I am going to do my best to lay before the reader of these pages a clear bibliographical outline of Whittinton’s literary performances; and it seems to amount to this, that he has left to us, apart from a few miscellaneous effusions, eleven distinct treatises on the parts of grammar, all doubtless more or less based on the researches and consonant with the doctrines of his immediate master Anniquil and the foreign professors of the same art, whose works had found their way into England, and had even, as in the case of Sulpicius and Perottus, been adopted by the English press.

I will first give the titles of the several pieces succinctly, and then proceed to furnish a slight description of each:—

1. De Nominum Generibis.
2. Declinationes Nominum.
3. De Syllabarum Quantitate, &c.
4. Verborum Præterita et Supina.
6. De Octo Partibus Orationis.
7. De Heteroclitis Nominibus.
8. De Concinnitate Grammatices et Constructione.
9. Syntaxis. [A recension of No. 8.]
10. Vulgaria.
11. Lucubrationes.

These eleven fasciculi actually form altogether one system, and some of them have their order of succession in the author’s arrangement indicated; as, for instance, the Verborum Præterita et Supina, which is called the Fifth Book of the First Part; but others are deficient in this clue, so that if one classes them, it must be in one’s own way.

V. The treatise on the Kinds of Nouns, in one of the numerous editions of it at least, is designated Primæ Partis Liber Primus, which seems an inducement to yield it the foremost place in the series. But it will be presently observed that, although the collection in a complete state is susceptible of a consecutive arrangement, the pieces composing it did not, so far as we can tell, follow each other originally in strict order of time.

Of the tract on the Declensions of Nouns, which stands second in order, Dibdin supplies us with a specimen:—

De ntō singu-
lari prime
declina-
tionis.		 Anchise et Ve-
neris filius,
as, ut Aeneas		 Capis filius
es, ut An-
chises.		Qui fingit elegan-
tia carmina, a,
ut poeta.
Rectus as, es, a; simul am dat flexio prima.
Aeneæ Aeneæ
ut huius huic
musæ musæ
De gtō et dtō
singularibus
et ntō et vetō
pluralibū.
Ac dat dipthongum genitiuus sic que datiuus
hi poeteo poete
Singularis, sic pluralis primus quoque quintus
familie et aulai pro aulae
vt huius huic
familias pictai pro pictæ.
Olim rectus in a, genito dedit as simul ai.
vt hic Judas, huius Jude, vel Juda
Ex Judas Juda aut Judæ dat pagina sacra
vt hic Adam. huius Adam. huic Adam, &c.
Barbara in am propria aut a recto non variantur.

We must now pass to the treatise De Syllabarum Quantitate, which, in a chronological respect, ranks first among Whittinton’s works, as there was an edition of it as early as 1513.

This tripartite volume, 1. On the Quantity of Syllables; 2. On Accent; and 3. On the Roman Magistrates, is noteworthy on two accounts. The second portion embraces the earliest specimen in any English book of the poems of Horace, and the concluding section is a kind of rudimentary Lemprière. Subjoined is a sample of the lines upon accents, from Dibdin:—