Sir,--I take the liberty to send you one or two Notes on your first
Number, just as they occur to me in looking it over. I will not trespass
on you by preface or apology.
The "_bibliographic project_" I shall rejoice {20} to see carried out; and
though neither an unemployed aspirant nor a fortunate collector (of
which class I hope many will be stimulated by the proposition), yet, as
I once took some trouble in the matter, I should be happy to contribute
some Notes then made whenever the plan is matured and the proposed
appeal is made--provided (I must add, and to _you_ I may add) I can find
them.
The _Liber Sententiarum_ was printed by Limborch, at Amsterdam, in 1692.
It forms the greater part, as, indeed, it was the occasion, of his folio
volume, entitled "_Historia Inquisitionis cui subjungitur Liber
Sententiarum Inquisitionis Tholosanæ ab anno Christi Cl[*C]CCCVI ad annum
Cl[*C]CCCXXIII._" Gibbon, in a note on his fifty-fourth chapter, observes
that the book "deserved a more learned and critical editor;" and, if
your correspondent will only place the _Book of Sentences_ before the
public in a readable form, with a map, and (by all means) a few _notes_,
he will be doing a great service to all persons who take an interest in
ecclesiastical history, or, indeed, in history of any kind. In the year
1731 Chandler published a translation of the _History of the
Inquisition_, with a long Introduction of his own, but did not meddle
with the _Book of Sentences_, except so far as to introduce into the
text of the _History_ some passages from it, which Limborch (as he
appended the whole book) did not think it necessary to quote. I remember
seeing the MS. in the British Museum within these ten or twelve years,
and, according to my recollection, it was accompanied by papers which
would furnish an interesting literary history of the volume. I hope your
correspondent will give us farther information.