[1225] Origines, lib. vi. 13, p. 132.
[1226] His writings may be found in Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum. Lugduni, 1677, fol. tom. xiii. In p. 27, is the following poem on a pen:—
De Penna Scriptoria.
Me pridem genuit candens onocrotalus albam
Gutture qui patulo sorbet in gurgite lymphas.
Pergo ad albentes directo tramite campos,
Candentique viæ vestigia cærula linquo,
Lucida nigratis fuscans anfractibus arva.
Nec satis est unum per campos pandere callem;
Semita quin potius milleno tramite tendit,
Quæ non errantes ad cœli culmina vexit.
The author does not speak here of a goose-quill, but of a pelican’s, which at any rate may be as good as that of a swan.
[1227] Ad latrinium (latrinam).
[1228] Alcuini Opera, cura Frobenii, Ratisbonæ, 1777, 2 vols. fol. ii. p. 211.
[1229] De Re Diplomatica, Par. 1709, fol. in Suppl. p. 51.
[1230] Petr. Venerabil. lib. i. ep. 20, ad Gislebertum. C. G. Schwarz, who quotes the passage in Exercit. de Varia Supellectili Rei Librariæ Veterum, Altorfii, 1725, 4to, § 8, ascribes them falsely to the venerable Bede, who died about the year 735.
[1231] Ger. Nic. Heerkens Aves Frisicæ, Rot. 1788, 8vo, p. 106.