20 John of Padua. 
But Joannes Paduanius was “of Verona”: not of Padua. If 
then John de Padua was the same person as J. Paduanius, the 
inference is plain that “de Padua” was his family name, Verona 
his home. 
Then, is anything known about Joannes Paduanius? It is quite 
certain that there was at that time, and had been for many years 
before, in the North of Italy, a family of this very name, called 
variously ,Paduanius, de Padua, or (in Italian) dei Padovani. In 1476 
a work had been printed at Venice, called “ Alderti de Padua 
solemne opus, &c.”: being a treatise on the Lord’s Day and the 
festivals, as mentioned in the New Testament.! And in such of 
those treatises of John Paduanius as, written by him in Latin, were 
afterwards translated into Italian, the author is called “ Giovanni 
dei Padovani.” * 
Furthermore, it is certain, not only that it was, but that it is still, 
an Italian family name: for curiously enough, even while writing 
out this paper for the press, I met in the Zimes newspaper with an 
account of a horrible murder in a railway carriage near Bologna, on 
the 14th of this present January, 1886, the unfortunate victim’s 
name being Pietro Padovani, of Anguilla, near Venice. 
From all the circumstances above mentioned, it may now, 
perhaps, be considered probable that the person whom, in English, 
we call John of Padua, may have been no other than Giovanni 
Padovani, of Verona, the author of the work on sun-dials. 
1 A copy occurs in the catalogue of the Syston Park Library, sold last year. 
2 The prefix of “De” was thought (and the idea is not yet quite obsolete, even 
in our own country) to denote less of the plebeian and more of the aristocratio 
quality. At the period alluded to it had become so much in vogue as to call for a 
slight rebuke even from the pen of Erasmus. In the colloquy called “The Hippeus 
Anippos” (The Horse-less Horse-man), a person of humble origin suddenly 
becoming rich, wishes to be instructed how to assume the properties and appear- 
ance of a gentleman. His counsellor suggests, first of all, a coat of arms (of 
course of a ludicrous kind), and then adds, ‘‘ But if your name should happen to 
be ‘ Philippus Comensis,’ be very careful to alter it to ‘ Philippus De Como.’” 
The editor of Erasmus, in a note, says, “ The principal families of Italy were wont 
to write and announce their names in this way. Hundreds of examples may be 
found in Italian authors of the prepositions ‘ a’ and ‘ de’ thus prefixed to the 
name of some city, village, or even private estate.” 
