reckoned excellent in their kind; and of some of the polemic kind, against the church of Rome, and particularly against Bayle's sceptical works. Among these we may enumerate, 1. "Nouveaux Essais de Morale," 6 vols. 12mo. 2. "Traité de l'Orgueil," the best edition of which is 1699. 3. "Traité de la Conscience." 4. "Traité de la Restitution." 5. "La Communion dévote," the best edition of which is that of 1699. 6. "Traité des bonnes Œuvres en général." 7. "Traité du Serment." 8. "Divers Traités sur des Matieres de Conscience." 9. "La Mort des Justes." 10. "Traité de l'Aumône.” 11. "Traité des Jeux de Hazard." 12. "La Morale Chrétien abrégée," 1701. 13. "Réflexions Chrétiennes sur divers Sujets de Morale," all in 12mo. 14. "De Insanabili Ecclesia Romanâ, Scepticismo, Dissertatio," 1686, or 1696, 4to. 15. "De l'Autorité des Sens contre la Transubstantiation," 12mo. 16. "Traité de la Foi divine," 4 vols. 4to. 17. "Dissertation sur divers Sujets de Théologie et de Morale," 12mo, &c. Some of the above have been published in English, particularly the "Treatise on Conscience," and that on the "Death of the Just."

PLANTIN (CHRISTOPHER), an eminent printer, was born at Mont-Louis, near Tours, in 1514. He was instructed in his art at Caen, under Robert Macè, whence he went to Antwerp, and formed by degrees one of the greatest establishments for printing in Europe, and said indeed to be unique in its kind. The whole was upon the most magnificent scale, and even the building was accounted one of the ornaments of the city of Antwerp, and was so amply furnished with presses, founts of letter of all sorts, a foundery, and other matters necessary for the concern, as to have cost an immense sum of money. One of his biographers informs us that Plantin's ideas were so magnificent as that he cast some founts in silver, and considered himself as having in that respect done what no other printer had attempted; but this is a mistake, as Robert Stephens had before indulged himself in the luxury of silver types, although not so rich a man as Plantin. In 1576 Thuanus paid a visit to Plantin, who, although not now in such good circumstances, still had seventeen presses at work, and the wages of his workmen amounted to 200 florins per day. But what redounds most to his credit was

the number of men of learning whom he retained in his service, and rewarded with great liberality for their assistance in correcting the press. Among these were Victor Giselin; Theodore Pulman; Antony Gesdal; Francis Hardouin; Cornelius Kilien; and Francis Raphelengius, who became his son-in-law. Cornelius Kilien, one of the most learned and accurate of these, spent fifty years in this printing-house. The correctness, therefore, of Plantin's editions, with such aid, is not much a matter of surprise, and will appear still less so when it is added that he was so fastidious as not altogether to trust to the assistants now mentioned, nor even to rely on his own skill and knowledge, both of which were great, but used also to hang up the proof sheets, after undergoing every possible degree of correction, in some conspicuous place, promising rewards for the detection of errors. In this, likewise, it will be observed, he followed the example of Robert Stephens. Such care on the part of Plantin, with the beauty of his types, and the judicious choice he made of the authors to be printed, gave him very high reputation among the learned of Europe, who are unbounded in their praises of him, particularly Lipsius, Scaliger, Antonio, Baronius, and Arias Montanus, who expatiates on his merits in the introduction to what may be termed Plantin's capital work, the Antwerp Polyglot. The king of Spain gave him the title of archi-typographus, and accompanied this title with a salary sufficient to support it and his printing-office, and a kind of patent for the printing of certain works, particularly of the religious kind, with which, Bullart says, he almost exclusively served Europe and the Indies.

Besides his great establishment at Antwerp, Plantin set up another at Leyden, notwithstanding the troubles which prevailed in Holland; and a third at Paris. The king of France would have fain persuaded him to return to his native country, but he preferred remaining at Antwerp, where, as just noticed, the king of Spain for some time rendered his situation easy, and even splendid. The printing office at Leyden he bestowed on his son-in-law, Raphelengius; and took into partnership at Antwerp John Moret, who had married his second daughter. He gave likewise to Giles Beys, a Parisian, the office he had established at Paris, as a portion with his third daughter. After all this, and the constant expences of his living and establishment, he was enabled to leave a considerable fortune to his daughters, for he had no son. He died in 1589, aged seventy-five, and was interred in the great church at Antwerp, where a monument was erected to his memory. His device was a pair of compasses, with the motto "Labore et constantia."

Balsac only has aimed at the reputation of Plantin, by a story which, he says, Lipsius told him, that our printer did not understand Latin. The story, however, seems at variance with every other authority. It is also said that the king of Spain had distressed him by re-demanding the money he had lent him to carry on the printing of the Polyglot. We hope this rests on no better authority than the preceding; but it is certain that at one time, when Thuanus visited him, he was, for whatever reason, in less flourishing circumstances. We find, however, that at last he died in opulence.1

PLANUDES (MAXIMUS), a Greek monk of Constantinople, who lived at the end of the thirteenth, and the beginning of the fourteenth century, is the author of a "Life of Æsop," full of anachronisms, absurdities, and falsehoods; and of 149 "Fables;" which, though he published them as Æsop's, have been suspected to be his own. There is also a collection of Greek epigrams, under the title of "Anthologia," made by this monk: and it is but just to allow him the merit of having preserved many valuable compositions which otherwise would have been lost. His "Anthologia" was published at Florence, 1494, a very rare edition, reprinted in 1600. No particulars are known of Planudes, except that he suffered some persecution on account of his zeal for the Latin church, and, although he wrote a recantation, Bessarion thinks he was not sincere. * PLATEL. See PARISOT.

PLATER (FELIX), an eminent physician, was born at Basle in 1536, and educated under his father's eye, who was likewise an eminent physician, and principal of the college of Basle. From this place he went to Montpellier, where he obtained the degree of doctor in 1556, and on his return to Basle, was admitted ad eundem, and commenced a very successful career of practice. In 1560 he was appointed professor of medicine, and became the confidential physician of the princes and nobles of the Upper Rhine,

1 Baillet Jugements.-Foppen, Bibl. Belg.-Bullart's Academie des Sciences. • Moreri.

He possessed an extensive knowledge of anatomy, botany, natural history, and other branches of science, and contributed much to the celebrity of his native university, in which he was a teacher upwards of fifty years. He died in July 1614, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He left the following works: "De Corporis humani structura et usu Libri tres," Basle, 1583, and 1603, folio; "De Febribus Liber," Francfort, 1597; "Praxeos Medicæ Tomi tres," Basle, 1602; "Observationum Medicinalium Libri tres," ibid. 1614, &c.; "Consilia Medica," Francf. 1615, in the collection of Brendelius; “De Gangræna Epistola," in the first century of the letters of Hildanus. After his death were published "Quæstionum Medicarum paradoxarum et eudoxarum Centuria posthuma," Basle, 1625, edited by his brother, Thomas Plater; and "Quæstiones Physiologicæ de partium in utero conformatione," Leyden, 1650.1

PLATINA (BARTOLOMEO Sacchi), so called, a learned Italian, and author of a "History of the Popes," was born in 1421 at Piadena, in Latin Platina, a village between Cremona and Mantua; whence he took the name by which he is generally known. He first embraced a military life, which he followed for a considerable time; but afterwards devoted himself to literature, and made a considerable progress in it. He went to Rome under Calixtus III. who was made pope in 1455; and procuring an introduction to cardinal Bessarion, he obtained some small benefices of pope Pius II. who succeeded Calixtus in 1458, and afterwards was appointed to an office which Pius II. created, called the college of apostolical abbreviators. But when Paul II. succeeded Pius in 1464, Platina's affairs took a very unfavourable turn. Paul hated him because he was the favourite of his predecessor Pius, and removed all the abbreviators from their employments, by abolishing their places, notwithstanding some had purchased them with great sums of money. On this Platina ventured to complain to the pope, and most humbly besought him to order their cause to be judged by the auditors of the Rota. The pope was offended at the liberty, and gave him a very haughty repulse: " Is it thus," said he, looking at him sternly, " is it thus, that you summon us before your judges, as if you knew not that all laws were centered in our breast? Such is our decree: they shall all go hence, whithersoever they please; I am pope, and have a right to ratify or cancel the acts of others at pleasure." These abbreviators, thus divested of their employments, used their utmost endeavours, for some days, to obtain audience of the pope, but were repulsed with contempt. Upon this, Platina wrote to him in bolder language: "If you had a right to dispossess us, without a hearing, of the employments we lawfully purchased; we, on the other side, may surely be permitted to complain of the injustice we suffer, and the ignominy with which we are branded. As you have repulsed us so contumeliously, we will go to all the courts of princes, and intreat them to call a council; whose principal business shall be, to oblige you to shew cause, why you have divested us of our lawful possessions." This letter being considered as an act of rebellion, the writer was imprisoned, and endured great hardships. At the end of four months he had his liberty, with orders not to leave Rome, and continued in quiet for some time; but afterwards, being suspected of a plot, was again imprisoned, and, with many others, put to the rack. The plot being found imaginary, the charge was turned to heresy, which also came to nothing; and Platina was set at liberty some time after. The pope then flattered him with a prospect of preferment, but died before he could perform his promises, if ever he meant to do so. On the accession, however, of Sixtus IV. to the pontificate, he recompensed Platina in some measure by appointing him in 1475, keeper of the Vatican library, which was established by this pope. It was a place of moderate income then, but was highly acceptable to Platina, who enjoyed it with great contentment until 1481, when he was snatched away by the plague. He bequeathed to Pomponius Lætus the house which he built on the Mons Quirinalis, with the laurel grove, out of which the poetical crowns were taken. He was the author of several works, the most considerable of which is, "De Vitis ac Gestis Summorum Pontificum;" or, History of the Popes from St. Peter to Sixtus IV. to whom he dedicated it. This work is written with an elegance of style, and discovers powers of research and discrimination which were then unknown in biographical works. He seems always desirous of stating the truth, and does this with as much boldness as could be expected in that age. The best proof of this, perhaps, is that all the editions after 1500 were mutilated by the licensers of the press. The account he gives of his sufferings under Paul II. has been