Part 2 (2/2)

De ultimis syllabis

De Caruris opusculurecarui

Ascensii de orthographia carmina

Vocabulorum interpretatio

The _Carmen Juvenile_, inserted here and in the antecedent issues, is the poelish dress by Lydgate Mr Blades tells us that the _editio princeps_ of the Latin poelish one at an anterior date Lydgate, however, had been dead ht in type, and as he could scarcely have translated the piece from Sulpicius, the probability seeinal, which the Englishralish text with that given in the work of Sulpicius shews considerable variations; the latter version is here and there e than the paraphrase of the good Monk of Bury St Edloss by the learned Ascensius; and although the book was ostensibly designed for the use of students, the contractions are unusually troublesoraphy at any rate rather peculiar

The God whose special province was the ement of the solar orb is introduced as _forilius_ as the name of the Latin poet is so far not reil of Urbino appears always to have spelled his nail by Aldus, 1501, the author is called _Vergilius_ I am afraid that if I were to furnish a specirapher would be puzzled to reproduce it with the desirable exactitude

III When one turns over the leaves of a volume of this kind, and sees the way in which the avenue to learning and knowledge was hanorant instructors, it seems marvellous, not that the spread of education was so slow and partial, but that so ed from such a process

A rained; yet Sulpicius holds a high rank a the promoters of modern education, as the precursor of all those, such as Robert Whittinton, John Stanbridge, and Willia and the institution of the printing-press, prepared the way for ihtened preceptors His followers naturally went beyond him; but Sulpicius was doubtless as much in advance of his forerunners as Richard Morris is in advance of Lindley Murray

After the restoration of letters, Sulpicius seera its rules and principles on a syste which the English received from the Continent, we must not overlook Alexander Gallus, or Alexander de Villa Dei, a French Minorite and school-teacher of the thirteenth century, who reduced the system of Priscian to a new metrical plan, doubtless for the use of his own pupils, as well as his personal convenience and satisfaction

The _Doctrinale_ of Alexander, which is in leonine verse, circulatedhis life, and was one of the earliest books coment on vellum with the types of Laurence Coster of Haarlem establishes It was repeatedly published abroad, but does not really see ourselves, since three editions of it are all that I can trace as having come from London presses, and of these the first was in 1503 It did not, in fact, coreat reform in our school-books; and while in France, if not elsewhere abroad, it preserved its popularity during two or three centuries, till it was supplanted by the Grammar and Syntax of Despauterius about 1515, here in a dozen years it had run its course, and scarcely left even the marks of its influence behind

IV But the prototype of all the grammatical writers and teachers of early times in this as well as other countries was aeLIUS DONATUS, a Roman professor of the fourth century, who probably acquired his experience from Priscian and the other works published under the Empire upon his favourite science, and who had the honour to nu his disciples

Donatus is the author of a System of Grammar in three parts, and of a series of Prefaces and Scholia to Terence; and his reputation becareat and was so widely diffused, that a _Donatus_ or _Donet_ was a well-understood synony even christens his Greek Graland, in his _Vision concerning Piers Ploughman_, written a century later, says--

”Thaune drowe I es draperes my donet to lerne;”

and the _Testament of Love_ alludes to the work in sie [written about 1386],” says Warton, ”a grammar is called _Antiquus Donatus_, ie the Old Donat, or the na before The French have a book entitled 'Le Donnet, traite de gra Rawlinson's MSS

at Oxford I have seen _Donatus opitiiven to Saint Albans by John Stoke, Abbot in 1450 In the introduction, or _lytell Proheme_, to Dean Colet's _Grammatices Rudimenta_, we find mention made of 'certayne introducyons into latyn speche called Donates, &cCotgravequotes an old French proverb: 'Les diables etoient encores a leur Donat'--The devils were but yet in their graus Creaturarum_, and other peculiarly popular works, Donatus lent his name to productions which really had no connection with his own, and we find such titles as _Donatus Moralizatus_, _Donatus Christianatus_, adopted by writers of a different class in order to attract attention and gain acceptance

In England, however, the Works of Donatus do not appear to have obtained the sa which they probably did in Italy The modern edition by Lindemann, taken from a manuscript at Berlin, exhibits the entire system divided into three sections or books But all that we know to have passed the press, at all events in this country, are two pieces evidently prepared for petty schools--the _Donatus Minor_ and the _Donatus pro pueris_, both published at the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century

The for a schoolmaster in a sort of thronal chair, with the instru in front of hi hair of the period and plain close caps It is curious that the pupils should not be uncovered, but the engraving could not, perhaps, be altered

”The work begins with the title 'De No title descriptive of the subject below treated of

Herbert properly adds: 'In this book the declension of soo G mei vel mis N Tu G tui vel tis N Quis vel qui, que vel qua, Quod vel quid Pl D & Ab quis vel quibus Also Nostras and Vestras are declined throughout without the neuter gender'”

IV

Rise of native teachers--Magdalen College School, Oxford--John Annaquil, its first ramaria_ of Terence annexed--The _Parvuloruiven--JOHN STANBRIDGE--Account of his works, with extracts of interesting passages--ROBERT WHITTINTON--His sectional series of Grammars

I The influence of Donatus was both widespread and of prolonged duration, and we ard the ancient capital of the civilised world as the focus and cradle of all reat revival of culture,for the scholastic profession under theere Sulpicius, author, as we have seen, of several educational tracts, which obtained considerable currency here, and Johannes Balbus, who compiled the famous _Catholicon_

The LEXICON and DICTIONARY naturally followed the Primer; and our earliest productions of this kind were formed out of the Vocabularies composed and printed abroad--not in Italy, but in Germany, as a rule But while in many instances we are made acquainted with the writers or editors of the smaller treatises, the names of those laborious raphical Manual are scarcely known

But the time soon arrived when a native school of tuition was forinal seat seedalen College, Oxford

We find John Annaquil mentioned as the master of this seminary in the time of Henry the Seventh, and it is the most ancient record of it that has been apparently recovered Annaquil, of whoe is extremely scanty, wrote, for the use more immediately of his own pupils, _Colo-Latin version of the _Vulgaria_ of Terence annexed This volume was printed at Oxford by Theodore Rood about 1484; and an edition of the work entitled _Parvulorum Institutio_, ascribed to the same press, was doubtless prepared by Annaquil, or under his direction, for the benefit of his school Such fragments as have been recovered of this book exhibit variations from the later copies, into which subsequent editors purposely introduced improvements and corrections There are some familiar allusions here, such as, had they been ht have rendered these ancient educational tracts more attractive and precious even than they are I o to Oxford: _Eo Oxoniuo to London: _Ibo Londinum_”