_La Mer des Histoires._--"MR. SANSOM" (No. 18. p. 286.) has inquired,
What is known of Columna's book, entitled _Mare Historiarum_? Trithemius
has made mention of the work (_De Script. Eccles_. DL.), and two
manuscript copies of it are preserved in the Royal Library at Paris. (B.
de Montfaucon, _Biblioth. Bibliothecar. MSS._ tom ii. p. 751. Par.
1739.) Douce very properly distinguished it from _La Mer des Histoires_;
but, if he wrote "Mochartus," he was in error; for _Brochart_ was the
author of the Latin original, called _Rudimentum Novitiorum_, and
published in 1475. As to the statement of Genebrard, that Joannes de
Columna was the writer of the "_Mater_ Historiarum," I should say that
the mistake was produced by confounding the words _Mer_ and _Mere_. Mr.
Sansom may find all the information {326} that need be desired on this
subject in Quetif et Echard, _Scriptores Ord. Præd._ tom. i. pp. 418-20.
Lut. Paris, 1719. (Vid. etiam Amb. de Altamura, _Biblioth. Dominican_.
p. 45. Romæ, 1677; Fabricii, _Bibl. Med. et Inf. Latin._ i. 1133. Hamb.
1734.)