. The learned Author of this
work furnishes the Reader with more inftruction and enter-
tainment than the title of his work promifes, and in this he
does not resemble the common run either of the writers of
history or of the grubbers of Antiquities. Allipha, a cele-
brated city of ancient Samnium, on the ruins of which Pied-
monte (and not Pescara as fome geographers maintain) was
built, is the ground on which our Author was born; and
though the love of his native spot may have animated him par-
ticularly to compofe the 30 differtations here announced, yet
they take in a larger compafs than the city of Allipha, em-
bracing several diftricts of Campania and Samnium, and those
more especially, which have been rendered famous by the wars
of Hannibal, and the difafters of the Samnites. Accordingly
we find, among the numerous infcriptions that enrich this
work, feveral, which caft no small light on the ancient man-
ners of the inhabitants of Italy.

M.

INDEX

INDEX

To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this

Volume.

N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, fee the
Table of Contents, prefixed to the Volume.

BHANDLUNGEN und Beebachtun B BARLEY, Siberian, great advantages