Of the original Work there are numerous Manuscript copies, and also several early printed editions; but these, as an eminent French Antiquary remarks, are "toutes rares, toutes fautives et defecteuses." In Verard's edition, for instance, the name of Charles VI., to whom the Author dedicated the work, is changed to Charles VIII., in order to pay a compliment to the reigning Sovereign; and in these editions the Author's name is given as Honoré Bonner, instead of Bonnet. The terms of the Author's dedication, (says M. Paulin Paris,) carry us naturally to the first years of the arrival of Louis II. of Anjou to the Sovereignty of Provence, that is to say, from 1384 to 1390. Charles VI., the conqueror of Rosbec, was still young, and the schism of the Church had reached its point of the greatest violence.

M. Paris's analysis of the work is very concise, and may be quoted in his own words:—"L'Arbre d'Honoré Bonnet présente quatre branches principales, 1o. L'Eglise en schisme. 2o. Les Rois en guerre. 3o. Les Grandes en dissension. 4o. Les Peuples en révolte. Mais l'auteur paroît fort peu soucieux de suivre un ordre quelconque dans son travail. Après avoir dans les premiers chapitres appliqué la prophétie des cinq Anges de l'Apocalypse à l'Histoire Ecclésiastique du XIVe siècle, il résume les fastes de l'antiquité, puis enfin expose la théorie du comportement des Armes, des droits et des devoirs de tous les vassaux, chevaliers et gens de guerre."[[5]]

The author Honoré Bonnet, was a Monk in the Abbey of Ile-Barbe of Lyons, and Prior of Salon in Provence. His name, which is often given as Bonnor, or Bonhor, or Bonnoz, has been ascertained, from an examination of nearly twenty ancient Manuscripts in the Royal Library at Paris, to have been Bonnet. A Provençal translation, made in the year 1429 by order of Mossen Ramon de Culdes, is preserved in the same collection, No. 7450; and also a translation in the Catalan dialect, MS. No. 7807. There is some indication of Caxton having translated in part the work in the year 1490, but no copy is known to exist.[[6]] The original work was first printed at Lyons, by Barthelemy Buyer, 1477, folio; and another edition at Lyons in 1481. It was again printed at Paris, by Anthoine Verard, 1493, folio, of which there is, in the Royal Library at Paris, a magnificent copy printed upon Vellum, with illustrations,—the first representing Charles VIII. receiving the work from Verard the printer, who, as already noticed, had substituted the name of the reigning Monarch instead of Charles VI. of France, at whose request the work was originally written. Van Praet[[7]] describes this copy, and mentions two other copies on Vellum, but neither of them perfect. The discrepancies existing between the early manuscript and printed copies will readily explain the variations, which will be obvious upon comparing Sir Gilbert Hay's translation with the preceding extracts. It must also be confessed, that to a modern reader Bonnet's Book of Battles is sufficiently tedious and uninteresting; and it need excite no surprize that the Author, as he admits in his concluding chapter, having wearied himself with his task, broke off abruptly—"Mais pour le present je ne pense plus riens a escripre en ce Livre, car j'en suis tout lasse;" or, as Sir Gilbert Hay in his translation expresses it—"But in gude faith the Doctour sais, that he was sa irkit of wryting, that he mycht nocht as now, na mare tak on hand as to put in this buke of Bataillis," &c.

II. THE BUKE OF THE ORDER OF KNYGHTHOOD.

Although subjoined to "The Buke of Batailles," there is no evidence to show that it was written by the same Author. The original Work, entitled "Le Livre de l'Ordre de Chevalerie," is anonymous. A copy of it is contained in a magnificent volume, written upon vellum, and illuminated for Henry VII. of England, which forms part of the Royal collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (MSS. Bibl. Reg. 14 E. II. Art. 5). The Work also exists in a printed form, although now of great rarity. "L'Ordre de Chevalerie, auquel est contenue la maniere comment en doit, faire les Chevaliers, et de l'honneur qui à eux appartient, et de la dignité d'iceulx; compose par ung Chevalier, lequel en sa veillesse fut Hermite." Lyon, Vincent de Portunaris de Trine, 1510, in folio, black letter. It is, however, a proof of the great popularity of the Work, that a copy of it having fallen into the hands of our venerable Typographer, William Caxton, (who probably never heard of Sir Gilbert Hay's previous version,) he added this to his other translations from the French, and having printed his own translation, he addressed the volume to King Richard the Third. It has no date, but must have been printed about the year 1484; and his edition is acknowledged to be one of the rarest specimens of his press. Lewis in his Life of Caxton, 1737; Oldys in his British Librarian, 1738; Ames and Herbert in their Typographical Antiquities, 1749 and 1785; and Dibdin, in his enlarged edition of that work, 1810, and also in his Bibliotheca Spenceriana, 1815, have each given a more or less detailed account of Caxton's translation.

In the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, among the collection of MSS. which belonged to Sir James Balfour of Denmyln, Lord Lyon in the reign of Charles the First, there is a volume, to which he has prefixed this title, "Collectanea Domini Davidis Lyndesay de Monthe Militis Leonis Armorum Regis." This volume is described by Dr Leyden[[8]] in the Preface to his republication of "The Complaynt of Scotland," but he has confounded two persons of the same name, and who held the same office, at an interval of half a century. The volume, which contains nothing to identify it with Sir David Lyndesay the Poet, is here noticed, from containing a copy of "The Order of Knighthood," without the name of the translator. This is evidently a transcript from Caxton's printed volume, omitting the concluding Address to Richard the Third, in which Caxton introduces his own name as the translator; while the transcriber has used his own discretion in adapting the language to the Scotish orthography and dialect.

Dr Leyden passes over this portion of the MS. in a very summary manner, and strangely says, that it, along with "The Buke of Cote-Armouris," which immediately follows, in Lyndesay's MS., was transcribed from Dame Juliana Berners's Treatise on Hunting, Hawking, &c., which is usually known as the "Booke of St Albans."

The following extracts from the copy of Caxton's volume, in the British Museum, will be sufficient to convey to the reader some idea of the work itself; and to form a comparison of the English and Scotish versions. The first leaf is here given in black letter, line for line, in imitation of the original:—

¶ Here begynneth the Table of

this present booke Intytled the