STUDY OF ROMANCE MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 455 



a collection of Escritores en prosa anteriores al siglo XIV, which cor- 

 responds to the poetical collection of Sanchez. The task of providing 

 his country with an indigenous history of literature, which, in scope 

 and in abundance and accuracy of information, should leave he- 

 hind all foreign histories, was undertaken by Jose Amador de los 

 Rios. And we shall not, on account of the impatience occasioned 

 by his wordiness and useless talk, deny him the deep debt of gratitude 

 to which he is entitled. Almost as a compensation Spain simul- 

 taneously offers us Mila y Fontanals, 1 a Catalan, it is true, in whom 

 sobriety almost reaches the degree of dryness. He was one of those 

 privileged minds, knowing the right road by a kind of instinct, with- 

 out needing a guide. The book De los Trobadores on Espana 

 was already written when Mila became more or less acquainted 

 with Diez; 2 and entirely original, notwithstanding the almost pain- 

 fully careful review of all his predecessors, was the book on the 

 Pocsia hcroico-popular castellana, worthy of being called a real sur- 

 prise, and to whose power is due all the best that Spain has produced 

 since then. 



I have been led to mention a publication of 1874. But in general my 

 review aimed to stop at about I860. Indeed I could not speak of the 

 period that followed on account of the overwhelming abundance of 

 the material. Yet here the question is not one of reviewing special 

 studies, but rather of pointing out how the present conditions have 

 been reached. 



The freedom and unity of Italy, the prevalence which liberal 

 sentiments have gained almost everywhere, the relaxation of hinder- 

 ing religious restrictions, and. very happy circumstance, the un- 

 dreamed-of facility of communications at homo and abroad, have 1 

 begun to change the aspect of Europe, and have prepared still 

 further changes. Science had the will and the power of being uni- 

 versal to a degree it had never reached before. Ascertained doctrines 

 became known, methods of ascertaining grew familiar. And ( lermany 

 was in our study, as well as in many others, directly and indirectly, 

 teacher. Germany, which had done much to perfect the singularly 

 efficacious critical, historical, comparative method which was used on 

 words, on things, on thoughts. Special merit was acquired by certain 

 men in this "propaganda," and it will be a mere debt of justice to 

 single out two : Adolph Mussafia. and. surrounded by a far larger num- 

 ber of proselytes, (Jaston Paris. But men could have done far less 

 without suitable tools ; and a wonderful inst rumeut of unity was found 

 in the reviews, thanks to which monographic work grows, within 

 the minds of the readers, into a whole. It was a memorable day. 

 therefore 1 , when Adolph Ebert. assisted by Ferdinand Wolf, started 



year. 1M V 



