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 190 LATIN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE a prejudice against it. Monks in Ireland were then the means of preserving the monuments of the literature of Rome, and the converted Anglo-Saxons of England became diligent students of Latin, and translated and copied many manuscripts. During the Yth and 8th centuries lived the eminent scholars Aldhelm of Malmesbury and the Venerable Bede, and after them Winfrid and Alcuin, who labored for Latin culture in France. Charlemagne es- tablished schools in which Latin was studied, encouraged the copying of ancient manuscripts by paying largely for them, and founded a library. But though some of the wealthy laity studied Latin for a while, the knowledge of it was soon after that emperor's death again restricted to the clergy. Walafrid Strabus, Servatus Lupus, Scotus Erigena, Hincmar, and Rabanus Maurus were the most eminent eccle- siastical writers of this time. The end of the 9th century also was propitious for Latin. King Alfred, the founder of Oxford university, contributed greatly to the preservation and translation of ancient manuscripts, and caused collections of them to be made. The Normans hindered the development of Latin studies in England, but Germany under the Othos and their successors continued the labors of the British isles. As under Charlemagne and Al- fred, several ladies distinguished themselves as careful and accurate copyists of Latin texts; and the nun Roswitha produced several surpri- singly excellent poems. Historiography was better represented by Wittekind and Ditmar, and the Lombard Luitprand, and in the middle of the llth century by Adam of Bremen and Lambert of Aschaffenburg. The convents of Fulda, St. Gall, Reichenau, Hirschau, Pader- born, and Hildesheim were now the chief seats of Latin learning, and Bruder, Bruno, and Ger- bert distinguished themselves by their exten- sive studies and great erudition. Text books and dictionaries, however, were the exclusive property of Italy. The Carthusian and Cis- tercian monks were very useful during the 12th century, and many highly esteemed codices are written in their hand. Several schools of learning were established in Germany during this period, which, combined with the labors of newly founded orders of monks, as the Dominicans and Franciscans, were also instru- mental in preventing the total decay of Latin learning; but the latter were the means of misguiding the taste of German scholars with their so-called monks' Latin. Many a scho- lastic philosopher was well read in ancient authors. In France there was Abelard, in England John of Salisbury, and in Denmark Saxo Grammaticus, whose Latin is not to be despised. But with the middle of the 13th century came a period of gross ignorance, and Roger Bacon seems to have been the only one who had a really intimate acquaintance with the classics. Italy thus came about this time to^ occupy the highest place in Latin studies. Milan had already attained some distinction, j and it was now the centre of true philology. Petrarch's admiration for Cicero and Virgil in- spired also the better classes of his countrymen, who were suddenly seized with an ardent de- sire to become acquainted with the literature of Rome. The Latin manuscripts had long remained unread in the monasteries ; many of them had been destroyed, and others were mislaid and forgotten. Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Poggio Bracciolini undertook to collect them, and many manuscripts were carried by them from the German convents to Italy, where they were rapidly multiplied, and formed the basis of the Vatican library. Wealthy Italians imitated their example, a great bibliographical activity set in, flourishing factories produced multitudes of copies, and the learned were soon enabled to complete and correct defective texts by careful comparison of manuscripts. These labors of the 14th and the first half of the 15th century were carried on in a somewhat dilettante spirit ; but after the year 1465, when the first printing houses were established in Italy and the lovers of learning had the means of communicating to each other the results of their researches, critical discipline soon laid the foundation for a special science. The long line of critics to whom the editionef principes are mainly due number, among other eminent scholars, the bishop Andreas Alerien- sis, Antonius Campanus, and Leonicenus Om- nibonus, the able counsellor of Nicholas Jan- son, the great master of the typographic art. Criticism was finally carried so far as to lead to very bold interpolations ; interpretation, being at this time a new science, gave birth to many exceedingly peculiar explanations ; and emendations of texts introduced in some places a wonderfully motley Latin. But in spite of all these drawbacks, men like Hermo- laus Barbarus, Calderinus, Britannicus, Marsus, Beroaldus I., Baptista Pius, and Budseus, the first philologist of France, did. much valuable work in the furtherance of Latin studies. The enthusiasm of the Italians for the culture of antiquity was completely chilled before the end of the 16th century. The Roman Catholic church put a check on classical studies. The culture of that age was worldly and unwhole- some, and a reaction was needed equally for the clergy and the laity. About the beginning of the 16th century France and Germany had cultivated the Latin authors on their own soil. Doletus, Turnebus, Morel, and the Stephenses produced typographically and linguistically ex- cellent editions of texts. With Dorat and Lambin at their head, the French raised the methods of interpretation to a scientific stand- ing, and men like Peiresc largely increased the treasure of ancient manuscripts by searches in private and public libraries, and heightened their value by learned emendations and correc- tions. The most eminent philologist of this period was Scaliger, to whose critical insight and comprehensive knowledge of the whole field of Latin literature are due many restora-