Note 237 — Chapter XXXVIII

In the preface to his translation of el-Biruni’s commentary on al-Fargani he says, “Lest therefore, completely intent upon the footprints of the ancients, I seem to dissent from the moderns utterly ...”, (Ne itaque antiquorum vestigiis penitus insistens a modernis prorsus videar dissentire,—Haskins, p. 8). In the preface to the Pseudo-Aristotle on the 255 books of the Indians he speaks of Bishop Michael as exalted above moderns or contemporaries (ultra modernos vel coequevos,—Haskins, 10) in fame and love of learning, and later of “what can be fully explained by none of the moderns” (quod a nullo modernorum plenissime valet explicari—Haskins, p. 11). In the preface to Albumasar’s Book of Rains occurs the allusion to modern astrologers of the Gauls given below in the text.