Notes.
ST. STEPHEN'S DAY AND RILEY'S HOVEDEN.
In Roger de Hoveden's account of the accident which proved fatal to Leopold, Duke of Austria, the jailer of Richard I. (Bohn's edit., vol. ii. p. 345.), St. Stephen's Day, on which it occurred, is twice stated to be before Christmas Day, instead of after it. Is this an error of the author, or of translator?[[1]] or are they right, and was St. Stephen's martyrdom in those times commemorated on a different day from what it now is? I cannot find, on reference to the authorities within my reach, that this last was the case. Mr. Riley does not notice the discrepancy at all.
In the translation of this Volume, a few errors have come under my observation, to which I beg to call Mr. R.'s attention: 1. In his note on Corumphira's prophecy, at p. 36., he seems to forget that the Mahometan year differs from the Julian by eleven or twelve days, and that in consequence A. D. 1186 does not correspond to A. H. 564; in fact, the old astrologer is perfectly correct in his chronology, more so than in his predictions, many of which were signally falsified in the course of the next few years. 2. A mountain frequently mentioned by his author as projecting into the sea at the boundary of Catalonia and Valencia, and called "Muncian," he says in a note at p. 151. is "probably Montserrat," which is far from either the sea or the frontier; the maps of Spain all show, near the town of Vinaros on the east coast, a hill on the sea-shore called "Monte Sia," which still, as then, forms the boundary in that direction between the two provinces. 3. In his note at p. 156. on "Mount Gebel," the translator says, "he (the author) probably means Stromboli;" surely the name of Mongibello, and the mention of Catania a few lines farther down should have shown him that Etna only could be meant, although part of the mistake is due to Hoveden himself, who talks of it as a separate island from Sicily. Mr. Riley's other geographical notes are generally
correct, though a little more pains might have greatly increased their number, to the elucidation of his author's account of the Crusaders' proceedings in the East. 4. At p. 249. a well-known passage from Horace is ascribed to Juvenal.
J. S. Warden.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
The text in the Scriptores post Bedam reads:—"Eodam anno die S. Stephani protomartyris infra natale Domini."