26 INTRODUCTION. 
Francorum Regi scripsit Schola tota Salerni. 
This is said to have been Charlemagne, and that he 
founded the school of Salerno. That opinion is mail- 
festly erroneous. As a mere seminary of medicine 
it was in existence before the time of Charlemagne; 
and it was not constituted an university till long after. 
The city, besides, was never in his power, but resisted 
his authority “. The oldest, the best, and indeed 
the great majority of copies, both manuscript and 
printed, have Anglorum regi, and the other reading 18 
evidently supposititious. This fraudulent alteration of 
the dedication, from the king of England to Charle- 
magne, and the assertion that it was presented to 
him after he had conquered the Saracens at Ronge- 
vaux, betrays its origin“. That mean spirit of 
envy, too often found amongst even superior French- 
men, could not bear that so popular a poem sho 
be connected with an English monarch, and the 
attributing a victory to Charlemagne at the battle of 
Roncevaux is a ridiculous gasconade, of which the 
falsehood has been proclaimed to all Europe by the 
trumpet of Ariosto. 
This poem, which is entitled in the oldest edi- 
* Giannone, vol. i. p. 390; vol. ii. p- 122. 
*° Tempore quo idem rex Saracenos devicit in Runcivalle. 
aes 
