Exemplaria Pauli Collecta

The Collected Exemplars of Paul — Paul the Deacon of Mérida. Written in Gothic letters from the library of the church of Toledo. Gothic, from the Royal Hieronymian Library at Santiago. I believe it was once from the Carazedanus Monastery of Saint Valerius. Ambrosius Morales, a distinguished man and most deserving of Spain, a follower of our royal office, also saw it. There are several exemplars of Paul here, copied in Latin letters, which it was not for our leisure to collate all of them. From the library of the illustrious Don Juan Bertram de Guevara, Archbishop of Compostela, president of the supreme Italian council(??); I received it as a gift from the illustrious Don Fernando de Vera y Vargas, Archbishop-Bishop of Cusco, royal councillor, great-nephew of the great uncle. It was indicated on the very threshold that it was transcribed in Latin letters by a learned man. Also written in Latin letters from the library of the nobleman Don Juan de Fonseca y Figueroa, alas! once our friend; later transferred to the library of the serene Ferdinand, Spanish Infante, Cardinal of Toledo. I would believe that this was transcribed from the Bertram exemplar, since it teemed with the same errors.

There is also a Latin copy, from Álvaro Gómez of Castro Eulaliense, a distinguished man. Francisco Pisa of Toledo, Doctor of Theology, a man most friendly to me while he lived, had it. (??)atmum, of Antonio Covarrubias, royal councillor and governor of the Toledan Church and Academy, illustrious. The most correct copy of all, of Diego, president of the Spains, brother of a distinguished man and my relative. A Gothic copy, interpolated in several places by the hand of the illustrious García de Loaysa, Archbishop of Toledo. I had it from Pedro Salazar de Mendoza, canon of Toledo, whose death all good and noble men have recently mourned. Another Gothic copy, which was used by the great glory of Spain, Juan de Mariana, S.J., chief among my friends. His companions have it today, among whom he is buried at Toledo. But no pious monument adorns his ashes, no inscription distinguishes them. Nor is it necessary, since for that incomparable man heaven was the reward, the world the tomb, and fame the epitaph.