E«P0SIT0 — On the " De Mirabilibvs Sundae Scriptiintey 201 



York, who in liis " InU'iiogalimies ct IJcspoiisiones in Geiiesiii " (No. 124, 

 Migiie, ■' Patrologia Latina," 100, col. 5o0) (juotes a passage from it, tlioiigli 

 without any acknowledifineiit: 



" De Jlirabilibus," i, 5, Ed. col. 21.56. 



De animalibus quoque quae nee in 

 terra fcantum, nee in aqua tantiim 

 vivere possuiit, quaeslio vertilur, quo- 

 modo diluvium evaserunt, quales sunt 

 lutri, vituli marini, et niulta avium 

 genera, quae in aquis escarum suarum 

 victum requirunt, sed in arena dor- 

 miunt, etnuiriuntur, etrequiescunt . . . 

 Utrum per virtutem suam utraravis 

 eorum uaturam, donee dihivium tran- 

 siret, Deus teniperavit, ut, aut in 

 liumore tantum, aut in arida tantum, 

 illis tunc vita esse potuerit. 



Alcuin, P.L., 100, col. 530. 



Quid de animalibus sentiri debet 

 quorum natura nee semper in aridis, 

 nee semper in Lumidis vivere potest, 

 sicut sunt lutri, vituli marini, tt multa 

 avium genera, quae in aquis victum 

 requirunt, sed in aridis dormiunt 

 et requiescunt ? — Eesp. Potuit virtus 

 divina utramvis eorum naturam, donee 

 diluvium transiret, temperare, ut, aut 

 in humido tantum, aut in arido 

 tantum, vivere possent. 



On the whole, however, the "De Mirabilibiis " appears to have enjoyed 

 little popularity for several centuries, for we find no iis. of it earlier than the 

 twelfth century, and it does not appear to be mentioned in any of the 

 catalogues of ancient libraries collected and published by Becker^ and 

 Gottlieb.^ In the twelfth century, however, it suddenly springs into 

 popularity, and, as wc have seen above (pp. 190-195), from the twelfth to 

 the end of the fifteenth was repeatedly copied, always on the assumption that 

 it was a genuine production of the great St. Augustine,^ though this liad been 

 rightly denied by St. Thomas Aquinas (ob. 127-1). 



The conclusions to be drawn from the foregoing investigation are as 

 follows: — 



The "De Mirabilibus" was written in Ireland in the year 655 by an Irishman 



' " Catalogi Bibliotheciirum Antiqui," Bonnae, 1885. It is not clear what work is 

 intended in the following entry in the catalogue of the moiiasteiy of Saint-Evre at Toul, 

 drawn up about 1084, No. 47 : " Augnstinus de mirabilibus niundi " (Becker, loc. cit., 

 p. 150). 



- "Ueber mittelalterliche Bibliotheken," Leipzig, 1890. 



2 Thomas Hibernicus, writing in I'MG, quotes from it under the title, " Augustinus 

 li. de mirabi. sacrae scripturae " (" JIanipuhis Floruni," Venice ed., c. 1495, sub voc. 

 Poeniteittla, I.). Franciscus de Mayronis (d. lo"27), in his "Flores secundum Augustinum" 

 (MS. Bodley, 393), has also given exceipts from it (cf. SehenkI, "Wiener Sitzunga- 

 berichte," Phil.-Hist. Classe, 123, Abhl. v, p. 43). 



