im. veniam tu mihi spira dabis."

12. Is it not unquestionable that Heroldt's _Promptuarium Exemplorum_ was
published at least as early as his _Sermones_? The type in both works is
clearly identical, and the imprint in the latter, at the end of _Serm._
cxxxvi., vol. ii., is Colon. 1474, an edition unknown to very nearly all
bibliographers. For instance, Panzer and Denis commence with that of
Rostock, in 1476; Laire {325} with that of Cologne, 1478; and Maittaire
with that of Nuremberg, in 1480. Different statements have been made as to
the precise period when this humble-minded writer lived. Altamura (_Bibl.
Domin._, pp. 147. 500.) places him in the year 1400. Quetif and Echard (i.
762.), Fabricius and Mansi (_Bibl. Med. et inf. Latin._), prefer 1418, on
the unstable ground of a testimony supposed to have proceeded from the
author himself; for whatever confusion or depravation may have been
introduced into subsequent impressions, the _editio princeps_, of which I
have spoken, does not present to our view the alleged passage, viz., "a
Christo autem transacti sunt _millequadringenti decem et octo_ anni," but
most plainly, "M.cccc. & liij. anni." (_Serm._ lxxxv., tom. ii.) To this
same "Discipulus" Oudin (iii. 2654.), and Gerius in the Appendix to Cave
(p. 187.), attribute the _Speculorum Exemplorum_, respecting which I have
before proposed a Query; but I am convinced that they have confounded the
_Speculum_ with the _Promptuarium_. The former was first printed at
Deventer, A.D. 1481, and the compiler of it enters upon his prologue in the
following striking style: "Impressoria arte jamdudum longe lateque per
orbem diffusa, multiplicatisque libris quarumcunque fere materiarum," &c.
He then expresses his surprise at the want of a good collection of
_Exempla_; and why should we determine without evidence that he must have
been Heroldus?

R.G.

* * * * *

FAIRFAX'S TASSO.

In a copy of Fairfax's _Godfrey of Bulloigne_, ed. 1600 (the first), which
I possess, there occurs a very curious variorum reading of the first stanza
of the first book. The stanza, as it is given by Mr. Knight in his
excellent modern editions, reads thus:

"The sacred armies and the godly knight,
That the great sepulchre of Christ did free,
I sing; much wrought his valour and foresight,
And in that glorious war much suffer'd he;
In vain 'gainst him did hell oppose her might,
In vain the Turks and Morians ar