THE recent review (April 10) of Peter Levi's book The Frontiers of Paradise: A Study of Monks and Monasteries contains the statement that "The most popular plant book in the Middle Ages was written by Bartholomew the Englishman who was a pupil of the famous Dominican 'dumb ox', Albert the Great of Cologne."
The famous Dominican du. nib ox, however, was not Albert, but his pupil, Thomas Aquinas. It is recorded — and I quote the Catholic Encyclopaedia — that "In the schools Thomas's humility and taciturnity were misinterpreted as signs of dullness, but when Albert had heard his brilliant defence of a difficult thesis, he exclaimed; 'We call this young man a dumb ox, but his bellowing in doctrine will one day resound throughout the world."