The University of Bologna celebrated its eighth century last Tuesday.
And as Glasgow University is the only one in this country which was founded directly and exclusively on the model of Bologna, Professor Jebb composed an ode in Pindaric Greek in honour of the celebration. It is possible, of course, that this splendid scholar holds an opinion not much at variance with Porson's on the value of "all that is good
in the modern composition of ancient Greek." But Porson himself would surely have welcomed Professor Jebb's ode as a magnificent tour de force, and would have praised the artistic felicity of it diction unreservedly. The skill which neatly lands, in Pindar's language and metre, academic celebrities like " Irnerius merits appellatus lucerna juris," and Bulgaaus and Martians Gosia, who were respectively, and no doubt quite as deservedly, called " os aureum " and " copia legum," is wonderful. It is not, perhaps, quite clear why the Glasgow Greek Professor hails Mercury as ixEugeplef xetiperv, but a brilliant passage in Christopher North's " Recreations " makes it plain that poets might not unreasonably be called " viri Mercariales," because of their capacity for theft. The ode does Professor Jebb infinite credit, and deserves to have given the authorities of Bologna University infinite pleasure.
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