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LITERATURE.

Fonnan, bishop of Murray, and papal legate for Scotland, he blundered so in his Latinity, when he said grace, that his holiness and the cardinals lost their gravity ; the disconcerted bishop testily concluded the blessing, by giving " all the false carlet to the de'il," to which the company, not understanding his Scots-Latinity, said, Amen.

1332. Manuscripts, or rather books, were so scarce at this time, that they were not sold but by contract, upon as good conditions and securi- ties as those oi an estate, among man^ other in- stances of the like kind, the foUowmg is still preserved in the library of the college of Laon, in the city of Paris, cited by Brenil, and made in the presence of two notaries, which beareth, that " Jeffry of St. Liger, one of the clergymen booksellers, and so qualified, acknowledges and confesses to have sola, ceded, quitted, and trans- ported ; and sells, cedes, quits, and transports, upon mortgage of all and sundry his goods, and the custody of his own body, a book entitled Speeulum HUtoriale in Cotueutudinei Pariti- uentet, divided and bound up in four volumes, covered with red leather, to a nobleman, Messire Ginird of Montague, advocate to the King in the parliament, for the sum of forty livres of Paris ; whereof the said bookseller holds himself well content and paid." — Watson's Hist, of Printing.

1332. Dec. 22. In the library of St. Mary, at Florence, is the whole New Testament on silk, with the liturgy, and short martyrologv; at the end of it there is written in Greek, " it/ the hand of the sinner and most unworthy Mark ; in the year of the world 7840, (that is, of Christ 1332), Monday, December the 22nd," and on the next page are several Greek alphabets. Mont- faucon mentions many works written on silk, which are preserved in different libraries in Italv executed chiefly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries

1338, Sept. 2. Edward III. is invested by the emperor at Coblentz, with the title of his vicar. — He refused, to kiss the imperial foot.

1338-41. There is a kind of negative proof that cards were not known very long antecedent to this period from a French manuscript, highly illuminated with representations of every game and sport of that age, but which gives no repre- sentation of any thing like playing cards ; but, in a French romance finished in 1341, a familiar mention is made of cards, which has given rise to a conjecture that they were manufactured in France, early in the fourteenth century.

1341. April 8, (Easter Day,) The inaug^ura- tion of Petrarch, in the Roman capital, with a crown of laurel, as poet laureate. He received by diploma, the perpetual privilege of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle, of assuming the poetic habit, and of teacning, disputing, interpreting, and composing, in all places whatsoever, and on all subjects of litera- ture.

Petrarch was less desirous of the laurel for the honour, than for the hope of being sheltered by it from the thunder of the priests, by whom both he and his brother poets were continually

threatened. They could not imagine a poet with- out supposing him to hold an intercourse with some demon. This was, as Abbe Resnet ob- serves, having a most exalted idea of poetry, though a very bad one of poets. An anti-poetic Dominican was notorious for prosecuting all verse-makers, whose power he attributed to the effect o( heresy and magic.

The custom of crowning poets is as uicient as poetry itself. It has, indeea, frequently varied ; It existed, however, as late as the reign of Theo- dosius, when it was abolished as a remains of Paganism. When the twrbarians overspread Europe, few appeared to merit this honour, and fewer who could read their works. It was at this period that poetry resumed its ancient lustre ; for Petrarch was certainly honoured with the laurel crown. It was in this century that the establishment of bachelor and doctor was fixed in the universities: those who were found worthy of the honour, obtained the laurel of bachelor or the laurel of doctor ; laurea bacca laureates ; laurea doctoratus. At their reception they not only assumed this title, but they also had a crown of laurel placed on their heads. In Germany, the laureate honours flourished under the reign of Maximilian I. He founded in 1504, a poetical college at Vienna, reserving to himself and the Regent the power of bestowing the laurel. The Emperor of Germany ret^ns the laureateship in all its splendour. The selected bard is called II Poeta Cesario. Apostolo Zeno, as celebrated for his erudition as for his poetic powers, was succeeded by that most enchanting poet, Me- tastasio. The French never had a poet-laureate, though they had regal poets; for none were ever solemmy crowned. The Spanish nation, always desirous of titles of honour, seem to have known the laureate ; but little information con- cerning it can be gathered iirom their authors. Respecting our own country see 1506.

Petrarch roused his countrymen from their slumber — inspired a general love of literature — nourished and rewarded it by his ow n productions ; and rescued the classicsfrom the dungeons, where they had been hitherto shut up from the light and instruction of mankind. ' He never passed an old convent, without searching its library, or knew of a friend travelling into those quarters, where he supposed books to be concealed, without entreaties to procure for him some classical manuscripts.' Had not such a man appeared at this time, it is probable that most of the classical manuscripts would have been totally lost; so that in this case, he might have excited among his countrymen the love of literature, without being able to gratify or nourish it Boccaccio, who shaSes with Petrarch the glory of having enriched the Italian language with its most perfect beauties, at the very moment when it may be said to have begun to exist, shares also with him the glory of being a zealous and successful re- storer or classical manuscripts and literature.

Several persons having written to Petrarch several apologies for not visiting him, in which they declaimed against his lovo of solitude, as

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