Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/393

367 CONQUEST OF NAVARRE. 367 rives some value from this circum- stance, however, in llie contrast it affords lo the Spanish version of the same transactions. 2. A tract en- titled " iEIii Antonii Nebrissensis de Bello Navariensi Libri Duo." It covers less than thirty pages fo- lio, and is chiefly occupied, as the title imports, with the military events of the conquest by the duke of Alva. It vi^as orio^inally incor- porated in the volume containing its learned author's version, or rather paraphrase of Pulgar's Chronicle, with some other mat- ters ; and first appeared from the press of the younger Lebrija, " apud inclytam Granatam, 1545." 3. But the great work illustrating the history of Navarre is the " Annales del Reyno " ; of which the best edition is that in seven vol- umes, folio, from the press of Iba- iiez, Pamplona, 1766. Its typo- graphical execution would be cred- itable to any country. The three first volumes were written by Mo- ret, whose profound acquaintance with the antiquities of his nation has made his book indispensable to chapter the student of this portion of its xxill. history. The fourth and fifth are ^— the continuation of his work by Francisco de Aleson, a Jesuit who succeeded Moret as historiographer of Navarre. The two last volumes are devoted to investigations illus- trating the antiquities of Navarre, from the pen of Moret, and are usually published separately from his great historic work. Aleson's continuation, extending from 1350 to 1527, is a production of consid- erable merit. It shows extensive research on the part of its author, who, however, has not always con- fined himself to the most authentic and accredited sources of informa- tion. His references exhibit a sin- gular medley of original contem- porary documents, and apocryphal authorities of a very recent date. Though a Navarrese, he has writ- ten with the impartiality of one, in whom local prejudices were extin- guished in the more comprehensive national feelings of a Spaniard.