Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/142

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NOTES AND QUERIES

134


NOTES AND QUERIES.


[2a S. NO 7., FEB. 16. '56.


ning of this, published a great many novels, some under the name of Gabrielle, which had for a time some success ? Was Meeke also an assumed name? H. M. T.

Sir J. Smith of Grothill and King's Cramond, was Lord Provost of Edinburgh in the middle of the seventeenth century. Can any of your readers tell me what family he left ? Was he connected with the family of Smith of Inverramsay, Aber- deenshire ; a descendant of which, Patrick Smith, took such an active part in the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, that he was excluded from the Act of Grace passed in 1746 ? Where can I find an ac- count of the latter family ? SIGMA THETA.

Dalwick, or Dawyh, Peebleshire. Any one who can give any information respecting the Rev. Robert Smith, who was minister there during the Rebellion of 1715, is earnestly requested to do so. He is believed to have come from Perthshire.

SIGMA THETA.

Latitude and Longitude. What is the origin and derivation of these terms ? And what is the earliest instance of their use ? R. H. W.


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Pompeifs Statue. Flaminio Vacca, in his Me- morie di Varie Antichita trovate in diversi Luoghi delta Citta di Roma, 1594, says :

" Near the Palazzo d' Cancellaria, in the time of Pope Julius III., there was found, on excavating the ground beneath a cellar, a statue of Potnpey, fifteen palms high. Immediately above the cellar stood a party- wall, sepa- rating two houses ; on the discovery being made known, the proprietors of both houses claimed the statue. Not being able to settle the dispute among themselves, they had recourse to the law ; the one pleading that the largest part, i. e , the body, being under his house, he had the best right to the whole; and the other maintaining that the body was of no value without the head, which was under his house, and therefore he ought to have the whole. The judge decided that the head should be cut off, and each claimant receive his own portion. Alas, poor Pom- pey ! it was not enough for thee to lose thine own head, but even thy marble effigy was doomed to undergo the same fate! Luckily, Cardinal Capodiferro heard of this sentence, and before it could be carried into execution, reported the whole story to the Pope. His Holiness sent five hundred scudi to be divided between the disputants, and gave the statue, still unmutilated, to the Cardinal."

. Could any of your correspondents inform me where the self- same statue can be seen ?

INQUISITIVE.

[Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy, vol. i. p. 271., edit. 1814, contains the following account of this statue: " In an antechamber of the Palazzo Spada, stands the celebrated statue of Pompey, at the foot of which Caesar is supposed to have fallen. It was first placed, during Pompey's life, in the senate-house which he had erected ; and when that edifice was shut up, it was raised by order of Augustus on a double arch or gateway of marble, op- posite the grand entrance of Pompey's theatre. It was


thrown down during the convulsion of the Gothic wars, and for many ages it lay buried in the ruins. Cardinal de Spada, by a timely purchase (as stated above), pre- vented the destruction of this interesting remnant of Roman antiquity. Another danger awaited Pompey's statue at a much later period, and from an unexpected quarter. While the French occupied Rome in 1798-9, they erected in the centre of the Coliseum a temporary theatre, where they acted various Republican pieces for the amusement of the army. Voltaire's Brutus was a favourite tragedy ; and in order to give it more effect, it was resolved to transport the very statue of Pompey to the Coliseum, and to erect it on the stage. The colossal size of the statue, and its extended arm, rendered it diffi- cult to displace it. The arm was therefore sawed off for the conveyance, and put on again at the Coliseum ; and on the second removal of the statue it was again taken off, and again replaced at the Palazzo di Spada. So friendly to Pompey wqp the republican enthusiasm of the French! So favourable to the arts and antiquities of Rome is their love of liberty ! " A modern writer, how- ever, has remarked, that " the scepticism of antiquaries has led to abundant controversy on its authenticity ; but after having been called Augustus, Alexander the Great, and an unknown emperor, by successive critics, the an- cient faith has been triumphant, and it is likely to pre- serve the title of the Spada Pompey long after its critics have been forgotten." See also Sir John Hobhouse's note to a passage of Childe Harold, quoted in Murray's Hand- book for Central Italy, p. 452.]

Old Bible. I am encouraged by the prompt and satisfactory answer given to a like inquiry, in 2 nd S. i. 96., to ask for information respecting an 8vo. Latin Bible in my possession. The title is wanting. It is printed in Roman letters, and in double columns. *2. "Index testimoniorum a Christo et Apostolis in Novo Testamento citato- rurn ex veteri," 6 pages. *5. "Hieronymi Pro- logus Galeatus," 1 page and 1 col. " Epistola B. Hieronymi ad Paulinum," 1 col. and 5 pages. " Prefatio Sti. Hieronymi in Pentateuchum," 1 page. " Liber Genesis Hebraice Beresith," and a woodcut of the creation. The paging begins here, and is continuous to p. 1176. ; at the bottom of which is " Novi Testament! Finis." Then follow " Hebraicorum, Chaldseorum, Grsecorum- que nominum interpretatio," 6 pages. " Index Rerum et Sententiarum," 54 pages. "Index Epistolarum et Evangeliorum," 10 pages ; the last concluding with the word "finis," but without any date or printer's name. The woodcuts, many of which are well designed and executed, in the Old Testament generally fill up one third of the page ; though there are some larger ones, as of the ark, the tabernacle and its ornaments, and the temple of Solomon. In the New Testament, they are smaller, and do not extend beyond the limits of the column. The Old Testament ends on p. 942. The Prologues of St. Jerome are prefixed to the several books. There is an autograph of a former owner on the first leaf, with the date of 1548.

PHILOBILOS.

[We cannot discover the exact date of this Bible, but its contents agree with the first edition of the Latin Vul-