"
"Belarmino," "Beda." Cardinal Bellarmin and Venerable Bede are too
well known to require any observations.
"Serpi, Fray Dimas," cut into two lines, with the names transposed,
mean 'Fr. Dimas Serpi', one of whose works ('Aprodixis Sanctitatis,
etc', Romae, M.DC. IX.), though not the one referred to by
Messingham, is in the British Museum. In Montalvan the marginal note
gives, "Lib. de Purgatorio, cap. 26," as the reference. The German
translator of this drama (Brunn, 1824), misled by the punctuation of
the original, treats Dimas Serpi as two persons.
"Jacob Solino," the next authority for the legend, is perhaps the
most perplexing in the list. Like twin stars that seem one to the
naked eye, but resolve themselves into two beneath the telescope, so
the single author of the printed text of Calderon appears distinct
persons in the pages of Montalvan. He gives them thus: -- "Jacobo,"
"Solino," with a separate reference to each. Thus to "Jacobo," the
marginal reference is, "In sua historia Orientale;" and to "Solino,"
"cap. 35," without the name of the work.
From Messingham we at once learn who the former writer was. He calls
him in one place "Jacobus de Vitriaco," and in another more briefly,
"Vitriacus." The passage referred to in the marginal note of
Montalvan is given thus:--
"Further, Jacobus de Vitriaco, in his History of the East, chap.
Pages:
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147