Note 492 — Chapter XVI

Catalan patriotism has denied all this, and claimed that the Provençal literature was derived from Catalonia. See Torres Amat, Prólogo to “Memorias de los Escritores Catalanes,” and elsewhere. But it is only necessary to read what its friends have said in defence of this position, to be satisfied that it is untenable. The simple fact, that the literature in question existed a full century in Provence before there is any pretence to claim its existence in Catalonia, is decisive of the controversy, if there really be a controversy about the matter. The “Memorias para ayudar á formar un Diccionario Crítico de los Autores Catalanes,” etc., by D. Felix Torres Amat, Bishop of Astorga, etc., (Barcelona, 1836, 8vo,) is, however, an indispensable book for the history of the literature of Catalonia; for its author, descended from one of the old and distinguished families of the country, and nephew of the learned Archbishop Amat, who died in 1824, has devoted much of his life and of his ample means to collect materials for it. It contains more mistakes than it should; but a great deal of its information can be obtained nowhere else in a printed form.