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PREFACE.

THE value and interest of a good book of biographical reference are so generally recognised, that a brief explanatory preface seems to be all that is necessary by way of introduction to this new 'Dictionary of General Biography.' Based on the thirteenth edition of the wellknown Treasury of Biography,' which, as reconstructed, revised, and very greatly enlarged by myself, was substantially a new work, it is nevertheless far from being a mere reprint.

Being entrusted by the Publishers with the preparation of this Library edition, I have striven to do all that lay in my power to supply omissions and remove errors. Lapse of time had rendered it necessary to include many new lives, and a further examination showed the need of inserting a large number of subjects not contained in the previous edition, in place of some comparatively insignificant names which had not been struck out. The labour involved in these numerous alterations and important additions justifies me, I trust, in claiming for the present volume the character of a new work.

The new articles in the present work, including a few which have been re-written, amount to about five hundred, and many of them are notices of important historical persons. Among these will be found the names of Amrou, Arcadius, Arnold of Villa Nova, Barbaroux, Cardinal Bibbiena, Brian Boru, Sir O. Bridgeman, Aaron Burr, Cardinal Cajetan, Carlstadt, Chosroes I. and II., Pope Clement VII., Cleomenes III.,

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