440 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 110. 



(whose brother Ronald, Earl of Masre, the first 

 Norwegian Earl of Orkney, was the conunon an- 

 cestor of tbe Earls of Orkney and Dukes of Nor- 

 mandy), drove the Christians out of Oi'kney. This 

 was towards the beginninjr of the tenth century. 

 It has been overlooked by Barry, the local his- 

 torian, or unknown to iiim, who mentions (p. 123.) 

 the introduction by King Olaf Tryggveson as 

 either the first introduction, or at least the final 

 establishment of the Christian religion. I have 

 looked into Torfajus' Orcades, the Orknayinga 

 Saga, and the Sagas of the two kings, Harold 

 Harfager and Olaf Tryggveson, in Mr. Laing's 

 translation of Snow's llennskringla, and have not 

 found the expulsion of the Christians by Sigurd 

 mentioned in any of those works. Will some of 

 your learned correspondents be so obliging as to 

 point out M. Depfjing's authority for this fact ? I 

 have just now fallen in with a curious example of 

 the rude Christianity of the Northmen, who wor- 

 shipped both Thor and Christ, and the passage is 

 perhaps worth quoting. Torficus, in his Orcades, 

 p. 15., mentions a Scandinavian chief called Hel- 

 gius, who lived in Iceland about 888, and says : 



" Christianis sacris quibus infans initiatus est, per 

 totam vitam adhssit, valde tamen in religioiiis ar- 

 ticulis rudis ; nam Thoreni, ad ardua negotia, iline- 

 raque maritima feliciter exjiediuiida, iiivoeandum, 

 castera Christum dictitavit, tanquam cum Tliore di- 

 visum imperuuii liabentem. Simile Witichendus Mo- 

 naclius et Sigebertus Gemlansensis, de Danis, in primis 

 religionis incunabulis, prodidere." 



W. H. F. 



THE ROMAN INDEX EXPURGATORIUS OF 1607. 



This work, both in the original edition, and in 

 the reprint of Bergomi, 1608, is reputed to be of 

 extreme rarity. Mr. Mendham, in his Literary 

 Policy of the C/iurch of Rome Exhibited, in an 

 Account of her Damnalory Catalogues or Indices, 

 both Prohibitory and Expurgatory, ^'C, 2nd ed., 

 London, 1830, calls it "perhajw the most extra- 

 ordinary and scarcest of all this class of publi- 

 cations," p. 116., while all of the class are known to 

 be bv no means of common occurrence. Clement 

 {Bibliotheqve Curieuse, art. " Brasichellensis," v. 

 ccvii.) desiu'nates the Roman edition as " extremc- 

 ment rare ;" and (note 48., p. 211 a.) says of the 

 other, " cette edition de Bergame est encore plus 

 rare que celle de Rome." 



Now Clement informs us tliat " on a copie I'e- 

 dition de Rome de 1607 a Ratlsbonne, vers Fan 

 1723, sur de beau papier;" and IMr. Mendham 

 says that this was done by " Serpilius, a priest of 

 Ratisbon, in 1723," and tliat the copy so closely 

 resembled the original " as to admit of its being 

 represented as the same." Accordingly, Clement 

 says that it was furtively sold as the genuine 

 work, until the announcement of an intended re- 



print by Hessel, at AltorfF, in 1742, induced the 

 owner of the remainder of the Ratisbon counterfeit 

 to avow his fraud. Then, Mr. ]\lendliani says, it 

 " appeared with a new title-page, as a second 

 edition." Of that circumstance Clement makes no 

 mention. 



" The original and counterfeit editions of this 

 peculiar work are sufGciently alike to deceive 

 any person who should not examine them in 

 literal juxtaposition ; but upon such examination 

 the deception is easily apparent," says Mr. Mend- 

 ham, p. 131. The natural inference from this is, 

 that he Jias so examined them. 



His mention of the Bodleian " copy of the ori- 

 ginal edition" may warrant the belief that he has 

 made use of it. The fact that Dr. James, " chief 

 keeper " of the Bodleian, used iind cited the Ro- 

 man edition in his T'reatise of the Corj'uptioiis of 

 Scripture, Councils and Fathers, S^'C. in 1612, 

 may further wari'ant the belief that the copy in 

 that library is an indubitable original, placed where 

 it is before the counterfeit was gotten up. 



If these inferences are correct, I have, what I 

 much desire, a criterion by which to distinguish 

 the counteri'eit from the genuine Roman edition. 

 Yet I hardly dare to trust it, because it involves 

 a charge of carelessness against Clement, who is 

 not often justly liable to such reproach. 



He says, " J'ai eu lebonheur d'acquerir Fedition 

 originale de Rome." He therefore either copied 

 the title of what he thought a genuine edition, or 

 carelessly substituted that of the counterfeit. 



Now I have a copy of what purports to be 

 the Roman edition, the title of which, agreeing 

 exactly neither with Clement nor with the title 

 given by Mr. Mendham (p. 116.), yet coincides 

 with the latter in one curious particular, which 

 seems to identify it with Mr. Mendham's genuine 

 original, while its rare disagreements from Cle- 

 ment's distinguish it from that. Mr. Mendham's 

 transcript of the title runs : 



" Iiidicis Librorum Expurgandorum in Studlosorum 

 gratiam coiifecti. Tomus Primus. In quo Quinqua- 

 giiita Auctorum Libri prEe cjeteris desiderati eraendan- 

 tiir, Per Fr. Jo. IMariam Ijrasicliellen Sacri Palatii 

 Apostolici Magistrum in urium corpus redactiis, et 

 publicre commoditati ajditiis. Roma;, ex Typographia 

 K. Cam. Apost. M DC VII. Supcriorum Pcrmissu." 



In this there are two observable peculiarities : 

 1. The full-stop after " confecti," breaking the 

 grammatical construction ; 2. The omission of 

 such a stop (as a sign of contraction) after the 

 portion of a word, " Brasiciiellen," from which the 

 final syllable " seni" has been dropped, as appears 

 in the archetype, for want of room. 



That Mr. ]\Ieudham faithfully copied this last 

 peculiarity is shown by his own singular miscon- 

 ception of the word, which he has taken to be 

 complete, and on p. 130. writes of '■'■ Brasichellen, 

 or Guanzellus ;'" a mistake into which he has been 



