His mention of the Bodleian "copy of the original edition" may warrant the belief that he has made use of it. The fact that Dr. James, "chief keeper" of the Bodleian, used and cited the Roman edition in his Treatise of the Corruptions of Scripture, Councils and Fathers, &c. in 1612, may further warrant the belief that the copy in that library is an indubitable original, placed where it is before the counterfeit was gotten up.
If these inferences are correct, I have, what I much desire, a criterion by which to distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine Roman edition. Yet I hardly dare to trust it, because it involves a charge of carelessness against Clement, who is not often justly liable to such reproach.
He says, "J'ai eu le bonheur d'acquérir l'édition originale de Rome." He therefore either copied the title of what he thought a genuine edition, or carelessly substituted that of the counterfeit.
Now I have a copy of what purports to be the Roman edition, the title of which, agreeing exactly neither with Clement nor with the title given by Mr. Mendham (p. 116.), yet coincides with the latter in one curious particular, which seems to identify it with Mr. Mendham's genuine original, while its rare disagreements from Clement's distinguish it from that. Mr. Mendham's transcript of the title runs:
"Indicis Librorum Expurgandorum in Studiosorum gratiam confecti. Tomus Primus. In quo Quinquaginta Auctorum Libri præ cæteris desiderati emendantur, Per Fr. Jo. Mariam Brasichellen Sacri Palatii Apostolici Magistrum in unum corpus redactus, et publicæ commoditati æditus. Romæ, ex Typographia R. Cam. Apost. MDCVII. Superiorum Permissu."
In this there are two observable peculiarities: 1. The full-stop after "confecti," breaking the grammatical construction; 2. The omission of such a stop (as a sign of contraction) after the portion of a word, "Brasichellen," from which the final syllable "sem" has been dropped, as appears in the archetype, for want of room.
That Mr. Mendham faithfully copied this last peculiarity is shown by his own singular misconception of the word, which he has taken to be complete, and on p. 130. writes of "Brasichellen, or Guanzellus;" a mistake into which he has been led by Jugler, whom he is there reporting; Jugler, as quoted in the note, seeming to have been led into it by Zobelius.
The peculiarity which has thus led Mr. Mendham, and before him Zobelius and Jugler, into error, does not appear in Clement's title. It runs:
"Indicis Librorum Expurgandorum in Studiosorum gratiam confecti, Tomus Primus. In quo Quinquaginta Auctorum Libri præ cæteris desiderati emendantur. Per Fr. Jo. Mariam Brasichellen. Sacri Palatii Apostolici Magistrum in unum corpus redactus, et publicæ commoditati æditus. Romæ, ex Typographia R. Cam. Apost. M.DC.VII. Superiorum Permissu."
Both the peculiarities pointed out in Mendham's copy are wanting in this; and a third difference is, that where Mendham, after "emendantur," has a comma, this has a full-stop. All these differences are corrections, and therefore more likely to be found in a reprint, than the reverse.