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the 40 stories of which the book consists (on© of them was drop-ped in the 17-th century reprints), namely »Apollonius of Tyre«, has been borrowed from a Czech version of this ancien! romance, while the remaining tales are based on the common Latin text. One is inclined to believe that John of Koszyczki had some col-laborator, in all probability John Sandecius, known for the inte-rest which he took in Czech literaturę.

Certainly John of Koszyczki put out the Polish yersion of another medieval story book, that of »The Seven Sages of Rome«. It was printed under the title (11): »Poncian«, in accordance with its Latin prototype, »Pontianus, dicta et facta Septem Sa-pientunu (1512). John^Js translation, slightly varying from the printed Latin text, must have appeared about 1528, and was often reprinted after that datę. Of the 16-th century editions, two have been preserved in entirety (1540 and 1566), others in fragments, and among later reprints those of the 18-th century are particularly common in libraries. The amusing fate of the Polish »Poncian« in other languages, will be referred to later on.

The »Various Histories from the Koman Giestes« do not in-clude the »story of King Lear« which was omitted also from most of the Continental versions of the »Gesta Romanorum«. Its subject, howeyer, inspired Nicholas Rey for a long story in verse, called (12) »A History which Happened in Land, a German Town« (1568), though »Land« is the distorted name for London. Strictly speaking, one should distinguish here between two stories, that of King Lear, and another which, after the poems of Hans Sachs, is usually called »der Kolben im Kasten«. In the first, the foolish father is rescued by his youngest daugh-ter; in the second, he deceiyes his ungrateful children, to whom he shows a heayy trunk, filled with stones, assuring them that there is money in it. The Polish yersion, like the story in the »Speculum Exemplorum« and the »novella« of Sercambi, belongs to the second branch. Nevertheless, it is not identical with the existing yersions and one may credit some orał tradition of German origin as being the immediate source of it. Clinging to the traditional lines of the story, Rey managed te demonstrate his personality as a writer in minutę descriptions of the scenery and in abundant morał digressions inserted into the texture of the narratiye.