1883, ] 51 [Crane, 
tiae attributed to a certain Bishop Cyril.* Who Bishop Cyril was is not 
known, and Grasse. is compelled to refer the work to a certain Cyrillus 
de Quidenon poéta laureatus, » Neapolitan from Quidone, a small town 
in the province of Capitanata, in the kingdom of Naples, who flourished 
in the XIII century. He was a learned theologian, as Greesse remarks, 
who has taken the trouble to note the numerous passages cited from the 
Bible, and he was also an acute scholastic philosopher. He was not 
acquainted. with Alsop, and from a remark he makes in Book I, cap. 18. 
it is evident he knew no Greck. His work is of little importance for 
the history of medieval fiction, for it exerted not the slightest influ. 
ence.} It is, however, interesting in itself, and was translated into Ger- 
5 
man, Spanish, and Bohemian. The author, ii the prologue, makes an 
elaborate apology for the form of his work. This is so characteristic of this 
Class of writings that we quote a few lines which may also give some idea 
of the author’s extraordinary style. He says: ‘‘Secundum Aristotelis sen- 
tentiam in Problematibus suis quamquam in exemplis in discendo gaudeant. 
omnes, in disciplinis moralibus hoe tamen amplius placet, quoniam struc- 
tura morum ceu ymagine picta rerum similtudinibus paulatim virtutis osten- 
ditur, eo quod ex rebus naturalibus, animalibus, moribus et proprietatibus 
rerum quasi de vivis imaginibus humans vite: qualitas exemplatur. Totus 
etenim mundus visibilis est schola et rationibus sapientix plena sunt omnia. 
Propter hoe, fili carissime, informativa juventatis tue documenta moralia 
hon de nostra paupertate stillantia sed de vena magistrorum tibi nunc 
scribere cupientes cum adjutorio gratiz Dei ea trademus, ut intelligas 
Clarius ac addiscas facilius, gustes suavius, reminiscaris tenacius per fabulas 
figurarum.’? A glance at the contents of the book will show that the 
learned author was more concerned with the moral of his fables than with 
the fables themselves.{ No attention, except in a few rare cases, is paid to 
the nature of the animals brought upon the scene, and they are made to 
utter the most arbitrary and incongruous lessons. <A translation of one of 
* This Singular work has recently been made accessible to scholars by the edi- 
tion in the Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, Bd. 148, Die beiden 
aeltesten lateinischen Fabelbiicher des Mittela rs, des Bischofs Oyrillus Specu- 
lum Sapientiae und des Nicholaus Pergamenus Dialogus Creaturarum, herausge- 
gebenvon Dr. J. OC. Th. Grosse, The full title is: Speculum Sapientiae Beati Cirilli 
Episcopi, alias Quadripartitus Apologeticus vocatus, in cujus quidem Proverbiis 
omnis et totius Sapientiae Speculum claret, The book had become very rare and 
was known chiefly from an old German translation, selections from which 
were published as late as 1782: Fabeln nach D. FTolizmann, herausgegeben von 
A, Gl, Meissner, Leipzig. 4to, Gresse has given in his edition, pp. 285-302, 
all the necessary biographical and bibliographical notices, 
} Greosse, ed, cit., p. 291, says, ‘‘Im Mittelalter selbst kann er von seinen Zeitge- 
nossen nicht benutzt worden sein, denn ich habe nirgendswo in den aus dem 
13.-16, Jahrhundert erhaltenen Schriften sein Werk citirt oder benutzt gefun- 
den,” 
t In this respect there isa regular gradation in the three works now under 
consideration, In the Speculum Sapientie the moral is the all-important thing, 
in the Dialogus Creaturarum the fable becomes more attractive, while in the 
Gesta Romanorum the story is everything, and the moralization is tacked on 
merely to justi fy a sometimes very loose anecdote, 
