Istoriile domnilor Ţării-Romăneşti

• Istoriile domnilor Ţăriĭ-Romăneştĭ, cuprinzînd istoria munteană de la început pănă la 1688, compilate şi alcătuite de Constantin Căpitanul Filipescu. Publicate din noŭ de Nicolae Iorga, profesor la Universitatea din Bucureşti. I. V. Socecu, Bucureşti, 1902. Retrieved on 2019-11-14.

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După văleatul ce am găsit în istorii, în vremile acestea, l^t 6938, au luat Sultan Murat Solunul, care unii îi zic Salonicul, de la Vineţeni ; că-l vănduse Andronic Paleologul în 50.000 galbeni de aur, fiind partea lui de la tată-său Manuil Împărat ; dar, căzănd în boala slăbănogiei şi neavănd ce face, au văndut această parte a lui Vineţenilor. Pentru care Ioan Împăratul, ce era atunci, fratele lui Andronic, multe au scris Turcului, avănd pace cu el, ca să nu meargă să ia acea cetate, dar el au răspuns că iaste striină cetatea, iar nu a lor, ci va să meargă să o ia ; precum au şi făcut. Ci Frăncii, fiind puţini, au fugit : iar Grecii, rămăind, multe reale au păţit, tăeţi, robiţi, despărţiţi fraţi de fraţi, de surori, de părinţi, — şi altele ca acestea. Ca acestea văzănd Ioan Paleologul, Împăratul Grecilor, s-au sfătuit să meargă la Papa de la Roma, să facă Unire Bisericilor, fiind atuncia Evghenie Papă, şi Patriarh la Ţarigrad Iosif (care au şi murit la Roma). Ci dar, scriind lui Evghenie Papii, s-au bucurat foarte, şi au trimis corăbii de au luat pe Împăratul, şi mulţi oameni învăţaţi, şi filosofi, şi cărturari. Şi, făcăndu-se sobor la Florentia, s-au aşăzat toţi şi au făcut liturghie toţi cu Papa, după aşăzările lor. Apoi, nevrănd să iscălească Vlădica de la Efes, toate lucrurile au rămas dăşarte : că nici ajutoriu n-au dat Papa şi domnii Frăncilor, şi vre un bine nu s-au făcut, că au umblat în deşărt 2 ani, şi iar în deşărt au venit.

Care, viind acasă, şi-au găsit Împărăteasa moartă, şi călugării carii era rămaşi la Ţarigrad, nu vrea să-i priimească în biserică, zicănd că sănt eritici. Ci era mare turburare între dănşii, şi den afară le făcea Turcii turburare, şi ca neşte orbi nu-şi cunoştea peirea lor. De acestea au făcut şi fac călugării !

În vremile acestea, Amurat, al doilea Împărat al Turcilor, fiind bătrăn şi bolnav de durori, au lăsat Împărat în locul lui pre fii-său Mehmet, tănăr, şi el s-au dus la Magnisia să să odihnească. Iar Mehmet, tănăr fiind, s-au dat spre vănători şi băutori, şi nu asculta pre Vizirii lui cei bătrăni şi înţelepţi. Acestea auzind Ungurii şi domnii lor, mai mult fiind rugaţi de Împăratul Ţarigradului, s-au pornit cu multe oşti Vădislav Craiul şi Ianoş, sau, cum zic alţii, Iancul, Domnul Ardealului, şi, trecănd în Ţara Turcească, au ajuns păn la Varna. Vizirii, văzănd ca aceste lucruri, şi pre Sultan Mehmet că caută ospeţele şi vănătorile, au trimis la tată-său Sultan Murat, să vie de grab, că pier cu Împărăţia lor. El, auzind, îndată au purces cu Hali[l]-Paşa, şi au venit la Ţarigrad, şi, cerănd corăbii să-i treacă, i-au dat Grecii. Vezi minte la Greci, în vremea ce ştia că au nevoie vrăjmaşii lor, atunci, să să fie nevoit să le facă mai rea poticneală, căt ar fi putut ; iar ei le făcea bine de-i trecea şi mai dăgrab ; ei, pe cum au umblat, aşa au şi păţit mai pre urmă, că au pierdut şi Împărăţia. Ci să venim la prochimen.

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History of the Battle of Agincourt

• Harris Nicholas, History of the Battle of Agincourt, and of the expedition of Henry the Fifth into France in 1415; to which is added the Roll of the men at arms in the English army. XVI + 404 + 106 (= 510) pp. London, Johnson & Co., 1833. Retrieved on 2019-11-14.

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An apology for the publication of a History of the Battle of Agincourt could scarcely be prefixed to it without conveying a tacit but severe reflection on the literary taste of the age, for if there be a subject that ought in an eminent degree to excite attention, it is a detailed account of an event which is identified with the military renown of this country. The late Bishop Nicholson truly observed in his “Historical Library,” that Henry the Fifth’s “single victory at Agincourt might have afforded matter for more volumes than have been written on his whole reign.” Since that opinion was expressed, numerous historical documents of the first importance have been brought to light; and, as will be seen by the following pages, many of them present highly valuable information respecting Henry’s first invasion of France. But even if no other data had been found, Bishop Nicholson’s remark would not be less just, for a concentration of all recorded facts relative to that expedition was a desideratum which could only be supplied by a writer making it the sole object of his attention. Dr. Lingard, and Mr. Sharon Turner, have done as much as could be expected in illustration of it, but no one can be ignorant of the difference between writing a history of a particular event, and the Herculean task of examining and relating every material transaction in the annals of this country, from the time of the Romans. The general historian of England can do little more than give a correct outline of the principal affairs; but it is the duty of a writer whose object is confined to one event, to introduce into his work every thing by which it can be illustrated. Individual conduct, letters, and all the usual materials for biography possess strong claims to his attention, and require to be woven, either entire or in parts into his narrative. It is only from such materials, from a critical examination of his authorities, and from a careful investigation of dates, distances, and minute facts, that he can hope to arrive at just conclusions, to reconcile conflicting testimony, or from the mass, sometimes of prejudiced, often of ignorant Chroniclers, to compose a true and consistent statement.

The cause which produced this work as well as the plan upon which it has been written, will be briefly explained.

A research among the MSS. in the British Museum accidentally discovered a list of the Peers, Knights, and Men-at-Arms, who were present at Agincourt. From the interest which it possessed for their descendants, and still more from its containing data for estimating the amount of the English army on that occasion, it was printed and a few pages were intended to be prefixed to it containing a description of the Battle, so as to make a small tract; but it appeared that a history of that victory which would be at all deserving of the appellation, would form an ordinary sized volume. The original idea was therefore abandoned; and it was resolved to collect all which had been said by contemporary writers of both countries on the subject, together with an account of the preparations for the expedition, from the public records.

In the execution of this task, the plan of former historical works has been slightly deviated from; for instead of merely citing the authorities for each assertion, the authorities themselves are translated and given at length; to which the author has prefixed his own narrative, deduced from such contemporary statements as were consistent with each other and with truth.

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Logique

• Logique, par A. Gratry, prêtre de l'Oratoire de l'Immaculée Conception. Non enim judicavi me scire aliquid inter vos, nisi Jesum Christum et hunc crucifixum. Saint Paul, I Corinth, II, 2. Troisième édition, augmentée d'un appendice polémique, et d'une introduction sur la théorie du procédé inductif. Paris, Charles Douniol / J. Lecoffre & C^ie, 1858. Tome premier CXLIV + 418 pp., tome second 468 pp. Retrieved on 2019-11-11.

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Depuis longtemps nous soutenons que la Logique telle qu'elle se comporte aujourd'hui est utile, indispensable, déplorablement négligée ; mais qu'elle n'est point tout ce qu'elle pourrait devenir ; qu'elle manque de sa partie principale, et que cette partie principale ne saurait être bien connue, bien expliquée, admise, prouvée, que par le secours de la partie intime des mathématiques.

Qu'est-ce que cette partie intime des mathématiques ? Ce ne peut être que le calcul infinitésimal. C'est en réfléchissant sur la méthode géométrique et algébrique des infiniment petits que nous avons compris l'existence du principal procédé de la raison, dont les Logiques élémentaires écrites jusqu'à ce jour ne parlent pas, ou qu'elles ne font qu'indiquer vaguement. Nous sommes parfaitement convaincu que c'était la pensée de Leibniz, ainsi que nous l'avons déjà dit et montré par les textes, en traitant de la Theodicée de Leibniz. La chose est assez claire, ce semble, pour qui a sous les yeux les paroles qui viennent d'être citées, et celles- ci : « Ce n'est pas ici le lieu, » dit Leibniz dans ses Nouveaux Essais, « de proposer les vrais moyens détendre l'art de démontrer au delà de ses anciennes limites, qui ont été presque les mêmes jusqu'ici que celles du pays mathématique. J'espère, si Dieu me donne le temps qu'il faut pour cela, d'en faire voir quelque essai un jour, en mettant ces moyens en usage effectivement, sans me borner aux préceptes. »

Qui ne voit dans ces paroles une allusion à sa découverte de l'analyse infinitésimales ? Il devient presque impossible d'en douter lorsque, trois pages plus bas, il dit que, selon lui, on poussera la connaissance scientifique plus loin que par le passé ; qu'il ne manque que l'art d'employer les matériaux, « dont je ne désespère point, dit-il, qu'on poussera les petits commencements, depuis que l'analyse infinitésimale nous a donné le moyen d'allier la géométrie avec la physique. » L'art d'employer les matériaux de la connaissance, c'est bien la Logique. Donc, selon Leibniz, l'analysetome second infinitésimale est un germe à développer dans cet art, c'est-à-dire en Logique. Ce qu'il faut d'autant plus comprendre ainsi, que, selon lui, « la Logique est aussi susceptible de démonstrations que la géométrie, et que la Logique des géomètres est une extension ou promotion particulière de la logique générale. » Rien de mieux dit. Il n'y a pas une Logique particulière pour la géométrie et une autre Logique générale. Il y a une Logique générale qui s'applique à tout. Donc tout ce qui est dans la géométrie est aussi dans la Logique générale. Donc s'il y a aujourd'hui en géométrie deux procédés radicalement distincts, parfaitement rigoureux et féconds, il doit y avoir dans la Logique générale deux procédés correspondants.

Je sais bien qu'on dit encore aujourd'hui vulgairement : la logique des géomètres, le procédé des géomètres ; et qu'on entend par là le procédé de déduction qui, par voie d'identité, tire d'une définition tout ce qu'elle contient. Mais, depuis l'invention de l'analyse infinitésimale, les géomètres n'ont plus seulement ce procédé, ils en ont deux, dont l'un est déductif, l'autre inductif, dans le vrai sens du mot ; et ces deux procédés répondent à ce que nous avons nommé, depuis les premières pages de notre Traité de la connaissance de Dieu, les deux procédés de la raison, dont le principal, comme nous l'avons montré, a été employé par tous les philosophes du premier ordre à démontrer l'existence de Dieu, aussi bien qu'il est employé spontanément par tous les hommes.

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Sept contes roumains

• Sept contes roumains traduits par Jules Brun, avec une introduction générale et un commentaire folkloriste par Léo Bachelin. Paris, Firmin-Didot et C^ie, 1894; LXIV + 350 pp. Retrieved on 2019-11-11.

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J’ajoute que cette étude du folklore était urgente ; c’était grand temps de l’entreprendre, en Europe surtout, où la culture envahissante tend de jour en jour à uniformiser davantage les mœurs et les coutumes ; où les dialectes et les contes populaires s’en vont mourant avec les rares vieilles gens qui en savent encore le secret ; où l’imprimé, toujours plus répandu, se substitue graduellement à la tradition orale.

Déjà expulsés des villes, les vieux contes traditionnels ne font plus que végéter dans les campagnes, d’où le journal et le roman à un sou auront bientôt fait de les supplanter. Alors le campagnard, comme déjà l’ouvrier des fabriques, aura pour combler ses loisirs, au lieu des contes du temps passé et des vieilles chansons d’autrefois, des faits divers, des comptes rendus de cours d’assises et des potins politiques. Il lira le feuilleton du moment, discutera la question du jour, remaniera la carte de l’Europe ou résoudra la question sociale. Ce sera beaucoup moins gai, et je ne prévois pas que ce lui sera beaucoup plus profitable ; mais c’est à quoi fatalement nous’ en viendrons.

En Roumanie, nous n’en sommes pas encore là, Dieu merci. Tant que la moitié du peuple ne saura ni lire ni écrire, la tradition orale, loin de s’éteindre, continuera à s’enrichir ; tant que la plupart des paysans et des bergers seront encore de ces enviables bienheureux qu’on appelle des illettrés, ils sauront conter en lisant dans leur mémoire comme dans le plus merveilleux des livres, et c’est à foison qu’ils en évoqueront des poèmes, des légendes, des chansons, des contes, des proverbes et des sentences, — attendu qu’il n’est peut-être pas de peuple en Europe qui ait un patrimoine mythologique plus riche et chez lequel les traditions indo-germaniques se soient conservées avec plus d’intégrité que chez les Roumains. Leur folklore est une mine d’une abondance extraordinaire, à peine exploitée et loin d’être épuisée ; il suffit pour le prouver de mentionner qu’une seule commune de Bucovine a fourni à M. Sbiera une centaine de contes, et, malgré les collections d’Ispiresco, de Stancesco, de Slavic, de G. Dem. Théodoresco, de Creanga, malgré les publications de Hasdeu, de Mariano, de Biano, il reste encore une ample moisson à recueillir, dont tous ces travaux ne sont qu’une première gerbe hâtivement liée. Car si la Roumanie, fort jeune encore comme nation politique, n’a pas produit jusqu’à présent — et cela est très compréhensible — une littérature classique bien volumineuse, elle possède, en revanche , une poésie populaire d’une valeur incomparable, un trésor de chants et de récits à rendre jalouses les nations les mieux dotées à cet égard. Le lecteur en jugera lui-même par les spécimens que nous lui présentons aujourd’hui.

Bel-Enfant de la larme — La fée des fées — Les douze filles de l’empereur — Stan l’échaudé — Roman le merveilleux — Le conte du porc — Jouvencelle-jouvenceau.

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The Elements of the Common Lawes of England

• Francis Bacon, The Elements of the Common Lawes of England. London, 1636; 94 + 72 = 166 pp. Retrieved on 2019-11-10.

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The Elements of the Common Lawes of England, Branched into a double Tract: The one Containing a Collection of some principall Rules and Maximes of the Common Law, with their Latitude and Extent. Explicated for the more facile Introduction of such as are studiously addicted to that noble profession. The other The Use of the Common Law, for preservation of our Persons, Goods and good Names. According to the Lawes and Customes of this Land.
By the late Sir Francis Bacon Knight, Lo: Verulam, and Viscount S. Alban.
Videre Utilitas.
London, Printed by the Assignes of J. More Esq. and are to be sold by Anne More, and Henry Hood, in Saint Dustans.

To Her Sacred Majestie.

I doe here most humbly present and dedicate to your Sacred Majesty a sheafe and cluster of fruit of the good and favourable season, which by the influence of your happy government we enjoy; for if it be true that silent leges inter arma, it is also as true, that your Majesty is in a double respect the life of our laws: Once, because without your authority they are but litera mortua; and againe, because you are the life of our peace, without which lawes are put to silence: and as the vitall spirits doe not onely maintaine and move the body, but also contend to perfect and renew it, so your Sacred Majesty, who is anima legis, doth not onely give unto your lawes force and vigour, but also hath been carefull of their amendment and reforming; wherein your Majesties proceeding may bee compared, as in that part of your goverment (for if your goverment bee considered in all its parts, it is incomparable) with the former doings of the most excellent Princes that ever have reigned, whose study althogether hath beene alwayes to adorne and honour times of peace, with the amendment of the policy of their lawes.

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History of the Thirty Years' War

• Friedrich Schiller, History of the Thirty Years' War. Translated from the German by the Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, M.A. New York, John B. Alden, 1883; 518 pp. Retrieved on 2019-11-10.
• Friedrich Schiller, Histoire de la guerre de trente ans, traduite per Madame la Baronne [Aloïse Christine] de Carlowitz. Paris, Charpentier, 1854. Retrieved on 2019-11-10.

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From the beginning of the religious wars in Germany, to the peace of Munster, scarcely any thing great or remarkable occurred in the political world of Europe in which the Reformation had not an important share. All the events of this period, if they did not originate in, soon became mixed up with the question of religion, and no state was either too great or too little to feel directly or indirectly more or less of its influence.
[...]
Fearful indeed, and destructive, was the first movement in which this general political sympathy announced itself; a desolating war of thirty years, which, from the interior of Bohemia to the mouth of Scheldt, and from the banks of the Po to the coasts of the Baltic, devastated whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced towns and villages to ashes; which opened a grave for many thousand combatants, and for half a century smothered the glimmering sparks of civilization in Germany, and threw back the improving manners of the country into their pristine barbarity and wildness. Yet out of this fearful war Europe came forth free and independent. In it she first learned to recognize herself as a community of nations; and this intercommunion of states, which originated in the thirty years’ war, would alone be sufficient to reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. The hand of industry has slowly but gradually effaced the traces of its ravages, while its beneficent influence still survives; and this general sympathy among the states of Europe, which grew out of the troubles in Bohemia, is our guarantee for the continuance of that peace which was the result of the war. As the flames of destruction found their way from the interior of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, to kindle Germany, France, and the half of Europe, so also will the torch of civilization make a path for itself from the latter, to enlighten the former countries.

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Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

• Ignácz Kúnos, Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales. Translated from the Hungarian version by Robert Nisbet Bain. Illustrated by Celia Levetus. London, A. H. Bullen, 1901; x + 276 pp. Retrieved on 2019-11-09.

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Preface

These stories were collected from the mouths of the Turkish peasantry by the Hungarian savant Dr. Ignatius Kunos, during his travels through Anatolia,¹ and published for the first time in 1889 by the well-known Hungarian Literary Society, “A Kisfaludy Társaság,” under the Title of Török Népmések (“Turkish Folk Tales”), with an introduction by Professor Vámbery. That distinguished Orientalist, certainly the greatest living authority on the primitive culture of the Turko-Tartaric peoples, who is as familiar with Uzbeg epics and Uiguric didactics as with the poetical masterpieces of Western Europe, is enthusiastic in his praises of these folk-tales. He compares the treasures of Turkish folk-lore to precious stones lying neglected in the byways of philology for want of gleaners to gather them in, and he warns the student of ethnology that when once the threatened railroad actually invades the classic land of Anatolia, these naively poetical myths and legends will, infallibly, be the first victims of Western civilization.

¹ He has described his experience in the picturesque and popular Anatóliai Képek (“Anatolian Pictures”) published at Pest in 1891.

The almost unique collection of Dr. Ignatius Kunos may therefore be regarded as a brand snatched from the burning; in any case it is an important “find,” as well for the scientific folk-lorist as for the lover of fairy-tales pure and simple. That these stories should contain anything absolutely new is, indeed, too much to expect. Professor Vámbery himself traces affinities between many of them and other purely Oriental stories which form the bases of The Arabian Nights. A few Slavonic and Scandinavian elements are also plainly distinguishable, such, for instance, as that mysterious fowl, the Emerald Anka, obviously no very distant relative of the Bird Mogol and the Bird Zhar, which figure in my Russian Fairy Tales and Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales respectively, while the story of the Enchanted Turban is, in some particulars, curiously like Hans Andersen's story. The Travelling Companion. Nevertheless, these tales have a character peculiarly their own ; above all, they are remarkable for a vivid imaginativeness, a gorgeous play of fancy, compared with which the imagery of the most popular fairy tales of the West seem almost prosaically jejune, and if, as Professor Vámbery suggests, these Népmések provide the sort of entertainment which beguiles the leisure of the Turkish ladies while they sip their mocha and whiff their fragrant narghilies, we cannot but admire the poetical taste and nice discrimination, in this respect, of the harem and the seraglio.

I have Englished these tales from the first Hungarian edition, so that this version is, perhaps, open to the objection of being a translation of a translation. Inasmuch, however, as I have followed my text very closely, and having regard to the fact that Hungarian and Turkish are closely cognate dialects (in point of grammatical construction they are practically identical), I do not think they will be found to have lost so very much of their original fragrance and flavour.

I have supplemented these purely Turkish with four semi-Turkish tales translated from the original Roumanian of Ispirescu's Legende sau Basmele Românilorŭ. Bucharest, 1892. This collection, which I commend to the notice of the Folk-Lore Society, is very curious and original, abounding as it does in extraordinarily bizarre and beautiful variants of the best-known fairy tales, a very natural result of the peculiar combination in Roumanian of such heterogeneous elements as Romance, Slavonic, Magyar, and Turkish.

R. Nisbet Bain,
July 1896

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The stag-prince · The three orange-peris · The rose-beauty · Mad Mehmed · The golden-haired children · The horse-devil and the witch · The cinder-youth · The piece of liver · The magic turban, the magic whip, and the magic carpet · The wind-demon · The crow-peri · The forty princes and the seven-headed dragon · The world's most beauteous damsel · The padishah of the forty peris · The serpent-peri and the magic mirror · Stone-patience and knife-patience · The ghost of the spring and the shrew.
Roumanian fairy tales: The story of the half-man-riding-on-the-worse-half-of-a-lame-horse · The enchanted hog · Boy-beautiful, the golden apples, and the were-wolf · Youth without age, and life without death.

De recta Latini Graecíque sermonis pronuntiatione

• De recta Latini Graecíque sermonis pronuntiatione, Des. Erasmi Roterodami dialogus: in hac nouissima æditione locupletatus. Lutetiæ, ex officina Rob. Stephani typographi Regij. M.D.XLVII. Retrieved on 2019-11-08.

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VRSVS. Sit fœlix occursus, optime Leo.
LEO. Istuc non temerè precaris, Vrse. Neque enim quibuslibet bene œssit occurisse Leoni.
V. Næ uenustè, Leo, imò ne Vrso quidem.
L. Istuc sanè malo tibi credere, quàm facere periculum, tametsi legimus Leonem inter bestias fortissimum ad nullius occursum expauescere. Cæterũ diuinæ literæ testantur esse formidabilẽ occursum Vrsæ, cui sunt erepti catuli.
V. Quæso quid loquuntur de Vrsa?
L. Liber Regnorum secundus sic habet, Viros fortissimos & amaro animo, veluti si Vrsa raptis catulis in sylva sæuiat.
V. Quid præterea?
L. Solomon parœmiographus hunc in modum loquitur, Expedit magis occurrere ursæ, raptis foetibus, quàm stulto confidenti. Et apud Osee prophetam ita minitatur Deus, Occurreram eis quasi Vrsa raptis catulis.
V. Sit igitur impauidus Leo, quum bestia bestijs occurrit. Nam siqua fides apologis, Leo bestia fassus est formidabilem hominem occursum. Nunc seculum est aureum, quo Leonis Vrso, Vrsi Leoni lætus ac faustus est occursus. Opportunè uerò catulorum facta mentione, mihi redigis in memoriam, ego tibi magnopere gratulor.
L. Quo tandẽ nomine?
V. Quòd tibi catulus domi natus est.
L. Hoc omen auertant superi, ut mihi catulus dominetur.
V. Aio dómi nâtum, audis accentum acutũ in priore voce, in posteriore circunflexum.
L. At istud magis etiam abominandum. An tibi videor canis?
V. Minime, Leonem esse te non potes inficiari. Habent autẽ & Leones catulos.
L. Habent profecti, uerùm habent & Vrsi.

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Compendium Novembre, 2019

Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis

• Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis, Sixti V. Pontifici Max. Jussu recognita, et Clementis VIII. Auctoritate edita; Versiculis distincta, et ad singula Capita Argumentis aucta; Pluribusque Imaginibus, ad Historiarum notitiam politissimè elaboratis, ornata; Indiceque Epistolarum, et Evangeliorum locupletata. Venetiis, MDCCXX, apud Nicolaum Pezzana.
• The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate is the edition of the Latin Vulgate from 1592, prepared by Pope Clement VIII. It was the second edition of the Vulgate authorised by the Catholic Church, the first being the Sixtine Vulgate.The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate was used officially in the Catholic Church until 1979, when the Nova Vulgata was promulgated by Pope John Paul II. The Clementine Vulgate is cited in all critical editions and it is designated by the siglum vg^c or vg^cl. (Wikipedia)
• After the passing of Gregory XIV, Clement VIII (1592–1605) resumed the work on the revision; Clement VIII ordered Francisco de Toledo, Augustino Valeier, Frederico Borromeo, Robert Bellarmine, Antonius Agellius, and Petrus Morinus to make corrections and to prepare a revision to the Sixtine Vulgate. "Under the leadership of Pope Clement VIII, the work of the comission was continued and drastically revised, with the Jesuit scholar Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1624) bringing to the task his lifelong research on the Vulgate text." (Wikipedia, quoting Jaroslav Jan Pelikan's Sacred Philology (1996))
• The Clementine Vulgate was printed on 9 November 1592, with an anonymous preface written by Cardinal Robert Bellarmine.

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Praefatio ad Lectorem.

In multis, magnisque beneficiis, quae per sacram Tridentinam Synodum Ecclesiae suae Deus contulit, id in primis numerandum videtur, quòd in tot Latinas editiones Divinarum Scripturarum solam veterem, ac vulgatam, quae longo tot saeculorum usu in Ecclesia probata fuerat, gravissimo Decreto authenticam declaravit. Nam, ut illud ommittamus, quod ex recentibus editionibus non paucae ad haereses hujus temporis confirmanda licenter detortae videbantur: ipsa certè tanta versionum varietas, atque diversitas magnam in Ecclesia Dei confusionem parere potuisset. Jam enim hac nostra aetate illud ferè evenisse constat, quod sanctus Hieronymus tempore suo accidisse testatus est, tot scilicet fuisse exemplaria, quot codices; eùm unusquisque pro arbitrio suo adderet, vel detraheret. Hujus autem veteris, ac vulgatae Editionis tanta semper fuit auctoritas, tamque excellens praestantia, ut eam caeteris omnibus Latinis editionibus longè anteferendam esse, apus aequos judices in dubium revocari non potest. Qui namque in ea libri continentur (ut à majoribus nostris quasi per manus traditum nobis est) partim ex sancti Hieronymi translatione, vel emendatione, suscepti sunt; partim retenti ex antiquissima quadam editione Latina, quam sanctus Hieronymus communem, & Vulgatam, sanctus Augustinus Italam, sanctus Gregorius Veterem translationem appellant. Ac de Veteris quidem hujus, sive Italae editionis sinceritate, atque praestantia, praeclarum sancti Augustini testimonium extat in secundo Libro de doctrina Christiana, ubi Latinis omnibus editionibus, quae tunc plurimae circumferebantur, Italam praeferendam censuit, quòd esset, ut ipse loquitur, verborum tenacior cum perspicuitate sententiae. De sancto verò Hieronymo multa extant veterum Patrum egregia testimonia; eum enim sanctus Augustinus hominem doctissimum, ac trium linguarum peritissimum vocat, atque ejus translationem ipsorum quoque Hebraeorum testimonio veracem esse confirmat.

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The Thief of Bagdad

• Achmed Abdullah, The Thief of Bagdad, New York, The H. K. Fly Company, 1924; 319 pp. Illustrated with scenes from the photo play. Retrieved on 2019-11-08.

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In the Orient’s motley, twisted annals the tale of Ahmed el-Bagdadi’s—“the Thief of Bagdad,” as he is called in the ancient records—search for happiness, which is by the same token the tale of his adventures and exploits and love, has assumed in the course of time the character of something homeric, something epic and fabulous, something close-woven to the golden loom of the desert in both pattern and sweep of romance.

It is mentioned with pride by his own tribe, the Benni Hussaynieh, a raucous-tongued, hard-riding breed of Bedawins, brittle of honor and greedy of gain, of whom—due to a father, tired of the sterile Arabian sands and eager for the pleasures of bazar and marketplace—he was the city-bred descendant. It is spoken of with a mixture of awe and envy by the Honorable Guild of Bagdad Thieves of whom he was once a keen and highly respected member.

It is wide-blown through the flaps of the nomads’ black felt tents from Mecca to Jeddah and beyond; berry-brown, wizen old women cackle its gliding gossip as they bray the coffee for the morning meal or rock the blown-up milk skins upon their knees till the butter rolls yellow and frothing; and, on the sun-cracked lips of the cameleers, on the honeyed, lying lips of overland traders and merchants, the tale has drifted South as far as the Sahara, North to the walls of grey, stony Bokhara, Southeast and Northeast to Pekin’s carved dragon gates and the orchid plains and ochre mountains of Hindustan, and West to the pleasant, odorous gardens of Morocco where garrulous white-beards comment upon it as they digest the brave deeds of the past in the curling, blue smoke of their water-pipes.

“Wah hyat Ullah—as God liveth!” their telling begins. “This Ahmed el-Bagdadi—what a keen lad he was! A deer in running! A cat in climbing! A snake in twisting! A hawk in pouncing! A dog in scenting! Fleet as a hare! Stealthy as a fox! Tenacious as a wolf! Brave as a lion! Strong as an elephant in mating-time!”

Or, taking a blade of grass between thumb and second finger, another ancient will exclaim:

“Wall hyat hatha el-awd wah er-rub el-mabood—by the life of this stem and the blessed Lord God! Never, in all Islam, lived there one to equal Ahmed the Thief in quality and pride, the scope and exquisite charm of his thievery!”

Or perhaps:

“Wah hyat duqny—by the honor of these my whiskers! Once, O True Believers, it happened in Bagdad the Golden! Aye—may I eat dirt—may I not be father to my sons if I lie! But once, indeed, it happened in Bagdad the Golden!”

And then the full, rich tale. The wondrous ending.

Yet the tale’s original cause was simple enough, consisting in the snatching of a well-filled purse, a hungry belly craving food, and the jerk and pull of a magic rope woven from the hair of a purple-faced witch of the left-handed sect; while the scene was the Square of the One-Eyed Jew—thus called for reasons lost in the mists of antiquity—in the heart of Bagdad.

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Fables de La Fontaine

• Jean de La Fontaine, Fables de La Fontaine, Paris, Garnier Frères, 1855; XXIV + 600 pp. With illustrations by Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard Grandville. Retrieved on 2019-11-08.

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La chameau et les bâtons flottants

(Livre IV, fable X)

Le premier qui vit un chameau s'enfuit à cet objet nouveau ; le second approcha ; le troisième osa faire un licou pour le dromadaire.

L'accoutumance ainsi nous rend tout familier : ce qui nous paroissoit terrible et singulier s'apprivoise avec notre vue quand ça vient à la continue.

Et puisque nous voici tombés sur ce sujet : on avoit mis des gens au guet, qui, voyant sur les eaux de loin certain objet, ne purent s'empêcher de dire que c'étoit un puissant navire. Quelques moments après l'objet devint brûlot, et puis nacelle, et puis ballot, enfin bâtons flottant sur l'onde.

J'en sais beaucoup de par le monde à qui ceci conviendroit bien : de loin, c'est quelque chose ; et de près, ce n'est rien.

Le lion s'en allant en guerre

(Livre V, fable XIX)

Le lion dans sa tête avoit une entreprise. Il tint conseil de guerre, envoya ses prévôts, fit avertir les animaux.

Tous furent du dessein, chacun selon sa guise : l'éléphant devoit son dos porter l'attirail nécessaire, et combattre à son ordinaire ; l'ours, s'apprêter pour les assauts ; le renard, ménager de secrètes pratiques ; et le singe, amuser l'ennemi par ses tours.

Renvoyez, dit quequ'un, les ânes, qui sont lourds, et les lièvres, suject à des terreurs paniques.

Pas du tout, dit le roi ; je veux tous les employer : notre troupe, sans eux, ne seroit pas complète. L'âne effraiera les gens, nous servant de trompette ; et le lièvre pourra nous servir de courrier.

Le monarque prudent et sage de ses moindres sujets sait tirer quelque usage, et connoît leur divers talents. Il n'est rien d'inutile aux personnes de sens.

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