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diocese of Basil, wrote an heroic poem in Latin verse, entitled LIGURINUS, which is scarce inferior to the PHILIPPID of Guillaume le Breton, or the ALEXANDREID of Gualtier: but not so polished and classical as the TROJAN WAR of our Josephus Iscanus. It is in ten books, and the subject is the war of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa against the Milanese in Liguria. He had before written a Latin poem on the expedition of the emperor Conrade against the Saracens, and the recovery of the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bulloign, which he called SOLYMARIUM'. The subject is much like that of the ANTIOCHEIS; but which of the two pieces was written first it is difficult to ascertain.

While this spirit of classical Latin poetry was universally prevailing, our countryman Geoffrey de Vinesauf, an accomcontain names, and other circumstances, Qui moritur? Præsul. Cur? pro Grege, which perhaps may lead to point out the age if not the name of the author. They were never before printed.

Tu quoque digneris, precor, aspirare labori,

Flos cleri, MARTINE, meo; qui talis es inter

Abbates, qualis est patronus tuus inter Pontifices: hic est primas, tu primus eorum, &c.

Hic per Aidanum sua munificentia mu.

nus

[blocks in formation]

&c.

Prol. pr. f. 29.

Detineant alios Parnassi culmina Cyr

rhæ

Plausus, Pieridum vox, Heliconis opes.
De partu Virginis. f. 28. b.
Nectareum rorem terris, &c.

S. Birinus, f. 42.
Et pudet, et fateor, &c.

The author of the life of Birinus says, he was commanded to write by Peter, probably Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester. Perhaps he is Michael Blaunpayne. Alexander Esseby wrote lives of saints in Latin verse. See MSS. Harl. 1819. 581.

First printed August. Vindel. 1507. fol. And frequently since.

He mentions it in his LIGURIUM, lib. i. v. 13. seq. v. 648. seq. See also Voss. Poet. Lat. c. vi. p. 73. It was never printed. Gunther wrote a prose history of the sack of Constantinople by Baldwin: The materials were taken from the mouth of abbot Martin, who was present at the siege, in 1204. It was printed by Canisius, Antiqu. Lect. tom. iv. P. ii. p. 358. Ingolstad. 1604. 4to. Again, in a new edition of that compilation, Amst. 1725. fol. tom. iv. See also Pagi, ad A.D. 1519, n. xiv.

plished scholar, and educated not only in the priory of Saint Frideswide at Oxford, but in the universities of France and Italy, published while at Rome a critical didactic poem entitled DE NOVA POETRIA'. This book is dedicated to pope Innocent the Third: and its intention was to recommend and illustrate the new and legitimate mode of versification which had lately begun to flourish in Europe, in opposition to the Leonine or barbarous species. This he compendiously styles, and by way of distinction, The NEW Poetry. We must not be surprised to find Horace's Art of Poetry entitled HORATII NOVA POETRIA, so late as the year 1389, in a catalogue of the library of a monastery at Dover'.

Even a knowledge of the Greek language imported from France, but chiefly from Italy, was now beginning to be diffused in England. I am inclined to think, that many Greek manuscripts found their way into Europe from Constantinople in the time of the Crusades: and we might observe that the Italians, who seem to have been the most polished and intelligent people of Europe during the barbarous ages, carried on communications with the Greek empire as early as the reign of Charlemagne. Robert Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, an universal scholar, and no less conversant in polite letters than the most abstruse sciences, cultivated and patronised the study of the Greek language. This illustrious prelate, who is said to have composed almost two hundred books, read lectures in the school of the Franciscan friars at Oxford about the year 1230". He translated Dionysius the Areopagite and Damascenus into Latin. He greatly facilitated the knowledge of

It has been often printed. I think it is called in some manuscripts, De Arte dictandi, versificandi, et transferendi. See Selden, Præfat. Dec. SCRIPTOR. p. xxxix. And Selden, Op. ii. 168. He is himself no contemptible Latin poet, and is celebrated by Chaucer. See Urry's edit. p. 468. 560. He seems to have lived about 1200.

t Ex Matricula Monach. Monast. Dover. apud MSS. Br. Twyne, notat. 8.

p. 758. archiv. Oxon. Yet all Horace's writings were often transcribed, and not unfamiliar, in the dark ages. His odes are quoted by Fitz-Stephens in his DrSCRIPTION of LONDON. Rabanus Mau

rus above mentioned quotes two verses from the ART OF POETRY. Op. tom. ii. p. 46. edit. Colon. 1627. fol.

Kennet, Paroch. Antiq. p. 217. * Leland, Script. Brit. p. 283.

I

Greek by a translation of Suidas's Lexicon, a book in high repute among the lower Greeks, and at that time almost a recent compilation". He promoted John of Basingstoke to the archdeaconry of Leicester; chiefly because he was a Greek scholar, and possessed many Greek manuscripts, which he is said to have brought from Athens into England. He entertained, as a domestic in his palace, Nicholas chaplain of the abbot of Saint Alban's, surnamed GRÆCUS, from his uncommon proficiency in Greek; and by his assistance he translated from

y Boston of Bury says, that he translated the book called SUDA. Catal. Script. Eccles. ROBERT. LINCOLN. Boston lived in the year 1410. Such was their ignorance at this time even of the name of this lexicographer.

He

Z Lel. Script. Brit. p. 266. Matthew Paris asserts, that he introduced into England a knowledge of the Greek numeral letters. That historian adds, "De quibus figuris HOC MAXIME ADMIRANDUM, quod unica figura quilibet numerus repræsentatur: quod non est in Latino vel in Algorismo." Hist. edit. Lond. 1684. p. 721. He translated from Greek into Latin a grammar which he called DONATUS GRÆCORUM. See Pegge's Life of Roger de Weseham, p. 46, 47. 51. And infr. p. 281, seems to have flourished about the year 1230. Bacon also wrote a Greek grammar, in which is the following curious passage: "Episcopus consecrans ecclesiam, scribat Alphabetum Græcum in pulvere cum cuspide baculi pastoralis: sed omnes episcopi QUI GRÆCUM IGNORANT, Scribant tres notas numerorum quæ non sunt literæ," &c. GR. GRAM. cap. ult. p. iii. MSS. Apud MSS. Br. Twyne, 8vo. p. 649. archiv. Oxon. See what is said of the new translations of Aristotle, from the original Greek into Latin, about the twelfth century. SECT. ix. vol. ii. p.128. infr. I believe the translators understood very little Greek. Our countryman Michael Scotus was one of the first of them; who was assisted by Andrew a Jew. Michael was astrologer to Frederick emperor of Germany, and appears to have executed his translations at Toledo in Spain, about the year 1220.

These new versions were perhaps little more than corrections from those of the early Arabians, made under the inspection of the learned Spanish Saracens. To the want of a true knowledge of the original language of the antient Greek philosophers, Roger Bacon attributes the slow and imperfect advances of real sience at this period. On this account their improvements were very inconsiderable, notwithstanding the appearance of erudition, and the fervour with which almost every branch of philosophy had been now studied in various countries for near half a century. See Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 120. seq. Dempster, xii. 940. Baconi Op. Maj. per Jebb, i. 15. ii. 8. Tanner, Bibl. p. 526. And MSS. Cotton. C. 5. fol. 138. Brit. Mus.

A learned writer affirms, that Aristotle's books in the original Greek were brought out of the east into Europe about the year 1200. He is also of opinion, that during the crusades many Europeans, from their commerce with the Syrian Palestines, got a knowledge of Arabic: and that importing into Europe Arabic versions of some parts of Aristotle's works, which they found in the east, they turned them into Latin. These were chiefly his Ethics and Politics. And these NEW TRANSLATORS he further supposes were employed at their return into Europe in revising the old translations of other parts of Aristotle, made from Arabic into Latin. Euseb. Renaudot, De Barbar. Aristot. Versionib. apud Fabric. Bibl. Gr. xii. p. 248. See also Murator. Antiq. Ital. Med. Æv. iii.

936.

Greek into Latin the testaments of the twelve patriarchs 2. Grosthead had almost incurred the censure of excommunication for preferring a complaint to the pope, that most of the opulent benefices in England were occupied by Italians. But this practice, although notoriously founded on the monopolising and arbitrary spirit of papal imposition, and a manifest act of injustice to the English clergy, probably contributed to introduce many learned foreigners into England, and to propagate philological literature.

Bishop Grosthead is also said to have been profoundly skilled in the Hebrew language. William the Conqueror permitted great numbers of Jews to come over from Rouen, and to settle in England about the year 1087d. Their multitude soon encreased, and they spread themselves in vast bodies throughout most of the cities and capital towns in England, where they built synagogues. There were fifteen hundred at York about the year 1189. At Bury in Suffolk is a very complete remain of a Jewish synagogue of stone in the Norman style, large and magnificent. Hence it was that many of the learned English ecclesiastics of these times became acquainted with their books and language. In the reign of William Rufus, at Oxford the Jews were remarkably numerous, and had acquired a considerable property; and some of their rabbis were permitted to open a school in the university, where they instructed not only their own people, but many Christian students, in the Hebrew literature, about the year 1054f. Within two hundred years after their admission or establishment by the Conqueror, they were banished the kingdom. This circumstance was highly favourable to the circulation of their learning in England. The suddenness of their dismission

* See MSS. Reg. Brit. Mus. 4 D. vii. 4. Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 82. And M. Paris, sub anno 1242.

b Godwin, Episc. p. 348. edit. 1616. He is mentioned again, SECT. ii. p. 63. 81. infr.

d Hollinsh. Chron. sub ann. p. 15. a. e Anders. Comm. i. 93.

f Angl. Judaic. p. 8.

Hollinsh. ibid. sub ann. 1289. p. 285, a. Matthew of Westminster says that 16511 were banished. Flor. Hist. ad an. 1290. Great numbers of Hebrew rols and charts, relating to their estates in England, and escheated to the king, are now remaining in the Tower among the royal records.

obliged them for present subsistence, and other reasons, to sell their moveable goods of all kinds, among which were large quantities of rabbinical books. The monks in various parts availed themselves of the distribution of these treasures. At Huntingdon and Stamford there was a prodigious sale of their effects, containing immense stores of Hebrew manuscripts, which were immediately purchased by Gregory of Huntingdon, prior of the abbey of Ramsey. Gregory speedily became an adept in the Hebrew, by means of these valuable acquisitions, which he bequeathed to his monastery about the year 1250h. Other members of the same convent, in consequence of these advantages, are said to have been equal proficients in the same language, soon after the death of prior Gregory: among which were Robert Dodford, librarian of Ramsey, and Laurence Holbech, who compiled a Hebrew Lexicon. At Oxford, great multitudes of their books fell into the hands of Roger Bacon, or were bought by his brethren the Franciscan friars of that university *.

But, to return to the leading point of our enquiry, this promising dawn of polite letters and rational knowledge was soon obscured. The temporary gleam of light did not arrive to perfect day. The minds of scholars were diverted from these liberal studies in the rapidity of their career; and the arts of composition and the ornaments of language were neglected, to make way for the barbarous and barren subtleties of scholastic divinity. The first teachers of this art, originally founded on that spirit of intricate and metaphysical enquiry which the Arabians had communicated to philosophy, and which now became almost absolutely necessary for defending the doctrines of Rome, were Peter Lombard archbishop of Paris, and the celebrated Abelard: men whose consummate abilities were rather qualified to reform the church, and to restore useful

Bale, iv. 41. ix. 9. Lel. ubi supr.

Leland, Script. Brit. p. 321. And MSS. Bibl. Lambeth. Wharton, L. p. 452. p. 661. "Libri Prioris Gregorii de Wood, Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. Ramesey. Prima pars Bibliothecæ He- i. 77. 132. See also SECT. ix. vol. ii. braica," &c. p. 126. infr.

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