Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/476

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ,[iis. vn. JUNE 14.1913.

Van Hclmont (cf. Crossley, ' Diary and | Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington,' ii. 107) ? Petrus Serrarius, who died at Amsterdam in 1666 ? What is known of Serrarius, and which of his works have been published ? Were both Hartlib and John Dury personally acquainted with Van Hel- mont ? What is known of the relations with Van Helmont of Johann Conrad Amman and Paulus Buchius, both Doctors of Physic at Amsterdam ?

Who is J. C., the translator into English (London, 1692) of Lady Conway's ' Prin- cipia ' ? (Cf. ante, p. 307.) What is the authority for the statement that J. C. is probably Jodocus Crull ? (Cf. ' D.N.B.,' xii. 50.) Why not John Clark, M.D., who translated Van Helmont' s ' Seder Olam ' into English in 1694 ? And what is known in regard to John Clark ? Why was the English edition of the * Principia ' a trans- lation instead of a publication of the original MS. ? What MSS. of or about Lady Conway are extant ? Why was not the preface given in extenso by Richard Ward published in the English edition of the ' Principia ' ? (Cf. ' Life of Dr. Henry More,' London, 1710, pp. 203-9.) Has any- thing else of Lady Conway's been published ? Information in regard to her friendship and that of Dr. Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist, with Van Helmont will also be welcome. Is Van Helmont the author of a preface signed F. M. a. H., and added to the Latin translation of Dr. More's ' Im- mortality of the Soul,' published at Rotter- dam in 1677 ? And was this preface ever republished ? What do the fictitious initials "I. G." at the end of the Epistola Dedi- catoria of Van Helmont's ' Philosophia Vulgaris ' signify ? Ignotum Gallum ?

When were the following works of Van Helmont published in English ? (a) his ' Macrocosm ' ; (b) ' Man and his Diseases ' ; (c) * Pre -existence.' What are their com- plete titles, &c. ? Is the ' Macrocosm ' a distinct work from the ' Paradoxal Dis courses ' ? Also what is the basis of the attribution of the following anonymous works to Van Helmont ? (a) ' Geheimnis der Schopfung,' Amsterdam, 1701 ; (b] ' Goldener Arzeneyschatz,' Basel, 1723 ; (c) ' Materia Coelestis,' 1700.

Can any information be given in regard to the following translation, which, I believe, is his earliest work apart from his edition of his father's ' Opera ' ?

" Lycurgus Italicus [pseudonym for Octavius Pisanus] Ex Italico in Latinum & Germanicum

transtulit FT. Mercurius Baro ab Helmont,. Sulzbaci, 1666."

Did Van Helmont himself make the trans- lation of Boethius which he published at Liineburg in 1697, or was it merely a re- publication (with a preface added by him) 3f the translation made by Baron Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, and originally pub- lished at Sulzbach in 1667 ?

Also were two editions of the following work published one at Amsterdam in 1670, and a second at Sulzbach in 1676 ?

" Eigentliche Erklarung tiber die Gesichter der Offenbahrung S. Johannis geschrieben durch. Peganium."

This was really written by Knorr von Rosen- roth rather than by Van Helmont, was it not ?

Just what sort of exercise is meant by the German word " Fahnenschwingen," which it s said Van Helmont practised daily through- out his life ?

Can any information be given in regard to the following work ?

" An answer to some Queries proposed by W. C., or a Refutation of Helmont's pernicious Error (that every man is often born, and hath Twelve Ages of Tryal allowed him in the world by God), warmly contended for in and about Lam- born in Wiltshire. Printed at Oxford, and sold by T. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Churchyard, London, 1694." Who is the author W. C., and is anything known in regard to him ? What connexion has Van Helmont with Lambourn, which is given in my Gazetteer as in Berks, not in Wilts ? Why this variance in topography ?

Lastly, where did Van Helmont go after Lady Conway's death in 1679 ? What is known definitely in regard to the friendship of George Keith, the Quaker apostate, with Van Helmont ? (Cf. ' D.N.B.,' xxx. 319.)

F. S. D ARROW.

Point Loma, California.

c THE READER ' AND DR. JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY. The following passage is taken from p. 241 of 'Platform, Press, Politics, and Play,' by T. H. S. Escott (1895):

"In Mr. Bendysshe's absence a sub-editor [of The Header], anxious to show his smartness, dealt with a cheap reprint of Johnson's Dictionary on the assumption of its being a new book by an unknown writer. He was particularly severe on the * high- falutin ' style of its preface, but condescendingly recognized certain elements of promise amid the- portentous verbiage, and charitably told the writer that if he would not confuse fine words for great thoughts, he might still hope to turn an honest penny with his pen. As if to efface the memory of this ludicrous contretemps, Mr. Bendysshe printed a very heterodox serial from his own pen, entitled, I think, * Letters of a Suicide.' "