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 MEDIAEVAL STORY-BOOKS
Students of mediaeval Latin fiction,especially those interested
in the class of exempla,have been eagerlyawaiting,since 1893, the
promisedthirdvolumeof the CatalogueofRomancesin theDepartment
of Manuscriptsin the BritishMuseum.' It has recentlyappeared
and more than fulfilsthe expectationsof scholarsin this branch of
literature. The author of this volume was associated with the late
H. L. D. Ward in the preparationof the firsttwo volumes of this
great work,and has been able in many cases, so the Keeper of MSS
informsus, to make use of Mr. Ward's notes-those admirable
notes, which were so freelyand unselfishlyplaced at the disposal
of scholars everywhere. It is pleasant to think that the work he
began has been continued,and, we trust,will be completed,in a way
worthyof his memoryand of the best traditionsof the greatlibrary,
to whichforso manyyearshe devotedhis untiringlabors.
years since Benfeyin the introductionto his
It is only fifty-two
translationof the Pantschatantralaid the foundationsof the study
of comparativestoriologyand threwopen an enormousand fascinat-
ing field.forresearch. Since then has arisen an immenseliterature
devoted to comparative mythology,popular tales, customs, and
superstitions,etc.; while the earth has been ransacked fromthe
Arcticregionsto South Africa,and fromIndia to our Pacific coast
forthe storiesand beliefsof the people. The early interestin the
ofpopular
subject centeredin the questionof the originand diffusion
tales. At thisstage of the studyit was importantto collectparallels
and to track a given story,fable, or whateverit mightbe, to its
original habitat. It was fortunatethat for many years Benfey's
theoryof the literarytransmissionof storiesprevailed and led to
the investigationand publicationof collectionsof orientaltales, and
the studyof the diffusion of theircontentsthroughoutthe literature
of Europe. Every possible channel of transmissionwas narrowly
1 Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum,
Vol. III. By J. A. Herbert, B.A., Assistant in the Department of MSS. Printed by
order of the Trustees. London, 1910. Crown 8vo, pp. xii +720.
225] 1 [MODERN PHILOLOGY, October, 1911
2 T. F. CRANE

scanned,such as theHebrewtranslatorsofSpain, theFrenchFabliaux

writers,etc. It was in the course of this investigationthat a new
and importantmeans of diffusionwas discoveredand a broad and
freshfieldof study.
As early as 1842 Thomas Wright,in the introductionto A Selec-
tion of Latin StoriesfromManuscriptsof the Thirteenth and Four-
teenthCenturies: A Contribution to theHistoryof Fictionduringthe
Middle Ages (Percy Society,Vol. VIII), gave an outlineof the use
by preachersof illustrativestories,or exempla,to employthe tech-
nical term (not used by Wright). Bromyard's Summa Praedi-
cantium, and Herolt's Sermones and PromptuariumExemplorum
are cited. In the note to the eighty-thirdstory,p. 74, Wrightsays:
"Promptuarium(quoted fromJacobus de Vitriaco)." This is the
only mentionof the great preacher,to whomis due the later vogue
of exempla,until 1862, when Goedeke in an article "Asinus Vulgi,"
in Orientund Occident,Vol. I, p. 531, firstcalled attentionto the
exemplaof Jacques de Vitry. As I have alreadysaid in my Introduc-
tion to the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry,p. lii, "Goedeke himself
had never heard of the sermonesvulgior seen any of the collections
of Jacques de Vitry'sexempla,which are to be foundin Paris and
elsewhere. He only knew that the author of the Scala Celi had
used a Speculumexemplorum Jacobide Vitriaco,and he also learned
fromthe cataloguesthat a MS in Troyescontained: 'cxxviiiexempla
sumpta ex sermonibusJacobi de Vitriaco,' and that a Paris MS
3283 (fourteenthcentury)contained: 'Sermones et exempla Jacobi
de Vitriaco.' From a comparison of the stories in the Scala
Celi attributedto Jacques de Vitry with those in Wright'sLatin
Stories, Goedeke inferredthat of the 225 exemplaof the Harley
MS 463 many were by Jacques de Vitry. In fact, thirty-sixof
Wright's stories are by Jacques de Vitry, although Wright was
unaware of it."
Goedeke's valuable article does not seem to have aroused any
interestin Jacques de Vitry's exempla and it was not until 1868
that Lecoy de La Marche, in his La chairefrangaiseau Moyen Age,
gave for the firsttime a satisfactoryaccount of them. The same
writer in his Anecdoteshistoriques,l6gendeset apologues tir6s du
recueil in dit d'Etiennede Bourbon(Soci6t6 d'Histoire de France,
226
 MEDIAEVAL STORY-BOOKS 3

Paris, 1877) constantlycited Jacques de Vitry and printedseveral

of his exempla.
By the systematicuse in his sermonsofillustrativestoriesJacques
de Vitryset an example to his successorswhichthey were not slow
in following. The foundationof the Franciscan and Dominioan
orders had given an enormous impulse to preaching and greatly
modifiedits character. It became necessaryto interestand amuse
the common people and the preacherssoon had to have at their
commandrepositoriesof stories. Collectionsof all kinds,arranged
alphabeticallyand otherwise,soon came into existence,and were
later perpetuated and widely disseminatedby the printing-press.
These collectionswere translatedand imitated in Italian, French,
Provengal, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and English. How
enormousthe mass of materialis may be judged by the factthat the
volume of the Cataloguebeforeus is devoted entirelyto this class
of literatureand contains the analysis of one hundred and nine
manuscriptsand refersto over eight thousand stories, many of
which are, of course, frequentlyreprinted.
It will facilitatethe task of examiningthis material if we first
eliminatethose works which have already been printed,whollyor
in part, and are thus fairlywell knownand accessibleto students.
The Exempla of Jacques de Vitry (p. 1, Harley 463, and p. 26,
Additional26770) have been printedfroma Paris MS, withreferences
to the BritishMuseum MSS, by ProfessorCrane forthe Folk-Lore
Society, 1890; the Fables of Odo of Cheriton (p. 31, Arundel292,
printedin fullby Oesterleyin Jahrbuch fiurrom.und engl.Literatur,
Vol. IX [1868], pp. 127-54; p. 38, Additional 11579, printed by
Hervieux in Fabulistes latins,Vol. IV [1896],p. 173, fromMS 441
of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the British Museum MS
was used in collation; p. 46, Arundel 275, used by Hervieux, op.
cit., p. 173, for collation; p. 50, Harley 219, printedby Hervieux
in firstedition of Fabulisteslatins [1884] [Vol. II, pp. 597-658, 661-
702]); Exempla of Odo of Cheriton,containedin a collectionof ser-
mons on the Sunday-Gospelsthroughoutthe year (p. 57, Arundel
231, copious extractsprintedby Hervieuxfroma Paris MS, op. cit.,
Vol. IV [1896], pp. 127-145); Etienne de Bourbon, Tractatus de
diversismateriispraedicabilibus,abridgmentof Parts i-iv, imper-
227
4 T. F. CRANE

fect (p. 78, Additional22682, copious extractsprintedfromFrench

MSS by Lecoy de La Marche in the work cited above); Tractatus
de abundantia exemplorum,probably by Humbert de Romans
(p. 88, Sloane 3102, printed,withoutdate or place [J. Zainer, Ulm,
1470?], as Liber de AbundantiaExemplorumMagistriAlbertiMagni
Ratispa. Episcopi ad omnemmateriam); Moralized Tales trans-
lated into Latin fromthe Frenchof Nicholas Bozon (p. 100, Harley
1288,printedas an appendixto Les contesmoralistsde Nicole Bozon,
Soci6t6 des AnciensTextes Frangais, 1889); Moralitates of Robert
Holcot (p. 106, Arundel 384; p. 113, Additional 21429, p. 114,
Royal 6 E. iii; p. 116, Egerton2258, printedin Holcot's In Librum
Sapientiae Regis Salomonis Praelectionesccxiii, Basle [?], 1586);
Fifty-sixmoralized Tales, Fables and Similitudes,in Italian (p.
179, Additional22557, printedby J. Ulrich in Romania, xiii [1884],
pp. 27-59); Gesta Romanorum, partial English translation (pp.
252, 255, Harley 7333, Additional 9066, printedby Madden, Rox-
burghe Club, 1838, and Herrtage,Early English Text Soc., 1879);
William of Waddington,Manuel des peches (p. 273, Harley 273,
printedfromthis MS, collated with Harley 4657, by F. J. Furnivall
forRoxburgheClub and Early EnglishText Society; p. 292, several
otherMSS have been only partlyused, some not at all); Handlyng
Synne, English translationby Robert Mannyng of Brunne of the
Manuel des p~ch6s (p. 303, Harley 1701, the basis of Furnivall's
editionsin the RoxburgheClub and Early English Text Society);
EnglishMetricalHomilieson the Gospel Lessons (six MSS, ofwhich,
p. 328, Harley 4196, has been partlyprintedby Horstmann in Alt-
englischeLegenden,N.F., Heilbronn,1881, pp. 1-173. Horstmann
also used Cotton, Tiberius E. vii); Five Tales, extractedfromthe
writingsof Petrus Damianus (p. 347, Burney351, may be foundin
Migne, PatrologiaLat., Vol. CXLV); Caesarius of Heisterbach,Dia-
logusMiraculorum,abridgedextracts(p. 348,Additional18346,p. 365,
Arundel 407, may be found in Strange's edition, Cologne, 1851);
Alphabetum Narrationum, A Translation in the Northumbrian
Dialect (p. 440, Additional 25719, printedby Mrs. M. M. Banks,
An Alphabetof Tales, Early English Text Society, 1904-5); and,
finally,Bromyard'sSumma Praedicantium(p. 450, Royal 7 E. iv),
and Herolt's PromptuariumExemplorum(p. 452, Additional19909)
228
 MEDIAEVAL STORY-BOOKS 5

have been frequentlyprinted.' A few stories from other MSS

have been printedfromtimeto time,as, forexample,nineteentales
fromthe Speculum Laicorum, to be mentionedmore fullylater in
this article.
The remainingmaterial consists largely of collectionsof tales,
by known authors or anonymous,and arranged alphabeticallyor
otherwise. The most interestingand importantis the Speculum
Laicorum (p. 370, Additional 11284), usually ascribed to John of
Hoveden. This huge collectioncontainsover six hundredstoriesto
illustrateeighty-sevenchaptersof subjects arrangedalphabetically.
The MS was purchased in 1837 by the BritishMuseum fromMr.
W. J. Thoms, the famous antiquary,and has oftenbeen cited as
"the Thoms MS."2 Mr. Herbert discusses the authorshipof the
collectionin his usual lucid mannerand then gives a full analysis
of the contentsof the collection. A few words may be said here
in regardto the analyses in this and the precedingvolumes of the
Catalogue. In general the storiesare without literaryform,often
theyseem merememorandaforthe preacherto expand as he wishes.
The scholar who is comparingcollectionsor tracing a particular
exemplumwishes to know the substance of the story in a concise
form,if possible, with referencesto other manuscriptsor printed
works. The analyses by the late Mr. Ward and Mr. Herbertare
1The contentsof a certainnumberof MSS are knownfromotherversionswhich
have been printed,as forinstance,the GestaRomanorum, of whichthe British Museum
possessesfourteenLatin, two English,and one German,MSS; Vie des ancienspares
(p. 336, Additional32678,seventy-four tales, of whichtwenty-six have been published
separatelyin variousplaces, see Herbert'slist, p. 348); and EnglishMetricalHomilies
(p. 320, Additional30358, printedby J. Small, EnglishMetricalHomilies,Edinburgh,
1862; p. 322, Additional22283,printedby Horstmannfromthe VernonMS, in Archin
far das Studium der neueren Sprachen, Bd. LVII [1877], pp. 279, 281-316). The German
translation of Caesar of Heisterbach's Dialogus Miraculorum (Distinctiones VII-XII),
made by JohannHartlieb,is now beingeditedby ProfessorKarl Drescherforthe Prus-
sian Academy's Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters.
2 My attentionwas called to this collectionmanyyears ago while engaged in the
preparationof the introduction to my editionof the Exemplaof Jacquesde Vitry. My
descriptionthere,p. lxxii,of the MS is not exact: "572 storiesunder 91 headings."
I used the MS personally,and throughthe kindnessof the late Mr. Ward I had a very
fullanalysisof it. I said of the collectionat that time: "The value of the collection,
however,consistsin the factthatthe compilerwas undoubtedlyan Englishman,and put
intohis work,besidesthe hackneyedmonkishtales fromthe usual sources,a largenum-
ber of anecdotesof a local character,and oftenimparteda local colorto one of the old
stories. The workis also rich in allusionsto English mediaeval superstitions. This
collectionis one ofthe mostinteresting I have examined,and deservesto be morewidely
known." I had hoped that some youngAmericanscholarwould edit the work,but I
learnnow that the task has been undertakenby a Frenchpriest.
229
6 T. F. CRANE

beyond all praise. Especially in the volume beforeus Mr. Herbert

has shown himselfprofoundlyacquainted with the vast and intri-
cate subject ofmediaevaltales. His references are exact and copious
and will save the studentan enormousamount of labor.
Of the contentsof the Speculum Laicorum Mr. Herbert says:
"There are nearly two hundred tales for which no authorityis
named. Many of these are evidentlyderived,directlyor indirectly,
fromthe worksof Odo of Cheritonand Jacques de Vitryand similar
sources,such as the collectionsof Mary-legends,whichhad become
very numerous before the end of the thirteenth.century.' The
remainderbelong to the categoryof "temporum praeteritorumac
modernorumeventus,"whichour authorprobablylearntat hearsay.
In the greatmajorityof these the scene is laid in England, generally
in some specifiedlocality,as Kent, Winchelsea,Berwick,Eynsham,
etc. (especiallythe first-named, whichoccurs frequently). Two of
the anecdotes (Nos. 33, 34) relate to traitsin Henry III's character;
five othersare narratedas having occurredduringhis reign (Nos.
208, 280, 298, 364, 421); and others contain marks of time which
assign themto the same period,e.g. No. 149 is dated 1247, No. 478
refersto the death of Robert Grosseteste(1253) and Pope Innocent
IV (1254), and in No. 265 Boniface of Savoy (ob. 1270) is spoken
of as "bonae memoriae."2
Next in order is the Liber Exemplorum secundum ordinem
Alphabeti (p. 414, Additional 18351) of French origin,as Mr. Her-
bert points out. It is made fromthe usual sources,but contains
one tale which I have never seen beforein a Latin prose version.
It is No. 28 (chap. xlix, "Gaudium"), the story of the Jongleur
I It would be
easy to add to Mr. Herbert's references. Sometimes the story is in
both Odo of Cheriton and Jacques de Vitry, e.g., Nos. 365 (J. de Vitry, 209) and 566
(J. de Vitry, 191).
2
While Thornms owned the MS he published nineteen tales in AltdeutscheBlatter,II
(1840), pp. 74-82, and ten of these were reprinted by Wright in his Latin Stories, Percy
Society, 1843. Seven stories from MS Additional 33957 were printed by Dr. J. K.
Ingram in a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy, April 10, 1882, and reprinted
from Proceedings, 2d Series, Vol. II, No. 5. The MS in question formerly belonged
to the Diocesan Library of Derry. In the same paper Dr. Ingram referredto another
MS in the same library, which is now MS Additional 33956 of the British Museum
and will be mentioned later. Mr. Herbert says that many of the tales in the Speculum
Laicorum were used by the author of the Speculum Spiritualium, Paris, 1510, a work I
have not seen. Six other MSS of the Speculum Laicorum are described by Mr. Herbert.
Only one (p. 406, Additional 17723) is of interest from the localization of some of the
stories at Oxford.
230
 MEDIAEVALSTORY-BOOKS 7
turned monk, who dances while the others chant psalms. The
French metricalversion (found in five MSS only) is well known.
Is this prose storythe hithertoundiscoveredoriginalof the French
poem?1
Of greater interest is the Alphabetum Narrationum (p. 423,
Harley 268), usually attributedto Etienne de Besan9Qn,but,accord-
ing to Mr. Herbert, more probably compiled in 1308 by Arnold
de Liege. This interestingdiscovery of Mr. Herbert was pub-
lished in The LibraryforJanuary,1905, pp. 94-101. I was clearly
in errorin my interpretation of Herolt's citationsfrom "Arnoldus."
My excuseis that I followedOesterleyand was unable to see a copy
of the Gnotosolitus(which is not in the British Museum). The
English translationof this interestingcollectionhas been printed
by the Early English Text Society (see above), and there is, sub-
stantially,a French translationyet unpublishedin Royal 15 D. v,
analyzed by Mr. Herbert on p. 441. A Catalan translation,as I
pointedout manyyearsago, is in the Recullde Eximplispublishedat
Barcelona in 1881-84.
I may mentionhere, althoughsomewhatout of order,the work
known as "Convertimini,"fromthe openingword: "Convertimini
ad me in toto corde vestro," and probably,as Mr. Herbertthinks,
by Robert Holcot. This work,of which there are eight MSS (pp.
116-55, Royal 7 C. i; Cotton, Vitellius C. xiv; Additional 16170;
Harley 5369, 5396; Arundel384; Sloane 1616; and a fragmentin
Harley 206), is reallya treatise (it is called a "Tractatus" in three
of the MSS) forthe use of preachers,containingmoralized exempla.
The first-mentioned MS containsone hundredand forty-five exempla,
of which thirty-oneare to be found in the Gesta Romanorumand
eightin Holcot's Moralitates. It may be, of course,as Mr. Herbert
says, that the author of the presentwork,like the compilersof the
Gesta,borrowedfromHolcot; but it seemsmorenaturalto conclude
that Holcot wrotethe presentworkas well as the Moralitates,repeat-
1See Romanische Forschungen,Bd. XI (1901), pp. 223-88, "Der Springer unserer
liebenFrau," von H. Wachter. The poet says,p. 251, that his originalis, "Es vies des
anchiensperes. .... Nos raconted'un essamplel,"and, p. 277,"Che nos racontentli
saint pere." The storydoes not appear in the listspublishedof the variousversionsof
this work. The editorsays, p. 248, "Die lat. Vorlage (diti6s,wie der Dichter,v. 584,
sagt) habe ich in den Acta Sanctorumnicht entdeckenkinnen." This was, indeed,
lookingfor a needle in a haystack.
231
8 T. F. CRANE

ing himselfto a certain extent; and that his writingswere used,

more freelythan has hithertobeen supposed, in the compilation
of the Gesta Romanorum. In any case the "Convertimini" pre-
sents an attractivesubject of investigation.
There remains the category of Collected Tales-Anonymous,
comprising no less than fortyMSS, and fillingtwo hundredand fifty-
eight pages of the Catalogue. It is difficult to describethis huge
mass of inedited material. It is capable, however,of great com-
pression,since the bulk of the storiesis furnishedby a few well-
known collectionsfromwhich all mediaeval compilersfreelydrew.
The real value of these compilationsconsistsin the local tales and
customs and superstitionswhich they contain. One of the most
interestingof these anonymouscollectionsis that in Royal 7 D. i.,
whichMr. Herbertdescribesas "a collectionof 315 edifyingtales,
compiledin England in the second half of the thirteenthcentury,
probably by a Dominican friar at or near Cambridge." This
collectionwas probablyone ofthe sourcesofthe SpeculumLaicorum,
and, as Mr. Herbertsays, "contains what appear to be the Latin
texts used by William of Waddingtonfor five tales in his Manuel
des pdches." It also includes an early version (probably the ear-
liestextant) of one of the GestaRomanorumstories. This is the tale
technicallyknown as "Fuss ab," Oesterley No. 127, who cites:
"Jac. de Vitriaco; Scala Celi, 15; Promptuariumexemplorum de
Temp. 24." These referencesall belong to No. 80, "Angel and
Hermit," and I do not now recall any parallels to No. 127 except
those in the MSS cited by Mr. Herbert.
Other extensive and interestingcollections are: Arundel 506,
two hundred and forty-eight stories,in three distinct collections;
Harley 268, two hundred and nine tales; Additional 15833, one
hundred and sixty-eighttales, of which a certain number are of
German origin; Additional 33956, a collection of seven hundred
and sixty-twoexemplacompiledfromvarious sourcesforthe use of
preachers,and arranged in groups according to subjects, a very
interesting collection,connectedwithRoyal 7 D. i and the Speculum
Laicorum; and Additional 27336, three hundred and forty-six
tales, evidentlycompiled by a Franciscan in northernItaly (see
also Additional 11872, anothercollectionformedin Italy, probably
232
 MEDIAEVAL STORY-BOOKS 9

by a Franciscan,and Harley 3938, also of Italian origin),containing

a considerablenumberof new stories. I may mentionfinallytwo
collectionsin English: Harley 1288 and 2250, the latter extracted
fromJohn Mirk's Festial (printedin Early English Text Society,
1905).
In the AnonymousCollectionsare to be foundmany Miracles of
the Virgin,to be added to the collectionsalready analyzed by the
late Mr. Ward in Vol. II of this Catalogue. These additionalmiracles
occurin the thirdvolumeon pp. 467 (25 miracles); 523 (23); 540 (12);
546 (12); 557 (12); 575 (9); 696 (29); and 699 (5). Besides these
there are two MSS, Additional 18344 and Sloane 2478, containing
some eighteenmiracles of the Virgin.
It will be seen fromwhat has been said above that the range of
this volume is a narrowone compared with that of Vols. I and II,
which contained,among others,romances belongingto the great
cycles of antiquity, those concerningArthur and Charlemagne,
northernand eastern tales, Aesopic fables, visions of Heaven and
Hell, Miracles of the Virgin, etc. The relatively few questions
which arise in this volume have been discussed by Mr. Herbertin
a very satisfactorymanner. We have already seen his interesting
contributionto the authorshipof the Alphabetum Narrationum;
on p. 88, Sloane 3102, he makes a similarinvestigationas to the
compilerof the Tractatus de abundantia exemplorum,whom he
identifieswith Humbert de Romans. Mr. Herbert has overlooked
the fact that the writerof this article,in a letter to the (London)
Academy,January 30, 1886, pointed out Haur6au's mistake and
suggestedthe authorshipof Humbertde Romans. In the examina-
tion of Arundel 292 Mr. Herbert gives a very completeand lucid
account of Odo of Cheriton,so longa mysteriousfigurein the history
ofmediaevalfiction. In the same way thereis an excellentsummary
of the questionof the GestaRomanorum, ofwhichfourteenLatin, two
English, and one German,manuscripts describedby Mr. Herbert.
are
His conclusionsare worthrepeating: "On the whole, the evidence
available hithertopoints to the conclusionthat the Gestawas origi-
nally formedin Germanyearlyin thefourteenth century,thewritings
of Holcot, as well as otherEnglish sources,being utilized; that this
originalcompilationis represented,moreor less exactly,by the Inns-
233
10 T. F. CRANE

bruck MS of 1342; and that the Anglo-LatinMSS contain a free

adaptationmade in England about half a centurylater."
As has already been said, Mr. Herbertshows a profoundknowl-
edge of mediaeval fictionand has made thisvolumeofthe Catalogue
an entertainingas well as a usefulwork. One illustrationmay be
given of the author's wide reading and of the value of exempla
forthe questionof the diffusion of popular tales. Jacques de Vitry
tells a story (ed. Crane, 88) of a man flyingfromhis master. He
is mountedon a roan (rufus) horse,with a boy in frontof him to
showthe way. The boy tells himhe is pursuedby a man on a black
horse,and, presently,by a man on a whitehorse; but the fugitive
easily outrides them. When the boy, however, tells his master
that anotheris pursuingthem on a roan horse,the fugitivedirects
the boy to guide the horseinto a stonypath and throughthe water
into a miryroad. They escape, and the horses of different colors
are explainedby Jacques de Vitryas adversity,prosperity,and the
reputation of sanctity, with which the devil tempts man. Mr.
Herbert says, p. 6: "General E. Daumas, Les chevauxdu Sahara
(5th ed. 1858, p. 140), tells this anecdote ofBen Dyab, a chiefofthe
desert about 1500. He asks his son the colour of his foremost
pursuers' horses. His son answers, 'White.' 'Ride in the sun,'
says Ben Dyab, 'they will melt like butter.' Again,'Black.' 'Ride
on the stones,they are as tender-footed as a negressofthe Soudan.'
But when the son says, 'Dark chestnutand dark bays,' Ben Dyab
exclaims,'Then spur foryourlife.' This is a curiousinstanceofthe
tenacious life of a popular tale." It is, of course,difficult to say
whetherJacques de Vitry picked up this tale when he was in the
Orientor heard it froma returnedcrusader.
Thanks to Mr. Herbert's innumerable cross-references it is
possible to trace a given storythrougha great numberof versions.
In some cases a storythoughtto be rare is foundto occurnot infre-
quently. An example or two will show how entertainingthe Cata-
logue is. Mussafia in his Mittelalterlichen Marienlegenden, III, p.
51, No. 79, cites fromHerolt's Prompturium, De Miraculis B.V.M.,
Ex. 79 (78 in ed. of Venice, 1606), the storyofthe Parisian clericwho
ardently desired to behold the beauty of the Virgin. An angel
appeared to him and informedhim that his wish would be granted,
234
 MEDIAEVALSTORY-BOOKS 11

but that he wouldbecomeblind. The clericdetermined to cover

withhis hand one eye and thussave it. He does so, but regrets
thathe didnotbeholdtheVirginwithbotheyesand begsto see her
againevenifhe has to lose botheyes. The Virginis movedby his
pietyand appearsto himand restoreshis sight. Mussafiasays:
"Diese rechtanziehendeLegendeist mir in lateinischen Samm-
lungen nicht aufgestossen. Sie kommt im Englischen vor und
Horstmann(Altengl. Legenden,N.F., 1881,S. 499 ff.)hat sie nach
einerHandschrift des 14. Jahrhundertsabgedruckt.AuchZupitza,
welcher sie zum Gegenstande einerErSterung machte(Archiv f. das
Studiumderneueren Sprachen,LXXXII, S. 465), vermochte keine
andereFassungals die von Heroltnachzuweisen, bemerktaber,
dass die englische ErzihlungeineranderenQuellegefolgt seinmiisse.
Bolte, der aus einer BerlinerHs. des 15. Jahr. eine ffhnliche
Legende
in alamannischer Mundart(Alemannia,XVII, 2) druckte,gibtzu
derselben keinenNachweis." The storyoccursinAdditional 15833,
No. 123(Catalogue, p. 593). Mr. Herbert says: "Agreessubstantially
withHerolt,see thisCat. II, pp. 674,687 (Additional 33956,No. 29;
Additional 19909,a MS ofHerolt'sPrompt.de Mirac.B.V.M.).'
I remember beingverymuchstruckmanyyearsago by a story
in the SpeculumLaicorum,whichI did not otherwise know. It
was the tale of St. Theodore,Bishopof Sion,who was tormented
withgoutand couldrelievehis pain onlyby coolinghis feet. His
fishermen in midsummer finda greatblockof ice in the riverand
bring it to the bishop. The bishoprestedhisfeetonit andassuaged
his pain,but theice did notmeltand finallya voiceissuedfromit
sayingthat the soul of a sinnerwas confined in it and could be
liberated if
only thirty masseswere said for its reposeon thirtycon-

1In anothercase, Mussafla,op. cit.,III (1889), p. 7, n. 1, says that he does not

knowthestory" KleinerTeufelin der Kirche,"referred to by Mr. Wardin a communica-
tion to him. In the second volumeof the Catalogue,publishedin 1893,p. 704 (Royal
8 C. iv, No. 42) the storyappears in an intelligible
form,withreferences to Vincentof
Beauvais, VII (VIII), 118, Scala Celi,f. 117,and Prompt.Exemp.C. iii. Anotherinter-
estingstoryis mentionedby Mussafia, op. cit.,p. 12, as otherwiseunknownto him.
It is the storyof the beggarwho findsan old neglectedimageof the Virgin,whichhad
been thrownout of a neighboringchurch. He builds a chapel out of branchesand
puts the imagein it and adornsit withflowers. The Virginappearsto him and sends
him to warna bishopwho was growingforgetful of her. As a sign of his divinecom-
missionthe Host turnsinto a child in the bishop'shands. The beggaraccomplisheshis
missionand thenentersa cloister. This storyalso occursin Cat.,Vol. II, pp. 698, No.
17 (Additional32248); 659, No. 26 (Additional18929).
235
12 T. F. CRANE

secutivedays. Whenhalfofthe massesweresaid the devil stirredup

a tumultin the cityand the bishophad to omitthe servicefora day.
That meant beginningall over again. Twice this occurred. The
thirdtimeall the masses but one weresaid whenthe bishopwas told
that the whole city and palace were in flames. The bishopdeclared
that he would not give up the mass even if the whole city and his
palace were consumed. When the last mass was said the ice sud-
denly melted and the flamesvanished "tanquam fantasma." The
onlyparallel I could findto thishighlydramaticstorywas an incom-
plete versionin the Librode los Exemplos,ed. Morel-Fatio,Romania,
Vol. VII, p. 503 (No. 28). Years afterwardI foundthe storyin the
LegendeAurea,cap. CLXIII (ed. Graesse,p. 731), "De Commemora-
tione animarum." There are fourversionsin Herbert's Catalogue:
pp. 330, No. 21 (Harley 4196, in the English Metrical Homilies);
383, No. 156 (Additional 11284, Speculum Laicorum); 630, No. 54
(Additional 33956); and 685, No. 43 (Harley 1288). Hervieux
prints a version fromthe Douce MS 88 in his Fabulistes latins,
Vol. IV (1896), p. 254, Odo of Cheriton.
The great value of the presentvolume forstudentsof mediaeval
fictionis clear fromthe little I have said, and Mr. Herbert has
earned the gratitudeof all studentsin that field. A fourthvolume
is promised,whichwill includeChaucer's Canterbury Tales and their
precursorsin Boccaccio's Decameronand elsewhere,and romances
by Petrarch,Aeneas Sylvius,and others,togetherwithan Appendix
containingMSS acquired since the publicationof the previousvpl-
umes or inadvertentlyomittedfromthem. A General Index to all
fourvolumeswill also be added. If the tales could be indexedunder
catch-wordsit would indeed be a boon to students.
It is to be hopedthatthisvolumewillrevivean interestin mediae-
val Latin prose fiction. A knowledgeof this subject is so necessary
for an understandingof the mediaeval literatureof Europe. The
tales in this volume and the Miracles of the Virgin registeredin
Vol. II have profoundlyinfluencedevery class of literaturein the
Romance, as well as in the Germanic,languages. An interesting
introductionto the study of the texts exists in Ulrich's Probender
lateinischenNovellistikdes Mittelalters,Leipzig, 1906. The four
great basic works: the Vitae Patrum,the Dialogues of Gregory,the
236
 MEDIAEVALSTORY-BOOKS 13

Dialogus Miraculorumof Caesarius of Heisterbach,and the Legenda

Aurea, are accessible and are most interestingreading fromevery
standpoint. What is greatlyneeded is some general work on the
subject; Graber's huge Uebersicht in the Grundrissder romanischen
Philologie,Vol. is
II, singularly unattractive in form. An interesting
and valuable work could be made on the most popular mediaeval
Latin legends in theirrelationsto the versionsin the modernlan-
guages. This Cataloguewill be helpfulin this task and the student
should not overlookthe amazing treasure-houseof parallels (forthe
tales of orientalorigin) to be foundin Chauvin's Bibliographiedes
ouvragesarabes, Liege, 1892-1909. May some American scholar
findhis fieldin some part of this vast and interesting
subject.
T. F. CRANE
N.Y.
ITHACA,
May16,1911

237