Notes and Queries/Series 1/Volume 1/Number 1/Notes From Fly Leaves

by Bolton Corney

Notes from Fly-Leaves.—No. 1.

Many scholars and reading-men are in the habit of noting down on the fly-leaves of their books memoranda, sometimes critical, sometimes bibliographical, the result of their own knowledge or research. The following are specimens of the kind of Notes to which we allude; and the possessors of volumes enriched by the Notes and memoranda of men of learning to whom they formerly belonged, will render us and our readers a most acceptable service by forwarding to us copies of them for insertion.

Douce on John of Salisbury. MS. Note in a copy of Policraticus, Lug. Bat. 1639.

"This extraordinary man flourished in the reign of Henry II, and was, therefore, of Old Salisbury, not of New Salisbury, which was not founded till the reign of Henry III. Having had the best education of the time, and being not only a genius, but intimate with the most eminent men, in particular with Pope Hadrian (who was himself an Englishman), he became at length a bishop, and died in 1182. He had perused and studied most of the Latin classics, and appears to have decorated every part of his work with splendid fragments extracted out of them."—Harris's Philosophical Arrangements, p. 457.

See more relating to John of Salisbury in Fabricii, Bib. Med/Ætasis, iv. 380.; in Tanner, Biblioth. Britannico-Hibernica; in Baillet's Jugemens des Savans, ii. 204. See Senebier, Catalogue des Manuscrits de Genève, p. 226.

"Johannes Sarisb. multa ex Apulcio desumpsit," Almclooven, Plagiaror. Syllab. 36.; and it might have been justly added, that he borrowed from Petronius. See the references I have made on the last leaf.

Janus Dousa, in his Notes on Petronius had called John of Salisbury "Cornicula ;" but Thomasius, in p. 240 of his work De Plagio Literario, vindicates him satisfactorily. See Lip. ad. Tacit. Annal XII. (pezzi di porpora), not noticed by any editor of Petronius. Has various readings. See my old edition.

Lacrimas commodabat.
Lacrimas— — — commendabat. Saris. better.
Itaque cruciarii unius parentes
Itaque— — — cruciariicruciati unius— — — paren— — — Saris.

The above is from Zanetti's Collection of Italian Novels, 4 vol. 8vo. Venet. 1754.

Mezeray, the French historian, translated this work 1640, 4to; and there is an old French translation of it in 1360 by Denis Soulechat.

The article pasted on the inside of he cover (viz. the following extract)

"Sarisberiensis (J.) Policraticus, &c., 8vo, L. Bat. 1595; very scarce, vellum, 6s. This book is of great curiosity; it is stated in the preface that the author, J. of Salisbury, was present at the murther of Thomas à Becket, whose intimate friend he was; and that 'dum pius Thomas ab impio milite cedetur in capite, Johannis hujus brachium fere sinul percisum est,'"

is from Lilly's Catalogue, and the passage relating to Becket was copied from that of Payne, to whom I communicated it, and which is found in the first edition only, being perhaps purposely omitted in all the others.

F.D

[We believe the majority of the books in Mr. Douce's valuable library, now deposited in the Bodleian, contain memoranda, like those in his John of Salisbury; and any of our Oxford friends could not do us a greater service than by communicating other specimens of the Book-noting of this able and zealous antiquary.]