We have made an effort to track down the sources of our authors' citations. Quite often, however, we cannot verify the reference. When this happens
we have flagged the missing reference source with a detective's hat 
,
hoping to get help from you.
Why can't we find the sources?
Before you start looking, we should explain some of the reasons we run into trouble. Here are some problems that occur in Bartholomew's encyclopedia (De proprietatibus rerum) and other works presented here:
- The text is wrong, or a line may have been lost, so that when Bartholomew
meant to say that Aristotle has something to say about the effect of
cloud temperature on precipitation, instead the citation is to an entirely different statement.
Thus you may find which authority is being cited a
line above or a line below the little hat you see near the missing reference .
- The name of the author cited is wrong. For example, Bartholomew cites a work as Aristotle's, when it is actually by Avicenna. Maybe you will find the statement in a different author's work, in which case it might be nice to know how the confusion arose.
- Bartholomew has misread his text, or the manuscript he had at hand preserved a corrupt text.
How you can help
Often a thorough search of Bartholomew's sources in Patristic authors, the Aristotelian corpus, or older reference works such as those by Isidore will permit us to find the reference intended or at least help us to understand what may have gone wrong. And you can help! You may be able to track down the source of a reference we could not find.
If you are interested, you might want to start by checking our Works Cited.
Contact Us if you can find the reference source and we'll be very grateful. We will also put your name on a list of successful detectives.