**Magdolum**, or **Magdala** (anc. geog.), a town of the Lower Egypt, twelve miles to the south of Pelusium (Herodotus, Antonine), which doubtless is the Migdol or Magdol of Jeremiah.—Another

**Magdalam**, or **Migdol**, denoting literally "a tower or place of strength," near the Red Sea, (Moses); far to the south of the former.

**Magellan** (Ferdinand), a celebrated Portuguese mariner in the 16th century. He being dissatisfied with the king of Portugal, went into the service of the emperor Charles V., and sailed from Seville with five vessels in 1519, when he discovered and passed the strait to which he gave his own name, and sailed through the South Sea to the Ladrones Islands, when, according to some authors, he was poisoned in 1520; though others say that he was killed in a mutiny of his people in the island of Mutan, on account of his severity. His voyage round the world was written by one on board, and has been frequently printed in English. His suddenly converting to the Christian religion people whose language was unknown to him, as he was to them, is an absurdity that discredits this work.

**Straits of Magellan**, a narrow passage between the island of Terra del Fuego and the southern extremity of the continent of America. This passage was first discovered by Ferdinand Magellan, who sailed through it into the South Sea, and from thence to the East Indies. Other navigators have passed the same way; but as these straits are exceedingly difficult, and subject to storms, it has been common to sail by Cape Horn, rather than through the Straits of Magellan. See Straits Le Maire, and Terra del Fuego.

**Magellanic-clouds**, whitish appearances like clouds, seen in the heavens towards the south pole, and having the same apparent motion as the stars. They are three in number, two of them near each other. The largest lies far from the south pole; but the other two are not many degrees more remote from it than the nearest conspicuous star, that is, about 11 degrees. Mr Boyd conjectures, that if these clouds were seen through a good telescope, they would appear to be multitudes of small stars, like the milky-way.

**Maggi** (Jerome), in Latin *Magius*, one of the most learned men of the 16th century, was born at Anghiari in Tuscany. He applied himself to all the sciences, and even to the art of war; and distinguished himself so much in this last study, that the Venetians sent him into the island of Cyprus in quality of judge of the admiralty. When the Turks besieged Famagusta, he performed all the services that could be expected from the most excellent engineer: he invented mines and machines for throwing fire, by means of which he destroyed all the works of the besiegers, and in an instant overthrew what had cost the Turks infinite labour. But they had their revenge; for, taking the city in 1571, they plundered his library, carried him loaded with chains to Constantinople, and treated him in the most inhuman and barbarous manner. He nevertheless comforted himself from the example of Æsop, Menippus, Epictetus, and other learned men; and, after passing the whole day in the meanest drudgery, he spent the night in writing. He composed, by the help of his memory alone, treatises filled with quotations, which he dedicated to the Imperial and French ambassadors. These ministers, moved by compassion for this learned man, resolved to purchase him him; but while they were treating for his ransom, Maggi found means to make his escape, and to get to the Imperial ambassador's house; when the Grand Vizir being enraged at his flight, and remembering the great mischief he had done the Turks during the siege of Famagusta, sent to have him seized, and caused him to be strangled in prison in 1572. His principal works are, 1. A treatise on the bells of the ancients. 2. On the destruction of the world by fire. 3. Commentaries on Æmilius Probus's lives of illustrious men. 4. Commentaries on the institutes. These works are written in elegant Latin. He also wrote a treatise on fortification in Italian; and a book on the situation of ancient Tuscany.

He ought not to be confounded with his brother Bartholomew Maggi, a physician at Bologna, who wrote a treatise on gun-shot wounds; nor with Vincent Maggi, a native of Brescia, and a celebrated professor of humanity at Ferrara in Padua, who was the author of several works.