but repeated from him by STRUVIUs, or Jugler, his editor, in the Bibliotheca Hist. Lit.*, that

* As the work of Zobelius is extremely scarce, it will probably please the reader to see the whole extract as given by Jugler.

Primus tantum hic est tomus celeberrimi Indicis, quem Auctor privato composuit studio, atque id quidem, ut profitetur, eam ob causam, quia Magister esset sacri Palatii, cujus requirat officium, libros expurgare, ideoque ii, qui tales possiderent, non haberent necesse, abolere eosdem, sed uti his potius, secundum censuram emendatis, possent. Cuncta vulgo tribuuntur Guanzello, dicto a patria Brasichellano, quæ in hoc Indice expurgatorio sunt præstita, quanquam certum est omnino, socium laboris fuisse Thomam Malvendam, ex ordine Prædicatorum hominem, qui recognovit Bibliothecam Patrum, ex editione Margarini de la Bigne, præcipuam hujus Indicis partem efficientem.

Res ipsæ, in Brasichellano Indice ad expurgandum notatæ, multifariam testantur censorum lectionem, judicium acutum, rerum ecclesiasticarum peritiam haud vulgarem, studium denique singulare pro servanda auctoritate Romani Pontificis, et universí ípsius cœtus. Rebus sic præstitis, auctores hujus Indicis omnem laudem et existimationem promeruisse, existimares: secus tamen res cessit, et ipse, quem nominavimus, Index Brasichellanus primum a. 1607 suspensus, postea, eodem Bergomi a. 1608, prelis iterum subjecto, denuo suppressus, tandem vero, quum anno 1612. novis typis in Belgio destinaretur, iterum impediri jussus, et, editione tune temporis jam absoluta (Antwerpi seu Andorfi) venum dari prohibitus fuit. Accedit, quod inaudito hactenus exemplo hic Index expurgatorius, cum imminutione dignitatis Magistri sacri Palatii, qualis Brasichellanus fuit, quique in titulo libri auctorem solum se profitetur, pro libro, auctoritatem duntaxat hominis privati tenente, habitus, et, quod maxime mírandum, ipse in librorum expurgandorum et prohibendorum Indice collocatus sit. Tomus cæteroquin secundus, quem primo adjicere constituerat auctor, statim in herba est suppressus. Verba hæc sunt Nicolai Ern. Zobeli in Notitia Indicis libr. expurgand. editi per Fr. Joh. Mar. Brasichellen, Altorf. 1745 in 8, qui aliquot saltim plagularum libellus jam rarius occurrit. In eodem, p. 51. § vii. docemur, Bergomenam editionem Romana multo nitidiorem esse, et ad evolvendum commodiorem. Omnia tamen exemplaria, sæpius ac diversis in locis producta, quum raritatem incredibilem retinerent, adeoque uuum alterumve, alicubi repertum, magno satis pretio venderetur, Ge. Serpilius,

K

BRASICHELLEN*, or GUANZELLUS, was assisted in the work by THOMAS MALVENDA, a Dominican;

sacrorum olim in civitate Ratisbonensi Antistes, Indicem hunc ibidem, omisso autem loci indicio, anno 1723. in 8. recudendum curavit sua haud dubie impensa; quod quidem nulla ratione vituperandum erat, nisi nunciatum in Novis literariis fuisset, inventa esse Romæ complura editionis primæ exemplaria, studiosissime adhuc occultata, quæ nunc Ratisbonam delata æquo comparari pretio possint. Lætum fuit rei initium, nec exigua exemplarium pars avide careque ab eruditis empta, qui librum nunc se possidere rarissimum existimabant. At paullo post adparuit, fucus esse omnibus factum. Novitas enim chartæ typorumque iis innotuit, qui paullo adcuratius acutiusque videre solebant. Per plures deinde annos apud hæredes Serpilii adservata sunt reliqua hujus editionis exemplaria, donec anno 1742. Joh. Adam. Hesselius, typographus Altorfinus, consilium suum de recudendo Indice Brasichellano singulari schedula evulgaret. Tunc enim illi, ut retraherent ab instituto typographum, eodem quod is proposuerat, pretio editionem Serpilianam eruditis offerebant. Vid. die Leipz. gel. Zeit. anno 1743. p. 613. Sed Hesselius, nulla indicii hujus Ratisbonensis ratione habita, exsequutus destinata est anno 1745. quo ipso exhibuit Indicem Brasichellanum, ad formam exempli Bergomeni expressum, neque tamen annum locumve, quo id factum, titulo libri adjecit. Hæredes deinde Serpiliani exemplaria sua venum dedere Joh. Gastelio, bibliopola Pedepontino, prope Ratisbonam, qui eodem anno 1745 primam plagulam, solito more, denuo typis describendam curavit, et, omisso primi Tomi vocabulo, secundæ editionis elogium subjunxit. Atque hæc de celeberrimo illo Indice, de quo plura notatu digna congessit doctissimus Zobelius in laudata supra Notitia. Jam diu ante argumentum hoc pertractaverat GUIL. ERN. TENTZELIUS Select. Observat. Halensium Tomo 3. p. 133. sq. Observat. vi. de Indice expurgatorio Romano rarissimo, quem Joh. Mar. Brasichellanus, Sacri Palatii Apostolici Magister, primus et hactenus solus edidit, item Tomo iv. Observat. vii. p. 71. ac Tomo v. Observat. x. p. 314 sq. quibus locis bina Indicis ejusdem Specimina proferuntur. -et CLEMENT, Biblioth. de livres difficiles à trouver, Tomo v. p. 207 sq. Pp. 1650—3 of BIBLIOTH. Hist. Lått. selecta, cujus primas lineas duxit B. G. Struvius, &c. post variorum emendationes, &c. Joh. Fr. Jugler. 3 vol. 8vo. Jenæ 1754-63.

* See an entire chapter concerning this author in CATALANI de Magistro, &c., l. ii., c. xlix.

that another edition was printed at Bergomi in 1608; that when a fresh one was in preparation at Antwerp in 1612, it was suppressed*; and that finally the author, like Montanus, found his place in a future Indext. The second volume, promised, never appeared. The work, however, became exceedingly scarce, which induced Serpilius, a priest of Ratisbon, in 1723, to print an edition so closely resembling the original, as to admit of its being represented as the same. The imposition, however, being detected, another edition was prepared by Hesselius, a printer of Altorf, in 1745; and then the remaining copies of the former threw off their mask, and appeared with a new title page, as a second edition.

The original and counterfeit editions of this peculiar work are sufficiently alike to deceive any person who should not examine them in literal juxtaposition: but upon such examination the deception is easily apparent. The one, however,

*The Bibliotheca of Michiels exhibits a second edition at Bergomi, 1614, 8. No. 2411.

+ The authority is not produced; nor can I find it except in a general article in a Decree of the Cong. Ind. of March 16, 1621, where are condemned, Indices et Syllabi omnes particulares, extra urbem absque authoritate et approbatione Sacræ Indicis Congregationis impressi, post Indicem communem Sacri Concilii Tridentini, Pii Quartii authoritate editum, postea vero a Sixto Quinto auctum, et tandem jussu Clementis Octavi recognitum et publicatum.

may be fairly considered as a fac-simile of the other. One can hardly read without sympathetic pain the complaint and request of FRANCUS, Nullibi præterea Expurgatorius Index Romanus Joannis Maria Brasichellani, anxie licet requisitus, comparuit, quem si Orthodoxus quidam Eruditus possidet, vel investigare potest, eum publice hic iterum iterumque per Deum obtestor, ut novam istius editionem procuret*. This appeal has been answered by two editions: and yet how scarce is the work, in any, even now! There is a copy of the original edition in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; as likewise of the Belgic, the Portugueze, the Spanish, and the Neapolitan Indexes, already described. And this is the place to observe, that the greater part, if not all these treasures, were the result of the expedition against Cadiz, in 1596, when the library of JEROM OSORIUS, SUCcessively bishop of Sylvas and of Algarva, fell into the hands of the Earl of ESSEX, who presented it to Sir THOMAS BODLEY, founder of one of the noblest libraries in the world, where it securely rests with all its precious contents, these not the least among them; and may they never

*Præf. and again p. 134.

By FRANCUS's reference, p. 10, it should appear, that the best account of this expedition is to be found in Metereni Hist. Belg. For this outline of the event and its consequences, I am indebted to the Repertorium Biblio graphicum, pp. 65, 6.

change their residence! The first librarian of this invaluable collection, James, justly triumphs in this defeat of the attempt and power of concealing any longer from the eyes of the world these engines of iniquity and darkness, which, under favour of such concealment, had, for many years, been prosecuting their dishonourable work without impediment. It was the system with the parents to deny their progeny. Some instances occurred within the knowledge of the author; and he adds others. The divines of Bourdeaux, he writes, attempted to discredit the Belgic production; the Inquisitor of Naples that of Madrid. 'And yet,' he proceeds, all these books are to be seen, with sundry others, brought together, by God's especial providence, into the public Library of Oxford; printed, all of them, beyond the seas, by those that were esteemed true papists. It is too late to deny them,' &c.*

*Corruption of Scripture, &c. pp. 379, 380. The fact is justly represented as an especial providence. Pappus, in the preface to his edition of the reprint of the Belgic Index by Junius, refers the discovery of that concealed document by the latter to the same divine direction of events. Junius himself, as may be seen by the extract from his preface, copied in this work, pp. 52, 3, mentions his detection of the knavery at Lyons, in the case of an edition of Ambrose, then in hand, as a singular providence of God.