Indeed, some of the most learned Spanish Bibliographers appear to have known very little about it. It is mentioned by the celebrated Ambrosio Morales, in his narrative of the journey he undertook in the year 1572, by command of King Don Philip II.,[67] when speaking of the MS. works he examined in the monastery of the Order of San Geronimo de la Mejorada, near Olmeda, says:—“De proprietatibus rerum in Latin, and the same in Castilian; very ancient and rare books.”
Father Vicente de Burgos concludes his work with the following observations:—
“I here protest, as I affirmed at the beginning of this work, that the facts mentioned and contained in it, are not inferred by me, but that I have cited the sayings and opinions of learned saints and philosophers, who are allowed to have been profoundly versed in the subjects of which they treat. I have done this, to the end that persons who, by reason of their indigence, cannot obtain sight of many books, may be made acquainted with the properties of things mentioned in Holy Writ, by having them all brought together in this one book.”
Don Tomás Fabio Milanés, at whose cost the Libro de las propiedades de las cosas was printed in 1529, in his dedication to Don Diego de Ribera, Bishop of Segovia, says:—
“No little honour is due to the author by whom this book was compiled, for though it does not contain much new information proceeding from himself; yet he has, on every subject, given the best intelligence supplied by ancient authors, and he has served up the whole so free from errors and prejudiced opinions, that it is at once savory to the taste, and wholesome to the understanding.”
The other book supposed to be alluded to by the bachelor in that passage of the text to which the present note refers, is entitled Suma de todas las cronicas del mundo. According to some authorities, its author was Frai Diego de Bérgano, and according to others, Filipo Jacobo Bérgano. A translation from Latin into Castilian, by Narcis Viñoles, was printed in Valencia in the year 1510.
To these two old works, the one a sort of Enciclopœdia, and the other a History of the World from the time of the Creation, there is reason to believe that Cervantes alludes in that part of the Buscapié in which the student mentions the two excellent books sent to him “as a present from Señor Arcediana.”
(E).
“Pedro de Ezinas.” (Page 109).