Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/169

 9 th S. II. AUG. 27, '98. ]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

161

LONDON, SATVEDAY, AUGUSTS!, 1S9S.

CONTENTS.-No. 35.

NOTES : Arnaldo da Vilanova, 161 M.P.s in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' 162 The Skelts, 163 Seeing-glass^Looking- glass Tyburn Executions Bradshaw's Railway Guide' Good Friday Custom, 164 " Responsible Government" Sedan Chairs Rape, a County Division Robert, Lord Brooke Bentham's Unfulfilled Prophecy, 165 " Alarm- ist" Driukwater Zachary Macaulay, 166.

QUERIES : Sakesper Keats and Hampstead Spenser " Squab " Princess Bagration Trade Routes " Rider " The Virgin of Bressau, 167 Foot-lift Banausic Cecil W. Ewing S. Andrea delle Fratte Read and Reade Ecclesiastical Hat Trimmings Pollard Money Sir W. Gordon Peter the German, 168 " Neck-handkerchief " FitzStephen Dean Barker Samplers Kleanoradi Toledo Map of Nottinghamshire Gambold Faggots to burn Heretics, 169.

REPLIES: The Letters of Junius, 169 Wild Forest Bulls Hocktide Customs, 171 Syntax of a Preface Scott on Grimm's ' Popular Stories,' 112 Todmorden Manor House, Clapton, "Charme" A Church Tradition A Noble Card-sharper W. Martin Musical, 173 Gordon Family Old-time Punishments Newton's House, 174 Battle of the Nile Cardinal Rossi Bibliography of Rye House Plot Autographs, 175 "Dewy-feathered" St. Fursey Sir R. Hotham " Sumer is y-cumen in" Gale Oldest Parish Register, 176 Dictionary of English Pro- verbs "Hounds" Odin 'Three Jovial Huntsmen' Penny-Farthing Street Entrance into Churchyards. 177 "Who sups with the devil," &c. Master Smith's ' Cyclopaedia of Names,' 178.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Gairdner's 'Life and Reign of Richard the Third ' Lowndes's ' Montaigne ' Dasent's Acts of the Privy Council,' Vol. XVII. Andrews's ' Literary Byways' Marriott's ' Bacon or Shakespeare?' Rait's ' Kiugis Quair.'

Notices to Correspondents.

ARNALDO DA VILANOVA.

THERE would appear to be unnecessary vagueness regarding, not the date at which this influential personage may truly be said to have " flourished," but with respect to his achievements, and even his nationality. I have found him described as a Sicilian, a Nea- politan, and a Majorcan. If we turn to Prof. Skeat's ' Chaucer,' vol. v. p. 432, note 1428, we shall notice tha.t to him Arnaldo appears to have been a Frenchman. Of course, I am treading on delicate ground in venturing to suggest how it should have come into the latter's precise and trained mind that Arnaldo was a Frenchman. Nevertheless, I will hazard the conjecture that Arnaldo's re- markable connexion with Avignon in the time of the "Babylonian exile" of the Papacy, causing his name to appear very frequently in the French form of " Villeneuve," may have given rise to the idea that he belonged to Villeneuve-les-Avignon. I may be going too far in even suggesting this ; nevertheless Prof. Skeat and others describe Arnaldo as " a French physician," " theologian, astrologer, and alchemist": and there are, of course, in France several towns called Villeneuve.

But there are likewise places in Spain called

" Villanova," and in the thirteenth and four- teenth centuries Spain was at least as import- ant a land in the eyes of the politician and philosopher as France, which, by the way, did not include anything like what it includes nowadays. Hence there is good ground for deliberation before one writes Arnaldo down a Frenchman. The connexion between these two countries, however, was extremely close ; moreover it was not confined to politics or to royal relationships. From the earlier great days of Toledo and Cordova, the lines of intellectual migration had lain via Mont- pellier to Paris, fortunately regardless of mere national divisions arid languages.

As matter of fact (although the actual birthplace of Arnaldo, remains undecided) the philosopher was no Frenchman, Neapo- litan, or Sicilian, but a Catalonian. He was the spiritual mentor of the royal family of Aragon, a Franciscan fanatic saturated with the visionary prophetic doctrines of the Abbot Joachim of Flora, a professor of medi- cine, full of the wisdom of the Arabs ; like- wise, as might be expected of his times, an alchemist and astrologer, much after the manner of his senior contemporary Michael Scot. In one of his numerous treatises, dedicated to Robert the Wise of Naples, he writes :

Yeu, Arnaut de Vilanova, Doctor en leys et en decrets, Kt en siensa de strolomia, Et en 1'art de Medecina, Et en la santa tenlogia,

which forms a properly impressive and com- prehensive description of himself. Never- theless, this treatise is upon the sub- ject of surveying. He also wrote other treatises upon the manufacture of wines, palmistry, &c., and was a translator from both Hebrew and Arabic. In consequence of all these diverse and illuminative accom- plishments he shone as a lay-star of the first magnitude just before the earliest dawn of the Renaissance. Theologically he may be described as a prophet of Antichrist and the apostle of the poor.

His theological doctrines brought him, during the last years of his life, into acute conflict with the Dominicans, and the friars of this Order in Catalonia and elsewhere de- nounced him, but he eluded their persecution. The theologians of Paris, however, laid hands on him in 1300, while he was engaged in the sacred duties of ambassador from King James II. of Aragon to Philip le Bel ; and a volume which Arnaldo had laid before the University of Paris was accordingly burned. He presently appealed to Philip's great