[512] Millot, Hist., Tom. II. p. 92.
[513] Raynouard, Troub., Tom. IV. pp. 203-205.
[514] Ibid., Tom. V. p. 302. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XX., 1842, p. 574.
[515] Quadrio (Storia d’ Ogni Poesia, Bologna, 1741, 4to, Tom. II. p. 132) and Zurita (Anales, Lib. X. c. 42) state it, but not with proof.
[516] In the Guía del Comercio de Madrid, 1848, is an account of the disinterment, at Poblet, in 1846, of the remains of several royal personages who had been long buried there; among which the body of Don Jayme, after a period of six hundred and seventy years, was found remarkably preserved. It was easily distinguished by its size,—for when alive Don Jayme was seven feet high,—and by the mark of an arrow-wound in his forehead which he received at Valencia, and which was still perfectly distinct. An eyewitness declared that a painter might have found in his remains the general outline of his physiognomy. Faro Industrial de la Habana, 6 Abril, 1848.
[517] Its first title is “Aureum Opus Regalium Privilegiorum Civitatis et Regni Valentiæ,” etc., but the work itself begins, “Comença la conquesta per lo serenisimo e Catholich Princep de inmortal memoria, Don Jaume,” etc. It is not divided into chapters nor paged, but it has ornamental capitals at the beginning of its paragraphs, and fills 42 large pages in folio, double columns, litt. goth., and was printed, as its colophon shows, at Valencia, in 1515, by Diez de Gumiel.
[518] Rodriguez, Biblioteca Valentina, Valencia, 1747, fol., p. 574. Its title is “Chrónica o Commentari del Gloriosissim e Invictissim Rey En Jacme, Rey d’ Aragò, de Mallorques, e de Valencia, Compte de Barcelona e de Urgell e de Muntpeiller, feita e scrita per aquell en sa llengua natural, e treita del Archiu del molt magnifich Rational de la insigne Ciutat de Valencia, hon stava custodita.” It was printed under the order of the Jurats of Valencia, by the widow of Juan Mey, in folio, in 1557. The Rational being the proper archive-keeper, the Jurats being the council of the city, and the work being dedicated to Philip II., who asked to see it in print, all needful assurance is given of its genuineness. Each part is divided into very short chapters; the first containing one hundred and five, the second one hundred and fifteen, and so on. A series of letters, by Jos. Villaroya, printed at Valencia, in 1800, (8vo,) to prove that James was not the author of this Chronicle, are ingenious, learned, and well written, but do not, I think, establish their author’s position.
[519] Alfonso was born in 1221 and died in 1284, and Jayme I., whose name, it should be noted, is also spelt Jaume, Jaime, and Jacme, was born in 1208 and died in 1276. It is probable, as I have already said, that Alfonso’s Chronicle was written a little before 1260; but that period was twenty-one years after the date of all the facts recorded in Jayme’s account of the conquest of Valencia. In connection with the question of the precedence of these two Chronicles may be taken the circumstance, that it has been believed by some persons that Jayme attempted to make Catalan the language of the law and of all public records, thirty years before the similar attempt already noticed was made by Alfonso X. in relation to the Castilian. Villanueva, Viage Literario á las Iglesias de España, Valencia, 1821, Tom. VII. p. 195.
Another work of the king remains in manuscript. It is a moral and philosophical treatise, called “Lo Libre de la Saviesa,” or The Book of Wisdom, of which an account may be found in Castro, Biblioteca Española, Tom. II. p. 605.
[520] Probably the best notice of Muntaner is to be found in Antonio, Bib. Vetus (ed. Bayer, Vol. II. p. 145). There is, however, a more ample one in Torres Amat, Memorias, (p. 437,) and there are other notices elsewhere. The title of his Chronicle is “Crónica o Descripcio dels Fets e Hazanyes del Inclyt Rey Don Jaume Primer, Rey Daragò, de Mallorques, e de Valencia, Compte de Barcelona, e de Munpesller, e de molts de sos Descendents, feta per lo magnifich En Ramon Muntaner, lo qual servi axi al dit inclyt Rey Don Jaume com á sos Fills e Descendents, es troba present á las Coses contengudes en la present Historia.” There are two old editions of it; the first, Valencia, 1558, and the second, Barcelona, 1562; both in folio, and the last consisting of 248 leaves. It was evidently much used and trusted by Zurita. (See his Anales, Lib. VII. c. 1, etc.) A neat edition of it in large 8vo, edited by Karl Lanz, was published in 1844, by the Stuttgard Verein, and a translation of it into German, by the same accomplished scholar, appeared at Leipzig in 1842, in 2 vols. 8vo.