2°'i S. V. 122., May 1. '58.1 



JiTOTES AND QUERIES. 



353 



closer examination sbowa the weak points of its 

 internal evidence. In the first place, I submit the 

 extreme difficulty of obtaining information as to the 

 state of public libraries in Spain, and of access to 

 the collections, in 1784. Then, from whom was the 

 information obtained, and how ? Was it hearsay, 

 or direct report ? Was the conversation carried 

 on by a German, in Latin, French, or Spanish ? 

 All points essential to know — to decide upon the 

 anecdote, as fact or fiction. If it were so diffi- 

 cult to ascertain the name of the librarian — "to 

 have been imperishable as that of Omar" — how 

 was it so easy to obtain that of the rocket-maker — 

 so equivocal as that of Toryo ? Torija f * These 

 iuen stood in relation to each other as cause and 

 effect. Toryy oddly enough, says Salva, is a word 

 borrowed from the English, — a term applied to 

 those who maintain the prerogatives of the crown, 

 and are opposed to reforms. Such is the compara- 

 tive state of the two countries, just as such a word 

 in its meaning is obsolete in England, it is in- 

 troduced into Spain ! How came, however, this 

 Toryo, the rocket-maker, to be known so well as 

 to be described as a sad BADicAji ! and that thirty- 

 five years before a.b. 1784 ! What made him of 

 such repute ? or the German professor so mi- 

 nutely curious in this respect ? What caused the 

 name of the librarian to be left to perish, deprived 

 of the repute or shame of Oroar and of Heros- 

 tratus ? 



Be this as it may, I am happy to be able to ad- 

 duce authority to prove that these MSS. exist. 

 Sefior Sabau y Larroya, Secretary of the Royal 

 Academy of Histpry, the translator of Prescoit's 

 History of Ferdinand and Isabella, has appended 

 a note to chap. xxi. of vol. iv. of his edition, in 

 which he states that the MSS., far from having 

 ascended as Professor Moldenhawer has described, 

 stUl EXIST, having only descended probably from 

 one press to another. He states he has himself 

 seen them ; he enumerates them ; and adds that 

 they are now in the University library of Madrid, 

 to which tliey were removed from Alcal4 in 1837, 

 wl^en, I think, the University founded by Ximenes 

 was suppressed.f 



The following Note is extracted from the His- 

 toria General de Espafia, por Don Modesto La- 

 fuente, tomo x. p. 453., who is my authority for 

 the above statement. After repeating the nar- 

 rative of Prescott, he adds : — 



" El ilustrado traductor Espaiiol de Prescott, Senor 

 Sabau y Larroya, Secretario de la Real Academia de la 

 Historia, ha hecho ver d aquel escritor en una nota puesta 

 al Cap. 21. del Tomo 4. de su Obra, que los manuscritos 

 mencionados, lejos de haber tenido el destino que aquella 

 calumniosa fdbula supone, existen hoy, y los ha recono- 



* Torija. — See Tregelles on the Printed Text of the 

 Greek Testament, p. 15., for a notice of him. 



t Your readers will find a Qatalogue of these MSS. in 

 the above work, pp. 15. 18., drawn up by Jose Gutierrez, 

 Librarian of the University at Madrid. 



cido ^1 mismo, y los enumera, en la Biblioteca de la 

 Universidad de Madrid, donde fueron traidos de Alcali 

 en 1837. Felicitamoa al Senor Sabau por haberlos pre- 

 cedido en vindicar la honra nacional, en este punto in- 

 justamente lastimada." 



Considering how easy it now is to verify, if 

 need be, even the accuracy of this — but which 

 given upon the statement of a Spanish gentleman 

 must be utterly unnecessary — it is to be hoped 

 that tlie story of Toryo and the rockets, and the 

 ascension of the Complutensian MSS. as reported, 

 is now completely exploded. S. H. 



Pall Mall. 



[As a matter of literary history, it may be as well to 

 state, that Dr. Bowring was the first to suspect that no 

 destruction of these MSS. had ever taken place. See his 

 Letters in The Monthly Repository, April, 1821, p. 203., 

 vol. xvi., and August, 1827, p. 672., vol. i. New Series. 

 The late Dr. John Pye Smith, in his Rejoinder to Robert 

 Taylor {^An Answer to a Manifesto of the Christian Evi- 

 dence Society, 2nd edit, 1830, p. 49.), also believed these 

 MSS. to be still extant. He says, " Undoubtedly, for 

 reasons of critical curiosity and satisfaction, we should be 

 gratified by knowing the character and history of the 

 Alcala manuscripts ; yet there is the highest moral cer- 

 tainty that this knowledge would do nothing more than 

 confirm what is already well enough known. In fact, the 

 matter is established : for there is good reason to believe 

 that the learned Germans, Moldenhawer and Tychsen, 

 were the subjects of an imposition practised upon them 

 by some people in the Spanish universit}'', who were not 

 disposed to permit their manuscript treasures to be scru- 

 tinised by Protestants. A gentleman with whom 1 have 

 the honour of acquaintance, John Bowring, LL.D., has 

 spent much time in Spain. He had the opportunity of 

 carefully examining the manuscripts at Alcala, and has 

 published reasons amounting to a demonstration that no 

 sale or destruction of manuscripts ever took place ; by his 

 personal examination he found the same Scripture manu- 

 scripts which had been described as being in the library 

 by Alvaro Gomez, who died in 1580 ; and he adds, ' That 

 the manuscripts referred to are modern and valueless there 

 can be no longer any question.' To Dr. Bowring I am 

 also indebted for the information (which, had it been 

 known to Michaelis, or to his learned translator, would 

 have been to them most welcome intelligence, and would 

 have saved them a world of trouble) that Gtmez, in his 

 Liife of Cardinal Ximenes, states that ' Leo X. lent to Xi- 

 menes those Greek manuscripts which he required, from 

 the Vatican ; which were returned as soon as the Poly- 

 glott was complete.' " Cf. Home's Introduction, 10th edit, 

 iv. 715., and Dr. James Thomson's Letter in Biblical Re- 

 view for March, 1847. We refer also our readers to Tre- 

 gelles' Account of the Printed Text of the New Testament, 

 pp. 11. to 18., 8vo., London, 1854.] 



FAMINE IN 1630. 



The following letter is extracted from the pub- 

 lic Records of the city of Wells, and I should be 

 glad to see it preserved in the pages of "N. & 

 Q.":- 



" A Coppie of the Lords of the Counsell's 

 Letter concerninge the res'vinge 

 of Graj'ne w'^in the Kingdome. 

 " After o'r harty coiTiendacons it is gen'ally obs'ved, 

 that in moste pte of the kingdome all sortes of Grayne 



