Dr. Incram—On Medieval Moralized Tales. 135 
also a part of the table of contents. The subjects successively treated 
are such as the following :— 
‘“de abstinentia vera ficta et stulta. 
‘om. de adquisitis injuste et eorum periculo. 
‘¢ 3™. de advocatis malis et eorum periculo. 
‘‘4™, de adulterio et malis ejus. 
“5™. de amore dei et ejus causis. 
‘¢6™, de amore mundi et ejus fallaciis. 
««7™, de amore carnali et ejus meritis. 
«8m, de amicitia vera et ficta. 
‘9m. de apostatis et eorum periculis. 
“10™. de avaritia et ejus effectibus.”’ 
And so on through the entire alphabetical series. 
The materials of the work are borrowed from a great variety of 
authors. The classical writers of antiquity are but little quoted; 
there are references to Aristotle—some of whose works were known 
through Latin versions—to Cicero, Horace, Valerius Maximus, and 
Seneca. But the sources on which the compiler has drawn most 
largely are the writings of St. Augustine, especially the De Civitate Dez, 
the Historia Tripartita of Cassiodorus, the Dialogues of St. Gregory, 
the collection known as Vitae Patrum, the curious treatise entitled 
Barlaam and Josaphat, various Lives of Saints, the Disceiplina Clericalis of 
Petrus Alfonsus, and the works of St. Isidore of Seville, of Bede, of 
Jacobus de Vitriaco, of Peter of Clugny (otherwise known as Peter 
the Venerable), and of Jacobus de Voragine, author of the Legenda 
Aurea. Ihave met one reference to the Gesta Romanorum,‘ but I can- 
not find the corresponding story in that collection, and I believe that 
the writer means to designate by the words not the body of tales so 
named, but Roman history in general, just as elsewhere he has ‘‘Gesta 
Francorum” for the history of the Franks. Some of the narratives 
appear to have been taken, not from books, but from popular rumour 
or tradition, commencing as they do with Fertur simply. In the 
moralizations very large use is made of the Old and New Testament, 
with the text of which the compiler seems to have been thoroughly 
familiar. 
The book appears to have been written by an English author. This 
is made probable by the great number of tales relating to English 
personages and localities; it is proved, I think, by one story (in the 
non cibo solido, nutriendi sunt in scientia debiles et in fide rudes, ne, dum duriora 
sument, edentuli prius intereant quam pascantur, ego de simplicium numero mini- 
mus ad honorem dei eruditionemque rudium e sanctorum patrum et doctorum legen- 
dis et scriptis temporumque praeteritorum ac modernorum quibusdam eventibus 
exemplisque naturalibus non margaritas sed aliquas [? siliquas] collegi quasi peco- 
UD TIS ele 
‘ See Tale VIII. in Appendix A, 
_ 
