and REDUCTORIUM. Four of the stories occurring in the GESTA, The Discovery of the gigantic body of Pallas, The subterraneous golden palace, The adventures of the English knight in the bishoprick of Ely, and The miraculous horn, are related in the fourteenth book of the REPERTORIUM MORALE. For the two last of these he quotes Gervase of Tilbury, as in his GESTA'. As a further proof of his allegorising genius I must add, that he moralised all the stories in Ovid's Metamorphosis, in a work entitled, Commentarius MORALIS, sive AlleGORIE in Libros quindecim Ovidii Metamorphoseons, and now remaining in manuscript in the library of the monastery of Saint Germains. He seems to have been strongly impressed with whatever related to the Roman affairs, and to have thought their history more interesting than that of any other people. This appears from the following passage, which I translate from the article ROMA, in his DICTIONARIUM MORALE, and which will also contribute to throw some other lights on this subject. "How many remarkable facts might be here collected concerning the virtues and vices of the Romans, did my design permit me to drop Moralities, and to enter upon an historical detail! For that most excellent historian Livy, unequalled for the dignity, brevity, and difficulty of his style, (whose eloquence is so highly extolled by Saint Jerome, and whom I, however unworthy, have translated from Latin into French with great labour', at the request of John the most "CAP. xlix. f. 643. He quotes CHRONICA, and says, that this happened in the reign of the emperor Henry the Second. [See GEST. ROM. c. clviii.] ° CAP. lxxii. f. 689. col. 1. 2. He quotes for this story [GEST. ROM. C. Cvii.] William of Malmesbury, but tells it in the words of Beauvais, ut supr. P Fol. 610. col. 2. [GEST. ROM. c. clv.] Here also his author is Gervase of Tilbury from whom, I think in the same chapter, he quotes part of king Arthur's Romance. See OTIA IMPERIAL. Dec. ii. famous king of France,) records so many wonderful things of the prudence, fortitude, fidelity, and friendship, of the Roman people; as also of their quarrels, envy, pride, avarice, and other vices, which are indeed allied to virtues, and are such, to say the truth, as I never remember to have heard of in any nation besides. But because I do not mean to treat of historical affairs in the present work, the matter of which is entirely moral, I refer the historical reader to Livy himself, to Trogus Pompeius, Justin, Florus, and Orosius, who have all written histories of Rome; as also to Innocent, who in his book on the Miseries of human nature", speaks largely of the vices of the Romans "." In the mean time we must remember, that at this particular period the Roman history had become the grand object of the public taste in France. The king himself, as we have just seen, recommended a translation of Livy. French translations also of Sallust, Cesar, and Lucan, were now circulated. A Latin historical compilation called ROMULEON was now just published by a gentleman of France, which was soon afterwards translated into French. A collection of the GESTA ROMANORUM was therefore a popular subject, at least it produced a popular title, and was dictated by the fashion of the times. I have here mentioned all Berchorius's works, except his Comment on a Prosody called Doctrinale metricum, which was used as a school-book in France, till Despauterius's manual on that subject appeared. Some biographers mention his TROPOLOGIA, his COSMOGRAPHIA, and his BREVIARIUM. But the TROPOLOGIA is nothing more than his REDUCTORIUM on the Bible; and probably the BREVIARIUM is the same. The COSMOGRAPHIA seems to be the fourteenth book of his RE "Pope Innocent the Third, about the year 1200, wrote three Books De Contemptu Mundi, sive De Miseria humana Conditionis, printed Colon. 1496. DICTION. MORAL. P. iii. vol. ii. f. 274. col. 2. edit. 1583.-See infra, vol. ii. p. 420. Oudin, ubi supr. y I have seen a very old black-letter &c. edition with the title, "Tropologiarum mysticarumque enarrationum," Without date. But see Bibl. Sangerm. Cod. MS. 687. And G. Serpilii VIT. SCRIPTOR. BIBLIC. tom. vii. part. 2. pag. 44. Also Possevin. APPARAT. SACR. ii. p. 241. Colon. 1608. PERTORIUM MORALE; which treats of the wonders of various countries, and is chiefly taken from Solinus and Gervase of Tilbury. He is said by the biographers to have written other smaller pieces, which they have not named or described. Among these perhaps is comprehended the GESTA: which we may conceive to have been thus undistinguished, either as having been neglected or proscribed by graver writers, or rather as having been probably disclaimed by its author, who saw it at length in the light of a juvenile performance, abounding in fantastic and unedifying narrations, which he judged unsuitable to his character, studies, and station". Basilius Johannes Heroldus, however, mentions Berchorius as the author of a CHRONICON, a word which may imply, though not with exact propriety, his GESTA ROMANORUM. It is in the Epistle dedicatory of his edition of the Chronicles of Marianus Scotus, and Martinus Polonus, addressed to our queen Elisabeth; in which he promises to publish many Latin CHRONICA, that is, those of Godfrey of Viterbo, Hugo Floriacensis, Conrade Engelhus, Hermannus Edituus, Lanfranc, Ivo, Robert of Saint Victor, PETER BERCHORIUS, and of many others, qui de TEMPORIBUS scripserunt, who have written of times. Paulus Langius, who wrote about the year 1400, in his enumeration of Berchorius's writings, says nothing of this compilation". Had other authentic evidences been wanting, we are sure of the age in which Berchorius flourished, from the circumstance of his being employed to translate Livy by John king of France, who acceded to the throne in the year 1350, and died in the year 1364. That Berchorius died, and probably an old man, in the year 1362, we learn from his epitaph in the monastery of saint Eloy at Paris, which is recited by Sweertius, and on other accounts deserves a place here. a This is in some measure hinted by Oudin, ubi supr. "Egressus autem a PROFANIS et grammaticis Berchorius, animum SOLIDIORIBUS applicuit," &c. Gesner adds, reciting his works, that he wrote "alia multa." EPITOM. BIBL. f. 147. b. Tig. 1555. fol. And Trithemius, "parvos sed multos tracta tus." De ILLUSTR. BENED. Lib. ii. c. 131. Dat. 1559. Edit. Basil. Oporin. No Date, fol. d CHRON. CITIz. f. 841. Apud Pistorii ILLUSTR. VIT. SCRIPTOR. &c. Francof. 1583. fol. Compare the CHRON. of Philippus Bergom, ad ann. 1355. HIC JACET VENERABILIS MAGNÆ PRO FUNDÆQUE SCIENTIÆ, ADMIRABILIS ET SUBTILIS ELOQUENTIÆ, PRIOR HUJUS PRIORATUS. QUI FUIT ORIUNDUS DE VILLA S. PETRI IN EPISCOPATU MAILLIZANCENSI IN PICTAVIA. QUI TEMPORE SUO FECIT OPERA SUA DICTIONARIUM, REDUCTORIUM, MUNDI, TRANSLATIONEM CUJUSDAM LENTISS. JOANNIS REGIS FRANCORUM. QUI OBIIT ANNO M.CCC.LXII. k Berchorius was constituted grammatical preceptor to the novices of the Benedictine Congregation, or monastery, at Clugni, in the year 1340'. At which time he drew up his Notes on the Prosody, and his Commentary on Ovid, for the use of his Read BERcheur. ! That is, of the village of saint Pierre du Chemin. Three leagues from Poictiers. & Of Maillezais. The COSMOGRAPHIA abovementioned. 1 Of Livy. * Sweertii EPITAPHIA JOCO-seria. edit. Colon. 1645. p. 158. It must not be dissembled, that in the MORALISATION of the hundred and forty-fifth chapter, a proverb is explained, vulgariter, in the German language. Fol. 69. a. col. 2. And in the hundred and forty-third chapter, a hunter has eight dogs who have German names. Fol. 67. a. col. 1. seq. I suspect, nor is it improbable, that those German words were introduced by a German editor or printer. Mr. Tyrwhitt supposes, that we may reasonably conjecture one of our countrymen to have been the compiler, be cause three couplets of English verses and some English names appear in many of the manuscripts. But these are not to be found in any of the editions; and there is no answering for the licentious innovations of transcribers. CANT. T. vol. iv. 331. [Mr. Tyrwhitt referred to a copy of the English Gesta, a distinct work from that which has been the subject of this dissertation. Of this production Mr. Douce has given an elaborate account in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 335.-EDIT.] 'Oudin, ubi supr. p. 1063. scholars. About the same time, and with a view of rendering their exercises in Latinity more agreeable and easy by an entertaining Latin story-book, yet resoluble into lessons of religion, he probably compiled the GESTA: perpetually addressing the application of every tale to his young audience, by the paternal and affectionate appellation of CARISSIMI". There was therefore time enough for the GESTA to become a fashionable book of tales, before Boccace published his DECAMERON. The action of the DECAMERON being supposed in 1348, the year of the great pestilence, we may safely conjecture, that Boccace did not begin his work till after that period. An exact and ingenious critic has proved, that it was not finished till the year 1358". I have just observed, that Berchorius probably compiled this work for the use of his grammatical pupils. Were there not many good reasons for that supposition, I should be induced to think, that it might have been intended as a book of stories for the purpose of preachers. I have already given instances, that it was antiently fashionable for preachers to enforce the several moral duties by applying fables, or exemplary narratives and, in the present case, the perpetual recurrence of the address of CARISSIMI might be brought in favour of this hypothesis. But I will here suggest an additional reason. Soon after the age of Berchorius, a similar collection of stories, of the same cast, was compiled, though not exactly in the same form, professedly designed for sermon-writers, and by one who was himself an eminent preacher: for, rather before the year 1480, a Latin volume was printed in Germany, written by John Herolt a Dominican friar of Basil, better known by the adopted and humble appellation of DISCIPULUS, and who flourished about the year 1418. It consists of three parts. The first is entitled "Incipiunt Sermones pernotabiles DISCIPULI de Sanctis per anni circulum." That is, A set of sermons on the saints of the whole year. The second part, and with which This, by habit, and otherwise with "See Tyrwhitt's CHAUCER, iv. 115. no impropriety, he seems to have retain- seq. ed in his later and larger works. |