De Triumpho, Trophæis, & Teftimoniis publici honoris.

De Re Nauticâ generatim.

De Navibus Bellicis, & Adjutricibus.

De Navium Partibus, Ornamentis, Inftrumentis, &c.

De Animalibus.

De Occifione, Funere, & Morbis.
De Quæftionibus militaribus.
De Adagiis militaribus.

UNDER thefe various Heads our Author with great accuracy and perfpicuity treats of many things, which have by other Writers either been wholly omitted, or not explained fo clearly as they ought to have been. He befides gives new Explications to feveral Texts of the Claffics; for inftance under the word Mina, he clears up this Paffage in the 4th Eneid of Virgil,

pendent opera interrupta, minæq;

Murorum ingentes

in a different manner fromServius, Turnebus, and all the other Commentators, who will have it that the word Mine here, fignifies either the Battlements of the Walls, or Loop-holes. Virgil, fays our Author, is here giving an account that the building of Carthage ceafed, and that the Walls remained unfinifhed; but how could that be faid, if the Battlements, which are the laft thing to compleat them, were already built?: And yet is it lefs probable, that Virgil, here mentioning only great and magnificent Circumftances, fhould by the word Mine understand Loopholes, which were no more than little Windows, or Chinks in the Wall. He therefore concludes, that no particular part of Building was meant

by this word, but that the Poet spoke figuratively, and that by minas murorum, he meant fuch a beginning, as promised the building of a great City. In a like figurative way of Speech Horace in his Sat. 3. Lib. 2. fays,

Atqui vultus erat multa & præclara minantis. And Virgil himself, Lib. 1.

geminique minantur In Calum fcopuli

In the fame manner in the word Gladius, after fhewing that the Romans wore their Swords on their right, and not on their left fide, he takes Horace to have spoken not of the Hand, but of the right Side, when he fays, Epod. 7: Quoquo, fcelefti, ruitis, aut cur dexteris Aptantur enfes conditii?

ACCORDING to this Explanation the word apto is here very proper; whereas it would be quite contrary, if Horace spoke of the Hand, as any one may plainly fee.

HE befides with great perfpicuity explains many obfcure and dubious Texts of the Italian: Writers, which the brevity of my Design does not allow me to inftance. The Author has in the Conclufion fubjoin'd three ample Indexes, the first of the Titles, the fecond of the moft remarkable Things, and the third of fuch Ita-i lian Words as are explain'd in the Work, with the Origin of them.

ARTICLE

ARTICLE III.

De Liturgiâ Gallicanâ,Lib.III. inquibus,&c. That is,

Three Books on the French Liturgy, wherein the Form and Rites of the ancient Mafs, as ufed above a thousand Tears ago among ft the Gauls, are difcover'd from ancient Monuments from the Gallican Lectionarium", never before publifhed, and three Thomafian Mafs-books, which are printed at length. Whereun to is added, an Enquiry concerning the Curfus Gallicanus, or the Rife and Progrefs of Divine Offices in the Gallican Churches, by JOHN MABILLON, Pref byter, and one of the Fathers of the Congregation of St. Maur. Paris, Printed for Montalant, 1729. Quarto. p. 477. ad Ripam RR. PP. Auguft. prope Pontem S. Michaelis.

THE

HE Author of this Work is already fo well known, that it would be ufelefs to fay any thing of him. M. du Pin, in his Bibliotheque of Ecclefiaftical Writers, gives him the following Elogy. It would be difficult to praise F. Mabillon as he deferves. The Voice of the Public,

C 3

* The Lectionarium is a Book containing the Prophecies, Epiftles, and Gofpels read in the Mafs throughout the Year.

Public, and the general Efteem of all the Learned are a much better Panegyric on him than any thing we could fay. What gained him the greatest Reputation was, his very learned Treatife de Re Diplomatica, wherein he not only lets us into the knowledge of Charters, but fhews us how to make a Judgment of all ancient Monuments; a thing which no Perfon ever dared to attempt before him.

THE Author's aim in this Work is from the Monuments of Antiquity to trace out the ancient Gallican Liturgy, now for above nine hundred years, not only grown into disuse, but oblivion. All Authors agree, that the Gallican Liturgy was at first different from the Roman, and that the Alteration happened before the eighth Century in the Reign of Charlemagne. That Prince receiv'd from Pope Adrian I. the Sacramentarium of St. Gregory, then and ever fince used in Divine Service by the Romans. This Alteration was received with fo full a Confent by the whole Gallican Church, that in the Reign of Charles the Bald, Grandfon to Charlemagne, the Memory of the Gallican Liturgy was entirely obliterated and loft; fo that this Prince could no otherwife come at the knowledge of the difference between that Liturgy and the Roman, than by haying Mafs celebrated by Priefts that came ex partibus Toletana Ecclefia; this Church, as he had heard, ufing the fame Liturgy with the ancient Gallican Church. Charles prefer'd the Roman to the Toledan Ritual, nor ever after thought of fetting the Gallican up again; fo that

The Sacramentarium contains the Collects and Prayers faid at the Mafs, which were collected by St. Gregory.

that there could scarce be any mention made of it by any Writer before our age.

THE first who after fo long a time revived the Memory of the Gallican Liturgy, was Matthias Flaccus Illyricus, one of the Magdeburg Centuriators, who having found an old Latin Mafs in an ancient Manufcript, imagin'd it might be that in ufe among the Gauls and Germans, before the Roman. This Conjecture was by Gui lielmus Peyratus and Carolus, Contius laid down as an Opinion not to be doubted; but Cardinal Bona fhews the Infufficiency of it, but yet confeffes at the fame time, that he found himfelf much perplexed in the fearch of the ancient Gallican Mafs..!!

WHILST things continued in this ftate of incertainty, the Author, in the Luxovian Monaftery of Benedictins happen'd upon a Lectionarium, which had been in ufe above a thoufand years before, for reading the Prophecies, Epifties, and Gofpels at Divine Service. This he was of opinion belonged to the Gallican Church, and therefore undertook the publishing a Work, wherein were explained, all the other Rites and the true Form of the Liturgy used by that Church before Charlemagne's time.

THE Whole Work is divided into three Books. In the firft, after having explain'd several Liturgies of the Latin Church, fuch as the Roman, Ambrofian, Milanefe, Spanish, (called the Mofarabic, from being followed by the Chriftians in Spain mixed among the Arabians;) he gives the true figns whereby the Gallican may be known and diftinguifhed. He then compares it with the Mofarabic, and diftinctly explains its feveral parts from Gregory of Tours, and other ancient Monuments. After this he proceeds to

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