Note 529 — Chapter XVI

Du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis, Parisiis, 1733, fol., Tom. I., Præfatio, sect. 34-36. Raynouard (Troub., Tom. I. pp. xii. and xiii.) would carry back both the Catalonian and Valencian dialects to A. D. 728; but the authority of Luitprand, on which he relies, is not sufficient, especially as Luitprand shows that he believed these dialects to have existed also in the time of Strabo. The most that should be inferred from the passage Raynouard cites is, that they existed about 950, when Luitprand wrote, which it is not improbable they did, though only in their rudest elements, among the Christians in that part of Spain. Some good remarks on the connection of the South of France with the South of Spain, and their common idiom, may be found in Capmany, Memorias Históricas de Barcelona, (Madrid, 1779-92, 4to,) Parte I., Introd., and the notes on it. The second and fourth volumes of this valuable historical work furnish many documents both curious and important for the illustration of the Catalan language.