Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/443

 now an old man, and as he does not mention Ferdinand's death we may conclude that he himself died in 1252 or shortly after.

Apparently Garland enjoyed a high reputation as a teacher. Roger Bacon says that he had heard him discourse on the orthography of ‘orichalcum’ (Opus Minus, c. vii., so Tanner; but the reference to Garland is not printed in Brewer's edition). His grammatical writings were much used in England, and were frequently printed at the end of the fifteenth century. Erasmus refers to him with some scorn as the chief source of instruction in an unenlightened age (Op., ed. 1703, i. 514 F., 892 F.). He was in turn a theologian, a chronologist, and an alchemist—above all a grammarian; but though a persistent versifier, not a poet. He has been the subject of much confusion, and some have supposed that there was more than one writer of the name. He has certainly been confused with Gerlandus, a French writer early in the twelfth century, whence probably the mistake as to his date. John the grammarian, who is assigned by Warton (Hist. Engl. Poetry, i. 216) to the eleventh, and by Bale and Pits to the thirteenth century, is probably only Garland without his surname, and confused with John Philoponus and John Walleys (Guallensis), the latter of whom was also an Englishman (see, Biog. Brit. Lit., ii. 48).

Garland's name is variously given as De Garlandia, Garlandius, Garlandus, or Gallandus. M. Le Clerc connects his name not with the noble French family, but to his having taught in the ‘Clos de Garlande’ or ‘Gallande,’ where was one of the most ancient schools of the university of Paris. Prince claims him in his ‘Worthies of Devon’ (ed. 1810, p. 400) for a family of the name resident at Garland by Chulmleigh in North Devon in the time of Henry III.

Garland's works are—I. Poetry: 1. ‘De Triumphis Ecclesiæ,’ his most important poem, and the source of nearly all we know as to his life, consists of 4,614 elegiac lines, divided into eight books. It has for its main theme the celebration of the crusades. The first books begin from the passage of the Red Sea, and treat of early British legends, French Merovingian history, the third crusade, and the wars of John. Books iv. v. and vi. contain an account of the Albigensian crusade, valuable on account of the author's peculiar opportunities for obtaining information. There are some useful details as to mediæval siege operations. Book viii., called by the author the ninth, something having perhaps been lost, treats of the crusade of Louis IX. The poem is ambitious, pedantic, and discursive. It is full of conceits, leonine verses, retrograde verses, and the like, but has the merit of frequently giving dates. There is only one known manuscript, viz. Cott. Claud. A. x. in British Museum. It has been edited by Thomas Wright for the Roxburghe Club. A full analysis will be found in ‘Hist. Lit. de la France,’ xxii. 2. ‘Epithalamium Beatæ Mariæ Virginis.’ In the ‘De Triumphis’ Garland says that at Toulouse he had written a poem upon this subject. In MS. Cott. Claud. A. x. there is a poem under the same title ascribed to Garland. The same poem is contained in Bodleian MS. Digby 65, where it has not previously been identified with Garland. The latter manuscript contains a prose prologue wanting in the Cotton. MS., which clearly connects the writer with the university of Paris, and thus corroborates Garland's claim to be the author. This poem contains about six thousand lines, divided into ten books. 3. ‘De Miraculis Virginis’ (Brit. Mus. MS. Bibl. Reg. 8 C. iv. 3). It contains nearly a thousand lines in a short rhyming metre, and is accompanied by a commentary. On f. 22 the author refers to himself as Johannes de Garlandia. 4. ‘De Mysteriis Ecclesiæ,’ or ‘Libellus Mysteriorum,’ a mystical explanation, in 659 hexameter lines, of the rites and vestments of the church. Written at the request of Fulk Basset, bishop of London [q. v.], in 1245, shortly after the death of Alexander of Hales, as is stated by the author. Printed in ‘Comment. Crit. Codd. Biblioth. Gessensis,’ pp. 86, 131–51, by F. Otto, who describes it as most useful for a knowledge of mediæval theology. Unfortunately, Otto used only two manuscripts, and those not of the best. There are many manuscripts, e.g. Cott. Claud. A. viii., Caius Coll. Cambr. 385, Bodl. Auct. F. 5, 6 f. 150 (incomplete, only lines 1–366 and 417–63). The last two contain commentaries in later and various hands. 5. ‘Tractatus de Penitencia.’ Frequently printed: Antoine Caillaut, Paris, n. d.; H. Quentell, Cologne, 1491, 1492, 1493, 1495. Other editions in sixteenth century. Bibliothèque MS. 8259, Bodl. MS. Digby 100, f. 171. 6. ‘Facetus,’ a poem on the duties of man to God, his neighbour, and himself. Ascribed to Garland in MS. Bibliothèque de S. Victor (, p. 1372), and accepted by Dom Rivet. But if, as he says (Hist. Lit. viii. p. xvi), it was used by Uguitio of Pisa, who wrote about 1194, it can scarcely be by Garland. 7. ‘De Contemptu Mundi.’ Usually, though wrongly, ascribed to St. Bernard, and printed in Mabillon's edition of his works (ii. 894–6) as ‘Carmen Paræneticum.’ The other