The dictionary of Ximeno, who died in 1764, brings down the literary history of Valencia to 1748, from which date to 1829 it is continued by the “Biblioteca Valenciana” of Justo Pastor Fuster, (Valencia, 1827-30, 2 tom., folio,) a valuable work, containing a great number of new articles for the earlier period embraced by the labors of Rodriguez and Ximeno, and making additions to many which they had left imperfect.
In the five volumes, folio, of which the whole series consists, there are 2841 articles. How many of those in Ximeno relate to authors noticed by Rodriguez, and how many of those in Fuster relate to authors noticed by either or both of his predecessors, I have not examined; but the number is, I think, smaller than might be anticipated; while, on the other hand, the new articles and the additions to the old ones are more considerable and important. Perhaps, taking the whole together, no portion of Europe equally large has had its intellectual history more carefully investigated than the kingdom of Valencia;—a circumstance the more remarkable, if we bear in mind that Rodriguez, the first person who undertook the work, was, as he says, the first who attempted such a labor in any modern language, and that Fuster, the last of them, though evidently a man of curious learning, was by occupation a bookbinder, and was led to his investigations, in a considerable degree, by his interest in the rare books that were, from time to time, intrusted to his mechanical skill.
[566] The Catalans have always felt this regret, and have never reconciled themselves heartily to the use of the Castilian; holding their own dialect to have been, in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, more abundant and harmonious than the prouder one that has so far displaced it. Villanueva, Viage á las Iglesias, Valencia, 1821, 8vo, Tom. VII. p. 202.
[567] One of the most valuable monuments of the old dialects of Spain is a translation of the Bible into Catalan, made by Bonifacio Ferrer, who died in 1477, and was the brother of St. Vincent Ferrer. It was printed at Valencia, in 1478, (folio,) but the Inquisition came so soon to suppress it, that it never exercised much influence on the literature or language of the country; nearly every copy of it having been destroyed. Extracts from it and sufficient accounts of it may be found in Castro, Bib. Española, (Tom. I. pp. 444-448,) and McCrie’s “Reformation in Spain” (Edinburgh, 1829, 8vo, pp. 191 and 414). Sismondi, at the end of his discussion of the Provençal literature, in his “Littérature du Midi de l’Europe,” has some remarks on its decay, which in their tone are not entirely unlike those in the last pages of this chapter, and to which I would refer both to illustrate and to justify my own.
[568] The University of Salamanca owes its first endowment to Alfonso X., 1254; but in 1310 it had already fallen into great decay, and did not become an efficient and frequented university till some time afterwards. Hist. de la Universidad de Salamanca, por Pedro Chacon. Seminario Erudito, Madrid, 1789, 4to, Tom. XVIII. pp. 13, 21, etc.
[569] Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, Roma, 1782, 4to, Tom. IV. Lib. I. c. 3; and Fuster, Biblioteca Valenciana, Tom. I. pp. 2, 9.
[570] Tiraboschi, ut sup.
[571] Tiraboschi, Tom. IV. Lib. I. c. 3, sect. 8. Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. pp. 169, 170.
[572] Antonio, Bib. Nova, Tom. I. pp. 132-138.
[573] Prescott’s Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella, Introd., Section 2; to which add the account of the residence in Barcelona of Carlos de Viana, in Quintana’s Life of that unhappy prince, (Vidas de Españoles Célebres, Tom. I.,) and the very curious notice of Barcelona in Leo Von Rözmital’s Ritter-Hof-und-Pilger-Reise, 1465-67, Stuttgard, 1844, 8vo, p. 111.