Of the Abbe de S A D E. 169 



traded 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 

 conjectures, (ce ne font la apres tout r que de tres fortes conjectures,) 

 might certainly have included the laft with equal propriety un- 

 der the fame denomination. His interpretation of the word 

 ptbs is evidently nothing more than conjecture ; to fupport 

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

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

 brary ; although, among the Pieces jujlifi 'cat ives,we find only the 

 certificate of one of thofe gentlemen (Capperonier) to that 

 effect ; and this expreffed with fuch obfcurity and confufion of 

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

 nufcripts he mentions *. But one thing is plain ; before we 

 can admit any conjectural interpretation of this contraction, the 

 Abbe de Sade mud prove, that the two manufcripts which 

 bear this contracted 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 



# it 



Certificat de Monfieur Capperonier, Garde de la Bibliotheque du Roi. 



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

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

 M cur arum propriar urn, ad A.UGUSTINUM," fol. 13.. cot. 1. on lit, et qu'on doit lire : 

 u Et corpus illud egregium morbis ac crebris partubus exhaultum multum priftini 

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

 cod. 19. pag. 1. ou ils doivent etre lus de la meme maniere. En foi de quoi, j'ai figne 

 Je prefent certificat, en l'hotel de la Bibliotheque du Roi, ce 16 Juin 1762. 



Capperonier." 



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

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

 the Abbe de Sade here refers as bearing ptbs. When M. Capperonier, there* 

 fore, declares, on lit, et on doit lire, fo and fo, the exprefiion is as obfcure and inaccu- 

 rate, as the decifion is dogmatical and prefumptuous. 



