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MISCELLANEOUS LITERARY NOTICES.

FRANCE.

A NEW journal devoted to the Review of French and foreign literature has just been commenced at Paris, with the title of "Revue française et étran gère."

Of the Encyclopedie du 19e Siècle, the third volume just published contains many articles of superior merit, such as the word " Alger," by M. Rozet; "Alienation mentale," by M. Esquirol; "Alimens," by M. Eduards; "Litterature allemande," by M. Chasles.

A periodical work directed to the interests of the French possessions in Africa has been commenced, with the title of "Revue Africaine." This publication disclaims all party purposes, and the two or three numbers of it which have appeared are distinguished by great impartiality and moderation.

A joint-stock society has been formed in Paris for the publication of a general collection of standard French works, in 200 volumes, with the title of "Pantheon Litteraire." The French government is said to have subscribed for two hundred copies, with the intention of giving 25 volumes out of the 200 to such towns as are willing to subscribe to the other 75, in order to enrich their libraries.

M. Moreau de Ionnès has added to the list of his useful works a Statistical Account of Great Britain and Ireland, divided into fifteen parts: territory, population, agriculture, mines, manufactures, public wealth, commerce, navigation, colonies, administration, finances, military force, justice, public instruction, general results. To the documents collected relative to each of these parts the author has subjoined comparative views of the condition of the principal European states, which tend greatly to simplify the study of European statistics.

The Commission Historique has just made a new issue of publications, including the first volume of the Metrical Chronicle of Benoit, by M. Francisque Michel; the Provencal Metrical History of the war of the Albigenses in the 13th century, by a contemporary writer, edited by M. Fauriel; the second volume of the documents from the war-office, relating to the wars of Louis XIV., at the beginning of the last century, by General Pelet; and a specimen of a projected archaeological survey of France, with three livraisons of plates, in large folio.

M. Michel is again in England, sent by the Commission to transcribe for publication an interesting history of the wars of Henry II. and his sons in Normandy, written in Anglo-Norman verse, by one Jordan Fauthome, preserved in MS. at Durham.

We believe that the Commission has authorized the publication of all the ancient Carlovingian romances, in one body. M. de Salvaudy, the present minister of public instruction, is zealous in the cause of literature, and intends, we believe, to give much attention to the labours of the Commission Historique.

M. Jubinal has published the first volume of a very interesting collection of old French Mysteries, entitled "Mystères inédits du 15e Siècle," from a MS. of the library of St. Geneviève.

A series of coloured etchings, in very large folio, of all the ancient tapestries preserved in France and Flanders has been also commenced at Paris, the text by Jubinal. The first part, which we have seen, contains the Tapestry of Nancy; the second and third, which are very recently published, contains the celebrated Bayeux Tapestry.

The early literature of France seems to be every day becoming more popular. There is in the course of publication a very cheap and comprehensive collection, to be completed in six volumes, in large 8vo., double columns, and edited by M. Michel and M. Monmerqué. The first volume, in which considerable progress is made, will contain the mysteries, moralities, farces, &c. &c. from the 12th to the 16th century. A volume will be devoted to the Metrical romances, and another to the early prose romances. Another volume will be given to the early miscellaneous poetry.

The year 1836 was less productive in a literary point of view in France than its immediate predecessors. In 1835, 82,298 sheets of type were composed for the French booksellers; in 1836 only 79,238, showing a diminution of nearly 3000 sheets. The printed sheets have decreased in a still greater proportion, smaller editions having mostly been worked; so that we may assume that there were printed last year 25 million sheets less than in 1835, The greatest diminution has taken place in theological and philosophical works, while novels, plays, and political publications, have rather increased than decreased.

The tribunal of commerce in Paris has decided, that an author who sells a work to a bookseller is bound to deliver the manuscript in a legible state, and to provide himself for the correction of the proofs.

HOLLAND.

The autograph journal of the celebrated voyager Roggewein has recently been discovered in the archives of the Dutch East India Company. The Zealand society of arts and sciences is preparing this valuable manuscript for publication, and a French translation of it is promised by M. van Wyk.

Van Boekeren of Gröningen has announced for publication, by subscription, "Histoire de la Civilisation morale et religieuse des Grecs depuis le Retour des Heraclides jusqu'à la Domination des Romains," by Dr. van Limburg-Brouwer, professor of the university of Gröningen, in 6 volumes.

DENMARK.

Dr. J. K. Bohn Clement of Holstein is about to publish a work on the northern islands of Great Britain, to which he gives the title of “ Mainland.” It is the result of a journey undertaken last year at the expense of the King of Denmark, to search for monuments which may have been left there by the ancient Scandinavians. Landing at Hull, in August, 1836, M. Clement travelled through Scotland to the Orkneys, where he spent part of the winter. Then, following the west coast of Scotland, he visited the Isle of Skye. His last letter, of March 30, 1837, was dated from Edinburgh. He intimates that on most of the points his investigations have been very productive, and that he has collected a considerable number of important and unpublished docu

ments.

GERMANY.

Each succeeding Catalogue of the Leipzig Fair is more bulky than its predecessor. That of the late Easter Fair forms a volume of 26 sheets, and contains 4353 new works, or new editions. Of these 429 were published abroad, leaving for Germany (including Switzerland, Hungary, and that part of Prussia not belonging to the German confederation) 3294. In the total number

there are,

Books and pamphlets in the German language
Books and pamphlets in the ancient languages
Books and pamphlets in living foreign languages
Novels

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3200

302

539

144

23

42

103

Of the above 239 are translations from foreign languages (among the novels alone 44), and 349 periodicals.

The whole were produced by 561 publishers, of whom Basse of Quedlinburg furnished 92 works, Reitzel of Copenhagen 82, Reimer of Berlin 53, the house of Metzler in Stuttgart 46, that of Arnold in Dresden 45, that of Cotta in Stuttgart 44, Brockhaus of Leipzig 42, Friedlein of Leipzig 41, Voigt of Weimar 40.

The principal states of Germany contributed in the following proportions to the general amount :-Austria, 226, (in Vienna alone, 165); Prussia, 1151, (in Berlin, 425); Bavaria, 469; Saxony, 669, (Leipzig alone, 556); Hanover, 106; Wurtemberg, 331; Baden, 156; the Hessian states, 141; Holstein, 40; the four Saxon duchies, 160; Brunswick, 45; Frankfurt, 55; Hamburg, 123.

Dr. Ferdinand Wolf, of the Imperial Library at Vienna, whose "Beitrage zur Geschichte der Kastilianischen National Litteratur," (Wien, 1832,) and "Floresta de Rimas Modernas Castellanas," recently published, bespeak his acquaintance with early Spanish literature, and who has shown his knowledge of that of England, by his "Introduction to the Bruder Rausch," recently reviewed by us, announces a "History of the Drama to the time of Shakspeare and Calderon." It is gratifying to know that the subject has been taken up by a writer like Dr. Wolf, whose scholar-like acquirements ensure its being properly investigated, and who will give us the result of his inquiries, in a style free from the mysticism and obscurity in which too many of his countrymen, with deference be it spoken, are apt to involve the fruits of their literary researches.

The study of the "Nibelungen Lied” continues to be carried on in Germany with undiminished ardour. Lachmann, whose edition of that poem, (4to. Berlin, 1826,) is regarded by the German philologists as the critical one, has recently published a supplementary volume of " Notes and Various Readings,' which is to be followed by a " Wörterbuch," or Glossary, by Wackernagel; and the "Germania," published last year by the Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprache und Alterthumskunde, of Berlin, contains several papers illustrative of this national epic. While on this subject we may observe, that we purpose shortly to devote an article to the consideration of the " Nibelungen," and the Teutonic Cycle of Romance generally.

Adolph Ziemann, whose "Altdeutsches Elementarbuch" has been already favourably noticed in the Foreign Quarterly Review, (see No. 28,) has since published his "Gothisch-hochdeutsche Wortlehre," and very recently, the first half of his "Mittel-hochdeutsches Wörterbuch," a work which cannot but be acceptable to all lovers of early German poetry, if executed with the talent displayed in his earlier publications.

Calve of Prague has published the first numbers of a "Landwirthschaftliches Conversations-Lexikon," edited by Dr. Alexander von Lengerke, whose name is advantageously known in Bohemia from various economical works and detached papers in periodical publications. This dictionary will consist of three volumes, in twelve or fifteen monthly parts.

Kohnen of Cologne has commenced a collection of traditions of the Rhine countries, with the title of " Rheinlands Sagen, Geschichten und Legenden," from the pen of the editor Dr. Alfred Reumont, Ernst Weyden, A. T. Beer, W. Weitz, and Fr. Steinmann; and illustrated by steel engravings. Four numbers containing eight plates will constitute a volume.

A German translation of the important work of Parent-Duchatelet on Prostitution in Paris, reviewed in our present number, has, we observe, been just published by Fr. Fleischer of Leipzig.

The house of Herder of Freiburg has in the press the first volume of the Military and Political Life of Prince Eugene of Savoy, by Lieutenant-Colonel von Kausler, with Notes by General Count Bismark. The work, when complete, will comprize about 100 sheets of letter-press, and 40 maps and plans.

The great French and German, and German and French Dictionary, by G. F. Schaffer, is expected to be completed in the course of the present year, by the publication of the last portion of the German and French part, compre hending S-Z. The whole will consist of upwards of 240 sheets, and form perhaps the most copious and generally serviceable work of the kind that has yet appeared.

The twelfth edition of Rotteck's Universal History, in three 8vo. volumes, is announced.

A work has been commenced in parts, at Stuttgart, by the title of " Die Zeitgenossen; ihre Schicksale, ihre Tendenzen, ihre grossen Charaktere,” which is professed to a translation from E. L. Bulwer. A critic in the Blätter für litterarische Unterhaltung pronounces, from an examination of the first two numbers, and pronounces truly, that Bulwer could not be the author of them; that the work is not English, and he adds, “neither can we say that it is German."

We learn from the German papers that the Latin version of the nine books of Sanchoniatho's Phoenician History, pretended to have been lately discovered in Portugal, and to which we directed the attention of our readers in our last number, is actually published by Schünemann of Bremen.

Dr. Knobel of Breslau has ready for publication "Der Prophetismus der Hebräer, vollständig dargestellt," in two volumes, 8vo.

Mr. P. F. Mainoni, proprietor of the bookselling establishment of Ernst Fleischer, at Leipzig, has been presented by the Queen of Great Britain with a gold snuff-box, enriched with brilliants, in token of her majesty's satisfaction with the dedication to her of the Sketches to Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet, by Retzsch.

A committee has been formed at Frankfurt, consisting of the wealthiest merchants, for the purpose of raising a subscription and erecting a monument in honour of Göthe in that his native city. The first meeting of the committee was held on the 1st of May. The subscriptions, chiefly by members of the committee, are said already to exceed 10,000 florins.

German papers state that a law, completely prepared, is now lying before the council of state in Berlin, relative to the securing of literary property in Prussia. One of the articles enacts, that when there is no special contract between the author and bookseller, the sale of the copyright holds good for only one edition, after which the exclusive property in the work reverts to the author. Other provisions relate to dramatic writers and piracy. After this law has been approved by the council of state, it will be submitted by Prussia to the German Diet, from which it is expected to receive considerable opposition, or at least considerable modifications.

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