CASIRI, Michael (1710-1791), a learned Maronite, was born at Tripoli in 1710. He studied at Rome, where he afterwards for ten years taught Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldee, and gave lectures in philosophy and theology. In 1748 he went to Spain, and was employed in the royal library at Madrid. He was successively appointed a member of the Royal Academy of History, interpreter of Oriental languages to the king, and joint-librarian of the Escorial. In 1763 he became principal librarian, a situation which he appears to have held till his death in 1791. Casiri published a work entitled Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escιιrialeιιsis, 2 vols, fol., Madrid, 1760-1770. It is a catalogue of above 1800 Arabie MSS., which he found in the library of the Escorial; and it also contains a number of quotations from Arabic works on history. The MSS. are classified according to the subjects of which they treat. The second volume, which is furnished with a copious index, gives an account of a large collection of geographical and historical MSS., which contain valuable information regarding the wars between the Moors and the Christians in Spain. A full view of the contents of the whole work, with some political comments, is given in the first appendix to Harris’s Philological Inquiries, and in the second appendix to Berington’s Literary History of the Mid<lle Ages.