Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/349

 11 S. X. OCT. 31, 1914.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Eventually, however, the boy began to ex- hibit signs of anger when asked to show it, nnd it was soon discovered that the prodigy was merely an ordinary tooth covered with gold leaf ; little by little, as the gold leaf grew thinner and thinner, the wonder ceased of itself. None of the tracts are mentioned by name in the catalogue, but Browne must have known something of them. a He had, however, one tract " de aureo dente," written by a learned Jesuit, Adalbert Tylkowski, Rector of the Jesuit Seminary at Vilna. h This tract contains an account of another gold tooth which appeared at Vilna nearly 100 years later. The owner was once again a boy, but aged only 3 years ; the tooth was on the left side of the lower jaw, and was examined by Tylkowski, who, at the same time, inspected aboy " cum capite gyganteo," on 20 Sept., 1673. Tylkowski appears to have been a credulous kind of person, and was quite satisfied that the tooth was genuine, but no one else seems to have troubled to inspect it. The affair appears to have attracted little notice, but it would be interesting to know where Browne came across the tract.

The catalogue is rich in books on natural history. Plants, animals, and minerals all "natural things," in fact were of interest to Browne. Dr. Grew's ' Anatomy of Plants >c Browne subscribed to himself as it came out. He also obtained several subscriptions from friends, and in May, 1682, he sends Edward Browne the amount of the subscriptions to be paid over to Dr. Grew. Readers of the ' Vulgar Errors ' will remember that Browne quotes again and again from the Portuguese work on the ' Simples and Drugs of India,' by Garcias ab Horto. d He was well versed in foreign languages, and I had hoped to be able to show that he was familiar with this work in the original ; but he seems to have used the abridged translation in the ' Ex- otica ' of Clusius, 1605. There are no Portuguese works in the catalogue. Clusius was in charge of the Emperor's garden when Edward Browne was at Vienna in 1668, and his father bids him endeavour by all means to see " his treasure of rarities, and whatever is remarkable in any private custodie." 6 It

42 volumes of tracts were sold in one lot.

h 'Adalb. Tylkowski, Disquisitio duorum puoro- rum quorum unus cum dente aureo alter cum capite KVjranteo Vilnse in Lithuania spectabatur, 1673,' 1674

c Dr. Grew's 'Anatomy of Plants, with Sculp- 1682. See letters, Wilkin, i. 339, 343.

d Recently (1913) translated into English by Sir Clements Markham. Wilkin, i. 177.

may be mentioned that in the ' Exotica ' of Clusius, Browne had a description and a- figure of the much-lamented Dodo as it then existed in Mauritius. The vast collections of Aldrovandus on animals, plants, and mineral* are in the catalogue ; but Browne does not exhibit much enthusiasm for the genius of this extraordinary man, nor for Gesner, whose great work, the ' Historia Animalium,' he scarcely refers to half a dozen times.

Belon's ' De la Nature des Oyseaux ' he had constantly at hand. It is quoted in a letter to Edward Browne in 1 682 in connexion with an " oestridge " possibly one of the thirty sent from Morocco, with two lions, as a present from the " King of Fez and Morocco " to Charles II. b which Ed, Browne had just procured. His father sends- him a drawing of an ostrich's head from 'Belon, and another from Willoughby's- 4 Omithologia,' c with directions to " marke the foote well whether it hath any kind of teeth, and the one division more hornie than the other." The " oestridge " died a few- days later "of a soden," having dined heartily upon iron, and Browne is at once interested in its dissection. Several letters- are concerned with a description of the " sceleton," which he enjoins his son not to- write with a "k." (1 Belon is also responsible for the interesting discovery that the fishes- eaten by our Saviour were trouts, pikes r chevins, and tenches. 6

The learned Jesuit Athanasius Kircher is- well represented in the catalogue. Browne frequently quotes Kircher, and seems to have relied on him for much that he writes concerning the ' Hieroglyphical Doctrine of the ^Egyptians. ' f Kircher was famous as the founder of the Museo Kircheraneo at Rome, which still includes his collection of antique Roman and Italian coins. Edward Browne visited him when at Rome, and writes home to his father a glowing account of his " closet of rairretys," amongst

a Belon, ' Hist, de la Nature des Oyseaux avec leurs descriptions & naifs portraits retirez du Naturel,' Par., 1555.

b Evelyn's ' Diary ' (Globe ed.), p. 337.

c Browne had Ray's edition of Willoughby 1676. He lent him many " draughts " of birds for the book r which he never saw again. See Wilkin, i. 337.

d On the "oestridge" see Wilkin, i. 281, 327, 329, 456.

'Certain Miscellany Tracts,' Tract III., Wilkin. i v.l 80.

' 'Athan. Kircheri CEdipus ^gyptiacus ' 3 torn i in 2 vol., cum fig., Rom., 1652. Browne also used ' Jo. Pierii Hieroglyphica sive de sacris .-Egyptior,' 1631. For Kirchers "closet of rairretys" *** Wilkin, i. 86.

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