as that we have now defcrib'd, to infufe that
univerfal Knowledge, which every Man must ac-
quire, who is unwilling to be found ignorant in
any Subject that may be started.Y

This Journal will always confist of five Sheets and
a balf, and be publish'd regularly at the beginning of
every Month. Six Numbers will make a Volume, to
which will be annex'd, a Catalogue of the Authors
from whom the Extracts are made, together with
an Index. And, to oblige fuch of the Literati as
are defirous of having the quickest notice of what-
ever is tranfacting in the Republic of Letters;
there will be inferted at the end of each Journal,
the freshest accounts of all Works just publish'd,
and all old Authors re-printed in any part of
Europe, as foon as our Correfpondents fhall tranf-
mit us fuch Accounts. And lastly, we shall add
a Catalogue of new Books imported monthly by
N. Prevoft and Comp.

For N° I. 1730.

Art. I.

T

HE Hiftory of the Civil Government

of Naples, in XL Books, by PETER

GIANNONE, Vol, the First. Page 1

Art. II. A Military Lexicon, by F. Charles

d'Aquino, Jefuit.

16

Art. III. Three Books on the French Liturgy, &c.

by John Mabillon.

21

Art. IV. The Hiftory of the Royal Academy of

Sciences for the Year 1727.

26

Art. V. The Antient History of the Egyptians,

&c. by Mr. Rollin. Tom. 1.

35

Art. VI. Christianity as Old as the Creation, &c.

Vol. I.

56

Art. VII. The Bishop of London's fecond Paftoral

Letter, &c.

Art. VIII. The prefent State of Learning.

66

71

LITTERARIA.

ARTICLE I.

Dell' Iftoria Civile del Regno di Napoli, Libri XL. fcritti da PIETRO GIANNONE, &c.

That is,

The Hiftory of the Civil Government of
Naples, in XL Books, written by PETER
GIANNONE, Doctor of the Civil Law
and Advocate there. Wherein are con-
tained the Political Government of that
Kingdom under the Romans, Goths,
Greeks, Lombards, Normans, Suevi,
Angevins, Arragonians, and Auftrians.
Printed at Naples 1723. by Nicolo
Nafo, in 4 Volumes in Quarto.

T

HIS Hiftory confifts wholly of Civil Affairs, and is therefore wholly new. The Author, in the course of not much lefs than fifteen Centuries, gives us an Account of the various States and Changes of the Civil Government of the Kingdom of Naples, under the many Princes that were mafters of it: and the feveral Steps by which it came to the State wherein we now fee it; and what Alterations were made in it by the Ecclesiastical GoNo I. 1730. B

vernment

F

vernment introduced into it; of what Ufe and Authority the Roman Laws were during that Empire, and how they afterwards declined; the various Fortune of the great number of Laws fince introduced by different Nations; in fhort, every thing belonging as well to its Form of Government, Political and Temporal, as to its Spiritual and Ecclefiaftical.

THIS whole Work is divided into four Volumes, the first of which contains the Govern ment of the Kingdom of Naples, under the Romans, Goths, Greeks, and Lombards; the fecond, that of the Normans and Suevi; the third, that of the Angevins and Arragonians; the fourth that of the Auftrians. In each Book the Author gives us, in the firft place, an Account of the Civil Government, then of the Laws, and lastly, of the Ecclefiaftical Government; fo that by this useful and beautiful Method, each of those three Hiftories, as we may call them, may be read and understood separately and diftinctly from the other.

THE Author, tho' a Member of the Church of Rome, yet in the courfe of his Hiftory plainly fhews, that the whole Temporal Authority and Power of the Church is owing to the Courtefy of Princes, and the Ignorance of the People; of which the Popes making their advantage came at length to form one Monarchy within another: wherefore the Work was no fooner publifhed, than the Conrt of Rome was alarm'd. Pope Innocent XIII. the very Year it came out, by a particular Bull, prohibited the reading, vending, or keeping it, under pain of Excommunication, & æterni cum diabolo confortii. The High Court of the Inquifition had it burnt in Rome by the hands of the common Hangman;

at

at the fame time injoining the fubordinate Ins quifitors, throughout Italy, to follow their example in their refpective Jurifdictions. Nor would the Author have been treated with lefs Severity, had he not escap'd their Fury by flying into Germany. Innocent XIII's Prohibition was renewed by Bennet XIII. the late Pope, a little before he died; which more than any thing proves, into what fears it threw the Court of Rome, fince it is perhaps the only Book ever twice prohibited under fuch heavy Penalties. They befides, in order the more to difcredit the Book, reported, that it was not written by Giannone alone, but by a Juncto of Men difaffected to the Church, at the inftigation, and by the affiftance of the English, and other Hereticks on this fide the Alps.

WITH this Book, that has made fuch a noise in the World, and is thought by the Learned to be one of the best Hiftories that was ever written, we fhall begin our Journal, and, for this firft Number, fhall give a fhort Abstract of the first Volume, and of the three others in our three next. Tho' it cannot be expected that we should include fo long a History within the narrow Limits of a few Pages, yet fhall we endeavour to omit no material Circumftance, relating either to the Temporal or Spiritual Government.

guftus

and

THE Author in his firft Book, by way of The State Apparatus, gives an account of the Govern-of Italy un ment of Italy, from the Reign of Auguftus, toder Authat of Conftantine the Great. Auguftus Cæfar Adrian. divided Italy into eleven Regiones, which were govern'd by the Romans, and their Laws, according to the various State of their Cities, ei