Note 133 — GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA; (continued 3)

(p. 167). Fra Gil de Roma [lived in the time of Philippe le Bel, King of France. The treatise De Regimine Principum, which he wrote in 1285 for the education of that Prince, was a book of the highest reputation (in its time), especially at the close of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By the notice which is given us in the Chronicle of the Count D. Pedro, and by the quotation of Azurara, we perceive the estimation in which this book was held amongst us at the beginning of the latter century (the fifteenth).]—S. In fact, King John I (of Portugal), in his discourse at Ceuta in 1415, recalled to his fidalgos and knights the maxims and precepts which they had read in the same book, De Regimine Principum, and which he always kept in his own room. And if we are to believe Barbosa (Bibliotheca Lusitana), the Infant D. Pedro had made a Portuguese translation of the same treatise; but this learned bibliographer calls Fr. Gil de Roma, Fr. Gil Correa. This note is not a fitting place to show whether the name of Correa, which Barbosa gives to that author, is or is not exact. We must confine ourselves here to saying that King D. Edward (Duarte), quoting this book several times in chs. xxxi, xxxii, xxxvi, lii, lvi of his Leal Conselheiro, calls the author, like Azurara, Fr. Gil de Roma. In the library at Cambrai there exists a manuscript, No. 856, of the De Regimine Principum, which was finished in 1424, and consequently at an epoch subsequent to the one of which King John I made use. This is probably one of those used by King Edward and by Azurara. The first printed edition was published in 1473 (see Dictionnaire bibliographique, La Serna Santander, etc.) If, as we have just said, the manuscript used by King John I, by King Edward, and by Azurara, is one of the most ancient of which any notice survives, the Portuguese translation of the book of Fr. Gil de Roma by the Infant Don Pedro is also one of the most ancient versions—if we except the French translation attributed to Henry of Ghent. (On this consult the Abbé Lebœuf, Dissertation sur l'histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Paris, II, p. 41.) We think it well to give the reader this notice, in view of the importance of Azurara's citation in this place, which shows us the state of learning and literary culture among our people at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and at the same time the literary relations which existed between Portugal, France, and other countries at the end of the Middle Ages.]—S. See Martins, Os Filhos de D. João I, chs. i, iv, v, vi.