472 CHRONICLES, HISTORIES, MEMOIRS. 



At the same time an abridged French edition was being prepared, in the 

 Abbey of St. Denis, of the Chronicles of France, and this edition was modified 

 to keep pace with the changes in the language. This is how it came to 

 pass that there were several different versions of these Chronicles. It would 

 appear, according to some verses attributed to Mathieu de Vendome, Abbot 

 of St. Denis in the thirteenth century, and placed at the head of the oldest 

 manuscripts of these Chronicles, that they were translated into French by his 

 order, about 1274, under the title of " Roman des Hois." These verses are 

 explanatory of the profit to be derived from reading the Chronicles : 



..." L'on ne doit ce livre mcspriser no despire (decrier), 



Qui est fait des bons princes dou regne et de 1' empire. 



Qui sovent i voudroit estudier et lire, 



Bien puet scavoir qu'il doit eschiver et eslire (esquiver et choisir). 



Et dou bien et dou raal puet chascun son prou (profit) faire : 



Par 1'exemple des bons se doit-on au bien traire (tirer) ; 



Par les faits des mauvais qui sont tout le contraire, 



Se doit chascuu dou mal esloingner et retraire (retirer) ; 



Mains bons enseignements puet-on prendre en ce livre." . . . 



M. Paulin Paris, who has published a very excellent edition of this work, 

 says of it with truth, " The Chronicles of St. Denis are probably the most 

 glorious monument of history ever raised in any language or by any people, 

 with the exception of the Bible." These Chronicles, which were not in reality 

 published until the fifteenth century, but which as early as the fourteenth had 

 been shown to kings and great personages, appear to have been regarded with 

 almost religious veneration as the Golden Book of the Church and of the 

 French monarchy. When foreign sovereigns came to the French court they 

 asked to be allowed to see and to handle this venerable book. Upon a 

 manuscript of these Chronicles belonging to the Due de Berry, brother of 

 Charles V., may be read the following marginal note : " The which book the 

 said Seigneur de Berry had taken from the Church of St. Denis to show to 

 the Emperor Sigismond (in 1415), and also to copy." King Charles V. had 

 previously had several copies taken, illustrated with miniatures, and he always 

 had a copy open iipon his desk, by the side of the Bible. 



The monks of St. Denis continued to write in Latin an official account of 

 each reign, according to the privileges of their royal abbey. These accounts 

 took the form of very detailed annals, all the materials for which had been 



