Page 6, line 5. _Fortunius Affaitatus._--The work of
Affaytatus, _Physicae ac astronomiae considerationes_, was publisht in
Venice in 1549.

[32] PAGE 6, LINE 3. Page 6, line 6. _Baptista Porta._--The reference is to
his celebrated _Magia naturalis_, the first edition of which came out in
1558 at Naples. An English edition, _Natural Magick by John Baptista Porta,
a Neapolitaine_, was printed in London, 1658. Book seven of this volume
treats "Of the wonders of the Load-stone." In the proem to this book Porta
says: "I knew at Venice R. M. Paulus, the Venetian, that was busied in the
same study: he was Provincial of the Order of servants, but now a most
worthy Advocate, from whom I not only confess, that I gained something, but
I glory in it, because of all the men I ever saw, I never saw any man more
learned, or more ingenious, having obtained the whole body of learning; and
is not only the Splendor and Ornament of Venice or Italy, but of the whole
world." The reference is to Fra Paolo Sarpi, better known as the historian
of the Council of Trent. Sarpi was himself known to Gilbert. {17}

His relations with Gilbert are set forth in the memoir prefixt to the
edition of his works, _Opere di Fra Paolo Sarpi, Servita_ ... in Helmstat,
MDCCLXI, p. 83. "Fino a questi giorni continuava il Sarpi a raccorre
osservazioni sulla declinazione dell' Ago Calamitato; e poi ch' egli,
atteso il variare di tal declinazione, assurdita alcuna non trovava
riguardo al pensamento dell' Inglese Guglielmo Gilberto, cioe, che
l'interno del nostro Globo fosse gran Calamita...." Here follows a
quotation from a letter of Sarpi to Lescasserio:

"... Unde cuspidem trahi a tanta mole terrena, quae supereminet non absurde
putavit Gullielmus Gilbertus, et in eo meridiano respicere recta polum,
cave putes observatorem errasse. Est Vir accuratissimus, et interfuit
omnibus observationibus, quas plures olim fecimus, et aliquas in sui
gratiam, et cum arcubus vertici cupreo innitentibus, et cum innatantibus
aquae, et cum brevibus, et cum longis, quibus modis omnibus et Hierapoli
usus suit."

Sarpi had correspondence with Gilbert, Bacon, Grotius, and Casaubon. He
also wrote on magnetism and other topics _in materia di Fisica_, but these
writings have perisht. He appears to have been the first to recognize that
fire destroyed the magnetic properties. (See _Fra Paolo Sarpi, the greatest
of the Venetians_ by the Rev. Alexander Robertson, London, 1894; see also
the