Cantina' Ximenes. By J.1'. It. Lyell, (Grafton. 10s. 6d. net.)
—Xirnenca, the stern Franciscan who at the ago of fifty-six was summoned from his cell to become confemor at the Castilian Court of Ferdinand and Isabella and a few years later became Primate and chief Minister, was one of Spoin's great men. Mr. Lyell's unpre. tentious memoir serves to recall Ximenes at the fourth centenary of his death. Few mon have begun an active career so late in life as he did. At seventy-two the Cardinal took commend of an expedition to Oran and captured the place after a stiff fight. He was merciless to the Moors and Jews, but he is remembered by scholars with gratitude for his cervices to learning, and especially for the Complu- toneian Polyglot Bible, which he caused to he edited and printed at his own expense, and which included the first printed, though not the first published, text of the Greek Testament. Mr. Lyell gives a full account of the famous Polyglot and a census of ninety-seven copies which he has traced.
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