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INTRODUCTION

LITEKATURE OF EUROPE,

FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH
CENTURIES.

HENRY HALLAM, F.B.A.S.

BCIBNPBS IH TBE FBBNCB IHgtirOIB.

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1847.

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PREFACE

THE FIRST EDITION.

The advantages of such a synoptical view of literature
as displays its various departments in their simultaneous
condition through an extensive period, and in their
mutual dependency, seem too manifest to be disputed.
And, as we possess little of this kind in our own
language, I have been induced to undertake that to
which I am, in some respects at least, veir unequal, but
which no more capable person, as far as I could judge,
was likely to perform. In offering to the public this
introduction to the literary history of three centuries
— for I cannot venture to give it a title of more pre-
tension — it is convenient to state my general secondary
sources of information, exclusive of the acquaintance I
possess with original writers ; and, at the same time,
by showing what has already been done, and what is
left undone, to furnish a justification of my own under-
taking.

The history of literature belongs to modern, and
chiefly to almost recent times. The nearest approach
to it that the ancients have left us is contained in a
single chapter of Quintilian, the first of the tenth book,
wherein he passes rapidly over the names and characters
of the poets, orators, and historians of Greece and Rome.
This, however, is but a sketch ; and the valuable work
of Diogenes Laertiua preserves too little of chronological
order to pass for a history of ancient philosophy, though
it has supplied much of the materials for all that has
been written on that subject.

* ^ n,gt.cdT:G00glc

In the sixteenth century, the great increase of pub-
lications, and the devotion to learning which distin-
guished that period, might suggest the scheme of a
universal literary history. Conrad Gesner, than whom
no one, by extent and variety of erudition, was more
fitted for the labour, appears to have framed a plan of
this kind. What he has published, the Bibliotheca
Universalis, and the Pandectie Universales, are, taken
together, the materials that might have been thrown
into an historical form ; the one being an alphabetical
catalogue of authors and their writings; the other a
digested and minute Index to all departments of know-
ledge, in twenty-one books, each divided into titles,
with short references to the texts of works on every
head in his comprehensive classification. The order of
time is therefore altogether disregarded. Possevin, an
Italian Jesuit, made somewhat a nearer approach to this
in his Bibliotheca Selecta, published at Rome in 1593.
Though his partitions are rather encyclopsedic than
historical, and his method, especially in the first volume,
is chiefly argumentative, he gives under each chapter a
nearly chronological catalogue of authors, and some-
times a short account of their works.

Lord Bacon, in the second book De augmentis scien-
tiaram, might justly deny, notwithstanding these defec-
tive works of the preceding century, that any real his-
tory of letters had been written ; and he compares that
of the world, wanting this, to a statue of Polypheme
deprived of his single eye. He traces the method of
supplying this deficiency in one of those luminous and
comprehensive passages which bear the stamp of hia
vast mind : the origin and antiquities of every science,
the methods by which it has been taught, the sects and
controversies it has occasioned, the collies and acade-
mies in which it has been cultivated, its relation to
civil government and common society, the physical or
temporary causes which have influenced its condition,
form, in his plan, as essential a part of such a history,
as the lives of famous authors, and the books they have
produced.

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No one has presumed to fill up the outline which
Bacon himself could but sketch; and most part of the
Bcventeenth century passed away with few efforts on the
part of the learned to do justice to their own occupa-
tion ; for we can hardly make an exception .for the
Prodromua HistorlsB Literariffi (Hamburg, 1659) of
Lambecius, a very learned German, who, having framed
a magnificent scheme of a universal history of letters,
was able to carry it no farther than the times of Moses
and Cadmus. But, in 1688, Daniel Morhof, professor
at Kiel in Hplstein, published his well-known Polyhistor,
which received considerable additions in the next age
at the bands of Fabricius, and is still found in every
considerable library.

Morhof appears to have had the method of Possevin
in some measure before his eyes ; but the lapse of a
century, so rich in erudition as the seventeenth, had
prodigiously enlarged the sphere of literary history.
The precise object, however, of the Polj'histor, as the
word imports, is to direct, on the most ample plan, the
studies of a single scholar. Several chapters, that seem
digressive in an historical light, are to be defended by
this consideration. In his review of books in every pro-
vince of literature, Morhof adopts a sufficiently chrono-
logical order; his judgments are short, but usually
judicious; his erudition so copious, that later writers
have freely borrowed from the Polyhistor, and, in many
parts, added little to its enumeration. But he is fur
more conversant with writers in Latin than the modern
languages ; and, in particular, shows a scanty acquaint-
ance with English literature.

Another century had elapsed, when the honour of
first accomplishing a comprehensive synopsis of literary
history in a more regular form than Morhof, was the
reward of Andr&s, a Spanish Jesuit, who, after the dis-
solution of his order, passed the remainder of his life in
Italy. He published at Parma, in different years, from
1782 to 1799, his Origine Progresso e Stato attuale
d' ogni Litteratura. The first edition is in five volumes
quarto ; but I have made use of that printed at Prato,
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1806, in twenty octavo volumes. Andrfes, though a
Jesuit, or perhaps because a Jesuit, accommodated him-
Belf in some measure to the tone of the age wherein his
"book appeared, and is always temperate, and often
candid. His learning is very extensive in surface, and
sometimes minute and curious, but not, generally speak-
ing, profound J his style is flowing, but diffuse and in-
definite ; hia characters of books have a vagueness un-
pleasant to those who seek for precise notions ; his taste
is correct, but frigid ; his general views are not inju-
dicious, but display a moderate degree of luminouaness
or philosophy. This work is, however, an extraordinary
performance, embracing both ancient and modern liter-
ature in its full extent, and, in many parts, with little
asMstance from any former publication of the kind. It
is far better known on the Continent than in England,
where I have not frequently seen it quoted ; nor do I
believe it is commcMi in our private libraries.

A few years after the appearance of the first volumes
of Andr6s, some of the most eminent among the learned
of Germany prcgected a universal history oi modem arts
and sciences on a much larger scale. Lach single pro-
vince, out of eleven, was deemed suffident fw* the
labours of wie man, if they were to be minute and
exhaustive of the subject: among others, Bouterwek
undertook poetry and polite letters ; Bnhle speculative
philosophy ; Kastner the mathematical sciences ; Spren-
gel anatomy and medidne; Ileeren classical philology.
The general survey of the whole seems to have been
assigned to Eichhorn. So vast a scheme was not fully
executed ; but we owe to it some standard works, to
which I have been considerably indebted. Eichhorn
published, in 1796 and 1799, two volumes, intended as
the beginning of a Gleneral History of the Cultivation
and Literature of modem Europe, from the twelfth to
the eighteenth century. But be did not confine himself
within the remoter limit; and his second volume,
especially, expatiates on the dark ages that succeeded
the fall of the Roman empire. In consequence, perhaps,
of this diffusenesSj and also of the abandonment* for

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some reason with which I am iinacquaiiited, of a large
portion of the original undertaking, Eichhorn pro-
secuted this work no farther in its original form. But,
altering slightly its title, he published, some years after-
wards, an independent universal " History of Litera-
ture" from the earliest ages to his own. This is com-
prised in six volumes, the first having appeared in 1805,
the last in 1811.

The execution of these volumes is very unequal.
Eichhorn was conversant with oriental, with theological
literature, especially of his own country, and in general
with that contained in the Latin language. But he seems
to have been slightly acquainted with that of the mo-
dem languages, and with most branches of science. He
is more specific, more chronological, more methodical
in his distribution than Andres: his reach of know-
ledge, on the other hand, is less comprehensive; and
though I could praise neither highly for eloquence, for
taste, or for philosophy, I should incline to ^ve the
preference in all these to the Spanish Jesuit. But the
qualities above mentioned render Eichhorn, on the
whole, more satisfactory to the student.

These are the only works, as far as I know, which
deserve the name of general histories of literatiire, em-
bracing all subjects, all ages, and all nations. If there
are others, they must, I conceive, be too superficial to
demand attention. But in one country of Europe, and
only in one, we find a national history so comprehen-
sive as to leave uncommemorated no part of its literary
labour. This was first executed by Tiraboschi, a Jesuit
bom at Bergamo, and in his later years, librarian of the
Duke of Modena, in twelve volumes quarto : I have
used the edition published at Home in 1785. It de-
scends to the close of the seventeenth century. In full
and clear exposition, in minute and exact investigation
of facts, Tiraboschi has few superiors ; and such is his
good sense in criticism, that we must regret the sparing
use he has made of it. But the principal object of Ti-
raboschi was biography. A writer of inferior reputa-
tion, Comiani, in his Secoli della litteratura Italiana
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dopo il suo risorgimento, (Brescia, 9 vols., 1804 —
1813,) haa gone more closely to an appreciation of the
numerous writers whom he passes in review before our
eyes. Though his method is biographical, he pursues
sufficiently the order of chronology to come into the
class of literary historians. Comiani is not much
esteemed by his countrymen, and does not rise to a
very elevated point of philosophy ; but his erudition
appears to me considerable, his judgments generally
reasonable ; and his frequent analyses of books give
him one superiority over Tiraboschi.

The Histoire Litt^raire de I'ltalie, by Gingu^n^, is
well known : he had the advantage of following Tira-
boschi; and could not so well, without his aid, have
gone over a portion of the ground, including in his
scheme, as he did, the Latin learning of Italy ; but he
was very conversant with the native literature of the
language, and has, not a little prolixly, doubtless, but
very usefully, rendered much of easy access to Europe,
which must have been sought in scarce volumes, and
was in fact known by name to a small part of the
world. The Italians are ungrateful, if they deny their
obligations to Gingu^n^.

France has, I believe, no work of any sort, even an
indifferent one, on the universal history of her own
literature ; nor can we claim for ourselves a single
attempt of the most superficial kind. Wnrton's History
of Poetry contains much that bears on our general
learning ; but it leaves us about the accesi^on of
Elizabeth.

Far more has been accomplished in the history of
particular departments of literature. In the general
history of philosophy, omitting a few older writers,
Brucker deserves to lead the way. There has been of
late years some disposition to depreciate his laborious
performance, as not sufficiently imbued with a metaphy-
sical spirit, and as not rendering with clearness and
truth the tenets of the philosophers whom he exhibits.
But the Germany of 1744 was not the Germany of
Kant and Fichte ; and possibly Brucker may not have

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proved the worse historian for having known little of
recent theories. The latter ohjection is more material ;
in some instances he seems to me not quite equal to his
sobject. But upon the whole he is of eminent useful-
ness ; copious in his extracts, impartial and candid in
his judgments.

In the next age after Bnicker, the great fondness of
' the German learned both for historical and philoso-
pMcal investigation produced more works of this class
than I know hj name, and many more than I have
read. The most celebrated, perhaps, is that of Tenne-
mann; but of which I only know the abridgement,
translated into French by M. Victor Cousin, with the
title Manuel de I'Histoire de Philosophic. Buhle, one
of the society above mentioned, whose focus was at
Giittingen, contributed his share to their scheme in a
History of Philosophy from the revival of letters. This
I have employed through the French translation in six
volumes. Buhle, like Tennemann, has very evident
obligations to Brucker ; but his own erudition was exten-
sive, and his philosophical acuteness not inconsiderable.
The history of poetry and eloquence, or fine writing,
was published by Bouterwek, in twelve volumes octavo.
Those parts which relate to his own country, and to
Spain and Portugal, have been of more use to me than
the rest. Many of my readers must be acquainted with .
the Litt^rature du Midi, by M. Sismondi; a work
written in that flowing and graceful style which distin-
guishes the author, and succeeding in all that it seeks to
give, — a pleasing and popular, yet not superficial or un-
satisfactory, account of the best authors in the southern
languages. We have nothing historical as to our own
poetry but the prolix volumes of Warton. They have
obtmned, in my opinion, full as much credit as they
deserve : without depreciating a book in which so much
may be found, and which has been so great a favourite
with the literary part of the pubUc, it may be observed
that its errors as to fact, especially in names and dates,
&re extraordinarily frequent, and that the criticism, in
points of taste, is not of a very superior land.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Heeren undertook the history of classical literature;
■ — a great desideratum, which no one had attempted to
supply. But unfortunately he has only given an in-
troduction, carryiog us down to the close of the four-
teenth centuiy, and a history of the fifteenth. These
are so good, that we must much lament the want of the
rest ; especially as I am aware of nothing to fill up the
vacuity. Eichhorn, however, is here of considerable use.

In the history of mathematical science, I have had
recourse chiefly to Montucla, and, as far as he conducts
us, to Kastner, whose catalogue and analysis of mathe-
matical works is far more complete, but his own ob-
servations less perspicuous and philosophical. Portal's
History of Anatomy, and some other books, to which I
have always referred, and which it might be tedious to
enumerate, have enabled me to fill a few pages with
what I could not be expected to give from any original
research. But several branches of literature, using the
word, -as I generally do, in the most general sense for
the knowledge imparted through books, are as yet defi-
cient in any thing that approaches to a real history of
their progress.

The materials of literary history must always be de-
rived in great measure from biographical collections,
those, especially, which intermix a certain portion of cri-
ticism with mere facts. There are some, indeed, which
are almost entirely of this description. Adrian Baillct,
in his Jugemcns des S9avan8, published in 1G85, en-
deavoured to collect the sufirages of former critics on
the merits of all past authors. His design was only
executed in a small part, and hardly extends beyond
grammarians, translators, and poets ; the latter but im-
perfectly. Baillet gives his quotations in French, and
sometimes mingles enough of his own to raise him
above a mere compiler, and to have drawn down the
animosity of some contemporaries. Sir Thomas Pope
Blount is a perfectly unambitious writer of the same
class. His Censura celebriorum autorum, published
in 1690, contains nothing of his own, except a few
short dates of each author's life, but diligently brings

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together the testimonies of preceding critics. Blount
omits no class, nor any age ; his arrangement is nearly
chronological, and leads the reader from the earUest
records of literature to his own time. The polite writers
of modem Europe, and the men of science, do not receive
their full share of attention ; but this volume, though
not, I think, much in request at present, is a very con-
venient accession to any scholar's library.

Bayle'a Dictionary, published in 1697, seems at first
sight an inexhaustible magazine of literary history.
Those who are conversant with it Itnow that it fre-
quently disappoints their curiosity ; names of great emi-
nence are sought in vain, or are very slightly treated ;
the reader is lost in episodical notes perpetually frivo-
lous, and disgusted with an author who turns away at
every moment from what is truly interesting to some
idle dbpute of his own time, or some contemptible in-
decency. Yet the numerous quotations contained in
Bayle, the miscellaneous copiousness of his erudition,
as well as the good sense and acuteness he can always
display when it is his inclination to do so, render his
dictionary of great value, though I think chiefly to
those who have made a tolerable progress in general
literature.

The title of a later work by Pfere Niceron, M^moires
pour servir k I'histoire des hommes iUustres de la ri^pub-
lique des lettres, avec un catalogue raisonn^ de leurs
ouvrages, in forty-three volumes 1 2mo, published at Paris
from 1727 to 1745, announces something rather different
from what it contains. The number of " illustrious men"
recorded by Niceron is about 1600, chiefly of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries. The names, as may
be anticipated, are frequently very insignificant ; and,
in return, not a few of real eminence, especially when
protestant, and above all English, are overlooked, or
erroneously mentioned. No kind of arrangement is
observed ; it is utterly impossible to conjecture in what
volume of Niceron any article will be discovered. A
succinct biography, though fuller than the mere dates
of Blount, is followed by short judgments on the author's

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works, and by a catalogue of thein, far more copious, at
least, than had been given by any preceding bibliogra-
pher. It is a work of much utility ; but the more valu-
able parts have been transfused into later publications.

The English Biographical Dictionary was first pub-
lished in 1761. I speak of this edition with some regard,
from its having been the companion of many youthful
hours ; but it is rather careless in its general execution.
It is sometimes ascribed to Birch ; but I suspect that
Heathcote had more to do with it. After several suc-
cessive enlai^ments an edition of this dictionary was
published in thirty-two volumes, from 1812 to 1817, by
Alexander Chalmers, whose name it now commonly
bears. Chalmers was a man of very slender powers,
relatively to the magnitude of such a work ; but his life
had been passed in collecting small matters of fact, and
he has added much of this kind to British biography.
He inserts, beyond any one else, the most insignificant
names, and quotes the most wretched authorities. But
as the faults of excess, in such collections, are more
pardonable than those of omission, we cannot deny the
value of his Biographical Dictionary, especially as to
our own country, which has not fared well at the hands
of foreigners.

Coincident nearly in order of time with Chalmei-s,
but more distinguished in merit, is the Biographie Uni-
verselle. The eminent names appended to a large pro-
portion of the articles contained in its fifty-two volumes,
are vouchers for the ability and erudition it displays.
There is doubtless much inequality in the performance;
and we are sometimes disappointed by a superficial
notice, where we had a right to expect most. English
literature, though more amply treated than had been
usual on the Continent, and with the benefit of Chol-
mers's contemporaneous volumes, is still not fully appre-
ciated: our chief theological writers, especially, are
passed over almost in silence. There seems, on the
other hand, a redundancy of modern French names ;
those, above all, who have, even obscurely and insigni-
ficantly, been connected with the history of the Reva

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liition ; a fault, if it be one, which is evidently gaining
ground in the supplementary volumes. But I must
apeak respectfully of a work to which I owe so much,
and without which, probably, I should never have un-
dertaken the present.

I will not here characterise several works of more
limited biography; among which are the Bibliotheca
Hispana Nova of Antonio, the Biographia Britannica,
the BibUothfeque Fran9aise of Goujet ; still less is there
time to enumerate particular lives, or those histories
which relate to abort periods, among the sources of
literary knowledge. It will be presumed, and will ap-
pear by my references, that I have employed auch of
them as came within my reach. But I am sensible that,
in the great multiplicity of books of this kind, and espe-
dally in their prodigious increase on the Continent of
late years, many have been overlooked from which I
might have improved these volumes. The press is in-
deed so active, that no year passes without accessions
to our knowledge, even historically considered, upon
aome of the multifarioua subjects which the present
Tolames embrace. An author who waits till all requisite
materials are accumulated to his handa, ia but watching
the stream that will run on for ever ; and though I am
folly sensible that I could have much improved what is
now offered to the public by keeping it back for a longer
time, I should but then have had to lament the impossi-
bility of exhauating my subject. EnoIEl, the modest
phrase of the Grecian sculptors, well expre^es the im-
perfection that attaches to every work of literary industry
or of philosophical investigation. But I have other
warnings to bind up my sheaves while I may, — my own
advancing years, and the gathering in the heavens.

I have quoted, to my recollection, no passage which
I have not seen in its own place ; though I may possibly
have transcribed in some instances, for the sake of con-
venience, from a secondary authority. Without cen-
Buripg those who suppress the immediate source of their
quobatioDB, I may justly say that in nothing I have
given to the public haa it been practised by myself. But

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I have now and then inserted in the text characters of
books that I have not read on the faith of my guides ;
and it may be the case that intimation of this nas not
been always given to the reader.

It is very like^ that omissions, not, I trust, of great
consequence, will be detected ; 1 might in feet say, that
I am already aware of them ; but perhaps these ■will be
candidly ascribed to the numerous ramifications of the
subject, and the necessity of writing in a different order
from that in which the pages are printed. And I must
add that some omissions have been intentional : an accu-
mulation of petty facts, and especially of names to which
little is attached, fatigues unprofitably the attention ; and
as this is very frequent in works that necessarily demand
condensation, and cannot altogether be avoided, it was
desirable to make some sacrifice in order to palliate the
inconvenience. This will be found, among many other
instances, in the account of the ItaUan learned of the
fifteenth century, where I might easily have doubled the
enumeration, but with little satisfaction to the reader,

But, independently of such slighter omissions, it will
appear that a^good deal is wanting in these volumes,
which some might expect in a history of literature.
Such a history has often contained so large a proportion
of biography, that a work in which it appears very scan-
tily or hardly at all, may seem deficient in necessary in-
formation. It might be replied, that the limits to which
I have confined myself, and beyond which it is not easy
perhaps, in the present age, to obtain readers, would not
admit of this extension ; but I may add that any biogra-
phy of the authors of these cfenturies, which is not ser-
vilely compiled from a few known books of that class,
must be far too immense an undertaking for one man,
and, besides its extent and difficulty, would have been
particularly irksome to myself, from the waste of time,
as I deem it, which an inquiry into trifling facts en-
tails. I have more scruple about the omission of extracts
from some of the poets and best writers in prose, without
which they can be judged very unsatisfactorily ; but in
this also 1 have been influenced by an unwillmgness to

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multiply my pages beyond a re^onable limit. But I
have, in some instances, gone more largely into analyses
of considerable works than has hitherto been usual.
These are not designed to serve as complete abstracts,
or to supersede, instead of exciting, the reader's in-
dustry ; but I have felt that some books of traditional
reputation are less fully known than they deserve.

Some departments of literature are passed over, or
partially touched. Among the former are books relating
to particular arts, as agriculture or painting ; or to sub-
jects of merely local interest, as those of English law.
Among the latter is the great and extensive portion of
every libraiy, the historical. Unless where history baa
been written with peculiar beauty of language, or philo-
sophical spirit, I have generally omitted all mention of
it ; in our researches after truth of fact, the number of
books that possess some value is exceedingly great, and ,
would occupy a disproportionate space in such a general
view of literature as the present. For a similar reason,
I ha"ve not given its numerical share to theology.

It were an impertinence to anticipate, for the sake of
obviating, the possible criticism of a public which has
a right to judge, and for whose judgments I have had
so much cause to be grateful, nor less so to dictate how
it should read what it is not bound to read at all ; but
perhaps I may be allowed to say, that I do not wish this
to be considered as a book of reference on particular
topics, in which point of view it must often appear to
disadvantage ; and that, if it proves of any value, it
will be as an entire and synoptical work.

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THE SECOND AND THIRD EDITIONS.

The text of these editions has been revised, and such
errors as the Author detected have been removed.
The few additional notes are distinguished by the dates
of the years 1842 and 1847.

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CONTENTS

THE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

OS TBK SBKERAL STATB G

Retro^tect of Learning in Middle
Agn Decenary . - .

hot* of Letniing in Fall of Ro.
man Empire

Boethiiu — hisConsolationof Phi-
loaophr - . - -

Rapid Decline of Leaning in Sixth
Cenbuy _ - . .

A Portion remuna in the Chnich

Prejudicea of llie Clergy against
Profane Learning

Tbeir Uaefulueaa in preaemng it

Pint Appearancea of reviving
Learning in Ireland and Eng-
land - _ - .

Few ScbooU before the Age of
Cbai^magne ...

Beneficial ESbcta of those eata-
bliahed by him _ . -

The Tenth Century more pK^rea-
live than uually nippoaed

Want of geoitia in the dark Agea

Prevalence of bad Taate -

Deficiency of poetical Talent
VOL. I.

( THE HIDDLB AOEt TO THK EKD

Imperfbct State of Language may

account for thia - - - 1 1
Improvement at B^bning of

Twelfth Century . - 11

Leading CircnmatanceB in Progresa

of Learning . - - 11

Origin of the Univeraity of Paris IS
Modes of treating the Science of

Theology - - - IS

Scholastic Philosophy ; its Ori^n IS
- -- -13

Progress of Scholasticia

crease of Univeraity of Paria -
Univeraitiea founded
Oxford - - - -

Collegiate Fonndationa not derived

from the Saracens
Scholastic PhiloBophy promoted by

Mendicant Friare
Character of thia Philosophy
It prevails least in Italy
Literature in Modem Languages
Origin of the French, fipaniah, and

Italian Language*

lyGOOgIC-

CONTENTS.

Comiption of coUoquul Latin in

the Loww Empire
Continuance of Latin in Seventh

Century - - _ .

It it changed to a new Language

in Eighth and Ninth -
Early Specimen! of French
Poem on Boethius - - -

Italy - - . -

French of Eleventh Century
Metrei of Modem Lsngoagei
Origin of Rhyme in Latin
Provencal and French Poetry
Metrical Romancea. Havelok the
Dane . _ . .

XNS^Eion of French Language -
German Poetry of Swabian Period
Decline of German Poetry
Poetry of Prance and Spain
Early Italian Language
Dante and Petrarch
Change of Anglo-Sason to English
Layiunon - - - -
Progteas of Ei^i^ Langn^
Englieh of the Fourteenth Century.

Chancer. Gower
General Dimie of French in Eng-
land . _ . -
State of European Langnaget about

1400
Ignorance of Readii^' and Wri-
ting in darker Ages
Beaaona for luppoaing this to have

diminished after 1100 -
Increued Knowiedge of Writing

in Fonrteenth Century -
Avenge Slate of Knowledge in

England - -
Invention of Paper
Linen Paper, when flnt lued
Cotton Paper ...

Linen Paper aa old ■£ 1100
Known to Peter of Clugni
And in Twelfth and Thirleentli
Centniiea - - - -
Paper of mixed Materials

Invention of Paper placed by eome

too low -
Not at flrat very Important
Importance of Legal Studies
Roman Laws never wholly un-

Irnerios ; hie firat Sncceaaors

Their Glosaea

Ahrii^;enients of Law, AcenninH'i

Corpui GloBtatmn
Character of early Jniiata
Decline of Jurists after Accuruue
Respect paid to him at Bologna -
Scholaitic Jurista. Bartolns
Inferiority of Juristi in Four.

Ifenth and Fifteenth Centuriea
Classical Literature and Taste in

dark Ages _ - - •
ImpTovement in Tenth and Ele-
venth Centuriea - - -
Lanfranc, and bia Schools
Italy. Vocabulary of Papiaa
Influence of Italy upon Europe -
Increased copying of Manuscripla
John of Salisbury - ~ .
Improvement of Clanical Taste

in Twelfth Century
Influence of increaaed Number of

Clergy - - . .

Decline of Classical Literature in

Thirteenth Century
Relapse into Barbariam
No Improvement in Fourteenth

Century - - - .
Richard of Bury _ - .
Library formed by Charles V. at

Paris . _ - .

Some Improvement In lUly during

Thirteenth Centnry
Catholicon of Bslbi

Characur of bis Style
His Latin Poetry -
John of Ravenna .
Gasparin of Barsisa

lyCOOglC

CONTENTS.

on TH« LITBBUITRB 01

F
Zeil for Cluiieal Literature in luly
Poggio BncrioUni - - -
LadD Style of that Age iDdifferent
Gaaparin of Buxiia
Menu of hii Style - - -

Victorin of Feltre - . -

Leonard Aretin - _ -

ReriTal of Greek Languige in
Italy - - - -

Early Greek Scbolan of Europe -
Under Chariemague and his Sue-
In the Tenth and Eleventh Cen-

In the Twelfth

In the Thirteenth - - -

Little Appearance of it in the

Fourteenth Century
Some traces of Greek in Italy -
Corrnption of Greek Language

itaelf - _ - .

Character of Byaantine Literature
Fetruch and Boccace learn Greek
Few acquainted with theLangnage

in their Time . - -

It it tanght by Chryaoloraa about

1395 ....

Hia Diaciplea • - - .
Trantlaticnisfrom Greek into Latin
PnUic Encouragement delayed . ]
But fully accorded before 1440-1
Emigration of learned Greeks to

Italy 1

Catuei of Enthiuiaini for Anti*

qnity in Italy • - . ]
Advanced Sute of Society - - 1
Esdnuve Study of Antiquity . ]
Claaical Learning in France low 1
Unch more lO in England - 1
Idbniry of Duke of Glouceiter - 1
Gerard Groot'BCdIege at Derenter 1
Phydcal Sciencea in Middle Agei 1
AralMan Ntunerals and Metbod - ]
Proof* of them in Thirteenth Cen-
tury :

Hitbematical Tieatiae*

r EusopB ntOH 1400 to 1440.

Page

Roger Bacon -
Hii Resemblance to Lord Bacon IIS
English Mathematicians of Four-
teenth Century - • • IIS
Aitronomy - - - - 114

Alcbemy .... 114

Medicine - - - - 115

Anatomy - • - - 115

Encyclopedic Worka of Middle

Ages - - - - 116

Vincent of Beauvaia - • 1 16

Berchorine - - - - 117
Spanifib Ballads - - - 118
Metres of Spiniah Poetry - - 118

Consonant and aasonant Rhymes ] 20
Nature of the Gloaa - - - 120
The Cancionero General • - 121
Bouterwek's Character of Spanish

Songs - - - - 122

John II. - . - - 188

Poets of bis Conrt ... 123
Charles Duke of Orleans • - 123
English Poetry - - •124

Lydgite .... 1S4

James I. of Scotland - - 1S5

Restoration of Classical Learning

due to Italy - - . 125

Character of CIbssIcbI Poetry lost 126
New Scbods of Criticiini on mo-
dem Languages ... 1S7
Efiect of Chivalry on Poetry - 1S7
Effect of Gallantry towards Wo-
men - - - -* - 128
Its probable Origin - - . 1S8
It is not shown in old Teutonic
Poetry ; but appears in the
Stories of Arthur • - - 1 29
Romances of Chivalry of two

Kinds - - - - 130

Effect of Difibrence of Religion

upon Poetry - . _ 131

General Tone of Romance - - 1S3
Popular Moral Fictions - - ]Si
Exclusion of PoUtict from LiCera-

Religioua Opini<

■ 133
. 134

,;, Google

CONTENTS.

Attacks OD the Church - - 134
Three Linei of religioua Opinion

in Fifteenth Century - - 135
TreMiae de Iroitatione Cliristi ■ 1S6
Sceptidwn. Defences of Chriiti-

tnity - - - - - 1S8

Page
Raimond d« Sebonde • - 1S8

Hia Views misondentood - • 189
Hia real Otyect - - - 1»9
Nature of hia Argumeuta - - 140

The year 1440 not dioaen as an

Epoch - - - - 14a

Continnal Pn^ress of Learning - 148
Nicolas V. - - - - 142
Jiutice due to his Cbaracter - 143

Poggio on the Huina of Rome - 1 44
Account of the East bj Conti - 144
Laureutius Vails - - - 144
His Attack on the Court of Rome 145
Hia Treatise on the Latin Language 145
lu Defects - - - .146
Heeren'a Praise of it - - 146

Valla's Annotations on the New

Testament - - ■ . 147
Freah Arrival of Greeks in Italy 147
Platonists and Ariatotelians - 148

Their Controvera; . - . 148
MaraiJiua Ficinoa . - . I49
Invention of Printing - - 150
Block Books - - - .150
Outenbarg and Coitar's Clainu • 150
Progress of the Invention - - 151

First printed Bible - . - 152
Beaut; of the Book - - - 153

Early prinTcd Sheets - - 154

Psalter of 1459. Other early BcMka 155
Bible of Pflater - - - 155
Greek first taught at Paris - 155

Leave unwillingly granted • •156
Furbach; his Mathematical Dis-
coveries - - - - 156
Odier Mathematicians - - 157
Fn^^resa of Printing in Germany 158
Introduced into France • - 159
Caxton's first Works - - 159

Printing exercised in Italy • 159

Lorenio de' Medici _ - - I6O
ItaliasPoetryofFifteenthCentury 16O

Italian Prose of same Age • • I6I
Giostra of Politian - • - 16I
Paul II. persecutes the Learned - 169
Msthias Corvinua - - - 163
His Library - . . - |63
Slight Signs of Literature in Eng-
land 163

Psston Letters • - .165

Low Condiiion of pnldic Libraries I66

Rowley I66

Clotilde <le Surville - - - 167
Number of Books printed in Italy 167
First Greek printed - - • 168
Study of Antiquities - • I68

Works on that Sul^ect - - I69
Publications in Germany - - 170
In France - - - - 170
In England, by Caxton • - 171
In Spain .... .171

Translations of Scripture > - 172
Revival of Literature in Spain .172
Character of Lebrixa - - 173

Library of Lorenao - - - 174
Claasiea corrected and explained - 174
Character of Lorenio - -175
Prospect from his Villa at Fiesole 176
Platonic Academy - - . 177
Dispotationea Camaldulenaes of

Landino .... 178
Pbiloaophical Dialogues - • 178
Paulus Cortesiui - - - 179

Schools in Germany . . 179

Study of Greek at Paris . . 183

Controversy of Realists and Nomi.

lalists

■ I8S

Scotu*

Ockham . . . - 184

Nominalists in University of Paris 1 84

t: Go Ogle

r^w State of Learning in Et^and 1 85
Hathematics - • . "

R^UMDontaniu - - - 1S6
Aitt of Delineation - - - :

1 lUly

Ge^raph; - . . -
Greek printed JD Italy
Hebrew printed
Miacellaniea of PoUtiaii
Their Character, b; Heeren
Hia Venion of Herodiaa -
Cornucopia of Ferotti
Latin Poetry of Politian -
Italian Poetry of Lorenzo -
Puici . - - - -
Character of Morgante Maggiore
Platonic Theobgy of Picinus
Doctrine of Ayerroea on the Soul
OppoKd by Ficinua - . -
Deniie of Man to explore Mysteries
Variona Methoda employed
ReaiK>n and Inipiration
Extended Infereuoes from Sacred
Books ....

Confidenoe in Traditions -
Confidence in Indifidnals aa in-

Jewish Cabbala . . .

Picus of Mirandola > - -
Hii CrednUly in the Cabbala -
Hia literary Performances
State of Learning in Germany .
Agrirala ....

Rbenish Academy - ' -
Renchhn ....

French Language and Poetry
Eoiopean Drama
Latin .....
Otfeo of Politian - - -

Origin of Dramatic Myaleriea
Th«r early Stage - - -
Extant English Mysteries -
FitM JPrench Theatre
Theatrical Machinery
Italian Religions Dramas -
HoraUtica . . _ .
Farce* . . . . -
Mathematical Worka

Leo BapiisU Albertl

Lionardo da Vinci -

Aldine Greek Editions

Decline of Learning

HermolaUB Barbarua

Mantuan - . , .

Pontanns . -. _ _

NeapaUtan Academy

Boiardo - - . - _

Character of hia Poem

Francesco Bdlo _ . .

Italian Poetry near the End of
the Century ...

ProgT^Bs of Learning in France
and Germany ...

Erasmus ....

His Diligence - - - -

Budcue ; his early Studiea

Latin not well written in France

Dawn of Greek Learning in Eng-
land -----

Erasmus cornea to England

He publiBhes his Adages -

Romantic Ballada of Spain

Pastoral Romances - . .

Portuguese Lyric Poetry -

German popular Books

Historical Works ...

Philip de Comines ...

Evenla from 1490 to 1500
Close of Fifteenth Century
Its Literanire nearly neglected -
Summary of its Acquiaitiona
Their Imperfection . - -

Kumber of Books printed
Advantages already reaped from
Printing . _ - -
Trade of Bookselling
Books sold by Printers
Price of Books - . .

Form of Books - . -

Exclusive Privileges
Power of Univeraitiea over Book.

Restraints on Sale of printed Books
Effect of Printing on the Reform-

lyGOOglC

Dediae of Learning in Ilalj

Pren of Aldna . . _

HU Academy - - . -

Dictionary of Calepio

Books printed in Germuiy

Fint Greek Pkbs at Paris -

Early Studies of Melancbthon -

Learning in England

Erasmus and BuiJKus

Study of Eastern Language*

Dramatic Works

Calisto and MelibtEA

IlG Character - - - .

Juan de la Enzina - - •

Arcadia of Sannaizaio

Aaolani of Bembo - . -

Anatomy of Zerbi ...
Voyages of Cadamosto
Leo X., his Patronage of Letters
Roman Gymnasiiun . - -
Latin Poetry ... -

Italian Tragedy . . -

Sopbonisba of Trissino
Rosmnnda of Rncellu
Comedies of Arioato . . -
Books printed in Italy
Ctelius Rbodiginns . • .
Greek-printed in France and Oer-
many - - - . -
Greek Scholars in these Countries
Colleges at Alcala and Louvain -
Latin Style in France
Greek Bcholars in England
Mode of teaching in Schools
Few Classical Works printed here
State of Learning in Scotland
Utopia of More ...

:oPB FBOH 1500 TO 1520.

Its InconsLBteDcywitti hisOpinions
Learning restored in France
Jealousy of Erasmus and Budteus
Character of Erasmus
His Adages severe on Kings
Instances in Illustration
His Greek Testament
Patrons of Letters in Gennany -
Renstance to Learning
Unpopularity of the Monks
The Book excites Odium
Erasmus attacks the Monks
Their Contention with Reucblin .
Origin of the Reformation
Popularity of Luther
Simultaneous Reform by Zwingle
Reformation prepared beforehand
Dangerous Tenets of Lulber
Real Explanation of them -
Orlando Fuiioso ...
Its Popularity - - - .
Want of Seriouiuess - . .

A Continuation of Boiardo
In some Points inferior
Beauties of its Style - - -
Accompanied with Faults -
Its Place as a Poem . _ -
Aroadis de Gaul . - -
Gringore _ . - .
Hans Sachs - _ - -
Stephen Hawes . . -
Change in En^sh Language
Skelton . . . - .
Oriental Languages - - -
Pomponatins - • - .
Raymond Lully . . .

His Method - - - -

Peter Martyr's Epistles

t INOIKNT MTBRATVKB

CHAP. V.

■UROPB FROM 15S0 TO 1550.

Superiority of Italy in Taste
Admiration of Antiquity .
Sadolet ....

I BeiDbo SSS

Ciceronianns of Erasmus • - S%S
\ Scaliger's Inveclire against it - SiS

lyGOOgIC

CONTENTS.

XXUl

Edidona of Cicero - - - S
Aleunder th Alexandra - - 3
Worka on Roman Antiquitiea • 3
Greek kai itudied in Italy - - 3
School* of CUucal Learning - S
Budmu ; his CommentarieB on

Greek . . . . S

Iti Chancter - - - S

Greek Graminais and Lexicona - S
Editions of Greek Author* - S

Latin Thewinis of R, Stephens S
Progrcaa of Learning in ^ancc £
Learning in Spain - - - £
Effida of Reformation on Learning i
Stunn'a Account of German Schoola i
Learning in Germsnj - - i

Page

Id England. Linacre • • 338
LectorH in the Univeriitiea - 339
Greek perbapa taught to Boya - 339
Teaching of Smith at Cambridge S40
Succeeded bj Cheke - - 841

Aachant'i Character of Cambridge 941
Wood'a Account of Oxford - 342

Education of Edward and hiaKatera 343
The Prt^jreaa of Learning ia atill

alow - - . . . 343
Want of Books and public Librt-

riei 344

Deatmction of Monaateriea no In-
jury to Learning ... 345
Ravisiug Textor ... 346
Conrad Geaner ... 347

F TBEOLOOIDAI. LITEHATURH t

Pragma of the Reformation - 348
Interference of Civil Power - S4S

Excitementof reTolutionary Spirit 350
Growth of Fanaticism - - 350
Diffbrencea of Luther and Zwingle 351
Confeasion of Augabnig . - S5S
Coodnct of Erasmus - - 553

SS4
356
357

358

359

- 359

His Controveny with Lnther
Character of hia Epiitln -
Bi* Alienation Arom the Reform-

Appeal of the Reformers to the

Ignorant . _ . .

Parallel of those Times with tht!

iDcreased Dififerencea among Re-
formers - - - - S6l
BefNiDed Tenets spread in Eng-

lud 363

In Italy 363

Italian Heterodoxy . - - 364
Iti Progress in the literary Claaaea 365

•B ntoK 1520 TO 1550.

Servetna - - - • St

Arianiam in Italy - - - 3(
Protcatanls in Spain and Low

Countriea - - - . 3f

Order of JeauitB • • -St

Their Popularity • - -St
Council of Trent - • - 36
Its chief Difficulties - - - 37
Character of Luther - - - 81
Theological Writinga. Erasmua 37
Melanchthon. Romiah Writers - 37
Thia Literature nearly forgotten 87
Sermons - - - - 37

Spirit of the Reformation • .37
limits of private Judgment - 37
Paaaions iDstrnmenial in Reform-

Establiahment of new
Editions of Scripture
Translations of Scripture •
English - . . -
In Italy and Low Countriea
Latin Translations -
French Tranalations -

• 878

- S79

- 379

lyGOOgIC

Logic included under ihia Hetd 383

-398

Perei d' Oliva

- 398

phy - . - .

383

EthioJ Writings of Erainiiis and

- 399

384

Sir T. Elyot's Governor -

. 400

384

Severity of Educatimi

- 400

Attack of Viraa on Scholastics

885

He seemi to avoid PoUtici

- 401

Contempt of them in England

385

Nicholas Muihiavel -

. 402

Veneration for Aristotle -

3S5

His Motives ui writing The Prince 403

Melanchthon countenances him

386

Some of hU Rules not immoral

- 403

387

- 404

AriBtotelisns of Italy

887

Its only PallUtion -

- 405

Uniyeniity of Paria -

S88

- 405

New L<^ic of Ramus

388

Their leading Principle. -

- 406

389

Their Use and Influence -

- 407

Its Meiita and Character -

390

Hia History of Florence -

. 407

Bohle's Account of it

390

Treatises on VeneUan Government 408

890

Calvin's Political Principles

- 408

398

Jurisprudence conBoed to Roman

And Extravagancies -

39S

Uw -

- 409

Cornelias A^ppa -

392

The laws not well arranged

- 409

Hid pretended PhiloMphy .

393

Adoption of the entire System

- 410

Hia wepticiJ TreariBC

394

Utility of general Learning

CardKj . , . .

394

Lawyers . . -

. 410

395

Alciati; his Reform of Law

. 411

Cortegiano of CutiglLone •

395

- 412

Marco Aurelio of Guevara

896

Agustino

- 418

CHAP

VIIL

HISTOHT OF TBB LITBRATDRB

OF lAW

B IN ECROPH, FKOM X5S0 TO

1550.

Poetry of Bembo - -

413

Saa di Miranda

- 420

Its Beautiea and Defects -

414

Ribeyro- - - -

. 420

Character of Italian Poetry

414

French Poetry

- 421

Alamtnni

415

Marot ....

• 421

Vlttoria Colonna -

415

Their metricd Structure -

- 481

Satires of Ariorto and Alamann

415

German Poetry

. 488

Alamanni ' - . .

416

Hans Sachs -

- 488

Rucellai-

416

German Hymns r

. 4S3

Triisino

416

Theuerdanks of Pfintiing -

- 423

Bemr ....

416

English Poetry. Lyndsay

- 4S3

Spanish Poets •

4X8

Wyatt and Surrey -

- 424

418

Dr. Nott's Character of them

- 425

419

Perhaps ntther exiggetated

- 486

lyCOOglC

CONTENTS.

Surrey impfare* onr VcrnflMtion 4S7
iDtrodncea Blank Vent - - 427
Dr. Nott'g HTpolheds •■ to his

Metre - - - - 4«7

But KciDB too exteoBTe - - 428
Pditenen of Wyatt Mid Snney 439
Lada Portrj . - . - 430
Sannaikriut . - - - 450

Vid» 4S0

Fncaatorina - . - - 4S1
Latin Vene not to be dwUined - 431
Other Latin Poeli in Italy - 438

Id Germany - - - - 432
Italian Comedy - - - 433
MaehiaTd - - - - 433
Areiin - - - - - 433
Tragedy ■ - - - 434

Sperone - • - - - 434

Cinthio 4S4

Spanish Drama ... 4S5
ToREB MahaiTO . . - 435
Lope da Rueda - - - 435
GU Vicente - - - - 4S6

Mystrriea and Moraliliea in Fiance 437
Gennan Theatre. Hana Sachs - 4S8

P»Ke
Moralities and limilar Playi in

England - - - - 438
They are turned to religious Sa-
tire 439

Latin Plays - - - - 440

Pint En^idi Comedy - - 441

Bomancea of Chivalry - - 442

NoveU 442

Rabelais - - • - 443

Contest of Latin and Italian Lan-
guages . - _ . 444
Influence of Bembo in this - 445

Apology for Latinists - • 445

Character of the Controveray - 446
Life of Bembo - - - 446

Character of Italian and Spanish

Style 447

Ei^ah Writers - - - 447
More • - - - .447
Ascham - • - _ - 448
Italian Criddam - . - 443

Bembo 448

Grammarian! and Cridca in France 449
Orth<%raphy of Meigret - - 450
Cox's Art of Rhetoric - - 450

CHAP. IX.

lUSOELLAMEOUS UTaKATUBE OP EUROFB PBOK

1520 TO 1550.

Geometrical Tmtises

- 452

Fate of VesaUus

. 463

Fernel - - . -

- 452

- 463

Rhffidcns

- 453

Imperfection of the Science

-463

Cardan and TariagUa

- 453

- 464

- 453

Ruel - - - -

- 464

Beauty of the Discovery -

- 454

Fuchs . - - .

- 465

- 455

Matthioli

- 465

Imperfeedona of algebraic

Lin-

Low State of Zoology

- 465

piage

- 457

Agricol. - - -

- 466

CopemicoB -

. 457

Hebrew

- 467

ReviTal of Greek Medicine

- 459

EUas Levita. Pellican -

-467

Linacie and other Pbysidani - 4S9

Arabic and Oriental Literature

- 468

Medical Innovators -

- 460

Gec^raphy of Gryncus

- 468

Parscelsns

- 4«0

Apianus . - .

- 469

Anatomy . - .

- 461

Munater ...

-469

- 461

Voyage. - - -

- 470

Vesalius

- 461

Oviedo - . -

- 470

Portal's Account of him -

- 462

Historical Works -

- 470

His human IHssections •

- 462

- 471

lyGoogIc —

CONTENTS.

P.gB

The; pay t^uA to the Language 471
Their foiidneu for Fetmrch • 472

They become Quinerous - • 472
Th^ Diidnctioiia • - - 473

EtiIb connected wilh tbein - 473

Tbey sacceed less in Gennaoy • 473
Libntriea _ - - - 474

PART n.

ON TnB LIT&BATDRE OP THE LATTER HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTCItY.

CHAPTER I.

UlSTOBT OP ANCIENT I.ITEKATDRS ly EDBOE

, MOM 1560 TO 1600.

Pn^WW of Philology - - 477

Pint Edition! of Cluiics - - 477

Change in Character of Learning 479

* Cultivation of Greek • - 481

Principal Scholan: Taracboa • 481

PetruB VicloriuB ... 483

Mnretui - ~ . - 483

Grater'i Thesaimia Critical - 484
Edidon* of Greek and Latin An-

tfaon . . - ~ • 4SS

Tacitua of Lipdua - . - 486

Horace of LainlunaE - • 486

Of Cniquitu • - - - 488

Henry Stepheui - - - 488

Lexicon of Conitantin - - 489

ThesBurai of Stephena • - 491

Abridged by Scapula - - 491

Helleniamas of Caniniui • • 49S

Vei^ara's Gnmroar • • - 493
Graniioara of Itaniua and Sylbur-

giug 494

Caraenriua, Canter, Robortellus 495

Editions by Sylbnrgius - - 497

Neander - - - - 497

Gesner 498

Decline of Taate in Germany - 49^

German Learning . - . 500

Greek Veraea of Rhodoroann - 500

Learning declinea . . - 50O

Except in Catholic Germany - 501

Philological Works of Stephena 502

Style of Lipsiui ... 503

Minerva of Sanctius - - 50S

OratioHB of MuretUB - - 504

Fan^yric of RuhakeDioB - - 504

DefectB of his Style ...
Epiitlei of ManutiuB
Care of the Italian Latiniita
PerpinianuSj Osoriui, MaphsuB •
Buchanan, Haddon . - -

SingoniuB, De ConBolatione
Decline of Taate and Learning in
Itdy

506
506
507
508

509
Joseph Scaliger - • - 510
luac CasBubon - . .511
General Remit - - - 512

Learning in England under Ed-
ward and Mary - - - 513
ReTiTal under Elizabeth - - 5t3
Greek LecturcB at Cambridge - 514
Few Greek Editions in England - 515
School Books enumerated - - 516
Greek taught in Schools - - 516
Greek better known after 1580 - 517
Editions of Greek - . -518
And of Latin ClasBics - - 519

Learning lower tlian in Spain •519
Improvement at the End of the

Century - - _ - 520
Learning in Scotland - - 5Sr

Latin little uaed in Writing - 521
Early Works on Antiquities - 528

F. Manutini on Roman Lbwb - 523
Manutius, De Civitate • - 523
Panvinius. Sigonius - • 524

Gruchius - - - -525

Sigonius on Athenian Polity - 526
Patrizii and Lipsius on Roman

Militia _ _ . . 526
Lipsiua and other Antiquaries - 527

lyGOOgIC

CONTENTS.

KXVU

P«ge

P«g=

Savile OD Roman MUitia -

- 538

Scaliger'a Chronol<«y

530

- S-iS

Julian Period -

531

Mytbologx - - -

- 529

CHAP. II.

HMramT or tdboumioai. LinsBATUitB in Europe, prom 1550 to 1€00.

IHet of Aogibuifc in 1555

- 533

Aconcio - - - -

556

- 533

Minus CeUue, Koombert -

557

It> Canoes -

- 53*

558

W«Tering of Catholic Prince*

- 535

Desertion of Lipaiu.

559

Extingnubed in Italy

- 535

Jewell's Apology

559

AndSpdn -

- 536

English TheologianB

S60

Rewtion of Catholidly •

- 5S6

BeUarmin . - . .

56t

Efl)eciaUy in Germany

- 587

5f>2

- 537

It tumg on Papal Power ^

562

Inflaence of Jesnita -

- 538

This upheld by the Jesnita

563

Their Progreai

- 538

Claim to depose Princes -

563

Thdr College*

- 539

Bull against Elizabeth

56*

Jeniit Seminary at Rome -

- 539

And Henry IV.

564

Patronage of Gregory Xm.

- 540

Deposing Power owned iu Spain

565

Conrereiontin Germany and France 641

565

Caoaea of thU Revival

- 542

Methods of Theological Doctrine

566

A rigid Party in the Church

- 543

Loci Communes ...

566

Ila Ufibrta at Trent -

- 544

In the Protestant

566

- 545

And Catholic Church

567

Conmltation of Cusander -

■ 546

Catharin

567

Bigotry of Proteatant Churchei

- 547

Critical and Expository Writinge

568

Tenet* of Mdancfathott -

- 548

Ecclesiastical Historians -

568

A Party boslUe to him

- 549

Le Clerc'B Character of them -

.569

Form of Concord, 1576 -

- 549

Deistical Writers -

570

- 550

Wierus, De Pitestigiit

571

Tnatiae of Molina on Free-wiU

- 551

Soot on Witchcraft -

571

Protestant Teneta -

- 551

Authenticity of Vulgate •

578

- 552

Latin Vetsions and Editions bj

- 555

Catholics -

572

Csstalio-

- 555

By Protestants ...

573

AMkswered by Beza *

- 556

t: Go Ogle

lyGOOgIC

INTRODUCTION

LITERATUHE OF EUROPE

IN THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

OS THE -UTEBATDBE OF THE FIFTEENTH AND FIBST
HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURT.

CHAPTER I.

OH THE GENEBAt 8TATB OF LTIERATDRB IN THE UIDDLE AOEa
TO THE EMD OF THE FODRTEEMTH CEHTDKT.

Lolt <£aneienl Leanung hi ike FaU of the Roman Empire — Jfrri Symptoms of
iU Revival— ImprovenienI in ike Twelfth Century — Univeriiti^i and Sc/io-
tailic Plalotophi/ — Of^giii of Modem Language! — EaHi) Poelri/ — Pro.
venpil, French, German, and Spmiitk — Eng/isk Language and LUeralure —
Increate of Etrmnitart/ Knowledge — IniieiiiioB of Paper — Romati Jurii-
pntdevce — CuUivalion of Clauieal Lilerature — Hi Decline after the Tuielfth
Century — Leu vitible ia Ilafy — Petrarch,

1. Although the subject of these volumes does not
comprehend the hterary history of Europe, anterior R„„,p,^of
to tiie commencement of the fifteenth century, a mbuii'?Sg"i
period as nearly coinciding as can be expected in any '"'™"'-
arbitrary division of time, with what is usually denominated
the revival of letters, it appears necessary to prefix such a
general retrospect of the state of knowledge for some pre-
ceding ages, as will illustrate its subsequent prepress. In this,
however, the reader is not to expect a regular history of
mediffival literature, which would be nothiag less than the

VOL. I. B /-- f

n,gtr7ccT:C00glC

g LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtI.

extension of a scheme already, perhaps, too much heyond my
powers of execution.*

2. Every one 19 well aware, that the establishment of the
i^„ ot barbarian nations on the ruins of the Roman empire
f"f5ti?o™ in the West, was accompanied or followed by an
'"'^"' almost universal loss of that learning which had
been accumulated in the Latin and Greek languages, and
which we call ancient or classical ^ a revolution long pre-
pared by the decline of taste and knowledge for several pre-
ceding ages, but accelerated by public calamities in the fifth
century with overwhelming rapidity. The last of the
ancients, and one who forms a link between the classical
period of literature and that of the middle ages, in which
Bo«>hiiH- h^ ^^ ^ favourite author, is Boethius, a man of
»'«i™'rf fine genius, and interesting both from his character
Phii^ophT- ^^^ jjjg ^g^jjj^ jj J3 ^ygii |(„o„n^ that, after filling
the dignities of Consul and Senator in the court of Theodoric,
he fell a victim to the jealousy of a sovereign, from whose
memory, in many respects glorious, the stain of that blood
has never been effaced. The Consolation of Philosophy, the
chief work of Boetliius, was written in his prison. Few
books are more striking from the circumstances of their pro-
duction. Last of the classic writers, in style not impure,
though displaying too lavishly that poetic exuberance which
had distinguished the two or three preceding centuries, in
elevadon of sentiment equal to any of the philosophers, and
mingling a Christian sanctity with their lessons, he speaks
from his prison in the swan-like tones of dying eloquence.
The philosophy that consoled him in bonds, was soon re-
quired in the sufTerings of a cruel death. Quenched in his
blood, the lamp he had trimmed with a skilful liand gave no
more light ; the language of Tully and Virgil soon ceased to
be spoken ; and many ages were to pass away, before learned
diligence restored its purity, and the union of genius with
imitation taught a few modem writers to surpass in eloquence
the Latinity of Boethius.

• The subject uf llie rollowing chap- tberessid: the reader, if heisaciiuninted

tcr hne been alrend; treated by cne in vitli ttiose lolumes, ma; considur the

another work, the Ilistur; oF Euiope ensuing pages partly at supplemental,

during the Middle Ages. I haie not and partly aa correcting the former where

thought it aecMory U> lapcat all that ia tbrj contain may thing inconniteot

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chac. L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 3

3. The downfall of teaming- and eloquence, after the death
of Boethius in d24, was inconceivably rapid. His R,„y,>pcii™
contemporary Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville, and fniliHh'"*
Martianus Capella, the earliest, but worst, of the "'""'''■
three, by very indifierent compilations, and that eocyclo-
pedic method which Heeren observes to be an usual concomi-
tant of declining literature, superseded the use of the great
ancient writers, with whom, indeed, in the opinion of
Meiners, they were themselves acquainted only through
simitar productions of the fourth and fifth centuries. Isidore
speal<9 of the rhetorical works of Cicero and Quintilian as
too diffuse to be read.* The authorities upon which they
founded their scanty course of grammar, logic, and rhetoric,
were chiefly obscure writers, no longer extant. But them-
selves became the oracles of the succeeding period, wherein
tlie trivium and quadrivium, a course of seven sciences, In-
troduced in the sixth century, were taught from their jejune
treatises, t

4. This state of general ignorance lasted, with no very
sensible difference, on a superficial view, for about

five centuries, during which every sort of know- rfmKin. m
ledge was almost wholly confined to the ecclesias-
tical order. But among them, though instances of gross
ignorance were exceedingly frequent, the necessity of pre-

• Mcioera, Vergleichung der utUn, " Guamh. lonuituri Di*. »era docet j

Sx. d» miltclalten mit denen unscn R»et. vErba culurat; Mve. cniilt; An.

JihrbundErti, 3 to1«. Hanoter, 1T93. numeTal ; Gio. ponderatj Abt. colic

Vol iL p. 333. Eicb)iora, AlUgemeine islra."

Gcwhichle der Cullur und LUteriitiir, But raott of Iliese sciences, m such,

lol. ii. p. SS. Heeren, Gescliichte dea were liardly Uuglil at all. Hie arilh.

nudiiimderclaBsiKhcnLilteratuT, Gol- mellc. for insUnce, of CBSsi«li>riis or

tingen, 1797. Th*« thrsB books, wilh Capella, is iiolhing but a few defiuiiions

the Hiitoire Liltiraire lie la France, mingled with auper!.titiouB absurditie*

Bnicket'i Hijlory of Philoaopliy, Tur. about ilie virtues of certain numbera and

Dcr'a and llenry'i Histurlei of England, figuies. Kleiners, ii. 339. K^lner, Ge-

Mnnton'i 13d DUsertation, Tiraboschi, tcbichte der Mathetnatik, p. S.
■Dd KHne few others, wbo will appear in The arithmetic of Casuodorus oceti.

the note*, ara iny chief authorities for piei little more than two folio pages, and

the dark agn. But none, in arery abort doei not contain one woidof the common

Compui. it equal to the third discourse of rules. The geometry is much the same ;

Fleury, in the I3th volume of tlie ISmo. in two pages we have some defiuitions

•dilionofbii Ecckaiaslical History. and axioms, but nolhing further. Ilia

f The trivium eoDtained (>ramm8r, logic is longer and better, extending to

logic, and rhetoric; the quadrivium, iiiteen folio psges. The grsmmur is

BriLhmetic, geometry, music, and astto. very short and trifling, the rhetoric the

■oniy, as in theite two lines, framed to game.
■aiiBi the memory ; —

lyGOOgIC

■i LITERATUKK OF EUROPE [PaetI.

serving the Latin languagej in which tlie Scriptures, the
canons, and otlier authorities of the church, and the regular
liturgies were written, and in which alone the correspond-
ence of their well-organised hierarchy could be conducted,
kept flowing, in the worst seasons, a slender but living
stream ; and though, as has been observed, no great differ-
ence may appear, on a superficial view, between the seventh
aud eleventh centuries, it would easily be shown that, after
the first prostration of learning, it was not long in giving
signs of germinating afresh, and that a very slow and gradud
improvement might be dated farther back than is generally
believed.*

5. Literature was asswled in its downfall by enemies from

within as well as from without. A prepossession
thecetty" against secular learning had taken hold of those
iH^rane ecclesiastics who gave the tone to the rest j it was

inculcated in the most extravagant degree by
Gregory I., the founder, in a great measure, of the papal
supremacy, and the chief authority in the dark agest ; it is
even found in Alcuin, to whom so much is due, and it gave
way very gradually in the revival of literature. In some of
the monastic foundations, especially in that of Isidore, though
himself a man of considerable learning, the perusal of hea-
then authors was prohibited. Fortunately Benedict, whose
order became the most widely diffused, while he enjoined his
brethren to read, copy, and collect books, was silent as to
their nature, concluding, probably, that they would be wholly
religious. This, in course of time, became the means of
preserving and multiplying classical manuscripts, t

* M. Guiidt confirms me in ■ con- vasion, been reserred to Rumuii. Pleury,

cluilon to which 1 had previontly come, p. 19.

that (be seventli century is the nadir of f Ciegory bu been often charged, on
the human mitid in Eurooc, ami that it* the auihoril; or a pasago in John of
movement in advance began before the Salisbury, with baling bumed a librarjr
end of the neit, or, in other fford% with of heathen authon. He has been warmly
Charlemagne. Hist, de la Civilisation defended by Tiraboschi, iil lOS. Even
en France, li. 345. A notion pnrf<«biy if the aoertion of our countryman were
is current in England, on the authority more positive, he is of too late an age to
of the older writers, such at Cave or demand much credit. Eiclihom, how-
Robertson, thai the greatest darkness ever, produces vehement expresiioiu i^
waslsler; which is true as to England Gregory's disregard for learning, and
it'«ir. It WBi ill the seventh century even for the obiervaiice of grammatical
that the bsrbariana were first tempted to lule^ ji. 413.

enter the church, and obtain bishoprics, | Heereo, p. 59. Eichboru, ii. tl,

which had, in the first age after their in- 18. 40. 49, SO.

t: Go Ogle

Chap.L] in the middle AGES. O

6. If, however, the prejudices of the clergy stood in the
way of what we more esteem than they did, the
study of philological literature, it is never to be h»'iI"p'V*.'
forgotten, that but for them the records of that very ""''*"■
literature would have perished. If they had been less tena-
cious of their Latin liturgy, of the vulgate translation of
Scripture, and of the authority of the fathers, it is very
doubtful whether less superstition would have grown up, but
we caiinot hesitate to pronounce, that all grammatical learn-
ing would have been laid aside. The influence of the church
upon learning, partly favourable, partly the reverse, forms
the subject of Eichhoni's second volume ; whose comprehen-
sive views and well-directed erudition, as well as his position
in a great protestant university, give much weight to his testi-
iiKHiy. But we should remember, also, that it is, as it were, by
striking a balance that we come to this result ; and that, in inuiy
respects, the clergy counteracted that progress of improvement
which, in others, may be ascribed to their exertions.

7' It is not unjust to claim for these islamls the honour of
having first withstood the dominant ignorance, and pmt .p.
even led the way in the restoration of knowledge. Et^JSit
As early as the sixth century, a little glimmer of i°4i^nd'ii^
light was perceptible in the Irish monasteries : and '*'™''
in the next, when France and Italy had sunk in deeper
ignorance, they stood, not quite where national prejudice has
sometimes placed them, but certainly in a very respectable
position.* That island both drew students from the con-
tinent, and sent forth men of comparative eminence into
its schools and churches. I do not find, however, that
they contributed much to the advance of secular, and
especially of grammatical learning. This is rather due to
Englant^ and to the hiippy influence of Theodore, archbishop
of Canterbury, an Asiatic Greek by birth, sent hither by
the pope in 668, through whom and his companion Adrian,
some knowledge of the Latin and even Greek languages was
propagated in the Anglo-Saxon church. The Venerable
Bede, as he was afterwards styled, early in the eighth century,

* Etehbom, il 1 76. 1 RB. Sea alio the staled raTounblj, and with much leim-
Int Toliunc of Mocre'i HiiCorj of tra. iug and induHr^, but not wilh utrava-
Und, wbara lb* cbumi of hit country ara gant partialitj.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

6 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PiKlI.

surpasses every other name of our ancient literary annals ;
and, though little more than a diligent compiler from older
writers, may perhaps be reckoned superior to any man
whom the world (so low had the East sunk tike the West) then
possessed. A desire of knowledge grew up; the school of
York, somewhat later, became respectable, before any liberal
education had been established in France ; and from this
came Alcuin, a man fully equal to Bede in ability, though
not in erudition.* By his assistance, and that of one or two
Italiansi Charlemi^e laid in his vast dominions the foun-
dations of learning, according to the standard of that age,
which dispelled, at least for a time, some part of the gross
ignorance wherein bis empire had been enveloped, t

8. The praise of having originally established schools be-
longs to some bishops and abbots of the sixth cen-
i.h^ii bB- tury. 'Hiey came in place of the imperial schools
oroiiio. overthrown by the barbarians, t In the downfall
of that temporal dominion, a spiritual aristocracy
was providentially raised up, to save from extinction the
remains of learning, and religion itself. Some of those
schools seem to have been preserved in the south of Italy,
though merely, perhaps, for elementary instruction. But in
France the barbarism of the latter Merovingian period was
so complete, that, before the reign of Charlemagne, all
liberal studies had come to an end.§ Nor was Italy in a
much better state at his accession, ^ough he called two or

* Elchhom, ii. ISS. 207. 2S3. Hut. latler was turgid >nd bombnstlc, the

Litt. de la France, vols. iii. and iv. Riirrer too alien went into the oppoutc

Honry'a Hislor; o( England, vol. i«. extreme of being Rat and >piritlrss."

TunuT's Historv uf Anglu-Saions. No p. 4G. Thi> critii^isni swms not uiuusl.

one. Iiowvver, has spoken so highlj or so Atcuin, hovevei, is an emy tenider, and

fully of Alcuiii's meriis aa M. Guizot. in has caught the tone of Ovid, sometimea

hit Hisloire de 1h Civilisation en France, of Virgil, with some success. — 1847.]

vol. ii. pp. 344—385. t Uesidea tlie above authors, see. for

[The writings of Alcuin are not hivbly the meriis of ChBrleniBp;nD, as a reslorer

appieciaied by the learned and judicious oTIctttis, Ii is Life by Gaillard and An-

author of lliograpliia Uritannica Lite- irit, Origiiie, &c. delta Lilteralura, 1.

roiifl, eipecially in relation to their in- 165.

fluciicc upon English literature. The ) Eichhorn. ii. 5, 45. Guisot (vol. ii.
truth is, that Alcuin vas a polite scholar p. IIG.) gives ■ list of the episcopal
for the age in which he lived, but no schools in France before Cbatlemagne.
Teal poet. " He has, on (he whole.' says § Ante ipsum Carolum rcgem in Gal-
Mr. Wright, " more simplicity and less lia nullum fuerut aturjium lilMralium
pi-etension in his pcwtry than his predc- artium. Monachus Engolimcnsis, apud
ccssor Aldheltn, and so far he is more Launoy de Scholia celebrioribut.
pleasing ; but, unfortunately, when the

lyGOOgIC

Chap. L] in THE MIDDLE AGES. 7

three scholars from thence to his literaTy councils : the librft-
ries were destroyed, the schools chiefly closed j wherever the
Lombard dominion extended, illiteracy was its companion. *

9. The cathedra] and conventual schools, created or re-
stored by Charlemagne, became the means of preserving
that small portion of leaminsf which continued to exist. Ther
flourished most, having' had time to produce their fruits,
under his successors Louis the Debonair, Lothure,

and Charles the Bald.f It was, doubtless, a for- fv^'u'lt^
tunate circumstance, that the revolution of language t;iitred'iiT
had now gone far enough to render Latin un-
intelligible without grammatical instruction. Alcuin, and
others who, like him, endeavoured to keep ignorance out of
the church, were anxious, we are told, to restore orthogra-
phy ; or, in other words, to prevent the written Latin from
following the corruptions of speech. They brought back,
also, some knowledge of better classical authors than had
been in use. Alcuin's own poems could at least not have
been written by one unacqu^nted with Vir^l X '• the faults
are numerous, but the style is not always inelegant ; and
from this time, though quotations from the Latin poets,
especially Ovid and Virgil, and sometimes from Cicero, are
not very frequent, they occur sufficiently to show that manu-
scripts had been brought to this side of the Alps. They
were, however, very rare ; Italy was still, as might be ex-
pected, the chief depository of ancient writings ; and Ger-
bert speaks of the facility of obtaining them in that country.§

10. The tenth century used to be reckoned by medi^ev^
historians the darkest part of this intellectual night. Th>. tenth
It was the iron age, which they vie with one an- ""raJJo-
other in describing as lost in the most consummate £l^li?uiir
ignorance. This, however, is much rather appli- '"'''™^-
cable to Italy and England, than to France and Germany.

• Tir^MMchL Eichhorn. Ileereo. chi, iii. I5S. j Eichhorn, 261. 295,;

t The nmiet may find more of the Heereo, and Fleury.
bittoiyoftbne MJKiols in > little treatise ( A poem by Alcuin, De FuDtificibui

1^ LauDojr, De Scholii celebrioribus ■ Ecclniie Eboruenais, is published in

Car. Mag. et poM Car. Mag. irutauratia; Gale'i XV. Seriptores, vol. iil.
■bo ia HiiL Ijtt. de la Franra, vols. iii. § Noati quaticiiptore* in urbibus aut

■nd IT. ; CreneTi Hiat. de rUniT«sit£ in agris Itstis pauim habeantur. Ger-

de Parii, Tel. L j Bracker'a Hi»L Phil. bert. Epist. 1 30, apud Hveren, p. i«,
iii. i Muntori, Disert. iliii. ; Tirahos.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

8 Literature of Europe [PabtL

The former were both in a deplorable state of barbarism. *
Aud there are, doubtless, abundant proofs of ignorance in
every part of Europe. But, compared with the seventh and
eighth centuries, the tenth was an age of illumination iu
France. And Meiners, who judged the middle ages some-
what, perhaps, too severely, but with a penetrating and
comprehensive observation, of which there had been few
instances, has gone so far as to say, that " in no age, per-
haps, did Germany possess more learned and virtuous
churchmen of the episcopal order, than in the latter h^f of
the tenth, and beginning of the eleventh century," t Eich-
hom points out indications of a more extensive acquaintance
with ancient writers in several French and Grerman eccle-
uastics of this period. :t In the eleventh century this con-
tinued to increase ; and towards its close, we find more
vigorous and extensive attempts at throwing off the yoke
of barbarous ignorance, and either retrieving what had been
lost of ancient learning, or supplying its place by the original
powers of the mind.

11. It is the most striking circumstance in the literary
■wntoc annals of the dark ages, that they seem to us still
S*'diirir more deficient in native, than iu acquired ability.
**^ The mere ignorance of letters has sometimes been
a little exaggerated, and admits of certain qualifications ; but
a tameness and mediocrity, a servile habit of merely com-
piling from others, runs through the writers of these cen-
turies. It is not only that much was lost, but that there
was nothing to compensate for it ; nothing of original
genius in the province of imagination ; and but two extra-
ordinary men, Scotus Erigena and Gerbert, may be said to
stand out from the crowd in literature and philosophy. It
must be added, as to the former, that his writings contain,
at least in such extracts as I have seen, unintelligible rhap-
sodies of mysticism, in which, perhaps, he should not even
have the credit of originality, Eichhorn, however, be-

■ [8e« Tiralxacbi fbr the one, and Ths eleventh centur]' he holdi &i more

Turner's History of Anglo-Saioiu for idTuiced in learning than the ritlh.

the other. But 1 do not Lnov that Books were read in the latter, which no

England was more dark In the tenth one looked at in the earlier. P. 399.

oeotury than in the nintb. — 1B4S.] f Allg. Gewh. iL 395. 398.

f Wi^leichung der Sitten, ii, aSi.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

C«iP. L]

IK THE MIDDLE AGES.

Stows great praise on Scotus ; and the modem historians of
philosophy treat him with respect. *

IS. It would be a strange hypothesis, that no man
endowed with superior gifts of nature hved in
so many ages. Though the pauses of her fer- o'^o*
tility in these high endowments are more consider-
able, I am disposed to think, than any previous calculation
of probabilities would lead us to anticipate, we could not
embrace so extreme a paradox. Of military skill, indeed,
and civil prudence, we are not now speaking. But, though
no man appeared of genius sufficient to burst the fetters
imposed by ignorance and bad taste, some there must have
been who, in a happier condition of literature, would have
been its legitimate pride. We perceive, therefore, in the
deficiencies of these writers, the effect which an oblivion of
good models, and the prevalence of a false standard of
merit, may produce in repressing the natural vigour of the
mind. TTieir style, where they aim at eloquence, is inflated
and redundant, formed upon the model of the later fathers,
whom they chiefly read ; a feeble imitation of that vicious
rhetoric which liad long overspread the Latinity of the
empire.t

• EitTMiU from John Scotu] Erigcna
will be luund in Brucker, Hilt PhiliMO-
phut, Tol. iii. p. G19.; in Meinen, ii.
373.; or more fiillr, b Tiinwr'i Mbtorj
of EagUod, to!, i. 147., and Guiiat,
Hilt, de U CinliutiiKi en Fnncc, iii.
137. I7S. The mder rosy consult also
Buhk, Tcnnemann, and tbe irticle on
Thomas Aquinis in the Encjclopsdia
Hetropolilana, aurlbed to Dr. Hampden.
Bui, perhaps, Mr. Tumer is the only one
of them who liu Ken, or at least read,
the meuphytical treatise of John Scotus,
entitled De DiTidone Naturte, in which
■lone we find his philosophy. It is lerj
rmre out of England, nor common in it.

t Heury, 1. ili. § 19.,

. (in V,

ii.), p

Turtv

Hittorjr of England,
of Anglo-Saions, iii. 403. It is sulD-
ricnl to look It U17 extract* from ihese
writm of the dark agea to lee the justice
of ihii cMMurc Fleury, at the eandu-
BOD of his excellent third disco une, justly
and candidly apoloifiKs for these five
age*, ■■ not only destitute of learning.

and (ar less of rirtue. They have been,
he say!, outia^eoualy depreciated by tbe
humaniata of the siiteenih century, who
thought good Latin superior to elery
thing else i and by protectant writera,
who laid the corruptions of the church
on its ignorance, Yet there is an oppo-
site extreme into which those who are
disgusted with the common-places of
superficial writers sometime* rua; aa

periorily above iheir own times, so as to
forgcl Iheii position in comparison with
a filed Mandard,

An etninerit living writer who has
carried the philosophy of history, per-
liaps, aa far as any other, has lately en-
deavoured, at considerable length, to
vindicate in some measure the inlellec-
tual character of this period. (Guiiot,
roi. ii. pp. 123—224.) ll is with reluc-
tance tliat I ever differ from M. Guiiot ;
but the passages adduced by him (espe-
cially if we exclude th«e of the fifth
century, the poems of Avitus, and the
bomilie* of CcMrius,) do not appeal

t: Go Ogle

LITEUATUHE OF EUROPE

[FastL

13. It might naturally be asked, whether fancy and feel-
ing were extinct among the people, though a false
ui^'"' **^*® might reign in the cloister. Yet it is here
that we find the most remarkable deficiency, and
could appeal scarce to the va^est tradition, or the most
doubtful fragment, in witness of any poetical talent worthy
of notice, except a little in the Teutonic languages. The
Anglo-Saxon poetry has occasionally a wild spirit, rather
impressive, though it is often turgid and always rude. The
Scandinavian, such as the well-known song of Hegner Lod-
brog, if that be as old as the period before us, wliich is now
denied, displays a still more poetical character. Some of the
earliest German poetry, the song on the victory of Louis III.
over the Normans in 883, and, still more, the poem in praise of
Hanno, archbishop of Cologne, who died in 107^, are warmly
extolled by Herder and Bouterwek.' In the Latin verse of
these centuries, we find, at best, a few lines among many,
which show the author to have caught something of a classit^
style ; the far greater portion is very bad.t

sdequBte (0 redeem the a^e by «ny signs

of genius lliey display. It must always

I57.> I.houldbe«,rrynottoconcJr:

be a queilion of di'gree : for no ono U
alunirdenougli to deny the existence of

it is a ulriking instance of that candid

and catholic spirit with which he lias

always treated the medieval church.

power of eipressirg moral emotions, as

• Herder, Zerstreute Blatter, yol. T.

well as relating tatu, with some wanDth

and energy. The legends of sainla, nn

DeutSL-lien Sprachwissenschaft, it. 39.

eiCensire though quite neglected portion

Uoutcrwek, Geirhichte der I'oesia and

of the liutslure of the darlt a^ies, to

Beredsflrokeit. vol. ix. pp. 78.8ii. The

which M. Guiiot hu had the merit of

author is unknown ; abcr dem unbek-

directing our alte.ition, may probshly

annteii uchert scin work die unsterblich-

cooUin many passagec, like those he had

keit, says the latler erilic. One might

quoted, which will be read with interest ;

raise a question as to the capacity of an

and it is no more than justice, that he

anonymous author to posse» immortal

liai giren them in French, ratlier than in

fame. Nothing equal to this poem, he

that half-barbarous Latin, which, though

says, occurs in the earlier German poelry:

not essential to the author's mind, never

it is an outpouring of genius, nut without

faults, but full or power and feeling: the

But the nucstiotis still recur; Is this

to Swabian. Herder calls it "a truly

in itself excellent? Would it indicate,

Pindaric song." He has given large

ivherever we should meet with it, powen

ejtiactf from it in the Tolume above

of n high ordcT ? Do we not make a

quoted, which glows with his own fine

tacit allowance in reading it, and that

very largely, for the mean condition in

t Tiraboschi supposes I-atin versifiers

which we know the human mind to hare

to have been common in Italy. Le CltU

been placed a! the period? Does it in-

atrnctu., or give ui pleasure?

vcrsi. iii. 207.

In what M. Guiiot has said of the

moral influence of Iheae legend., in har-

lyGOOgIC

CitAP.I.] • IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 11

14. The very imperfect state of language, as an instru-
ment of reBned thought, in the transition of Latin

to the French, Castihan, and Italian tongues, iiiKoruln-
seems the hest means of accounting in any satis- nr^um iIt
factory manner for this stagnation of the poetical
faculties. The dehcacy that distinguishes in words the shades
of sentiment, the grace that hrings them to the soul of the
reader with the charm of novelty united to clearness, could
not be attainable in a colloquial jargon, the ofifepring of
ignorance, and indeterminate possibly in its forms, which
those who possessed any superiority of education would
endeavour to avoid. We shall soon have occasion to advert
again to this subject.

15. At the beginning of the twelfth century, we enter
upon a new division in the literary history of Europe.

From this time we may deduce a line of men, con- njcni «
spicuous, according to the standard of their times, "' f^irA
in different walks of intellectual pursuit, and the
commencement of an interesting period, the later Middle
Ages ; in which, though ignorance was very far from being
cleared away, the natural powers of the mind were developed
in considerable activity. We shall point out separ- LadiDgcir-
ately the most important circumstances of this pro- S pr'Ji^
gress ; not all of them concurrent in efficacy with "^ *""'"■■
each other, for they were sometimes opposed, but all tend-
ing to arouse Europe from indolence, and to lix its attention
on literature. These are, 1st. The institution of universities,
and the methods pursued in them : 2d. The cultivation of
the modem languages, followed by the multiplication of
books, and the extension of the art of writing : 3d. The
investigation of the Roman law : And, lastly, the return
to the study of the Latin language in its ancient models of
purity. We shall thus come down to the fifteenth century,
and judge better of what is meant by the revival of letters,
when we apprehend with more exactness their previous con-
dition.

bos of Candersheim, has, perhaps, the which I have no

grcalett reputation among theie Latin irhich I >air r

poets. She wrote. In the tctith ceDturj, thought Terjr ini
ucred comedin in imitation of Terenoe,

t: Go Ogle

12 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pi»T L

16. Among the Carlovingian schools it is doubtful whether

we can reckon one at Paris : and thoufrh tliere are
u^wtitfof some traces oi pubfic instruction m that city about

the end of the ninth century, it is not certain that
we can assume it to be more ancient. For two hundred
years more, indeed, it can only be smd, that some persons
appear to have come to Paris for the purposes of study."
The commencement of this famous university, like that of
Oxford, has no record; But it owes its first reputation to
the sudden spread of what is usually called the scholastic
philosophy.

17. There had been hitherto two methods of treating
Hodnor theological doctrines: one, that of the fathers, who
IdlSSi^o?' built them on scripture, illustrated and interpreted
""iw- ]jy (jjgjf Q^ipjj ingenuity, and in some measure also
on the traditions and decisions of the church ; the other,
which is said by the Benedictines of St. Maur to have grown
up about the eighth century (though Mosheim seems to refer
it to the sixth), using the fathers themselves, that is, the
chief writers of the first six hundred years, who appear now
to have acquired that distinctive title of honour, as authority,
conjointly with scripture and ecclesiastical determinations, by
means of extracts or compends of their writings. Hence
about this time we find more frequent instances of a practice
which had begun before — that of publishing Loci communes
or CateiuB patruin, being only digested extracts from the
authorities under systematic heads, t Both these methods
were usually called positive theology.

* Crcvier, i. 13 — IS. ment, ir. 35. ; [and I baie learned, linca

t Fleurv, Sme dincDurs, p. 48. (HUt. the publication of 017 flnt edition, that

E<»1£s. vol. liii. ISmo. ed.) Hist. Litt. it is printed In Routh's Reliquiie Sacra.

An U France, viL MT. Mtoheim, in ~184S.]

Cent. y\. et poit. Muratori, Antichiti Upon this great clmnge in the theo-

Italiane, dimert xliiL p. 610. In this logy of the cliurch, vhiuli consisted prin-

disaertation, it may be observed by the cipally in establishing the auihority of

vay, Muratori givei tbe important ft-ig- the fathers, the reader maj tee M. Gui-

mentof Cains, a Roman presbyter be- zot, Hi<I. de la CJTiliution, iii. 121.

fore the end of the second century (as There neeni to be but tvo causes fbr

■ome place iiim), on the canon of (he this : the one, a consciotianesa of igno-

Ne<r Testament, which has not been ranee and inferiority lo men of so much

quoted, as tiir as I kauv, by any English talent as Augustin and a fev others; tbe

writer, nor, which is more remarkable, other, a conalantly growing jealousf of

by Micbaelis. It will be found in Elch- the free eierciae of reason, and a detar-

horn, Einleitung in daa Meue Tesia- mina^n to keep up unity of doctrine.

lyGOOgIC

CuF. L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 13

18. Hie scholastic theology was a third method ; it was,
in its general principle, an alliance between faith
and reason ; an endeavour to arrange the orthodox pb<io.«phf i
system of the church, such as authority had made it,
according to the rules and methods of the Aristotelian dia-
lectics, and sometimes upon premises supplied by metaphysical
reasoning. Lanfranc and Anselm made much use of this
method in the controversy with Berenger as to transubstan-
tiation ; though they did not carry it so far as their successors
in the next century.* The scholastic philosophy seems chiefly
to be distinguished from this theology by a larger infusion of
metaphysical reasoning, or by its occasional inquiries into
subjects not immediately related to revealed articles of faith.t
The origin of this philosophy, fixed by Buhle and Tennemann
in the ninth century, or rfie age of Scotus Erigena, has been
brought dowu by Tiedemann, Meiners, and Hampden t, so
low as the thirteenth. But Roscelin of Compiegne,
a httle before 1100, may be accounted so far the

• Hill, LitL de ta Fraactf, ubi suprii, reyelata divinitaa, PoBscvin, Bibtiotbeca

TmDemwin, Manual de I'HUt di: la ScImU, 1. S. c i.

FhiloMpbic, L 332. Crerier, i, 100. Both positive and scholaitic theologf

Aailiia, a. 15. vere much ifldcbted to Peler Lombard,

I A jeiuit of the Hitreiith century whose Liber Sententiarum is a digest of

tbiu ihortlj and clearif dLstiiiguisbn the propoiilioni eitracted from the raCbers,

poaitite from the schulsstic, and both with no attempt to reconcile them. It

from natural or metaphysical theology, waa therefore a prodigious magazine of

At IM» tbeologiam scholasticam dicimus, arms for disputation.

quK eertiori matliodo et lationibui im- ) The fint of these, according to Teo-

primis tx divina Sctiptura. ac tradltioni- nemann, begins the list of schoolmen

bni aeu deerecis patrum in conclliis with Hales j the two latter agree in con-

definilis leritatem eruit, ac discutiendo ferring that bonnuron Albertus Magnus.

eomprobat. Quod cum in scholis pre- Brucker inclines to Uoscelin, and has

cipueargtimentando compareturi id no- been followed by others. It may be added,

mm aonita ert, Quami^rem diBert a that Tennemann divides the scholaitio

poaUiva theologia, non re sed modo, quern- philosophy into four periodSi which Roece-

admodum itan alia ratione oon est ea. Jin, Hales, Ockham, and the sixteenth

itm cum oaturali theologia, quo oomine century terminate ; and Buhte into three,

|diilasopbl metaphysicen nominaninL ending with Roscelin, Albertus Magnus,

pnip«Hiit, sed pvne sententiem ratam et that, by beginning the scliolastic series

inuam ponit, prccipue in pietatem in- with Roscelin, we exclude Lanfranc and

nimbena. Venatur autem el ipsa in ei. even Anselm; the latter of whom was

plicatione Scriptura laers!, tradltionum, certainly a deep metaphysician; since to

■onciliorum et sanctorum patrum, Na- him we ove the subtle argument for th«

tivalis poTTo theologia Dei natnism per eiistence of a Deity, which Des Cartel

natune argumenta et rationes inquiril, afterwards revived. Buhle, 679. Tlija

cum supernatural is, quain scholaaticam argument was answered at the time by

dicimus, Dei ejutdem naturam. vim, one Caunelo ; so that metaphysical re»-

t: Co Ogle

LITEilATUBE OF EUHOPE

founder of the schoolmen, that the great celebrity of their dis-
putations, and the rapid increase of students, is to be traced to
the iciiluence of his theories, though we have no proof that he
ever taught at Paris. Roscelin also, having been the first
to revive the famous question as to the reality of universal
ideas, marks, on every hypothesis, a new era in the history
of philosophy. The principle of the schoolmen in their
investigations was the expanding, developing, and if possible
illustrating and clearing from objection, the doctrines of
natural and revealed religion, in a dialectical method and by
dint of the subtlest reason. The questions which we deem
altogether metaphysical, such eis that concerning universal
ideas, became theological in their hands.*

19- Next in order of time to Roscelin came William of
ProjTM, Champeaux, who opened a school of logic at Paris
tfcKmflo- in 1109 : and the university can only deduce the
uniwiV regular succession of its teachers from that time, t

" ' But his reputation was soon eclipsed, and his hearers
drawn away by a more potent magician, Peter Abelard, who
taught in the schools of Paris in the second decad of the
twelfth century. Wherever Abelard retired, his fame and
his disciples followed him; in the solitary walls of the
Paraclete, as in the thronged streets of the coital, t And
the impulse given was so powerful, the fascination of a
science which now appears arid and unproductive was so
intense, that from this time for many generations it continued

rt well rerscd in the scho- wnt, » far si I krow, ■

lastic nriterg, Meinen (in his Compa- of letters, who hu penetnled br into

rison of the Middle Ages) is nlbet lu- the vilderneu oF ccholdicism. Mr. Slia-

perficial u to tbcir philosophjr, but pre- ron Turner hns given same extracts in

KDt> ■ lively picture oF the schoulnieii in the fourth volume of hi) History of

relation to literature ind manners. He England.

has also, in the lYansactions of the Got- [M. Couiin, in the fourth volume of

lingeii Aesdemy, toI. lii. pp. 26 — 47., his Fragmens Riilosophii|ues, has gone

giren ■ succinct, but valuable, sketch nf more fully than an; one into the philo.

Die Nominalist and Realist Controveiaj. sophy of Ranelin, and especially of

Tennemann, with whose Manuel de la Abelard. This is reprinted from the

Pbiloinphie alone I am conversant, is Introduction to the unpuhlished works

laid to hare gone very deeply into the of Abelard, edited by M. Cousin in lbs

lubject in his larger history of Philo- great svries of Documens Inedita. —

aophj. Buhle appears superficial. Dr. 1847.]
Hampden, in his Life of Thomas Ai^ui- f Crevicr, i. 9.

nai, and view of the scholastic philo- ( Hisc Litt. de la Pnuce, vol. lii.

sopliy, published in the Encycloimdia Brucker, iii, 750.

lyGOOgIC

Crap. I.] IN Till: MIUULi: AGES. 15

to eogage the most intelligent and active minds. Paris,
about the middle of the twelfth century, in the words of the
Benedictines of St. Maur, to whom we owe the Hiatoire
Licteraire de la France, was another Athens ; the number of
students (hyper bolically speaking, as we must presume) ex-
ceeding that of the citizens. This influx of scholars induced
Philip Augustus, some time afterwards, to enlarge the boun-
daries of the city ; and this again brought a fresh harvest of
students, for whom, in the former limits, it had been difficult
to find lodgings. Paris was called, as Rome had been, the
country of all the inhabitants of the world ; and we may add,
as, for very different reasons, it still claims to be.*

20. Colleges, with endowments for poor scholars, were
founded in the beginning of the thirteenth cen- i]„i,„,i,i„
tury, or even before, at Paris and Bologna, as they ^'""''**'*
were afterwards at Oxford and Cambridge, by *^*'°"'-
munificent ))atrons of letters ; charters incorporating the gra-
duates and students collectively under the name of univer-
sities were granted by sovereigns, with privileges perhaps
too extensive, but such as indicated the dignity of learning,
and the countenance it received, t It ought, however, to be

• Hist. Litt. de la France, ii. TS. alloiced, I tliink, lo Firis; but even

Crerier. i. 274 there we cannot trace the univvrsity, ■■

t Fleury, ivii. 13. 17, CreTier, Tira- strictly luch, so high u 1200. Eu ces

bcHclii, &e. A Univvnity, uiiiversitu tempt lu, I'ensemble dea i'Cules Piris.

doctoTum et scboUiiuni, was to called ieniies^tait apiicl£ $liiilium gemrali bicn

nihn- from its incurporation, or from its pliltot qu' iiiuimiVai ; ee ilemicr nam

proft-MiDg to teach all subjects, as some leur Tut applic|U^ peut-etre pour la pre-

luTC Ibought. Meiners, it 40S. Pleury, miere fois, dans rairaite d'Amaury de

i>ii. 15. This eicelleiil discourse of Charlies et desei disciples en 1309. II

FIcury, the Gftb, relalet to the eccletiaa- n'esl point employ^ dans Iv diplome de

tical literature of the later middle agEs. Philippe Auguste, doDai enlSDUal'oc-

[The first pritile;te granted lo Bologna coaion d'une riie violente entreles fcolicri

vaiby I'teitcric Barbarocta in 1 158. But et le^ bourgeois de Paris. Discoura sur

it giics an appeal lo the bishops, not to I'^Ut de lEttres au trciiieme sidcle, in

the rector of the university, in case sny HiiL Litt. de la France, vol. iyL p. 46.

Kholar had cause of complaiiAt against pet Daunou.

his teacher. In bet there vas no rector, The uniTersity of Toulouse was iiicor.

Dor, properly speaking, any university porated with the same priiilcgea as that

till near the end of the twelfth century, of Paris by a bull oF Gregory IX. in

Sivignj-, Gesch. des Romischen Hecliis. 1338; which seems to have been nc

111. 153. And a* at Bologna nothing knowledged as sufficient in France on

was taught but jurisprudertcc for some several olhi-r occasions. Montpelier,

time afterwaTds, it is doubted by some vhich had fiir some time been a flourish'

vbether thai sehool could be called an ing school of meilicine, acquired the

university, which ought to be a place of rights of an uniTersity before the end of

general instruction. Tirahotebi, t. 353. the thirteenth century) but no other is of

Upgo the whole, the precedence mast be equal antiquity. Id. pp.57. 59. — 1049.}

t: Go Ogle

16 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [I'ijiT I.

remembered, that these foundations were not the cause, but
the eSect of that increasing thirst for knowledge, or the sem-
blance of knowledgfe, which had anticipated the encourage-
ment of the great. The schools of Charlemagne were
designed to lay the basis of a learned education, for which
there was at that time no sufficient desire.* But in the
twelfth century, the impetuosity with which men rushed to
that source of what they deemed wisdom, the great university
of Paris, did not depend upon academical privileges or eleemo-
synary stipends, which came afterwards, though these were
uudoubtetUy very effectual in keeping it up. The university
created patrons, and was not createtl by them. And this
may be s^d also of Oxford and Cambridge in their incor-
porate character, whatever the former may have owed, if in
fact it owed any thing, to the prophetic munificence of
Alfred. Oxford was a school of great resort in the reign
of Henry II., though its first charter was only granted by
Henry III. Its earlier history is but obscure, and depend^
chiefly on a suspicious passage in Ingulphus, agwnst which
we must set the absolute silence of other writers.! It
became in the thirteenth century second only to Paris in the
multitude of its students, and the celebrity of its scholastic
disputations. England indeed, and especially through
Oxford, could show more names of the hrst class in this
line than any other country, t

* TlieM scbooli eiublitbed b; the ( Wood eipalutn on what lie thought

Carloiingian prinrej in convents and the gloriaua age of the universitjr.

oatliedrals, declined, u it vbs nalurtil tu " Whit uniienit;, 1 pray, can produce

expect, with the riie of the univeraitiei. an iniincible Hales, ■□ adniiralile Bacon,

Meincrs, ii. 406. Those oF Paris, 0<- an excellent well-grounded Middleton,

ford, and Bologna, contaioed many thou- a subtle Status, an approved Burley, a

land students. resolute Baconthorpe, a singular Ock-

f Giraldus Cambrensia, about 1180, ham, a solid and industrious Holeot, and
seems the Rnl unequivocal vltuess to the a proFound Bradwardin? all which per-
rerarl of students to Oiford, u an esta- sons flourished within tbe coropati of
blished seat of instruclion. But it is one century. 1 doubt that Deither
certain ibat Vicarius read there on the Paris, Bologna, or Kome, that grand
aitil law in 1149, which aHoTds a pie- mistress of the Christian world, or any
sumption tliat it wss already assuming place else, can do what the renowned
tbe character of a uiiivertiiy. John of Bellosite (Oiford) hath done. And
Salisbury, I think, doe* not mention it. without doubt all impartial men may re-
in a former work, I gave more credence ceive it fur an undeniable truth, that tbe
to ila foundation by Alfred than I am moil subtle arguing in uhool divinity did
now inclined to do. Bologna, as well as take its beginning in England and from
~ ■ - - ~ tudents about EnglisI

lyGOOgIC

Cbip. L] in the middle ages. 17

SI . Andr^ is inclined to derive the institution of colle-
giate fonndations in universities from the Saracens.
He finds no trace of these among* the ancients ; fouuiiatioDi
white in several cities of Spain, as Cordova, Gra- y™ the
nada, Malaga, colleges for learned education both
existed and obtained great renown. These were sometimes
unconnected with each other, though in the same city, nor
had they, of course, those privileges which were conferred in
Christendom. They were therefore more like ordinary
schools or gymnasia than universities ; and it is difficult to
perceive that they suggested any thing peculiarly character-
istic of the latter institutions, which are much more reason-
ably considered as the development of a native germ, planted
by a few generous men, above all by Charlemagne, in that
inclement season which was passing away.*

2S. The institution of the Mendicant orders of friars, soon
aAer the befirinniDCf of the thirteenth century, caused

, , » . » , 1. "^ , ,1 SdhOluUc

a fresh accession, m enormous numbers, to the phiioKph.
ecclesiastical state, and gave encouragement to the ^;^,'™"
scholastic philosophy. Less acquainted, generally,
with grammatical literature than the Benedictine monks, less
accustomed to collect and transcribe books, the disciples of
Francis and Dominic betook themselves to disputation, and
found a substitute for learning in their ovm ingenuity and
expertness.t The greatest of the schoolmen were the Domi-
nican Thomas Aquinas, and the Franciscan Duns Scotus.
They were founders of rival sects, which wrangled with each
other for two or three centuries. But the aumority of their
writings, which were incredibly voluminous, especially those
of the former^, impeded, in some measure, the growth of

l^ancc, and at length inM Italr. Spun, of Oifi>nl must, I fiur. Tall to the gruund.

sad olhei lutioni, u ii by one observed. See Bii^raphja Britannjaa Litteroria,

So that tbough Ilalj boaited that Bri- voL ii. p. 2S. Whether Vaeariiu vere

tain lakes her ChrisCianity Unt innn the first lecturer, or choie that town be-

Bome, Ea^Uiid nu; truly maintain that caute a kIiooI had already been eita-

fixHD her (imnwdiately by France) Italy bliahed therein, leema not determinable,

6tM received her KhoDldiTinity." Vol. i. though the tatter ia more likely. —

p. 159. a.D. I1E8. lfl4T.]

[If the autbenticity of the Hintory of " Andrfa, ii. 129.
Croylaad Abbey, under the name of f Meinera, ii. 615. CS9.
Ingulftu. eaimat be maintained, ai bath j The worlii of Thomas Aquinas are

Sir PraBcii PalxniYe and Mr. Wright published in urenteen rolumea fblio ;

contend, the antiquity of the Unliersily Home, 1570: those of Duns Scotus in
VOL. I. C

lyGOOgIC

18 LITEEATUEE OF EUROPE [Pabi I

new men ; and we find, after the middle of the fourteenth
century, a diminution of eminent names in the series of the
schoolmen, the last of whom that is much remembered in
modern times was William Ockham * He revived the sect
of the Nominalists, formerly instituted by Roscelln, and, with
some important variations of opinion, brought into credit by
Abelard, but afterwards overpowered by the great weight of
leading schoolmen on the opposite side, — that of the Real-
ists. The disciples of Ockham, as well as himself, being
politically connected with the party in Germany unfavourable
to the high pretensions of the court of Rome, though they
became very numerous in the universities, passed for inno-
vators in ecclesiastical, as well as philosophical, principles.
Nominalism itself indeed was reckoned by the adverse sect
cognate to heresy. No decline, however, seems to have been
as yet perceptible in the spirit of disputation, which probably,
at the end of the fourteenth century, went on as eagerly at
Paris, Oxford, and Salamanca, the great scenes of that war-
fare, as before; and which, in that age, gained much ground
in Germany, through the establishment of several univer-
sities.

23. Tennemann has fairly stated the good and bad of the
ch.™c« scholastic philosophy. It gave rise to a great dis-
^ud^ph P'^y °^ address, subtlety, and sagacity in the explan-
ation and distinction of abstract ideas, but at the

tvelre ; Lyons, 1639. It i> presumed trifling KiphisUj. ii Bmibed b; Meinera

that much was taken ttovn from their to Petrus Hispiniu, afterwanli Pope

oral lectures ; some put of these Tolumea John XXI., who diedinlSTI. ii. T05.

is of doubtful authenLicity. Meinera, IL Several curioua ipeoimens of scholastic

718. Biogr. Univ. folly are given by him in this place.

■ " la them (Scotus >.nd Ockham), They brought a discredit upon the name,

and in the later schoolmen generally, vhich has adhered to it, and involved

down to the period of the Reformation, men of fine genius, such as Aquinaa

there is more of the parade of Ic^ie, a himwlf, in the eommon reproadi.

more formal eiomioation of argumenU, The batbaritm of style, which smount-

B more hurlhensome importunity of syl- ed almott to a neir language, became

logiiing, with less of the philosophical more intolerable in Scotus and hii tbl-

power of arrangement and distribution lowers than it had bern in the older

of the subject discussed. The dryness schoolmen. Meiners, TS3. It may be

again irrepaiable trom the scholastic allied, in exeute of this, that words ara

method is carried to eiccsa in the later meant to eipress precise ideas ; and that

writers, and perspicuity of style is alto- it was as impossible to write mctaphysica

gether neglected." Encyclopadia Me- In good Latin, as the modern naturalists

tropoL part xxx«ii. p. 805. bare found it to describe plants and

The introduction of this eiceas of animals,
logical subtlety, carried to tlie most

lyGOOgIC

Chaf.L] in the middle AGES. 19

same time to many trifling and minute Bpeculadons, to a con<
tempt of positive and particular knowledge, and to much
nnnecessary refinement.* Fleury well observea, that the dry
technical style of the schoolmen, affecting a geometric^
method and closeness, is in fact more prolix and tedious,
than one mote natural) from its formality in multiplying
objections and anBWers.t And as their reasonings commonly
rest on disput^le postulates, the accuracy they a^ect is of no
sort of value. But their chief offences were the interposing
obstacles to the reviv^ of polite literature, and to the free
expansion of the mind. Itidy was the land where ,t p„,,ii,
the schoolmen had least influence, though many '™""""'/-
of the Itahans who had a turn for those discussions repaired
to Paris.! Public schools of theology were not opened in
Italy till after 1360. § Yet we find the disciples of
Averroes numerous in the university of Padua about that
time.

34. II. The universities were chiefly employed upon this
scholastic theology and metaphysics, wiui the excep-
tion of Bologna, which dedicated its attenUoii to inmodfrn
the civil law, and of Montpelier, already tamous as
a school of medicine. The Ifuty in general might have
remained in as gross barbarity as before, while topics so
removed from common utility were treated in an unknown
tongue. We must therefore look to the rise of a truly
native literature in the several languages of western Europe,
as a more essential cause of its intellectual improvement ;
and this will render it necessary to give a sketch of the
origin and early progress of those languages and that new
literature.

25. No one can require to he informed, that the Italian,
Spanish, and French languages are the principal of
manv dialects deviatine: from each other in the th<¥?nch,

11 ■ I. 1 T ■ '11 Sjunfih,

gradual corruption oi the Latin, once universally •i* it^i"
spoken by the subjects of Rome in her western
provinces. They have undergone this process of change in
various degrees, but always from similar causes ; partly

* Maoiitl it U Philoiophie, L S9T. ) Tiraboicbi, *. 115.
EidilHwn, ii. 396. $ Id. I3T. 160. De Swl«, Vie do

f Bee Sine dUcoura, ■t.ii.i. 30 — sa FetTwque, uL T5T.

C S

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

go LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PartL

from the retention of barbarous words bel(Hig]ng to their
original languages, or the introduction of others through the
settlement of the northern nations in the empire ; but in a
far greater proportion, from ignorance of grammatical rules,
or from vicious pronunciadon and orthography. It has been
the labour of many distinguished writers to trace the source
and channels of these streams, which have supplied both the
literature and the common speech of the south of -Europe ;
and perhaps not much will be hereafter added to researches
whlc^, in the scarcity of extant documents, can never be
minutely successful. Du Cange, who led the way in the
admirable preface to his Glossary*, Le Bteuf, and Bonamy,
in several memoirs among the transactions of the Academy
of Inscriptions about the middle of the last century;
Muratori, in his 32A, 33d, and 40th dissertations on Italian
antiquities ; and, with more copious evidence and successful
industry than any other, M. Raynouard, in the first and
sixth volume of his Choix des Poesies des Troubadours,
have collected as full a history of the formation of these lan-
guages as we could justly require.

aO. The pure Latin language, as we read it in the best

ancient authors, possesses a complicated syntax and
ofnil^^ many elb'ptical modes of expression, which give
ihe lower vigour and elegance to style, but are not likely to

he readily caught by the people. If, however, tlie
citizens of Rome had spoken it with entire purity, it is to be
remembered, that Latin, in the later times of the republic, or
under the empire, was not like the Greek of Athens, or the
Tuscan of Florence, the idiom of a single city, but a lan-
guage spread over countries in which it was not originally
vernacular, and imposed by conquest upon many parts of
Italy, as it was afterwards upon Spaiu and Gaul. '^Thus we
find even early proofe, that solecisms of grammar, as well as
barbarous phrases, and words unauthorised by use of polite
writers, were very common in Rome itself; and in every
succeeding generation, for the first centuries after the Chris-
tian era, these became more frequent and inevitable. * A

• [As the ironl " barbarous" it «p- I^tin, It meant only wordi borroired
plied at present villi lets itrietneu, it from the Unguagei of barbarisDi. Thii
may bo vorth while to iDGnlian, tlut, in of oourae did not include Greek; Gn

lyGOOgIC

CH4P.L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 21

Tuigar Roman dialect, called guoiidianus by Quintilian,
pedestris by Vegetius, iisualis by Sidonius, is recognised as
distinguishable from tbe pure Latinity to which we give the
name of classical. But the more ordinary appellation of
this inferior Latin was rusticus ; it was the country lan-
guage or patois, corrupted in every manner, and, from the
popular want of education, incapable of being restored, be-
cause it was not perceived to be errtfneous." Whatever
may have been the case before the fall oi the Western
Empire, we have reason to believe that in the sixth cen-
tury the colloquial Latin had undergone, at least in France, a
considerable change even with the superior class of eccle-
siastics. Gregory of Tours confesses that he was habitually
falling into that sort of error, the misplacing inflexions and
prepositions, which constituted the chief original difference of
the rustic tongue from pure Latinity. In the opinion indeed
of Raynouard, if we take his expressions in their natural
meaning, the Romance language, or that which afterwards
was generally called Provencal, is as old as the establishment
of the Franks in Gaul. But this is perhaps not reconcileable
with the proofs we have of a longer continuance of Latin.
In Italy it seems probable that the change advanced more
slowly. Gregory the Great, however, who has been reckoned
as inveterate an enemy of leaning as ever lived, speaks with

Uiougb the tdoptioa of Greek vords iu Valuable remsrks on rhjrme, vol.ii. p. S3,,

Latin writers wai aonietinieB reckuned as it has some others, into the errancoua

aD affiictatioD, it could not pan for a notion that a real Celtic dialect, auch ai

baiboHim. But perhaps the pniiincial Cstai found in Gaul, was still spoken.

dialects of lUljr were incluited ; for it is But this a incompatible with the known

■aid b; Quintilian, that Kmelimei bar- history of the French language ; and

barous phnues had been uttered b; the Sidonius isoneofthoseloosedecUmatOTji

audience in the theatres; Iheatra ei- writers whose words are nerer to ba

cUmisae barbiir£.-.|847.]

construed in their proper meaning; the

• DuCange,prclWce,pp. 13. 39. Rus-

common fault of Latin authors from the

third century, Celticus sermo was the

paulo duQtaiat, e( qui tublimi opponitur,

patoia of Gaul, which, liaving once been

Gallia Celtics, he stil! called such. That

a few proper naities, or similar worda.

and probably some others, in French are

•ennonis Celtici, *e. vocat RuMicum,

Celtic. U well known.

qui nullii Tcl gnunmaticHj »el orthogra-

orthography must bring on a clcious

■ definition of the earl; Romance lan-

pronunciation. quod male scriliilur.

guage ; it wu lAtin without grammar or

male eliam diri necene est. But the

converse of this is still more true, and

was in r.ict the great cause of giving the

tioned h, Sidonius, has led Ora; , in his

new Romance language ila viiiblt fbnn.

t: Go Ogle

g^ UTEHATURE OF EUROPE [PiBxI.

superlative contempt of a regard to grammatical purity in
writing. It was a crime in bis eyes for a clergyman to
teacli grammar j yet the number of layiqen who were com-.
petent or willmg to do so had become very small.

^. It may render this more 'clear, if we niention a few
of the growing corruptiona, which have in fact transformed
the Latin into French and the sister tongues. The pre-
positions were used with no regard to the proper inflexions
of nouns and verba. These were known so inaccurately, and
so constantly put one for another, that it was necessary to
have recourse to prepositions instead of them. Thus de and
adwcTe made to express the genitive and dative eases, which
is common in charters from the sixth to the tenth century.
Again, it is a real fault in the Latin language, that it wants
both the definite and indehnite article : iik and vnus, espe-
cially the former, were called in to help this deficiency. In
the forms of Marculfus, published towards the end of the
seventh century, tile continually occurs as an article ; and it
appears to have been sometimes used in the sixth. This, o.
course, by an easy abbreviation, furnished the articles in
French and Italian. The people came soon to establish
more uniformity of case in the noun, either by rejecting
inflexions, or by diminishing their number. Raynouard
gives a long list of old French nouns formed from the Latin
accusative by suppressing em or am.* The active auxiliary
verb, than which nothing is more distinctive of the modem
languages from the Latin, came in from the same cause, the
disuse, through ignorance, of several inflexions of the tenses ;

■ See ■ pBHage of Quintiliin, I, 9. Idem esl ritlum, <U cum tooIi sicut

e. 4 , quoted in Ilnllam's Middle Ages, cum eoDsoiutiite JIf literam, eiprimere.

ohap. ii. Camiodoni*, De Orthographis, cap. 1.

In the gnmtnsr of Cuiiodorusi a mere 'Hiiu we perceiTethat there *bi a nicety

•ompilation from old orlten, &nd in this as to the pronunciation of this letter,

instance from one Cornutus, ire find an- which uneducated persons would lutu-

otber remarkable, pauage, which I do rslljr not regard. Hence in the inacrip-

iK>t Tememher to have seen quoted, tioiu of a low age we frequent); find

though doubtless it has been so, on the this letter omitted ; as in one quoted

pronunciation of the letter jV. To utter b; Muratori, Ego L. Coniius me bibo

thin final consonant, he says before a [vivo] archa [srcharo] frai, and it is Ter;

word beginning with a vowrl. Li wrong, easy to multiply instances. Thus the

durum Bc barbarura aonat ; but it is an neuter and the ocomtiTC termiilBtion*

equal fimit to omit it before one begin- were lost
ning with a consonant; par enim atque

lyGOOgIC

Chap. I.] IN THE MIDDLE AG£8. S3

to wluch we must add, that here also the Ladn language is
singularly deficient, possessing no means of distinguishiug
the second perfect from the first, or * I have seen,' from ' I
saw.' The auxiliary verb was early applied in France and
Italy to supply this defect ; and some have produced what
they think occasional instances of its employment even in the
best classical authors.

38. It seems impossible to determine the progress of
these changes, the degrees of variation between the conunu^iw
polite and popular, the written and spoken Latin, ^nK^'utir
in the best ages of Rome, in the decline of the em- "'""'^■
pire, and in the kingdoms founded upon its ruins ; or finally,
the exact epoch when the grammati<»l language ceased to be
generally intelligible. There remains, therefore, some room
still for hypothesis and diSerence of opinion. The clergy*
preached in Latin early in the seventh century, and we have
a p(^ular song of the same age on the victory obtained by
Ctotaire II. in 6S3 over the S^ons.* This 1^ been sur>
mised by some to be a translation, merely because the Latin
18 better than they suppose to have been spoken. But,
though the words are probably not given quite correctly,
they seem reducible, with a little emendation, to short verses
of an usual rhythmical cadence.t

■ Le Bwuf, iu Mfm. de I'Acad. dcs I have not found an^ quoted, except one,

Imeript loL nil. — [Li ran, in a divert- vbicb he gives Trom La Ravaill^re,

■tion OB the origin of the French Ian- which is simple and nther pretty; but I

fiuge, published in hU Singularil£s linov not irbence it is talcen. It seems

Histonquet, L lOS., contends, Troni a the song of a female slave, and is perhaps

punge in the life of St. Eligiut, that nearly as old as the destruction of the

Latin was the vulgar tongue as late as empire.
670. But the passage quoted is perliaps

not condurive. He supposes that Latin guJ^m^I^'lllW

became unintelligible In the reign of Canncn dulce mscsntare

Pepin, or the first years of Charlemagne. '^""" ')"' '""B" »»"! valde

p. 116. But this Is ruiming too close; OcurjSii^,e?

and even if he could be so eiact as to any

one part of France, we have no reason Intra seems put for trans. The metre is

whatever to suppose that the corruptions rhymed trochaic ; but that is coosistent

of language went on with equal steps in with antiquity. It is, Liowever, more

every province. — 1842.] pleasing than most of the Latin verse of

t Turner, in Archaeologia, vol. ilv, this period, and is more in the tone of

ITS. Haltam's Middle Ages, chap. ix. the modern languages. As it is not at

Bouterwek, Gesch. dtT Fiaczciten Poesie, all a hackneyed passage, I have thought

p. 18., obserres, that there are many ftag- it worthy of quotation.
menta erf' popular Latin songa preserved.

t: Go Ogle

54 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtL

^. But in the middle of the eighth century, we find
ittictauwai the rustic language mentioned as distinct from
luB^^ in Latin * ; and in the council of Tours held in 8 1 3 it is
ninth. ordered that homilies shall be explained to the
people in their own tongue, whether rustic Roman or
Fraukish. In 84S we find the earliest written evidence of
its existence, in the celebrated oaths taken by Louis of Ger<
many and his brother Charles the Bald, as well as by their
vassals, the former in Prankish or early Gerrawi, the latter
in their own current dialect. This, though with somewhat of
a closer resemblance to Latin, is accounted by the best judges
a specimen of the language spoken south of the Loire ; after-
wards variously called the Langue d'oc, Proven9aI, or Limou-
sin, and essentially the same with the dialects of Catalonia
and Valencia-t It is decidedly the opinion of M. Raynouard,
as it was of earlier inquirers, that the general language of
France in the ninth century was the southern dialect, rather
than that of the north, to which we now give the exclusive
name of French, and which they conceive to have deviated
from it afterwards, t And he has employed great labour to
prove, that, both in Spain and Italy, this language was gene-
rally spoken with hardly so much diiference from that of
France as constitutes even a variation of dialect ; the articles,
pronouns, and auxiliaries being nearly identical ; most pro-
bably not with so much difference as would render the native
of one country by any means unintelligible in another. §

* Acid, des tnscript. itIL 713. tracing fTOin an iDclent rnaniucript of

f Du Cange, p. S5. Raj nouaid, pu- Niuurd, ihe hisloHm of the 9tli centur;.

siin. M. dc la Rue hu called it ' un to whom ire ove this important t«cord

Latin exfiiraiit.' Rccberchea sur Ub of knguige.

Bardes d'Armoriijiie. Between this and f The chief difference via in ortho-

' un Franfais naissant' there may bo graph y j the Northerns wrote Latin

only a verbal diitinctioni but, in accu- wordi with an < vhere Ihe South le-

racy of definition, I should think M. tained a; as chiritet, caritat; Teiitet,

Rajnouatd much more correct. The Teritat; appelct, apelat. Si Ton r^U-

lanii^uage of this oatb vannot tie called blluaic dans les plus ancient texles Fran-

Iditin without a vioknt stretch of words I fais lea a priinitift en place det t, on

no Latin scholar, as such, would under- aurait identiquement la langue dcs trou-

tland it, except by conjecture. On the badoura. Raynouard, Observations sur

other hand, most of the words, at wo le Roman du Rou. IB29, p. S.
learn from M. R, are Provcnjai of the § The proofs of this aimilarity occupy

twelfth century. The passa^u bas been most part of the firat and sixth volumes

often printed, and Boraetim» incorrectly, in M. Raynouard'a eicellent work.
M. Roquefort, in the preface to his Glos- [The theory of M. Haynotiard, espe-

taire de la Langue Romane, has given a eially so far as it involves the ei

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cbap.L] in the middle ages. 25

30. llius, in the eighth and niuth centuries, if not before,
France had acquired a language, unquestionably no-
thing else than a corruption of Latin, (for the Celtic 2™'^°'
or Teutonic words that entered into it were by no
means numerous, and did not influence its structure,) but
become so distinct from its parent, through modes of pro-
nunciation as well as grammatical changes, that it requires
some degree of practice to trace the derivation of words in
many instances. It might be expected that we should be
able to adduce, or at least prove to have existed, a series of
monuments in this new form of speech. It might naturally
appear that poetry, the voice of the heart, would have been
heard wherever the joys and sufferings, the hopes and cares
of humanity, wherever the countenance of nature, or the man-
ners of soda! life, supplied their boundless treasures to its
choice ; and among untutored nations it has been rarely
silent. Of the existence of verse, however, in this early period
of the new languages, we find scarce any testimony, a
doubtful passage in a Latin poem of the ninth century ex-
cepted*, till we come to a production on the captivity of

<if ■ primiiire Itonunce tongue, akin to tingwhlch he more justly remark* ufler-

ibe ProTEii^al, ilself derived from LMio, wards, an the oath of Charles the Bald,

bat spoken limullaDeously, or nearly so, that it ihows, " la langue Romanc est

in Spain and Italy ai wall ai France, enlieremenl compoteede Latin.'' Along

and the nwlher oF the Neo-Lalin tan- list could, no doubt, be nude or French

guagcs. hai been opposed in the very and Italian words that cannot easily be

leanied Huttnre de la Formation de la traced to any Latin with which we are

Langue Franjaiae, by M. Ampere. — acquainted ; but we may be surprised

IMT.J that it is not itill lunger.

It n ■ common emw to suppose that • In a Latin eclogue quoted by Pas-
French and Italian had a double source, chasius Radbert (ob. 865) in the life of
tMrbaric as well as Latin ; and that the Sl Adalhard, abbot of Corbie (ob. B36),
DOrtbem nations, in ntnquering those the romance poets are called upon to
regioDS, brought in a large share of their join the Latins in the following lines :
ova language. This is like the old er-
roneous opinion, that the Norman Con-
quest iufuaed the French which ve now
find in our own tongue. There are cer- tnumun
tainly IVutonie words, both in French men.'
and Italian, but not lufficient to affect
Oe propontion that these languages are Raynouard, Choii des Fofsies, vol. ii.
marely Latin in their origin. These p. ciiiv. These lines are scarcely intel-
Vdcds In many instances eipress what ligible; but the quotation from Virgil,
Lalio eouldnot; thui ffurm was by no in the ninth century, perhapt deserves
meana lynonymoui with Mlnm. Yet remark, though, in one of Charlemagnc'a
even Roquefort talks of " un jargon com- monasteries, it Is not by any means asto-
poa^ de mots Tudesqucs et Romain!i." niihing. Nennius, a Welsh monk, aa
DiM»iun Frfliminaire, p. 19.; forget- some think, of the same age, who cau

lyGOOgIC

26 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PaktI.

Boethius, vereified chiefly from passages in liis Consolation,
PMinoQ which M. Raynouard, though somewhat wishing
B<«thiiu. ^ assign a higher date, places about the year 1000.
This is printed hy him from a manuscript formerly in the
famous abbey of Fleury, or St Benoil-sur-Loire, and now in
tile public library of Orleans. It is a fragment of 250 lines,
written in stanzas of six, seven, or a greater number of verses
of ten syllables, sometimes deviating to eleven or twelve ;
and all the lines in each stanza rhyming masculinely with
each other. It is certainly by much the earliest specimen
of French verse * ; even if it should only belong, as Le Boeuf
thought, to the eleventh century.

31. M. Raynouard has asserted what will hardly bear dis-
vrntBtu pute, that " there has never been composed any con-
'™"°"" siderable work in any language, till it baa acquired
determinate forms of expressing the modifications of ideas
according to time, number, and person," or, in other words,
the elements of grammar, t But whether the Proven9al or
Romance language were in its infancy so defective, he does
not say ; nor does the grammar he has given lead us to that
inference. This grammar, indeed, is necessarily framed, in
great measure, out of more recent materials. It may be
suspected, perhaps, that a language formed by mutilating
the words of another, could not for many ages be rich or

bardlf write LMiq at all. has quoted ut- wiuiU it in the plural ; vbile the oblique

other line : ca^es lose it in the singular, but retain it

"P. <i«tiuii .i.nrCUBi" in tlio plural. This is evidently deriyed

iMrpurea iniaiti uiiuit mm or tin . ^^^ ^^^ second deelenuon m Latin. As,

Gale, IT Soriptorfs, iii, 103. for example —

* Rafnouarii, vol. ii. pp- 5> 6., and SA^(. LIprlncemtToiDi.st aniauirairali.

pie&ce, p. ciiTii. P''- Li evMcjuo «1 L plu. nghlo bsron « wat

"t Observation* philulogiques et gram- aiiembLe.

maticales, sur le lionun de Rou (1829), Thua abo the poBSessire pronoun ii

p. °6. Two ancient Provenfsl gram- alwa^ nui, tea, «t, (ineuB,tuuB, luus,) in

■oars, one b; Raymond Vidal in the the nominative sinKulori thdk, Ion, tOH,

twelfth century, are in existincc. The (meum. &c. ) in the oblique legimea. It

language Ibererore must have hid its baa been through ignorance of lucb rule*

determinate rules befoie that lime. that the old French poetry has seemed

M. liaynouard has shown with a pro- caprieiout, and destitute of strict grsm-
digality of evidence, the regularity of the mar; and, in a philosophical sense, the
French or Romance language in the simplicity and eitensiveness of M. Ray-
twelfth century, and its retention of nouard's discovery entitle it to the ap-
Latin forms, in cases vheu it bad not pellatioa of beautiliiL [It has, however,
been auspected. Thus it is a funda- been since shown to require some limil-

lyCOOglC

Chap.L] in the middle ages. 9ri

flexible enough for the variety of poetic expression. And
the more ancient forma would long retain their prerogative
in wriung : or, perhaps, we can only eay, that the absence
of poetry was the effect, as welt as the evidence, of that in-
tellectuu barrenness, more characteristic of the dark ages
than Uieir ignorance.

92. In Italy, where we may conceive the corruption of
language to have been less extensive, and where the i^utnn-
spoken patois had never acquired a distinctive name, I^d^'io'^
like lingua Romana in France, we find two remark- "*'^'
able proois, as they seem, that Latin was not wholly unintel-
ligible iu the ninth and tenth centuries, and which therefore
modify M. Raynouard's hypothesis as to the simultaneous
origin of the Romance tongue. The one is a popular song
of the soldiers, on their march to rescue the emperor Louis II.
in 881, from the violent detention in which he Imd been placed
by the duke of Benevento ; the other, a simitar exhortation to
the defenders of Modena In 924, when that dty was in danger
of siege from the Hungarians. Both of these were published
by Muratori, in his fortieth dissertation on Italian Antiquities ;
and both have been borrowed from him by M. Sismondi, in his
IJtt^rature du Midi. * The former of these poems is in a loose
trochaic measure, totally destitute of regard to grammatical
inflexions. Yet some of the leading peculiarities of Itahan, the
article and the auxiliary verb, do not appear. The latter is
in accentual iambics, with a sort of monotonous termination
in the nature of rhyme ; and in very much superior Latinity,
probably the work of an ecclesiastic, t It is difficult to ac-
count for either of these, especially the former, which is
merely a military song, except on the supposition that the
Latin language was not grown wholly out of popular use.

• Vrf. i. pp. S3. S7, .. o ,y I ^^,^ ,j^|, ij^j ^_,

t I un at ■ l<w to know vhM Mura- Noll rlinolr.. manao, Hd •Iglli."
lori metiu bjr njing, " Son reni di do-

diei ullabc, ma ociiDpiitaU la regione de' T^t* u like snotber Btraoge observation

tempi, TCOffono >d aaete ugusli ■ gli of Muratori in tlieMinedis»rlation, that,

aHlHHillabL"p. J51. He could not bave ■" 'he well-known lines of the emperor

nDdcnrtood the metio, which is perfectly Adrian to bu loul, » Animula »»gul«.

n^lar, ud eTen bBnnoniou^ on thti blvidula,"H'hiabcouIdperp1ei noscbool-

conditinn only, that no "rmpone de' boy, he cannot discover " un" esatta nor-

tempi," eiocpt mch u accentu^ pronun- !■>■ ^i metro ;" and therefore lakes them

eialioa obtenea, ahall be demanded. The *<> ^ merely rbythmicaL
tnt two lines will aerre at a speci-

lyGOOglC

28 LlTEUATUltE OF EUROPE [PaetI.

S3. In the eleventh century, France still aflFords us but few
extant writings. Several, indeed, can be shown to
t-t^tb* have once existed. The Romance language, com-
'^"''' prehending the two divisions of Provencal and
Northern French, by this time distinctly separate from each
other, was now, say the authors of the Histoire Litteraire de
la France, employed in poetry, romances, translations, and
original works in different kinds of literature ; sermons were
preached in it, and the code, called the Assises de Jerusalem,
was drawn up under Godfrey of Bouillon in 1100.' Some
part of this is doubtful, and especially the age of these laws.
They do not mention those of William the Conqueror, re-
corded in French by Ingulfus, Doubts have been cast by a
distinguished living critic on the age of this French code, an.d
upon the authenticity of the History of Ingulfus itself ; which
he conceives, upon very plausible grounds, to be a forgery of
Richard II.'s time : the language of the laws indeed appears
to be very ancient, but not probably distinguishable at this
day from the French of the twelfth century. It may be said,
in general, that, except one or two translations from books
of Scripture, very little now extant has been clearly referred
to an earlier period, t Yet we may suspect that the Ian-

• Vol. vil. p. 107. inusedi

iring the twelfth eenlurj ; apoken

■f Roquefort, Glossaire de la I^ngue and wrii

,len, in Pieardy, in Normandy, in

Bomane. p. 25., and Etat de la Pofsie the Isle

■ of France, in Burgundy and

ntrnl proyiiicci, in Lorrain, and.

veral religious works in the royal library, finally, i

n Poilou and Anjou ; the Ust of

ond also a metrical romance in the Bri- whLoh h

id a tinge of the Langue d'oe.

liah MuMom. lately published in Paris, Id. Intn

Dduction, p. 59 — 1847.] ftay-

1 the fabulous Toyaee of Charlemagne houard has collected a feir fragmenla i

to CDOStantinopIc [But this romance Provencal. But I must diuont from

is nov referred by its idilor, M. Michel, this etcclleot writer in referring the b-

to the beginning of the twelfth century, inoua poem of the Vaudoii, La Nobla

And the translation of the books of Leyeion, lo the year lioa Choii

Kings, mentioned in the text, are so &r des Ponies des Troubadours, yoI. ii.

fVom bang clearly lefcrrible to an earlier p. cixxvii. I have already obseried, that

period, that their editor, M. le Roui de the two lines which contain what he calls

Liacy, in Documcns Incdita, IS41, la date de I'an 1100, ate so loosely ei-

tliough wavering a little, oridently in- pressed, as to include the whole ensuing

dines to place them about the same century. (Haltam's Middle Age:, chap,

time. In fact, we are not able to prove ii.) And I am now convinced that the

satisfactorily that any Norman French, poem is not much older than lEOO. It

except the ver«on of Boethius above seems probable thai they reckoned 1100

mentioned, belongs to the eleventh cen. years, on a loose computation, not &om

tury. Roquefort and De la Rue a«- the Christian era, hut from the time

■umed too much aa to this. It may he when the passage of Scripture to wbicb

mentioned here, that M. Michel distin- llieie lines allude was written. Tlie al-

guishes sii dialects of Northern French lusion may be to I Pet. i. 9a But it

lyGOOgIC

Chap.L] in the middle AGES. 29

goage was already employed in poetry, and had been gra-
dually ramifying itself by the shoots of invention and senti-
ment i since, at the close of this age, and in the nest, we
find a constellation of gay and brilliant versifiers, the Trou-
badours of southern France, and a corresponding class to the
north of the Loire.

34. These early poets in the modem languages chiefly
borrowed their forms of versification fi"om the Latin.
It is unnecessary to say, that metrical composition modaro im.
in that language, as in Greek, was an arrange-
ment of verses corresponding by equal or equivalent feet ;
all syllables being presumed to fall under a known division
of long and short, the former passing for strictly the double
of the latter in quantity of time. By this law of pronunci-
ation all verse was measured ; and to this not only actors,
who were assisted by an accompaniment, but the orators also
endeavoured to conform. But the accented, or, if we choose
rather to call tliem so, emphatic syllables, being regulated by
a very difierent though uniform law, the uninstructed people,
especially in the decline of Latinity, pronounced, as we now
do, with litde or no regard to the metrical quantity of sylla-
bles, but according to their accentual differences. And this
gave rise to the popular or rhythmical poetry of the lower

is clear that, at the time of the compo- Bonnes qui I'o

■ition (rf'thispoem, not only the nmnE of Jugeront que ic manuscrit na pas ece

Fitwtni hill been imposed on thofc sec- interpoM," p. ciliii.

Uries, but the; had become subject to I will here reprint, more accurately

persecution. We know nothing of this than before, the two lines supposed tu

till aea the end of the eentury. Ihis give the poetn the dntc of 1100 : —
poem was probably wHtten in the south

of Fnace, and carried afterwards to the □ J'? ''.cT'lal'T' *r™°j *!" f""*'™"'?,'-

Alpine Talleys of Piedmont, &om which ''I' P -

it was brought to Geneva and England Can M. Raynouard, or anv one else,

in the seventeenth century. Ls Nobis be warranted by this in saying. La dale

LeyCBJti is published at length by Ray- dt Tan UOO, qu'on lit dans ce po^me,

Douaid. It conHSts of 479 lines, which mfrite loute eontiance?

stem to be rhjlhmicil or alierrant Alei- [The writings ascribed to the ancient

■ndrines ; the ihytnes unceilain in nura- Wsldenses have lately been investigated

bet, chiefly nuHuline. The poem cen- with considerable aeuteness and erudition

■ares the comiptioas of the church, but in the British Magazine, and the spu-

eoouini little that would be considered riousness of the greater part seemi de-

beiclical; which agrees with what con- monstrated. But those who consider

temporary hiilorisns relate of the original Leger as a forger, do not appear to doubt

Waldemea. Any doubts as (S the au- the authenticity of this poeiD, La Nobl«

tbeoiicity of this poem are touUy unrca- Lcjcion, though they entirely agree with

■ooable. M. Raynouard, an indisputably me as Co its probable date near the end of

cocDpelent judge, obserrea, "lies per- the twelfth century 184^.]

lyGOOgIC

30 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PamI.

empire ; traces of which may be found in the second century,
and even much earlier, but of which we have abundant proofs
after the age of Constantine.* All metre, as Augustin says,
was rhythm, but all rhythm was not metre : in rhythmical
verse, neither the quantity of syllables, that is, the time al-
lotted to each by metrical rule, nor even, in some degree,
their number, was regarded, so long as a cadence was re-
tained in which the ear could recognise a certain approach to
uniformity. Much popular poetry, both religious and pro-
fane, and the public hymns of the church, were written in
this manner j the distinc^on of long and short syllables, even
while Latin remained a living tongue, was lost , in speech,
and required study to attain it. The accent or emphasis,
both of which are probably, to a certain extent, connected
with quantity and with each other, supplied its place ; the
accented syllable being, perh^s, generally lengthened in or-
dinary speech ; though this is not the sole cause of length,
for no want of emphasis or lowness of tone can render a
syllable of many letters short. Thus we find two species of
Latin verse : one metrical, which Prudentius, Fortunatus,
and others aspired to vmte ; the other rhythmical, somewhat
licentious in number of syllables, and wholly accentual in its
pronundation. But this kind was founded on the former,
and imitated the ancient syllabic arrangements. Thus the
trochaic, or line in which the stress falls on the uneven syl-
lables, commonly alternating by eight and seven, a very
popular metre from its spirited flow, was adopted in military-
songs, such as that already mentioned of the Italian soldiers
in the ninth century. It was also common in religious chants.
The line of eight syllables, or dimeter iambic, in which the
cadence falls on the even places, was still more frequent in
ecclesiastical verse. But these are the most ordinary forms
of versification in the early French or Proven5aI, Spanish,
and Italian languages. The line of eleven syllables, which
became in time still more usual than the former, is nothing
else than the ancient hendecasyllable ; from which the French,

* The ircII-ncDOVTi Unea of Adrun to sounded M *'
Florus, and his reply, "E|{ono3o Florui esrliest insU'
* accentual trochaics, but not quantity ; fo

lyGOOgIC

Cbaf.L] 1(4 THE MIDDLE AGES. 31

in what they call masculiae rhymes, and ourselves more ge-
nerally, from a still greater delicieiicy of final vowels, have
been forced to retrench the last syllable. The Alexandrine of
twelve syllables might seem to he the trimeter iambic of the
ancients. But Sanchez has very plausibly referred its origin
to a form more usual in the dark ages, the pentameter i and
shown it in some early Spanish poetry.* The Alexandrine,
io the southern languages, had generally a feminine termina-
tion, that is, in a short vowel, thus becoming of thirteen syl-
lables, the stress falling on the penultimate, as is the usual
case in a Latin pentameter verse, accentually read in our
present mode. The variation of syllables in these Alexan-
drines, which run from twelve to fourteen, is accounted for
by the similar numerical variety in the pentameter, t

35, 1 have dwelt, perhaps tediously, on this subject, be-
cause vainie notions of a derivation of modern me-

. , ^^ > I 1 ^ T • Origin of

tncal arrangements, even m the languages ot Latin j^' f
origin, from the Arabs or Scandinavians, have some-
timea gained credit. It has been imagined also, that the
peculiar characteristic of the new poetry, rhyme, was bor-
rowed from the Saracens of Spain, t But the Latin language
abounds so much in consonances, that those who have been
accustomed to write verses in it well know the difiiculty of
avoiding them, as much as an ear formed on classical models
demantk ; and as this gingle is cert^nly pleasing in itself, it
is not wonderful that the less iastidious vulgar should adopt
it in their rhythmical songs. It has been proved by Mura-

* The break id the middle of the laiiotia fornii among those who either
AlciBndrine, it will occur to ererv com- did not understand, or did not regard,
ue quantity of (jliablea; and the
c out eiacuy cor- practice of rhyming is probably to be
■riable Uw of the dEduicedfroni the same original." I^isay
on the Language and Versiflcation of
f Roquefort. Enei )ur la Po£aie Fran- Chaucer, p. 51.
faite dana le 1 Sine et 1 3ine sidles, p. 66. ( Andres, with a parliality to the
Galnni. OxerraiiDiii suIla Poeaia de' Saracens of Spain, wliom, by a singular
TnnatorL (Modena, 1829.) Sanchei, auumplion, he takes for his countrymen,
Poesiaa Caitellanas anleriorei ai )5ino manifested in almost every page, does not
nglo, vol. i. p. ISS. &il to u^e this. It had been said long
Tynrhitl had already obaerred, " The before by Huet, and others who lived bc-
nwtrea wbieh the Normans used, and fore these subjects had been thoroughly
vhieh v« aecm to have borroired bom inrestigated- Origioe e Progresao, leu.,
ibem, were plainly eopied from tbe Latin ii. 194. He has been oopicd by Gin-
rhythmical Tarwi, which, in the declen- gujn£ and Ksmondi.
•ioD of that language, were current in

t: Go Ogle

32 LITERATURE OP EUBOPE [PaitI.

tori, Gray, and Turner, beyond the possibility of doubt, that
rhymed Latin verse was in use from the end of the fourth
century.*

36. Thus, about the time of the first crusade, we find two

dialects of the same language, difiering' by that time
indTrincb not inconsiderably from each other, the Proven^

and French, possessing a regular grammar, esta-
bhshed forms of versification (and the early troubadours added
several to those borrowed from the Latin t), and a flexibility
which gave free scope to the graceful turns of poetry. Wil-
liam, duke of Guienne, has Uie glory of leading the van of
surviving Provencal songsters. He was bom in 1070, and
may probably have composed some of his little poems before
he joined the crusaders in 1096. If these are genuine, and
no doubt of them seems to be entertained, they denote a con-
siderable degree of previous refinement in the language, f
We do not, I believe, meet with any other troubadour till
after the middle of the twelfth century. From that time till
about the close of the thirteenth, and especially before the
fall of the house of Toulouse in 1228, they were numer-
ous almost as the gay insects of spring; names of illus-
trious birth are mingled in the list with those whom genius
has saved from obscurity ; they were the delight of a luxu-
rious nobility, the pride of southern France, while the great
fiefs of Toulouse and Guienne were in their splendour. Their
style soon extended itself to the northern dialect. Abelard
was the first of recorded name, who taught the banks of the
Seine to resound a tale of love ; and it was of Eloise that he
sung. § "You composed," says that gifted and noble-
spirited woman, in one of her letters to him, " many verses
in amorous measure, so sweet both in their language and

■ Muralori, AntichitA Ilaliane dissert., Galvani, far tfae Proren^l and French

40. Turner, in Archaologio, vol. liv., metrca, which are verf complicated.

and HiM. oF England, vul. ir. pp. 328. t Rajnouarcl, Choii des Poesies del

SSX Gray hii gone us deeply a> anj Troubadour^ voi. ii. Auguis, Recucil

one into this lulijecE ; and though, writ- des Aiiciens Pontes Fmn^ais, toI. i.

ing at what may be called bd early § Bouterwek. on the authority of La

period of melrlcal criticism, he has Tallen RavailUre, seems to doubt vhelher these

into a few erron, and been too ea^y of poems of Abelard were in French or

credence, unanswerably proves the Latin Latin. Getch. der Franibzen Foesie,

origin of rhyme. Gray's Works by Ma- p. IS. I believe this would be thought

tbUs. vol. ii. p. 30— 54. quite paradoxical by any critic at pre-

t See liaynouard, Roquefort, and sent.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cbap.L] in the middle AGES. S3

their melody, that your name was incessantly in the mouths
of all, and even the most illiterate could not be forgetful of
you. This it was chiefly that made women admire you.
And as most of these songs were on me and my love, they
made me koown in many countries, and caused many women
to envy me. Every tongue spoke of your Eloise ', every
street, every house resounded with my name."* These
poems of Abelard are lost ; but in the Norman, or northern
French language, we have an immense number of poets be-
longing to the twelfth and the two following centuries. One
hundred and twenty-seven are known by name in the twelfth
alone, and above two hundred in the thirteenth, t Thi-
bault, king of Navarre and count of Champagne, about the
middle of the next, is accounted by some the best, as well as
noblest, of French poets ; but the spirited and satirical Rute-
bouf might contest the preference.

* Duo Butem, fateDT, tibi specialiter epistle, by putting the HDllmenti of a

inennl, quibus fcminiruni qiuiumlibet coarse ind abandoned woman into her

■DtTnos itatim aJlicere potenu, dietandi mouth. Her refiiial to marrjr Abvlard

Tidelicet et cintandi gratia; quE cnteroa arose not rrom an abstract predilection

minimi- phiJoiopliDi aairculoa eu« nori- for the name of mistren aboio that of

oini. Quibus guidein quasi ludo quodain irife, but from her diiintereKted affection,

laborem eiercitii recreans philosophici vliicb would not deptiie him of the pro-

pleraque amatorio metro vel rithmo com- apect of eccleiiaitical dignitiei, to wliJeh

poaita reliqiiisti earmina, qua pr« nimia hU genius and renown miphl lead bim.

■uaTitalc tam dictaminii quam eantui She Judged very unwisely, as it turned

urpiiu frequentala tuum in ore omnium out. but from an unbounded generositj

■wmen incesointer tenehant, ut etiam of character. He was, in Ikct, unworthj

illiteratoimelodiiedulcedo tuinonsinerct of Iier afleetion, which ilie cipresses in

imTnemore* esse. Atque hinc mniime in the tenderest language. Dcum Intern

amorem tui femina luspirabant Etcum invoco, ai me Auguitui uaiverso pn>-

borum pan nuiiinu carmlnum nostra* ndens mundo matrimonii honore digna-

decantaret amores, multii me regionibui reiur, lotumque milii orbem conlirmaret

bnti tempore nUDciarit, et multarum in in perpetuum prieaidcndum, cliarius mibi

me feminarum accendit intidiam. An<t et dignius viderctur tua diet meietrix

in acvotber place: FrequenL carmine quam illiui imperatiii.

town in ore omnium Heloiisam ponebui f Auguis, Discours Prfliminaire, p.S.

DW plata omnes, me domus singula re- Roquefort, Etat de la Pofiile Fraiicaise

sonabant. Epist. Abattrdi et Heloissa. aui I2me et ISme siedes. Hist. Litt.

TbrK epuitles of Abelard and F.loiia, de la France, iri. SS9.

especialt; those of the latter, are, as lar [It ought to have been observed, that

aa I know, the first book that give* any comparatively few of the poets of tlie

pleuure in reading which had been pro- twelfth century are eilant ; most of them

ductd in Europe for 600 years, since the are Anglo-Norman. At least ten times

Conaolation of Boelhiua. But I do not as much French Tcrac of the tliirleenlh

firen my negative judgment. We may at has been preserved. Hist Li tL de la

east say thatthewriteraofthedarkages, France, p. 239. Notie prose et notte

if they have letl any thing intrinsically pocsie Fr^n^aise eiislaient svsnt IdCO,

very good, have been ill-lrealcd by the mais c'esi au Ireiiii^me siecle qu'ellei

leaioed, who hare failed to extract it. commencerent a prendre iin caractiJre

Pupe, it may be here observed, has done national. Id. p. S54. — IMT.]
great injustice to Eloisa In his unrivalled

"■"■•'• " .,.,„,:,G00glc

34 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PartL

37. In this French and Proven9al poetry, if we come to
the consideration of it historically, descending irom an ear-
lier period, we are at once struck by the vast preponderance
of amorous ditties. The Greek and Koman muses, espe-
cially the latter, seem frigid as their own fountain in com-
parison. Satires on the great, and espedally on the clergy,
exhortations to the crusade, and religious odes, are inter-
mingled in the productions of the troubadours ; hut love is
the prevailing theme, lliis tone they could hardly have
borrowed from the rhythmical Latin verses, of which all that
remain are without passion or energy. They could as little
have been indebted to their predecessors for a peculiar grace-
fulness, an indescribable charm of gdety and ease, which
many of their lighter poems display. This can only be
ascribed to the polish of chivalrous manners, and to the in-
fluence of feminine delicacy on public taste. The well known
dialogue, for example, of Horace and Lydia, is justly praised ;
nothing extant of this amoebean character, from Greece or
Rome, is nearly so good. But such alternate stanzas, be-
tween speakers of different sexes, are very common in the
early French poets ', and it would be easy to dud some quite
equal to Horace in grace and spirit. They had even a ge-
neric name, tensons, contentions ; that is, dialogues of lively
repartee, such as we are surprised to find in the twelfth cen-
tury, an age accounted by many almost barbarous. None of
these are prettier than what are called pastourelks, in which
the poet is feigned to meet a shepherdess, whose love he
solicits, and by whom he is repelled (not always finally) in
alternate stanzas,* Some of these may be read in Roque-
fort, Etat de la Po^sie Fran^aise, dans le ISme et 13me
si^cles i others in Raynouard, Choix des Poesies des Trou-

■ These hsTP, as Galvani bas obierTeJ, object of exhibiting aiicienl ma'nnerB and
an Hticient protot^e in the twenty- language scarcely irananted thuir publi-
seventh pastoral of The^^ritus, which cation in so large a number,
Diyden has translated witti no dimlnu- [A t^od mony pastourelles, but all
tion oT its freedom. Some of the Pa>- laiiations of Iho same subject, are pulh
tourelleii are alw rather licentious 1 liut lished by M. Michel, in his T\i6itre
thai is not the case with the greater part. Francais au Moyen Age, p. 31. 'Ilicse
M. Kaynouard, in an arlicle of the arc in northern dialects, and may he re-
Journal des Saians for 18S4, p. 613., re- ferred to the tvelRh and thirteenth cen-
marks the superior decency of the soulh- turics. Robin and Marion are always
ern poets, scarfeTy four or fire transgress- the shepherd or peasant and his rustic
ing in Hint rcxpecl 1 nbilc many of the lore; and a kniftht always iiiti'rfcrei,
bbliaux in the collections of iiaihazan nilh or without success, to seduce or
and M£on nre of tlic most coarse and outrage Marian. We bavc nothing cor-
stiipid ribaldry) and such that even the rc3|)onding totbcsein England. — 1S4.7.]

iRngliind 184,7]

C.oo>;;lc

Chap. L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 35 '

bodours ; in Au^is, Recuei) des Anciens Poetes Fran^ais ;
or in Galvani, (^servazioni suUa Poesia de' Trovatori.

38. In all these light compositions which gallantry or
gaiety inspired, we perceive the characteristic excellenries of
French poetry, as distinctly as in the best vaudeville of the
age of Louis XV. We can really sometimes find little dif-
fereace, except an obsoleteness of language, which gives them
a kind of poignancy. And this style, as I have observed,
aeems to have been quite original in France, though It was
imitated by other nations." The French poetry, on the other
liand, was deficient in strength and ardour. It was also too
much filled with monotonous common-places ; among which
the tedious descriptions of spring, and the everlasting night-
ingale, are eminently to be reckoned. These, perhaps, are
less frequent in the early poems, most of which are short,
than they became in the prolix expansion adopted by the
allegorical school in the fourteenth century. Tliey prevail,
as is well known, in Chaucer, Dunbar, and aevcral other of
our own poets.

39- The metrical romances, far from common in Pro-
ven^alt, but forming a large portion of what was M«mai
written in the northern dialect, though occasionally iCtKE"'
picturesque, graceful, or animated, are seldom free ""^«'•■
from tedious or prosaic details. The earliest of these extant
seems to be that of Havelok the Dane, of which an abridg-
ment was made by Geofirey Gaimar, before the middle of
the twelfth century. The story is certainly a popular legend
from the Danish part of England, which the French versifier
has called, according to the fashion of romances, ** a Breton

* Andres, u uiual with biin, whose foim noy opinion how br the more «-

prejudieei aro nil that wft;, drrives the •cntial chataclerlstici of FrovCDfat Terss

PrDT«i9a1 style or poetry Troin the Ara- miy have been derived (rum it. One

liiatiK; and (bis hai been countenanced, seems to find more of oriental hj'iKrboia

in KHne meuure. by Gingu^n^ and Sia- in the Culilian poetry.
mondi. Some ofthe pcculiariliea of the f It hai been denied that there are any

Troubadours, theEr lensons. or cooten- metrieal romances in Provencal. But one

tions, and ihc envoi, or terminatiun of a called the Philomcna, on the fabulous

poem, by an address to the po*m itself or history of CharlcmagnE, is written after

the reailer, are said to be of Arabian 1173, Ihough not much later than ISOO.

origin. In assuming tbat rhvme was Jonmal des Savnn\ 1824. [The Fhilo-

incrodueed by the same channel, these mens is in prose ; but it has been pointed

writers arc prol>ably mistaken. But 1 out (o me, Ihat four metrical romances in

have seen loo little of oriental, and, espe- Provencal have been broughl to light by

ciallr, of Hispano-Satseenic poetry, to Bay nouard and others. — lS-19.]

» 2

t: Go Ogle

36 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PamI.

lay." If this word meaDt any thing more than relating to
Briton, it is a plain falsehood ; and upon either hypothesis,
it may lead us to doubt, as many other reasons may also,
what has been so much asserted of late years, as to the Ar-
morican origin of romantic fictions ; since the word Breton,
which some critics refer to Armorica, is here applied to a
Btory of mere English birth.* It cannot, however, be
doubted, from the absurd introduction of Arthur's name in
this romance of Havelok, that it was written after the publi-
cation of the splendid fables of Geofirey. t

■ Tlie Rccherehcs eur Ics Bardes to consider all the Wdsli poemi wliich

d'Annorique, by that n-^pecCable veteran contain Blluiioni to Arihiir as posterior

M. de la Rue, are very uniatisfactory. to the time of Geaffref. " Tlie legciida

It docs not ippsaT that the Bretaiu have of the British kings," he says, " apiivar

•o muih as a national tradition of any to ha»e been brought over from Bte-

Tomantic poetry, nor any orilingi in their tagne, and not to have had their origin

laagiiage older than 1 450. Theaulhorily among the Welsh i although ire begin

of Warton, Lcyden, Ellis, Turner, and to oliisrve traces of the legends relating

Price, has rendered this hypothesis of early to Arthur and Merlin before GeoHVey of

Armorican romance popular ; but I can- Monmouth vrote, yet even the Welsh of

not l>elieie that so baseless a &b[ic will that time appear to liave rejected his

endure much longer. Is it credible that narrative as fiibulous." Biogr. Britann.

talcs of ariitocratic splendour and cour- I.ittjraire, vol. ii. p. 145, If we can de-

tesy sprung up in so poor and uncivilised pend at all on tlic smiles of tlie Mabluii-

a country as Bretagne? Traditional gion, which a lady haa so honourably

stories they might, no doubt, possets, brought before tlie English public, the

and some of these may be found In the traditional legends concerning Arthur

Lais de Marie, and other early poems ; prevailed in Wales in an earlier age than

recollect, though speaking without con-
fidence, tliat any proof lias been given
of Armorican traditions about Arthur,
earlier than the history of Geoffrey : for
it seemi loo much to interpret the word
BriUmrt of them rmther than of tlie Welsh.

Mr, T^imer, I observe, without absolutely labantem pj

recanting, baa much receded from bis tosque civii

opinion of an Armorican original for De GeslisReg. Angl, 1,1. Arthur'tvic
OeolTrey of Monmouth. tory at Mount Badon in SIG, and his
[It is not easy lo perceive hov the death in 537, are mentioned in the An-
Btory of Arthur, aa a Welsh prince and nales Cambriie, prepared by the late Mr.
conqueror, sbonld have originated in Petrio for publication ; a brief chronicle,
Britany, which may have preserved Eome which seems, in part at least, consider-
connexion with Cornwall, but none, as ably older than the twelfth century, if
&r ai we know, with Wales. The Ar- not almost contemporary— 1847.]
morieans, at least, bad no motive for f The romance orilavelok was printed
inventing magnificent fables in order to by Sir Frederick Madden in 1839 -, but
swell the glory of a different, though mit for sale. His Introduction is of con-
cognate, people. Mr. Wright conceives siderable value. The story of Havelok is
that Arthur was a mythic personage in that of Curan and Argentilc, in Warner's
Britany, whose legend waa confounded Albion's England, upon which Mason
liy GeofTrey with real history. But th!a founded a drama. Sir F. Madden refers
vbolly annihilates the histatieal bssis, the English translation to some time be-
and requires u^ not only to reject Nen- In-een 1370 and 1390. Tlic manuscript
nius as a spurious or inter|)olated writer, is in the Bodleian Library. Hie French
which n Mr. Wright's hypothesis, but original b:is since been, repriDtcdi in

that<

if Geoffrev!

and

perl lap-

1 William

of Malinsbury 'all

udcd

to the

m rather

than

forg.

■rv, in t

he ■words,

Hie

est Arthuru

s de quo

nugai

■ bodieque deli ran

It; digr

lus plane.

inonfiillacesj

liarentfi

.buloe, sed

es pmdicarcn

t his

uippe qui

laban

torn patriam i

dius

it, infrac-

tosqu

le civium mer

iteii

id bellu.

n acuerit.

CuAr.l.'] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 3J

40. Two more celebrated poems are by Wace, a native of
Jersey ; . one, a free version of the history lately
published by Geoffrey of Monmouth; the other, a ofp^i^h
narrative of the Battle of Hastings and Conquest of '"*""''
fjigland. Miuiy other romances followed. Much has been
disputed for some years concerning these, as well as the lays
and fabliaux of the northern trouveurs ; it is sufficient here
to observe, that they afforded a copious source of amusement
and interest to those who read or listened, as far as the
French language was diffused ; and this was far beyond the
boundaries of France. Not only was it the common spoken
tongue of what is called the court, or generally of the supe-
rior ranks, in England, but in Italy and in Germany, at least
throughout the thirteenth century. Brunetto Latini wrote
his philosophical compilation, called Le Tresor, in French,
" because,* as he says, " the language was more agreeable
and usual than any other." Italian, in fact, was hardly em-
ployed in prose at that time. But for those whose education
had not gone so far, the romances and tales of France
began to be rendered into German, as early as the latter part
of the twelfth century, as they were long afterwards into
English, becoming the basis of those popular songs, which
illustrate the period of the Swabian emperors, the great
bouse of Hobenstauffen, Frederic Barbarossa, Henry Vf.,
and Frederic II.

41. The poets of Germany, during this period of extra-
ordinary fertility in versification, were not less nu- oorm.™
roerous than those of France and Provence. • I^iIbC
From Henry of Veldek to the last of the lyric ''"''"''
poets, soon after the beginning of the fourteenth century,
not less than two hundred are known by name. A col-
lection made in that age by Rudiger von Manasse of
Zurich contwns the productions of one hundred and forty ;
and modem editors have much enlarged the list.t Henry
of Veldek is placed by Eichhom about II7O, and by Bou-
terwek twenty years later ; so that at the utmost we cannot
reckon the period of their duration more than a century and

France, at I Irutd fram Brunet'a Supple- * Bouterwek. p. 95.

nmt au Manuel du Lihraire. Both this t Id- P- S^- This collection wai pub-

acid i(s abridgment, by GeoSVey GuTnar. lisbed in 1753 bj BodnuT.

■re ID tbe British Muieuin.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

38 literatuhe of Europe [P*«il.

a half. But the great difference perceptible between die
poetry of Henry and that of the old German songs proves
him not to have been the earliest of the Swabian school ; he
is as polished in language and versification as any of his
successors ; and though a northern, he wrote in the dialect
of ttie house of Hohenstau£fen. Wolfram von Eschenbacfa,
in the first years of the next century, ia, perhaps, the most
eminent name of the Miiine-singers, as the lyric poets were
denominated, and is also the translator of several romances.
The golden age of German poetry was before the fall of
the Swabian dynasty, at the death of Conrad IV. in 1254.
Love, as the word denotes, was the peculiar theme of the
Minnesingers; but it was chiefly from the northern or
southern dialects of France, especially the latter, that they
borrowed their amorous strains.* In the latter part of the
thirteenth century, we find less of feeling and invention, but
a more didactic and moral tone, sometimes veiled in JGsopic
fables, sometimes openly satirical. Conrad of Wurtzburg is
the chief of the later school ; but he had to lament the
decline of taste and manners in his own age.

42. No poetry, however, of the Swabian period is so
national as the epic romances, which drew their subjects from
the highest antiquity, if they did not even adopt the language
orprimseval bards, which, perhaps, though it has been sur-

* Herder, Zuntreute ninlter, toI. t. A ipecieiof lovivEoiig, ppculiar.aeeord-

p. 206. Elelihom, Altg. CiMhichtc der ing to Weber (p. 90' to the Minne.

Cidlur, Yol. i. p. 226. Heinsius, Teut, sineers, are wiled Watchmen'i Song»,

oder I>elirbuch der Deuluhen Sprach- These consitt in a dialogue between ■

wisaonscliafl, Tol. IT. pp. 33 — 80. Weber's lover and the sentinel who guards h»

Itluatrations of Korthem Antiquities, miatreas. The latter i> [wrKuiiiled to

IBM. This worli conUina the earliest imilile " Sir Pandarus of Troj ;" but,

■nalysia, I believe, of the Nibelungen when morning breaks, sninmoiis the luver

Lied. Itut above all, I have been in- toquiC liis ladji who. in her turn, main-

debted to the eicellent account of Ger- tain< that ■■ it is the nightingale, and not

man poetry by Bouterwek, in the ninth the lark," with almoEt the pertinaritjr of

volume of his great work, the Uitlory of Juliet.

Poetry and Eloquence since the thir- Mr. Taylor remarki, (hat the German

tcenth century. In this volume the poets do not go ao fiir in their idolatry of

mcdiaval poetry of Germany oeeupiea the fair as the Provencals, p. 1ST. I do

nearly four hundred closely printed not concur altogether in his rea<ansi

pages. I have «nce met witli a pleasing but as ihe Minne'Singer^ imitaied the

little volume, on liie Lays of the Minne- Procen^li. this deviation is remarkable

lingers by Air. Edgar Taylor. It con- 1 should rather ascribe it to the hyper-

lains an secoimt of the chief of those bolical lone which the Tronbadoun had

poets, with triunlnlions, perhaps in loo borrowed from (he Arabians, or to lbs

modern astyle, lliough it may be true that susceplihility of their temperament,
no ther would anit our modem laate.

lyGoogIc ■

Chap.L]

IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

SEi

tnised, is not compatible with their style. In the two most
celebrated productions of this kind, the Helden Buch, or
Book of Heroes, and the Nibelungen Lied, the Lay of the
Nibelungen, a fabulous people, we find the recollections of an
heroic age, wherein the names of Actita and Theodoric stand
out as witnesses of traditional history, clouded by error and
coloured by fiincy. The Nibelungen Lied, in its present
form, is by an uncertain author, perhaps about the year
1200* ; but it comes, and as far as we can judge with little
or DO interpolation of circumstances, from an age anterior to
Oiristranity, to civilisation, and to the more refined forms of
chivalry. We cannot well think the stories later than the

* Weber uyi, — "1 have no doubt
Tlwtever thit the loraiince itself » ofTery
high antiquilj, at Icut of the aWeutb
canlury, though, certainly, the pre»nl
copy hu been conuijerably Tnodemised."
IllmCnlioiu of Norihern lUnnancti, p.

think i

5S.

wA doe

■nd I

■ highly probable, that the " bar-
ban et aDtiquiaima carmina," vhich,
■ecording to Eginhard, Charlemagne
caused to be Tedueed lo writing, were no
other than the legends of the Nibelun|Kn
Lied, andaimilar tradition* of the Gotbio
and Burgundian tiioe. Weber, p. 6. I
*ill here mention a curioui Latin epic
poem on the wan ot Attila, published by
Fucbi ■ ■- ■ - ■

iith c

itury

; but

Dtben

referred it to the eighth. [Raynouard
(Journal des Sarana, Aug. 1!«93) placet
it in the tenth. And my friend the Hon.
and l(ev. W. Herbert, in the notes lo his

poemon Allila(lB3T), a production dis-
playing an ■ ' ■ ' "

il talen

, has, pi

bably with no knowledge of Raynou
Judgment, come to the same determina-
tion, from the THention of Iceland, under
the name of llille, which was not dis-
covered dll Ml. "The poem resemblea
in &tyle and subilance Ibe later Scaudi-
narian uga^ and it is probably a Latin
insion of some aueh prose namtlte ;
and the spelling oF Thule, Thile, aeema
lo hare been derived from the Scon.
dimtiaa orthogmphj Thylc. At tlie

end of the tenth century the Scandina-
Tians, who were previoudy illiterate, be-
gan to study in Italy, and the ditrorery
of Iceland would hare transpired through
them. Il is probable that this may In
ths earliest woik in which Ibe name
Thule ha! been applied lo Iceland, and it
is most likely a production or the tenth
century. The M& is aaid to be oF the
thirteenlli." It appears, however, by M.
Raynousrd's article thai the Ma iu the
Royal Library at Parii contains a dedi-
cation to an archbishop of Rome near the
cloae of the tenlh century, which, iu the
absence of any preiuTnplion to the con-
trary, may ■pnns for the date oF the poem.
— 1B42.1 The heroes are Franks; but
the whole is fabulous, except the name
of Allila and bis Huns. I do not know
whether ihii has any conneiion with a
history of Attila by a writer named Ca-
soIh, existing in manuscript at Modena,
and being probably a transTalion in prose
from Latin iuto Provencal. A trans-
lation of this last into Italian was pub-
liabed by Kossi at Ferrara in 1^68: it
is a very scarce book, but 1 have aeen
two copli:s of it. Weber's Illustnlions,
p. 23. Eichhom, Allg Gesch. ii. 178.
Cdiani. Osservaiioni sulla poesia de*

The Nibelungen Lied seems to have
been less papular in the middle ages than
other romances; evidently because it r&
ItteatoadifTerentstate oF manners. Rou-
lerwek, p. Ml. Heinuus observei that
we must consider this poem as the most
valuable record of Certnan antiquity, but

been inclined to do, can be of no ad-

lyGOOglC

40 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Part I.

sixth or seventh centuries. The German critics admire the
rude grandeur of this old epic ; and its fables, marked with
a character of barbarous simplicity wholly unlike that of later
romance, are become, in some degjee, familiar to ourselves.
4i3. The loss of some accomplished princes, and of a near
intercourse with the south of France and with Italy,
Gcrmu" as wcll as the augmented independence of the Ger-
''' man nobility, only to be maintained by unceasing
warfare, rendered their manners, from the latter part of the
thirteenth century, more rude tlian before. They ceased to
cultivate poetry, or to think it honourable in their i-ank.
Meantime a new race of poets, chiefly burghers of towns,
sprang up about the reign of Rodolph of Hapsburg, before
the lays of the Mtnne-singers had yet ceased to resound.
These prudent, though not inspired, votaries of the muse,
chose the didactic and moral style as more salutary than the
love songs, and more reasonable than the romances. They
became known in the fourteenth century, by the name of
Meister-singers, but are traced to the institutions of the
twelfth century, called singing-schools, for the promotion of
popular music, the favourite recreation of Germany. What
they may have done for music I am unable to say ; it was in
an evil hour for the art of poetry that they extended their
jurisdiction over her. They regulated verse by the most
pedantic and minute laws, such as a society with no idea of
excellence but conformity to rule would be sure to adopt ;
though nobler institutions have often done the same, and the
Master-burghers were but prototypes of the Italian acade-
micians. The poftry was always moral and serious, but flat.
These Meister-singers are said to have originated at Mentz,
from which they spread to Augsburg, Strasborg, and other
cities, and in none were more renowned than Niiremburg.
Charles IV., in IS78, incorporated them by the name o(
Meistergenoss-schart, with armorial bearings and peculiar
privileges. They became, however, more conspicuous in the
sixteenth century ; scarce any names of Meister-singers be-
fore that age are recorded ; nor does it seem that much of
their earlier poetry is extant.*

n the RetTDspcclIre Revlei", vol. i.

lyGOOgIC

. • Boutei

■wek.ii.HTl.

-291

. Heinsiti'

i.. 85—98.

S« also

the

Univcnenc

, Kt, Fold;

md,

.go^ .rli

Ckap. L] IM THE MIDDLE AGES. 41

44. The French versifiers had by this Ume, perhaps,
become less numerous, though several names in the
same style of amatory song do some credit to their Fiuuuid
a^fe. But the romances of chivalry began now to
be written in prose ; while a very celebrated poem, the
Boman de la Rose, had introduced an unfortunate taste for
allegory into verse, from which France did not extricate
herself for several generations. Meanwhile the Proven9al
poets, who, down to the close of the thirteenth century, had
nourished in the south, and whose language mnny Lombards
adopted, came to an end ; after the re-union of the fief of
Toulouse to the crown, and the possession of Provence by a
northern line of princes, their ancient and renowned tongue
passed for a dialect, a patois of the people. It had never
been much employed in prose, save in the kingdom of Ara-
gon, where, under the name of Valencian, it continued for
two centuries to lie a legitimate language, till political cir-
cumstances of the same kind reduced it, as in southern
France, to a provincial dialect. The Castilian language,
which, though it has been traced higher in written fragments,
may be considered to have begun, in a literary sense, with the
poem of the Cid, not later, as some have thought, than the
middle of the twelfth century, was employed by a few extant
poets in the next age, and in the fourteenth was as much the
established vehicle of many kinds of literature in Spain as the
French was on the other side of die mountains.* The
names of Portuguese poets not less early than any in Castile
are recorded ; fragments are mendoned by Bouterwek as old
as the twelfth century, and there exists a collection of lyric
poetry in the style of the Troubadours, which is referred to
no late part of the next age. t . Nothing has been published

• SiiKliei, CollrelioD de poniai Cas- in ISSS.Ivenly-fiTecopiaof a collection

telUnai anteriorea il «glo IJnio. Velas- of Bticicnt I'ortujtueH! longs, &oin >

qim, Historia delU pi»>iia Eipaiial; manuscript in the librarj of the College

vhicb I onl; know bf the GcTinan trani- of Nobles at Lisbon. An account of this

laiiuDof Dinr, (Gottingen, IT69,) vho back, by M. Htynouarif, will be fonnd in

has added many notn. Andres, Origine the Journal dei Savans for August, 1895;

d'ogni liiteratura, ii. 158. Boutcrirek') and I tiaic been Favoured by my nobis

HiatoTj of Spaniih and Portuguese Liter- friend tbe editoi with ibe loan uT a copy ;

ature. 1 shall quote the English trans- though my ignorance of the language

lation of tbia vork. prevented mc fram forming an enact

t Thia TCfy curious fact in literary judgment of ila contents. In the pre-

lyGOOglC

42 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past I.

in the Castilian language of this amatory style older than
1400.

45. Italy came last of those countries where Latin had
EsriTiuiiin heen spoken to the possession of an independent
imguige. language and literature. No industry has hitherto
retrieved so much as a few lines of real Italian till near the
end of the twelfth century* ; and there is not much hefore
the middle of the next. Several poets, however, whose versi-
fication is not wholly rude, appeared soon afterwards. TJie
Divine Comedy of Dante seems to have been commenced
hefore his exile from Florence in 1304. The Italian lan-

the first part having been torn off, and Mania has frequently a burden of tiro

the manuscript attached to a work of a linea. The plan appeared to be some-

vholly dilTiTent nature. The writing thing like Ihiit of the Cutilian giusas of

appears to be of the fourteenth century, the fifteenth century, the aubjecl of the '

and in tome places oldtr. 'Ilie idiom first etan» being repeated, and Gometiuiea

aeems older than the writing: it may be expanded, in the rest. I do not know

called, if 1 undentand tbe meaning of that this is found in any Proven^ poetry,

tliepreface, as old aa the beginningorthe The langunge, according to liaynouard,

thirteenth century, and certainly older resembles Provencal more than the mo-

than the reign of Denis, pode appelll- dem Portuguese does. It is a Tn^-re-

darse coevo do seculo liii, e de certo he markable circumstance, t)iat we have no

anletior ao reynado de D. Denlz. Denia etidcnce, at least frotn the letter of the

king of Portugal reigned fi-om 1379 to Merquit of Santillana early in tlie fif-

1325. It l» regular in grammar, and for teeoth century, that the Castllians had
the most part in orthography ; but con-
tain! some gallicisms, whicli ehow either

a eonneiiun bctiTeeii France and Portu- may rather collect from il, that the

gal in that age, or a common orij^in in Spanish amatory poets chose tbe Galli-

■Duthern tongues of Europe ;

a found in this manuscript to their own. Though the very ancien

are preserved in t^anish, Italian, and collection to which this note rcfcn seem

Provencal, yet are omitted in Porlu- to have been unknovit, I find mention u

guete dictionaries. A few poems are one by Don Pedro, count of Barcolon

translated from Praveiicnl, but the DBtural con of King Denis, in Dieie'

greater part are strictly j'ortuguese, as notes on VcUiques. Cjescb. der Span

the mention of places, names, and man- Dichlkunst, p. 7a Tliia must have beei

ners «liows, M. Reynouard, however, in the first part of the fourteenth cen
s, that the thoughts and fori

versification are similar to those of the

* Tiraboschi. lii. S2S., doubts the au-

Troubadoum. 1'hc metres employed are

thenticity of some inscriptions referred to

usuiliy of seven, eight, and ten syllables.

the twelfth century. The earliest genuine

the accent falling on the last ; but some

Italian seems to he a few lines by Ciullo

lines occur of seven, eight, or eleven

d'Alcamo, a Sicilian, between ItST and

syllables, accented on the penultimate.

119.1, vol. iv. p. 340. [Muratori thinks

and those are sometimes inlcrwoven, at

it prt*able that Italian might be written

regular intervals, with the others.

Tbesongs, asfar at 1 was ableto judge, do eio precUamente afvenisse, nui nol

ate chictiy, if not wholly, amatory i they sappiamo, percbd 1' ignorania c barbarie

generally consist of stanzas, the lirst of dl que' tempi non ne Inscio memoria, o

wbich is written (and printed) with in- non composse tale opcre, clie merilassero

terrals fur musical notes, and in the form di viicrc iiiGiio ni tempi noslri. Delia

of prose, though really in metre. Each pecfetta I'ocsia, v. i. p. s. — 1S42.]

lyCOOglC

Cbai-L] in the middle ages. 43

guage was much used in prose, during the times of Dante
snd Petrarch, though very little before.

46. Dante and Petrarch are, as it were, the morning
stars of our modern literature. I shall say nothing n,nn.„d
more of the former in this place : he does not stand ^■"''"''■
ID such close connexion as Petrarch with t!ie fifteenth century i
nor had he such influence over the taste of his age. In this
respect Petrarch has as much the advantage over Dante, as
he was his inferior in depth of thought and creative power.
He formed a school of poetry, which, though no disciple
comparable to himself came out of it, gave a character to the
taste of his country. He did not invent the sonnet ; but he,
perhaps, was the cause that it has continued in fashion for
so many ages. * He gave purity, elegance, and even stabi-
lity to the Italian language, which has been incomparably less
changed during near five centuries since his time, than it was
in une between the age of Guido Guinizzelli and his own.
And none have denied him the honour of having restored a
true feeling of classical antiquity in Italy, and consequently
in Europe.

47. Nothing can be more difficult than to determine,
except by an arbitrary line, the commencement of

the English language ; not so much, as in those of advi^sudo
the Continent, because we are in want of materials,
but rather from an opposite reason, the possibility of tracing
a very gradual succession of verbal changes that ended in a
change of denomination. We should probably experience a
similar difliculty, if we knew equally well the current idiom
of France or Italy in the seventh and eighth centuries. For
when we compare the earliest English of the thirteenth cen-
tury with the Anglo-Saxon of the twelfth, it seems hard to
pronounce, why it should pass for a separate language, rather
than a modification or simplification of the formei*. We must
conform, however, to usage, and say that the Anglo-Saxon
was converted into English : 1. by contracting or otherwise
modifying the pronunciation and orthography of words ;
2. by omitting many inflections, especially of the noon, and
consequently making more use of articles and auxiliaries j

• Crncimbeni (Stori» delta nilg»r the r^iilar sonnet, or at Uaat tlie per-
poetU, vul. ii. p. 269. ) atterls ihe cliim fection of tluit in use among (he Pro-
of Guitoa (I'Areuo to the invcntiou of yenfalii.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

44 LITERATUHE OF EUROPE [P*rtI.

3. by the introduction of French derivadves ; 4. by using
less inversion and ellipBis, especially in poetry.' Of these the
second alone, I think, can be considered as sufficient to de-
scribe a new form of language ; and this was brought about
so gradually, that we are not relieved from much of our dif-
ficulty, whether some compositions shall pass for the latest
offspring of the mother, or the earliest fruits of the daughter's
fertility.*

48. The Anglo-Norman language is a phrase not quite so
unobjectionable as the Anglo-Norman constitution ; and as it
is sure to deceive, we might better lay it aside altogether, t
In the one instance, there was a real fusion of laws and
government, to which we can find but a remote analogy, or
rather none at all, in the other. It is probable, indeed, that
the converse of foreigners might have something to do with
those simplifications of the Anglo-Saxon grtunmar, which
appear about the reign of Henry H., more than a century
after the Conquest ; though it is also true, that languages of
a very artificial structure, like that of England before that
revolution, often became less complex in their forms, without
any such violent process as an aaialgamation of two different
races, t What is commonly called the Saxon Chronicle is
continued to the death of Stephen in 1154, and in the same
language, though with some loss of its purity. Besides the
neglect of several grammatical rules, French words now and

* It is a proof of this dlilicultf, that has afW b«i-D renurked, that the ani-

the best nrnstcrB of our ancient Unguags mals which bear a Saion name in tlie

have latel; introduced the word Koii- field acquire ■ French ooe in the

Salon, which is to cover tvexj thing shambles. But even this i> more in.

fiMDi 1 150 to 1250. Sre Thorpe's pTC* genious than just; for muttont, beeres,

face to Analecta Anglo.Saionica, and and porkers are good old words for the

many other recent books. . living quadrupeds. — [It has of late iiears

f A popular and pleading wrilu- has been more ususl lo call Ihe French

drawn a little upon bis imagination in poetry nritten ia English, Angto-Nor-

the following account of the language of man. — 1842.]

our fore&thers aAer tbe Conquest: — f " Every braoch of the low German

•* The language of the church was Latin i stock from whence the Anglo-Saxon

that of the king and nobles. Norman; sprung, displajs tlie same simplitication

thatof the people, Anglo-Saion; fAi .111- of its grammar." Price's preface to

plo-Normas Jargon was ua/y trnplaj/ed in Warton, p. 110. He therefore ascribes

Ihi commtreial iattraxint btiictm the am- little influence to the Korman conquest

qteroTM and tkt totujutrtd," Ellis's Speci- or to French conneiions. [It ought.

inensof Eti\y English Poets, vol. i. p. IT. boveicr, lo be observed, that the simpli.

What was th's jargon? and where do we fications of the Anglo-Saxon grammar

find a proof of its existence? and what had begun before the reign of Henry 11.;

was the commercial intercourse hinted the latter part of the Saxon Chronicle

at? I suspect Ellis only meant, what affords l\ill proof of this.— 1847.]

lyGOOgIC

Ca.4P.Lj IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 4^

then obtrude themselves, but not very frequently, in the latter
pages of this Chronicle. Peterborough, however, was quite
an English monastery ; its endowments, its abbots, were
Saxon i and the political spirit the Chronicle breathes, in
some passages, is that of the indignant subjects, seriri ancor
'frementi, of the Norman usurpers. If its last compilers,
therefore, gave way to some innovations of language, we
may presume that these prevailed more extensively in places
less secluded, and especially in London.

49- We find evidence of a greater change in Layamon,
a translator of Wace's romance of Brut from the French.
Layamon's age is uncertain ; it must have been after 115d,
when the original poem was completed, and can hanlly be
placed below 1200. His language is accounted rather Anglo-
Saxon than English ; it retfuns most of the distinguishing
inflections of the mother-tongue, yet evidently differs consider-
ably from that older than the Conquest by the introduction,
or at least more frequent employment, of some new auxiliary
forms, and displays very little of the characteristics of the
ancient poetry, its periphrases, its ellipses, or its inversions.
But though translation was the means by which words of
French origin were afterwards most copiously introduced,
very few occur in the extracts from Layamon hitherto pub-
lished; for we have not yet the expected edition of the entire
work. He is not a mere translator, but improves much on
Wace. The adoption of the plain and almost creeping style
of the metrical French romance, instead of the impetuous
dithjrrambics of Saxon song, gives Layamon at first sight a
greater affinity to the new English language than in mere
grammatical structure he appears to bear.*

50. Layamon wrote in a village on the Severn t; and it
is agreeable to experience, that an obsolete structure
of language should be retained in a distant province, ^^^ "
whUe it has undergone some change among the less

* See > long eitraet rrom Laymmon in f [I believe thai Ernie;, of which T-aj.

Ellu't SpMimenL Th'u writer obierfei, amon ii wid ic have b«en prieat, is Orer

that "it coatains no word which we are Arlcy, near Bewdley 184^.]

under the necessity of referring \o a [Sir F. Madden sayi, Lower Arl«y,

French root." die and Catlle teem snollicr village a fi.>w miles distant. —

ciception*; but the latter word nocui* 1817.]
in the Siion Chronicls b.'fore tliL- Cun-
queit, A. r. IMS.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

46 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [pAmxI,

rugged inhabitants of a capital. The disuse of Saxon forms
crept on by degrees ; some metrical lives of saints, apparently
written not far from the year 1250*, may be deemed

* Rilwa's DUsertit. on Romance, printed, entitled the Owl snd (lie Night-

Madden's Introduction to Hsveloli. ingale. Nolhitig can eihibit a tiansi-

NotesoC Piice, in hia edition of Warlon. tional state of language better than the

Warton hinjieif is of no nuihoiity in this great work of Lajamon, consisting of

natter. Prica inclines to put most of the near 80,000 lines. These are all short,

poemi quoted b; Warton neai the close and though rerj irregular, coming (kt

of the thirteen century. neaier to the old Anglo-Saion than to

It should here be obserTed, (hat the the octo-EjIlabic French rhf thm. Some

language underwent its metamorphosis of them are rhymed, but in a much

into English hy much loss rapid gmda- UtgcrproportiDn.thealliterativeeuphonj

tiona in some parts of tbe kingdom than of the northern nations i* preferred. Tlie

in others. Not only the popular dialect publication of the entire poem enables us

oFmany counties, especially in the north, to correct some of ihejudgmenls founded

retained long, and s(ill re(wns, a larger on mere eitntcts; thus I should iiualiff

Eroportion of the Anglo-Saion pecu- what is said in the teit, that Idyamon

arities, but we have evidence that they " adopted the plain and almost creeping

were not erery where disused in writing, style of tbe metrical French romance."

A manuscript in the Kentbh dialect, if His poem has more spirit and fire, in

that phrase is correct, bearing the date of the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saion style,

1340, is more Anglo-Saion than any of than had been supposed. Upon the

the poems ascribed to the thirteentli cen- whole, l^yamon must be reckoned far

tury, which ve read in War(on, such as more of the older than the newer form-

the legends of saints or tbe Ormulum. alion ; he is an eoc»«, or at most a

Tliis very curious fact waa lint made mioctBe; while his contemporaries, as

known to the public by Mr. Thorpe, in they seem to be, belong philological I y to

bit translslionnfCiedman, preface, p. lii.; a later period.

and an account of the manuscript itself. The poem of the Owl and Nightingale
rathcrfiillertbanthBtofMr.T., has since is supposi?d by its editor, Mr. Stevcn-on,
been given in the ratalogue of the Anio- to have been written soon after the lieath
del MS8, in the British Museum. of Hcnty II., who is mentioned in it.
[The edition of lAyamon alluded to But I do not see why the paisagc lead*
in the text hat now been published by us to more than that no other kin|r of that
Sir Frederic Madden, at the expense of name bad reigned. We need not, tliere-
the Society of Anliquariea, and will fore, go higher than the age of Jotin.
pTOTe sn important acccsiion to tbe hit- Hie Ormulum contains, I believe, no evi-
tory of our language, being by much the dencc of its date; hut the language ia
most extensive remaiut of thnt period very decidedly more English, tl-.c versi-
denominated Semi-Stnon. The dale of €catian more borrowed from Norman
thit long poem Is now referred by the models, than that of Layamon. Since
editor to (he reign of John at (he begin- it it natural to presume that the change
ning of the tbiiteenth century, A pas- of language would not be alike in all
SBge. formetty quoted by Mr. Sharon parts of England, and even that indi'
Turner, but which had escaped my re- viduals might continue to preserve forms
eollcction, manilctlly was written after which were going into oomparatise dis.
the death of Henry IL in 11B9, and use, we cannot rely on these varieties as
probably afler that of bis queen Eleanor indicating difftrence of age. , The editor
in 1S03. Mr. Turner has therefore iu- of Layamon informs us that the French
clincd to tbe same period as Sir Frederic wolds in the older copy of that writer
Madden ; and others had acceded to hit do tiot amount to fifty. 'Ilie hypothe-
opinion. Tbe chief objection, and in- sis, if we arc to use such a word, that
de^'d the only one, may be the antiquity the transiliun of our language from
of Iriiyamon's l.nnguage, compared with Saxon to English (ook place more ra-
the Ormulum, a well-known, but hither- pidly in some di«tticls than in others,
to unpublislied, (wcm of a certain Orm, acquires strong confirmation from a few
and with another poem, which has been lines preserved in Roger de Uovcdcnand

lyGOOgIC

CuAr.L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 47

Elnglbb ; but the first specimen of it that bears a precise
date is a proclamation of Henry III., addressed to the people
of Huntingdonshire in 1S58, but doubtless circular through-
out England.* A triumphant song, composed probably in
I^ndon, on the victory obtained at Lewes, by the confederate
barons in 1S()4, and the capture of Richard Earl of Cornwall,
is rather less obsolete in its style than this proclamation, as
might naturaUy be expected. It could not have been written
later than that year, because in the next the tables were
turned on those who now exulted, by the complete discom-
fiture of their party in the battle of Evesham. Several pieces
of poetry, uncertain as to their precise date, must be referred
to the latter part of this century. Robert of Gloucester,
after the year 1297* since he alludes to the canonisation of
St. Louist, turned the chronicle of Geofirey of Monmouth
into English verse ; and on comparing him nith Layamon, a
oadve of nearly the same part of England, and a writer on
the same subject, it will appear that a great quantity of French
had flowed into the language since the loss of Normandy.
The Anglo-Saxon inflexions, terminations, and orthography,
had also undergone a very considerable change. That the
intermixture of French words was very slightly owing to
the Norman conquest will appear probable, by observing
at least as frequent an use of them in the earliest specimens
of the Scottish dialect, especially a song on the death of
Alexander III. in 1285. There is a good deal of French
in this, not borrowed, probably, from England, but directly
from the original sources of imitation.

51. The fourteenth centui-y was not unproductive of men,
both English and Scotch, gifted with the powers Engiiihor
of poetry. Laurence Minot, an author unlcnown to S^'u"™..-
Warton, but whose poems on the wars of Edward HI. chluccr.
are referred by their publisher Ritson to 1352, is °'''""'
perhaps the first original poet in our language that has

B^cdlrt Ablvu about Ibe j«r 1190. saj't Sir F. Miidden, "we knav, vas

Tbtf wem to be printed iiuKcurately, vrilten tbevereifieBtionofpartofR tnedi-

aod I (ball comequentlr omit them here; lation of St. Augiuline. aa proied by tbe

but the Iwiguige in Engliih of Henry age of tbe prior, who gave the manuscript

111. 'i reign. It ii possible that it has to the Durham library," p. 49. This,

bem a little modrrniat d in the monu- therefore, will be "trictl j the oldest piece

icripti of these HiMoriaris.— 1S47.] of Engli>1i, to tbi- date uf wlildi wc can

• Ilenry'i Brat, of Urilun, vol. »iii,. approach by more llion conjecture,
appendii, " Belveeii 1244 and 1S53," f Aladdcn's Uavclok, p. SS.

n,gti7cd ay Google

48 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PimiL

sarvived ; since such of his predecessors as are now known
appear to have been merely translators, or at best amplifiers,
of a French or Latin original. The earliest historical or epic
narrative is due to John Barbour, archdeacon of Aberdeen,
whose long poem in the Scots dialect. The Bruce, comine'
niorating the deliverance of his country, seems to have been
completed in 1373. But our greatest poet of the middle
ages, beyond comparison, was Geoffrey Chaucer ; and I do
not know that any other country, except Italy, produced his
equal in variety of invention, acuteness of observation, or
fdicity of expression. A vast interval must be made be-
tween Chaucer and any other English poet ; yet Gower, his
contemporary, though not, like him, a poet of nature's growth,
had some effect in rendering the language less rude, and ex-
dting a taste for verse ; if he never rises, he never sinks low ;
he is always sensible, polished, perspicuous, and not prosfuc
in the worst sense of the word. Longlands, the supposed
author of Piers Plowman's Vision, wirfi far more imagin-
ative vigour, has a more obsolete and unrefined diction.
52. The French language was spoken by the superior
G„,„„i classes of society in England from the Conquest to
FKi^h'fn the reign of Edward III. ; though it seems probable
En»i.ui.i. j^j jjjgy, ^ygpg generally acquainted with English,
at least in the latter part of that period. But all letters, even
of a private nature, were written in Latin till the beginning
of the reign of Edward I., soon after IS7O, when a sudden
change brought in the use of French.* In grammar schools
boys were made to construe their Latin into French ; and in
the statutes of Oriel College, Oxford, we find a regulation
so late as 1S28, that the students shall converse together,
if not in Latin, at least in French, t The minutes of the
corporation of London, recorded in the Town Clerk's office,
were in French, as well as the proceedings in parliament,
and in the courts of justice ; and oral discussions were

• I .m iodelited for this fiict, whicli I

au ISme

.i^le, in HisL Litteraire de la

rol. ivi. p. 1G8. It is probable.

municition of Mr. Stevenson, Ute sub-

IhereTon!.

, thu 1 have used .« s.rong

wotdx »

to the general usage. --1S49.)

liowever, that letters, even in Prniice, are

t S'l

nid to h«»e btcn wriltcn only in Latin

latino V

el nlteni Gallico perfruanlur.

to the cud uf ihe ccDtury. On n'i-oriviiii

Warton,

i. 6. In Merton College st>-

encDTc que ttit peu de Icttrrs en langue

tute^ ffii
scribed.

eii in ISTI, Latin alone it pre-

Franswie. DacoursmrrEuldeiLettrra

lyGOOgIC

Ch4P. I.'] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 49

perhaps carried on in the same language, though this is
not a necessary consequence. Hence the English waa
seldom written, and hardly employed in prose till after the
middle of the fourteenth century. Sir John Mandeville's
travels were written in 1356. This is our earliest English
book.* Wicliffe's translation of the Bible, a great work that
enriched the language, is referred to 1383. Trevisa's versio i
of the Polychronicon of Higden was in 1385, and the Astro-
labe of Chaucer in 139^> A few public instruments were
drawn up in English under Richard II. ; and about the same
time, probdily, it began to be employed In epistolary corre-
8p(H)den'ce of a private nature. Trevisa informs us, that, when
be wrote (1385), even gentlemen had much left off to have
their children taught French, and names the schoolmaster
(John Cornwall) who soon afier 1350 brought in so great
an innovation as the making bis boys read Latin into English.f
This change from the common use of French in the upper
ranks seems to have taken place as rapidly as a similar revo-
luiioD has lately done in Germany, By a statute of 1362
(36 E. 3; c. 15.), all pleas in courts of justice are directed to
be pleaded and judged in English, on account of French being
so much unkno\vn. But the laws, and, generally speaking,
the records of parliament, continued to be in the latter lan-
guage for many years ; and we learn from Sir John For-
tescue, a hundred years afterwards, that this statute itself was
not fully enforced. 1: The French language, if we take his
words literally, even in the reign of Edward IV,, was spoken
in affairs of mercantile account, and in many games, the
vocabulary of both being chiefly derived from it. §

63. Thus by the year 1400 we find a national literature sub-

• [Thit is oaly true u (o printed vordu."— Baber'i preR>ce to WicllfTe'i

books. VorthenireBevenlcopioora iranalation of Ne« Te^lnmenl 1847.]

trunUlion of the Pnlier and Church f The paiuge may be fuund quoted

HjrmDS, bj Rollci comnionlj called tbs iu Warton, ubi lUprK. Qr in niuiy othei

livrmit of HsnipoJe, vha haa subjoined books.

• emnment on each verac. Itolle is wid ( " In the courM oF justicu they for-

bj Mr. Sbanin Turner la bsTe died in metly uwd to plead in French, till, in

] 319 ; wt mult therefore place him a pursuance of a lav to that purpose, that

little bttott Mandeville. Even in him ruBiom <r:» lomtwAat mtraintd, but not

V* Bad a good deal of French and Latin, hitherto quite diluted, de I^udibui Le-

vbieli indeed he tcemi to have nthvr gum AngtiB, c. tltiii." I quote from

•tadiouUy sought, in order ■*lhat they Waterhouie'i translation; but tbe Latli)

that knoire* noght th* Lalyne be the nma gHiuii|rfii'inm rettrictus eat.

Tnglys may eonx to many Latvae g Ibid.

"»'■• ■• ^ o.,„,:,GoOglc

50 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [ti«T I-

sisting in seven European languages, three spoken in the
su„g[ Spanish peninsula, the French, the Italian, the Ger-
hUl^w^, man, and the English ; from which last, the Scots
ib«u 1400. (jiaiect need not be distinguished. Of these the Italian
was the most polished, and had to boast of the greatest
writers ; the French excelled in their number and variety.
Our own tongue, though it had latterly acquired much
copiousness in the hands of Chaucer and Wicliffe, both of
whom lavishly supplied it with words of French and Latin
derivation, was but just growing into a literary existence.
The German, as well as that of Valencia, seemed to decline.
The former became more precise, more abstract, more intel-
lectual (^geistig), and less sensible {sinnMcK) (to use the words
of Eichhom), that is, less full of ideas derived from sense, and
of consequence less fit for poetry ; it fell into the hands of
lawyers and mystical theologians. The earliest German prose,
a few very ancient fragments excepted, is the collection of
Saxon laws (Saclisenspiegel), about the middle of the thir-
teenth century ; the next the Swabian collection (Schwaben-
spiegel), about 1282.* But these forming hardly a part of
literature, though Bouterwek praises passages of the latter
for religious eloquence, we may deem John Tauler, a Domi-
nican friar of Strasburg, whose influence in propagating what
was called the mystical theology gave a new tone to his coun-
try, to be the first German writer in prose. " Tauler," says
a modern historian of literature, " in his German sermons,
mingled many expressions invented by himself, which were
the first attempt at a philosophical language, and displayed
surprising eloquence for the age wherein he lived. It may
be justly said of him that he first gave to prose that direction
in which Luther afterwards advanced so far."t Tauler died
in IS&l. Meantime, as has been said before, the nobility
abandoned their love of verse, which the burghers took up
diligently, but with little spirit or genius ; the common lan-
guage became barbarous and neglected, of which the strange
fashion of writing half Latin, half German, verses, is a proof. %
This had been common in the darker ages : we have several
instances of it in Anglo-Saxon, and also after the Conquest,

• Bouterwek, p. 163. There ire some f Heinsius, iv. 76.
novels at i)ie end of Ibe ttiitteenth, ur be- ) Eiehbom, Allg. Ge*cb., i. E40.
ginning of the fourteenth, centurj. Ibid.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

nor was it rare in France ; but it was late to adopt it in the
fourteenth century.

54/. The Latin writers of the middle ages were chiefly
ecclesiastics. But of these in the living tongues a
large proportion were laymen. They knew, there- of ™SI^
fore, how to commit their thoughts to writing; inJirtM"*
and hence the ignorance characteristic of the darker
ages roust seem to be passing away. This, however, is a
very djfiicult, though interesting question, when we come to
look nearly at the gradual progress of rudimental know-
ledge. I can offer but an outline, which those who turn
more of their attention towards the subject will be enabled
to correct and complete. Before the end of the eleventh
century, and especially after the ninth, it was rare to find
Ia3rmen in France who could read and write.* The case
was probably not better any where eke, except in Italy. I
should incline to except Italy, on the authority of a passage
in Wippo, a German writer soon after the year 1000, who
exhorts the Emperor Henry II. to cause the sons of the no-
bility to be instructed in letters, using the example of the
Italians, with whom, according to him, it was a universal
pracUce.t The word clerks or clergymen became in this
. and other countries synonymous with one who could write or
even read ; we all know the original meaning of benefit of
clergy, and the test by which it was claimed. Yet from
about the end of the eleventh, or at least of the twelfth cen-
tury, many circumstances may lead us to believe that it was
less and less a conclusive test, and that the laity came more
and roore into possession of the simple elements of literature.
55. I. It will of course be admitted that all who ad-
miDistered or belonged to the Roman law were masters of
reading and writing, though we do not find that they were

* Hint. Litl. it l« France, vii. 3. the liity, according lothlBauthority, iru

Some nobtci tent their children to be not itrictl; parallel to IbM of Ihe eliurcb.

■laeatei] ia the tchoolt of CbulemagDe, . ^^^ f^ eikam per ttmm TwtoniMnun
twp t cMlj thoM of Germany, under Ri- QuUlbei ui dliai ilbl nuoi Intttuu oiduh

bu, Notker, BruDO, utd olber dijtin- j-iutmln. I»k™iu. .lam i«r.u«lt« illlt,

piiAed abbot.. But .hey were generally SiC'.VX'lfcS™^-™ ^Xli'Sl"::
dcNiDed for ibe church. Melners, ii. 377. Horltmi hii dudumilifbu Banu dnxntrr.

The *iK<"<>>fn Of Uymen are often found h« «»'lI."u"K'r'l»«^™3ul"Si<*l.
to deadt of the eighth century, and (omc-

time* oT the niuth. Nout. Trailf de la 1 am indebted tor this quolalion to

EKpIainatique.ii. 49S. The ignorance of Meinen, il 314.

■ S -,

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

3Z LITERATUBE OF EUBOPE [Pakt I-

generally ecclesiastics, even in the lowest sense of the word,
by receiving the tonsure. Some indeed were
^Vwd'"' such. In countries where the feudal law had pass-
diDiDiiM ed from unwritten custom to record and precedent,
and had grown into as much subtlety by diffuseness
as the Roman, which was the case of England from
the time of Henry II., the lawyers, though laymen, were
unquestionably clerks or learned. II. The convenience of
such elementary knowledge to merchants, who, both in the
Mediterranean and in these parts of Europe, carried on a good
deal of foreign commerce, and indeed to all traders, may
induce us to believe that they were not destitute of it ; though
it must be confessed that the word clerk rather seems to
denote that their deficiency was supplied by those employed
under them. I do not, however, conceive that the clerks of
citizens were ecclesiastics.* III. If we could rely on a
passage in Ingulfua, the practice in grammar schools of
construing Latin into French was as old as the reign of the
Coiiquerort ; and it seems unlikely that this should have been
confined to children educated for the English church. IV.
The poets of the north and south of France were often men
of princely or noble birth, sometimes ladies ; their versifica-
tion is far too artificial to be deemed the rude product of an
illiterate mind ; and to these, whose capacity of holding the
pen few will dispute, we must surely add a numerous class
of readers, for whom their poetry was designed. It may
be surmised, that the itinerant minstrels answered this end,
and supplied the ignorance of the nobility. But many ditties
of the troubadours were not so well adapted to the minstrels,
who seem to have dealt more with metrical romances. Nor
do I doubt that these also were read in many a castle of
France aud Germany. I will not dwell on the story of
Francesca of Rimini, because no one, perhaps, is likely to
dispute that a Romagnol lady in the age of Dante would be
^le to read the tale of Lancelot. But that romance had
long been written i and other ladies doubtless had read it,

■ The »rU»it recorded bills of ex- tion this as beuing mueb on the nibjeet

chin ge. accord inj; to Beckmann. Hiat of of tlic text.

InTenlions, iii. 430.. are in ■ psssase of f Et pucrli etiam in acholii principik

the jiirisE Baldus, and bear data in 132S. literarum Gallic^ et doq Anglic^ tnule-

But thr; irerc bf no means in comnioil renlur.
UM till tiie neit centurT. I do not nwn-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

.Cb»p.L] IK THE MIDDLE AGES. 53

and po3sU>ly had }eft off reading it in similar circumstances,
and as little to their advantage. The fourteenth century
abounded with books in French prose, nor were they by
soy means wanting in the thirteenth, when several trans-
ladoDS from Latin were made " ; the extant copies of some
are not very few ; but no argument against their circu*
lation could have been urged from their scarcity in the pre-
sent day. It is not of course pretended that they were
diffused as extensively as piinted books have been. V. The
fashion of writing private letters in French instead of Latin,
which, as has been mentioned, came in among us soon
after 1^0, afionis perhaps a presumption that they were
written in a language intelligible to the correspondent, be-
cause be had oo longer occasion for assistance in reading
them ; though they were still generally from the banil of a
secretary. But at what time this disuse of Latin began on the
continent of Europe I cannot exactly determine.

56. Hie art of reading does not imply that of writing ;
it seems likely that the one prevailed before the
other. The latter was difficult to acquire, in con- w'^^^or
sequence of the regularity of characters preserved fcuTtmith
by the clerks, and their complex system of abbrevi-
ations, which rendered the cursive hand-writing, introduced
about the end of the eleventh century, almost as operose to
those who bad not much experience of it as the more stiff
characters of ohler manuscripts. It certainly appears that
even autogr^h signatures are not found till a late period.
Philip the Bold, who ascended the French throne in 1272,
could not write, though this is not the case with any of his
successors. I do not know that equal ignorance is recorded
of any Englisli sovereign, though we have, I think, only a
series of autographs beginning with Richard II. It is said
by the authors of Nouveau Trait^ de la Diplomatique, Bene-
dictines of laborious and exact erudition, that the art of
writing had become rather common among the l^ty of
Fruice before the end of the thirteenth century : out of eight
witnesses to a testament in 1277t hve could write their

* HiM. Lilt, de la France, xri. 144. nimt atele quVlla oomnunc^cnt a
Noln proM ct noire po£iia franfaitt ex- pnaidra ua caiacUre naUooal. Id. Sf4.
i)toient annl ISOO ; nuis e'ett au trei-

" n,.,„,:,G00gle

54 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»tL

names ; at the be^nning of that age, it is probable, they
think, that not one could have done so.* Signatures to
deeds of private persons, however, do not begin to appear
till the fourteenth, and were not in established use in France
till about the middle of the fifteenth, century, t Indorse-
ments upon English deeds, as well as mere signatures, by
laymen of rank, bearing date in the reign of Edward II.,
are in existence ; and there is aa English letter from the
lady of Sir John Pelhara to her husband in 1399, which is
probably one of the earliest instances of female penmanship.
By the badness of the grammar we may presume it to be
her own.t

* Vol. i1. p. 423, Chartcn in French might hearofyourgraciouiqieed; which

■re rarsHt the b«{iinningorthe tbirteentb u God Almighty continue and incrcai&

century, but bfcorne commun under And my dear lord if It liiic you for to

Philip III. Hist. Litt du la France, know of my fare, I am here by laid in

1*1. Ijj. manner of a siege with the county of

t [bid. p. 43-I. el post. Sunci, Surrey, and a great parcel of

i t am indebttd for a knowledge of Kent, so that I may uought out no none

thia Ittter to the Rer. JoKph Hunter, victuals get luu but with touch hard,

who Tecollecled lo liave •«en it in nu old Wherefore my dear if it like you by the

*ditioD of Collina' Peerage. Xdter edi- advice of your wise cQunael for to get

tiona haie omitted it a* an unimportant remedy of the salvaiion of your castle and

redundancy, though intereating even for withstand the malice of the shirei afbre-

ils contenis, indvpeudently of the value it uid. And also that ye ba fully informed

acquires from the binguaite. On account of their great malice workers in these

of iti uBTcity, being only found in old Khires which that haves so despitefully

editions now not in reijuest, I ihall insert wrought to you. and to your castle, to

it here ; and till any other shall prefer a your men, and to your tenants for this

claim, it may pass fur the oldest private country have they wasted for a great

letter in the English language. I have while. Farewell my dear lord, the Holy

nut kept the OTtliogri|>by, but have left Trinity you keep from your enemies, and

several incoherent and ungrammaticnl ever send me guod tidings of yau. Wiit-

phrases as they stand. It was copied by ten at PcTcnsey in the castle on St. Jacob

Collins from the archives of the Newcas- day iaal past,
tie Gunily. By your own poor

J. PltH*U.

My dear Lord, To my inte Lord.
I reeonimend me to your high lord-
afaip with heart and body and all my poor [Sir Henry Ellis says: "We hava

might, and with all this I thank you as nothing earlier than tbe fifteenth century

my dear lord dearest and best beluted of which can be called a familiar letter."—.

all earthly iordi I say Ibr me, and thank Original Letters, first series, vol. i. This

you my dear lurd with all this that 1 say of Lady Pelham, however, is an eicep-

befora of your comfortable letter that yc lion ; and perhaps others will be found ;

sent me from Puntefract that come to me at least it cannot now be doubtful that

on Mary Magdalene day ; for by my some were written, since a lady is not

troth I was never to glad as when I likely to have set the example. Sir

heard by ynur letter that ye were strong H. E., nevertheless, is well warranted in

enough with the grace of Cod for to keep saying that letters previous to the reign

you from the malice of your enemies, of Henry V. were titually written in

And dear Lord if it like to your high French or Latin 1847.]

lordship that as toon as ye might that 1

lyGOOgIC

Cur.L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 5S

57' Laymen, among' -whom Chaucer and Gower are illus-
bious examples, received occasionally a learned A.fri„
educatitm ; and indeed the great number of gentle> {1^^°,^^
men who studied in the inns of court is a concJu- '"^'*"''
sive proof that they were not generally illiterate. The
common law required' some knowledge of two languages.
Upon the whole we may be inclined to think, that in the
year 1400, or at the accession of Henry IV., the average
instruction of an English gentleman of the first class would
comprehend common reading and writing, a considerable
fEuniliarity with French, and a slight tincture of Latii> ; the
latter retained or not, according to his circumstances and
character, aa school learning is at present. This may be
rather a favourable statement; but after another generation
it might be assumed, as we shall see, with more confidence as
a fair one.*

58. A demand for instruction in the art of writing would
increase with the frequency of epistolary correspon- i„,„,,onof
dence, which, where of a private or secret nature, no '"'""
one would gladly conduct by the intervention of a secre-
tary. BetLer education, more refined manners, a closer in-
tercourse of social life, were the primary causes of this
increase in private correspondence. But it was greatly faci-
litated by the invention, or rather, extended use of paper as
the vehicle of writing instead of parchinent ; a revolution, as
it may be called, of high importance, without which both the
art of writing would have been much less practised, and the
invention of printing less serviceable to mankind. After the
subjugation of Bgypt by the Saracens, the importation of the
papyrus, previously in general use, came in no long time to
an end; so that, though down to the end of the seventh
century alt instruments in France were written upon it, we
find its place afterwards supplied by parchment ; and under
the house of Charlemagne, there is hardly an icistrument

• It might In inferred fiom a puuge it seenu ihat he tliought Ihey wen meant

in Richard of Bury, about t!I43, that for "the tonsured " ailone. But a great

none but eeciesiaslics could tead at all. change took plice in the eniutng half

He deprecates the puttiag of books into century ; and I do not belieie he can be

the hands of laiti, vho do not knov one cooitrued itiicti; eien a* to his own

•ide from another. And in seven! places time.

t: Go Ogle

56 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [FaktI.

upon any other material.* Farchment, however, a much
more durable and useful vehicle than papyrust, was expeu-
sive, sod its cost not only excluded die necessary waste
which a free use of writing requires, but gave rise to the
unfortunate practice of erasing manuscripts in order to re-
place them with some new matter. This was carried to a
great extent, and has occasioned the loss of precious monu-
ments of antiquity, as is now demonstrated by instances of
their restoration.

59. llie dat« of the invention of our present paper, manu-
factured irom linen rags, or of its introduction into
wkm^tT'' Europe, has long been the subject of controversy.
That paper made from cotton was in use sooner, is
cotioDpaptr. a^nijjttgjj on g\\ sides. Some charters written upon
that material not later than the tenth century were seen by
Montfaucon ; and it is even said to be found in papal buUs of
the ninth. 1: The Greeks, however, from whom the west of
Europe is conceived to have borrowed this sort of paper, did
not much employ it in manuscript books, according to Mont-
faucon, till the twelfth century, from which time it came into
frequent use among them. Muratori had seen no writing upon
this material older than 1100, though, in deference to Mont-
faucon, he admits its occasional employment earlier. § It
cert^nly was not greatly used in Italy before the thirteenth
century. Among the Saracens of Spaiii, on the other hand,
as well as those of the East, it was of much greater anti-
quityb The Greeks called it ckarta DaTnascena, having
been manufactured or sold in the city of Damascus. And
Casiri, in his catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the
Escurial, desires us to understand that they are written on
paper of cotton or linen, but generally the latter, unless the

■ Montbucon, in Acad, de* Tnacript., boir great imporlancc ibe general use of
vol. vi. But MunitOTt myi (hat (he p«- parchment, to which, and sftsrwards to
pyru* vu little ukH la the aeventh cen- paper, the old perishable papyraceoua
turji (hougli writings on it inajbe found m»nuscript« were transferred, bd been
■s U(e as the tenth, Diiurt. xliii. This to tlie preservation afliterature. P. 74.
dis«rlstion relates to the condidon of ) M£m. de 1'Acad. des Inscriptions^
ktiersinltalj»sfaraatbeyiarllOO;M Ti. 604_. Nouveau Traits de Diploma-
Ihe ilivth doea to their nibwquent bis- tiquc, L 517. Savigny, Gesch. des Ro-
tor;, mischen Rechts, iii. 534.
■ ■■ .... g Di«erL, iliii.

lyGOOgIC

Cmap.I.] in the middle ages. 57

contrary be expressed." Many in this catalt^e were writt^i
before the thirteenth, or even the twelfth century.

60. This will lead as to the more disputed question as to
die antiquity of linen paper. The earliest distinct
instance I have found, and which I believe has »oMu'"'
hitherto been overlooked, is an Arabic version of

the aphorisms of Hippocrates, the manuscript bearing the
date of 1 100. This Casiri observes to be on linen paper,
not as in itself remarkable, but as accounting for its injury
1^ wet. It does not appear whether it were written in
Spain, or, like many in tlutt catalogue, brought from Egypt
or the £ast.t

61. The authority of Casiri must confirm beyond doubt a
passage in Peter, abbot of Clugni, which has per-
plexed those who place the invention of linen paper Fri™^"*
very low. In a treatise against the Jews, he "*" '
speaks of books, ex pellibus arietum, hircorum, vel vitu-
lorum, sive ex bibbs vel juncis Orientalium paludnm,
ant ex raguris veterum pannorvm, sen ex alia quali-
bet forte viliore materia compactos. A late English writer
contends that nothing can be meant by the last words,
" unless that all sorts of inferior substances capable of being
so applied, among them, perhaps, hemp and the remains of
cordage, were used at this period in the manufacture ol
paper.*' t It certainly at least seems reasonable to interpret
the words "ex rasuris veterum pannorum," of linen rags ;
and when I add that Peter Cluniacensis passed a consider-
able time in Spun about 1141, there can remain, it seems*
no rational doubt that the Saracens of the peninsula were
acquainted with that species of paper, though perhaps it was
as yet unknown in every other country.

6S. Andr^ asserts, on the authority of the Memoirs of
the Academy of Barcelona, that a treaty between
the kings of Aragon and Castile, bearing the date ^h wh*"
of 1178) and written upon linen paper, is extant in
the archives of that city. § He alleges several other instances

■ Materiv, Dili ineiDtiraneiiBnteodn, 1 Set t memoir on an anciert manu-

Dnlia iDiDtia : cEteioa borrbycincn, ac, Knpt of Aiaius, bj Mr, Ottlej, in Ar-

nuii mam partem, chartaenjs me collift**. cbeologii, toL iivt
Prvbtio, p. T. § Vol. ii. p, 73. Andrte haa gone

t Caairi. N. T8T. Codai anno Chriiti much at length into this ■ubjcst.aiidhas

1100. cliartaceui, &c. collected meral imporlanlpaMagn which

, V, Google

58 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past I.

in the next age ; when MabUlon, who denies that paper of
linen was then used in charters, which, indeed, no one is
Hkely to maintain, mentions, as the earliest specimen he had
seen in France, a letter of Joinville to St. Louis, which must
be older than 1^0. Andres refers the invention to the
Saracens of Sp^n, usin^ the 6ne flax of Valencia and
Murcia ; and conjectures that it was brought into use among
the Spaniards themselves by Alfonso X. of Castile. *

63, In the opinion of the English writer to whom we have

above referred, paper, from a very early period, was
Biiid mile- manufactured of mixed materials, which have some-
times been erroneously taken for pure cotton. We
have in the Tower of London a letter addressed to Henry IIL
by Rajnnond, son of Raymond VI., Count of Toulouse, and
consequently between 1216 and 1222, when the latter died,
upon very strong paper, and certainly made, in Mr. Ottley's
judgment, of mixed materials ; while in several of the time
of Edward I., written upon genuine cotton paper of no great
thickness, the fibres of cotton present themselves every
where at the backs of the letters so distinctly that they seem
as if they might even now be spun into thread, t

64. Notwithstanding this last statement, which I must
Inanition ot coufirm by my own observation, and of which no
E?S1b1I^ one can doubt who has looked at the letters them-
'""" selves, several writers of high authority, such as
Tiraboschi and Savigny, persist not only in fixing the inven-
tion of linen paper very low, even after the middle of the
fourteenth century, but in maintaining that it is undistin-
guishabte from that made of cotton, except by the eye of a
manufacturer. 1: Were this indeed true, it would be suffi-

do not appev in my text The letter of ) Tiralioschi, T. 85. SaTif^j, G«sch.
JoinvilU bu been lupposed to be ad- dea Romischen Rrchts, ill 5S4. Me re-
dressed to Louis Hutin in lfI14, but this lies an a book I hBie not wen, Wehn
■eems ioconnitent with the vriter'i age. voiii Papier. Hall, 1789. This vriler, it

• Vol. iL p. 84. He cannot mean tliBt is said, contends that the words of Peter

it Tai never employed befote Alfomo'ti of Clugny, ei raiurlsTcterum pannonim,

time, of which he bu already given in- mean cotton paper. Mceren, p. 208.

stances. l-ambinel, on the other hand, tranilstea

f ArehKologia, ibid. I may howerer them, without hesilntion, " chiffons de

obserre, that a genlleman as eiperienced linjie." Hist, de I'Oiigine de I'lmpti-

na Mr. Ottley bimseir, Inclines to think merie, i. 93.

the letter of Haymoud written on paper Andr^ has pointed out, p. 10,, that

wholly made of cottoa, though of better MafTei merely says he bas seen no paper

nunufiutur^ than tuual. of linen earlier than 130(^ and noiDHru>

lyGOOgIC

Ceif.L] in the UIDDLE AGES. 59

oent for the purpose we have here in view, which is not to
trace the origin of a particular discovery, but the employment
of a useful vehicle of writing. If it be true that cotton paper
was fabricated in Italy of so good a texture that it cannot be
discerned from linen, it must be considered as of equal utility.
It is not the case with the letters on cotton paper in our
English repositories *, most, if not all, of which were written
in France or Spain. But I have seen in the Chapter House
at Westminster a letter written from Gascony about 1315, to
Hugh Uespencer, upon thin paper, to all appearance made
like that now in use, and with a water mark. Several
others of a similar appearance, in the same repository, are of
rather later time. There is also one in the King's Remem-
brancer's Office of the 11th of Edward III. (1337 or 1338),
containing the accounts of the King's ambassadors to the
count of Holland, and probably written in that country.
This paper has a water mark, and if it is not of linen, is at
least not easily distinguishable. Bullet declares that he saw
at Besan9on a deed of 130S on tinen paper: several are
alleged to exist in Grermany before the middle of the century ;
and Lambinet mentions, though but on the authority of a
periodical publication, a register of expenses from 13^ to
1354!, found in a church at Caen, written on two hundred
and eight sheets of that substance. * One of the Cottonian
manuscripts (Galba, B. I.) is called Codex Chartaceus in the
catalogue. It contains a long series of public letters, chiefly
written in the Netherlands, from an early part of the reign of
Edward III, to that of Henry IV. But upon examination I
find the title not quite accurate ; several letters, and espe-
cially the earliest, are written on parchment, and paper does
not appear at soonest till near the end of Edward's reign, t
Sir Henry Ellis has said that " very few instances indeed
occur before the fifteenth century of letters written upon

nwDt on thai material older than one of author knows at none eailipr. He dott

1367. which be found amonfC hia own not mention cotton paper at all ; writing

familjr deeda. Tirabotcbi, oreilooking was on letlum or parchment — IB4S.]
this diatinctiDn, quote! MafTeifbr hia own f AndreF, p. 68., mentioni s note

opinion u to the laleneai of the inren- written in \:4S, in the Cotton librBrjr,

tion. u the earliett English specimen ol linen

* Lambinet, ul)i lupra. [Llnenpaper, paper. I do not know to what this rw

it iaiaid.inHitt. Liltiraire de la France, fen; in the aboTe-menlianed CodcK

XTU 38., a lued in aome proceedings Chartaceus ii » letter of 1341, but it i*

agiinit the Templan in 1 309 ; but the on pttrehmeDt.

n,g-,-ccT:G00glc

60 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PastL

paper." • The use of cotton paper was by no means general,
or even, I beHeve, frequent, except in Spain and Italy, per-
haps also in the south of France. Nor was it much em-
ployed, even in Italy, for books. Savigny tells us there are
few manuscripts of law books among the multitude that exist
which are not written on parchment.

65. It will be manifest from what has been said how

greatly Robertson has been mistaken in his position,
y^ imfOT. that " in the eleventh century the art of making

paper, in the manner now become universal, was
invented, by means of which not only the number of manu-
scripts increased, but the study of the sciences was wonder-
fully facilitated."! Even Ginguen^, better informed on such
subjects than Robertson, has intimated something of the same
kind. But paper, whenever or wherever invented, was
very sparingly used, and especially in manuscript books,
among the French, Germans, or English, or linen paper,
even among the Italians, till near the close of the period
which this chapter comprehends. Upon the " study of the
sciences " it could as yet have had very little effect. The vast
importance of the invention was just beginning to be dis-
covered. It is to be added, as a remarkable circumstance, that
the earliest linen paper was of very good manufacture, strong
and handsome, though perhaps too much like card for general
convenience ; and every one is aware that the first printed
books are frequently beautiful in the quality of their paper.

66. in. The application of general principles of justice to

the infinitely various circumstances which may arise
o"^',! "' in the disputes of men with each other is in itself

an admirable discipline of the moral and intellectual
faculties. Even where the primary rules of right and policy
have been obscured in some measure by a technisal and arbi-
trary system, which is apt to grow up, perhaps inevitably, in
the course of civilisation, the mind gains in precision and
acuteness, though at the expense of some important qualities ;
and a people wherein an artificial jurisprudence is cultivated,
requiring both a regard to written authority, and the con-
stant exercise of a discriminating judgment upon words, must

lyGOOgIC

CUF.L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 61

be deemed to be emerging from Ignorance. Such was the
condition of Europe in the twelfth century. The feudal
CDStoma, long unwritten, though latterly heconie more steady
by tradition, were in some countries reduced into treatises :
we have our own Glanvil, in the reign of Henry 11. , uid in
the next century much was written upon the national laws in
various parts of Europe. Upon these it is not my Intention
to dwell ; but the importance of the civil law in its connexion
with ancient learning, as well as with moral and political
science, renders it deserving of a place in any general
account either of mediseval or modern literature.

67. That the Roman laws, such as they subsisted in the
western empire at the time of its dismemberment in
the fifth century, were received in the new kingdoms nA™irh^ij
of the Gothic, Lombard, and Carlovingian dynasties,
as the rule of those who by birth and choice submitted to
them, was shown by Muratori and other writers of the last
century. This subject has received additional illustration from
the acute and laborious Savigny, who hns succeeded in tracing
sufficient evidence of what had been, in fact, stated by
Muratori, that not only an abridgment of the Theodosian
code, but that of Justinian, and even the Pandects, were
known in different parts of Europe long before the epoch
formerly assigned for the restoration of that jurisprudence. *
The popular story, already much discredited, that the famous
copy of the Pandects, now In the Laurendan library at Flo-
rence, was brought to Pisa from Amalfi, after the capture of
that city by Roger king of Sicily with the md of a Pisan
fleet in 1135, and became the means of diS'using an acquaint-
ance with that portion of the law through Italy, is shown by
him not only to rest on very slight evidence, but to be un-
questionably, in the latter and more important circumstance,

■ It can be no dupurageinent Id Sa- lupposcn to have been written >t Valr nee

ngay, who doei not claim perfect ori- befbre the time or Gr^oiy Vlt. Tlie

ginalitf, to ny that Aluralori, in hii Pandect) are herein cited to copiously,

14th dissertation, gives soeral inctaneet aa to leave no doubt that Peter va> ac-

ofquotationi from the Pandecu invriten quainted with the entire collection. In

older than the capture oT AmalB. other instance^ it mif[hl be doubted

['Die moet decisive proof that Saviptj whether the quotation implies more than

has adduced Tor the use or the Pandtcts a partial knowledge. Savigny, Cesch.

berore the twelfth crolury ii from a vork Romisoh. Rechts. toI, u. Appendil. —

bearing tbe name of Pelrus, called Ex- 1847.]
trptMott Legam Ramanoruin, whieli he

lyGOOgIC

62 LITERATURE OF EUBOPE [P«t I.

destitute of all foundation. * It is stjll indeed an undetermined
question whether other existing manuscripts of the Pandects
are not derived from this illustrious copy, which alone con-
tains the entire tifty books, and which has been preserved
with a traditional veneration indicating some superiority ;
but Savigny has shown, that Peter of Valence, a jurist of the
eleventh century, made use of an independent manuscript ;
and it is certain that the Pandects were the subject of legal
studies before the siege of Amalfi.

68. Imerius, by universal testimony, was the founder of all

learned investigation into the laws of Justinian. He
hUBrM"" gave lectures upon them at Bologna his native city,

not long, in Savigny's opinion, after the commence-
ment of the century, t And besides tliis oral instruction, he
began the practice of making glosses, or short marginal ex-
planations, on the law books, with the whole of whi(^ he was
acquainted. We owe also to him, according to ancient
opinion, though much controverted in later times, an epitome,
called the Authentica, of what Gravina calls the prolix and
difficult (salebrosis atque garrulis) Novels of Justinian,
arranged according to the tides of the Code. The most
eminent successors of this restorer of the Roman law during
the same century were Martinus Grosias, Bulgarus, and Pla-
eentinus. They were, however, but a few among many
interpreters, whose glosses have been partly though very
imperfecdy preserved. The love of equal liberty and just
laws in the Italian cities rendered the profession of jurispru-
dence exceedingly honourable ; the doctors of Bologna and
other universities were frequently called to the office of
podesta, or criminal judge, in these small republics ; in
Bologna itself they were officially members of the smaller or
secret council ; and their opinions, which they did not render
gratuitously, were sought with the respect that had been shown
at Rome to their ancient masters of the age of Severus.

69. A gloss, y\S)iyaa, properly meant a word from a
ThHr foreign language, or an obsolete or poetical word,
gioiwi. jjj. ^vhatever requires interpretation. It was after-
wards used for the interpretation itself; and this sense,

lyGOOgIC

Cup. I.] Iti THE MIDDLE AGES. 63

which is not Strictly classical, may be fuuod in Isidore, though
some have imagined Irnerius himself to have first employed
it. ' In the twelfth century, it was extended from a single
word to 8u entire expository sentence. The fiist glosses were
iaterlioear ; tliey were afterwards placed in the margin, and
extended finally in some instances to a sort of running com-
mentary on an entire book. These were called an Appa-
ratus.!

70. Besides these glosses on obscure passages, some law-
yers attempted to abridge the body of the law. Pla- Aurwg.
eentinus wrote a summary of the Code and Insti- "™"""*''-
tutes. But this was held inferior to that of Azo, r^,'"*'*
which appeared before 1220. Hugolinus gave a °'™""'"-
umilar ^ridgment of the Pandects. About the same time,
or a little after, a scholar of Azo, Accursius of Florence, un-
dertook his celebrated work, a collection of the glosses, which,
in the century that had elapsed since the time of Imerius,
had grown to an enormous extent, and were of course not
always consistent. He has inserted little, probably, of his
own, but exercised a judgment, not perhaps a very enlightened
one, in the selection of his authorities. Thus was compiled
bis Corpus Juris Glossatum, commonly called Glossa, or
Glossa Ordinaria : a work, says Eichhorn, as remarkable for
its barbarous style and gross mistakes in history as for the
solidity of its judgments and practical distinctions. Gravina,
after extolhng the conciseness, acuteness, skill, and diligence
in comparing remote passages, and in reconciling ^parent
inconsistencies, which distinguished Accursius, or rather those
from whom he compiled, remarks the injustice of some
modems, who reproach his work with the ignorance inevit-
able in his age, and seem to think the chance of birth which
has thrown them into more enlightened times, a part of their
persona) merit, t

7 1 ■ Savigny has taken Btill higher ground in his admira-
ticHi, as we may call it, of the early jurists, those chir«!t« ot
from the appearance of Irnerius to the publication of "''' ^'"'"■'
the Accursian body of glosses. For the execution of this
work indeed he testifies no very high respect ; Accursius

■ AIni'iD diftTici gloua, " unius verbi f Savignj, lii. 519-

▼el nomiDii inteipretitu . Ducin^, ) Originn Juris, p. I SI.

imtfct. in Glvnar. p. 3B.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

64 LITERATURK OF EUROPE [PabtI.

did not suffident justice to his predecessors ; and many of
the most valuable glosses are still buried in the dust of un-
published manuscripts. * But the men themselves deserve
our highest praise. Hie school of Imerius rose suddenly ;
for in earlier writers we find no intelligent use, or critical
iaterpretation, of the passages which they cite. To reflect
upon every text, to compare it with every clause or word that
might illustrate its meaning in the somewhat chaotic mass of
the Pandects and Code, was reserved for these acute and
diligent investigators. " Interpretation," says Savigny, "was
considered the first and most important object of glossers, as
it was of oral instructors. By an un intermitting use of the
original law-books, they obtained that full and lively acquaint-
ance with their contents, which enabled them to compare
ditferent passages with the utmost acuteness, and with much
success. It may be reckoned a characteristic merit of many
glossers, that they keep the attention always fixed on the
immediate subject of explanation, and, in the richest display
of comparisons with other passages of the law, never deviate
from their point into any thing too indefinite and general ;
supei'ior often in this to the most learned interpreters of the
French and Dutch schools, and capable of giving a lesson
even to ourselves. Nor did the glossers by any means slight
the importance of laying a sound critical basis for interpreta-
tion, but on the contrary laboured earnestly in the recension
and correction of the text."t

72. These warm eulogies afford us an instance, to which
there are many parallels, of such vicissitudes in literary repu-
tation, that the wheel of fame, like that of fortune, seems
never to be at rest. For a long lime, it had been the fashion
to speak in slighting terms of these early jurists ; and the
passage above quoted from Gravina is in a much more candid
tone than was usual in his age. Their triflingr verbal explana-
tions of etsi by quamvis, or admodum by valde ; their strange
ignorance in deriving the name of the Tiber from the Em-
peror Tiberius, in supposing that Ulpian and Justinian lived
before Christ, in asserting that Papinian was put to death by
Mark Antony, and even in interpreting pontifex by papa or
episcopus, were the topics of ridicule to those whom Gravina
• VbI. 1. pp.2i8— as7, t Vol. T. pp 199— ail.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cup. I.] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 6S

has so well reproved. * Savigny, who makes a simitar re-
mark, that we leam, without perceiving it and without any
personal merit, a multitude of things which it was impossible
to know in the twelfth century, defends his favourite glossers
in the best manner he can, by laying part of the blame on
the bad selection of Accursius, and by extolling the mental
vigour which strug'gled through so many difficulties, t Yet
he has the candour to own, that this radier enhances the re-
spect due to the men, than the value of their writings ; and,
without much acquaintance with the ancient glossers, one
may presume to ^nk, that in expl^ning the Pandects, a
book requiring, beyond any other that has descended to us,
an extensive knowledge of the language and antiquities of
Rome, their deficiencies, if to be measured by the instances
we have given, or by the general character of their age,
must require a perpetual exercise of our lenity and patience.
73. This great compilation of Accursius made an epoch in
the annals of jurisprudence. It put an end in great
measure to the oral explanations of lecturers which jmhu •»«
had prevailed before. It restrained at the same time
the ingenuity of interpretation. The glossers became the sole
authorities, so that it grew into a maxim, — No one can go
wrong who follows a gloss ; and some said, a gloss was worth
a hundred texts. 1: In fact, the original was continually un-
intelligible to a student. But this was accompanied, accord-
ing to the distinguished historian of mediaeval jurisprudence,
by a decline of the sdcnce. The jurists in the latter part of
the thirteenth century are far inferior to the school of Imerius.
It might be possible to seek a general cause, as men are now
always prone to do, in the loss of self-government in many
of the Italian republics. But Savigny, superior to this affect-
ation of philosophy, admits that this is neither a cause ade-
quate in itself, nor chronologically parallel to the decline of
jurisprudence. We must therefore look upon it as one of
those revolutions, so ordinary and so unaccountable, in the
history of literature, where, after a period fertile In men of

■ Gaiiuii,autliBTof Ropiibliujuris- pretcia, nieh u those in ihe text. Sea
cooraltorum, > ■ork of the lut eenluTj, loo the article Accunitu in Btyle.
■ hoiundercalourafa Ectioii,giTe*nther f v. 813.

■a eoterlaiDing *ocount of the principal f Bayle, ubi lupra. Eichhoni, GeKb,
jorttts, eihibiti ume curioiu ipecimens dcr Littcraiur, ii. 461. Savign;, r. 368.
of tbe ignonutec of the Aecursiui iuter-

VOL. I. F ,- r

n,gt,7cdT:C00g[C

66 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PaktL

great talents, there ensues, perhaps with no anfavourable
change in the diffusion of knowledge, a pause in that natural
fecundity, without which all our endeavours to check a retro-
grade movement of the human mind will be of no avail.
The successors of Accursius in the thirteenth century con-
tented themselves with an implicit deference to the glosses ;
but this is rather a proof of their inferiority than its cause. *
74. It has been the peculiar fortune of Accursius, that his

name has always stood in a representative capacity,
^CV'^ to engross the praise, or sustain the blanie, of the
°°*"* great body of glossers from whom he compiled.
One of those proofs of national gratitude and veneration was
paid to his memory, which it is die more pleasing to recount,
that, from the fickleness and insensibility of mankind, they
do not very frequently occur. The city of Bologna was di-
vided into the factions of Lambertazzi and Gieremei. The
former, who were Ghibelins, having been wholly overthrown,
and excluded, according to the practice of Italian republics,
from all civil power, a law was made in 1306, that the family
of Accursius, who had been on the vanquished side, should
enjoy all the privileges of the victorious Guelf party, in re-
gard to the memory of one " by whose means the city had '
been frequented by students, and its fame had been spread
through the whole world."t

7d. In the next century a new race of lawyers arose, who,

by a different species of talent, almost eclipsed
hjiiiu"* the greatest of their predecessors. These have been

called the scholastic jurists, the glory of the school-
men having excited an emulous desire to apply their dialectic
methods in jurisprudence, t Of these the moat conspicuous
were Bartolus and Baldus, especially the former, whose au-
thority became still higher than that of the Accursian glossers.
Yet Bartolus, if we may believe Eichhom, content with the
glosses, did not trouble himself about the text, which he was
too ignorant of Roman antiquity, and even of the Latin lan-
guage, unless he is much belied, to expound. § " He is so

* SiTignj, V. S90. g Geuhichte det LhLenlur, ii. 419.

f lb. y. aSB. Bvlolus eien uid, de vertilmi non cunt

t The employment of logical fumis in jurisconsulLus. Eichhom girat no au-

!■« ii not Deiri !nitane«!i of it ma; be thoritj for this, but Meiaers, ftomvboin

bund in the earlier Juriau. Savigny, t. perhaps he took it, quotes Comnenui,

330. i tI 6. Ilistoria ArabigynioaHi PalaTinL Ver-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CuF.L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 67

fond of distinctions," sayB Gravina, " that he does not divide
his subject, but hreaka it to pieces, so that the fragments are,
as it were, dispersed by the wind. But, whatever harm he
mig'ht do to the just interpretation of the Roman law as a
positive code, he was highly useful to the practical lawyer by
the number of cases his fertile mind anticipated ; for though
many of these were unlikely to occur, yet his copiousness and
subtlety of distinction is such that he seldom leaves those who
consult him quite at a loss."* Savigny, who rates Bartolus
much below the older lawyers, gives him credit for original
Noughts, to which his acquaintance with the practical exer-
cise of justice gave rise. The older jurists were chiefly pro-
fessors of legal science, rather than conversant with forensic
causes ; and this has produced an opposition between theory
and practice in the Roman law, to which we have not much
aofdogous in our own, but the remains of which are said to
be still discernible in the continental jurisprudence, t

76. The later expositors of law, those after the ^e of
Accursius, are reproached with a tedious prolixity,
which the scholastic refinements of disputation were oriuriiuTn
^t to produce. They were little more conversant •"^,J[*™'''
with philological and historical literature than their
predecessors, and had less diligence in that comparison of
texts, by which an acute understanding might compensate the
want of subsidiary learning. Id the use of language, the
jurists, with hardly any exc«)tion3, are uncouth and bar-
barous. The great school of Bologna had sent out all the
earlier glossers. In the fourteenth century this university
fell rather into decline ; the jealousy of neighbouring states
subjected its graduates to some disadvantage i and while the
study of jurisprudence was less efficacious, it was more dif-
fused. Italy alone produced great masters of the science ;
the professors in France and Germany during the middle
ages have left no great reputation. :{

gleichuno der Ktten, iL 61G. It «ein* ad indagandun cqui bonique naturam t

hovever inerediblF. quo fadum ut snpe optimi sint candundi

• Orlginea Jurii, p. 191. juris auctorea, etiam tunc cum conditi

^ Saiigny, (i. 198. ; v. SOI. Of Bar- juris mali sunt intprpretes. I'ralegoTnens

toliH and hii Kbaol it is said by Grotius, in Jus Belli et PacLs.
Tonporuin luorum infblicitu impedi- X '" "''^ il'Klit sketch of the carl;

nealo aap« ruit, quo miniii reete leges lawyers, I have been chiefl; guidei), u

illu iDlclligemit 1 ntii lolertei alioqui the reader irill bavo perceived, b; Gia-

lyCOOglC

68 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past I.

77- IV. The universities, however, with their metaphysics
ciuriMi derived from Aristotle through the medium of Ara-
iJdSll!i"in biaii interpreters who did not understand him, and
'*"*•**'■ with the commentaries of Arabian philosophers who
perverted him*, the development of the modem languages
with their native poetry, much more the glosses of the civil
lawyers, are not what is commonly meant hy the revival of
learning. In this we principally consider the increased study
of the Latin and Greek languages, and in general of what
we call classical antiquity. In the earliest of the dark ages,
as far back as the sixth century, the course of liberal instruc-
tion, as has been said above, was divided into the trivium
and the quadrivium ; the former comprising grammar, logic,
and rhetoric ; the latter music, arithmetic, geometry, and
astronomy. But these sciences, which seem tolerably com-
prehensive, were in reality taught most superficially, or
not at all. The Latin grammar, in its merest rudiments,
from a little treatise ascribed to Donatus, and extracts of
Prisciant, formed the only necessary part of the trivium
in ecclesiastical schools. Even this seems to have been
introduced afresh by Bede and the writers of the eighth
century, who much excel their immediate predecessors in
avoiding gross solecisms of grammar, t It was natural that
in England, where Latin had never been a living tongue, it
should be taught better than in countries which still aifected
to speak it. From the time of Charlemagne it was lost on
the Continent in common use, and preserved only through

vina nod Savign;, and alw b; a ver^ neat

and succinct sketch in Eichborn, Gnch.

scems good autliorit;, that of Rigord. a

giiiea June of the first have enjoyed a

is now more generally received, and is

considerabla reputation. But Saiignj

said to be proTed in a dissertation which

obserses nilh aeTerily, that Graiina haa

thought so much tnoie of his ilylc than

raann, Manuel de I'Hist. de la Philos.,

bU subject, that all be »ys of the old

i. 355. These Arabic translations were

jurists is perfectly worthless through its

themselves not made directly from the

Greek, hut from the Sjriac It is thought

Of Terraaon's Histoite dc la Jurispru-

by Buble that the logic of Aristotle was

dence Ramaine, he speaks in still lover

known in Europe sooner.

terms.

t Fleury, ivii. 18. Andres, ii. 284.
I Eichhorn, AUg. GeKsb. iL73. The

" It has been a subject of controTcrsy,

whether tlie physical and men physical

reader is requested to distinguish, at l«al

writings of Aristotle were made knoirn

if he cares about refciences, Eicbhom'a

to Europe at the beginning of the tbir-

Aligemeine Geschichte der Cultur, from

his Geschichte der Litteratur, with which.

in future, we shall have more eoncenu

lyCOOglC

CaAP.L] IN THE MIDDLE ACES. 09

glossaries, of which there were maDjr. The style of Latin in
die dark period, independently of its want of verbal purity,
is in very bad taste ; but no writers seem to have been more
inflated and empty than the English.* The distinction be-
tween the ornaments adapted to poetry and to prose had long
been lost, and still more the just sense of moderation in their
use. It cannot be wondered at that a vicious rhetoric should
have overspread the writings of the ninth and tenth centuries,
when there is so much of it in the third and fourth.

78. Eichhom fixes upon the latter part of the tenth cen-
tury, as an epoch from which we are to deduce, in
its b^nnings, the restoration of classical taste ; it ■°"><'"
was then that the scholars left the meagre introduc- ^^°^
tions to rhetoric formerly used for the works of
Cicero and Quintilian.t In the school of Paderbom, not
long after 1000, Sallust and Statins, as well as Virgil and
Horace, appear to have been read.} Several writers, chiefly
historical, about this period, such as Lambert of Aschafien-
burg, Ditmar, Wittikind, are tolerably exempt from the false
taste of preceding times, and, if they want a truly classiciU
tone, express themselves with some spirit. § Gerbert, who
by an uncommon quickness of parts ^one in very diflerent
provinces of learning, and was beyond question the most
accomplished man of the dark ages, displays in his epistles
a thorough acquaintance with the best Latin authors and a
taste for their excellences. || He writes with the feelings of
Petrarch, but in a less auspicious period. Even in England,
if we may quote agdn the famous passage of Ingulfus, the
rhetorical works of Cicero, as well as some book which he
calls Aristotle, were read at Oxford under Edward the Con-
fessor. But we have" no indisputable name in the eleventh
century, not even that of John de Garlandia, whose Floretus

* Flcury. itU. 93. Ducange, pre(ic« gilius. Crispui et Sallurtiiu, et Urbuiu*

IQ Glonarj, p. 10. The Anglo-Salon Sutiits, luduique fuit omnibus insud*re

clurtcri are dutinguiaheU for their pom- versibuseC dictaminibiujueundisqite can-

poia ■bsurdilj ; and it ii Ihe general tibua. Vita MEiawerei in Leibnili Script

character of our earl; hirtoriBns. One Bninivie. aputl Eicbhorn, ii. 599.

Eifaelwerd ii (he vont i but William of g Eirbhom, Geuh. der Ulteiatur, I

M«lin«bur]pbin»elf,perhapainioinemea. 807. Heeren, p. 127.

Hire bj tiBiueribiDg pauagei from othen, H Heercn, p. 165. It apptan that

>int fresUy in thii respect. Cieero de R^ubliei ww eilant in his

f Allg. Geacb., ii. 79. time.

t Viguit Honliin mi^iu atque Vir-

lyGOOglC

'70 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PAmr I.

long continued to be a text-book in schools. This is a poor
collection of extracts from Latin authors. It is uncertain
whether or not the compiler were an Englishman.*

79. It is admitted on all hands, that a remarkable improve-
ment both in style and in the knowledge of Latin
>ni bu ' antiquity was perceptible towards the dose of the
eleventh century. The testimony of contempo-
raries attributes an extensively beneficial influence to L^n-
franc. This distinguished person, bom at Pavia in 1005,
and early known as a scholar in Italy, passed into France
about 1042 to preside over a school at Bee in Normandy. It
became conspicuous under his care for the studies of the age,
dialectics and theology. It is hardly necessary to add, that
Laiifranc v^'as raised by the Conqueror to the primacy of
England, and thus belongs to our ovvn history, Anselm, his
successor both in the monastery of Bee and the see of Can-
terbury, far more renowned than Lanfranc for met^hysical
acuteness, has shared with him the honour of having diffused
a better taste for philological literature over the schools of
France. It has, however, been denied by a writer of high
authority, that either any knowledge, or any love of classical
''literature, can be traced in the works of the two archbishops.
They are in this respect, he says, much inferior to those of
Lupus, Gerbert, and others of the preceding ages.t His
contemporaries, who extol the learning of Lanfrauc in hyper-
bolical terms, do so in very indifferent Latin of their onu ;
but it appears indeed more than doubtful, whedier the earliest
of them meant to praise him for this peculiar species of
literature.^ The Benedictines of St. Maur cannot find much

*Hi>t. Ult.de I> France, viii. 81. The of William tlie Conqueror. See Wriglil's

■uthon give Tcry inconclunre reasona Biographia BriUnnica Literaris, vd. iL

for robbing England of this writer, who p. Ifi 1847.]

ceitainl; taught here under William tlia The Anglo-Saion cleig; were iiicon-

Conqueror, irnotbefare,butil la poaiible eeivablj ignorant, ut csteriseset ttupori

enough that be came over from France, qui grammatioam didiciasct. Will. Malms-

Thej say there is no such Burnamc in bur]r- P- 101' T-'b'" leads us to doubt tb«

England as Garland, which happen! to Aristotle and Cicero of Ingulfus.
be a mistake; but the native English did t Hceren, p. 1 85. There seems cer-

not often bear suroamei in that age. tainly nothing aboTe tbe oommon in Lan-

[In thia note I haie been misled by fnuic'a epiMlea.
the HiiUure Litt£raire de la France. f Milo CrispiniiB, Abbot of Westmin-

John de Gariandia, the grammsriaa, au- ater, in his life of Lanfranc, says of him,

Ihor of tbu Florutua, lired in the thir. ■■ FuitquidamTirmagnusItaliaoriundus,

teentb centurj. Butthcrewasairriteron quern Latinilas in onuquum seientia iia-

atithmelic, named Garland, in the reign lumabeonstitutatolaaiipTeniuin debito

lyCOOglC

CUT.L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 71

' for him in this respect. Thejr allege that he and
elm wrote better than was then usual ; a very moderate
compliment. Yet they ascribe a great influence to their public
lectures, and to the schools which were formed on the model
of Bee.* And perhaps we could not without injustice deprive
Lanfhtnc of the credit he has obtained for the promotion of
polite letters. There is at least sufficient evidence that they
had be^n to revive in France not long after his time.

80. The signs of gradual improvement in Italy during the
eleventh century are very perceptible; several schools,
iini(H)g which those of Milan and the convent of ^«^'*^
Monte Casino are most eminent, were established ;

and some writers, such as Peter Damiani and Humbert, have
obtained praise for rather more elegance and polish of style
than had belonged to their predec^ors.! The Latin vo-
cabulary of Papias was finished in 1053. This is a com-
pilation from the grammars and glossaries of the sixth and
seventh centuries ; but, though oiany of his words are of very
low latini^, and his etymologies, which are those of his
masters, absurd, he shows both a competent degree of learn-
ing and a regard to profane literature, unusual in the darker
agea, and symptomatic of a more liberal taste, ji

81, It may be said with some truth, that Italy supplied
the fire, from which other nations in this first, as iniuin«sr
afterwards in the second era of the revival of letters, tuanpt.

eumanwreelhODOreagiuiKitmagistruni, the thirtwnlli cealury. Bui Gaspu Bar-

Domine Laolruuiu.'' thiui, in his Advcrurii, c. i,, after otlling

Tfau puBge. vh!ch i* frequently him "veteniai Closso^phoiuni coni-

quoUd, mirel; refen to his eminence in paelor non aempei futiti^" olnenes, tint

duleeticm. Tbe wordi of William of Papiu mentiona an emperor, Henrr II.,

Halnubury go biltier. "Is lileratura as then liTing. and thence liiei the era of

pniniignis lib* rain artca qus jamdudum Ills book in the early part of ihe eletenlh

■ordnenml, ■ Latlo io Gallias vocuu century, in which he ii folloired bj

■cuminc ma fapolirit." B«yle, art. Balbi. It is rsther singular

• Hill. Lict. de ]b France, vii. IT. that neither of those writers recollected

107. ; Tiii. 901. The aeveoth volume the usage of (be Italians to reckon ■■

of this long and laborious work begins Henry II. tbe prince wliom the Gcr-

willi an excellent account of the literary mans call Henry III., Henry the Fowler

couditlan (rf France in the eleventh cen. not being included by them in the im-

turj. At the beginning of the ninth pcrial list ; and Bayle himself quotes ■

tolume we hare a similar Tiew of the writer, unpublished in the nge of Bat-

IveJftb. thius, who plaoea Papia* in Ihe year

t Bettinelli, Risargimenlo d' lulia 1059. This dale I belieie is given by

dope il mille. Titmbauhi, ill. 248. Papias himself. I'iraboMihi, iil SOO. A

t Tbe date of Ihe locabutary of Pa- pretty full account of the Latin glnssa-

pias had been placed by Scaliger, who rie(,hcroreaiidBfter Papias, will be found

ny* be ha* mm many erron as words, in in the preface lo Ducange, p. 38.
t4

lyGOOgIC

72 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [P*M I.

lighted their own torches. Lanfranc, Anselm, Peter Lom-
bard, the founder of aysteuiatic theology in the twelfth
century, Imerius, the restorer of jurisprudence, Gratlan, the
author of the first compilation of canon law, the school of
Salerno, that guided medical art in all countries, the first
dictionaries of the Latin tongue, the first treatise of algebra,
the first great work that makes an epoch in anatomy, are as
truly and exclusively the boast of It^y, as the restoration of
Greek literature and of classical taste in the fifteenth century.*
But if she were the first to propagate an impulse towards
intellectual excellence in the rest of Europe, it must be owned,
that France and England, in this dawn of literature and
science, went in many points of view far beyond her.

8^. Three religious orders, all scions from the great Bene-
dictine stock, that of Clugni, which dates from the
copjjnEQf first part of the tenth century, the Carthusians,
founded in 1084, and the Cistercians, in 1098, con-
tributed to propagate classical learning, t The monks of
these foundations exercised themselves in copying manu-
scripts i the arts of calligraphy, and, not long aJfierwards, of
illuminaUon, became their pride ; a more cursive hand-
writing and a more convenient system of abbreviations were
introduced ; and thus from the twelfth century we find a
great increase of manuscripts, though transcribed mechanically
as a monastic duty, and often with much incorrectness. The
abbey of Clugni had a rich library of Greek and Latin
authors. But few monasteries of the Benedictine rule were
destitute of one ; it was their pride to collect, and ^eir busi-
ness to transcribe books, t These were, in a vast proportion,
such as we do not highly value at the present day ; yet
almost all we do possess of Latin classical literature, with the
exception of a small number of more ancient manuscripts, is
owing to the industry of these monks. In that age, there
was perhaps less zeal for literature in Italy, and less practice
in copying, than in France. § This shifting of intellectual
exertion from one country to another is not peculiar to the
middle ages ; but, in regard to them, it has not always been

' * Bcttinelli, Ruargimcnla d' Italia, i Fleury. HUl LUt. de U France,
p. 71. ii. 139.

t Flcurj. Hilt. IJtt. 6e la France, g Heercn, p. 197.

lyGOOgIC

Cup. LJ IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 73

heeded by those who, using the trivial metaphor of light and
darkness, which it is not easy to avoid, have too much con-
sidered Europe as a single point under a receding or advancing
illumination.

83. France and England were the countries where the
revival of classical taste was chiefly perceived. In ]„>,„ or
Germany uo seusihle improvement in philological ^'"^'"'^■
literature can be traced, according to Eichhoru and Heeren,
before the invention of printing, though I think this must be
understood with exceptions, and that Otho of Frisingen,
Saxo Grammaticus, and Gunther, author of the poem en-
titled Ligurinus (who belongs to the first years of the thir-
teenth century), might stand on an equal footing with any of
their contemporaries. But, in the schools which are supposed
to have borrowed light from Lanfranc and Anselm, a more
keen perception of the beauties of the Latin language, as
weU aa an exacter knowledge of its idiom, was imparted.
John of Salisbury, himself one of their most conspicuous
ornaments, praises the method of instruction pursued by
Bernard of Chartres about the end of the eleventh century,
who seems indeed to have exercised his pupils vigorously m
the rules of grammar and rhetoric After the first gramma-
tical instruction out of Donatus and Priscian, they were led
forward to the poets, orators, and historians of Rome ; the
precepts of Cicero and Quintilian were studied, and some-
times observed with a6fectation.' An admiration of the great
classical writers, an excessive love of philology, and disdain
of the studies that drew men from it, shine out in the two
curious treatises of John of Salisbury. He is perpetually
citing the poets, especially Horace, and had read most of
Cicero. Such at least is the opinion of Heeren, who bestows
also a good deal of praise upon his ladnity. t Eichhorn
places him at the head of all his contemporaries. But no one
has admired his style' so much aa Meiners, who declares that
he has no equal in the writers of the third, fourth, or fifth
centuries, except Lactantius and Jerome. 1: In this I cannot

• Hilt. IJtt. dc U France. *ii. 16. He wjri imTl<r u much of Saxo Gnni'

f P. 903. Hut Lin. de U Prance, miticui and Williun of Milmibury. If

it. 47. Pctcr of Bloii alio poiwued ■ my reeolieclion of the former doei not

Tcijt rcqMeuble stock of elatiicBl Uleri- drcciTe me, he u ■ better wiiler then our

tore. inoak of Milnnbarr.

X VcrgleicbuDg der litten, ii. 5R6.

t: Go Ogle

LlTEHATUaE OF EUROPE

[Pai

but think there is some exaggeration ; the style of John of
Salisbury, far from being equal to that of Augustin, £utro-
pius, and a few more of those early ages, does not appear to
me by any means elegant ; sometimes he falls upon a good
expression, but the general tone is not very classical. The
reader may judge from the passage in the note.*

84. It is generally acknowledged that in the twelfth cen-
iiiipro.e. *Ty we find several writers, Abelard, Eloisa, Ber-
SH'iiui nard of Clairvaux, Saxo Crrammaticus, William of
i^»i!h«ii. Malmsbury, Peter of Blois, whose style, though
'"''■ never correct, (which, in the absence of all better

dictionaries than that of Papias, was impossible,) and some-
times affected, sometimes too florid and difiiise, is not wholly
destitute of spirit, and even of eleganceti the Latin poetry,
instead of Leonine rhymes, or attempts at r^ular hexameters
almost equally bad, becomes, in the hands of Gunther, Gual-
terua de Insulis, Gulielmus Brito, and Joseph Iscanus, to
whom a considerable number of names might be added,
always tolei'able, sometimes truly spirited^ ; and amidst all

* One of the most intereatinK passages
in John of Salisbury ia that aboTe eiled,
in which he gives an account of the me-
thod of instruction puraued by Bernard
of Chartrei, wbom lie c*IU eiundantini-
mui moderoia tempo ribus font IJIcrarum
ID Gallia. John himaelf wns taught by
som»who trod in the steiiaof this eminent
preceptor. Ad hujus msgistri formam
pweeeptorea mei in grammatica, Guliel-
mui de Conchis, et Richatdua cogno-
roento Epiacopiu, officio nunc archidiaco-

dracipuloa aliquando ii

nea videri quam esse philosophi malue.
runt. profeBaoreaque artium ac totaic
philosophiam breviua quom tricnnjo aui
nuadriennio Iransfusuroiauditoribui pal-

t Hist. Litt. de la France, ii. 146.
The ISenedictinea are acarcely feir to-
wards Abelaid (xii. 14T.), whose style.
Ha far as I have seen, wliich ia not much,
aeema equal to that of his contempo-

[Tbe beat writen of Latin in Eng-
land, pioae as well aa verse, flourished
under Henry II. and his aona William
of Malmsbury, who belongs lo the leign
of Stephen, tliough not destitute of aome
skill aa well as variety, diiplays too much
of the Anglo-Saion latinity, tumid and
redundant. But Gtraldua Cambrenaia
and William of Newbury were truly
good writers; very few indeed even of the
fourth century can be deemed to eiCel

ville, author of tt

1, Nig,

Wireker, and Alexander Neckam,
e deserving of praise. Short eitiocts
Ic BUtera minus will be found in Wright. — 184T.]

in graramatic* J Warton has done some justice to
Ei quo coutigit the Anglo-Ijilin poets of this century.
ti libcralea quam The Trojan War and Anliocliols of Jo-

a, he calls '
age of classical eomposili

andClaudian. VoU.

The style,
; of Olid, SlatiuB,

e aecond. The Philippia of

lyGOOgIC

Cbap. I.] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. '^5

that still demands the most libera] indulgence, we cannot but
perceive the real prepress of classical knowledge, and the
development of a finer taste in Europe.*

85. The vast increase of religious houses in the twelfth
century rendered necessary more attention to the [D<i^cn„or
rudiments of literature.! Every monk, as well as J,"™""??!
every Secular priest, required a certain portion of ''"'''
Latin. In the ruder and darker ages many illiterate persons
had been ordained ; there were even kingdoms, as, for ex-
ample, Enjifland, where this is said to have been almost
general. But the canons of the church demanded of course
such a degree of instruction as the continual use of a dead
language made indispensable ; and in this first dawn of learn-
ing there can be, I presume, no doubt that none received tlie
higher orders, or became professed in a monastery, for which
the order of priesthood was necessary, without some degree
of grammatical knowledge. Hence this kind of education in
the rudiments of Latin was imparted to a greater number
of individuals than at present

86. The Grerman writers to whom we principally refer,
have expatiated upon the decline of literature after

the middle of the twelfth century, unexpectedly dis- f,'"*_|=;[
appointing the bright promise of that age, so that ^'^"'''
for almost two hundred years we find Europe fallen
back in learning where we might have expected iier pro-
gress.t This, however, is by no means true, in the most
limited sense, as to the latter part of the twelfth century, when
that purity of classical taste, which Eichhorn and others seem
diiefly to have had in their minds, was displayed in better
Latin than had been written before. In a general view, the
thirteenth century was an age of activity and ardour, though
not in every respect the best directed. The fertility of the
modern languages in versification, the creation, we may
almost say, of Italian and English in this period, the great
concourse of students to the universities, the acute, and

William Brito muM be of the thirteenth } Meinera, ii. 60.<. Heeren. p. SlfS.

ertautj, and Warton refen tbe Ligu- Eiehbonii Allg. Geich. der Litteiatur,

rtnui of Gunther to IS06. iu 63 — IIS.

* Hist. Litt de l> France, vol. ii. The ninning title of Eichhom'i atc-

Eidihorn, All. Getcb. der Cultiir, ii. tion. Die Wisten>clmften ver&llen in

90. 63. HeereD. Mnnen. Barbarcy, aeems much too georrall; ei-

t UiM. Litt de la France ii. 1 1. preawd.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

76 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtI.

sometimes profound, reasonings of the scholastic philosophy,
which was now in its most palmy state, the accumulation of
knowledge, whether derived from original research, or from
Arabian sources of information, which we find in the geo-
meters, the physicians, the natural philosophers of Europe,
are suffident to repel the charge of having fallen back, or
even remained altogether stationary, in comparison with the
preceding century. But in politeness of Latin style, it is
admitted that we find an astonishing and permanent decline
both in France and England. Such complaints are usual
in the most progressive times ; and we might not rely on
John of Salisbury when he laments the decline of taste in his
own age.* But in fact it would have been rather singular
if a classical purity had kept its ground. A stronger party,
and one hostile to polite letters, as well as ignorant of them,
— that of the theologians and dialecticians, — carried with it
the popular voice in the church and the universities. The
time Plotted by these to philological literature was curtailed,
that the professors of logic and philosophy might detain their
pupils longer. Grammar continued to be taught in the uni-
versity of Paris ; but rhetoric, another part of the trivium,
was given up ; by which it is to he understood, as I con-
ceive, that no classical authors were read, or, if at all, for the
sole purpose of verbal explanation.! The thirteenth century,
says Heeren, was one of the most unfruitful for the study of
ancient literature.1: He does not seem to except Italy,
though there, as we shall soon see, the remark is hardly just.
But in Germany the tenth century, Leibnitz declares, was a
golden age of learning, compared with the thirteenth § ; and
France itself is but a barren waste in this period.|| The re-

' Metalogicus. I. L e. 34. Tliis pu- Richard II. to the miiconduct of the
sage has been frequently quoled. He wu mcndisant friais, and to the papal provi.
very inimical to the dialecticians, u phi- siona that impaierished the church.
lolog«n generally are. |1 [AbeUrd, Peterof Bloii,and others,
■)■ Crevier, ii. 376 might paas for models in comparison with
i P. S3T. Albertui, Aquioas, and the rnt of the
§ Introductio in Script. Brunsvie., writers of the thirteenth century. La
§liiii., apud Heeren, et Meinera, ii. 631. decadence eat partout sensible; elle est
Noonehasdwelttnorefiillrthan this last piogreBsiie dam leicouri dei leann de
«tit«T on the decline oT literature in the St. Louia, de Philippe ill., et de Phi-
thirteenth cmtuty, out of his cordialanli- lippe IV. ; et quoique le Iran^li restit
pathy to the schoolmen. P. 589. et post dans I'enfancs, la latinili diji. si vieille
Wood, who has no prejudices againnt avant I'ann^ 1300 rieiilissaic et d^pfris-
popery, ascribes the low state of learning sait encore. Hist. Litt. de la France,
in England under Edward III. and iri. 145.— 1842.}

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chap.L] in the middle AGES. 77

lazation of mdnners among the monastic orders, which,
generaWj speaking, is the increasing theme of complaint
from the eleventh century, and the swarms of worse vermin,
the Mendicant Friars, who filled Europe with stupid super-
stition, are assigned by Melnera and Heeren as the leading
causes of the return of ignorance.*

87- The writers of the thirteenth century display an incre-
dible ignorance, not only of pure idiom, but of the Hei.p«. mo
common grammatical rules. Those who attempted '"'"''"°'
to write verse have lost all prosody, and relapse into Leonine
rhymes and barbarous acrostics. The historians use a hy-
Inid jargon intermixed with modem words. The scholastic
philosophers wholly neglected their style, and thought it
DO wrong to enrich the Latin, as in some degree a living
language, with terms that seemed to express their meaning.
In the writings of Albertus Magnus, of whom Fleury says
that he can see nothing great in him but his volumes, the
grossest errors of syntax fi^uently occur, and vie with his
ignorance of history and science. Through the sinister
example of this man, according to Meiners, the notion that
Latin should be written with regard to ancient models was
lost in the universities for three hundred years i an evil,
however, slight in comparison with what he inflicted on
£urope by the credit he gave to astrology, alchemy, and
magict Duns Scotus and his disciples, in the next century,
carried this much farther, and introduced a most barbarous
and onintelligible terminology, by which the school meta-
^ysics were rendered ridiculous in the revival of literature-t
Even the jurists, who more required an accurate knowledge
of the language, were hardly less barbarous. Roger Bacon,
who is not a good writer, stands at the head in this century.§
Fortunately, as has been said, the transcribing ancient au-
thors had become a mechanical habit in some monasteries.
But it was done in an ignorant and slovenly manner. The
manuscripts of these latter ages, before the invention of
printing, are by far the most numerous, but they are also the
most incorrect, and generally of little value in the eyes of
critics. II

lyGOOgIC

• Mrinera, il. 615. Heeren, 935.

i Meiiien,ii. T8I.

t Meinen, il 692. Fltury, 5me dii-

§ Heeren. p. 245.

eoun, Id Wa Eeelo., i*ii. 44. Buble,

14 p. 304.

noa.

78 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pam I.

88. The fourteenth century was not in the slightest de-
Ko improre- S^^ superiof to the preceding age. France, Eng-
"S?u™ui land, and Germany, were wholly destitute of good
'™""r- Latin scholars in tiiis period. The age of Petrarch
and Boccaccio, the age before the close of which classical
learning truly revived in Italy, gave no sign whatever of
animation throughout the rest of Europe ; the genius it pro-
duced, and in this it was not wholly deficient, displayed itself
Ricbudor i" other walks of literature.* We may justly praise
^''' Richard of Bury for his zeal in collecting books, and

still more for his munificence in giving his library to the uni-
versity of Oxford, with special injunctions that they should
be tent to scholars. But his erudition spears crude and
uncritical, his style indifferent, and his thoughts superficial.t
Yet I am not aware that he had any equal in England during
this century.

89- The patronage of letters, or collection of books, are
LibruT ^^^ reckoned among the glories of Edward III. ;
a^^. though, if any respect had been attached to leani-
""^ '■ ing in his age and country they might well have
suited his m^rniticent disposition. His adversaries, John,
and especially Charles V., of France, have more claims upon
the remembrance of a literary historian. Several Latin au-
thors were translated into French by their directions^: j and
Charles, who himself was not ignorant of Latin, began to
form the Royal Library of the Louvre. We may judge
from this of the condition of literature in hia time. The
number of volumes was about 900. Many of these, espe-
cially the missals and psalters, were richly bound and illu-
minated. Books of devotion formed the larger portion of
the library. The profane authors, except some relating to
French history, were in general of little value in our sight.

• Hecren, p. SOa Andi^ iii. 10. f Creiier, ii. 424. Worton hai amass-
t Tlie Fbilobiblon of Richard Aun* ed a great deal of mfutmalion, not a1 ws; t
gerville, often cilUti Richard of Bur^, rery accurate, upon the subject of earl;
Chancellor 0/ Ed irard III., is worthy of French translations. These form a con-
being read, aa containing some curious siderable portion orthe literature of that
illuitratiorsoftheBtateofliterMnre. He country in the fourteenth and fifteenth
quotn a vrelclied poem de VetuU as centuries. Hist, of English Poetry, iL
Ovid's, and ebowi tittle learning, though 414—430. See alsa de Sade, Vic de
he had a great esteem for it See a note Pftnirijue, iii. 548. ; and Creiier, HisL
of Warton, History of English Poetry, dcl'Unii. de Paris, ii. 434.
L 146., on Aungerville.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CaAF.I.] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 79

Very few classical works are in the liet, and no poets except
Ovid and Lucan.* This library came, during the subse-
quent English wars, into the possession of the duke of
Bedford ; and Charles VII, laid the foundations of that
which sdll existe.t

90. Hiia retrc^ade condition, however, of classical litera-
ture, was only perceptible in Cisalpine Europe. By somcim-
<Mie of those shiftings of literary illumination to In™"""'
which we have alluded, Italy, far lower in classical ihirrilmh
taste than France in the twelfth century, deserved a '^"'""^■
hig;her place in the next. Tiraboschi says that the progress
in polite letters was slow, but still some was made ; more
good books were transcribed, tfaere were more readers, and
(rf' these some took on them to imitate what they read ; so
that gradually the darkness which overspread the land began
to be dispersed. Thus we find that those who wrote at the
end of tiie thirteenth century were less rude in style than
their predecessors at its commencement.^^ A more elaborate
account of the state of learning in the thirteenth century will
be found in the life of Ambrogio Traversari, by Mehus ; and
several names are there mentioned, among whom that of
Brunetto Latini is the most celebrated. Latini translated
some of the rhetorical treatises of Cicero. § And we may
perhaps consider as a witness to some degree of progressive
learning in Italy at this time, the Cadiolicon of caihoiicoQ
John ^Ibi, a Genoese monk, more frequently styled "^ ^■"''"
Januensis. This book is chiefly now heard of, because the
first edition, printed by Gutenberg in 1460, is a book of
uncommon rarity and price. It is, however, deserving of
some notice in the mnals of literature. It consists of a Latin
grammar, followed by a dictionary, both perhaps superior to
what we should expect from the general character of the
times. They are at least copious; the Gatholicon is a volume
of great bulk. Balbi quotes abundantly from the Latin clas-
sics, and appears not wholly unacquainted with Greek ; though

• Warum add* Cicero to the clauicat f Id. 701.

Inl ; and I am aony (o My that, in tn; j^ Tiraboschi, iv. 42a The Latin ver-

KiitoTj of the Middle Ages, I hive been sifien oflhe thirleenlh century vcre nu.

led wieng bj bim. Boutin, hii only tncrous, but generally very indifferent.

aulborilj, eiprenlj says, pu un aeul I<1. 37S.

•DaouKril de CiceraiL M£in. de I'Acad. § Mehus,p.t£7. TIniboKhi,p. 418-
dea bneript., ii. 693.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

80 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PamI.

I must own that Tiraboschi and Eichhorn have thought other-
wise. The Cathohcon, as far as I can judge from a slight
inspection of it, deserves rather more credit than it has in
modern times obtained. In the g^rammar, besides a fami-
liarity with the terminology of the old grammarians, he will
be found to have stated some questions as to the proper use
of words, with duiitari solet, multum queeritur ; which,
though they are superficial enough, indicate that a certain
attention was beginning to be paid to correctness in writing.
From the great size of the Catholicon its circulation must
have been very limited."

91. In the dictionary, however, of John of Grenoa, as in
those of Fapias and the other glossarists, we find
'kmoTHiri]' tittle distinction made between t\\e diSerent grada-
tions of ladntty. The Latin tongue was to them,
except so far as the ancient grammarians whom they copied
might indicate some to be ol^olete, a single body of words ;
and, ecclesiastics as they were, they could not understand that
Ambrose and Hilary were to be proscribed in the vocabulary
of a language which was chiefly learned for the sake of read-
ing their works. Nor had they the means of pronouncing,
what it has cost the labour of succeeding centuries to do,
that there is no adequate classical authority for innumerable
words and idioms in common use. Their knowledge of
syntax also was very limited. The prejudice of the church
against profane authors had by no means wholly worn away :
much less had they an exclusive possession of the grammar-
sdiools, most of the books taught in which were modem.
Papias, Uguccio, and other indi£ferent l<;xicogTaphers, were
of much authority.t The general ignorance in Italy was still

• LibeQum hunc (says Balbi at the self eonfeasra (Gesch. der Littentur, ii,

concltuion) »d hanorem Dei et gloriosTE 338.). The order and plan toe alpha-

Vuginii Maris, et beati Domini patria betiral, aa usual in a diotionaijr 1 and

noitri et omnium lanctarum electorum, though Balbi does not lay claim to mucli

necnon ad ulilLlateni tncam et ecelesia Greek, I do not think lie piofeseee entire

aanctB Dei, ei diversis majorum meorum ignorance of it Hoc difficile est scire et

dictis multo tabore el diligenli studio minimi niihi nnn bene scii'nti linguaiu

compilavi. O peris quip pe ac atudii mei Gnecam: — apud Gradcaigo, Littera-

eat et fuit multos libroi legere et ei plu- tura Greco-Italiana, p. 104. I have ol>.

rimis diienos carpers flores. served that Balbi calls himself pAiloco/w^

Eiohboni speaki severely, and, I am vhich indeed is no evidence of much

dUpoaed to think, unjuatif , o( the Catho- Greek erudition.

lieon, as irithoul order and plan, or any f Mebus. Muratori, Dissert. 41.
knowledge of Greek, as the author him-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CiUF.L] IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 81

very great. In the middle of the fourteenth century we read
of a man, supposed to be learned, who took Plato and Cicero
for poetS) and thought Enniua a contemporary of Statius.*

92. The first real restorer of polite letters was Petrarch.
His fine taste taught him to relish the beauties of seniormtioD
Virgil and Cicero, and his ardent praises of them aJ^IT'
inspired his compatriots with a desire for classical '''^'■"''■
knowledge. A generous disposition to encourage letters be-
gan to show itself among the Italian princes. Robert, king
of Naples, in the early part of this century, one of the first
patrons of Petrarch, and several of the great families of
Lombardy, gave this proof of the humanising etfects of peace
and prosperity.! It has been thought by some, that but for
the appearance and influence of Petrarch at that period, the
manuscripts themselves would have perished, as several had
done in no long time before j so forgotten and abandoned to
ilust and vermin were those precious records in the dungeons
of monasteries.^ He was the first who brought in that
almost deification of the great ancient writers, which, though
carried in following ages to an absurd extent, was the ani-
mating sentiment of solitary study ; that through which its
fatigues were patiently endured, and its obstacles surmounted.
Petrarch tells us himselT, that while his comrades at school
were reading .Slsop's Fables, or a book of one Prosper, a
writer of the fifth century, bis time was given to the study
of Cicero, which delighted his ear long before he could un-
derstand the sense. § It was much at his heart to chirHteror
acquire a good style in Latin. And, relatively to his """>''■
predecessors of the mediaeval period, we may say that he was
successful. Passages full of elegance and feeling, in which
we are at least not much offended by incorrectness of stj^le,
are frequeat in his writings. But the fastidious scholars of
later times contemned these imperfect endeavours at purity.

* Mehiu,p.3ll. TlraboKhi, V. 83. f Heeren, 270.

t TirelxHchi, t. 20. ct post. Tenuni- g £t ilU quidcm state nihil intelli.

nruties were fDunded In Italy duiing gere pottram, sola me Terborum duleedo

the fourteenth eenturr, aomc of wliich quicdam et sonontas detinebal ut quic-

did not tail long. Rome ■nd Feinno in quid nllud tcI Irgcrem vel audlreni, nu-

1-103; Prrugia i n 1 307 ; Trcviw about cum mihi dinonumquc videretur. Episl.

iUSO; PiM in 1339; FiTia not long Seuilei, lib. it., apud dc Sade, i. :I6.
aftcTi Florence in 134B; Siena iu 1357)
Lucca in 1359, and Femia in 1391.

'""•• ■• " .,.„,:,Google

8a LITERATUBE OF EUROPE [Part I.

" He wants," says Erasmus, " full acquaintance with the
language, and his wliole diction shows the rudeness of the
preceding age." • An Italian writer, somewhat earlier,
speaks still more unfavourably. " His style is harsh, and
scarcely bears the character of latinity. His writings are
indeed full of thought, but defective in expression, and dis-
play the marks of labour without the polish of elegance."t

1 incline to agree with Meiners in rating the style of
Petrarch rather more highly, t Of Boccace the writer above
quoted gives even a worse character. " Licentious and
inaccurate in his diction, he has no idea of selection. All his
Latin writings are hasty, crude, and unformed. He labours
with thought, and struggles to give it utterance j but his
sentiments find no adequate vehicle, and the lustre of his
native talents is obscured by the depraved taste of the times."
Yet his own mother-tongue owes its earliest model of grace
and refinement to his pen.

93. Petrarch was more proud of his Latin poem called
lilt Latin Africa* the subject of which is the termination of
'*'"''■ the second Punic war, than of the sonnets and odes,
which have made his name immortal, though they were not
the chief sources of his immediate renown. It is indeed
written with elaborate elegance, and perhaps superior to any
preceding specimen of Latin versification in the middle ages,
unless we should think Joseph Iscanus his equal. But it is
more to be praised for taste than correctness ; and though in
the Basle edition of 1554, which I have used, the printer has
been excessively negligent, there can be no doubt that the
Latin poetry of Petrarch abounds with faults of metre. His
eclogues, many of which are covert satires on the court of
Avignon, appear to me more poetical than the Africa, and
are sometimes very beautifully expressed. The eclogues of
Boccaccio, though by no means indifierent, do not equal
those of Petrarch.

• CiwronUnuB. pp. 94— H7., on the merits of Petrarch

f PbiiIub Cortesius de hom'mlbui doc- in the restonlioD of clawcal literature ;

lis. I talielhe translations ftom Iloscot'i l>c teems unable to lea*e the lubject.

Lorenzo di Medici, c. vii. Ilceien, though hsu AiWate, is not less

t Vergleichurg der Silten, lii. 126. pfinejtj-ricBl. De Sailo's three (juattos

Meiners has eiputiatcd for liny pnges, arc ctrtaiiily a little tedious.

lyGOOgIC

Cur. I.] IN TUB MIDDLE AGES. 83

94. Mehoa, whom Tiraboschi avowedly copies, has dih-
gently collected the names, though litde more than j„^„ ^
the names, of Ladn teachers at Florence in the four- ""'"""-
teenth century.* But among the earlier of these there was
no good method of instruction, no elegance of language.
The first who revealed the mysteries of a pure and graceful
style, was John Malpaghino, commonly called John of Ra-
venna, one whom in his youth Petrarch had loved as a son,
and who not very long before the end of the century taught
Latin at Padua and Florence, t The best scholars of the
ensuing age were his disciples, and among them was n„,p,rtnor
Gasparin of fiarziza, or, as generally called, of """"■
Bergamo, justly characterised by Eichhom as the father of
a pure and elegant latinity. t The distinction between the
genuine Latin language and that of the lower empire was
A'om this generally recognised ; and the writers who had
been regarded as standards were throivn away with con-
tempt. This is the proper era of the revival of letters, and
nearly comcides with the beginning of the fifteenth century.

9^. A few subjects, affording less extensive observation,
we have postponed to the next chapter, which will contain
the literature of Europe in the first part of the fifteenth cen-
tury. Notwithstanding our wish to preserve in general a
strict regard to chronology, it has been impossible to avoid
some interruptions of it without introducing a multiplicity of
transitions incompatible with any comprehensive views ; and
which, even as it must inevitably exist in a work of this
nature, is likely to diminish the pleasure, and perhaps the
advantage, that the reader might derive from it.

• Vila Tr«»eT««ri, p. 343. from Petrucb'a Lettcrii,and from Mehui'i

t A lite of John MalpBgliino of Ra- Life of Trsveruri, p. 348. See also H-

fcsna is the first in Kleiner's Lebeiube- rnboechi, t. SSi.

■chrribungra brtiihmter manner, 3 tols. ) Gescliichte det Ijitlcialur, ii. 341.

Zurich, 1795) but il ii vholl; taken

lyGOOgIC

LITERATURE OF EUROPE

CHAPTER II.

ON THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE FROM 1400 TO 1440.

Cultivalion of Latin m Ilaty — Revival of Greet lAleratnre — VeiHgei of it
durittg the Middle Agn -~ Ilii taught by Cirytoloriu — hit I}iiaplei — mat
bi/ learned Greeh — State of Clauical Learnmg in olher Partt of Europe —
Phyiicat Sciencet — Malieinalici — Medicine and Anatomy — Poctri/ in
Spain, France, and England — Formation of netv Lava of Tatte in Middle
Jget — TAeir PrindpUi — Romanctt — Seligiout Opiaiont,

1. GlNGuiN^ has well observed, that the fourteenth century
z«i for l*ft I^y ™ ^^* possession of the writings of three
li'iew^ ID great masters, of a language formed and polished by
"''^' them, and of a strong relish for classical leaning.

But this soon became the absorbing passion ; fortunately,
no doubt, in the result, as the some author has elsewhere
said, since all the exertions of an age were requii-ed to ex-
plore the rich mine of antiquity, and fix the standard of
taste and purity for succeeding generations. The ardour for
classical studies grew stronger every day. To write Latin
correctly, to understand the allusions of the best authors, to
learn the rudiments at least of Greek, were the objects of
every cultivated mind.

2. The first half of the fifteenth century has been some-
pofgia times called the age of Poggio Bracciolini, which it
Brudaiini. gxpresses Dot vcpy inaccurately as to his literary life,
since he was born in 1381, and died in 14^9 ; but it seems
to involve too high a compliment. The chief merit of Poggio
was his diligence, aided by good fortune, in recovering lost
works of Roman literature, that lay mouldering in the repo-
sitories of convents. Hence we owe to this one man eight
orntions of Cicero, a complete Quintilian, Columella, part of
Lucretius, three books of Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus,
Ammianus Marcellinua, Tertullian, and several less important
writers : twelve comedies of Plautus were also recovered in

t: Go Ogle

Cur.U.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 85

Ciermany through his directions.* Poggio besides this was
undoubtedly a man of considerable learning for his time, and
still greater sense and spirit as a writer, though he never
reached a very correct or elegant style, t And this applies
to all those who wrote before the year I4.4r0, with the single
exception of Giasparin ; to Colucdo Salutato, Guarino of
Verona, and even Leonard Aretin. t Nor is this any disparage-
ment to their abilities and industry. They hail neither gram-

• Shepherd'* Lifa of P<^io. Tm- Enimiu ibout Poggio. though he ii

bmelii. Corniani. Roscoi^'a Lorenm, more aeiere on VrIIs.
cb. I. Fabric'iuK, in hit BibUatliecB It ahould lieaddod, that Tondli's note*

I.aliiia medic et infime statu, giTe* ■ on the life of Poggio are useful ; amang

liM Dot quite the nme; but Poggio's other tbings he point* out tliat Pofcgio

own muOmiitj muit be the bf*. The did not leam Greek of Emanuel Chryio-

work fint abore quoted 'a for the literarjr loraa, ai all writer* on this part of literary

biitory of Italy iu the earlier half of the history had hitherto supposed, but about

fifteenth century, what Roscoe's Lorenio 1423, when he was turned of fuity.
b br the latter. Gingufnj has not added ( Cotuccio Salutato belong! to the

much to what these English uitbois and fourteenlh century, and was deemed one

Tirabosvhi had furnished. of its greatest ornaments In learning. Ma

f Mr. Shepherd ha* judged Fo^o a adiTvero,aaysT'irBhoschi,whoidniilshii

litlte Citonrahly, a* becime a biogra- eitensive erudition, relatiiely lo his age,

pher, but with sense and disciiminalion. bcnch^ lo stll di Colucdo abbia nun rare

Ilia Italian translator, Tonelli ( Firenze, volte enetgia e foru magj^ore che quello

Itns), goes much beyond the inark in della maggior paiti degli sltii scritlori di

ritolling Poggio above all hii contem- qne«i tempi, e certo peru, che tanto i

ponricB, Hid praiaing his "Taslisiima divenio da quello di Cicerone nells proaa,

emdiuone" in the strain of hyperbole e ne' lersi da quel di Virgilio, quanlo

too ftnriliar to Italian*. This lait appunto^dlTenauniKimiBdauauDmo.

Icamiiy, even for that time, Poggio v. 5S7.

did no* poweaa ; we have no reason to Cortesius,in tbedialoguequotedaboTc,

b*lie¥e him equal to Guarino, Filelfo. or say* of Leonard Arvtin : — Hie primn*

TravenaH. mueb less to Valla. Erasmus inconditam acribendi conauetudinem ad

howercT was led by his partiality to Vilia numerosum quendam lonum infleiit, et

in(oaomeinjusticetowardaFoggio,whoTn attulit hominibu* noslris aliquid certe

br ealla rabula adeo indootua, ut eliunin cplendidiu*. . ■ ■ Et ego video hunc non-

vaca»t ulMecenitate, tamen indignus esset dum satis esse llmalum, nee delicatiori

qtii legeretur, adeo autem obsccenus, ut fastidio tolerabilem. Aiqui djaiogi Joan-

ctiamsi doctiuimu* euet, tamen esset a nil Ravennatis vii semel legunlur, et

Tiria bonis zejiciendus. Epiat. ciii. This Coluccii FpLitolic, qua? turn in honore

is Mid too hastily; but in his Cicero- ennt,nan apparent; >ed Uoceaceii Genea-

nianxi, where we have hii deliberate logiun legiinus,utileni illam quidem.aed

Judgment, he appreciates Poggio mote non tamen cum Petrarcha Ingenio con-

cuetly. After otM of the iuterloeutor* ferendam. At non videtis quantum hi*

ha* ealtad him vividaccujusdam eloqueo- omnibus desit? p. 13. Of Guarino he

ti» linim, the other replies : — Naturn says afterwards : — Genus tamen dicendl

turn : interim impuro aetmonis fluiu, *i utitur plerumque imprudcna verbis pde-

LauTcntio Vall« credimus. Bebel, a tici>, quod est maiime viiiotum ; ted

German of aome learning, rather older magis e>t in eoiuecus,quaiii color laudan-

Ihan Erotmua. in a tetter quoted by dus. Memoria ten eo, quendam tunlliar em

Blount (Cennjra Auctorum, ill Poggio). meum solilum dicere, melius Cuarinum

piaiaes Poggio very highly fur his style, bma sus consutuiisr, «i nihil unquam

and pnStn him to Valla. Faulus Cor- scripsisaet, p. 14.
tario* Rem* not much to differ from

t: Go Ogle

86 LITERATURE OF EUOOPE [Pa»t I.

mars nor dictionaries, in which the purest latinity was dis-
tinguishable from the worst ; they had to unlearn a
Jf(h»"i° barbarous jargon, made up with scraps of the
Vulgate and of ecclesiastical writers, which per-
vades the Latin of the middle ages ; they had great diflicully
in resorting to purer models, from the scarcity and high price
of manuscripts, as well as from their general incorrectness,
which it required much attention to set right. Grasparin of
Barziza took the right course, by incessantly turning over
the pages of Cicero ; and thus by long habit gained an in-
stinctive sense of propriety in the use of language, which do
secondary means at that time could have given him.

3. This writer, often called Gasparin of Bergamo, his own
nuiwrfnor birthplace being in tlie neighbourhood of that city,
""'*■■ was born about 1370, and began to teach before tlie
close of the century. He was transferred to Padua by the
senate of Venice, in 14<07 ', and in 1410 accepted the invita-
tion of Filippo Maria Visconti to Milan, where he remained
till his death, in 14-81. Gasparin had here the good fortune
to find Cicero de Orntore, and to restore the text of Quin-
tilian by the help of the manuscript brought from St. Gall by
Poggio, and another found in Italy by Leonard Aretin. His
fame as a writer was acquired at Padua, and founded on his
diligent study of Cicero.

4. It is impussililc to read a page of Gasparin without
M"iworuii perceiving that he is quite of another order of
"'''■ scholars from his predecessors. He is truly Cicero-
nian iu his turn of phiases and structure of sentences, which
never end awkwardly, or with a wrong arrangement of words,
as is habitual with his contemporaries. Inexact expressions
may of course be found, but they do not seem gross or
numerous. Among his works are several orations which
probably were actually delivered : they are the earliest models
of that classical declamation which became so usual after-
wards, and are elegant, if not very forcible. His Epistolse
ad Exercitationem accommodatte was the first book printed
at Paris. It contains a series of exercises for his pupils,
probably for the sake of double translation, and merely
designed to exemplify Latin idioms.*

prubablj nevvr seen hi] vriiiiigs, vhicb
ftre * gtvaC deni btlter in point of lan-

i';;lc

FHOM 1400 TO 1440. 8?

5. If Gaspariii was the best writer of this generation, the
most accomplished instructor was Victorin of Feltre,

ispariii

ipiishet
to whom the marquis of Mantua entrusted the educft- *^'"""
tioQ of his own children. Many of the Itntiau nobility, and
some distinguished scholars, were brought uji under the care
of Victorin in that city ; and, in a very corrupt nge, he was
still more zealous for their moral than their literary improve-
ment. A pleasing account of his method of discipline will
be found in Tiralioschi, or more fully in Corniani, from a life
written by one of Victoi'in's pupils, named Prendilacqua. *
" It could hardly be believed," says Tiraboschi, " that in an
age of such rude manners, a model of such perfect education
could be found : if all to whom the care of youth is entrusted
would make it theirs, what ample and rich fruits they would
derive from their labours." The learning of Victorin was
extensive j he possessed a moderate library, and rigidly
demanding a minute exactness from his pupils iu their inter-
pretation of ancient authors, as well as in their own com-
positions, laid the foundations of a propriety in style, which
the next age was to display. Traversari visited the school of
Victorin, for whom he entertained a great regard, in li33 ;
it had then been for some years established.! No writings
of Victorin have been preserved.

6. Among the writers of these forty years, after Gasparin
of Bergamo, we may probably assign- the highest LeoMTd
place in politeness of style to Leonardo Bruni, more *'**'"■
commonly called Aretino, from his birthplace, Arezzo. " He
was the first," says Paulus Cortesius, "who replaced tlie
rude structure of periods by some degree of rhythm, and
introduced our countrymen to something more brilliant than
they liad known before ; though even he is not quite as
polished as a fastidious delicacy would require." Aretin's

fiMge than his own. Cortnius havever 53, Ilcercn, p, 335. He in also mcn-

bUmn Guparin rorloaelibarBte kMyle; tiuned with much pruiac far his mode of

nimiB cun altcnualiat orationem. education, by his friend Ambrogio Tri-

He onee u»s ■ Grwk word in liix Teruri, a psssage from wliosc Hodopie-

letten ; vhat he kneir of Ihe luiguoge ricun will be found in Hreren, p. S3T.

does not otherwise appear; but lie might Vietorin died in 1447, end n-ss buried at

hare heard Guarinu at Venit-e. He had the public eipense,lii£lil>cta1lt]' in giving

not leen I'iinj'a Natural Hittorj, nor gratiiilous inntruction to the poor having

did lie poMeM a Liijr, bul was in treaty left him m>.
bi one. Kpitt. p. SOO. a. d. 1415. f Mehus, p. 421.

■ UraboMiii, til 306. Curniani, ii.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

88 LITERATUKE OF EUROPE [PiST I.

history of the Goths, which, though he ia silent on the

obligation, is chiefly translated fi^m Procopius, passes for

his best work. In the constellation of scholars who enjoyed

the sunsliine of favour in the palace of Cosmo de' MetUci,

Leonard Aretin was one of the oldest and most prominent.

He died at an advanced age in 1444, and is one of the six

illustrious dead who repose in the church of Santa Crooe. •

7. We come now to a very important event in literary

Beiininf history, — the resuscilation of the study of the

mgiilr" Greek language in Italy. During the whole course

"'''' of the middle ages we find scattered instances of

scholars in the west of Europe, who had acquired some know-

ledge of Greek ; to what extent it is often a diffi-

n-i^Tin^of cult question to determine. In the earlier and darker

period, we begin with a remarkable circumstance,

already mentioned, of our own ecclesiastical history. The

infant Anglo-Saxon churches, desirous to give a national

form to their hierarchy, solicited the pope Vitalian to place a

primate at their head. He made choice of Theodore, who

not only brought to England a store of Greek manuscripts,

but, through the means of his followers, imparted a know-

ledge of it to some of our countrymen. Bede, half a century

afterwards, tells us, of course very hyperbolically, that there

were still surviving disciples of Theodore and Adrian, who

understood the Greek and Latin languages as well as their

own.t From these he derived, no donht, his own know-

* Mademi! de Stacl uorortunately con- wliicb senTa aAnad to prove Ihat Momer

founded this respectable scholar, in her continued to be read in tlio tchools till

Corinrie, with Pielro Aretino. I re- the end of the Ihitteentli century," I

member well tlial Ugo Foscolo could must witliliold my tasent till the pasajjes

never conlain hii wrath against her for have been both produced and well sifted.

thuiDiatake. —1847.]

t Hii^t Eccles. I. v. c. 3. L'sque hodie A manuscript in the British Mufcum

Bupenunt ei eorum discipulis, qui La- (Cotton, Galba, i. IS.) is oF some im-

tinam Cinecamque linguaro lequeac pro- pur^ince in relation lo this, ir it be

priam in qua nati sunt, norunl. Bede's truly reftrred to the eighth century,

own knovledgi: of Greek is attested hy It contains the Lord's prayer in Gieek,

bis biographer Culhhert j prater Lali- writteti in Anglo-Saioo charactere, and

lUHD eliani Grscam comparaient. appears to have belonged to some one

[Bedc's acquainUnce with Greek ia of the name of Athelstan. Mr. Turner

attested slil! belter by many prooFa which (Hist, of Anglo-Saiona, toI. iii. p.

his own works conuin. Aldhelm was .196.) has Uken notice of ttiit manu-

■lao * Greek scholar. See Wright's script, but without mentioning its anti-

Biograph. Literaria, rol. i. p. 40. 51. quily. The manner ill which the words

275. But when Ut. W. adds: "Wo are divided show a perfect ignorance at

might bring many passage* together Greek in the vriteri but the Saxon ia

n,g -ccT'GoOgIc

Chap, n.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 89

ledge, which may not have been extensive ; but we catinot
expect more, in such very unfavourable circumstances, than a
superficial progress in so difficult a study. It is probable
diat the lessons of Theodore's disciples were not forgotten in
the British and Irish monasteries. Alcuin has had credit,
with no small likeUhood, if not on positive authority, for an
acquaintance with Greek * ; and as he, aiid perhaps others
from these islands, were active in aiding the efibrts of
Charlemagne for the restoration of letters, Uie slight tincture
of Greek which we find in the schools founded by that
emperor, may have been derived from their instruc- ^^„
lion. It is, however, an equally probable hypothesis, ^'hulS!!*
that it was communicated by Greek t«8chers, whom "'""•
it was easy to procure. Charlemagne himself, according to
Eginhard, could read, though he could not speak, the Greek
language. Thpgan reports the very same, in nearly the
same words, of Louis the Debonair, t The former certainly
intended that it should be taught in some of his schools^ ;
and the Benedictines of St. Maur, in their long and laborious
Histoire Litteraire de la France, have enumerated as many
as seventeen persons within France, or at least the dominions
of the Carlovingian house, to whom they ascribe, on the
authority of contemporaries, a portion of this learning. §
These were all educated in the schools of Charlemagne, ex-
cept the most eminent in the list, John Scotus Erigena. It
is not necessary by any means to suppose that he had acquired

cnriom in another respect, u it provei usually quoted (Baluze, ii, 419.)i tobiTe

the pcoDuncUtion of Greek in the eighth been only one out oF many. Eicliharn

century to have been modem or Romaic, Ihinka that the existence oT n Greeic

and DOl what we bold to be ancient. school at Oinahrug is doubtful, but that

• C'ilnit un homme habile dans )e there is more evidence in favour of Salti-

Grce oomine dam le Latin. Hist. LitL burg and Ratisbon. Allg. Gescb. der

de ]■ Fr. iv. 1'.

Culiur, ii. sua. The words of the Capi-

t Tbe poMages will be found in Eich-

tulary are, Grncas et Litinas Scholai in

hom, Allg. Gesch. ii. 865. and S9a
That concerning Charlemagne ia quoted

g Hist Lilt, de la France, vol. v.

in many other books. Egiuhaid says

in tbe ■ame place, that Charles pr.yid in

tion In hii excellent treatise on the

Latin u readily ■• in bis own language ;

schools of Charlemagne ; but he ha< not

■nd TbcK*n, that Louis could spi'sk

canned it quite <o far. See, loo, Eicb.

Litln perftetly.

horn, Allg. GeMh. ii. 420. ; and Gesrh.

t Osnahrui; has generally been nnmed

der Litt. i. 8:;4. Meiners thinks that

Greek was heller known in the ninth

liarly de«gneJ that Greek .hould be

century, through Charlemagne's exer-

eullWaied. It aeoms, however, on con-

tiiin', than for five hundred yejiTS afler-

sidning tiM passage in the CapituUrie.

wards, ii. 3G7.

t: Co Ogle

90 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PiM L

by travel the Greek tongue, which he possessed sufficiently
to translate, though very indifferently, the works attributed
in that age to Dionysius the Areopagite,* Most writers of
the ninth century, according to the Benedictines, make use
of some Greek words. It appears by a letter of the famous
Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, who censures his nephew
Hiiicuiar of Laon for doing tliis alTectedly, that glossaries,
from wliich they picked tliose exotic flowers, were already
in use. Such a glossary in Greek and Latin, compiled under
Charles the Bald, for the use of the church of Laon, was, at
the date of the publication of the Histoire Litteraire de la
France, near the middle of the last century, in the library of
St. Germain des Pres.t We may thus perceive the means
of giving the air of more learuing than ^^'as actually pos-
sessed ; and are not to infer from these sprinklings of Greek
in mediseval writings, whether in their proper characters, or
latinised, which is much more frequent, that the poets and
profane, or even ecclesiastical, writers were accessible in a
French or English monastery. Neither of the Hincmars
seems to have understood the Greek language ; aitd Tira-
boschi admits that he cannot assert any Italian writer of the
ninth century to be acquainted with iut

8. The tenth century furnishes not quite so many proofs
inihs of Greek scholarship. It was, however, studied
^f."»i*h* by some brethren in the abbey of St. Gal), a cele-
cmiuri.-.. j,f^(g^ ggjjf gf |eai-|,jng for those times, and the
library of which, it is said, still bears witness, in its copious
collection of manuscripts, to the early intercourse between die
scholars of Ireland and those of the Continent. Bahlric,
bishop of Utrecht §, Bruno of Cologne, and Gerliert, besides
a few more whom the historians of St. Maur record, pos-
sessed a tolerable acquaintance with the (ireek lauguoge.
Tlioy mention a fact that throws light on the means by which
it might occasionally be learned. Some natives of that coun-
try, doubtless expatriated catholics, took refuge in the diocese

• Eichliom, ii. 327. BtucVer. Gui- Fowlcrj Iiia biogrspli" ssy* : — Nullum

KOt. filit atiidiorum libernliiiin genua in omni

t Hist. Litt. de la France, toI. It. Gricca el Lmliia eloctuentin quod iiigciiii

Sucangc, pr*C in Glossar. p. 40. tiii virscitttem *urii{;ere[. Launuj', p.

( iii. 206. 117. Hi«. Litt. vi, SO.

§ Bildric IWed under llenrjr the

n,gti7ccT:G00glc

CH4P.U.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 91

of Toul, under the protection of tbe bishop, not long before
1000. They^ formed separate societies, performing divine
service in their own language, aiid with their own rites. •
It is probable, the Benedictines observe, that Humbert, after-
Mrards a cardinal, acquired from them that knowledge of the
language by which he distinguished himself in controversy
with their countrymen, t This great schism of the church,
which the Latins deeply felt, might induce some to study a
language, from which alone they could derive authorities in
disputation with these antagonists. But it had also the more
unequivocal effect of drawing to the west some of those
Greeks who maintained their communion with the church of
Rome. The emigration of these into the diocese of Toul is
not a single fact of the kind ; and it is probably recorded
from the remarkable circumstance of their living in commu-
nity. We find from a passage in Heric, a prelate in the
reign of Charles the Bald, that this had already begun ; at
the commencement, in fact, of the great schism, t Greek
bishops and Greek monks are mentioned as settlers in France
daring the early part of the eleventh century, 'lliis was
especially in Normandy, under the protection of Richard II.,
who died in 1028. Even monks from Mount Sinai came to
Rouen to share in his liberality. § The Benedictines ascribe
the preservation of some taste for the Greek and oriental
tongues to these strangers. The list, however, of the learned
in them is very short, considering the erudition of these
fathers, and their disposition to make the most of al) they
met with. Greek books are mentioned in the few libraries
of which we read in die eleventh century. ||

9- The number of Greek scholars seems not much more
considerable in the twelfth century, notwithstanding i^,^,^
the general improvement of that age. The Bene- '"''"''■
dictines reckon about ten names, among which we do not
find that of Beriiard.^ They are inclined also to deny the

• Vol. tI. p. 57. ffrif. (tliey do not give the Utln nunc),

t Vol. tii. p. SS8. nlio seems to have lived in Normiiiidf .

i Dncinfcc, prcbt. In Glo<a3r. p. 41. IF thu stands for £IUs, he wai probably

j llin. I.ilL dc la France, r\i. 69. a Greek by birlli.
1S4. el aliln. A Greek maauMript in || Id. p. 48.

lb* ro/al library at Caria, conUiniiig the ^ Hist. LitL de Is PraiuK, pp. 94.

liturgT, Bceording 1o the Greek ritual. 151. Mucarius, abbiil of lit b'leury, ii

*ai wtiiten io I02S, by a monk named salt) to have compiled ■ Creek leiictm,

, V, Co Ogle

92 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PimT I.

pretensioBS of Abelard * ; butr as that g^eat man finds a very
hostile tribunal in these fathers, we may pause about this,
especially as they acknowled^ Eloise to have understood both
the Greek and Hebrew languors. She established a Crreek
mass for Whitsunday in the Paraclete convent, which was
sung as late as the fifteenth century ; and a Greek missal in
Latin characters was still preserved there, t Heeren speaks
more favourably of Abelard's learning, who translated pas<
sages from Plato. 1^ The pretensions of John of Salisbury
are slighter ; he seems proud of hia Greek, but betrays gross
ignorance in etymology.§

10. The diirteenth century was a more inauspicious period
In ihg for learning j yet here we can boast, not only of
iiitfi™.ih. jjijyj Basing, archdeacon of St. Alban's, who re-
turned from Athens about 1240, laden, if we are bound to
believe this literally, with Greek books, but of Roger Bacon
and Robert Grostete, bishop of Lincoln. It is admitted that
Bacon had some acquaintance with Greek ; and it appears by
a passage in Matthew Paris, that a Greek priest who had
obtained a benefice at St. Alban's, gave such assistance to
Grost^te as enabled him to translate the Testament of the
Twelve Patriarchs into Latin. || This is a confirmation of what

vhieh hi9 been ic*«al timet printed § Ibid. Juhn deriiea tnitftin from

under the name of Botus Itmedivlus. ovil and \/{it.

[It i< one of the glossarin vbich foUov | Malt Far. p. SSO. See slw Tuv

the Tlieuunis of Henry Stephens. Jour- ner's History of England, i*. 180. It la

luldes Savans, May, I8S9. — 1S'12.] said in some books that GrostetG made a

* Hist. LitL de la France, :iii. 147, translation of Suidu. But thii is to be

[Mr. Cousin, who has paid mare attcn. understood merely of a l^endary story

tion tban any one lo the writings of found in tliat writer's leiicon. Pegge's

Abelard, thinks tlwt lie was ignorant of Life of Oroatfle, p. £91. The entire

Greek beyond a few words; probably work he certainly could not haTe trans.

Eloise bad not much surpassed her pre- lated, nor is it at all credible that he had

ceptoT. Fragmens Philosophiquea, vol. a copy or it. With respect to the dotibt

iv. p. 68T., or Introduction bus (Euvres 1 have hinted in the ten as to the great

d' Abelard, in Documena InMiti, p. 44. number of msnuicripts said to be brought

Abelard only says of her, that she was to England by John Basing, it is founded

GrscKnon eipen literaluric; aflcrn-onis, on their subsequent nou-sppeanuice. We

indeed, he use* the words, peiiliam find very few, if any, Greek manuscripts

adepta.— 1847.] in England at the end of the fifteenth

t Id. lii, 642. century.

i P. 204. His Greek was no doubt Michael Scott. " the wiiatd of dreaded

rather scanty, and not sufficient to give tame," pretended to translate Aristotle;

him an insigbt into ancient philosophy ; but is charged with baTing appropriated

in het, if hia learning had been greater, tbe labours of one Andrev, a Jew,as fail

he could only read such manuscripts as own. Meinera, ii. 661.
fell into bis hands ; and there were very
few then bi France. Vide aupra.

lyGOOgIC

CB4P.U.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 93

has been suggested above, as the probable means by which a
knowledge of that language, in the total deficiency of scho-
lastic education, was occasionally imparted to persons of un>
usual zeal for learning. And it leads us to another reflectioiii
that by a knowledge of Greek, when we find it asserted of a
mediaeval theologian like Grostttte, we are not to understand
an acquaintance with the great classical authors, who were
latent in eastern monasteries, but the power of reading some
petty treatise of the fathers, or, as in this instance, an apo-
cryphal l^end, or at best, perhaps, some of the later com-
mentators on Aristotle. Grostete was a man of considerable
merit, but has had his share of applause.

11. The titles of mediffival works are not unfrequently
taken from the Greek language, as the Polycraticus

and Metalogicus of John of Salisbury, or the Phi- Barm'S'ot
lobiblon of Richard Aungerville of Bury. In this (ounwoui
little volume, written about 134<3, I have counted
6ve instances of single Greek words. And, what is more
important, Aungerville declares that he had caused Greek
and Hebrew grammars to be drawn up for students." But
we have no other record of such grammars. It would be
natural to infer from this passage, that some persons, either
ID France or England, were occupied in the study of the
Greek language. And yet we find nothing to corroborate
this presumption ; alt ancient learning wns neglected in the
fourteenth century; nor do I know that one man on this side
of the Alps, except Aungerville himself, is reputed to have
been versed in Greek during that period. I cannot speak
positively as to Bercboeur, the most learned man in France.
The council of Vienne, indeed, in 1311, bad ordered the
establishment of professors in the Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic,
and Arabic languages, at Avignon, and in the universities
of Paris, Oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca. But this decree
remained a dead letter.

12. If we now turn to Italy, we shall find, as is not won-
derful, rather more frequent instances of acquaint-
ance with a living language, in common use with a or'aril^
great neighbouring people. Gradonigo, in an essay " *

on this subjectt, has endeavoured to refute what he supposes

iL Brcici*,

C'.oogic

94 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pakt I.

to be tlie universal opinion, that the Greek tongue was Brst
taught ill Italy by Chrysoloras and Guarino at the end of
the fourteenth century ; contending that, from the eleventh
inclusive, there are numerous instances of persons conversant
with it ; besides the evidence aSbrded by inscriptions ia
Greek characters found in some churches, by the use of
Greek psalters and other liturgical offices, by the employ-
ment of Greek pwntera in churches, and by the frequent
intercourse between the two countries. The latter presump-
tions have in fact considerable weight ; and those who should
contend for an absolute ignorance of the Greek language,
oral as well as written, in Italy, would go too far. The par-
ticular instances, brought forward by Gradenigo are about
thirty. Of these the Brst is Papias, who has quoted five
lines of Hesiod.* Lanfranc had also a considerable acqu^nt-
ance with the language, t Peter Lombard, in his Liber Sen-
tentiarum, the systematic basis of scholastic theology, in-
troduces many Greek words, and explains them rightly, t
But this list is rot very long ; and when we find the surname
Bifarius given to one Ambrose of Bergamo in the eleventh
century, on account of his capacity of speaking both languages,
it may be conceived that the accomplishment was somewhat
rare. Mehus, in his very learned life of Traversari, has
mentioned two or three names, among whom is the emperor
Frederic II. (not indeed strictly an Italian), that do not
appear in Gradenigo. § But Tiraboschi conceives, on the
other hand, that the latter has inserted some on insuflicient
grounds. Christine of Pisa is mentioned, I think, by neither j
she was the daughter of an Italian astronomer, but lived at
the court of Charles V, of France, and was the most accom-
plished literary lady of that age. ||

13. The intercourse between Greece and the west of Eu-
cornipiron rope, occasiooed by commerce and by the crusades,
i!i'i™^ had little or no influence upon literature. For, be-
'" ' sides the general indifference to it in those classes of

• p. 37. These ire very rorruptly antborilin. Muraturl, diwert. 44.; Gruc-

given, tbrough the bullofa transcriber; kvr, iii. 641. 647.; linboiehi, v. 393.
fiir I^ip'uu has translMed thvm into tuler- || TirnlKwclii, t. 38fi., vouches for

■ble I.ntin vcTse. Christine's knowledge of Creek. She

f Hist. Litt. de Is France, vi'i. H4. wan ■ good poetess in French, and alto-

t Mdnert, iii. 1 1. gttlier a tery rcmarknlili- pvrton.

5 pp. 155. ai7, &c. Add to these

n,gti7ccT:G00glc

Cup.n.] FROM 14C0 TO 1440. 95

society which were thus brought into some degree of contact
with the Eastern Empire, we must remember that, ahhough
Greek, even to the capture of Constantinople by Mahomet II.,
was a Hving language in that city, spoken by the superior
ranks of both sexes with tolerable purity, it had degenerated
among the common people, and almost universally among
the inhabitants of the provinces and islands, into that corrupt
form, or rather new language, which we call Romaic* The
progress of this innovabon went on by steps very similar to
those by which the Latin was transformed in the West,
though it was not so rapid or complete. A manuscript of
the twelfth century, quoted by Du Cange from the royal
library at Paris, appears to be the oldest written specimen of
the modern Greek that has been produced; but the oral
change had been gradually going forward for several pre-
ceding centuries, t

14f. The Byzantine literature was chiefly valuable by illus-
trating, or preserving in fragments, the historians,
philosophers, and, in some measure, the poets of njinuns
antiquity. Constantinople and her empire produced
abundantly men of erudition, but few of genius or of taste.
But this erudition was now rapidly on the decline. No one
was left in Greece, according to Petrarch, after the death of
Leontius Pilatus, who understood Homer ; words not, per-
haps, to be literally taken, but expressive of what he con-
ceived to be their general indifference to the poet : and it
seems very probable .that some ancient authors, whom we
should most desire to recover, especially the lyric poets of
the Doric and jEolic dialects, have perished, because they
had become unintelligible to the transcribers of the lower

■ Fileiro sBji, ill one af hit epistle^ belivre Ihe Homiic Orwk is mucli older,

ditcd 1441, time llie Ungua;;e i|HtIien in Tlie piiigre<s of corruption in Greik it

Veloponoetus *'adeo est d?praviti, ut sketched in llie Quarterly Rt^view,

nihil uinnino supiiit prises illiut vt elo- vol. iiii., probably b; the pen of the

qaentimima GtKc'ue." At CoTutanli' Ilishop of London. Its symptonu were

nopte the case was better ; " I'lri ettidili rer; simi'Hr to Uioie of I^tin in thu

tant nonnulli, et ciilti mores, at scrmo West; nblirevislion of woida, ind in-

diim nitidiu." In ■ letter of Cdiiccio diSecencc to li^lil iiiHexioDS. See bIeo

Salutolo, near the end oF the fourleenih Col. l.oikv's niscaichcii in tlic Monit.

century, lie says tbnt Plutarch hnd been Kustalhiu-> lias many Itomaic vords; yet

translated de Grirco in Gricciim vulgure. no one in tlie twclliii rcnlury liad more

Mehus, p. V94 Tliisscemslo have Iwen learning.

done at Rhodes. I ijuote Ibis to remove f Du Csngc. prieblio in GlossariuTn

any difficulty that ulliers may fi'cl, for 1 ineili^c et iiiHimc Gro.'citBtis.

, V, Google

9(i LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pabt I,

empire ; though this has also been ascribed to the scrupu-
lousness of the clergy. An absorbing fondness for theo-
logical subtitties, far more trifling among the Greeks than in
the schools of the West, conspired to produce a neglect of
fitutUes so remote as heathen poetry. Aurispa tells Am-
brogio Traversari, that he found they cared little about pro-
fane literature. Nor had the Greek learning ever recovered
the blow that the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders
in 1204', and the establishment for sixty years of a Latin and
illiterate dynasty, indicted upon it.* We trace many clas-
sical authors to that period, of whom we know nothing later,
and the compilations of ancient history by industrious Byzan-
tines came to an end. Meantime the language, where best
preserved, had long lost the delicacy and precision of its
syntax ; the true meaning of the tenses, moods, and voices
of the verb was overlooked or guessed at ; a kind of latinism,
or something at lease not ancient in structure and rhythm,
shows itself in their poetry ; and this imperfect knowledge
of their once beautiful language is mifortutiiitely too manifest
in the grammars of the Greek exiles of the fifteenth century,
which have so long been the groundwork of classical edu-
cation in Europe.

15. We now come to the proper period of the restoration

of Greek learning. In the year 1339, Barlaam, a
B«Si% "" Calabrian by birth, but long resident in Greece, and

deemed one of the most learned men of that age,
was entrusted by the emperor Cautacuzenus with a mission
to Italy.t Petrarch, in 134-2, as Tiraboschi fixes the time,
endeavoured to learn Greek from him, but found the task
too arduous, or rather had not sufHcent opportunity to go on
with it.1^ Boccaccio, some years afterwards, succeeded better

■ An enunienliOTi,uiditii*longone, not because Greek coloniei had once been

of the Greek books not wholly lost till settled in tome cities, but bemuse that

th1stimewil1befoundinHe«ren,p. IZ9.1 part afltuly was not loit to Ihe Byun-

and also in bis Esui >ut les Croisedes. tine empire till about three centuries be-

t Mrhin. Tiraboschi, T. 39B. ]>e fore the lime of Barlaam and Pilatus.

Sade, i. 406. Biog. UniT. Barlaam. They, however, h-d gone to a belter

( Ineubucram alacri spe magnoque aouree; and I should have great doubts

desiderio, sed percgrina lingUK novitaa as to the goodues< of Calabrian Greek ii

et restini prieceplo

ris absentia prtecide-

thefc

mrteenth c

entury, whici

. of rourSB

runt propoulum meum. It has been

bytheciremi

netance that

said, and probably ■

ivith some truth, that

in >o

me plaeea

Iha church 1

service was

Greek, or at least

a sort of Greek, was

perfo

imcd in Ihi

me'"'S'

Heercn, I

preserved asa!i«ing

Unguage in Calabria;

find,

is of the sa

.. 887.

.C'.oogic

Chap. U.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 97

with ^ belp of l^eootitis Hiatus, a Calabrian also by birth *,
who made a prose translation of Homer for his use, and for
whom he is said to have procured a pubUc appointment as
teacher of the Greek lan^age at Florence, in 1361. He
remained here about three years ; but we read nothing of any
other disciples ; and the man himself was of too unsocial and
forbidding a temper to conciliate them.t

l6. According to a passage m one of Petrarch's letters,
fimcifully addressed to Homer, there were at that
time not above ten persons in Italy who knew how q^nl^
to value the old fetmr of the poets ; five at the most iKi«iiw|q
in Florence, one in Bologna, two in Verona, one in
Mantua, one in Perugia, but none at Rome.^ Some piuna
have been thrown away in attempting, to retrieve the nfunea
of those to whom he idludes : the letter shows, at least, that
there was very little pretension to Greek learnings in his age ;
for I am not convinced that he meant all these ten persons,
among whom he seems to reckon himself, to be considered
as skilled in that tongue. And we must not be led away by
the instances partially collected by Gradenigo out of the
whole mass of extant records, to lose sight of the great
general fact, that Greek literature was lost in Italy for 700
yt>ars, in the words of Leonard Aretin, before the arrival of
Chrysoloras. The language is one thing, and the learning
contained in it is anodier. For all the purposes of ta^ite and
erudition, there was no Greek in western Europe during the
middle ages ; if we look only at the knowledge of bare
words, we have seen there was a very slender portion.

17- The true epoch of the revival of Greek literature in
Italy, these attempts of Petrarch and Boccace hav- „ ,, m„,^,
ing produced no immediate effect, though they evi- K.^il'^JJ^t
denUy must have excited a desire for learning, '^''
cannot be placed before the year lS9d§, when Emanuel
Chrysoloras, previously known as an amluissador from Con>
stantinople to the western powers, in order to solidt assist-

* HanflMTe taken Pilatui Stt ■ n>- iMion to hire been made by Boccaca

tin of llKBdonica : evrn Hod; ha* hiniHir.

tdlin into th'u mi<talie, but Fetrarcb'i | De Saile. ill 63T. Tirabosohi. t.

iMtcnihoir thi coniriry, 371. 400. Heercn, 294,

t Haij de Gnteis illualribui, p. 2. § TbU is the dale li led b; Tinboicbi ;

Uthut, p. ST3. De Side, iii. 6S5. Gib- otben reftr it to 1391, 1»96, 1397, or

boa hai wntmemmij luppoaed tbii tran*' 1399.

vol.. r. H _,

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

98 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pabt L

- ance against the Turks, vraa induced to return to FloreDce as

?ublic teacher of Greek. He passed from thence to varioua
talian universities, and became the preceptor of several early-
Hellenists.* The first, and perhaps the most eminent and
useful of these, was Guarino Guarini of Verona,
''^"" born in 137*^- He acquired his knowledge of
Greek under Chrysoloras at Constantinople, before the
arrival of the latter in Italy. Guarino, upon his return,
became professor of rhetoric, first at Venice and other cities
of Lombardy, then at Florence, and ultimately at Ferrara,
where he dosed a long life of unremitting and useful labour
in 14>60. John Aurispa of Sicily came to die field rather
later, but his labours were not less profitable. He brought
back to Italy 238 manuscripts from Greece about 1423, and
thus put his country in possession of authors hardly known
to her by name. Among these were Plato, Plotiuus, Dio-
dorus, Arrian, Dio Cassius, Strabo, Pindar, Callimachus,
Appian. After teaching Greek at Bologna and Florence,
Aurispa also ended a length of days under the patronage of
the house of Este, at Ferrara. To tliese may be added, in
the list of public instructors in Greek before 1440, Filelfo, a
man still more known by his virulent disputes with his
contemporaries than by his learning ; who, returning from
Greece in 14^, laden with manuscripts, was not long after-
wards appointed to the chair of rhetoric, that is, of Latin
and Greek philology, at Florence ; and, according to his own
account, excited the admiration of the whole city.t But his

* Litem pel hujui belli iotercBpnJinM duced an inclination toward* tlic ttud; of

mirabile ijuaatuni per Italiam inereverei Greek. Coluccio SaluUta,in ■ letter to

acccdenle tune primutn cognitione liter*- ■ Demplrius Cydoniua, wlio Isad accom-

ruoi Gracai-um, qus seplinjipntis jam an- pnnied Chryaoloras, ufH, Multorum aiii-

nil Hpud niKtrai homines desierant eise moi ad linguam Helladum aevendigli, at

plinam nd niH Chrysoloras Syantlnua, llterarum post paucorum annorum cuni.

vir dumi nubllii ac litt'rarum Grtrcarum cul* noD lepideMudioaos. Mehus,p.3£G.

perilissimui. Leonard Arellna]iudHud_v, 'llie ErotvioaU of Chrysoloras, an in-

p.iS. See also an extract rrom Manetti'a troductioii to Greek grammar, vai the

I^rv of Boccaee, in Kody, p. <;l. lirsl, and long the only, channel to a

Satis constat Chrysoloram ByianUnum knowledge of that language, save oral in-

trwumariDam illaindiuiplinaminltaltani Etruclion. It was several timea piiated.

adtexiue ) quodoclore adiiihiioprimum even after the grammars of Gaza and

nostri homineatotiuaeiercitationHalque Lascarin had come more into iiae. Ad

artia ignari, cognili^Gnecia litcrij, velie- abridgment by Guarino of Verona, with

Terunt. P. Cortecius de homiiiibus doc- Ferrara in ISW. Ginj^u^n^t, iii. U83.
tis, p. e. t Uuivena in me ciTitsi convetaa est ;

Tbt Brat tiut of Chrjnoloraa had pro- omnes me dQigun^ honorant oaiuai, ac

lyCOOglC

Chaf. IL] from 1400 TO 1440. 99

vanity was excessive, and his cooteinpt of others not less so.
Poggio was one of his enemies ; and their language towards
each other is a noble specimen of the decency with which
literary and personal quarrels were carried on.* It has been
observed, that Gianozzo Manetti> a contemporary scholar, is
less known than others, chiefly because the mildness of his
diaracter spared him the altercations to which they owe a
part of their celebrity, t

18. Many of these cultivators of the Greek language
devoted their leisure to translating the manuscripts
Wought into Italy. The earliest of these was Peter [^^.^^
Paul Vergerio, (commonly called the elder, to distin-
guish him from a more celebrated mnn of the same names in
the sixteenth century,) a scholar of Chrysoloias, but not till
he was rather advanced in years. He made, by order of the
emperor Sigismund, and, therefore, not earlier than 1410, a
translation of Arrian, which is s^d to exist in the Vatican
library ; but we know little of its merits, t A more re-
nowned person was Ambrogio Traversari, a Florentine monk
of the order of Camaldoli, who employed many years in this
oseful labour. No one of that age has left a more respect-

primirii ciTBi modo, cum per urbem in- As it ii impossihle to dwell on tbe

eado, Kd notnlinimic rceminie honorandi luhjrd vithin the limits of these ptges,

nwi gimtia loco ccdunt, Uotumque mibi I will lefa the reader to the most useful

dcfcrant, ul mepudnt tuiti cultut. Au- of the above writingii, some of which,

ditiMC* Hint quotidie id quidiingentcB, being merely biographical collections, do

nl fortMii* et ftmpliui; et hi quidem not gi't the connvcled iiifurmatiou ha

■Mfoa in parte Tiri uraiidiorei et ex or' vould require. I'he lives of Fofigio and

dint imatoria Fhilcph. Epist ad *Tin. of Lorento de' Medici will make htm

I4S8. lamiliar with tbe literary hiclorf of luly

* Shrpberd'i Life of Boggio, ch. ti. for the whole Afleenih century, in com-

and Tiii. binatioD with public events, u it is b«t

t Hody was perhaps fba first who learned. 1 need not aiy that Tlraboacht
lltfsw mueh ligbt on the early studies of is a source of vast knowledge to those
Greek in Italy ; and bis book, De GrBcis who can encouiilcr two quarto Tolumes.
■UoMribua, lingua GraiCK instauralori- Gingu^ni't third volume it chiefly bor-
bns, will be raid with pleasure and ad- rowed from these, and msy be read with
Tantage by every \oTer of literature; great advantage. Finally, a clear, fiitl,
Iboiigb Mebui, who came with more and accurate account of tho>e times vill
Mubnant trudiiion to the sulyect, has be found in Ileeren. It will be under-
pointed out a Ivw errors. But more is stood that all these works reUte to tbo
lo be fbiuid as to its native cultivstora, revival tt Latin a* well ai Grwk.
Hody being chiefly concerned with the f Biogr. Cniv. Vergerio. He seems
Greek refugees, in Biyle, Fabiitius, Ni- to hijve written very good Latin, if we
oaroo, Hehus, Zeno, Tiraboscbi, Mvinera> may judge by the eitrocta in Comiani,
Roscoc, Heeren, Shepherd, Comiani, ii. el.
Gi^utn^ aikd ttae Biogiaphie Univer-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

100 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pimi L

able name for private worth : his epistles breathe a spirit of
virtue, of kindness to his friends, and of zeal for learning.
In the opinion of his contemporaries, he was placed, not
quite justly, on a level with Leonard Aretin for his know-
ledge of Latin, and he surpassed him in Greek.* Yet neither
his translations, nor those of his contemporaries, Guarino of
Verona, Poggio, Leonardo Aretino, Filelfo, who with several
others, rather before 1440, or not long afterwards, rendered the
historians and philosophers of Greece familiar to Italy, can be
extolled as correct, or as displaying what is truly to be called
a knowledge of either language. Vossius, Casaubon, and
Huet speak with much dispraise of most of these early trans-
lations from Greek into Latin. The Italians knew not
enough of the original, and the Greeks were not masters
enough of Latin. Graza, upon the whole, " than whom no
one is more successful," says Erasmus, " whetfier he renders
Greek into Latin, or Latin into Greek," is reckoned the
most elegant, and Argyropulus the most exact. But George
of Trebizond, Filelfo, Leonard Aretin, Poggio, Valla, Perotti,
are rather severely dealt with by the sharp critics of later
times.f For this reproach does not fall only on the scholars
of the first generation, but on their successors, except Poli-
tian, down nearly to the close of the fifteenth century. Yet,
though it is necessary to point out the defidencies of classical
erudition at this time, lest the reader should hastily conclude

• The Hocioparicon of TrsTOraati, letter of Erasmus in Jortin's Life, u.

thotigh not of imporunet u s literary 4S5.

iFork, serve! to prove, sccordinjc to Bajle Filelfb tells us of a perpleiily into

(Camaldoli, note D.), that the author vhich Ambrogio Traienari and Carlo

was an honest man, and that he Wttd in a Maisiippini, perhaps the tvo principal

very eiirrupt age. It is an account of the Greek icliolari in Italy after bimulf and

Tiaitition of soine eonienU betunging to Guarino, were throvn by this line of

his orclvr. Tlie life of Ambrt^o fraver- Homer. —

nil hi>s been vritten by M eh us very BoiUH.' hi Xmit lit, Ik/um, i iwlitttmi.

eo|)ioiis1y. and with abundant knoTledjce The Hr&t thought it meant populum

of the time* ; it is a great sourre of the aut sslvum ease aut perire ; vbich Fiiclb

literaTy history of Italy. There is a pretty Justly calls, iiiepta interprctalio et pranL

good account of him in Miceron, lol. Marsupini said 1) iwihtiriiu wai, aut ip-

sii., and a short one in Roccoe ; but the sum perire. Filelro, after exulting aier

fiilleM iHography of the man himself will them, give! the true meaniog. Fbileph.

befound in Meinen, Lebenbeschreibun- Epist. ad ann. 14A0,

gen beriibmter Milnner, vol. ii. pp. 33S Travenari complains much, in one of

^^07. his letters, of the difficulty he found in

t Bailtet. Jagemm* des Savans. iu translating Diogenes Laenius. lib. tIL

876, &c. Blount, Centura Aueturum. in episl. ii. ; but Meinen. though admitting

nominibus nuncupatis. Hody. sspies. many errors, thinks this one of tbe best

Nieeron, toL ix. in PerottL See aho a among the early traualation^ it 990.

lyCOOglC

Chaf. n.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 101.

that the prtuses bestowed upon it are less relative to the pre-
vious state of ignorance, and the difficulties with which that
generation had to labour, than they really are, this cannot
affect our admiration and gratitude towards men who, by
their diligence and ardour in acquiring and communicating
knowledge, excited that thirst for improvement, and laid
those foundations of it, which rendered the ensuing age so
glorious in the annals of literature.

19- They did not uniformly find any great public en-
couragement in the early stages of their teaching.
On the contrary Aurispa met with some opposition coununBnii
to philological literature at Bologna.* The civilians
and philosophers were pleased to treat the innovators as
men who wanted to set showy against solid learning. Nor
was the state of Italy and of the papacy, during the long
schism, very favourable to their object. Ginguene remarks^
that patronage was more indispensable in the fifteenth cen-
tury thu) it had been in the last. Dante and Petrarch
shone out by a paramount force of genius, but the men of
lew^ing required the encouragement of power, in order to
exdte and suut^n their industry.

^. That encouragement, however it may have been de-
layed, had been accorded before the year 1440.
Engenius IV. was the first pope who displayed an f™-^
indinauon to ittvour the learned. They found a
atill more liberal patron in Alfonso, king of Naples, who,
first of all European princes, established the interchange of
praise and pension, both, however, well deserved, with
Filelfo, Poggio, Valla, Beccatelli, and other eminent men.
Ihis seems to have begun before 1440, though it was more
conspicuous afterwards until his death in 1458. The
earliest literary academy was established at Naples by
Alfonso, of whid) Antonio Beccatelli, more often called
Panormita from his birthplace, was the first president, as
Pontano was the second. Nicolas of Este, marquis of
Ferrara, received literary men in his hospitable court But
none were so celebrated or useful in this patronage of letters
ts Cosmo de' Medici, the Pericles of Florence, who, at the
period with which we are now concerned, was surrounded by

• Tirabnobi, vii. 301.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

102 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PaEtL

Traversari, Niccolo Niccoli, Leonardo Arettno, Po^^io ; all
ardent to retrieve the treasures of Greek and Roman learn-
ing. Filelfo alone, malignant and irascible, stood aloof from
the Medicean party, and poured his venom in libels on Cosmo
and the chief of bis learned associates. Niccoli, a wealthy
citizen of Florence, deserves to be remembered among these;
not for his writings, — since be left none; but on account
of hia care for the good instruction oF youth, which bad made
Meinera call him the Florentine Socrates, and for his liberality
as well as diligence in collecting' books and monuments of
antiquity. The public library of St. Mark was founded on
a bequest by Niccoli, in 14^7> of his own collection of eight
hundred manuscripts. It was, too, at his instigation, and
that of Traversari, that Cosmo himself, about this time, laid
the foundation of that which, under his grandson, acquired
the name of the Laurentian library.*

SI. As the dangers of the eastern empire grew more im-
Emtmiian minent, a few that had still endeavoured to preserve
Gr^bu in Greece the purity of their language, and the spe-
'"'^' culations of ancient philosophy, turned their eyes

towards a haven that seemed to solicit the glory of protecting
them. Tlie first of these that is well known was Theodore
Gaza, who fled from his birthplace Thess^onica, when it
fell under the Turkish ydke in I'lSO. He rapidly acquired the
Latin language by the help of Victorin of Feltre.t Gaza be-
came afterwards, but not, perhaps, within the period to which
this diapter is limited, rector of the university of Ferrara.
In this city, Eugenius IV. held a council in 1^8, removed
next year, on account of sickness, to Florence, in order to
reconcile the Greek and Latin churches. Though it is noto-
rious that the appearances of success which attended this
hard bargain of the strong with the weak were very falla-
cious, the presence of several Greeks, skilled in their own
language, and even in their ancient philosophy, Pletho, Bes-
sarion, Gaza, stimulated the noble love of truth and science
that bumed in the bosoms of enlightened Italians. Thus, in

* I refer to the lame authoritiea, but "f Vjctorin perhipa exchanged instmc-

especiallj to the life of Traiemri in tion with hi* pupil j for we find bjr ■

Meinera Lebeosbeuhreibungen, iL SS4. letter of TraTemri fp.491. edit. Hchus),

The BuRngei of older aiilhon are eol- that be was bimtelf teacbing Greek in

lected by BaUlet and Blount. 1433.

lyGOOgIC

Chat. IL] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 103

1440, tbe spirit of ancient teuning* was already diffused on
that side the Alps : the Greek language might be learned
in at least four or five cities, and an acquaintance with
it was a recommendation to the favour of the ^rest;
while the establishment of universities at Pavia, Turin,
Ferrara, and Florence, since the beginning of the present
centuiy, or near the close of tbe last, bore witness to the
generous emulation which they served to redouble and con*
centrate.

22. It is an interesting question, What were the causes of
this enthusiasm for antiquity which we find in the f^„„ „,
beginning of the fifteenth century ? — a burst of ^'^nil^ilTir
public feeling that seems rather sudden, but pre- '" "''^'
pared by several circumstances that lie farther back in Italian
history. The Italians had for some generations learned more
to identify themselves with the great people that had subdued
the world. The fall of the house of Swabia, releasing their
necks from a foreign yoke, had given them a prouder sense
of nationality ; while the name of Roman emperor was sys-
tematically associated by one party with ancient tradition ; and
the study of the civil law, barbarously ignorant as its pro-
fessors often were, had at least the efiect of keeping alive a
mysterious veneration for antiquity. The monuments of an-
cient Italy were perpetual witnesses ; their inscriptions were
read ; it was enough that a few men like Petrarch should
animate the rest ; it was enough that learning should become
honourable, and that there should be the means of acquiring
iL The story of Rienzi, familiar to every one, is a proof
-what enthusiasm could be kindled by ancient recollections.
Meantime the laity became better instructed ; a mixed race,
ecclesiastics, but not priests, and capable alike of enjoying
the benefices of the church, or of returning from it to the
world, were more prone to literary than theological pursuits.
The religious scruples which had restruned churchmen, in
tbe darker ages, from perusing heathen writers, by degrees
gave way, as tbe spirit of religion itself grew more objective,
and directed itself more towards maintaining the outward
church in its orthodoxy of profession, and in its secular
wwer, than towards cultivating devout sentiments in the

power
t>08om

t: Go Ogle

lOii LITERATURE OP EUROPE [Pux L

53. The prindpat Italian cities became more wealthy aad

more luxurious after the middle of the thirteenth
•u?^ century. Books, though still very dear, comparatively

with the present value of money, were much
less so than in other parts of Europe.* In Milan, about
1300, there were fifty persons who lived by copying them.
At Bol<^a, it was also a r^^lar occupation at fixed prices.t
In this state of social prosperity, the keen relish of Itaiy for
intellectual excellence had time to develop itself. A style of
punting app^^ed in the works of Giotto and his followers,
rude and imperfect, according to the skilfulness of later times,
but in itself pure, noble, and expressive, and well adapted to
reclaim the taste from the extravagance of romance to classic
simplicity. Those were ready for the love of Virgil, who had
formed dieir sense of beauty by the figures of Giotto and the
language of Dante. The subject of Dante is truly raedifeval ;
but his style, the clothing of poetry, bears the strongest marks
of his acquaintance with antiquity. The influence of Petrarch
was far more direct, and has already been pointed out.

54. The love of Greek and Ladn absorbed die minds of

Italian scholars, and ei&ced all regard to every other
•i'^^ai* branch of literature. Their own lang^uage was nearly
*° "* ^' silent ; few condescended so much as to write letters
in it ; as few gave a moment's attention to physical sdence,
though we find it mentioned, perhaps as remarkable, in Vic-
torin of Feltre, that he had some fondness for geometry, and
had learned to understand Euclid.^ But even in Latin they
wrote very litde that can be deemed worthy of remembrance
or even that can be mentioned at all. The ethical dialogues
of Francis Barbaro, a noble Venetian, on the married life

* Saiipiy thinks tlie prire of baokg in « mere monetarjr one, irliich lilt Savignr

the midiUe »ge» hu been much eiag- baa given Ttij miniiltfl/, it can mttoii

geraled ; and that ve are apt to Jurtge little infonnaiion. The iinpressioD left

by B few iiistaneea of splendid volumei, on my mind, without comparing theae

vhich glre ui no more notion of ordi- piiccs doiely with thoM of other eommo-

nary price* than similar proofs of luiury dities, was that booka were in real value

in collectors do at preunl. Thounnda lery coDaidenbly dearer (that i*, in the

of manuseripia are extant, and the aiglit ratio of aeveral unita to one.) than at

of moat of tbem may convince ua. that preaent, which ii eoDfirnied by maoy

the; were vrittvn at no eitraordinary other eviriencea.

cost. He then givei a Ion;; liat of law f Tiraboaclii, iv. 72— SO. Tho price

booka, the price* of which he has found for copying ■ Bible wu eighty Bologneae

reaorded. Geach. des Romiachen Rechu, livrei; three of which were e^ual to two

iii. 549. But unless thia were accompa- gold florina.

nied with • better uandard <d value than { Heioer^ LdwnAnh. ii. S93.

t: Co Ogle

Cur.IL] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 105

(de re uxoria) •, and of Pogpo on nobility, are almost the
only books diat fait within this period, except declamatory in-
vectives or panegyrics, and other productions of circumstance.
Their knowledge was not yet exact enough to let them ven-
ture upon critical philology ; though Niccoli and Traveraari
were silently occupied in the useful task of correcting the
text of manuscripts, faulty beyond descripUon in the later
centuries. Thus we must consider Italy as still at school,
active, acute, sanguine, full of promise, but not yet become
really learned, or capable of doing more than excite the emu-
lation of other nations.

25. But we find very little corresponding sympathy with
diis love of classical literature in other parts of
Europe *, not so much owing to the want of inter- ^■^"■O"
course, as to a difference of external circumstances,
and still more, of national character and acquired habits.
Clemangis, indeed, rather before the end of the fourteenth
century, is s^d by Crevier to have restored the study of clas-
sical antiquity in France, after an intermission of two centu-
ries t; and Eichhom deems his style superior to that of most
contemporary Italiatis.^ Even the Latin verses of Clemangis
are praised by the same author, as the first that had been
tolerably written on this side the Alps for two hundred years.
But we do not find much evidence that he produced any
effect upon Latin literature in France. The general style
was as bad as before. Their writers employed not only the
barbarous vocabulary of the schools, but even French words
with Latin terminations adapted to them. § We shall see
that the renovation of polite letters in France must be dated

* Butmo wM > icfaolmi of Gupuin fifteenth century, which is not ■ leTTiU

in Latin. He hul prubabty leHrned copy of soma ancient aysteni. He wu

Greeit of Guarino, Tor it U uid that, on grandfather of the more celebrated Her-

die vitit or the emperor John Falrolo^i molau* Barbirua.

to Italy in 112n, be wai adcireis«l liy t Hist.de I'UnivcTUti da Farii, iii.

tvo nohle Venetians, Leonardo Guigti- 1B9.

niani and Francewn Barbaro, in ai good f Geaeb. der Lilteratur, ii. 343. Mei.

language ai if tbey had been born in nerd (Verglelcb. der aittcn, iiL 33.) ei.

Gmce. Andrea, iii. 33. The trntiie tola Clemangii in equally higk termi.

de re aiorik, wliich wu publiahed about He ii uid to have read lecture* on the

1417, made a conudenble imprenion in rbetoric of Ciceroand Arittotli^ Id. iL

Italy. Some account of it may he found 647. Waa there atrwulaticHiaf the laltei

in 9»pherd'i Life of Poggio, cb. iii. and ao early 7
in Coraiani, iL 137. ; who thinka 1* " ' n .—

inly work of moral phi]os(q>hy ii

lyGOOgIC

106 LITEHATURE OF EUBOPE [Pa«t L

]oug afterwards. Several universities were established in that
kingdom ; but even if universities had been always beuefidal
to literature, which was not the case during the previUence
of scholastic disputation, die civil wars of one unhappy reign,
and the English invasions of another, could not but retard
the progress of all useful studies. Some Greeks, about 1430,
are said to have demanded a stipend, in pursuance of a de.
cree of the council of Vienne in the preceding century, for
teaching their language in the university of Paris. The na-
tion of France, one of the four into which that university was
divided, assented to this suggestion ; but we find no other
steps taken iti relation to it. In 14:55, it is said that the
Hebrew language was publicly taught.*

26. Of classical learning in England we can tell no favour-
able story. The Latin writers of the fifteenth cen-
w ^"' '*"7> f^^ '" number, are still more insignifiomt in
value ; they possess scarce an ordinary knowledge
of grammar ; to say that they are full of barbarisms and
perfectly inelegant, is hardly necessary. The university of
Oxford was not less frequented at this time than in the pre-
ceding century, though it was about to decline ; but its pur-
suits were as nugatory and pernicious to real literature as
before, t Poggio says, more than once, in writing from
England about I4S0, that he could find no good books, and
is not very respectful to our scholars. "Men given up to
sensuality we may find in abundance ; but very few lovers of
learning ; and those barbarous, skilled more in quibbles and
sophisms than in literature. I visited many convents; they
were all full of books of modem doctors, whom we should
not think worthy so much as to be heard. They have few
works of the ancients, and those are much better with us.
Nearly all the convents of this island have been founded
within four hundred years : but that was not a period in
which either learned men, or such books as we seek, could
be expected, for they had been lost before." 1^

* Crerier, it. 43. Heeren, p. 121. — -f No place tu mare ^iKredited fbr

[Dbudou b^i (JoutdbI dea Siiiuu, May, bad Latin. " Oxonieoui loqueDdi moa"

1899,)lhstira might liDilnamnandboaks became a prOTerb. 'DiiameaDi that, being

to show that the itudy of Greek wai not diaciplea of Seotusand Ockham, the Oio-

(otallj interrupted in France fraiD 1300 niani talked the Jargon of their maaten.
to 1459. — ISia] t Fogg. £pi5t. p. 43. (edit. 1S32.)

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Caip. IL] PROM 1400 TO 1440. 107

27- Yet books began to be accumulated in our puUic
ltt>rane9 : Aungerville, in the preceding- century,
gave part of his collection to a college at Oxford ; i^Si
and Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, bequeathed six
hundred volumesi aa some have said, or one hundred and
twenty-nine only, according to another account, to that
university.* But these books were not of much value in a
Hterary sense, though some may have been historically useful.
I am indebted to Heeren for a letter of thanks from the duke
of Gloucester to Decembrio, an Italian scholar of consider-
able reputation, who had sent him a translation of Plato de
Republica. It must have been written before July, 1447, the
date of Humphrey's death, and was probdbly as favourable a
spedmen of our latinity as the kingdom could furnish.t

S8. Among the Cisalpine nations, the German hatLj
greatest tendency to literary improvement, as we ^^
may judge by subsequent events, rather than by Sii
much that was apparent so early as 1440. llieir ''
writers in Latin were still barbarous, nor had they partaken
in the love of antiquity which actuated the Italians. But
the German nation displayed its best characteristic, — a
serious, honest, industrious disposition, loving truth and
goodness, tmd glad to pursue whatever part seemed to lead
to them. A proof of this character was given in an institu-
tion of considerable influence both upon learning and religion,
the college, or brotiierhood, of Deventer, planned by Gerard
Groot, but not buUt and inhabited till 1400, fifteen years

* Tba fbnoar noniber u giren by iUio ipud lot aunt nodris Icmporibui,
Wuton ; the latter I find In ■ short tract habeanlur, qujbui nesciamus quid Uudum
on Engliib raonutic libraries (1831), b; digne satis ponit eicogitari. Mitto quod
dke HcT. Joaeph Huaier. In this then facundiam priacsin illam et prisdi virk
>• alio a catalogue oF tbe library in tbe dIgnai>i,quieprDrxiuperIeTat,huicNeeu]a
pilorjof Breltonin Yarkahliegconslsting renovatisi nee Id vobis satia fiiit, et
of about ISO volumei; but as late u the Grscai liluai icrulati eatii. ut et phi-
middle oT tbe ilileenth eenlurj. [Ilie Imophoa Greece et vivendi magistros,
libnriee of Aungerville, Cobbem, and quinwitrli Jam ohiilerati eranCet occulti,
Mhen, were united at Oxford in 14S0 to renra^ et eos Lttioos faciente* in pro.
tbtt of the duke of Glouceeter, and re- palulum adducltii. Heerto quotes this,
maiued till tbe plunder under Edward VI. p. 135., from Suii de aludlii Hedlolaoen.
This TuajF account for the discrepancy ai dbiu. Warton also mentions the letter,
to the number oF books (nunusciipt) in ii. 599. The sbeurd toieclini exempli-
tbelatlcr. — IB4S.] fied in " noa (elieem Judicamui " was

t Hoe uno noi longe ftlicem judlca- introduced aSeetedt; br the
— 1, quod lu tolque florentlssimi Tiii the twelfth century. HiiL
■eia et Latinis litetis peritiniini, quot Frauee, ii. 146,

t: Go Ogle

lOS LITERATURE OP EUROPE [Past I.

after his death. The assodates of this, called by different
names, but more usually Brethren of the Life in Common
(Gemeineslebens), or Good Brethren and Sisters, were dis-
persed in different parts of Germany and the Low Countries,
but with their head college at Deventer. They bore an
evident resemblance to the modem Moravians, by their strict
lives, their community, at least a partial one, of goods, their
industry in manual labour, their fervent devodon, their
tendency to mysticism. But they were as strikingly dis-
tinguished from them by the cultivation of knowledge, which
was encouraged in brethreu of sutficient capacity, and pro-
moted by schools both for primary and for enlarged education.
"These schools were," says £ichhorn, "the first genuine
nurseries of literature in Germany, so far as it depended on
the knowledge of languages ; and in them was first taught
the Latin, and in the process of time the Greek and Eastern
tongues." * It will be readily understood, that Latin only
could be taught in the period with which we are now con-
cerned ; and, according to Lambinet, the brethren did not
begin to open public schools till near the middle of the cen-
tury.t Tnese schools continued to flourish, till the civil
wars of the Low Countries and the progress of the Reform-
ation broke them up. Groningen had also a school, St.
Edward's, of considerable reputation. Thomas h Kempis,
according to Meiners, whom Eichhorn and Heeren have
followed, presided over a school at Zwoll, wherein Agricola,
Hegius, Langius, and Dringeberg, the restorers of learning
in Germany, were educated. But it seems difficult to recon-
cile this with known dates, or with other accounts of that
celebrated person's history.t The brethren Gemeineslebens
had forty-five houses in 1430, and in 1460 more than thrice
the number. They are s^d by some to have taken regular
vows, though I find a difference in my authorities as to this,
and to have professed celibacy. They were bound to live by
the labour of their hands, observing the ascetic discipline of

• Meinm, LebensbeMhreibungen be- trau. Moiheira, cent. it. c. 8. § 83.
"'imter Mitniier> ii. 31 1 — 334. l.inibi- Biogr. Unir., Gerard, Kempit.

~ ~' ■ " Iraericp.

■liehlioni,
. Univ. K

lyGOOgIC

net, OTigines de rimprimerie, iL ITa f Originei de I'lmpHmerie, p. ISO.

Eichhora, Ge*chiehte der LiUerstur, ii. j Mvinera, p. 33.1. Eiehliorn, p. 1 3T>
131., iii. BS9. Bcviiu, Daientrl* lllux Heeren, p. ] 45. Biog. Univ. KempU.
Rcvius DRvent lUutt.

Chap. U.} FIIOM 1400 TO 1440. 109

monasteries, and not to beg ; which made the mendicact
orders their enemies. They were protected, however, against
these malignant calumniators by the favour of the pope. The
passages quoted by Revius, the historian of Deventer, do not
quite bear out the reputation for love of literature which
Eichhorn has given them ; but they were much occupied in
copying and binding books.* Their house at Bruxelles began
to print books instead of copying them, in 14-74'.t

SQ. We have in the first chapter made no mention of the
physical sciences, because little was to be said, and
it seemed expedient to avoid breaking the subject Kit'cnm
into unnecessary divisions. It is well known that
Europe had more obligations to the Saracens in this, than in
any other province of research. They indeed had borrowed
much from Greece, and much from India } but it was through
their language that it came into use among the nations of
the West. Gerbert, near the end of the tenth century, was
the first who, by travelling into Spain, learned something of
Arabian science. A common literary tradition ascribes to
him the introduction of their numerals, and of the arithmetic
founded on them, into Europe. This has been disputed, and
agiun re-asserted, in modem times.t It is sufficient to say

• EhinDtriB IlltulnU, p.3i.

(100 great for lecident) ire found in

1 Sm Andr^ ihc Archxlogla. fol.

MSS. of Boelhius, aod are published bj

nil, and the Enc]clop«tUi Briunnic

Montucia (vol. L pUnch. li.). In one

Mid MetropolilBn, on one bide against

MS. they appear vith names vrillen over

eirh of thFm, not Greek, or Latin, or

Arabic, or in any known language.

U. 695. in his favour. The latter relies

These singular names, and nearly the

on m wrfl-known p>«>ge in WiUiam of

same fornis. are found slso in a raanu-

seript well deserving of notice,— No. S43.

cum certe primiu ■ Saracenii ripiens,

of the Arundel MSS.. in the Brilith Mu-

trgah* dedit. qux a audantibui abacislii

toflcon-ent at Menti. Tl.is 1,„ been

twelfth, and liy others to the yerj begin-

by P«. who refers it to the tweldh cen-

ning of the tliirleenlh century. It pur-

Irodueed. It is aniwered, that the Ian- multiplying and dividing numbers ; quic<

guage of Malmibury is indefinite, that quid ab abacistis eicerpe'ie potui, cum-

Gei%ert's o«n eipresaiona are equally so, pendiose coltegi. The author uses nine

■nd that the copyiat of the manuscript digits, but none for ten, or lero, as is also

may have inserted the ciphers. the cast in the MS. of Boethius. Sunt

It i* evideni that the use of the nume- rero integri no<em suflicientes ad infinU

lal signs does not of it«ir imply an ac- tarn muliiplicaliDnem, quorum nomina

quaiatauce vlth ihe Arabic calculation, singulis sunt BUperjeeta. A gentleman

though it iraa ■ neccaaary atep to it. of the Britiih Museum, who iad the

lyCOOglC

110 LITEEATURE OF EUEOPE [P«r I.

here, that only a very unreasonable scepticism has questioned
the use of Arabic numerals in calculation during the thir-
teenth century ; the positive evidence on this side
suintTIii cannot be affected by the notorious fact, that they
were not employed in legal instruments, or in or-
dinary accounts : such an argument indeed would be equally
gooA in comparatively modern times. These numerals are
found, according to Andres, in Spanish manuscripts of the
twelfth century ; and, according both to him and Cossali,
who speak from actual inspection in the treatise of anth-
metic and algebra by Leonard Fibonacci of Pisa, written in
1220.* TTiis has never been printed, t It is by far our
earliest testimony to the knowledge of algebra in Europe ;
but Leonard owns that he learned it among the Saracens.
" This author appears," says Hutton, or rather Cossali, from
whom he borrows, " to be well skilled in the various
ways of reducnng equations to their final simple state by all
the usufJ methods." His algebra includes &e solution of
qnadraticii.

SO. In the thirteenth century, we find Arabian numerals
Ptaaiit^ employed in the tables of Alfonso X., king of Cas-
iblnUuh ^1^) published about 1Q52. They are said to appear
'"""'■ also in the Treatise of the Sphere, by John de Sacro
Bosco, prc^)ably about twenty years earlier ; and a treatise,
De Algorismo, ascribed to him, treats expressly of this sub-
ject. J Algorismus was the proper name for the Arabic nota-

kindneo, at my request, to give bia at. tion lately, and n noticed in the pub.

tentioD to tbu hitbeito unknovD evideDce liealioat of Mr. J. C. HalUwell, and of

in the coDtraveriT, U of <viiiian tbit the M. Charle* at Paris.— 184&]
rudiment^ at the Tery leait, of our nu- , Monlucla, whom scleral other wri-

indicated

tei* b«Te fblloved, erraoeoualy plica Ihii

, itep of our pre- .^^ ^ j^^ beginning of the fiAeenlh

sent system, --hich a no other than sup- „„,„,__
plyinj; an additional character for zero.
His ignorance of this character renden
bis procca circuitous as it does not coa^

1.1. ih, pnmipi. .ri.it.p«iti.» r.. ta ?"■"■ «?'"*r"j° r '.L"?';';!!: "■

p.rpo. Sr ....i^ : b.l i, d,™ .«,!.,„ »■"■«?■ "■ ?■ M.|,l»b,.h, L,lm.j..
;b.i;iili™,.»«.Sl,rmdpl.,.a..upl, It ««.p«. 1.0 p.g« u, M. L.br.'.

the siill more esBeutlal priaciplcadecupli

llie editor place* Fibonacci

incieau of iilue for the uioe unn Id a ""'""'■ '"= eaiior place*

. , |^„. „ f.* ' ■ u, at the head of the nialhen!«ti<

progressiTG series of locatioD frotn right „-...,_„ __,rj5 1

toleft. I shall be gratified if tliis slight ™'tll« "g™- -— > B«.J

Mo
his ar

lyGoogIc

;e should cause the treatise, which is t Seversl copies of this

very short, to lie putilished, or tnoie fully the British Museum. Montucia hai

explained, [This manuscript, as well as erroneously said that this arilhmelie of

that of BoediiuB, baa drawn some atleo- Sacro Bosco is written in lene. Waliii,

CUF. n.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. Ill

don and method of reckoning. Matthew Paris, after inform-
ing us that John Basing first made Greek numeral figures
known in England, observes, that in these any number may-
be represented by a single figure, which is not the case " in
Latin, nor in Algorism."* It is obvious that in some few
nambers only this is true of the Greek ; but the passage cer-
tiunly implies an acquaintance with that notation, which had
obtained the name of Algorism. It cannot, therefore, be
questioned that Roger Bacon knew these figures ; yet he has,
I apprehend, never mentioned them in his writings ; for a
calendar, bearing the date 1S9^> which has been blunderingly
ascribed to him, is expressly declared to have been framed at
Toledo. In the vear 1^82, we find a single Arabic figure 3
inserted in a public record ; not only die first indisputable
instance of their employment in England, but the only one of
their appearance in so solemn an instrument, t But I have
been informed that they have been found in some private
documents before the end of the century. In the ftJlowing
^e, though they were still by no means in common use
among accountants, uor did tbey begin to be so till much
later, there can be no doubt that mathematicians were
thoroughly conversuit with them, and instances of their
employment in other writings may be adduced.}^

31. Adelard of Bath, in the twelfth century, translated
the elements of Euclid from the Arabic, and another version
was made by Gampanus in the next age. The first printed

in Algorismo. Matt, fai'a, a.d. 1353,

p. 7B1.
jmaca to ute iraitse. inis u noi we t Parli^inentBry Writ*, i. SSS,, ediled
me in the nunuKiipU I bsve seen. I uDder tlie Record Commiuion, by Sir
dmuld add. thit only one o( them \>nn Francis FilKniie. It *u piobsblj ic-
tlw nme of Sktd Boko, and that in ■ nrted for rant of room, not enough
later bandwriting. [I have called this luiTlag bem left for the word iii<"°. It
■BunpubliahnitTeatiieinniyflrvlediliDn, will not be detected with ease, cTen b;
an the auibority of ibe Biographie Uni- the bclp at this reTerrncc.
Tcnelle. But profesiior de Morgan has f Andres, JL 9S., gives on the wbole
lobrmcd me that it was printed at Ve- tbe best account of the progress of uu-
nieeiD 15SS. — IMS.} merals. The article by Leslie in tbe

* UkiuDpermagitter Joannes Rgtiraa Encyelopadia Britannica istoodogrnali-
GTceDnun DiimiTaleSi et earum notitiam eal in denying their anliquity. Thst in
et tigniflcatioiiH in Angliam portavit. et tbe Encyclopsdia Melropolitana. by Mr.
fcmiliTibu* luia decIaraTit. Per quas Peacock, ii more learned. Mootucla is

but supeclicial, and Kiistner has eonfioad

himself to the elsinu of Gerbert ; admit-
s re- ting vbicb, he is too indiSkrent about
fTMintalnr; quod mm eat in Latino, Ttl lubtcqumt andcwe.

lyCOOglC

LITERATURE OK EUROPE

editions are of the latter. The writings of Ptolemy became
known through the same channel ; and the once
■Mtioi celebrated treatise on the Sphere by John de Sacro
Bosco (Holywpod, or, according to Leland, Hali-
fax,) about the beginning of the thirteenth century, is said to
be but ai) abridgement of the Alexandrian geometer.* It has
been frequently printed, and was even thought worthy of a
commentary by Clavius. Jordan of Namur (Nemorarius),
near the same time, shows a considerable insight into the
properties of numbers.t Vitello, a native of Poland, not
long afterwards, first made known the principles of optics in
a treatise in ten books, several times printed in the sixteenth
century, and indicating an extensive acquaintance with the
Greek and Arabian geometers. Montucla has charged
Vitello with having done no more than compress and
arrange a work on the same subject by Alhazen ; which
Andres, always partial to the Arabian writers, has not failed
to repeat. But the author of an article on Vitello in the
Biographie Universelle repels this imputation, which could
not, he says, have proceeded from any one who had com-
pared the two writers. A more definite judgment is pro-
nounced by the laborious German historian of mathematics,
Kastner. "Vitello," he says, "has with diligence and
judgment collected, as far as lay in his power, what had been
previously known ; and, avoiding the tediousness of Arabian
verbosity, is far more readable, perspicuous, and method-
ical than Alhazen; he has also gone much farther in the
science." t

32. It seems hard to determine whether or not Roger
Hog,, Bacon be entitled to the honours of a discoverer in
Buon, science ; that he has not described any instrument
analogous to the telescope, is now generally admitted ; but
he paid much attention to optics, and has some new and
important notions on that subject. That he was acquainted
with the explosive powers of gunpowder, it seems unreason-
able to deny; the mere detonation of nitre in contact with an

• H<Hitucla, I 506. Blogr. Univ. true name a 'Vllello, u Pta^lair but re-

Kiittiwi. in«rk«l (DiHriaC. in Encyc). BHt.),

f Montucla. Kutner. Drinlcmter*! buL Vitellio ii mueb more commsn.

Liie of Galileo. KSutner ii correct, alwayi copying tha

t GMch. der M*tlHm. iL S6S. Tbe old edilioni.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CuAT.n.} FROM MOO TO 1440. 113

inflammable substance, which of course might be casually
observed, is by no means adequate to his expressious in the
we]l-koown passage on that subject. But there is no ground
for doubting, that the Saracens were already conversant with
gunpowder.

S3. The mind of Roger Bacon was strangely compounded
of almost prophetic gleams of the future course of
sdeiice, and the best principles of the inductive phi- {''"J^"'
losophy, with a more than usual credulity in the
superstitions of his owu time. Some have deemed him over-
rated by the nationality of the English.* But if we may
have sometimes given him credit for discoveries to which he
has only borne testimony, there can be no doubt of the
originality of his genius. I have in another place remarked
the singular resemblance he bears to lord Bacon, not only in
the character of his philosophy, but in several coincidences of
expression. This has since been followed up by a later
writer t, who plunly charges lord Bacon with having bor-
rowed much, and with having concealed his obligations.
The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon was not published till
1733, but the manuscripts were not uncommon, and Selden
had thoughts of printing the work. The quotations from the
Franciscan and the Chancellor, printed in parallel columns
by Mr. Forster, are sometimes very curiously similar ; but he
presses the resemblance too far ; and certainly the celebrated
distinction, in the Novum Organum of four classes of Idola
which mislead the judgment, does not correspond, as he sup-
poses, with that of the causes of error assigned by Roger
Bacon.

34. The English nation was not at all deficient in mathe-
maticians during the fourteenth century ; on the _^ ., .
contrary, no other in Europe produced nearly so [JS^™J-
many. But their works have rarely been published. ^J^""*
TTie great progress of physical science, since the
invention of printing, has rendered these imperfect treatises

■ Meinen, of all modern hiitorUni of bim. It ii imponiblc. I think, to deny

00 KBount ot iiii Bupentitioii, and ere- KmbUnce between him and hU nameiskc.

doliij ia the occult w^tnees. Verglel- f Hist, of Middle Aga. lii. 539.

ebuDg der litten, ii. 710. and iii. S32. ForBiei's Mshomataniim Unrciled, iL

Hceren, p. !14., speaVa more cuididly oF 312.

VOL.1. 1 n,g -ccT'CoOgIc

114 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PiBT I,

interesting only to the curiosity of a very limited class of
readers. Thus Richard Suisset, or Swineshead, author of a
book entitled, as is said, the Calculator, of whom Cardan
speaks in such language as might he applied to himself, is
scarcely known, except by name, to literary historians ; and
though it has several times been printed, the book is of great
rarity.* But the most conspicuous of our English geo-
meters was Thomas Bradwardin, archbishop of Canterbury ;
yet more for his rank, and for his theological writings, than
for the arithmetical and geometrical speculations which g^ve
him a place in science. Montucla, with a carelessness of
which there are too many instances in his valuable work, has
placed Bradwardin, who died in 134-8, at the beginning of
the sixteenth century, though his treatise was printed in
14.95.t
35. It is certain diat the phenomena of physical astro-
nomy were never neglected ; the calendar was
known to be erroneous, and Roger Bacon has even
been supposed by some to have divined the method of its
restoration, which has long afterwards been adopted. The
Arabians understood astronomy well, and their science was
transfused more or less into Europe. Nor was astrology,
the favourite superstition of both the eastern and western
world, without its beneficial effect upon the observation and
registering of the planetary motions. Thus, too,
alchemy, which, though the word properly means

■ ThechiracterofSalnset's book Riven ■ miniucript dale, 1530, but eDtered id

by Brucker, iii. B52., wbo bod teea it, the catologue u Venice, 1505. It nw;

does not aeem to jtiititj tbe wisb of be added, that the title in this edition U

L«ibniti that it ihould tie repuUislied. not the Calcuistor, tiiough it appeart

It ia B atringe raedlef at arithmetical by Brnnet lo have Ileen M> called in the

and geometrical reo-soning with the nho- fiist edition, that of Pavia, M98 ; but

laatic philosophy. Ka^aei (Geschichte Subtiliuimi Ricardi Suineti Angli<^

der Matheroatilt. i. SO.) appea" not lo Calculalione* noTiler impresue atque

have looked at Bnirker, and, like Man* revlss. I am informed that the work,

tucla, hfts a very alight notion of the na- in one edition or another, i< )e« scarce

tore of Sniawt'a book. Hia luipicion than, OD the authority of Brucker, 1 had

that Cardan bad nerer aeen the book he conceived. — 1842.]
■o much extols, because be calls the au- ^ It may be eoniidered a proaF of th«

thor the Calculator, which ia the title of attention pud to geometry in England,

the work itself, seems un warrantable, that tiro books of Euclid were rrod at

Suisset probably had obtained the name Oxford about the middle of the firieenth

from bii book, which is not uncommon ; century. Churton's Life of Smjrth,

and Cardan was not a man to praise what p. 151., from the University Register,

he had neter read. [One of the later We should, not have eipec»ed to find

editions ia in the Britith Museum, with this.

lyGOOgIC

CHAT.n.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 11^

but chemistry, was generally confined to the mystery that all
sought to penetrate, the transmutation of metals into gold,
led more or less to the processes by which a real knowledge
of the component parts of substances has been att^ed.*

36. The art of medicine was cultivated with great dili-
gence by the Saracens both of the Blast and of Spain,

but with little of the philosophical science that had
immortalised the Greek school. The writings, however, of
these masters were translated into Arabic ; whether correctly
or not, has been disputed among oriental scholars ; and
Europe derived her acquaintance with the physic of the mind
and body, with Hippocrates as well as Aristotle, through the
same channel. But the Arabians had eminent medical
authorities of their own, Rhases, Avicenna, Albucazi, who
possessed greater influence. In modem times, that is, since
the revival of Greek science, the Arabian theories have been
in general treated with much scorn. It is admitted, how-
ever, that pharmacy owes a long list of its remedies to their
experience, and to their intimacy with the products of the
East. The school of Salerno established as early as the
eleventli centuryt, for the study of medicine, from whence
the most considerable writers of the next ages issued, fol-
lowed the Arabians in their medical theory. But these are
deemed rude, and of little utility at present.

37. In the science of anatomy an epoch was made by the
treatise of Mundinus, a professor at Bologna, who

died in 1326. It is entitled Anatome omnium hu-
mani corporis interiorum membrorum. This'book bad one
great advantage over those of Galen, that it was founded on
the actual anatomy of the human body. For Galen is sup-
posed to have only dissected apes, and judged of mankind by
analogy ; and though there may be reason to doubt whether
this were altogether the case, it is certain that he had very
little practice in human dissection. Mundinus seems to have
been more fortunate in his opportunities of this kind than

* I refer to Dr. Tfaamion'i Hiatory of putition and euy BccHiibilitT is b«tler

Cbemiitrjr for much eurioui lemrninK on tlun an Bttempt to abridge it.
tbe alchemy of the Middle Agfa. In a f Meineri refera it to the tenth, ii.

work like the prcMnt, it ii imponible to 413. ; and Tirabowhj Ihmki it may be

blloir up ererr (ubject ; and I think aa ancient, iii. S4T.
that a general rercreaee to a liook ot re-

' ^ n,gt.cdT:G00glc

Il6 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past I.

later anatomists, during the prevalence of a superstitious
prejudice, have found themselves. His treatise was lon^ the
text-book of the Italian universities, till, about the middle of
the sixteenth century, Mundinus was superseded by greater
anatomists. The statutes of the university of Padua pre*
scribed, that anatomical lecturers should adhere to the literal
text of Mundinus. Though some have treated this writer as
a mere copier of Galen, he has much, according to Portal, of
his own. There were also sonie good anatomical writers iu
France during the fourteenth century. •

38. Several books of the later middle ages, sometimes of
Encvdo- great size, served as collections of natural history,
S^diTe*' and, in fact, as encyclopBedias of general knowledge.
■*"' The writings of Albertus Magnus belong, in part, to

this class. They have been collected, in twenty-one volumes
folio, by the Dominican Peter Jammi, and published at
Lyons in 1651. After setting aside much that is spurious,
Albert may pass for the most fertile writer in the world. He
is reckoned by some the founder of the schoolmen ; but we
mention him here as a compiler, from all accessible sources,
of what physical knowledge had been accumulated in his
time. A still more comprehensive contemporary writer of
vinwntQf t'l's class wBS Vinccut de Beauvais, in the Speculum
BHuiaJi. naturale, morale, doctrinale et historiale, written
before the middle of the thirteenth century. The second part
of this vast treatise in ten volumes folio, usually bound in
four, Speculum morale, seems not to be written by Vincent de
Beauvais, and is chiefly a compilation from Thomas Aquinas,
and other theologians of the same age. The first, or
Speculum naturale, follows the order of creation as an
arrangement j and after pouring out all the author could col-
lect on the heavens and earth, proceeds to the natural king-
doms ; and, finally, to the corporeal and mental structure of
man. In the third part of this encyclopsedia, under the title
Speculum doctrinale, all arts and sdences are expluned ; and
the fourth contains an universal history, t The sources of

■ Tiiaboschi, t, S09— 244,, who is Unir. Mondino, Chauliac. Eichharn,
very copious Tot a non-msdtcal writer. Gcsch. der Lit. ii. 4t6 — MT.
Porlal, Hist, de I'Anttomie. Biogr. f Biogr. Unir., Viacentiua BelloTa-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Ch*p. II.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 117

this magazine of knowledge are of course very multifarious.
Id the Speculum naturale, at which alone I have looked,
Aristotle's writings, especially the history of animals, those
of other ancient authors, of the Arabian physicians, and of
all who had treated the same subjects in the middle ages, are
brought together in a comprehensive, encyclopsedic manner,
and with vast industry, but with almost a studious desire, as
we might now fancy, to accumulate absurd falsehoods. Vin-
cent, like many, it must be owned, in much later times,
through his haste to compile, does not give himself the
trouble to understand what he copies. But, in fact, he relied
on others to make extracts for him, especially from the writ-
ings of Aristotle, permitting himself or them, as he tells us,
to change the order, condense the meaning, and explain the
difficulties.* It may be easily believed, that neither vinnm of
Vincent of Beauvais, nor his amanuenses, were """'■''■
equal to this work of abridging and transposing their au-
thors. Andres, accordingly, has quoted a passage from the
Speculum naturale, and another to the same effect from
Albertus Magnus, relating, no doubt, in the Arabiati writer
from whom tfiey borrowed, to the polarity of the magnet,
but so strangely turned into nonsense, that it is evident they
could not have undertstood in the least what they wrote.
Probably, as their language is nearly the same, they copied
a bad translation, t

39. In the same class of cmnpilation with the Speculum
of Vincent of Beauvais, we may place some later „ . _

I IFF!/ i"-r> T'- ■ Bftchortut.

works, the Iresor of Urunetto Latini, written in
French about 1280, the Reductorium, Repertorium, et Dic-
tionarium morale of Berchorius, or Berchceur, a monk, who
died at Paris in 13621:, and a treatise by Bartholomew
Glanvil, De proprietatibus rerum, soon (rfter that time.
Reading all they could find, extracting from all they read,
digesting their extracts under some natural, or, at worst,

cerpta sua- unam eoUigendti, Tel etitm obwuritatis

verborum eipUnande necerajtai eiigebaL

. , n ariginalibua Buis JBcent, * Andres, ii. 1 IS. Seealsoiiii. 141.

•ed online pleruniqiie transposito, non f ThU book, according to Oe Sade,

nuaquain atiain mutata perpaululum ip- Vie de P£lrarque, iii. 550,, conUiiu a

a foinu, manente umen fev good tfainga among maoj fbllies. I

auctorii lenientia; prout ipuvel pioliii
Utis abbrevianda vel mulliludinia i

T^Googlc _

118 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pam I.

alphabetical classificatioD, these laborious men gave back
their studies to the world with no great improvement of the
materials, but sometimes with much convenience in their
disposition. This, however, depended chiefly on their ability
as well as diligence ; and in the mediaeval period, the want of
capacity to discern probable truth was a very great drawback
from the utility of their compilations.

40. It seems to be the better opinion, that few only of the
spuiih Spanish romances or ballads founded on history or
'^'•^ legend, so many of which remain, belong to a period

anterior to the fifteenth century. Most of them should be
placed still lower. Sanchez has included none in his collec-
tion of Spanish poetry, limited by its title to that period ;
though he quotes one or two fragments which he would refer
to the fourteentJ) century.* Some, however, have conceived,
perhaps with little foundation, that several, in the general
collections of romances, have been modernised in language
from more ancient lays, lliey have all a highly chivalrous
character ; every sentiment congenial to that institution,
heroic courage, unsullied honour, generous pride, faithful
love, devoted loyalty, were displayed in Castilian verse, not
only in their real energy, but sometimes with an hyperbolical
extravagance to which the public taste accommodated itself,
and which long continued to deform the national literature.
The ballad of the Conde de Alarcos, which may be found in
Bouterwek, or in SIsmondi, and seems to be ancient, though
not before the fifteenth century, will serve as a sufficient
specimen, t

41. TTie very early poetry of Spain (that published by

Sanchez) is marked bv a rude simplicity, a rhvth-

si««>i> micaJ, and not very harmonious versincation, and,

especially iu the ancient poem of the Cid, written,

' ■ The Mirqubof Sofltillana, nrly in century j but pethajn no Etnmg rcMon

the Sfteenth century, irrote > short letter for this could be given. I Gad, however,

on the rtmle of poetry in Spain to hta own in the Cuicionero General, ■ " romAticc

time. Sanchei hu published this with viejo," beginning with two liaea of the

long and T*Iuable notes. Condc de Alarcos, continued on another

f Bouterwek'a History of Spanish and subject. It was not uncommon to build

Fortuguen Poetry, i. .^5. See alao Ka- ronianceaonthettockiofoldoDea, taking

mondi, Litlfrature du Midi, iii. 92S.,fDr only the first lines; serernl other instancei

the romance of the Conde de Alarcos. occur among those in the Caneionero,

Sismondi lefeis it to the fourteenth which are

V, Google

CsAcU.] PROM 1400 TO 1440. 119

according to some, before the middle of the twelfth century,
by occasioDal vigour and spirit.* This poetry is in that
irregular Alexandrine measure, which, as has been observed,
arose out of the Latin pentameter. It gave place in the
fifteenth century to a dactylic measure, called versos de arte
mayor, generally of eleven syllables, the first, fourth, seventh,
and tenth being accented, but subject to frequent licences,
especially that of an additional short syllable at the begin-
ning of the line. But the favourite metre in lyric songs
and romances was the redondilla, the type of which was a
line of four trochees, requiring, however, alternately, or at
the end of a certain number, one deficient in the last syllable,
and consequently throwing an emphasis on the close. By
this a poem was sometimes divided into short stanzas, the
termination of which could not be mistaken by the ear. It is
no more, where the lines of eight and seven syllables alter-
nate, than that English metre with which we are too familiar
to need an illustration. Bouterwek has supposed that this
alternation, which is nothing else than the trochaic verse of
Greek and Latin poetry, was preserved traditionally in Spain
from the songs of the Roman soldiers. But it seems by
some Arabic lines which he quotes, in common characters,
that the Saracens had the line of four trochees, which, in all
languages where syllables are strongly distinguished in time
and emphasis, has been grateful to the ear. No one can fail
to perceive the sprightliness and grace of this measure, when
accompanied by simple melody. The lighter poetry of the
southern nations is always to be judged with some regard to
its dependence upon a sister art. It was not written to be
read, but to be heard ; uid to be heard in the tones of song,
and with the notes of the lyre or the guitar. Music is not
at all incapable of alliance with reasoning or descriptive
poetry ; but it excludes many forms which either might
assume, and requires a rapidity as well as Intenseness of per-
ception, which language cannot always convey. Hence the
poetry designed for musical accompaniment is sometimes

* [lliii ha^ been the opinion of Mr. which mi be given to tht poem of the

Soutbey, and, I beiioe, of others. But Cid is the Ihirleenth century. It ii as-

Bludeu, Hitl. Critics de Bapana, vol. ii. cribed, accoiding to him, to one Pedro

p. 381., Mji that the greatest antiquity Abad, orthc church of Seville..— 184S.]

t: Co Ogle

120 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Paet I.

unfairly derided by critics, who demand what it cannot pre-
tend to give ; but it is still true, that, as it cannot give all
which metrical language is able to aflbrd, it is not poetry of
the very highest class.

42. The CastiliaB language is rich in perfect rhymes.
contonui But io their lighter poetry the Spaniards frequently
ih^iwr""' contented themselves with (usonances, that ia, with

the correspondence of final syllables, wherein the
vowel alone was the same, though with different consonants,
as duro and humo, Boca and cosa. These were often inter-
mingled with perfect or consonant rhymes. In themselves,
unsatisfactory as they may seem at first sight to our pre-
judices, there can be no doubt but that the assonances con-
tained a musical principle, and would soon give pleasure to
and be required by the ear. They may be compared to the
alliteration so common in the northern poetry, and which
constitutes almost the whole regularity of some of our oldest
poems. But though assonances may seem to us an indication
of a rude stage of poetry, it is remarkable that they belong
chiefly to the later period of Castilian lyric poetry, and that
consonant rhymes, frequently with the recurrence of the
same syllable, are reckoned, if I mistake not, a presumption
of the antiquity of a romance.*

43. An analogy between poetry and music, extending
Vitan or beyond the mere laws of sound, has been ingeniously
thegiou. remM-ked by Bouterwek in a very favourite species

of Spanish composition, the ^losa. In this a few lines, com-
monly well known and simple, were glossed, ov paraphrased,
vrith as much variety and originality as the poet's ingenuity
could give, in a succession of stanzas, so that the leading
sentiment should be preserved in each, as the subject of an
mr runs through its variations. It was often contrived that
the chief words of the glossed lines should recur separately in
the course of each stanza. The two arts being incapable of
a perfect analogy, this must be taken as a general one ; but
it was necessary that each stanza should be conducted so as

• Bouternrek'B Iiitroductiou. VeUi~ nouud, that auonuKes are common in

quel, in Dine's Germsn trsnstatlon, the eaiUeet French poetry. Journal del

p. 288. The aisonance ii peculiar Co the Savans, Julj, 1833. — 184S.]
Spaniards. [Bui it is said hj M. Rpy-

lyGOOglC

Cup.n.] TROM 1400 TO 1440. 131

b> terminate in the lines, or a portion of them, which form
the subject of the gloss.* Of these artificial, though doubt-
less, at the time, very pleasing compositions, there is nothing,
as far as I know, to be found beyond the peninsulat j though,
in a general sense, it may be said, that all lyric poetry,
wherein a burthen or repetition of leading verses recurs,
must originally be founded on the same principle, less artfully
and musically developed. The burthen of a song can only
be an impertinence, if its sentiment does not pervade the
whole.

44. The Cancionero Genera), a collection of Spanish poetry
written between the age of Juan de la Mena, near the
beginning of the fifteenth century, and its publication cioiL'ro
by Castillo in Idl7t cont^ns the productions of one
hundred and thirty-six poets, as Bouterwek says ; and in the
edition of 1520 I have counted one hundred and thirty-nine.
There is also much anonymous. The volume is in two
hundred and three folios, and includes compositions by Villena,
Santillana, and the other poets of the age of John II., besides
those of later date. But I find also the name of Don Juan
Manuel, which, if it means the celebrated author of the Conde
Lucanor, must belong to the fourteenth century, though the
preface of Casbllo seems to confine his collection to the age
of Mena.t A small part only are strictly love songs (can-
ctones) ; but the predominant sentiment of the larger portion
is amatory. Several romances occur in this collection ; one
of them is Moorish, and, perhaps, older than the capture of
Granada ; but it was long ^terwarda that the Spanish
romancers habitually embellished their fictions with Moorish
manners. Hiese romances, as in the above instance, were
sometimes glosed, the simplicity of the ancient style readily
lending itself to an expansion of the sentiment. Some that

■ Baotervek, p. 11B. dueed in hi* age. One of the earliest
t Thej appear with the name Grout ipecimeni of Cutilian pnue. El Conde
io the (^neionriro Genl of Resende; I.urwior, placei him high in the litera-
md (b«a n«iin, n I hSTC obHircd ■!- ture of hi* country. It it a moral fiction,
rcsdj, to be tomelhing much of the ume in which, according to the euilOTn of no-
kind in the older Portuguese collection lelists, manj other talet are interwoien.
of the tUrte«Dth century. " In erer; pasiage of the book," aajt
t Don Juan Manuel, a prince de- Bouterwek, "the author shows hiniKlf a
•cnided from Ferdinand IIL, was the roan of the world and an obserrer of hu-
ONM Bccompllahcd man whom Spain pro- mao nature."

n,gti7ccT:G00glc

122 LITEEATUHE OF EUROPE [Pakt I.

are called romances contain no story ; as the Rosa Fresca
and the Fonte Frida, both of which will be found in Bouterwek
and Sismondi.

45. " Love songs," sap Bouterwek, " form by far the
Bootpnieii'i principal part of the old Spanish cancioueros. To
■ sJlSuh""' r^d tfiem regularly through would require a strong
"■'^ passioii for compositions of this class, for the mono-

tony of the authors Is interminable. To extend and spin out
a theme as long as possible, though only to seize a new mo-
dification of the old ideas and phrases, was, in their opinion,
essential to the truth and sincerity of their poetic effusions of
the heart. That loquacity, which is an hereditary fault of
the Italian canzone, must also be endured in perusing the
amatory flights of the Spanish redondillas, while in them the
Italian correctness of expression would be looked for in vain.
From the desire, perhaps, of relieving their monotony by
some sort of variety, the authors have indulged in even more
witticisms and plays of words than th^ Italians, but they also
sought to infuse a more emphatic spirit into their composi-
tions than the latter. The Spanish poems of this class ex-
hibit, in general, all the poverty of the compositions of the
troubadours, but blend with the simplicity of these bards the
pomp of the Spanish national style in its utmost vigour.
This resemblance to the troubadour songs was not, however,
produced by imitation ; it arose out of Uie spirit of romantic
love, which at that period, and for several preceding centu-
ries, gave to the south of Europe the same feeling and taste.
Since the age of Petrarch, this spirit had appeared in clas-
sical perfection in Italy. But tlie Spanish amatory poets of
the fifteenth century had not reached an equal degree of cul-
tivation -f and the whole turn of their ideas required rather
a passionate than a tender expression. The sighs of the lan-
guishing Italians became cries in Spain. Glowing passion,
despair, and violent ecstasy were the soul of the Spanish love
songs. The continually recurring picture of the contest be-
tween reason and passion is a peculiar characteristic of these
songs. The Italian poets did not attach so much importance
to die triumph of reason. The rigidly moral Spaniard was,
however, anxious to be wise even in the midst of his folly.
But this obtrusion of wisdom in an improper place fre-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cbap. U.] FHOM 1400 TO 1440. 123

quently gives an unpoetical harshness to the lyric poetry of
Spain, in spite of all the softness of its melody." *

46. It was in the reign of John 11., king of Castile from
1407 to 1454, that this golden age of lyric poetry ^^^
oommenced.t A season of peace and regularity, a
inonarchy well limited, but no longer the sport of domineer-
ing families, a virtuous king, a minister too haughty and
ambitious, but able- and resolute, were encouragements to
that light strain of amorous poetry which a state of ease alone
can suffer mankind to enjoy. And Portugal, for the whole of
this century, was in as flourishing a condition as Castile dur-
ing this single reign. But we shall defer the mention of her
lyric poetry, as it seems chiefly to be of a later date. In the
court of John 11. were found three men, whose PoMidrbo
names stand high in the early aunals of Spanish """"
poetry, — the marquisses of Villena and Santillana, and Juan
de Mena. But, except for their zeal in the cause of letters,
amidst the dissipations of a court, they have no pretensions
to enter into competition with some of the obscure poets to
whom we owe the romances of chivalry. A desire, on the
contrary, to show needless learning, and to astonish the
vulgar by an appearance of profundity, so often the bane of
poetry, led them into prosaic and tedious details, and into
affected refinements.!

47. Charles, duke of Orleans, long prisoner in England
after the battle of Agincourt, was the first who gave

polish and elegance to French poetry. In a more J^J^jj'
enlightened age, according to Goujet's opinion, he
would have been among their greatest poets. § Except a
little allegory in the taste of his times, he confined himself to
the kind of verse called rondeaux, and to slight amatory

■ Vol. L p. 109. much higher. I do not find tb« name of

f VdosqiKi. pp. 165. 443. (in D'teie), Don Juan Manuel, vhich occurg in the

aieotions, what bu earaped Bouterwek, Cancionero of Caitillo. A copj of thii

m more Micienl Cancionero than that of oisnuBCript Cancionero of Baena vas

CulillOiConnpiledinlheicignofJolinll., latelj' aold (1836), among the MS5. of

b? Juan Alfonio de Baena, and hitherto Mr. Heber, and purchaial fbi ISO/., b^

unpubliahed. A) it ia eotitled Cancio- the king of the French.
nero di Poetaa Antiguoe, it may be sap- t Bouterwek, p. 78.
poled to contain Minie earlier than the g Goujet, Bibliulb^ue Frangalae, ii>

year 1400. I am inclined to think, how- 233.
ocr, that hw vould be fbund to uccnd

t: Go Ogle

124 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [Past L

poems, which, if they aim at little, still deserve the praise of
reaching what they aim at. The easy turns of thought, and
graceful simplicity of style, which these compositions require,
came spontaneously to the duke of Orleans. Without as
much humour as Clement Marot long afterwards displayed,
he is much more of a gentleman, and would have been in
any times, if not quite what Goujet supposes, a great poet,
yet the pride and ornament of the court.*

48. The English language was slowly refining itself, and
Ensiiih growing into general use. TTiat which we some-
'™"''' times call pedantry and innovation, the forced intro-
duction of French words by Chaucer, though hardly more by
him than by all his predecessors who translated our neigh-
bours' poetry, and the harsh latinisms that began to appear
soon afterwards, has given English a copiousness and variety
which perhaps no other language possesses. But as yet there
was neither thought nor knowledge sufficient to bring out its
capacities. Aft£r the death of Chaucer, in 1400, a dreary blank
of long duration occurs in our annals. The poetry of Hoc-
cleve is wretchedly bad, abounding with pedantry, and destitute
of all grace or spirit.t Lydgate, the monk of Bury,
nearly of the same age, prefers doubtless a higher
claim to respect. An easy versifier, he served to make poetry
familiar to the many, and may sometimes please the few.
Gray, no light authority, speaks more favourably of Lydgate
than either Warton or Ellis, or than the general complexion
of his poetry would induce most readers to do.t But
great poets have often the taste to discern, and the candour
to acknowledge, those beauties which are latent amidst the
tedious dulness of their humbler brethren. Lydgate, though

• The blloving very sUglit vaudeville
irill show the easy style of the ijuke of
Orleans. Jl is curious to oljserve hoar
little the manner oF French poetry, in
■uch productions, has been changed since (Recueil des
the fifteenth century, ii. 138.)

P^^JSrcloVrp

t Warton, ii. 348.

fJ^t'^nSKIl'm^hliidlH t Warton, ii.361~4OT. Grsy'sworks.

] loli du torn t Totre gulH by MaChias, iL 55—73. These remarks

blaiBM pour M mm ineiUer, ' on Lydgate show what the history of

SX'iidSS«ior'i''vUlie. English poetry would have been in thm

lyCOOglC

Chip. U.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 1^

probably a man of inferior powers of mind to Gower, has
more of the minor qualities of a poet ; his hnes have some-
times more spirit, more humour, and he describes with more
graphic minuteness. But his diduseness becomes generally
feeble and tedious ; the attention fails in the school-boy stories
of Thebes and Troy ; and be had not the judgment to select
and compress the prose narratives from which he commonly
derived bis sulject. It seems highly probable, that Lydgate
would have been a better poet in satire upon his own times,
or delineation of their manners ; themes which would have
gratified us much more than the fete of princes. The j^„ , „f
King's Quair, by James I. of Scotland, is a long al- scaiu-i.
legory, polished and imaginative, but with some of the tedi-
ousness usual in such productions. It is uncertain whether
he or a later sovereign, James V., were the author of a lively
comic poem, Christ's Kirk o' the Green ; the style is so
provincial, that no Englishman can draw any inference as to
Its antiquity. It is much more removed from our language
than the King's Quair. Whatever else could be mentioned
as deserving of praise is anonymous and of uncertain date.
It seems to have been early iu the fifteenth century that the
ballad of our northern minstrels arose. But none of these
that are extant could be placed with much likelihood so early
as 1440. •

49. We have thus traced in outline the form of European
literature, as it existed in the middle ages and in the R„,„r„u,„
first forly years of the fifteenth century. The re- i^^j"!,
suit must be to convince us of our great obligations " "*''■
to Italy for her renewal of classical learning. Wliat might
hare been the intellectual progress of Europe if she had
never gone back to the fountains of Greek and Roman
genius, it is impossible to determine ; certainly nothing in

■ Chery Chue nem* to be the nost natural and touching. maDneror the later

ancient of thoie balladi that hu been balladi. One of the most remarkable

preKrred. It ma/ pouibly hate been eireumitances about this celebrated la;

written while Henry VI. was on the ii, that it relate) a totally aeliCiou* ereal

tbroDe, though a late critic would bring with all historical particularity, and with

it down to the reign of Henry VIII. real names. Hence it was prolwbW not

Brjdgei' Britiih Bibliography, iv. 97. composed while many remembered the

The (tyla ii often Gcry, like the old war dafs of Henry IV., when the frajr of

tongs, and much shore the feeble, though Cbery Cbue is fmgned to baie occurred.

..Cioogic

126 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [pAmi I.

the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries gave prospect of a very
^undaiit harvest. It would be difficult to find any man of
high reputation in modem times, who has not reaped benefit,
directly or through others, from the revival of ancient learn-
ing. We have the greatest reason to doubt whether, without
the Italians of these ages, it would ever have occurred. TTie
trite metaphors of light and darkness, of dawn and twilight,
are used car^essly by those who touch on the literature of
the middle ages, and suggest by analogy an uninterrupted
progression, in which learning, like the sun, has dissipated
the shadows of barb^ism. But with closer attention it is
easily seen that this is not a correct representation ; that
taking Europe generally, far from being in a more advanced
stage of learning at the beginning of the fifteenth century than
two hundred ye^s before, she had, in many respects, gone
backwards, and gave little sign of any tendency to recover
her ground. There is, in fact, no security, as far as the
past history of mankind assures us, that any nation will be
uniformly progressive in science, arts, and letters *, nor do I
perceive, whatever may be the current language, that we can
expect this with much greater confidence of the whole civilised
world.

50. Before we proceed to a more minute and chronological
history, let us consider for a short time some of the previul-
ing strains of sentiment and opinion which shaped the public
mind at the close of the mediseval period.

51. In the early European poetry, the art sedulously cul-

tivated by so many nations, we are struck by cha-
ofcuaici racteristics that distinguish it from the remdns of

antiquity, and belong to social changes which we
should be careful to apprehend. The principles of discern-
ment as to works of imagination and sentiment, wrought up
in Greece and Rome by a fastidious and elaborate criticism,
were of course e&cetl in the total oblivion of tiiat literature
to which they had been applied. The Latin langui^e, no
longer intelligible except to a limited class, lost that adapt-
ation to popdar sentiment which its immature progeny had
not yet attained. Hence, perhaps, or from some other
cause, there ensued, as has been shown in the last chapter,
a kind of palsy of the inventive faculties, so that we cannot

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chap. IL] PROM 1400 TO 1440. 127

discern for several centuries any traces of their vigorous
exercise.

52. Five or six new languagea, however, besides the an-
cient German, became gradually flexible and copious t,„ ^^,,
enough to express thought and emotion with more on'm^™
precision and energy ; metre and rhyme gBve poetry '"»'^'"-
its form ; a new European literature was springing up, fresh
and lively, in gay raiment, by the side of that decrepit
latinity, which rather ostentatiously wore its threadbare robes
of more solemn flignity than becoming grace. But in the
begimiing of the fifteenth century, the revival of ancient
literature among the Italians seemed likely to change again
the scene, and threatened to restore a standard of critical
excellence by which the new Europe would be disadvantage-
ously tried. It was soon felt, if not recognised in words,
that what had delighted Europe for some preceding centuries
depended upon sentiments fondly cherished, and opinions
firmly held, but foreign, at least in the forms they presented,
to the genuine spirit of antiquity. From this time we may
consider as beginning to stand opposed to each other two
schools of cridcism, latterly called the classical and romantic^
names which should not be understood as absolutely exact,
but, perh^, rather more apposite in the period to which
these pages relate than in the nineteenth century.

53. War is a very common subject of fiction, and the
warrior's character is that which poets have ever
delighted to portray. But the spirit of chivalry, Etljjl''™
nourished by the laws of feudal tenure and limited
monarchy, by the rules of honour, courtesy, and gallantry, by
ceremonial institutions and pubUc shows, had rather artifi-
cially modified the generous daring which always forms the
basis of that character. It must be owned that the heroic
ages of Greece furnished a source of Action not unlike those
of romance ; that Perseus, Theseus, or Hercules answer
pretty well t» knights errant, and that many stories in the
poets are in the very style of Amadis or Ariosto. But these
form no great part of what we call classical poetry ; though
they show that the word, in its opposition to the latter style,
must not be understood to comprise every thing that has
descended from antiquity. Nothing could less resemble the

n,g -ccT'GoogIc

128 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»t I.

peculiar fonn of chivalry, than Greece in the republican
times, or Rome in any times.

54). The popular taste had been also essentially afiected by
Emxt at changes in social intercourse, rendering it more stu-
5i™7 diously and punctiliously courteous, and especially
'™'"" by the homage due to women under the modem
laws of gallwitry. Love, with the ancient poets, is often
tender, sometimes virtuous, but never accompanied by a
sense of deference or inferiority. This elevation of the
female sex through the voluntary submission of the stronger,
though a remarkable fact in the philosophical history of
Europe, has not, perhaps, been adequately developed. It did
not originate, or at least very parti^ly, in the Teutonic man-
ners, from which it has sometimes been derived. The love-
songs agtun, and romances of Arabia, where others have
sought its birthplace, display, no doubt, a good deal of that
rapturous adoration whico ajstinguishes the language of later
poetry, and have, perhaps, in some measure, been the models
of the Froven9al troubfidours ; yet this seems rather conso-
nant to the hyperbolical character of oriental works of ima-
gination, than to a state of manners where the usual lot of
women is seclusion, if not slavery. The late editor of
Warton has thought it sufficient to call " that reverence and
adoration of the female sex which has descended to our own
times, the of&pring of the Christian dispensation."* But
undl it can be shown that Christianity establishes any such
principle, we must look a little farther down for its origin.

55. Without rejecting, by any means, the influence of
tuprobmie these collateral and preparatory circumstances, we
origin. might ascribe more direct efncacy to the favour
shown towards women in succession to lands, through inhe-
ritance or dower, by the later Roman law, and by the cus-
toms of the northern nations ; to the respect which the clergy
pEud them (a subject which might bear to be more fully ex-
panded) ; but, above all, to the gay idleness of the uobihty,
consuming the intervals of peace in festive enjoyments. In
whatever country the charms of high-bom beauty were first
admitted to grace the banquet or give brilliancy to the tour-
nament, — in whatever country the austere restr^nts of

• Pre&ee,p.la3.

n,g -ccT'GoOgIc

CMAP.nj FROM 1400 TO 1440. 129

jealousy were most completely laid aside, — in whatever
couDtry the coarser, though often more virtuous, simplicity of
unpolished ages was exchanged for winning and delicate arti-
fices, — in whatever country, through the influence of climate
or polish, less boisterousness and intemperance prevEuled, —
it is there that we must expect to find the commencement of
so ^reat a revolution in society.

56. Grallantry, in this sense of a general homage to the
f^r, a respectful deference to woman, independent it it not
of personal attachment, seems to have first become t'u'^^"
a perceptible element of European manners in the •?^"*° ^
south of France, and, probably, not later than the ^'t^'"-
end of the tenth century* ; it was not at all in unison with
the rough habits of the Carlovingian Franks, or of ^e Anglo-
Saxons. There is little or, as far as I know, nothing of it
in the poem of Beowulf, or in that upon Attila, or in the
oldest Teutonic fragments, or in the Nibelungen Lied t j
love may appear as a natural passion, but not as a conven-
tional idolatry. It appears, on the other hand, fully developed
in the sentiments as well as the usages of northern France,
when we look at the tales of the court of Arthur, which
Geoflrey of Monmouth gave to the world about 1128.
Whatever may be thought of the foundation of this famous

* It would be abiurd to tmiga an iDne of eiril h'wtory. The kingdom of

exact date for th*t wliicb in its nature Arlei was mare tranquil than tbe mt of

miM be gndual. 1 bare u luipicion, France.

that aeiuil respect, tbough not with all f Von eigenilicher galanterie iat in

tbe^ refinemenlB of chiv^ry, might be deni Nibelungen Lied venig lu finden,

tn«d earlier in the loutb of Europe Ton ChTiBtliohen mysticiamui iiut gar

Uwn the tenth century; but it vould nichts. Bouterwek, ix. 147. I may

A paaaage, often quotedi of Radulpbus to the absence of gaLlEintry in the old

Glaber, oo the affreted aod eSemlnale Teutonic poetry, are borne out by every

Boaiiaen, aa he thought them, of the other authority ; by Weber, Price, Tur-

tnutbcm nobility who came in the train ner, and Eichhoro. The lait writer

of Coutanec, daughter of the count of dwra rather ao aiDuaing iDf(:renee as to

Tooloiuc, on her maiiiage with Robert, the want of politenns towards the bir

Liog of France, in 999, indicates that the ui, from tlie frequency of abductions in

roogbiMn of the Teutonic character, aa Teutonic aod Scandinaiian ttory, which

wdl perhaps ai some of its virtues, had he enuinerstes. Allg. Gescb. i. 37.

jirided to the arti and amusenienta of App. p. 37. [Wa might appeal also to

peace. |It became a tort of ptoveib i the very curious old German poeins on

Fianei ad bella, ProTinciales ad victua- Hlldebrand, perhaps of the eighth cen-

lia. Eichhom, Allg. Gesch. I. Append, lury, published by the Grimms at Cosel

73. The Bocial history of the tenth and in 1812. They eihibit chivalry without

rierenlfa eenturici is uot easily recovered, ita gallantry. Some account of them

We mutt ludgofrom probabiUtiea found- may be found in Roquefort, p. S],, or in

ad on aingle pttugtt, and aa thegeueral Bouterwek, — I81S.]

VOL. I. K ,- r

n,gt,7cdT:C00glC

130 LITERATURE OF EOROPK [Pam T.

romance, whatever of legendary tradition he may have bor-
rowed from Wales or Britauy, the position that he was
merely a faithful translator appears utterly incredible.*
Besides the numerous allusions to Henry I, of Eogland, and
to the history of his times, which Mr, Turner and others
have indicated, the chivalrous gallantry, with which alone we
are now concerned, is not characteristic of so rude a people
as the Welsh or Armoricans. Geoffi-ey is almost our earliest
testimony to these manners ; and this gives the chief value
to his fables. The crusades were prob^ly the great means
of inspiring an uniformity of conventional courtesy into the
European aristocracy, which still constitutes the common
character of gentlemen ; but it may have been gradually
wearing away their national peculiarities for some time
before.

5'J. The condition and the opinions of a people stamp
a character on its literature ; while that literature
ofehiTMir^ powerfully re-acts upon and moulds afresh the na-
tional temper from which it has taken its distinctive
type. This is remarkably applicable to the romances of
diivalry. Some have even believed that chivalry itself, in
the fulness of proportion ascribed to it by these wortra, had
never existence beyond their pages ; others, with more pro-
bability, that it was heightened and preserved by their in-
fluence upon a state of society which had given them birth.
A considerable difference is perceived between the metrical
romances, contemporaneous with, or shortly subsequent to,
the crusades, and those in prose after the middle of the four-
teenth century. The former are more fierce, more warlike,
more full of abhorrence of infidels ; they display less of

Kunctilious courtesy, less of submissive deference to woman,
!8S of absorbing and passionate love, less of voluptuousness
and luxury ; their superstition has more of interior belief,
and less of ornamental machinery, than those to which
Amadis de Gaul and other heroes of the later cycles of ro-
mance furnished a model. The one reflect, in a tolerably

• See, in Mr. Tnraer'i Hirt. of Eng- the tiro, and the molUes with whioh «uh

land, iT. 356 — S69., two diuertatioiH on vai wrilten, leem irreTngibly cbmoo-

ihe Tomaotic histoiiei of Turpia and of rtraled.
Geofll^jr, wheran the relation betvecn

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cup.n.] FBOM 1400 TO 1440. 131

faithful mirror, the rough customs of the feudal aristocracy
in their original freedom, but partially modified by the gallant
and courteous bearing of France ; the others represent to us,
with more of licensed deviation from reality, the softened
features of society, in the decline of the feudal system,
through the cessation of intestine war, the increase of wealth
and luxury, and the silent growth of female ascendency.
This last again was, no doubt, promoted by the tone given to
manners through romance ; the language of respect became
that of gallantry ; the sympathy of mankind was directed
towards the success of love ; and, perhaps, it was thought,
that the sacrifices which this laxity of moral opinion cost the
less prudent of the fair, were but the price of the homage
that the whole sex obtained.

58. Nothing, however, more showed a contrast between
the old and the new trains of sentiments in points of E^,„f
taste than the difference of religion. It would be ref^'oSt'p^
untrue to say, that ancient poetry is entirely want- ^™"f-
ing in exalted notions of the Deity ; but they are rare in
comparison with those which the Christian religion has in-
spired into very inferior minds, and which, with more or less
purity, pervaded the vernacular poetry of Europe. They
were obscured in both periods by an enormous superstructure
of mythological machinery ; but so different in names and
associationSi though not always in spirit, or even in circucn-
stances, that those who delighted in the fables of Ovid
usually scorned the Golden Legend of James de Voragine,
whose pages were turned over with equal pleasure by a cre-
dulous multitude, little able to understand why any one should
relish heathen stories which he did not believe. The modem
mythology, if we may include in it the saints and devils, as
well as file fury and goblin armies, which had been retained
in service since the days of paganism, is so much more
copious, and so much more easily adapted to our ordinary
associadous than the ancient, that this has given an advan-
tage to the romantic school in their contention, which they
have well known how to employ and to abuse.

59- Upon these three columns, — chivalry, gallantry, and

religion,. — repose the fictions of the middle ages, especially

diose usually designated as romances. These, such as we

X 2

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

132 LITERATURE OF EUHOPE [I'ahtI.

now know them, and such as display the characteristics
above mentioned, were originally metrical, and
lonesT chiefly written by natives of the north of France.
The English and Germans translated or imitated
them. A new era of romance began with the Amadts de
Gaul, derived, as some have thought, bat upon tnsulHcient
evidence, from a French metrical original, but certainty
written in Portugal, though in the Castilian language, by
Vasco de Lobeyra, whose death is generally fixed in \3Q5.*
This romance is in prose ; and though a long interval seems
to have elapsed before those founded on the story of Amadis
began to multiply, many were written in French during the
latter part of the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries,
derived from other legends of chivalry, which became the
popular reading, and superseded the old metrical romances,
already somewhat obsolete in their forms of language, t
60. As the taste of a chivalrous aristocracy was naturally
delighted with romances, that not only led the ima*
"w^ gination through a senesof adventures, but pre-
sented a mirror of sentiments to which they them-
selves pretended, so that of mankind in general found its
gratification, sometimes in tales of home growUi, or trans-
planted from the East, whether serious or amusing, such as
the Gesta Romanorum, the Dolopathos, the Becameron,
(certMnly the moat celebrated and best written of these in-
ventions,) the Pecorone; sometimes In historical ballads, or
in moral fables, a favourite style of composition, especially
with the Teutonic nations ; sometimes, again, in l^ends of
saints, and the popular demonology of the age. The expe-
rience and sagacity, the moral sentiments, the invention and
fancy of many obscure centuries may be discerned more fiilly
and favourably in these various fictions than in their elaborate
treatises. No one of the European nations stand so high in

* Boutenrek, Hitt. of Spuiinb Liter- Litt de la France, ivL ITO. ITT., to be

■tare, p. 4S. ' older thui the eloK of the thirteenth

-f Tlie oldest proie roawnee, which centurj. Tliow relating to Arthur and

■Iso ii partly metrical, appeari to be the round table are ettcemed of u ear-

. Tristan of Leonon, one of the cycle of lier date than such ■■ haTs ChaHemafne

the round table, written or tranilated by for their hero. MoM of thete romanceii

Lucai de Gast,about llTa Roquefort in pro« aie taken from metrical n>-

EutdeUPoiHeFrBilfaise,p. 14T. [Se- mancM. — 1842.1
rote are Hid in Hist.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cur. 11.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 133

this respect as the Germui ; their ancient tales have a rad'
ness and truth which has been only imitated by others.
Among the most renowned of these we must place the story
of Reynard the Fox j the origin of which, long sought by
hterary critics, recedes, as they prolong the inquiry, into
greater depths of antiquity. It was supposed to be written,
(HT at least first published, in German rhyme, by Henry of
Alkmaar, in 1498 ; but earlier editions, in the Flemish lan-
guage, have since been discovered.* It has been found writ-
ten in French verse by Jaquemars Gielee, of Lille, near the
end, and in French prose by Peter of St. Cloud, near the
heginuing, of the thirteenth century. Finally, the principal
characters are mentioned in a Proven9al song by Richard
CoBur de Lion.t But though we thus bring the story to
France, where it became so popular as to change the very
name of the pnocipal animal, which was always called
goupil (vulpes) till the fourteenth century, when it assumed,
from the hero of the tale, the name of Renard t, there seems
every reason to believe that it is of German origin ; and,
according to a conjecture, once thought probable, a certain
Reinard of Lorraine, famous for his vulpine qualities in the
ninth century, suggested the name to some unknown fabulist
of the empire. But Raynouard, and, I believe, Grimm, have
satis&ctorily refuted this hypothesis. §

6l. These moral fictions, as well as more serious pro-
ductions, in what may be called the ethical literature „j,,^„^ ,
of the middle ages, towards which Germany contri- EJ^';[^^
buted a large share, speak freely of the vices of the

* [I hiie been reminded, that Cax- nsrroir escape of being a1ledDnl;bruliu,

toa'i " Hiitorja of Rernard the Foxe" from Iheir reproentative in the ftble.
vaipubliihedin 14SI.— 1B4T-] g [Jounul des Saviini, Julf, 1834.

t Rceueil dei uncieni podlea, L 21. Raynouard, in reviewing a Latin poem,

U. Rarnouard obwrrrs that the TiDu- Reinardiu Vulpii, putilUhed at Stut-

bMlmin, and, fint of all, Richard Caur gard in 1S33, and referred b; its editor to

de I.ion, hare quoted the story of Re- the ninth century, ihows that the alle-

naid, BmetinHa with allusians cot reler- gorical meaning ascribed to tbe atory ia

rible to the preaent rumaoce. Journal not in the slighlent degree confinaed by

it* Sar. lAQS, p. 340. A great deal lias real lacls, or the charicters ofthe pnrtia

been written about thii itory ; but I supposed to be designed. The poam he

■ball ooly quote Bouterwek, ii. 34T. ; places in the tweltlh or thirleenlh cen-

Heioiius, IT. 104., and the Biographic tury, rsther than the ninth; and there

Unirrrselle ; arts. Gielee. Alkmaar. can be no dolibt irhaleier that be is

t Something like this nearly hap- right vith any one who is oonTersaDt

pencd in England ; bears hare had a with the Latin leniGcatioa of tbe two
periods..— 1 84S.]

n,g-,-ccT:C00glc

134 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PaktI.

great. But they deal with them aa men responsible to God,
anil subject to natural law, rather than aa members of a
community. Of political opinions, properly so called, which
have in later times so powerfully swayed the conduct of
mankind, we find very little to say in the fifteenth century.
In so far as they were not merely founded on temporary
circumstances, or at most on the prejudices connected with
positive institutions in each country, the predominant associ-
ations that influenced the judgment were derived from respect
for birth, of which opulence was as yet rather the sign than
the substitute. This had long been, and long continued to
be, the characteristic prejudice of European society. It was
hardly ever higher than in the fifteenth century ; when
heraldry, the language that speaks to the eye of pride, aod
the science of those who despise every other, was cultivated
with all its ingenious pedantry ; and every improvement in
useful art, every creation in inventive architecture, was made
subservient to the grandeur of an elevated class in soaety.
The butchers, in those parts of Europe which had become
rich by commerce, emulated in their public distinctions, as
they did ultimately in their private families, the ensigns of
patridan nobility. This prevailing spirit of aristocracy was
still but partially modified by the spirit of popular freedom on
one hand, or of respectful loyalty on the other.

62. It is far more important to observe the disposition of
Bmiaat the public mind in respect of religion, which not
opIilUi. ^jjj]y claims to itself one great branch of literature,
but exerts a powerful influence over almost every other. The
AnvkiDD greater part of literature in the middle ages, at least
the oiuich. fj.Q^ ijjg twelfth century, may be considered as ar-
tillery levelled against the clergy : I do not say against the ■
church, which might imply a doctrinal opposition by no
means universal. But if there is one theme upon which the
most serious as well as the lightest, the most orthodox as the
most heretical writers are united, it is ecclesiastical corrup-
tion. Divided among themselves, the secular clergy detested
the regular ; the regular monks satirised the mendicant friars ;
who, in their turn, after exposing both to the ill-will of the
people, incurred a double portion of it themselves. In this
most important respect, therefore, the influence of mediaeval

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Caif.n.] PROM 1400 TO 1440. 135

literature was powerful towards chang'e. But it rather
loosened the associations of ancient prejudice, and prepared
mankind for revolutions of speculative opinion, than brought
them forward.

63. It may be s^d in general, that three distinct currents
of religious opinion are discernible, on this side of
the Alps, in the first part of the fifteenth century, of r^gioua
1. The high pretensions of the Church of Rome to SiU^th "
a sort of moral, as well as theological, infallibility,
and to a paramount authority even in temporal a&irs, when
she should think fit to interfere with them, were maintained
by a great body in the monastic and mendicant orders, and
had still, probably, a considerable influence over the people
in most parts of Europe. S. The Councils of Constance
and Basle, and the contentions of the Gallican and German
churdies against the encroachments of the holy see, had
raised up a strong adverse party, supported occasionally
by the government, and more uniformly by the temporal
lawyers and other educated laymen. It derived, however, its
greatest force from a number of sincere and earnest persons,
who set themselves ag^nst the gross vices of the time, and
the abuses grown up in the church through self-interest or
connivance. They were disgusted, also, at the scholastic
systems, which had turned religion into a matter of subtle
dispute, while they laboured to found it on devotional feeling
and contemplative love. The mystical theology, which, from
seeking the illuminating Influence and piercing love of the
Deity, often proceeded onward to visions of complete absorp-
tion in his essence, till that itself was lost, as in the East,
from which this system sprang, in an annihilating pantheism,
had never wanted, and can never want, its disciples. Some,
of whom Bonaventura is the most conspicuous, opposed its
enthusiastic emotions to the icy subtilties of the schoolmen.
Some appealed to the hearts of the people in their own lan-
guage. Such was Tauler, whose sermons were long popular
sod have often been printed ; and another was the unknown
author of the German Theology, a favourite work with
Luther, and known by the Latin version of Sebastian Caetalio.
Such, too, were Gerson and Clemangis, and such were the

lyGOOgIC

ISO LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PabtI.

nameroua brethren who issued from the college of Deventer.*
One, doubtless of this class, whenever he may have lived,

was author of the celebrated treatise De Imitatione
imiutiom Christi (a title which has been transferred from the

first ch^ter to the entire work), commonly ascribed
to Thomas vou Kempen or a Kempis, one of the Deventer
society, but the origin of which has been, and will continue
to be, the subject of strenuous controversy. Besides Thomas
a Kempis, two candidates have been supported by their re-
spective partisans ; Jobn Gerson, the famous chancellor of
the university of Paris, and John Gersen, whose name ap-
pears in one manuscript, and whom some contend to have
been abbot of a monastery at Vercelli in the thirteenth century,
while others hold him an imaginary being, except as a mis-
nomer of Gerson. Several French writers plead for their
illustrious countryman, and especially M. Gence, one of the
last who has revived the controversy; while the German and
Flemish writers, to whom the Sorbonne acceded, have always
contended for Thomas a Kempis, and Gersen has had the
respectable support of Bellarmin, Mabillon, and most of the
Benedictine order.t The book itself is said to have gone

* Eichbom, vi. 1 — 136., has amply aneeof his origiiul lutograph. AguDst

and wvll trealed the tlieological li(«ni- HiomM a Kempis it in urged, that he was

ture of the Glteenlh renlurjr. Moslieim a professed callLgrapher or copyist for the

is len satiNfactury, and Miltwr wants ei- college of Deventer j that the chronicle

tent of learaing ; yet botli will be useful of St. Agnes, ■ conttrapority work, says

to the English reader. Eichhorn seems of him: Scripsit Bibliam noilram tala-

ireU acquainted with the myilical di- liter, et multoa alios libros pro donio e(

vines, in p. 97. et post. pro pretio; thai the entry above men-

f I am not prepared to stale the ex- tioned is more like thai of a transcriber

ternal evidence upon tliis keenly debated than of an author; tbal the lame ebro-

question with sufficient precision. In a nicle makes no mention of bis having

few words, it may, I believe, he said, that written the treatise Da Imitatione, nor

in favour of Thomas ii Kempis has been does it appear in an early list of works

alleged the testimony of many early edi- ascribed to him. For Gerson are brought

tions bearing his name, Including one forward a great number of early editions

about 1471, which appears to be the in Frsmce, and still more in Italy, among

first, as well as a general tradition from which is the first that bears a date,

his own time, extending over most of En. (Venice, 1483.) both in the fifteenth and

rope, which has led a i^reat majority, in- sixteenth centuries; and some other pn>-

ctuding the Sorbonne itielf, to determine habilitlea are alleged. But this treatise

the cause in his lavour. It is also said is not mentioned in a list of his writings

that a manuscript of the treatise De Imi- given by hiniself. As to Gersen, his

talione bears these words at the conclu- claim seems to rest on a manuscript of

aion : Finitus et completus per manum great antiquity, which ascribes it to him,

Thomie de Kempis, M41 ; and that in and indirectly on all those manuKripts

this manuscript are so many erasures which are assarted to be older than the

and alterations, ■* give it the appear- lime of Gerion and Thomas a Kempis.

lyCOOglC

Cur.IL]

FROM 1400 TO 1440.

137

diTougfa 1800 editions, and has probably been more read
than any one work after the Scriptures. 3. A third reli-
gious party consisted of the avowed or concealed heretics,
some disciples of the older sectaries, some of WiclifiFe or
Huss, resembling' the school of Grerson and Gerard Groot
in their earnest piety, but drawing a more decided line of
separation between themselves and the ruling power, and ripe
for a more complete reformation than the others were in-
clined to desire. It is not possible, however, for us to pro-
nounce on all the shades of opinion that might be secretly
cherished in the fifteenth century.

64. Those of the second class were, perhaps, compara-

Bat, aa I have before abserred, I do not
pro&n lo gne ■ full »iew of tbe eiternal
evidcDCe, of which t pOBteu but a luper-
ficUl knovledge.

From the book itself, tvo remirlis,
vbich I do not pi«tend to be novel, hue
tuggated ihemselm to me. 1. Tbe
Gallicisms or Italicinnt i

MX ScUalia >iai
tit?— Resiste
tii«--Vigili.
- Vi«n

more Dei
1 principi
mtina — 1

sucli

exclude Thomas a Kempii, » the latlet
U tintaTourable to tbe claiixK of Genoil.
It has been objervcd, hOTerer, that in
one passaj^e, 1. i. c, 24., there is an ap-
parent allusion to Dante ; which, if in-
tended, must put an end to Genen, ab-
bot of Vercelll, whom his supporters
first part of the thirteenth

>e alW

Homi

biH— Til
Sufl^entia crucis. It seemi ilrange that
these barbarous adaptations of French or
Italian should haie occurred to any one,
whose natiTs lan);uige was Dulcb ; un-
less it can be shown, that through St.
Bernard, or any other av%lic writer,
they bad become naturalised in rellgioua
style. S. But, . . -

•sible to I
that tbe author was

bieh w

I inhabitant of a

ginally a secular priest at
Pans, and employed for many yein in
•etire life, as chancellor of the university,
and one of the leaders of the Gallican
ehurefa. Thewbolespirit breathedhy the
inatiae De Imitatione Chrisli ii that ol
a soliUry aaretic : -~ Vellem me pluries
tseuiiae et inter homines non fuisse —
Sed quare tarn libenter lo<]uimur, el in-
vieem &bulanur, cum raro sine liBsione

puCable. Various articles in theBli^ra-
pbie Universelle, from the pen of M.
Gencc, tuaintaio his fkvourite hypothesis;
and M. Deunou, in Ihe Journal des Sa-
Tsns for 1BZ6, and again in the voluiDe
for 1827, espouses tile same cause, and

point i ce qui regarde Thomas i Kempis,
i qui cet ouvrage n'est plus guire atlri-
bu£ aujourd'hui, p. 6SI. But oa^inRrilsu
must be interpreted rather liteTally, if
this be correct. Tbii is in tbe review of
a defence of the pretensions of Gersen,
by M. Gregory, whoadducessomestTong
reasons to prove that tbe work is older
than the fourteenth century.

This book contains greet beautjp and
heirt-piercing truth in many of its de-
tached sentences, but places its rule of
life in alHolute seclusion from tbe world,
and seldom refen to the exercise of any
social oreven damestic duty. Ithaanatu-
rally been less a faTouiite in Protestant
countries, both from its monastic charac-
ter, and because those wbo inclined to-
wards Calvinism do not find in it the
phraseology ti

The

nslati

e very n

merous, but there

energetic, though barbarous Latin.

t: Go Ogle

138 LITERATUHE OF EUROPE [Pabt L

tively rare at this time in Italy, and those of die third much
more so. But the extreme superstition of the popular
B^>«ji^ creed, the conversation of Jews and Mahometans,
the unbounded admiration of pagan genius and
virtue, the natural tendency of many minds to doubt and to
, perceive difficulties, which the schoolmen were apt to find
every where, and no where to solve, joined to the irreligious
spirit of the Aristotelian philosophy, especially as modified by
Averroes, could not but engender a secret tendency towards
iu&delity, the course of which may be traced with ease in the
writings of those ages. Thus the tale of the three rings in
Boccace, whether original or not, may be reckoned among
the sports of a sceptical philosophy. But a proof, not less
decisive, that the blind faith we ascribe to the middle ages
was by no means universal, results from the numerous vin-
dications of Christianity written in the fifteenth century.
Eichhorn, after referring to several passages in the works of
Petrarch, mentions defences of religion by Marsilius Ficinus,
Alfonso de Spina, a converted Jew, Savanarola, ^neas Syl-
vius, Picus of Mirandola. He gives an analysis of the first,
which, in its course of argument, diflfers little from modem
apolo^es of the same class.*

65. These writings, though by men so considerable as
luiiwHiddt most of those he has named, are very obscure at
*'*™'*''' present ; but the treatise of Raimond de Sebonde is
somewhat better known, in consequence of the chapter in
Montaigne entitled an apology for him. Montaigne had pre-
viously translated into French the Theologia Naturalis of this
Seboude, professor of medicine at Barcd.ona in the early part
of the fifteenth century. This has been called by some the
first regular system of natural theology j but, even if nothing
of that kind could be found in the writings of the schoolmen,
which is certiunly not the case, such an appellation, notwith-
standing the title, seems hardly due to Sebonde's book, which
is intended, not so nmch to erect a fabric of religion inde-
pendent of revelation, as to demonstrate the latter by proofs
derived from the order of nature.

66. Dugald Stewart, in his first dissertation prefixed to
the Encycloptedia Britannica, observes, that " the principal

• Vol. »i. p. 84.

n,gti7ccT:G00glc

CmAP.n.] FROM 1400 TO 1440. 139

aim of Sebonde's book, according to Monbd^e, is to show
that Christians are in the wrong to make human
reasoning the basis of their belief, since the object of ^i**"-
it is only conceived by ^th, and by a special in-
spiration of the divine grace." I have been able to ascertain
^t the excellent author was misled in this passage by con-
fiding in a translation of Montaigne, which he took in a
wrong sense. Far from such being the aim of Sebonde, his
book is wholly devoted to the rational proofs of religion ;
and what Stewart has taken for a proposition of Sebonde
himself, is merely an olgection which, according to Mon-
taigne, some were apt to make against his mode of reason-
ing. The passage is so very clear, that every one who looks
at Montaigne (1. ii. c. IS.) must instantaneously perceive
the oversight which the translator, or rather Stewart, has
made ; or he may satisfy himself by the article on Sebonde
in Bayle.*

67> The object of Sebonde's book, according to himself,
is to develop those tmths as to Grod and man, which n„ ^hi
are latent in nature, and through which the tatter °''""'
may learn every thing necessary ; and especially may under-
stand Scripture, and have an infallible certunty of its truth.
This science is incorporate in all the books of the doctors of
the church, as the alphabet is in their words. It is the first
science, the basis of all others, and requiring no other to be
previously known. The scarcity of the book will justify an
extract ; which, though in very uncouth Latin, will serve to
give a notion of what Sebonde really aimed at ; but he labours
with a confused expression, arising partly from the vastness
of his subject, t

* [The tnnalation lued by Stewart plutibus litetia componitur liber. lu

maj Dot hiTa been thftt by Cotton, but Gompooitur liber creiituraijm, in quo

one published in 1776, which proressei libro etiaracontinelur homo; etettprin-

lo be otlgiml. It mu>t be aid, that if cipalior liter* iptiua llbri. Et aicut literat

be had bien loore attentive, the traoala- et dictiooei facta ei literis important e[

lion could not have mislpd biui. — 1B42.] includunt sclentiam et difersai ugniiica-

t Duo aunt libri nobis data a Deo: tionc* etmirabilet leDtentiai : its coufor-
■cilicet liber uoiTcriitatia creaturarum, miter ipsa creaturai uniul eoiguncta el
•JTe liber naturtc, et aliiu est liber ucra ad invlcem couiparals important et ug-
•eriptura. Primui liber liiit datua bo. oificant diversas sigiiilicationn et ten-
mini a principio, dum uniienitaa rerum tendas, et contineot )cientiam hamjiii
fbit condita. quoniam qutelibet creatura necetsariani. Secundusautemliber icrip-
noo eat oiri qusdam lilera digito Dei lurs datua eat homini secundo, et hoc in
KripU, et CI pluribui creaturii ucut u deftctu primi libri j «o quia homo ne>

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

140 LITEBATURE OF BUEOPE [PartL

68. Sebonde seems to have had floadng ia his mind, as
NatanoThK ^^ extinct Will suggest, Bome of those theories as
•'■™""'- to the correspondence of the moral and material
worid, which were afterwards propounded, in their cloudy
magnificence, by the Theosophists of the next two centuries.
He undertakes to prove the Trinity from the analogy of
nature. His argument is ingenious enough, if not quite of
orthodox tendency, being drawn from the scale of existence,
which must lead us to a being immediately derived from the
First Cause. He proceeds to derive other doctrines of Chris-
tianity from prindples of natural reason ; and after this,
which occupies about half a volume of 779 closely printed
pages, he comes to direct proofs of revelation : first, because
God, who does all for his own honour, would not suffer an
impostor to persuade the world that he was equal to God,
wluch Mahomet never pretended ; and afterwards by other
arguments more or less valid or ingenious.

69. We shall now adopt a closer and more chronological
arrangement than before, ranging under each decennial pe-
riod the circumstances of most importance in the general

Bciebat in primo legere, qui erat cocusi mundum vbibilem slbi crMrit, et dedit
aed tamen priraiu liber crcalurarUTn eat tanquun librum proprium et natunlein
omnibiu commuDia, qui* Mlum elerici e( inftllibilpm, Dei digilo Kripium, ubi
l^eie sciunt in ao [L e. lecundo]. ainguUe creaturn quasi litem nint, non

Item piimus liber, acilicet natura, non humano aibitrio led difino jUTante Ju-
potest faluHcHri, nee deleri, neque blue dtcio ad demotutrandum tiomini sapien-
inCerpretari ; ideo hieretici non poaaunt liam et doctrinani aibi necetsaHam ad
eum false intclligere, nee aliquia poteit aalutem. Quam quidem aapienliam pul-
in to fieri faKretieua. 8ed aecundua po- lua poteat Tidere, neque legere per ae in
teat fklaiflcari et &lae interprelari et male diets libra semper aperto, niu fuent ■
intelligt. Atlamen uterque liber eat ab Deo illuminalua et a peeeato origineU
eodem, quia idem Dominua et creaturaa mundatiu. El ideo nullua antiquomm
eandidit, et aacrara Siripturam revelayit. philoaophorum pa^BDorum poteat legere
Et ideo oonTeciiunt ad inTicem, et non hang acientiam, quia erant eiCKcati qu>D-
eontradicit unua alteri, led tamen primu* turn ad propriam Balutem, quamvia in
est nobis connaturalia, aecundua auper- dicto libro legerunt aliquam aeientiam,
naturalia. Prsterea cum bomo ait na- et omoem quam bibuerunt ab eodem
turaliter rationalis, et suiceptibllii dis- contmxerunt; ted veram aapientiam qua
■ at ad vitam «teraam, quamvii fuerat
so aoripta, Icgere non potuerunt,
lata Hutem scientia nan eat aliud, nisi
fitare et videre aapientiam scriptam in
aturia, et extrahere ipaam ab jllia. et
lere in animi, et Tidere tigoiiicatia-
n crealUTarum. Et aic comparando
aliam et conjungere sicut dictionem
1 tali cot^unctione reniltat

dplio.

el doclrins;

et cum naluT

ne nullam habeat

doctrini

.m neq

ue sci

entiam, lit t

aptus .

Id ausci

piendt

entia

aine libro, k

acripu'

sit, non

poiail

haberi, cortc

tnfaii,ii

lefruat

rahomoeaaet,

doctrine) et aci(

inlia!,()

|udd diTina K

homini

libnim

ritinquoper

lyCOOglC

Chat.H.] from 1400 TO 1440. 141

histoiy of literature, as well as the principal books published
withiD it. Hiis course we shall pursue till the cluuinels of
learning become so various, and so extensively diffused
through several luDgdoms, that it will be found convenieot
to deviate in some measure from so strictly chroaolog;ica] a
form, in order to consolidate better the history of different
sciences, and diminish, in some measure, what can never
wholly be removed from a work of this nature ; the confusion
of perpetual change of subject.

lyGOOgIC

LITERATURE OF EUROPE

CHAPTER III.

; THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE PROM I'WO TO THE
CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Sect. I. 1440—14.50.

Claitical LUerature m Italy — Nicoka V. — Lmrenliiu V^ia.

1. The reader ia not to consider the year 1440 as a marked

epoch in the annals of literature. It has sometimea
not c)w«D u been treated as such by those who have referred the

inventing of printing to this particular era. But it
is here chosen as an arbitrary line, nearly coincident with the
complete development of an ardent thirst for classical, and
especially Grecian, literature in Italy, as the year 1400 was
with its first manifestation,

2. No very conspicuous events belong to this decennial
cmd 1I.I period. The spirit of improvement, already so
^2!!i^*^ powerfully excited in Italy, continued to produce the

same effects in rescuing ancient manuscripts ft-om
the chances of destruction, accumulating them in libraries)
making translations from the Greek, and by intense labour
in the perusal of the best authors, rendering both their sub-
stance and their language familiar to the Italian scholar.
The patronage of Cosmo de* Medici, Alfonso king of Naples,
and Nicolas of Este, has already been mentioned. Lionel,
successor of the last prince, was by no means inferior to him
in love of letters. But they had no patron so important as
Nicolas y. (Thomas of Sarzana), who became pope in 1447;

nor has any later occupant of his chair, without

" excepting Leo X., deserved equal praise as an en-

courager of learning. Nicolas founded the Vatican library,

and left it, at his death in 1455, enriched with 5000 volumes ;

lyCOOglC

CBAP.m.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 143

a treasure far exceeding that of any other collection in
Europe. Every scholar who needed maintenance, which was
of course the common case, found it at the court of Rome ;
innumerable benefices all over Christendom, which had fallen
into the grasp of the holy see, and frequently required of
their incumbents, as is well known, neither residence, nor
even the priestly character, affording the means of generosity,
whldi have seldom been so laudably applied. Several Greek
authors were translated into Latin by direction of Nicolas V.,
among which are the history of Diodorus Siculus, and Xeno-
phon's Cyropffidia, by Poggio*, who shll enjoyed the office
of apostolical secretary, as he had under Eugenius IV., wad
with still more abundant munificence on the part of the pope ;
Herodotus and Thucydides by Valla, Polybius by Perotti,
Appian by Decembrio, Strabo by Gregory of Tifemo and
Guarino of Verona, Theopbrastus by Gaza, Plato de Legibus,
Ptolemy's Almagest, and the Prsparatio Evangelica of Euse-
bius, by George of Trebizond. t These translations, it has
been already observed, will not bear a very severe criticisin,
but certuoly there was an extraordinary cluster of learning
round the chair of this excellent pope.

3. Comiani remarks, that if Nicolas V., like some pcvpes,
had raised a distinguished family, many pens would
have been employed to immorbilise him ; but not iotaii<Ab
having surroundra himself with relations, his fame
has been much below his merits. Gibbon, one of the first
to do full justice to Nicolas, has made a similar observation.
How striking the contrast between this pope and his famous
predecessor Gregory I., who, if he did not burn and destroy
heathen authors, was at least anxious to discourage the read-
ing of them I These eminent men, like Michael Angelo's

* ThU traiulation of Diodorua bu nune on « nunuseript of tbe tnnilmtion.

been ■acribcd by lomc of out wrilen, Poggio, mdeedi in bii prefiuie, declare*

«Tca once the CTior hu been pointed out, IhM he uodertook it by commuid of

ID John Free, an Engliibnuo, who hul Nicolu V. See Nicvron, ii. 158.; Zeao,

btatd the lecture) of the younger Gua- Dinertuioni VtHsiane, i. 41.; Gingutnf,

rini in luly. Quod opiu, Letand ob- iii. 945. Fas follows Lelud in ucrib-

arnrn, Itali Foggio taninime atlribuunt ing a tmulatiaa of Diodonu to Free,

FlorentiDa. Dc Scriptoribiu Britann. and quatei tlie flrat wordi ; thus, if it (till

p. 4ea. Bui it bean tbe name of Pogpo ihould be tuggesCed that tliii may be a

in tb* two cditiont, printed in 14TS and difTerent worli, there are the meaiu of

1493; and Lclaad leeou to have been proving it.

HMOWwboludputPiN'i t HeertDip. TS.

lyGOOgIC

144 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PabtI.

figures of Night and Morning^, seem to stand at the two
gates of the middle ages, emblems and heralds of the mind's
long sleep, and of its awakening.

4, Several little treatises hy Foggio, rather in a moral

than political striun, display an ohserving and intdli-
uitniiuiiir geDt mind. Such are those on nobility, and on the

unhappine&s of princes. For these, which were
written before 1440, the reader may have recourse to Shep-
herd, Goroiani, or Ginguen^. A later essay, if we may so
call it, on the vicissitudes of fortune, begins with rather an
interesting description of the ruins of Rome. It is an
enumeration of the more conspicuous remains of the ancient
city; and we may infer from it that no great devastation or
injury has taken place since the fifteenth century. Gibbon
has given an account of this little tract, which is not, as he
shows, the earliest on the subject. Poggio, I will add, seems
not to have known some things with which we are familiar ;
as the Cloaca Maxima, the fragments of the Servian wall,
the Mamertine prison, the Temple of Nerva, the Giano
Quadrifonte j and, by some odd misinform^ion, believes that
the tomb of Cecilia Metella, which he had seen entire, was
afterwards destroyed.* This leads to a conjecture that the
treatise was not finished during his residence at Rome, and
consequently not within the present decennium.

5, In the fourth book of this treatise De Varietate For-

tunte, Poggio has introduced a remarkable narration
^•EiMb]' of travels by a Venetian, Nicolo di Conti, who, in

1419, had set ofi* from his country, and after passing
many years in Persia and India, returned home in 1444.
His account of those regions, in some respects the earliest
on which reliance could be placed, will be found, rendered
into Italian from a Portuguese version of Poggio, in the first
volume of Hamusio. That editor seems not to have known
that the original was in print.

6, A far more considerable work by Laurentius Valla, on
LiuKDiiiu t^6 graces of the Latin language, is rightly, I be-
"'"^ lieve, placed within this period; but it is often diffi-
cult to determine the dates of books published before the inven-

lyGOOglC

CRAP.ni.] FROM. 1440 TO 1600. 145

tion of prindng. Valla, like Poggio, had long earned the
fsToar of Alfonso, but, unlike him, had forfeited that of the
court of Rome. His character was very irascible and over-
bearing ; a fault too general with the learned of the fifteenth
century ; but he may, perhaps, be placed at the head of the
literary republic at this time ; for if inferior to Pog^o, as
probably he was, in vivacity and variety of genius, he was
andoubtedly above him in what was then most valued and
most usefiii, grammatical erudition.

7. Valla began with an attack on the court of Rome in his
declamation agfunst the donation of Constantine.

Some have in consequence reckoned him among tb« coun or
the precursors of Protestantism ; while others have
imputed to the Roman see, that he was pursued with its
hostility for questioning that pretended title to sovereignty.
But neidier of these representations is just. Valla confines
himself altogether to the temporal principality of the pope ;
but as to this, his language must be admitted to have been so
abusive, as to render the resentment of the court of Rome
not unreasonable.*

8, The more famous work of Valla, De Elegantiis Latinse
Liogufe, begins with too arrogant an assumption.

" These books," he says, " will contain nothing that •"•'ti" i-"n
has been said by any one else. For many ages
past, not only no man has been able to speak Latin, but
none have understood the Latin they read : the studious of
{^ilosophy have had no comprehension of the philosophers,
the advocates of the orators, the lawyers of the jurists, the
general scholar of any writers of antiquity," Valla, how-

* A few 1in« will luflice u a spec!- inTOctive. Nee ampllus horrenda vox

men. O Itomuii poDtificH, eiemplum audlatur, partea contra eccledam ; eccle-

faeioonmi omniiim cslerii pontiRcibiu, am contra Fcrusinos pitj^iiBt, canlra Bo.

tt improbuunu aoribv et pharu»i, qui nonieam. Nod contra Chrinlanos pugnat

tedMu Hjpcr calfaednm Mojii, el opera ecclesia, sed papa. Of the papal claim

Dathan M Abjron taeiCia, ilane leati. to temporal lorerelgnty by procription,

aailBan>>ntui,poinpaequit»t&s,omni> Valla writei iodignantly. Prsicripsit

daoique *iU Caiani, ncanum Chiiiti Romana eccleiia; o imperiti, o divini Ju'

dceeint? The whole tone a more like rii ignarL Nullui quantumvis annoium

Lather's Tiulenee, than what we ahould numerui Tenim abolere titulum potest.

upact tram an Italian of the Gdeenth Prsscripiit Kooiana ecclesia. Taoe, ne-

ccDloiy. But it i« with the ambitious faria lingua. Priescriplionem qus lit du

qiirit of aggrandiaement aa lomporal rebus mutla atque irrational ibus, ad ho-

prinoes, that he mprtwdiea the pontiffs; miaem tranafen; cujus quo diuturnior

nor eiD It be deuied, that Martin and in seriitute poKeiaio, eo detestablUor.
Eugenius had given prOTocation for his

VOL. I. L r- I

n,gt,7cdT:C00glC

146 LITEEATUBE OP KUKOPE [PastL

ever, did at least bcomparably more than any one who had
preceded him ; and it would probably mpear, that a great
part of die distinctioas in Ladn syntax, inflexion, and syno-
nymy, which our best grammars contdn, may be traced to
his work. It is to be observed, that he made free use of the
ancient grammarians, so that his vaunt of originality must be
referred to later times. Valla is very copious as to synonyms,
on which the delicate, and even necessary understanding of a
language mainly depends. If those have done most for any
science who have carried it farthest from the point whence
they set out, philology seems to owe quite as much to Valla
as to any one who has come since. Hie treadse was received
with enUiusiastic admiration, continually reprinted, honoured
with a paraphrase by Erasmus, commented, abridged, ex-
tracted, and even turned into verse."

9- Valla, however, self-confident and of do good temper,
in censuring the language of others, fell not unfre-
quently into mistakes of his own. Vives and Budffius,
coming in the next century, and in a riper age of philology,
blame the hypercritical disposition of one who had not the
means of pronouncing negatively on Latin words and phrases,
from his want of sufficient dictionaries ; his fastidiousness
became what they call superstition, imposing captious scruples
and unnecessary observances on himself and the wor]d.t And
of this species of superstition there has been much since his
time in philology.

10. Heeren, one of the few who have, in modem dmes,
Hecrm-i spoken of this work from personal knowledge, and
■^"""^ with sufficient learning, gives it a high character.
" Valla was without doubt the best acquainted with Latin of
any man in his age ; yet, no pedantic Ciceronian, he had
studied all the classical writers of Rome. His Elegaotite is

* Cornuni, iL 9ai. Tbe editioM of conMituerc lumtna nligione inttltbt]

Valla de El«guiliiii reDorded bj Fanicri deinde Judicu eerimouLa ungulari, cum

■re tireDtjr-eight !□ the fifteenth oeniuijr, prorectut quoque diligentiam «(unM,

beginoing in 1171, aod thirtj-one in the la earn Bupentitionem leaeim dd^uain

flnt thirty-iii yein of the next. erne, ut et cese ipK et alim nptiosii

-f Vires de tradecdii diBcipluiUi L ITS. obaerrationibui icribendique legibus ob-

BudKUB observes: — Ego Laureatium ligarcL Commeniu'.inLiag.Grcc. p.S6.

VaUeniem, cgragii ipiritui Tirum, eii- (Ij39.) Btit aonietiroea, perhapi. Valla

■timid sieeuli sui imperitia ofiramun pri- i> ri^t, and BudcBi VTong in eenauring

^uin latins loquendi eonnietudinein him.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CH4P.I1X] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 147

a work on grammar ; it contains an explanation of refined
tarns of expression ; especially where mey are peculiar to
Latin ; displaying not only an exact knowledge of that
tongue, but often also a really philosophical study of language
in general. In an age when nothing was so much valued as
a good Latin style, yet when the helps, of which we now
possess so many, were all wanting, such a work must obtain
a great success, since it relieved a necessity which every one
felt"'

II. We have to give this conspicuous scholar a place in
another line of criticism, that on the text and inter* vaikianno-
pretation of the New Testament. His annotations nIv'tm!^'
are the earliest specimen of explanations founded on ''°"''
the original language. In the course of these, he treats the
Vulgate with some severity. But Valla is said to have had
bat a slight knowledge of Greek t ; and it must also be owned,
that witli all his merit as a Latin critic, he wrote indifferently,
and with less classical spirit than his adversary Poggio. The
invectives of these against each other do little honour to their
memory, and are not worth recording in this volume, though
they could not be omitted in a legitimate history of the Italian
scholars.

Sect. II. 1450—1460.

Grtelt* M Italy — IneenUon of Prmting.

13. The capture of Constantinople in 14:53 drove a few

learned Greeks, who had lingered to the last amidst

the crash of their ruined empire, to the hospitable °'p'«>" ^

aad admiring Italy. Among these have been reck-

<Hied Argyropulos and Chalcondyles, successively teachers

■ p. 9S0. attentiu, osciUns tspE,et alias res ngcDi,

t Annii ibhiiie dumntii Hctodotum fidem apud eruditoi decoiit. Huel de

ri TbucTdidein Lstiait Uteris eiponebat Claris InterpreCibus, apud Blount. Dau-

UuTCDtiui Valla, in ea bene et ele- nou, hovevei, In the Biograpbie Univei-

KKnurdioeiidi eopUiquamtotuTolumiiu- lelle, art. ThucjdideiiaiBeTti that Vaila'a.

Dda ciplieaTit, inelegaiu tamen, et piene truialation of that historian ia generally

bnbama, Gr*cU ad boo llterii Icviler fBithrul. Thii would show no inconsIJer-

tiocliii, ad auctorum Bcntmtlits parum able knowledge of Greek for that age.

t: Go Ogle

148 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [Fakt I.

of their own lan^aage, Andronicus Callistua, who is said to
have followed the same profession both there and at Rome,
and Constandne Lascaris, of an imperial family, whose lessons
were ^ven for several years at Milan, and afterwards at
Messina. It seems, however, to be proved that Argyropulus
had been already for several years in Italy.*

13. The cultivation of Greek literature gave rise ahont

this time to a vehement controversy, which had

PlilonliU , . , ., 1 . 1 . ■ ■ T 1

mid Art,- some mfluence on pnilosopmcal opinions in Italy.
Gemiatus Pletho, a native of the Morea, and one
of those who attended the council of Florence in 1439, being'
an enthusiastic votary of the Platonic theories in metaphysics
and natural theology, communicated to Cosmo de' Medici
part of his own zeal ; and from that time the citizens of Flo-
rence formed a scheme of establishing an academy of learned
men, to discuss and propagate the Platonic system. This
seems to have been carried -into effect early in the present
decennial period.

14. Meantime, a treatise by Pletho, wherein he not only
Thtircoit. extolled the Platonic philosophy, which he mingled,
oonnj. gg ^^ jjjgu usual, with that of die Alexandrian
school, and of the spurious writings attributed to Zoroaster
and Hermes, but inveighed without measure ag^nst Aristotle
and his disciples, had aroused the Aristotelians of Greece,
where, as in western Europe, their master's authority had
long prevailed. It seems not improbable, that the Platonists
were obnoxious to the orthodox party for sacrificing their own
church to that of Rome ; and there is also some ground for
ascribing a rejection of Christianity to Pletho. TTie dispute^
at least, began in Greece, where Pletho's treatise met with
an angry opponent in Giennadius, patriarch of Constantinople-f
It soon spread to Italy ; Theodore Gaza embracing the cause
of Aristotle with temper and moderation t, and George of

* Hodf, TlraboKhi, Rncoe. Kbdifated tb> patrisrchau of Cooilanu-

t Pletho's death, in (n extreme old nople in 145S, haiing been raised to it

ige.isfiiedby Bruckcr.onthesulhorily in 1453. The public burning of Pletho'i

of George of Trebitond, before the cap- book wu in the intermediate time ; and

ture of Conatantinople. A letter, indeed, it ii agreed that thia vas done after hifl

of Bessarion, in 1463, (M^m. de I'Acad. death.

dea Inscript. >ol. ii.) leenu to impljrtbat f Hodf , p. 79., doubta whether Gau'i

he vas then living ; but this cannot tme rindieation of Ariitotle were not metelf

been the cue. Oenradiui, hii enemj, Terbal, in convenation with Beasarion;

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

CnAP.m.] FROM 1440 TO IfiOO. l-l-!)

Trebizond, a far inferior maD, with invectives agtdnst the
Platonic philosophy and its founder. Others replied in the
same tone ; and whether from ignorance or from rudeness,
this controversy appears to have heen managed as much with
abuse of the lives and characters of two philosophers, dead
nearly two thousand years, as with any rational discussion of
their tenets. Both sides, however, strove to make out, what
in fact was the ultimate object, that the doctrine they niain>
tuned was more consonant to the Christian religion than that
of their adversaries. Cardinal Bessarion, a man of solid and
elegant learning, replied to George of Trebizond in a book
entitled Adversus Qdumniatorem Platonis ; one of the first
books that appeared from the Roman press, in 1470. This
dispute may possibly have originated, at least in Greece,
before 14i50} and it was certfunly continued beyond 1460,
the writings both of George and Bessarion appearing to be
rather of later date.*

15. Bessarion himself was so iar from being as unjust
towards Aristotle as his opponent was towards Plato, that he
translated his metaphysics. That philosopher, though almost
the idol of the schoolmen, lay still in some measure under the
ban of the church, which liad very gradually removed the
prohilntion she laid on his writings in the beginning of the
thirteenth century. Nicolas V. first permitted them to be
read without restriction in the universities, t

16. Cosmo de' Medici selected Marsilius Ficinus, as a
youth of great promise, to be educated in the mys- Huiitiw
teries of Platonism, that he might become the chief *^='"'"-
and preceptor of die new academy ; nor did the devotion of
the young philosopher fall short of the patron's hope. Ficinus
declares himself to have profited as much by the conversation
of Cosmo as by the writings of Plato ; but this is s^d in a
dedication to Lorenzo, and the author has not, on other occa-

wliich i« hoireTeT implicUly contradicted of this philDOaphical controTeray, is liy

by Boivio and UraboKhi, who utert Boivio, in the second volume of the Mc-

him tohneoritEenagaitut Pletho. The moln of the Academj of InKriptioIl^

eoiDpuison of Plato and AiitCotle bjr p. 15. Bnicker.iT. 40., Buhic, ii. lOT.,

George of Trebiiond was published U and Tiraboschi, vi. 303., are my other

Venice in }SaS, aa Heeren wya on the authoritiei.
■utborilj of Fabricius.

• Th« beat aetount, and that from
vhieb later miten Imtc fVecly borraired.

lyGOOgIC

150 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»tL

Bions, escaped the reproach of flattery. He began as early
as 1456, at the age of twenty-three, to write on the Platonic
philosophy ; but being as yet ignorant of Greek, prudently
gave way to the advice of Cosmo and Lsndino, that be
should acquire more knowledge before he imparted it to the
world.'

17- The great glory of this decennial period is the invention
inKniioii or of printing, or at least, as all must allow, its appli-
r^^"'- cation to 3ie purposes of useful learning. The reader
will not expect a minute discussion of so long and unsettled
a controversy as that which the origin of this art has fiir-
nished. For those who are little conversant with the subject,
a very few particulars may be thought necessary.

18. About the end of the fourteenth century, we find a

practice of taking impressions from engraved blocks

of wood i somedmes for playing cards, which were
not generally used long before that time, sometimes for rude
cuts of sunts. t The latter were frequently accompanied by
a few lines of letters cut in the block. Gradually entire pages
were impressed in this manner ; and thus began what are
called block books, printed in fixed characters, but never ex-
ceeding a very few leaves. Of these there exist nine or ten,
often reprinted, as it is generally thought, between 1400 and
1440.t In using the word printed, it is of course not in-
tended to prqudice the question as to the real art of print-
ing. These block books seem to have been all executed in
the Low Countries. They are said to have been followed by
several editions of the short grammar of Donatus. § These
also were printed in Holland. This mode of printing from
blocks of wood has been practised in China from time im-
memorial.

] 9. The invention of printing, in the modem sense, from

moveable letters, has been referred by most to Guten-
MdCMtJ'j berg, a native of Mentz, but settled at Strasburg.

He is supposed to have conceived the idea before
1440, and to have spent the next ten years in making at-

* Bnicker, iv. 50, Roscoe.

t Heinekke and olhen hin
ttiM playing card* were known m urr-
niADy as early as 1299; but the^e were
probably puDted. Lambinet, Originea

lyGOOgIC

Chap.UI.] from 1440 TO 1500. 151

tempts at carrying it into effect, which some assert him to
have done m short fugitive pieces, actually printed from his
moveaUe wooden characters before 1450. But of the exist-
ence of these there seems to be no evidence.* Gutenberg's
prionly is disputed by those who deem Lawrence Costar of
Haarlem the real inventor of the art. According to a tra-
dition, which seems not to be traced beyond (he middle of
Hie sixteenth century, but resting afterwards upon sufficient
testimony to prove its local reception, Costar substituted move-
able for fixed letters as early as 14S0 ; and some have believed
that a book called Speculum humans Salvationis, of very
rode wooden characters, proceeded from the Haartem press
before any other that is generally recognised, t TTie tradition
adds, that an unfaithful servant having fled with the secret,
set up for himself at Strasburg or Mentz ; and this treachery
was originally ascribed to Gutenberg or Fust, bat seems,
since they have been manifestly cleared of it, to have been
laid on one Gensfleisch, reputed to be the brother of Guten-
berg, t The evidence, however, as to this is highly precari-
ous } and even if we were to admit the claims of Costar,
there seems no fair reason to dispute that Gutenberg might
also have struck out an idea, which surely did not require any
extraordinary ingenuity, and left the most important diffi-
cnlties to be surmounted, as they undeniably were, by him-
self and his coadjutors. §

20. It is agreed by all, that about 1450, Gutenberg,
having gone to Mentz, entered into partnership
wiUi Fast, a rich merchant of that city, for the ^2^
purpose of carrying the invention into effect, and
that Fust su|^lied him with considerable sums of money.
The subsequent steps are obscure. According to a passage
in the Annales Hirsargienses of Trithemius, written sixty
years afterwards, but on the authority of a grandson of

• HfnxMra da I'Aead. ila Inrcript. of Hadrinn Junius. Suituidcr, Lambi-
iin. 76S. LamlniKt, p. 1 18. net, and most recent icTeitigiton ua for

t In Hr. Ottley'i Hintory of Ed- Menu againit Hurlem.
gm'ing, th« eUina at Coatu are tUtmgfj ^ GeiuSeiicb kcqu to have been tlie
BaintaiDcd, thnugh chiefly on the au- name of that branch of the Gutenberg
tbority of MeermiD'a prooft, which go to &ini1 j la which the inventor of printing
tftabiiifa the local traditian. But the belonged. Biogr. Univ., art, Gutenberg.
•ndcDca of Ludovico Guiotnardini is an § Lambinet, p. 315.
■■nrer to tboaa wbo treat it a« a fcrgety

L 4

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

152 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»t1

Peter Scluefier, their assistant in the work, it was about
1452 that the latter brought the art to perfection, by de-
vising an easier mode of casting types.* Tliis passage has
been interpreted, according to a lax construction, to mean,
that SchEeffer invented the method of casting types in a
matrix ; but seems more strictly to intimate, that we owe to
him the great improvement in letter-casting, namely, the
punches of engraved steel, by which the matrices or moulcb
are struck, and without which, independent of the economy
of labour, there could be no perfect uniformity of shape.
Upon the former supposition, Schteffer may be reckoned the
main inventor of the art of printing ; for move}d)Ie wooden
letters, though small books may possibly have been printed
by means of them, are so inconvenient, and letters of cut
metal so expensive, that few great works were likely to have
passed through the press, till cast types were employed.
Van Praet, however, believes the psalter of 145? to have
been printed from wooden characters i and some have con-
ceived letters of cut met^ to have been employed both in that
and in the first Bible. Lambinet, who thinl« " the essence
of the art of printing is in the engraved punch," naturally
gives the chief credit to Schffiffert ; but this is not the more
usual opinion.

21. llie earUest book, properly so called, is now generally
Firit pHDtcd believed to be the Latin Bible, commonly otlled the
""*'''" Mazarin Bible, a copy having been found, about the
middle of the last century, in cardinal Mazarin*s library at Pa-
rb-t It is remarkable, that its existence was unknown before ;
for it can h^-dly be c^led a book of very extraordinary scarcity,
nearly twenty copies bang in different libraries, half of them
iu those of private persons in England. § No date appears

modutn rundendichsracieru eicogitaiit, toutes lea men^lles de I'art. i. 119.
et Bitem, ut nuna est, complciit Lmm- ( The Cologne chronicle mys, Anna

binct, i. 101. See Daunou contra. Id. Domini 1150, qui jubilttiu ent, cieptum

417. est imprimi, primusque liber, qui eieu-

t iL SIS. In mnother place, he di- debatur, bibliB fuere Latin*.
Tides the praiM better: Gloire done i § Bibliotbeca SuisexiaM, i. 999.

Gutenberg, qui, Ic premier, confut I'idie (E^!?-) T^' number ther« aiunKrated

de la tjpographie, en inuginuit la mo- a eighteen ; nine in public, and nine in

Iiilirt de» caroclcres, qui en eil I'Sme; private libraries ; three of ibe former, and

gloire i Fiut, qui en fit uuge avec lui, all the latter, Ei^liili.

lyGOOgIC

Cbap.IU.] from 1440 TO 1500. 153

in this Bible, and some have referred its publication to 1452, or
even to 1450, which few perhaps woula at present maintiun ;
while others have thought the year 1455 rather more proba-
ble.* In a copy belonging to the royal library at Paris, aii
entry is made, importing that it was completed in binding
and illuminating at Mentz, on the feast of the Assumption
(Aug. 15.), 1456. But Trithemius, in the passage above
quoted, seems to intimate that no book had been print«d in
145S ; and, considering the lapse of time that would na-
turally be employed in such an undertaking during the in-
iancy of the art, and that we have no other printed book of
the least importance to fill up the interval till 1457, and also
that the binding and illuminating the above-mentioned copy
a likely to have followed the publication at no great length
of time, we may not err in placing its appearance in the year
1455, whid) will secure its hitherto unimpeached priori^ in
the records of bibliograjdiy' t

32. It is a very striking circumstance, that the high*
minded inventors of this great art tried at the very Bawvof
outset so bold a fiight as the printing an entire Bible, "" '™^'
and executed it with astonishing success. It was Minerva
leaping on earth in her divine strength and radiant armour,
remly at the moment of her nativity to subdue and destroy
her enemies. The Mazarin Bible is printed, some copies on
vellum, some on paper of choice quality, with strong, black,
and tolerably handsome characters, but with some want of
uniformity, which has led, perhaps unreasonably, to a doubt
whether they were cast in a matrix. We may see in ima-
gination this venerable and splendid volume leading up the
crowded myriads of its followers, and imploring, as it were,

* Lambinet thinks it WW pTobRbly not cut in metal; by Heinekko and Daunou
b^un before 1 453, nor published till the &am cut type*, which ii most probable.
cod of 1455. i. ISa See, on thU Bible, Lambinet, I 417. Dounou doea not be-
an article bj Dr. Dibdin in Valpy'a Cla*' liere that any book was printed with
meti Journal, No. B. : which collecla the types cut either in wood or metsi j and
totimonica of hi* prcdeceawr*. that, after block booka, there were none

f It ia Tery difficult to pronounce on but with cast letters like Ihoae now in

the owthoda employed in the eulieat use, inrented by Gutenberg, perfected by

hooka, which are aintost all controTcrted Schsffer, and first employed by them

Thii Bible ia tbought by Foumier, him. and Fu-<t in the Maiarin BibU. Id.

•elf a letter -founder, to be printed from p, 4S3.
wopden types; by Meerman, front type*

lyGOOgIC

15* LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»iL

a blessing on the new art, by dedicating its first fruits to the
service of Heaven.

S3. A metrical exhortation, in the Giernian langua^ to
Eviyprrntid 1*^6 arms against the Turks, dated in 14>54, hag
•b«u. heen retrieved in the present century. If this date

unequivocally refera to the time of printing, which does not
seem a necessary consequence, it is the earliest loose sheet
that is known to be extant. It is said to be in the type of
what is called the Bamberg Bible, which we shall soon have
to mention. Two editions of Letters of Indulgence from
Nicolas v., bearing the date of 14^4<, are extant in single
printed sheets, and two more editions of 1455*; but it has
justly been observed, that, even if published before the Ma-
zarin Bible, the printing of that great volume most have
commenced long before. An almanac for the year 1457 has
also been detected ; and as fugitive sheets of this kind are
seldom preserved, we may justly conclude that the art of
printing was not dormant, so far as these h'ght productions
are concerned. A Donatas, with Scheefier's name, but no
date, may or may not be older than a psalter published in
1457, by Fust and Schceffer, (the partnership with Gutenberg
having been dissolved in November, 1455, and having led to
a dispute and litigation,) with a colophon, or notice, sub-
joined in the last page, in these words : —

Psalmonim codex venustate capitalium decoratus, rubrica-
tionibusque aufficienter distinctus, adinventione artiiiciosa
imprimendi ac caracterizandi, absque calami ulla exaratione
sic effigiatus, et ad eusebiam Dei industrie est summatus.
Per Johannem Fust, civem Moguntinum, et Petrura Schteffer
de Gernsheim, anno Domini millesimo cccclvii. In vigilia
Assumpdonis.t

A colophon, substantially similar, is subjoined to several

* Branet, Supplement au MtDuel du t Dibdio'i BibUotheca Spenceriui*.

Librure. Tt v*s not Icnowii till lately Biogr. UdIt., Gutenberg, &c. In the

that more than one edition out of theie Donaliu above mentioned,the method of

four was in existence. Sanlander thinks printing ii also mentioned : Explicit Do-

their publication was after H60. Diet, nstiu arte uon imprimendi nu caracte-

Bibliographique du I5nie si^cle, i. 93. rinadiper Petrura de Getnsb^m in lubo

ButthiiaeeDBiniprobable,fron:i thetran- M(^ntina effigiatua. Lambinet con-

■ihwT pJuracter of tbe lubjeet. He sr- aldera this and the Bible to be the Gnt

a reseniblaace id the letters to speeimem of ^pographj ; for be doubts

— .--_.. ^^ Liters? IndiJgentiaruDi, though pro-
bablj with no cause.

lyGOOgIC

CBAP.m.} FROM 1440 TO 1600. l53

of the Fusdne editions. And this seems hard to reconcile
with the story that Fust sold his impressions at Paris, as
late as 1463, for manuscripts.

S4. Another psalter was printed by Fust and Sch»ffer
with similar characters in 1459 ; and in the same p„,„, „,
year, Durandi Rationale, a treatise on the liturgical '^ ^,j
offices of the church j of which Van Praet says, "**''
diat it is perhaps the earliest with cast types to which Fust
and Schseffer have ^ven their name and a date.* The two
psalters he conceives to have been printed from wood. But
this would be disputed by other eminent judges.t In 1460,
a work of considerable size, the Catholicon of Balbi, came
out from an opposition press, established at Mentz by Guten-
berg. The Clementine Constitutions, part of the canon law,
were also printed by him in the same year.

35. These are die only monuments of early ^ography
acknowledged to come within the present decen- Bibieof
nium. A Bible without a date, supposed by most *""""'
to have been printed by Pfister at Ebmberg, though ascribed
by others to Gutenberg himself, is reckoned by good judges
certainly priorto 146@, and, perhaps, as earlya3l460. Daunou
and others refer it to 1461. The antiquities of typography,
after all the pains bestowed upon them, are not unlikely to
receive still further elucidation in the course of time,

26. On the 19th of January, 1458, as Crevier, with a
minuteness becoming the subject, informs ua, the ^ ^^
university of Paris received a peddon from Gregory, g|jjj< "
a nadve of Tifemo, in the kingdom of Naples, to
be appointed teacher of Greek. His request was granted,
and a salary of one hundred crowns assigned to him, on con-
£doD that he should teach gratuitously, and deliver two lec-
tnres every day, one on the Greek language, and the other
on the art of rhetoric.^ From this auspicious circumstance
Crevier deduces the restoration of ancient literature in the
university of Paris, and consequendy in the kingdom of
France. For above two hundred years the scholastic logic

* Larabinet. i. 154. ttirar being coat in ■ matrii of pluter or

f Lunbinet, Dibdin. The former day, irutrod of meUl.

thinki the inequtlily of leltera obwned ] Crevier, Hlit. de I'Univ. de Puis,

in the pnllcr of 1457 maj proceed from i<r. £43.

t: Go Ogle

15() LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»tI.

nnd philosophy had crushed poHte letters. No mendon is
made of rhetoric, that is, of the art that instructs in the orna-
ments of style, in any statute or record of the university since
the beginning of the thirteenth century. If the Greek lan-
guage, as Crevier supposes, had not been wholly neglected,
it was, at least, so little studied, that entire neglect would
have been practically the same.

S7< This concession was perfat^ unwitling'ly made, and,
as frequently happens in established institutions, it
"iiiin^r left the prejudices of the ruling' party rather stronger
than before. The teachers of Greek and rhetoric
were specially excluded from the privileges of r^ency by the
faculty of arts. These branches of knowledge were looked
upon as unessential appendages to a good education ; bnt a
bigoted adherence to old systems, and a lurking reluctance
that the rising youth should become superior in knowledge
to ourselves, were no peculiar evil spirits that haunted the
university of Paris, though none ever stood more in need of
a thorough exorcism. For many years after this time, the
Greek and Latin languages were thus taught by permission,
and with very indifferent success.

@8. Purbach, or Peurbach, native of a small Austrian '
i^rbuhi town of that name, has been called the first restorer
m^ti^i'du- of mathematical science in Europe. Ignorant of
mteriei. Greck, and possessing only a Itad translation of
Ptolemy, lately made by George of Trebizond*, he yet was
able to explun the rules of physical astronomy and the theory
of the plauetary motions far better than his predecessors.
But his chief merit was in the construction of trigonometrical
tables. The Greeks had introduced the sexagesimal division,
not only of the circle, but of the radius, and calculated chords
according to this scale. The Arabians, who about the ninth
century first substituted the sine, or half chord of the double
arch, in their tables, preserved the same graduation. Pur-
bach made one step towards a decimal scale, which the new
notation by Arabic numerals rendered highly convenient, by

■ Montucia, Biogr. UnJT. It U bow- text of this translBtion, which, if ignorant

everecrtain,Biidi9a^ittedbrDelanibre, of Iheorigiiu], he mual have doue b; hii

the author of this article in the Biog. niathemKtiol knowledge. Kifittko-, IL

Univ., that Purbach made coosidersble 5S1.
progress in abridging and explaining the

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CHJLP.ni.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 157

dividiog the radius, or sinus totus, as it was then often called,
into 600,000 parts, and gave rules for computing the sines
of arcs J which he himself also calculated, for every minute
of the quadrant, as Delambre and Kastner think, or for every
ten minutes, according to Gassendi and Button, in parts of
this radius. The tables of Albaten the Arabian geometer,
the inventor, as far as appears, of sines, had extended only
to quarters of a degree.*

29- Purhach died young, in 1461, when by the advice of
cardinal Bessarion, he was on the point of setting
out for Italy, in order to learn Greek. His mantle ^,;j"*-
descended on Regiomontanus, a disciple, who went
beyond his master, though he has sometimes borne away his
due credit A mathematician rather earlier than Purbach
was Nicolas Cusanus raised to the dignity of cardinal in
1448. He was by birth a German, and obtained a con-
siderable reputation for several kinds of knowledge, t But
he was chiefly distinguished for the tenet of the earth's mo-
tion, which, however, according to Montucla, he proposed
only as an ingenious hypothesis. Fioravanti, of Bologna, is
said, on contemporary authority, to have removed, in 14-55,
a tower with its foundation, to a distance of several feet, and
to have restored to the perpendicular one at Cento seventy-
five feet high, which had swerved five feet.1:

Sect. III. 1460—1470.

Prxjgreu q/' Art of Pnnlmg — Learning m Italy and rat of Europe.

30. The progress of that most important invention, which
illustrated the preceding ten years, is the chief subject of our

■ ModIucU, HuLdesMathJidatiqueB, -f A work upon itatica, or rather upon

i. 539. Ilutton's Mithemuical Dictio- the weight of bodi« in water, by Cun-

iiBi7,andhUIntn>duetiun toLogarithnu. nun, wcing chiefly remarkable, u it iliows

Gasiendi, Vita Purbscbil. Blogr. Univ. both ■ disptnilion f) sseertain phyniuil

Peurhacb (by Deiambte). Kiialner, Ge- truths bj experiment, and an eitraordi-

Khiehte der Mitheoutik. L 539 — 543. nsrj misappreheoainn of the rnuiti. See

ST2.: ii. S19. Canendl twice gtva Kastner, ii. 112. It ia published in an

OfiOOJOOO tbi the parti of Puibach'g n- edition of VitruTiua, Strasburg, 1550.

diD)L None of tbe«e writen teem eoni- ( Hiabotehl. Montucla, Biogr. Unir.

t: Go Ogle

158 LITEEATUEE OF EUROPE [Pa»tI.

coDsideratioii in the present. Many books, it is to be observed,
even of the superior class, were printed, especially in
fetmoS'" ^^ '*'^' thirty years after the invention of the 10%
without date of time or place j and this was, of
course, more frequently the case with smaller or fugitive
pieces. A catalogue, dierefore, of books that can be cer-
tainly referred to any particular period must always be very
defective. A collection of fables in German was printed at
Bamberg in I^Sl, and another book in 14i6S, by Ffister, at
the same place.* The Bible which bears his name has been
already mentioned. In 1462 Fust published a Bible, commonly
called the Mentz Bible, and which passed for the earliest till
that in the Mazarin library came to light. Bat in the same
year, the city having been taken by Adolphus count of
Nassau, the press of Fust was broken up, and his workmen,
whom he had bound by an oath to secrecy, dispersed them-
selves into different quarters. Released thus, as they seem
to have thought, from their obligation, they exercised their
skill in other places. It is certfun, that the art of printing,
soon after this, spread into the towns near the Rhine ; not
only Bamberg, as before mentioned, but Cologne, Strasburg,
Augsburg, and one or two more places, sent forth books
before the conclusion of these ten years. Nor was Mentz
altogether idle, after the confu^on occasioned by political
events had abated. Yet the whole number of books printed
with dates of time and place, in the Grermaa empire, from
1461 to 1470, according to Panzer, was only twenty-four ;
of which five were Latin, and two Crerman, Bibles. The
only known classical works are two editions of Cicero de
Ofiicils, at Mentz, in 1465 and 1466, and another about the
latter year at Cologne by Ulric Zell ; perhs^s too the treatise
de Finibus, and that de Senectute, at the same place. There
is also reason to suspect that a Virgil, a Valerius Maximus,
and a Terence, printed by Mentelin at Strasburg, without a
date, are as old as 1470 ; and the same has been thought of
one or two editions of Ovid de Arte Amandi by Zell of
Cologne. One book, Joannis de Turrecremata Explanatio
in psalterium, was printed by Zainer at Cracow, in 1465.
This is remarkable, as we have no evidence of the Polish

lyGOOgIC

CiiAr.III.] FltOM 1440 TO 1500. 159

press from that time tUl 1500. Several copies of this book
are stdi to exist in Poland ; yet doubts of its authenticity
have been entert^ned. Zainer settled soon afterwards at

31. It was in 1469 that Ulrick Grering, with two more
who had been employed as pressmen by Fust at jntmioced
MeDtz, were induced by Fichet and Lapierre, rectors *"" ^™""
of the Sorbonne, to come to Paris, where several books
were printed in 14^0 and 1471. The epistles of Gasparin
of Bu-ziza appear, by some verses subjoined, to have been
the earliest among these, t Panzer has increased to eighteen
the list of books printed there before the close of 14-72.1:

32. But there seem to be unquestionable proofs that a still
earlier specimen of typography is due to an English cau«i-t
printer, the famous Caxton. His Recueit des His- '""■"**■
toires de Troye appears to have been printed during the life
of Philip duke of Burgundy, and consequently before Jime
15. 1407. The place of publication, certfunly within the
duke's dominions, has not been conjectured. It is, therefore,
by several years the earliest printed book in the French
langaage.§ A Latin speech by Russell, ambassador of Edward
IV. to Charles of Burgundy, in 1469, is the next publication
of Caxton. lliis was also printed in the Low Countries. ||

33. A more splendid scene was revealed in Italy. Sweyn-
heim and Pannartz, two workmen of Fust, set up a ^^^^
press, doubtless with encouragement and patronage, \^^^ ■■
at the monastery of Subiaco in the Apennines, a

place chosen either on account of the numerous manuscripts
it contained, or because the monks were of the Crerman
nation ; and hence an edition of Lactandus issued in October,
1465, which one, no longer exbmt, of Donatus's little gram-
mar is said to have preceded. An edition of Cicero de Officiis,
without a date, is referred by some to the year 1466. In
1467, after printing Augustin de Civitate Dei, and Cicero de

• Fuuer, AnoaleiTjrpographiai. Bio- § [I Mn obliged to a eorrcspondeiit
g¥aftd UiUTenclle, Zuner. for reminding mr, (hit the Recueil des

* Tlw Urt four of tb«M llset are the Hisloirn de Troye, though ptinted, and
triloviag: — afterwards translated, by Caiton, waa

iUtn by Raoul le Fevre. — 184T.1
H Dibdin'i Typosr '

'pognpi

iced in the Biogrspliie
Early PaiiMUi Unirenelle, nor in Brunet ; an omiaaion

lyGOOgIC

l60 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtL

Oratore, the two Germans left Subiaco f6r Rome, where
they sent forth not less than twenty-three editions of ancient
Latin authors before the close of 1470. Another German,
John of Spire, established a press at Venice, in 14r69, begin-
ning with Cicero's Epistles. In that and the next year,
almost as many classical works were printed at Venice as at
Rome, either by John and his brother Vindelin, or by a
Frenchman, Nicolas Jenson. Instances are said to exist of
books printed by unknown persons at Milan, in 1469 ; and
in 1470j Zarot, a German, opened there a fertile source of
typography, though but two Latin authors were published
uiat year. An edition of Cicero's Epistles appeared also in
the litde town of Foligno. The whole number of books that
had issued from the press in Italy at the close of that year
amounts, according to Panzer, to eighty-two ; exclusive of
those which have no date, some of which may be referrible to
this period.

34. Cosmo de' Medici died in 1464. But the happy
Ldnnioda impulsc he bad given to the restoration of letters
Maud. ^gg jjQj suspended ; and in the last year of the
present decad, his wealth and his influence over the republic
of Florence had devolved on a still more conspicuous character,
his grandson Lorenzo, himself worthy, by hus literarj' merits,
lo have done honour to any patron, had not a more prosperous
fortune called him to become one.

35. The epoch of Lorenzo's accession to power is dis-
luiim ting^ished by a circumstance hardly less honourable
^SuStt^ than the restoration of classical learning, — the
«n""7- revival of native genius in poetry, after the slumber
of near a hundred years. After the death of Petrarch,
many wrote verses, but none extolled in the art ; though
Muratori has praised the poetry down to 1400, espedally
that of Giusto di Conti, whom he does not hesitate to place
among the first poets of Italy.* But that of the fifteenth
century is abandoned by all critics as rude, feeble, and ill
expressed. The historians of literature scarcely deign to
mention a few names, or the editors of selections to extract a
few sonnets. The romances of chivalry in rhyme, Buovo d*

■ Murat«ridellapeifettapi>esia,p.l93. Bouterwek, Gesch. der lul. Poene.

lyGOOgIC

Cbaf.IIL] from 1440 TO 1500. 16I

Antona, la Spagna, I'Ancroja, are only deserving to be
remembered as they led in some measure to the great poems
of Boiardo and Ariosto. In themselves they are mean and
prosaic It is vain to seek a general cause for this sterility
in the cultivation of Latin and Greek literature, which we
know did not obstruct the brilliancy of Italian poetry in the
next age. There is only one cause for the want of great
men in any period; — nature does not think fit to produce
them. They are no creatures of education and circum-
stanoe.

36. The Italian prose literature of this interval from the age
of Petrarch would be comprised in a few volumes. ,^|„ ^^0.8
Some historical memoirs may be found in Muratori, "f """«"■
but far the chief part of his collection is in Latin. Leonard
Aretin wrote lives of Dante and Petrarch in Italian, which,
according to Comiani, are neither valuable for their informa-
tion nor for their style. The Vita Civile of Palmieri seems
to have been written some time after the middle of the fifteenth
century; but of this Comiani says, that having wished to give
a specimen, on account of the rarity of Italian in that age, he
had abandoned his intention, finding that it was hardly possible
to read two sentences in the Vita Civile without meeting some
barbarism or incorrectness. The novelists SacchettI, and Set
Giovanni, author of the Pecorone, who belong to the end of
die fonrteenth century, are read by some j their style is
familiar and idiomatic ; but Crescimbeni praises that of the
former. Comiani bestows some praise on Passavanti and
Pandolfini ; the first a religious writer, not much later than
Boccaccio ; the latter a noble Florentine, author of a moral
^alogue in the banning of the fifteenth century. Filelfo,
among his voluminous productions, baa an Italian commen-
tary on Petrarch, of which Comiani speaks very slightingly.
The commentary of Landino on Dante is much better es-
teemed ; but it was not published till 1481.

37* It was on occasion of a tournament, wherein Lorenzo
himself and his brother Julian had appeared in the mcMinar
lists, that poems were composed by Luigi Pulci, ^°'"'*°-
and by Polidan, then a youth, or rather a boy, the latter of
which displayed more harmony, spirit, and imagination, than

VOL. I. M

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

l62 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PawL

any that had been written since the death of Petrarch.* It
might thus be seen, that there was no real incompatibihty
between the pursuits of ancient hteratore and the popular
language of fancy and sentiment ; and that, if one gave
chastity and elegance of style, a more lively and natur^
expression of the mind could best be attiuned by the other.
38. This period was not equally fortunate for the learned
in other parts of Italy. Ferdinand of Naples, who
purtMUMi came to the throne in 1458, proved no adequate re-

Ehft iHTned. , f ^ ' f J a if n r*

presentative of his father Alfonso. But at Rome
they encountered a serious calamity. A few zealous scholars,
such as Pomponius Lsetus, Platina, Callimachus Experiens,
formed an academy in order to converse together on subjects
of learning, and communicate to each other the results of
their private studies. Dictionaries, indexes, and all works of
compilation being very deficient, this was the best substitute
for Uie labour of perusing the whole body of Latin antiquity.
They took Roman names j an innocent folly, long after
practised in Europe. The pope, however, Paul II., thought
nt, in 14i68, to arrest all this society on charges of con-
spiracy against his life, for which there was certainly no
foundation, and of setting up Pagan superstitions against
Christianity, of which, in this instance, there seems to have
been no proof. They were put to the torture, and kept
in prison a twelvemonth ; when the tyrant, who is said to
have vowed this in his first rage, set them all at liberty ;
but it was long before the Roman academy recovered any
degree of vigour.t

S9< We do not discover as yet much substantial en-
couragement to literature in any country on tliis side the

* Eitracts from thti poem will be thete two years make an immense diflbr-

found in Roscoe'a Lorrnio. and la Sis- cdcc Ginaudn6 i* of opinion, tbat Ibe^

iBOndi, Litl^rature du Midi, ii. 43., wlio do not allude to the touroanieDt of 146S,

pruKt it bighlj, u tha Italian nitics but to one in I4TS.

hava done, and aa b; the pungei quoted f Tirabosehi, n. 93. GinguSni.

itieeinawell to deserve. Koseoe BUpposes Brucker. Cotnieni,iL 380. Thianriler,

Politian lo be only Iburteen jean old inferior to none in hia acq uain lance with

when he wrote the Giottra di Giullano. the literature of the finecntheenlur;, but.

But the line* he quotes allude to Lorenio though not an eec]esiattie,alvafs hvouT-

as chief of the republic, which could able to the court of Rome, aeem* to itriTC

not ha lud before the death of Pietio in to lay the blame on the imprudence ot

December.' 1469. If he wrote [hem at Platina.
sixteen, it a cilraordinir; enough; but

n,gt,7cdiyC00glc

CHAP.m.] FHOM 1440 TO 1500. 163

Alps, with the exception of one where it was least to be aa-
ttcipated. Mathias Corvinus, king of Hungary, from kuiii«
his accession in 1458 to his death in 1490, endea- ^^"^-^
voured to collect round himself the learned of Italy, and to
strike light into the midst of the depths of darkness that
encompaased his country. He determined, therefore, to erect
an university, which, by the original plan, was to have been
in a disdnct city ; but the Turkish wars compelled him to
6x it at Buda. He avuled himself of the dispersion of
libraries after the capture of CoustantiDople to purchase
Gredc manuscripts, and emfdoyed fonr transcribers at Flo-
rence, besides thirty at Buda, to enrich his collection. Thus,
at his death, it is said that the royal library at Buda
coQtuDed dO,000 volumes ; a number that appeu?
wholly incredible.* l^iree hundred ancient statnes are re-
ported to have been placed in the same repository. But
• when the city fell into the hands of the Turks in 15^, these
noble treasures were dispersed, and iu great measure de-
stroyed. Though the number of books, as is just observed,
must have been exaggerated, it is possible that nei^er the
burning of the Alexandriau library by Omar, if it ever oc-
carred, nor any other single calamity recorded in history,
except the two captures of Constantinople itseK, has been
more fatally injurious to literature ; and, with due regard to
the good inteutions of Mathius Corvinus, it is deeply to be
regretted that the inestimable relics once rescued from the
barbarian Ottomans, should have been accumulated in a situ-
ation of so little securi^ against their devastating arms.t

40. England under Edward IV. presents an appearance,
in the annals of publication, about as barren as .,, ^ ,
under Edward the Confessor ; there is, 1 think, P^'^^*'^"^
neither in Latin nor in Englisl^ a single book that
we can refer to this decennial period.^ Yet we find a few

* The library oollected by Nicolu V. p. 173., who refers to several modern

eoDtaincd OcJy 5000 muiiuciiptiL The booki eiprenlj reUliag to Ihe bto of thU

ralamei printed m Europe before tbe library. Part of it, hoireier, found its

dcatb of Cornimu would probably ba way to that of Vienna.

nckoned highly at 15,000. Heerennia- t Tha university of Oxford, according

pecta tbe number 50,000 to be hyper- to Wood, as well as the chureh generally,

bolicalj and in fact thera can be oo doubt stood Tery low about this tima : the

of it __ grammar aehoolB *ere laid aside ; de-

t Brucfcer, Boccoe, Gibbon. Heercn, grwi were conferred on uDdeacrring per.i

»2 C^ooglc

Ifii LITEBATUEE OF EUROPE UPa»t L

symptoms, not to be overlooked, of the iodpient r^ard to
literature. Leland enumerates some Englishmen who tr»<
veiled to Italy, perhaps before 1460, in order to become
disciples of the yonnger Guarini at Ferrara : Robert Flem-
ing, William Gray, bishop of Ely, John Free, John Gun-
thorpe, and a very accomplished nobleman, John liptofr,
earl of Worcester, It is but fairness to give credit to these
men for their love of learning, and to observe, that they
preceded any whom we could mention on sure grounds
either in France or Germany. We trace, however, no dis-
tinct fruits from their acquisitions. But, though very few
had the means of attaining that on which we set a high
value in literature, the mere rudiments of grammatical learn-
ing were communicated to many. Nor were munificent
patrons, testators, in the words of Burke, to a posterity
which they embraced as their own, wanting in this latter pe-
riod of die middle ages. William of Wykeham, chancellor -
of England under Richard II., and bishop of Winchester,
founded a school in that city, and a college at Oxford in
connexion widi it, in 1S73.* Henry VI., in imitation of
him, became the founder of Eton school, and of King's Col-
lege, Cambridge, about 1 442.1 In each of these schools
seventy boys, and in each college seventy fellows and scholars,
are maintained by these princely endowments. It is unneces-
sary to observe, that they are still the amplest, as they are
much the earliest, foundaiions for the support of granmiatical
learning in England. What could be taught in these, or
any other schools at this time, the reader has been enabled
to judge } it must have been the Latin language, through
inherent books of grammar, and with the perusal of very
few heathen writers of antiquity. In the curious and unique
collection of the Paeton letters we 6nd one from a boy at
Eton ill 1468, wherein he gives two Latin verses, not very

u kept up m the uniTerntjr under the of soiu of gentlemen (gentiliui

(uperintendence of muttr* of arts. it. D. educated in hit Khool. Chuidler'i Lift

I44S. Uut the statutes of Mmgdolen of Waynflete, p.5.

College, fuundrd in the reign urEdirard, f Wajnflete tMrsDie the GfbI head

provide for a ceruiti degree of leamiDg. mulcr of Eton in 144S. Chanilter,

•■- ChatKller's Life of Waynflele, p- ZOO. p. 26.

lyGOOgIC

CaAP.ni.] rnosT 1440 to isoo. 1G5

good, of his own composition.* I am sensible that the
mention of such a circumHtance may appear trifling, espe-
dally to forei^ers : but it is not a trifle to illustrate by any
fact the gradual prc^ess of knowledge among the laity;
first in the mere elements of reading and writing, as we did
in a former chapter ; and now, in the fifteenth century,
in such grammatical instruction as could be imparted.
This boy of the Paston family was well bom, and came
fi-om a distance ; nor was he in training for the church,
since he seems by this letter to have had marriage in con-
tempIatioD.

41. But the Paston letters are, in other respects, an im-
portant testimony to the progressive condition of putan
society, and come in as a precious link in the chain **""*'
of the moral history of England, which they aloue in this
period supply. They stand indeed singly, as far as I know,
in Europe ; for though it is highly probable that in the
archives of Italian families, if not in France or Germany, a
series of merely private letters equally ancient may be con-
cealed, I do not recollect that any have been published.
liiey are all written in the rdgns of Henry VI. and Ed-
ward IV., except a few as late as Henry YII., by different
members of a wealthy and respectable, but not noble, family ;
and are, therefore, pictures of the life of the English gentry
in that age-t We are merely concerned with their evidence
as to the state of literature. And this upon the whole is
more favourable than, from the want of authorship in those
reigns, we should be led to anticipate. It is plain that
several members of the family, male and female, wrote not
only grammatically, but with a fluency and facility, an epis-
ti^ry expertness, which implies the habitual use of the pen.
Their expression is much less formal and quaint than that of

• Vol. I p. SOI. Of WtllUm Paston, vclumei, and hu become Karce. The

■Dtliararil)e«elmei,it iinid,ii>ine7«n length has been doubled b; an iqjudi-

bribre, that he had "'gone to achool lo a cioui proceeding of the editor, in priut-

Lombwd called Kuol Giles, to lesrn and ing the original oithograpbj and ibbre-

lo be read in poetry, or elae in French. Tiationi of the letten on each left-hand

He taid, that he voiild be ju glad and ai page, and a more Irgible moilem torm on

binofagoodbaokofFrenehorof poetry the right. As orthography ii oT little

a* my mailer FalitaS* would be to pur- importance, and abbreTiationa of none at

chaae a &ir manor." p. I7S. (1459.) all, it <rould have been suffioient to haro

t Thia collectioa it in Gte quarto giren a nngle ipecimen.

"^ V, Google

160 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtL

modern novelists, when diey endeavour to feign the famili&r
style of ages much later than the fifteenth century. Some
of them mix Latin with their English, very bad, and probably
for the sake of concealment ; and Ovid is once mentioned as
a book to be sent from one to another.* It appears highly
probable, that sudi a series of letters, with so much vivaci^
and pertinence, would not have been written by any &mily of
English gentry in the reign of Richard IJ., and much less
before. It is hard to judge from a single case ; but the
letter of Lady Felham, quoted in the first chapter of this
volume, is ungrammatical and unintelligible. The seed,
therefore, was now rapidly germiuatii)g beneath the ground;
and thus we may perceive that the publication of books is not
the sole test of the intellectual advance of a people. I may
add, that although the middle of the fifteenth century was
the period in which the fewest books were written, a greater
number, in the opinion of experienced judges, were tran-
scribed in that than in any former age ; a circumstance easily
accounted for by tiie increased use of linen paper.

4>2. It may be observed here, with reference to the state

of learning generally in England down to the age
ijonorpub^ immediately preceding the Reformation, that Le-

land, in the fourth volume of his Collectanea, has
given several lists of books in collies and monasteries,
which do not by any means warrant the supposition of a
tolerable acquuntsnce with ancient literature. We find,
however, some of the recent translations made in Italy from
Greek authors. The clergy, in fact, were now retrograding,
while the laity were advancing; and when this was Uie case,
the ascendency of the former was near its end.

43. I have said that there was not a new book written

within these ten years. In the days of our fathers

it would have been necessary at least to mention as
a forgery the celebrated poems attributed to Thomas Rowley.
But, probably, no one person living believes in their authen-i

* " Ai tD OTid de atta louindi, J ahall early ; bill Zdl of CcJogDe i* auppoMd

■end hlin joa next week, for J have him to hare yvinted ocw before I4T0, ■■ hu

not now ready." It. ITS. ThU «u be- been mentioned abore. Whether the

tween 1163 and 146d, aoeording to the biKilf to be tent were in print, or manu-

editor. We do not iinow poiiliTely of script, tnurt be left to the aagadty at

anyedilioii of OHd dc .arte amandi m critics.

n,g -ccT'GoOgIc

CaAP.m.] FROM 1440 TO 1600. lO?

tidty ; nor sbould I have alluded to so palpable a fabrication
at ^1, but for tbe curious circumatancc tbat a very similar
trial of literary credulity bas not long since been essayed in
France. A gentleman of tbe name of Surville cioindada
published a collection of poems, alleged to have ^^"''■
been written by Clotilde de Sarville, a poetess of the fifteenth
century. The muse of the Ardeche warbled her notes during
a longer life than tbe monk of Bristow ; and having sung
the relief of Orleans by the Maid of Arc in 14S9t lived to
pour her swan-like cbant on tbe battle of Fomova in 1495.
Love, however, as much as war, is her theme ; and it was
a remarkable felicity that she rendered an ode of her proto>
type Sappho into French verse, many years before any one
else in France could have seen it. But having, like Rowley,
anticipated too much the style and sentiments of a later
period, she has, like him, fallen into the numerous ranks of
the dead who never were alive.*

Sect. IV. 1471—1480.

44. The books printed in Italy during these ten years

amount, accordins: to Panzar, to 1S97; of which

234 are editions of ancient classical authors. Books j^^'""^

without date are of course not included ; and the

list must not be reckoned complete as to others.

45. A press was established at Florence by Lorenzo, in

• AugnU, EmuciI dm Foitn, lol. iL Adfurljnmni qnlTgodmltim wBf«?
B'K^. UniY., SutTUlt VillemuD, C<m« Sj'^"^ S',>S"u"t ^rS*"""""
it Llttfnlure, to). iL KiTUondi, HIM. Htfat lor rail, chei tjna, itoat Ita unm

b)' no means to groa u that of Chatter- s^t Z p^i^tr^t™"^"''™) itSiumtt '

ton; but, M M. Siimondi ttjn, " Wb h«T8 Tn ■UrtS.ijiH.qimwMitpluicyiuiii.

oolj to comiure Clotilde with the duke It hu been JuitW renurkedL tbat the

of Otleine, or Villon," The following eitr«!ts ffom Clotilde in tbe Recueil del

Bnca, quoted bj htio, will giie the reader aneieni Pojtea occupy too mush ipaee,

• &iri|>eciineni_ while the genuine writen of the fifteenth

SntToul'iBKiur. leleDHKIaiUiinri century appear in very acuity Epecimeni.

Cj DOa ituiKl IDT VU cliunuu Se bmdiw.

t: Co Ogle

168 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PamI.

whidi CenniDi, a goldsmith, was employed ; the first printer,
except CaxtoD and Jenaon, who was not a Gremian. Virgil
was published in 147L Several other ItaUati cities began
to print in this period. The first edition of Dante issued
from Foligno in 14-7^ i it has been improbably, as well as
erroneously, referred to Mentz. Petrarch had been pub-
lished in 1470, and Boccase in 14/71- They were reprinted
several times before the close of this decad.

46. No one had attempted to cast Greek types in suffi-
Fim Gntk cient number for an entire book ; though a few
'"''"*'■ occur in the early publications by Sweynheim and
Pannartz ' ; while in those printed afterwards at Venice,
Greek words are inserted by the pen ; till, in 1476, Zarot
of Milan had the honour of giving the Greek grammar of
Constantine Lascaris to the world, f This was followed in
1480 by Craston's lexicon, a very imperfect vocabulary; but
which for many years continued to be the only assistance of
the kind to whidi a student could have recourse. The
author was an Italian.

4<7< Ancient learning is to be divided into two great de-
staijot partments; the knowledge of what is contained in
«ioqfliu«. ^jjj, ^Qpjja Qf Greek and Roman authors, and that
of the materiel, if I may use the word, which has been pre-
served in a bodily shape, and is sometimes known by the
name of antiquities. Such are buildings, monuments, in-
scriptions, coins, medals, vases, instruments, which by grar
dual accumulation have thrown a powerful light upon ancient
history and literature. The abundant riches of Italy in these
remains could not be overlooked as soon as Hie spirit of
admiration for all that was Homait began to be kindled.
Petrarch himself formed a little collection of coins ; and his

* Gieelc type* fint appear in >tr»ti)« 146J,lhe Aulua Gelliui and Apulniu of
of Jerome, printed at Rome in M<i8. Swejnheun and Paiinuti, 1469, and (omc
Heercn, from Faiucr. work* of Bcnarion about the nine time.
' f Laicaria Grammatica Gma, Me- I n all Ibeae it is remarkable that the
diolanl tx reongnitione Demetril CreteO' Greek lypognphj ii legibly md credit-
ail per Dionjnum ParaTiiinum,4to. The abl; exeeuled, irbereai the Greek intro-
eharactera in thii rare volume are el^ant duoed into the Officla et ParadoTa of
and of a modeiale tiie. The earliest Cicero, Milan, 1474, by Zaiol, ia w de-
ppecimeni of Greek printing coniist of formed aa to be icarcely legible, I am
detached paasaget and citaliuni; found in indebted fur the whole of Ihii note to
a terjr few of the flrtt printed copi« of Greiwell'i Early Paiiaian Greek Prcai,
I^lin anlliois, audi at the Lactonliu* of L J.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Ciur.III.] PHOM 1440 TO 1600. 169

conteinporary Pastrengo was the first who copied inscrip-
tions ; but in the early part of the fifteenth century, her
scholars and her patrons of letters began to collect the scat-
tered relics, which almost every region presented to them.*
Nicix>lo Niccoli, according to the tunera) oration of Poggio,
possessed a series of medals, and even wrote a treatise in
Italian, correcting the common orthography of Latin words,
im the authority of inscriptions and coins. The love of col-
lecdon increased from this time ; the Medici and other rich
patrons of letters spared no expense in accumulating these
treasures of the antiquary. Ciriacus of Ancona, about 1440,
travdled into the East in order to copy inscriptions ; but he
was naturally exposed to deceive himself and to be deceived ;
nor has he escaped the suspicion of imposture, or at least of
excessive credulity.t

48. The first who made bis researches of this kind col-
lectively known to the world, was Biondo Flavio, or workion
Flavio Biondo, — for the names may be found in a """**'"■
different order, but more correctly in the firstt, — secretary
to Eugenius IV., and to bis successors. His long residence
at Rome inspired him with the desire, and gave him the
Importunity, of describing her imperial ruins. In a work,
dedicated to Eugenius IV., who died in 1447, but not printed
till 1471, entitled, Romn Instauratse libri tres, he describes,
examines, and explains by the testimonies of ancient authors,
. the numerous monuments of Rome. In another, Romse
Trinmphantis libri decern, printed about 147^, he treats of
the government, laws, religion, ceremonies, military disci-
pline, and other antiquities of the republic. A third work,
compiled at the request of Alfonso king of Naples, and
printed in 1474, called Italia Illustrata, contiuns a descrip-
tion of all Italy, divided into its ancient fourteen regions.
Though Biondo Flavio was almost the first to hew his way

* HimtKach!, Toll. t. md y\. Andr^ Cyrlsque. One tbil reiti on his au-

b, 1!K>. thoril; is that which ia tuppuuKl to re-

t "niaboKbi. Andria, ii. 199. Ci- cord Ibe peneeution of Ihe Chrutians in

riaeo haa oot wanted adrocaln : (ome of Spain under Nero. See LarJner's Jcwiah

the inaeriplioni be vai aecuied of baring and Hcathm Teatimonira, vol. i., who,

tlfged hare turned out to be authentic ; though by no meena ■ credutciui critic,

«m1 it ii preiumed in hia TaTour, that inclinca to ili genuincneu.
Mhera which do not appear may have f Zeno, Dissertaziani V'oaiiane, i. 239.
pmriMd aince hia time, fiiogr. Univ.,

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

170 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»tI.

into the rock, which should cause his memory to be re-
spected, it has uaturally happened, that his works being
imperfect and faulty, in comparison with those of the great
antiquaries of the sixteenth century, they have not found a
place in the collection of Grcevius, and are hardly remem-
bered by name.*

49. In Germany and the Low Countries the art of printing
pu'iicifi™, began to be exerdsed at Deventer, Utrecht, Louvain,
'"**"""'■ Basle, Ulm, and other places, and in Hungary at
Buda. We find, however, very few ancient writers ; the
whole list of what can pass for classics being about thirteen.
One or two editions of parts of Aristotle in Latin, from trans-
lations lately made in Italy, may be added. Yet it was not
the length of manuscripts that discouraged the German
printers ; for besides their editions of the Scriptures, Men-
telin of Strasburg published, in 1473, the great encyclopeedia
of Vincent of Beauv^s, in ten volumes folio, generally bound
in four ; and, in 1474', a similar work of Bercborius, or
BerchiEur, in three other folios. The contrast between
these labours and tht^e of his Italian contemporaries is
very striking.

50, Florus and Salluat were printed at Paris early in this

decad, and twelve more classical authors at the same
place before its termination. An edition of Cicero
ad Herennium appeared at Angers in 147^1 and one of Horace
at Caen, in 1480. The press of Lyons also sent forth several
works, but none of them classical. It has been s^d by French
writers, that the first book printed in their language is Le
Jardin de Devotion, by Colard Mansion of Bruges, in 1473,
This date has been questioned in England ; but it is of the
less importance, as we have already seen that Caxtou's Re-
cneil des histoires de Troye has the clear priority. Le Ronian
de Baudouin comte de Flandres, LytHi, 1474, seems to be the
earliest French book printed in France. In 1476, Les Grands

* A luperlor treatiae of the Mine ige ma dislinguiabed lUo in the political

on the antiquiliei oT the Roman city a rerolutioni of Florence. After the death

by Bernard Rucellai (de urhe Roma, in of Lorenio. he became the protector of

Rer. ItHl. Script. FlorenL toI. ii. ). But the Floreatine academT.for the member*

it was not published before the eighteenth of which he built ■ palace with eardem.

century. Rueellai vrole some hittorical CornUni, iiL 115. Biogr. UniT^ Ru-

works in a very good Latin itylc, and cellai.

lyGOOgIC

Cup. m.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. I7I

Qironiques de St. Denis, an important and bulky volume,
^ipear^ at Pans.

51. We come now to our own Caiiton, who finished a
translation into English of the Recueil des histoires loBniUnd,
deTroye, by order of Margaret duchess of Burgundy, ^' '^*'™-
at Cologne, in September, 1471. It was probably printed
there the next year.* But soon afterwards he came to Eng-
land with the instruments of his art; and his Game of Chess,
a slight and short performance, referred to 14<74, though
without a date, is supposed to have been the first specimen
of English typography.! In almost every year from this
time to bis death in 1483, Caxton continued to publish those
volumes which are the delight of our collectors. The earliest
of his editions bearing a date in England, is the " Dictes and
Sayings," a translation by Lord Rivers from a Latin com-
pilation, and published in 1477* In & literary history it
should be observed, that the Caxton publications are more
adi^ted to the general than the learned reader, and indicate,
upon the whole, but a low state of knowledge in England.
A Latin translation, however, of Aristotle's Ethics was
printed at Oxford in 1479-

52. The first book printed in Spain was on the very subject
we might expect to precede all others, the Conception

of the Virgin. It should be a very curious volume,
being a poetical contest on that sublime theme by thirty-six
poets, four of whom had written in Spanish, one in Italian,
and the rest in Proven^ or Valencian, It appeared at
Valencia in 1474. A little book on grammar followed
in 1475, and Sallust was printed the same year. In
that year printing was also introduced at Barcelona and
Sanigossa, in 1476 at Seville, in 1480 at Salamanca and
Burgos.

6S. A translation of the Bible by Malerbi, a Venetian,

■ Thubookattbedukeof Roibur^'s omitted. Severs) timilir insUDCM occur

bmaui talt brouebt 10601. in ithich > pretended earif book hia not

t Tbe Eipoutio fianctl Hieronj'Tnii of stood the keen eja of criticiim : u (he

vhidi ■ copy, ia Ihe public library it Decor Fuellanitn, ucribed to NicoU*

Cnnbridge,beanthcdAtrofOifDrd,146B, Jemon of Venice in 1461, forvbich we

on the titl(-pige, ii now generally given ihould rod 1471; ■ coimography of

np. Tthu l>een lucceufully contended Ftulemy wiih Ihe date of 1463; a book

by Hiddlcton, and lately by Mr. Snger, appearing to have been printed at Touri

that tbia dale ahould be 1478 ; the in 1467, &e.
numeral Iciter i having been eatually

lyGOOgIC

172 UTERATUBB OF EUROPE [PaRtL

waa published m 1471i and two other editions of that, or
Truiixiimi a different version, the same y^ear. Eleven editions
c[ scripiEin. gj,g enumerated by Panzer in the fifteenth century.
The German translation has already been mentioned ; it was
several times reprinted in this decad j one in Dutch appeared
in 1477> one in the Valencian langnage, at that city, in
1478 • ; the New Testament was printed in Bohemian, 1475,
and in French, 1477 > ^'^ earliest French translation of the
Old Testament seems to be about the same date. The reader
will of course understand, that eJI these translations were
made from the Vulgate Latin. It may naturally seem re-
markable, that not only at ^is period, but down to the
Reformation, no attempt was made to render any part of the
Scriptures public in English. But, in fact, the grouud was
thought too dangerous by those in power. The translation
of Wicliffe had taught the people some comparisons between
the worldly condition of tJie first preachers of Christianity
and their successors, as well as some other contrasts, which
it was more expedient to avoid. Long before the invention
of printing it was enacted, in 1408, by a constitution of arch-
bishop Arundel in convocation, that no one should thereafter
*' translate any text of Holy Scripture into English, hy way
of a book, or little book or tract ; and that no book should
be read that was composed lately in the time of John Wicli£fe,
or since his death." Scarcely any of Caxton's publications
are of a religioiis nature.

S4>. It would have been strange if Spain, placed on the

genial shores of the Mediterranean, and intimately
Huruurain connected through the Aragonese kings with Italy,

had not received some light from that which began
to shine so brightly. Her progress, however, in letters was
but slow. Not but that several individuals are named by
compilers of literary biography in the first part of the fifteenth
century, as well as earlier, who are reputed to have possessed
a knowledge of languages, and to have stood at least far
above their contemporaries. Alfonsus Tostatus passes for

■ Tlii> edition iras tuppresiod or de- M'Crie'i lUromiilion in Spain, p. I9!i.

itrojHli no copy 19 known to L'list; but Andrei says (lii. 154.), that tliu tisni.

there ia prewrrrd ■ final leaf containing Intion wai made early in the fifteenth

iIm names of the translator and printer, century, with the apptobotion of divines

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

CuAF. IIL] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 173

the most considerable ; bis writings are chiefly theol<^cat,
but Andres praises his commentary on the Chronicle of Euse-
bius, at least as a bold essay* ; contending also that learning
was not deficient in Spain during the fifteenth century, though
he admits that the rapid improvements made at its close, and
about the beginning of the next a^e, were due to Lebrixa's
public instructions at Seville and Salamanca. Several trans-
lations were made from Latin authors into Spanish, which,
however, is not of itself any great proof of peninsular learn-
ing. The men to whom Spain chiefly owes the advancement
of useful learning, and who should not be defrauded of their
glory, were Arias Barbosa, a scholar of Potitian, and the
more rraowned, though not more learned or more early pro-
pagator of Grecian literature, Antonio of Lebrixa, whose
Dune was latinised into Nebrissensis, by which he is com-
monly known. Of Arias, who unaccountably has no place
Id the Biographie Universelle, Nicolas Antonio gives a very
high character.t He taught the Greek language at Sala-
manca probably about this time. But his writings are not
at all numerous. For Lebrixa, instead of compiling from
other sources, I shall transcribe what Dr. M'Gne has said
with his usual perspicuous brevity.

55. " Lebrixa, usually styled Nebrissensis, became to
Spiun what Valla was to Italy, Erasmus to Germany, chuncMr oi
or Budteus to France. After a residence of ten ^'"'»»-
years in Italy, during which he had stored his mind with
various kinds of knowledge, he returned home, in 1473, by
the advice of the younger Philelphus and Hermolaus Bar-
barus, with the view of promoting classical literature in his
native country. Hitherto the revival of letters in Spain was
confined to a few inquisitive individuals, and had not reached
the schools and universities, whose teachers continued to
teai^ a barbarous jargon under the name of Latin, into which

• ii. 151. bellanim dominEtu in immBinum creve-

t Id quo Aptooium Nrbriuenaem to- raC eitirpationem, bonarumquc omnium

ciuni babuit. qui lamea quicquid usquam diKiplinarum diTitiu. Qfiti Arias noster

Orwcarvm lilcnnim ipud Hiapanot naet, ex antiquititii penu per licsiiuium inle-

■b UDO Aria emaniiHe in piwfatione aua- grum audiloribiu auii larjca et locaplete

ramlntroduetioTiumGnnimaltcaiuin in- rena comniunicaTil, in poetica ficultate

|eau« afflrnuiit. Hi< duobu* amplisu- GriMaaicaque ductrina NebrisHiue me-

■nnn illud gjrmnauum. indeque HJspania llor, a quo tamen in Ysna nuhiplinqua

Ma debet barbariei, quB longo apud dos doetrioa aupetabatur. BibL Veliut.

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174 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past L

they initiated the youth by meana of a rude system of gram-
mar, rendered unintelligible, iii some instances, by a prepos-
terous intermixture of the most abstruse qaestious in meta-
physics. By the lectures which he read in the universitiea
of SeviUe, Salamaoca, and AlcaJa, and by the institutes which
he published on Castilian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew gram-
mar, Lebrixa contributed in a wonderful degree to expel
barbarism from the seats of education, and to diffuse a taste
for elegant and useful studies among his countrymen. His
improvements were warmly opposed by the monks, who had
engrossed the art of teaching, and who, unable to bear the
light themselves, wished to prevent all others from seeing it ;
but, enjoying the support of persons of high authority, he
disregarded their selfish and ignorant outcries. Lebrixa con-
tinued to an advanced age to support the literary reputation
of his native country." •

56. This was the brilliant era of Florence, under the
LihruToi supremacy of Lorenzo de' Medici. The reader is
Lmaao. probably well acquainted with this eminent character,

by means of a work of extensive and merited reputation.
iTie Lnurenlaan library, still consisting wholly of manuscripts,
though formed by Cosmo, and enlarged by his son Pietro,
owed not only its name, but an ample increase of its treasures,
to Lorenzo, who swept the monasteries of Greece throng
his learned agent, John Lascaris. With that true love of
letters which scorns the monopolising spirit of possession,
Lorenzo permitted his manuscripts to be freely copied for the
use of other parts of Europe.

57. It was an important labour of the learned at Florence

to correct, as well as elucidate, the text of their
™*jma manuscripts, written generally by ignorant and care>

less monks, or trading copyists (though the latter
probably had not much concern with ancient writers), and
become ^most wholly unintelligible through the blunders of
these transcribers.! Landino, Merula, Calderino, and Politian
were the most indefatigable in this line of criticism during

* M'Crle'i Hirt. of Refimnation ia matior, ■ veiy scarce boolt, were printed

Spain, p. 61. It is probable ihat Le- at Serille in HS).

briia's eiertioni were not ver; efiWctuiI t Meiiien, VergUich. del sitten. ili.

la the proenl decenniiim, nor perhap* in 106. Heeren, p. S93.
the next, but hii InMitutiones Gnun-

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Cnaf.IO.] from 1440 TO 1600. 175

tbe age of Lorenzo. Before the use of printing fixed the
text of a whole e^tion — one of the most important of its con-
sequeDces — the critical amendments of these scholars could
only be made useful through their oral lectures. And these
appear frequently to have been the foundation of the valuable,
though radier prolix, commentaries we find in the old edi-
tions. Thus those of Landino accompany many editions of
Horace and Virgil, forming, in some measure, the basis of
all interpretative annotations on those poets. Landino in
these seldom touches on verbal criticisms ; but his explanations
display a considerable reach of knowledge. They are founded,
aa Heeren is convinced, on his lectures, and consequently
give us some notion of the tone of instruction. In explaining
me poets, two methods were pursued, the grunmatical and
the moral, the latter of which consisted in resolving the whole
sense into allegory. Dante had given credit to a doctrine,
orthodox in this age and long afterwards, that every great
poem must have a hidden meaning,*

58. The notes of Calderino, a scholar of high fame, but
infected with the common vice of arrogance, are ch»r«i«tof
found with those of Landino in the early editions of '•°"'™-
Virgil and Horace. Regio commented upon Ovid, Omni-
bonus Leonicenus upon Lucan, both these upon Quiiitilian,
oiany upon Cicero.t It may be observed, for the sake of
chronological exactness, that these labours are by no means
confined, even principally, to this decennial period. They
are mentioned in connexion with the name of Lorenzo de*
Medici, whose influence over literature extended from 1470
to his death in 1492. Nor was mere philology the sole, or
the leading, pursuit to which so truly noble a mind accorded
its encouragement. He sought in ancient learning some-
thing more elevated than the narrow, though necessary, re-
searches of criticism. In a villa overhanging the towers of
Florence, on the steep slope of that lofty hill crowned by the
mother city, the ancient Fiesole, in gardens which Tally
might have envied, with Ficrno, Landino, and Politian at his
side, he delighted his hours of leisure with the beautiful visions
of Platonic philosophy, for which the summer stillness of an
Italiaa sky appears the most congenial accompaniment.

• Hetran, pp. an. S87. t ^^ 297,

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176 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa«t I.

59- Never could the sympathies of the soul with outward
ptotpm nature be more finely touched ; never could more
^u" striking suggestions be presented to the philosopher
FiHuia. ^j j.j|g statesman. Florence lay beneath them ;
not with all the magnificence that the later Medici have given
her, but, thanks to the piety of former times, preseutiDg
almost as varied an outline to the sky. One man, the won-
der of Cosmo's age, Brunelleschi, had crowned the beautiful
city with the vast dome of its cathedral ; a structure un-
thought of in Italy before, and rarely since surpassed. It
seemed, amidst clustering towers of inferior churches, an
emblem of the Catholic hierarchy under its supreme head ;
like Rome Itself, imposing, unbroken, unchangeable, radiating
in equal expansion to every part of the earth, and directing
its convergent curves to heaven. Hound this were numbered,
at unequal heights, the Baptistery, with its gates, as Michel
Angelo called them, worthy of Paradise ; the tall and richly
decorated belfrey of Giotto ; the church of the Carmine, widi
the frescos of Masaccio ; those of Santa Maria Novella (in
the language of the same great man), beautiful as a bride ;
of Santa Croce, second only in magnificence to the cathedral
of St. Mark, and of San Spirlto, another great monument
of the genius of Brunelleschi ; the numerous convents that
rose within the walls of Florence, or were scattered imme-
diately about them. From these the eye might turn to the
trophies of a republican government that was r^idly giving
way before the citizen-prince who now surveyed them ; the
Palazzo Yecchio, in which the signiory of Florence held their
councils, raised by the Guelf aristocracy, the exclusive, but
not tyrannous faction that long swayed the city ; or the new
and unfinished palace which Brunelleschi had designed for
one of the Pitti family, before they fell, as others had already
done, in the fruitless struggle against the house of Medici ^
itself destined to become the abode of the victorious race, and
to perpetuate, by retaining its name, the revolutions that had
raised them to power.

60. The prospect, from an elevation, of a great city in its .
silence, is one of the most impressive, as well as b«iutiful,
we ever behold. But far more must it have brought home
thoughts of seriousness to the mind of one who, by the force of

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Cbap. nL] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 177

events, and the generous ambition of his family and his own,
was involved in the dangerous necessity of governing without
the right, and, as far as might be, without the semblance of
power ; one who knew the vindictive and unscrupulous hos-
tility which, at home and abroad, he had to encounter. If
thoughts like these could bring a cloud over the brow of
Lorenzo, unfit for the object he sought in that retreat, he
might restore its serenity by other scenes which his garden
Gomraaaded. Mountains bright with various hues, and clothed
with wood, bounded the horizon, and, on most sides, at no
great distance; but embosomed in these were other villas and
doDi^ns of his own ^ while the level country bore witness to
his agricultural improvements, the classic diversion of a
statesman's cares. The same curious spirit which led him
to fill his garden at Careg^ with exotic flowers of the East,
U»e first instance of a botanical collection in Europe, had
inb'oduced a new anima) from the same regions. Herds of
bufialoes, since naturalised in Italy, whose dingy hide, bent
neck, curved horns, and lowering aspect, contrasted with the
greyish hue and full mild eye of the Tuscan oxen, pastured
in the valley, down which the yellow Amo steals silently
through lis long reaches to the sea."

6l. The Platonic academy, which Cosmo had planned,
came to maturity under Lorenzo. The academi- pi,tonic
cians were divided into three classes : — the patrons ••^^^j-
(mecenati), including the Medici ; the hearers (ascoltatori,
probably from the Greek word &KpictT«i') ; and the novices,

• Till* FobIcd Imnn iiinlli»b»r In »n'n>. md descriptive sweetness, aad written in

mbSf^"" '^'^^""°- ''"• ■"""' ""' the chsitened tone of fine tute. With

MhiIuh. l<Higl9uc rolumiiu deiplrlt Ami ; rupect to the bufialoes, I htte no other

**«?S""""^''"'" ""* '"""''°"'" '"'' """"O"'? "'»" '*■*** ''"" "f Politiui,

InduIgH Jiureni. '" '''' po*m of Amhre, on the fkrm of

PoHiimt naiUciu. Lorenio at Poggio C^jsna

^'^"SSSltow ^''""'5^'"' ''"^' """■"■ '"" ™"" **

Ii pl'^hlnt up ud down tmoag thu .Idh, ^"' ' """ "■"' ""* Buffon tells us,
wGi]ciuii;ieiTcleHnMEiiinniijUiMd. though without quoting uijr aulhorilj.
Filling tta< sir wlih ..MnMi — .nd on ih«. that the buffalo was introduced into luly
T?rSiS™ 'Sr'^«."'^'',i:;:'«- ^ « «"'r ■» ^e seventh century. I did
toveri. not take the trouble of consulting Aldro-
Dnwn to our r<Kl. TSJidus, who would perhspj have con-
It i) bardlj necesurj' to ay that finned him — especially as 1 have abetter
Ibne linis are taken from my friend opinion of my readers than to suppoae
Mr, Itogen'i Italy, ■ poem full of moral they would ore about the nutter.

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178 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtL

or disciples, formed of young aspirants to philosc^hy.
Ficino presided over the whole. Their great festival was the
Idth of November, being the amiiversary of the birth and
death of Plato. Much of absurd mysticism, much of frivo-
lous and mischievous superstition, was mingled with their
speculations.*

6@. The Disputationes Camaldulenses of Landino were
Diipuu- published during this period, though, perh^rs, wnt-
nmVd^i^^ ten a little sooner. They belong to a dass pro-
ofLMdinc. jjjJQgp( JQ ^^^g literature of Italy in this and the
succeeding century; disquisitions on philosophy in the form
of dialogue, with more solicitude to present a graceful
delineation of virtue, and to kindle a generous sympathy for
moral beauty, than to explore the labyrinths of theory, or
even to lay down clear and distinct principles of ethics. The
writings of Plato and Cicero, in this manner, had shown a
track, in which their idolaters, with distant and hesitating
steps, and more of reverence than emulation, delighted to
tread. These Disputations of Landino, in which, according
to the beautiful patterns of ancient dialogue, the most
honoured names of the age appear — Lorenzo and his brother
Julian } Albert!, whose almost universal genius is now best
known by his architecture; Ficino, and Landino himself —
turn upon a comparison between the active and contemplative
life of man, to the latter of which it seems designed to give
the advantage, and are saturated with the thoughtful spirit
of Platonism. t

63. Landino was not, by any means, the first who had
piiiiMophirai tried the theories of ancient philosophy through the
duii>Ei>«- feigned warfare of dialogue. Valla, intrepid and
fond of paradox, had vindicated the Epicurean ethics from
the calumnious or exaggerated censure frequently thrown
upon them, contrasting the true methods by which pleasure
should be sought with the gross notions of the vulgar.
Several other writings of the same description, either in
dialogue or regular dissertation, belong to the fifteenth cen-
tury, though not always published so early, such as Francis-

* RoKoe, Corniani. leniea, I bav? no direct BcquBliitancs

t Carniuii ■nd RiHCoe have given thii nith Ihe book.
account oT the Disputationes Cnmaldu-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chap. lU.] FROM 1440 TO ISOO. 179

cua Barbarus de re uxoria, Platina de false et vero bono, the
Vita Civile of Palmieri, the moral tfeatises of Po^o,
Alberti, Pontano, and Matteo Bosso, concerning some of
which little more than the names are to be learned from
hterary history, and which it would not, perhaps, he worth
while to mention, except as collectively indicating a predi*
lection for this style which the Italians long continued to
display.*

64. Some of these related to general criticism, or to that
of single authors. My knowledge of them is chiefly ,,„,„,
limited to the dialogue of Paulus Cortesius de ho- *''•""""■
minibus doctis, written, I conceive, about 1490 ; no unsuc-
cessful imitation of Cicero de claris oratoribus, from which
indeed modem Latin writers have always been accustomed to
collect the discriminating phrases of criticism. Cortesius,
who was young at the time of writing this dialogue, uses an
elegant, if not always a correct latinity ; characterising
agreeably, and with apparent taste, the authors of the fif-
teenth century. It may be read in conjunction with the
Ciceronianus of Erasmus, who, with no knowledge, per-
haps, of Cortesius, has gone over the same ground in rather
inferior language.

65. It was about the beginning of this decad that a few
Germans and Netherlanders, trained in the college s^iogu <>■
of Deventer, or that of Zwoll, or of St, Edward's ''=™"''-
near Groningen, were roused to acquire that extensive know-
ledge of the ancient languages which Italy as yet exclusively
possessed. Their names should never be omitted in any
remembrance of the reviv^ of letters ; for g^eat was their
influence upon the subsequent times. Wessel of Groningen,
wie of those who contributed most steadily towards the puri-
fication of religion, and to whom the Greek and Hebrew
languages are a^d, but probably on no solid grounds, to
have been known, may be redconed in this class. But
others were more directly engaged in the advancement of
literature. Three schools, from which issued the most con-
spicuous ornaments of the next generation, rose under mas-

* CornUs! is tUDch fuller lluD Tirt- Bono (Life oT Leo X., e. xi. ) but hardlj
buachi on tbeae trtatiia. Rotcot teeini adTcrU to iDf irf the mt I luie Dimed.
to hare read tha etbical writings of M&tteo Some of them are laj ■carce.

V, Google

180 LITEKATURE OF EUROPE [PaetI.

tera, learned for that time, and zealous in the good cause of
instruction. Alexander Hegius became, about 14<7^, rector
of that at Deventer, where Erasmus received his early edu-
cation.* Hegius was not wholly ignorant of Greek, and
imparted the rudiments of it to his illustrious pupil. I am
indined to ascribe the publicadon of a very rare and curious
book, the first endeavour to print Greek on this side of the
Alps, to no other person than Hegius.t Louis Dringeberg

* Ueeren, p. 1^9., nyi that He);iiu of Libliogiaphen tni of every one e]se.

begsn to preiide over the Khool of De. But fully diaclatming all such ifquunt-

tentcr in 1480; but I think tbe date in aace vith the tecbnic*) icience of tjpo-

Ihe teit i< more probable, as Erasmus i^phical antiquitj, u to venture any

left it at the age of fourteen, and wu judgment founded on the appearance of

certainly born in 1465. Though Hegiua a particular book, or on a campariaon of

it said to iiave known but little Greek, I it with olhera. I would, on other groiinda.

find in Panier the title of a book by him, auggest the probability that thii little M~

printed at Ueienter io 1501, de Utilitate tempt at Greek grammar issued from tbe

Lingua Grscs. Deventer press &bout H80. It appear!

The life of H^ius in Melchior Adam elaar that whoeier "collected with ei-

i> interealing. I'rimui hie in Belgio treme labour" tbese forms of the verb

iileras excitaiit, says Rerius, in Daven- tifm*, had never been possessed of a

tria Illustrata, p. 130. Mihi, aays Krak Greek and Latin gramniaT. For would

mus, admodum adhue puero conligit uti it not be absurd to use such expreanons

prsceptore hujua discipulo Aleiandro about > simple transcription? Besides

Ilegio Westphalo, qui ludum aliquondo which, the word is not only given in au

Celehrem oppidi Daientriensis modera- arrangement different from any I have

batur. In quo not olim admodum puerl ever seen, but with a non-existent fiirm

ulriusquB lingua* prima didioimus ele- of participle, TtTinf^ttru for Tirf/dtam,

inenta. Adog. Chil. i. cent. iv. 39. In which could not surely have been found

another place he says of Hegius ; ne hio in any prior grammar. Xow the gram-

quidem Griecaium lilerorum omolno ig- mar of Lascarit was published with a

nams est. Epiat. 411. in Appendice. i.atin Iranalstion by Crutonin 14G0l It

Erasmus left Deventcratthgageorrour. ii indeed highly probable that Ibis book

teen; consequently in 1479 or 14S0, as would not reach Deventer immediately

he tells us in an epistle, dated ITth Apr. ofler its impression ; but it does seen)

1519. ai if there coutd not long have been any

f This very rare book, unnoticed by extreme dilflcully in obtaining a correct
most bibliagraphcn, is of some import- synopsis of ihe verb Tifirro.
■nee in the history of literature. It is a We have seen that Erasmus, about
■mall quarto tract, entitled, Conjugationes 1 477, acquired a very slight tincture of
verborum GrsecK. Davenlriai noviier ei- Greek under Alexander Hegius at De-
tremo labore collecta et impressn. No venter. And here, as he tells us, he saw
date or printer's name appears. A copy Agricola. returning probably from Italy
is in tbe British Museum, and another in to Groningvn. Quem mihi puero. ferme
Lord Spencer'sllbnry. Itcontaininothing dundecim annos Dato, DaveDtriie videis
but the wotd T^xTo in all its voices and contigit, nee aliud contigit. (Jorlin, iL
tenses, with Latin explanations in Gothic 416.) No one could be so likely as
letters. The Greek types are very rude, Hegius to attempt a Greek grammar; nor
and the characters sometimes misplaced, do wc find that his successors in that col-
It must, I should presume, seem proba- lege were men as distinguished for lesrih
ble to every one who considers this book, ing as himself. But in fact at a latn
that it ii of the fifteenth century, and time it could not have been so incor-
conscquentlyolderthansny known Greek rcct We might perhaps conjecture
on this aide of the Alps ; which of itself that he took down these Grevk teosa
should render it interesting in tbe eyes from the mouth of Agricola, since wc

..Coogic

CB*r.nL] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 181

founded, not perh^s before 1480, a still more distinguished
seminary at Sclielstadt in Alsace. Here the luminaries of
Germany in a more advanced sti^ of learning, Conrad
Celtes, Bebel, Rhenamis, Wimpheling, Pirckheinier, Siniler,
are eaid to have imbibed their knowledge.* The third
school was at Munster ; and over this Rodolph Langius pre-
sided, a man not any way inferior to the other two, and of
more reputation as a Latin writer, especially as a poet. The.
school of Munster did not come under the care of Langius
till 1483, or perhaps rather later; and his strenuous ex-
ertions in the cause of useful and polite literature against
monkish barbarians extended into the next century. But his
life was long : the first, or nearly such, to awaken his country-
men, he was permitted to behold the full establishment of learn-
ing, and to exult in the dawn of the Beformation. In com-
pany with a young man of rank and equal zeal, Maurice count
of Spiegelberg, who himself became the provost of a school at

mmlprciunieonl communication rather Reuchiin. to hme been printed at

Ihui the lue of booka. Agricoli, reprat- Poitien; and Eichhorn posillvel; say s,

ing from iDeiiNiTy> and iiot thorouglily wltlwut leTerence to the place of pub-

eaaTenanl *i(h the Uoguage, might iicaUon, that Reuchlin wo* the tint

haTC pT«n Ih« AUk participle rwrij^ii- Gennui whopublishedaGreek grammar.

fisM. The tract vai probatily printed (Ge»h. dei Litt. iii. 275.) Meiaen,

by Paliraet, lonie of whose editions bear bowevpr, in a lubsequenl volume (iii.

■atari; a date BiHTT. It haa long been 10.> letracta (bis assertion, and says it

ritremely acarce; for Rcvius doei not tioa been proved Ibat the Greek grammar

include it in the list of Fufroeta puhlica- of Reuchlin was nevei printed. Yet I

tiasB which he has given in E^ventria (ind in tbe Bibliotbeca Universalis of

innstrata, not will it be found in Fanier. Gesnei : Job. Capaio [Reuchlin] scripsit

Bdoc was tbc fint to mention it in his de divemitate quatuor idiomatum Grrctt

Anccdotea of Scarce Books; and it is linguK lib. L No lucb book appears in

referred by him to the fifteenth century; the list of Reuehlin'6 works in Niceron,

but apparently without his lieing aware vol. jiv., nor in any of Ibe biblio-

tbaltberewaaanylbingrenurkableintbat graphivs. If it ever existed, we may

antiquity. Dr. Dibdin, in Bibliotheca place it with mote probability at the

Spcuccriana, has given a fuller account ; very close of this century, or at the be-

aad from him Brunet has inserted it in ginning of the next.

tbt Manuel du Libraire. Neither Beloe [ llie learned Dr. West of Dublin in-

ur Dibdin seema to have known that formed me that Reuchlin in adedicatiou

there i* a copy in the Muieum; they ofa Commentary on the Seven Ptniien-

■prak only of that belonging to Lord tial Psalms in I51S, mention* a work

Spencer. thathehadpublishedonlhe Gieekgram.

If it were true that Reuchlin, during mar, entitled Micropsdia. lliere seems

his mideaee at Orleana, had published, no reason to suppose that it was earlier

aa wall aa compiled, • Greek grammar, than the time at which I have inclined to

wt should not need to have recourse to place it 1843.]

Ik hypMhcais of this note, in order to • Eicbhorn, iii. Z3I. Meincri, ii. Ses. '

l^te the antiquity of the preaent deead to Eichhom carelessly follows a bad autbo-

Greek typography. Such a grammar rity in counting Ueuchlin among these

k (McrUd by Hciners, in his Life of pupils of the Schelstadl sc*—''

V, Google

182 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PiRTl.

Emmerich, Lan^us visited Italy, and, as Meiners supposes,
though, I think, upon uucertaiii grounds, before 1460. But
not long afterwards, a more distinguished person than any
we have mentioned, Rodolph Agricola of Groningen, sought
in that more genial land the taste and correctness which no
Cisalpine nation could supply. Agricola passed several yeare
of this decad in Italy. We shall find the efTects of his ex-
ample in the next.*

06. Meantime a slight impulse seems to have been given
to the university of Paris by the lessons of George
Gr^sl^ Tifernas ; for from some disciples of his Reuchlin,
a young German of great talents and celebrity, ac-
quired, probably about the year 14>70, the iirst elements of
the Greek language. This knowledge he improved by the
lessons of a native Greek, Andronlcus Cartoblacas, at Basle.
In that city he had the good fortune, rare on this side of the
Alps, to find a collection of Greek manuscripts, left there at
the time of the council by a cardinal Nicolas of Hagusa. By
the advice of Cartoblacas, he taught Greek himself at Basle.
After the lapse of some years, Reuchlin went again to Paris,
and found a new teacher, Gieorge Hermonymus of Sparta,
who had setded there about 147^. From Paris he removed
to Orleans and Poitiers, t

67. The classical literature which delighted Reuchlin and
coniroTBnj Agricola was disregarded as frivolous by the wise
Md N^ of that day in the university of Paris ; but they
""■"' were much more keenly opposed to innovation and
heterodoxy in their own peculiar line, the scholastic meta-
physics. Moat have heard of the long controversies between
the Realists and Nominalists concerning the nature of uni-
versals, or the genera and species of things. The first, with
Plato, and, at least as has been gener^ly held, Aristotle,
maintained their objective or external reality ; either, as it
was called, ante rem, as eternal archetypes in the Divine In-
telligence, or in re, as forms inherent in matter ; the second,

* S«e Mrineni toL ii., Eichhom, and laie icinn pr«U; fun accounli of

Heer«n, for the reiirftl of iMrning in Reuchlin ; and a gaoA life of him wilt

GermtDT ; or Boniething maj be found be found in the 3jth valum* of NiceroD :

in BrueW. but the Epistoln ad Reuchlinum throw

t Hnners, L 46. Beside* Meiners, itill more light OD the nun and his con-

Brucker, ir. 358., as well ■• Heeren, temponriet.

lyGOOgIC

Chap. HL] FROM 1440 TO 1600. 183

with Zeno, gave them only a subjective existence as ideas
conceived by the mind, and have hence in later times acquired
the nameof GoQceptualists.* RoBcelin, the first of the modem
Nominalists, went farther than this, and denied, as Hobbes
and Berkeley, with many others, have since done, all uni-
versality except to words and propositions. Abelard, who
inveighs agwnst the doctrine of Hoscelin as false logic and
blse theology, and endeavours to confound it with the denial
of any objecUve reality even in singular thingst, may be
esteemed the restorer of the Conceptualist school. We do not
know his doctrines, however, by his own writings, but by the
testimony of John of Salisbury, who seems not well to have
understood the subject. The words Realist and Nominalist
came into use about the end of the twelfth century. But in
the next, the latter party by degrees disappeared ; and the
great schoolmen, Aquinas and Scotua, in whatever else they
might disagree, were united on the Realist side. In the four>
teenth century William Ockham revived the opposite hypo-
thesis with considerable success. Scotus and his
disciples were the great maintainers of Realism. If
there were no substantial forms, he argued, diat is, nothing
real, which determines the mode of being in each individual,
men and brutes would be of the same substance ; for they do
not differ as to matter, nor can extrinsic accidents make a
substantive difference. There must be a substantial form of
a horse, another of a lion, another of a man. He seems to
have held the immateriality of the soul, that is, the sub-
stantia] form of man. But no other form, he maintained, can
exist without matter naturally, though it may supematurally
by the power of God. Socrates and Plato agree more than
Socrates and an ass. They have, therefore, something in
common, which an ass has not. But this is not numerically
tbe same ; it must, therefore, be something universal, namely,
hnman nature. :(

* I un ehicBjindebted forthe Cicti ID *tn, non partem rei intelligere cogatur.

tbe MIoving paragraph) to a duwrtation Meiocn, p. ST. Tbia may lerve ta thaw

bj Meincrai in the TVinaaetions of tbe the cSTilling tone of uholastic disputes;

Cottingen Aemdtniy, >oI. xii. and Heiners may well lay, Quicquid

f Hie (icut pseudo-dialecticui, ila Ro«elinui peccavit, non ndeo tamen in-

pMfldo^hriatianui — ut eo loco quo di- laniue pionuDtiandum e)t, ut Abelardua

ctiur Dominut partem pncii au come- ilium fedtae invidieae fingere iiulinuiL
dine, partem bujui tocu, qiue ett piacii } Id. p. 39.

lyGOOgIC

184 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [Past I.

68. Hiese reasonings, which are surely ao unfavourable
specimen of the subtle philosopher (as Scotus was
called), were met by Ockham with others which
sometimes appear more refined and obscure. He confined
reality to objective things, denying it to the host of abstract
entities brought fonvard by Scotua. He defines a universal
to be " a particular intention (meaning probably idea or con-
ception) of the mind itself, capable of being predicated of many
things, not for what it properly is itself, but for what those
things are ; so that, in so far as it has this capacity, it is
called universal, but inasmuch as it is one form retuly existing
in the mind, it is called singular." * I have not examined
the writings of Ockham, and am unable to determine whether
his Nominalism extends beyond that of Berkeley or Stewart,
which is generally asserted by the modern inquirers into
scholastic philosophy ; that is, whether it amounts to Con-
ceptualism ; the foregoing definition, as far as I can judge,
might have been given by them, t

09. The later Nominalists of the scholastic period, Buridan,
' Biel, and several others mentioned by the historians
SpHrt."'"^ of philosophy, took all their reasonings from the
storehouse of Ockham. His doctrine was prohibited
at Paris by pope John XXH., whose theological opinions, as
well as secular encroachments, he had opposed. Ail masters
of arts were bound by oath never to teach Ockhamism. But
after the pope's death the university condemned a tenet of the
Realists, that many truths are eternal, which are not Grod ;
and went so fiar towards the Nominalist theory, as to deter-
mine that our knowledge of things is through the medium of
words, t Peter d'Ailly, Gerson, and other principal men of
their age were Nominalists ; the sect was very powerful in
Grermany, and m^be considered, on the whole, as prevalent
in this century. The Realists, however, by some manage-
ment gained the ear of Louis XI., who by an ordinance in

■ UDaraiuteDtionemaingulBTeinipiiui f [The definition Kerns hardljRicb M

BDima, naUm pnedicsri de pluribm, non Berkeley would haie gireo ; it plainlf

pro K, sed pro ipsii rebus; ila quod pet recognises a general conception ciitting

hoe. quod ipu nata eat pradicari de plu- in the mind 184T.]

ribus, non pro ae (od pro illia plunbiis, t ''^ P- 4^-> scientiam habemus de

liveraalia; propter fane bu- relxii, acd mediuitiliiu terminia.

lyGOOgIC

Chap. UI.] FROM 1440 TO I500. 185

1473, explicidy approves the doctrinea of the great Realist
philosophers, condemDS that of Ockham and his disciples,
and forbids it to be taught, enjoiniDg the books of the Nomi-
nalists to be locked up from public perusal, and all present as
well as future graduates in the university to swear to the
observation of this ordinance. The prohibition, nevertheless,
was repealed in 1481 ; the guilty books set free from their
chains, and the hypothesis of the Nominalists virtually per-
mitted to be held, amidst the acclamations of the university,
and especially one -of its four nations, that of Gtermany.
Some of their party had, during this persecution, takeu refuge
in that empire and in England, both friendly to their cause ;
and this metaphysical contention of the fifteenth century sug-
gests and typiiies the great religious convulsion of the next.
The weight of ability, during this later and less flourishing
period of scholastic philosophy, was on the Nominalist side ;
and though nothing in the Reformation was immediately con-
nected with their principle, this metaphysical sect facilitated
in some measure its success.

70. We should still look in vain to England for either
learning or native genius. The reign of Edward lY.
may be reckoned one of the lowest points in our innnVftn
literary atmals. The universities had falleu in reput- "*
adon and in frequency of students ; where there had been
thousands, according to Wood, there was not now one ; which
must be understood as an hyperbolical way of speaking. But
the decline of the universities, frequented as they had been
by indigent vagabonds withdrawn from useful labour, and
wretched as their pretended instruction had been, was so far
from an evil in itself, that it left clear the path for the ap-
proaching introduction of real learning. Several colleges
were about this time founded at Oxford and Cambridge,
which, in the design of their munificent founders, were to
become, as they have duue, the instruments of a better dis-
cipline than the barbarous schoolmen aflbrded. We have
already observed, that learning in England was like seed fer-
menting in the ground through the fifteenth century. The
language was becoming more vigorous, and more capable
of giving utterance to good thoughts, as some translations
from Caxton's press show, such as the Diets of Philosophers

I. , , ..Cioogic

186 I-ITERATORE OP EUROPE [FAmx L

by Lord Rivers. And perhaps the best exercise for a school-
boy people is that of sdiool-boys. The poetry of two Scots-
men, Heiiryson and Mercer, which is not without merit, may
be nearly referred to the present decad.*

71- The progress of mathematical science was regular,
though not rapid. We might have mentioned before
the gnomon erected by Toscanelli in die cathedral
at Florence, which is referred to 1468 ; a work, it has been
said, which, considering the times, has done as much honour
to his genius as that so much renowned at Bologna to Cas-
saghmou- sini.t The greatest mathematician of the fifteenth
"""*■ century, Muller, or Regiomontanus, a native of
Konigsberg, or Konigshoven, a small town in Franconia,
whence he derived his 1atini3e4 appellation, died prematurely,
like his master Purbach, in 1476. He had begun at the age
of fifteen to assist the latter in astronomical observations ; and
having, after Purbach's death, acquired a knowledge of Greek
in Italy, and devoted himself to the ancient geometers, after
some years spent with distinction in that country, and at the
court of Madiias Corvinus, he settled finally at Nuremberg ;
where a rich citizen, Bernard Walther, both supplied die
means of accurate observations, and became the associate of
his labours.^ Regiomontanus died at Rome, whither he had
been called to assist in rectifying the calendar. Several of
his works were printed in this decad, and among others hia
ephemerides, or calculations of the places of the sun and

■ Campbell's Specimens of British ward to Cliina; and conEequently be-

Poets, jo[. U lieved, as Columbus himself did. th*t the

f This gnoiDon of Florence is by niuoh lo^age by the west to ttiil eountiy vould

the lofliest in Europe. It vould be no be fsr shorter than, if the continent of

slight addition Co the glor; of Toscanelli America did not intervene, it could hive

if we should suppose him to have sug- been. IlriboKhi, ii 1B9.30T. Boacoe'l

gestcd the discovery of a passage vest- Leo X., ch. £0.

ward to the Indies in a letter to Colum- { Walther was more than a patron of

bull as his article in the Biogiaphie science, honourable as that name waa.

Unirerselle seems to imply. But the He made astronomical obseriatiuQSiWor-

more accurate eipreaalons of Titaboscbi, thy of esteem relallvelj to the age. Mort.

referring to the correspondence between tucla, i. 54S. It is to be regretted that

these great men, leave Columbus in pos- Wtdther should have diminished the

aeauon of the original idea, at least con- credit due to his name by withholding

currently with the Florentine astronomer, from the public Ibe manuaeripta of

though the latter gave him strong en- Regiomontanus, which he purchased

oourageraent to persevere in his under. aFter the lalter's death ; so that aomc

taking. Toscanelli, however, had, on were lost by the negligence of hii own

the authority of Marco Polo, imbibed an heins and the rest remained unpublished

eiaggeraled notion ^ ibe dittanee cast- till 15S3,

t: Go Ogle

Chai-.IU.] from 1440 TO 1600. 187

moon, for the ensuing thirty^ years ; the best, though not
strictly the first, that had been made in Europe.* His more
exten^ve productions did not appear till afterwards ; and the
treatise on triangles, the most celebrated of them, not till
1633. The solution of the more difficult cases, both in plane
and spherical trigonometry, is found in this work ; and with
the exception of what the science owes to Napier, it may be
said, that it advanced little for more than two centuries after
the age of RegiomontaQus.t Purbach had computed a table
of sines to a radius of 600,000 parta. Regiomontanus,
ignorant, as has been thought, which appears very strange,
of his master's labours, calculated them to 6,000,000 parts.
But perceiving the advantages of a decimal scale, he has
givea a second table, whereig the ratio of the sines is com-
puted to a radius of 10,000,000 parts, or, as we should say,
taking the radius as unity, to seven places of decimals. He
subjoined what he calls Canon Feecundus, or a table of tan-
gents, calculating them, however, only for entire degrees to
a radius of 100,000 prts-t It has been said, that Regio-
montanus was inclined to the theory of the earth's motion,
which indeed Nicolas Cusanus had already espoused.

7^* Though the arts of delineation do not properly come
within the scope of this volume, yet so far as they Am or de-
are directly instrumental to science, they ought """'"■
not to pass unregarded. Without the toot that presents
figures to the eye, not the press itself could have diffused an
adequate knowledge either of anatomy or of natural history.
As figures cut in wooden blocks gave the first idea of letter-
printing, and were for some time associated with it, an
obvious invention, when the latter art became improved, was
to arrange such blocks together with types in the same page.
We find accordingly, about this time, many books adorned
or illustrated in this manner ; generally with representations
o( saints, or other ornamental delineations not of much im-
portance ; but in a few instances with figures of plants aud
animals, or of human anatomy. The Dyalogus creatura-

■ Ciauendi, Vita RegiomoDlani. He monUnut contilned eclipM*, and other

^tAi of them himaeir, u qiui Tulgo mitten not in farmer alinuUBi.
voCBnt ilnunacli ; ind Gutendi mji, tbit t Huttan'i Loguithnw, Introduction,

nmc vera eituil in manuicript >t Puri^ p. 3.
tma 1443 to 14Ta. ThoM of Regio- f Kiistiicr, I S5T.

, V, Google

188 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [P«t I.

rum moralizatus, of which the first edition was published at
Goudo, 1480, seems to be nearly, if not altogether, the
earliest of these. It cont^ns a series of fables with rude
wood-cuts, in Httle more than outline. A second edition,
printed at Antwerp in X486, repeats the same cuts, with the
addition of one representing a church, which is really ela-
borate.*

73. The art of engraving figures on plates of copper was
nearly coeval with that of printing, and js due either
^' to Thomas Finiguerra about 14.60, or to some Ger-
man about the same time. It was not a difficult step to
apply this invention to the representation of geo-
graphical maps ; and this we owe to Arnold Buck-
inck, an associate of the printer Sweynheim. His edition of
Ptolemy's geography appeared at Rome in 1478. These ma[)s
are traced from those of Agathodeemon in the fifth century ;
and it has been thought that Buckinck profited by the hints
of Donis, a German monk, who himself gave two editions of
Ptolemy not long after^-ards at Ulm.t The fifteeotli century
had already witnessed an increasing attention to get^aphical
delineations. The libraries of Itely contain severd unpub-
lished maps, of which that by Fra Mauro, a monk of the
order of Camaldoli, now in the convent of Murano, near
Venice, is the most celebrated.l^ Two causes, besides the

■ Bolh these edilioni ire in the II Mappnmonda di Fra Mauro Camaldo-
Briliib Mmeuta. In the lanie library lense illu^trato. A ftne copy of tbia map,
ia a eop; of the eiceediagly scaiee voik, inken from (he origins! at Mutano about
Ortui .Sanitstii. Mogunt. M91. The forty yean since, ii in the Biitiah Mu-
eoluphon, irhich may be read in De Bure uum; Ibere is alio one in a Fortuguoe
(Sciences, No, 1554.), takes much credit convent, nuppoeed la haie been made by
fur the carefulneu of the delineationa. Fra Manro himulf in 1459, for the UM
Tlie voodencutaoftheplaDts, especially, of Alfonia V. Jting of Portugal. Fn
are ai good ai we usually 6nd in the sir- Mauro professes not to have followed
teenth ceniury ; the form of the leaves Plolemy in all things, but to have col-
and character of the plant are generally lected infurnulion tram travellen; in-
well presened. The animals ore alio Tesllgsndo per molti anni, e prscticando
tolerably figured, though with nuny cum peraone degne di fede, le qual hang
eioeptions. and, on ibe whole, fall short leduto ad occhio quelo, ijue qu) suso fe-
of Ibe plants. The work itself is a detmenle demostio. It appears, how ever,
compilation from the old naturalists, to me, that he has been chiefly indebted to
arranged alphibetically. Marco Polo, who bad contributed a vast
f Biogr. UnJT, Buckinck, Donis. stock of name*, to whicti the geographer
^ Andres, ii. 68. Corniani, iii. 163. was to annei locality in the best manner
[A better account of this celebrated map he could. Very little relating to Asia or
was given in the sevcuth volume of the Africa will be found in the Murano map.

lyGOOgIC

Chap, m.] FROM 1440 TO ISOO. 189

increase of commerce, and the gradual accumulation of
knowledge, had principally turned the thoughts of many to-
wards the figure of die earth on which diey trod. Two
translations, one of them by Emanuel Chrysoloras, had been
made early in the century, from the cosmography of Ptolemy ;
and from his maps the geographers of Italy had learned the
use of parallels and meridians, which might a little, though
inadequately, restrain their arbitrary admeasurements of dif-
ferent counuies.* But the real discoveries of the PortU'
guese on the coast of Africa, under the patronage of Don
Henry, were of far greater importance in stimulating and
directing enterprise. In the academy founded by that illus-
trious prince, nautical charts were first delineated in a method
more useful to the pilot, by projecting the meridians in pa-
rallel right lines t, instead of curves on the surface of the
sphere. This first step in hydrographical science entitles Don
Henry to the name of its founder. And though these
early maps and charts of the fifteenth century are to us but
a chaos of error and confusion, it was on them that the
patient eye of Columbus had rested through long hours of
meditation, while strenuous hope and unsubdued doubt were
struggling in his soul.

Polo wn acquainted vilh the termination Bome one whom he quotea, eiaggeratei

<^ the Africui eoait; but that hail been a little the importance oT what Fra

■o often Buerted, that we cannot feel lui- Mauro hat said about the tides, which ia

pnied when we 6Dd, in Fra Mauro's map. miied up with great error ; and loowljr

tb« fea rolling round the Cape of Good talks about an anlicipalion of Newton.

Hope, though the form of that part of Upun the nhole, although this map ii

the continent is ill delineated. cuiioua and interealing, sumething more

Tbe marginal entries of this map are has been said of it than it deserves by

■rat unworthj of attention. Oneofthem the author of Annalea Camaldulenses :

attributes the tides to the attraction of Mauro itsque Camaldulens monacho ea

tbe nKWii, but not on an; pbiloiophieal gloria jure merilo tribueuda erat, ut non

principle. He apeaki of spring and paruro tabulis BuU geographicis Jurerit

neap tides as alresdj Icnovn, which in- ad tentandas expediiionei in terras in-

deed must hare been the ca.ie, after the cognitas, quod poslea prcstitum crat ab

•rperience at naiigaton reached beyond Luiitanis. — ISIS.]

the Mediterranean, but saji that no one ■ Andreii, 86.

bad eipUii>ed their eaus«. Zurla, or f ^^- BS.

t: Go Ogle

LITERATURE OF EUROPE

Sect. V. 1480—14.90.

Great Progreu of Learning in Itali/ — Italian Poetry — Puld — Meiaphyneal
7%eohgy — Fianiu — Picai of Mirandola — Leanang in Germang — Earig
Etavpean Drama — A&erti and Leonardo da Vinci,

74>. The press of Italy was less occupied vntk Greek for
several years than might have been expected. But
nruitediii the number of scholars was sdll not sufficient to re-
pay the expenses of impression. The psalter was
published in Greek twice at Milan in 1481, once at Venice
in 14186. Craston's Lexicon was also once printed, and die
grammar of Lascaris several times. Hie first classical
work the printers ventured upon, was Homer's Battle of
Frogs and Mice, published at Venice in 1486, or according
to some, at Milan in 1485 j the priority of the two editions
being disputed. But in 1488, under the munificent patron-
age of Lorenzo, and by the care of Demetrius of Crete, a
complete edition of Homer issued from the press of Florence.
This splendid work closes our catalogue for the present.*

'J5. The first Hebrew book, Jarchi's commentary on the
Hcbmr Pentateuch, had been printed by some Jews at
prEuHi. Keggio in Calabria, as early as 1475. In this
period a press was established at Soncnno, where the Pen-
tateuch was published in 148@, the greater prophets in I486,
and the whole Bible in 1488. But this was intended for
themselves alone. What little instruction in Hebrew had
any where liitherto been imparted to Christian scholars, was
only oral. The commencement of Hebrew learning, pro-
perly so called, was not till about the end of the century,
in the Franciscan monasteries of Tubingen and Basle.
Hieir first teacher, however, was an Italian, by name Rai-
mondi.t

76. To enumerate every publication that might scatter a

gleam of light on the progress of letters in Italy,

luiiMor or to mention every scholar who deserves a place

Pollltao. ... 1 ■ 1 n ■ 1 1 1 ■

m biographical collections, or in an extended history

■ Sea Msituire's characlcr ofUiis edition quoted in Itoscw'i Leo X., cli. 31.

lyGOOgIC

CHAr.in.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 191

of literature, would crowd these pages with too many names.
We must limit ouraelvea to those best deserving to be had in
remembrance. In 1480, according to Meiners, or, as Hee-
ren says, in 1483, Politian was plac«d in the chair of Greek
and Latin eloquence at Florence ; a station perhaps the most
conspicuous and the most honourable which any scholar could
occupy. It is beyond controversy, that he stands at the
head of that class in the fifteenth century. The envy of
some of his contemporaries attested his superiority. In
1489) he published his once celebrated Miscellanea, consist-
ing of one hundred observations illustrating pa8sag;es of
Latin authors, in the desultory manner of Aulus Gellius,
which is certainly the easiest, and perhaps the most agreeable
method of conveying information. They are sometimes
grammatical ; but more frequently relate to obscure (at that
time) customs of mythological allusions. Greek quotations
occur not seldom, and the author's command of classic^
literature seems considerable. Thus he explains, for in*
stance, the crambe repetita of Juvenal by a proverb men-
tioned in Suidas, ETi; npiftSii ^antercs i upai^Sfi being a kind of
cubage, which, when boiled a second time, was of course
not very palatable. This may serve to show the extent of
learning which some Italian scholars had reached through
the assistance of the manuscripts collected by Lorenzo. It is
not improbable that no one in England at that time had heard
the name of Suidas. Yet the imperfect knowledge of Greek
which these early writers possessed, is shown when they at-
tempt to write it. Politian has some verses in his Miscellanea,
but very bald, and full of false quantities. This remark we
may have occasion to repeat ', for it is applicable to much
greater names in philology than his.*

77- The Miscellanies, Heeren says, were then considered
an immortal work ; it was deemed an honour to be
mentioned in them, and those who missed this made ™»*r. by
it a matter of complaint. If we look at them now,
we are astonished at the different measure of glory in the

* Meinen hu piaiMd Polidan'i Greek have been verj nncere, unlea they meant

lentt, but with verj little ifcilt in tuch ttit to be token in the present tenw.

DUtten, p. S14. The eomplimenU be Thne Greek), beudes, knew but little of

quDles rrom contemporar; Greeki, non their metrical Unguege.
ene Um AUku Atfaenu ipns, may not

lyGOOgIC ^__

192 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pakt I.

present age. This book probably sprang out of Politian's
lectures. He had cleared up in these some difHcult passages,
which had led him on to further inquiries. Some of his ex-
planations might probably have arisen out of the walks and
rides that he was accustomed to take with Lorenzo, who had
advised the publication of the Miscellanies. The manner in
which these explanations are given, the light, yet solid mode
of handling the subjects, and their great variety, give in fact
a charm to the Miscellanies of Politian which few antiqua-
rian works possess. Their success is not wonderful. They
were fragments, and chosen fragments, from the lectures of
the most celebrated teacher of that age, whom many had
heard, but still more had wished to hear. Scarcely had a
work speared in the whole fifteenth century, of which so
vast expectations had been entertdned, and which was re-
ceived with such curiosity.* The very fault of Politian's
style, as it was that of Hermolaus Barbaras, his affected
intermixture of obsolete words, for which it is necessary in
almost every page of his Miscellanies to consult the diction-
ary, would, in au age of pedantry, increase the admiration of
his reader8.t

78. Politian was the first that wrote the Latin language
Hii ienh,i> with much elegance ; and while every other early
of Harodiu). (ranslator from the Greek has incurred more or less
of censure at the hands of judges whom better learning had
made fastidious, it is agreed by them that his Herodian
has all the spirit of his original, and frequently excels it-t
Thus we perceive that the age of Poggio, Filelfo, and Valla
was already left far behind by a new generation ; these had
been well employed as the pioneers of ancient literature, but
for real erudition and taste we must descend to Politian,
Christopher Landino, and Hermolaus Barbarus.§

■ Heeren, p. 363. Meiners, hebeta- ( Huet. apud Blount in roliliano.
bnchreibuiigen, &c bw irritLen the life S Meineri, Roscoe, Cornuni, Heeren.

of PolitUn.ii. Ill— SSO., more copiouslj and Gresw ell's Mem oin of earl; Italian

thao ■□; one that I hare read. Hii cha- scholars, are the best authorities to

raeler of the Miaeellnnies is in p. 136. whom the reader can have recourae to

f Meiners,pp.lj5.909. Inthelatter the character of I'otitian, beiidei his ovn

passage Mdners censures, with apparent vorlu. I tliink, hoveveT, that Heeren

justice, Uie afieeted words of Politian, has hardl; done justice to Politian'i

tome of vbich be did not scruple to take poetrjr. Tirsboochi is unsalisbctory.

from such writers u Apuleius and Ter- Blount, as usual, collects the suffrages

tullian, with sn ineicusable display of of the siiteciith century.
erudilion at the expense of good taste.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CHAP.m.] FBOM 1440 TO 1500. 193

79- The Cornucopia sive lingiue Latinte CommeDtarii, by
Nicolas Perotd, bishop of Siponto, sug'gests rather cornucopi.!
more by its title thau the work itself seems to war- °'^*"'^^
rant. It is a copious commentary upon part of Martial ; in
which he takes occasion to explain a vast many Latin words,
uid has been highly extolled by Morhof, and by writers
quoted in Baillet and Blount. To this commentary is
appended an alphabetical index of words, which rendered it
a sort of dictionary for the learned reader. Perotti lived a
little before this time ; but the first edition seems to have
been in 1489. He also wrote a small Latin grammar, fre-
quently reprinted in the fifteenth century, and was an indif-
ferent translator of Polybius.*

SO. We have not thought it worth while to mention the
Latin poets of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Lumpoeirr
They are numerous, and somewhat rude, from Pe- "'P'^"'"-
trarch and Boccace to Mapheeus Vegius, the continuator of
the ^neid in a thirteenth book, first printed in I471> and
very frequently afterwards. This is, probably, the best
versification before Polidan. But his Latin poems display
considerable powers jtf description, and a strong feeling of
the beauties of Roman poetry. The style is imbued with
these, not too ambitiously chosen, nor in the manner called
opntonism, but so as to give a general elegance to the com-
position, and to call up pleasing associations in the reader of
taste. This, indeed, is the conimon praise of good versifiers
in modem Latin, and not peculiarly appropriate to Politian,
who is inferior to some who followed, though to none, as I
apprehend, that preceded in that numerous fraternity. His
ear is good, and his rhythm, with a few exceptions, musical
and Virgilian. Some defects are nevertheless worthy of
notice. He is often too exuberant, and apt to accumulate
details of description. His words, unauthorised by any
legitimate example, are very numerous j a fault in some
measure excusable by the want of tolerable dictionaries ; so
that the memory was the only test of classical precedent.
Nor can we deny that Politiau's Latin poetry is sometimes

■ HMTcn,2T?. MorhoT, L 831., who hare prIneipallT borrowrd. See mUa
nltt Perotti the lint compiler of good Bullet and Blount for leitimtmia to
Latin, from whom IhoK who fbllowed Per«tli.

"<"•• ■• " .,.,„,:,G00glc

194 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PartL

blemished by affected and effeminate eicpressions, by a too
studious use of repetitions, and by a love of diminutives,
according to the fashion of his native language, carried
beyond all bounds that correct Augustan latinity could pos-
sibly have endured. This last fault, and to a man of good
taste it is an unpleasing one, belongs to a great part of the
lyrical and even elegiac writers in modern Latin. The
example of Catullus would probably have been urged in
excuse ; but perh^ Catullus went farther than the best
judges ^)proved ; and nothing in his poems can justify the
excessive abuse of that effeminate grace, what the stem
Fergus would have called, *' summa delumbe saliva," which
pervades the poetry both of Italian and Cisalpine Latinisis
for a long period. On the whole, Politian, like many of his
followers, is calculated to delight and mislead a schoolboy,
but may be read with pleasure by a man.*

81. Amidst alt the ardour for the restoration of classical
itiiiBipoMrr literature in Italy, there might seem reason to ap-
oFLoruito, ppgiignd that native originality would not meet its
due reward, and even that the discouraging notion of a
degeneracy in the powers of the humag mind might come to
prevail. Those who annex an exaggerated value to correct-
ing an unimportant passage in an ancient author, or, which
is much the same, interpreting some worthless inscription,
can hardly escape the imputation of pedantry } and doubtless
this reproach might justly fall on many of the learned in that
age, as, with less excuse, it has often done upon their suc-
cessors. We have already seen that, for a hundred years, it
was thought unworthy a man of letters, even though a poet)
to write in Italian ; and Politian, with his great patron
Lorenzo, deserves no small honour for having disdained the
false vanity of the philologera. Lorenzo stands at the head
of the Italian poets of the fifteenth century in the sonnet as
well as in the light lyriod composition. His predecessors,
indeed, were not Hk^y to remove the prejudice against ver-
nacular poetry. _ Several of his sonnets appear, both for
elevation and elegance of style, worthy of comparison with

■ Tbe eitncti from PoUtian, uid lulomm, are eltremd; well obOBen.
other Latin poeti of Ital^, bj Pope, in and gire a juit meanue of moat of
the two little Tiduinea, cntitl«4 Poemata them.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chap, mo FROM U40 TO 1500. 195

those of the uext age. But perhaps his most original claim
to the title of a poet is founded upon the Caad Carnascia-
lescfai, or carnival songs, composed for the popular shows on
festivals. Some of these, which are collected in a volume
jHinted in 1558, are by Lorenzo, and display a union of
classical grace and imitation with the native raciness of
Florentine gaiety.*

83. But at this time appeared a poet of a truly modem
school, in one of Lorenzo's intimate society, Luigi
Puld. The first edition of hia Morgante Mag-
giore, containing twenty-three cantos, to which five were
subsequently added, was published at Venice in 148 1 . The
taste of the Italians has always been strongly inclined to
extravagant combinations of fancy, caprices rapid and spor-
tive as the animal from which they take their name. The
susceptible and versatile imaginadons of that people, and
their habitual cheerfidness, enable them to render the serious
and terrible instrumental to the ridiculous, without becom-
ing, tike some modem fictions, merely hideous and absurd.

83. The Morgante Maggiore was evidently suggested by
some long romances written within the preceding
oeutury in the octave stanza, for which the fabulous Marguiu "
dmmicle of Turpin, and other fictions wherein the "*
same real and imaginary personages had been introduced,
furnished the materials. Under pretence of ridiculing the
intermixture of sacred allusions with the romantic legends,
Pulci carried it to an excess which, combined with some
sceptical insinuations of his own, seems clearly to display an
intention of exposing religion to contempUt As to the
heroes of his romance, there can be, as it seems, no sort of
doubt, that he designed them for nothing else than the butts

* CorDiaoi Rowoe. Creacimbeni graphic Univtnetle, tbkt he mwit onlj

(della Tolgu ponia, iL 9114.) itiongly to turn into ridicule "ces niuses mendi-

■Bcrti Lorenit, to he the reatorer of antea du I4me aifaili,'' Die authors of la

poetry, irhich had oeier been more bar- Spagna or Buoio d'Antona, who were in

baroui than in hii youth. But certainly the habit ef beginning their songs with

the Gioitra of Polilian wu written while scrapa of the liturgy, and even of intro-

Lnrenio was young. ducing theological doctrines in the moit

-f Theitorj of Meridiana,intheeighlh absurd and misplaced style. Fulci has

' auScient to prove Fulci's irony given uimuch of the Utter, wherein lonie

to ha*e been .
veil known I
pnte. It baa been alleged in th« Bio-

lyCOOglC

IQfJ LITEKATUBE OP EUROPE [PamI.

of his fancy ; that the reader might scoff at those whom
duller poets had held up to admiration. It has been a ques-
tion among Italian critics, whether the poem of Pulci is to be
reckoned burlesque.* This may seem to turn on the deBni-
tion, though I do not see what definition could be given, con-
. sistently with the use of language, that would exclude it ;
it is intended as a caricature of the poetical romances, and
might even seem by anticipation a satirical, though not ill-
natured, parody on the Orlando Furioso. That he meant to
excite any other emotion than laughter, cannot, as it seems, be
maintained ; and a very few stanzas of a more serious
character, which may rarely be found, are not enough (o
make an exception to his general design. The Morgante
was to the poetical romances of chivalry what Don Quixote
was to their brethren in prose.

84. A foreigner must admire the vivacity of the narrative,
the humorous gaiety of the characters, the adroitness of the
satire. But the Italians, and especially the Tuscans, delight
in the raciness of Pulci's Florentine idiom, which we cannot
equally relish. He has not been without influence on men of
more celebrity than himself. In several passages of Ariosto,
especially the visit of Astolfo to the moon, we trace a resem-
blance not wholly fortuitous. Voltaire, in one of his most
popular poems, took the dry archness of Puld, and exa^fer-

*- Ttiii secma to hiTe bren in old his mrniing would be guessed. Tbc

problem in litly, Cornianl, Li. SOS.; rhyme very often compels him to emplof

and the gravity ofPulcl hu been'mua- pipreiiianii, words, and eren lineB whieb

tained of Ute by such respectable autbo- fluently render the sense obscure and

Titles SI Foscolo and Panizii. Gingu£n£, the pMssge crooked, without producing

wbo doe* not go tbla length, thinks the onj olber effect than that of dettmying ■

death af Orlando, and his last prayer, fine stauia. He bas no similiei of any

both pathetic and sublime. I can see particular merit, nor does he stood emi-

nothing in it but the syitematic spirit at nent in description. His verses almost

parody which we And in Pulci. But the invariably make sense taken singly, and

lines on the death of Foriseoa, in the convey distinct snd separate ideas. Hence

fourth canto, are really graceful and se- he wsntsthatrichnets,fiilness,BndstntH>tl>

nous. The following remarks on Pulci's How of diction, which is indispensable to

style come ftoai a more competent judge an epic poet, and to a noble deactiptioa

than myself: — or camps rison. Occasionally, when the

■■ There is something harsh in Pulci's autiject admits of a powerM sketch whidi

manner, owing to his abrupt transition may be presented with rigour and spirit

IVom one idea to another, and to his care - by a few strokes boldly drawn, Pulci

lessness of grammatical rules. Hewass appears to a great advantage." — Panini

poet by nature, and wrote with ease, but on romantia poetry of Italians, in lb«

he never cared for sacrificing syntax to first volume of bis Orlando InnamDrata,

mind saying any p. 298.

lyGOOgIC

Cba». IIL] from 1440 TO 1500. 197

ated the profaneness, superadding the obscenity from his own
stores. But Mr. Frere, with none of these two ingredients
in his admirable vein of humour, has come, in the War of the
Giants, much closer to the Morgante Maggiore than any one
else.

85. The Phitonic academy, in which the chief of the
Medici took so much delight, did not fail to reward

his care. Marsilius Ficinus, in his Tbeologica Pla- '^^-^ <>'
tonica (148S), developed a system chiefly borrowed
from the later Platonists of the Alexandrian, school, full of
deliffht to the credulous imagination, though little appealing
to the reason, which, as it seemed renoarkably to coincide in
some respects with the received tenets of the church, was
connived at in a few reveries, which could not so well bear
the test of an orthodox standard. He supported his pfaito-
Bophy by a translation of Plato into Latin, executed at the
direction of Lorenzo, and printed before 1490. Of this
translation Buhle has said, that it has been very unjustly
reproached with want of correctness ; it is, on the contrary,
perfectly conformable to the original, and has even, in some
passages, enabled us to restore the text j the manuscripts
used by Ficinus, I presume, not being in our hands. It has
also the rare merit of being at once literal, perspicuous, and
in good Latin.*

86. But the Platonism of Ficinus was not wholly that of
the master. It was based on the emanation of the
human soul from Grod, and its capacity of re-union AT>rr<i«oii
by an ascetic and contemplative life ; a theory per-
petually reproduced in various modifications of meaning, and
far more of words. The nature and immortality of the soul,
the functions ani distinguishing characters of angels, the
being and attributes of God, engaged the thoughtful mind of
Ficinus. In the course of his high peculations he assailed
a doctrine, which, though rejected by Scotus and most of the
schoolmen, had gained much ground among the Anstotehans,
as they deemed themselves, of Italy -, a doctrine first held by

* HUt. dc la PhiloiophlE, (ol. IL ma; bare recaunc to Brooker or Cor-

Tlw rullot •ecouDt of the philosoph; dUdI; or, if the; ire eontent with blill

of Fianui hu been ginii b; Bulile. len, to Tirabdacbi, Rokcw, Hceren, or

TboM who nek lesi minuts iafornMioa the Biognpbie UnWeraellfc

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

198 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [P*mL

Averroes — that there is one common intelligence, active,
immortal, indivisible, unconnected with matter, the soul of
human kind ; which is not in any one man, becauae it has
no materia) form, but which yet assists in the rationa] opera-
tions of each man's personal soul, and from those operations,
which are aU conversant with particulars, derives its own
knowledge of universals. Thu9, if I understand what is
meant, which is rather subtle, it might be said, that as in the
common theory particular sensations furnish means to the
soul of forming general ideas, so, in that of Averroes, the
ideas and judgments of separate human souls furnish collec-
tivelv the means of that knowledge of universals, which the
one great soul of mankind alone can embrace. This was a
theory built, as some have s»d, on the bad Arabic version of
Aristotle which Averroes used. But, whatever might have
first suggested it to the philosopher of Cordova, it seems little
else than an expansion of the Realist hypothesis, urged to a
degree of apparent paradox. For if the human soul, as an
universal, possess an objective reality, it must surely be intel-
ligent i and, being such, it may seem no extravagant hypo-
thesis, though one incapable of that demonstration we now
require in philosophy, to suppose that it acts upon the sub-
ordinate intelligences of the same species, and receives im-
ireasions from them. By this also they would reconcile the
knowledge we were supposed to possess of the reality of uni-
versals, with the acknowledged impossibility, at least in many
cases, of representing them to the mind.

87- Ficinus is the more prompt to refute the Averroists,
oppowi bj that they all maintained the mortality of the parti-
^'™"'' cular Boul, while it was his endeavour, by every
argument that erudition and ingenuity could supply, to prove
the contrary. The whole of his Platonic Theology appears
a beautitul, but too visionary and hypothetical, system of
theism, the groand-works of which lay deep in the medita-
tions of ancient oriental sages. His own treatise, of which
a very copious account will be found in Buhle, soon fell into
oblivion ; but it belongs to a class of literature, which, in all
its extension, has, full as much as any other, engaged the
human mind.

88. The thirst for hidden knowledge, by which man is

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chaf.UI.] from 1440 TO 1600. 199

distbgnished from brutes, and the superior races of men from
savage tribes, bums generalljr with more intenseness Ducnor
in proportion as the subject is less definitely com- ^i^
prebensible, and the means of certainty less attain- ■*'*^'*'-
able. Even our own interest in things beyond the sensible
world does not ^pear to be the primary or chief source of
die desire we feet to be acqu^ted with them ; it is the
fdeasure of belief itself, of associating the conviction of reality
widi ideas not presented by sense ; it is sometimes the neces-
sity of satisfying a restless spirit, that first excites our en-
deavour to withdraw the veil that conceds the mystery of our
being. The few great truths in religion that reason discovers,
or that an explicit revelation deigns to communicate, suffi-
rient as they may be for our practical good, have proved to
fall very short of the ambitious curiosity of man. They leave
90 much imperfectly known, so much wholly unexplored, that
in all ages he has never been content without trying some
method of filling up the void. These methods have often led
him to folly, and weakness, and crime. Yet as those who
want the human passions, in their excess the great founUuns
of evil, seem to us mumed in tbeir nature, so an indif-
ference to this knowledge of invisible things, or a premature
despair of attaining it, may be accounted an indication of
some moral or intellectual defidency, some scantness of due
proportion in the mind.

89. The means to which recourse has been had to enlarge
the boundaries of human knowledge in matters
relating to the Deity, or to such of his intelligent Z"^^ •"■
creatures as do not present themselves in ordinary
ol^ectiveness to our senses, have been various, and may be
distributed into several classes. Reason itself, as the jt^^„ ,„j
most valuable, though not the most frequent in use, '"'p'""™-
may be reckoned the first. Whatever deductions have sug-
gested themselves to the acute, or'analogies to the observant,
mind, whatever has seemed the probable interpretation of re-
vealed testimony, is the legitimate province of a sound and
rational theology. But so fallible appears the reason of each
man to others, and often so dubious are its inferences to him-
self, so limited is the span of our faculties, so incapable are
they of giving more than a vague and conjectural probability,

o 4

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

200 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pabt I.

where we demand most of definiteness and certainty, that
few, comparatively speaking, have been content to acquiesce
even in dieir own hypotheses upon no other ground than
argument has supphed. llie uneasiness that is apt to attend
suspense of behef baa required, in general, a more powerful
remedy. Next to those who have solely employed their
rational faculties in theology, we may place those who have
relied on a supernatural illuniination. These have nominally
been many ; but the imagination, like the reason, bends iinder
the incomprehensibility of spiritual things ; a few excepted,
who have become founders of sects, and lawgivers to the rest,
the mystics fell into a beaten track, and grew mechanical
even in their enthusiasm.

90. No solitary and unconnected meditations, however,
Biicnded either of the philosopher or the mystic, could furnish
ft^ToT^id a sufficiently extensive stock of theological faith for
""■*'' the multitude, who, by their temper and capadties,
were more prone to take it at the hands of others dian choose
any tenets for themselves. They looked, therefore, for some
authority upon which to repose ; and instead of builders, be-
came as it were occupants of mansions prepared for them by
more active minds. Among those who adcnowledge a code
of revealed truths, the Jews, Christians, and Mahometans,
this authority has been sought in largely expansive interpre-
tations of their sacred books ; either of positive obligation, as
the decisions of general councils were held to be, or at least
of such weight as a private man's reason, unless he were of
great name himself, was not permitted to contravene. TTiese
expositions, in the Christian church, as well as among the
Jews, were frequently allegorical ; a hidden stream of esoteric
truth was supposed to flow beneath all the sur&ce of Scrip-
ture ; and every text germinated, in the hands of the preacher,
into meanings far from obvious, but which were presumed to
be not undesigned. This scheme of allegorical interpretation
began among the eariiest fathers, and spread with perpetual
expansion through the middle ages.* The Reformation
swept most of it away ; but it has frequently revived in a
more parti^ manner. We mention it here only as one great

■ Fleurj' (5nie di<cuutK)i ivi^ 3T. Maihcini, puBim.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cmte.UL] FUOM 1440 TO 1500. 201

means of en&bling men to believe niOTe than they had done,
of commimlcatiDg to them what was to be received as divine
truths, not additional to Scripture, because they were con-
cealed in it, but such as the church could only have teamed
through her teachers.

91' Another large class of religious opinions stood on a
somewh&t different footing. They were, in a pro- couumn
per sense, according to the notions of those times, '" "*""""'■
revealed from God ; though not in the sacred writings which
were the chief depositories of his word. Such were the re-
ceived traditions in each of the three great religions, some-
times absolutely in&llible, sometimes, as ia the former case
of interpretations, resting upon such a basis of authority, that
no one was held at liberty to withhold his assent. The
Jewish tradidoDS were of this kind ; and the Mahometans
have trod in the same path. We may add to these the
l^ends of saints : none, perhaps, were positively enforced as
of faith ; but a Franciscan was not to doubt the inspiration
and miraculous gifts of his founder. Nor was there any dis-
position in the people to doubt of them ; they filled up with
abundant measure the cravings of the heart and fancy, till,
having absolutely palled both by excess, they brought about
a kind of re-action, which h^ taken off much of their
efficacy.

92. Francis of Assisi may naturally lead us to the last
mode in which tlie spirit of theological belief mani- c<>Dfl<i«ice
fested itself; the confidence in a particular man, as d1i"t''u''
the organ of a special divine illumination. But '°''''''^*
though this was fully assented to by the order he instituted,
and probably by most others, it cannot be said that Francis
pretended to set up any new tenets, or enlarge, except by his
visions and miracles, the limits of spiritual knowledge. Nor
would this, in general, have been a safe proceeding in the
middle ages. Those who made a claim to such light from
heaven as could irradiate what the church had left dark
seldom fiuled to provoke her jealousy. It is, therefore, in
later times, and under more tolerant goveniments, that we
shall find the fanatics, or impostors, whom the multitude has
taken for witnesses of divine truth, or at least for interpre-
ters of the mysteries of the invisible world.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

202 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa«tL

93. In the class of traditional theology, or what might be
jimiih called complemental revelation, we must place the
*'•'*•*''■ Jewish Cabbala. This consisted in a very specific
and complex system, concerning the nature of the Supreme
Being, the emanation of various orders of spirits in successive
links from his essence, their properties and characters. It is
evidently one modification of the oriental philosophy, bor-
rowing little from the Scriptures, at least through any
natural interpretation of them, and the o£&pring of the Alex-
andrian Jews, not far from the beginning of the Christian
era. They referred it to a tradition from Esdras, or some
other eminent person, on whom they fixed as the depositary
of an esoteric theology communicated by divine authority.
The Cabbala was received by the Jewish doctors in the first
centuries after the fall of their state ; and after a period of
long duration, as remark^le for the neglect of learning in
that people as in the Christian world, it revived i^;ain in
that more genial season, the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
when the brilliancy of many kinds of literature among the
Saracens of Spain excited their Jewish subjects to emula-
tion. Many conspicuous men illustrate the Hebrew learning
of those and the succeeding ages. It was not till now,
about the middle of the fifteenth century, that they came into
contact with the Christians in theological philosophy. The
Platonism of Flcinus, derived, in great measure, from that
of Plotinus and the Alexandrian school, was easily con-
nected, by means especially oi the writings of Philo, with
the Jewish orientalisin, sisters as they were of the same
family. Several forgeries in celebrated names, easy to effect
and sure to deceive, had been committed in the first ages of
Christianity by the active propagators of this philosophy.
Hermes Trismegistus and Zoroaster were counterfeited m
books which most were prone to take for genuine, and which
it was not then easy to refute on critical grounds. These
altogether formed a huge mass of imposture, or, at best, of
arbitrary hypothesis, which, for more than a hundred years
after this time, obtained an undue credence, and consequentiy
retarded the course of real philosophy in Europe.*

■ BTUcker, Tol. il Buh1e,iL3I& Mraoers, Vergl. der litten, iiL 377.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chap, in.] FROM 1440 TO 1600. 203

94. The^ never gained over a more distinguished prose-
lyte, or one whose credulity was more to be re- pieaiof
gretted, than a young man who appeared at Florence '''™*''*-
in I4<85, John Picus of Miraodola. He was then twenty-
two years old, the younger son of an illustrious fomily,
which held that little principality as an imperial fief. At the
age of fourteen he was sent to Bologna, that he might study
the canon law, with a view to the ecclesiasticid profession ;
bat after two years he felt an inexhaustible desire for more
elevated, though less profitable, sciences. He devoted the
next six years to the philosophy of the schools, in the chief
universities of Italy and France : whatever disputable aub-
tilties the metaphysics and theology of that age could supply,
became ^niliar to his mind ; but to these he added a know-
ledge of the Hebrew and other eastern languageB, a power of
Writing Latin with grace, and of amusing his leisure with the
composition of Italian poetry. The natural genius of Picus
is well shown, though in a partial manner, by a letter which
will be found among those of Polittan, in answer to Hermo-
laus BarbaruB. His correspondent had spoken with the scorn,
and almost bitterness, usual with philologers, of the Trans-
alpine writers, meaning chiefly the schoolmen, for the badness
of their Latin. Tlie young scholastic answered, that he had
been at first disheartened by the reflection that he had lost
six years' labour ; but considered afterwards that the bar-
barians might say something for themselves, and puts a very
good defence in their mouths ; a defence which wants nothing
but the truth of what he is forced to assume, that they had
been employing their intellects upon things instead of words.
Hermolans found, however, nothing better to reply than the
compliment, that Picus would be disavowed by the schoolmen
stroying, as it is said, his own amatory poems,
to the regret of his friends.* He now published several
works, of which the Heptaplus is a cabbalistic exposition of
the first chapter of Genesis. It is remarkable that, with his
excessive tendency to belief, he rejected altc^ether, and con>
fated in a distinct treatise, the popular science of astrology,
in which men so much more conspicuous in philosophy have
trusted. But he had projected many other undertakings of
vast extent ; an allegorical exposition of the New Testa-
ment, a defence of the Vulgate and Septuagint against the
Jews, a vindication of Christianity against every species of
infidelity and heresy ; and finally, a harmony of philosophy,
reconciling the iipparent inconsistencies of all writers, an>
dent and modem, who deserved the name of wise, as he had
already attempted by Plato and Aristotle. In these arduous
labours he was cut off by a fever at the age of thirty-one,
in 1494, on the very day that Charles VIII. made his entry
into Florence. A man, so justly called the phcenix of his
age, and so extraordinarily gifted by nature, ought not to
be slightly passed over, though he may have left nothing

t: Go Ogle

Wfy LITEBATURE OF EUBOPE [PaeiL

which we could read with advantage. If we talk of the
admirable Crichton, who is little better than a shadow, and
livea but in panegyric, so much superior and more wonder'
ful a person as John Picus of Mirandola should not he
forgotten.*

97. If> leaving the genial city of Florence, we are to

judge of the state of knowledge in our Cisalpine
u^iDi la regions, and look at the books it was thought worth

white to publish, which seems no bad criterion, we
shall rate but lowly their proficiency in the classical literature
so much valued in Italy. Four eiditions, and those chiefly
of short works, were printed at Deventer, one at Colt^rn^
one at Louvain, five perhaps at Paris, two at Lyons.! But
a few undated books might, probably, he added. Either
therefore the love of ancient learning bad grown colder,
which was certainly not the case, or it had never been
strong enough to reward the labour of the too sanguine
printers. Yet it was now striking root in Germany. The
excellent schools of Munster and Schelstadt were established
in some put of this decad ; they trained those who were
themselves to become instructors ; and the liberd zeal of
Langius extending beyond his immediate disciples, scarce any
Latin author was published in Germany of which he did not
correct the text.t The opportunities he had of doing so
were not, as has been just seen, so numerous in this period
as they became in the next. He had to withstand a potent
and ol»tinate faction. The mendicant friars of Cologne, the
head quarters of barbarous superstition, clamoured against
his rejection of the old school-books, and the entire reform

of education. But Airricola addresses his friend

Agrtcoln. . . , ^ ,, T . . ■ .1. . .

in sanguine language : " 1 entertain the greatest
hope from your exertions, that we shall one* day wrest from
this insolent Italy her vaunted glory of pre-eminent elo-

* The long biogiaphy of I^cui in in Brucker, Buhle, Corniani, and Tin-

Meinen is in gnttt caeasure taken from a boachL The epitaph on Hcui by Her-

lifc written bf bli nepheir, John Francis cu\ta Strona i», I believe, in the ehunli

PieuB, count of Mirandola, himteira man of St. Mark : —

of great literary and philosophical repu- Junan jacec hic Hliudola -. ccten nAnnit
tatioo in the neit century. Mrineri hai Ki Tagoi « Ganr» i ftnaa e( Amlpal..
made DKire me of tbii than any one else ; t Panier.

but much will be (buiHlcuncemingPicua, ) Meiners Lebanabeacb. ii. 388. E!ch>

from tbi* wMTCe, and from hil own worka, boro, iil. S31— S99.

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Cb*f. IU.] from 1440 TO 1600. 207

qaeoce ; and redeeming ourselves from the opprobrium of
ignorsQCe, barbarism, aod incapacity of expression which
^ is ever casting upon us, may show our Giermany so
deeply learned, that Latium itsdf ahall not be more Latin
than she will appear." * About 1483, Agricota was invited
to the court of ihe elector paladne at Heidelberg. He seems
not to have been mgaged in public instruction, but passed
the remidnder of his life, unfortunately too short, for he died
m 14i85, in difiiising and promoting a taste for literature
among his contemporaries. No German wrote in so pure a
style, or possessed so targe a portion of classical learning.
Vives places him in dignity and grace of language even
above Politian and Hermolaus.t The pruaes of Erasmus, as
well as of the later critics, if not so marked, are very freely
bestowed. His letters are frequendy written in Greek i a
fashion of those who could follow it ; and as &r as I have
attended to them, seem equal in correctness to some ft'om men
of higher name in the next age.

98. The immediate patron of Agricola, through whopirtis '^
was invited to Heidelberg, was John Camerarius, of Bh^tti v
the house of Dalberg, bishop of Worms, and chan- "*'*?"^ ,./-
celtor of the Palatinate. He contributed much himself to the
cause of letters in Germany ; especially if he is to be deemed,
the founder, as probably he should be, of an early academy,

* Udqui boo tibi ■Srmo, iagenlemdc vel HennoUui Btrbami, quoa me* qui-
te condpia fiducum, tummamque in dem wntentui, et lufyeitate et muTilate
tftm addncor, Ibre aliquando, ut prucam diotionii nan cquat modo, ud eliam
uuolenti Italia, ct propcmodum oeeu- TLiicit. Vivea, Comment, in Auguilin.
patun bene dicendi gloiiuo eitorqura- (spud Blount, Ceniura Auetonim, nib
mm; Tindicemuique dos, at ab isiiaTia, noniine Agrioola.)
qua ooa barfaanM^ indoctoique et elmgnes, Agoaaco virum diTini pectoria, arudi-
ct li quid est his idcultiua, ease DOB jacti- tioDiE lecondila, stfio miiiinie lulgaii,
lant. eisoWaiDui, fiituninqtie tam dootam ■olidum, Detioaum, elabontum, compo.
el litentam Geimauiam noslram, ut uon aitum. In Italia lummus esK potent,
Latiuiui Tel Ipsum nC Latium. Tfaia is nisi Germaniam prietuliuet. Eraimua
quoted by Heeren, p. 154., aad Mdners, in CieeroniaDo. He speaks aa strong);
iL 399- in many alber places. T«atiinanie* to

f Vix et bao'noatn it patrum memo- tbe merits of Agricola from Huet, Voa-

ria luit unui alque alter dignior, qui liui, and othen, are collected by Bayle,

multum legeretur, multumque in mani- Blount, Baillet, and Niceron. Meiners

bui haberetur, quam Radulphiw Agri- baa written his life, ii. pp. 332— 363.J

eiila Primui; tantum eat in ejus opeiibua and aereral of his letteit will be found

ingenii, artia, gniritatia, dul«dinis, elo- among those addresaed to Heuchlln,

qnentw, eraditionia; at ia pauciaumis Epiatolc ad Reuchllnum

lyCOOglC

208 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Paht L

the Khenish Society, which, we are told, devoted its time to
Ladn, Greek, and Hebrew criticism, astrODOmy, music, and
poetry ; not scorning' to relax their minds with dances and
feasts, nor forgetting the ancient German attachment to the
flowing cup.* The chief seat of the Rhenish Society was at
Heidelberg ; but it had associate branches in other parts of
Grermany, and obtained imperial privileges. No member of
this academy was more conspicuous than Conrad Cettes, who
has sotnetimes been reckoned its founder, which, from his
youdi, is hardly probable, and was, at least, the chief instru-
ment of its subsiequent extension. He was indefatigable in
the vineyard of literature, and, travelling to different parts of
Germany, exerted a more general influence than Agricola
himself. Celtes was the first from whom Saxony derived
some taste for learning. His Ladn poetry was far superior
to any that had been produced in the empire ; and for this,
in liSy, he received the laurel crown from Frederick Ill.t

99. Reuchlin, in 1482, accompanied the duke of Wirtem-

berg on a visit to Rome. He thus became acquainted
with the illustrious men of Italy, and convinced
them of his own pretensions to the name of a scholar. The
old Constantinopolitan Argyropulus, on hearing him translate
a passage of Thucydides, exclaimed, " Our banished Greece
has now flown beyond the Alps." Yet Reuchlin, though from
some other circumstances of his life a more celebrated, was
not probably so learned or so accomplished a man as Agricola ;
he was withdrawn from public tuition by the favour of several
princes, in whose courts he filled honourable offices ; and,
after some years more, he fell unfortunately into the same
seducing error as Picus of Mirandola, and sacrificed his
classical pursuits for the Cabbalistic philosophy,

100. Though France contributed little to the philologer,

* Studebant eiimU hac ingenia Lati- culis, epulari, te more Gertnanonun in-

Dorum, Graconim, Ebrcorumque scrip- Temato sirenue paUra. Jugler, Hist.

tOTumlectioni, cumprimiBCriticni astro- LittCTaria, p. J 99S. (vol. iii.) Thcpsaaage

nomiam et srtem muslcnm eicalehant. uenis to be taken from Ruprecht, Ontia

Poesin alqua Jurispiudenllam aibi babe- de Societate Lilterwia Rbeiuina, Jenx,

bant commetidalam ; imo et inteidum ITJS, vhlch I have not Been,

gaudia curis interponebant. Noctuma t ^xg^"'- ubi aupn. Eicbhotn, ji

nimirum tempore, defisri laboribus, 1u- S5T. Heeren, p. 160. Biogr. UniTer.

dere lolebaDl, laltare, jocati cum mulier- aelle, art. Celtea, Dalberg Trithemius.

lyGOOgIC

Cup.nL] FROM 1440 TO 1600. SOQ

several books were now published in French. In the Cent
Noavefles Nouvelles, 1486, a alight improvement - ..
ID polish of language is said to be discernible.* The (<i>8<*b<i
poems of Villon are rather of more importance.
They were first published in 1489 ; but many of them had
been written thirty years before. Boileau has given Villon
credit for being the first who cleared his style from the rude-
ness and redundancy of the old romancers.t But this praise,
■s some have observed, is more justly due to the duke of
Orleans, a man of full as much talent as Vilton, with a finer
taste. The poetry of the latter, as might be expected from
a life of dissoluteness and roguery, is often low and coarse ;
but be seems by no means incapable of a moral strain, not
destitute of terseness and spirit. Martial d'Auvergne, in his
Vigiles de la mort de Ctuu-les VII., which, from its subject,
must have been written soon after 1460, though not printed
till 1490, displays, to judge from the extracts in Goujet,
some compass of imagination, t The French poetry of this
age was still full of allegorical mosality, and had lost a part
of its original raciness. Those who desire an acquaintance
with it may have recourse to the author just mentioned, or to
Bout«rwek ; and extracts, though not so copious as the title
promisee, will be found in the Eecueil des anciens poetes
Franpais.

101. The modem drama of Europe is derived, like its
poetry, from two sources, the one ancient or classi- guropna
eal, the other mediseval ; the one an imitation of '"*°"'
Plautus and Seneca, the other a gradual refinement of the
rude scenic perfonnances, denominated miracles, mysteries,
or moralities. Latin plays upon the former model,
I few of which are extiuit, were written in Italy
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and sometimes
represented, either in the universities, or before an audience
of ecclesiastics and others who could understand them. §
One of these, the Catinia of Secco Folentone, written about
the middle of the fifteenth century, and translated by a son

• Ekw du C. Fnuijoii de Neutchit- DtbroallUr I'ltt Ennhii de dm iUuk to-

tfu nr l« miilleiirm ouTrmB» .n prose i ■"" '"■ ^^ p,*i,«. I.I. t. IIT.
prcaicd to <EuTrea de FbscbI (1S19), u

p, m, i Goujet, Bibholheque Frinfaiie,

t Ti.ta-r|«>.p™u« d-.d« .»ci« r«- "'g "^.„bo«hi. viL 20a

VOL. I. P

t: Go Ogle

210 LITERATUKE OF EUROPE [Past I.

of the author into the Venetiau dialect, was printed in 148S.
This piece, however, was confined U> the press.* Sabellicus,
as quoted by Tiraboschi, has given to Pomponius Letus ^e
credit of having re-established the theatre at Rome, and
caused the pkys of Plautus and Terence, as well as some
more modem, which we may presume to have been in Latin,
to be performed before the pope, probably Sixtus IV. And
James of Volterra, in a diary published by Mnratori, expressly
mentions a History of Constantine represented in the papal
palace during- the carnival of 1484.t In imitation of Itdy,
but, perhaps, a little after the present decennial period,
Reuchliii brought Latin plays of his own composition before
a German audience. They were represented by students of
Heidelberg. An edition of his Progymnasmata Scenica,
containing some of these comedies, was printed in 1498. It
has been swd that one of them is taken from the French farce
Maitre Patelint; while another, entitled Sergius, according
to Warton, flies a much higher pitch, and is a satire on bad
kings and bad ministers ; though, from the account of
Meiners, it seems rather to fall on the fraudulent arts of the
monks.§ The book is very scarce, and I have never seen it.
Conrad Celtes, not long after Reuchlln, produced his own
tragedies and comedies In the public halls of Grerman cities.
It is to be remembered, that the oral Latin language might
at that time be tolerably familiar to a considerable audience
in Germany.

lOS. The Orfeo of Politian has clamed precedence as the
orfn or earliest represented drama, not of a religious nature.
Politico, ju ^ modern language. This was written by him
in two days, and acted before the court of Mantua in 1483.
Roscoe has called it the first example of the musical drama,
or Italian opera ; but though he speaks of this as agreed by
general consent. It is certain that the Orfeo was not designed

• UraboBchi, y'ii. p. 801. Some eitnicta from the Sergius, fijr

-f Id. p. 301. whicli I am indebted to the same obliging

I GresirelrB Early Puriiian Press, p. correspondent, lead me to conclude that

121. ; quoting La Monnoye. Thiiseemi the satire ia more general than theaccount

to beconfitmed by Meiners, i. 63. [It oflhatplay by Meiners bad Implied ; ani

baa been guggeated to me by Dr. West that priests or monks come in only for i

that the Progymnasmata Sceoleii is the share in it.— 1842.]

title of a liogle comedy, namely, that § Wsrloo, iii. 203. Meiners, i, 63.

which is taken from Maitre Patelin. Mti- The Sergius was represented at Heidtl-

ners, vol. i. p. 63., seems to coniirin this, berg about 1497.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Crap, m.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. SI]

for musical accompanimeDt, except, probably, in tbe songs
and choruses." According to the analysis of the fable in
Ginguene, the Orfeo differs only from a legendary mystery
by substituting one set of characters for another ; and it is
surely by an arbitrary definition that we pay it the compli-
ment upon which the modem historians of literature seem to
have agreed. Several absurdities which appear in the first
edition are siud not to exist in the original manuscripts from
which the Orfeo has been reprinted.t We must give the
next place to a translation of the Mentechmi of Plautusi
acted at Ferrara in 1486, by order of Ercole I., and, as some
have thought, his own production, or to some original plays
said to have been performed at the same brilliant court in the
following years, t

103. Tie less regular, though in their day not less in-
terestiDg, dass of scenical stories, commonly called
mysteries, all of which related to religious subjects, itmnjiiic
were never in more reputation than at this time.

It is impossible to fix their first appearance at any single era,
and the inquiry into the origin of dramatic representation
must be very limited in its subject, or perfectly futile in its
Bcope. All nations, probably, have at all times, to a certain
extent, amused themselves both with pantomimic and oral
representation of a feigned story ; the sports of children are
seldom without both ; and the exclusive employment of the
former, instead of being a first stage of the drama, as has
sometimes been assumed, is rather a variety in the course of
its progress.

104. The Christian drama arose on the ruins of the heathen
theatre : it was a natural substitute of real sym- TheirBuir

S,thie8 for those which were effaced and condemned. '"*"'
ence we find Greek tragedies on sacred subjects almost as

t TiraboKhi. lii. 216. Cingu^ai,
iil. 514. Anirit, v. 135., diuuMingtbe
Bpi!*k oT muHGil Bcconi- history of the Itdian *nd Spanish the-
; Orfeo; and CornUnl aires, ((iies the precedence to the Orfeo,
only uya: ■leuni di eni sembrano dall' ua repreaented plBf, though he conceive!
■ulor dntioali ad aecoppUnd coUa mu- the first act of the Celesttna to have been
uea. Tali aono i canxoni e i cori alia written aod well kDovn not later than
grttM. Probablj Roacoe did not mean tbc middle of the fineenlh centurj'.
all that hii vorda imply ; for ihe orijjin | Tiraboachi, rii. V03., et poji. Roi-
of recitatiTe, in vbich the cHciue of the coe, LeoX., eh. ii. G'mguint, yL IS.
Italian opera eontUta, more than a cen-
tor; afterward^ i« matter of notoriety.

lyGOOgIC

212 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PartL

early as the establishment of the church, and we have testi-
monies to their representaition at Constantinople. Nothing
of this kind bein^ proved with respect to the west of Europe
in the dark ages, it has been conjectured, not improb^f,
though without necessity, that tile pilgrims, of whom grort
numbers repiured to the East in the eleventh century, might
have obtained notions of scenicat dialogue, with a succesaioa
of characters, and with an ornamental apparatus, in wliidi
theatrical representation properly consists. The earliest men-
tion of them, it has been said, is in England. Greoffrey,
afterwards abbot of St. Alban's, while teaching a school at
Dunstable, caused one of the shows, vulgarly called miracles,
on the story of St. Catherine to be represented in that town.
Such is the account of Matthew Paris, who mentions the
circumstance incidentally, in consequence of a fire that ensued.
Iliis must have been within the first twenty years of the
twelfth century.* It is not to be questioned, that Geofiey,
a native of France, had some earlier models in his own coun-
try. Le Bteuf gives an account of a mystery written in the
middle of the preceding century, wherein Virgil is introduced
among the prophets that come to adore the Saviour ; doubt-
less in allusion to the fourth eclogue.

105. Fitz-Stepben, in the reign of Henry II., dwells on

the satred plays acted in London, representing the
^h iiir>- miracles or passions of martyrs. They became very

common by the names of mysteries or miracles, bodb

* Mitt ParU. p. 1007 (edit 1604). Stre modeme, rcnainant dana pretqa*

Sea Wuton't 34Ih lection (iii. 193 — toutc* Us contrie* de 1' Europe Ten li

S3^), for tbe earl; drama, and Beau- fin de troiiitme siecle." — QuotalioD in

ebaiRpa, Hist du diiatre Franfais, toJ. i., Jublnal, Myttera lD£diti du Qumujme

or Bouterwek, t. 95—117., for the Kecle. Paris, 1837. p. 9. But we hare

French in particular ; Tiraboschi, ubi no sort of evidence that the draiUBi at

supra, or RiccoboDi, Hiit, du thfiCre Hioswitha irere represented, nor ia it bj

lulien, Kir tliat of Italy. any meaoi probable tbat they were.

[It is not sufficient, in order to prove Until the new languages, which alone

the continuity of dramatic repreieutation the people understood, were employed

through the dark ages, that we should in popular wiititig^ Ihe itige mutt hare

possess a lew poetical dialogues in Latin, been nlenL In the mystery of Ihe WiM

or eten entire plsyi, like lhc»e of Hros- and Foolith Virgini, we find both Latin

witha. abbess of Gandetsaen, in the lOth and ProTeni^l. This, therefore, is an

century. A modem French writer calls evidence of transition ; and whether as

one of her sacred comedies, " Ud del old ai the 1 Itb century, or a little later,

ebafnons, te plus brillnnt, peu(-£[re,et le may stand at the bead of European dia-

plus pur de eette titie non inlerrompue matia literature. Several others, bo*-

d'lEuvrea dramatiques, jusqu'ici trop ever, are referred by lata French antiqua-

peu ^udifet, qui lient le th^fttre pu'Jen, ries to the same age, and bare beeo

ciplrani vers le cinquiime sitele, au Oii- pnbliihed by SI. Moninerqu& — IB4T.]

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CBtr.m.] FROM 1440 TO 1600. SIS

in England and on the Continent, uid were not only exhibited
within the walls of convents, but upon public occasions and
festivals for the amusement of the people. It is probable,
however, that the perfonners for a long rime were always
eccleaiastica. The earlier of these religious dramas were in
Latin. A Latin farce on St. Nicolas exists, older than the
thirteenth century.* It was slowly that the modem languages
were employed; and perhaps it might hence be presumed,
that the greater part of the story was told through pantomime.
But aa this was unsarisfactory, and the spectators could not
always follow the fable, there was an obvious inducement to
make use of the vernacular language. The most ancient
spedmens appear to be those which Le Grand d'Aussy found
among the compositions of the Trouveurs. He has published
extracts from three ; two of which are in the nature of
legendary mysteries; while the third, which is far more re-
markable, and may possibly be of the following century, is
a pleasing pastora] drama, of which there seem to be no other
instances in the medieval period.! Bouterwek mentions a
fragment of a German mystery, near the end of the thirteenth
century. 1: Next to this it seems that we should place an
English mystery called " The Harrowing of HeU." " This,"
its editor observes, " is believed to be the most ancient pro-
duction in a dramatic form in our language. The manuscript
irom which it is now printed is on vellum, and is certainly as
dd as the reign of Edward III., if not older. It probably
formed one of a aeries of performances of the same kind,
founded upon Scripture history." It consists of a prologue,
^logue, and intermediate dialogue of nine persons, Dominus,
Sathan, Adam, Eve, &c. Independently of the alleged age
of the manuscript itself, the language will hardly he thought
later than 1350.§ This, however, seems to stand at no

■ Joanial de* Sbtuis, 1838, p. 997. Bouf to the eleventh centurj', hu been

Then fiiTca,«!coidingtoM. R*;Douard, publiibed b; Baynouird. See Journal

veretbeeu-liealdnmiitiorepreieptatioiu, deB 8■Tan^ June, 1836, p. 866. for this

tnd g«*e riic lo the vayiUria. early mystery. — 1842.]

t Fabliaux, ii. 119. § Mr. Collier hu primed Iwenly-liTe

t ii. 865. The " Tra^y of the Ten copiei (why veterii tarn piiTcu»aceti?)of

Virgiiu'' vaa acted at Euenach in I9S3. thU very curious record of the ancient

Thii ii eridentl J nothing bul a myWery. drama. I do not know that any other in

Weber'iIlluMraliaaBof Nortbern Foelry, Europe of thai early age boa yet beeo

p. 19. — [A drama of the Wi«e and given to the preaa.

Pooliih Virgini, written in a mixture of '[The Harrowing of Hell has since

Latin and lUnDame, and aaeribcd by Le been published by Mr. Hallivell. la

lyGoogIc —

214 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PamL

small distance from any extant work of the kind. Warton
having referred the Chester mysteries to 1327> when lie sup-
poses them to have been written by Ranulph Higden, a learned
monk of that city, best known as the author of the Poly-
chronicon, Roscoe positively contradicts him, and denies that
any dramatic composition can be found in England anterior
to the year 1500.' Two of these Chester mysteries have
been since printed ; but notwithstanding the very respectable
authorities which assign them to the fourteenth century, I
cannot but consider the language in which we now read them
not earlier, to say the least, than the middle of the next. It
is possible that they have in some degree been modernised.
Mr. Collier has given an analysis of our own extuit mystertes,
or, as he prefers to call them, Miracle-ptays.t There does
not seem to be much dramatic merit, even with copious in-
dulgence, in any of them ; and some, such as the two Chester
mysteries, are in the lowest style of buffoonery; yet they are
not without importance in the absolute sterility of English
literature during the age in which we presume them to have
been written, the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV.

106. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were fertile of
FintFFSDcb these religious dramas in many parts of Europe.
th«ira. They were frequently represented in Gennany, but
more in Latin than the mother-tongue. The French scrip-
tural theatre, whatever may have been previously exhibited,
seems not to be traced in permanent existence beyond the last
years of the fourteenth century.t It was about 1400, accord-
ing to Beauchamps, or some years before, as the authorities
quoted by Bouterwek imply, that the Confrairie de la Passion
de N. S. was established as a regular body of actors at Paris.§

the Th^itre Frmnfiii du Moyen Age, rriend Mr. MurkUna ; and what are

1839. M. Michel baa publiihed seTeral culled the Ton-nley mysteries are an-

French myeteriea or miracle pla^B of Ihe nounced for publicatiun, (I83G.) —

Mlheenturjr, or perhaps earlier. — 1S47.] [Thev hate unce appeared, — leiS.}

■ LorenM.de' Medici, 1.399. OuBcoe J [The mysterj of St Crispio and

thinVs there ia reuon to conjecture that St. Criipinien, published about 1836. ii

the Miracle-ptsjF acted at DunstaLle nas revieved by Raynouard in the Journal

in dumb (how ; and nasumes the aamc of des Savani for that year. He seems to

the " grotesque exhihltionB" knovn hy assign no date to this mystery ; but it u

thenameofthe Harroffing of Hell. In clearthatsmilar diamas were represented

this we have just seen that he wat mis- long btfore the end of the fourteenth

taken, and probably in the former. century. But nnt perhaps ou a penua-

+ Hist, of English dramatic poetry, nent tlieatre.— 1842.]

vol. ii. The Chester mystiTies were § Beaucliamps, Recherches sur le tbj-

printed for the Roxburgh Club, by my ttre Franjais, Bouterrek, v. 96.

lyCOOglC

CH*r. m.] FROU 1440 TO 1500. S15

Tbej are said to have taken their name from the mystery of
the passion, which in fact represented the whole life of our
Lord from his haptism, and was divided into several days.
In pomp of show they far excelled our English mysteries,
in which few persons appeared, and the scenery was simple.
But in the mystery of the passion, eighty-seven characters
were introduced in the first day ; heaven, earth, and hell
comhined to people the stage ; several scenes were written
for singing and some for choruses. The dialogue, of which
I have only seen the few extracts in Bouterwek, is rather
similar to that of our own mysteries, though less rude, and
with more eflForts at a tragic tone.*

107* The mysteries, not confined to scriptural themes,
embraced those which were hardly less sacred and ThFMricm
trustworthy in the eyes of the people, the legends "'"'''"'^i-
of saints. These afforded ample scope for the gratification
which great part of mankind seem to take in witnessing the
oiduraace of pain. Thus, in one of these Parisian mysteries,
St. Barbara is hung up by the heels on the stage j and after
uttering her remonstrances in that unpleasant situation, is
tOTD with pincers and scorched with lamps before the audi-
ttice. The decoratious of this theatre must have appeared
splendid. A large scaffolding at the back of the stage dis-
jnayed heaven above and hell below, between which extended
the world, with representations of the spot where the scene
lay. Nor was the machinist's art unknown. An immense
dragon, with eyes of polished steel, sprang out from hell, in
a mystery exhibited at Metz in the year 1437, ^"^ spread
his wings so near to the spectators, that they were all in con-
sternation. t Many French mysteries, chiefiy without date
of the year, are in print, and probably belong, typographically
nteaking, to the present century.^ One bears, according to
Brunei, the date of 14<84i. These may, however, have
been written long before their publication. Beauchamps
has given a list of early mysteries and moralities in the
French language, beginning near the end of the fourteenth
oentnry.

* Boutcnrrk, p. lOO ( BruDct, MiDuel du I'lbraire.

t Id., pp. 103— loe.

t: Go Ogle

216 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»i L

108. The religious drama was doubtless full as tmcient in

Italy as in any other country ; it was very congenial
niigiMi to a people whose delight ia sensible objects is so in-
*™**' tense. It did not supersede the extemporaneous
performances, the mimi and histriones, who had probably
never intermitted their sportive licence since the days of
their Oscan fathers, and of whom we find mention, some-
times with severity, sometimes with toleration, in ecclesias-
tical writers*, but it came into competition with them ; and
thus may be said to have commenced in the thirteenth cen-
tury a war of regular comedy against the lawless savages
of the stage, which has only been terminated in Ita]y within
very recent recollection. We find a society del Gonfalone
established at Rome in l^64>, the statutes of which declare
that it is designed to represent the passion of Jesus Christ.t
Lorenzo de' Medici condescended to publish a drama of this
kind on the martyrdom of two sunts ; and a considerable
collection of similar productions during the fifteenth centary
was in the possession of Mr. Roscoe.t

109. Next to the mysteries came the kindred class, styled

moralities. But as these belong more peculiarly
to the next century, both in England and France,
though they began about the present time, we may better
reserve them for that period. There is still another
species of dramatic composition, what may be called
the farce, not always very distinguishable from comedy, but
much shorter, admitting more buffoonery without reproach,
and more destitute of any serious or practical end. It may
be reckoned a middle link between the extemporaneous
efi'usions of the mimes and the legitimate drains. TTie
French have a diverting piece of this kind, Maitre Patelin,
ascribed to Pierre Blanchet, and first printed in 1490. It
was restored to the stage with much alteration, under the
name of I'Avocat Patelin, about the beginning of the last
century ; and contains strokes of humour which Moliere
would not have disdained. § Of these productions there

* Tliomu Aquioai mentiana the bit- Kenical represenUtioni trul; drtiiluitic in

trion&tils mn, is Uwrul if not abused. luly ; in vliich he seems to be mistaken.

Antonin of Florence does tlje ume. f Life of Loienio, i. 402.

mccoboni, i. S3. § The jiraierbial eipreuion for qail-

t Kiccoboni. Tiraboichi, however, ting n digression, Ileienons i nos mou-

V, 37S.> disputes tlic antiquity of any tons, ia taken from this tarce ; vhich Is

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cbap. UIO from 1440 TO 1600. HIJ

were not a few in Germuiy, called Fastnachts-epiele, or
Carnival plays, written in the licence which that season has
generally permitted. They are scu'ce and of little value.
The most remarkable is the Apotheosis of Pope Joan, a tragi-
comic legend, written about 1480.*

110. £uclid was printed for the lirst time at Venice in
1483 ; the diagrams in this edition are engraved uithmni.
OD copper, and remarkably clear and neat, t The "*** "'"'"■
tnmslation is that of Campanus from the Arabic. The cos-
DM^n^hy of Ptolemy, which had been already twice pub-
liabed in Italy, appeared the same year at Ulm, with maps
by Donis, some of them traced after the plans drawn by
Agathodtemon, some modem ; and it was reprinted, as well
as Euclid, at the same place in 1486. The tables of Regio-
montanus were printed both at Augsburg and Venice in
1490. We may take this occasion of introducing two
names, which do not exclusively belong to the exact sciences,
nor to the present period.

111. Leo Baptista Alberti was a man, who, if measured
by (he universality of his genius, may daim a place LeoBaptKit
in die temple of glory he has not filled ; the author *'""'■

of a Latin comedy, entitled Philodoxios, which the younger
Aldus Manutius afterwards published as the genuine work of
a supposed ancient Lepidus ; a moral writer in the various
forms of dialogue, dissertation, fable, and light humour ;
a poet, extolled by some, though not free from the rudeness
of his age ; a philosopher of the Platonic school of Lorenzo ;
a mathematician and inventor of optical instruments ; a
painter, and the author of the earliest modern treatise on
painting- ; a sculptor, and the first who wrote about sculp-
ture ; a musician, whose compositions excited the applause
of his contemporaries ; an architect of profound skill, not

M lost ihort. and u laughaliU M most in (he British Museum. Tlie diagrams,

brcHue Itseerostoliaiebeeii viittea especial I j (hose irhich rcpmpiit KOlids,

■M loii|[ beron its publialion. See Fas- are belter than inmost of OUT mixlernedi-

quier, Rcchercbea de 1> France, 1. viii, tioDs of Euclid. I vill take this oppar-

c 53.; Biogr. UniT., Blanchet ; aad tunity of mentioning;, thai the earlieit

Bouterwek, t. 118. booli, in vhich engravings are found, is

* Bouteivek, Geich. ier Deutschen the edition of Dante by Landino, pub'

poeue, ii. 357— 367. Heindua, Lehr- lishedat Florence in 1481. See Brunei,

buA der SpreehtwitieiHchaft, in. 1 £5. Manuel du Ubraire, Dibdin'i Bibl. Spea-

1 A tieautiful copy of this edition, oer., &ii.
piMrnlMl lo Mocenigo doge of Venice, ii

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

218 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtI.

only displayed in many^ works, of which tlie church of Saint
Francis at Rimini is the most admired*, but in a theoretical
treatise, De re fedificatoria, puhllshed posthumously in 14S5.
It has been called the only work on architecture which we
can place on a level with that of Vitruvius, and by some has
been preferred to it. Alberti had deeply meditated the
remains of Roman antiquity, and endeavoured to derive from
them general theorems of beauty, variously applicable to each
description of buildings, t

112. This great man seems to have had two impediments
to his permanent glory : one, that he came a few years too
soon into the world, before his own language was become
polished, and before the principles of taste in art had been
wholly developed ; the other, that, splendid as was his own
genius, there were yet two men a little behind, in the pre-
sence of whom his star has paled ; men, not superior to
Alberti in universality of mental powers, but in their tran-
scendency and command over immortal fame. Many readers
will have perceived to whom I allude — Lionardo da Vinci,
and Michael Angelo.

113. None of the writings of Lionardo were published
i.iai»rdi> till more than a century after his death ; and, in-
d.vtnd. deed, the most remarkable of them are still in
manuscript. We cannot, therefore, give him a determinate
place under this rather than any other decennium ; but as
he was born in 145^, we may presume his mind to have
been in full expansion before 1490. Hia Treatise on Piunt-
ing is known as a very early disquisition on the rules of the
art. But his greatest literary distinction is derived from those
short fragments of his unpublished writings that appeared
not many years since ; and which, according, at least, to
our common estimate of the age in which he lived, are more
like revelations of physical truths vouchsafed to a single
mind, than the superstructure of its reasoning upon any
established basis. The discoveries which made Galileo, and
Kepler, and Msestlin, and Maurolycus, and Castelli, and
other names illustrious, the system of Copernicus, the very

* [Let me add that of Su Andrew ■( often Ion tight both of pure taste and

Mantua, irorlhy of compariion with the religimu eSTect. — 1B4T.]

beat of the 16th century, and free from f Coniiani, li. i60l llrabaicbi, vii.

(he excesuve decontioti by wbieh they 360.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chap. IH.]

FROM 1440 TO ISOO.

219

theories of recent geologers, are anticipated by Da Vinci,
within the compasa of a few pages, not perhaps in the most
precise language, or on the most conclusive reasoning, but so
as to strike us with something Hke the awe of prstematural
knowledge. In an age of so much dogmatism, he first laid
down the grand principle of Bacon, that experiment and
observation must be the guides to just theory in the investi-
gation of nature. If any doubt could be harboured, not as
to the right of Lionardo da Vinci to stand as the first name
of the fifteenth century, which is beyond all doubt, but as
to bis originality in so many discoveries, which, probably, no
one man, especially in such circumstances, has ever made, it
must be on an hypothesis, not very untenable, that some
parts of physical science had already attained a height which
mere books do not record. The extraordinary works of
ecclesiastical architecture in the middle ages, especially in the
fifteenth century, as well as those of Toscanelli and Fiora-
vanti, which we have mentioned, lend some countenance to
Ais opinion. Lionardo himself speaks of the earth's annual
motion, in a treatise that appears to have been written
about IdlO, as the opinion of many philosophers in his
age.*

* The maQuierlptt of Lionari

Ofwhat bu becD nid in the (eit. j^
iccuunt of them was given bjr Vi
wbo de^ignefl 1o havB published a
but, baviiig relinquished that intt
tbe fn^menia he hu made knon
the more imporunt As they are Tery
remarkable, end not. I believe, wry genc-
nlljl known, I itiall extract ■ fL-vpusagei
from hit Enu auT lea ouTra^es phtsico-
mathfmatiques de Leonard de Vinci.
Paris, 1 797.

En mfcanique, Vinci connaissait, en-
tr^utrea choiea; !■ L& th^oriedes forces
appliqu6ei oblique nienl au bnudu leiier;

2. La r^MStance respective des jjoutrei ;

3. Lesloii du firattemeat donnieaensuile
par Amontoni; 4. L'influencedu centre
de gravity sur lea corps en repoi ou en

eip* dea vitewi Tirtuellea i pluiieur* eaa
qoe la lublime analyse a portf de noa
Jiiur« B sa plus grande g£n£ri1it£. Dans
I'optique il dterivit la cliambre obscure
avsnl Poita. il expllqui avant Mauroly-
eo) U figure de l^inage du aolail dana un

trou de forme anguleuse j il nous ap-

des ombres eolor^s, lea mouvemena de
I'iris, lea elTetB de U durfe de rimprea-
sion visible, el plusieurs aulres ph^no-
mdnei de I'ceil qu'on ne rencontre point
dons Vilellion. Enfin don seulemcnt
Vinci avait remengui tout ce que Castelli
a. dit un si^le Bprua lui aur le mouve-
ment des enui ; le premiei

«.pfri(
e riulie

' de

II faut done placer Uonsrd a la tile
de ceui qui ae Mint oceupis des science*
phyai co-math imatiquea, et de la vraie
ni6ihode d'ftudier parmi Ics moderaes.
p. 5.

The fiiat extract Venturi gives ia en-
titled. On the descent of heavy bodies
combined vlth the rotation of (he earth.
He here aaaumea the tatter, and eoncciies
thai a body falling to the earth from tbe
top of a tower vould have a compound
motion, in coDteqiience of the terreatrial
rotation. Venturi thinka that the writ-

t: Co Ogle

LITERATURE OF EUROPE

Sect. VI. 1491—1500.

state of Learning in Italy — I^itin and Italian Poeit — I,eandng fn France and
F.ngland — Eratmui — Popular lAteratvre and Poetry — Other Kindt nf
Uteraiare — Gejierai lilerarif Character of Fifteenth Centvrj/ — Book-trade,
ilt Prtpileget and Reitrmntt,

114. The year 1494 is distinguished by an edition of

Musseus, generally thought the first work from the press

ings of Nicolas de Cusa hnd set men on renlea hiuleun ; unii, l«i coquilles out

ipeeulatiug concerning th'n before (he &lt eQclsvees sous le boorbler amoneeW

time of Copcmicui. *u dmus. jutqu'i nrtir de I'oiu. H«

Vinci had very eitrBordinar]' lights u seems (a hsve had an idea of the elevs-

to Tnechanical nialians. He says plainly, tion of the continents, thouf^li he gives ui

that the lime of descent on inclined unintelligible reaKin foi it.
planet of equal height is as their length ; He explained the obacure light of the

thai a body descends along the arc of a unllluminaled part of the moon by ths

drcle sooner than dovn the chord, and reflection of (be earth, as Mtntl in did long

that a bod; descending an inclined plane sfker. He understood (be earners obscun,

wilt re-ascend with the some velocity as and dcscrilies iu effect. He perceived

if it had bllen down the height. Hefre- that resptrable air must support flame ;

(|ucntly repeats, that every body weighs Lcisque I'air u'lpst pas dans un ^tat pro-

in the direction of its mDvement, and ]ire a recetoir la llamme, il n'y pent vifre

city ; by weight evidently meaning what aerien. Aucun animal ne peut virre dani

wc call force. He applies this to the un endroit oi^ ia flamme ne vit pas.
centrifugal force of bodies in rotation : Vinci^s observations on the conduct of

I'endsnt tout ce temps elle p^ £ur la the understanding are also very much

direclion de son raouvement. beyond his time. I extract a few of them.
Lorsqu'on employe une machine queU II est coujours bon pour i'enteiide-

conque pour mouvoir un corps grave, mentd'acqu^rtr des connaisiances quelle*

toutcs 1« parties de la machine qui ont qu'elles soient; onpourra ensuite clioisir

tin mouiement ^gal i celui du corps lis bonnes et ecartei )es inutiles.
grave ont une charge ^gale au poids en- L'lnterprSte des artifices de la nature,

tier du mcme corps. Si la partic qui est c'csC IVipfiicnce. Elle ne se trompe ja-

1c moteur a, dans le meme temps, plus de mils; c'eit notre jugement qui quelque-

mauvement que le corps mobile, elle auia fois se trompe iui-meme, parcequ'il s'at-

plus depuigsanre que ie mobile; ct cela tend i des elTeU auiquels t'eipfrience

d'aulant plus qu'elle se raouvra plus vi(e se refuse. II faut ronsulter reiplricnce,

que les corps mcme. Si la partis qui est en varier les circonstonces Jutqu'a ce que

bile, elle aula d'autanC moins de puis- car c'est elle qui fournit les vralea regies,

there is not the perfect luminousness of vous? Je ri^ponds qu'etles noiii dirigent

modem books, it seems to contain the operations de I'ait. Elles empechent que

philoBophicsl theory of motion as un- nous ne nous abusions nous-memcsou let

equivocally as any of them. autres, en noua promettant del r&uUais

Vinta had a better notion of geology que nous ne saurions obtenir,
than most of his contemporaries, end aaw li n'y a point de certitude dans les

that the sea had covered the mountains sciences oi'i on ne peut pat appliquei

which contained shells: Ces caquillages quelquepartiedes math£matiques,au qui

ont v^u dans le meme endroit lorsque n'en dependent pas de quc1i)ue tnaniere.

par la suite des temps, ont iti recouverts aux mathimatiques, ceui qui ne consul-
par d'autres couches de limon dc di(f^ teat pas la nature, mais lea auleura, iw

lyGOOgIC

Cur-in.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 221

established at Venice by Aldus Manutius, who had settled
there ID 1489.* In the course of about twenty years,
with some Interruption, he gave to the world several ^"f*
of the principal Greek authors ; and though, as
we have seen, not absolutely the earliest printer in that
language, he so fer excelled all others in the number of hia
editions, that he may be justly said to stand at the head of
the list. It is right, however, to mention that Zarot had
printed Hesiod and Theocritus in one volume, and also
Isocrates, at Milan, in 1493 ; that the Anthologia appeared
at Florence in 1494 ; Lucian and Apollonius Rhodius in
1496; the lexicon of Suidas, at Milan, in 14'99> About
fifteen editions of Greek works, without reckoning Craston's
lexicon and several grammars, had been published before the
close of the century.t The most remarkable of the Aldine
editions are the Aristotle, in five volumes, the first bearing

•Dnt pu In entiiu de 1i nature ; je dirai) cned in the same propottion. He vis

qu'ils n'eii Mat que lea petils lils: el!e empluyed on several greit irorLa of ei1-

■nile. en eSet, est le mattre des Trail giDe«ing. So wonderful vu tlie va-

ginies. Main vojei la tottise I on le riely orpoirer in thi> nuTicIe of nature.

noque d'un homme qui umera niieui For ne have not mentioned that his Lait

■ppisidre de la nUure cIle-iiKine, que Supper, at Milan, ia tlie earlieit of the

dcs auteura, qui n'en sont que lea clerca. great picturei in Italjr, and that eome

Ii not this the precise tone of Ixird productions of his easel vie with thoae of

Bacon? Raphael. HiionI; publUhed work, the

Vinci saji in another place: Man Treatise on Painting.doei him injustice;

deSKin est de clter d'lbord I'expfrienee, it is an ill-arranged compilation ftom

It de djmontrer ensuite pourquoi lea nrerat of hia manuieripta. 'fhat the ei-

ni^re. Cest la m£lhode qu'on doit ob- contains an account, have not been pub-

vrvcT ^am lee recherchei dea pbfoo- liahed entire and in their original lan-

menes de la nature. It est bien vrai que guage, is much to be regretted b; all

la nature commence par le raisonnement, vbo know how lo venerate «> great a

et finit par I'eipdrience; mua n'lmporte, genius as Lionardo da Vinci.

il nous but prendre la route oppoife : ■ The Erotemnla of Conatantinc Las-

eomme j'ai dit, nous derana commencer cans, printed by Aldus, brara date Feb.

par I'experienec, et taeber par aoo mojien 1494, which seems to mean H9S. But

d'en d^iouvrir la raiion. the Mu«cus has no date, nor tlie Galeo-

He ascribes the elevation of the equa- mjomachia, a Greek poem by one Theo-

torialwntera'aboTethe polar to the heat of dorus Prodroinua. Kejnouard, Hist, de

Ibe lun : Elies enlrent en mouvement de I'imprimerie dea Aides.

totts le* cotia de celte ^inence aqueuae f The grammar of Urbsno Valeriano

pour ritablir leur sph&icit£ par&ile. was first printed in 1197. It ia in Greek

This ia not the true cause of the eieva- and Latin, and of extreme rarity. Kos-

tion, but by what means could be know coe (Leo X. ch. li. ) aoys, " it was re-

the fact? celvedwith auch avidity that Erasmus,

Vinci understood fortification well, and on inquiring for it in the year 1199,

wrote upon it Since in our time, he found that not a copy of Ibis impression

aaya, arUllery baa four times the power remained unsold," I have given, a little

it used lo have, it is necessary that the below, a difTerent construction lo these

IbrtificBlian of lowiia should be strength- words of Eraamus.

lyGortgIc

@3S LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PurL

date of 1495, the last of 1498, and nine plays of Aris-
tophanes in the latter year. In this Aristophanes, and per-
haps in other editions of this time, Aldus had fortunately the
assistance of Marcus Musurua, one of the last, but by- no
means the least eminent, of the Greeks who transported their
language to Italy. Musunis was now a public teacher at
Padua. John Lascaris, sod, perh^ts, of Constantine, edited
the Anthologia at Florence. It may be doubted whether
Italy had as yet produced any scholar, unless it were Varino,
more often called Phavorinus, singly equal to the task f^
superintending a Greek edition. His Thesaurus Comu-
copise, a collection of thirty-four grammatical tracts in
Greek, printed 1496, may be an exception. The Etymo-
logicum Magnum, Venice, 1499, being a lexicon with only
Greek explanations, is supposed to be chiefly due to Musunis.
Aldus had printed Craston's lexicon, in 1497, ^t^h the addi-
tion of an index ; this has often been mistaken for an original
work.*

115. The state of Italy was not so favourable as it had

been to the advancement of philosophy. After the
lomingiii expulsion of the Medici from Florence, in 1494,

the Platonic academy was broken up ; and that phi-
losophy never found again a friendly soil in Italy, though
Ficinius had endeavoured to keep it up by a Latin translation
of Plotinus. Aristotle and his followers began now to regain
the ascendant. Perhaps it may be thought that even polite
letters were not so flourishing as they had been ; no one, at
least, yet appeared to fill the place of Hermolaus Barbarus,
who died in 1493, or Politian, who followed him the next
year.

116. Hermolaus Barbarus was a noble Venetian, whom
Heimoi™ Europe agreed to place next to Politian in critical
■'"'"™- learning, and to draw a line between them and any
third name. " No time, no accident, no destiny," says an
enthusiastic scholar of the next age, "will ever effiice their
remembrance from the hearts of the 1earned."t Erasmus

■ Renouird. Roscoc's Leo X. ch. li. quanta fiuundU, quania lingiiuum.

-f Habuit nintn hire Mas bonaniin quanta disciptinarum omnium Kienlia

literaium procerea duos, Heimolaum pnedilos I Hi Latinam llnguain jampri-

Barbarum atqu? ADgelum Politianum : den ■qualenlem et inulla bsrbariei ni-

DeuTD immoiialem 1 quoin acri judicio, bigine eiesam, ad pristiauni icvocani

lyCOOglC

Ciup.m.] FROM 1440 TO 1600. SS3

calls him a truly great and divine man. He tilled many
honourable offices for the republic ; but lamented that they
drew him away from that learning for which he says he was
boFD, and to which alone he was devoted.* Yet Hermolaua
is hut faintly kept in mind at the present day. In his Latin
style, with the same fault as Politian, an affectation of obso-
lete words, he is less flexible and elegant. But his chief
merit was in the restoration of the text of ancient writers.
He boasts that he had corrected above five thousand passages
in Pliny's natural history, and more than three hundred in
the very brief geography of Pomponius Mela. Hardouin,
however, charges him with extreme rashness in altering
passages he did not understand. The pope had nominated
Hermolaus to the greatest post in the Venetian church, the
patriarchate of Aquileia ; but his mortiflcation at finding that
the senate refused to concur in the appointment is said to
have hastened his death.t

117- A Latin poet once of great celebrity, Bapbsta Man-
tuan, seems to fall within this period as fitly as any
other, though several of his poems had been sepa-
rately printed before, and their collective publication was not
till 1513. Editions recur very frequently in the bibliography
of Italy and Germany. He was, and long continued to be,
the poet of school-rooms. Erasmus says, that he would be
placed by posterity not much below Virgilt ; and the marquis
of Mantua, antidpating this suffrage, erected their statues
side by side. Such is the security of contemporary compli-
ments I Mantuan has long been utterly neglected, and does
not find a place in most selections of Latin poetry. His
Eclogues and Silvae are said to be the least bad of his nu-
merous works. He was among the many assailants of the
church, or at least the court, of Rome ; and this animosity

nilonm coniti ntnt, tUque ilJi* luui pro-

f Bayle. Nimron, vol. liv. Tir«-

fteto coutiu nod infelkitcr ceuic, lunt-

binchi,ii>. 15S. CoriiiBiii,iii. I9T. Hee-

StM illi de L>liii> WngOM Um bene meriti,

ren, p. 274.

qnaiD qui ante eo* optimi meriti fuere.

ceUbriwteque non iW multo interior, a-

mul invidism anni detnierini. Append.

ad Erum. EpUt. ci-cicr. (edit. Lugd.)

rU. nullo Kvo, duIIo cuu, nullo bio .bo-

It is not conc»vib1e that EnBmiia ninnt

lendL BriieiuEnumomErum. Epiil.

this liter«llyj but the drift of the ielter

eciii.

ii to encuuTige tbe reading of Chriitian

• Mdnere, ii 300.

poeU

t: Go Ogle

S24 LITERATURE OF EUBOPE [PabtI.

inspired him with some bitter, or rather vigorous, invectives.
But he became afterwards a Carmelite friar.* Mandlus, a
Greek by birth, has obtained a certain reputation for his
Latin poems, which are of no great value.

118. A far superior name is that of Pontanus, to whom,
if we attend to some critics, we must award the palm
above all Latin poets of the fifteenth century. If I
might venture to set my own taste against theirs, I should
not E^ee to his superiority over Politian. His hexameters
are by no means deficient in harmony, and may perhi^s be
more correct than those of his rival, but appear to me less
pleasing and poetical. His lyric poems are like too much
modem Latin, in a tone of languid voluptuousness, and ring
changes on the various beauties of bis mistress, and the
sweetness of her kisses. The few elegies of Pontanus, among
which that addressed to his wife, on the prospect of peace,
is the best known, fall very short of the admirable lines of
Politian on the death of Ovid. Pontanus wrote some moral
and political essays in prose, which are said to be full of just
observations and sharp satire on the court of Rome, and
written in a style which his contemporaries regarded with
admiration. They were published in 1490. Erasmus, though
a parsimonious distributor of praise to the Italians, has ac-
knowledged their merit in the Ciceronianus.t

119- Pontanus presided at this time over the Ne^wlitan
Nnpaiiun academy, a dignity which he had attained upon the
taJemj. (Jcath of Beccatelli, in 1471. TTiis was, after the
decline of the Roman and the Florentine academies, by far the
most eminent re-union of literary men in Italy ; and diough it
was long conspicuous, seems to have reached its highest point

• COTnwui, lii, 148. Niceron, toL
iitU. Such of Mantuan's ecloEUca u

are piinted in Carmina illuatrium P'oet-

illud quod est horuui omnium veluti <iU

anim Italorum, Florent. 1719, arc but

qusdam, modum inteltigo, penitiu ig-

indifferem. I doubt, hoireier, whether

noravit. Aiuut Virgilium cum multoi

lersus matulino calore efliidissct, pome-

with much taite; and hi* satire on the

ridianii horis novo judicio solitum ad

■ee of Rome would certainly be ex-

cluded, whatever might be its Dieril.

quidem Pontaiio eveniue arbltror. Quai

prima ijuaque inveniione airisiaert, lis

what I have seen of Manluan.

+ Boscoe, Leo X., ch. ii. and ii.

atque ipsia potius caiDiinibuE, quam sibi

Niceron, vol. vlii. Coruiani. Tiraboachi.

pepctcisse. Scaligcr de re poelica (apud

Pontanus cum ilia ijuatuor complecti

Blount).

lyGOOgIC

Cmp.UI.] from 1440 TO 1500. 225

in the ]ast years of this century, under the patronage of the
mild Frederic of Aragon, and during that transient caln:t
which Naples was permitted to enjoy between the invasions
of Charles VIII. and Louis XII. That city and kingdom
afforded many lovers of learning and poetry ; some of them
in the class of its nobles ; each district being, as it were)
represented in this academy by one or more of its distin-
guished residents. But other members were associated from
di£ferent parts of Italy ; and the whole constellation of names
is still brilliant, though some have grown dim by time. The
house of £ste, at Ferrara, were still the liberal patrons of
genius ; none more eminently than their reigning marquis,
Hercules I. And not less praise is due to the families who
h^d the principalities of Urbino and Mantua.*

ISO. A poem now appeared in Italy, well deserving of
attention for its own sake, but still more so on account
of the excitement and direction it gave to one of the
most famous poets that ever lived. Matteo Maria Boiardo,
count of Scanoiano, a man esteemed and trusted at the court
of Ferrara, amused his leisure in the publication of a romantic
poem, for which the stories of Charlemagne and his paladins,
related by one who assumed the name of Turpin, and already
woven into long metrical narrations, current at the end of the
fourteenth and during the fifteenth century in Italy, supplied
materials, which are almost lost in the original inventions of
the author. The first edition of this poem is without date,
but probably in 1495. The author, who died the year before,
left it unfinished at the ninth canto of the third book. Agos-
tini, in 1516, published a continuation, indifferently executed,
in three more books ; but the real complement of the Innamo-
rato is the Furioso.t The Orlando Innamorato of Boiardo
has hitherto not received that share of renown which seems
to be its due ; overpowered by the splendour of Ariosto's
poem, and almost set aside in its original form by the improved
edition or remaking (rifaccimento), which Berni afterwards
gave, it has rarely been sought or quoted, even in Italy, t

* RiMFOe'i Leo X., cli. ii. This con- f See mj^ friend Mr. I'anizii's cicel-

lain tn eicellenl ■ccount of the tUte of lent intioduation to hi* edUion of the

Klenlnn in lul; (bout the clote of the Orlando Tnnunorsio. Thii poem had

mnturj. never been rcpilnlrd lince 15H; so

t Pontuiini, dell' eloquenu Itatiani, much trw Roscne deoeired in fiuicying

cdiL dt /eno, p. 370. that " the simplicity of the original ha*

"""■■'■ « C^ooglc

«2fi LITERATURE OF EUROl'E [Piatl.

121. The Style is uncouth and hard; but with great defects
chintterof of Style, which should be the source of perpetual
hiipoHD. delight, no long poem will be read; and it has beeo
observed by Gingu^ne with some justice, that Boiardo's name
is better remembered, though his original poem may have
been more completely n^lected, through the process to which
Berni has subjected it. In point of novel Invention and just
keeping of cl^acter, especially the latter, he has not been
surpassed by his illustrious follower Ariosto ; and whatever
of this we find in the Orlando Iniiamorato, is due to Boiardo
alone ; for Berni has preserved the sense of almost every
stanza. The imposing appearance of Angelica at the court
of Charlemagne, in the first canto, opens the poem witli a
splendour rarely equalled, with a luxuriant fertility of inven-
tion, and with admirable art ; judiciously presenting the sub-
ject in so much singleness, that amidst all the intricacies and
episodes of the story, the reader never forgets the incom-
parable princess of Albracca. The latter city, placed in that
remote Cathay which Marco Polo had laid open to the range
of fancy, and its siege by Agrican's innumerable cavalry, are
creations of Boiardo's most inventive mind. Nothing in
Ariosto is conceived so nobly, or so much in the true genius
of romance. Castelvetro asserts that the names Gradasso,
Mandricardo, Sobrino, and others which Boiardo has given
to his imaginary characters, belonged to his own peasants of
Scandiano ; and some have improved upon this by assuring
us, that those who take (he pains to ascertain the fact, may
still find the representatives of these sonorous heroes at the
plough, which. If the story were true, ought to be the case.*
But we may give him credit for talent enough to invent those
appellations ; he hardly found an Albracca on his domains ;
and those who grudge him the rest, acknowledge that, in a
moment of inspiration, while hunting, the name of Rodomont
occurred to his mind. We know how finely Milton, whose

CHiued it to be prercrrcd to the saina the authority ot Csstelrelro. Open di

vatk, at altered or reFormed by Fran- Taoo, 4ta. iL 94. The critics held ratber

ceeco Berni." Life of Leo X.. cb ii. a pedantic doctrine; that though the

■ Camillo Pellegrino, in hii fsmoua namea oTpritate menmaj be (eif^ncd, (he

controversy vith the Acadeniy of Flo'- poet has no right to iotroduce kings tin-

rence on the re^ective merits of Aiioslo knavn (o history, as this destroys tba

and Tasso. having asserted this, they do probability requited for his Gction.
not deny the fact, but say it stanck on

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Chap. UL] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 22?

ear pursued, almost to excess, the pleasure of harmonious
nunes, and who loved to expatiate in these imaginary regions,
has alluded to Boiardo's poem in the Paradise Regained.
The lines are perhaps the most musical he has ever pro-
duced: —

Saeb tbnx* met not, nor lo wide • camp,

'Wbtn Agrican witb all bis oorthem povera

Bedeged Albrioc*, m lomancei tell.

The citj of Gallai^roii, (rom thence to win

Tbs bireit of ber sei Angelio,

Hij daughter, Mught b^ many pravest knight*.

Both pkj'nim and the peers of Charlanigne.*

ISS. The Mamhriano of Francesco Bello, sirnamed il
Cieco, another poem of the same romantic class, fhrmko
was published posthumously in 1497* Apostolo "^'"^
Zeno, as quoted by Roscoe, attributes the neglect of the
Mamhriano to its wanting an Ariosto to continue its subject,
or a Bemi to reform its style-t But this seems a capri-
cious opinion. Bello composed it at intervals to amuse the
courtiers of the marquis of Mantua. The poem, therefore,
M'ants unity. " It is a re-union," says Mr. Panizzi, " of
detached tales, without any relation to each other, except In
so far as most of the same actors are before us."t We
may perceive by this, how little a series of rhapsodies, not
directed by a controlling unity of purpose, even though the
work of a single man, are likely to fall into a connected
poem. But that a long poem, such as the greatest and most
ancient of all, of singular coherence and subordination of
parts to an end, should be framed from the random and
insulated songs of a great number of persons, is almost as
incredible as that the annals of Ennius, to use Cicero's
argument against the fortuitous origin of the world, should
be formed by shaking together the letters of the alphabet.

193. Near the close of the fifteenth century we find a
great increase of Italian poetry, to which the patron- iu,i„
age and example of Lorenzo had given encourage- th?'^°^
DienL It is not easy to place within such narrow "" ""'"''■
limits as a decennial period the names of writers whose
productions were frequently not published, at least coUect-

* Book iii. p. 960. He doe* not highly praise the

f Leo X. ct>. it. poem, of irbicb he giYC* an analyiii with

( Psniisi's Introduclion lo Btnardo, eitraots. See loo GingiUai, tm. it.

V, Google __

228 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PiRT L

ively, during their lives. Serafino d'Aquila, born in 1466,
seems to fall, as a poet, within this decad ; and the same
may be said of Hbaldeo and Benivieni. Of these the first
is perhaps the best known ; his verses are not destitute of
spirit, but extravagance and bad taste deform the greater
part.* Ilbaldeo unites false thoughts with rudeness and
poverty of diction. Benivieni, superior to either of these,
IS reckoned by Comiani a link between the harshness of the
fifteenth and the polish of the ensuing century. The style
of this age was far from the grace and sweetness of
Petrarch ; forced in sentiment, low in choice of words,
deficient in harmony, it has been condemned by the voice of
all Italian critics.!

] 24. A greater activity than before was now perceptible
Ftocroior ™ tl** literary spirit of France and Grermany. It
fJ^ Md was also regularly progressive. The press of Paris
ornunr. ^^^ twen^-six editions of ancient Latin authors,
nine of which were in the year 1500. Twelve were pub-
lished at Lyons. Deventer and Leipsic, especially the latter,
which now took a lead in the German press, bore a part in
this honourable labour ; a proof of the rapid and extensive
influence of Conrad Celtes on that part of Germany. It is
to be understood that a very large proportion, or nearly the
whole, of the Latin editions printed in Germany were for
the use of schools. ^ We should be warranted in draw-
ing an inference as to the progress in literary instruction in
these countries from the increase in the number of publi-
cations, small as that number still is, and trifling as some of
them may appear. It may be accounted for by the gradual
working of the schools at Munster and other places, which
had now sent out a race of pupils well fitted to impart know-
ledge in their turn to others ; and by the patronage of some
powerful men, among whom the first place, on all accounts,

* Bouterwek, Gesch. der ItaL PoHie, and the ecloffiies of Calpurniiu ODce, or

L3SJ. Corniant. perhaps twice. At Leipsic the liat h

I Cornisni. Muntori, della perfelta much longer, but in great measure of

Poesia. Creseimbeni, StorUdellaTOlgai the aanie kind; single tnatiaeaoF Seneca

Poesia. or Cicero, or detached paiti of Virgil,

\ A proof of this maj be found in the Horace, Oild, Bometinin Terr >hort, a>

books printed at Deventer from 1491 la the Ctilex or the Ibis, form, vith not

\S0O. The; consiited of Virgil's Buco- nrnn^ eiccptions, the Cisalpine clasical

lica three times, VirgH'B Georgica tvice, bibliograptijr of tbs fifteenth csoturj.

lyCOOglC

CHAP.nL] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 229

b due to the emperor Maximilian. Nothing was so likely
to contribute to the intellectual improvement of Germany as
the piUilic peace of 1495, which put an end to the harbarous
customs of the middle ages, not unaccompanied by generous
virtues, but certMnly as incompatible with the steady cultiva-
tion of literature, as with riches and repose. Yet there
seems to be no proof that the Greek language had obtained
much more attention ; no book connected with it is recorded
to have been printed, and I do not find mention that it was
taught, even superficially, in any university or school, at
this time, though it might be conjectured without improha-
bility. Reuchlin had now devoted his whole thoughts to
cabbalistic philosophy, and the study of Hebrew ; and Eich-
bom, though not unwilling to make the most of early German
learning, owns that, at the end of the century, no other person
had become remarkable for a skill in Greek.'

125. Two men, however, were devoting incessant labour,
to the acquisition of that language at Paris, for
whom was reserved the glory of rising the know-
ledge of it in Cisalpine Europe to a height which Italy could
not attain. These were Erasmus and Bud^us. The for-
mer, who had acquired as a hoy the mere rudiments of
Greek under Hegius at Deventer, set himself in good
earnest to that study about 1499, hiring a teacher at Paris,
old Hermonymus of Sparta, of whose extortion he com-
plains ; but he was little able to pay any thing ; and his
noble endurance of privations for the sake of knowledge

* EichhMn, iiL 936. lliis (Mtion in themsEtTca. They had dF course beeq

Eichhoni is TaluabU, but eiihibiU lome originally purchaHtd in Italy, unless ve

want of precision. suppose some to have been brought by

Reucblin had been very diligent io way of Hungary.
purehaaing Greek raanuscripti. But It is oot to be imagined that the libra-

theae veie very idrce, even in Italy. A ries or ordinary scholars were to be com-

eorrespondeiit of his, Strcler by name, pared with that of Reuehlin, probably

one of the young men whn went from more opulent than most of them. The

Germany to Florence for education, tella early printed books of Italy, even the

bim, in 1491 ; Nullo* libroi GrKCos bic moat Indiipeniable, were very scarce, at

senates teperiot and again, de Grscis least in France. A G reek grammar was

librii coemmdis hoc scias; fui penea ■ rarity at Paris in 1499. Grammatieen

otnnei hie librarloa, nihil hoTura proraus GctecsED, says Erasmus to a correapan-

reperio. Epim. ad Raucbl, (1562), fol. 7. dent, summo studio vestigati, ut emptam

In bet, Reuohlin'a own library was so tibi tnitterem, sed Jam utraque divendita

large as UX astoniah the Italian scholars fuerat, et Constantiai qun dicitur, qua-

wheD they aaw the catalogue, irbo plainly que Urbani. EplsL Ux. See too Epist

OTDcd Ibey eould not procure aucb booka liiiti.

4 3

t: Co Ogle

230 LITERATURE OF EUROPK [Pam T.

deserved the high reward of glory that it received. " I
have given mv whole soul," he says, " to Greek

hi! diMgancs. , . 1 "^ T Tin

learning, and as soon as 1 get any money 1 Ebali
first buy Greek books and then clothes."* " If any new
Greek book comes to hand, I would rather pledge my cloak
than not obtun it ; especially if it be religious, such as a
psalter or a gospel." t It will be remembered, that the books
of which he speaks must have been frequently manuscripts.
1^6. BudEeus, in his proper name Bud^, nearly of the
same age as Erasmus, had relinquished every occu-
•■'•ji^ pation for intense labour in literature. In an inte-
resting letter, addressed to Cuthbert Tunstall in
1511, |r>^'ti^ ^ account of his own early studies, he says
that he learned Greek very ill &odi a bad master at Paris, in
1491. This was certainly Hermonymos, of whom Reuchlin
speaks more favourably ; but be was not quite so competent
a judge, t Some years afterwards Budteus got much better
instruction j " ancient literature having derived within a few
years great improvement in France by our intercourse with
Italy, and by the importation of books in both the learned
languages." Lascaris, who now lived at the court of
Charles VIII., having retnmed with him (ram the Ne^>o-
litan expedition, gave Budeeus some assistance, though not,
according to the latter's biographer, to any great extent.
1^. France had as yet no writer of Latin, who could be
endured in comparison with those of Italy. Robert
»(^ writKB Gaguin praises FIchet, rector of the Sorbonne, as
learned and eloquent, and the first who had taught
many to employ good language in Latin. The more certain
glory of Fichet is to have introduced the art of printing into

• Epiatiiix. mm. Lutelic tuitum udiu Goorgiui

f Ef'ist. Iviii, Henaonymut Grteei bilbulietat; tid

j Hod; (de OrncU illuttribui, p. Uiu, ut neque potu'utet docerc si ralub.

93S.) thinki that the muter or BudcUB Mt, nHjue valuitset si potuinet. Itaqtie

could not hare been Hermonymus; pro- coactus ipse mihi praceptor esse, &a

bably beciun the priiae of Reuchlin (a.u. 1594). I Iniuciibe from Jortin. ii.

■eemed to him incompBtible with the 419. Of Ilermonjmus^ it ii nid bj

coDlemptuous language of Budwus. But B«lus Rhenuiu^ ina letter to Reuchlin,

Erasmui is very eiplicit on this subject, that be vu hod tarn doclriua qusm p».

Ad Grcca* litem utcunque puero de. tria cUrui, (Epist ad ReuchL (bl. 58.)

gustatu jam grandiot rediii hoc est, Roy, in his Life of Budteui, aayi, that

■nnos uatuK plus minus trigiata, sed tum the latter, baring paid HermonymusiOO

euro apud nos nulla Gneiorum codieum gold pieces, and read Homer and other

eeaet eopia, neque mimr penuiia doclo- books with him, Dihilo doctior e«i hetia,

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

CMiF.m.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. S31

Fnuice. Gaguin himself enjoyed a certain reputation for
his style, aud hia epistles have been printed. He possessed,
at least, what is more im^fcrtant, a love of knowledge, and
an elevated way of thinking. But Erasmus says of him,
that " whatever he might have been in his own age, he
would now scarcely be reckoned to write Latin at aU." If
we could rely on a panegyrist of Faustus Andrelinus, an
Italian who came about 14i89 to Paris, and was authorised,
in conjunction with one Balbi, and with Comelio Vitelli, to
leach ID the university*, he was the man who brought polite
literature into France, and changed its barbarism for classical
purity. But Andrelinus, who is best known as a Latin poet of
hj no means a high rank, seems not to merit this commend-
ation. Whatever his capacities of teaching may have been,
we have little evidence of his success. Yet the number of
editions of Latin authors published in France during this
decad proves some diffusion of classical learning ; aud we
mast admit the circumstance to be quite decisive of the infe-
riority of England.

128. A gleam of tight, however, now broke out there.
We have seen already that a few, even in the last q,,„ or
years of Henry VI., had overcome all obstacles in E^ntin
wder to drink at the fount^n-head of pure learning ^"«'*™''
ia Italy. One or two more names might be added for the
intervening period ; Milling, abbot of Westminster, and Sel>
ling, prior of a convent at Canterbury.! It is reported by
Poiydore Virgil, and is proved by Wood, that Comelio Vitelli,
an Italian came to Oxford about 1488, in. order to give that
most barbarous university some notion of what was going
fonvard on the other side of the Alps ; and it has been pro-
bably conjectured, or rather may be assumed, that he there
imparted the rudiments of Greek to William Grocyn.t It is

* TbU I fiod quotsd in Betllnelll, Doclor throLogr.. affUlog CiKmilqne L«llc«

Hkotgimrolo d- IWluj, i. SSO. See*Uo Ll-gu. pcrdoruu.

^jit, umI Bifigr. UoIt., ^rt. AnilrelinL Selling, how«Tcr, did not go to lulf

TWjrvere 001]! allowed to tench For one till after ]4H0, &r Trom returning in

boor ID the evening, tbe jealoiuy of the 1 460, ai Wartoo has said, with hia usual

kigicitiu Dot haTiDg lubaided. CreTier, indiSerence to anechionisint.

n- 439. f Poiydore saya nothing about Vi-

t Waftoo, iii 947. Johnaon's Life Iclli'a teachitig Greek, though Knight, in

of Unure, p. 5. Thi« ii mentioned on bis Life of C^et, tranalatei bon» Uterie,

Mlbg'a mtmnmcnt now reauioing in "Greek and Latin." But the folloiring

Capuifaurj eathnlral ; — paasagea seen) decisive aa to Orocyn'a

n,g-,-ccT:G00glc

23^ LITERATURE OF EUROPE CPabtI.

certain, at least, that Grocyn had acquired some insight into
that language, before he took a better course, and, traveUing
into Italy, became tbe disciple of Chalcondyles and Politian.
He returned home in 1491, and began to communicate his
acquisitions, though chiefly to deaf ears, teaching in Exeter
College at Oxford. A diligent emulator of Grocyn, bat
some years younger, and like him, a pupil of Politian and
Hermolaus, was Thomas Linacre, a physician ; but though a
first edition of his translation of Galen has been supposed to
have been printed at Venict: in 14-9S, it seems to be ascer-
tained that none preceded that of Cambridge in IdSl. His
only contribution to literature in the fifteenth century was a
translation of the very short mathematical treatise of Proclus
on the sphere published in a volume of ancient writers on
astronomy, by Aldus Manutiua, in 1499.*

1S9- Erasmus paid his first visit to England in 1497> &nd

was delighted with every thing that he fouud, espe-
e""i* a ci^ly st Oxford. In an epistle dated Dec 5th, after

praising Grocyn, Colet, and Linacre to the skies,
he says of Thomas More, who could not then have been
eighteen years old, " What mind was ever framed by nature
more gentle, more pleasing, more gifted? — It is incredible,
what a treasure of old books is found here far and wide. —
There is so much erudition, not of a vulgar and ordinary
kind but recondite, accurate, ancient, both Latin find Greek,
that you would not seek any thing in Italy but the pleasure
of travelling."t But this letter is addressed to an English-
earl; itudiea in tbe (jreek language, pean, except Vitelli, it Beenu reasonable
Groeinui, qui prima CneCB et Latiiue to fix upon him as tbe lint preceptor at
linguK rudimenta in Britannia hausit, Grocyn. Vitelll had returned to Pari*
mox soUdiorcm iisdem operam cub De- in 1489, and taught in the uniyerul;, at
metrio Chaleondjie et Poliliano priecep- haa just been mentioned; lo that he
toribus in Italia hausit. Lilly, Elogia could hate little time, if Polydore's date
lirorum doctorum, in Knight's Life of of 14HH be rigbt, for giving much in-
Colet, p. 24. And Erasmus a* poai- atruetion at Gilford.
lively ; Ipse Orocinus, cujua eiemplum • Johnson's Life of Linacre, p. 152,

nffers, Qonne primum in Anglla Gtacx f Thomn Mori ingenio quid unquam
lingun rudimenta dididt? Post in Ila- finnit natura tcI moUius, vel dulcius, vel
liam profeetui audivit aummos viros, sed felictus ? , . . Minim est dietii, quam hie
interim lucro ftiit ilia prius a qualibuj- passim, quam dense Teteruro libromm
cunque didiclise. Epist. ccclilii Whe- seges effloreacat . . . tantum eruditionii
ther tlio qiialr4C<i»qiu were Vilelli or non illius prolrit« ac tririalis, led recon-
any one else, this can leave no doubt as dite, exacts, antiqus, Latrna GrKcieqiie,
to the existence of some Gietk instruc- ut Jam Italiam nisi visendi gratia non
tion in England before Grocyn i and aa multum desiderea. EpiM. xi*.
no one can be suggei^ so &r ai ap-

n,gti7ccT:C00glc

Chap. Ill] PROM 1440 TO 1500. 233

man, and the praise is evidently much exaggerated ; the
sdiolars were few, and not more than three or four could be
found, or at least could now be mentioned, who had any
tincture of Greek, — Grocyn, Linacre, William Latimer,
who, though an excellent scholar, never published tuiy thing,
and More, who had learned at Oxford under Grocyn.* It
should here be added, that in 1497» Terence was printed by
PynsoD, being the first edition of a strictly classical author in
England ; though Boethius bad already appeared with Latin
and English on opposite pages.

130. In 1500 was printed at Paris the first edition of
Erasmus's Adages, doubtless the chief prose work „^ punuiUB.
of this century beyond the limits of Italy ; but this ""' *■**«"■
edition should, if possible, be procured, in order to judge with
chronological exactness of the state of literature ; for as his
general knowledge of antiquity, and particularly of Greek,
which was now very slender, increased, he made vast addir
tioQs. The Adages, which were now about eight hundred,
amounted in his last edition to 4151 ; not that he could find
80 many which properly deserve that name, but the number
is made up by explanations of Latin and Greek idioms, or
even of single words. He declares himself, as early as 1504<,
ashamed of the first edition of his Adages, which already
seemed meagre and imperfect.t Erasmus had been preceded
In some measure by Polydore Virgil, best known as the histo-
rian of this country, where he resided many years as collector
of papal dues. He pubhshed a book of Adagfes, which must
have been rather a juvenile, and is a superficial production,
at Venice in 1498.

131, llie Caatilian poets of the fifteenth century have
been collectively mentioned on a former occasion.
Bouterwek refers to the latter part of this age most g^t or
of the romances which turn upon Saracen story,

* A letter of Colet to ErmiDius iirDni know enough of the luiguage. Knight.

Oifiird, in 149T, ii viittea in the ityle on the other hind, miJntiuns that he

of ■ man who *t) converunl with the learneil it there under GnicTn and Lin.

btM l«tia author!]. Sir Thomas More*! acre; butthii reats OD no eridence; and

biith hu not been placed by any biogra- we have seen that he gives a different ac-

pber earlier than IISO. count of his studies in Greek. Life of

It has bMn aoineCimea aserled, on the Erumui. p. 22.
■utfaoritjof Aatooy Wood.Uiat Eraxmui f Epiat. cii., Jejunum atque inopi

taogfat Greek at Oifbrd t bat there is no videri c<epit, poateaquam Oreseot eolui

famlatkn for this, and hi Uct he did not auetores.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

334 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [P*»tL

and the adventures of ** knights of Granada, geotleraen,
though Moors." Sismondi follows him without perhtq>s,
mach reflection, and endeavours to explain what he might
have doubted. Fear, he thinks, having long ceased in the
bosoms of the Castiliau Christians, even before conquest had
set its seal to their security, hate, the child of fear, had grown
feebler ; and the romancers felt themselves at liberty to ex-
patiate in the rich field of Mohammedan customs and man-
ners. These had already exercised a considerable influence
over Spain. But this opinion seems hard to be supported ;
nor do I find that the Spanish critics claim so much antiquity
for the Moorish class of romantic ballads. Most of them, it
is acknowledged, belong to the sixteenth, and some to the
seventeenth century ; and the internal evidence is against
their having been written before the Moorish wars had be-
come matter of distant tradition. We shall therefore take no
notice of the Spanish romance-ballads till we come to the age
of Phillip II., to which they principally belong.'

132. Bouterwek places in this decad the first specimens
Putoni of die pastoral romance which the Castilian language
'™*°™- affords-t But the style is borrowed from a neigh-
bouring part of the peninsula, where this species of fiction
seems to have been indigenous. The Portuguese nation cul-
tivated poetry as early as the Castilian ; and we have seen
that some is extant of a date anterior to the fourteenth cen-
tury. But to the heroic romance they seem to have paid no
regard; we do not find that it ever existed among them.
Love chiefly occupied the Lusitanian muse ; and to trace that
passion through all its labyrinths, to display its troubles in a
strain of languid melancholy, was the great aim of every
poet. This led to the invention of pastoral romances, founded
on the ancient traditions as to the felicity of shepherds and
their proneness to love, and rendered sometimes more inte-
resting for the time by the introduction of real characters and
events under a slight disguise.1: This artificial and effeminate
sort of composition, which, if it may now and then be not
unpleasing, cannot fail to weary the modem reader by its
monotony, is due to Portugal, and having been adopted in

• Boutenrek, p. 121. Siimondi, iii. f Bonterwek'i Hirt, at PortugnCM

292. Roinuce>Moruec«,MiMlr. 1638. Uterature, p. 43.
t P. 1S3.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CKAT.ni.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 035

taoguages better known, became for a long time highly
popular in Europe.

133. The lyrical poems of Portugal were collected by
Garcia de Resende, in the Cancioneiro Geral, pub- ponumne
Uahed in 1516. Some few of these are of the four- '''''f'"'-
teenth century, for we find the name of king Pedro, who died
in 1369. Others are by the Iniant Don Pedro, son of
John I., in the earlier part of the fifteenth. But a greater
nomber belong nearly to the present or preceding decad, or
even to the ensuing age, commemorating the victories of the
Portuguese in Asia. This collection is of extreme scarcity ;
none of the historians of Portuguese literature have seen it.
Bouterwek and Siamondi declare that they have caused search
to be made in various libraries of Europe without success.
There is, however, a copy in the British Museum ; and M.
Raynouard has given a short account of one that he had seen
in the Journal des Savans for 1836. In this artide he ob-
serves, that the Cancioneiro is a mixture of Portuguese and
Spanish pieces. I believe, however, that very little Spanish
will be found, with the exception of the poems of the Infante
Pedro, which occupy some leaves. The whole number of
poets is but one hundred and thirty-two, even if some names
do not occur twice ; which I mention, because it has been
erroneously said to exceed considerably that of the Spanish
Cancioneiro. The volume is in folio, and contains two hun-
dred and twenty-seven leaves. The metres are those usual
in Spanish j some versos de arte mayor ; but the greater
part in trochaic redondillas. I observed no instance of the
assonant rhyme ; but there are several glosses, or, in the
Portuguese word, ^rotas.* The chief part is amatory ; but
there are lines on the death of kings, and other political
events.t

1 34. The Germans, if they did not as yet excel in the higher
departeaent of typc^^phy, were by no means negli-
gent of their own great invention. The books, if ^"^
we include the smallest, printed in the empire be-

* Bouterwek, p. 30., hu observed, belonged to Mr. Heber, and wis sold to

tbit the Portuguese emploj tbe glota, Mnsn. Fiyne ind Foss. It vould pro.

calUns it Bolta. Tbe word in tbe Cao- babi; be found on compiriMUi ID eoatain

eioneiro is fTDH. msnjr of the pieces in the Caoolonciio

f A maniucript collection of Portu- Genl, but it is not > eopj of it.
gune lyric poetry of the fifteenth century

lyCOOglC :

236 LITERATUaE OF EUROPE [Pam L

tween 1470 and the close of the century, amount to several
thousand editions. A large proportion of these were in their
own language. They had a literary public, as we may call
it, not merely in their courts and universities, but In their
respectable middle class, the burghers of the free cities, and,
perhaps, iu the artizans whom they employed. Their read-
ing was almoftt always with a serious end ; but no people so
successfully cultivated the art of moral and satirical fable.
These, in many instances, spread with great favour through
Cisalpine Europe. Among the works of this kind, in die
fifteenth century, two deserve mention ; the Eulenspiegel,
popular afterwards in England by the name of Howleglass,
and a superior and better known production, the Narrens-
chiff, or Ship of Fools, by Sebastiaa Brandt of Strasburg,
the first edition of which is referred by Brunet to the year
l^O*. The Latin translation, which bears the title of 14^8
in an edition printed at Lyons, ought to be placed, according
to the same bibliographer, ten years later, a numeral letter
having probably been omitted. It was translated into English
by Barclay, and published early in 1509. It is a metrical
satire on the follies of every class, and may possibly have sug-
gested to Erasmus his Encomium Moriie. But the idea was
not absolutely new ; the theatric^ company established at
Paris, under the name of Enfans de Sans Souci, as well as
the ancient office of jester or fool in our courts and castles,
implied the same principle of satirising mankind with ridicule
so general, that every man should feel more pleasure from
the humiliation of his neighbours, than pain from his own.
Brandt does not show much poetical talent ; but his morality
is clear and sound ; he keeps the pure and right-minded
reader on his side ; and in an age when little better came into
competition, his characters of men, though more didactic
than descriptive, did not fail to please. The influence such
books of simple fiction and plain moral would possess over
a people, may be judged by the delight they once gave to
children, before we had learned to vitiate the healthy appe-
tite of ignorance by premature refinements and stimulating
variety.*

135. The historical literature of this century presents very

* Boutenrak, ii. 33S— 354. T. 113. Heiosius, it. 113. Warton, iii. T4.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chaf.UT.] from 1440 TO 1500. 237

little deserving of notice. The English writers of this class
are absolutely contemptible ; and if some annalists Hinaricai
of good sense and tolerable skill in narration may '°'^'"-
be found on the continent, they are not conspicuous enough
to arrest our regard in a work which designedly passes over
that department of literature, so far as it is merely conversant
with particular events. But the memoirs of Philip Phnindi,
de Comines, which though not published till 1529, •^'"°""'-
most have been written before the close of the fifteenth century,
are not only of a higher value, but almost make an epoch in
historical literature. If Froissart, by his picturesque descrip-
tions and fertility of historical invention, may be reckoned
the Livy of France, she had her Tacitus in Philip de Comines.
Hie intermediate writers, Monstrelet and his continuators,
have the merits of neither, certainly not of Comines. He is
the first modem writer (or, if there had been any approach
to an exception among the Italians, it has escaped my recol-
lection) who in any degree has displayed sagacity in reason-
ing on the characters of men, and the consequences of their
actions, or who has been able to generalise his observation
by comparison and reflection. Nothing of this could have
been found in the cloister ; nor were the philologers of Italy
equal to a task which required capacities and pursuits very
different from their own. An acute understanding and mudi
experience of mankind gave Comines this superiority \ his
life had not been spent over books ; and he is consequently
free from that pedantic application of history which became
common with those who passed for political reasoners in the
next two centuries. Yet he was not ignorant of former
times ', and we see the advantage of those translatious from
antiquity, made during the last hundred years in France, by
the use to which he turned them.

XS6. The earliest printed treatise of algebra, till that of
Lionardo Fibonacci was lately given to the press, was
published in 149'^, by Luca Pacioli di Borgo, a "'^
Franciscan, who taught mathematics in the university of Milan.
This book is written in Italian, with a mixture of the Vene-
tian dialect, and with many Latin words. In the first part, he
explains the rules of commercial arithmetic in det^l, and is
the earKest Italian writer who shows the principles of Italian

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

238 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PastL

book-keeping by double entry. Algebra he calls 1' arte mag-
giore, detta dal volgo la regola de la cosa, over alghebra e
almacabala, which last he explains by restauratio et oppoeitio.
The known number is called »" or numero ; co. or cota
stands for the unknown quantity ; whence algebra was some-
times called the cossic art. In the early Latin treatises Ret
is used, or It., which is an approach to literal expression.
The square is called censo or ce. ; the cube, cuho or cu. ;
p. and m. stand for plus and minus. Thus, Sco. p. i^ce.
m. 5cu. p. 2ce.ce. m. 6^° would have been written for what
would now be expressed 3x-\-4^ — 5si^-\-Qx*—G. Luca di
Borgo's algebra goes as far aa quadratic equations ; but
though he had very good nodoos on the subject, it does not
^pear that he carried the science much beyond the point
where Leonard Fibonacci had left it three centuries before.
And its principles were already familiar to mathematicians ;
for R^omontanus, having stated a trigonometrical solution
in the form of a quadratic equation, adds, quod restat, prse-
cepta artis edocebunt. Luca di Borgo perceived, in a certain
sense, the applicability of algebra to geometry, observing,
that the rules as to surd roots are referrible to incommen-
surable magnitudes.*

137. This period of ten years, from 1490 to 1500, will
ever be memorable in the history of mankind. It
HwTia is here that we usually close the long interval be-
tween the Roman world and this our modem
Europe, denominated the Middle Ages. The conquest of
Granada, which rendered Spun a Christian kingdom ; the
annexation of the last great tief of the French crown, Bri-
tany, which made France an endre and absolute monarchy ;
the public peace of Germany ; the invasion of Naples by
Charles VIII., which revealed the weakness of Italy, while
it communicated her arts and manners to the Cisalpine na-
tions, and opened the scene of warfare and alliances which
may be deduced to the present day ; the discovery of two
worlds by Columbus and Vasco de Gama, all belong to

* Montucla. KiiMner. Coss&Ii. Hut- Kience oonsiderably brther tbon eilher
lon'i Mathem. Diet., art. Algebra. Tlie the Greekc or the Arabuuis (iliauj;h he
last writer, and perhaps the Ent, bad thinks the; may probahly have derived
never aeen the booh of Luca PacioM. their notiuni of (lie (eience from the far-
Mr. Calebrooke, in biilndian Algebra, mer), anticipatingaomeof thedixOTeriei
has shown that Ihe Hindoos carried that of the >l»teenlli century.

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Cbaf.IIL] from 1440 TO 1500. ^9

this decad. But it is not, as we have seen, so marked an
«ra in the progression of literature.

138. In taking leave of the fifteenth century, to which we
have been used to attach many associations of rever-
ence, and during which the desire of knowledge »^i,a
was, in one part of Europe, more enthusiastic and "^ "'''
universal than perhaps it has since ever been, it is natural
to ask ourselves, what harvest had already rewarded their
zeal and labour, what monuments of genius and erudition still
receive the homage of mankind ?

139- No very triumphant answer can he given to this
interrogadon. Of the books then written how few
are read I Of the men then famous how few are m^'II^'i,
£uniliar in our recollection [ Let ua consider what "'
Italy itself produced of any effective tendency to enlarge the
boundaries of knowledge, or to delight the taste and fancy.
Ilie treatise of Valla on Latin grammar, the miscellane-
ous observations of Politian on ancient authors, the com-
mentaries of Landino and some other editors, the Platonic
theology of Fidnus, the Latin poetry of Politian and Pon-
tanus, die light Italian poetry of the same Politian and Lo-
renzo de' Medici, the epic romances of Pulci and Boiardo.
Of these, Pulci alone, in an original shape, is still read in Italy,
and by some lovers of that literature in other countries,
and the Latin poets by a. smaller number. If we look on
the other side of the Alps, the catalogue is much shorter, or
rather does not contain a single book, except Philip de Co-
mines, that enters into the usual studies of a literary man.
Froissart hardly belongs to the fifteenth century, his history
terminating about 14<)0. The first undated edition, with a
continuation by some one to 1498, was printed between that
time and ld09) when the second appeared.

140. If we come to inquire what acquisitions had been
made between the years 1400 and 1500, we shall
find that, in Italy, the Latin language was now ^'^
written by some with elegance, and by most with ''" ""'
tolerable exactness and fluency ; while, out of Italy, there
had been, perhaps, a corresponding improvement, relatively
to the point from which they started ; the flagrant barbarisms
of the fourteenth century having yielded before the close of

lyGoogIc

340 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [Part I.

the next to a more respectable, though not an elegant or exact
kind of style. Many Italians had now some acquaintance with
Greek, which in 1400 had been hardly the case with any
one J and the knowledge of it was of late beginning to
make a little progress in Cisalpine Europe. The French
and English languages were become what we call more
polished, though the difference in the former seems not to
be very considerable. In mathematical science, and in na-
tural history, the andent writers had been more brought to
light, and a certdn progress had been made by diligent, if
not very invendve, philosophers. We cannot say that metit'
physical or moral philosophy stood higher than it had done
in the time of the schoolmen. The history of Greece and
Rome, and the antiquities of the latter, were, of course, more
distinctiy known after so many years of attentive study be-
stowed on their principal authors ; yet the acquaintance of
the learned with those subjects was by no means exact or
critical enough to save them from gross errors, or from be-
coming the dupes of any forgery. A proof of this was
furnished by the impostures of Annius of Viterbo, who,
having published large fragments of Megasthenes, Berosus,
Manetho, and a great many more lost historians, as having
been discovered by himself, obtained full credence at the
time, which was not generally withheld for too long a period
afterwards, though the forgeries were palpable to those who
had made themselves masters of genuine history.'

141. Weahould therefore, if we mean to judge accurately,
TtMir in>. not over- value the fifteenth century, as one in which
ptrfKii™. jjig human mind advanced with giant strides in the
kingdom of knowledge. General historians of literature are
apt to speak rather hyperbolically in respect of men who rose
above their contemporaries; language frequently just, in re-'
lation to the vigorous intellects and ardent industry of such
men, but tending to produce an exaggerated estimate of
their absolute qualities. But the question is at present not
so much of men, as of the average or general proficiency of

■ Annius of Viterbo did not cease hsTe imputed lesa Traud than credulity

to have believers afUr this lime. See to Anuiui,but most have been of another

Blount, Niceron, vol. iL, Corniani, iii. opinion ; and it i* unimpottant Ibr the

131., and bis article in Biogivpbie Uni- purpOH of the text
Tersulte. Apoatolo Zeno and 'IlralmBcbi

lyGOOgIC

Chap. III.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 2*1

ttadons. ITie catalogues of printed books in tlie common
biblit^rsphiGal collections afibrd, not quite a gage of the
learning of any particular period, but a reasonable presump-
tion, which it requires a contrary evidence to rebut. If these
present us very few and imperfect editions of books necessary
to the progress of knowledge, if the works most in request
appear to have been trifling and ignorant productions, it seems
as reasonable to draw an inference one way from these scanty
and discreditable lists, as on the other hand we hail the
pr<^rressive state of any branch of knowledge from the re-
doubled labours of the press, and the multiplication of useful
editions. It is true that the defidency of one country might
be supplied by importation from another; and some cities,
especially Paris, had acquired a typographical reputation
somewhat diaproportioned to the local demand for books ;
but a considerable increase of readers would naturally have
created a press, or mnldplied its operations, in any country
of Europe.

14^. The bibliographies, indeed, even the best and latest,
are always imperfect j but the omissions, after the
immense pains bestowed on the subject, can hardly 'L'^'
be such as to afifect our general conclusions. We
will therefore illustrate the literary liistory of the fiftetinth
century by a few numbers taken from the typographical annals
of Panzer, which might be corrected in two ways ; first,
by adding editions since brought to light, or, secondly, by
striking out some inserted on defective authority ; a kind of
mistake which tends to compensate the former. The books
printed at Florence down to 1500 are 3U0 ; at Milan, G2i) ;
at Bologna, 298 ; at Rome, 925 ; at Venice, 2835 ; fifty
other Italian cities had printing presses in the fifteenth cen-
tury.* At Paris, the number of books is 751 ; at Cologne,
530 ; at Nuremberg, 382 ; at Leipsic, 35 1 ; at Basle, 320 ;
at Strasburg, 526 ; at Augsburg, 256 ; at Louvaio, 116;
at Mentz, 134; at Deventer, 169. The whole number
printed in England appears to be 14>1 ; whereof ISO at
London and Westminster ; seven at Oxford ; four at St.
Alban's. Cicero's works were first printed entire by Minuti-

It countsd the number of cl

lyGOOgIC

212 LITERATUllK OF EUROPE [PaktL

anus, at Milan, in I49S ; but no less than ^1 editions of
different portions appeared in the century. Thirty-seven of
these bear date on this side of the Alps j and forty-five have
no place named. Of ninety-five editions of Virgil, seventy
are complete ; twenty-seven are Cisalpiue, and four bear no
date. On the other hand, only eleven out of fifty-seven
editions of Horace contain all his works. It h^ been
already shown, that most editions of classics printed in
France and Germany are in the last decennium of the
century.

143. The ^editions of the Vulgate registered iu Panzer
are ninety-one, exclusive of some spurious or suspected.
Next to theology, no science furnished so much occupation to
the press as the civil and canon laws. Hie editions of the
digest and decretals, or other parts of those systems of juris-
prudence, must amount to some hundreds.

144i. But while we avoid, for the sake of truth, any
Adv>ntai« undue exaggeration of the literary state of Europe
rnl^rtom at the closc of the fifteenth century, we must even
priu'ing- more earnestly deprecate the hasty prejudice, that
no good had been already done by the culture of classical
learning, and by the invention of printing. Both were of
inestimable value, even where their immediate fruits were
not clustering in ripe abundance. It is certain that much
more than ten thousand editions of books or pamphlets (a late
writer says fifteen thousand*) were printed from 1470 to
1500. More than half the number appeared in Italy. All
the Latin authors, hitherto painfully copied by the scholar, or
purchased by him at inconvenient cost, or borrowed for a
time from friends, became readily accessible, and were printed,
for the most part, if not correctly, according to our improved
criticism, yet without the gross blunders of the ordinary
manuscripts. The saving of time which the art of printing
has occasioned can hardly be too highly appreciated. Nor
was the Cisalpine press unserviceable in this century, though
it did not pour forth so much from the stores of ancient leam-

■ Sfuitinder, DJcl. Bililiogr. du I5ine applied in Germany. But iinlen UiU

Q^le. T do not ttiink ^o nianj would comprehends many duplicate^ it aeeim a

be found in Panicr. I have read some- little questionable, even undcrstandioft it

where that the library of Munich claimi of volumes. Books were not in general lO

oFtiie fineenth century; n word lately so

lyCOOglC

Chap. III.] FROM 1440 TO IfiOP. 24S

ing. It gave useful food, and such as the reader could
better' relish and di^t. The historical records of his own
nadoii, the precepts of moral wisdom, the regular metre that
pleased the ear and supplied the memory, the tictions that
warmed the imf^nation, and sometimes ennobled or purified
the heart, the repertories of natural phienomena, mingled as
tmth was ou these subjects, and on all the rest, with error,
the rules of civil and canon law that guided the determinations
of private right, the subtle philosophy of the scholastics,
were laid open to his choice, while his religious feelings
might find their gratification in many a treatise of learned
iloccrine, according to the received creed of the church, in
many a legend on which a pious credulity delighted to rely,
in the devout aspirations of holy ascetic men ; but, above all,
in the Scriptures themselves, either in the Vulgate Latin,
which had by use acquired the authority of an original t«xt,
or in most of the living languages of Europe.

145. We shall conclude this portion of hterary history
with a few illustrations of what a German writer 'p„i,Bt
tails " the exterior being of books '," for whicli I do ■""'""'^
not find an equivalent in English idiom. - The trade of
bookselling seems to have been established at Paris and at
Bologna in the twelfth century ; the lawyers and universities
called it into life.t It is very improbable that it existed in
what we properly call the dark ages. Peter of Blois men-
tions a book which he had bought of a public dealer (a quodam
publico mangone librorum). But we do not find, I believe,
niany distiuct accounts of them till the next age. These
dealers were denominated Stationarii, perhaps from the open
Malb at which they carried on their business, though statio is
a general word for a shop in low Latin, t They appear, by
the old statutes of the university of Paris, and by those of
Bologna, to have sold books upon commi&jiou ; and are some-
times, though not uniformly, distinguished from the Librarii ;
a wwd which, having originally been confined to the copyists
of books, was afterwards applied to those who traded in
theni.§ They sold parchment and other materials of writing.

* Au«em bucher-wcKD.

S.vlin,y,

§ The I.ilirarii were properly than

iS32.

who ttanscribed new books; the Anli-

t Hut. LitL de U Fmnce, i

X. 142.

t D« Cnge, k TOc.

old u Catsiodorug; but doubtlea it wu

t: Co Ogle

244 LITERATURE OF EUBOPE [Pabi L

which, with us, thougfh, as far as I know, no where else,
have retained the name of stationery, and naturally exercised
the kindred occupations of binding and decorating. They
probably employed transcribers : we find at least that there
was a profession of copyists in the universities and in large
cides } and by means of these, before the invention of print-
ing, the necessary hooks of grammar, law, and theology
were multiplied to a great extent for the use of students -,
but with much incorrectness, and far more expense than
afterwards. That inveution put a sudden stop to uieir honest
occupation. But whatever hatred they might feel towards
the new art, it was in vain to oppose its reception : no party
could be raised in the public against so manifest ana un-
alloyed a benefit ; and the copyists, grown by habit fond of
books, frequently employed Utemselves in the somewhat
kindred labour of pressmen.*

146. The first printers were always booksellers, and sold
Book! Hid th*'"" own impressions. These occupationa were not
bTPrunwi. divided till the early part of the sixteenth century. +
But the risks of sale, at a time when learning was by no means
general, combined with the great cost of production, paper
and other materials being very dear, rendered this a hazard-
ous trade. We have a curious petition of Sweynheim and
Pannartz to Sixtus IV. in 1472, wherein they complain of
their poverty, brought on by printing so many works, which
they had not been able to sell. They state the number of
impressions of each edition. Of the classical authors they
had generally printed ^5 ; of Virgil and the philosophical
works of Cicero, twice that number. In theological pub-
lications the usual number of copies had also been 550. The
whole number of copies printed was 12,475. t It is possible

not stricl1yob>er«ed in Inter timea. Mu- ciUting interests, combined vith dislike

r*tori, Diwn^ 4 1. Du Cange. o( all iiinoTslion. Louis XI., boweier,

• Cicvier, iL 6S. 130, et alibi. Du who had Ibe merit oresteeminglItera[un%

Cinge, in voc. Slutionarii, Librarii. evoked the proceutothe counsclof Male,

SarigD;, iii. 53S— 54S. Chetillier, .?0£. irho restored the books. I^ambinet, Uiit

Eichhom, li. 5AU Meiners, Verf;leitb. dc I'lmprimerie, p. 1T2.
der iitlep, ii. 539. Gresn-ell'i Parisian f Con »i-nalioiis- Lei icon, art. Bocb-

Preu, p. a. hsndlung.

The parliament of Paris, on the peli- ( Maillsire. Lambinct, p. 166. Becl-

tion of the copyiats, ordered some of Ihe mann, ilL 1 1 9., erroncoutly says thai thb

first printed books to Iw seized. Lam- was tbe numberof rolumes remaining ip

binet ealla Ibis superstition ; it was more their warehouses.
probably fiilse compauiion, and regard Ibr

lyGOOgIC

Chap, ni.] FttOM 1440 TO 1500. 24^5

that experience made other printers more discreet in tlieir
estimation of the public demand. Notwithstanding the
casualties of three centuries, it seems, from the great scarcity
of these early editions which has long existed, that the
ori^nal circulation must have been much below the number
of copies printed, as indeed the complaint of Sweynheim and
Pannartz shows.*

147- The price of books was diminished by four fifths
after the invention of printing. Chevillier g^ves some tru^a,
instances of a fall in this proportion. But not con- '™**'
tent with such a reduction, the university of Paris proceeded
to establish a tariff, according to which every edition was to
be sold, and seems to have set the prices very low. This
was by virtue of the prerogatives they exerted, as we shall
soon find, over the book-trade of the capital. The priced
catalt^ues of Colitifeus and Robert Stephens are extant, relat-
ing, of course, to a later period than the present j but we
shall not return to the subject. The Greek Testament of
Colinseus was sold for twelve sous, the Latin for six. The
folio I^atin Bible, printed by Stephens in 153% might be had
for one hundred sous, a copy of the Pandects for forty sous,
a Virgil for two sous and six deniers ; a Greek grammar of
Clenardus for two sous ; Dsmosthenes and ^schines, I know
not what edition, for five sous. It would of course be neces-
sary, before we could make any use of these prices, to com-
pare them with that of coni.t

hundred, p. 197. Even thii leema large, upon whicli Limbinet mikes ■ remntk :

eoinpircd with the prercnt iicarcitf of — Mais on s (ouJouTi bit payer pluacher

booka nnlikeljr to luTe been ileatroyedby aui AngluBqu'aui ■utiesQations. p.ISS.

carelev u«e. The florin wa* worth alrautfour franc* of

f CheTillier, Oilginei de 1'Imprimerie preient monej', equiTslent at leait to

4c Parii. p. 3T0, et aeqq. In the pre- Iweoty-four in command of comiDodilies.

ceding pages he mentions vhat I tbould The ciown vu worth rather more.
p«rbBpa hare introduced before, that a loitancei of an almost incredible price

catalogue of the books in the Sorbonnr, of manuscripis are to be met with in

in 1392, conlaina above 1000 lolumei, Robertson and other common BUIhors.

irhich were collectively valued et 3812 It is to be remembered that a particular

livrei, 10 lous, 8 denien. In a modern book might easily bear a monopoly price;

English book on liierury antiquities, this and that this ii ito test of the cost of

in Kt do«n3i}]2I. lOi. 8d.; which is a those which might be multiplied by

happy way or helping the reader. copying. ["En g6n6ral nous pour-

Ijunbinet mentions a few prices ot rioni ^re que le priimoyen d'lm volume

early books, which are not trifling. The in folio d'alori [au M™" siMe], equi-

Mcnti Bible of 1463 was purchased in valent k celui des cboses qui couleraient

1470 bya bishop of Angersfor forty gold ni^ourd'hui quMre i olnq cent Inocs."

,3y Google

246 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabiI.

I-IS. The more usual form of books printed in the fifteenth
century is in folio. But the Paalter of 14^J, and the Donatus
potm Bf o( the same year, are in quarto ; and this size is not
'^'^ uncommon in the early Italian editions of clasucs.
The disputed Oxford book of 1468, Sancti Jeronyini Exposi-
tio, is in octavo, and would, if genuine, be the earliest specimen
of that size ; which may perhaps furnish an additional pre-
sumption against the date. It is at least, however, of 1478,
when the octavo form, as we shall immediately see, wbs of
the rarest occurrence. Maittaire, in whom alone I have had
the curiosity to make this search, which would be more
troublesome in Panzer's arrangement, mentions a book printed
in octavo at Milan in 1470 ; but the existence of this, and of
one or two more that follow, seems equivocal j and the first
on which we can rely is the Sallust, printed at Valencia in
1475. Another book of that form, at Treviso, occurs in
the same year, and an edition of Pliny's epistles at Florence
in 1478. They become from this time gradually more com-
mon ; but even at the end of the century form rather a small
proportion of editions. I have not observed that the duode-
cimo division of the sheet was adopted in any instance. But
it is highly probable that the vcMumes of Panzer furnish
means of correcting these little notices, which I ofTer as sug-
gestions to persons more erudite in such matters. The price
and convenience of books are evidently not unconnected with
their size.

149- I^othing could be less unreasonable Uian that the
E»diii.i« printer should have a better chance of indemnifying
iiriTiitgu. himself and the author, if in those days the auUior,
as probably he did, hoped for some lucrative return after his
exhausting drudgery, by means of an exclusive privilege.
The senate of Venice granted an exclusive privilege for five
years to John of Spire in 1469, for the first book printed in
the city, his edition of Cicero's epistles." But I am not
aware that this extended to any other work. And this seems
to have escaped the learned Beckmann, who says, that the

HUt Lilt, de la Frencp, xvi. 39. But land, in bii Lelten on the Dark Ago,

IhUauppow) niuminationa or other ooMl; p. Gl., hu animadTerteii vith hii usual

ornainems. The priceof Uw-boolii, such iharpneit aa Robaitsan for too basty a

BB Savignj has calleeted, ira) rery much generaliution. — IB4T.]
toTcri and yre may conclude the aame ■ TlraboKhi, tI. 139.
of all oidlnaty minuscTipta. Mr. Mait-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chip. 111.] FROM 1440 TO 1500. 9.^1

earliest instance of protected copyright ou record appears to
be in favour of a book insignificant enough, a missal for the
church of Bamberg, priuted in 1490. It is probable that
otherprivilegesofan older datehavenotbeenfound. In 1491,
one occurs at the end of a book printed at Venice, and five
more at the sune place within the century ; the Aristotle of
Aldus being one of the books : oue also is found at Milan.
These privileges are always recited at the end of the volume.
TTiey are, however, very rare in comparison with the number
of books published, and seem not accorded by preference to
the most important editions.*

150. In these exclusive privileges, the printer was forced
to call in the magistrate for his own benefit. But pa„[„r
there was often a different sort of interference by the ^^"b^'k!'
Qvil power with the press. The destruction of books, **"'"*■
and the prohibition of their sale, had not been unknown to
futtiquity ; instances of it occur in the free republics of
Athens and Rome ; but it was naturally more frequent under
suspicious despotisms, especially when to the jealousy of the
state was superadded that of the churcJi, and novelty, even in
specalatlon, became a crime.t Ignorance came on with the
fall of the empire, uid it was unnecessary to guard against
the abuse of an art which very few possessed at all. With
the first revival of letters in the eleventh and twelfth centu-
ries sprang up the reviving shoots of heretical freedom j but
with Berenger and Abelard came also the jealousy of the
church, and the usual exertion of the right of the strongest.
Abelard was censured by the council of Soissons in 1121,
for suffering copies of his book to be taken without the
approbation of his superiors, and the delinquent volumes
were given to the flames. It does not appear, however, that
any regulation on this subject had been made.t But when
the sale of books became the occupation of a class of traders,
it was deemed necessary to place them under restr^nt,
Hiose of Paris and Bologna, the cities, doubtless, where
the greatest business of this kind was carried on, came
altogether into the power of the universities. It is proved
by various statutes of the university of Paris, originating, no

Hin. of InTeDtion

lyGOOgIC

218 utebatuhe of Europe [1'*bt i,

doubt, in some authority conferred by the crown, aod be^n^
date from the year 127-5 to 1403, that booksellers were
appointed by the university, and considered as its officers,
probably matriculated by entry on her roll j that they took
an oath, renewable at her pleasure, to observe her statutes
and regulations ; that they were admitted upon security, and
with testimonials to their moral conduct ; that no one could
sell books in Paris without this permission ; that they could
expose no book to sale without communication with the
university, and without its approbation ; that the university
fixed the prices according; to the tariff of four sworn book-
sellers, at which books should be sold, or lent to the scholars j
that a tine might be imposed for incorrect copies ; that the
sellers were bound to fix up in their shops a priced catalogue
of their books, besides other regulations of less importance.
Books deemed by the university unfit for perusal were some-
times burned by its order.* Chevillier gives several prices
for tending books (pro exemplari concesso scholaribus) Bxed
about 1303. The books mentioned are all of divinity, philo-
sophy, or canon law ; on an average, the chu-ge for about
twenty pages was a sol. The university of Toulouse exerciseil
the same authority; and Albert III., archduke of Austria,
founding the university of Vienna about 1384, copied the
statutes of Paris in this control over bookselling as well as
in otlier respects, t The stationarii of Bologna were also
bound by oath, and gave sureties to fulfil their duties towards
the university ; one of tliese was, to keep by them copies of
books to the number of one hundred and seventeen, tor the
hire of which a price was fixed. 1: By degrees, however, a
class of booksellers grew up at Paris, who took no oath to
the university, and were consequently not admitted to its
privileges, being usually poor scholars, who were tolerated in
selling books of low price. These were of no importance, till
the privileged, or sworn traders, having been reduced by a
royal ordinance of 1488 to twenty-four, this lower class
silently increased, and at length the practice of taking an
03th to the university fell into disuse. §

* CheTillier, Originn del'Impriincm ) Savigny, iii. 540.
lie Pari*, p. 302. et seqq. Crevier, ii. 66. § Clierilli^r, 334— .131.

t ChoriUieT, ibid.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CoAP. U[.] FROM UiO TO 1600. S'i'J

151. Tlie vast aiid audden extension of the means of com-
municating and influencing' opinion which the dis- R,„r,i,iu
covery of printing afforded did not long' remain pcSid"^
unnoticed. Few have temper and comprehensive ''
views enough not to desire the prevention by force of that
which they reckon detrimental to truth and right. Hermo-
laus Barbarus, in a letter to Merula, recommends that, on
account of the many trifling publicaUons which took men off
from reading the best authors, nothing should be printed
without the aj^robation of competent judges.* The govern-
ments of Europe cared little for what seemed an evil to Her-
molaus. But they perceived that, especially in Grermany, a
country where the principles that were to burst out in the
Reformation were evidently germinating in this century,
where a deep sense of the corruptions of the church pervaded
every class, that incredible host of popular religious tracts,
whidi the Rhine and Neckar poured forth like their waters,
were of no slight danger to the two powers, or at least the
union of the two, whom the people had so long obeyed. We
find, therefore, an instance in 1480, of a book called Nosce
teipsum, printed at Heidelberg with the approving testimonies
of four persons, who may be presumed, though it is not
stated, to have been appointed censors on that occasion, t
Two others, one of which is a Bible, have been found prinbMl
at Cologne in 1479; in the subscription to which, the lan-
guage of public approbation by the university is more express.
iTie first known instance, however, of the regular appoint-
ment of a censor on books is in the mandate of Berthold,
archbishop of Mentz, in 1486. "Notwithstanding," h^ begins,
" the facility given to the acquisition of science by the divine
art of printing, it has been found that some abuse this in-
vendoD, and convert that which was designed for the instruc-
tion of mankind to their injury. For books on the duties
and doctrines of religion are translated from Latin into Ger-
man, and circulated among the people, to the disgrace of
religion itself ; and some have even bad the rashness to make
faulty versions of the canons of the church into the vulgar
tongue, which belong to a science so difficult, that it is enough
to occupy the life of the ^visest man. Can such men assert,
that our German language is capable of expressing what

• Becknuinn, iii. SB. f Id. 99.

, V, Google

250 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PiBtl.

great authors have written in Greek and Latin on the high
mysteries of the Christian faith, and on general science?
Certainly it is not ; and hence they either invent new words,
or use old ones in erroneous senses j a thing especially dan-
gerous in sacred Scripture. For who will admit that men
without learning, or women, into whose hands these transla-
tions may fall, can find the true sense of the gospels, or of
the epistles of St. Paul ? much less can they enter on questions
which, even among catholic writers, are open to subtle dis-
cussion. But since this art was first discovered in this city of
Mentz, and we may truly say by divine aid, and is to he
maintained by us in all its honour, we strictly forbid all per-
sons to translate, or circulate when translated, any books
upon any subject whatever from the Greek, Latin, or any
other tongue into German, until, before printing, and again
before their sale, such translations shall be approved by four
doctors herein named, under penalty of excommunication,
and of forfeiture of the books, and of one hundred golden
florins to the use of our exchequer."*

152. I have given the substance of tliis mandate rather at
EBtrtot length, beause it has a considerable bearing on the
thl"ilSPom- preliminary history of the Reformation, and yet has
"""■ never, to my knowledge, been produced with that

view. For it is obvious that it was on account of religious
translations, and especially those of the Scripture, which had
been very early printed in Germany, that this alarm was taken
by the worthy archbishop. A bull of Alexander VL, in 1501,
reciting that many pernicious books had been printed in various
parts of the world, and especially in the provinces of Cologne,
Mentz, Treves, and Magdeburg, forbids all printers in these
provinces to publish any books without the licence of the arch-
bishops or their officials, t We here perceive the distinction
made between these parts of Germany and the rest of Europe,
and can understand their ripeness for the ensuing revolution.
We perceive, also, the vast influence of the art of printing upon
the Reformation. Among those who have been sometimes
enumerated as its precursors, a place should be left for Schceffer
and Gutenberg; nor has this always been forgotten. 1^

• Becknuan, 101.. from the rourth ) Gcrdcs, in liis IlisL Evuigcl. Re-

volume of Guden'q Codei diplomaticus. formati, who has gone very Uboriouslj

The iMlia will be fbund in Bocknumn. into this subject, jusUy dirells on the in-

t Id. 106. Hueneeof the BTlof printing.

FROM 1500 TO 1520.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE FROM 1500 TO 1520.

I. The new century did not beg^n very auspiciously for the

literary credit of Italy. We may, indeed, consider

the whole period between the death of Lorenzo in i-^inf ip

14<9S, and the pontificate of his son in 1513, as

less brilliant than the two ages which we connect with their

names. But when measured by the labours of the press,

the last ten years of the fifteenth century were considerably

more productive than any which had gone before. In the

present decad a striking decline was perceptible, llius, in

comparing the numbers of books printed in the chief towns

of Italy, we find —

1491—1500

1501—1510

Florence 179

Rome 460

Milan 228

Venice 1491

536 •

Such were the fruits of the ambition of Ferdinand and of
Louis XII., and the first interference of strangers with the
liberties of Italy. Wars so protracted withio the bosom of
a country, if they do not prevent the growth of original
genius, must yet be unfavourable to that secondary, but more
diffused excellence, which is nourished by the wealth of pa-

t: Go Ogle

2.52 LITEJIATURE OF ECROI'li [r*itT I.

trons and the tranquillity of universities. Ilius, the gyni-
uasium of Rome, founded by Eugenius IV., but lately
endowed and regulated by Alexander VI., who had esta-
blished it in a handsome edifice on the Quirinal hill, was
despoiled of its revenues by Julius II., who, with some
liberality towards painters, had no regard for learning ; and
this ^vill greatly account for the remarkable decline in the
typography of Rome. Thus, too, the Platonic school at Flo-
rence soon went to decay after the fall of the Medici, who
had fostered it : and even the rival philosophy which rose
upon its ruins, and was taught at the beginning of this cen-
tury with much success at Padua by Fomponatius, according
to the original principles of Aristotle, and by two other pro-
fessors of great eminence in their time, Nifo and Achilliui,
according to the system of Averroes, could not resist the cala-
mities of war : the students of that university were disperse<I
in 1509t after the unfortunate defeat of Ghiaradadda.

2. Aldus himself left Venice in 1506, his eSects in the
Pmiqf territory having been plundered and did not open
.iidii.. jjjg press again till 1.512, when he entered into part-
nership with his father-in-law, Andrew Asola. He had been
- actively employed during the first years of the century. He
published Sophocles, Herodotus, and Thacydides in 1502,
£uripides and Herodian in 1503, Demosthenes in 1504'.
These were important accessions to Gi'eek learning, though
so much remained behind. A circumstance may be here
mentioned, which had so much influence in facilitating ths
acquisition of knowledge, that it renders the year 1501 a
sort of epoch in literary history. He that year not only
introduced a new Italian character, called Aldine, more easily
read perhaps than hia Roman letters, which are somewhat
rude ; but, what was of more importance, began to print
in a small octavo or duodecimo form, instead of ^e cumbrous
and expensive folios that had been principally in use. What-
ever the great of ages past might seem to lose by this indig-
nity, was more than compensated in the diffused love and
admiration of their writings. " With what pleasure," says
M. Renouard, " must the studious man, the lover of letters,
have beheld these benevolent octavos, these Virgils and
Horaces contained iu one little volume, which he might carry

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cka?. IV.] FROM 1500 TO 1520. 253

Id his pocket while travelling or in a walk ; which besides
cost hitn hardly more than two of our francs, so that he
could get a dozen of them for the price of one of those folios,
that had hitherto been the sole furniture of his library. The
appearance of these correct and well printed octavos ought '
to be as much remarked as the substitution of printed books
for manuscripts itself."* We have seen above, that not only
small quartos, nearly as portable perhaps as octavos, but the
latter form also, had been coming into use towards the close
of the fifteenth century, though, I believe, it was sparingly
employed for classical authors.

3. It was about 1500, that Aldus drew together a few
scholars into a literary association, called Aldi Ne-
academia. Not only amicable discussions, but the

choice of books to be printed, of manuscripts and various
readings, occupied their time, so that they may be considered
as literary partners of the noble-minded printer. This aca-
demy was dispersed by the retirement of Aldus from Venice,
and never met again, t

4. The first edition of Calepio's Latin Dictionary, which,
though far better than one or two obscure books DieHonvT
that preceded it, and enriched by plundering the '^^'"f"'-
stores of Valla and Perotti, was very defective, appeared at
Reggio in 1502.% It was so greatly augmented by sub-
sequent improvers, that cahpin has become a name in French
for any voluminous compilation. This dictionary was not
only of Latin and Italian, but several other languages ; and
these were extended in the Basle edition of 1581 to eleven.
It is stilt, if not the best, the most complete polyglott lexi-
con for the European languages. Calepio, however moderate
might be his erudition, has just clfum to be esteemed one of
the most effective instruments in the restoration of the Latin
language in Its purity to general use ; for though some had
by great acuteness and diligence attained a good style in the

■ Rcnousrd, HuL de 1'InipriniGrie d« in hii f'lnie for > discourse. De Laudibiu

Aldei. RoMoe'i I<«i X, ch. ii. L'ilenruinGT(ecaium,reprinledb}' Henrj'

f Tiribouhi. Roscoe. Itenouacd. Stepbeniin hU Theuuriu. Bit^r. UnW.,

Selpio Forleguem, vlia Istiniicd his Yonegaen*.

tame into CaiWromichus. ww Kcretary \ BruneC. Tmboschi (i. 383.) gives

lo thii (oeicijr, and ■mong its most din- some reuon to suap«ct that there mijr

tinguishrd members, ' lie vns celebnted have licen an eariier editior.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

254 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Paw I.

fifteenth century, that age was looked upon in Italy itself as
far below the subsequent period.*

5. We may read in Panzer the titles of 3Q5 books

printed during these ten years at Leipsic, 60 of which
minudio are classical, but chiefly, as before, small schooU
"""'' books ; 14 out of 214 at Ck)logne, 10 out of 208
at Strasburg, 1 out of 84 at Basle, are also classical ; but
scarcely any books whatever appear at Louvain. One
printed at Erfurt in 1501 deserves some attention. The
title rutiS) " EnrnycDyi] ufai Tim ypafi.iAaTm' E^Xijcdv, HIementale
Introductorium in idioma Grfficanicum," with some more
words. Panzer observes : " This Greek grammar, pub-
lished by some unknown person, is undoubtedly the first
which was published in Germany since the invention of
printing." In this, however, as has already been shown, he
is mistaken j unless we deny to the book printed at Deventer
the name of a grammar. But Panzer was not acquunted
with it. This seems to be the only attempt at Greek that
occurs in Gtermany during this decad ; and it is unnecessary
to comment on the ignorance which the gross soledsm in the
title displays.!

6. Paris contributed in ten years 430 editions, thirty-two

being of Ladn classics. And in 150? Giles Gour-
orni a mont, a printer of that city, assisted by the purse

of Francis Tlssard, had the honour of introducing
the Greek language on this side, as we may say, of the
Alps ; for the trifling exceptions we have mentioned scarcely
afiect his priority. Greek types had been used in a few
words by Badius Ascensius, a learned and meritorious
Parisian printer, whose publicatioua began about 1498.
* Calepio is uid by Morhof and Bail, of Calopia Biillet, Jugement dot
let to h«v« copied Ferolti'i Cornucopia Saiini, 11. 44.

almost entire. Sir John Elyot lonj; be- Several bad dlctionaiiei, abridged from

fore hul remaifced: " Calepin nothing the Catholicon, appeared near the end of
amended, but rather appalred that vliicb the fifteenth century, and at the begin-
Peroitu) had studiously gathered." But ningof the neat. Uu Cange, prKfal. in
the CuTOUCopia va* not a complete die- Glonat. p, 47.

tionary. It ii generally agreed, that \ Panier, vL 494. We find howerer
Cdepio wat an indilTerent scholar, and a tract by Hegiui, De Utilitate Lingua
that the lirtt editiona oT hii dictionary Crncie, printed at Deienler in 1501 ;
■re of no great ralue. Nor have thoic but whether it conlaini Greek characten
who baie enlarged it done lO with ei- or not, must be left to conjecture. Lam-
Betnen,OTwith KleclionofgDod latinity. bioet says, thai Manena, a FlemiiJi
Even Paatcrat, the moit learned of them, printer, employed Greek types in quo-
has not extirpated the unauthorised words utions as early as 1501 or 1509.

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Chap. IV.] FROM 1500 TO 1520. 255

They occur in his edition (1505) of Valla's Annotations on
the Greek Testament.* Four little books, namely, a small
miscellaneous volume, preceded by an alphabet, the Works
and Days of Hesiod, the Frogs and Mice of Homer, and the
Erotemata or Greek grammar of Chrysoloras, to which four
a late writer has added an edition of Museeus, were the
first fruits of Gourmont's press. Aleander, a learned Italian,
who played afterwards no inconsiderable part in the earlier
period of the Reformation, came to Paris in 1508, and
received a pension from Louis XII. t He taught Greek
there and perhaps Hebrew. Through his care, besides a
Hebrew and Greek alphabet in 1508, Gourmont printed
some of the moral works of Plutarch in 1509-

7- We learn from a writer of the most respectable au-
thority, Camerarius, that the elements of Greek
were already taught to boys in some parts of Ger- ofViiKh"
many.f About 1508, Reuchlin, on a visit to

• CheTil1i.:T, Origlnes de I'lraprimerie It Is fiiir to u; of Aleander, that he
dc Ptilt, p. i46. Greswell's View of vai the friend of Sadolet. In ■ letter of
tatij Pamian Greek Prcs>i, L 15. Fan- that eicclleat person to Paul III., he
KCT, according to Mr. Greswell, hai re- praises Aleander very highly, and re-
corded Dearly 400 edition) tram the pre>9 quesu for him the hat. vhich the pope
of Badiui. Tbej include almost evcrj in coniequence bestowed. Sadolet. Epist.
Latin cloSNC, uauallf with twtet. lie 1. lii. See, Tor Aleander, Bayle; Sleidon,
alio printed a few Greek a "' " ■■■ . ■ i ^"

alio Bayle and Biogr. Uniy. The latter

Hoscoe's Leo X. eh. iii. ; Jortin's Eras-

reTera the fir),t vorlcs from the Parisian

mus, passim.

press of Bidiu-o to 1511, but probably by

f Jam enim pluribus in loois melius

mi-tprint. Badius had learned Greek nt

quam dudum pueritia inslitui et doctrJna

Fcrrara. If Bayle is correct, he laufht

in scholis usuipari politiat, quod ct bono-

it at Lyooa before he set up hii press

rum antorum scripts in man us lene-

■t Paris, which ii worthy of notice;

rentur, et elementa quoquelinguff GiKCa

but be gives no authority, etccpt for

alicubi proponerentur ad discenrium,

the bet of hit leaching in the fonnpr
city, which might not be the Greek lan-
guage. ll_ a said, however, that ho

utriusque turn noD tam Judicium quam

eame to Paris in order to (tive instruction

noTitas causa fuit Similerus, qui postea

in Greek alMut 1499. ISiyle, art. Ba.

ei primario grammatico eximius juris-

dins note 11. It ia said In the Biogra-

conaullus factus eat, initio hano doctri-

pliie Universclle, that OenjJ le Fevre

Uught Greek at Paris in 1504, when

trabatur. Ilaque Giawarum lilerarum

only sixteen years old : but the story

scliolun Giplicabat aliquot discipulii suis

•eems apocryphal.

pri»Btim, quibus dabat bans operam pe-

t Aleander was no ftvourite with

Camerarius, Vita Mi-lanchlhonis. I find

TccU.*. against him. He was a >.trenu.

also, in one of Melanchthon'iownepistla^

oui tupporter of all things as Ihey were

that he Iramed the Greek grammar from

in the church, and would haTc presided

in (he council of Trent, as legale of

351. (edit. 1647.)

Paul III., who had given him acardinal-s

hit, ifha bad not bc«D prerentcd by death.

t: Go Ogle

25C LITEIIATURE OP EUHOPE [I'mt I.

Geor^ Simler, a schoolmaster in Hesse, found a relation of
his own, little more than ten years old, who, uniting extra-
ordinary quickness with thirst for learning, had already ac-
qnired the rudiments of that language ; and presenting him
with a lexicon and grammar, precious gifts in those times,
changed his German name, Schwartzerd, to one of equiva-
lent meaning and more classical sound, Melanchthon. He
had himself set the example of assuming a name of Greek
derivation, being almost as much known by the name of
Capnio as by his o\vii. And this pedantry, M'hich continued
to prevail for a century and a half afterwards, might be ex-
cused by the great uncouthiiess of many German, not to say
French and English, surnames in their latinised forms. Me-
lanchthon, the precocity of his youth being followed by a
splendid maturity, became not only one of the greatest lights
of the Reformation, but, far above all others, the founder of
general learning in Gennany.*

8. England seems to have been nearly stationary in aca-
i^imiBgin demical learning during the ur)propitious reign of
Eoguikd. Henry VII. t But just hopes were entertained
from the accession of his son in 1509, who had received in
some degree a learned education. And the small knot of
excellent men, united by zeal for improvement, Grocyn, Lie-
acre, Latimer, Fisher, Colet, More, succeeded in bringing
over their friend Erasmus to teach Greek at Gimbridge in
1510. The students, he says, were too poor to pay him any
thing; nor had he many scholars. t His instruction was
confined to the grammar. In the same year, Colet, dean of
St. Paul's, founded there a school, and published a Latin

* Camerariu*. Meiiiers. i, TS. The manner rorgotten," Wood'i AduIs of

Bit^mphie Univpraelle, art. Melaiifh- Onfotd, *. d. 150a. Tlie word " for-

thoti, culls him nephew of Ueuchlln : but galtcii" is improperly applW to Grwk,

tliU fieemi not to be the esse; CameTa- which had never been known. In this

riua oni; saya, that their ramilies were reign, but in what part of it doa not ap-

Gonneded qiudam cognsiionis neceesitu- pear, the uniTersity o( Oiford hired an

dine. Italian, one Caius Aubcrinus, to compose

t " llie schools were much frequented the publie orations and epistles, and to

with quirks and sophistry. All things, eiplain Terence in the schools. WartoD,

whether taught or written, seemed to be iL 420., from MS. authority.
trite and inane. No pleasant streams of \ Hactenus prslegimus Chrysolorie

humanity or mythology were gliding gramma^cam, sed paucis; fartassis fre-

smong us, and the Greek language, from quenliori auditorio Thcodori ([tammati-

whence the greater part of knowledge is cam Buspicabimur. Ep. ciiiii. (I6lh

derived, w«» at a Tcry low ebb, or in a Oct. I jll.)

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CaiP. rV.] FROM 1500 TO 1620. 257

grammar ; 6ve or six little works of the kind had already
appeared in England.* These trifling things are mentioned
to let the reader take notice that there is nothing more worthy
to be named. Twenty-six books were printed at London .
during this decad ; among these Terence in 1304 ; but no
other Latin author of classical name. The difference in point
of lefuniug between Italy and England was at least that of a
century; that is, the former was as much advanced in know-
ledge of uident literature in 1400 as the latter was in 1500,

9. It is plun, however, that on the continent of Europe,
though no very remarkable advances were made in Kruom iwi
these ten years, learning was slowly progressive, ""'•™-
and the men were living who were to bear fruit in due season.
Erasmus republished his Adages with such great additions as
rendered them almost a new work ; while Budieus, in his
Observations upon the Pandects, gave the first example of
applying philological and historical literature to the illustra-
tion of Roman law, by which others, with more knowledge
of jurisprudence than he possessed, were in the next genera-
tion signally to change the face of that science.

10. The eastern languages began now to be studied,
though with very imperfect means. Hebrew had

1^1- i-iy • • I- study of

been cumvated in the rranascan monasteries ot P""™
Tubingen and Basle before the end of the last cen-
tury. The first grammar was published by Conrad Pellican
in 1503. Eichhorn calls it an evidence of the deficiencies of
his knowledge, though it cost him incredible p»ins. Reuchlin
gave a better, with a dictionary, in 1506 j which, enlarged
by Munster, long continued to be a standard book. A Hebrew
psalter, with three Latin translations, and one in French, was
published in 1509 by Henry Stephens, the progenitor of a
race illustrious in typographical and literary history. Fetrus
de Alcala, in 1506, attempted an Arabic vocabulary, printing
the words in Roman letter.t

• Wcxidtalksaf Holc'aLacPuerorum, Vahed anonjinoualy. Tliis syntax u sd-

publuhed in 1497, as if it hod made an mired for concUenen and perspicuity

^och in literature. It might be supe- 1842.]

[Tie syntax in Litly'i gramniar, which Meiners's Life of Reuchlin, in Lcbens-

fan been chiefly in use with us (uuder beschreibungen beriiliintct manner, i.

that or other names), Li mucli altered by 6S. A very few instances of Hebrew

Eratmut. at Colct'a desire: sic einenda- scholani in the firteenth century might

IS pub- be found, bc«des Reuehlin and Ficus of

t: Go Ogle

258 LITERATURE OF EUROPE , [PakI.

11, If we could trust an article in the Biograpble Univer-
Dnnuic sellc, 8 Portugucse, Gil Vicente, deserves the high
'""^*' praise of having introduced the regular drama inlo
Europe ; the first of his pieces having been represented at
Lisbon in \504;.* But, according to the much superior
authority of Boutcrwek, Gil Vicente was a writer in the old
national style of Spain and PortugRl ; and his early compo-
sitions are Autos, or spiritual dramas, totally unlike any re-
gular plays, and rude both in design and execution. He
became, however, a comic writer of great reputation among
his countrymen at a later period, but in the same vein of un-
.cultivated genius, and not before Machiavel and Ariosto had
established their dramatic renown. The Calandra of Bib-
biena, afterwards a cardinal, was represented at Venice in
1508, though not published till 1524. An analysis of this
play will be found in Gingu4n4 j it bears only a general
resemblance to the Menie<jimi of Plautus. Perhi^s the
Calandra may be considered as the earliest modem comedy,
or at least the earliest that is known to be extant ; for its
five acts and intricate plot exclude the competition of Maitre
caiiuDwid Patelin.t But there is a more celebrated piece in
MtiuxH. j[jg Spanish language, of which it is probably im>
possible to determine the date ; the tragi-comedy, as it has
been called, of Calisto and Melib«ea. This is the work of two
authors ; one generally supposed to be Rodrigo Cota, who
planned the story, and wrote the first act ; the other, Fernando
de Rojas, who added twenty more acts to complete ^e
drama. This alarming number does not render the play
altogether so prolix as might be supposed, the acts being
only what with us are commonly denominated scenes. It is,
however, much beyond the limits of representation. Some
have supposed Calisto and Melibcea to have been commenced

Mirandoli. Tirabotchi gives the chief f Gingufn^ vi. 171. Aneariiervri-

place nmong tbeae la Giumoiia Muietti. ter on the luUan thotn ii in raptures

liL ISS. with this ptij. "The Greeka, Litin^

* Biogr. UniT., arL Gil Vicenle. ind moderns hne never m»de, Mid per.

Another Life of the tame dramatist in a hapsnerer vill nuke, so perfect a eomed;

later Tolume, under the title Vicente, as the Calandra. It is, in mj opinion,

■eems designed to retract this claim- themodel of goodcomedy." Riccoboni,

Boulervek adverts to this supposed Hist, du Theatre Italieo, i. 148. This

drama of 1504, which is an Auto on the !■ much to nj, and shows an odd taste,

festitai of Corpus Christi, and of the for the Calandra neither displays ehu«c-

slmplcst kind. ter nor eicit«s intertsl.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CHAr.ir.]- FROM IfiOO TO 1520. 959

by Juan de la Mena before the middle of the fifteenth
century. But this, Antonio tells us, shows ignorance of the
style belonging to that author and to his age. It is far more
probably of the time of Ferdinand and Isabella ; and as an
Italian translation appears to have been published in 1514,
we may presume that it was finished and printed in Spain
about die present decad.*

12. Bouterwek and Siamondi have given some account of
this rather remarkable dramatic work. But they imi,^
hardly do it justice, especially the former, who '*"*'■
would lead the reader to expect something very anomalous
oaA extravi^rant. It appears to me, that it is as regular and
well-contrived as the old comedies generally were : the action
is simple and uninterrupted ; nor can it be reckoned very
extraordinary, that what Bouterwek calls the unities of time
and place should be transgressed, when for the next two
centuries they were never observed. Calisto and Meliboea
was at least deemed so original and important an accession
to literature, that it was naturalised in several languages.
A very early imitation, rather than version, in English,
appears to have been printed in 15S0.t A real transla-
tion, with the title Celestina, (the n»ne of a procuress who
plays the chief part in the drama, and by which it has
been frequently known,) is mentioned by Herbert under the
year 1598. And there is another translation, or second
edition, in 1631, with the same title, from which all my ac-
quaintance with this play is derived. Gaspar Barthius gave it
in Latin, 1624, vrith the title, Pomobosco-didascalus. t It was
extolled by some as a salutary exposition of the effects of vice —

• Antouo. Bibl. Hiip. Nova. An- Mr. Collier (Hist, of Dnmalic Poetry,

irit, T. 125. La Cdesliiu, ujg the ii.40S.) bai given a short account ufthu

Utter, certo eonticne on fatto brae •I'lilto, production, vhich he sajrs "a nol long

e spiepito cod epitodj leruiiaiili e natu- enough for a play, and could only hive

rali, dipinge con veritil i carattcri, ed cs- been acted a) an interlude." It must

piime tAlofB con olore gli aETetti ; e tutto therefore be Ter; diSerent from the ori-

quHlo i mio giudiiio potra hastate per ginal.

darli il vantod'enere atBta la prima com- { Clement, Bibliotheque Curieuse.

pncliione teatrale mitta eon eleganu e This (ranilBtion isaomelimeserroneouilj

r^okrit^ named Fomo-didawMlua ; the title of a

f Dibdin'i Typogiaphical A ntiquitiea. Tery difiWent book.

t: Go Ogle

260 LITERATURE OF EUROPE LPamx

and condemned by o^ers as too open a display of it. Bou-
terwek has ratlier exaggerated the indecency of this drama,
which is much less offensive, unless softened in the transla-
tion, than in most of onr old comedies. The style of the first
author is said to be more elegant than that of his conti-
ni^ator ; hut this is not very apparent in the English version.
The I. "lief characters throughout are pretty well drawn, and
"there is a ."?in of humour in some of the comic parts.

13. The first edition of the works of a Spanish poet, Juan
Ju>iidei> *^® ^* Enzina, appeared in 1501, Uiough they were
Eniim. probably written in the preceding century. Some
of these are comedies, as one biographer calls them, or rather,
perhaps, aa Bouterwek expresses it, "sacred and profane
eclogues, in the form of dialogues, represented before disdn-
guished persons on festivals." Enzina wrote also a treatise
on Castilian poetry, which, according to Bouterwek, is but
a short essay on the rules of metre.*

14. The pastoral romance, as was before mentioned,
Atai\*r>t began a little before this time in Portugal. An
sanuiiiTo. j(gj;^ writer of fine genius, Sannazzaro, adopted it
in his Arcadia, of which the first edition was in ISOS.
Harmonious prose intermingled with graceful poetry, uid
with a fable just capable of keying awake the attention,
though it could never excite emotion, communicate a tone of
pleasing sweetness to this volume. But we have been so
much used to fictions of more passionate interest, that we
hardly know how to accommodate ourselves to the mild
languor of these early romances. A recent writer places the
Arcadia at the head of Italian prose in that age. " With
a less embarrassed construction," he says, "than Boccaccio,
and less of a servile mannerism than Bembo, the style of
Sannazzaro is simple, flowing, rapid, harmonious ; if it
should seem now and then too florid and difiuse, this may be
mrdoned in a romance. It is to him, in short, rather th^ to
Bembo, that we owe the revival of correctness and elegance
in the Italian prose of the sixteenth century; and his style
in die Arcadia would have been far more rehshed than that

* Boutervck. Biogr. Univ., ut. En- Equal kaowWge I cutDOt uy. Tlu
lina. Tlie latter praiu!! thii work of dnmitie compositioni nbove meotiooed

Eniina more liighly, but vbetlivr fram ue moat scarce.

lyGOOgIC

Ciiir.lV.] FEOM 1500 TO 1620. 261

of the Asolsni, if the originality of his poetry had not en-
grossed our attention." He was the first who employed in
any considerahle degree the sdrucciolo verse, though it occurs
before ; but the difficulty of finding rhymes for it drives him
frequently upon unauthorised phrases. He may also he
reckoned the first who restored the polished style of Petrarch,
which no writer of the fifteenth century had successfully
emulated."

15. The Asolani of Peter Bembo, a dialogue, the scene
of which is laid at Asalo in the Venetian territory, a„i„, „,
were published in 1505. They are disquisitions on "™""-
love, tedious enough to our present apprehension, but in a
style so pure and polite, that they became the favourite read-
ing among the superior ranks in Italy, where the coldness
and pedantry of such dissertations were forgiven for tlieir
classical dignity and moral truth. The Asolani has been
thought to make an epoch in Italian literature, though the
Arcadia is certainly a more original and striking work of
genius.

16. I do not find at what time the poems in the Scottish
dialect by William Dunbar were published ; but

" The lliistle and the Rose," on the marriage of
James IV. with Margaret of England in 1503, must be
presumed to have been written very little after that time.
Dunbar, therefore, has the honour of leading the vanguard
of British poetry in the sixteenth century. His allegorical
poem, The Golc^n Targe, is of a more extended range, and
displays more creative power. The versification of Dunbar
is renoarkably harmonious and exact for his age j and his
descriptions are often very lively and picturesque. But it
must be confessed, that there is too much of sunrise and
ringing-birds in all our medieeval poetry ; a note caught from

■ Salfi, CoDtiniutioD de O'mguini, i.
92. ComUDi. IT. 13. RoHoe iipeaka

of the Areidia with leM admirstioo. but ot iti mon imaginaiiTe pmsuga, witn

pcfhapa mora Kcoiding to the leeMngt ot which BulTon, St. I'ierre, and otiien have

Ibc gcoerml rtader. But I onnot alto, enriuhed il, if a highly arnamenli^d prmc

gctber Aoneur in hia avecping denunci- had been vbolly proacr!1>ed; and we may

Una of poetieal proae, " that hernuphro- lay the nine with equal truth of our own.

dte of litetaturc." )n many itylea of It ia another thing to condemn tlie pecu-

nMn|MMition,aDd none more than tueh aa liar atyle of poetry in vritingi that from

the Arcadia, it may be read with delight, their auhject demand a very diflerent

and witbout wounding a ntional taste, tone.

ly.GOOglC

362 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa»t I-

the French and Provencal writers, and repeated to satiety by
our own. The allegorical characters of Dunbar are derived
from the same source. He belongs, as a poet, to the school
of Chaucer and Lydgate.*

17- Tile first book upon anatomy, since that of Mundinus,
Amiom/ was by Zerbi of Verona, who taught in the univer-
o( zeriB. gjjy ^f Padua in 1495. The title is, Liber analomiee
corporis humani et singulorum membrorum illius, 1503,
He follows in general the plan of Mundinus, and his language
is obscure, as well as full of inconvenient abbreviations ; yet
the germ of discoveries that have crowned later anatomists
with glory is sometimes perceptible in Zerbi ; among others
that of the Fallopian tubes.t

18. We now, for the first time, take relations of voyages
into our literary catalogue. During the fifteenth
or'^^ century, though the old travels of Marco Polo had
been printed several times, and in difierent lan-
guages, and even those of Sir John Mandeville once ; though
the Cosmography of Ptolemy had appeared in not less than
seven editions, and generally with maps, few, if any, origi-
nal descriptions of the kingdoms of the world had gratified
the curiosity of modern Europe. But the stupendous dis-
coveries that si^alised the last years of that age could not
long remain untold. We may, however, give perhaps the
first place to the voyages of Cadamosto, a Venetian, who, in
1455, under the protection of Prince Henry of Portugal,
explored the western coast of Africa, and bore a part in
discovering its two great rivers, as well as the Cape de Verde
islands. " The relation of his voyages," says a late writer,
" the earliest of modern travels, is truly a model, and would
lose nothing by comparison with those of our best naviga-
tors. Its arrangement is admirable, its details are interest-
ing, its descriptions clear and precise." J These voyages of
Cadamosto do not occupy more than thirty pages in the
collection of Ramusio, where they are reprinted. They are
said to have first speared at Vicenza in 1507, with the title

* Wsrlon, iii. DO. Ellii (Specimens, ChnuceTandLrdgate. Cbalmen'a Biogr.
i. 5T7.) itrangelf citit Dunbar "the DicL

neatest poet that Scotland has pro- f Fortolf Hist, ie I'Anatoinie. Biogr.
dated." nnkerton places him above Univ., art. Zerbi.

{ UiogT. Univ., art. Cadamoito.

lyGOOgIC

Cha^. IV.] PROM 1500 TO 1620. 263

Prima oavigazione per I' oceano atle terre de' negri delta
bassa Ethiopa di Luigi Cadamosto. It is supposed, how-
ever, by Brunet, that no separate account of Cadamosto's
voyage exists earlier than 1519, and that this of 1507 is a
confusion with the next book. This was a still more im-
portant production, announcing the great discoveries that
Americo Vespucci was suffered to wrest, at least in name,
from a more illustrious though ill-requited Italian : Mondo
nuovo, e pessi nuovamente ritrovati da Alberico Vesputio
Floreotino indtolati. Yicenza, 1507- But this includes the
voyage of Cadamosto. It does not appear that any earlier
work on America had been published i but an epistle of
Columbus himself, de insulis Indite nuper iuventis, was twice
printed about 1493 in Germany, and probably in other
countries ; and a few other brief notices of the recent dis-
covery are to be traced. We find also in 1508 an account
of the Portuguese in the East, which, being announced as a
translation from the native language into Latin, may be pre-
sumed to have appeared before."

Sect. IL 1511—1520.

.4ge of Leo X. — IlaSan Dramatic Poetry — Claiiical Zigarniitg, erpedally Greek,
n Fnuux, Geraumy, and England — Utopia of More — JSnamm — Hi*
AJaget — Poiitiail Satire contiaaed m lAetn — Oppotilion of the Monkt to
Leanmg — Antipathy of Eraimui to them — TlCev- Attaei on Reueklia —
OripK of Reforaiation — Luther — Ariotio — Ckaracler of the Orlando
furioto — Variota Worki of Atuaiement ia modem Langaagei — Engliih
Poetry — Pomponaiuu — Raymond Lutly.

19. Leo X. became pope in 1513. His chief distinction,

no doubt, is owing to his encouragement of the

arts, or, more strictly, to the completion of those ^n>i.^eaf

splendid labours of RaSaelle under his pontificate,

'whicb had been commenced by his predecessor. We have

■ See Brunet, Manuel du Librure, the former : and bas enabled me to slala

■rt. IdoerariumiPrinio.Ve^ueei. [Also M. 8runet*a opinion more clearly Ihan in

bia Supplement au Manuel du Libraire, my finrt edition 1 S43.}

•It. Vopucci. Thia lot article correcla

lyGOOgIC

264 LITERATURE OF EUROPE tPAmrl.

here only to do with literature ; and in the promotion of this
he certainly deserves a much higher name than any former
pope, except Nicolas V., who, cousidenug the difference of
the times and the greater solidity of his own character, as
certainly stands far above him. Leo began by placing men
of letters in the most honourable stations of his court. There
were two, Bembo and Sadolet, who had by common con-
fession reached a consummate elegance of style, in com-
parison of which the best productions of the last age seemed
very imperfect. They were made apostolical secretaries.
Beroaldo, second of the name, whose father, though a more
fertile author, was inferior to him in taste, was intrusted with
the Vatican library. John Lasr-aris and Marcus Musurus
were invited to reside at Rome* ; and the pope, considering
it, he says, no smalt part of his pontifical duty to promote
the Ladn literature, caused search to be made every where
for manuscripts. This expression sounds rather oddly in his
mouth ; and the less rdigious character of Transalpine
literature is visible in this as in every thing else.

20. The personal taste of Leo was almost entirely directed
R„.„ towards poetry and the beauties of style. This,
nmnuium. Xiraboschi seems to hint, might cause the more
serious learning of antiquity to be rather neglected. But
there does not seem to be much ground for this charge. We
owe to Leo the publication, by Beroaldo, of the first five
books of the Annals of Tacitus, which bad lately been found
in a German monastery. It appears that in 1 J14< above one
hundred professors received salaries in the Roman university,
or gymnasium, restored by the pope to its alienated revenues.!

* John LascRTU. wbo U not to be con- liutilutioni dnigoed by Ibe king to bt

founded with Coattuitiiie Lucaris, b; cMablisbed at Ftr'a. But these beii^

■ome thought to be his fulher, bdiI to postpoaett, Lsicsris spent the remufider

whom we owe a Greek gmmmBr, after ofhis life partly in Pari), pirttjr in Rome,

continuing ror several ^ean under tbe and died in the lattereilf in ]5»5. Hodf

patronage of Lorenzo al Florence, vhere de GrarciB illustribus.

he was editor of the Anthologia, or col- f We are indebted to Roscoc for pob-

lection of epigtams, printed in 1494, on lishing this list. But u tbe number of

the fall of the Medici family entered tlie one hundred professors might lead ut to

■erviceof Charles VIII., andlivednlanf eipect a most comprehenaiTe scheme, it

years at Paris. He iras aftcrwatdi em- may be meutioned that they consisted of

ployed by Lous XII. as minister at four for theology, eleven for canon law,

Venice. After a residence of some du- twenty for civil law, siiteen for medicine^

ratinn at Rome, he teas induced by two for metaphysics. Eve for philosophy

Francis I. in 1518 toorganisethe literary (probably phyBics), two for ethics, four

lyCOOglC

Chap. IV.] PROM 1600 TO 1520. 265

Leo seems to have fouDded a seminary distinct from the
former, under the superintendence of Lascaris, for the sole
study of Greek, and to have brought over young men as
teachers from Greece. In this academy a Greek press was
established, where the scholiasts on Homer were printed in
1517.'

21. Leo was a great admirer of Latin poetry ; and in his
time the chief poets of Italy seem to have written
several of their works, though not published till "^ '''
afterwards. The poems of Pontanus, which naturally belong
to the fifteenth century, were first printed in 1513 and
1518 ; and those of Mantuan, in a collective form, about
the same time.

32. The Rosmunda of Rucellai, a tragedy in the Italian
language, on the ancient regular model, was repre- lui,.^
sented before Leo at Florence in 1515. It was the '"'"^^'
earliest known trial of blank verse ; but it is acknowledged by
Rucellai himself that the Sophonisba of his friend Trissino,
which is dedicated to Leo in the same year, though not pub-
lished till 15S4, preceded and suggested his own tragedy, t

for rhetoric, three Tor Greek, ■

far gnmnur, in all a liundred and o

The ntariea are lubjained ir everjr in. siiio, acknowledging the latter ai Ihe In-

•taare; the bighett are among the medical ventor of blank lene. Vol Toite il primo,

profeaaora; the Greek are also high, che queato modo dl scrlTere, in verii ma-

Riscoe, iL S3S. and Append. No. 89. terni, liberi delle rime, poneste in luce.

Roacoe rcnuuka ihat medical botanj Life of Leo X. eh. 16. See also Gin-

wat one of Ibe icience* taught, and that gaiai, lol. ri., and Walker'a Memoir on

it wai the earlieit instance. If this be Italian Tiagcdj, as well u Tiraboithi.

right, Bonalede of Padua cannot hare 'Hte earliest Italian liagedy, which a also

bMn tbe flnt who (aught botany in £u- ontheiubject of SophonlBba, b; Calmlto

rope, aa we read thai he did in I5»f). del Carrelto, was presented to the Mat'

But intherdloftbeseltonunprofeasora chionen of Mantua in 1502. Butwedo

we onl^ find that one waa appointed ad notUnd that It was brought on the stage;

declaralionem simplicium medicina?. I nor is it clear that it waa printed so earljr

do not think thia means more than the as the present decad. But an edition oT

roateria medics ; we cannot infer that he tbe Famphila, a tragedy on Ihe story of

lectured upon the plants themseWes. Slgisinunds, by Antonio da Fittoja, was

• Tiraboecbi. Hody, p. H47. Rob- printed at Venice in ISOS. Walker,

toe, eb. 11. Leo <rai anticipated in bis p. 11. Gingufnj bas been igrvorant of

Greek editionabyChigi, a private Roman, this icry curious piece, from which

wtio, with the aaiiatance of Comelio Be- Walker had given a fe* eitracts, in

nigno, and with Callie^ua, a Cretan, for rhymed meaiuies of diflerent kinds,

bi* printer, raTe to the world two good Gingu£n£ indeed had never Kcn Walker's

edittouof Pindar and Theocritus in 1515 book, and bis own is the worse for it

and 1516. Walker was not* nun of much vigour of

t Tbb dedleatian, with a sort of npo- mind, but had some tasle, and great

lyGOOgIC

2bb LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past L

The Sophonisba Is strictly on the Greek model, divided only
gdiriioniitu hy the odes of the chorus, but not into five portions
(■r riHiQo. ^j. ^j^_ jjjg speeches in this tragedy are some-
times too long, the style unadorned, the descriptions now and
then trivial. But in general there is a classical dignity about
the sentiments, which are natural, though not novel ; and
the latter part, which we should call the fifth act, is truly
nohle, simple, and pathetic. Trissino was thoroughly con-
versant with the Greek drama, and had imbibed its spirit :
seldom has Euripides written with more tenderness, or chosen
a subject more fitted to his genius ; for that of Sophonisba,
in which many have followed Trisaino with inferior success,
is wholly for the Greek school ; it admits, with no great
difficulty, of the chorus, and consequently of the unities of
time and place. It must, however, always chiefly depend on
Sophonisba herself; for it is not easy to make Afosinissa
respectable, nor has Trissino succeeded in attempting it. Tlie
long continuance of alternate speeches in single lines, frequent
in this tragedy, will not displease those to whom old associ-
ations are recalled by it.

S3, The Rosmunda falls, in my opinion, below the So-
RoimuDd* of phonisba, though it is the work of a better po^;
Hucdi.1. ^jjj pgri^g in language and description it is supe-
rior. What is told in narration, according to the ancient
inartificial form of tragedy, is finely told ; but the emotions
are less represented than in the Sophonisba ; the principal
character is less interesting, and the story is unpleasing.
Rucellai led the way to those accumulations of horrible and
disgusting circumstances which deformed the European stage
for a century afterwards. The Rosmunda is divided into five
acts, but preserves the chorus. It cont^ns imitations of the
Greek tragedies, especially the Antigone, as the Sophonisba
does of the Ajax and the Medea. Some lines in the latter,
extolled by modern critics, are simply translated from the
ancient tragedians.

24<. Two comedies by Ariosto seem to have been acted

knovledge of hi> rabjeeL Tbu Inged; EUndiog the t«atiinon; of RucelUi him-

M menlioned bf Qumdrio, ]i. £8., with self above quoted, it ii shown b; Walker

the title 11 FilwcrXo e PsnRI*, doi ( Appmdii, No. 3.}, thatblank vene hid

■manti. be«i oecaBiooallf employed before Trii-

It RW]r be obserred, that, notvitb- lino.

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Chap. IV.] FROM 1600 TO 1520. Q6j

about 151^, and were written as early as 149^, when he
was but twenty-one years old, which entitles him comrdteiDr
to the praise of having first conoeived and carried *'""'°-
into effect the idea of regular comedies, iu imitation of the
ancient, though Bibbiena had the advantage of 6rst occupy-
ing the stage with his Calandra. The Cassaria and Sup-
positi of Ariosto are, Hke the Oalandra, free imitations of the
manner of Plautus, in a spirited and natural dialogue, and
with that graceful flow of language which appears spontaneous
in all his writings."

^. The north of Italy still endured the warfare of stranger
umies ; Ravenna, Novara, Marignan, attest the
well-fought contention, Aldus, however, returning prim«iin
to Venice in 1512, published many editions before
his death in 1516. Pindar, Plato, and Lysias first appeared
ia 1513, AtheD«eu8 in 1514, Xenophon, Strabo, and Pausa-
nias in 1516, Plutarch's Lives in 1517> The Aldine press
then continued under his father-in-law, Andrew Asola, but
with rather diminished credit. It appears that the works
printed during this period, from 1511 to 15^0, were, at
Rwne ll6, at Milan 91> at Florence 133, and at Venice 5 1 1 .
This is, perhaps, less than from the general renown of I«o's
age we should have expected. We may select, among the
original puhlications, the Lectiones Antiquae of c.iiu.
Cielius Rhodiginus (1516), and a little treatise on ^'^'^'s'"'"-
Italian grammar by Fortunio, which has no claim to notice
but as the earliest book on the subject, t The former, though
not the first, appears to have been by far the best and most
extensive collection hitherto made from the stores of antiquity.
It is now hardly remembered ; but obtained almost universal
praise, even from severe critics, for the deep erudition of its
author, who, in a somewhat rude style, pours forth explana-
tions of obscure, and emendations of corrupted passages, with
profuse display of knowledge in the customs and even philo-
sophy of the ancients, but more especially in medicine and

* Git^u£n& vi. IKS. 218., hu given dease atampeto, a dame in^egnuneiitl

■ (all uulf aif of thew celebrated come- d' Italians non gil elcMjuenia. ma lingua.

diet. They are placed nexl to Ihoie of Pontanini dell' eloquenn Italiana, p. S.

llaehiaTel by moat Italian critica. Fifteen editiona vera printed within aii

t Hcgoie gTaiQmalieali della volgar years; a deciaire proof of the iroporianca

lingua. ( AneoDa, 1516.) Qunto libro attached to tbe aubject.
Aur di dubbio £ atato il prinio ehe li vt-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

268 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PabtL

botany. Yet he seems to have inserted much without dis>
crimination of its value, and often without authority. A more
perfect edition was published in 1550, extending to thirty
books instead of sixteen.'

26. It may be seen that Italy, with all the lustre of Leo's
Grt^ print- reputatioo, was not distinguished by any very re-
^'"Gn™ markable advance in learning during his pondficale ;
""'■ and I believe it is generally admitted that the elegant
biography of Roscoe, in making the public more familiar
widi the subject, did not raise the previous estimation of its
hero and of his times. Meanwhile the Cisalpine regions
were gwning ground upon their brilliant neighbour. FrtMU
the Parisian press issued in these ten years eight hundred
books ; among which were a Greek Lexicon by Aleander,
in 1512, and four more little grammatical works, with a
short romance in Greek, t This is trifling indeed ; but in
the cities on the Rhine something more was done in that
language. A Greek grammar, probably quite elementary,
was published at Wittenberg in lill ; one at Strasburg in
1512, — thrice reprinted in the next three years. These
were succeeded by a translation of Theodore Gaza's grammar
by Erasmus, in 15l6, by the Progymnasmata Gnecse Lite-
raturse of Luscinius, in 1517, and by the Introductions in
Linguam Grcecam of Groke, in 1520. Isocrates and Lucian
appeared at Strasburg in 1515 ; the first book of the Iliad
next year, besides four smaller tracts^ ; several more followed
before the end of the decad. At Basle the excellent printer
Frobenius, ati intimate friend of Erasmus, had established
himself as early as 14<91.§ Besides the great edition of the
New Testament by Erasmus, which issued from his press,
we find, before the close of 1520, the Works and Days of
Hesiod, the Greek Lexicon of Aldus, the Rhetoric and Poetics

■ Blount. Biogr. Univ., art Rho- a.i>. 1538 ipud Cuionem impreno, ad-

diginiis. jecUs. I do not Aail thii Leiicon mcD-

\ [It U Mid in Liroii, Singulsritfia His- tioned bj Brunei or Walti— 1842.1

toriquea. i. 490., thnt one Chersdamus ] These were published bf Luicmiut

taught Greek it Pmria Bbout I51T, and (Nichtigoll), a natire of Sttuhurg, and

publisheda Greek Lexicon there in 1.5 J9: one of the chief membeii of the lilenrf

Leiicum Grccum, cvtnis omnibui aut academy, established by Wimpheling in

in Italia aut Gallia Germaniave, antehac that oitf. Biogr. Univ.

eicuaii multo locupletiua, utpote lupra § Biogr. Univ.
let mille additionei Ba^Lliensi Leiieo,

lyGOOgIC

Chap. IV.] FEOM 1600 TO 1520. 269

of Aristotle, the first two books of the Odyssey, and several
graromatical treatises. At Cologne two or three small Greek
pieces were printed in 1517- And Louvmn, besides the
Flutus of Aristophanes in l.'ilS, and three or four others
about the same time, sent forth in the year \5^ six Greek
editions, among which were Lucian, Theocritus, and two
tragedies of Euripides." We may hence perceive, that the
Greek language now first became known and taught in Ger-
many and in the Low Countries.

^. It is evident that these works were chiefly designed for
students in the universities. But it is to be observed, cmk
that Greek literature was now much more cultivated (h«e'anu^
than before. In France there were, indeed, not ""'
many names that could be brought forward ; but Lefevre of
Etaples, commonly called Faber Stapulensis, was equal to
writing criticisms on the Greek Testament of Erasmus. He
bears a high character among contemporary critics for his
other writings, which are chiefly on theological and philoso-
phical subjects ; but it appears by his age that he must have
oome late to the study of Greek, t That difficult language
was more easily mastered by younger men. Germany had
already produced some deserving of remembrance. A cor-
respondent of Elrasmus, in 1515, writes to recommend
(Ecolampadius as "not unlearned in Greek literature.''^
Melanchthon was, even in his early youth, deemed compe-
tent to criticise Erasmus himself. At the age of sixteen,
he lectured on the Greek and Latin authors of antiquity.
He was the first who printed Terence as verse. § The library
of this great scholar was in 1835 sold in London, and was
proved to be his own by innumerable marginal notes of illus-

* The whole number of bookt, accord- f Joitin's Emmui, i. 93. Bijlci

ing to Panwr.priuted from 1511 tol5aO Fein d' Etaples, Blount, Biosr. Unir.,

M Stiaiburg, was 373; at B*<ile, S39; at Febure d'Etaplen.

Cologne, ISO; atLeipHClGS; itLou- ( Eraamui himseir layi aftervards,

rain, 57, It mt,j be wortb while to re- (Ecolampadius nat'u noiit Crtec^, Latini

mind the reader once more that these sennonia rudior; quauquam ille magia

liatt must be rery del^iie as to the peccat indiligentia quern impetitio.

(lighter clasa oT publications, which hsTe § Coi'a Life of Melanchthon, p. 19.

often periabed to ereiy copj. Pauicr Melanchthon wrote Greek verae indiSer-

ii reckoned more imperfect alter 1500 entlj and incorrectlj, but Latin with

than before. Biogr. [Inivemelle. In ipirit and elegance: apecimenB of Loth

England, we find thirty-sin by Pynaon, are gi.en in Dr, Coi'a valuable bio-

andaixty-iix by Wynkyn deWorde with- graphy.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

270 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PaktI.

tration and correction. Beatus Rhenanus stands perhaps
next to him as a scholar ; and we may add the names of
Luscinius, of Bilibald Pirckheimer, a learned senator of
Nuremberg, who made several translations, and of Petrus
Mosellanus, who became about 1518 lecturer in Greek at
I^ipsic* He succeeded our distinguished countryman,
Richard Croke, a pupil of Grocyn, who had been invited to
Leipsic in 1514, with the petty salary of fifteen guilders, hut
with the privilege of receiving other remuneration from his
scholars, and had the signal honour of first imbuing the
students of northern Germany with a knowledge of that
language.t One or two trifling works on Greek grammar
were published by Croke during this decennium. (^ratinus,
who took his name, in the fanciful style of the times, from
his birthplace, Horn in Holland, was now professor of Greek
at Louvain ; and in 15Q5, on the recommendation of Eras-
mus, became the successor of Mosellanus at Leipsict Wil-
liam Cop, a native of Basle, and physician to Francis 1.,
published in this period some translations from Hippocrates
and Galen.

28. Cardinal Ximenes about the beginning of the century

founded a college at Alcala, his favourite university,

A^r^rJIid for the three learned languages. This example was

followed by Jerome Busleiden, who by his last testa-

* The lives and chareelen of Rbep»- demanded, of allendinf; him M anf liour

nui. Pirckheimer, and ftloaellanus, nill of the day or right. MelaDcbthon apud

be fbunil in Blount, Nictron, aod the Meinerx. i. 163. A prett; good life of

Biographie Uniiemelle; alw in Gerdea'a Croke ia in Chalmers's Biognipltical Dic-

HistorU Eringel. Rcnov., Melclilor tianary. Bajle doea not mention liim.

Adam, and other ien common books. Croke was educated ■! King's College,

I Ctoeui regnat in Academia Lipai- Camhridge, to which he went from Eton

enti, publieitua GrKcei docena lilleras. in IJOS, and is said to have learned

Erasm. Episl. civil 5th June, 1£14. Greek at Oiford from Grocvn, while

Eichhorn ■■]», that Conrad Celtea and still a scholar of King's.
others had taught Latin im\j, iii. HIS. { Erasmus gives a very high chancier

Cameniriua, who studied for three years of Ceratinus. Ciiecie lingus periiia su-

under Crok& givei him a very high olia- perat vel tres Mosellanos, nee interior, ut

racter; qui primus putabaturita docuisse arbitror, Romans llngncfiicundia. Epiit.

Gneeain linguam in Germanis, ut plane DcciLivii. Ceiatinus Gnennics liters-

omncm doctriiue erudilionem atque cuU slterum hsbeal Italia qujcum dubltem

turn hujus eognitio allatura ease vidcre- hunc committere. Magna doctrins erat

tor, nostri bomines sese intelligere arbi- Moeellsnus, spei iDijoiiN. et amabam

tnrentur. ViU Mclanehthonis. p. 57. ; unicS hominis ingenium, nee falso dicunt

And VilB Eobani Hessi, p. 4. He was odiosas esse com para tiones-, sed hoc ipsa

received at Leipsic " like a heavenly causa me coinpellit dicere, longe alia res

messenger;" every one was proud of est. EpisL nccxiiviii,
knowing him, of paying whatever he

lyGOOgIC

Cmir.IV.] FROM 1500 TO 1620. 271

ment, in 1516 or 1517i established a similar foundation at
Louvain.* From this source proceeded many men of con-

gicuous erudition and ability ; and Louvain, through its
tlle^um trilingue, became in a still higher degree than
Deventer had been in the fifteenth century, not only the chief
seat of Belgian leamiog, but the means of diffusing it over
parts of Germany. Its institution was resisted by the monks
and theologians, unyielding though beaten adversaries of
literature.!

29. It cannot be said, that many yet on this side of the

a a wrote Latin well. Budteus is harsh and un- Liiimi,].
shed ; Erasmus fluent, spirited, and never at a '" ^'^"'■
to express his meaning ; nor is his style much defaced
by barbarous words, though by no means exempt from them ;
yet it seldom reaches a point of classical elegance. Francis
Sylvius (probably Dubois), brother of a celebrated physician,
endeavoured to inspire a taste for purity of style in the uni-
versi^ of Paris. He had, however, acquired it himself late,
for some of his writings are barbarous. The favourable in-
flnence of Sylvius was hardly earlier than 1520. t The
writer most solicitous about his diction was Longolius (Chris-
topher de Longueil, a native of Malines, the only - true
Ciceronian out of Italy ; in which country, however, he passed
BO much time, that he is hardly to be accounted a mere Cisal-
pine. Like others of the Ciceronian denomination, he was
more ambitious of saying common things well, than of pro-
dudng what was intrinsically worthy of being remembered.

30. We have the imposing testimony of Erasmus himself,
that neither France nor Germany stood so high

about this period as England. That country, he ichSanto
says, so distant from Italy, stands next to it in the
esteem of the learned. This, however, is written in 1524i.
About the end of the present decennial period we can pro-
duce a not very small number of persons possessing a com-
petent acquuntance with the Greek tongue, more, perhaps,
than could be traced in France, though all together might
not weigh as heavy as Budieus alone. Such were Grocyn,
die patriarch of English learning, who died in 1519 ; Lin-

t Von der Hardt, Hitt. Lilt. Refortnat.

lyGOOgIC

S72 LITERATURE OF EUROPE IViWtt

acre, whose translation of Galen, first printed in 1531, is
one of the few in that age that escape censure for inelegance
or incorrectness ; Latimer, beloved and admired by his friends,
but of whom we have no memorial in auy writings of his
own ; More, known as a Greek scholar by epigrams of some
merit* ; Lilly, master of St. Paul's school, who had acquired
Greek at Rhodes, but whose reputation is better preserved
by the gruumars that bear his name ; Lupsett, who is said
to have learned from Lilly, and who taught some time at
Oxford ; Richard Croke, already named *, Gerard Lister, a
physician, to whom Erasmus gives credit for skill in the
three languages ; Pace and Tunstall, both men well known
in the history of those times ; Lee and Stokesley, afterwarda
bishops, the former of whom published Annotations on the
Greek Testament of Erasmus at Basle in 1520t, and pro-
bably Gardiner ; Clement, one of Wolsey's first lecturers at
Oxford t; Brian, Wakefield, Bullock, Tyndale, and a few
more, whose names appear in Pits and Wood. We could
not of course, without presumption, attempt to enumerate

* Tlie Greek venea of More and Lilljr, Untiui, nee stuUius. This th the lono

Frc^mnuniaU Muri et Lilii, were pub- or the agt toirards an]r ndvenuy, who

tlbhed nl Baile, 1518. It n in thii vo- vu not absolutcl; out of reach of sucb

lume thit the distich, about which Eome epithets. In another place, he apeaki of

curioiit; hai beea shown, ii found ; In- Lee ai nuper GraKie lingun rudimentii

veni portum, apes et fortuna TaletC!, Im. initialuL Ep. cccclidxi.

But it ■■ a tmuIatioD &oin an old Greek . ) Knight eays (spud Jorlln, i. 15.)

epigram. that Clement was tbe tint lecturer at

Quid tandem non pne«titiaset admira- Oiford in Greek after Linacre, and (hat

bilii iata nature felicilas, u hoc ingenium he wa.i lueceeded by Lupielt. And tfaiii

inalituiiaet Italia? si tolum MuMtum teemt, aa to the fact that the; did eue-

neria vacasset? ai ad juitam frugem ac ceuivelj teach, to be confirnied bj More.

velutaulumnumiuuinmiturulrael? Epi- Jortin, ii. S9G. Buttlie Biographia Bri*

grammnta hialt adoleseeni admodum, oc laiinieo, art Wolsey, uaerls that they

pleraque puerj Britanniam luam nun- were appointed to thecbair of rhetoric or

quam egrentu eat, oiii aemel atque ite- humanity; and that Calpumius, a native

rum prlncipi« aul nomine legatione fuoc- of Greece, was the flnt professor of tlie

tus apud Flandros. Frcter rem uioriami language. Nu authority i< quoted bj the

prieter curaa doraeMicas, prater publici editors: but I harefound it confirmed Inp

muneris functionem et cauiarum undaa, Cuus in a little Ireatite De Proounli-

tot tantisque regni negotiis dislrabitur, atrone Grw» et Latins LinguK. Noiit,

ut mireri) esse oCium Tel cogilandi de he lafs, Oxoniensia aehola, queuudnio-

librls. Epist. ctxii. Aag, ISn. In dum ipsa Griecia pronuntiavit, ei Mat-

tbe Ciceronianua he apesks of Mare tbieo Calpumio Greco, quern ex Gth!^

with more diacriminating praise, and Oxoniam GriecarumiiierHrumgratiaper-

the passage ia illustrslite of that Just duierat ThomaaWolseua, de bonis literii

quoted. opiiine meritus cardinalis, cum non alls

f Erasmus does not spare Lee. Epiat ratlone pronunliant illl, quam qua, not

ccilviii. Quo uno nihilunquam adhuo Jam profit em ur. Caiuade pronunt. Graie.

tcna praduiil, nee arrogantius, nee liru- et Lat. Lingus, edit. JcLb, p. 228.

lyCOOglC

Chap. rV.] FROM 1600 TO 1520. "^S

every person who at this time was not wholly unacquainted
with the Greek language. Yet it would be an error, on the
other hand, to inake a large allowance for otiiissions ; mudi
less to conclude that every man who might enjoy some
reputation in a learned profession could in a later generation
have passed for a scholar. Colet, for example, and Fisher,
men as distinguished as almost any of that age, were unac-
quainted with the Greek tongue, and both made some efforts to
attain it at an advanced age.* It was not till the year 1517
that the tirst Greek lecture was established at Oxford by
Fox, bishop of Hereford, in his new foundation of Corpus
Christ! College, Wolsey, in 1519j endowed a regular pro-
fessorship in the university. It was about the same year
that Fisher, chancellor of the university of Cambridge, sent
down Richard Croke, lately returned from Leipsic, to tread
in the footsteps of Erasmus as teacher of Greek.t But this
was in advance of our neighbours *, for no public instruction
in that language was yet given in France.

31. By the statutes of St. Paul's school, dated in 1518,
the master is to he *'lemed in good and clene Latin
literature, and also in Greke, iff such may be gotten." wKhing la
Of the boys he says, " I wolde they were taught
always in good literature both Latin and Greke." But it does
not follow from hence that Greek was actually taught ; and
considering the want of lexicons and grammars, none of
which, as we shall see, were published in England for many
years afterwards, we shall he apt to think that little instruc-
tion could have been given.t This, however, is not conclu-

o a Uticr oF Bullock (in Idtin Borilliis)
o Erasmus in 1516 fcaat thence. Hio
CUJU5 peritia nihil sumus. aBriter incumbunt literia Grffci!, optant-
From ■ later epUt!« of EraiinuA, vberi; que non midiocrltcr tuum BdvrDluin, el
he lajTB. Coletui Btrenue Grieoalur, it hi magnopcre fcient tu» huic in Novum
M«tni likely that he actually mfldc hiirc TesUTneiiluin edliioni. It is probable
pTogreas ; biit at hii age it would not be that CYinmar was a pupil of Crake \ for
yeij coiiiiderable. Latimer dissuaded in the depoaition of tbe latter before
Vaher from tbe attempt, unless he could Mary's commissioners in 1555, he saja
procure a master from Italy, which Eras- that he had known the archbishop thirty-
iDua thought needless. Epist. cccliiii. sis years, which brings us to hia own first
Id an edition of bis Adsgea, be says, lectures at Cambridge. Todd'i Life of
Joannea Fischerus (res lingusa state jnm Cranmer, ii. 449. But Cranmer inay
TC^ciite non vulgarj studio amplectitur, hare knuwn something of the language
ChU. iv. Cent. t. I. before, anil ia, not impruhably, one of

t Greek had not been neglected at Ihoae to whom Bullock alludes.
Cambridgeduring th«interTBl,BecoTding ( I" ■ letter of Erasmus on the deatti
VOL. 1. T

t: Go Ogle

274 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtI.

sive, and would lead us to bring down the date of philological
learning in our public seminaries much too low. The process
of learning without books was tedious and difficult, but not
impracticable for the diligent. The teacher provided himself
with a lexicon which was in common use among his pupils,
and with one of the grammars published on the Continent,
from which he gave oral lectures, and portions of which were
transcribed by each student. The books read in the lecture-
room were probably copied out in the same manner, the ab-
breviations giving some facility to a cursive hand ; and thus
the deficiency of impressions was in some degree supplied,
just as before the invention of printing. The labour of
acquiring knowledge strengthened, as it always does, the
memory ; it excited an industry which surmounted every
obstacle, and yielded to no fatigue ; and we may thus account
for that copiousness of verbal learning which sometimes
astonishes us in the scholars of the sixteenth century, and iu
which they seem to surpass the more exact philologers of
later ages.

32. It is to be observed, that we rather extol a small
number of men who have struggled against difficul-
•>"' -J""" ties, than put in a claim for any diffusion of litera-
ture in England, which would be very fiir from the
truth. No classical works were yet printed, except four
editions of Virgil's Bucolics, a small treatise of Seneca, the
first book of Cicero's Epistles (the latter at Oxford in 1519),
all merely of course for learners. We do not reckon Latin
grammars. And as yet no Greek types had been employed.

of Colel in 1592, Epirt. axnxjy. (and ril works, partly grammBti™!, of wbicb

in JoTlin's App . ii. Slj.) thouf;h he PiU gira the title>,>nd died, jibmj rfic-

dracribea tlie eourM of eduMlion nt mm, in 1535.

Si. Paul's Bcliool rather difTuHily, and in I f we couM depend on the accuracy of

a strain of high iianefcyric, there ■■ not a all Ihiis we mual suppose that Grvek was

Byllableofsllusioiitothgstudyof Greek, taughl at Eton so early, that one whit

Pits howeier. in an account of one Wil- acquitcd the rudimeots i^it in that school

liain Horman, lelU us that he was ad might die at an adrsnced age in 1535.

collegium Etonense studiorum causa mis- But this Is not to be receifed on Pits'!

sus ulii Slide hauslia litterii huinaniori- authority. And I find, in Ilarwood'a

bus, prrec/rfiijiis GraeaUngtia nvtimtntii. Alumni Klonenses, that Hornun becaniB

diguui habims c^t qui Catiiabrigiam ad head master as early as I4S5; no one will

altlorcs diM-iplinns ck'stiiiari'tur. Hiinnan readily beliere, that he could hare learned

bu-caine Grsio; liiiguic peiitiwimus, and Greek while at school; and the &ct is,

retunied, a< head iimster, to Eloni quo that he was not educated at Eton, but it

tempore in littens bumanioribus scholarei Winchester,
illic insigniter arudirit He wrote sere-

lyGOOglC

CKAF.ir.] FROM 1500 TO IdSO. ^5

In the spirit of truth, we cannot quite take to ourselves the
complimeDt of Erasmus ; there must evidently have been a
fax greater diffusion of sound learning in Germany, where
professors of Greek had for some time been established in
all the universities, and where a long list of men ardent in
the cultivation of letters could be adduced.* Erasmus had a
panegyrical humour towards his friends, of whom there were
many in Eugland.

33. Scotland had, as might naturally be expected, par-
taken stiil less of Italian light than the south of
BritfUD. But the reigning king, contemporary with luminf in
Heoiy VII., gave proofs of greater good-will towards
letters. A statute of James IV., in 1496, enacts that
gentlemen's sons should be sent to school in order to learn
Latin. Such provisions were too indefinite for execution,
even if the royal authority had been greater thwi it was ; but
they serve to display the temper of the sovereign. His
natural son, Alexander, on whom, at a very early age, he
conferred the archbishopric of St. Andrew's, was the pupil of
Elrasmus in the Greek language. The latter speaks very
highly of this promising scion of the house of Stuart in one
of his ad^es.f But, at the age of twenty, he perished with
his royal father on the disastrous day of Flodden Field.
Learning had made no sensible progress in Scotland j and
the untoward circumstances of die next twenty years were
far from giving it encouragement. The translation of the
^neid by Gawin Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, though we
are not at present on the subject of poetry, may be here '
mentioned in connexion with Scottish literature. It was
completed about 1313, though the earliest edition is not
till 1553. "This translation," says Warton, "is executed
with equal spirit and fidelity ; and is a proof that the
Lowland Scotch and English languages were now nearly
the same. I mean the style of composition, more espe-
cially in the glaring affectation of anglicising Latin words.
The several hooka are introduced with metrical prologues,
which are often highly poetical, and show that Douglas's

* Such a list n gifCTi bjr Metueri. i. manf : be enumeratnHitj-Kven, which
151., of tkanipportersof Reucfalin; irho might doubtlcu b« snlarged.
eoMpriMd all the ml Kh^nof Ger- f Cl>'^ "- "^^ *- !■

T a

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Sr76 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PamI.

proper walk was original poetry." Warton did well to ex-
plain his rather startling' expression, that the Lowland Scotch
and English languages were then nearly the same ; for I
will venture to say, that no Englishman, without guessing*
at every other word, could understand the long passage
which he proceeds to quote from Gawin Douglas. It is true
that the differences consisted mainly in pronunciation, and con-
sequently in orthography ; but this is the great cause of diver-
sity in dialect The character of Douglas's original poetry
seems to be that of the middle ages iu general, — prolix,
though sometimes animated, description of sensible objects.*
34'. We must not leave England without mention of the
utopitor oi'y work of genius that she can boast in this age,
"""■ the Utopia t of Sir Thomas More. Perhaps we

scarcely appreciate highly enough the spirit and originality of
this fiction, which ought to be considered with regard to the
barbarism of the times, and the meagreness of preceding in-
ventions. The republic of Plato no doubt furnished More with
the germ of his perfect society^ ; but it would be unreasonable
to deny him the merit of having struck out the fiction of its
real existence from his own fertile imagination ; and it is mani-
fest, that some of his most distinguished successors in the same
walk of romance, especially Swift, were largely indebted to
his reasoning as well as inventive talents. Those who read
the Utopia in Burnet's translation may believe that they are
in Brobdignag ; so similar is the vein of satirical humour
and easy language. If false and impracticable theories are
found in the Utopia (and perhaps he knew them to be such),
this is in a much greater degree true of the Platonic re-
public ; and they are more than compensated by the sense of
justice and humanity that pervades it, and his bold censures
on the vices of power. These are remarkable in a courtier
of Henry VIII. ; but, in the first years of Nero, the voice of
Seneca was heard without resentment. Nor had Henry
much to take to himself in the reprehension of parsimonious
accumulation of wealth, which was meant for his father's
course of government.

• Warton, iii. III. J [Perhipg this h ■! leait doubtfiil ;

f Utapii is named rrom a king Utopu). neither the Itepublic, nor the L»wt,et

I mention th'ia, becouie some have ihovn Plato bnr any reaembUiKe to tbo

their leaiaing by changing the word to Utopia. — 1S4T.]
Eutopia.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cmap.IV.] from 1500 TO 1520. 277

35. It is possible that some passacfes in the Utt^ia, which
are neither philosophical nor compatible with just im^,^.
principles of morals, were thrown out as mere pa- '^"^h^,
radoxes of a playful mind ; nor is it easy to recon- "p'"'""'-
cile his laupiage as to the free toleration of religious worship
with those acts of persecution which have raised the only
dark cloud on the memory of this great man. He posi-
tively indeed declares for punishing those who insult the
religion of others, which might be au excuse for his severity
towards the early reformers. But his latitude as to the
acceptability of all religions with God, as to their identity in
essential principles, and as to the union of all sects in a com-
mon worship, could no more be made compatible with his
later writings or conduct, than his sharp satire against the
court of Rome for breach of faith, or agmnst the monks and
fi-iars for laziness and beggary. Such changes, however, are
very common, as we may have abundantly observed, in all
seasons of revolutionary commotions. Men provoke these,
sometimes in the gaiety of their hearts with little design,
sometimes with more deliberate intention, but without calcu-
lation of the entire consequences, or of their own courage to
encounter them. And when such men, like More, are of
very quick parts, they are often found to be not over retentive
of their opinions, and have little difficulty in abandoning any
^)eculative notion^ especially when, like those in the Utopia,
it can never have had the least influence upon their behaviour.
We may acknowledge, after all, that die Utopia gives us
the impression of its having proceeded rather from a very
ingenious than a profound mind ; and this, apparently, is
what we ought to think of Sir Thomas More. The Utopia
is said to have been first printed at Louvain in 1516*; it
certainly appeared at the close of the preceding year ; but

• or an undated edition, to vhich pend. Ep. ilir. Iiiii. cell, et alibi.

Ponier gifea the nune or editia princepa, I'anier mentions one at Louvain in De-

tbere ia ■ cop; in tbe Britiob Muaeum, cember, 1516. Tbis Tolume by Dr Dib-

and another was in Mr. Heber'a library, din ia a reprli^t of llobinwn'i varly and

Dibdin'a Utopia, 1808, prefiice, eii. It almoat contemporary tranalatlon. That

appeara from ■ letter of Montjoy to by Burnet, 16SS, i« more linown, and I

Eraamtu, dated 4ib Jan. 1516, that he tbink it good. Burnet, and I believe

had reeeiTed the Utr-pia, which muit some of the Latin editioni, omit a speci-

tberefore hSTe been pnnted in 1515; aod men of the Utopian language, and lome

it was reprinted once at least in 1 516 or Utopian poelryi which prolably was

I3IT. Erasm. EpitL cciii. ec*. Ap- thought too puerile.

T S _,

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

278 LITERATUnE OF EUROPE [PiBtl.

the edition of Basle in 1518, under the care of Erasmus, is
the earliest that bears a date. It was greatly admired on
the Continent ; indeed there had been little or nothing
of equal spirit and originality in Latin since the revival of
letters.

36. The French themselves give Francis I. the credit of

having been the father of learning in that country.
FMtnwJtD Galland, in a funeral panegyric on that prince,

asks if at his accession (in 1313) any one man in
France could read Greek or write Latin. Now this is an
absurd question, when we recollect the names of Budnus,
Longollus, and Faber Stapulensis ; yet it shows that there
could have been very slender pretensions to classical learning
in the kingdom. Erasmus, in his Ciceronianus, enumerates
among French scholars, not only Budseus, Faber, and the
eminent printer Jodocus Badius (a Fleming by birth), whom,
in point of style, he seems to put above Budseus, but John
Pin, Nicolas Berald, Francis Deloin, Lazarus Baif, and
Huel. This was however in 152Q, and the list assuredly is
not long. But as his ol^ect was to show that few men of
letters were worthy of being reckoned fine writers, he does
not mention Longueil, who was one ; or whom, perhaps, he
might omit, as being then dead.

37' Budffius and Erasmus were now at the head of the .

literary world ; and as the friends of each behaved
Krmiui>Dd rather too much like partisans, a hind of rivalry in

pubhc reputation began, which soon extended to
themselves, and lessened their friendship. Erasmus seems
to have been, in a certain degree, the aggressor ; at least
some of his letters to Budwus indicate an irritability, which the
other, as far as appears, had not provoked. Budieus had
published in 1514 an excellent treatise De Asse, the first
which explained the denominations and values of Roman
money in all periods of history.* Erasmus sometimes alludes
to this with covert jealousy. It was set up by a party against
his Adages, which he justly considered more full of original
thoughts and extensive learning. But Buda^us understood
Greek better ; he had learned it with prodigious labour, and

lyGOOgIC

Chat. IV.] FROM 1600 TO 1520. 279

probably about the same time M'ith Erasmus, so that the
comparison between them was not unnatural. The name of
one is at present only retained by scholars, and that of the
other by all mankind ; so different is contemporary and post-
humous reputation. It is just to add that, although Erasmus
bad written to Budseus in far too sarcastic a tone*, under the
smart of that literary sensitiveness which was very strong in
his temper, yet when the other began to take serious offence,
and to threaten a discontinuance of their correspondence, he
made amends by an affectionate letter, which ought to have
restored their good understanding. Budieus, however, who
seems to have kept his resentments longer than his quick-
minded rival, continued to write peevish letters ; and fresh
circumstances arose afterwards to keep up his jealousy.t

38. Erasmus diffuses a lustre over his age, which no other
name among the learned supplies. ' The qualities cimcwtor
which gave him this superiority were his quickness ^'"'""'■
of apprehension, united with much industry, his liveliness of
fancy, his wit and good sense. He is not a very profound
thinker, but an acute observer ; and the f^e for original
thinking was hardly come. What there was of it in More
produced little fruit In extent of learning, no one perhaps
was altogether his equal. Budteus, with more accurate

* Epiit. ec I qaote the numeration Hia ralbel unpleosing correspondence

ofthc Ley den edition. between two grrat men, professing frieiid-

t Eraimi Epislo1a,pa!isin:i. Thepub- ship, yet corertlyJeRlousof each other, ii

lication of hn CiceroniaiiiB, in 15Sa, re- not ill dcKribed b; Von dcr Hardt, in

sewed the irriialion ; in this he gave a Ihe Hiitoiia Litteraria Rerurmalionis.

■ort of pTeference (o Baiiius over Bu- Hirum diclu, qui undique aculei, sub

dnUiin reipect to style alone j obwrving mellitisiumt orations, inter hlundimenta

tbit the latter had great eicellences at continua. Genini utriusque argutlssi-

another kind. The French scholars made mus. qui vellendo et acerhe punnendo

tbii a Dational quarrel, pretending that nuUibi videretur referre languinem aut

Erasmus was prqudiced against their vulnus iiiferre. Possint pmfeclo hte li-

eountry. Hederendsbimself in hisepU- tern Budaum inter et Ernsmum illiistre

tie* ao prolixl; and elaborately, ai to esse et incomparahile eiemplar dtUca-

conErm the suspicion, not of tli is absurdly tUEims sed CI perijuam HculestA conccr-

imputed ditlike to the French, but of Utiunis, qus videretur suatissimoaluolvi

(ooiB little desire to pique Budteus. risu et velul fnTniliarissiino palpo. De

Epigrams in Greek were vritien at Paris alterulcius integritate neuter visus dubi-

■gainst him by Lascarii and Touaiain ; Care ; uterque tamen semper auceps. lot

and (has Erasmus, by an unlucky in- annis commen-io frequenlissimo. Uissi-

ability to restrain bla pen from sly sar- mulandi ariificium ineiplicibile, quod

emu, multiplied the enemies, whom an atlenli lectDrisadmiratianem Teh>t,eum-

opposile pait of bis character,itSBpir!t of que ptts disseriationum dulcedine suba-

tcmporisiDg and timidity, waa always maia in stuporem vertat p. 46.
raiiiog up. Erasm. Epiat, mviL et alibi.

t: Go Ogle

280 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PakL

scholarship, knew little of theology, fflid might be less ready
perhaps in general literature than Erasmus. Longolius,
Sadolet, and several others, wrote Latin far more elegantly ;
but they were of comparatively superficial erudition, and had
neither his keen wit nor his vigour of intellect. As to
theological learning, the great Lutheran divines must have
been at least his equals in respect of scriptural knowledge,
and some of them possessed an acquaintance with Hebrew,
of which Erasmus knew nothing ; but he had probably the
advantag'e in the study of the fathers. It is to be observed,
that by far the greater part of his writings are theolo^cal.
The rest either belong to philology and ancient learning, as
the Adages, the Ciceroniaiius, and the various grammatical
treatises, or may be reckoned effusions of his wit, ^ the
Colloquies and the Encomium Moriw.

39. Erasmus, about 1517, published a very enlarged

edition of his Adas'es, which had already (rrown
».«««! with the growth ot his own erudition. It is impos-
sible to distinguish the progressive accessions they
received without a comparison of editions ; and some pro-
bably belong to a later period than the present. The Adages,
as we read them, display a surprising extent of intimacy
with Greek and Roman literature.* Far the greater portion
is illustrative ; but Erasmus not unfrequentty sprinkles his
explanations of ancient phrase with moral or literary remarks
of some poignancy. The most remarkable, in every sense,
are tho»e which reflect with excessive bitterness and freedom
on kings and priests. Jortin has slighdy alluded to some of
these ; but they may deserve more particular notice, as dis-
playing the character of the man, and perhaps the secret
opinions of his age.

40. Upon the adage, Frons occipitio prior, meaning, that

every one should do his own business, Erasmus takes
In iiiuicH- the opportunity to observe, that no one requires more

attention to this than a prince, if he will art as a real
prince, and not as a robber. But at present our kings and

■ In one passage, under (lie proverb corruption of the teit in oil Lalin uid

Herculei laborer, lie expatiates on the Creek miinuECTiprs, so that it scarce erer

immenH labour with wliich Ihis work, his happened that a passage could be quoted

Adages, had been compiled; meutinning, Iron! them, without a certainty or smpi-

•mong other diSicuUics, the prodigious cion of some erroneous reading.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cmp.IV.] from 1500 TO 1520. 281

iHshops are only the bands, eyes, and ears of others, careless
of the state, and of every thing but their own pleasure.* This,
however, is a trifle. In another proverb, he bursts out :
"Let any one turn over the pages of ancient or modern
history, scarcely in several generations will you find one or
two princes, whose folly has not inflicted the greatest misery
on mankind." And after much more of the same kind :
" I know not whether much of this is mt to be imputed to
ourselves. We trust the rudder of a vessel, where a few
sailors and some goods alone are in jeopardy, to none hut
skilful pilots ; but the state, wherein the safety of so many
thousands is concerned, we put into aqy Lands. A charioteer
most learu, reflect upon, and practise his art ; a prince need
only be bom. Yet government, as it is the most honourable,
so is it the most difficult of all sciences. And shall we
choose the master of a ship, and not choose htm, who is to
have the care of many cities, and so many souls P But the
usage is too long established for us to subvert. Do we not
see that noble cities are erected by the people ; that they are
destroyed by princes? that the community grows rich by the
industry of its citizens, is plundered by the rapacity of its
princes ? that good laws are enacted by popular magistrates,
are violated by these princes ? that the people love peace ;
that princes excite war?"t

41. "It is the' aim of the guardians of a prince," he
exdaims in another passage, " that he may never become a
man. The nobility, who fatten on public calamity, endeavour
to plunge him into pleasures, that he may never learn what is
bis duty. Towns are burned, lands are wasted, temples are

* Cbil. L cent iL 19. e»sa puUmuB iMtum east. Atqui recU

t Quia omnc* et veteium et neoteri- gerere piincipatum.utestinunusaiTiniuni

nmim uinales evoWe, niiairum ila conv- longepulclierrimum, iUeit omnium etiim

pcrici, Tii sKculii aliquot uiiutd lut ■!- multo difBcillimum. Dcligis, cui luvetn

terUDi eitiluteptineipein, rjui noninsifpii commitlBs, non deligii cui tot urbes, tot

itbui linmanii. . . £t h«ud tcio, an non- eeptiiia est, ijuam ut conrelli possir
Rblla hujui mall pm nobii ipiii ut im- An non videnius ^regui oppida ■

putwida. ClMumnBTii noncommitlimus populo condi. ■ pHncipibui subT«tti?

•uirjuireiperiti>,quiHlqiuituoTTecli>Tum rempubiicam clrium indunria ditescere,

nit piucanim Rwrciumiit ppriculum; et principumrapiuiititeipoliu'i? bunu leg«i

nnpublicam. in qua tot bominuni milli* fciri a plebcUs magistralibui, a princi-

pcriditiafur, euiTia eomniittiiniu. Ul pibua •iolari? populum atudera paci.

lyGOOgIC

S8S LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PakiL

plundered, innocent citizens are slaughtered, while the prince
is playing at dice, or dancing, or amusing himself with
puppets, or hunting, or drinking. O race of the Bniti, long
since extinct ! O blind and blunted thunderbolts of Jupiter I
We know indeed that those corrupters of princes will render
account to Heaven, but not easily to us." He passes soon
afterwards to bitter invective against the clergy, especially
the regular orders.*

42. In explaining the adage, Sileni Alcibiadis, referring to
things which, appearing mean and trifling, are really pretnoua,
he has many good remarks on persons and thin^, of which
the secret worth is not understood at first sight. But thence
passing over to what he calls inversi Sileni, those who seem
great to the vulgar, and are really despicable, he expatiates
on kings and priests, whom he seems to hate with the fury
of a philosopher of the last century. It must be owned he is
very prolix and declamatory. He here attacks the temporal
power of the church with much plainness ; we cannot wonder
that his Adages required mutilation at Rome.

4-3. But by much the most amusing and singular of the
Adages is Scarabfeus aquilam qu^erltj the meaning of which,
in allusion to a fable that the beetie, in revenge for aa injury,
destroyed the eggs of the eagle, is explained to be, that the
most powerful may be liable to the resentment of the weakest
Erasmus here returns to the attack upon kings still more
bitterly and pointed than before. There is nothing in the
Centre un of la Boetie, nothing, we may say, in the most
seditious libel of our own time, more indignant and cutting
against regal government than this long declamation : " Let
any physiognomist, not a blunderer in his trade, consider the
look and features of an eagle, those rapacious and wicked
eyes, that threatening curve of the beak, those cruel chteks,
that stern front, will he not at once recognise the image of a
king, a magnificent and majestic king? Add to these a dark,

• Miro Mudio curont lutorei, ne un- miscentur, diim piincepi intmm otioiu*

iiuam nr lil ptineqii. Adniluntur op- ludit steam, dum ultiliil, dmn olilKlat u

timatn. ii qui publicu nuli* Eiginsntur, morionibiis dum TcnUur, dum unat,

ul Toluptatibui lit quam cffaminMuti- dum potat. O Brutorum genusjsm olim

mvt. ne quid corum scial, quE nmiime cilinctum ! o (ulmen Jorli aut cacum

decel (rire principem. Eiutuntur vici, aut oblusum t Neque dubiuin en, quin

vastBDIur agri, dIripiunluT lenipl>,tnici- isti piiiicipum coriuptores pnems Uco

dantur immeriti cives, aaera profanaque daturi aint, nd uro Dobis.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cbap.IV.] from IfiOO TO 1620. 283

ill-omeDed coloar, an onpleasing, dreadful, appalling voice,
and that threateoing' scream, at which every kind of anima!
trembles. Every one will acknowledge this type, who has
learned how terrible are the threats of princes, even uttered
in jest. At this scream of the eagle the people tremble, the
senate shrinks, the nobility cringes, the judges concur, the
divines are dumb, the lawyers assent, the laws and constitu-
tions give way; neither right nor religion, neither justice
nor humanity avail. And thus while there are so many ,
iRrds of sweet and melodious song, the unpleasant and
DDrousical scream of the eagle alone has more power than
all the rest."*

44. £rasmus now gives the rein still more to his fancy.
He imagines different animals, emblematic no doubt of man-
kiad, )D relation to his eagle. " There is do agreement
between the eagle and the fox, not without great disadvantage
to the vulpine race ; in which however they are perhaps worthy
(tf their fate, for having refused wd to the hares when they
sought an alliance against the eagle, as is related in the Annals
of Quadrupeds, from whiih Homer borrowed his Battle of
the Fr<^ and Mice."t I suppose that the foxes mean the
nt^ity, and the hares the people. Some allusions to animals
that follow I do not well understand. Another is more pleas-
ing :** It is not surprising," he says, " that the eagle agrees

aroDioo nuliu Tultum ip^um et oa ■quilie

logi, awnuiuur jurUconsulti, cedunt

leges, cedunl insIitulB ; nihil yalet bs nee

pietM, neeiequitMnechumBnitM. Cum-

que UmniuliK iiiitav«aoD ineloqucnte^

iUud quod Cyrum Pecurum rej(em tsn-

tam multa canora, Umr|ue Tirin sidt

toptre (UleeU*U in prineipc ^pinrii',

Boanepluc regium quoddam umulacrum

fleclere, plua Umen omnibus valet iusiuTu

ille et minime muaicua uniiu kquiln

Utir el inauspicatus, fuBco iqualoie ni- f Nihil Dmnino convenit inter nquilaoi

giicani. Unde eliain quod fuicum est et et rulpem. ijurniquam id nne nan medi.

lubDigrumt aquilum vocamiu. Turn vox ocrl vulpina j^entia malo} quo tamen

iBaniani<,teTribIlii,ex(niaiatrii,ae min» haud scio an digiix videri debeant, quie

lile queruluaque clangor, quem tkullum quondam leporibui ffufifAnx^ adveraua

animiDlium genu* non cipaveaciL Jam •i|iiilam patentibus auiiiium negarinl, ut

koc sfmbolum ptoliniu agnoicil, qui refeitur in Annalibua Quadrupedum, a

nodo periculum feceiit.aut videiitcerii, quibui Homerus BaTpax«/i>">f<oX^ ""i-

qnam liat rormidanda pnucipucu miDc, luatus eat. . . . Neque lero mirum quod

id JDeo prolaiE. . . Ad hane. inquam, itii parun) convenil cum oloribus, aia

■quila Mridoreai illieo paiital omne vul- Dimiium paetica ; illud mirum, ab iii

gu^ CMitnbit me >eiMtu<, observit no- wcpcnumfroiinrilunpugnacembiilluain.

lyCOOglC

284 LrTEHATURE OP EUROPE [Past I.

ill with the swaDs, those poetic birds; we may wonder more,
that so warlike an animal is often overcome by them." He
sums up all thus : " Of all birds the eagle alone has seemed
to wise men the apt type of royalty; not beautiful, not
musical, not lit for food ; but carnivorous, greedy, plundering',
destroying, combating, solitary, hateful to all, the curse of
all, and with its great powers of doing harm, surpassing
them in its desire of doing it."*

4>5. But the eagle is only one of the animals in the pro-
verb. After all this bile against those whom the royal bird
represents, be does not forget the beetles. These of course
are the monks, whose picture he draws with equal bitterness
and more contempt. Here, however, it becomes difficult to
follow the analogy, as he runs a little wildly into niytholo-
gical tales of the Scarabaeus, not easily reduced to his purpose.
This be discloses at leno;th ; " There is a wretched class of
men, of low degree, yet full of malice ; not less dingy, nor
less filthy, nor less vile than beetles ; who nevertheless by a
cert^n obstinate malignity of disposition, though they can
never do good to any mortal, become frequently troublesome
to the great. They frighten by their ugliness, they molest
by their noise, they offend by their stench ; they buzz round
us, they cling to us, they lie in ambush for us, so that it is
often better to be at enmity with powerful men than to attack
these beetles, whom it is a disgrace even to overcome, euid
whom no one can either shake off, or encounter, without
some pollution." t

■ Er univeiais avibus una oquila virig tatiu) alt cum magnu aliquando Ti-

Iniaginem reprtesentet, nee Eirmo™, n« ceasera scarabKos, quos pudrat ctiara

canora, nee eaculcnta, led carnivura, la- vicisse, quc»que nee eicutere poBH,

pai, prsdatrix, populitri>, bellBtrii,saIi- neque conflictari cum ilUi qunn, nin

taiia, iDviia omnibui, pestia omnium ; diMcdas eonlaininMior. Chil. iii. nnt.

qiuc cum plnrimum nocere po«nl, plui vii. I.

umen velit quam pouit. Iti a letter to Budcua, Ep. cell., Era>-

t Sunt bomuneuU quidam, infimn inusbaast3orhHrt^)pi)irla in the Adages,

quidem BOtlii, ted tamcD malitioai, nan naming llie mosl poigtianl of them ; but

minui atri quam scarabei, nequc minus s»ys,\n yrovi!t\i\a'^i>r KirSafot iim€irrai,

putidi, neque minus abjccti ; qui tamea plane lusimtis iugenia Tht> proierb,

pertioaci qiiadani ingeaii malilia, cum and that enlitlcil Siletii Alcibiadia, liod

nulli omnioo mortalium prodewe ponint, appeared Ifefore 1515 ; for they were re-

magnU etiam utpenumera tins fteesiunt printed in thai j-ear by Fiobcniui, sepa-

negotium. Terriiant nigrare, obotrepunt raltly from the other Adages, oa appein

stiidore, oblurbant fictore i circumToH- by a. letter of Beatus Bhenanus in Ap-

tant, hierent, Insidiontur, ut non |iau1o pendice ad Erasm. Epiit. Ep. ixiiti.

lyGOOgIC

Chap. IV.] FROM 1500 TO 1520. 285

46. It must be admitted, that this was not the language
to conciliate ; and we might almost commiserate the suffer-
ance of the poor beetles thus trod upon ; but Erasmus knew
that the regular clergy were not to be conciliated, and resolved
to throw away the scdbbard. With respect to his invectives
against kings, they proceeded undoubtedly, like those, less
interoperately expressed, of his friend More in the Utopia,
from a just sense of the oppression of Europe in that age by
ambitious and selfish rulers. Yet the very freedom of his
animadversions seems to plead a little in favour of these
tyrants, who, if they had been as thorough birds of prey as
be represents them, might easily have torn to pieces the
anthor of this somewhat outrageous declamation, whom on
the contrary they honoured and maintained. In one of the
passages above quoted, he has introduced, certainly in a later
edidon, a limitation of his tyrannicidal doctrine, if not a pati-
nodia, in an altered key. "Princes," he says, "must he
endured, lest tyranny should give way to anarchy, a still
greater evil. This has been demonstrated by the experience
of many states ; and lately the insurrection of the German
boors has taught us, tbat the cruelty of princes is better to
be borne than the universal confusion of anarchy." I have
quoted these political ebullitions rather diffusely, as they are,
I believe, very little known, and have given the original in
niy notes, that I may be proved to have no way over-coloured
the translation, and also that a ^r specimen may be pre-
sented of the eloquence of Erasmus, who has seldom an
opportunity of expressing himself with so much elevation,
but whose rapid, fertile, and lively, though not very polished
style, is hardly more exhibited in these paragraphs, than in
the general character of his writings.

47. The whole thoughts of Erasmus began now to be
occupied with his great undertaking, an edition of h„ onn
the Greek Testament with explanatory annotations T""""'-

wiiB, ■ bmousjurut, allude) to thetn Jobn Gough ; tee Dibdin^ Tf pographl-
i« toMbuT iMter, Ep. iulL, prsising cal Antiquilies, anicle 1433.
"fluminoau diuerendi undaa, ampllNci- There is not ■ tittle Krerity in the re-

io tiuth ii the cbirscltr of Erumus'i and nnblci in the Mocin Encaniiuni.
•>rlc- The SilcDi AlcibiadU were alio But with them he Kenu through life to
ttunUud into Engliih, and publidml by have been ■ piiTileged penon.

t: Go Ogle

286 LITEEATURE OF EUROPE [P*«t L

and a continued paraphrase. Valla, indeed, bad led the
inquiry as a commentator; and the Greek text without notes
was already printed at Alcala by direction of Cardinal Ximenes;
though this edition, commonly styled the Complutenaian, did
not appear till 152%. That of Erasmus was published at
Basle in 1516. It is strictly therefore the princeps editio.
He employed the press of Frobenius, with whom he lived in
friendsoip. Many years of his life were spent at Basle.

48. The public, in a general sense of the word, was hardly

yet recovered enough from its prejudices to give
^tenin eucouragemeut to letters. But there were not

wanting noble patrons, who, besides the immediate
advantages of their favour, bestowed a much greater indirect
benefit on literature, by making it honourable in the eyes of
mankind. Learning, which is held pusillanimous by the
soldier, uuprofilable by the merchant, and pedantic by the
courtier, stands in need of some countenance from those
before whom all three bow down ; wherever at least, which
is too commonly the case, a conscious self-respect doe^ not
sustain the scholar against the indifierence or scorn of tlie
prosperous vulgar. Italy was then, and perhaps has been
ever since, the soil where literature, if it has not always most
flourished, has stood highest in general estimation. But in
Germany also, at this time, the emperor Maximilian, whose
character is neither to be estimated by the sarcastic humour
of the Italians, nor by the fond partiality of his couutrymeo,
and especially his own, in his self-delineation of Der Weiss
Kunig, the White King, but really a brave and generous
man of lively talents; Frederic, justly denominated the Wise,
elector of Saxony ; Joachim elector of Brandeburg ; Albert
archbishop of Mentz, were prominent among the friends of
genuine learning. The university of Wittenberg, founded
by the second of these princes in 150% rose in this decad to
great eminence, not only as the birthplace of the Reformation,
but as the chief school of philological and philosophical liter-
ature. That of Frankfort on the Oder was established by
the elector of Brandeburg in 1506.

49. The progress of learning, however, was not to be a
(,„ march through a submissive country. Ignorance,

which had much to lose, and was proud aa well as

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Ch*p.1V.] from IfiOO TO 1520. 28?

rich, ignorance in high places, which is always incurable,
because it never seeks for a cure, set itself sullenly and stub-
bornly against the new teachers. The Latin language, taught
most barbarously through books whose very titles, Floresta,
Mammotrectus, Doctrinale puerorum. Gemma gemmarum,
bespeak their style*, with the scholastic logic and divinity in
wretched compeuda, had been held sufticient for alt education.
Those who had learned nothing else could of course teach
nothing else, and saw their reputation and emoluments gone
ail at once by the introduction of philological literature and
real science. Through all the palaces of Ignorance went
forth a cry of terror at the coming light — "A voice of
weeping heard and loud lament." The aged giaat was
roused from sleep, and sent his dark hosts of owls and bats
to the war. One man above all the rest, Erasmus, cut them
to pieces with irony or invective. They stood in the way of
bis noble zeal for the restoration of letters, t He began his

* Elchhom, iii. 273., giTu > curious Arbitror me nunc Etatem agcre, in quo

lilt of uiinn of these early gromman : M. Tulliua decesait. Some other plocea

the; vere driTen out oflhe ichcwlB about I have not Ukini doira. His epiuph it

this time. Maniniottectus, after all, is ■ Bailo culls him. jam septuagenarius, and

- leuiwd word : it means, liafifioSptwris, he died Jn 1536, llayle's proofs of the

thatis aboj taught bjrhisgnndmotherj birth of Erasmus inl467Bre so unsatis-

■Dd B boy taught by his graudmother bctory, that I vondvr how Le Clerc

means one tauglit gentlr. should have so easily acquiesced in Ihnn.

EraomuagiTcsa lamentableaccountof The Biographie Univcrselle sets down

Ibe state of education vhcD lie ens a boy, H67 viihout remark.

BDd probably later; Deum immortnlem 1 t When the first Uctures in Greek

qnale sKculuin enit hoc, cum magno ap- were given at Oxford about liI9, a

{■ratu diaticha Joonnis Garlandini ado- parly of studenis arrayed theiriBeUes, by

lannlibusopeTotiaetproUiis comments- the name of Trojans, tu withstand the

riisenarrabantur 1 cum ineptis teniculis innovators by dtnt of clamour and vio-

dictandii, repetendls et eiigcndis magna lence, till the king interfered to support

pan lemporii absumeretur; cum disce- the learned side. See a letter of More,

ntur Floiesta ct Floretus i nam AleX' giving an account of thii in Jorlin's Ap-

udrum inter tolerobile* numerandum pcndix, p. 6S2. Cambridge, it is to be

arbitror. observed, was very peaceable at this time,

I will take this opportunity of men- and suHered those who liked it to leani

&ning, that Erasmus was certainly born sometliing worth knowing. The whole

in HG5, not in H67, as Bayle asserts, is so shortly expressed by Era.smu», that

whom I« CtercandJortinbave followed, his words may be quoted. Anglia duos

Borigni perceived this; and it may be tiabet Academias. . . In utraque tradun-

proved by many passages in the Epistles tur Gracs lilera, sed Cantabrigiie Iran,

of Erasmus. Bayle quotes a letter at quilU, quod ejus scholie princeps sit

F(b. 1516, wherein Erasmus says, as he Jaaones Fisoherus, episcopus KoOensis,

transcribe* it : Ago annum undequinqua- nan eruditione tantum sed et Titjl Iheo-

gnimum. But in the Leyden edilion, logica. Verum Oioniie cum juvcnit qui-

wbich is Ibe best, I find, tgo jam annum dam non vulgariter doctus satis feliciter

■go primumet quinquagesimum. Epist GrKcd profiteTeIur,barbarusquispiam in

u. Thus he saya also, 1 5th March, 1599 : populari concione magnis et atroeibua

lyCOOglC

288 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Put L

attack iu his Encomium Morise, the Prwse of Folly. This
was addressed to Sir Thomas More, and pubhshed in 1511.

eonvitikdebacchari ccepit in Gtaicu lite- Croke dwelU on the barbarous MiU

ns. At Rei, ul nan indoclus ipiCi its of the scieoco, in eoDwquenee of the ig-

bonii litetis iBTens, qui turn furte in pro- norince of Cmk. Euclid'i definitiim

pinquo erat, re p«r Morum pt Ficisuni of a line w»i lo ill translated, that it

eogniti, denunciavit ut lolentea ac lu- puiiled all the geomelen till the Greeli

bencca Gnecanicani lileraturam amplec- wax coniulted. Medicine was in an

terentur. Ita nbulia impositum wt si- equall; bad condition ; had it not bem

lenliura. Appendii, p. €67. See mito tor [he labours of learned men. Linatic,

Ecasm. Epi&l. cccliii. Cop, Ruel, quorum opera feliciniine lo-

Antonjr Wood, with rather an eiccH quuntur Latine Hippocratea, Galenu! *t

of academical prejudice, insinuates that Diauoride(,cuin EunnnaipBoniininTidia,

the Trojans, wbo vaged war against qui, quod eani* in pranepi, nee Grxon

Oionian Greek, were ■' Cambridge men, linguam discere ipai loluerunt, nee aliii

at it is reported." He endravaura lo ut dircerent permiserunt He then urge*

eiaegerate the deBcicneiea of Cambridge the neceisity of Greek studies for the

verefuUof rudeness and barbarousnessi" for the Vulgate above the original,

which the above letters of More and Ttirpe »tni erit, cum merealor scrmo.

Erasmus show not to huve been altoge- nem Gallicunif fllj:ncum, Hispanicum,

ther the case. On the contrary, More Germanieum, *el solius lueri causa atide

aafB that even those who did oot learn ediscat, tos studiinos Grscum in manua

Greek contributed to pa; the lecturer. Tohis traditum n^Jcere, quo et divitic et

It fuBj be worth while to lay before the eloquentia et sapicntia comparari poaaunt.

leader part of two orations by Richard Jmoperpendite rogo viri Cantsbrigiense^

Croke, who had been sent down to Cam- quo nunc in loco vestrie res liuc sunL

bridge bjr bishop Fisher, chancellor of Oxonienset quos ante lure in omni scien-

the unirerrity. As Croke seems to have tiarum genere ricistis, ad literal Griecas

left L^psic in 1518, they may be re- perfugere, rigitant, Jejunant, sudani et

ferred to that, or perhaps more probably algent ; nihil non Faciuiit ut eaa aceu|icnt

tlie following year. Jt i« etideni that Quod si contingat, actum est de fama

Greek wai now Just incipient at Cam- vestra. Erigent enini de »Qbii tropo-ura

bridge. nunguam succumbuturi. Hsbent ducef

MaitUire f^y oflhcte two orstioos of praitcr caidinalem Canluaricnsem, Win-
Richard Cruke : Editio rarlssima, ci^us- toniensem, CKleroe omnes Angliie episco-
que unum duntaiat exemplar inipeiissa poi, eiceplo uno Roifensi, summo sent-
mihi eontigit. The British Museum has per fsutore vestro, et Kliensi, &c.
■ copy, which belonged lo Dr. Fanner ; Fsvet prsteres ipsis sancta Grodni et
but he must have seen another copy, for theologo lilgna sSTeritas, I.ioacri roAv-
the last page of this being imperfect, he fuiStia et acre judicium, Tunsuli Hon Ic-
haa fliled it up with his own hand. The gibus magia quam utrique linguK bmi-
book is printed at Paris by Colinnus in liaris facundia, Stopleii triplex lingua,
1520. Mori Candida et eloqueotisslma urbanitas,

The subject of Cruke's oralious, which Pacei motes doctritia et iiigenium, ab

seem not very correctly printed, ia the ipso Erasmo, optimo erudilionis censoTe,

praise of Greece and of Greek literature, eommendsti ; quem tos olim habuEsiii

addressed to those who already knew and Griecarum literarum proFiAsorem, uti-

Talucd that of Rome, which he shows to natnqus poluiuetis retinere. Succedo

be derived from the other. Quin ipsa in Erasmi locum ego, bone Deus, quam

quoque Toculationes Romsnc Gnecis infra ilium, et doctrinil et &ma, quam-

longe insuMviorea, minusque coocitatB quam me, ne omnino nihili Gam, prinei-

sunt, cum ultima semper syllaba rigeat pet viri,theulogiei doctorea, Juriumetlam

in graiem, cortraque apud Grccoset in- et mediriniB.ariium pra!terea professores

fleclatur nonnuuquam et acuatur. Croke innumerl, et priecepiorem aRnover^ el

of cDursespokc Greekacceniually. Greek quod plus est, a scholis ad sdes, ab vdi-

words. in bad types, frequently occur bus ad scholaa honorificentisaime comitati

through thia oration. perduieie. Dii me perdant, Tiri Caota-

lyGOOglC

CMiT. TV.] FROM 1600 TO 1520, 289

Eighteen huodred copies were printed, and speedily sold ;
dwugh ^e book iranted the attraction that some later editions
possess, the curious and amusing engravings from designs of
Holbein. It is a poignant satire against all professions of
men, and even against princes and peers ; but the chief objects
are the mendicant orders of monks. " Though this sort of
men," he says, " are so detested by every one, that it is
reckoned unlucky so much as to meet them by accident, they
tliink nothing equal to themselves, and hold it a proof of tlieir
consummate piety, if they are so illiterate as not to be able
to read. And when their asinine voices bray out in the
churches their psalms, of which they understand the notes,
but not the words*, then it is they fancy that the ears of
the saints above, are enraptured with the harmony ;" and so
fordi.

50. In this sentence Erasmus intimates, what is abun-
daotly confirmed by other testimony, that the men-
dicant orders had lost their ancient hold upon the i>H»?r'iii«
people. There was a growing sense of the abuses ™
prevailing in the church, and a desire for a more scriptural

bripensM, ti ipsi Oiooiensei Wipendio

■ulionim nobiliura prater viclom me

quid bcturi sint, qui nostras titeras odio

a>e iailuiere. Sed ^o pro niea in banc

reiigionem, cui uiii dicent omnia poslpo-

In hij KCofHl ormtion, Ct.iko eihort)

nenda. Sentb ego cum illit, »d unde

nusnooTla relifria, niii i Grecii? quid

Kudf of Greek. Si i|uiHiu*m omnium

thso? quid enim Tctua? nunquid Deo

Oplime enim vohii esse cupio. « id nisi

Oionia est colonia vestra; uti olim non

bcereoi. aseai proTeeto lon)^ ingnitissi-

mni Ubi enWn j.ot. literarum mearura

ita non sine summo »e«ro nunc dedecore.

■i doctrina »b ipsis tos vinci patinniini.

■ntrnlei, tmn «ero apud eileron quoque

Fueninl olim illi di'cipuli Trttri, nuno

pnpcipei, faiorii mibi compBralum est;

etunt pnteeptores? UtiDam quo animo

■piibui ea fortuna. ut licet j«m olim con-

hiec a me dicta sunt, to vos dicta in-

ifitiU tim spoliaius, ila lamea (dhuc

•inin, ut quibuiiil meorum nmjorum

tnLrigienses minime cleecrB llterarum

Giscarum esse dciKrtorea.

prahebl, of ihc .neient ftmily of Crate.

The great scarcity of this tract will

Prter H»tll>Dus call. him. in > letter
unoDg ItaoK of Erumui, Juvenis cum
imninlb™.

serve as an apulogy for t!ie length of

England.

• Numcratos Uloi quidem. «d non

gcattr eipendite, qui lint, et plane non

iatellectOE. — [I conceive that I have

alioi bte comperitis, quam qui igitur lin-

given the meaning rightly, — 1S4S. j

VOL. I. 1

lyGOOgIC

290 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past L

and spiritual religion. We have seen already that this was
the case seventy years before. And in the intermediate period
the exertions of a few eminent men, especially Weasel of
Groningen, had not been wanting to purify the doctrines and
discipline of the clergy. More popular writers aas^led them
with satire. Thus every thing was prepared for the blow to
be struck by Luther ; better indeed than he was himself; for
it is well known that he began his attack on indulgences with
no expectation or desire of the total breach with the see of
Rome which ensued.*

51. The Encomium Moriee was received with applause
Tii.b«*»i- by ^^ ^ht* loved merriment, and all who hated the
°"" """"■ monks ; but grave men, as usual, could not bear to
see ridicule employed against grave folly and hypocrisy. A
letter of one Dorpius, a man, it is said, of some merit, which
may be read in Jortin's Life of Erasmus t, amusingly com-
plains, that while the most eminent divines and lawyers were
admiring Erasmus, his unlucky Moria had spoiled all, by
letting them see that he was mischievously fitting asses' ears
to their heads. The same Dorpius, who seems, though not
an oht man, to have been a sworn vassal of the giant Igno-
rance, objects to any thing in Erasmus's intended edition of
the Greek Testament, which might throw a slur on the accu-
racy of the Vulgate.

52. Erasmus was soon in a state of war with tbe monks ;

and in bis Second edition of the New Testament,
uu^iuu printed in 1518, tbe notes, it is said, are full of in-
vectives against them. It must be confessed that
he had begun the attack, without any motive of provocation,
unless zeal for learning and religion is to count for such,
which the parties ass^led could not be expected to admit,
and they could hardly tliank him for " spitting on their gaber-
dine." No one, however, knew better how to pay his court ;
and he wrote to Leo X. in a style rather too adulatory, which
in truth was his custom in addressing the great, and con-
trasts with his free language in writing about them, llie

* Seekendori; Hist. Lutheran iinii, p. character as ■ philmopher, irho boldly

2S6. Gertie), Hist, Evsng bbcc. ivi. oppowd the scholattlct of hia tge, m

renovau vols. I. and lii. Milner'a Church Bruckcr, iii. 659.
Hiitory, vol. ii. Moaheim, wee. n. el f 'i. 336.
xrl. Bajle, art W««el. For Wnial'a

lyGOOgIC

CmAF.IV.] FROM 1500 TO 1520. 291

eostom of the dtne affords some excuse for this panegyrical
tone of correspondence, as well as for the opposite extreme of
severity,

53, The famous contention between Reuchlin and the
German monks, though it began in the preceding
decennial period, belongs chiefly to the present. In imtion wtih
the year 1509, one Pfeffercorn, a converted Jew,
induced the inquisition at Cologne to obtain an order from
the emperor for burning all Hebrew books except the Bible,
upon the pretext of their being full of blasphemies against
the Christian religion. The Jews made complaints of this
injury ; but before it could take place, Reuchlin, who bad
been consulted by the emperor, remonstrated against the de-
struction of works so curious and important, which, from his
partiality to Cabbalistic theories, he rated above their real
value. The order was accordingly superseded, to the great
indignation of the Cologne inquisitors, and of all that party
throughout Germany which resisted the intellectual and reli-
gious progress of mankind. Reuchlin had offended the monks
by satirising them in a comedy, perhaps the Sert;iu9, which
he permitted to he printed in 1506. But the struggle was
soon perceived to be a general one ; a struggle between what
had been and what was to be. Meiners has gone so far as
to suppose a real confederacy to have been formed by the
friends of truth and learning through Germany and France,
to support Renchlin against the mendicant orders, and to
overthrow, by means of this controversy, the embattled le-
gions of ignorance.* But perhaps the passages he adduces
do not prove more than their unanimity and zeal in the cause.
The attention of the world was first called to it about 1513 ;
that is, it assumed about that time the character of a war of
opinions, extending, in its principle and consequences, beyond
the immediate dispute, t Several books were published on
both sides ; and the party in power employed its usual argu-
ment of burning what was written by its adversaries. One
of these writings is stilt knon^, the Epistolse Obscurorum
Virorum i the production, it is said, of three authors, the
principal of whom was Ulric von Hutten, a turbulent, hot-

■ LcbeDdnwbrob. L H4. el s*qq. inl«r«t taken in Reuchlin, u the chim-

t Meiacn brings manjr proofi of the pion, if doI the martjr, of the good e>uu.

u a

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

39» LITERATURE- OF EUROPE [PmtL

headed man, of noble birth and quick parts, and a certain
degree of learning, whose early death seems more likely to
have spared the reformers some degree of shame, than to
have deprived them of a useful supporter.* Few books have
been more eagerly received than these epistles at their first
appearance in 15l6f, which surely proceeded rather from
their suitableness to the time, than from much intrinsic merit ;
though it must be presumed that the spirit of many tempo-
rary allusions, which delighted or offended that age, is now
lost in a mass of vapid nonsense and bad grammar, which
the imaginary writers pour out. Erasmus, though not inti-
mately acquainted wilh Reuchlin, could not but sympathise
in a quarrel with their common enemies in a common cause.
In the end the controversy was referred to the pope ; but the
pope was Leo ; mid it was hoped that a proposal to bum
books, or to disgrace an illustrious scholar, would not sound
well in his ears. But Reuchlin was disappointed, when he
expected acquittal, by a mandate to supersede, or suspend,
the process commenced against him by the inquisition of
Cologne, which might be taken up at a more favourable
time.t This dispute has aln'ays been reckoned of high im-
portance ; the victory in public opinion, though not in judi-
cature, over the adherents to the old sjrstem, prostrated them
so utterly, that from this time the study of Greek and
Hebrew became general among the German youth ; and the

* Herder, in his ZerBtreute Blatler, Latin prcltj well, tad liad ■ good dnl

V. 329.. ipealu wilh UDinsonable parti- of wit i hie utirical libeli, cofuequentlj,

■lit;r of Ulric von Hulten; and Meiners hul greet circulation and popularitj',

hai wrillen hit life with ui enthusimm vliich, in rnpect of lucb writings, a

which scCTH* to me quite citravaicBUt. apt, in all ag«, to produce an eiaggera-

Scclicndorr, p. 130, more judidousljr tion of tlieir real inHucnce. ]□ the

alwcrve] that be nas of little lac to the mighty movement of the RefbrmatioOi

reformarion. And Luther wrote about the Epirtala Obscurorum Viiorum had

him in June, 1 521 : Quid Huttenus pe- alwul aa much tff.ct aa the .Mariagi; de

tat vides. Nollem yi el c«de pro e*an. Figaro in the French Revolution. A

Hetio certari, ita ecripsi ad hominem. dialogue »v-erety reflecting on pope Ju-

Melanchthon of coune dialiked such lius IL, c;i11ed Julius eiclusus, of wbicb

friends. Epist. Melanchth., p.4S. (1G4T,) Jortin suspects Enamua, in spite of bit

and Camerariua, Vita Melanchlh. Eras- lienial, ii. 595., ii gi'en by Meiners 10

mua could not endure llutten ; and Ilutten,

Hutten, when he found this out, nrote f Meinera. in liis Life of Hutttn,

virulently agaimt Fraamut. Jurlin. ni Lebensbesch. ill. 73., inclines to fix tba

biographer of ErafLmus, trcala Hutten publication of theflretpartuf the Epiitia

pcihaps witli ton much contempt; but in tliebeginningof I5IT: though he ad-

tbii is nearer justice than the veneration mit* an earlier date to be not Imposiblc.

<^ lb* modem Oermans. Hutten wrote f Meiaei^ L 197.

lyGOOgIC

Chap. IV.] FBOM 1600 TO 1£20. ^93

caase of the Reformation was identified in their minds with
that of classical literature.*

54. We are now brought insensibly perhaps, but by ne-
cessary steps, to the great religious revolution which

has just been named. I approach this subject with >h' Rcruim-
some hesitation, well aware that impartiality is no

Erotection agiunst unreasonable cavilling ; but neither the
istory of literature, nor of human opinion upon the most
important sul^ects, can dispense altogether with so extensive
a portion of its materials. It is not required, however, tn a
work of this nature, to do much more than state shortly the
grounds of dispute, and the changes wrought in the public
mind.

55. The proximate cause of the Reformation is well known.
Indulgences, or dispensations granted by the pope from the
heavy penances imposed on penitents after absolution by the
old canons, and also, at least in later ages, from the pains of
purgatory, were sold by the papal retailers with the most
indecent extortion, and eagerly purchased by the superstitious
multitude, for their own sake, or that of their deceased
friends. Luther, in his celebrated theses, propounded at
Wittenberg, in November, 1517. inveighed against the erro-
neous views inculcated as to the efficacy of indulgences, and
especially against the notion of the pope's power over souls
in purgatory. He seems to have believed that the dealers
had exceeded their commission, and would be disavowed by
the pope. This, however, was very far from being the case ;
and the determination of Leo to persevere in defending all
the abusive prerogatives of his see, drew Lather ou to levy
war against many other prevailing usages of the church,
against several tenets maintained by the most celebrated doc-
tors, against the divine right of the papal supremacy, and
finally to renounce all communion with a power which he
now deemed an antichristian tyranny. This absolute separa-
tion did not take place till he publicly burned the pope's bull

• Sleidan, Hist, de 1> ReromiBt. 1. ii. did not consult so early as the rest. But

Brucker, if. 966. Moslieim. Eichhorn, there h also ■ lery copious nrcount of

iii a3fl., vi. 16. Biyle, aiL HochstrHt. the Reuchlinian contruversy, including

Nune of these authorities are equal in fuU many origiaal documents, in tbe wcond

Den 10 Meinen, LebensbMchreihungen ))art of Von der Hardt'i HiitorU Li[<

beriihniler manner, i. 98 — S12. i whicli 1 leraria RHbrmationis.

V 3

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

294 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PimtI.

against htm, and the volumes of the canon law, at Witten-
berg, in November 1520.

56. In all this dispute Luther was sust^ned by a prodi-
popuiiriv oi gious force of popular opinion. It was perhaps in
i.un.er. (|,g power of his sovereign, Frederic elector of
Saxony, to have sent him to Rome, in tlie summer of 1518,
according to the pope's direction. But it would have been
an odious step in the peoplo's eyes, and a litde later would
have been impossible. Miltitz, an envoy despatched by Leo
in 1519) upon a conciliatory errand, told Luther thatS^,000
aimed men would not suffice to make him a prisoner, so
favourable was the impression of his doctrine upon Germany.
And Frederic himself, not long afterwards, wrote plainly to
Rome, that a change had taken place in his country ; the
German people were not what they had been ; there were
many men of great talents and considerable learning among
them, and the laity were beginning to be anxious about a
knowledge of Scripture ; so that unless Luther's doctrine,
which had already tnken root in the minds of a great manv
both in Germany and other countries, could be refuted by
better arguments than mere ecclesiastical fulminations, the
consequence must be so much disturbance in the empire, as
would by no means redound to the benefit of the Holy See.*
Ill fact, the university of Wittenberg was crowded with stu-
dents and others, who came to hear Luther and Melanchthon.
The latter had at the very beginning embraced his new
master's opinions with a conviction which he did not in all
re8|)ects afterwards preserve. And though no overt attempts
to innovate on the established ceremonies had begun in diis
period, before the end of 1520 several preached agiunst them,
and the whole north of Germany was full of expectation.

5J. A counterpart to the reformation that Luther was

thus effecting in Saxony might be found at the same

"X^if"' instant in Switzerland, under the guidance of Zwin-

gie. It has been disputed between the advocates of

these leaders, to which the priority in the race of reform

• Scckcndorf. This rcmarliable letter luiui, in Jortin'i Eraunui, iL 353. ; and
will be fbunri sIm> id Kdscoc'i Leo X.. l.ulher'( ova letter to Leo. of Blaich,
Appendix, No. 185. It beartdate April,- 1519.
1590. See also a letter of P«tTU9Uo«l-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cuw. IV.]

FROM 1500 TO 1520.

m-"}

belongs. Zwingte himself declares, that in 1516, before he
had heard of Luther, he began to preach the gospel at Zurich,
and to warn the people against relying upon human authority.*
But that is rather ambiguous, aud hardly enough to sub-
stantiate his claim. In 15 IS, which of course is after
Luther's appearance on the scene, the Swiss reformer was
engaged in combating the venders of indulgences, though
with less attention from the court of Rome. Like Luther,
lie had the support of the temporal magistrate, the council of
Zurich. Upon the whole, l}iey proceeded so nearly with
equal steps, and were so little connected with each other,
that it seems dilHcult to award either any honour of pre-
cedence, t

• Zwingle spud Gerdei, i- 103.

thoie which shook the moat serret depths

t Milner. who is extremely parliJ in

of Luther's soul. Ai he had nerer de-

the whole of thi* hiMory. labours to «i-

voted himMlf with equal ardour to the

tCDiuU the claims of Zwingle to indepen.

EsUblished Church, lie had not now to

denn in Ihe pmchin|{ or rerormstion ;

break loose from il with such violent and

painful struggles. ltwai.nol theprofound

nt«l from Iheehurch of Home in 1523,

love of rhe power and failli, and of its

■hen Adrian VI. «nt liim ■ civil letter.

conneiion with redemption in wliich

But Cerd» shows at length that the

Luther's efforts orijnnated, tlial mnde

nipluie was complete in 1520. See aleo

Zwingle a reformer i he bwsme so chiefly

111. article Zwingle, in Biogr, Univer-

«Ue.

scripture in search of truth, he found the

church and the received morality at va-

lie throughout io itriking, and leads him

riance with its spirit. Nor was Zwingle

traiDed at an university, or deeply im-

bioi. ». 510., to hiTe been consenting lo

nlons. To found a high school, firmly

tint at Zurich. But, not to mention that

attached to all Uiat was worthy of at-

tb-ir c^ «u not one of mere n-Hnious

appear that he approied their puiiish-

cation. He regarded it much more as

ment, which he merely relates as a ftct.

tiie business and duly of his life lo bring

about the religious and moral refom-

eura in p. 526.— [Capito «ija, in a letter

allon of the republic that had adopted

toBullinger(I536): Anlequam Lutherus

him.aad to recall the Swiss Confedermion

in lumn emerstrit, Zwingliiu ct ego

to the principles upon which it was ori-

ginally founded. While Luther's main

object was a reform of doctrine which,

in eremitorio. Nam utrique ei EraEimi

he thought, would be necessarily fol-

lowed by that of life and morals, Zwiogle

aimed directly at the Improvement of

Incebai. Gerdes, p. 117.— 1B12.]

life; he kept mainly in view the prae.

[A late writer, aa impartial as he it

tical ligniticsncy of Scripture as a wholu ;

learned and peneiraling, thus eonlrasii

his original views were of a moral sud

the two Touoders of the Iteformallon.

political nature 1 hence his Inhours were

" If we eompue him [Zwingle] with

tinged with a wholly peculisr colour.

Luther, we God that be had no tucb

p. 7 — 18«.]

lyGOOgIC

lea

296 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa«tL

^8. The Gennao nation was, in fact, so fully awakeoed
to the abuses of the church, the denial of papal

HrTurin&Iiaa ,, 'i*»^^ it*i

p^'T" . sovereignty in the councils of Constance and tiasle
had been so eSectual in its influence on the public
mind, though not on the external policy of church and state,
that, if neither Luther nor Zwingle had ever been born, there
can be little question that a great religious schism was near
at hand. These councils were to the reformation what the
irliament of Paris was to the French Revolution. Tlieir
leaders never meant to sacrifice one article of received faith ;
but the little success they had in redressing what they
denounced as abuses, convinced the laity that they must go
much farther for themselves. What effect the invention of
printing, which in It<ily was not much felt in this direction,
exerted upnn the serious minds of the Teutonic nations, has
been already tniimated, and must appear to every reflecting
person. And when this was followed by a more extensive
acquaintance with the New Testament in the Greek language,
nothing could be more natural than that inquisitive men should
throw away much of what seemed the novel superstructure of
religion, and what in other times such men had rarely
ventured, should be encouraged by the obvious change in the
temper of the multitude to declare themselves. We 6nd that
Pellican and Capito, two of the most learned scholars in
western Germany, had come, as early as 1513, to reject
altogether the doctrine of the real presence. We find also
that (Ecolampadius had begun to preach some of the Pro-
testant doctrines in ISl^.* And Erasmus, who had so
manifestly prepared the way for the new reformers, con-
tinued, as it is easy to show from the uniform current of his
letters, beyond the year 1520, favourable to their cause. His
enemies were theirs, and he concurred in much that they
preached, especially as to the exterior practices of religion.
Some, however, of Luther's tenets he did not and could not
approve ; and he was already disgusted by that intemperance

" Osrdes, L 117. 154., rt ptwt In trutli, by Teckoning u sueh Dante nid

(net. Ili(> precursors at the Refimnation PeCmrch, and dl opponents of the tem-

were very numeions, and are ciilleeted poral (lOwer of the papacy. Wessel may,

bj'Gerdet in bii first and third Tolumei. upon the whole, bebirly reckoned anuni^

though he ha* greatly exaggerated the the Rffbnnere.

TX^ooglc

Ckap.IV.] from 1500 TO 1520. 297

of language and conduct, which, not long afterwards, led him
to recede entirely from the Protestant side.*

59. It would not be just, probably, to give Bossuet credit
in every part of that powerful delineation of Luther's
titfological tenets, with which he begins the History ^^"^
of the Variations of Protestant Churches. Nothing,
perhaps, in polemical eloquence is so splendid as this chapter.
The eagle of Meaux is there truly seen, lordly of form, fierce
of eye, terrible in his beak and claws. But he is too deter-
mined a partisan to be trusted by those who seek the truth
without regard to persons and denominations. His quotations
from Luther are short, and in French ; I have failed in several
attempts to verify the references. Yet we are not to follow
the reformer's indiscriminate admirers in dissembling alto-
gether, like Isaac Milner, or in slightly censuring, as others
have done, the enormous paradoxes which deform his writ-
ings, especially such as fall within the present period. In
maintaining salvation to depend on faith as a single condition,
he not only denied the importance, in a religious sense, of a
virtuous life, but asserted that every one, who felt within
himself a full assurance that his sins were remitted, (which,
according to Luther, is the proper meaning of Christian
&ith,) became incapable of sinning at all, or at least of for-
feiting the favour of God, so long, but so long only, as that
assurance should continue. Such expressions are sometimes
said by Seckendorf and Mosheim to have been thrown out
hastily, and without precision ; but I fear it will be found on
examination that they are very definite and clear, the waat
of precision and perspicuity being rather in those which are -
alleged as inconsistent with them, and as more consonant to
the general doctrine of the Christian church.t It must not

■ In 1519 ind 1530, «TEn in hi> let- doi'u. This ia quoled by Gerdes, i. 153.,

ten to Albert ■rchbiihap oT Mi^nti, and Trom a collKtiun of letten of Eriwmua,

otfacra by no mean) partial to Luther, he published by Hottinger, but Dot con*

■peaks (^ him lery handiDniely, and vilb tained in Ibe Leydea edition. Jorlin

lillle or no diatpprabation, except on ac- •eemi not to hive aeen them.
count of his intemperance, though pro- f See in proof of thia Lnlber'i vorka,

lesaag only a alight BC(iuaintani.-e vith toI. i. pssiim (edit. 1554). The lint

hii iriitings. The proofii are too numer- vork of Melanchihon, hla Loci Com-

oiu to be cited. He aaya, in a letttrr to munei published in 15S), irben he fol-

Zvingle, as late as 1521, Videor mihi loved Lulher more obsequiouily in his

ftr« omnia docuisw, que docet Lutherus, opinions than ha did in after-life, i>

am quod Don lam atrociter, quodque equally replete with ll ~ *

■bttinui ■ quibiudam Knignwtii et para- tiDiun. This word i* .

t: Go Ogle

298 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [F*«t L

b« supposed for a moment, that Luther, whose soul was
penetrated with a fervent piety, and whose integrity as well
88 purity of life are unquestioned, could mean to give any
encouragement to a licentious disregard of moral virtue ;
which he valued, as in itself lovely before God as well as
man, though, in the technical style of his theology, he might
deny its proper obligation. But his temper led him to follow
up any proposition of Scripture to every consequence that
might seem to result from its literal meaning ; and he fancied
that to represent a future state as the motive of virtuous ac-
tion, or as any way connected with human conduct, for better
or worse, was derogatory to the free grace of God, and the
omnipotent agency of the Spirit in converting the soul.*

in thUplwe; but I im compelleci to use mit that degr« of ccnmre vhlch I hin

it, as mcBt intelligible to the reader ; *iid felt rnyKlf compelled to pisa upon faioi.

I coneeiTe that tliase tiro reformen Two Edinburgh reiiewen, for bath of

wcDt much bejrond the Isnguige of Au- Khom I feel great rnpect, hsre at dif.

guiiin, which tiie tohoolnien lhou);ht fetent times remarked what wtmed to

them^elvei bound to recognise as autlio- them an undue teverit; ; and a late

rity, though [h^jr mighi elude itt spirit, writer, Arclideacon Hare, in hia notes to

I find the lint edition of Melancliihon'a ■ lerieB of Sermong on the Mitsim of the

Loci Communes in Von der Ilardt, Comrurter, JB4S. has animadwried on it

Historia Litteraris Rcformntiania, awork at greut length, and with a suffieientlf

which contains a great di^al of curious uncompromising spirit. I am uDwilUug

nuitter. It is called by him. opus raris. to be drawn on this oecuion tnlo con-

■imum, not being in the edition of Me- trovetsy, or to follow mjr prolii anu-

ianchthon'a theological work^i which gonist through all his obecrvationa apon

aome haie ascribed la the art of Peucer, my short paragraphs ; both because I

whose tenets were widel; difl^rent. hare in my disposition a good deal of a

* I am unwiDing to give tbeae pages iltiUa timrwiia, wbidi leadi me to take
too tbeolt^ical a cast by proving this
Btatemenl. u I haye the means of doing,
by extracts from Luther's own eaiiy
writings. MllnerV very proiii history
of tilis period is rendered less ralunble
by his diiingenuoua trick of suppressing
all passage!! in the<ie treatises of Luther
which display his Antinomian paradoses
in a strong light. Whoster has read
the writings of Luther up to the year

1 510 inelusife, must find it impossible to are not more in my good graces than

contradict my assenioD. In treating of the archdeacon's, and who had hardly

an author so full of unlimited proposi- sprouted up when my remarks on Luther

tions as Luther, no positive proof aa to were Rrst written, are depreciating the

fais teitets can be refuted by the produe- Protestant cause with the utmost ani-

tion of inconsistent passages. mosily, to strengthen any pr^udice

[It was to be expected that what I against it. But I must as shortly as

have here said,and afterward;, in Ch. VI., possible, and perhaps more shortly ttian

concerning Luther, would grate on the an adequsle exposition of my di^enee

ears of many very respectable persons, would require, produce the passages in

whose attachment to the Reibrmation, Luther's own writings, which have com-

and admiration of his eminent character, pellcd me to speak out as strongly as I

could not wilboul much rsluctancs ad- have doiw.

pity

on paper

. or rathe

r on myself; and

for >

> better

reason, n

amely, thai, nol-

what the

arehdeaeon calla

my '

' iiMr.T«.

1 to Luth

er," I mlly look

upon

him as 1

1 great m

an, endowed with

many Tirtuca,

and an ii

utruraent of Pro-

vide.

ice for a

signal good. I am also

parli

cularly

at the pnsent

, to do Id

mertke drudgery

of tt

<e PbilisI

ines, and

while those who

lyGOOgIC

Chap. IV.] FROM 1500 TO 1620. 299

60. Whatever may be the bias of our minds as to the

truth of Luther's doctrines, we should be careful, in consider-

1 mar l>^i> '>7 obwrriDg, ihit in Chri

charging Luther, Bpeeially in Ills earljr Ivns

vrirings, with what goes gcnerallj' by quaniiscunque peccilii, niu tiolit cre-

the Dune of Antinomiuiisni, (Ihat is, dere. Nulla enim peccsta eum posamit

with reproeoting &ith alone as Che con- damnire nisi lola incredulitai. Caiera

ditioo of acceptance willi God, not merely omnia. >i redeat vel Met Gdea in prcmii-

tbe Gospel, but for all who have been mentu abaorbentur per eandem Sdeia,

bapliicd and brought up in its prorestion, ima veritatem Dei, quia leipmin negare

■od in so great a degree that no tina non potest, ai tu eum confeisui fueri'a, et

whatever can eiclnde a bilhrul man promiltenti fideliier ailhoaeris. It ma/

ftom n'Tation.) I have maiiitBined no be pretended, that, howeier paradoii-

paradox, but what ha> been rtpcaledlf eally Luther hu eipreased hiioetr, he

allied, not only by RoInani&^ 1>ut Pro- meant to aaiert the absolute incoinpati-

iBiant theologiana. This, however. Is biiitf of habihiiU una with a Jualiiying

IKit sufficient to prove it> truth; and I &iih. But even if hii language would

am therefore under the necesaitjr of always bear thia meaning, it i> to bo

quoting a few out of many paaagea. kept in mind, that faith (■iirru) can

But I repeat that I )ia>e nut the re- nerer be more than inward persuasion or

motcsC intet^tion of charging Luther with afiaunmce, wbereoF, ivb^ectivtly, each man

wilful encouragement to an immoral life, muit judge for himself; and though to

The Antinamian acbeme of religion, the eyes of other* a true fiiitb may be

which indeed wai not called by that wanting, it ii not evident that men of

name in Luther's age, (the word as ap- enlhuiiaslic minds may not be fiilly satii-

plied to tbe followers of Agricola, ia- tied that they possess it.

Tolviug .only a deniiil of the obligation of Luther indeed has, in another posidon,

tbe Mosaic law ai ncA, mural aa well as often quoted, taken away from himself

eeremonial,) is only one mode in wbich ibis line of defence: — Si in fide posset

tbe dLiinteresledneaa of virtuous actiotu fieri adulterium, peccatum non esact.

ba* been aaserted, and may be held by men Disputat. 1S£0. Archdeacon Hare ob-

df tbe utmost sanotity, though it roust servts on this, that ■■ it is logically true,"

be exceedingly dangerous in ita general p. 794. This appear* to me a singular

promulgation. Thus wa find it sub- anerlion. The hypothesis of Luther is,

ftantially, though without intemperance, that a sinful action might be commiried

in some Essays by a highly respected in a slsteof faith; and the consequent of

writer, Mr. Tboma* Erakine, on the Un- tbe proposition is, that in such case it

eooditianal Freeness (/ the Gospel. No- would not iw a sin at all. Grant that

Ibing is more repugnant to my priU' he held the aupposilioti to be impossible,

ciplea, than to pass moral reprobation on which no doubt he sometimei dues,

persons, beesuae J differ, however eoeii' though we ihould hardly draw that in-

lially, from their tenits. Let us leave ference from the passage Isst cited, or

that to Home and Oxford; though Lu- from some other*, still in reasoning tx

Iber unfortunately was the lavt man who abnrdot we are bound to argue rightly

•ould claim this liberty of prophesying upon the asiumed hypotheai*. But all

Ibr himself on the score of his charity and bis ivotion* about sin and merit were so

tolerance fill others. preposterously contradictory to natural

Archdeacon Hare is a manofso much molality and religion, that they could

bimco, and so Intensely persuade of not have been permanently received with-

bnng in tbe right, that he produce* him- out violating the moral constitution of tba

nif the leading propositions of Luther, human mind. Thus, in the Heidelberg

(nun which others, like myself, have de- Proposition*, 151B, we read : Opera ho-

duerd our own very diBcrent inferencas minum ut semper speciosa tint, booaque

ai to his doctrine. videsntur, probabile tamen est ea ess*

In tbe treatisa de Captivitate Baby- peccata mortslii. . . . Opera Dei ut nm-

lamea, IJSO, «• find these celebrated per sint deformia malaqua lidaantur,

words : Ila liclea quam divca ut bono t«t4 tamen sunt ineriia inmoiialiB . . .

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

300 LITERATURE OP EUROPE [PabtI.

ing the Reformation as a part of the history of mankind, not
to be misled by the superficial and ungrounded representations

Non nc aunt opera hominum morUlia bj irfigbing it af^ainit an unpoBible ac-
(d« bonis, ut apparent, loquimur,} ut eumulation of oSenco. It ii no more
eadem lint crimina . . . Non aic eunt than he had aaid in the pauajte quoted
opera D« merita (de hii qua per bomi- above from the trcaiiae De Ciplivitaie
nem Sunt, loquimur,) ut eadem Don Bab^lonics ; non potest pcrderc salutem
■int poceata . ■ ■ Juiterum opera eisent auam quontiicunque peecatii; eipmied
mortaUa, nisi pio Dri timore ab ip'ismeE Miil more offvniiTeiy.
Juitis ut morUlia timerentur. Such a The real question is not irhal inter-
aeries of propositions occasions a aort of pretation an astute advocate, li; making
bewilderment in the understanding, >o large allowanee for warmth of temper,
unlike ate they to the usual tone of peculiarities of eipreaaion, and the neces-
nmral precept and tentiment sitj of inculcating H>me truths more
I am indebted to Archdeacon Hare forcibly bj being silent on others, may
for another, not at all less singular pai- put on the writings of Luther, (fbr very
sage, in a letter of Luther to Melanch- few wilt impute to him cither a detective
thoD in 1531, which I have also fuund sense of moral duties in himself, or a
in the very able, though very bitter. Vie disposition to aet his diiciplee at liberty
de Luther, by M. Audin, Paris, 1839. from them,) but what was the evident
I do not see the necessity of giving the tendency of his language. And this, it
eonlcit, or of explaining on what ocea- ahould be remembetcd, need not b«
Hon the letter was written; on tbefcrourd judged solely by the plain sense of word^
that, where a sentence is complete in though that is sunOy sufficient. The
ilseir, and contains a general assertion of danger of these exaggerations, the mild-
limited by reference to any thing else, adequate to what 1 f(.-tl, i
Sufficiti Luther says, quod agnoviraui ' ' .. — ...
per divitias glori» Dei Agnum. qui
tollit peccata mundi ; ab hoc non avellet
DOS pFceatum. etiama millies millies una were the Intimate brood of Luther's

lam parvum esse pretiuiu eC redemtio- aiide, it is certain that we find no tesli-
aem pro peccatis noslris factam in tanlo monies lo any reform of manners in tbe
et tali agtio? Ora rortitetj es enim countries that embraced iL The Swiss
fortissimus peccator. Reformation, the English, and the Cat-
It appears that Mr. Ward has trans, vlnistic churches generally, make ■ far
hted " uoo die" by "everyday;" tar belter show iu this respect,
which the Archdeacon animadverts on lliis great prartini deficiency in the
him : •■ This mistranslation aerves liis Lutheran reformation is eonfesaed by
purpose of blasting Lulber's fime, inas- their own writers. And it is attested
much as it substitutes a hellish horror, by a remarkable letter of Bilibald Firck-
— the thotight that a continuous life of heimer, announcing the death of Albert

with laith and prayer, and Christ and 1 J9S, which msy be {bund in Reliquien

righteousness,— fur that, which Justly of- von Albrecbt Durer, Nuremberg, 189S,

fensite as it may be, is so mainly from p. I6S. In this he tskes occasion to in-

ita peculiar Lutheran eitravaganee of veigh against the bad conduct of the

■xpresdon." p. 794. No one will pre- reformed party at Nurembe^. and seems

tend chat Mr. Ward ought not to have as iuBignant at the Lutherana as he liad

been more accurate. But I confins that ever been against popery, though with-

the difference does ru>t strike me as im. out luting his hatred for the latter. I

menscly great. Luther, I cannot help do not quote the letter, irhieh is \otm,

thinking, would have written " unoquo. and in obsolete German ; and perhaps it

qua die " aa readily as " uno," if the may display too much irritation, natural

word had suggested itself. He wanted to an honest man whu has been diap-

to assert the efficacy of Christ's imputed puinled in his hopes from a revolution j

righteousnen in the moat forcible tenna, but the witnoa ba beara to the distamest

lyCOOglC

Chm.IVJ prom 1500 TO 1520. ' 301

which we sometimes find in modern writera. Such is this,
that Luther, struck by the absurdity of the prevailing super-
stitions, was desirous of introducing a more rational system
of religion ; or, that he contended for freedom of inquiry,
and the boundless privileges of individual judgment; or,
what others have been pleased to surest, that his zeal for

and dinolute mmoaen vhich hixd iceom- can be bUmed ; though I thlok that he

panied the introduciion or Lutbennism sbould hsTe left more paraage« untmiis-

ii not to be dighlly regarded ; contider- lated. Tlioae taken Trom ihe Cuiloquia

isfl tbereipectabiliiy of Fiickhvimer, and Mentalia might perhipi be Torgivea,

bii known co-operallon with the first and tbe blame throwD on the possipping

trfona. retailer of hU table-talk ; but in all hia

I bare been thought to apeak too dii- attacks on popes and cardinals, Lutber

paraginglj of Lutber's polemical writ- disgraces himself by a nasty and Mupid

ing*, especially that agalntl the bishops, brutality. The great cause, also, o( the

by the eiprasion "bellowing in twd marrisge of priests cease* to be holy and

Latin." Perhaps it might be too con- bonourable in bis advocacy.

templuou* towards a great man ; but I And I must eipresi my surprise that

bad been disgusted by tbe perusal of Archdeacon Hare should vindicate,

them. Those vha bave Uken exception against Mr. Wsrd, the Sermo de Mat'ri-

(iD the Edinburgb Reriev ) are probably monio, preached at Wittenberg, I5S2;

Utile eonreraaDt with Lutber^ writings, for though he says there are four ler-

But. independently of the moral censure mons with this title in Luther's works,

vbicb bis virulence demands, we are I bale little doubt tbst Mr. Ward was

surely at liberty to say that it is in led to tbis by Audin, who makes many

llie wortt taste, and Tury unlikely to quotations from it. " 'Hie dale of tbig

eoa*iDec or euneiliate any man of good termoo, 153S, when many of the inmates

■msB. One other gtax objection to the of tiie eonTents were quitting them, and

writings <d Lutbei I hare not hitherto when the errori of tbe anabaplisis were

been called upon to mention; but 1 will beginning to spread, ahowi that there

not wholly omit his scandalous gross, wai urgent need for the voice of wisdom

ness, espeeially as Archdeacon Hare has to set forth the true idea, relations and

entered upon an elaborate apology lor dbligations of tnarrlage; nor could this

H. We all know quite as well as be be done without an exposition and reRi-

doea. that the ntanners of diSerent age^

Ution of the manifold scandalous errors

diflerent cotmtrics. and diSerent condi-

and abuses concerning it, bred and pro-

tions of life, are not alike ; and that what

pagated by the papacy." p. 771. Avery

rational senlence 1 but utterly . unlike

ha* been talented in othera. Such an

Luther's sermon, which is far more in

Cienie may often be made with great

lairnesB ; but it cannot be made for La.

them. But without dwelling on this.

ther. We baw writing* of his conlem-

and referring to Audin, vol. ii. p. 34.,

in ages less poli.hed than bis own. No

Miious author of the least reputation

des Variations c. 6. § 1 1., I shall only

will be (bund who defile* hit page% I do

observe, that if the voice was tbal of

MX say with such indelicacy, but with

But here I conclude a note Gir longer

than I wished to make it. the discussion

being akin to the general sul^ect of theae

imes, and Ibrced upon me by a direet
tba moral reputation of Luther, has col- attack of many pages. For Archdeacon
leeted a great deal more than Bouuet Harehimself I liave all tbe respect which
would Iwve deigned to touch ; and, con- his high character, and an acquaintance
ndcring thia object, iu the interests of of lung duration, mutt naturally have
U* owo religion, I do Dot know how be atcatecL — 1M7.]

t: Go Ogle

Cei* ■

geroJ
withal
tions I
the en
whicm
cussioj
Mentd
niaiata '
sons te
upon I*
other «
before t
doctoi^
and of*
florins '
15a

We pei{
the Be;
enumei^
and Git
. B«k.

volume of

The Lslil^

tid. 1

""■ I • - • - ■■■■- ^i.rr^— •■

view. ^ -J - — ~*T!^ »^^e. ic''-™*'""

translal , ' - -■" '^~ ; 7« ^■'•^ '"'^iSkt

beenv* "^^."^ g^^^.

by the' '"'-- - ; „". ^ "• -r-"'^^J3i
reciting ' .,.. - -■ — ' .J^ •^.-^am •

Col - - — ■;; .'T" ^ »- '^^^^'^Ji.

proving . - ; J*^".^ ''j^.'^^
bishop* - - ~ _. * — " ;; ...-ati^-fcife-
inadeb? ■ j^ - -:v-' -^jlt^S'

and call

...«»«•> i*

lyGOOgIC

'/; .

J .*... .;

rhis

iisured
49 tliat

«mpU.tion
.. No won-

spirit of tba

fflc of indul-

of all criirc*
iiejT! while ■

amended life
appnnng the
Engl transl.)

like Luthet'*

lyGOOgIC

303 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Put L

learning and ancient philosophy ted him to attack the igno-
rance of the monks, and the crafty policy of the church,
which withstood all liberal studies.

61. These notions are merely fallacious refioements, aa
every man of plain understanding, who is acquunted
■twn 0* with the-writings of the early reformers, or has con-
sidered their history, must acknowledge. The doc-
trines of Luther, taken altogether, are not more rational, that
is, more conformable to what men, a priori, would expect to
find in religion, than those of the church of Rome ; nor did
he ever pretend that they were so. As to the privilege of
free inquiry, it was of course exercised by those who deserted
their ancient altars, but certainly not upon any theory of
a right in others to judge amiss, that is, dlflerently from
themselves. Nor, again, is there any foundation for imagin-
ing that Luther was concerned for the interests of literature.
I^one had he himself, save theological j nor are there, as I
apprehend, many allusions to profane studies, or any proof
of his regard to them, in ail his works. On the contrary, it
is probable that both the principles of this great founder of
the Reformation, and the natural tendency of so intense an
application to theological controversy, checked for a time the
progress of philological and philosophical literature on this
side of the Alps.* Every solution of the conduct of the
reformers must he nugatory, except one, that they were meu
absorbed by the conviction that they were fighting the batde
of God. But among the population of Germany or Switzer-
land, there was undoubtedly another predominant feeling;
the sense of ecclesiastical oppression, and scorn for the worth-
less swarm of monks and friars. This may be said to have
divided the propagators of the Reformation into such as
merely pulled down, and such as built upon the ruins. Ulric
von Hutten may pass for the type of the one, and Luther

* ErumuVi afteT h« ]i*d become et* est hominuni vita? Anunt viflticum «t

asperated sith the refbrmen, tepeatedl; uiorem, cietera'pili nan faciunt Hoe

chargei them whh ruining literature, fucosliingiuime arecndcH censro a *cMn>

UbicuDque regnat Lulliaranismua, ibi contubernjo, £p. occccxlvi. (cod. uin.)

litenrum eit interitui. Epiit mtI. There were.howcTer. atlbis time, as veQ

(1338.) KvangeliccM intoa, cum multig as aftcrvaida. more learned men 00 the

aliii, turn hoc nomine prKcipue odi, quod side oT the KefonnatioD than 00 Ilial of

per eo« ubique languent, frigenC, jacent, the church.
bonte literic, sine quibui quid

lyGOOgIC

Cbat.IV.] FKOH 1500 TO 1520. 303

himself of the other. And yet it is hardly correct to sajr of
Luther, that he erected his system on the ruins of popery.
For it was mther the growth and expansion in his mind of
one positive dogma, justification by faiOi, in the sense he took
it (which can be easily shown to have preceded the dispute
about indulgences*), that broke down Mid crushed succes-
sively the various doctrines of the Romish church ; not
because he had originally much objection to them, but
because there was no longer room for them in a consistent
system of theology, t

G2. The ]aws of synchrooistn, which we have hitherto
obeyed, bring strange partners together, and we oriuHio
may pass at once from Luther to Ariosto. The ^"''''"•
Orlando Furioso was first printed at Ferrara in 1516. This
edition contained forty cantos, to which the last six were
added in 153Q. Iwiny stanzas, chiefly of circumstance,
were interpolated by the author from time to time.

6S. Ariosto has been, after Homer, the favourite poet of
£urope. His grace and facility, his clear and rapid i„p^„.
stream of language, his variety and beauty of in- *"^'''
vendon, his very transitions of subject, so frequently censured
by critics, but artfully devised to spare the tediousness that

■ See his diapuUtions it Wittenberg, The eaaij an the influence of the Re-

151$; and the aeTmons preached in the formatinn bj Villers, which obrained ft

BOW and the subcequent jear. priie from the French Inatitute, and hai

f The beat audiDritiei (dt the early been eitolled by a nrj fiienrJij, but

hiMaiy of the Rerormatlon are Secken. better-in rorme<l vriter in the Biagraphia

dorf. Hilt Lutheraninni, and Sleidan, Univeiielle, appears to me the ptoductioo

Hist, de 1> Rffbnoation, in Courayer'a of a man vho had not taken the paini la

French tramlalion; the former being read anjr one work conlemporaneou* with

diiefly uaeful for the eceleaiulica], the the Reftumation, or evenany compilation

latter fi>r poUticot history. But aa these which contains many exttacta. No won-

eonfinc themselTen to Germany. Gerdn drr that it does not represent, in Ih*

(Hist. Eiangel. Refbrinat.) is necessary slighteM degree, the real spirit of the

for the Zuinglian history, ai nrell as for times, or the tenets of the refonnera,

that of the northern kingdoms. The first Thus, e. gr., "Luther," be sayi, " ei-

•ectiona of Father Paul's HiXory of the posed ll]e abuse of the traffic of indul-

Couneil of Trent are a1w> valuable, genees. and the danger of belieiing that

Schmidt. Histoire des AUeoiandi, Tols. heaien and the lemiaaion of all crimes

Ti. and eiL.hai told the stury on the aide could be bought with money; while >

of Rome specioualy and with some fair-, sincere repentance and an amended life

neai ; and RiMCoe han Tindicated Leo X. were the only meana of appeasing the

ftom the imputation of unnecessary v]o. divine Justice." (P. 65. EngL transl.)

lence in his proceeding against Luther. This at It-aat is not very like Luthei'a

Mosheim ia alwaya good, but concise ; Aniinomian contempt for repentance and

Hiloer far from concise, hut highly pre- amendment of life; it might come near

judiced, and in the habit of giving his to tbe notioni of Erasmus.
quotations in Engliabj which is not quite

"' * ■ loTei irf truth.

t: Go Ogle

'304 LITEHATUKE OF EUROPE [f abt. I.

hangs on a protracted story, left him no rival in general
popularity. Above sixty editions of the Orlando Furioso
were published in the sixteenth century. " There was not
one," says Bernardo Tasso, " of any age, or sex, or rank,
who was satisfied after more than a single perusal." If the
change of manners and sentiments have already in some
degree impaired this attraction, if we cease to t^e interest
in the prowess of Paladins, and find their combats a little
monotonous, this is perh^ts the necessary lot of all poetry,
which, as it can only reach posterity through the medium of
contemporary reputation, must accommodate itself to the
fleeting character of its own time. This character is stron^y
impressed on the Orlando Furioso ; it well suited an age of
war, and pomp, and gallantry; an age when chivalry was
still recent in actual life, and was reflected in concentrated
brightness from the mirror of romance.

04. It has been sometimes hinted as an objection to Ari-
wint or <>sto, that he is not sufficiently in earnest, and leaves
Mrioutnui. ^ little suspicion of laughing at his subject. I do
not perceive that he does this in a greater degree than good
sense and taste permit. The poets of knight errantry might
in this respect be arranged in a scale, of which Puici and
Spenser would stand at the extreme points ; the one mock>
ing the absurdities he coolly invents, the other, by intense
strength of conception, full of love And fdth in his own
creations. Between these Berni, Ariosto, and Boiardo take
successively their places ; none so deeply serious as Spenser,
none so ironical as Pulci. It was not easy in Italy, especially
after the Morgante Maggiore had roused the sense of ridi-
cule, to keep up at every moment the solemn tone which
Spain endured in the romances of the sixteenth century j nor
was this consonant to the gaiety of Ariosto. It is the light
carelessness of his manner which constitutes a great part of
its charm.

65. Castelvetro has Wanned Ariosto for building on the

foundations of Boiardo.* He seems to have had

Boi^ originally no other design than to carry onward, a

little better than Agostini, that very attractive story j

t: Go Ogle

Chap, it.] FBOM 1500 TO 1520. 305

having written, it is said, at 6r8t only a few cantos to please
his friends.* Certainly it is rather singular that so great
and renowned a poet slionid have been little more than the
continuator of one who had so lately preceded him ; though
Salviati defends him by the example of Homer ; and other
critics, with whom we shall perhaps not agree, have thought
ibis the best apology for writing a romantic instead of an
heroic poem. The story of the Orlando Innamorato must
be known before we can well understand that of the Furioso,
But this is nearly what we find in Homer ; for who can
reckon the Iliad anything but a fragment of the tale of
Troy ? It was indeed less felt by the compatriots of Homer,
already familiar with that legendary cyclus of heroic song,
than it is by the readers of Ariosto, who are not io general
very well acquainted with the poem of his precursor. Yet
experience has even liere shown that the popular voice does
not echo the complaint of the critic. This is chiefly owing
to the Want of a predominant unity in the Orlando Furioso,
which we commonly read in detached parcels. The principal
unity that it does possess, distinct from the story of Boiardo,
consists in the loves and announced nuptials of Rogero and
Bradamante, the imaginary progenitors of the house of
Este ; but Ariosto does not gain by this condescension to the
vanity of a petty sovereign.

66. The inventions of Anosto are less original than those
of Boiardo, but they are more pleasing and vari- £_,• " v I
ous. The tsies of old mythology and of modern ^^^*"t. /
romance furnished him with those delightful epi- ^~~-i-^
sodes we all admire, with his OHmpia and Bireno, his Ario-
dante and Geneura, his Cloridan and Medoro, his Zerbino and
Isabella. He is more conversant with the Latin poets, or
has turned them to better account than his predecessor. For
the sudden transitions in the middle of a canto or even a
stanza, with which every reader of Ariosto is familiar, he is
indebted to Boiardo, who had himself imitated in them the
metrical romancers of the preceding age. From them also,
that justice may be rendered to those nameless rhymers,

■ Quadrio, Storia d'ogni pt>«tiB, vi.

t: Go Ogle

306 LITERATURE OF EUROPE tPiBT L

Boiardo drew the individuality of chu'acter, by which their
heroes were distinguished, and which Ariosto has not been
BO careful to preserve. His Orlando has less of the honest
simplicity, and his Astolfo less of the gay boastfulness, that
had been assigned to them in the cydus.

67- Corniani observes of the style of Ariosto, what we
Kautiei or ^'^^J ^^ pefcelve on attending to it to be true, that
luitji*. jjg jg sparing in the use of metaphors, contentii^
himself generally with the plainest expression ; by whidi, if
he loses something in dignity, he gains in perspicuity. It may
he added, that he is not very successful in figurative language,
wluch is sometimes forced and exag^rated. Doubtless diis
transparency of phrase, so eminent in Ariosto, is the cause
that he is read and delighted in by the multitude, as well as by
the few ; and it seems also to be the cause that he can nev«-
be satisfactorily rendered into any language less musical,
and consequendy less independent upon an omunental dress
in poetry than his own, or one which wants the peculiar ad-
vantages, by which conventional variations in die form of
words, and the liberty of inversion, as well as the frequent
recurrence of the richest and most euphonious rhymes, elevate
the simplest expression in Italian verse above the level of
discourse. Galileo, being asked by what means he had ac-
quired the remarkable talent of giving perspicuity and grace
to his philosophical writings, referred it to the continual
study of Ariosto. His similes are conspicuous for thdr
elaborate beauty ; they are familiar to every reader of this
great poet ; imitated, as they usually are, from the ancients,
they maintain an equal strife with their models, and occa-
sionally suipass them. But even the general strain of Ari-
osto, naturu as it seems, was not unpremeditated, or left to its
own felicity ; his manuscript at Ferrara, part of which is shown
to strangers, bears numerous alterations, tiie pentimertti, if I
may borrow a word from a kindred art, of creative genius.
08. The Italian critics love to expatiate in his praise,

though they are often keenly sensible to his defects.
Di«d wBr The varie^ of style and of rhythm in Ariosto, it is

remarked by Gravina, is suitable to that of his sub-
ject. His rhymes, the same author observes, seem to
spring from the thoughts, and not from the necessities of

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Chap. IV.] FROM 1500 TO 1520. 307

metre. He describes minutely, but with much felicity, and
gives a clear idea of every part ; like the Farnesian Hercules,
which seems greater by the distinctness of every vein and
muscle.* Quadrio praises the correspondence of the sound
to the sense. Yet neither of these critics is blindly partial.
It is acknowledged, indeed, by his warmest advocates, that he
fella sometimes below his subject, and that trifling and feeble
lines intrude too frequently in the Orlando Furioso. I can
hardly regret, however, that in the passages of flattery towards
the house of Este, such as that long genealogy which lie de-
duces in the third canto, his genius has deserted him, and he
d^enerates, as it were wilfully, into prosaic tediousness. In
other allusions to contemporary history, he is little better. I
'am hazarding a deviation from the judgment of good critics
when I add, that in the opening stanza of each canto, where
the poet appears in his own person, I find generally a defi-
ciency of vigour and originality, a poverty of thought and of
emotion, which is also very far from unusual in the speeches
of his characters. But these introductions have been greatly
admired.

69- Many faults of language in Ariosto are observed by
his countrymen. They justly blame also his inob- i„pue«u
aervance of propriety, his hyperbolical extravagance, "p*™'
his harsh metaphors, his affected thoughts. These are sulTi-
dentty obvious to a reader of reflecting taste j but the en-
chantment of his pencil redeems every failing, and his rapidity,
like that of Homer, leaves us little time to censure before we
are hurried forward to aAnire. The Orlando Furioso, as a
great single poem, has been very rarely surpassed in the
living records of poetry. He must yield to three, and only
three, of his predecessors. He has not the force, simplicity,
and truth to nature of Homer, the exquisite style and sus-
tuned mM^ty of Virgil, nor the originality and boldness of
Dante. The most obvious parallel is Ovid, whose Metamor-
phoses, however, are far excelled by the Orlando Furioso,
not in fertility of invention, or variety of images and senti-
ments, but in purity of taste, in grace of language, and
harmony of versification.

■ Bagioa Foetiea, p. 101.

t: (Jo Ogle

308 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pabt L

70. No edition of Amadis de Gaul has been proved to
Airiduda *'''8t before that printed at Seville in 1519> which
Qiui. yg( jg suspected of not being the first." This famous
romance, which in its day was almost aa popular as the
Orlando Furioso itself, was translated into French by Her-
beray between 154-0 and l^SJ, and into English by Munday
in I6l9' The four books by Vasco de Lobeyra grew to
twenty by successive additions, which have been held by
lovers of romance far inferior to the original. They deserve
at least the blame, or praise, of making the entire work un-
readable by the most patient or the most idle of mankind.
Amadis de Gaul can still perhaps impart pleasure to the sus-
ceptible imagination of youth ; but the want of deep or per-
manent sympathy leaves a naked sense of unprofitableness in
the perusal, which must, it should seem, alienate a reader of
mature years. Amadis at least obtained the laurel at die
hands of Cervantes, speaking through the barber and curate,
while so many of Lobeyra's unworthy imitators were con-
demned to the flames.

71. A curious dramatic performance, if it may deserve

such an appellation, was represented at Paris in
1511, and published in 1516. It is entitled Le
Prince des Sots et la M^re sotte, by one Peter Gringore,
who had before produced some other pieces of less tiote, and
bordering more closely on the moralities. Id the general
idea there was nothing original. A prince of fools had long
ruled his many-coloured subjects on the theatre of a joyous
company, les Enfans sans souci, who had diverted the cidzens
of Paris with their buffoonery, under the name, perlu^s, of
moralities, while their graver brethren represented the mys-
teries of Scripture and legend. But the chief aim of La Mere
sotte was to turn the pope and court of Rome into ridicule
during the sharp contest of Louis XII. vrith Julius II. It
consists of four parts, all in verse. The first of these is called
The Cry, and serves as a sort of prologue, summoning bH
fools of both sexes to see the prince of fools play on Shrove
Tuesday. The second is The Folly. This is an irregular
dramatic piece, full of poignant satire on the clergy, but espe-
cially on the pope. A third part is entitled The Morality of

■ BruDct, Man. du Libraire.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CsAP.IV.] FROM 1500 TO 1520. ^09

the Obstinate Man ; a dialogue io allusion to the same dis-
pute. Finally comes an indecent farce, unconnected with
the preceding- subject. Gringore, who represented the cha-
racter of La Mere sotte, was generally known by that name,
and assumed it in his subsequent publications.*

7^. Gringore was certainly at a great distance from the
Italian staee, which had successfullT adapted the
plots oi Laim comedies to modem stories, but,
among' the barbarians, a dramatic writer, somewhat younger
than he, was now beginning to earn a respectable celebrity,
^ug^ limited to a yet uncultivated language, and to the in-
ferior class of sode^. Hans Sachs, a shoemaker of Nurem-
berg, born in 1494i, is said to have produced his first carnival
play (Fast-nacht spiel) in 1517- He belonged to the frater-
ni^ of poetical artisans, the meister-singers of Germany,
who, from the beginning of the fourteenth century, had a
snccession of mechemical (in every sense of the word) rhymers
to boast, for whom their countrymen felt as much rever-
ence as might have sufficed for more genuine bards. In a
spirit which might naturally be expected from artisans, they
required a punctual observance of certain arbitrary canons,
the by-laws of the corporation Muses, to which the poet must
conform. These, however, did not diminish the fecundity,
if they repressed the excursiveness, of our meister-singers,
and least of all that of Hans Sachs himself, who poured forth,
in about forty years, fifty-three sacred and seventy-eight pro-
fiuie plays, sixty-four farces, fifty-nine fables, and a large
assortment of other poetry. These dramatic works are now
scarce, even iu Germany ; they appear to be ranked in the
same class as the early fruits of the French and English
theatres. We shall mention Hans Sachs again in another
chapter.f

73. No English poet, since the death of Lydgate, had
arisen whom it could be thought worth while to siei*™
mention.t Many, perhaps, will not admit that """■

■ BouduuDpc, Recberchra niT 1e poetry, becauiw thej dupli; the atale of

Theatre Fnn9aiB. GoiOet, Bibl. Fran. mamKnatthebeginningortheuiteenlh

fuie,iL213. Niceron, vol, ixxiv. Bou- century.

terwek, CtMth. der FrmniSaer Poeiie, t. -f Biogt. Univ. Eichbom. iii. 94a.

113. Biogr. UniTen. The vorha of Bouterwek, ii. 3B1. Heinsius, Iv. ]£0.

Gringore, ujt the luC authority, are RetmspectiTe Review, tol. i

rare, lud nugbt by the laiera of our old \ I htre adTerteil in inothsr pUce to

X 3

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

SIO LITBRA.TURE OF EUROPE [Fam I.

Stephen Hawea, who now meets us, should be reckooed in
that honourable list. Hia " Pastime of Pleasure, or the
Historic of Graunde Amour and La bel Pucel," finished in
1506, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1517- From
this title we might hardly expect a moral and learned all^ory,
in which the seven sciences of the trivium and quadrivium,
besides a host of abstract virtues and qualities, play their
parts, in living personality, through a poem of about six
thousand lines. Those who require the u'dent words or the
harmonious grace of poetical diction, will not frequently be
content with Hawes. Unlike many of our older versifiers,
he would be judged more unfavour^ly by extracts than by a
general view of his long work. He is rude, obscure, full of
pedantic latinisms, and probably has been disfigured in the
press ; but learned and philosophical, reminding us frequently
of the school of James I. The best, though probably an unex-
pected parallel for Hawes ia John Bunyan ; their inventions
are of the same class, various and novel, though with no
remarkable pertinence to the leading subject, or naturally
consecutive order ; their characters, though abstract in name,
have a personal truth about them, in which Phineas Fletcher,
a century after Hawes, fell much below him ; they render the
general allegory subservient to inculcating a system, the one
of philosophy, the other of religion. I do not mean that the
Pastime of Pleasure is equal in merit, as it certiunly has not
been in success to the Pilgrim's Progress. Bunyan is
powerful and picturesque from his concise simplicity ; Hawes
has the common failings of our old writers, a tedious and
languid difluseness, an expatiating on themes of pedantry in
which the reader takes no interest, a weakening of every
picture and every reflection by ignorance of the touches that
give efiect. But if we consider the " Historic of Graunde
Amour " less as a poem to be read than as a measure of the
author's mental power, we shall not look down upon so long
and well-sustained an allegory. In this style of poetry much
was required, that no mind ill stored with reflection, or inca-
pable of novel combination, could supply ; a clear conception

Aleianil«T Barclay's trenilation of the adited man; anginal itrolea on h!s ami
Ship of Fools tkom Sebastian Brandt; countrymen, especially on ihe clergy.
and I may here obiene. that he has

lyGOOgIC

CiAP.ir.] FBOU 1600 TO 1520. 311

ti abstract modes, a fsmiliarity with the human mind, and
with the efiects of its qualities on human life, a power of
justly perceiving and vividly representing the an^ogiea of
sensible and rational objects. Few that preceded Hawea have
possessed more of these gifts than himself.

74. This poem has been little known till Mr. Southey
reprinted it in 1831 ; the original edition is very rare. War-
tea had given several extracts, which, as I have observed,
are disadvantageous to Hawes, and an analysis of the whole* ;
bat though he praises the author for imagbation, and admits
that the poem has been unjustly neglected, he has not dwelt
eoough on the erudition and reflection it displays. Hawes
^q>ears to have been educated at Oxford, and to have
travelled much on the Continent. He held also an office in
the court of Henry VH. We may reckon him therefore
among the earliest of our learned and accomplished gentle-
men ; and his poem is the first fruits of that gradual ripening
of the Knglish mind, which must have been the process 01
^ laboratory of time, in the silence and darkness of the
fifteenth century. It augured a generation of grave and stern
thinkers, and the omen was not vain.

T5. Another poem, the Temple of Glass, which Warton
had given to Hawes, is now by general consent
restored to Lydgate. Independently of external ^^|||^
proofs which is decisive t, it will appear that the
Temple of Glass is not written in the English of Henry VH.'s
rwgn. I mention this only for the sake of observing, that in
following the line of our writers in verse and prose, we find
the old obsolete English to have gone out of use about the
accession of Edward IV". Lydgate and bishop Pecock,
especially the latter, are not easily understood by a reader not
h^ituated to their language ; he requires a glossary, or must
hdp himself out by conjecture.^ In the Paston Letters, on

* HUL of EnHl. Poetrr, iii. 54. to WicliO'e'* traiKlalion of the Bible.

\ See note in Priced editioo of War- Yet eTcn be hu mmj French uid Latin
tm. nbi lupra : to which I mdd, that the word*, though in a (ouller proportion
Temple of GIm( U roeationed in the than Chaucer and Gower. or even Man-
ftmtm Letten, il 90„ long before the derile and Treriu. In a pasage oF Man-
time of Hawea. deiile, quoted bj Burnet {Speciment of

f The language of Bidiop Peeoek ii Earl; Engliib Writers, toI. L p. 16.), I

■wee obiolete than that of Lydgate, or counted 41 French and 53 Salon wordi,

■njT other of hia eonteuiporariei ; and omitting particle* and ■ few common

■hii mar ■'m be ottaerTed with reqieot proooiuu, whicb of courae bdang to tha

X 4

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

six LITERATURE OF EUHOPE [PaitL

the contrary, in Harding the metrical chrooicler, or iu Sir
John Fortescue's Discourse on the difference between an

latter. But (hit is not in the luusl ratio ;
and in Treriu I found the Saion to be m
tiro to one. The form btn for be occurs
more oFUn in Trerlu than in Mande-
vile, which may probably be owing to
ancient or roodem tnuuciibers. Hoth
thewirriciinKem to bate undergone some
repairs as to orthography ana antique
teimiualions. In Wiclifte's translation,
made about 1380, the preponderance of
Saion, counliQf; only nouns, verbs, and
adverbs is considerahLy greater, probably
nearly Ibree (o one ; those who have in-
cluded pronouns and particles (all vhich
are notoriously Teutonic), have brought
(brirard ■ mueh higher ratio of Saion
ecen in modern books; especially if, like
Mr. Sharon Turner and Sir James
Mackintosh, they reckon each word as
often as it occurs. I have never counted
a single ward, in any of these eiperi-
ments, more than once; and my resulli
have certainly given a much greater pro-
portion of French and La^n than these
vriters have admitted. But this is in
reference to later periods of the language
than that witli which we haie to do.

Pecock, and probably WicliRe before
him, was apparently studioi

even to the 16th century ; as in Falxa^
who never employs this termination in
the infinitive. And in the present tcnB,
we find mta in Fortescue ; bm tor U,
and a few more plural) in Caiton. Some
inferior writers adopt tbia plural down
to the reign of Henry VIII.

Caiton republished the tramlation of
Higden's Polyehronieon by Trevii^
made about a hundred years before, ia
the new English ofhis own age, "Cer-
tainly,'* be lay^ ** our langu^e now used
varyeth far from that which waa spoken
vAea / iDoj bom ; for we Engli^ men
ben bom under the domination of the
moon, which ii never stedfast, but erel

'Bring ; waiinj

and <

And

lun English that is spoken
snire vsryeth from another." lie tnoi
tells a story of one ainng for e^i io
Kent, when the good wife replied ibe
could speak no French ; at last the word
eyren being used, she understood It
CailoD revolted to employ a mean be-

He,

lenldte

glish, "

tions which weregoingintodi>;use, perhaps
from a tenaciousness of purity in lan-
guage, which weoften find In literary men.
Hence we have in him, as in WiclifTcacAic
/«! for iAa£2, wolilen for mmld, iho for than,
and An* for (A«V; and thiialmost in variably.
Nov we possess hardly any prose e>-
aclly of Pecock'a age, about 14^0, with
the exception of the Rolls of Parliament.
These would be of material authority foi
the progress of our language, if we could
be sure that they have been bithfully

that this is not attugetber the case. It
is poasiblCt therefore, that modern forms
of language have been occasionally sub-
atituted for the more ancient. I should
not conceive that this has very frequently
occurred, as there has evidently been a
general intention to preserve the original
with accuracy : there is no designed mo.
dernisalion even of orthography. But
in the Rolls of Failiament, during Ihc
reign of Henry VI., we rarely find the
termination e« to the intinitive mood ;
tbougli I have observed it twice about

and the.

ahould be undcntood."
The difTeteneu between the old copy of
IVevisa and Caiton '^modemiaation, is
perhaps lesa than from the above passage
we might eipect ; but possibly we have
not the former in its perfect purity of
test. Trtvisa waa a parson in Cornwall,
and Caiton tetls us that be himself learned
his English in the weald of Kent, " where
I doubt not is spoken a* brode and rude
English as is in any place in England."
Caxtoti hat a fiuent and really good
style 1 he is even leas obsolete than For-

fbr both reasons might adhere to anti-
quity. Yet in him we have ryen li»
tyea ; 13m for afierwardt, and a few more
marks of antiquity. In Xjord Rivers's
prefiice to his " Dictionary of Pbiloto-
phers," 1477, as quoted in the IntrodOc-
tioii to Todd's edition of Johnson's Die-

the Rnt book that 1 have read thrsugb,
without delecting sny remnant ofobsolete
forma(eicepiingofcourseth ' '"

lyCOOglC

Chat. IV.] FBOM 1500 TO 1520. 3LS

absolute and limited monarchy, he finds scarce any difficulty ;
antiquated words and forms of termination frequently occur ;
but he is hardly sensible that he reads these books much less
fluently dmn those of modern times. These were written
about 1470. But in Sir Thomas More's History of Ed-
ward v., written about 150Q, or in the beautiful ballad of the
Nut-brown Maidi which we cannot place very far from the
year 1500, but which, if nothing can be brought to contra-;
diet the internal evidence, I should incline to refer to this
decennium, there is not only a diminution of obsolete
phraseology, but a certain modem turn and structure, both
in the verse and prose, which denotes the commencement of a
new era, and the establishment of new rules of taste in polite
literature. Every one will understand, that a broad line
cannot be traced for the beginning of this change ; Hawes,
though his English is very different from that of Lydgate,
seems to have had a great veneration for him, and has imitated
the manner of that school, to which, in a marshalling of our
poets, he unquestionably belongs. Skelton, on the contrary,
though ready enough to coin words, has comparatively few
that are obsolete.

76. The strange writer, whom we have just mentioned,
seems to fall well enough within this decad; diough
his poetical life was long, if it be true that he re-
ceived the laureate crown at Oxford in 1483, and was also
the author of a libel on Sir Thomas More, ascribed to him
by Ellis, which, alluding to the Nun of Kent, could hardly
be written before 1533.* But though this piece is somewhat
in Skelton's manner, we find it said that he died in 15^9,
and it is probably the work of an imitator. Skelton is cer-
tainly not a poet, unless some degree of comic humour, and
6 torrent-like volubility of words in doggrel rhyme, can make
one ; but this uncommon fertility, in a language so tittle
ct^ious as ours was at that time, bespeaks a mind of some
original vigour. Few English writers come nearer in this
respect to Rabelws, whom Skelton preceded. His attempts
in serious poetry are utterly contemptible ; but the satirical

dred jcan. and roai} indeed be fbund in Thomas More'i Hutory of Edward V.

Reid'i loquirf into Ibe 11 union Mind, 1847.1

puUiihed in 1764 and Ittec), 'a Sir * EUit's Spcdmeni, tol.ii.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

314 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PaktI.

lines OD Cardinal Wolsey were probably not inefiecdve. It
is impossible to detenniDe whether they were written before
IdSO. Though these are better known than any poem of
Skelton's, his dirge on PhiHp Sparrow is the most comic
and imaginative.*

77- We must now take a short survey of some other
oriHui departments of literature during this second decad
"'«"'■"■ of the sixteenth century. The Oriental languages
become a little more visible in bibliography than before. An
^thiopic, that isi Abyssinian grammar, with the Psalms in
the same language, was published at Rome by Potken in
IdlSj a short treatise in Arabic at Fano in 1514, being the
first time those characters bad been used in type; a psalter
in 15\6, by Giustiniani at Genoa, in Hebrew, Chaldee,
Arabic, and Greekt ; and a Hebrew Bible, with the Chaldee
paraphrase and other aids, by Felice di Prato, at Venice
in 1519. The Book of Job in Hebrew appeared at Paris in
1516. Meantime the magnificent polyglott Bible of Alcala
proceeded under the patronage of Cardinal Ximenes, and
was published in five volumes folio, between the years 15I4>
and 1517< It contains in triple columns the Hebrew, the
Septuagint Greek, and Latin Vulgate ; the Chaldee para-
phrase of the Pentateuch by Onkelos being also printed at
the foot of the page.1: Spun, therefore, had found men equal
to superintend this arduous labour. Lebrixa was still living,
though much advanced in years ; Stunica and a few other
now obscure names were his coadjutors. But that of Deme-
trius Cretensis appears among these in the title-page, to whom
the principal care of the Greek was doubtless intrusted ; and

* Thii last poem is reprinted in quidem Ctaaldno, aed litetii Hdmleia

Southey'i Selections fioni the older corucriptaoi ; Kptimm Latinam respon-

Poets. Eitruts from Skelton occur dcDtem ClialdeB, ultima Tero, id nt

hUo in Warton, uid one In the iint vo- oetsTa, canlinet Bcholia, hoc est, umota-

lume of the Soinera Tracts. Mr. Dyca tioncs apirus et interci&aB.

has it, I beliere, in con templet ion to \ Andris, lii. 35. An abterratiim in

publisb a colleeliie edition. the preface to the Complutemiai) edition

\ It iiprinled in eight columns, vhicb has been often animadverted upon, thit

Oemer.apud Bafle, Justiniani, Note D., they print the Vulgate bettreen the lie-

thus describes: Quarum prima habet brev and the Greefc, like Christ betwees

Hebrnam edillonem, seeunda Latinam two tliieres. The eipresrion, hoveveril

inlerprelationem respondentem HebrsiF may have been introduced, ia not to be

de *erbo in Terbum, tertia Lstinam whollj defended ; but at that time it *■*

eommunem, quana Grvcam, quinta generally believed, that tha fJebrev tell

Arabicam, seita parapbrasim, sennone had been coiTupteil bj the Jews;

lyCOOglC

I^r. IV.] FROM WOO TO 16M>. 315

it is higUy probable, that all the early Hebrew and Chaldee
pnbKcaticms demanded the assistance of Jewish rabbis.

78. The school of Padua, renowned already for its medical
sdenoe as well as for the cultivation of the Aria- _^^^
totelian philosophy, laboured under a suspicion of
infidelity, which was considerably heightened by the work of
Pomponatius, its most renowned professor, on the immor-
tality of the soul, published in 1516. This book met with
several answerers, and was publicly burned at Venice ; but
the patronage of Bembo sustiuned Pomponatius at the court
q( Leo ; and he was permitted by the inquisition to reprint
bis treatise with some corrections. He defended himself by
declaring that he merely denied the validity of philosophical
arguments for the soul's immortality, wi^out doubting in
the least the authority of revelation, to which, and to that of
the church, he had expressly submitted. This, however, is
the current language of philosophy in the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries, which must be judged by other presumptions.
Brucker and Gingu^n^ are clear as to the real disbelief of
Pomponatius in the doctrine, and bring some proofs from
his other writings, which seem more unequivocal than any
that the treatise De Immortalitate affords. It is certainly
possible, and not uncommon, for men to deem the arguments
00 that subject inconclusive, so far as derived from reason,
tHiile they assent to those that rest on revelation. It is on
the other hand impossible for a man to believe inconsistent
propositions, when he perceives them to be so. The ques-
tion therefore can only be, as Buhle seems to have seen,
whether Pomponatius mainttuned the rational argnments for
a future state to be repugnant to known truths, or merely
insufficient for conviction ; and this a superficial perusal of
his treatise hardly enables me to determine ; though there
is a presumption, on the whole, that he had no more religion
than the philosophers of Padua generally kept for a cloak.
That university was for more than a century the focus of
atheism in Italy."

* TinboMhi, Tol. Tiii. CornianL to the intention! of the Piultum philo-

Ginguiat. Brucker. Buhle. Niceron. lopher.

Biogr. UDivenelle. Tha two lul of Pompoiutitu, or Peretio, u he wm

thn* tie mote fiiaunble than the rest wmetiiuci called, on iccount of hU di-

t: Go Ogle

81U LITERATURE OF EUHOPE [Pabt I.

79. We may enumerate among the philosophical writings
lunaiHiii o^ this period, as being first published in 1516, a
^"'''- treatise full two hundred years older, by Raymond
Lully, a native of Majorca j one of those innovators in phi-
losophy, who, by much boasting of their original discoveries
in the secrets of truth, are taken by many at their word, and
gain credit for systems of science, which those who believe
in them seldom trouble themselves to examine, or even
understand. LuUy's prindpal treatise is his Ars Magna,
being, as it professes, a new method of reasoning on all

subjects. But this method wpears to be only an
artificial disposition, readily obvious to the eye, of
subjects and predicables, according to certain distinctions ;
which, if it were meant for any thing more than a topical
tirrangeoient, such as the ancient orators employed to aid
their invention, could only be compared to the similar scheme
of using machinery instead of mental labour, devised by the
philosophers of Laputa. Leibnitz is of opinion that the method
might be convenient in extemporary speaking ; which is the
utmost limit tliat can be assigned to its usefulness. Lord
Bacon has truly SEud of this, and of such idle or fraudulent
attempts to substitute trick for science, that they are " not a
lawful method, but a method of imposture, which is to deliver
knowledges in such manner, as men may speedily come to
make a show of learning, who have it not;' and that they
are " nothing but a mass of words of all arts, to give men
countenance, that those which use the terms might be thought
to understand them."

80. The writings of Lully are admitted to be very ob-
scure } aud those of his commentators and admirers, mnong
whom the meteors of philosophy, Cornelius Agrippa and
Jordano Bruno, were enrolled, are hardly less so. But, as
is usual with such empiric medicines, it obtained a great deal
of celebrity, and much ungrounded praise, not only for the
two centuries which intervened between the author's age and
that of its appearance from the press, but for a considerable

minutWe sUture, vhich be had in cam- ' (p. ISO. edit. Ii96) he ii made to argiM,
moa with hi« predecetsor in philocophy. that if alt book, vereread in tnnilatioa%
Marsillut Flciniu, waa ignorant of the time now comumed in learning Ian-
Gr«ck, though he lead ledurea on Aris- guagea might be better emplojed.
fotle. In one of Spcrone'i dialogum

lyGOOgIC

Chap. IV.] FROM 1600 TO 1620. 317

time afterwards, dll the Cartesian philosophy drove that to
which the art of LuUy Vfoa accommodated from the field; and
even Morhof, near the end of the seventeenth century, avows
that, though he had been led to reckon it a frivolous method,
iie had very much changed his opinion on fuller examinadoa.*
The few pages which Brucker has given to Lully do not
render his art very intelligihiet; but they seem sufficient to
show its uselessness for the discovery of truth. It is utterly
impossible, as I conceive, for those who have taken much
pains to comprehend this method, which is not the case with
me, to give a precise notion of it in a few words, even with
tibe help of diagrams, which are indispensably required, t

81. The only geographical publication which occurs in
this period is, an account of the recent discoveries
in America, by Peter Martyr of Angheria, a Mi- wj^fj^'*
lanese, who passed great pai^ of his life in the court
of Madrid. The dtle is, De Rebus Oceanicis decades tres ;
but it is, in fact, a series of epistles, thirty in number, written,
or feigned to be written, at different times as fresh informa-
tion was received ; the first bearing date a few days only
after the departure of Columbus in 1493; while the two
last decads are addressed to Leo X. An edidon is said to
have appeared in 1516, which is certainly the date of the

■ Morbotr, PalfhUtor, I. ii. o. 5. But | Buhle hai otuemd that the liiTour-

if I unttcnIaDd tbe ground on which able reception of Lullf's method is not

Horfaof rettt hia brourable opinion of nirpriiing, linee it reall; is uai^rul in the

Lull; '■ art. It ii nterelj foi ill luefiilness association oF ideas, like all other topical

in nigaesting middle terms to a tyllo- contritancm, and may he applied to anjr

giiticdixputuit. luhject, though often not rery appropri-

f Brucker, It. 9 — SI. Ginffufo^.wbo ately, suggeaiing niatrrials In eitempo-

otiaerTei that Bracket's analysis, i si raiy speaking, and notwithstanding its

maniere aceoutumie, may be undentood shortness, professing to be a complete

by thoae who haTe learned Lully's me- system of topics ; but irhoever should try

tbod, but inuil be lery confused to it must be coniinced of its inelllcacy in

othen, baa made the matter a grrat deal reasoning. Hence he thinks that such

more uoinlelligible by hia own attempt to men aa Agrippa and Bruno kept only

explain it. Hist. Lite de I'ltalie, lii. 497. the general principle of Lully's acbeme,

I have found a better development of the enlarging it by neir contrivances of their

method in Alstediuh Claris Artis Lulli- own. Hist, de Pbilos. ii. 613. See also

ansa (Argentor. 1633), a stanch admirer an aiticle oo Lully in the Biogrsphie

ofLully. Buthis praiseof theart, when Universelle. Tennemann calls the Art

examined, is merely aa an aid to the me- Magna a Ii^cil machine to let men rea-

mory, and to disputation, dequsvisquKs- son about every thinE without study or

tiona ulnmque in partem dispulandl reflection. Manuel de la Pfallos. i. SSO.

This ia rather an evil than a good ; and But this seems to have been much what

though mnemonical contrivancea are not Lully reckoned its merit,
without utility, it is probable that much
better could be bund than that of Lully.

lyGOOgIC -

318 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PabtL

author's dedication to Charles V. j yet this edition seems not
to have been seen by bibliographers. Though Peter Martyr's
own account has been implicitly believed by Robertson and
many others, there seems strong internal presumpUon against
the authenticity of these epistles in the character they as-
sume. It appears to me evident that he threw the intelli-
gence he had obtained into that form many years after the
time. Whoever will take the trouble of comparing the two first
letters in the decades of Peter Martyr with any authentic
history, will, I should think, perceive that they are a negli-
gent and palpable imposture, every date being falsified, even
that of the year in which Columbus made his great discovery.
It is a strange instance of oversight in Robertson that be has
uniformly quoted them as written at the time, for the least
attention must have shown him the contrary. And it may
here be mentioned, that a similar suspicion may be reason-
ably entertained with respect to another collection of episdes
by the same author, rather better known than the present
There is a folio volume with which those who have much
attended to the history of the sixteenth century are well ac-
quainted, purporting to be a series of letters from Anghiera
to various friends between the years 14i88 and 1522. TTiey
are full of interesting facts, and would be still more valuable
than they are, could we put our trust in their genuineness as
strictly contemporary documents. But, though Robertson
has dmost wholly relied upon them in his account of the
Casulian insurrection, and even in the Biographie Univer-
selle no doubt is raised as to their being truly written at their
several dates, yet La Monnoye (if I remember right, cer-
tainly some one) long since charged the author with impos-
ture, on the ground that the letters, into which he wove the
history of his times, are so full of anachronisms as to render
it evident that they were fabricated afterwards. It is several
years since I read these epistles ; but I was certainly struck
with some palpable errors in chronology, which led me to
suspect that several of them were wrongly dated, the solution
of dieir being feigned not occurring to my mind, as the book
is of considerable reputation.* A ground of suspicion hardly

lyGOOgIC

Ch4F.IV.] prom 1500 TO 1520. 319

less striking, is, that the letters of Peter Martyr are too
exact for verisimilitude ; he announces events with just the
importance they ought to have, predicts nothing but what
comes to pass, and must in fact be either an impostor (in an
innocent sense of the word), or one of the most sagacious
men of his time. But, if not exactly what they profess to
be, both these works of Anghiera are valuable as contem-

Krary history ; and the first mentioned in particular, De
;bu8 Oceanicis, is the earliest account we possess of the
settlement of the Spaniards in Darien, and of the whole period
between Columbus and Cortes.

8S. It would be embarrassing to the reader were we to

Sureue any longer that rigidly chronolo^cal division by short
ecennial periods, which has hitherto served to display the
regular progress of European literature, and especially of
classical learning. Many other provinces were now culti-
vated, and the history of each is to be traced separately from
the rest, though frequently with mutual reference, and with
regard, as far as possible, to their common unity. In the
period immediately before us, that unity was chiefly preserved
by the diligent study of the Latin and Greek languages ;
it was to the writers in those languages that the theologian,
the civil lawyer, the physician, the geometer and philosopher,
even the poet, for the most part, and dramatist, repaired
for the materials of their knowledge, and the nourishment
of their minds. We shall begin, therefore, by following the
further advances of philological literature ; and some readers
must here, as in other places, pardon what they will think un-
necessary minuteness in so general a work as the present, for
the sake of others who set a value on precise information.

ha vritca to ■ &iend (Ariaa Barbtn) ; If 10. Epiit. 4JI. Id a Utter dated at

In peeulianmtenostmlempesudimor- Bmsseli, Aug. SI. IfSO (Eplit. 6S9.),

bum, qui ■ppellatlone HiftpanA Bulnrum he mentioaa the btirning of the noon

Scitui, ab Italia morbus Gallicus, medi- Uw at Wittenberg b; Luther, whicli ia

nomm Elephantiam alii, alii ililer ap- well knoirn to have happened in the en-

iwllaiit, incidiaw pneeipitem, libera od auinf; NoTernber. — [Mr. Pmcott, in hia

MIC Bribia pede. Epiat. 68. Now ir we excellent liislorj of Ferdinand and laa-

ibould eTen belirre that tliii diseaie was bella, lol. iL p. 78„ has eipreased his

known aomc j ein before the dlworery dissent from this suspicion that P. Mar-

of America and the Atge of Naples, is it tjir's letters were written after tbe time,

probable that it eould haie obtained tbe and ascribes Ihe ■nichronitma to the

name of morbus Gallicua before tbe latter misplacinfc of some letters by the original

tni? In Februarjp, 1511, he eommuni- editor. This will probably account for

ealei the absolution of the Venetians b; some of tliem ; but mj suspi

Julius tl,, which look place in February, whollj remored. — I S4S.]

V, Google

LITERATURE OF EUROPE

CHAPTER V.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT LITERATURE IN EUROPE FHOM
1520 TO 1550.

Claulcat TatU ojtkt Ilaliant — dcerordanM — Eratamt alladci Ihgm — Wiilhtgi
on Roiuan Anligailif — Learning in France — Comvientaria of Budam —
Progmt ofLeanmg in Spain, Genaimy, England — State of Cambridge and
Oicfird — Adaince of Learmitg itiU tlow — Encyclopedic ISortt.

1. Italy, the geni^ soil where the literature of antiquity
had heen 6rst cultivated, still retained her superiority
jrfKfto^ in the fine percepdoa of its beauties, and in the
power of retracing them by spirited imitation. It
was the land of taste and sensibility ; never surely more so
than in the age of Raffaelle as well as Ariosto. Far from the
clownish ignorance so long predominant in the Transalpine
aristocracy, the nobles of Italy, accustomed to a city life, and
to social festivity, more than to war or the chase, were always
conspicuous for their patronage, and, what is more important
than mere patronage, their critical skill in matters of art and
elegant learning. Among the ecclesiastical order this was
naturally still more frequent. If the successors of Leo X.
did not attain so splendid a name, they were, perhaps, after
the short reign of Adrian VI., which, if we may believe the
Italian writers, seemed to threaten an absolute return of bar-
barism *, not less munificent or sedulous in encouraging polite

■ Valerianus, in hii trealise De Infe- lente*, tamdiu latuere, quoad Dei benp.

lioitat« LitUntorum, ■ meliincholy uriei ficio, ■Itero imperii anno dccessit, qui n

of unii>rtun>te authors, in the manner, Kliquanlo diutiun Tiiiuit, Gotica Ilia

though iu>t quite with tile spirit and inter- tempora advenus bonaa ^itt^ru vidvbatur

ett,afMr.<l'I(nieli,>peak9of Adrian VI. auicilatuiu). Lib. ii. p. 31. It is but

as of another Paul II. in hatred of lite- fair to add, that Erasmus ascribes to
rature. Ecce adeat muwruiu et eloque
titf» totiusque nitorii bostis acerrimi

tur, quoniam, uC ipse dictitabat, Tereti- anus turn Cardinalis, po^tea Romanus
tiaui enent, quoa cum odiise atque etiam pontifei, hoc edidiaset ortculuin : Bouas

ilium, aliaa atqut alia* alii latebras qua:- damno. EpiiL uclxivi. There is not

lyGOOgIC

Chap. V.] FROM 1520 TO 1550. 321

aod useful letters. The first part indeed of tbis period of
thirty years was very adverse to the progress of learning ;
especially in that disastrous hour when the lawless mercena-
ries of Bourbon's army were led on to the sack of Rome.
In this, and in other calamities of the same kind, it happened
that universities and literary academies were broken up, that
libraries were destroyed or dispersed. That of Sadolet,
having been with difficulty saved in the pillage of Rome, was
dispersed, in conse<]uence of shipwreck during its transport
to France.* A better era commenced with the pacification
of Italy in 1531. The subsequent wars were either transient,
or partial in their effects. The very extinction of all hope
for civil freedom, which characterised the new period, turned
the intellectual energies of an acute and ardent people to-
wards those tranquil pursuits, which their rulers would both
permit and encourage.

Q. The real excellence of the ancients in literature as well
as art gave rise to au enthusiastic and exclusive ad< Admiruinn
miration of antiquity, not unasual indeed in other ''f""'^''"^-
parts of Europe, but in Italy a sort of national pride which all
partook. They went back to the memory of past ages for
consolation in meir declining fortunes, and conquered their
barbarian masters of the north in imagination with Ctesar
and Marius. Every thing that reminded them of the slow
decay of Rome, sometimes even their religion itself, sounded
31 in their fastidious ears. Nothing was so much at heart
with the Italian scholars, as to write a Latin style, not only
free from barbarism, but conformable to the standard of what
is sometimes called the Augustan age, that is, of the period

indeed much inlbU: but ihe Biograpbie torei, et in ipioi bmillBres meoi pesti-

Univcnelle (SuppL ait. Biuleiden) io- lentia. Quo metu !i pennoli, quorum

(arm* us that tbii pope wu compelled to ad litlsn naris appuln flienil, oneia in

■Dlcrfcre in order to remore (be impedi- terrain exponi noa penniierc. Ita at-

Bkeola to tbe foundation of Budeiilen'i portati tuni in alienoi et ignotaiterm;

Coll^iuia Trilingue at LouTain. It !■ eiceptiaqua voluminibut paucia, qua de.

wtll kuoira that Adrian VI. wu inclined porUvi meeum tiuc proiimceiu, mei re-

to Tcfbnn Mine abum in the church, liqui illi tot Uborea quoM impenderatDui,

nwugh to act the Italiaoa against him. Orient pneaertim codicibu»conquirendii

See bii life, in Btj\t, Note U. undique et colligendii, mei tanti sump.

" Cun enim direplia rebui ctewris, tus, mec cu™, omnes itEtuni jam ad

libri uli nipentitea ab boalium injuria nihilutn reddetunt. Sadolet. Epiat.lib.i.

intacli, in narini conjtcti, ad Ua1li«B tit- p. S3. (Colon. 1554.)
tna jam petvecU event, inddit in tco-
VOL. I. Y

lyGOOgIC

322 LITERATURE OK EUROPE [Pakt I.

from Cicero to Augustus. Several of them affected to be
exclusively Ciceronian.

3. Sadolet, one of the apostolic secretaries under Leo X.
and Clement VII., and raised afterwards to the pur-
ple by Paul III., stood in as high a rank as any for
purity of languf^;e without affectation, though he seems to
have been reckoned of the Ciceronian school, Except his
epistles, however, none of Sadolet's works are now read, iff
even appear to have been very conspicuous in his own ag« ;
though Comiani has given an analysis of a b«atise on
education.* A greater name, in point of general
literary reputation, was Peter Bembo, a noble Ve-
netian, secretary with Sadolet to Leo, and raised, like him,
to the dignity of a cardinal by Paul III. Bembo was known
in Latin and in Itdian literature ; and in each language both
aa a prose writer and a poet. We shall thus have to regard
four claims which he prefers to a niche in the temple of fame,
and we shall find none of them ungrounded. In pure Latin style
he was not perhaps superior to Sadolet, but would not have
yielded to any competitor in Europe. It has been told, in
proof of Bembo's scrupulous care to give his compositicos
the utmost finish, that he kept forty portfolios, into which
every sheet entered successively, and was only taken out to
undergo his corrections, before it entered into the nest limbo
of this purgatory. Though this may not be quite true, it is
but an exaggeration of the laborious diligence by whidi he

■ Niccron Hjs of Sadold'i Epistin, ure of eccleauticit refbnnMiaa In re-
vhich fana s TEiy thick lotume : II j > ipect of morali liu esiued bim to be
pluaieun chosen digneof^ire renuingu^ auspected of ■ biu (omrdi prolnluit-
dnni tes leltrea lie Sadolet ; mais ellei ism ; ind a letter in the rooM aatleiing
■onti]ae1qiidbiatropdifllii«,clpucopi£- terms, which he wrote to Helanehtbon.
qunt enDujeiiaea it lir«. I concur In thii ; but irhieb that learned mui did not aa-
yet it may be added, that the Eplatlc^ of awer, has been brought in corrobontion
Cicero would sometime* be tedioua, if we of this ; yet tbe general tenor of hU let-
took OS little interent in (heir sobjedf a> ten refiitei tliia surmise: his theology,
wecommonly do in thoseof Sadolet. His which wai wholly semi-pelagian, mutt
style is uniform); pureand good ; hut he liave led him to look with disgust on tbe
i« less fiistidious than Bembo.and doesnot early . Lutheran schcwl. ( Episl. I. iil.
use circuity to iroid a theologieal ei- p. ISl., and 1. ix. p. 410.); and aAer
proaion. They are much more iotercst- Paul III. bestowed on him the purple,
ing, St least, than the ordinary I^iin he became a stanob friend of the court
lettem of his conleinporaries, rach as of Rome, though never loung hb wish
those of Paulus Monutius. A uniform to see a reform of its abuses. This will
goodness of heart and love of right pre- be admitted by eiery one who takes tbe
Tail in the epistles of Sadolet. His de- trouble to run over Sadolet^ epuU«a.

lyGOOgIC

CuAr.V.] FROM 1620 TO 1560. 323

most often have reduced his sense to feebleness and vacuity. He
was one of those exclusive Ciceroniaiis who, keenly feeling
the beauties of their master's eloquence, and aware of the
corruption which, after the age of Augustus, came rapidly over
the purity of style, rejected with scrupulous care not only
every word or phrase which could not be justified by the
|wacdce of what was called the golden age, but even insisted
on that of Cicero himself, as the only model they thought ab-
solutely perfect. Paulns Manutius, one of the most rigorous,
tboogh of the most eminent among these, would not employ
the words of C^ro's correspondents, though as highly ac-
complished and polite as himself, lliis fastidiousness was
of course highly inconvenient in a language constantly appli-
cable to the daily occurrences of life in epistles or in narration,
and it has driven Bembo, according to one of hia severest
critics, into strange affectatiou and circuity in his Venetian
history. It produced also, what was very offensive to the
more serious reader, and is otherwise frigid and tasteless, an
adaptation of heathen phrases to the usages and even the
characters of Christianity.* It has been remarked also, that
in his great solicitude about the choice of words, he was in-
different enough to the value of his meaning ; a very common
biling of elegant scholars, when they write in a foreign lan-
guage. But if some pruse is due, as surely it is, to the art
of reviving that consummate grace and richness which en-
chants every successive generation in the periods of Cicero,
we must place Bembo, had we nothing more than this to say
o( him, among the ornaments of literature in the sixteenth
century.

4. llie tone which Bembo and others of that school were
studiously giving to ancient literature, provoked one ctRronismt
of the most celebrated works of Erasmus, the '''^™"'"-

* TbH ■ffeclatlon lud begun in the of I^tin, especiillf In hie letteis. Ibid,

preceding century, and wm carried by Sturm ays orihe letteraof Bembo; Ejui

CunpaiKi in hia I.iTe of Bracclo di Mon- episColie Kriptie mihi migii quoin mima

looe lo M great ui eitreme as by Dembo, etsevidenlur. Indicia sunt ho minis otioii

or any Ciceroaian of his age. Biyle el imiutoria tpeciem magis rerum quam

(Benibus, Note B. ) giTCi lotne odd in- m ipsii conwctantiK. Ascbatn, Kpist.

(UEKca of it ID Ihe Utter. Notirith- ecciei-

itimling hit laborioui Krupuloaily as to [The origin of the Ciceronian contro-

language, Bembo is reproached b* Lip- Tersy will have some light throvn on it

iin, aiul other* of a more advanced stage by the Epialira of Politian. Ub. v. I — 4.

«f ciilical kMnrlcdge, with many bulta — 1843.]

n,gti7ccT:G00glc

334 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past I.

dialogues entitled Ciceronianus. The primary aim of these
was to ridicule the fastidious purity of that sort of writers,
who would not use a case or tense for which they could not
find authority in the works of Cicero. A whole winter's
night, they thought, was well spent in composing a single
sentence ; but even then it was to be revised over and over
again. Hence they wrote little except elaborated epistles.
One of their rules, he tells us, was never to speak Latin, if
they could help it, which must have seemed extraordinary in
ail age when it was the common language of scholars from
different countries. It is certain, indeed, that the practice
cannot be favourable to very pure latinity.

5, Few books of that age gave ns more insight into its
literary history and the public taste than the Ciceronianus.
In a short retrospect Erasmus characterises fdl the consider-
able writers in Latin since the revival of letters, and en-
deavours to show how far they wanted this Ciceronian elegance
for which some were contending. He disduguishes in a spirit
of sound taste between a just imitation whidi leaves free
scope for genius, and a servile following of a single writer.
" Let your first and chief care," he says, " be to understand
thoroughly what you undertake to write about, lliat will
give you copiousness of words, and supply you with true and
natural sentiments. Then will it be found how your language
lives and breathes, how it excites and hurries away the reader,
and how it is a just image of your own mind. Nor will that
be less genuine which you add to your own by imitation."

6. The Ciceronianus, however, goes in some passages
beyond the limited subject of Latin style. The controversy
had some reference to the division between the men of learn-
ing and the men of taste, between the lovers of the solid aad
of the brilliant, in some measure also, to that between
Christianity and Paganism, a garb which the incredulity of
the Italians affected to pnt on. All the Ciceronian party,
except Longolius, were on the other side of the Alps.* The

* Thoush tliia is generally laiS, on and PhuIus Manuliui owni him u hn

the auIhoTiIr oF Erumus hinnelf, Peter muter, iti one of hii eputlei : Ego ab

Bunel !■ asaerted by aome French acho- illo maximuni habebaoi beoeGcium, quod

lara of groat name, and iiarlicularly by me cum Politiaiiia et EraunuDescioqui-

Henry Slepheiu, to hate equalled in bu* miaet^ errantem, in huio recte icri-

Ciceronian purity the best uf the Italian!; bendi Tiani primus iDdnient. InaWi

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Chap, v.] FROM 1S20 TO 1650. 325

otject of the Italian scholars was to write pure Latin, to
glean little morsels of Roman literature, to talk a heathenish
[Ailosophy in private, and leave the world to its owu abuses.
That of Erasmus was to make men wiser and better by wit,
sense, and learning.

7. Julius Gsesar Scaliger wrote against the Ciceronianus
with all that unmannerly invective, which Is the dis-
grace of many scholars, and very much his own. '"«i"
His vanity blinded him to what was then obvious to
Europe, that with considerable learning, and still better parts,
fae was totally unworthy of being named with the first man
in the literary republic. Nor in fact had he much right to
take up the cause of the Ciceronian purists, with whom he had
no pretension to be reckoned, though his reply to Erasmus
is not ill written. It consists chiefly in a vindication of
Cicero's life and writings against some passages in the Cice-
ronianns which seem to aflect them, scarcely touching the ques-
tion of Latin style. Erasmus made no answer, and thus escaped
the danger of retaliating on Scaliger in his own phrases.

8. The devotedness of the Italians to Cicero was dis-
played in a more useful manner than by this close Eduioni of
imitation. Pietro Vettori (better known as Victo- *"""■
rius), professor of Greek and Roman literature at Florence,
published an entire edition of the great orator's writings in
15S4. But this was soon surpassed by a still more illus-
trioDS scholar, Paulus Manutius, son of Aldus, and his suc-
cessor in the printing-house at Venice, His edition of Cicero
appeared in 1540 ; the most important which had hitherto
been published of any ancient author. In fact, the notes of
Manudus, which were subsequently very much augmented *,
form at this day in great measure the basis of interpretation
and illustration of Cicero, as what are called the Variorum edi-
tions will show. A further accession to Ciceronian literature
was made by Nizolius in his Observationes in M. Tullium Cice-
ronem, 1535. This title hardly indicates that it is a dictionary
of Ciceronian words, with examples of their proper senses. The

•^tion, Ibr Folitiinw ct Ensmii, it WH )S5\. It i> lo be observed, that he had

tfxmght more decent to introduce Philel- lived much in Italy. Eiumus don not

phi* et CatDpanii. Bayle, art. Bund, mention him in the Cieeronisnus.

Note A. The letter* of Bunel, written ■ Rcnouard, ImprimetU dei Aide*.
with great purilj, were publUhed in

' ' n„«,M,:,G00gle

S3() LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past L

later and improved editions bear the title of Iliesaunis Qce-
ronianus. I find no critical work in this period of greater
extent and labour than that of Scaliger de Gausis Latins
Lingus ; by " causis" meaning ita principles. It relates
much to the foundations of the language, or the rules bj
which its various peculiarities have been formed. He cor-
rects many alleged errors of earlier writers, and sometimes of
Valla himself; enumerating, rather invidiously, 634- of such
errors in an index. In this book he shows much acuteness
and judgment

9. Hie Geniales Dies of Alexander ab Alexandro, a
Aituadirib Neapolitan lawyer, published in 15^, are on the
Aieundra, J^^Q^f,\ ^f Aulus Gellius, a repertory of miscellaneous
learning, thrown together without arrangement, on every sub-
ject of Roman philology and antiquities.' The author had
lived with the scholars of the fifteenth century, and even
remembered Philelphus ; but his own reputation seems not
to have been extensive, at least through Europe. " H«
knows every one," says Erasmus in a letter ; '* no one
knows who he is." ' The Geniales Dies has had better suc-
cess in later ages than most early works of criticism, a good
edition having appeared, with Variorum notes, in l673. It
gives, like the Lectiones Antiquie of Cielius Rhodigiuus, an
idea of the vast extent to which the investigation of Latin
antiquity had been already carried.

10. A very few books of the same class belong to this

period ; and may deserve mention, although long
Krniu since superseded by the works of those to whom we

have just alluded, and who filled up and corrected
their outline. Marlianus on the Topog^phy of Rome, 1334,
is admitted, though with some hesitation, by Grsvius into his
ITiesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, while he absolutely sets
aside the preceding labours of Blondus Flavius and Pomponius
Lsetus. The Fasti Consulares were first published by Mar-

■ Demiror quit nit ille Alciinder >b (hat Alnuider ii hardlj mentioned b^

Aleiandro. Novit omncK celebrea lulin his conlemporarie*. Tin<i]ue«u,a Preach

viroii Philelphum, PamponLum LKtum, lawyer of eoiwderable learning, under*

Hermolaum, ct quos non ? Omnibus took the lask of writing critical note* on

itauaestfamiliariter; Umen nemo iiorit the Geniales Dies about tbe middle of

ilium. Appendix, ad Erasm, Eplst. the century, correcting tnaof <^ the er-

cccliiiii. (1533.) Bayle aba remarks, rois which they contained. ^

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cbj*.V.] prom 1820 TO 1550. 327

liaaua m I<54i9* and s work on the same subject in 1550
was the earliest production of the great Sigonius. Before
these the memorable events of Roman history had not been
criticaUy reduced to a chronological series. A treatise by
Raphael of Volterra de MagTstratibus et Sacerdotibus Roma-
Bornm is very inaccurate and superficial.* Mazochius, a
Roman bookseller, was the first who, in 1521, published a
ooUection of inscriptions. This was very imperfect, and full
(tf blse monuments. A better appeared in Germany by the
ore of Apianus, professor of mathematics at Ingotdstadt, in
1534.1

11. It could not be expected, that the elder and more co-
pions fountain of ancient lore, the Greek language,
would slake the thirst of Italian scholars as readily (tuiiiHiio
■s the Latin. No local association, no patriotic
sentiment, could attach them to that study. Greece itself
DO longer sent out a Lascaris or a Musurus ; subdued, de-
graded, barbarous in language and learning, alien, above all,
hy insuperable enmity, from the church, she had ceased to be
a tiving guide to her own treasures. Hence we may observe
even alr^dy, not a diminution, but a less accelerated increase
of Greek erudition in Italy. Two, however, among the most
considerable editions of Greek authors, in point of labour,
that the century produced, are the Galen by Andrew of Asola
in 1525, and the Eostathius from the press of Bladus at
Rome in 154>2.t We may add, as first editions of Greek
sntbors, Epictetus, at Venice, in 1538, and Arrian in 1535 ;
£liao, at Rome, in 1545. The Etymologicum Magnum of
Phavorinus, whose real name was Guarino, published at Rome
in 1523, was of some importance, while no lexicon but the very
defective one of Craston had been printed. The Etymolo-
gimm of Phavorinus, however, is merely " a compilation from
HesycliinB, Suidas, Phrynichus, Harpocration, Eustathius, the
Etyioolf^ca, the lexicon of Philemon, some treatises of Try.

fiho, Apollonius, and other grammarians and various scholiasts.
t is valuable as furnishing several important corrections of

* It u published in Sallengre, Nonii Th«uUTUt Aatiquit., vol. iit.
t BuTnuoin, pntlat. in Oruter, Corpus liucriptionum.
t Oranrdl's Esrl; PuidsD Greek PreM, p. 14.

t: Go Ogle

3S8 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PaktI.

the authors from whom it was collected, and not a few ex-
tracts from unpublished grammarianB." *

IS. Of the Italiaa scholars, Vettorl, already mendoned,
seems to have earned the highest reputation for his
gu^ skill in Greek. But there was no considerable town
in Italy, besides the regular universities, where pub-
lic instruction in the Greek as well as Latin tongue was not
furnished, and in many cases by professors of fine taste and
recondite learning, whose names were then eminent j such
as Boaamico, Nizzoli, Parrhasio, Corrado, and Maffei, com-
monly called Raphael of Volterra. Yet, according to Tira-.
boschi, something was sdll wanting to secure these schools
from the too frequent changes of teachers, which the hope of
better salaries produced, and to give the students a more
vigorous emulation, and a more uniform scheme of disd-

n" ae.t This was to be supplied by the followers of Ignatius
yola. But their interference with education in Italy did
not begin in quite so early a period as the present.

13. If we cross the Alps, and look at the condition of
BudKoi; learning in countries which we left in 15^, rapidly
m^uMH advancing on the footsteps of Italy, we shall find
OD Greek, jjj^^ except in purity of Latin style, both France
and Germany were now capable of entering the lists of fair
competition. France possessed, by general confession, the
most profound Greek scholar in Europe, Budteus. If this
could before have been in doubt, he raised himself to a pin-
nacle of philological glory by his Commentarii Linguffi Grsecse,
Paris, 1529- The publications of the chief Greek authors
by Aldus, which we have already specified, had given a com-
pass of reading to the scholars of this period, which those of
the fifteenth century could not have possessed. But, with the
exception of the Etymologicum of Phavorinus, just mentioned,
no attempt had been made by a native of western Europe to
interpret the proper meaning of Greek words ; even he had
confined himself to compiling from the grammarians. In
this targe and celebrated treatise, Budatus has established

• Quarlerl7R«Tieir,Tol.xxii. Roscoc'i viL 232., luscopieil Tireboschi's ucount

Leo.ch. iL Stephens U siid to hive Id- oF these occompIiBhed teacheis wilb lillle

aerted many parti of thiiiexicon of Guirino addition, and probably with no know.

in his Theuurus. Niceron, iiiL 141. ledge of tlie original aourcei of iafiinDa-

t Vol. riii. 114. I. 319. Gin^«n«, lion.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CHAf.V.] FROM 1520 TO 1560. 329

tbe interpretation of a great part of the language. All later
critics write in his praise. There will never be another
BudieuB in France, says Joseph Scaliger, the roost envious
and detracting, though the most learned, of the tribe.*
But, referring to what Baillet and Blount have collected
from older writers f, we will here insert the character of these
Commentaries which an eminent living scholar has given.

14. " This great work of Budfeua has been the text-book
aod common storehouse of succeeding lexicographers, i,,,],^
But a great objection to its general use was its want '*'^'
of arrangement. His observations on the Greek language
are thrown together in the maimer of a common-place book,
an inconvenience which is imperfectly remedied by an alpha-
betical index at the end. His authorities and illustrations are
chiefly drawn from the prose writers of Greece, the historians,
orators, and fathers. With the poets he seems to have had a
less intimate acquwntance. His interpretations are mostly
correct, and always elegantly expressed j displaying an union
of Greek and Latin literature which renders his Commen-
taries equally useful to the students of both languages. The
peculiar value of this work consists in the full and exact ac-
count which it gives of the Greek legal and forensic terms,
both by literal interpretation, and by a comparison with the
corresponding terms in Roman jurisprudence. So copious
and exact is this department of the work, that no student can
read the Greek orators to the best advantage unless he con-
sults the Commentaries of Budffius. It appears from the
Greek epistle subjoined to the work that the illustration of
the forensic language of Athens and Rome was originally
all that his plan embraced ; and that when circumstances
tempted him to extend the limits of his work, this still con-
dnned to be his chief object." f

* Sealigeraiu, L 33. bere inHiluimui, ut quicqu'id in orri'mem

t Bullet, Jugcmeni dei SiTUlt, iL Krieinque KTibeiidi incurreiet, lel ci di-

338. ( Ainct. 1T35.) Blounl, in Budm. Terlieulo quui obTum te oBerrct, ad id

{ Qiurtcrlj R«vi«w, vol. iiii., in ir- digredl A large portiiui of what is v>-

lidc aicribal la tha Bidiop of London, luable ill this work hu bmi transfeiTed

The eommentaria of Budieiu arc wriltcn bySuplieni to hit 'nteaaurtu. The I^tia

id a mj Tambliug and deiultory manner, critieiinis of Budwis have alao doublleia

laaiing lirani one >ubj<M to another a> a been borrowed.

eanu] word nuj uiggeat the tranirlion. Budnn and Eraimiu are fond of

Ke ouoi, b* aiy*. taoi coionMnMcios acri- writing Gnelc in their oorreapoodenoc

t: Go Ogle

330 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Vabt J.

15. These Commentaries of Budteus stand not only^ far
Qr^ above any thing' else in Gireek literature before the

Slim" middle of the sixteenth century, but are alone in
""'' their class. What comes next, but at a vast inter-

val, is the Greek grammar of Clenardus, printed at Louvaio
in 1530. It was, however, much beyond Budsns in extent
of circulation, and probably, for this reason, in general utility.
This grammar was continually reprinted with successive im-
provements, and, defective as, especially in its original state,
it must have been, was far more perspicuous than that of Gaza,
though not, perhaps, more judicious in principle. It was for a
long time commonly used in France ; and is in fact the prin*
cipal basis of those lately or still in use among us ; sudi as the
Eton Greek grammar. The proof of this is, that they follow
Clenardus in most of his innovations, and too frequently for
mere accident, in the choice of instances." The account of
syntax in this grammar, as well as that of Gaza, is very
defective. A better treatise, in this respect, is by Varenius of

Others had Iha lanir &iicv ; and It ii tbe head of one or our public achook, in

Gurioui tliat they ventUTcd upon vhat a communication with vbioh he hai &-

has irholl]' gone out of UK Slice the Ian. loured me, doee not think, oa a eom-

guage hai been u well underMood. But pariaon of the t«a worki, that the Etna

probablj this ii the reaion that later Greek grammar owei vtrj much to that

•ebolan tuTe avoided it Neither of of Clenaniu^ though there ii no doubt

tbeaa grrM men ihine much in elegaoca much that ma; haTe been boniiir*d

or purity. One of Budsui, Aug. 15. from him. and it inclined to beliere thai

1519, (in Eraim. Epist. eeeclT. ) aeemt it wai formed upon one published by tbe

often incorraet, and in the mere ityle of uniTertity of Padua, which caotains tbt

a Mhoolboy. £tan grammar lolidtm otrbit, and a great

■ Clenardua Kemi flnt to have aepar- deal of other matter,
ated nmple from eantraeird nouni, thui Of Ihii Paduan grammar I am wholly
making ten 'decleniiona. Wherever he ignorant : if published before that of
diSitn from Gaia, QUI papular grammar! Clenardus, <t must be of tome interest in
seem in general to haie followed him. literary hiitory. But eertaioly the gram-
He telli UB, that he had drawn up his mar ot Clenardus dlBers considerably
own for tbe use of his private pupils, from thatof Oaaa, by distingutriiingcDn-
Baillet obseries, that the grammar of tracted from umple nouns, ai separata
Clenardui, notwithstanding the medio, declendons ; surely a great error ; and by
crity of his learning, has had more auo- dividing the cu^ugatiana of verbs into
cess than any other; those who have thirteen, which Can makes but fbnr,
followed having mostly oonlined them, ending in si, and one in u; Tbe choice
selves to correcting and enlarging it of word* for examples with Cleoardus is
Jugemeiu des Savans, ii. 1G4. This is very often the same as in our modern
oertainly true, as fiir as England is coo- grammars, though not so constantly as I
eemed; though the Eton grammar is hadat first supposed. It would be easy to
in some degree an improvement on point out ruLea in that grammarian which
Clenardus. have been copied verbatim by bis soo-

[This was stated rather too strongly in cessors. — ISIS.]
my flrU edition. A learned penon at

lyGOOgIC

Cbap. v.] from 1520 TO I5S0, SSI

Malines, Syntaxia hmguse Grsecee, printed at Louvain about
13S&. Aiiother Greek gramniar by Vergara, a native of
Spain, has been extolled by some of the older critics, and
depreciated by others.* A Greek lexicon, of which the
first edition was printed at Basle in 153^, ia said to abound
in faults and inaccuracies of every description. The character
given of it by Henry Stephens, even when it had been en-
aigei, if not improved, does not speak much for the means
that the scholars of this age faad possessed in labouring for
the attunment of Greek learning.!

16, The most remarkable editions of Greek authors from
the Parisian press were those of Aristophanes in
1528, and of Sophocles in 1529 ; the former printed H^^
by Gourmont, the latter by Colinseus ; the earliest
edition of Dionysius Halicamassensis in 154<6, and of Dio
Cassias in 1548 ; both by Robert Stephens. The first Greek
edition of the elements of Budid appeared at Basle in 1533,
of Diogenes Laertius the same year, of five books of Dio-
dorus in 1539, of Josephus in 1544 ; the first of Polybius in
1530, at Haguenau. Besides these editions of classical
authors, Basil, and other of the Greek fathers, occupied the
press of Frobenius, under the superintendence of Erasmus.
The publications of Latin authors by Badius Ascensius con-
tinued till his death in 1535. Coliiieeus began to print his
small editions of the same class at Paris about 1521. They
are in that cursive character which Aldus had first em-
ployed, t The number of such editions, both in France and
Germany, became far more considerable than in the preced-

* Vergm de omnihiii Griccie lingus libi forta lucUriuni ad nequentei ctUm

gnoimMiw partibui, 15T3; nther 153T, editiooo. He proeeeda to aj, (hat ha

fiir "drinda pBriiiu, I5S0," fbllowa ia enUrgvd >evN«l other editiaoi dowu to

Anlonio Bibl. Nora. iS56, when the last that had been en.

\ H. Slephanni de tjpographite torn riehed b; bi> addition! appeared at Basle,

(talu. Ge*ner bimwlf ttjt of thii leii- CKterum hoc anno, quohcc Kribo. 156S,

con, which aumetimei bore hii name : Ceneia prodiitse audio tonge copioais-

Cirea annum 1537, loiioon Grnco-L'- limuni emendaliuimumque Green lin-

Unum, quod jam ante a diTenu el iniio- giua tbenaiirum a Rob. CoDstantino in-

minaua nescio quibus miierj aatia con. coinpsrabilii doctrinal vlro, ex Joannis

Mrclnatum erat, ei PhaTorini Camertii Criipinl offlcinl Vide Getueri Bibliolh.

Lciieo Graco ila auxi, u( nihil iu eo UDifenalis. art. Conrad Gcsner: Ihii ia

eitaiet, quod non ut aingulari fide, ita part of a long seeount given here bj

labors maiimo adjicerem ; led typogra- Geaner of hii oirn vork).

pbua me iucio, et prater omuoD ei- J GreaveU'a Hiitory of tbe earlf Pa-

ptctaiionem meem, eiiguam duntaxat rinan Greek Pms.
'la nwo partero adjteit, rei«TTan«

t: Go Ogle

ays LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PiiTl.

ing age. They are not, however, in general, much valued
for correctness of text ; nor had many^ considerable critics
eveu in Latin philology yet 'appeared on this side of the Alps.

Robert Stephens stands almost alone, who, by the
RT"h publication of his Thesaurus in 1535, augmented

in a subsequent edidou of 1543, may be said to
have made an epoch in this department of literature, llie
preceding dictionaries of Calepio and other compilers had
been limited to an interpretation of single words, sometimes
with reference to passages in the authors who had employed
them. This produced, on the one hand, perpetutu bar-
barisms and deviations from purity of idiom, while it gave
rise in some to a fastidious hypercriticism, of which Valla
, had given sn example.* Stephens first endeavoured to exhibit
the proper use of words, not only in all the anomalies of idiom,
but in every delicate variation of sense to which the pure
taste and subtle discernment of the best writers had adapted
them. Such an analysis is perhaps only possible with re-
spect to a language wherein the extant writers, and especially
those who have acquired authority, are very limited in num-
ber ; and even in Latin, the most extensive dictionary, such
as has grown up long since the days of Robert Stephens,
under the hands of Gr^ner, Forcellini, and Facciolati, or such
as might still improve upon their labour, could only approach
an unattunable perfection. What Stephens himself acnieved
would now be deemed far too defective for general use ; yet
it afforded the means of more purity in style than any could
in that age have reached without unwearied exertion.
Accordingly, it is to be understood, that while a very few
scholars, chiefly in Italy, had acquired a facility and exact-
ness of language which has seldom been surpassed, the
general style retained a great deal of barbarism, and neither
in single words, nor always in mere grammar, can bear a
critical eye. Erasmus is often incorrect, especially in his
epistles, and says modesdy of himself in the Ciceronianus, that
he is hardly to be named among writers at all, unless blotting
a great deal of p^r with ink is enough to make one. He

* Vnioi de OAuni eoirupt. art (Open wn no full and completa dietuHian of
Lud. VJTea, edit. B««le, I55S, L 358.) L«lia. Id. p. 475.
He obterres, in another work, that there

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cbap.V.] from 1620 TO 1650. 333

is however among the best of his contemporaries, if a vast
command of Latin phrase, and a spirited employment of it,
may compensate for some want of accuracy. Budseus, as
has been already said, is hard and unpolished. Vives as-
sumes, that he has written his famous and excellent work on
the comiptioD of the sciences with some elegance ; but this
he says in language which hardly warrants the boast,* In
fitct, he is by no means a good writer. But Melanchthon
excelled Erasmus by far in purity of diction, and correctness
of classical taste. Wilb him we may place Calvin in his
Institutes, and our countryman Sir John Cheke, as distin-
guished from most other Cisalpine writers by the merit of
what is properly cdled style. The praise, however, of
writing pure Latin, or the pleasure of reading it, is dearly
bought when accompanied by such vacuity of sense as we
experience in the elaborate epistles of Paulas Manutius, and
the Ciceronian school in Italy.

17* Francis I. has obtained-a glorious title, the Father of
French literature. The national propensity (or what
once was such) to extol kings may have had some- 'r^J;'*"
thing to do with this; for we never say the same of
Henry VIII. In the early part of his reign he manifested a
design to countenance ancient literature by public endow-
ments. War, and unsuccessful war, sufficiently diverted his
mind from this scheme. But in 1531, a season of peace,
be established the royal college of three languages in the uni-
vergity of Paris, which did not quite deserve its name till the
foundation of a Latin professorship in 1534. Vatable was
the first professor of Hebrew, and Danes of Greek. In 1545
it ^pears that there were three professors of Hebrew in the
royal college, three of Greek, one of Latin, two of mathe-
matics, one of medicine, and one of philosophy. But this
college had to encounter the jealousy of the university, tena-
dous of its ancnent privileges, which it fancied to be trampled
upon, and stimulated by the hatred of the pretended philo-
sophers, the scholastic dialecticians, aguust philological lite-

* NitOTcm pistcna Krmoni) addidi nitione adbsieKcrent t quod hietenus

■liqnem, rt quod Don cipedint na pul. fere Bccidic, tmtio nimirum infrugifeia

dwrrinui •ordidi tc ipurii TOtiri, ct ut ac horrida molnto, que in pncipiendiii

Mndioii drgantUrum [anim?] liUraniin •rtibus diutUuinj erat de*oiata. i. SS4.
■on pcrpwino in Tocum M wmKuui cog-

lyGOOglC

d3i LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Put H

ratare. They tried to get the parliament on their side ; bat
that body, however averse to innovatioD, of which it gave in
this age, and long afterwards, many egregioua proois, waa
probably restrained by the king's known favour to learning
from obstructing the new collie aa much as the university
desired.* Danes had a colleague and successor as Greek
professor in a favourite pupil of Budftus, aod a good scholar,
Toussain, who handed down the lamp in Id4<7 to one far
more eminent, Tumebus. Under such a succession of
instructors, it may be naturally presumed diat the know-
ledge of Greek would make some progress in Fiwmk. And
no doubt the great scholars of UK next generation were
chiefly trained under these men. But the opposition of many,
and ihe coldness almost of bH, in tbe ecclesiastical order,
among whom that study ought principally to have flourished,
impeded in the sixteenth century, as it has perhaps ever since,
the diffusion of Grecian literature in all countries of the
Romish communion. We do not find nmcb evidence of das-
SLcal, at least of Greek, learning in any university of France,
except that of Paris, to which students repaired from every
quarter of tbe kingdom.! But a few once distinguished
names of the age of Francis I. deserve to be mentioned.
William Cop, physidan to the king, and John Ruel, one of
the earliest promoters of botanicfd science, the one translator
of Galen, the other of Dioscorides ; Lazarus Baif, a poet of
some eminence in that age, who rendered two Greek trage<
dies into French verse; with a few rather more obscure, soch
as Petit, Pin, Deloin, De Chatel, who are cursorily men-
tioned in literary history, or to whom Erasmus sometimes
alludes. Let us not forget Jcha Grollier, a gentleman who,

• The faculty of tlieology in 1530 >tudy of Ilcbreir and Gr^^k teas priise-

eondemned then propnltion!! ; 1. ScKp- worthy in skilful and orthodoi ihrolo-

ture cumot be well underatood without guun, disposed to maintain tbe iniialsbl*

Greek and Hebrew; a. A preacher can- authority of tbe Vulgate. Contin. de

not eipUiothecpislU andgoiipel without Fleury, HitL Ecclesiast., xxvil. oas.

these languages. In the same year they See also Gaillard, Ilitl de t'ranfoii I.,

summoned Danes and Vatablc with two vi. S89.

more to appear in parliament, that they f We find, however, tbat a Greek uii

might be Ibrbidden la explain Scripture Lstin school was set up in the dioixie of

by the Greek and Hebiew, without per- Sadolet (Carpentras), about 1S33 ; be

mission of llie university ; or to uy, the endeavoured to procure a master Ironi

Hehtew, or the Greek, is so and so; lest Italy, and Kerns, by a letter of the yew

they should injure the credit of tbe Vul- 1540, to have succeeded. Ssdol. Epist,

gate. They admitted, however, that tlie Ub. ii, and ivL

n,gti7ccT:G00glc

Chaf. v.] PROM 15S0 TO 1550. 335

having filled with honour some public employments, became
the first perhf^ on this side of the Alps who formed a very
extensive library aai collection of medals. He was the friend
and patron of the learned during a long life ; a character
little aflected in that age by private persona of wealth on
the less sunny side of the Alps. GroUier's library was
not wholly sold till the latter part of the seventeenth
century."

18. In Spain, the same dislike of innovation stood in the
way. Greek professorships existed, however, in Lcmingia
the nniversitiea ; and Nunnes, usually called Pin- ^'^'''
danog (from the Latin name for the city of Valladolid), a
disciple of Lebrixa, whom he surpassed, taught the language
at Alcala, and afterwards at iSalamanca. He was the most
learned man whom Spda had possessed ; and his edition of
Seneca, in 1^36, has obtained the pnuse of Lipsius.t Re-
aende, the pupil of Arias Barbosa and Lebrixa in Greek, has
been termed the restorer of letters in Portugal. None of tlie
writings of Reseude, except a Latin grammar, published in
1540, fall within the present period ; but he established, about
1531, a school at Lisbon, and one afterwards at Evora, where
Estafo, a man rather better known, was educated, t School
divinity and canon law over-rode all liberal studies throughout
the Peninsula; of which the catalogue <^ books at the end of
Antonio's Bibliotheca Nova is a sufBdent wimess.

19. Ihe first effects of the great religious schism in Ger-
many were not favourable to classical literature. § g.,^^
An all-absortHng snl^ect left neither relish nor KeforwUDn
leisure for human studies. Those who had made

the greatest advances in learning were themselves generally
involved in theological controversy; and, in some countries,
had to encounter either personal suffering on account of their
(^nions, or, at least, the jealousy of a church that hated the
advance of knowledge. The knowledge of Greek and Hebrew
was always liable to the suspidon of heterodoxy. In Italy,
where dassical antiquity was the chief object, this dread of
learning could not subsist. But few learned much of Greek

I Biogr. Univ.

j Erann. Epist. {maim.

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

336 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Past L

in these parts of Eurc^ without some reference to theology*,
especially to the grammatical interpretation of the Scriptures.
In those parts which embraced the Reformation a still more
threatening danger arose from the distempered fanaticism of
its adherents. Men who interpreted the Scripture hy the
Spirit could not think human learning of much value in
religion ; and they were as little likely to perceive any other
advantage it could possess. Tliere seemed, indeed, a con-
siderable peril, that, through the authori^ of Carlostadt, or
even of Luther, the lessons of Crocus and Mosellanus would
be totally forgotten.t And this would very probably have
been the case, if one man, Melaiichthon, had not perceived
the necessity of preserving human learning as a bulwark to
theology itself against the wild waves of enthusiasm. It was
owing to him that both the study of the Greek and Latin
languages, and that of the Aristotelian philosophy, were
maintained in Germany. 1: Nor did his activity content itself
with animating the universities. The schools of preparatory
instruction, which had hitherto furnished merely the elements
of grammar, throwing the whole burthen of philological learn-
ing on the universities, began before the middle of the cen-
tury to be improved by Melanchthon, with the assistance of
a friend, even superior to him, probably, in that walk of
literature, Joachim Camerarius. *' Both these great men,"
says Eichhom, "laboured upon one plan, upon the same
principle, and with equal zeal ; they were, in the strictest
sense, the fathers of that pure taste and solid learning by
which the next generation was distinguished." Under the
names of Lycseum or Gymnasium, these German schools
gave a more complete knowledge of the two l^mguages, and
sometimes the elements of philosophy. §

20. We derive some acquaintance with the state of educa-
g,„rni'i tio>) in this age from the WTitings of John Sturm,
^^M°^ than whom scarce any one more contributed to the
•chooii. cause of letters in Germany. He becnme in 15SS,

* Emm. Adag. chil. it. e. v. § 1. lanchtliODfint lectured ou IIk Pbilippin

Viies, apud Meinen, Vergl. der lilten, of Demoalhenea in IS24, he liad but Tour

iL 737. faeims, and theie were obliged to tran-

t Seckendaif, p. 198. icribe from tbeir teacher'* ropy. — I&4S.]

i [It ia aaid b; MelnhlDT Adam, Vita § Eicbhoni, Hi. S54. ct pwiL

FhiliHophDrum, p. ST., that nbm Me-

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CaAP. v.] FROM 1520 TO 1550. 337

and continued for above forty years, rector of a celebrated
school at Strasburg. Several treatises on education, espe-
cially one, De Literaruni Ludis recte instituendis, bear wit-
ness to his assiduity. If the scheme of classical instruction
which he has here laid down may be considered as one
actually in use, there was a solid structure of learning erected
in the early years of life, which none of our modem acade*
mies would pretend to emulate. Those who feel any curiosity
about the details of this course of education, which seems
almost too rigorous for practice, will find the whole in
MorhoPs Polyhistor.* It is sufficient to say, that It occupies
the period of life between the ages of six and fifteen, when
the pupil is presumed to have acquired a very extensive
knowledge of the two languages. Trifling as it may appear
to take notice of this subject, it serves at least as a test of
the literary pre-eminence of Germany. For we could, as I
conceive, trace no such education in France, and certainly not
in England.

21. The years of the life of Camerarius correspond to
those of the century. His most remarkable works i.eaniingiu
fell partly into the succeeding period j but many of ^™"v-
the editions and translations of Greek authors, which occupied
his laborious hours, were published before IddO. He was
one of the first who knew enough of both languages, and of
the subjects treated, to escape the reproach which has fallen
on the translators of the fifteenth century. His Thucydides,
printed in 1540, was superior to any preceding edition. The
universities of Tubingen and Leipsic owed much of their
prosperity to his superintending care. Next to Camerarius
among the German scholars, we may plnce Simon Grynteus,
professor of Greek at Heidelberg in 15S3, and translator of
Plutarch's Lives. Micyllus, his successor in this office, and
author of a treatise De re metrica, of which Melanchthon
speaks in high terms of praise, was more celebrated than
most of his countrymen for Latin poetry. Yet in this art he
fell below Eobanus Hessus, whose merit is attested by the
friendship of Erasmus, Melanchthon, and Camerarius, as
well as by the best verses that Germany had to boast. It
would be very easy to increase the list of scholars in that

• Lib. ii. e. 10.
VOL. I. z ,- I

n,gt,7cdT:C00glC

338 LITEEATURE OF EUROPE LPaktL

empire ; but we should find it more difficult to exhaust the
enumeration. Germany was not only far elevated in literary
progress above France, but on a level, as we may f^rly say,
with Italy herself. The university of Marburg was founded
in 1526, that of Copenhagen in 1539, of Konigaberg in
154.4, of Jeua in 1548.

S'2. We come now to investigate the gradual movement of
inEnjiuui learning in Eogland, the state of which about 15^
Liiucre. ^g hsvc already seen. In 15i21, the first Greek
characters appear in a book printed at Cambridge, Linacre's
Latin translation of Galen de Temperamentis, and in the
title-page, but tliere only, of a treatise Tiipl AKliaSm, by
Bullock, They are employed several times for quotations in
Linacre de Emendata Structura Orationis, 1524.* This
treatise is chiefly a series of grammatical remarks, relating
to distinctions ia the Latin language now generally known.
It must have been highly valuable, and produced a consider-
able effect in England, where nothing of that superior
criticism had been attempted. In order to judge of its
proper merit, it should be compared with the antecedent
works of Valla and Perotti. Every rule is supported by
authorities ; and Linacre, I observe, is far more cautious
than Valla in asserting what is not good Latin, contenting
himself, for the most part, with showing what is. Zt has
been remarked that, though Linacre formed his own style on
the model of Quintilian, he took most of his authorities from
Cicero. This treatise, the first fruits of English erudition,
was well received, and frequently printed on the contiDent.
Melanchthon recommended its use in the schools of Germany.
Linacre's translation of Galen has been praised by Sir John
Cheke, who in some respects bears rather hardly on his
learned precursor, t

03. Croke, who became tutor to the duke of Richmond,
son of Henry VIIL, did not remain at Cambridge long after
the commencement of this period. But in 1524, Robert

* The author begins by bespeaking tbe ratU enl iogtructui typagriphui. Tide-
trader's indulgence for the Greek print- licet reoeni nb eo fuaii characteribu*
iag. Pro tuo candore, optitne lector, GrKcii, nee pvata ea copia qiue sd liM
Equa animo feras, si qua lileroi in eiem- ageiiduiQ opus est
plis Hellenismi Tel tonii, vA ipiritibiu, f Johmon'a Life of Linacre.
Tel. affection ibu« careinl. lis enim non

n,gt,7cdT:C00glc

Chaf.V.] from 1520 TO 1650. S3(J

Wakefield, a scholar of some reputation, who had been pro-
fessor in a German university, opened a public
lecture there in Greek, endowed with a salary by tho uni«r"
die king. We know httle individually of his
bearers ; but, notwithstanding the confident assertions of
Antony Wood, there can be no doubt that Cambridge was,
during the whole of this reign, at least on a level with the
sister university, and indeed, to speak plainly, above it.
Wood enumerates several persons educated at Oxford about
this time, sufficiently skilled in Greek to write in that lan-
gueige, or to translate from it, or to comment upon Greek
authors. The list might be enlarged by the help of Pits ;
but he is less of a scholar than Wood. This much, after
all, appears, that the only editions of classical authors pub-
lished in England before 1^40, except those already men-
tioned, are five of Virgil's Bucolics, two of a small treatise of
Seneca, with one of Publius Syrus ; all evidently for the
mere use of school-boys. We may add one of Cicero's
Philippics, printed for Pinson in 1521 ; and the first book
of bis episdes at Oxford in 1529. Lectures in Greek and
Latin were, however, established in a few colleges at Oxford.
24). If Erasmus, writing in 1528, is to be believed, the
English boys were wont to disport in Greek
epigrams.* But this must be understood as only ii>pi lugb'i
applicable to a very few, upon whom some extra-
ordinary pains had been bestowed. Thus Sir Thomas Elyot,
in his Governor, first pubhshed in 1531, points out a scheme
of instruction which comprehends the elements of the Greek
language. There is no improbability in the supposition, and
some evidence to support it, that the masters of our great
schools, a Lily, a Cox, an Udal, a Nowell, did not leave boys
of quick parts wholly unacquainted with Uie rudiments of a
language they so much valued.! It tends to confirm this

* An tu credidisaei unquam Fore, ut Stiype, whicb I hire not been able to

■pud Britaniun (ut BiUtoi pueri Crtxi End. There it nothing at all improbable

prrirent, Grccii epigraininatiis non In- in the fact. These inquiries will be

icliciter luderent? Dial, de Fronuntia- deemed too minute by some in this age.

lione, p. ^8. edit. 1528. But Ihey are not unimporlant in their

t Churtorw in hi) Life of Nowell, aays bearing on the history of liieraturt ; and
thatlhe latter taught the Greek Teatament an exaggerated estimate of English learn-
to the boji at Westminster icbool, re- Ing in the age of the Reformation ge-
fcrriDg for autboritir to a pawge in nerall; preruU. ^r Tbonua Fop^
z S

lyGOOgIC

340 LITERAfUBE OF EUROPE [Pakt I.

supposition, that in the statutes of the new cathedrals esta-
blished by Henry in ld4>l, it is provided that there shall be a
grammar-school for each, with a head master, " learned in
Latin and Greek." Such statutes, however, are not con-
clusive evidences that they were put in force.* In the statutes
of Wolsey's intended foundation at Ipswich, some years
earlier, thoug;h the course of instruction is amply detailed, we
do not find it extend to the merest elements of Greek, t It
is curious to compare this with the course prescribed by
Sturm for the German schools.

05. But English learning' was chiefly indebted for its

more rapid advance to two distinguished members
^smiih It of the university of Cambridge ; Smith, afterwards

secretary of state to EUizabeth, and Cheke. Tlie
former began to read the Greek lecture in 1533. And both
of them, soon afterwards, combined to bring in the true
pronunciation of Greek, upon which Erasmus had already
written. The early students of that language, receiving their
instructions from natives, had acquired the vicious uniformity
of sounds belonging to the corrupted dialect. Reucfalin's sdiool,
of which Melanchthon was one, adhered to this, and were called
Itacists, from the continual recurrence of the sound of Iota in
modern Greek, being thus distinguished from the Etists of
Erasmus's party, t Smith and Cheke proved, by testimonies
of antiquity, that the latter were right j and " by this revived
pronunciation," says Strype, " was displayed the flower and
pleiitifulness of that language, the variety of vowels, the
grandeur of diphthongs, the majesty of long letters, and the
grace of distinct speech." § Certain it is, that about this

fbunder of Trinity college, Oiford, ob- in hU Greali gnminu', follciin Rcuchlin;

■crret, in a lelter to Cardinal Pole in Liuciniui ii on tbs lido oF Ennaiu.

1556, that when lie wa» "» young scliolar Ibid, In very recent publications, I

Bt Elod, the Greek tongue iriu groiring obsene that attempt! bave been made to

apae« ; the itudy of wliicli is nov alate set up again the " lugubres aonos. rt

much decayed." Wirlon, iii. STS. I illud flebiie ioM" of the modern Greeks

do not think thii impliei more than a To adopt their pronunciation, tjm if

reference to the time, which vai about right, would be buying truth recj dear.

1 520 : he meana that Greek was begin- § Strype's Life of Smith, p. I T. " The

ning to be studied in England. itrain I heard waa of a higher moad.'

• Warton, iii, 'jeS. IwonderwbatauthorhoaeBt J<^n Stryp«

t Strype's Ecclvaiuiticai Memoiials. ha* copied or translated in thi) senlencv ;

Appendix, No. SS. for he never leaiei the ground so &kr in

t Eichborn, iii. 917. Melanchthon, his own style.

lyGOOgIC

Cmap.V.] from 1520 TO 1550. 341

time some Englishmea began to affect a knowledge of
Greek. Sir Ralph Sadler, in his embassy to the king of
Scotland, in 1540, had two or three Greek words embroi-
dered on the sleeves of his followers, which led to a ludicrous
mistake on the part of the Scotch bishops. Scotland, however,
herself was now beginning to receive light; theGreek language
was first taught in 1534- at Montrose, which continued for
many years to be what some call a flourishing school.* But
the whole number of books printed in Scotland before the
middle of the century has been asserted to be only seven.
No classical author, or even a grammar, is among these.t

26. Cheke, successor of Smith as lecturer in Greek at
Cambridge, was appointed the first royal professor
of that language in 1.540, with a respectable salary.
He carried on Smith's scheme, if indeed it were not his own,
for restoring the true pronunciation, in spite of the strenuous
opposition of bishop Gardiner, chancellor of the university.
This prelate, besides a literary controversy in letters between
himself and Cheke, published at Basle in 1555, interfered,
in a more orthodox way, by prohibiting the new style of
speech in a decree which, for its solemnity, might relate to
the highest articles of faith. Cheke however in this, as iti
greater matters, was on the winning side ; and the corrupt
pronunciation was soon wholly forgotten.

S7< Among the learned men who surrounded Cheke at
Cambridge, none was more deserving than As- Aiciun.-.
cham ; whose knowledge of ancient languages was of'c^" '
not shown in profuse quotation, or enveloped in *"^'''
Latin phrase, but served to enrich his mind with valnable

* M'Crie's Lite of Knoi, !• 6., and pursuance of >n act of parliiment passed

Hate C. p. 343. in 1540, and a religious tract hj one

t The lut in Herbert's History of Balnaves, compose tbe rest. [But this

Prioling, iii. 468., begino with thp br^ list appears to be not quite accurate. A

tiary of the church of Aberdeen ; the collection of pamphlela in the Scottish

fint part printed at Edinburgh in ],W9, dialect has been discoTered, printed at

the SMond in 15 la A poem vltliout Edinburgh in 1 508, and therefore older

^te, addrcaaed to Jamea V., de suacepto than the breviary in the foregoing enu-

regni r^imiiic, which aeemi to be in merslion. Pinkcrton's Scottish Poems,

Latin, aod must hare been irritlen abatit 1 T9S. vol. i. p. 32. On the other hand,

1598, 'coima the nearest to a learned it is contended that no edition of Lind-

vork. T«o editions of Lindiay'i poems, say'g poems, printed in Scotland, is older

tvo of a tranilation of Hector Boece's than 15G8. Pinlerton's Ancient Sco-

ehrDuiete*, tiro of a temporary pamphlet liih Poems (a difierent publication from

called Scotland's Complaint, with one of the former), 1786, vol. i. p. 104. —

theitMutei of the kingdom, printed in 1843.]

lyGOOgIC

342 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PA«T I

sense, and taught him to transfer the firmness and precision
of ancient writers to our own English, in which he is nearly
the first that deserves to he named, or that is now read. He
speaks in strong terms of his university. " At Cambridge
also, in St. John's college, in my time, I do know that not so
much the good statutes as two gentlemen of worthy memory.
Sir John Cheke and Dr. Redman, by their only example of
excellency in learning, of godliness in living, of diligence in
studying, of counsel in exhorting, by good order in all things,
did breed up so many learned men in that one college of St.
John's at one time as I believe the whole university of Lou-
vain in many years was never able to afford."* Lectures in
humanity, that is, in classical literature, were, in 1535, esta-
blished by the king's authority in all colleges of the university
of Oxford where they did not already exist ; and in the royal
injunctions at the same time for the reformation of academical
studies a regard to philological learning is enforced-t

28. Antony Wood, though be is by no means always

consistent, gives rather a favourable account of the
wuBio "" state of philological learning at Oxford in the last

years of Henry VUI. There can, indeed, be no
doubt that it had been surprisingly increasing in all England
through his reign. More grammar schools, it is said by
Knight, were founded in thirty years before the Reforma-
tion, meaning, I presume, the age of Henry, than in three
hundred years preceding. But Uie suddenness with which
the religious establishment was changed on the accession of

■ AEcham's Schoolnuuter. Id the Life denll; written about the time th>t Uia
of Asohim by Gmnt, preliicd to the for- coDlroiersy oF Cheke and GanJinei tw-
iner's epiailes, he enumerates (he learned gan, praises thus the learning of Csm-
at Cambridge sbout 1550. Aseham wai bridge. Aristuteles nunc et Plato, quod
himself under Pember, homini Gmcn factum est eliam apud nos hie quinqucn-
lingun admirabili ticultale eicultissimo. nium. in sua lingua a pueris Icguntiit
The others named are Day, Redman, Sophocles ct Euripidn aunt bic famili-
Smith, Cheke, RidUj, Grindal (not the ariores. quam olim Plautus fuemt, cum
archbishop), Watson, Haddon, Pilking-' tu hie eras. Herodotus. Thucydide., ■
ton, Horn, ChtistopherMin, Wilson, Se- Xenophon, magis in ore et manibns om-
ton, et inHniti alii excellentl doctrinS niom tenentur, quam turn Titus Liritll.
pniditi. Most of these are men after- etc. Ibid. p. 74. What Chen can be thought
wards distinguished in the church on one of Antony Wood when he says, " Cam-
ude or the olhei. This is a sufficient bridge was in the said king's reign orer.
refutation of Wood's idle assertion, of the spread with barbarism and ignorance, as
superiDrity of Oifbrd ; the foel seems to 'tis often mentioned by sereral autbon T"
hare been whoUy otherwise. Ascbam HisL and Antiq. of Oifbrd, i. D. 15)3.
himself, in a letter without date, but evi- f Warton, iii. 3T3.

lyGOOgIC

Chap, v.] FROM 1520 TO 1550. 343

Ed^vard, and still more the rapacity of the young king's
council, who alienated or withheld the revenues designed for
the support of learning, began to cloud the prospect before
the year 1550.* Wood, in reading whom allowance is to
be made for a strong, though not quite avowed bias towards
the old system of ecclesiastical and academical government,
inveighs against the visitors of the university appointed by
the crown in 1548, for burning and destroying valuable
books. And this seems to be confirmed by other evidence.
It is true that these books, though it was a vile act to de-
stroy them, would have been more useful to the English
antiquary than to the classical student. Ascham, a conlem-
porary protestant, denies that the university of Cambridge
declined at all before the accession of Mary in 1553.

29. Edward himself received a learned education, and,
according to Ascham, read the ethics of Aristotle in
Greek. Of the princess Elizabeth, his favourite ^""""^
pupil, we have a similar testimony.t Mary was
not by any means illiterate. It is hardly necessary to men-
rion Jane Grey and the wife of Cecil. Their proficiency was
SDcfa as to excite the admiration of every one, and is no mea-
Bure of the age in which they lived. And their names carry
us on a litUe beyond 1550, though Ascham's visit to the
former was in that year.

SO. The reader must be surprised to find that, notwith-
stan^ug these high and just commendations of our
scholars, no Greek grammars or lexicons were yet ?'js;r|"5
printed in England, and scarcely any works in that

* Strype, u. SS8. Todd's Cranmer, Demosthenis ircfil irrfpirov. Ilia prsle-

iL 33. git mihi, et primo upectu tarn scienter

t Of the k!ng ha nyt: Duledicani intelligit noD solum propriclatem lingus

^dicit, et nunc Omd discil Artstotelis et oraloris leiuuni, sed totnm causie coii-

Etbics. Eo progressus est in Gneca tenlionem, populi scita, consuetudinrtn

lingua, ut in pliiLosophia Ciceronis ex et morca illiui urb'is, ut summupeie ad-

Latinia Groca bcilllme faciat. Dec. mirerii. p.Sa. In I.^GO he assert^ that

lija Atcham, Epitt. iv. Elizabeth there are not Tour persons, in court or

tpoka French and lulian as veil as college (in aula, in academiB), who know

Epgliafa ; Latin fluenttr and correctly ; Greek better thin the Queen.

Greek tolerabl;. She began ever; dsj Habemus Angtis leginsm, says Eras-

by reading the Greek Testament, and mus long before of Catherine, feminam

aflenrards the orations oT Isocrales, and egregie doctam, ci^us Glia Maria scribit

tragediei of Saphocles. Some years after, bene Latinas epistolss. Tbomtt Mori

trarda, in I.555> he vritea of ber to domus nihil aliud quam muiarum at

Sturm: Domina Eliiabcth et e^o una doinicillum. Epist. miiiv.
t^iiDU* Gimei oratione* £schiuis et

t: Go Ogle

3i4i LITERATURE OF EUROPE [FabtI.

or the Latin language. In fact, there was no regular press
in either university at this time, though a very few boolts
had been printed in each about 1520 ; nor had they one till
near the end of Elizabeth's reign. Ranald Wolfe, a Ger-
man printer, obt^ned a patent, dated April 19' l-^^l, giv-
ing htm the exclusive right to print in Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew, and also Greek and Latin grammars, though mixed
with English, and charts and maps. But the only produc-
tions of his press before the middle of the century, are two
homilies of Chrysostom, edited by Cheke in 1543. Elyo^s
X^atin and English Dictionary, 1538, was the first, I believe,
beyond the mere vocabularies of school boys ; and it is itself
but a meagre performance.* Latin grammars were of course
so frequently published, that it has not been worth while to
take notice of them. But the Greek and Latin lexicon of
Hadrian Junius, though dedicated to Edward VL, and said
to have been compiled in England (I know not how this
could be the case), being the work of a foreigner, and printed
at Basle in 1548, cannot be reckoned as part of our stock.t
31. It must appear, on the whole, that under Edward VL
wintof there was as yet rather a commendable desire of
JUtbiTc'lbls- learning, and a few vigorous minds at work for
""■ their own literary improvement, than any such

■ Elyot bouta that thii "containi ■ autore DaTidTmTelejtomedicO. Adtverpi

thouund more Latin var<t9 tlian were 1547. It ia dedicaled to Edward VL;

tugptber in any ene dictionary published and the dedication ia dated at Oifbrd.

in this »™lm at the time »hf n I fir«t be- Kat. Jul. 1516 ; but the pri»ilege lo print

gan to vrite this commentarr." Tfaoiigh ii at Bruxellce, Not. 13. 154$. Tk

fiur from bping a good, Of eten, aoeording author uja it h«d been written nghl

to modern notiana. a tolerable dictionary, years, as well as a I^tin grammar slmily

it mu.^t hate been of some Tolue at the prioted. Grma vero rudimenta nondum

time. It was afterwards much aug. prodiere in publicum. It doesnotappear

inented by Cooper. lhBtTa*elcgus,calledToIleyandTauInii

f VTucA ascribes to one Tolley or Tol- by others, was preceptor to itae young

leius a sort of Creek grammar, Pragyra- prince. The giammar i> very short, and

naomata LinguiE Grscs!, dedicated to seems to be a compendiiltn of Clenardns,

Edward VL And Pit^ in noticing alw It ia remarkable that in this copy, which

olher works of the same kind, says of appears tohave been prescntedtoEdwanl,

this : Habentur Monochii in BaTsria in he is called VL while his ftther was ttiU

bibliothrca ducaJi. A« no mention is living;. Kipit aimr rhr 'ESaioftor ItiF

made of such a wort by Herbert m v/mriyeray 7oi PvTlKmi. This is on an

Dibdin, I bad l>eeD inclined to tbink lis illuminatedpageadornedwiththepriDce^

existence apocrypbaU It is certainly feather, and the lines subscribed —

"'m^^v^ .In™ n,» Ami Million Bwn this Prinrtpli Ed.srdl mill hM Inllenll tfill. __

[I have since my hrst eaiiion seen tnis cuju. henot nameDDua prmt lubiiim h

book in the Brilish Museum. lis title a,um IMS]

is; Progymnn.^maIa Grscffi grammntices

lyGOOgIC

Cha^.V.] from 1520 TO 1550. 34-5

diffusioD of knowledge as can entitle us to claim for that age
an equality^ with the chief continental nations. The means
of acquiriog true learning were not at hand. Few books, as
we have seen, useful to the scholar, had been published in
England ; those imported were of course eKpensive. No
public librari^ of any magnitude had yet been formed in
either of the universities ; those of private men were exceed-
ingly few. The king had a library, of which honourable
mention is made ; and Cranmer possessed a good collection
of books at Lambeth ; but I do not recollect any other person
of whom this is recorded.

32. The progress of philological literature in England
was connected with that of the Reformation. The
learned of the earlier generation were not all pro- j^'™"™*-
testants, but their disciples were zealously such. {^^{„'°
They taunted the adherents of the old religion with
ignorance ; and though by that might be meant ignorance of
the Scriptures, it was by their own acquaintance with lan-
guages that they obtained their superiority in this respect.
And here I may take notice, that we should be deceived by
acquiescing in the strange position of Warton, that the dis-
solution of the monasteries m 1536 and the next two years
gave a great temporary check to the general state of letters
in England.* Tliis writer is inconsistent with himself; for
no oae had a greater contempt for the monastic studies, dia-
lectics and theology. But, as a desire to aggravate, in every
possible respect, the supposed mischiefs of the dissolution of
monasteries, is abundantly manifest in many writers later
than Warton, I shall briefly observe, that men are deceived,
or deceive others, by the equivocal use of the word learning.
If good learning, borux literce, which for our present purpose
means a sound knowledge of Greek and Latin, was to be
promoted, there was no more necessary step in doing so
than to put down bad learning, which is worse than igno-
rance, and which was the learning of the monks, so far as
they bad any at all. What would Erasmus have thought of
one who should in his days have gravely intimated, that the
abolition of monastic foundations would retard the progress
pf literature i* In what protestant country was it accompa-

* IlistoTf of Engl. Poelrv, iii. seS.

lyGOOgIC ■

346 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Paw L

nied with such a consequence, and from whom, among the
complaints sometimes made, do we hear this cause assigned ?
I am ready to admit, that in the violent courses pursued
by Henry VIII. many schools attached to monasteries were
broken up, and I do not think it impossible that the same
occurred in other parts of Europe. It is also to be fully
stated and kept in mind, that by the Reformation the number
of ecclesiastics and consequently of those requiring what
was deemed a literate education, was greatly reduced. The
English universities, as we are well aware, do not contdn by
any means the number of students that frequented them in
the thirteenth century. But are we therefore a less learned
nation than our fathers of the thirteenth century ? Warton
seenis to lament, that " most of the youth of the kingdom
betook themselves to mechanical or other illiberal employ-
ments, the profession of letters being now supposed to be
without support or reward." Doubtless many who would
have learned the Latin accidence, and repeated the breviary,
became useful mechanics. But is this to be called, not re-
warding the profession of letters ? and are the deadliest foes
of the Greek and Roman muses to be thus confounded with
their worshippers ? The loss of a few schools in the monas-
teries was well compensated by the foundation of others on a
more enlightened plan and with much better instructors, and
after the lapse of some years, the communication of substantial
learning came in the place of that tincture of Latin which the
religious orders had supplied. Warton, it should be remarked,
has been able to collect the names of not more dian four or
five abbots and other regulars, in the time of Henry VIII.,
who either possessed some learning themselves, or encou-
raged it in others.

33. We may assist our conception of the general state of
Riruiui learning in Europe, by looking at some of the
'•"""'■ books which were then deemed most usefully sub-
sidiary to its acquisition. Besides the lexicons and gramma-
tical treatises that have been mentioned, we have a work first
published about 1522, but frequently reprinted, and in much
esteem, the Officina of Ravisius Textor. Of this book Peter
Danes, a man highly celebrated in his day for erudition,
speaks as if it were an abundant storehouse of knowledge,

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

CttAi-. v.] FROM 1620 TO 1560. 34?

admirable for tli« manner of its execution, and compart&le
to any work of antiquity. In spite of this praise, it is no
more than a common-place book from Latin authors, and
from translations of the Greek, and could deserve no regard
except in a half-informed generation.

S4f. A far better evidence of learning was given by
Conrad Gresner, a man of prodigious erudition, in c«>nd
a continuation of his Bibliotheca Universalis (the ''™"-
earliest general catalogue of books with an estimate of their
merits), to which he gave the rather ambitious title of
Pandectte Universales, as if it were to hold the same place in
general science that the Digest of Justinian does in civil law.
It is a sort of index to all literature, containing references
only, and therefore less generally useful, though far more
learned and copious in instances, than the OfUcina of
Ravisius. It comprehends, besides all ancient authors, the
schoolmen and other writers of the middle ages. The refer-
ences are sometimes very short, and more like hints to one
possessed of a large library, than guides to the general
student. In connexion with the Bibliotheca Universalis, it
forms a literary history or encyclopiedia, of some value to
diose who are curious to ascertain the limits of knowledge in
the middle of the sixteenth century.

lyGOOgIC

LITEEATURE OF EUROPE [Paw L

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY OF THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE IN EUROPE
FROM 1520 TO 1550.

Advance ef the Rejitrma&m — Differencn of Ofmiion — Enumut — Tie Pro-
ieilant Opiniem ipread farther — Their Prevalence m Italy — Re-iKtum of
Churdi of Rome — THeoloBicai Wrilinei — LiUhtr — Smrit of the Rehrmaliott

]. The separation of part of Europe from the church of
Rome 13 the irreat event that distinguishes these
ih.w thirty years. Hut as it is not our object to tra-
verse the wide field of civil or ecclesiastical history,
it will suffice to make a few observations rather in reference
to the spirit of the times, than to the public occurrences that
sprung from it. The new doctrine began to be freely
preached) and with immense applause of the people, from the
commencement of this period, or, more precisely, from the
year 1522, in many parts of Germany and Switzerland j the
duke of Deuxponts in that year, or, according to some
authorities, in 1523, having led the way in abolishing the
ancient ceremonies \ and his example having been succes-
sively followed in Saxony, Hesse, Brandeburg, Brunswic,
many imperial cities, and the kingdoms of Denmark and
Sweden, by the disciples of Luther ; while those who
adhered to Zwingle made similar changes in Zurich and
in several other cantons of Switzerland.*

2. The magistrates generally proceeded, especially at the
inwrfwcnce outsct, With as great caution and equity as were
ofdtHpoirer. prjy.tipable in so momentous a revolution; though
perhaps they did not always respect the laws of the empire.
They commonly began by allowing freedom of preaching,
and forbad that any one should be troubled about his religion.
This, if steadily acted upon, repressed the tumultuous popu-

■ Seckcndorr, Gerdei.

lyGOOgIC

Chap. VI] FROM 1620 TO 1550. 349

lace, who were eager for demolishing images, the memorials
of the old religion, as much as it did the episcopal courts,
which, had they been strong enough, might have molested
those who so plainly came within their jurisdiction. The
Reformation depended chiefly on zealous and eloquent
preachers ; the more eminent secular clergy, as well as
many regulars, having espoused its principles. They en-
countered no great difficulty in winning over the multitude;
and when thus a decisive m^ority was obtained, commonly
in three or four years from the first introduction of free preach-
ing, the government found it time to establish, by a general
edict, the abolition of the mass, and of such ceremonies as
they did not deem it expedient to retain. The conflict be-
tween the two parties in Germany seems to have been less
arduous than we might expect. It vi'as usually accompanied
by an expulsion of the religious of both sexes ft'om their con-
vents, a measure, especially as to women, unjust and harsh * ;
and sometimes by an alienation of ecclesiastical revenues to the
purposes of the state j but this was not universal in Germany,
nor was it countenanced by Luther. I cannot see any just
reason to charge the Protestant princes of the empire with
having been influenced generally by such a motive. In
Sweden, however, the proceedings of Gustavus Vasa, who
confiscated ali ecclesiastical estates, subject oidy to what he

• Bilibald Krckheimer wrote (o Me- betirnui hiin snd Erasmui, The tatter,

luichthoii, eomplainiDg tbal a convent of though he could not approve the hard

iMiDi at Nuremberg, among ^hom irere usage of Tomen, hated the monki so

(«a of hii Bislem, had been molested and much, that he doea not greatly disapprore

boilted bceaiue (he; would not accept what wai done lovardi Ihem. In Ger-

CDnJeBon appointed bj the senate. Rei mania mulla TiTginuDi 4C monachorum

(O deducta eM >it quicunque miaerandaa monasteria crudeliter direpte sunt. Qui-

iUu oBendere et incenere audet, obse- dam magistratus agunt modeTBtius. Eje-

^iam Deo le prmtitisM arbitretur. Id- cerunt eo< duntaial. qui illic noD enent

^ue Don lolum a y'aia agitur, Bed et a piofcssi, ctreluerunt noTJliwi recipi; ad-

mdieribus ; et illu mulieribua, quarum emerunt illii cununrirginum.etjua alibi

liberii omnem eihibuere caritalem. Nan concioniodi quam in luii monaateriia.

■olum aum Tiria, qui alioi docere con- Breviter, abaque magittratua perminu

Imlunt, le ipn lero minimeemendant, nihil licet ilUs agere, Videntur hue

•rbt Doalra referta eat, led et mulieiibua ipectare, ut ei Tnonasteriia faeiant paro-

curioata, garruUi et otiotis, quie omnia chiaa. Eiiitimant enim boa conjuralo*

pWiui quam domum propriam gubernare pfaalangaaettotprivilegiUaTmatotdiotiui

Mt^unL Pirckhrimer Opera, Franks ferri non pone. (Basil. Aug. iSSS.)

1810. p. 3TJ. He was a moderate man, Epist. dcccII*. Multis in locis dur^

•ooeuriiag with tbeLutberaniinmott of traetati aunt monachi ; leium plerique

Ibnr doctriiM^ but agsinal the nolation cum siiit intolerabilet, alia tamen rations

of mooutic fowa, Serenl lettera pined corrigi non posiunt Epiit. scclvii.

t: Co Ogle

350 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [FaxiL

might deem a auflicieat maiutenance for the possessors, have
very -much the appearance of arbitrary spoliation.*

3. But while these great ianovations were brought in by
Bidirmant the civil power, and sometimes with too despotic a
ilni^^ contempt of l^al rights, the mere breaking up of
*'^"' old settlements had so disturbed the minds of the
people, that they became inclined to further acts of destruc-
tion, and more sweeping theories of revolution. It is one
of the fallacious views of the ReformatioD, to which we
have adverted in a former page, to fancy that it sprang from
any notions of political liberty, in such a sense as we attach
to the word. But, inasmuch as tt took away a great deal of
coercive jurisdiction exercised by the bishops, without sub-
stituting much in its place, it did unquestionably relax the
bonds of laws not always unnecessary j and inasmuch as the
multitude were in many parts instrumental in destroying by
force the exterior symbols of the Roman worship, it taught
them a habit of knowing and trying the efficacy of that
popular argument. Hence the insurrection of the German
peasants in 1525 may, in a certain degree, be ascribed to
the influence of the new doctrine ; and, in fact, one of their
demands was the establishment of the Gospel. But as the
real cause of that rebellion was the oppressive yoke of their
lords, which, in several instances before the Reformation was
thought of, had led to similar efforts at relief, we should not
lay too much stress on this additional incitement.t

4. A more immediate effect of overthrowing the ancient
Gronui Df system was the growth of fanaticism, to which, in
huiidiin. jjg worst shape, the antinomian extravagances of
Luther yielded too great encoUTagement, But he was the
first to repress the pretences of the Anabaptists t ; and when
he saw the danger of general licentiousness which he had

* Oerde*, Hist. Evangel. Refbmi. lemnereeoanoliDi, nanieaM in iitipiritu*

Seckendorf, et alii luprm naminati. The auoHlam mullla ■[gumsiilu ippaiet, icd

b«at account I bare seen of the Refiinn- dequibusJudiorspntterMartinumaemo

ation in Denmark and Sireilen la in tfas &oi1e ponl. At to Inlint b^tism, be

third votomc of Oerdes, p. 279, Ac. teemed to think it a difficult quettion.

t Seckendorf. But tlie H^lector obaened that ih^ ptned

f Id. Melancfathon ns a little ting- for heretics already, and it would be nn-

gered bf the first Anabaptists, who ap- wiw to moot a neir point. Luther, when

peated during the coDcealment oTLuther he came bacli, refected tha preteneet of

in tb« caatle of Wartburg. Magnia ra- tbe Anabaptitti at oacc.
tlonibui, he ni;a> adduror cert^ ul con-

t: Go Ogle

Cbap. VI.] FROM 1620 TO 1650. 351

unwarily^ promoted, he listened to the wiser counsels of Me-
lanchthon, and permitted his early doctrine upon justification
to be so far modified, or mitigated in expression, that it
ceased to give apparent countenance to immorality ; though
his differences with the church of Rome, as to the very ques-
tion from which he had started, thus became of less practical
importance, and less tangible to ordinary minds than before.*
Yet in his own writings we may find to the last such language
as to the impossibility of sin in the justified man, who was
to judge solely by an internal assurance as to the continuance
of his own justification, as would now he universally con-
demned in all our churches, and is hardly to be heard from
the lips of the merest enthusiast.

5. It is well known that Zuinglius, unconnected with
Luther in throwiner off his allemance to Home, took
in several respects rather dioerent theological views, "H-S'X
bat especially in the article of the real presence, as-
serted by the Germans as vigorouisly as in the church of
Rome, though with a modification sufficient, in the spirit of
uncompromising orthodoxy, to separate them entirely from
her communion, but altogether denied by the Swiss and
Belgian reformers. The attempts made to disguise this
division of opinion, and to produce a nominal unanimity by,
ambiguous and incoherent jargon, belong to ecclesiastical
history, of which they form a tedious and not very profitable
portion, t

■ See two Temirkable panngd in I am not eontineed lliat this apologjr

SeekeadorT, part iL p. 90. and p. 106. . tor Lutlier [■ sufficient. Words are of

The era ot what miy be called the pali- coune to be eiplained, vhen ambiguous,

immIIb of early Luthcraniim was in 152', bjr the context and scopeor the argument.

when Helancbllion drew up instructions But when tingle detached aphorisms, or

far the Tisiiation of tbe Saion churches. eTen complete sentences in a paragraph,

Luther came into this ; but it produced bear one ubTiout sense, I do not see tliat

Ibal jnlousy of Melanchthon among the we can hold Hie writer absolved from the

rigid diiciple«,BUch as Amadorf and Jus- impuistion of that meaning, because he

tot Joiuw, which led to the moleitalion of ma; somewhere else haie used a language

Us latter years. la 1537, Melanchthon inconsistent wilb it If the Colloquia

wrilea la a correapondenl : Scis me qua- Menialia are to he fiilly relied upon,

dam nuntii horrid^ dicere, de prKdestlns- Lulher continued to talk in the same an-

tioneide aaseniu voluntatis, de neceaaitate tinomian strain as before, though he grew

obtdicntia noati*, de peccato mortalL sometimes more cautious in writing. See

Dr bia omnibus acio re Ipsa Lutherum chap. lii. of thai work,

amtire eadem, sed inerudili quiedam ejus | [The Zuinglian docliine which de-

ftfTac^4fm dicta, cum non cideant quo nies the real, in the sense of literal and

ptrtineajit, ninium anaoU Gpiat.p,44£. subslanlial, presence of Christ's body and

(adit 1647.) blood in lb* symboli of bread and wine.

t: Co Ogle

352 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PiBT L

6. The Lutheran princes, who the year before had acquired
cnnrniion til* name of Protestants, by their protest against the
arAugihurg. resolutions of the majority in the diet of Spire, pre-
sented in 1530 to that held at Augsburg the celebrated con-
fession, which embodies their religious creed. It has been
said that there are material changes in subsequent editions,
but this is denied by the Lutherans. Their denial can only
be as to the materiality, for the fact is clear."

7> Meantime, it was not all the former opponents of abuses
cmdurtof in the church who now served under the banner of
Grvdiiii. either Luther or Zwingle. Some few, like Sir
Tliomas More, weot violently back to the extreme of main-
taining the whole fabric of superstition ; a greater number,
without abandooing their own private sentiments, shrunk,
for various reasons, from an avowed separation from the
church. Such we may reckon Faber Stapulensis, the most
learned Frenchman of that age after Budaeus ; such perhaps

wu apparentl; in opposilioD to tin unud Iwfuie, in a letter to IHrtkheimer. lie ia-

lansuage 'of the church. It Imd been, timato bis prcfcnnce of the doctrine ot

bowCTer, ^remsrkibly lupported in the (Ecolsnipadiui ibove that of Luther, if

ninth century, by one Ben rum, or Its' botti irrrcprititeopinioiDibutprefersthe

tramn. ablnt of Corvey ; and tliere is no authority of the rhurch to eitlier. Hlhi

itaion to ttiink that he wag advancing a non ditpliceret Q^olainpadii Mntentia,

lainly it wag not one to which all were enim video quid ajpt corpus inwnGJbile
ready to accede. The history of his book nee utilitaCem allaturuta si lentiretur,
ia well knovn ; but it aeems as if the bock modo sdsit in symbollB gratia spiritualia.

gard, prEtead that he IwlieTed in transub- sum ditcedere, nee unquam dbicetra. Td

■tantiiition, and others, with Mr. Alex- ijc diMcntii sb (Ecolsmpadio, ut cum

ander Knoi, suppose him to have held Lutbero sentiremHlii,r]uBnicuin eceleaix.

theunintelligiblcmiddlehypathesii which Ep. nccciiiii. Sadulel thought, like

they prefer. Bertram writes with more Erumus. that the wbole church could

candour and clearness than some Protest- not have been in so giest an error as the

■ntn of the school of Bucer and Calvin ; corpuni pretence wimld be, if fslse, lor to

and itates the question tersely thus: many ages. Sadoleti Epistols, p. 161

Utrumquod in ctens domini fidtlium ore 1843,]

sumilur, corpus et sanguis Chriiti in ■ IJosiuet, Variations des Egliaes Pro-

mysterio sive 6gura iiat, an in veritate; tectantes, vol. i. Seckendorf, p. I7(X

determining for the former, Clement, Bibliotheque Curieuse, vol. iL

Erasmus would, as he, tell) ua, have In the editions of 1531 we read: De

assented to the Zuinglian tenets, if he ccena Domini docent, quod corpus et san-

could have believed the church to have guis Chrisii vere adsint, et distribuantur

lenuined so long in a portentous error. veKenlilius in c«na Domini, et improbaot

Niti me moverel tanlus ecclcsiffi can- secus docentes. Jn Ibose of 1540, itruns

■entus,poBiiimin(Ecolampadii senteniiam thus: De ccena Domini doceni, quod

pedibus ditcederei nunc in eo pereitto, cum pane et vino vere eihibeantur cor-

quod mihi tradit scripturarum inierprei pus et aanguis Giristi Tescentibu* in cou

eccteiia. Ep. xliii. And tome time Domini.

lyGOOgIC

Cbat. VI.] FROM 1620 TO 1660. 358

was Budeeus bimself*; and such were Bitibaldus Pirck-
heimert, Petrus Mosellanus, Beatus Rhenanus, and Wimp-
feitng, all men of just renown in their time. Such, ahove
all, we may say, was Erasmus, the precursor of bolder prophets
than himself, who, iu all his latter years, stood in a very
unenviable state, exposed to the shafts of two parties who
forgave no man that moderation which was a reproach to
themselves. At the beginning of this period, he had cer-
tainly an esteem for Melanchthon, (£colampadius, and other
reformers ; and though already shocked by the violence of
Luther, which he expected to ruin the cause altogether, had
not begun to speak of him with disapprobation, t Iu several
points of opinion, he professed to coincide with the German
refomaers; but his own temper was not decisive; he was
capable of viewing a subject in various lights ; his learuing,
as well as natural disposition, kept bim irresolute ; and it
might not be easy to determine accurately the tenets of so
voluminous a theologian. One thing was manifest, that he
had greatly contributed to the success of the Reformation.
It was said, that Erasmus had laid the egg, and Luther had
hatched it. Erasmus afterwards, when more alienated from
the new party, observed that he had laid a hen's egg, but
Luther had hatched a crow's.^ Whatever was the bird, it
pecked still at the church. In 1522 came out the Colloquies
of Erasmus, a book even now much read, and deserving to
be so. It was professedly designed for the instruction and
amusement of youth ; but both are conveyed at the expense

■ Builieui wu luspected ot Protest- minui invidiK. Finini eaet unuin ho-

■ntiam, Bnil duapproved manj things in m'lnem perirsi u res live illii luecedit,

hi* own cburch 1 but the panege* quoted anno tent illaium imolentiam. Nan

from hiro b]r Gerdes, i. ISe., prove Ihit conquIeHient donee Jinguu bc bon» lite.

be did not mem to Uke the leap. ru oinnei subierteiint Epist. cxiviii.

t GCTde«,»oLi. §66 — 83, We fasTe Sept. IJSO.

teen above the tnodetation of Pirckheimer Lulberui, quod negar! non potest, op-

in some respects. I am not sure, bav' timam bbulam susceperat,etChiistipene

erer, tbat be did not comply irith the aboliti negollum summo cum orbii ap-

RefbrmatioD after it was established at plaum crxpernt agere. Sed utinam rem

Nuremberg. lanlam gravioribus ac ledatloriLiia egisset

I Male metuo miiero Lulhero ; lie contiliis,Tiujorequecuni animiislamiqus

tmdique ferret conjuratioi sic undiqiie moderationej atque utinam in tcriptis

irritantur in iUum principei. ac pracipu^ illius non essent tarn multa bona, aut sua

Leo pontiftx. Utinam Lutherus meum bona non litiiisel malis baud ferendia.

HcutusconnliuiD, abodiotiailliaK sedi- Epiat. ikkiit. 3d Sept. ISSl.

ticBii abatinuiiwt. Plus erat IVuetuf et § Epist. nccxii. Dee. I5E4.

VOL. I. A A

n,gti:ccT:G00glc ^

354 LITEEATURE OF EUROPE [Put I.

of the prevalent usages in religion. The monkish party could
not be blind to its effect. The faculty of theology at Paris,
in 15S6, led hy one Beda, a most bigoted enemy of Erasmus,
censured the Colloquies for slighting the &sts of the church,
virginity, monkery, pilgrimages, and other established parts
of the religious system. I'hey incurred of course the dis-
pleasure of Rome, and have several dmes been forbidden
to be read in schools. Erasmus pretended that in bis
'ly(iuiifayla he Only turned into ridicule the abuse of fasting,
and not the ordinances of the church. It would be difficult,
however, to find out this distinction in the dialogue, or,
indeed, any thing favourable to the ecclesiastical cause in the
whole book of Colloquies. The clergy are every where
represented as idle and corrupt. No one who desired to
render established institutions odious could set about it in a
shorter or surer way ; and it would be strange if Erasmus
bad not done the chuich more harm by such publications
than he could compensate by a few sneers at the reformers
in his private letters. In the single year 1527) Colineeus
printed SI-iOOO copies of the Colloquies, all of which vt'ere
sold.

S. But about t1)e time of this very publication we find
Eitimiie Eraamus growing by degrees more averse to the
"'"' radical Innovations of Luther. He has been severely
blamed for this by most Protestants ; tuid doubtless, so far
as an undue apprehension of giving offence to the powerful,
or losing his pensions from the emperor and king of England
might influence him, no one can undertake his defence. But
it is to be remembered, that he did not by any means espouse
all the opinions either of Luther or Zwingle ; that he was
disgusted at the virulent language too r«mmon among the
reformers, and at the outrages committed by the populace ;
that he anticipated great evils from the presumptuousness of
ignorant men in judgii)g for themselves in religion ; that he
probably was sincere in what he always maintained as to the
necessity of preserving the communion of the Catholic diurch,
which he thought consistent with much latitude of private
faith ; and that, if he had gone among the reformers, be
must either have concealed his real opinions more than be

n,gt,7cdT:G00glc

Cau-.VL]

FROM 1520 TO 15S0.

355

had hitherto done, or lived, as Melaiichthon did afterwards,
the victim of calumny and oppression. He had also to allege,
that the fruita of the Reformation had by no means shown
themselves in a more virtuous conduct; and that many heated
enthusiasts were depreciating both all profane studies, and all
e of learning in theology.'

■ The lelteri of Ensnius, writte
under the apur of immedute feelings, u
k pf rpeto«l conjraentarj on the miichie
vith vhieh the ReforiuBlion, in hii op
mpanied. Civi

m. tacerdotibus cor

poteitatem livendl ut Tolunt. Epist. mi.
Tb1» .idl mores (Buileie} ut etlsmii
idoginaU,noiip!«cu-
] cum bujuimodi [sic] tadia
bit. mIitL Both thetelul are
a Pirckheimet.whowaa rather
BHHC a protectant than Eraimui ; » that
there ii no ftir suspicion of temporiting.
The reader maj also louk at the 7S8ih
■od 793d Epistle, on the wild doctrines
of the Anabaptisti aiid other refurmers,
aiidattheT3lst,Dn the effects of Farel's
fifrt preaching at BasLe in \525. See
■In Bayle, Farel, note B.

It is becDine <er; much ths practice
vith our Eoglish writers lo censure Eras-

rarcly does justice to anj one who did
ncH servilely follow I.ulher. And Dr.Coi,
bbULifeof Melanchlhon, p. 35., speaks
of a third party, "at the head of which
the leanwd, witty, vacillating, aTaricious,
iDd artFul Erasmus Is unquestionably to
be placed." I do not deny his claim to
tfais place; but why the last three cpi-
iImU? Can Erasmus be shown to hare
neillated in bis leneta ? If be bad done
sD^ it might be no great reproach ; hut bia
relijpotu creed was nearly thai of the
mnderate membersof the church of Ilome,
Borhare I obserredaDy proof of a change
ID IL But TaoilUtion, KKDe would reply.

may be imputed tohia conduct. I hardly
think this word is applicable ; though he
acted from particular impulses, whicll
might make him retai a little inconsistent
in spirit, and certainly wrote letters not
always in the same tone, according to his
own temper at the raoment, or that of his
correspondent. Nor was be atariciousi
at least I know no proof of it ; and as to
the epithet artful, it ill applies to a man
who was perpetually imulving himself by
an unguarded and imprudent behaviour.
Dr. Cot proceeds to charge Erasmus with
seeking a cardinal's hat. But of this
there is neither proof nor probability ; he
always declared his reluctance lo accept
thai honour, and I cannot thiolt that in
any part of hta life he went the right iray

Those who arraign Erasmus so seierely
(and I am not undertaking the defence of
every passage in bisToluminous Epistles)
must proceed either on the assumption
that no man of hit learning and ability

of the church of Rome, which is the
height of bigotry and ignorance; or that,
according to his own religious opinions,
it was impossible for him to do so. Thia
is somewhat more tenable, inasmuch us it
can only be answered by a good deal of
alLenliun to his writings. But from va-
rious passages in them, it may be inferred,
that, though his mind was not made up
on several points, and perhaps for that
reason, he tbought it right to follow, in
assent as well as conbrmity, the calholio
" '■" of the church, and bI

e from

The

□ioDB on some chief points of conlroversy,
his Epistles, Dcceiiiii.Dc^ccliivii. (which
jOTtin has a little misunderstood), hixxt,
Mliii. Hiciii. And aee Joflin'a own fair
statement of the case, i. S74.

Melanchthoa had doubtless a sweeter
temper, and a larger measure of human
charities, ihin Erasmus, nor would 1 wish
to vindicate one great man at the eipeose
of anulbn. But I cannot reftaia bon

..Cioogic

356 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [Pa«tI

9- In 1534, Erasmus, at the instigation of those who
were resolved to dislodge him from a neurral station
TMiv wiih his timidity rather affected, published his Diatribe de
libero arbitrio, selecting a topic upon which Luther,
in the opinion of most reasonable men, was very open to attadc.
Luther answered in a treatise, De servo arbitrio, flinching not,
as suited his character, from any tenet because it seemed para-
doxical, or revolting to geiieriO prejudice. The controversy
ended with a reply of Erasmus, entitled Hyperaspistes." It
is not to be understood, from the titles of these tracts, that
the question of free will was discussed between Luther and
Erasmus iti a philosophical sense ; though Melanchthon in
his Loci Communes, like the modem Calvinists, had com-
bined the theological position of the spiritual inability of man
with the metaphysical tenet of general necessity. Luther on
most occasions, though not uniformly, acknowledged the
freedom of the will as to indifferent actions, and also as to
what they called the works of the law. But he maint»ned
that, even when regenerated and sanctiBed by faith and the

tuning, that no pusage In the letters or than to the Trojan var. Tbt wordt

Erumui ii read vitb <o mueli pain at occur in aa anairet to a Utter of Viiei.

that in which MelBDclitlion, after Luther's whCten ^m London, whereio he bad

death, and wriLing to oue not lerj blamed lonie paisagea in the Colloquia

friendly, says of Ills connexion with the on the uaual grouuda of their freedom at

founder of the Rerormalian, Tuli ler- to ecclrwulica] pracuces. EraKmua, ntber

Tilulem psne deformem, &e. Epist. piqued at thit, after replying to the ob-

Melanchthon. p. SI. (edit 1G4T.) But wriationa, inainuatit to Vires, that tb«

the chBTBclers of 1iceraT7 men are cruelly latter had liol written of hia own free will,

tried by tlieir correapondence, especially but at tbe iiuligation of tome tuperior.

in an age when more conTeuiional dia- Vernm, ut ingenu^ dicam, perdidimoa

■imuliiiou waa authoriaed by usage than liberum arbitrium. Illic mihi aliud die-

■t present. tabat animui, aliud scribebat ■— l"""f,

* Seckcndorf took hold of a few word* By a Sgure of speech far from uouaual,

in a letter of Eraunua, to inilnuate that he he delicately suggeats his own guBpicioD

had taken a side againet his conscience in at ViTea'i apology. And tbe neit letter

writing bis treatite De libero arhitrio. of ViTei leaves no room for doubt : Li-

Jortin, acute ea he waa, aeems lo have berum arbitrium non perdidimus, quod

underatood (he pasaage the Mine way, (u asaeiuerii, — worda, that could bare no

and endeavours to explain away the aenae, poiiihle meaning, upon the hypothent of

as if he meant only that he had under- Seckendorf Tbere is nothing in the COB-

laken the task unwillingly. Miloer of text that can justify it ; and it it equally

course repeats the imputalion ; though it difficult to maintain the interpretalioo

must be owned that, perceiving the >b- Jortin givea of the phrase, aliud dielabat

surdity iif making Erasmus deny wbat in animus, aliud acribebat calamus, which

all hia writings appears to have been his can mean nothing but that he wrote

real opinion, he adopci Jorlin's solntion. what he did not think. Tbe letters are

1 am persuaded tliat they are all mis- Dcccixix. Dcccliii. dcccIiitL in Eraa-

taken. and that Erasmus was no more mus's Epistles ; or the reader aaj tarn

referring to hia treatise against Luther, (o Jortin, L 113.

lyCOOglC

Cmf.VL] PEOM 1520 TO 1560. 85?

Spirit, maa had no spiritual free wilt ; and as before that time
he could do no good, so after it, he bad no power to do ill ;
nor indeed could he, in a strict sense, do either good or ill,
God always working in him, so that all his acts were proper-
ly the acts of God, though man's will being of course the
proximate cause, they might, in a secondary sense, be as-
cribed to him. It was this that Erasmus denied, in con-
formity with the doctrine afterwards held by the council of
Trent, by the church of England, and, if we may depend on
the statements of writers of authority, by Melanchthon and
most of the later Lutherans. From the time of this contro-
versy Luther seems to have always spoken of Erasmus with
extreme ill will ; and if the other was a little more measured
in his expressions, he fell not a jot behind in dislike."

10. The epistles of Erasmus, which occupy two folio
volumes in the best edition of his works, are a vast
treasure for the ecclesiastical and literary history of otut
his times, t Morhof advises the student to common-
place them ; a task which, even in his age, few would have
spared leisure to perform, and which the good index of the
Leyden edition renders less important Few men carry on
80 long and extensive a correspondence without affording
some vulnerable points to the criticism of posterity. The
failings of Erasmus have been already adverted to j it is from
his own letters that we derive our chief knowledge of them.
An extreme sensibility to blame in his own person, with little
regard to that of others ; a genuine warmth of friendship
towards some, but an artificial pretence of it too frequently

* Man; of Lntber's ■Irokes st En«- las d^)er>t k in me es» xaimo candidi*-

mu* occur in the Colloquia Mennlw, (imo, aa propcmodum poitulit, ut ipu

whicb I quote froin the truuluion. gntiu ag«m, qued me tam ciTiliter trtc

* Erumua can do noihing but cniil and tavit, longe aliter acripturus li cum boate

float; he cannot conrute." "I charge AiisBet res. Ep. ocociiiTi.
you in mjr will and totaroent, that jrou f [Manv of the apiatlea of Erasmus

bate and loath Erasmui, Ihat Tiper." welt puhlUhed b;r Khenanui from tbu

eb. lllT. " He called Erasrnui an epi- preas of Frobeniua about [519. He pre-

cure and ungortlir creature, Tor thinking tended to be angry, and that Frobeniua

tbal irGod dealed with men here on earth had done tbii againit bia will ; which even

Bi the; deiened, it would not go to ill Jortin pciceiTes to be unlrue. Epiil.

with the good, or ao well with the wicit- nyii. 'J"ht« waa a little like Voltaire, to

cd." ch. lii. Luthaiua. aaji the other, vhose phyiiognomy that of Eraamui haa

tic reapondit (^triba de libero srbitrio) oAen been , . •

ut aaiebao in nemioeni viruleii '
hoDKi Htarla poat edilnm llbrum

t: Co Ogle

358 LITERATURE OF EUROPE [PaktL

assumed ; an incon^stency of profession both as to persons
and opinions, partly arising from the difTerent character of
his correspondents, but in a great degree from the Taiying
inipclses of his ardent mind, tend to abate that respect whit^
the name of Erasmus at first excites, and which, on a candid
estimate of his whole life, and the tenor even of this corre-
spondence, it ought to retain. He was the first con^icooas
enemy of ignorance and superstition, the first restorer of
Christian morality on a scriptural foundation, and, notwith-
standing the ridiculous assertion of some modems that he
wanted theological learning, the first who possessed it in its
proper sense, and ^plied it to its proper end.

11. In every succeeding year the letters of Erastnos
HI. «iinijufoB Iwti'fty increasing animosity against the reformers.
^tnioT He had long been on good terms with Zwingle
creun. ^^^ (Ecolampadius, but became so estranged by
these party difierences, that he speaks of their death with
a sort of triumph.* He still, however, kept up some inter-
course with Melanchthon. The latter years of Erasoitis
could not have been happy; he lived in a perpetual irritation
from the attacks of adversaries on every side ; his avowed
dislike of tlie reformers by no means assuaging the virulence
of his original foes in the church, or removing the suspicion
of lukewarniness in the orthodox cause. Part of this should
fairly be ascribed to the real independence of his mind in the
formation of his opinions, though not always in their expres-
sion, and to their incompatibility with the extreme doctrines

* B«iie hsbcl, quud duo Coryphsi pv- thin. Icarl ng poor Enimiii to his reaJer'i
rieriiit, Zuiiiglius in acie, tE^olampadius indignaiiun for wligt he would inilmiale
paulo post Tcbri el apostemate. Quods! to be ■ piece of the greatest basenes.
illis (kiisset (i'ua\iat, ictum fuisset de no- But, in good truth, vhat right had (Ero-
bis. Epiit. MccT, It is of course to b« lampiuliui to ute tlie word na-trr, if it
regretted, that Enamu! allowed this pu- could be interpreted as claiming Eraamia
•age to escape him, eyen ill a letter. With In hii own side ? He «M not theirc, i«
(Ecolampadiut he had lor^g carried on a tEcolainpadiuB well knew, in eiterior
correspondence. In some Iwok the latter profession, nor theira in the course thej
hid said, Magnui Erasmut noMer. This had seen Gt to pursue.
was at a time when much suspicion was It is Just towards Erasmus to mention,
entertained of Erasmus, who wriiea rather that lie never diucmblnl bin afteclion for
■musingi)', in Feb. 1SU5, to complain; Lewis Benjuin, the first martjr to pro-
telling (Eeolampadiiu that it wos best testantlsm in France, who was bumai in
neither to be prused or blamed bf his 1538, eren in the lime of his danger.
part;, but if thej