shared by his learned wife. Madame Dacier (1654—1720) was also the translator of Terence, and of three plays of Plautus, together with the Plutus and Clouds of Aristophanes, Anacreon and Sappho, and the whole of the Iliad and Odyssey. Her rendering of Homer is her masterpiece; and, although it has been criticised for a too frequent resort to periphrasis, and for its occasional anachronisms, it deserves the praise of having been founded on an accurate knowledge of the text, and inspired by a boundless enthusiasm for the poet1. As an editor of the Classics, she is represented in Greek by her Callimachus2; and in Latin by Florus, Dictys and Dares, Aurelius Victor, and Eutropius. All these Latin works formed part of the celebrated series of the Delphin Classics. The general editor and organiser of the series was Pierre Daniel Huet of Caen (16301721), who from 1670 to 1680 was the coadjutor of Bossuet in the tuition of the Grand Dauphin, the son of Louis XIV. Huet Nearly sixty volumes were produced in less than twelve years by thirty-nine editors at a cost equivalent to about £15,000. The project marks an epoch in the history of classical literature in France. Learning had indeed been declining since the days of Francis I, but the Latin Classics, though no longer exclusively cultivated for their own sakes, were still recognised as forming a part of general literature, and popular editions of the ordinary Latin authors were welcome. In addition to a Latin commentary, each of these editions had an ordo verborum below the text, and a complete verbal index. These points were not novel in themselves; the novelty lay in their application to the whole of the Latin authors included in the series. The best known of the editors are (besides Madame Dacier) Hardouin and Charles de la Rue. But the only distinctly scholarly edition was that of the Panegyrici Veteres by De la Baune, while Huet's conjectural emendations on Manilius prompted Bentley, the next editor of that poet, to describe Huet and Scaliger as viros egregios. All the volumes of the original edition have an engraving of 'Arion and the dolphin', and are inscribed with the phrase in usum serenissimi Delphini. The Dauphin, for whose benefit this comprehensive series of Latin Classics was organised by Huet, and for whom the 'Discourse on Universal History' was composed by Bossuet, celebrated the completion of his education by limiting his future reading to the list of births, deaths and marriages in the Gazette de France. He died four years before Louis XIV, who was succeeded by the Dauphin's eldest son. 1 Bellanger, Traduction en France, 45-47. Cp. Hallam, iii 2471. 2 Bentley calls the editor foeminarum doctissima. Huet, who in early life had seen Salmasius at Leyden, and had visited the court of queen Christina at Stockholm, was in frequent correspondence with many of the scholars of Europe. He was the founder of the Academy of Caen, and, in his edition of Origen, showed a singular sagacity as a conjectural critic. After devoting ten years to the tuition of the Dauphin, he spent ten summers at a beautifully situated abbey south of Caen, and was afterwards for fourteen years bishop of Soissons and Avranches. On his elevation to the bishopric, he did not cease to be a student, and the disappointed rustic, who was not allowed to see him at Avranches, 'because the bishop was studying', expressed a hope that the king would send them a bishop 'qui a fait ses études'. After resigning the mitre, he persisted in continuing his studies for the remaining twenty-two years of his life. He resided mainly at the abbey of Fontenai, near Caen, devoting most of his time to philosophical pursuits. His keen interest in classical studies led to his opposing the Cartesians, who despised the ancients. His Latin has been described as the characteristic Latin of the Jesuits, faultless, fluent, perfectly clear, and—insipid. A student of philosophy to the very end of a long life of more than 90 years, he is the modern counterpart of Carneades, as described by Valerius Maximus:-'laboriosus et diuturnus sapientiae miles; siquidem, nonaginta expletis annis, idem illi vivendi ac philosophandi finis fuit". Mabillon Huet had survived for fourteen years his learned contemporary, Jean Mabillon (1632-1707), one of the greatest ornaments of the Benedictine Order. Born in a simple cottage at Saint-Pierremont in the diocese of Reims, he had delighted in passing his time in meditation under the shadow of an oak tree, the site of which was known long after as 'le chêne Mabillon'. He was a student at Reims, and, at the abbey of Saint-Remi in that city, he entered the Order at the age of twenty-two. Part of the next ten years was passed at the monasteries of Nogent, Corbie, and Saint-Denis, where his duties as custodian of the treasury of the abbey enabled him to cultivate his archaeological tastes. He had already seized every opportunity 1 Pattison's Essays, i 244—305. for the study of мss, when, at the age of thirty-two, he was invited by Luc d'Achery (1609--1685), the editor of the thirteen volumes of the Veterum aliquot Scriptorum Spicilegium, to take part in the learned labours of the Benedictines at the abbey of Saint-Germaindes-Prés in the south of Paris. The earliest home of the Benedictine Order in France was the monastery of Saint-Maur on the Loire, founded by St Benedict's favourite pupil, St Maur. The Order had been reformed in Lorraine and elsewhere by Didier de la Cour in 1613-8, and this reform had been taken up by Tarisse, who in 1630-48 presided over the 'Congregation of Saint-Maur', with its head-quarters at the ancient abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which continued to be a famous centre of religious learning until its suppression in 17921. Mabillon was a member of this abbey for 43 years from the date of his entering it at the age of thirty-two to his death at the age of seventy-five. During the many years of his residence within its walls, the abbey was the resort of the foremost representatives of the learned world in Paris, including classical scholars such as Du Cange and Valesius. In less than three years after his admission, he produced the two folio volumes of his edition of St Bernard, a work in which he proved himself a sound critic, an able expositor, and the master of a pure and lucid Latin style. In the following year he published the first volume of his Acta Sanctorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, a historic work of the highest order, which was characterised throughout by a never-failing love of truth. The quest of manuscript materials for the composition of this and other learned works led to his visiting the monasteries of Flanders, Lorraine, Burgundy, Normandy, and Alsace. In the course of these investigations he produced his third great work, the folio volume of 635 pages, De Re Diplomatica (1681). The authority of the charters of Saint-Denis had been attacked, and the general object of the treatise was to set forth the proper method of determining the date and genuineness of ancient documents. A spirit of charity and candour is conspicuous in the preface; the work itself includes numerous facsimiles from charters and other ancient MSS, and it ends with a special tribute of thanks to the learned Du 1 Cp. Vanel, Les Bénédictins de Saint-Maur à Saint-Germain-des-Prés 1630-1792 (1896). Cange. Its publication was welcomed as an important event by the world of scholars throughout Europe. After its publication the king desired to see the author, who was accordingly presented by Le Tellier, the archbishop of Reims, and by his rival, Bossuet, bishop of Meaux. In introducing Mabillon, Le Tellier said:'Sire, I have the honour of presenting to your Majesty the most learned man in your realm'. Bossuet, regarding this as a reflexion on his own learning, quietly suppressed the proud archbishop by adding:-' and the most humble'. Even in recent times the value of the treatise has been recognised by M. Léopold Delisle, who says of Mabillon : : The most illustrious of the pupils of Luc d'Achery added much to the collections of his master; above all he devoted himself to the task of dissipating the darkness that enveloped the historical documents of the Middle Ages, and, in his immortal treatise De Re Diplomatica, laid down the rules that have resisted the most vigorous attacks, rules whose truth has been confirmed by the most modern investigations1. The work was dedicated to Louis XIV's great minister, Colbert. In the following year Colbert invited Mabillon to examine, in the archives of Burgundy, the documents relating to the reigning house, and afterwards sent him to the libraries of Germany at the royal expense. The time was not entirely favourable for a tour in Germany. The Germans had been exasperated by the sudden capture of Strassburg by the French (1681), and Vienna was being threatened by the Turks (1683). But the tour was accomplished with very little inconvenience in the happy companionship of Michel Germain, the devoted friend of Mabillon. It extended over parts of Bavaria, Switzerland, and the Tyrol, and included visits to Luxeuil, Bâle, Einsiedeln, St Gallen, Augsburg, Ratisbon, Salzburg, Munich, Innspruck, Constance, Reichenau, Freiburg and Strassburg. At the prompting of Mabillon, the manuscript Chronicle of Trithemius was printed in the abbey of St Gallen. Some Greek MSS had been noticed at Augsburg, and MSS of Virgil at Reichenau; and a collection of Roman inscriptions, unknown to Gruter, had been discovered. The journey lasted from January to October 1683, and was recorded in the Iter Germanicum, in the last of the four volumes of the Analecta (1685). A similar journey in Italy was taken at the king's charges by the same two monks. It lasted from April 1685 to June 1686, including a month at Milan, eleven days in Venice, seven months in Rome, one in Naples, ten days at 1 Cabinet des MSS, 1874, ii 63. |