Note 123 — CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS: (continued 4)

Leland, in his magnificent plan, included several curious departments. Jealous of the literary glory of the Italians, whom he compares to the Greeks for accounting all nations barbarous and unlettered, he had composed four books “De Viris Illustribus”, on English Authors, to force them to acknowledge the illustrious genius, and the great men of Britain. Three books “De Nobilitate Britannica” were to be “as an ornament and a right comely garland.”