444 ROMANCE LITERATURE 



were also many girls, Sismondi undertook to paint a picture similar 

 to the one of Bouterwek ; and out of this half-fulfilled task grew his 

 work, De la litter ature du Midi de I' Europe. This work seeks to 

 present facts, not to go in for original research. It owes much to 

 Bouterwek, and acknowledges it. Being published when little 

 yet was known, it fell into serious errors. But it is the work of 

 a thinking mind. It served well to diffuse among the Romance 

 people a critique which is human, not national; which feels the need 

 to grasp much in order to comprehend; which goes deep, which soars 

 high. We feel the air of Coppet. 



When publishing, Sismondi could, for the Italian literature, take 

 advantage of the Histoire Litteraire de I'ltalie of Ginguene, which 

 likewise grew out of a course of lectures, given in 1802-03, 1805-06. 

 I note the fact of this genesis which is repeated not a few times (even 

 the oral exposition of Old French literature on which Marie Joseph 

 Chenier ventured about this time, 1 was much praised), because it 

 certainly served to give literary history more connection 2 and to 

 enrich it with other material than mere facts. But it is not due to this 

 alone 3 that the history of Ginguene, which cannot so far as scholar- 

 ship goes be compared to Tiraboschi's, has far more life, and proceeds 

 from outward considerations to inner ones. Time and environment 

 certainly cooperated with great efficacy. And the very phenomenon 

 of a Frenchman who takes upon himself to describe the vicissitudes 

 of a modern foreign literature proves the change in the times. Nothing 

 similar had, if I do not err, ever happened before. 



Ginguene" goes back to the beginning, and this leads him to follow 

 even the phantom of a powerful Arabic influence, a phantom fol- 

 lowed with better reason by Andres, 4 and which was afterwards to be 

 called up afresh by Sismondi and not a few others. And he dwelt 

 quite a little on the Troubadours. He followed untrustworthy guides. 

 Yet during the short span of life still granted him (he died in 1816), 

 he took upon himself "The Troubadours" in the Benedictine His- 



1 The course of lectures on this subject by Che'nier was held in the years 1806- 

 1807. And the lectures regarding the Fabliaux and Novels were published also. 



2 Consider how things appeared to the mind of Dom Rivet when he was under- 

 taking his grand work (vol. I, p. xxii): "En lui donnant le titre d'Histoire, parce 

 qu'il est plus commun et qu'jl la rigueur toute narration peut porter ce titre, il 

 sembleroit pcut-etre qu'on y dut donner une histoire suivie et continuee, telles que 

 sont les autres histoiresordinaircs. . . . Mais il n'en est pas de 1'Histoire literaire 

 conime de 1'Histoire de 1'Kglise, par exemple. . . . An contraire dans 1'Histoire 

 Lit/'raire, oil les faits sont independents les uns des autres comme il le sont dans 

 1'Histoire de la vie des Saints, on ne peut gueres la bien traiter qu'en la divisant 

 par litres ou articles, dans lesquels on raporte de suite ce qui regarde un Auteur, 

 avant de passer a un autre." In all this truth arid error are mixed together. 



3 The first volumes only correspond to courses of lectures. It is true that, once 

 on this track, it was natural to go on in the same manner. 



4 Andre's had had predecessors; among whom Barbieri (see p. 434, note 1) had 

 been perhaps the most ancient, and also, I think, the most notable for his method of 

 reasoning. Consider his chapters iii and iv. 



