Note 1222 — Chapter XII · REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY

Graf, op. cit., pp. 73–126, discusses these stories in detail. In his La leggenda, 1878, pp. 22–44, he shows that there were four types of Paradise legend in the Middle Ages: (1) legends which grew out of pre-existing legendary themes, as, for example, the story of Seth’s visit to Paradise; (2) those which developed out of a spirit of pure devotion and asceticism, such as certain of the stories of the visits of pious monks; (3) those which arose out of a spirit of exploration and adventure, as the story of St. Brandan’s voyages or that given in the Pantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo; and, finally, (4) those which arose from a chivalric love of 464adventure and conquest, as the Iter ad Paradisum, connected with the Romance of the conquests of Alexander the Great.