PROLEGOMENA.

Gesner in his Library original: "Bibliotheca"; a reference to Conrad Gesner’s massive 16th-century bibliography of all known books writes: A very old manuscript book by Cassianus Bassianus (wrongly written for Bassus) is said to lie hidden with a certain monk in Italy; they think it is the same one that now circulates under the name of Emperor Constantine on the subject of Agriculture. Barth likewise in his Adversaria A collection of scholarly miscellaneous notes and critiques, Book 21, final chapter, says: There is an account in Cassianus Bassus (or whoever he may be) of the Geoponica, Book 11. The illustrious Salmasius agrees with this in his commentary on Solinus, reviewing the title of Book 12 of the Geoponica on page 1269 B. These things, he says, belong to Cassianus himself, the collector of those Selections original Greek: 'Εκλογῶν (Eklogon) who dedicated them to a certain Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The title "Porphyrogenitus" means "Born in the Purple," referring to Byzantine emperors born in the imperial palace. See also Giambattista della Porta in the preface to his work The Villa. Bodaeus a Stapel supports him in his commentary on Theophrastus, page 12: The more recent Greeks, among whom is the author of the Geoponica, Cassianus Bassus, whom others falsely call Emperor Constantine...—and so forth.

Furthermore, that high priest of more profound literature, Gerard Johannes Vossius, mentions Cassianus in Book 1 of On the Greek Historians, final chapter, where, discussing Didymus the Grammarian, he writes: You may read not a few things by Didymus in the individual books of the Geoponica, which Dionysius of Utica, or Cassianus Bassus the Scholastic Scholasticus: a title used for a lawyer or a professional scholar in the Byzantine era collected and dedicated to Emperor Constantine. And in his singular book On Philosophy, Chapter 6, section 23, he says of the Geoponica: or Cassianus Bassus (collected them), to whom Hierocles the veterinarian Mulomedicus: literally "mule-doctor," an ancient term for a veterinarian wrote.

And in the Life of Apuleius, prefixed to the Colvian edition, you may find this: I would think this man is the same one whom Palladius praises in his book On Rural Matters original: "de R. R." or "De Re Rustica", and from whom Cassianus Bassus, the compiler of the Geoponica—which circulates everywhere under the name of Emperor Constantine—transcribed many things. The great restorer of letters, Erasmus, left clearly the same writings in his Adages, page 1508, under the adage The lark in the nest: This adage, he says, 'In the lark’s bed, leisure is hidden without color' original Greek: 'Εν κορυδδῷ κοίτῃ σχολὴ κέκρυπται ἄχρωσις is cited by Cassianus Bassus the Scholastic, the collector of the books written in Greek about Agriculture.

Furthermore, among suitable judges of these matters, the title prefixed to the second book in the Barocci Manuscript The Codex Baroccianus is a famous collection of Greek manuscripts now housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. will carry some weight, written in the same hand as the rest of the manuscript: From the Selections concerning Agriculture by Cassianus Bassus the Scholastic, the second book containing the following: original Greek: 'Εκ τῶν περὶ Γεωργίας 'Εκλογῶν Κασσιανῦ Βάσσε σχολασικῦ βιβλίον δεύτερον περιέχον τάδε. However, it is quite clear to me that there will be those who object that Cassianus by no means collected the Geoponica, because two chapters of Book 5 are read under his name. Nonsense! Gerræ!: A Latin exclamation meaning "Trifles!" or "Nonsense!"