A letter to His Royal Highness the President of the Royal Society [i.e. the Duke of Sussex], on the new catalogue of the library of that institution now in the press / [Sir Anthony Panizzi].
- Anthony Panizzi
- Date:
- [1837]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A letter to His Royal Highness the President of the Royal Society [i.e. the Duke of Sussex], on the new catalogue of the library of that institution now in the press / [Sir Anthony Panizzi]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![critical on the merit of the work, and the Committee, far from objecting to them, ought to have been thankful that I had taken the trouble of introducing them. I shall give the following specimens. To the entry, “ Elemens de Geometric/’ said to be by Louis Duke of Bourgogne, printed at Paris in 1729, 8°, I added the following note: “ This work is generally supposed to be by Malezieu, mathematical teacher to the Duke, who wrote out the lessons which he received. The publishers in the dedication allude to the fact, that Malezieu possessed a copy of the book in the handwriting of the Duke of Bourgogne.” To the “ Me- moires” of Charnieres on the observations of the longitude, I added this note : “ 1 All the author’s additions and cor¬ rections carefully put in by J. B.’ This note is on the title- page of this copy, and the volume is interspersed with alte¬ rations in manuscript. I suppose J. B. to mean James Bradley.” To the “ Liber Novem judicum in judiciis Astro- rum,” I appended a note as follows: “ Panzer v, 398, 489, gives the name Meschella and Ptolomceus incorrectly [in¬ stead of Mesehella and Phtolomeus], and also substitutes huius for istius. The date which, he says, in the title is 1508, is M. D. viiii. in the volume before me ; and so it is at the end.” To the title of one of the two copies of Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica, printed at Antwerp in 1664, 4°, a note is appended in these words : “ On the fly-leaf of this copy occurs the following note :—( Mr. William Lilly (the astrologer) told me that Monas Hieroglyphica A was made by a friar in Germany, who could have made it knowne to J. Dee, who did not understand it, and yl Kelley, per¬ haps, poysoned the friar; for he did not live long after 1673/ The hand in which this note is written is not known.” These, on an average, are some of the longest notes doomed to destruction. Others consist simply of a reference to Panzer’s Annals, where the book is described, and others are merely: “ No more publishedor “ with corrections in manuscript /’ or “ wanting so many volumes or parts.” Will anyone contend that a catalogue is better without the information contained in these notes than with it ? Ex¬ cepting a few verbal alterations, what else can be objected to them? As for the use of the first person, I have not had recourse to it, except when I found it my duty to do so. Let us turn back to the note to Charnieres’s Memoires. The author’s additions, if put in by Bradley, are of course of much more value than if w'ritten by any other J. B. ; and I therefore take upon myself the responsibility of saying that “ I believe ” so ; otherwise if I sav nothing;, the im-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31918360_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
