—The meaning which your correspondent wishes to give the word dividable seems exactly the one wanted in this passage; but need we go so far from its apparent derivation as to derive it from divitias, dare?—One of the meanings of divido is to distribute,—why then should not dividable mean distributive, distributing their riches, &c.?
C. T. A.
Lyndon Rectory, Uppingham.
Stone-pillar Worship (Vol. v., p. 121.).
—The article "Hermae," in Smith's Antiquities, throws some light on this subject. The pillar set up as a witness (see Genesis there quoted, and the Classics passim)[5] is of course closely connected with the idea of sanctity attached to it. The Laplanders in selecting the unhewn stone "in the form in which it was shaped by the hand of the Creator Himself," seem, to a certain extent, unwittingly to have obeyed a command of the Creator: see Exodus, xx. 25.
[5] Is it not as the witness and keeper of Holy Writ that St. Paul calls the church Στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας?
A. A. D.
John of Padua (Vol. v., pp. 79. 161.).
—I am afraid we are not likely to obtain much additional information about John of Padua. The only account of him which I have ever met with is contained in the Earl of Orford's Works (vol. iii. p. 100. et seqq., edit. 1798). The warrant, dated 1544, is there copied from Rymer's Fœdera?; and from an expression which it contains, the inference is drawn that "John of Padua was not only an architect, but musician." I am not aware whether or no there is any other authority for such inference, but, if there is not, I submit that the evidence is far from conclusive. The words in the warrant run thus: A fee of two shillings per diem is granted to John, "in consideratione boni et fidelis servitii quod dilectus serviens noster Johannes de Padua nobis in architecture, ac aliis in re musica inventis impendit ac impendere intendit."
Now, Sir, I submit that res musica, in this passage, is used in the same sense as the Greek ἡ μουσικὴ for "the fine arts;" and that the passage can have no reference to the art of the musician.