Page:Barlaam and Josaphat. English lives of Buddha.djvu/96

xc has given rise to so extensive a literature. It was because they were thought to be saintly exemplars that the lives of Barlaam and Josaphat became such an object of interest to all good Catholics. It is, accordingly, the versions in the sacred language of the Church which have, as a rule, the largest number of derivates. Europe read the Parables of Barlaam, for the most part, in Latin.

There are two Latin versions which have been the main source of the European adaptations of the Legend. The earlier one, attributed to one Anatasius Bibliothecarius, went into French, German, English, Spanish, Icelandic, Irish, and Czech, through the medium of the Vitæ Sanctorum, into which it had been received. Some of these adaptations of the First Latin had themselves vigorous offshoots. Thus, the Icelandic gave birth to Danish and Swedish Barlaams. Solorzano's Spanish version was done into Portuguese, and had the still greater honour of being made the foundation of a drama by Lope de Vega. This drama, in its turn, was one of the sources