"Translation of the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, 1837, small 8vo. p. 41. 12 Hermant, Hist. de Bayeux, p. 236.

13 Gallia Christiana, XI. col. 399. E. Beziers, Hist. de Bayeux, p. 71.

14 Gallia Christiana, X1. col. 399. D.

15 Beziers, Hist. de Bayeux, p. 68.

16 Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xxi. 514.

19 The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, 1832, fol. p. 42.

20 The Saxon Chronicle, by Ingram, 1823, 4to. p. 175, note.

21 X Scriptores, 1652, fol. col. 164. 58.

22 Ibid. col. 461.50.

23 Ibid. col. 2222. 13. Is the date correct?

21 Saxon Chronicle, 1823, 4to. p. 175. The text of Gibson, as translated by Miss

Anna Gurney, is more in favour of my conjecture.

about three miles north from Rheims, dedicated to St. Theoderic, or, as it was expressed in French St. Thierrii; (see Gallia Christiana, ix. 180). Lying upon the great road, the regular clergy were dispersed by the ravages of war, and for a long period up to about the 11th century their place was supplied by six secular priests called the "Canons of Thierri," or Clerks of St. Theoderic." When the monks were re-established, it is not improbable that some Canons still continued to make that place their abode. 1 conjecture, therefore, that the seal in question was that of one of those ecclesiastics, and that the legend is to be translated, —

The seal is undoubtedly, as remarked in Collectanea, that of a private individual (John Godayn), who assumed the head of St. John for his device by a natural reference to his own Christian name. The individual was an ecclesiastic, as appears by the contracted word CAN', i. e. CANONICI, the terms Canonicus and Clericus being often used indiscriminately for a clerk or secular priest, of which Du Cange has given many examples. The only doubtful word in the legend is the final one, which (on close examination of the matrix) admits of being read either THIE RN', or THEE RN', or possibly THIE rr'. Now, it appears that there was a Benedictine Monastery on the Vesle,

-

THE SEAL OF JOHN GODAYN, CANON OF THIERRI.

If this appear improbable, the seal may have been that of one of the priests of the Church of Chateau Thierri, on the Marne, at no great distance from the Monastery just men. tioned.

Or, if the reading, THIE RN, be preferred, the seal may have belonged to a priest of the parish of Thierny, a village about one league and a quarter from Laon, in the department of Aisne and community of Presles. Yours, &c. G. C. G.

RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

Middle-Age Geography-Sir John Maundevile's Travels.*

VERY little comparatively has been done hitherto towards investigating the history of science during the Middle Ages. We little think how many of what we believe to be modern inventions, took their rise during this remote period. And yet our ignorance in this respect does not arise from want of materials to illustrate the subject; for our libraries are filled with documents, in exploring which every step we make is attended with some interesting discovery. Who would have believed a few years ago, that the mariner's compass was in common use as early as the twelfth century?-yet documents recently discovered leave no room for doubt upon this subject. Few branches of science present, during this period of their history, so many points of interest as that of Geographical Discovery.

The first period of Middle-Age Geography, which preceded the introduction of the Arabian learning among the Christians of the West, is perhaps the least interesting. Science was then founded chiefty upon the bare outline afforded

* The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundevile, Kt. which treateth of the Way to Hierusalem; and of Marvayles of Inde, with other Ilands and Countryes. Reprinted from the edition of A. D. 1725. With an introduction, additional notes, and glossary, by J. O. Halliwell, Esq. F.S.A., F.R.A.S. London, Lumley, 8vo. 1839.

by a few meagre treatises of the later Roman writers. This outline was filled up with much fabulous matter, spread abroad in Cosmographies, and in such tracts as Alexander's Letter on the Wonders of the East. Yet even in the midst of fables truth sometimes showed itself; and this truth was constantly increased by the discoveries made by adventurous people, who were frequently led by business, curiosity, or piety, not only to travel to the north, as well as to the south and west, but to expose themselves from time to time to the dangers of the western ocean, whence some returned to greet the ears of their countrymen with marvellous stories. There can be little doubt that, during the whole of the Middle Ages, for many centuries before the time of Columbus, the inhabitants of Western Europe had an indistinct consciousness of the existence of America, arising perhaps out of the combined traditions of the discoveries of these bold adventurers.

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, many circumstances joined their influence in giving an impulse to geographical adventure, and in extending the knowledge which had previously existed. The information which the Arabians had had the means of collecting filled up many parts of the bare outline of Asia and Africa which our forefathers had previously possessed. The invasions of the Tartars led to the embassies of men like Rubruquis and Plan-de-Carpin, who obtained from this extraordinary people information respecting countries into which the Saracens themselves had not penetrated. But while geography was reaping these advantages, it had also to suffer from various drawbacks. The indistinct notions of that distant land in the west, which was separated from mankind by the unexplored ocean, had been woven into the legendary narrative of the voyage of St. Brandon, which long exercised a wonderful influence over men's minds, and even the Spanish voyagers of a much later period thought that they were going to Paradise. Many other monkish legends were engrafted upon science; and new works on Cosmography" did not obtain credit, unless they had first been collated with the old established doctrines, and their agreement with them testified by the Court of Rome.

Such was the state of geographical science at the time when Sir John Maundevile made his famous journey to the east, in the earlier part of the fourteenth century. Scarcely anything was known of the interior of Africa. The Crusades had made the people of the west well acquainted with Syria and Egypt. Their intercourse with the Saracens and with the Tartars had been the means of procuring extensive information relating to the interior and more distant parts of Asia, which were, however, still believed to be extensively inhabited by the monsters that had been described by Pliny and Solinus. But the older traditions of the existence of new lands in the west, had been almost lost among the monkish fables with which they were obscured.

No book ever enjoyed a greater popularity than the " Voiage and Travaile" of Sir John Maundevile, as is proved by the numerous manuscripts which yet remain, and by the almost innumerable early editions in all the European languages. The author published his own book in three different tongues, Latin, French, and English. He was possessed, as appears by his own work, of the qualifications most likely to attract the attention of his contemporaries. He was curious, and fond of the marvellous; and we cannot deny him the character of being a bold adventurer. A hundred different incidents show that he had made the voyage which he describes. But he was also exceedingly credulous; and it is impossible to rescue him from the reproach of having frequently "drawn a long bow." Yet even in so doing he has often rendered a service to historical science, and has given us many facts which aid us in investigating the curious question of the transmission and formation of middle-age fiction. All these things being considered, we know few old books so acceptable to us as the Voyage of Sir John Mandevile, and right heartily did we rejoice at the prospect of a new edition, particularly in so cheap and portable a form as the one before us.

However, although it is on the whole acceptable, there are many things in this edition of which we disapprove strongly. The text is a mere reprint of the edition of 1725, made from a MS. which is now in the British Museum.

We have not the slightest confidence in the philological accuracy of the text of such a book printed at that period, and a very hasty glance is sufficient to show us many errors. Neither do we see the necessity of making a fac-simile of that edition, of giving even the typographical peculiarities of that period, when the original manuscript is so near at hand and so easy of access. Again, we cannot condemn too strongly the taste of the publisher in giving fac-similes of the coarse ugly wood-cuts of the early printed editions, which were but distorted imitations of the earlier illuminations of the manuscripts, when with as little expense he might have given us some elegant fac-similes of these latter, such for instance as the wood-cut in his title. Even the materials in the preface of the old edition would have been much better embodied in the introduction to the new one. However, although we think it our duty to point out these defects, it is by no means our intention to quarrel with the book, which we think will be a valuable acquisition to the general reader; and it is much enriched by the detailed list of manuscripts, and editions, given in Mr. Halliwell's introduction; as well as by that gentleman's supplementary notes and glossary. The publisher would have done well to put the whole care of editing into his hands.

The principal object of Mandevile's pilgrimages, as was the case with most travellers of his time, was Jerusalem and the surrounding regions, "that men callen the Lond of Promyssioun or of Beheste." In his road thither he visited Constantinople and various other places; and after he had performed his devotions on the spot where Christ lived and suffered, his curiosity led him to explore more distant regions. If what he tells us be to be relied upon, of which we are not very sure in all cases, he served in the army both of the Sultan, and of the Tartar Chieftain; and speaking of the former, he assures us that "he wolde have maryed me fulle highely, to a gret princes daughtre, zif I wolde han forsaken my lawe and my beleve; but I thanke God, I had no wille to don it, for no thing that he behighten me." He must therefore have had great opportunities of making observations. There is scarcely any part of his book more curious than that in which he gives his own opinion of the form of the earth, and the positions of different countries, and states his reasons for it.

Also

"The Erthe and the See," he says, among other observations, "ben of round forme and schapp, as I have seyd beforn. And that that men gon upward to o cost, men gon dounward to another cost. ye have herd me seye that Jerusalem is in the myddes of the world; and that may men preven and schewen there, be a spere, that is pighte in to the erthe, upon the hour of myd-day, whan it is equenoxium, that schewethe no schadwe on no syde. And that it scholde ben in the myddes of the world, David wytnessethe in the Psautre, where he seythe, Deus operatus est salutem in medio terræ. Thanne thei that parten fro the parties of the west, for to go toward Jerusalem, als many jorneyes as thei gon upward for to go thidre, in als many jorneyes may thei gon fro Jerusalem, unto other confynes of the superficialtie of the erthe beyonde. And whan men gon beyonde tho journeyes, toward Ynde and to the foreyn yles, alle is envyronynge the roundnesse of the erthe and of the see, undre oure contrees on this half. And therfore hath it befallen many tymes of o thing that I have herd cownted whan I was yong; how a worthi man departed somtyme from oure contrees, for to go

serche the world, and so he passed Ynde, and the yles beyonde Ynde, where ben mo than 5000 yles; and so longe he wente be see and lond, and so envyround the world be many seysons, that he fond an yle where he herde spake his owne langage, callynge on oxen in the plowghe, such wordes as men speken to bestes in his owne contree; whereof he hadde gret mervayle, for he knewe not how it myghte be. But I seye, that he had gon so longe be londe and be see, that he had envyround alle the erthe, that he was comen agen envirounynge, that is to seye, goynge aboute, unto his owne marches, gif he wolde have passed forthe, til he had founden his contree and his owne knouleche. But he turned agen from thens from whens he was come fro; and so he loste moche peynefulle labour, as himself seyde, a gret while aftre that he was comen hom. For it befelle aftre, that he wente in to Norweye; and there tempest of the see toke him; and he aryved in an yle; and whan he was in that yle, he knew wel that it was the yle where he had herd speke his owne langage before, and the callynge of the oxen at the plowghe: and that was possible thinge. But howe it semethe to symple men unlerned, that men ne mowe