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nydus/Introduction to the Study of HistoryPublic
Page 361 of 400
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY

  1. [85] As a rule it matters little whether the name of the author has or has not been discovered. We read, however, in the Histoire littéraire de la France (xxvi. p. 388): "We have ignored anonymous sermons: writings of this facile character are of no importance for literary history when their authors are unknown." Are they of any more importance when we know the authors' names?
  2. [86] In very favourable cases the examination of the plagiarist's mistakes has made it possible to determine even this style of handwriting, the size, and the manner of arrangement of the manuscript source. The deductions of the investigation of sources, like those of textual criticism, are sometimes supported by obvious palæographical considerations.
  3. [87] The Investigations of Julien Havet (Questions mérovingiennes, Paris, 1896, 8vo) are regarded as models. Very difficult problems are there solved with faultless elegance. It is also well worth while to read the memoirs in which M. L. Delisle has discussed questions of origin. It is in the treatment of these questions that the most accomplished scholars win their triumphs.
  4. [88] See the edition of H. R. Luard (vol. i., London, 1890, 8vo) in the Rerum Britannicarum medii ævi scriptores. Matthew of Westminster's Flores historiarum figure in the Roman "Index," because of the passages borrowed from the Chronica majora of Matthew of Paris, while the Chronica majora themselves have escaped censure.
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