227. "Malvina, a Tragedy."

—Can any of your readers afford any information about (1.) Malvina, a Tragedy, Glasgow, printed by Andrew Foules, 1786, 8vo., pp. 68? A MS. note on the copy in my library states it to be written by Mr. John Riddel, surgeon, Glasgow. (2.) Iphigenia, a Tragedy in four acts. In Rege tamen Pater est.—Ovid. MDCCLXXXVII. My copy has this MS. note: "By John Yorke, of Gouthwait, Esq., Yorkshire," in the handwriting of Francis, seventh Baron Napier. Neither of these tragedies in noticed in the Biographia Dramatica.

J. MT.

228. Rinuccini Gallery.

—I see by a late number of the Athenæum newspaper, that the splendid collection of pictures preserved in the Rinuccini Palace at Florence will be brought to the hammer in the month of May 1852. It has been stated, that amongst the works of art at one period extant in the Rinuccini Palace, were a number of paintings made by Italian artists for Cardinal Rinuccini, when on his Legatine mission to Ireland in the middle of the seventeenth century, and representing his triumphal entry into Kilkenny in November 1645. It has also been asserted that these interesting historical paintings were wilfully destroyed from a very discreditable motive. The importance of these cartoons, as illustrating a period when Ireland became the final battle-field of the contending parties which then divided the British dominions, will at once be acknowledged; and at this period, when so many foreigners are assembled in London, perhaps some reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES" may be able to set the question of the existence or destruction of these cartoons at rest. Or, at all events, some person about to seek the genial air of Italy during the winter may bear this "Query" in mind, and forward to your valuable paper a "Note" of the contents of the Rinuccini Gallery. I need hardly say that the person so doing will confer a favour on every student of Irish History.

JAMES GRAVES.

Kilkenny, Oct. 11.

Minor Queries Answered.

Meaning of Aneroid.

—What is the derivation of the word aneroid, as applied to a new description of barometer lately introduced?