1st Part K. Hen.  IV.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

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Latin Names of Towns.—­“M.” (No. 25. p. 402.) wishes for some guide with reference to the Latin names of towns.  A great deal of assistance may be obtained from an octavo volume, published anonymously, and bearing the title “Dictionnaire Interprete-manuel des Noms Latins de la Geographie ancienne et moderne; pour servir a l’Intelligence des Auteurs Latins, principalement des Auteurs Classiques; avec les Designations principales des Lieux.  Ouvrage utile a ceux qui lisent les Poetes, les Historiens, les Martyrologes, les Chartes, les vieux Actes,” &c. &c.  A Paris, 1777.

R.G.

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Le Petit Albert (No. 24. p. 385.).—­I suspect this Petit Albert, in 32mo.—­a size in harmony with the cognomen—­is only a catchpenny publication, to which the title of Le Petit Albert has been given by way of resembling its name to that of Albertus Magnus, who wrote a work or works of a character which gave rise, in the middle ages, to the accusation that he practised magical arts; and hence, probably, any abridgement or compendium of them, or any little work on such arts, would be styled by the French compiler Le Petit Albert.  In the Biographie Universelle, it is affirmed that the rhapsodies known under the name of Secrets du Petit Albert are not by Albertus Magnus; a statement which favours the belief that the work mentioned by your correspondent “JARLZBERG” is one of that vulgar class (like our old Moore’s Almanack, &c.) got up for sale among the superstitious and the ignorant, and palmed on the world under the mask of a celebrated name.  According to Bayle, Albertus Magnus has, by some, been termed Le Petit Albert, owing, it is said, to the diminutiveness of his stature, which was on so small a scale, that when he, on one occasion, paid his respects to the pope, the pontiff supposed he was still kneeling at his feet after he had risen up and was standing erect.

J.M.

Oxford, April 19.

[Of Le Petit Albert, of which it appears by Graesse’s Bibliotheca Magica there were editions printed at Cologne in 1722, Lyons 1775, and even at Paris in 1837, we are told in Colin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal, s. v.  Albert le Grand, “On a quelquefois defendu ce livre, et alors il s’est vendu enormement cher.”]

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Walter Lynne (No. 23. p. 367.).—­“G.P.” may look for Walter Lynne into Johnson’s Typographia, i. 556., of which copies may be had very reasonably at Mr. Miller’s (see end of No. 15.), 43.  Chandos Street.

Your intimation of brevity is attended to; though, in truth, little more could come from

NOVUS.

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Emancipation of the Jews (No. 25. p. 491.).—­“H.M.A.” inquires—­1.  If the story mentioned in the Thurloe State Papers, that the Jews sought to obtain St. Paul’s Cathedral for a Synagogue, has been confirmed by other writers?  In Egan’s Status of the Jews in England, I find the following passage:—­