"John Trytheme was a German Benedictine, and Abbot of Hirsauge, A.D.
1484. He was the author of _A Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers_,
several _Letters_, Treatises of _Piety_, of _Doctrine_, and
_Morality_, other historical works, and _The Chronicle of
Hirsauge_."--(See Dufresnoy's _Chronological Tables_.)
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.