17, 1600, is an eye-witness's account of the sentencing and
burning of Bruno at that date. (See it in full, in the original
Latin, in Berti, p. 461 sq., and in App. V to Frith, Life of
Bruno, and partly translated in Prof. Adamson's lectures, as
cited. It was rep. by Struvius in his Acta Literaria, tom. v,
and by La Croze in his Entretiens sur divers sujets in 1711,
p. 287.) It was not printed till 1621, but the grounds urged for
its rejection are totally inadequate, and involve assumptions,
which are themselves entirely unproved, as to what Scioppius was
likely to do. Finally, no intelligible reason is suggested for
the forging of such a document. The remarks of Prof. Desdouits
on this head have no force whatever. The writer in the Scottish
Review (p. 263, and note) suggests as "at least as possible an
hypothesis as any other that he [Bruno] was the author of the
forged accounts of his own death." Comment is unnecessary.