a division of the circle of Upper Saxony in Germany. It is a fruitful tract, abounding in corn, especially wheat; in black cattle, sheep, and horses. It is about 73 miles in length, and as much in breadth. It contains 47 towns, 14 boroughs, betwixt 700 and 800 villages, 300 noble estates, 7 superintendencies, and 5 under-confestories. Thuringia, the country of the ancient Thuringi, or Catti, a branch of the Vandals, Thuringia Vandals, mentioned by Tacitus, was formerly a kingdom, afterwards a county, then a landgraviate, and was governed by its own princes for many ages, till 1124, when it devolved to the marquis of Minia, and, with that country, afterwards to the duke of Saxony. But the modern Thuringia is only a part of the ancient, nay, but a part of the ancient South Thuringia, which comprehends besides, a large share of the modern Franconia, Hesse, &c. On the extinction of the male line of the ancient landgraves in 1247, it came to the margraves of Meissen, ancestors to the present electoral family. The elector has no voice in the diet, on account of his share in the landgraviate or circle of Thuringia. Erfurt is the capital.