Pour l'amour de vous, très chers freres, And in the preface he fays, " Or fçai-je que plufieurs de vous "n'entendent pas bien LATIN auquel il fut chofe neceffaire "de la rieule [regle] entendre." Benoit's fucceffour in the priorate of faint Genevieve was not equally attentive to the discipline and piety of his monks. Instead of tranflating monkish Latin, and enforcing the falutary regulations of faint Austin, he wrote a fyftem of rules for Ballad-writING, L'ART DE DICTIER BALLADE ET RONDELS, the first Art of poetry that ever appeared in France. Among the moral books now tranflated, I must not omit the SPIRITUELLE AMITIE of John of Meun, from the Latin of Aldred an English monk'. In the fame ftyle of mystic piety was the treatise of CONSOLATION, written in Latin, by Vincent de Beauvais, and fent to faint Louis, tranflated in the year 1374. In the year 1340, Henri de Sufon, a German dominican and a mystic doctor, wrote a most comprehenfive treatise called HOROLOGIUM SAPIENTIÆ. This was tranflated into French by a monk of faint François. Even the officers of the court of Charles the fifth were feized with the ardour of translating religious pieces, no less than the ecclefiaftics. The most elegant tract of moral Latinity tranflated into French, was the celebrated book of our countryman John of Salisbury, DE NUGIS CURIALIUM. This verfion was made by Denis Soulechart, a learned Cordelier, about the year 1360. Notwithstanding the EPISTLES of Abelard and Eloifa, not only from the celebrity of Abelard as a Parifian theologift, but on account of the interesting history of that unfortunate pair, must have been as commonly known, and as likely to be read in the original, as any Latin book in France, they were tranflated into French in this century, by John of Meun; who prostituted his abilities when he relinquished his own noble inventions, to interpret the pedantries of monks, schoolmen, and profcribed claffics. I think he also tranflated Vegetius, who will occur again. In the library of faint Genevieve, there is, in a sort of system of religion, a piece called JERARCHIE, tranflated from Latin into French at the command of our queen Elinor in the year 1297, by a French friar". I must not however forget, that amidst this profusion of treatises of religion and instruction, civil history found a place. That immenfe chaos of events real and fictitious, the HISTORICAL MIRROUR of Vincent de Beauvais, was tranflated by Jehan de Vignay above mentioned. One is not surprised that the translator of the GOLDen Legend should make no better choice. d The defolation produced in France by the victorious armies of the English, was instantly fucceeded by a flourishing state of letters. King John, having indulged his devotion, and satisfied his confcience, by procuring numerous verfions of books written on facred subjects, at length turned his attention to the claffics. His ignorance of Latin was a fortunate circumstance, as it produced a curiofity to know. the treasures of Latin literature. He employed Peter Bercheur, prior of faint Eloi at Paris, an eminent theologist, to translate Livy into French; notwithstanding that author terre ... l'an. de grace M.CCC.XVII." c Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 14 E. i. A curious picture of the diftracted state of France is recorded by Petrarch. The king, with the Dauphin, returning from his captivity in England, in paffing through Picardy, was obliged to make a pecuniary bargain with the numerous robbers that infefted that country, to travel unmolested. VIE PETR. iii. 543. * See Henault, NOUVEL. ABREG. HIST. FR. p. 229. edit. 1752. 4to. And VIE DE PERTRARQUE, iii. p. 547 had been anathematifed by pope Gregory. But fo judicious a choice was undoubtedly dictated by Petrarch, who regarded Livy with a degree of enthusiasm, who was now refident at the court of France, and who perhaps condefcended to direct and fuperintend the tranflation. The translator in his Latin work called REPERTORIUM, a fort of general dictionary, in which all things are proved to be allegorical, and reduced to a moral meaning, under the word ROMA, records this great attempt in the following manner. "TITUM LIVIUM, ad "requifitionem domini Johannis inclyti Francorum regis, non fine labore et fudoribus, in linguam Gallicam tranftulif." To this tranflation we must join thofe of Salluft, Lucan, and Cefar: all which feem to have been finished before the year 1365. This revival of a taste for Roman history, most probably introduced and propagated by Petrarch during his short stay in the French court, immediately produced a Latin historical compilation called ROMULEON, by an anonymous gentleman of France; who foon found it neceffary to tranflate his work into the vernacular language. Valerius Maximus could not remain long untranflated. A version of that favourite author, begun by Simon de Hefdin, a monk, in 1364, was finished by Nicolas de Goneffe, a master in theology, 1401. Under the last-mentioned reign, Ovid's Metamorphofes MORALISED were tranflated by Guillaume de Nangis: and the fame poem was translated into French verse, at the request of Jane de Bourbonne, afterwards the confort h This was the tranflation of Livy, which, with other books, the duke of Bedford, regent of France, about 1425, fent into England to Humphrey duke of Gloucester. The copy had been a prefent to the king of France. Mem. Litt. ii. 747. 4to. See the SECOND DISSERTATION. In the Sorbonne library at Paris, there is a most valuable manuscript of this verfion in two folio volumes. In the front of each book are various miniatures and pictures, most beautifully finished. Dan. Maichel de Bi bliothec. Parif. p. 79. There is a copy, tranfcribed about the time the tranflation was finished. Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 15 D. vi. DES FAIS DE ROMAINS. With pictures. * Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 18 E. iii. iv. With elegant delineations, and often in the fame library. h Perhaps written in Latin by Joannes Grammaticus, about 1070. See the SECOND DISSERTATION. of of Charles the fifth, by Philip de Vitri, bishop of Meaux, Petrarch's friend, who was living in 1361'. A bishop would not have undertaken this work, had he not perceived much moral doctrine couched under the pagan ftories. Jean le Fevre, by command of Charles the fifth, tranflated the poem DE VETULA, falfly afcribed to Ovid. Cicero's RHETORICA appeared in French by mafter John de Antioche, at the request of one friar William, in the year 1383. About the fame time, fome of Ariftotle's pieces were tranflated from Latin; his PROBLEMS by Eyrard de Conti, physician to Charles the fifth and his ETHICS and POLITICS by Nicholas d'Orefme, while canon of Rouen. This was the most learned man in France, and tutor to Charles the fifth; who, in confequence of his inftructions, obtained a competent skill in Latin, and in the rules of the grammar. Other Greek claffics, which now began to be known by being tranflated into Latin, became ftill more familiarifed, efpecially to general readers, by being turned into French. Thus Poggius Florentinus's recent Latin verfion of Xenophon's CYROPEDIA was tranflated into French by Vafque de Lucerie, 1370". The TACTICS of Vegetius, an author who frequently confounds the military practices of his own age with those of antiquity, appeared under the title of LIVRES DES FAIS D'ARMES ET DE CHEVALLERIE, by Christina of Pisa", Pe There was a French Ovid in duke Humphrey's library at Oxford. See fupr. P. 45. And Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 17 E. iv. 1. This verfion, as I apprehend, is the fame that Caxton tranflated into Englifh profe, and printed, 1480. A manufcript is in Bibl. Pepyf. Magd. Coll. Cant. Cat. MSS. Angl. &c. tom. ii. N. 6791. * Polycarpus Leyferus fuppofes this piece to be the forgery of one Leo Protonotarius, an officer in the court at Conftantinople, who writes the preface. Hift. Poef. Med. Ev. p. 2089. He proves the work fuppofititious, from its feveral Arabicisms and fcriptural expreffions, &c. Brawardine Q trarch DE REMEDIIS UTRIUSQUE FORTUNÆ, a set of Latin dialogues, was tranflated, not only by Nicholas d'Orefme, but by two of the officers of the royal houfhold ̊, in compliment to Petrarch at his leaving France". Many philofophical pieces, particularly in aftrology, of which Charles the fifth was remarkably fond, were tranflated before the end of the fourteenth century. Among thefe, I must not pafs over the QUADRIPARTITUм of Ptolemy, by Nicholas d'Orefme; the AGRICULTURE', or LIBRI RURALIUM COMMODORUM, of Peter de Crefcentiis, a physician of Bononia, about the year 1285, by a nameless friar preacher'; and the book DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM of Bartholomew Anglicus, the Pliny of the monks, by John Corbichon, an Augustine monk'. I have seen a French manuscript of Guido de Colonna's Trojan romance, the hand-writing of which belongs to this century '. In the fifteenth century it became fashionable among the MSS. Digb. 233. Prine. • See Niceron, tom. 28. p. 384. I muft not forget to obferve, that feveral whole books in Brunetto's TRESOR confift of translations from Ariftotle, Tully, and Pliny, into French. Brunetto was a Florentine, and the mafter of Dante. He died in 1295. The TRESOR was a fort of Encyclopede, exhibiting a course of practical and theoretic philofophy, of divinity, cofmography, geography, hiftory facred and profane, phyfics, ethics, rhetoric, and politics. It was written in French by Brunetto during his refidence in France but he afterwards tranflated it into Italian, and it has been tranflated by others into Latin. It was the model and foun : dation of Bartholomeus of the PROPERTIES OF THINGS, of Bercheur's REPERTORIUM, and of many other works of the fame fpecies, which foon followed. See Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 17 E. i. It will occur again. 4 DES PROUFFITZ CHAMPESTRES ET RURAUX. Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 14 E. In twelve books. See Jacob. Quetif. tom. i. p. 666. Leland fays, that this translation is elegant; and that he faw it in duke Humfrey's library at Oxford. Script. Brit. cap. ccclxviii. See Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 17 E. iii. With pictures. Ibid. 15 E. ii. Where the tranflation is affigned to the year 1362. The writing of the manufcript, to 1482. With pictures. Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 16 F. ix. A new translation seems to have been made by Rauol le Feure, in 1464. Englished by Caxton, and printed, 1471. Caxton's GODEFROY OF BOLOGNE, tranflated from the French, and printed 1481, had a Latin original. The French, a fine copy, is in Brit. Muf. 17 F. v. MSS. Reg. Sæpius ibid. [See fupr. p. 99.] French, |