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with a French version of the same epoch, if not more ancient. I have in like manner informed you of my fruitless researches, as well after the Descriptio utriusque Britanniæ' of Conrad, Conradinus, or Conradianus of Salisbury, as the relation of the pilgrimage of Richard the First of England, which, if we believe the learned compilers of the Gallia Christiana,' was composed by Gautier de Coutances; and also after any ancient manuscript of the French laws of William the Bastard.6

I took advantage of the days when the Museum was closed, to pursue my researches on Tristan, whose romantic history, as you know well, was spread over the whole of Europe, of which it was the favourite theme from the twelfth to the

fifteenth century. I was more particularly anxious to discover the poem of Chrestien de Troyes, and it is with grief that I am obliged to believe it irrecoverably lost. My researches in this instance have not been crowned with success. Still I have succeeded in collecting three complete poems, two fragments of two others, a long piece relating to Tristan extracted from a large work, two Spanish ballads, a Greek fragment of 306 versus politici, and an Icelandic ballad; and I have accompanied them by an introduction, notes, and a glossary of the more difficult words. This collection, of which you have condescended to accept the dedication, is now in the press in London, in two volumes 8vo, and will be speedily published.

I was also anxious to know what ro

Moreau de Mantour, in a dissertation on the Volianus' of the inscription of Nantes (Mémoires de Trévoux,' Jan. 1707), gives a passage from lib. IV. of the work of this Conrad. D. Martin repeats this passage in his Religion des Gaules,' liv. iv. chap. iv.; it is again repeated by D. Morice, in his Hist. de Bretagne,' t. 1. page 860, note 4; and, lastly, Ogée, Richard Jeune, Huet, and Fournier argue after Conrad, Conradinus, Conradianus. Moreau asserts that the work was printed at London, but does not tell us when.

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Gallia Christiana,' t. XI. col. 58. [Walterius de Constantia, Archiepisc. Rothomagensis, A.D. 1184–1207, scripsit] de peregrinatione regis Richardi librum

unum.

6 They have been published in the following works :—

Eadmeri monachi Cantuariensis historiæ novorum sive sui sæculi libri vi.

in lucem ex Bibliotheca Cottoniana emisit Joannes Seldenus. Londini, typis et impensis Guilielmi Stanesbey, ex officicinis Richardi Meighen et Thomæ Dew.' M.DC.XXIII, fol. p. 173-189, in Latin and Norman.

Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum tomus 1. (ed. Th. Gale). Oxoniæ, è Theatro Sheldoniano,' M.DC.LXXXIV. fol. p. 88. The laws of William the Conqueror are here inserted in the Historia Ingulphi abbatum monasterii Croyland'; which had been before given incompletely, and without the laws, by H. Savile.

Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ ecclesiasticæ et civiles. Accedunt leges Edvardi Latina, Gulielmi Conquestoris Gallo-Normannicæ, et Henrici I. Latinæ. . . . . ed. David. Wilkins. Londini: typis Guil. Bowyer,' M.Dcc.xx1, fol. p. 29. In Latin and Anglo

Norman.

'Sancti Anselmi ex Becensi abbate Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi Opera: nec non Eadmeri monachi Cantuarensis historia novorum et alia opuscula : labore ac studio D. Gabrielis Gerberon. Lutetiæ Parisiorum, sumptibus Montalant,' M.DCC.XXI. fol. second part, p. 116. The laws of William the Conqueror are here given in Johannis Seldeni in Eadmerum notæ.' They are in Norman, with the Latin translation of Selden, and another version by Du Cange, which M. de Roquefort (Biographie Universelle) does not cite among his works.

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The Laws of William the Conqueror, in Latin and Norman, are also found col. 1640, 1641-1654, and 1655 of Joannis Seldeni jurisconsulti opera omnia tam edita quam inedita,' vol. II. tom. II.; the edition by Wilkins, London, M.DCC.xxvI. four parts, in folio.

'Anciennes Lois des François, ou Additions aux Remarques sur les Coûtumes Angloises, recueilles par Littleton; par M. David Hoüard. A Rouen, de l'imprimerie de Richard Lallemant,' M.DCC.LXVI. 2 vols. 4to, t. II. p. 76.

'The Laws of William the Conqueror, with notes and references, &c.; translated into English, with occasional notes. By Robert Kelham, of Lincoln's Inn, London, printed for Edward Brooke,' M.DCC.LXXIX. 8vo.

Die Gesetze der Angelsächsen . . . herausgegeben von Dr. Reinhold Schmid. Erster Thiel. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus. 1832. 8vo, p. 174–183. The Norman in one column, and a German translation in the other.

It is wonderful enough that in the Biographie Universelle,' article ' Guillaume-leConquérant,' by M. Nicolle, there should be no mention of these Laws.

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mances of the Anglo and Dano-Saxon cycles had escaped the scythe of Time. Besides the Lay of Havelok,' which I have republished at Paris, and the Romance of King Atla, which exists in French in the library of the late Richard Heber, and of which there is a Latin version in the collection of manuscripts which was left by Archbishop Parker to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, I knew that there was a Romance of Horn and Rimel,' in two manuscripts of the thirteenth century, the one among the Harleian MSS. (No. 527, vellum, double columns, small folio), the other belonging to my late learned friend Mr. Francis Douce. I obtained the loan of this manuscript, and made a complete copy of it; to which I added the variantes of the Harleian manuscript, which is defective at the beginning and end, but which nevertheless contains in the middle of the poem a part which is wanting in the manuscript of Mr. Douce. Afterwards I found at Cambridge a third manuscript of this work, equally defective in beginning and end; but, besides excellent readings, it furnished me the means of diminishing, if not of filling up, the lacunæ of the manuscript of Mr. Douce. This work, to which I have added the Scotch ballads on the same hero, taken from the collections of Cromek and Motherwell, is ready for the press, with the English versions from the manuscripts in the Harleian library, in the Bodleian, in the University library at Cambridge, and in that of the Advocates, at Edinburgh.

I had just published the Roman de la Violette,' my work on Hugh of Lincoln, and the Roman d'Eustache le Moine,'

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which I had enriched with a great number of historical documents and charters taken from the British Museum, the Tower of London, and the archives of the Chapter House at Westminster, when I received from you, Monsieur le Ministre, the order to examine the manuscripts of the Travels in the East of the Monk William de Rubruguis, whom our King Louis IX. sent, in 1253, as ambassador to the Khan of the Tartars. I transcribed the Royal MS. 14 C. XIII. which only contained the half of it. After this I went to Cambridge, where, aided by a young and learned Englishman, member of that University,8 I transcribed the manuscript of Corpus Christi College, No. LXVI. which contains a complete copy of this relation. To this I added, with the assistance of the same coadjutor, the various readings of the manuscripts of the same collection, No. ccccvII. and CLXXXI. of which the one is incomplete like the manuscript of London, and that of Lord Lumley, which was published by Hakluyt. Our work was afterwards, with your authorization, Monsieur le Ministre, offered, through the learned M. de Larenaudière, to the Society of Geography of Paris, who immediately ordered it to be printed in one of the volumes of its Mémoires. Moreover, the Society placed at our disposal the manuscript of Vossius, preserved at Leyden, of which we shall give the variantes." We shall place at the end of our edition of the relation of W. de Rubruquis, that of the monk Sawulf, 10 and the whole of the Voyage to the Holy Land of Bernard the Wise, which Mabillon has already published from a Manuscript at Reims,

7 The following is a new instance of the mention of Eustace, which came too late for my edition:

"En meisme cel seisoun un grant seignour q'avoit à noun Eustace le Moigne od autres grantz seignours de France voloint estre venuz en cel terre od grant poair pur eyder Lowys. Mais Hubert de Burgh et lez v. portz od viij. nefes soulement lez encountèrent en la mère et lez assaiièrent egrement, si lez conquistrent, et couperent lez testez Eustas le Moygne, et pristrent dez grantz seignours de Fraunce et lez mistrent en prisoun." Scala Chron. MS. Corp. Chr. Coll. Camb. fol. 186, v°. 8 Mr. Thomas Wright, B.A. of Trinity College.

9 Mr. T. Wright informs me, that he has hopes of obtaining the various readings of another manuscript, belonging to Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart. of Middle Hill, Worcestershire.

10 From the manuscript CXI. of Corpus Christi College, vellum, 12th century, p. 37. The other manuscripts of this college which excited my interest are, the manuscript No. L. which is of vellum, and of the twelfth century. It contains the Roman du Brut,' by Wace; the Romanz de un chivaler e de sa dame e de un clerk ;' ' L'Estorie de Syres Amis e Amilurs ;' l'Estorie des iiij soeurs;' 'the Romanz de Gui de Warwyk. The manuscript XCI. of the fourteenth century, on vellum, contains the Hystoires des seigneurs de Gaures,' of which a short analysis is given in the catalogue by Nasmith, page 61. The author says, that it was first written in Greek, then translated into Latin, thence into Flemish, and lastly into French the last day of March, 1356. I also took a copy of an alphabetical collection of the Proverbes de Fraunce,' manuscript CCCCL. page 252.

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GENT. MAG. VOL. IV.

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that contained but the half, and afterwards it will be followed by the relation of John du Plan Carpin.

I had an opportunity of examining, in the library of Trinity College, a superb manuscript of the twelfth century,11 which contains a triple version, Latin, AngloSaxon, and French, of the Psalter. I found that the latter was the same as that which is contained in the celebrated manuscript known as the Manuscript of Carbie.' I found also in the same library a manuscript of the Romance of Roncevaux'; 12 but I thought it too modern to merit transcribing. I also confined myself to taking a note of the manuscript O. 2, 14, of the same college, which contained a French metrical translation of the sermons of Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, a translation unknown to the learned compilers of the Histoire Littérare de la France;' 13 and I also took notes of the French songs of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, of the Riote du Monde,' of the Roman de toute Chevalerie,' by Thomas of Kent,15 of the French and English Grammar of Walter de Biblesworth,16 and of a collection of Contes Dévots in French verse of the thirteenth century.

In my researches in the public library of the university, I met with the fragment of the Romance of Horn',17 of which I have already, Monsieur le Ministre, had the honour to speak; 'le Romanz du reis Yder, 18 which belongs to the cycle of the round table; and la Estoire de Seint Edward le rei,' translated from the Latin into French rimes of the twelfth or thirteenth century. I extracted from it the part relating to the battle of Hastings and the conquest of England, which I have printed in a collection which I shall have the honour to describe to you presently.

On my return to London I made a careful search after a manuscript of a history of Lisieux, composed by a monk named Picard, a volume which M. l'abbé de la Rue asserts that he saw in the Bri

tish Museum, but I could not succeed in finding it. At the same time I learnt with grief that the manuscript which contained the chronicle of Frodoard was burnt, with so many others, in the fire which, on the 3d of Nov. 1731, injured the Cottonian library while it was deposited at Westminster. As all the copies of this chronicle which we possess in France begin with the year 919, although originally it contained forty-two years more, as Frodoard began his recital with the year 877, it would have been a matter of great interest to know at what year this manuscript began.

During the time while I continued the transcription of the chronicle of Benoît de Sainte-More, I took a copy of the ' Treytiz que moun sire Gauter de Bibelesworthe fist à ma dame Dyonisie de Mounchensy pur aprise de langwage,20 and of the Harleian manuscript 4334 (vel. of the end of the twelfth century), which contains a long fragment of the Romance of Gérard de Roussillon, in the langue d'oïl, and of a part of the Burneau manuscript 553, which contains Patriarchæ Hierosolymitani Epistola ad Innocentium Papam III. de statu Terræ Sanctæ. I examined also the Cottonian manuscript, Claudius, B. ix. (2 col. vel. of 15th century), which contains' prima pars chronicorum Helinandi monachi ordinis Cisterciensis, which is not contained in the manuscripts of these chronicles preserved in France; and I collated, with Mr. William Henry Black, the manuscripts of the life of Merlin, composed in Latin verse in the twelfth century, by the famous Geoffrey of Monmouth.21 I collected, also, materials for the historical collection on William the Conqueror and his sons, which I shall now have the honour of describing to you.

This collection, which you have allowed me to publish at Rouen, under your auspices, will form two volumes 8vo, of which the first, which is ready for publication, will contain, 1st. half the AngloNorman metrical chronicle of Geoffrey Gaimar,22 a poet of the twelfth century;

11 R. 17. 1. 12 R. 3. 32, paper, 16th century.
15 O. 9. 34. Trinity College.
17 Manuscript Ff. 6. 17.

13 See vol xv. pp. 149–158. 16 O. 2. 21. Trinity College. 18 MS. Ee. 4. 26. 19 Ee. 3. 59.

20 Manuscript Arundel, British Museum, No. 220. The same work is also found in the Harleian Manuscripts 490 and 740; and a fragment, half effaced, is contained in the Cottonian Manuscript, Vespas. A. VI. fol. 60, v°. It is not mentioned in the catalogue. See page 434, col. 2.

21 It forms part of a monograph upon Merlin, which is in the press at Paris, at the expense of the learned and generous M. de Larenaudière, and which will be published by the bookseller Silvestre.

22 The first part, which treats of the Anglo-Saxon kings, has been printed by Mr. H. Petrie, keeper of the archives of the Tower of London, and will appear in his first volume of the great collection of the English historians, edited from the manuscripts of the British Museum, the College of Arms, and of the cathedral libraries of Durham and Lincoln.

2d. a part of the life of St. Edward already mentioned; 3d. the continuation of Wace's Brut, by an anonymous poet of the thirteenth century; 4th. a part of the chronicle of Peter de Langtoft, canon of Bridlington, in Yorkshire, and a rhymer of the fourteenth century; 5th. a considerable portion of the chronicle of Benoît de Sainte-More; 6th. the dit de Guillaume d'Angleterre, by Chrestien de Troyes. The second volume will contain, 1st. the Latin life of Hereward, edited from a manuscript at Cambridge, with introduction and notes, by Mr. Thomas Wright; 2d. the Latin life of Earl Waltheof and of Judith his wife, from a manuscript of the public library of Douai; 3d. a Latin poem by one Guido, on the battle of Hastings, published from an unique manuscript in the public library of Brussels; 4th. the Latin life of Harold, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, which I have transcribed from a manuscript formerly belonging to Waltham Abbey, in the county of Essex, where Harold, its founder and benefactor, was buried, which manuscript now belongs to the Harleian library; 5th. notes, a double glossary, and index.

As from time to time, Monsieur le Ministre, the Museum is closed for a week or two, I employed this time in making researches into other public or private libraries. On one of these occasions I examined, in the library of the palace of Lambeth, which belongs to his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, an old and incomplete Anglo-Norman poem on the conquest of Ireland by Henry II.23 I immediately, with the permission of the learned prelate to whom it belongs, transcribed it, and I have put it in the press in London, where it will be published by William Pickering.

I pass in silence researches undertaken with the object of clearing certain points, on which, for want of documents, the learned were not agreed, to the journey which I made to Oxford to labour in the libraries of the colleges of that university, and more particularly in the Bodleian.

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Digby, of the twelfth century, No. 23. I recognized this version as that of which we have later remains in the manuscript of the royal library at Paris, No. 72275, in which about 1500 verses of the beginning are wanting; in that of M. Bourdillon, formerly belonging to M. le comte Garnier, peer of France;24 in a manuscript of the library of the town of Lyons; and in that of the library of Trinity College, which I have already had the honour to mention to you. I also remarked with astonishment that nearly all the couplets of this poem, which are in assonante rhyme, often rude, end with the word aoi. I said to myself, and I still say, may not this be a manner of hourra, or cry of battle? It is a curious question, which perhaps I shall have the good fortune to solve in my introduction to this poem, which, with your authorization, Monsieur le Ministre, I have just put in the press at Paris, to be published by the bookseller Silvestre.

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I afterwards transcribed an Icelandic ballad upon Tristan, which will appear in my collection; a part of the Romance of Gérard de Roussillon, 25 and some other pieces, which it would be too long to mention here. Then leaving, though with regret, the Bodleian library, I examined those of the colleges of Oxford. The only thing of importance which I found is a manuscript on vellum, of the fourteenth century, containing a complete copy of the travels in the East of the French monk Bernard the Wise, 26 of which I have already had the honour of speaking, when mentioning our edition of William de Ru bruquis.

Need I mention here, Monsieur le Ministre, that (desirous of furnishing to my countrymen, who might wish to study the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic, a special bibliography which might guide their first steps,) I have composed, with Mr. John Kemble, a catalogue of all the printed works in Anglo-Saxon and Gothic, which I have been able to find? Permit me to add, that this Catalogue, which I have reason to think as complete as possible, is now, with your authorization, in the press at Paris, to be published also by Silvestre.

I think it right that I should indicate to you two works, whose importance cannot be doubted, but of which I was unable, for want of time, to take copies. I allude

23 Manuscript of Lambeth, No. 596. See on the work which it contains, Notes to the Second and Third Books of the History of King Henry the Second,' &c. by George Lord Lyttelton. The second edit. Lond. 1767, 4to. p. 270.

24 There is a modern copy of it in the royal library, Supplement Français, 25421,

4to paper.

25 Canonici Manuscripti, No. 94, oblong folio, vel. 13th century, of 173 folios, the writing of about 1200.

26 Manuscript of Lincoln College, 29, 4to.

to a Latin chronicle of occurrences in France from 683 to 820; and more particularly to a poem in Anglo-Norman verses of twelve syllables, composed by Jordan Fantome, a trouvère of the twelfth century, on the war which Henry the Younger raised against his father Henry II. of England; two manuscripts which are preserved in the library of the cathedral of Durham.27 I was equally unable to visit Lincoln, where are also preserved some curious manuscripts in the Anglo-Norman language; among others, a copy of the chronicle of Geoffrey Gaimar, which has been already mentioned in this report. Another will be more fortunate than I,

and will, I sincerely hope, soon publish the work of Jordan Fantome. May the editor be a Frenchman! 28

I conclude, Monsieur le Ministre, and am tempted to reproach myself with having been too long; but it was my duty to render you a scrupulous account of my time. I now wait with respect and confidence the judgment you will think proper to pronounce on the manner in which I have fulfilled my mission. Whatever may be your words, whatever may be the recompence that you may think good to accord to me, I am, and shall always be, &c. FRANCISQUE MICHEL.

ADVERSARIA.

AFTER the restoration of Charles the Second, somebody perceived that the letters C. R. which stand for Carolus Rex, occur contiguously in the word Sacred. Accordingly it became customary, for a time, to print the word with those two letters in capitals, thus saCRed. Probably this practice did not last long, as the subsequent unpopularity of the Court must have made it appear ridiculous.

There is a passage in Herodotus, b. 4, c. 163, which has puzzled all the commentators. The Pythia of Delphi tells Arcesilaus of Cyrene, that if he does not observe her directions, he will destroy himself, and also a very beautiful bull. The latter clause is generally supposed to relate to his father-in-law, Alazir. It is curious, that in the Indian laws of Menu (chap. 8), Justice is represented under the form of a bull. In consequence, every person who is guilty of injustice, is said to have killed a bull. Is there an allusion here to the Oriental figure? -with which the Cyrenian might have

been well acquainted, and which the Pythian might have appropriately used in this case.

There is a curious mistake in the Apology of Justin Martyr, in c. 39, where he says, that Ptolemy, king of Egypt, sent to Herod, who then ruled over the Jews, for a copy of Hebrew Scriptures, out of which circumstance grew the Septuagint version. Now the fact is, that in no instance were a Herod and a Ptolemy contemporaries. Yet surely, on this occasion, when he was presenting his apology to a philosophical emperor, it was most desirable not to incur the ridicule of making erroneous statements. This shows how little historical accuracy was then understood, when a native of Palestine could make such a mistake in the history of his own country. Nothing can be more erroneous than the second book of the Maccabees. Even Josephus has strangely erred in his account of the two Sanballats, and of the Septuagint. Among such instances the minute accuracy of St. Luke, in

27 Codicum manuscriptorum ecclesiæ cathedralis Dunelmensis catalogus classicus, descriptus à Thoma Rud' (edid. J. Raine). Dunelmie: excudebat F. Humble, &c. 1825, fol. P. 300, manuscript C. IV. 15, 4to. Chronica Pipini, consisting of 27 leaves. M. Rud believes it to be inedited. The writing of the 12th century. P. 311, manuscript C. IV. 27, 4to. The Brut of Wace; Gaimar's History of the AngloSaxon kings; and, folio 138 to 165, the Chronicle of Jordan Fantome. P. 312, manuscript C. IV. 276. The Roman d'Alexandre,' 14th century.

28 I ought to have terminated my report in addressing my thanks to Sir Frederick Madden, assistant keeper of the manuscripts of the British Museum; to Messrs. Antonio Panizzi, Thomas Wright, Joseph Stevenson, O'Gilvie, H. J. Rose, J. Holmes, Young, Thomas Duffus Hardy, W. Pickering, Petrie, W. Whewell; to the Rev. Drs. Lamb, Buckland, and Bandinel; and to Messrs. W. Cureton, Jacobson, Calcott; who furnished me with the means of continuing my labours, and who introduced me into all the public and private literary depôts which I desired to search.

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