Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851 | Page 9

Papale was put forth in London as a new book, though in
reality there was no novelty connected with it, except that the last 0 in
1600 (the authentic date) had been compelled by penmanship to cease
to be a dead letter, and to germinate into a 6.
(3.) If neither the judicious naturalisation of a title-page, nor the
dexterous corruption of the year in which a work was honestly
produced, should avail to eliminate "the stock in hand," res ad Triarios
rediit--there is but one contrivance left. This is, to give to the ill-fated
hoard another name; in the hope that a proverb properly belonging to a
rose may be superabundantly verified in the case of an old book. What
Anglo-Saxon scholar has not studied "Divers Ancient Monuments,"
revived in 1638? and yet perhaps scarcely any one is aware that the
appellation is entirely deceptive, and that no such collection was
printed at that period. The inestimable remains of Ælfric, edited by
L'Isle in 1623, and then entitled, "A Saxon Treatise concerning the Old
and New Testament," together with a reprint of the "Testimonie of
Antiquitie," (sanctioned by Archbishop Parker in 1567,) had merely
submitted to substitutes for the first two leaves with which they had
been ushered into the world, and after fifteen years the unsuspecting
public were beguiled. When was this system of misnomers introduced?
and can a more signal specimen of this kind of shamelessness be
mentioned than that which is afforded by the fate of Thorndike's De
ratione ac jure finiendi Controversias Ecclesiæ Disputatio? So this
small folio in fours was designated when it was published, Lond. 1670;

but in 1674 it became Origines Ecclesiasticæ; and it was
metamorphosed into Restauratio Ecclesiæ in 1677.
(50.) Dr. Dibdin (Typ. Antiq. iii. 350.) has thus spoken of a quarto
treatise, De autoritate, officio, et potestate Pastorum
ecclesiasticorum:--
"This very scarce book is anonymous, and has neither date, printer's
name, nor place; but being bound up with two other tracts of Berthelet's
printing are my reasons for giving it a place here."
The argument and the language in this sentence are pretty nearly on a
par; for as misery makes men acquainted with dissimilar companions,
why may not parsimony conglutinate heterogeneous compositions? I
venture to deny altogether that the engraved border on the title-page
was executed by an English artist. It seems rather to be an original
imitation of Holbein's design: and as regards the date, can we not
perceive what was meant for a modest "1530" on a standard borne by
one of the boys in procession? In Simler's Gesnerian Bibliotheca
SIMON HESS (let me reiterate the question, Who was he?) is
registered as the author; and of his work we read, "Liber impressus in
Germania." This observation will determine its locality to a certain
extent; and the tractate may be instantly distinguished from all others
on the same subject by the presence of the following alliterative
frontispiece:--
"Primus Papa, potens Pastor, pietate paterna, Petrus, perfectam plebem
pascendo paravit. Posthabito plures populo, privata petentes, Pinguia
Pontifices, perdunt proh pascua plebis."
R. G.
* * * * *
ENIGMATICAL EPITAPH.
In the church of Middleton Tyas, in the North Riding of the county,
there is the following extraordinary inscription on the monument of a

learned incumbent of that parish:--
"This Monument rescues from oblivion the Remains of the Rev. John
Mawer, D.D., late Vicar of this Parish, who died Nov. 18th, 1763, aged
60. The doctor was descended from the royal family of Mawer, and
was inferior to none of his illustrious ancestors in personal merit, being
the greatest linguist this nation ever produced. He was able to write and
speak twenty-two languages, and particularly excelled in the Eastern
tongues, in which he proposed to his Royal Highness Frederick Prince
of Wales, to whom he was firmly attached, to propagate the Christian
religion in the Abyssinian empire,--a great and noble design, which was
frustrated by the death of that amiable prince."
Whitaker, after giving the epitaph verbatim in his History of
Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 234., says:
"This extraordinary personage, who may seem to have been qualified
for the office of universal interpreter to all the nations upon earth,
appears, {185} notwithstanding, to have been unaware that the
Christian religion, in however degraded a form, has long been
professed in Abyssinia. With respect to the royal line of Mawer I was
long distressed, till, by great good fortune, I discovered that it was no
other than that of old King Coyl."
As I happen to feel an interest in the subject which disinclines me to
rest satisfied with the foregoing hasty--not to say flippant explanation
of the learned historian, I am anxious to inquire whether or not any
reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" can throw light on the history,