tlon of famf ffone, produced by the calcination and diffolutio»
o f the tophaceous or tartarous'interflices, that held the particles
connected together.
A rnafs of earth, o f a, light Blue colour, and which has every
appearance o f Being aluminous,, deferves to be .attentively examined
E It is on the feai ihore below the caffle. o f Lubenize. I
was not able to make any experiment on-the fpot for want o f
time, and the neceilary mftrulnents. There is,¡not, however*
need o f much diligence or time todifcover, tbatfls.-almofl: all the
illands o f Dalmatia abound in> fine marble, iome pieces o f which
I have brought along with me}jTo the ifland o f Cherfo is well
ftored with it.j In.feveral buildings'A.of the city, the breccia o f
the neighbouring hills has been employed,! and .has an excellent'
effe£H:: being, not inferiour tothe.mofl.valuahle Africa«,, either im
hardhefs or beamy o f the colours..- -
Accident led-me to find out that a literato o f the 16th cen--
tury, accufedof having had the.weaknefs o f denying,. pr at lead
diffembling bis native country,, ¿dually belongs to Cherfo, and
ought to be reftered to that ifland: the people o f Cherjo have
caufe to be proud-of him. France/co Batrizio, a philolbpher,.
poet, and philologift o f great name, who made a great figure in.
his age, and had views fuperior to, the fludies o f tbofe times was
born in the ifland o f Cherfo. A writer on Illyric affairs, whofe
voluminous manufcript work was courteoufly entrufted tome by
Dr. Antonio Danieli o f Zara, well known for his colledion of
antiquities, fays, that the obfeurity, or rather ignominy o f his
birth, obliged that great man to conceal the place o f his nativity.*
T h e fe
« Edidit Crcxana Civitas atatemjira profiantijfimum.virum politicarum liter arum,
iff Platonica dotlrina in Europa fa c ik Prmcipcm, qui dum Romano, Academia ’a,
ClementsP
Thefe accufations do not appear to me to be altogether well
founded; and it is even plain, that the little attention ufed by
fomein reading and writing, has made him Sanefe, Farrarefe,
Venetian, and I know not what. There are proofs m his own
wirings that he was related to the noble h i n t l y D e p e l n s , which
is diftinguifhed among >theprincipal families o f the,ifiand. T h is
man was a prodigy o f learning in h i s t i m e s , a n d would have
proved a bright luminary of the revived pbilofophy had fie been-
born a little-later,- or could he have explained hifflfelf mthpnore
liberty, by profeffmg the icience stin pkeesuiefs] f u b j ? ^ P>
than Ferrara and R om e w ere.: l i e had thoughts concerning t e
primitive Rate o f our globe that: w ere not com m on ; and m one
o f his dialogues intitled I l Lamberto,, laid dawn precifely the fame
theory which your Burnet, a century after,; appropriated to him -
;fe lf copying it almoft word for word. Pctfrizwdwii not expofe
this’ as his own-fyftem, as it would have diipleaied the fch id a ilic
theologues o f thofe times,, who believed that the c a tarafts o f
heaven had more water to furnifh tow a rd s a deluge- .than the a-
hyffes o f the e arth ; and therefore he made it -pais fur a cohnolo-
„ • cal tradition,, which had gained credit in Abyfinia, and was
'found written a * large in i the-' annals' o f Ethiopia. T h o u g h the
theory o f the earth imagined by Patrizia is liable to many /exc
ep tion s, yet it cannot be denied that, it is ingenious, and it is but
1 1 that the. plagiary bifhop fhduld reliore the glory .to the author.
AO b< eD - ii The
Clemente V I lT . propofdus
F ranc ifeu s P a t r it iu s ap p e llan n ; “
quod bwniliffimo loco aP u d fuos n f e r e t u r , n a t ^ e ^ U a r e f u p ^ £ ^ 7
M m a c o r d a t L n -oirorum a dm ir a t io n in f i o n M ^ U r n f ia r u m f i r e f i t ~ 4 u -
M etiam a f id e digno v ir o id non tantum egiffe occultando humti.taUe quam facrdeg orum
n atalium g r a t ia ; '