his real name being Giovanni Nanni,
which he Latinized in conformity with the custom of his era. He was
born 1432, and died 1502. His great work, _Antiquitatem Rariorum_,
professes to contain the works of Manetho, Berosus, and other
authors of equal antiquity.

[215] A forgery of a similar character has been recently effected in
the _debris_ of the Chapelle St. Eloi (Departement de L'Eure,
France), where many inscriptions connected with the early history of
France were exhumed, which a deputation of antiquaries, convened to
examine their authenticity, have since pronounced to be forgeries!

[216] The volume of these pretended Antiquities is entitled
_Etruscarum Antiquitatum Fragmenta, fo. Franc._ 1637. That which
Inghirami published to defend their authenticity is in Italian,
_Discorso sopra l'Opposizioni fatte all' Antichita Toscane_, 4to,
_Firenze_, 1645.

[217] I draw this information from a little "new year's gift," which
my learned friend, the Rev. S. Weston, presented to his friends in
1822, entitled "A Visit to Vaucluse," accompanied by a Supplement.
He derives his account apparently from a curious publication of
L'Abbe Costaing de Pusigner d'Avignon, which I with other inquirers
have not been able to procure, but which it is absolutely necessary
to examine, before we can decide on the very curious but
unsatisfactory accounts we have hitherto possessed of the Laura of
Petrarch.

[218] For some further notices of Psalmanazar and his literary
labours, we may refer the reader to vol. i. p. 137, note.

[219] The question has been discussed with great critical acumen by
Dr. Wordsworth.

[220] Since this was published I have discovered that Harry Martin's
Letters are not forgeries, but I cannot immediately recover my
authority.

[221] One of the most amusing of these tricks was perpetrated on
William Prynne, the well-known puritanic hater of the stage, by some
witty cavalier. Prynne's great work, "Histriomastix, the Player's
Scourge; or, Actor's Tragedy," an immense quarto, of 1100 pages, was
a complete condemnation of all theatrical amusements; but in 1649
appeared a tract of four leaves, entitled "Mr. William Prynne, his
Defence of Stage Playes; or, a Retractation of a former Book of his
called Histriomastix." It must have astonished many readers in his
own day, and wo