[146] See M. R. James, Eton Manuscripts, p. 63, MS 134, Bl. 4. 7., Roberti Crikeladensis Prioris Oxoniensis excerpta ex Plinii Historia Naturali, 12-13th century, in a large English hand, giving extracts extending from Book II to Book IX.
Of Balliol 124, fols. 1-138, Cosmographia mundi, by John Free, born at Bristol or London, fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, later professor of medicine at Padua and a doctor at Rome, also well instructed in civil law and Greek, Coxe writes, “This work is nothing but a series of excerpts from Pliny’s Natural History, beginning with the second and leaving off with the twentieth.” I wonder if John Free may not have used the very MS of the first nineteen books mentioned in the foregoing note, since the second book of the Natural History is often reckoned as the first.
In Balliol 146A, 15th century, fol. 3-, the Natural History appears in epitome, with a prologue opening, “I, Reginald (Retinaldus), servant of Christ, perusing the books of Pliny....”
[147] Bologna, 952, 15th century, fols. 157-60, “Tractatus optimus in quo exposuit et aperte declaravit plinius philosophus quid sit lapis philosophicus et ex qua materia debet fieri et quomodo.”
[148] Fossi, Catalogus codicum saeculo XV impressorum qui in publica Bibliotheca Magliabechiana Florentiae adservantur, 1793-1795, II, 374-81.
[149] De erroribus Plinii et aliorum in medicina, Ferrara, 1492.
[150] Pliniana defensio, 1494.
[151] Escorial Q-I-4, and R-I-5, both of the 14th century.
[152] NH, V, 1, 12.
[153] XXVI, 6, “usu efficacissimo rerum omnium magistro”; XVII, 2, 12, “quare experimentis optime creditur.”