FATHER A. MONSERRATE’S MONGOLICAE LEGATION1S COMMENTARIES. 517 
Another library mark this, which had been covered with a strip of white paper. To the 
left of “IP46” are three letters in pencil, almost faded: E. 93. This is a press-mark 
again, the explanation of which I have been able to ascertain with the help of Pandit 
Gobin Lai Banerjee of the Board of Examiners, Park Street. It occurs against 
No. 1017 of the printed Catalogue of the hooks in the Library of the College of Fort 
William. The catalogue bears no date, but a note added in the volume by Colonel 
G. vS. A. Ranking, and referring to Proc. vol. xv., p. 393, tells us that it was pre- 
pared in 1818. The entry under No. ioi7(p. 73) is as follows : “ Monserrati Sacerdotis 
e Societate Jesu, Mongolicce Legationis Commentarius : an octavo MS. in Latin, 1581. 
Written on the cover: Monserrat’s Mogul Embassy. E. 93.” This inscription on 
the cover is no more to be seen. The book must have been rebound since. From 
a MS. catalogue of the books transferred from Fort William College Library to the 
Calcutta Public Library Society on January 30th, 1836, we learn that Monserrate’s 
MS. was one of them. 1 2 
We can account, therefore, for all the library-marks, except IP46, and can 
trace the history of the MS. as far back as 1818. IP46 is the oldest mark of all. 
Did it not belong to one of the former houses of the Jesuits in Goa ? It is 
scarcely possible to establish this in India. Most of the books of the Jesuit houses 
in Goa were shipped off to Lisbon, to the “Torre do Tombo,” under Pombal,* and the 
late events in Portugal make it still more difficult to compare notes. We suggest, 
however, that if the catalogues of our Goa libraries have been kept, the Monserrate 
MS. will be found entered in them. 
I come to a closer inspection of the volume. 
On the verso of the title-page we have a list of Monserrate’s authorities, which 
goes far to prove that he approached his subject with most of the geographical and 
historical lore of the ancients at his fingers’ ends. The Bible, Commentaries of the 
Bible, the Jewish historian Josephus, St. Jerome, Trogus Pompeius, Ptolemy, Strabo, 
Pliny, Apollodorus, Solinus, Lucanus the Poet, Diodorus of Sicily, Paul Jovius, 
Bishop of Nocera, ffiffieas Silvius (later Pope Pius II), St. Antoninus (Archbishop of 
Florence), the Speculum Hisioriarum of Vincentius, Anthonius Coccus Sabellicus, 
Raphael Volaterranus, and Joao de Barros had all been examined. Among his 
authorities of “inferior” rank, Monserrate mentions Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo and 
Peter Mexia, the latter of whom derived his knowledge of the wars of Timur “from 
1 These catalogues are in the Archives of the Board of Examiners, Park Street. 
2 Mr. J. A. Ismael Gracias, of Pangim (Goa), writes to me that the Bibliotheca Nacional of Goa contains only 
two or three insignificant and damaged books formerly belonging to the Jesuits of Goa. In 1776, he adds, one 
Mr. Diancour, of the Paris Academy, came to Goa and bought some of the MSS. formerly in the Jesuit Archives. 
— Sir J. Emerson Tennent in the introduction to his Ceylon (Vol. I, xxviii) writes: “Within the last few years, the 
Trustees of the British Museum purchased from the library of the late Lord Stuart de Rothesay the diplomatic 
correspondence and papers of Sebastiao Joze Carvalho e Mello (Portuguese Ambassador at London and Vienna, and sub- 
sequently known as the Marquis de Pombal) from 1738 to 1747, including sixty volumes relating to the history of the 
Portuguese possessions in India and Brazil during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Amongst the latter are fort}’ 
volumes of despatches relating to India entitled Colle^am Authentica de todas as Leys, Regimentos , Alvaras e mats ordens 
que se expediram para a India, desde o establecimento destas conquistas. Ordenada por proviram de 28 de Marco de 1754. 
MSS. Brit. Mils., No. 20,861 to 20,900 ’’ 
