NEVERS, a town of France, in the department of Nievre, and situated in E. Long. 3° 14' N. Lat. 46° 59' on the river Loire, which here receives the rivulet Nievre, from which this city derives its name. It is a place of great antiquity, supposed to be Caesar's Noviodunum in Aedui, where he erected magazines for his armies. Francis I. made it a duchy and peerage in 1521, in favour of Francis of Cleves, to whom it came by marriage. It devolved afterwards to the house of Mantua, and then to the Palatine family, who in 1651 sold it to Cardinal Mazarine. The cardinal obtained a title of duke and peer for his nephew Philip Mancini, in whose family it continued till the late revolution. The town is fortified with walls, defended with many high towers and deep ditches, and is the seat of a bishopric, suffragan of Sens, as likewise of a bailiwick and chamber of accounts. There is a stone bridge on the Loire, with 20 arches, a draw-bridge on each side, and towers to defend them. This town is famous for its manufacture of glass and earthenware, and is said to contain about 8000 inhabitants. In the centre of Nevers, on the summit of a hill, is built the palace of the ancient dukes. It appears to have been constructed in the sixteenth century, and exhibits a model of the beauty and delicacy of Gothic architecture. The apartments are hung with tapestry of 200 years old, which have an air of grotesque and rude magnificence.