National Debts.—Is there any published work descriptive of the origin of the foundation of a "National Debt" in Florence so early as the year 1344, when the state, owing a sum of money, created a "Mount or Bank," the shares in which were transferable, like our stocks? It is not mentioned in Niccolo Machiavelli's History of Florence; but I have a note of the fact, without a reference to the authority. Is there any precedent prior to the foundation of our National Debt?
F. E. M.
Leicester's Commonwealth.—Are the real authors of Leicester's Commonwealth, and the poetical tract generally found with it, Leicester's Ghost, known? According to Dodd's Church History, the first is erroneously attributed to Robert Parsons the Jesuit.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Replies.
HISTOIRE DES SÉVARAMBES.
(Vol. iii., pp. 4. 72. 147.)
The History of the Sevarites, in the original English edition, consists of two parts: the first published in 1675, in 114 pages, small 12mo., without a preface; the second published in 1679, in 140 pages, with a preface of six pages. The French version of this work is much altered and enlarged. The title is changed into Histoire des Sévarambes, the "Sevarites" being dropped. There is a preface of fifteen pages, containing a supposed letter from Thomas Skinner, dated Bruges, Oct. 28, 1672. The work is divided into five parts, three of which are in the first, and two in the second volume of the Amsterdam edition of 1716. These five parts are together more than twice as bulky as the two parts of the English work. There is no copy of the original French edition of 1677-9 described by Marchand, in any English public library; but if there is a copy in the French national library, any of your bibliographical correspondents at Paris could easily ascertain whether (as is probably the case) the Amsterdam edition is a mere reprint from the original Paris edition.
The French version of this work is not only much enlarged, but it differs in the names and incidents, and is fuller in the account of the institutions and customs of the imaginary state. The English edition of 1738 (1 vol. 8vo.) is a literal translation from the French version, though it does not purport to be a translation. It may be doubted whether the translator was aware of the existence of the English publication of 1675-9. The German translation was published in 1680; the Dutch translation in 1682: both these appear to have been taken from the French.