I here present, most excellent prelate, in more accurate and emended form than that in which he has hitherto been read, Pope Pius, an author who, in his Description of Asia and Europe, is much to be admired both for the dignity and for the singular worth of his work. In looking for some one to whom he, in behalf of his book, freshly issuing from the printing-office, might straightway most devotedly offer his respects, some one select, devoted to letters, and possessed of the highest virtue, I could think of no one more to be desired, more worthy than you. That the Supreme Pontiff himself should go to visit you, a most venerable bishop, seemed to me a thing not without humour. That he, I say, who was a meritorious writer of geography, and, as you will be able to see, of history well deserving to be read, should come and embrace you, lover and cultivator of every form of polite literature, I thought a thing very appropriate. It was like setting the gem to the gold, or the 'encaustum,' that is picture drawn with fire, to the silver, it was like conferring the palm upon the victor; and that most certainly is nothing other than to join the good to the good, the glorious to the glorious, the deserving to the deserving. But along with these reasons there is still another reason why to you of all persons this most illustrious work should very properly be dedicated: it was at your instance and suggestion that I divided the work into chapters and gave to its parts a more convenient arrangement. That you first, and then that all other students and readers, may, as was your wish, find and remember the parts of the earth, which are many in number, and the things in them that are interesting to know about, more easily and conveniently, I have divided the book thus: the names of rivers, towns, places, rulers, and other important matters I have put in separate chapters and marked with marginal captions; these names are also all to be found, provided with numbers, in the index. This little work of mine, therefore, I dedicate to you, my lord, in deepest reverence and with sincere feeling. It is certainly far from being what I should offer to so reverend a father, but you, whose goodness and integrity, which are perfectly evident to me, all praise in the highest terms, will, if it so please you, take the book into your most pure hands and bestow upon it the favour which you are accustomed to bestow upon works of this kind. Farewell.
Paris, at the College of Plessis, 2 Oct., A.D. 1509.
Next comes a 'table,' which fills eleven leaves, on the verso of the last of which we find the following note to the reader:—
Geofroy Tory of Bourges to the Reader.[184]
You will find the words 'eruȩre, contendȩre, misȩre,' and many others of the same sort, written with an ȩ in the penult: this was done in order that the perfect indicative, which regularly has a long penult, might show its quantity (which you are to utter in reading), as distinguished from that of the present and past imperfect infinitive, which in the third conjugation always shortens its penult. It is with pleasure that I have imitated and adopted the very elegant and finished form of writing which is used in the 'Psalterium Quincuplex,'[185] recently published. You will also, though rarely, find this ȩ used, after the fashion of certain authors, for æ in some words, and similarly at times in the genitive and dative singular, and in the nominative and vocative plural, of the first declension. I have furthermore written designedly 'mistum' with an s instead of an x,—for 'misceo' makes its perfect 'miscui,' whence by analogy 'mistum,'—'intellego,' 'toties,' 'quoties,' 'litus,' 'opidum,' 'litera,' 'tralatum,' 'aliquando,' and other similar forms, which are to be written according to ὀρθογραϕία, that is to say, correct spelling. The word 'Turca' also, which many make in the second declension, I have written in the first. I follow herein with approval Michael Tarchaniota Marulus of Constantinople in his lines addressed to Charles, King of France. These are his words: 'Invincible king, scion of the race of Charles the Great, whom the holy prophecies of so many men, of so many gods, demand as the vindicator of fallen justice and loyalty; whom here the sad Ausonian land, there Greece with streaming locks, calls, and whate'er of Asia and wealthy Syria the cruel Turk profanes,' etc.
In writing the accusatives 'plureis,' 'parteis,' 'omneis,' 'monteis,' in 'eis,' I have believed that I was writing good grammar and good Latin, following therein Priscian, book 7, the chapter on the accusative plural of the third declension. This form is valuable for distinguishing the accusative from the nominative, and has been used by a thousand authors, of which great number it is sufficient at present to cite as witnesses Sallust, Virgil, and Plautus. Sallust, who used the first word also, says in the Catilinarian War: 'Omneis homines qui sese,' etc. Virgil in the first Æneid: 'Hic fessas non vincula naveis Ulla tenent....' Plautus in the Aulularia: 'Quid est? quid ridetis novi omneis, scio fures hic esse complureis.' I have been pleased to make this explanation, good reader, so that you not only might know what pure speech is, but also, both in reading and in speaking, might have pleasantly at hand, like finger-posts, and might use, pure words. Farewell.
CIVIS.
On folio 152, after the errata, we read: 'Impressa est hæc Asiæ et Europæ quam elegantissima historia per Henricum Stephanum, impressorem diligentissimum, Parrhisiis, e regione scholæ decretorum, sumptibus eiusdem Henrici et Ioannis Hongonti,[186] VI idus Octobris anno Domini M. D. IX.[187]
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DE PASSIONE DOMINICA CARMEN ELEGIACUM GUILIELMI DIVITIS, CIVIS GANDAVENSIS, ARTIFICIOSÆ PIETATIS PLENISSIMUM.—Item. NENIA LACTANTII FIRMIANI VERBIS SALVATORIS NOSTRI E CRUCE.—Mark of Josse Bade ('Prelum ascensianum').[188]
One octavo sheet, printed by Josse Bade, dated the 5th of the Ides of March, 1509; that is to say, March 11, 1510, new style.[189]
On the verso of the title-page is this letter from Herverus de Berna (of Saint-Amand-Montrond) to the young people of Bourges:—
Herverus de Berna of Amand to the youth of Bourges, greeting.[190]
You are acquainted with Dives, our teacher, famed for his wisdom, a foster-child of the Muses, who well deserves your gratitude. He it is who introduced you to the Muses, Helicon, Phœbus' grove, and Mercury, and from his school, as from the Trojan horse, have issued men of education without number. His heart is in the Muses' glorious service, and his memory, it seems to me, should be forever honoured and kept green. He is reported, as the saying is, to have toiled not only by the lamp of Aristophanes, but by that of Cleanthes as well.[191] You do not doubt that he is deserving of praise for the elegance of his song; whence it happens that there is a religious poem of his written on the Passion of Our Lord,—a poem of such brilliancy, such sweetness, such ornateness, that one could believe it to be the work of the divine, rather than of a human, mind. I do not doubt that, as a result of this fact, the same thing will fall to his lot that usually falls to the lot of literary men: as Claudian says, 'His presence will diminish his fame.'[192] Not, however, without Theseus,[193] that is Tory of Bourges, my fellow-student, a man of the old, and, as Plautus says, of the Massilian, school,[194] one who combines sound learning with virtue, have I wished Dives to issue forth into the world; again, I hope, with favourable auspices, as the saying is. Farewell, with best wishes.
From my house at Amand, 1 March.
Then follows the elegy by Wilhelm de Ricke, which has 140 verses and occupies 4 leaves; on the verso of the last of the four is this dialogue in verse by Tory:—