It would appear that the work Trithemii Collectanea de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis has gone through several editions; and Walch tells us that "inter omnes ea eminet, quam Jo. Alberto Fabricio debemus." The following remarks also respecting Trithemius appear in Walch's Bibliotheca (tom. iii. p. 389.):
"Incipit Trithemius a Clemente Romano; recenset scriptores 970; ac testatur, se in opere hoc conficiendo per septem fere annorum spatium elaborasse. Possevinus, Labbeus, atque alii, varios ejus errores chronologicos ac historicos notarunt. Quodsi autem rationem temporis reputamus, quo Trithemius vixit scripsitque, causa omnino est, cur eum ob errata non reprehendamus, sed excusemus atque industriam illius laudemus."
Cave, also, in his Historia Literaria (part ii. p. 569.), gives us a brief account of Trithemius, and of his literary productions.
E. C. HARRINGTON.
The Close, Exeter.
The work of John Trittenheim, De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, is held in high and deserved repute. (See Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin. Med. Ætat., iv. 451.) He died abbot of Würtzburg, in 1518. The copy of A. W. H. is the first edition, which was published at Mainz (Moguntia) in 1494.
C. H.
Sir William Herschel (Vol. ii., p. 391.).
—Your correspondent gives the quotation about the star observed in Virgo, which he supposes identical with Neptune, quite correctly, except in one very material point—the observer's name. The passage in question will be found in Captain W. H. Smyth's Cycle of Celestial Objects, vol. ii. p. 264., and is extracted from a letter addressed to him by M. Cacciatore of Palermo, in 1835, many years after the death of Sir William. H. C. K. is not the first person who has suggested the identity of the objects; but, as pointed out by Captain Smyth in a paper on Neptune, in the United Service Journal for 1847, Part II., Neptune must, in 1835, have been fully 120° from the position assigned by Cacciatore to the star observed by him.
J. S. WARDEN.