DANTIS ALIGERII POETAE FLORENTINI PARADISI CA. PITVLVM PRIMVM INCIPIT. A gloria dicollui che tutto moue per luniuerfo penetra e rifplende in una parte piu e men altroue Nel ciel che piu dela fua lucie prende fu io e uidi cofe che ridire ne fa ne puo chi dilafu difcende Terche a refandefe al fuo difire roftro intelletto fi profunda tanto che dietro la memoria non puo ire Veramente quintio del re regno fanto nella mia mente potei far theforo fara ora mitera del mio canto O buono apollo alultimo lauoro fami del tuo ualor fi fatto uafo come dimandi dar lamato alloro Infina qui lun giogo diparnafo affai mi fu maor chon amendue me uopo entrar nel arringo rimaso Entra nel petto mio espira tue fi come quando marsia traesti della uagina delle menbra fue O diuina uirtu femiti presti tanto che lombra del beato regno fegnata nel mio capo manifefti Venir uedrami al tuo diletto legno ཉི ecoronarmi alor diquelle foglie che lam tera e tu mi farai degno Si rade uolte padre fene coglie per triumphare ocefare opozta colpa e uergogna del humane uoglie Che parturir leticia in fu lalieta delphica deita douria lafronda peneia quando alchun dife affeta Poca fauilla gran fiamma feconda dietro dame forfe chom miglior uoci fi preghera per che cirra risponda Surgie amort-li per diuerfe foci lucerna del mondo madaquella che qtro cierchi giungie chon tre croci Chon miglior corso e chon migliore stella efcie congiunta ella mondana cizra piu afuo modo tempera efugiella Fatto hausa dila mane e diqui fera tal foce quafi e tutera labinco quello hemifperio elaltra parte nera Quando beatrice inful finiftro fianco uidi riuolta eriguardar nelfole aquila fino.ifafiffe unquanco E fi chome fechondo rigio fuol: ufcir del primo erifalir infuso Pur chome peregrini ch; tornar uule Choff: degliati fuoi per liochi infufo rellim-gine mia il mio fi fecie cfiffi liochi a' fole oltre noftro ufo Molte e iato che qui non lecie al'e no re urtu merce deloco' fatto or urorio dell'umana fpecic lo nelielo i molto ne i poco chio nel uzdei ffaui lar dintorno chemel ferro bog'iente efcie del foco E difubito parue giorno agiorno effer agiunto chome quo ch: puste haueffe il ciel dun altro fole doing Beatrice tuta nelletterre rote fiffa cogliochi fraua eio in le le luci fiffe dilaffu rinoce Dante Alighieri. "La Divina Commedia," Mantuae 1472, the first page of what is by many regarded as the oldest edition of the earliest known poem written in the Italian language. Now in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris. To face page 44 Count Byerges, was rewarded with a box containing a mariner's compass. REFERENCES.-Suhm, " In effigien Torfæi, una cum Torfænis "; "Nouv. Biogr. Générale de Hofer," Vol. XLV. p. 495; New Gen. Biog. Dict.," London, 1850, Vol. XII. p. 263; Jessen, "Norge," pp. 83-99; Larousse, "Dict. Univ.," Vol. XV. p. 312; Michaud, Biog. Univ.,' Vol. XLI. p. 683. " A.D. 1269.-Peregrinus (Petrus), Pierre Pélerin de Maricourt, Méhéricourt-Magister Petrus de Maharnecuria, Picardus-doubtless a Crusader, was, as Roger Bacon tells us ("Opus Tertium," cap. xi) the only one, besides Master John of London, who, at this period, could be deemed a thoroughly accomplished, perfect mathematician, and was one who understood the business of experimenting in natural philosophy, alchemy and medicine better than any one else in Western Europe. Peregrinus is the author of a letter or epistle, " Written in camp at the Siege of Lucera (delle Puglie-Nucerræ) in the year of our Lord 1269, on the 8th day of August," addressed to his Amicorum intime, a soldier, by the name of Sygerus de Fontancourt-Foucaucourt-Foucancort. Of this epistle, which is the earliest known work of experimental science, there are but few reliable complete manuscript copies. Most of these have been very ably analyzed by P. D. Timoteo Bertelli Barnabita in the exhaustive Memoirs published by him in Rome during 1868, and still better detailed by Dr. Silvanus P. Thompson in his several valuable printed researches and lectures on the subject, but there has been of it only one printed issue in book form, that of the Lindau physician, A. P. Gasser, which appeared at Augsburg during 1558. Several attempts at translation have been made, notably by Guillaume Libri ("Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques .. Paris, 1838, Vol. II. p. 487) who admitted that, with the aid of several paleographers, he could not decipher many of the abbreviated faint characters existing in the Bibliothèque Nationale manuscript (No. 7378A in quarto, at folio 67), and by Tiberius Cavallo, who does scarcely better with the Leyden copy (Fol. Cod. No. 227) which was discovered by him, and but a portion of which he transcribes in the supplement to his "Treatise on Magnetism," London, 1800, pp. 299-320. A translation was also made by Brother Arnold, of the La Salle Institute in Troy, N.Y., and published during 1904, but the most meritorious version now existing is the one entitled "Done into English by Silvanus P. Thompson from the printed Latin versions of Gasser 1558, Bertelli 1868, and Hellmann 1898, and amended by reference to the manuscript copy in his possession, formerly amongst the Phillipps' manuscripts, dated 1391." This translation," printed in the year 1902, in the Caxton type, to the number of 250 copies," reflects very great credit upon Prof. Thompson, who has given us such a faithful interpretation of the original work as would naturally be expected at his hands, and who has, besides, rubricated this right royal little volume and caused it to be issued in one of the most attractive typographical fashions of the Chiswick Press. The Hellmann 1898 Berlin version just alluded to, which appeared in "Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten . . ." No. 10 (Rara Magnetica), contains a photographic reproduction of the Augsburg 1558 title-page, and, it may be added, the volume of Phillipps' manuscripts, of which Prof. Thompson became the fortunate possessor, includes one of Chaucer's treatises on the Astrolabe, besides the Peregrinus' manuscript in question. During the year 1562 much of the original epistle was pilfered by Joannes Taisnier Hannonius, who badly condensed and deformed it and incorporated it as new matter, conjointly with some papers of his own, in a book entitled "Oposculum . . . de Natura Magnetis et ejus effectibus . . ." Coloniæ, 1562; and that much was translated "into Englishe " by Richarde Eden, London, about 1579, under title of "A very necessarie and profitable booke concerning navigation." Much has been said at different times regarding the contents of the above-named epistle, the full title of the Paris MS. No. 7378 of which reads Epistola Petri Peregrini de Maricourt ad Sygerum de Foucaucourt militem de magnete," but no résumé of it could better be given than by quoting here its first page, which has been translated as follows: This treatise on the magnet contains two parts, of which Part I is complete in ten chapters, and Part II in three. Of Part I: Chap. I states the object of the work; Chap. II, of what the investigator in this line of work should be; Chap. III, of a knowledge of the load stone; Chap. IV, of the science of the discovery of the parts of the loadstone; Chap. V, of the source of the discovery of poles in the loadstone-which of them is the north and which the south; Chap. VI, in what manner a magnet attracts a magnet; |