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 PROVENCE PKOVERBS (1852), a collection of modern Provencal poe- try. His fame rests principally on his charm- ing rustic epic entitled Mireio (1859), trans- lated by himself into modern French (Mireille), and set to music by Gounod, and of which there are versions in English by H. Crich- ton and by Harriet W. Preston. The earliest writers on the Proven9al literature were Car- dinal Bembo and Jean de Nostre Dame, or Nostradamus, brother of the astrologer. Nos- tre Dame collected a large number of manu- scripts, and composed a work on the lives and writings of the old Provencal poets. Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye expended a vast amount of time and labor in ransacking the libraries of France and Italy, and collecting materials on the subject, which the abb6 Millot published under the title of Histoire litteraire des trou- badours (3 vols., Paris, 1774; abridged English translation by Mary Dobson, London, 1779). But it is chiefly to M. Raynouard, a native of Provence, that we are indebted for our knowl- edge of the Provencal. In his Choix des poe- sies originates des troubadours (6 vols., Paris, 1816-'21), he published vestiges of their early poetry, and lives and extracts from the wri- tings of about 350 poets. Previously he had written a grammar of the language (1816), end to this he added a lexicon which appeared after his death (6 vols., 1838-'44). In his foot- steps followed Charles Claude Fauriel, whose Histoire de la poesie provencale (3 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1846 ; abridged English translation, New York, 1860), delivered in a series of lec- tures as professor in the faculty of letters at Paris, is the most elaborate work on the sub- ject upon which it treats. In Germany the study of Provencal received a scientific foun- dation at the hands of Friedrich Diez, whose Die Poesie der Troubadours (Zwickau, 1826) and Leben und WirTcen der Troubadours (1829) have been translated into French and English. See also Mahn, Die WerTce der Troubadours in provemalischer Sprache (Berlin, 1846 et seg. Die Biographien der Troubadours (1853), and Gedichte der Troubadours (4 vols., 1856-'68); Paul Meyer, Anciennes poesies religiemes en langue d'oc (Paris, 1860), Cours d'histoire de la litterature provencale (1865), and JRecueil d'anciens textes bas-latins, provenfaux et fran- fais (1873 et seq.) ; Bohmer, Die provemalische Poesie der Gegenwart (Berlin, 1870) ; Karl Bartsch, Grundriss zur GescJiichte der pro- tenzalischen Liter atur (1872), and Ghrestoma- thie provencale (Paris, 1875); and Rutherford, " The Troubadours : their Loves and their Lyrics" (London, 1873). PROVENCE, an ancient province of S. E. France, bounded N. by Dauphiny and Venais- sin, E. by the Alps, S. by the Mediterranean, and "W. by Languedoc. It was a part of the territory to which the Romans gave the name of Provincia, and was divided into Upper and Lower Provence, watered by the Rh6ne, Du- rance, and Var, and celebrated for its delight- ful climate and rich fruits, though the soil is somewhat arid. Its capital was Aix. It now forms the departments of Basses-Alpes, Bouches-du-Rh6ne, and Var, and a part of those of Dr6me, Vaucluse, and Alpes-Mari- times. This territory passed into the hands of the Visigoths in the 5th century, and of the Ostrogoths in the 6th, and, after being for a while in the possession of Austrasia, fell to Lothaire on the division of the empire of Charlemagne. In the latter part of the 9th century it formed part of Cisjurane Burgundy, and in the 10th of the kingdom of Aries, which was subsequently united to Germany ; but Provence meanwhile was governed by virtual- ly independent counts, who about 1063 became hereditary. In the middle of the 13th century it passed by marriage into the possession of Charles of Anjou, afterward king of Naples. The last count, Charles, grandson of Ren6 the Good, bequeathed it in 1481 to Louis XL, and it was united to the crown of France by Charles VIII. in 1486. PROVERBS, a book of the Old Testament, entitled in the Hebrew original as well as the Septuagint and the Vulgate " The Proverbs of Solomon." Its real or final authorship, how- ever, is not ascribed to Solomon, for it is ex- pressly stated at the opening of chapter xxv. that the latter part, beginning with that chap- ter, was written and added to the previous portion by order of King Hezekiah. More- over, it is considered doubtful whether Sol- omon ever made any collection of his prov- erbs in writing. But it has hardly ever been contested that a large share in the composi- tion of the book may be ascribed to the wise king, who is said (1 Kings iv. 32) to have uttered 8,000 proverbs, and who was so cele- brated all over the eastern world for his wis- dom. The ancient writers of the Greek church frequently gave to this book the name Sophia (wisdom). The book is divided into several parts, which are distinguished from each other by separate headings. The first seven verses of the first chapter may be regarded as a head- ing for the entire book. Then begins the first part, closing with the end of the ninth chapter. This part does not contain a collection of proverbs proper, but rather a series of con- nected admonitions in a sententious form. They inculcate the love of wisdom, and de- scribe the glorious reward of wisdom and the pernicious consequences of wickedness. The second part, which extends from chap. x. to xxii. 16, contains the main collection of prov- erbs and the chief portion of the entire book. The proverbs, about 400 in number, contain moral precepts and rules of life for every age and every class of men. Generally one prov- erb is comprised in one short verse, of two members or clauses, and six, seven, or eight words. The two members form a parallel op- position, or occasional correspondence, to each other, which is generally carried out even to the single expressions; as for example x. 1 (rendering the Hebrew literally) :