120 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 277. 



that did the like at the Devil Tavern by St, Dunstan's, 

 did go into the country, and there spent almost all he had 

 got, and hath now choused this Colborne out of his house, 

 that he might come to his old trade again. But, Lord I 

 to see how full the house is, no room for any company 

 almost to come into it. Late home, and to clean myself 

 with warm water ; my wife will have me, because she do 

 use it herself." Again, " Oct. 22, 1668. To Arundell 

 House, where the first time we [the Royal Society] have 

 met since the vacation, and not much company; and 

 afterwards my Lord and others and I to the Devil Ta- 

 vern, and there ate and drank, and so home by coach; 

 and there found my uncle Wight and aunt, and Woolly 

 and his wife, and there supped, and mighty merry."] 



BOOKS BURNT. 



(^Continued from p. 100.) 



Arnobius alludes to the burning of the books 

 of Christians by the Pagans. {Adversus Nationes, 

 book iv. c. 36.) He speaks in general terms of 

 the suppression and destruction of Christian books 

 in book iii. c. 7. 



Under the Emperor Valens all books of magic 

 were diligently sought after and burnt. This 

 appears to have been in consequence of the 

 offence committed by the " table-turning " philo- 

 sophers, as already reported in " N. & Q.," Vol. ix., 

 and recorded by Zosimus (book iv. 13.) and 

 others. To this circumstance allusion is made in 

 those laws of the Theodosian code which were at 

 that time published. 



Baronius says that the use of books of magic 

 was formerly forbidden both among the Greeks 

 and Romans ; and that the ancient practice was to 

 burn them as well as other books of a dangerous 

 tendency. 



The same author says that the library at Con- 

 stantinople when burnt under Zeno (not by 

 Leo I. of Rome, as has been said) contained above 

 12,000 volumes ; among which was a MS. 120 feet 

 long, containing the Iliad, Odyssey, and other 

 poems, written in letters of gold, upon the intes- 

 tine of a dragon ! 



After the conversion of the Arian Goths, Isi- 

 dore of Seville composed for them an office which 

 continued in use till the invasion of the Arabs, 

 who scattered the Christians of Spain, except 

 those of Toledo. These were called Mozarabs, 

 and they persevered in the use of the office of St. 

 Isidore until after the expulsion of the Moors. It 

 was then ' intimated that they must adopt the 

 Roman rite ; they objected, and it was eventually 

 determined, after fastings, processions, and prayer, 

 to kindle a great fire, and commit to it a copy of 

 each ritual. This was done. The Mozarabian 

 office was triumphant, for it was not in the least 

 injured, while the Roman was reduced to ashes. 

 {GeograpMe des Legendes, Paris, 1852.) 



The city of Lyons, which had been overthrown 

 by the Saracens, was restored by Charlemagne, 



who established there a fair library in the Isle of 

 Barbe. The library thus formed was '■'■ pillee et 

 brulee par les Calvinistes en 1562." (Seethe work 

 last named, pp. 642. 671.) 



In his History of Benuvais, Louvet relates that 

 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the ar- 

 chives of the Chapter of Clermont were destroyed 

 by different fires. (From the same work, p. 379.) 



Petrus Alcyonius, in a work entitled De Exilic, 

 Venice, 1522, says : 



" When a boy I heard the learned Greek Demetrius 

 Chalcondyles relate that the priests had so much authority 

 with the Bj'zantine Caesars, that to please them they 

 burnt entire poems of the ancient Greeks, but especially 

 those which record the loves, impure dalliances, and fail- 

 ings of lovers. In this waj- perished the poems of Menan- 

 der, Diphiius, ApoUodorus, Philemon, and Alexis, and the 

 fancies of Sappho, Erinna, Anacreon, Mimnermus, Bion, 

 Alcmanus, and Alcaeus. For these they substituted the 

 poems of our Nazianzen, which, although they excite 

 the mind to a more ardent attachment to religion, yet do 

 not teach the Attic propriety of words, nor the graces of 

 the Grecian tongue." — Quoted in Preface to Anacreon, 

 Parma, 1791. 



At Florence, in 1547, a law was made which 

 required all who possessed heretical books, par- 

 ticularly those written by Ochino and Martyr, to 

 deliver them up within fifteen days, under penalty 

 of one hundred ducats and ten years in the 

 galleys. Heretic books were burned by the In- 

 quisition with great ceremony. 



In 1548, the Senate of Venice ordered all who 

 held books containing anything contrary to the 

 Roman Catholic faith, to deliver them up within 

 eight days, or be proceeded against as heretics. 



In 1679, Cardinal Spinola, Bishop of Lucca, 

 wrote a letter to the descendants of the Lucchese 

 Protestants at Geneva, inviting them to return to 

 the bosom of the church. They sent him an able, 

 and yet a respectful, reply. But the pope ordered 

 that every copy of it which came into Italy should 

 be burnt. 



On the 12th of May, 1521, Thomas Wolsey, 

 chancellor, cardinal, and legate, went in solemn 

 procession to St. Paul's. This procession carried 

 to the burning pile the works of Luther, which 

 were devoutly consumed before an immense 

 crowd. (D'Aubigne.) 



The niece of the learned Peiresc is said to have 

 burnt his correspondence to save the expense of 

 firing. 



In 1671 "a fire consumed the greatest part of 

 the Escurial Library (Madrid), rich in the spoilg 

 of Grenada and Morocco." (Gibbon.) 



Giordano Bruno, the philosopher, was burnt in 

 1600, as well as his books. 



About 1537 many copies of an English version 

 of the Scriptures, which was being printed at 

 Paris, were seized and burnt on a complaint made 

 by the French clergy. 



In the retreat of Torres Vedras in 1811, Mas- 



