XVI.] SOLINUS. 365
and Priscian, and especially by Isidore of Seville, the fame of
whose profound learning, existing as it did in the midst of the
darkness of the seventh century, caused his Origines to be widely
read by those who came after him1. To these we may add, as a
specimen of those authors who availed themselves of Solinus'
writings at a much later date, the literary adviser Mediaeval
of Dante's youth, Brunetto Latini, whose encyclo- Estimate of
paedic work, // Tesoro^ however we may estimate it
at the present day, was highly valued by his contemporaries.
Not only does Brunetto derive many of his facts of natural history
from Solinus, but his geography also is largely drawn from him.
Thus, to take one or two instances, the account which we find in
the Tesoro of the practice of 'dumb commerce* in China, the
mention of Canopus as a conspicuous star in the island of Tapro-
bane, the story of the Tigris passing through the Lake of Van, and
the description of the burning mountain in south Africa, which
was originally derived from Hanno's narrative already mentioned,
are all directly borrowed from the Memorabilia*..
After thus noticing the high position as an authority which
this writer once occupied, it is curious to observe
the low estate to which he has fallen in our own
day. Mommsen, in his excellent edition of Solinus,
in order to shew the sources from which his information is derived,
has noted throughout in the margin the name of the author from
whom each several statement is borrowed: and by this nisans
what already was generally believed has been proved in detail,
namely that the whole work is a mere compilation. By far the
greater part of it—including all the passages which we have noticed
as being reproduced by Brunetto Latini—is taken from Pliny; a
certain amount also from Mela, and from sources which we cannot
now identify. The editor severely adds:—' the statements which
Solinus introduced on his own account are altogether valueless,
and we may be thankful that they are so few8.' It may be
1 Compare the tables in Mommsen's ed. of Solinus, pp. 955 foil.
3 Dumb commerce, Brun. Lat. Tesoro, ed. Gaiter, vol. t, p. 22, Sol.
Memorabilia, 50. 4; Canopus, B. L. p. 26, Sol. 53. 7; Tigris, B. L. p. 18,
Sol. 37. 5 foil.; burning mountain, B. L. p. 50, Sol. 30.14.
8 Pref. p. xi.