PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH LITERARY HISTORY 417 



An important part as intermediaries between the East and the 

 West was played by the Moors in Spain. From the tenth to the 

 twelfth century Cordoba was a centre of culture and arts and science 

 for the whole of Western Europe, and a large number of Oriental 

 books and literary subjects owe their introduction into the literatures 

 of the Occident to Moorish or Spanish authors. It was in Spain that 

 the converted Jew, Petrus Alphonsus, compiled the famous Discip- 

 lina Clericalis (1106) from Arabic sources. 



The Crusades gave a fresh and lasting impulse to the interest in the 

 Orient in all countries, an impulse which can hardly be overrated as 

 to its importance for the literary history of Europe. The number of 

 tales with Oriental subject-matter or Oriental scenery now increases 

 rapidly. The Middle English story of Richard Cceur de Lion is a direct 

 product of this era of chivalrous romanticism and aspiring religious 

 ideals. The Book of the Seven Sages, together with the Disciplina 

 ( 'lericalis, became a treasury of Oriental subjects for all European 

 literatures, headed by the French. It was from one of the many 

 French versions that this collection of Eastern novels was translated 

 into English early in the fourteenth century, under the title of The 

 Proces of the Sevyn Sages. The Lai of Dame Siriz, and the story of 

 Generydes are of Oriental origin, and Floris and Blanchefteure, The 

 Romance of the Sowdone of Babylone, Sir Ferumbras, Rowland and Ver- 

 nagu, and other novels of the Charlemagne cycle are more or less full 

 of Oriental elements. Like Richard Cceur de Lion and The Proces of 

 the Sevyn Sages, most of these poems are translations or adaptations 

 of French originals. 



In the thirteenth century the court of Frederick II in Sicily, and 

 afterwards the North Italian city-republics, continued the relations 

 with the nations of the East, and were the centres of exchange for the 

 cultures of the Orient and Occident. 



Pilgrimages and journeys to the Holy Land, too, had become 

 frequent since the Crusades. They were greatly encouraged by the 

 appearance in the fourteenth century of John Mandevillc 7 s Travels 

 in the Orient, a fantastic compilation which, written originally in 

 French, has come down to us in numerous versions both in manu- 

 script and in print, in the Latin. French, and English languages, testi- 

 fying to the immense popularity which this work enjoyed. All the 

 old legends of the Miracles of the Orient are here amalgamated with 

 much that is new about those fabulous monsters with which the 

 medieval fancy populated the mysterious East. 



The relations with the Orient received a new and mighty impulse 

 through the victorious progress of the Turks and the Mongols in the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the perpetual wars against 

 the Turks in the following periods. The glorious reign of Solyman 

 the Magnificent (1520-66) especially drew the eyes of all Christian 



