respectfully treated by literary forgers during the Renaissance.
The 'Flowers of Theology' of St. Bernard, which were to be a
primrose path ad gaudia Paradisi (Strasburg, 1478), were really, it
seems, the production of Jean de Garlande. Athanasius, his 'Eleven
Books concerning the Trinity,' are attributed to Vigilius, a
colonial Bishop in Northern Africa. Among false classics were two
comic Latin fragments with which Muretus beguiled Scaliger.
Meursius has suffered, posthumously, from the attribution to him of
a very disreputable volume indeed. In 1583, a book on
'Consolations,' by Cicero, was published at Venice, containing the
reflections with which Cicero consoled himself for the death of
Tullia. It might as well have been attributed to Mrs. Blimber, and
described as replete with the thoughts by which that lady supported
herself under the affliction of never having seen Cicero or his
Tusculan villa. The real author was Charles Sigonius, of Modena.
Sigonius actually did discover some Ciceronian fragments, and, if he
was not the builder, at least he was the restorer of Tully's lofty
theme. In 1693, Francois Nodot, conceiving the world had not
already enough of Petronius Arbiter, published an edition, in which
he added to the works of that lax though accomplished author.
Nodot's story was that he had found a whole MS. of Petronius at
Belgrade, and he published it with a translation of his own Latin
into French. Still dissatisfied with the existing supply of
Petronius' humour was Marchena, a writer of Spanish books, who
printed at Bale a translation and edition of a new fragment. This
fragment was very cleverly inserted in a presumed lacuna. In spite
of the ironical style of the preface many scholars were taken in by
this fragment, and their credulity led Marchena to find a new morsel
(of Catullus this time) at Herculaneum. Eichstadt, a Jena
professor, gravely announced that the same fragment existed in a MS.