Of the Abbe de S A D E. 169 



trailed word ptbs, which is found in fome manufcripts of the 

 works of Petrarch. Our author having frankly enough ac- 

 knowledged that all the preceding arguments amount only to- 

 conjedtures, fee ne font la apres tout^que de tres fortes conje£iureSy) 

 might certainly have included the laft with equal propriety unr 

 der the fame denomination. His interpretation of the word 

 ptbs is evidently notliing more than conjedlure ; to fupport 

 which we have only his own opinion, and, as he fays, that of 

 Meffieurs Capperonier, Boudot and Bejot of the King's Li- 

 brary ; although, among the Pieces jiifliJicatives^wQ find only the 

 certificate of one of thofe gentlemen (Capperonier) to that 

 efFedl ; and this exprelTed with fuch obfcurity and confufion of 

 idea, that we cannot tell what are the chara6lers in the two ma- 

 nufcripts he mentions *. But one thi-ng is plain ; before we 

 can admit any conje<5lural interpretation of this contratflion, the 

 Abbe de Sade muft prove, that the two manufcripts which 

 bear this contradled word are the oldefl of all the manufcripts 

 of the writings of Petrarch, otherwife his argument concludes 

 nothing ; for, if the more ancient manufcripts have the word. 



at 



» " Certificat de Moniieur Capperonier, Garde de la Bibliotheque du Roi. 



" Je foufligne, Garde de la Bibliotheque du Roi, certifie, que dans le manufcript 

 du"Roi, cotte 6502, contenant un ouvrage de Petrarque, intitule, " De confiiEiu 

 " cuiarum propriarum,ad A-UGUSTINUM," fol. 13. cot. i. on lit, et qu'on doit lire : 

 " Et corpus illud egregium morbis ac crebris partubus exhaullum multuni priftini 

 " vigoris amifit ;" lefquels mots fe trouvent encore dans le manufcript cotte 6728. 

 cod. 19. pag. I. ou ils doivent etre liis de la meme maniere. En foi de quoi, j'ai figne 

 "ie prefent certificat, en I'hotel de la Bibliotheque du Roi, ce 16 Juin 1762. 



Caeperonier." 



It does not appear from this certificate that the two manufcripts mentioned bear 

 any contraftion of this word at all ; yet theffe are- certainly the manufcripts to which 

 the Abbe de Sade here refers as bearing /)«ij. When M. Capperonier, there* 

 fore, declares, on lit, et on doit lire, fo and fo, the expreffion is as obfcure and inacc!i«.- 

 rat£, as the decifion is doginatical and prefunaptuous. 



