Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/155

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1921 SHORT NOTICES 147 from the burgomaster of Bale recommending to the cardinal the printer Froben, who is about to undertake an edition of Jerome : dated 3 August 1514, about a fortnight before Erasmus's arrival to take part in it. An excellent facsimile of one of Schiner's letters raises some doubt whether the editors' skill in decipherment has been equal to their industry in hunting out letters and documents. Besides a number of words com- pletely misread — some of which are put right in the corrigenda at the end — the dates of place and time, * Rauennae 13 martii 1512 ', appear in the text as ' favente Sancta Sede '. An explanation of such lapses is probably to be found in the joint authorship. Dr. Buchi has no doubt been obliged to use the work of his predecessors without opportunity to revise it ; and obviously, when originals are scattered over so many different libraries and archives, it cannot have been easy to examine undecipherable documents as often as may be necessary to get out the puzzles. But future 'editors of a new Ducange will need to be on their guard against accepting without further examination some of the unusual words which appear in autograph letters of Schiner, whose hand, it must be admitted, is decidedly difficult. In spite of this defect, however, there is a great deal of important material printed here for the first time ; and the second volume will be eagerly awaited. P. S. A. MM. Bourrilly and Vindry are to be warmly congratulated on having completed their admirable edition of the Memoires de Martin et Guillaume Du Bellay (Paris : 1908-1919) for the Societe de l'Histoire de France, of which volumes i and ii have been already noticed in this Review. 1 Volume iii was published in 1912, and volume iv in 1919. Volume iii contains books vi-viii, of which books vi and vii are by Guillaume and book viii by Martin. The difference in treatment is shown partly by the fact that whereas Guillaume's two books comprise only the short period from April -to August 1536, Martin's one book carries the history down to May 1540. It is true that Guillaume has more matter to deal with, namely, the preparation for the invasion of Provence by Charles V and the actual invasion. On 13 September Montmorency's defensive tactics compelled the emperor to retreat ; an armistice was concluded in November 1537 and a truce was arranged in the following June. For book viii Martin is able to avail himself of letters and other documents collected by his brother. His account of the famous siege of Peronne is reproduced from a contemporary plaquette, which is also utilized in the compilation known as the Cronique du roy Frangoys premier, and the long account of the assassination of the two French envoys, Rincon and Fregoso, which led to the outbreak of the third war (ix. 3-53), is illustrated by letters and memoirs from the same source. From July 1542, that is to say from the middle of book ix, Martin is left to himself, and henceforward, instead of history, we have pure memoirs, that is to say a simple record of the writer's experiences — the experiences of a soldier. His account of the confused battle of Ceresole (Cerisoles), in which he played a not undistin- guished part, may be compared with that of Monluc, who also did good service on that occasion. A valuable introduction, dealing chiefly with 1 Ante, xxvi. 627. L2