Elsevier.
Leyden.
J. A. de Chalmot, in his Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands, vol. vii. p. 251., names as author, or rather as compiler of this work, Isaak Commelin, born at Amsterdam 19th October, 1598, died 3rd Jan. 1676, and quotes Kasp. Commelin's Description of Amsterdam, which I have not at hand to refer to. The work was printed at Amsterdam without printer's name: each voyagie or description is separately paged; some places have a French text. In the second volume is a Generale beschryvinghe van Indien, &c., naer de copÿe ghedruckt tot Batavia in de druckerÿe van Gansenpen, anno 1638 (General Description of India, &c., according to the copy printed at Batavia at the office of the Goose Quill). Whether any other pieces which Commelin compiled had been earlier printed, I have not been able to discover.—From the Navorscher.
J. C. K.
"ITS."
(Vol. vi., p. 509.)
The following are earlier instances of the employment of its by the poets, than any that your correspondent seems to have met with:
"How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
Its tenderness, and makes itself a pastime