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MISCELLANEOUS LITERARY NOTICES.

FRANCE.

The works of Basil, in Greek and Latin, uniform with the Chrysostom, now just on the eve of completion at Paris, are about to appear; together with the works of Bernard.

A greatly improved edition of the Concordance to the Vulgate has just appeared, with ameliorations and additions that render it the most complete abridged Dictionary of the Bible that has ever been given to the world.

The Marquis de Beauffort's Souvenirs d'Italie will please the devout Romanist, to whom, although we cannot concede on all occasions the title of Catholic, we cheerfully allow the merit of great enthusiasm on some of the doctrines and duties of our common Christianity. Such enthusiasm the Marquis displays in the volume before us.

Messrs. Brockhaus and Avenarius, in Paris, have just published the first number of a series of yearly Catalogues of French Literature, which they intend to continue regularly every 12 months. It is very similar to the catalogues published by Hinrichs, at Leipsic, for German literature, and will, we hope, meet with the same success. The following is the plan on which it is arranged :1. Catalogue of French literature published in France; 2. Books in the French language published in other countries; 3. Collections containing lists of Pougins, De Trore, Lefevre, &c. French and Latin Classics, Baudry's English Standard Authors, the Manuals, Rozet, &c.; 4. Works of art, &c.; 5. Illustrated editions, and smaller works, with engravings; 6. Journals and periodicals; 7. A systematic table of the complete catalogue; 8. A systematic table of the journals and periodicals.

The professorships of Persian and Arabic, held by the late Baron De Sacy, have been filled up by the appointment of M. Jaubert to the former, and M. Reynaud to the latter situation. M. Reynaud is occupied with a biography of his distinguished predecessor.

The Minister of Public Instruction has ordered, by a recent regulation, that the study of at least one living language of Europe, besides French, shall be made compulsory in all the royal colleges of France, and for those in Paris the pupils had to declare for either English or German. The following appears to have been the result of the declarations thus made in the colleges of the Metropolis and Versailles.

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In the colleges of Corsica, Aix, Grenoble, and Montpellier, the Italian is to

be taught, and the Spanish in those of Bordeaux, Pau, and Toulouse.

The Academy of Sciences has dispatched a scientific commission to explore the territory of Algiers. M. Duméril is appointed for Zoology, Brogniart for Botany, Elie de Beaumont for Geology, Bory St. Vincent for Geography and Topography, Serres for Medicine, Treycinet for Hydrography, Jeguier for the Arts, Poncelet for Mechanics, and Arago for Meteorology and Physical Science.

PARIS.-The complete success which has attended the publication of Curmer's edition of Paul and Virginia, with wood-cuts, has induced another publisher to announce a small edition of the same book, illustrated with sixty vignettes; but we doubt whether it will meet with the same approbation.

ITALY.

Angelo Mai, the celebrated philologist, and librarian of the Vatican, and Mazzofanti, keeper of the same library, and so renowned for his knowledge of languages, have both been elevated to the dignity of Cardinal.

The Neapolitan government has given permission for the erection of a Protestant place of worship in Naples. This concession has been granted through means of the Prussian ambassador.

A Collection of the Songs of Abélard have been discovered in the library of the Vatican, and their publication is speedily expected.

GERMANY.

The University of Tübingen has just received a valuable addition to its library, by the present of a number of Sanscrit MSS. and printed works, which the missionary Haberle, the donor, brought with him from India.

Rückert, the celebrated Orientalist and poet, has been offered the professorship vacated at Göttingen by Ewald, but has declined accepting it.

The University of Heidelberg is to have a seminary connected with it in future for the Evangelical clergy of the Protestant communion, and Professor Rothe of Wittenberg has been appointed to its superintendence.

A Society for Philosophical Philology has been formed through the efforts of Baron Humboldt and Professor Thiersch. The first meeting took place at Nürnberg, in September.

The study of the German language and the preservation of its ancient monuments occupies more and more the attention of native scholars. Jacob Grimm, the great promoter of all such researches, whose Grammar has now reached the fourth volume, has announced a Dictionary of the ancient and modern language. Massmann, Löbe, and Gasslentz continue to publish new fragments of the Gothic, enriched with critical notes. Fourteen parts are now published of Graff's Treasury of the Old High-German. One of the earliest High German poems, the Ludwigs-Lied, has been brought to light by Hoffmann, who found it amidst the rubbish of a library. This ought to be a hint to all keepers of libraries not to let any rubbish accumulate within their walls, but to have all corners ransacked, and properly examined by competent scholars; for such masses of rubbish are too frequently the grave of the most precious treasures.

An extremely valuable undertaking, by Basse the bookseller, of Quedlin

burgh, is now proceeding vigorously the publication of all the early monuments of the national literature, in a uniform body. Its value is enhanced by the considerable mass of hitherto inedited matter with which the series is enriched. An increasing number of literary men, among whom are Hoffmann, Mone, and Warnkönig, are much occupied with the Low-German, and its literary remains; others with the Frankish and cognate dialects. The popular romances, which appeared at that period in the history of German poetry when the middle ages terminated and the modern commence, are publishing, in no fewer than fifty-four new editions, the most valuable of which are those edited by Schwab and Simrock. The national historical poems, collected for many years past by Uhland, will, it is hoped, shortly appear. The old national melodies are in course of publication in a thousand quarters; for music, in the heart of a German, is inseparably connected with poetry, and each lends the other both light and heat. It has become a recent speculation to publish uniform and collected editions of such writers as Leibnitz, Lessing, &c. whose works had hitherto never appeared at all in such a commodious shape, or had been unworthily edited.

The translations of Plautus, by Moritz Rapp alias Jovialis, are distinguished for their fidelity, and for the light thrown on the comic drama of the ancients by the preliminary essay of the learned translator.

Eighteen hundred Etruscan Vases, purchased at Rome by the King of Bavaria, have arrived in Munich, and are intended to be placed in the Pinacotheca, in situations designed for them by Klenze, the architect, and accompanied by suitable decorations.

Professor Drouke and M. Von Cassaulx, inspector of buildings in Coblentz, have published an interesting Memoir on the Chapel of St. Matthias, near Kobern, on the Moselle, and intend to bestow their attention on the other monuments of early German architecture, if suitably encouraged. For this purpose they have published the prospectus of a society, to consist of 200 members, each to pay yearly the sum of five dollars; the income to be expended in the publication of 500 copies of some interesting work, got up, as to the plates, in the style of Schmidt's work on the Church of the Holy Virgin in Trier, and in size and paper rescinbling Boisserée's Gallery. Of these 200 are to be disposed of by way of exchange with foreign dealers in works of art; 100 will be given to the booksellers to counteract rival editions, and the remaining 200 will be given away among the members, who will also receive a copy of the works procured in exchange.

TUBINGEN.-The Life of Christ, by Strauss, has reached a third edition. He has also published a series of answers to his opponents, of which the numbers published contain: 1. Answer to Dr. Stendel; 2. Against Eschenmaier and Menzel; 3. Against the "Evangelische Kirchenzeitung," the "Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Kritik," and the Theologische Studien und Kritiken."

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DRESDEN.-The first part of the new Edition of Winkelmann's Works is at last published, and contains the first half of the Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums; it is beautifully printed in royal 8vo., and from its exceeding cheapness will be acceptable to every antiquarian.

GREIFSWALD.-Professor Kosegarten of this place is engaged on a Dictionary of the Lower Saxon (niedersächsisch or plattdeutsch) language of modern and ancient times, compiled from all the Glossaries hitherto published, from the archives, and the present language of the peasants in that part of Germany formerly called Lower Saxony. The large extent of country in the North of Germany in which this language is spoken, and the numerous re

cords written in it lately brought to light, and containing the best sources for information respecting the history of Northern Germany in the Middle Ages, will certainly justify the publication of a larger Lower Saxon Dictionary. We possess already several excellent dictionaries of the various dialects of the Lower Saxon language, as the Bremisch-Niedersächsische, published by the Bremen Society; the Hamburgisch-Niedersächsische, by Rickey; the Osnabrücksche, by Strodtmann; the Holsteinische, by Schutze; and the Pommersche, by Dähnert. But all the dialects of these various districts belong to one and the same language, and deserve to be united in one General Lower Saxon Dictionary, and it is the intention of Dr. Kosegarten to do so. The work will be published in 4to., printed in double columns, on good white paper, and will be issued in parts, each containing about 150 pages, the first of which will appear in the spring of 1839. Persons subscribing for the whole work will have it at a reduced price.

MUNICH. A new periodical, published under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Arts, in this town has been very favourably received by the artists and the public generally. It is entitled "Münchner Jahrbücher für Heldende Kunst," and is edited by Dr. R. Marzgraft. Its object is principally to bring before the reader a correct view of the state of art at the present moment, particularly in Germany. It will also give a characteristic of the various academies and schools, as well as the principal artists who may be considered as founders or supporters of them. The following is the plan in which the contents will be arranged :

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Contributions towards the History of National Art in Germany.
Contributions towards the History of Arts and Artists in Bavaria.

Articles on the newest Discoveries in the Antiquarian Knowledge of the Monuments of the Middle Ages. History and description of the various Museums and Galleries, &c. Papers on the Theory of Art. Artistical Literature, or Reviews or Notices of New Works of Art and relating to Art. Artistical Chronicle, or notices from all parts of the world on the Progress of Art, and a Notice of the principal papers in the Artistical Journals of other countries; Artistical novelties or notices of all new Engravings, Lithographics, and Wood-cuts, as well as descriptions of the New Inventions connected with the Practice of Art.

The Munchner Jahrbücher will be published four times a year, and each Part will cost from 7 to 8 Shillings.

Dr. Huber, professor at Marburg, has nearly ready a large volume on the two English Universities. We understand that, at Paris, Mr. Longueville Jones, late fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge, is preparing a work, in French, on the same subject, which we are glad to see attracting so much notice.

The attention which has been of late years paid to the early national literature in Germany is by no means decreased. Lachmann is, as we understand, at work on a new and improved edition of the Niebelungen-Lied; and the new edition of Wackernagel's Altdeutsche Lesebuch is very much improved and enlarged.

At Basil, a volume of Old English Mysteries and Miracle Plays has recently been given to the world.

POLAND.

The Polish Literary Society has appointed a commission to collect the original documents for Polish history which are to be found in foreign archives and libraries.

Although the very name of Poland would fain be obliterated from the sight and recollection of the living by the Imperial Master of all the Russias, ber deeds and history are too deeply engraven on the records of past ages, and on the hearts of the men of the present day, to be thus easily obliterated; and we would invite the scholars and the learned of all free nations to speak and write of her as still living in that invincible spirit of nationality which sooner or later must triumph over the worst excesses of despotism.

RUSSIA.

We have been favoured by a correspondent with the following List of Books and Maps just published in Russia, and which, at the present time, will perhaps not be uninteresting to the English reader.

Abbildung der unter dem Kaiser Nikolaus I., geprägten Medaillen, Part I., folio, 1l. 15s. 6d.

Carte de la Partie Européenne de la Russie, 12 sheets imp. folio, 1l. 5s.
A Special Map of the Government Koliwan, corrected after the New Maps in
the Archives of Barnaul, 12 Sheets and 1 Index Map, imp. folio, 1l. 78.
Map of Asia Minor, containing the Countries of the Kirgises, Koralpacks,
Truchmans, and Buchares, 10 sheets imp. folio, 17. 7s.

Plan of the Battle of Borodino, fought August 26, 1812, imp. folio, 17. 5s.
A General Map of Russia-in-Asia, according to the latest divisions, 3 sheets
imp. folio, 12s. 6d.

Map of Bessarabia, the Moldau, Walachia, and the adjoining countries, 21 sheets imp. folio, 27. 10s.

A Military and Topographical Map of the Crimea, according to the last Survey, by Major-general Muchin, 10 sheets imp. folio, 41. 7s.

Map of the Seat of the War between the Russians and the Persians, 2 sheets imp. folio, 1l. 5s.

A Topographical Map of the Kingdom of Poland, in 34 sheets imp. folio, 1820, 4l. 78.

Map of Walachia, Bulgaria, and Roumili, 4 sheets imp. folio, 17. 58.

A Complete Map of the Empire of Russia, and the Neighbouring Countries, 114 sheets imp. folio, 12l. 7s.

A General Map of the Regions lying between the Black and Caspian Seas, 1 sheet imp. folio, 12s. 6d.

Map of a Part of Russia and the adjoining Kingdoms, with the Military Roads marked down; published under the superintendence of Lieutenantgeneral Schubert, 8 sheets imp. folio, 1828, 3l. 13s. 6d.

A Topographical Map of the Government of St. Petersburgh, engraved and published under the superintendence of Lieutenant-general Schubert, 9 sheets imp. folio, 1834, 4l. 14s. 6d.

A Special Map of the Western Part of the Russian Empire. Engraved and published under the superintendence of Lieutenant-general Schubert, in 60 sheets imp. fotio. Sheets 1 to 36 and an Index sheet are published, price 201.

Carte de la Georgie et d'une partie de la Perse, par le General-major Khaton, imp. folio, 1826, 17. 5s.

Kutorga, Dr. St., Beitrag zur Kenntniss der organischen Ueberreste des Kupfersandsteins am westlichen Abhange des Urals, 8vo. 11s. 6d.

Pausner, Versuch einer deutlichen Darstellung der Methode Distanzen durch den Schall zu bestimmen, 3s. 6d.

Valville traité sur la contre-pointe, 17. 3s. 6d.

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