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HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

May 7, 1569-5 (15,71870

6618 40-273 24-6

AMERICAN LITERARY

"THE PEN TO MATIRA THAN THE SWORD."

GAZETTE

AND

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MAY 1, 1869,

OUR CONTINENTAL CORRESPONDENCE.
PARIS, December 31, 1868.

THE annual public meeting of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres has been unusually interesting. M. Guigniaut, the Perpetual Secretary, read an interesting sketch of the late Duke Albert de Luynes's life and labors, of which you must let me translate these passages: "The study of antiquities, as well of the East as of the West, to serve the history of nations as well as the history of art was the ruling passion of the Duke de Luynes, the principal object of his studious life. Nevertheless this inquisitive and practical mind, sensible to the beautiful, but thirsting for truth, hunting ideas under forms, but always attentive to facts, and even to technical processes in works from man's hands, could not fail, when the Middle Ages struck him by their peculiar character of grandeur, to fathom in the first place by his own labors and by those he instigated around him, the obscure sources of its annals. He entered upon these studies in 1839. The Italian Middle Ages at first attracted him, for he was initiated into them by the reading his travels had required, and he had more than most men been seduced by the sight of the monuments of architecture which could receive as much light from history as they threw on it. His first task was a thorough Benedictine's labor. He undertook to clear up the text of Matteo Giovenazzo's 'Diurnali' (so important for the comprehension of Southern Italy during the second moiety of the thirteenth century), by restoring the chronological order which copyists had disarranged. As early as 1836, he intrusted to M. Baltard, then a pensioner of the French Academy at Rome, now our colleague in the institute, to draw the principal monuments of the Norman and Suabian princes, which still exist in the continental provinces of the Kingdom of Naples. The object of these two enterprises was soon revealed, whence, in 1844, there was added to the admirable plates executed under the supervision of the young architect, a splendid publication entitled 'Recherches sur les Monumens et l'Histoire des Normands et de la Maison de Souabe dans l'Italie Méridionale,' confided to the zeal and learning of M. Huillard Breholles, who was not to end his labors there. This was the beginning of the immense work of diplomatics and history prosecuted for sixteen years by the skilful archivist, encouraged every way by his noble patron, and which appeared in 12 quarto volumes, between 1852 and 1861. A volume of Latin chronicles was added to it in 1856. The reign of the Emperor Frederick II., the culminating point of the prolific and tragical struggle of the Empire and the Papacy, was placed in a full light by the contents of these volumes, which embraced a long series of the original acts of this emperor and of his sons, a collection of Popes' letters, various documents, all of which were analyzed in a French introduction, doubly remarkable by the judiciousness of the ideas and by the firmness of the style.

themselves, so worthy of publication, remain in portfolios. The thirteenth century elsewhere than in Italy had early attracted Duke de Luynes's attention. Desirous to fill what seemed to him a regretable void in the collection of the Mémoires sur l'Histoire de Franee,' published by our illustrious colleague M. Guizot, he persuaded M. Huillard Breholles, in 1841, to translate into French, Mathieu Paris's Latin 'Great Chronicle.' In publishing it he added an introduction, remarkable by the political judgment of a judiciously liberal mind." I hope you will not think this sketch of Duke de Luynes's contributions to literature out of place in these columns.

You may, however, read with greater interest an extract from M. Egger's "Memoir on the Revival of Greek Studies in France." He was to have read it at the annual public meeting of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres; but time failed him. It is a curious chapter of literary history. I should like to lay all of it before you, that you might see the obstacles which had to be overcome by the early teachers of Greek in days when the common phrase was Græcum est, non legitur, and a monk declared from the pulpit, "A new language has been found, called Greek. You should carefully shun it. This language breeds all sorts of heresies. I see in the hands of several people a book written in this tongue. It is called the New Testament; it is a book full of brambles and vipers. As for the Hebrew tongue, every one who learns it instantly becomes a Jew." A Syndic of the Sorbonne exclaimed in open Parliament, that religion was destroyed if Greek was taught, and he obliged the learned Lefevre D'Etaples to fly from Paris, and take refuge at Strasburg, to save his life, which was imperilled by his teaching Greek. Unfortunately I have space only for the account M. Egger gives of the first attempts of the professors and printers of the sixteenth century to introduce the study of Greek into France: "Next to the refugee Greeks our first printers should be mentioned as promoters of Greek studies in France. It is interesting to see how, after the first efforts of Ulrich Géring, and after Antoine Verard's masterpieces (they were familiar with the use only of Latin characters) the art of printing gradually placed itself at the service of Greek letters. This history has been sketched with great learning, and a serious charm of narration by M. Rebitté. But, written at Besançon, this book has not, in its details, that minute accuracy which no one can attain on this subject unless he be intimately acquainted with practical printing, and has in hand those precious incunables which are now so rare and so hard to get, and which public libraries do not give to the curious without a great many proper but annoying precautions. To guide me in these delicate researches I had, in the first place, the books of two learned printers, MM. Auguste Bernard and Ambroise Firmin Didot; the latter, especially, was of great service to me by placing at my disposal, in his incomparable library, the most ancient publications of Greek typography in France. Allow me to pause for a few moments to consider them with respectful pleasure, which the least beginnings of objects destined to thrive always give. It is impossible to touch without emotion these coarse little volumes, in which our ancestors spelled Greek, and which cost so much labor and so much care to the masters of the Ste

"More and more fascinated by the history of Italy in the eighteenth century, Duke de Luynes had resolved to give a companion piece to the preceding publications in a last work directed to the kings of the House of Anjou, which he himself determined to write. In 1853 he intrusted to M. Charles Garnier the duty of drawing the sumptuous tombs of these kings in the Neapolitan churches. He set to work and collected everywhere the materials of the text which was to accompany M. Charles Garnier's mag-phens! Printers of Latin works were for a long nificent drawings copied by chromo-lithography. But the hopes founded on these copies never reached fruition, and as other disappointments of an irreparable character saddened our colleague's soul, the undertaking was abandoned. The drawings

time obliged, when they met Greek words in an author-in Cicero, for instance-to leave the space blank. Then they tried to copy the Greek as well as they could; but they did not always accurately decipher it. The first typographical copies of

MAY 1, 1869.

Greek are shapeless. For instance, on the fourth | ductions for the service of Greek letters, and they page of De Officiis' (Fuste and Schoiffer's edition set a useful example to provincial printers."

of 1445) it is hard to recognize the word xańxovтa in 8. In 1491, Nicholas Perotto's "Cornu Copia" (a real treasury of the Latin language, which was several times reprinted, and which was the Latin text-book for more than twenty-five years) gives, in Géring's edition, some Greek words with a Greek-Latin alphabet, which is printed accurately enough; nevertheless, the vowels in it have not yet accents. The latter make their first appearance with capital letters in 1805, in a book by Laurent Valla, published by Josse Bade. To speak truly it was only in 1507 the first Greek book printed in France made its appearance. This was Liber Gnomagyricus.' It took its name from the sentences which formed the best part of it. The publisher was a modest master named François Tissart; the printer was Giles de Gourmont. In his excellent book on G. Budé, M. Rebitté tells us in detail the tribulations poor Tissart met while attempting to give our schools a text-book, which did not in all contain more than three hundred and fifty lines of Greek. What efforts he made! What resistance he met! What candor there is in the Latin preface of 'Liber Gnomagyricus,' and in the appeal he makes to the zeal and purse of students! This appeal, which Tissart addressed to his pupils in a tone of paternal affection, seems to have had effect; for in the very same year we see he published the 'Batrachomyo Machia,' attributed to Homer, Hesiod's 'Works and Days,' and Chrysoloras's 'Greek Grammar;' the latter, compared to the three preceding works, was almost a thick volume. A Hebrew grammar, followed by a Greek alphabet and prayers in the latter language, appeared in 1508. The Italian, Jerome Aleander, summoned by Louis XII. to teach Greek at Paris, printed here three of Plutarch's minor works in 1509. Vatable, his pupil, published at Gourmont's printing office a second edition of Chrysoloras two years afterwards. A small Greek-Latin lexicon by Aleander appeared in 1512; in it Greek words appeared for the first time with accents forming part of the letter-another memorable date in the slow progress of our rising typography. Another Hebrew and Greek alphabet, published in 1514, was dedicated to Mary of England, Queen of France, the second wife of Louis XII. The dedication was made by four pretty Latin lines with quite a dainty turn; the grammarian who wrote them doubtless intended to pay court to the young princess, who, it is not unlikely, was capable of taking interest in such studies. The title alphabet must not be understood literally. It usually designates something more than the mere collection of letters, with their French equivalents opposite. These alphabets, which were so often reprinted and rearranged in the sixteenth century, are, so to say, small elementary manuals of grammar. They contain some exercises in parsing, some sacred or profane texts used as subjects of explanations in schools where the rudiments of an ancient language were taught. The first grammar, properly speaking, of the Greek language written by a Frenchman for the use of French schools appeared in 1521; it was entitled 'Grammatica Isagogica.' Its author was Jean Cheradam. He reprinted Theodore Gaza's Greek Grammar in 1526, and published Aristophanes's 'Women at the Assembly' in 1528. In this same year, Simon de Colines gave the world a complete Sophocles,' which really began the series of scholarly editions of Greek texts in France. It was twenty years before Parisian printers were capable of making such an effort; but from this moment they continued to improve and multiply their pro

It would be fatiguing to repeat the whole litany of persons who received prizes from the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres. I may mention that M. Leon Gauthier received the great Gobert prize for his work, "Les Epopées Françaises," and M. Jules Labarte received a first-class medal for his excellent and curious "History of the Industrial Arts during the Middle Ages and at the Revival.” M. Naudet, who has for fifty years been an assiduous member of this learned society, was, as usual, at his post. The various publications confided to this society are pushed forward as rapidly as is compatible with accuracy and care, and we have reason to hope for several interesting volumes or parts of volumes during the coming year.

A Havre newspaper publishes this characteristic letter from M. Alex. Dumas, Sr., addressed to its editor: "Sir: One of your writers wishes to know why I have preferred to come to the second floor of Hotel Washington, rather than to retain the charming Chiatamonte Palace, given me by Garibaldi, by a decree published in the 'Moniteur' of the 7th September, 1860, for services rendered the Italian cause. You might also ask me why I spent 65,000f. in the Sicilian and Calabrian campaign, instead of investing them in French Threes, and securing myself 3000f. income. I would reply to these two questions that I tore up the decree which gave me Chiatamonte, in other words, 400,000f., because I thought it unworthy of me to receive pay for the services I might have rendered the Italian cause. As for the 65,000f. with which I quitted Paris, they were destined to take my share in a general vengeance in which I had a particular vengeance to wreak. Ferdinand I., King of Naples, had my father imprisoned in the Brindisi Prisons. You know the words of Scripture, 'The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children to the third and fourth generation.' I did my best that Ferdinand's fault, or rather crime, should be visited on the head of his great-grandson; and I paid without regret 65,000f. for the pleasure of seeing the throne of the Bourbons of Naples fall in my presence. In fine, I did not remain at Chiatamonte, because I never stay except where I feel at home; and I remain with pleasure on the second floor of Hotel Washington, because I pay my board with the money I earn, while, at the same time, by my mere presence, I give to the hotel a value it did not possess before I made it my home. Believe me, etc., ALEX. DUMAS.”

I give you to-day little else than translations, but I persuade myself you will find this not the least interesting letter I have sent you. The book trade has been dull enough. Everybody-publishers, booksellers, and public-has been preparing for the giftbooks season, which New Year's Day closes. G. S.

NOTES ON BOOKS AND BOOKSELLERS. "THE GENTLE LIFE SERIES" AND "THE BAYARD SERIES."-Under this designation Messrs. Scribner, Welford & Co., New York, furnish a list of works which, for choice and interesting reading, is deserving of the attention of every lover of healthful literature. While some of the works included in this list are among the classics of our language, all exhibit an elevation of tone and a refinement of taste which render them as attractive as they are useful, and equally fitted for the centre-table and the library. We know of no series of works which are likely to be of more service to thoughtful and inquisitive youth.

D. VAN NOSTRAND, New York, has removed from 192 Broadway to the commodious premises at 23 Murray Street, and 27 Warren Street.

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