Notes and News
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NOTES AND NEWS Dr. Robert Fruin, the doyen of Dutch historical professors, died at Leyden on January 29 (or 30), aged seventy-five. From 1860 until his retirement, a few years ago, he was professor of Dutch history at Ley den. Though he published no great work after the issue of his impor tant TienJaren uit den Tachtigiarigen Oorlog, in 1859, he wrote a large number of important monographs, was the teacher of many if not most of the Dutch historians of the present time, and won unmeasured influ ence by his learning, wisdom and fairness. Professor Alphons Huber of the University of Vienna, author of a highly valued but now unfinished history of Austria in five volumes, and of sevt!ral studies in medieval numismatics, died in Vienna on Novem ber 23, aged 64. Dr. Gustav Gilbert, professor in the gymnasium at Gotha and author of the well-known Handbuch der griechischm Staatsaltertlll'imer, died on December 24. Mr. Edward G. Mason, formerly president of the Chicago Historical Society, died on December IS, at the age of 59. An eminent lawyer and a good citizen, his title to remembrance among historical students rests partly upon his active exertions in behalf of the society mentioned, especially in securing for it its present impressive building and a large portion of its valuable collections, and partly upon those minor writings for which alone his professional occupations left him leisure. The papers which he wrote were chiefly essays in the history of Illinois in the eigh teenth century. Lewis H. Boutell died at Washington, D. C., on January 16, IS99, at the age of seventy-two. He was a member of the American Historical Association, and was the author of the following historical studies: Alexander Hamilton, IS90; Thomas Jefferson, The Man if Letters, 1891 ; Roger Sherman in the Federal Convention, IS94; The Life of RogCl Sherman, 1896. At the opening of the Civil War Mr. Boutell enlisted in a Massachusetts regiment, and he subsequently became major of the Forty-fifth Missouri Regiment. From the close of his military service until a few years before his death he was engaged in the practice of law in Chicago. Colonel Thomas C. Donaldson, compiler of the familiar government book on The Public Domain, died in Philadelphia on November IS, at the age of 55. ( 594 ) Ancient History 595 We have also to note the death, at New York, on March 18, of Dr. Philip J. J. Valentini, the noted authority on Central American archae ology, who was born in Berlin in 1828. It is understood that Mr. W. J. Stillman, who, as participant in Euro pean revolutions, as American diplomatic representative in the Papal States and in Crete, and as correspondent of the Times during the Russo Turkish War and in subsequent years at Rome, has had most varied and interesting experiences, is preparing his autobiography. Part xx. of the Historical Atlas of Modern Europe includes maps of Europe from 1814 to 1863, by Professor G. W. Prothero; of ecclesias tical France, by Mr. W. E. Rhodes; and of Western Asia under the Mongols, 1330, by Stanley Lane-Poole. MM. Armand Colin and Co. of Paris announce the eleventh volume of Lavisse and Rambaud's Histoire Generale, entitled Revolutions et Guerres Nationales, and extending from 1848 to 1870. A new historical journal, called Historisches Literaturblatt, has begun to appear fortnightly from the house of A. Hettler in Basel. It is to be devoted to comprehensive critical reviews of the recent books in special historical fields, to individual reviews, bibliography, reports of the con tents of historical journals, etc. The first number contained a general review of the most recent investigations in Egyptian history, by A. Wiedemann. The Northwestern Monthly, an educational journal published in Lin coln, Neb., contains in each issue certain series of documents in English for the study of European and American history. Those in European history (recently devoted to the history of Rome) are edited by Pro fessor F. M. Fling, those in American history by Professor H. W. Cald well. The European issues for the present year relate to a variety of topics in the history of medieval civilization, while those in the American series relate respectively to Gallatin, John Quincy Adams, Clay, Web ster, Calhoun, Sumner, Douglas, Seward, Chase and Blaine. The library of the University of Pennsylvania has been latelyacquir ing an unusually extensive set of British Parliamentary papers. The agents, Messrs. P. S. King and Co. of London, have printed an annotated catalogue of the earlier papers. The Rez'lte de l' Universit!: de Bruxelles for October-December con tains an article by Dr. Michel Huisman on the teaching of history in the historical seminaries of the University of Strassburg (" Chronique Stras bourgeoise") which old students at that place will be glad to see. ANCIENT HISTORY. The Egypt Exploration Fund has published an Atlas of Ancie1lt Egypt, containing, besides eight maps in colors, a variety of geograph ical and historical notes, Biblical references, and a full index. 596 Notes and News During the present winter the Egypt Exploration Fund has been con ducting various explorations. Dr. Edouard Naville has been working at Deir el-Bahari, opposite Thebes. Professor Flinders Petrie has been ex ploring the pre-dynastic tombs found between Denderah and Hou, just below Koptos. Mr. N. de G. Davies has been laboring in the tomb of Ptah-hotep at Saqqarah, the tomb of a pyramid priest in the time of the fifth dynasty. For the Graeco-Roman branch of the work, Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt have been at work in the Fayum, where they have found a considerable number of papyri. In the Semitic Texts and Translation Series (London, Luzac) Mr. L. W. King has published the first volume of a series of original Baby lonian texts edited from tablets in the British Museum, entitled Letters and Illscriptions 0/ HalllJllltrabi, King of Babyloll about B. C. 2200, Series 0/ Letters 0/ other Killgs if tIle First Dyn(lsty if Babylon. This first volume contains Mr. King's introduction to the Babylonian texts. These will be accompanied with English translations, summaries and notes. The Rev. C. H. W. Johns, in the first volume of his Assyrian Deeds and Docl/ments regardillg tIle Tranifer if ProperfJ', presents over 700 documents, chiefly of the seventh century B. C., in lithograph. Less than one hundred documents of this kind had previously been published. Their historical value of course lies largely in the fact that they are ab solutely contemporary with the events which they record and are free from all suspicion of bias. In a second volume Mr. Johns will present comments and explanations bearing upon various questions in the history of Assyrian civilization. A portion of the expense of publication has been borne by the Dukes of Devonshire and Portland. Professor Hugo Winckler of Berlin, in the ninth I£ift of his Alt oriClltalisc!ze Forsch/l1z~en (Leipzig, E. Pfeiffer) discourses of internal poli tics in the later Babylonian kingdom, of the time of the restoration of Judah, of the reforms of Nehemiah, and of Daniel and his friends. In the Sitzltlzgsbericllte of the Prussian Academy, No. 36, Dr. Walther Judeich reports upon an archaeological mission in the northwest of Asia Minor which he undertook for the Academy in 1896. His journey was from Chanak-Kalessi to Pergamon and Broussa, and resulted in the iden tification of many ancient localities. MIVI. Perrot and Chipiez have brought out the seventh volume (La Greet de I' Epopee, La Grece Archalque) of their Histoire de !' Art dans I' Antiquite (Paris, Hachette). Dr. Johannes Baunack has completed his collection of Delphic in scriptions, and with it the second volume of Dr. Hermann Collitz's Sammlltng del' GrieclziscJlCll Dialekt-Insc/lrijtcn' (Gi:ittingen, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, pp. 963). In Philologlts, LVII. 3, Dr. Edmund Lange completes his review of writings relating to Thucydides which have been published since r890. Early Church History 597 The March 'number of the Revue Historique contains a summary re view of recent French books on Roman history, by M. Camille Jullian. Professor Robinson Ellis's new edition of Velleius Paterculus (Ox ford, University Press; New York, Henry Frowde) is a purely critical edition with preface, apparatus and commentary written in Latin. The text is based upon the Basel manuscript of Amerbach. Mr. Frowde also publishes Mr. St. George Stock's Clarendon Press edition of Caesar's Gallic War. Mr. Stock's text is that of Hoffman. His chief effort is to illustrate the historical matter of Caesar. The linguistic notes are not numerous, but there are long introductory chapters on the book, its author, the wars and provinces which it decribes, and the Roman army. The Roman History o.f Appian o.f Alexandrz"a has been translated from the Greek by Horace White, and published in two volumes by the Macmillan Company. Under the title, Roman Africa: Archaeological Walks in Algeria and Tunis, Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons have published a translation, by Arabella Ward, of Gaston Boissier',. well-known book. Professor Otto Hirschfeld, of Berlin, has begun a new epigraphical enterprise, publishing the first Liiferung of a collection of Itzscriptiones trium Gal/iarum et duarum Germaniarum Latinae (Berlin, G. Reimer). For his inaugural lecture as professor of ancient history at Giessen Professor Ernst Kornemann chose the interesting subject of the trans formation of the Gallic and Germanic communities of northern Italy and the transalpine regions into Roman civitates. The discourse as pub lished, Zur Stadtentstehung in den ehemals ke!tischen zmd germanischen Gebieten des Romerreichs (Giessen, Mlinchow) extends to the close of the fourth century A.D., and will form a chapter of a more extensive work on Roman municipalities.