Among the correspondents of Sirleto who write soliciting permission for the reading of prohibited books (a permission required in connection with their work) may be noted Montanus, the editor of the Polyglot Bible, Sigone, and Baronius. Sigone writes, for instance, in 1579: “Every one knows that I can do nothing to bring to completion my present task without an opportunity of reading the ‘Centuries’ of Magdeburg; but the ‘Centuries’ are under excommunication, and I do not know how I am going to be able to obtain a copy or to secure permission to read the book. I hope very much that you may be interested in serving me in this matter.” Plantin writes to Sirleto stating that he has in plan an edition of St. Augustine and asks the librarian to advise him of any variants in the text of this Father, of which he has knowledge. He puts a similar question concerning the possible requirement for corrections in texts of the Scriptures, which corrections he could utilise in the Bible that was being edited by Montanus. Later, he asks for aid from Sirleto in connection with editions of St. Chrysostom and of St. Jerome which are to be dedicated to the Pope. The Spaniard Bartolomeo de Valverde, chaplain of Philip the Second, who had rendered important collaboration in certain of the scientific undertakings of the Vatican, writes in 1584 to Sirleto requesting the renewal of the permission that had been accorded to him some time back for the use of prohibited books. He alleges as one justification for his request certain significant considerations concerning the character of the examiners with whom rests the fate of books brought into question. Bartolomeo understands that “among the men who are engaged in the production of the new Index, there are some whose judgment is so severe and whose zeal is so excessive that they have condemned books which they have never seen. The people whose judgment should count concerning books are of course those who through study have knowledge of their character. These compilers have not hesitated to condemn the works of many saints and (a loss much to be lamented) all the commentaries of the Jews.... The Pope has appointed as examiners men who do not know a word of Greek or Hebrew and who possess neither judgment or capacity. They are expected to read (without any payment for their time) a great mass of volumes and in order to get through easily with the repugnant task, they declare quite simply and with an air of large knowledge that the whole series must be suppressed.” Valverde prays Sirleto to help him to preserve his own library against the assaults of this “arbitrary and ignorant omnipotence.”[141]