[364] Ducange s. v. solarium shews that occasionally it =armarium.
[365] I have to thank Father C. J. Ehrle, S. J., Prefect of the Vatican Library, for the very great kindness with which he has assisted me in these researches during three visits to Rome in 1898, 1899, 1900; and also the officials who allowed me to examine parts of the palace not usually accessible to strangers.
Further, I wish it to be clearly and distinctly understood that my researches are based upon an essay by M. Paul Fabre, La Vaticane de Sixte IV., which had appeared in the Milanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire of the École Française de Rome for December 1895, but of the existence of which I had never heard until Father Ehrle shewed it to me. On reading it, I found that M. Fabre had completely anticipated me; he had done exactly what I had come to Rome to do, and in such a masterly fashion that I could not hope to improve upon his work. After some consideration I determined to verify his conclusions by carefully examining the locality, and to make a fresh ground-plan of it for my own use. I have also studied the authorities quoted by M. Eugène Müntz (Les Arts à la Cour des Papes) from my own point of view.
There are two works to which I shall frequently refer: Les Arts à la Cour des Papes pendant le xve et le xvie siècle, par Eugène Müntz: Part III. 1882 (Bibl. des Écoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome, Fasc. 28): and La Bibliothèque du Vatican au xve Siècle, par Eugène Müntz et Paul Fabre; Paris, 1887 (Ibid. Fasc. 48). The former will be cited as "Müntz"; the latter as "Müntz et Fabre." My paper, of which an abstract only is here given, has been published in the Camb. Ant. Soc. Proc. and Comm. 6 March 1899, Vol. x. pp. 11-61.
[366] This document, dated 17 December, 1471, has been printed by Müntz, p. 120. I am afraid that this order can have but one meaning: viz. the excavation and destruction of ancient buildings.
[367] This is the date assigned by Platina himself. See below, p. 231.
[368] MS. Vat. Lat. 3947, fol. 118 b. Notatio omnium librorum Bibliothecæ palatinæ Sixti quarti Pont. Max. tam qui in banchis quam qui in Armariis et capsis sunt a Platyna Bibliothecario et Demetrio Lucense eius alumno custode die xiiii. mensis Septemb. m.cccc.lxxxi facta. Ante vero eius decessum dierum octo tantummodo. This Notatio has been printed, Müntz et Fabre, p. 250, but without the catalogue to which it forms an appendix. This, so far as I know, still remains unprinted.
[369] Müntz et Fabre, pp. 148-150, passim.
[370] Ibid. p. 32.
[371] Ibid. p. 141. The catalogue is printed pp. 159-250.