2n4 S. No 77., June 20. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



481 



london. saturday, june 20. 1857. 



"thjb bbnjbfit of Christ's death." 



A copy of a previously unknown edition of this 

 excessively rare book was lately discovered in the 

 library of the University of Cambridge by the 

 Rev. Harvey Goodwin, who politely made me ac- 

 quainted with the fact. It had previously been in 

 Bp. Moore's library, which King George I. gave to 

 the University. The title-page bears a picture of 

 the Crucifixion, and the title runs thus : Trattato 

 utilissimo del TBeneJicio di Giesu Christo Crocifisso, 

 iierso i Christiani, in Venetia. At the bottom of it is 

 written, Laura Waldima, some previous possessor. 

 The table of contents at the end is considerably 

 different from that of the Venetian edition of 1543 

 lately reprinted by me ; but otherwise there seems 

 to be no difference, except in the orthography and 

 contractions. The work consists of eighty leaves 

 printed in Italics, the marginal notes being in 

 Roman character. The ornamented letters at the 

 head of each chapter are identical with those em- 

 ployed in a work printed at Venice In 1548 by 

 Pauolo Gherardo, entitled JDelle Lettere amorose di 

 M, G. Parabosco, of which there is a copy in the 

 British Museum. Mr. Winter Jones, who kindly 

 made out the above interesting fact, suggested to 

 me that the Trattato was probably printed a little 

 before 1548, as the same cracks and mutilations 

 that occur in the initial letters of that work occur 

 also, but with additional injuries (arising from use 

 in the printing press) in the Lettere Amorose. In 

 this opinion I entirely concur. At the same time, 

 the absence of date and printer's name makes it 

 probable that the work was already proscribed ; 

 and consequently it may be somewhat posterior to 

 1542, in which year I conceive the first edition to 

 have appeared ; and in which indeed it must have 

 appeared, if Paleario be the author of it. (See my 

 Introduction, p. xxxviii.) This leads me to notice 

 briefly an objection to that hypothesis made by 

 Mr. Gibbings, in his very useful and learned work 

 entitled Report of the Trial and Martyrdom of 

 Pietro Carnesecchi (Dublin, 1856). The Italian 

 Beport, written at the close of 1567, afHrms that 

 Carnesecchi had, in 1540, read 11 libra del bene- 

 ficio di Christo, and the writings of Valdes (p. 6.). 

 From this passage Mr. Gibbings infers, that the 

 book was in print in 1540, and that Naples was 

 its birth-place ; from which it would of course 

 follow, that Paleario did not write it. As to the 

 place at which it was first printed, the English 

 translator is express for Venice ; this agrees with 

 a MS. note in the Laibach copy of the original. 

 (See the Introduction to my edition, p. Ixxii.) 

 With regard to the date, it is possible enough that 

 the inquisitors, writing twenty-seven years after- 

 wards, may have made a mistake of a year and a 

 few months as to the time whpn Cnrnpsftr-r'lii rparl 



this particular book ; if so, no more need be said 

 about their testimony. But, although this seems 

 to me to be the most probable account of the 

 matter, it is not even absolutely necessary to make 

 such a supposition. The evidence of Vergerio 

 indicates that more than one hand was concerned 

 in the authorship of the Trattato. (See my Intro- 

 duction, p. xliii.) It, doubtless, proceeded from 

 the society in which Pole moved. Such a book, 

 then, was likely to have been in MS., and even in 

 some degree of private circulation, some little time 

 before it was in print : and it is possible that, 

 after the book had been printed and become noto- 

 rious, the inquisitors may have discovered that 

 Carnesecchi had read it while yet only In MS., 

 during the time that it was confidentially placed 

 in his hands. Churchili* BabiNgton. 



St. John's Coll., Cambridge. 



THE WAVERLET NOVELS. 



After my communication on the subject of the author- 

 ship of the Waverley Novels, which you printed in your 

 Number of the 13tli Dec. 1856, and after the explicit con- 

 tradiction from far higher authority — the three daughters 

 of Mr. Thomas Scott — given in your Number of last 

 week, perhaps you will be surprised to see " more last 

 words " on this threadbare topic. But I received some 

 months ago a letter which gives so interesting an account 

 of the composition of the Waverley Series, amply con- 

 firming my statement of the assistance given to Sir Walter 

 by Mr. Train, that I hope you will deem it worthy of 

 preservation in the pages of your learned and lively mis- 

 cellanj% coming as it does from my amiable friend Mr 

 Skene of Kubislaw*, the bosom friend of Sir Walter, from 

 1796 to the day of his death. f Mr. Skene, I rejoice to 

 say, is still flourishing, in a " green old age," amid the 

 classic shades of Oxford, which he graces by his anti- 

 quarian lore, his taste and skill as a draughtsman, and 

 the amenity of his disposition and manners. It was from 

 his portfolio of sketches and MS. notes, that Scott derived 

 many materials for Quentin Durward ; and as this is 

 mentioned hv Mr. Lockhart, I wonder that the author of 

 Who Wrote the Waverley Novels 9 did not ascribe the pa- 

 ternity of this romance to Mr. S. ! But in case you 

 should cry " hold ! — enough ! " I shall conclude by ex- 

 pressing the hope that we have now " seen the last " of 

 the absurd controversy created by the perverse ingenuity 

 of Mr. Fitzpatrick ; and that even he will yield to the 

 distinct denial of the three fair ladies, and the positive 

 contradiction of Mr. S., to whom Sir Walter confided his 

 famous secret iMfore it was imparted to any other person. 

 Geo. HtjNTLY Gordon. 



« Oxford, 31st Dec., 1856. 

 " My dear Sir, 

 " I have never seen the Pamphlet y/)u allude to, 

 questioning the authenticity of Sir Walter Scott's 

 authorship of the Waverley Novels, although I had 

 noticed the mention of some such production ; 

 which, however ingenious in argument, could not 

 In point of fact be other than utterly groundless 

 and futile, and consequently not worth perusal 



* The glen of Eubislaw, near Aberdeen, is partly the 

 scene of Beattie's Minstrel, 

 t See Lockhart's Life of Scott, chaps. 8. 14. 68. 66, 67. 



