Note 61 — Chapter III
Reading edition
La Gran Conquista de Ultramar was printed at Salamanca, by Hans Giesser, in folio, in 1503. That additions are made to it is apparent from Lib. III. c. 170, where is an account of the overthrow of the order of the Templars, which is there said to have happened in the year of the Spanish era 1412; and that it is a translation, so far as it follows William of Tyre, from an old French version of the thirteenth century, I state on the authority of a manuscript of Sarmiento. The Conquista begins thus:—
“Capitulo Primero. Como Mahoma predico en Aravia: y gano toda la tierra de Oriente.
“En aql. tiēpo q̄ eraclius emperador en Roma q̄ fue buē Xpiano, et mātuvo gran tiēpo el imperio en justicia y en paz, levantose Mahoma en tierra de Aravia y mostro a las gētes necias sciēcia nueva, y fizo les creer q̄ era profeta y mensagero de dios, y que le avia embiado al mundo por saluar los hombres qēle creyessen,” etc.
The story of the Knight of the Swan, full of enchantments, duels, and much of what marks the books of chivalry, begins abruptly at Lib. 1. cap. 47, fol. xvii., with these words: “And now the history leaves off speaking for a time of all these things, in order to relate what concerns the Knight of the Swan,” etc.; and it ends with Cap. 185, f. lxxx., the next chapter opening thus: “Now this history leaves off speaking of this, and turns to relate how three knights went to Jerusalem,” etc. This story of the Knight of the Swan, which fills 63 leaves, or about a quarter part of the whole work, appeared originally in Normandy or Belgium, begun by Jehan Renault and finished by Gandor or Graindor of Douay, in 30,000 verses, about the year 1300. (De la Rue, Essai sur les Bardes, etc., Caen, 1834, 8vo, Tom. III. p. 213. Warton’s English Poetry, London, 1824, 8vo, Vol. II. p. 149. Collection of Prose Romances, by Thoms, London, 1838, 12mo, Vol. III., Preface.) It was, I suppose, inserted in the Ultramar, when the Ultramar was prepared for publication, because it was supposed to illustrate and dignify the history of Godfrey of Bouillon, its hero; but this is not the only part of the work made up later than its date. The last chapter, for instance, giving an account of the death of Conradin of the Hohenstauffen, and the assassination in the church of Viterbo, at the moment of the elevation of the host, of Henry, the grandson of Henry III. of England, by Guy of Monfort,—both noticed by Dante,—has nothing to do with the main work, and seems taken from some later chronicle.