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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
Felix Peretti, pope Sixtus V. who is said to have "been born for great things," did not, if we may depend upon his biographer, con- fine his biblical labours to the publication of the Vulgate and Septtmginl, but added to them an edition of the aible in the vernacular Italian. A curious account of it, and of the event of its publication, is given by Gregorio Leli,* an Ita- lian, in his Life of Pope Sixtut V. written first in Latin, and translated into English by Ellis Fameworth.f Sixtus V. was born December 13, 1521, and died August 27, 1590.
1591, March. Dublin University kovnded. The lateness of the period assigned to the found- ation of the University of Dublin, is not to be considered as indicative of the ignorance or apathy of the Irish. It arose, not from their want of zeal to obtain such an institution, or abilities to adorn it, but from the unhappy cir- cumstances of the time. Clement V., in 1312, then in the seventh year of his pontificate, issued a bull upon the application of archbishop Lech, " for the foundation of a university in Dublin;" but the death of the archbishop prevented the fulfilment of the design. This was, however, effected in 1320, by Alexander de Bicknor, in St. Patrick's church; but it declined and fell from the deficiency of funds. Thus, at a period when literature, rich with the stores of time, un- folded her treasures to expectant nations, Ireland, predominant over every other in the desire for similar advantages, could only boast the memory of plans for their possession. But the ministers of Elizabeth were equal to the spirit and the wants of the time: their desire was to base the government upon the interests and afi°ection of Uie people. There was, at that time, belonging to the cornoration of the city, a piece of ground which had formed the tcite, ambit, and precinct, of the Augustinian monastery of All Saints, a priory of Aroasian Canons, founded in 1166, by Dennot M'Murrough, king of Leinster. These buildings were in ruins, but were apparently well calculated for the purpose. The archbishop im- mediately applied to the mayor and common council, and addressed them with an eloquence so " pathetic," as to obtain the monastery and lands for the purposes explained. The formality of petitioning the queen for "her charter was performed by Henry Usher, which was, of course, complied with; and on the 3d of March follow- ing, letters patent passed the great seal for the
- Gregorio Leti was born at Milan, 1630. In I6S7, he
made a pablic profession of the Protestant religion, at Lausanne. He then settlcrt at Geneva, where he resided for alxiut twenty years, and was presented in 1674 with the freedom of tiie city, an honour never before granted to a stranger. He afterwards Ttsited France, En;riand, and Holland. He died suddenly, June 9, 1/01, aged 71. His boast was, that be had been the father of a boolc, and the father of a child, for twenty years successively.
+ EUls Farneworth was born in Derbyshire, and educated at Cambridge. In 1762 he obtained the rectory of Car- sington, in bis native county, where be died on the 25th of March, in the foUowinc year. He translated the Life of Pope SUttu V. from the Italian, 1764, folio; Daviia's Hittorp of the Civil Wart in France, in 1757, 3 vols. 4to.; the Works of Macliiavel, 1 761, s vols. 4to.; and Flcury's History of the Jrrnelites, limo.
erection of a university, called " Collegium Sane- tm et Indimdua Trinitatis juxfa Dublin — a Serenisiima Regina Elizabetha fundatmn."
By this instrument, one provost, three fellows, and three scholars, were appointed in the name of more. These were, Adam Loftus, the pro- vost, Henry Usher, A.M., LukeChalloner, A.M., and Launcelot Moyne, A.B., for fellows, and ! Henry Lee, William Daniel, and Stephen I White, as scholars. Lord Burleigh, lord high treasurer of England, was the first chancellor.
On March 11, 1591, Fitzwilliam, the lord deputy, and the privy council, issued circular letters for the furtherance of their views; but the amount received was apparently inconsiderable, as Robert Taaffe, its collector, complsuns of the unsuccessful results of his application. On the 13th of March, 1591, the lirst stone was laid by Thomas Smyth, then mayor, and on the 9th of January, 1593, the first students were admitted.
A correspondent in the Dublin Penny Journal, offers the following apposite remarks upon the founders of universities, and we cannot, in this place, refrain from giving them.
"It is difficult to analyse with accuracy the feelings which i)ervade the mind on the contem- plation of those edifices which have been erected by the piety and munificence of our ancestors, for the improvement of the moral, the social, and political condition of mankind. The very barbarism from amid which they rose, tends to heighten the solemn feeling they invariably inspire. We considerthem as the depositories of knowledge, when all aronnd was sunk in the darkness of ignorance, and we respect them; we consider them, through the successive grada- tions of ages, still advancing moral science and philosophic truth, and we venerate them the more. There is, besides, a feeling in the heart, which connects us indissolubly with the past. What endears that past to a nation? The repu- tation of the great men it has produced. — ^What can excite a deeper interest for institutions such as these, than the reflection that it is to them we owe that fame which genius has won, or learning has acquired. Of what materials must his character be composed, who does not feel his best sensibilities awakened — ^hLs piety animated — his thoughts dignified, and his moral tendencies strengthened, by the consideration of structures erected for purposes so ennobling and so dignified as these. It is, however, asserted, that we reverence them less for their objects than their antiquity. Man is the creature of system and of habit, and as of that which is established the advantages are known, and as every age has given fresh authority for respect, institutions of this nature, it is said, exact esteem, not from our conviction of their present benefit, but from the hallowing influence of time. Antiquity — if antiquity be considered like " every other quality that attracts the notice of mankind," has un- doubtedly votaries; but votaries that reverence her more from prejudice than reason. Her circle is, however, limited, and her worshippers are few; for admiration of this nature is rather the
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