Volume I Part 12 (2/2)
The more remote and historical honors of Rouen would present ample materials. Prior to the Roman invasion, it appears to have been of less note than as the capital of Neustria.
Julius Caesar, copious as he is in all that relates to Gaul, makes no mention of Rouen in his Commentaries. Ptolemy first speaks of it as the capital of the Veloca.s.ses, or Belloca.s.ses, the people of the present Vexin; but he does not allow his readers to entertain an elevated idea of its consequence; for he immediately adds, that the inhabitants of the Pays de Caux were, singly, equal to the Veloca.s.ses and Veromandui together; and that the united forces of the two latter tribes did not amount to one-tenth part of those which were kept on foot by the Bellovaci.--Not long after, however, when the Romans became undisputed masters of Gaul, we find Rouen the capital of the province, called the _Secunda Lugdunensis_; and from that tine forward, it continued to increase in importance. Etymologists have been amused and puzzled by ”Rothomagus,” its cla.s.sical name. In an uncritical age, it was contended that the name afforded good proof of the city having been founded by Magus, son of Samothes, contemporary of Nimrod. Others, with equal diligence, sought the root of Rothomagus in the name of Roth, who is said to have been its tutelary G.o.d; and the ancient clergy adopted the tradition, in the hymn, which forms a part of the service appointed for the feast of St. Mellonus,--
”Extirpate Roth idolo, Fides est in lumine; Ferro cinctus, pane solo Pascitur et flumine, Post haec junctus est in polo c.u.m sanctorum agmine.”
The partizans of _Roth_ are therefore supported by the authority of the church; the favorers of _Magus_ must defend themselves by more worldly erudition; and we must leave the task of deciding between the claims of the two sections of the word, divided as they are by the neutral _o_, to wiser heads than ours.
Footnotes:
[119] Precis a.n.a.lytique des travaux de l'Academie de Rouen, pendant l'annee 1812, p. 164.
[120] At the sale of Mr. Edwards' library, in April 1815, it was bought by the present Duke of Marlborough for six hundred and eighty-seven pounds fifteen s.h.i.+llings.--The following anecdote, connected with it, was communicated to me by a literary friend, who had it from one of the parties interested; and I take this opportunity of inserting it, as worthy of a place in some future _Bibliographical Decameron_.--At the time when the Bedford Missal was on sale, with the rest of the d.u.c.h.ess of Portland's collection, the late King sent for his bookseller, and expressed his intention to become the purchaser. The bookseller ventured to submit to his Majesty, that the article in question, as one highly curious, was likely to fetch a high price.--”How high?”--”Probably, two hundred guineas!”--”Two hundred guineas for a Missal!” exclaimed the Queen, who was present, and lifted up her hands with extreme astonishment.--”Well, well,” said his Majesty, ”I'll still have it; but, since the Queen thinks two hundred guineas so enormous a sum for a Missal, I'll go no farther.”--The bidding for the royal library did actually stop at that point; and Mr. Edwards carried off the prize by adding three pounds more.
[121] Published at Rouen, A.D. 1718.--The book professes to be written by the Sieur de Moleon; but its real author was Jean Baptiste de Brun Desmarets, son of a bookseller in that city.--He was born in 1650, and received his education at the Monastery of Port Royal des Champs, with the monks of which order he kept up such a connection, that he was finally involved in their ruin. His papers were seized; and he was himself committed to the Bastille, and imprisoned there five years. He died at Orleans, 1731.
[122] _Ordericus Vitalis_, in _d.u.c.h.esne's Scriptores Normanni_, p. 470.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
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