358 ' LANGUAGES. 



language in the Universities. The Oil language had become so famous 

 throughout Europe that Brunetto Latini, who was the tutor of Dante, 

 wrote in French the encyclopaedia published by him under the title of " The 

 Treasure." Dante Alighieri, to whom Brunetto Latini had taught the Oil 

 language, came to Paris in order to complete his linguistic and scholastic 

 studies (Fig. 300). 



Poetry had served to stimulate the progress of French, as it had done of 

 all other languages, but, from the beginning of the thirteenth century, good 



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 ccm^ 



nonet t<rm 



Ubut 



tenfro tecotdtim 

 f^nm ai/hci? 



ZMltten to le a^on 

 <? no 



mb^ aterd Id |tem 



Fig. 300. Fragment of Dante's " Divina Commedia." Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century. 



In the National Library, Paris. 



prose made its appearance in France, with Geoffroi de Villehardouin's book 

 on the Conquest of Constantinople. This writer, a man of little education, 

 who wrote with great facility and precision, and who used the true historic 

 language, was a noble and a warrior, and he was the first to bring out the 

 real qualities of the French language in his description of what took place 

 during the Crusade of 1202, at which he was present. This crusader, a native 

 of Champagne, attained perfection almost at a bound ; and the Sire de Joinville, 



