them, which were never yet printed. The Roman: Kalendar in the Emperor's library, written in the time of Constantius, son to Constantine the Great, at the end whereof are divers noble tracts never printed, Besides, they have great numbers of valuable works, which, though printed, yet either their copies. have not been collated, as the French King's Livie, which was within a few years brought to him from Mount Athos. Others they have, which are known not to have been faithfully or carefully collated, as the Pandects at Florence. And many more which are suspected by us to be untruly represented in print, by corrupting, interpolating, and suppressing, divers material passages; as many foreign editions of the Fathers, not to mention other antient or modern authors. It is humbly conceived, therefore, that it will conduce very much to the benefit of Learning in this kingdom, if some fit person or persons were sent abroad, who might make it his or their business: "1. To view the Libraries of France, Italy, and Germany, and to give a good account of their present state, and of the most valuable MSS. therein. "2. To collate with printed editions the most remarkable and precious copies of the works of the Antients, now remaining amongst them, written in capital letters; whereby we may reasonably hope to have a true text restored to many places now unintelligible. "3. To transcribe some particular books in Greek or Latin, which we have no copies of in England, and have not been, yet printed; by which means, there will be an accession of more learning to the kingdom than it has at this present. And the Papists are communicative enough, for love or money, of any book that does not immedi ately concern their controversies with Protestants. "4. To enquire carefully, all along, what books they have illustrating or appertaining to our English History; and particularly to get an accurate account of the English Records and Register-books formerly formerly belonging to Monasteries in this kingdom; which, being carried away to Rome, at the dissolution of Abbeys, are (as it is said) still preserved there, in the archives of the Vatican Church. "5. To take off copies of the most rare coins, medals, intaglios, &c. and other curious pieces of antiquity, different from what we have in our English cabinets, and not described in books printed upon that subject. "6. To buy up books of value, especially manu scripts. as occasion shall serve. "Which design has been highly approved of (as appears by particular testimonies under their own hands) by the Rev. Dr. Paynter, rector of Exeter college, and vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford; the Rev. Dr. Wallis, Geometry professor in the same university; the Rev. Dr. Mill, princi pal of Edmund Hall in the same university; the Rev. Dr. Hyde, head library-keeper, and professor of Hebrew and Arabic in the same university; Mr. Henry Dodwell, late History professor in the same university; the Honourable Mr. Pepys, late secretary to the Admiralty, and fellow of the Royal Society; Hans Sloane, M. D. and secretary to the Royal Society; the Rev. Dr. Aldrich, dean of Christ Church, in the University of Oxford; the Rev. Dr. Delaune, president of St. John's college in Oxford; William Sherard, M. D. fellow of St. John's college in Oxford." The foregoing paper is inserted at large not only on Mr. Wanley's account, but in honour to the learned men who encouraged the design. Bibl. Sloane, 4065, is an imperfect paper, containing "Some thoughts [by Mr. Wanley] concerning a new edition of the Septuagint. "Which may begin with a short narrative of the Seventy's Translation, with a little dissertation on the number of books at that time translated; as also what became of their copy, and how the Hel lenists came by theirs; the authority of this trans lation in the Church; the reasons which moved Origin, Hesychius, Lucianus, &c. to restore it, and what methods they used in doing so. In handling which, an occasion may be taken to make some judgement of the other Greek translations; viz. of Aquila, Symmachus, Theodoticn, &c. How the Septuagint came to be corrupted since Origen's time; the endeavours that have been made by learned men to restore it once again; the perfections and imperfections of what we have; the use it would be to the Church, &c. if we had the Seventy's genuine Version. The methods now to be followed in order to recover it: 1. In collating all the Greek MSS. that contain the whole or part. 2. Perusing diligently the Catenas and Commentaries of the antient Fathers. 3. Making use of those helps which the old Oriental Versions afford, especially those translated from the Septuagint. "A Catalogue of all the MSS. of each of these kinds, as they are dispersed throughout Europe, so far at least as they are generally known. "The Alexandrian, Vatican, Medicæan, Vossian, and other chief copies, considered. "1. As to the goodness of the copies in relation to the Septuagint; wherein is endeavoured from the writings of the Fathers to fill up some of the chasms in the Vatican copy. "2. As to the excellency of these copies in respect of one another, either as to the accuracy or antiquity of them, with some conjectures at their age, and large specimens of the true character of each book." [Two lines are here torn off.] From another paper in the same volume it appears Wanley had proceeded some way in a work exhibiting, "I. The state of the Runic and Roman hands, as they were at the time when our Saxon ancestors are supposed to have taken their letters from them. "II. All "II. All the Anglo-Saxon hands, as well in the Latin as in the Saxon tongues, from the oldest monuments now extant dnwn to the Conquest; with all the alphabets, cubical, and great unical letters, ligatures, abbreviations, and occult ways of writing used in those ages. " III. All the same variety of the NormannoSaxon hands to the time of Edward III. " IV. All the English hands thence to 1700, particularly the Pipe, Exchequer, Chancery, court, text, secretary, and other set hands, with date, remarks, and observations, throughout the whole, concerning the alterations in the forms of the letters, disuse of old letters, &c. and the bringing in of new ones. "V. Of counterfeits and copies of original writers might be compared with and examined by genuine ones, and the differences noted *. "VI. Specimens of the original hand-writing of eminent men and women in all ages. "VI, Specimens of some Italian, French, Flemish, German, Spanish, Longobardic, Irish, Welsh, and other hands, shewing the resemblance and differences between them and the English hands of the same age. "VI. A chapter concerning points, accents, notes or figures for numbers, weights, measures, music, &e," This work was to be followed by another, exhibiting the series of the Greek and Latin; for which Wanley seems to have made large collections. Harl. MSS. 7514. Siglorum Græcorum Sylloge, contains the Greek abbreviations from Montfaucon's Palæographia Græca, Dufresne's Glossarium, and Orig. MSS. Gr." a curious work, in long 8vo, beautifully written by him, concluding with a list intituled "Libra et Officia Ecclesiastica Græcorum E. D. Gul. Cavi." MS. Harl. 7326, contains a letter of his to the Hon. Thomas Harley, who was then envoy at the court of Hanover, 27 April, 1714, relating to St. Origen's Origen's Version of the Holy Scriptures; with fac-similies of the Nestorian and Estrangelan alphabets. It is a curious and learned letter. Harl. MSS. 3777. Other letters from Matthew Prior to Wanley (1718) who consulted Wanley in the orthography of the proof sheets of his Poems. In Ballard's Collection of MS Letters in the Bodleian Library, are several from Wanley; v. 64, 65, 70, 73, 80, 81, 84. vii. 20, 71. His curious letter to the Archbishop of Dublin, about St. Columb's Gospels viii. 4. Ample materials for a life of him. xiii. 31-93, and xviii. 30, 58, 59, 1715. "The Manuscript Copy of the Third and last Volume of Mr. Howel's" Synopsis Can. Concil. Eccles. Græc. Lat." being burnt in the fire that happened at Mr. Bowyer's in White Fryars, Jan. 1712; this is to give notice, that Mr. Howel hath once more finished the Third Volume *. They, 6 * Some account of Mr. Howel has been given in p. 31; to which the following particulars may be added. "Upon information that a treasonable pamphlet newly printed was lodged in the house of Mr. Laurence Howel, a Nonjuror, in Bull-head-courtin Jewin-street, search was made, and a large impression of the said pamphlet, part of them stitched, the rest in sheets, was seized. His papers were also secured, and he himself taken into custody; and, after he had been examined by a Committee of Lords of the Council at the Cockpit, he was last week committed to Newgate. The said pamphlet is intituled, The Case of Schism in the Church of England truly stated.' It appears to have been intended to be dispersed or sold privately; those which were found stitched up, as well as the others, having no title-page with the name of any author, printer, or publisher.Among the said Mr. Howel's papers were found an original instrument, by which it appears that he was ordained and instituted into priest's orders in 1712, by the late Dr. Hickes, and also the form of absolution and reception of converts to Jacobitism. The ordination is as follows; "Tenore præsentium, nos Georgius Hickes, permissione divinâ Episcopus Suffraganeus Thetfordiensis, notum facimus universis, quod nos præfatus Episcopus in oratorio nostro, in parochia Sancti Andrea Holbourn in comitatu Middlesex, sacros ordines præsidio divino celebrantes, dilectum nobis in Christo Laurentium Howel, A. M. de vitæ suæ probitate morumque integritate nobis sufficienti testimonio |