152 NOTICE OF JOHN DE TREVISA, 



Further, no mention is made of Trevisa's translation in the 

 preface to Forshall and Madden's Wycliffite versions of the Holy 

 Bible. 



We find, then, upon this the most important point in our hero's 

 history, this strange difference, rather than conflict, of authority, 

 that whilst Caxton, Bale, Fabricius, Bp. Tanner, Fuller, and 

 Carew, accepted the tradition of his translation of the Bible as a 

 fact, all modern writers either disbelieve it, or consider the matter 

 to be at least doubtful. 



I have therefore endeavoured, through a friend, to search for 

 ♦' the book " which Lord Berkeley mentioned to Mr. Hughes as 

 given by his ancestor, and possibly still in the library at the 

 Vatican. I regret to say that the search has not been attended 

 with success, owing to the very imperfect way in which its contents 

 are catalogued. 



I can only express a hope that if at a future time a catalogue 

 should be completed, some Cornishman may remember that this 

 "last stone" has still "to be turned." 



I have said that some of Trevisa's works are to be found in 

 MS. in public and private libraries in England. Two are 

 preserved in the library of Mr. Tollemache, M.P., at Helming- 

 ham Hall, Suffolk ; and I am indebted to the Hon. Captain Jolliffe 

 for a note of his personal examination of them. One is a transla- 

 tion of " Bartholomseus de Glanvilla de proprietatibus rerum," 

 beautifully illuminated on vellum, and very handsomely bound, 

 with large metal bosses and clasps, and in excellent preservation ; 

 it is dated 1398, and written in Old English Text.* 



Watt, in his " Bibliotheca Britannica," gives no less than nine 

 editions of this work, inclusive of the translations. 



The other MS. of Trevisa, at Helmingham, is that of 

 " Polychronicon Ranulphi." 



Both these works were printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1495, 

 and a most interesting copy of the former is exhibited in one of 

 the specimen cases on the floor of the King's Library, in the 

 British Museum. 



It is there described as " printed at Westminster, by Wynkyn 



* This beaiTtiful medifeval Enc3'clopa3dia was exhibited by Mr. Tolle- 

 Dttache, at the Annual Meeting of the ArchaBological Institute, at Bury St. 

 Edmunds, July, 1869. 



