French, to polifh and reform their old rude translations made two hundred years before; and to reduce many of their metrical verfions into profe. At the fame time, the rage of tranflating ecclefiaftical tracts began to decrease. The latter circumstance was partly owing to the introduction of better books, and partly to the invention of printing. Instead of procuring laborious and expensive translations of the antient fathers, the printers, who multiplied greatly towards the close of this century, found their advantage in publishing new tranflations of more agreeable books, or in giving antient verfions in a modern drefs". Yet in this century fome of the more recent doctors of the church were tranflated. Not to mention the epiftles of faint Jerom, which Antoine Dufour, a Dominican frier, presented in French to Anne de Bretagne, confort to king Charles the eighth, we find faint Anfelm's CUR DEUS HOMO", The LAMENTATIONS OF SAINT BERNARD, The SUM OF THEOLOGY of Albertus Magnus, The PRICK OF DIVINE LOVE * of faint Bonaventure a feraphic doctor', with other pieces of the I take this opportunity of obferving, that one of thefe was the romance of fir LANCELOT DU LAC, tranflated from the Latin by Robert de Borron, at the command of our Henry the fecond or third. See fupr. vol. i. p. 114. This new LANCELOT, I believe, is the fame which was printed at Paris by Antony Verard, 1494. In three vaft folio volumes. Another, is the romance of GYRON LE COURTOIS, tranflated alfo from Latin, at the command of the fame monarch, by Lucas, or Luce, chevalier du Chateau du Gaft, or Gat, or Gal, and printed by Verard as above. See Lenglet, Bibl. Rom. ii. p. 117. The old GUIRON LE COURTOIS is faid to be tranflated by LUCE chevalier feigneur du "chafteau du Gal, [perhaps Sal. an abre"viation for Salisbury,] voifin prochain "du fire du Sablieres, par le commende"ment de tres noble et tres puiffant prince "M. le roy Henry jadis roy d'Angle"terre." Bibl. Reg. Parif. Cod. 7586. See fupr. vol. i. p. 115. Notes. w Written in 1098. y He flourished in Italy, about the year 1270. The enormous magnificence of his funeral deferves notice, more than any anecdote of his life; as it paints the high devotion of the times, and the atten tion formerly paid to theological literature. There were prefent pope Gregory the tenth, the emperour of Greece by feveral Greek noblemen his proxies, Baldwin the fecond the Latin eastern emperour, James king of Arragon, the patriarchs of Conftantinople and Antioch, all the cardinals, five hundred bishops and archbishops, fixty abbots, more than a thousand prelates and priests of lower rank, the ambassadors of many kings and potentates, the deputies of the Tartars and other nations, and an innumerable concourfe of people of all orders and degrees. The fepulchral ceremonies were celebrated with the most confummate pomp, and the funeral oration was pro nounced kind, exhibited in the French language before the year 1480, at the petition and under the patronage of many devout ducheffes. Yet in the mean time, the lives of faints and facred history gave way to a species of narrative more entertaining and not lefs fabulous. Little more than Jofephus, and a few MARTYRDOMS, were now tranflated from the Latin into French. The truth is, the French tranflators of this century were chiefly employed on profane authors. At its commencement, a French abridgement of the three first decads of Livy was produced by Henri Romain a canon of Tournay. In the year 1416, Jean de Courci, a knight of Normandy, gave a translation of fome Latin chronicle, a HISTORY OF THe GREEKS AND ROMANS, entitled BOUQUASSIERE. In 1403, Jean de Courteauiffe, a doctor in theology at Paris, tranflated Seneca on the FOUR CARDINAL VIRTUES. Under the reign of king Charles the seventh, Jean Coffa translated the CHRONOLOGY Of Mattheus Palmerius a learned Florentine, and a writer of Italian poetry in imitation of Dante. In the dedication to Jane the third, queen of Jerufalem, and among other titles countess of Provence, the tranflator apologises for fuppofing her highness to be ignorant of Latin; when at the fame time he is fully convinced, that a lady endowed with so much natural grace, must be perfectly acquainted with that language. "Mais pour ce que le vulgar Françoys eft plus commun, j'ai pris peine y tranflater ladite oeuvre." Two other tranflations were offered to Charles the feventh in the year 1445. One, of the FIRST PUNIC war of Leonard of Arezzo, an anonymous writer, who does not chufe to publish his name a caufe de fa petitesse; and the STRATAGEMS Of nounced by a future pope. Mirai Auctar. Script. Ecclef, pag. 72. edit. Fabric. [See fupr. vol. i. p. 77-] It is fuppofititious. It was forged, about the year 560, by Martianus an archbishop of Portugal, whom Gregory of Tours calls the most eminent writer of his time. Hift. Franc. v. 38. It was a great favourite of the theological ages. Frontinus, Frontinus, often cited by John of Salisbury, and mentioned in the Epiftles of Peter of Blois, by Jean de Rouroy, a Parifian theologist. Under Louis the eleventh, Sebastian Mamerot of Soiffons, in the year 1466, attempted a new tranflation of the ROMULEON: and he profeffes, that he undertook it folely with a view of improving or decorating the French language '. Many French verfions of claffics appeared in this century. A tranflation of Quintus Curtius is dedicated to Charles duke of Burgundy, in 1468. Six years afterwards, the fame liberal patron commanded Cefar's COMMENTARIES to be tranflated by Jean du Chefne ". Jean du Chefne. Terence was made French by Guillaume Rippe, the king's fecretary, in the year 1466. The following year a new tranflation of Ovid's METAMORPHOSES was executed by an ecclefiaftic of Normandy. But much earlier in the century, Laurence Premierfait, mentioned above, tranflated, I fuppofe from the Latin, the OECONOMICS Of Aristotle, and Tully's DE AMICITIA and DE SENECTUTE, before the year 1426'. He is faid alfo to have tranflated fome pieces, perhaps the EPISTLES, of Seneca'. Epift. 94. b I am not fure whether this is not much the fame as LE GRANDE HISTOIRE CESAR, &c. Taken from Lucan, Suetonius, Orofius, &c. Written at Bruges at the command of our Edward the fourth, in 1479. That is, ordered to be written by him. A manufcript with pictures. MSS. Reg. 17 F. ii. 1. Brit. Muf. But fee ibid. ROMELEON, ou des Faits des Romains, in ten books. With pictures. MSS. Reg. 19 E. v. See alfo 20 C. i. Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 17 F. i. With beautiful pictures. Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 16 G. viii. With pictures. Another appeared by Robert Gaguen in 1485. Perhaps this might be Caxton's copy. See above, p. 115. f The two latter verfions were tranflated into English by William Botoner, and John Tiptoft earl of Worcester, and printed by Caxton, 1481. Botoner presented his manuscript copy to William of Waynflete bishop of Winchester in 1473. See fupr. p. 62. Caxton's English CATO, printed 1483, was from the French. As were his FABLES OF ESOP, printed 1483. 8 Crucimanius mentions a verfion of Seneca by Premierfait, as printed at Paris, in 1500. Bibl. Gall. p. 287. A translation. of Seneca's DE QUATUOR VIRTUTIBUS CARDINALIBUS, but fuppofititious,is given to Premierfait, Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. zo A. xii. Sanders recites the EPISTLES of Seneca, tranflated into French by fome anonymous writer, at the command of Meffire Barthelemi Siginulfe a nobleman of Naples. Bibl. Cathedr. Tornacenf. p. 209. Pieces of Seneca have been frequently tranflated into French, and very early. Encouraged Encouraged by this example, Jean de Luxembourgh, Laurence's cotemporary, tranflated Tully's Oration against Verres. I must not forget, that Hippocrates and Galen were tranflated from Latin into French in the year 1429. The tranflator was Jean Tourtier, furgeon to the duke of Bedford, then regent of France; and he humbly fupplicates Rauoul Palvin, confeffor and phyfician to the duchess, and John Major, first physician to the duke, and graduate en l'eftude d'Auxonford", and mafter Roullan, physician and aftronomer of the university of Paris, amicably to amend the faults of this tranflation, which is intended to place the science and practice of medicine on a new foundation. I prefume it was from a Latin verfion that the ILIAD, about this period, was tranflated into French metre. Among other pieces that might be enumerated in this century, in the year 1412, Guillaume de Tignonville, provost of Paris, tranflated the DICTA PHILOSOPHORUM': as did Jean Gallopes dean of the collegiate church of faint Louis, of Salfoye, in Normandy, the ITER VITÆ HUMANÆ of Guillaume prior of Chalis. This verfion, entitled LE PELERINAGE DE LA VIE HUMAINE, is dedicated to Jean queen of Sicily, above mentioned; a duchess of Anjou and a countefs of Provence: who, without any sort of difficulty, could make a tranfition from the Life of fir Lancelot to that of faint Austin, and who sometimes quitted the tribunal of the COURT OF LOVE to confer with learned ecclefiaftics, in an age when gallantry and religion were of equal importance. He also tranflated, from the fame author, a compofition of the fame ideal and contemplative cast, called LE Pelerin de L'AME, highly esteemed by thofe vifionaries who preferred Oxonford. Oxford. i Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 19 A. viii. Sæpius. ibid. This verfion was tranflated into English by lord Rivers, and printed by Caxton, 1477, * See Labb. Bibl. MSS. P. 317. Bibl. Roman. ii. 236. And Oudin. iii. 976. Guillaum lived about 1352. Some of the French literary antiquaries fuppofe this to be a Latin piece. It is, however, in French verfe, which was reduced into profe by Gallopes. religious religious allegory to romance, which was dedicated to the duke of Bedford'. In Bennet college In Bennet college library at Cambridge, there is an elegant illuminated manuscript of Bonaventure's LIFE OF CHRIST, tranflated by Gallopes; containing a curious picture of the tranflator presenting his version to our Henry the fifth". About the fame time, but before 1427, Jean de Guerre tranflated a Latin compilation of all that was marvellous in Pliny, Solinus, and the OTIA IMPERIALIA, a book abounding in wonders, of our countryman Gervais of Tilbury". The French romance, entitled L' ASSAILLANT, was now tranflated from the Latin chronicles of the kings of Cologne: and the Latin tract DE BONIS MORIBUS of Jacobus Magnus, confeffor to Charles the feventh, about the year 1422, was made French°. Rather earlier, Jean de Premierfait tranflated BOCCACIO DE CASIBUS VIRORUM ILLUSTRIUM'. Nor fhall I be thought to deviate too far from my detail, which is confined to Latin originals, when I mention here a book, the translation of which into French conduced in an eminent degree to circulate materials for poetry: this is Boccacio's DECAMERON, which Premierfait also tranflated, at the command of queen Jane of Navarre, who feems to have made no kind of conditions about fuppreffing the licentious stories, in the year 1414. I am not exactly informed, when the ENEID of Virgil was tranflated into a fort of metrical romance or history of Eneas, I am not certain, whether this is Caxton's PILGRIMAGE OF THE SOWLE, an English tranflation from the French, printed in 1483. fol. Ames fays, that Antonine Gerard is the author of the French, which was printed at Paris, 1480. Hift. Print. P. 34. See ARCHEOL. vol. ii. p. 194. And Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 16 G. iii. 20 B. iv. Englished about 1410, and printed by Caxton very early. The English translator, I believe, is John Morton, an Augustine frier. " He flourished about the year 1218. Vol. II. R See fupr. p. 61. There is a verfion of Boccacio's DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS, perhaps by Premierfait, Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 20 C. v. This verfion was Englished, and printed, by Caxton, 1487. See Brit. Muf. MSS. Reg. 19 E. i. Where it is faid that the Decameron was firft tranflated into Latin. It is not very literal. It was printed at Paris 1485. fol. Again, ibid. 1534. 8vo. It was again tranflated by Antoine le Macon, fol. Paris 1543. And often afterwards. under |