Bluteau, Dom Raphael

, a Theatine, was born at London of French parents, Dec. 4, 1638, and became celebrated for his acquirements both in sacred and profane learning. Having gone to Portugal, he learned the language of that country in six months, and preached several times before the king and queen. He was also admitted into the academy, and appointed to an office in the inquisition. His biographers tell us that when in England he had been chaplain or preacher to Henrietta Maria queen to Charles I. forgetting that he could not be ten years old when that unhappy princess was expatriated. He died at Lisbon, Feb. 13, 1734, in the ninety-fifth year of his age. On the 28th of the same month his eloge was pronounced in the academy, and two learned doctors gravely discussed the question, “whether England was most honoured in. his birth, or Portugal in his death r” On the same occasion | various pieces both in Latin and Portuguese were recited to his memory. His works, which must justify this high panegyric, are, 1. “A Vocabulary or Dictionary, Portuguese and Latin,” Coimbra, 1712 1728, 10 vols. folio, including a supplement in 2 vols. Moraes de Silva compiled from this voluminous work a good Portuguese Dictionary, printed at Lisbon, 1789, 2 vols. 4to. 2. “Oraculum utriusque Testament!, musseum Bluteavianum.” 3. “A List of all Dictionaries, Portuguese, Castilian, Italian, French, and Latin,” with the dates, &c. Lisbon, 1728, and printed in the supplement to his Dictionary. 4. Sermons and panegyrics, under the title “Primicias Evangelicas,” 1685, 4to. ¹