Prospectuses of Works Preparing for the Press may be inserted in the Pages at the end of this JOURNAL at a moderate charge to Authors. No delay OUGHT to occur in the delivery of this JOURNAL, as every Number is REGULARLY published on the First of April, July, October, and January; should any difficulty, however, be experienced in the due arrival of the Numbers, a Letter directed to the Printer shall remedy every inconvenience. The former Numbers may be had of all the Booksellers. Price 6s. each. Articles are requested to be sent one month at least before the day of publication, directed to Mr. A. J. Valpy, Tooke's Court, Chancery Lane, London. OTICE of Iconographie Ancienne, ou Recueil des Portraits authentiques des Empereurs, Rois et Hommes illustres de l'Antiquité: M. ENNIO-QUIRINO VISCONTI Biblical Criticism, J. BELLAMY.] Notarum Romanarum ac Literarum singularium compendiique scriptionis in antiquis codicibus et monumentis obvii Interpre- tatio Notice of Eschyli Tragadia quæ supersunt ac deperditarum Ib. Notice of ALLEN's Elements of English Grammar..... Carmina Homerica, Ilias et Odyssea, a Rhapsodorum Inter- polationibus repurgata, et in pristinam formam, quatenus re- cuperanda esset, tam ex veterum monumentorum fide et aucto- ritate, quam ex antiqui sermonis Indole ac Ratione, redacta; cum Notis ac Prolegomenis, in quibus de eorum origine, auctore, et ætate; itemque de priscæ maturitate, diligenter This Edition, with many additions, is printed exclusively in The Class. Notice of Nonni Dionysiacorum Libri Sex, ab octavo ad deci- mum tertium; emendavit, omnium Nonni librorum argumenta, Christ's Birth not mis-timed, or a cleare Refutation of a Resolution to a Question about the time of Xt's Nativity, [Bishop Pearson.] .... To the Editors of STEPHENS's Gr. Thesaurus Manuscripts, Classical, Biblical, and Biblico-Oriental. No. I... In Tragicorum Græcorum Carmina Monostropha Commentarius Observations on the Romaic, or Modern Greek Language, as Anecdotes relating to Theophilus, a Missionary to India in the Error in Milton's Latinity noticed, and Passages in Milton, So- Critical and Explanatory Remarks on Eschylus's Seven against Notice of Xenophon's Economicus, edited by GUL. KUSTER.. Notice of M. Tullii Ciceronis De Natura Deorum Liber quartus. PAGE 356 362 365 368 369 377 379 382 39$ 398 403 410 edidit Seraphin. Two Letters from T. FALCONER, A. M. to the Editor of the view, relating to the Oxford Strabo 414 415 417 425 428 437 441 442 445 453 454 455 456 456 458 459 464 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. No. XIV. JUNE, 1813. NOTICE OF Iconographie ancienne, ou Recueil des Portraits authentiques des Empereurs, Rois et Hommes illustres de l'Antiquité: par M. ENNIO-QUIRINO VISCONTI, Membre de l'Institut et de la Legion d'honneur; première partie, Iconographie Grecque. Paris de l'Imprimerie de Pierre Didot l'aine, 1810, 3 toms. Atlas folio. THIS few HIS is one of the most superb works that ever issued from the French press; and as the copies which have reached this country are very in number, and are in the hands of those private individuals only, whose circumstances enable them to gratify their taste for classical literature, and the fine arts, at any expense, we consider it our duty, as Journalists, to furnish our readers with some account of M. Visconti's labors. In a learned and eloquent preliminary discourse, M. Visconti elucidates several important points relative to the Iconographia of the ancients: he first discusses the Antiquity of Portraits, which he conjectures to have been suggested by the natural desire of mankind to preserve the likenesses of persons, who were admired or beloved; but this was at first merely a profile relieved by a slight shading, which afterwards gave rise to the art of delineation and modelling. The art of carving, which was afterwards invented, fixed the traits of the countenance in a happier manner; and this was one of the sources of the idolatry of the ancient ages. The Greeks ascribed the art of modelling the human form to the heroic ages. According to them, Dædalus executed the statue of Hercules, while that personage was still living. The Temples of the Gods soon became the depositories of the portraits of illustrious men, and here they were preserved, even when the person represented became the enemy of his country. In the course of time, a distinction was made between the statues which were crected by private individuals, and those which were decreed by public authority; this last mark of regard was held as the highest honor VOL. VII. No. XIV. A which could be conferred on great men for eminent services, and it was sometimes also conferred on the dead. The Government had the sole right of engraving portraits on coins: at first, the images of the Gods were thus displayed, and in monarchical states the name of the king was added. The kings of Persia represented themselves at full length on their coins: Alexander the Great imitated them by substituting his own likeness for that of Hercules; and this custom afterwards prevailed among the kings of other nations: but before this period, the coins of some cities in Greece exhibited the images of celebrated persons, who were natives of the place: in this way we can account for the frequent occurrence of the heads of Homer and Sappho, a custom which continued, even when the cities, which gave birth to them, were subject to the Romans. The statues of the Athleta, who were victors at the Games, were deposited within the exterior inclosure of the Temples. Those, who did not aspire to so much honor, were contented with having their images placed in the Palestræ. When the Romans bad united under one Empire all the countries between the Euphrates and the Pillars of Hercules, those who could not obtain a place for their statue in the Forum, or in the capitol, endeavoured to receive this houor from some city of the provinces, and they even paid the expenses attending it themselves. Some wealthy individuals of Rome procured statues of themselves to be raised in the courts of their houses, by their clients. The magistrates obtained those distinctions in the cities in which they administered justice; heroic honors were sometimes superadded. M. Visconti also shows, that from the remotest periods the portraits of individuals decorated their funeral monuments: simple busts, for the sake of economy, were generally used; and our author fairly supposes, that the word bust comes from bustum, which, in obsolete Latin, signifies a tomb. We know that the Roman families of distinction preserved in their armories wax images of their ancestors, which were carried in procession at funerals; and that this custom became a privilege peculiar to such families as had given magistrates to the Republic. Portraits served also for the decoration of several objects. They were exhibited on rings and seals, and on embroidery, tapestry, and mosaics. Portraits at length became so numerous, that the idea was formed of making collections of them; and the Pinacotheca, or Galleries of Portraits, were regarded as essential parts of a great house. The portraits of philosophers, and of eminent writers, adorned those libraries which contained their works; such, for instance, was the library of Apollo, founded by Augustus, and that of Pollio. The desire of having such collections produced an increase of copies of portraits, which appeared proper to form part of a collection. Varro conceived the idea of giving drawings of these portraits, and was the author of the first Iconographical collection; he collected in this manner drawings of 700 portraits, and added an historical notice to each. |