and allusions. He died Jan. 23, 1766, before this most considerable of his works was quite ready for publication. He was married, and his wife is said to have been a woman who in all respects did honour to the elegance of his taste. All his writings are in French.1

MEIBOMIUS, is the name of several learned men, who were Germans. JOHN-HENRY Meibomius was a professor of physic at Helmstadt, where he was born in 1590, and was afterwards first physician at Lubeck, where he died in 1655. He was the author of several learned works on medical subjects, such as "Jusjurandum Hippocratis," Gr. & Lat. 1643, 4to; "De usu flagrorum in re medica," Leyden, 1639, &c. &c. He is known in the literary world by a work published at Leyden in 1653, 4to, and entitled,

Mæcenas, sive de C. Cilnii Mæcenatis vita, moribus, & rebus gestis," in which he seems to have quoted every passage from antiquity, where any thing is said of Mæcenas; but having employed neither criticism nor method, he cannot claim any higher merit than that of a mere collector. 2

MEIBOMIUS (HENRY), son of the former, was born at Lubeck in 1638; and after laying a proper foundation in literature at home, went in 1655 to the university of Helmstadt, where he applied himself to philosophy and medicine. Afterwards he went to study under the professors at Groningen, Franeker, and Leyden; and upon his return to Germany, projected a larger tour through Italy, France, and England, which he executed; he contracted an acquaintance with the learned wherever he went; and took a doctor of physic's degree in 1663, as he passed through Angers in France. He was offered a professorship of physic at Helmstadt in 1661: but his travelling scheme did not permit him to take possession of it till 1664. This, and the professorships of history and poetry, joined to it in 1678, he held to the time of his death, which happened in March, 1700. Besides a great number of works relating to his own profession, he published, in 3 vols. folio, in 1688, "Scriptores rerum Germanicarum," a very useful collection, which had been begun, but not finished, by his father."

1 Necrologie pour 1767.-Dict. Hist.

2 Moreri.-Eloy, Dict. Hist. de Medicine.-Saxii Onomasticon. 3 Moreri.-Eloy.-Niceron, vol. XVIII.-Saxii Onomasticon.

MEIBOMIUS (MARCUS), a very learned man, of the same family as the preceding, was born in 1611. He devoted himself to literature and criticism, but particularly to the learning of the ancients; as their music, the structure of their galleys, &c. In 1652 he published a collection of seven Greek authors, who had written upon ancient music, to which he added a Latin version by himself. was entitled "Antiquæ Musicæ auctores septem Græce et Latine, Marcus Meibomius restituit ac Notis explicavit." Amst. The first volume contains: I. Aristoxeni Harmonicorum Elementorum, libri iii. II. Euclidis Introductio Harmonica. III. Nichomachi Geraseni, Pythagorici, Harmon. Manuale. IV. Alypii Introductio Musica. V. Gaudentii Philosophi Introductio Harmonica. VI. Bacchii Senioris Introductio Artis Musicæ. The second volume: Aristidis Quintiliani de Musica, libri iii. Martiani Capellæ de Musica, liber ix. This, says Dr. Burney, is the most solid and celebrated of his critical works, in which all subsequent writers on the subject of ancient music place implicit faith. It is from these commentaries on the Greek writers in music, particularly Alypius, that we are able to fancy we can decipher the musical characters used by the ancient Greeks in their notation; which, before his time, had been so altered, corrupted, disfigured, and confounded, by the ignorance or negligence of the transcribers of ancient MSS., that they were rendered wholly unintelligible.

Meibomius, after this learned and elegant publication, was invited to the court of the queen of Sweden, to whom he had dedicated it; but this visit was not followed by the most pleasing consequences. Having by his enthusiastic account of the music of the ancients, impressed this princess with similar ideas, the younger Bourdelot, a physi cian, and his rival (as a classical scholar) in the queen's favour, instigated her majesty to desire him to sing an ancient Grecian air, while Naudet, an old Frenchman, danced à la Grec to the sound of his voice. But the performance, instead of exciting admiration, produced loud bursts of laughter from all present; which so enraged Meibomius, that seeing the buffoon Bourdelot in the gallery among the scoffers, and having no doubt but that it was he who, with a malicious design, had persuaded her majesty to desire this performance, immediately flew thither, and exercised the pugilist's art on his face so violently, without

being restrained by the presence of the queen, that he thought it necessary to quit the Swedish dominions before he could be called to an account for his rashness; and immediately went to Copenhagen, where being well received, he fixed his residence there, and became a professor at Sora, a Danish college for the instruction of the young nobility. Here too he was honoured with the title of aulic counsellor, and soon after was called to Elsineur, and advanced to the dignity of Architesorié, or president of the board of maritime taxes or customs; but, neglecting the duty of his office, he was dismissed, and upon that disgrace quitted Denmark. Soon after, he settled at Amsterdam, and became professor of history in the college of that city; but refusing to give instructions to the son of a burgomaster, alleging that he was not accustomed to instruct boys in the elements of knowledge, but to finish students arrived at maturity in their studies, he was dismissed from that station. After quitting Amsterdam, he visited France and England; then returning to Holland, he led a studious and private life at Amsterdam till 1710 or 1711, when he died at near 100 years of age.

Meibomius pretended that the Hebrew copy of the Bible was full of errors, and undertook to correct them by means of a metre, which he fancied he had discovered in those ancient writings; but this drew upon him no small raillery from the learned. Nevertheless, besides the work above mentioned, he produced several others, which shewed him to be a good scholar; particularly his "Diogenes Laertius," Amst. 1692, 2 vols. 4to, by far the most critical and perfect edition of that writer; his "Liber de Fabrica Triremium," 1671, in which he thinks he discovered the method in which the ancients disposed their bancs of oars ; his edition of the ancient Greek Mythologists; and his dialogues on Proportions, a curious work, in which the interlocutors, or persons represented as speaking, are Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Pappus, Eutocius, Theo, and Hermotimus. This last work was opposed by Langius, and by Dr. Wallis in a considerable tract, printed in the first volume of his works.'

1 Moreri.-Burney's Hist, of Music, and in the Cyclopædia.-Hutton's Dict. -Saxii Onomasticon,

It

MEIER (GEORGE FREDERIC), a German writer on philosophical subjects, was born in 1718, at Ammendorff, near Halle in Saxony. He appeared first as an author in 1745, when he published, in German, 1. His "Representation of a Critic," being his delineation of the character of a perfect critic. In the same year he produced, 2. “Instructions how any one may become a Modern Philosopher," 8vo. We have a translation in this country, called "The Merry Philosopher, or Thoughts on Jesting," published in 1764, from the German of Meier, but whether a translation of the last-mentioned work, we know not. is a very dull performance. Whatever merit might belong to his works on philosophical and critical subjects, they were peculiarly his own, for he was not master of the learned languages. Yet his work on the elements of all the polite arts, was received by his countrymen with no inconsiderable approbation. It is entitled, 3. "Introduction to the elegant arts and sciences;" and was printed at Halle, in 8vo, 1748-1750; and republished, in three parts, in 1754-1759. J. Matthew Gesner, however, in his "Isagoge," is frequently severe against this author, and particularly derides his form of Esthetics, which had been much applauded. Meier died in 1777.1

MEKERCHUS. See METKERKE.

MELA (POMPONIUS), an ancient Latin writer, was born in the province of Bætica in Spain, and flourished in the first century, in the reign of the emperor Claudius. His three books of "Cosmography, or De situ Orbis," are written in a concise, perspicuous, and elegant manner; and have been thought worthy of the attention and labours of the ablest critics. Isaac Vossius gave an edition of them in 1658, 4to, with very large and copious notes, in which he takes frequent occasion to criticize "Salmasius's Commentaries upon Solinus." James Gronovius published "Mela," in 1658, 12mo, with shorter notes; in which, however, as if he resented Vossius's treatment of Salmasius, he censures his animadversions with some degree of severity. To this edition of Mela, is added, "Julii Honorii oratoris excerptum cosmographiæ," first published from the manuscript; and "Ethici Cosmographia." Vossius answered the castigations of, Gronovius, in an "Appendix to his Annotations," 1686, 4to; but, dying the same year,

1 Dict. Hist.-Saxii Onomasticon.

.

left his manes to be insulted by Gronovius, in another edition of Mela immediately published, with illustrations by medals. In this last edition by Gronovius, are added five books, "De geographia," written by some later author; by Jornandes, as Fabricius conjectures. Perhaps one of the best editions of Pomponius Mela, is that by Reynolds, printed at Exeter in 1711, 4to, illustrated with 27 maps, and which was reprinted at London, 1719 and 1739, and at Eton, 1761 and 1775, 4to. The last edition, collated with many MSS. is that by C. H. Tzschuckius, printed at Leipsic, 1807, 7 vols. 8vo.1

MELANCTHON (PHILIP), whom the common consent of all ecclesiastical historians has placed among the most eminent of the reformers, was born at Bretten, in the Palatinate upon the Rhine, Feb. 16, 1497. His family name, Schwartserd, in German, means literally black earth, which, according to the custom of the times (as in the case of Oecolampadius, Erasmus, Chytræus, Reuchlin, &c.), was exchanged for Melancthon, a compound Greek word of the same signification. His education was at first chiefly under the care of his maternal grandfather Reuter, as his father's time was much engrossed by the affairs of the elector Palatine, whom he served as engineer, or commissary of artillery. He first studied at a school in Bretten, and partly under a private tutor, and gave very early proofs of capacity. He was afterwards sent to Pfortsheim, a city in the marquisate of Baden, where was a flourishing college, and here he became known to the celebrated Reuchlin, to whom it would appear he was distantly related, and who assisted him in learning the Greek language. Probably by his advice, Melancthon went to the university of Heidelberg, where he was matriculated on Oct. 13, 1509. Such was his improvement here that his biographers inform us he was admitted to his bachelor's degree, although under fourteen years of age, and that he was intrusted to teach the sons of count Leonstein. Yet, notwithstanding his extraordinary proficiency, he was refused his degree of master on account of his youth; and, either disappointed in this, or because the air of Heidelberg did not agree with his constitution, he left that university in 1512, and went to Tubingen, where he resided six years.

Vossius de Hist, Lat.-Fabric. Bibl. Lat. Saxii Onomasticon.