♦ 1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 451 agentibus pervenit ad manus nostras libellus Aristotelis de motu animalium. . . . What is the meaning of iuxta Graeciam ? Geographically the words appear to be a strange description of Campania. Father Pelster (who dates this journey of Albert's in 1262) suggests, therefore, that Albert simply alludes to the fact that the translation of this Aristotelian work was made in Greece, i. e. by William of Moerbeke at the convent of Thebes. But surely this interpretation is more incredible than the geographical ? Even Aristotle did not exhaust Albert's astonishing energy. After 1270 he compiled a Summa Theologiae, and ended with one or two little works on the Mass. The De adhaerendo Deo can no longer be ascribed to him. Father Pelster finds it suggestive of Thomas a Kempis, and in a foot-note informs us that Grabmann has now traced the authorship to a Benedictine living at the end of the fourteenth, or the beginning of the fifteenth, century. Albert's relation to mysticism must therefore be sought chiefly in his study of ' the Areopagite '. W. H. V. Reade. Ireland under the Normans, vols, iii, iv. 1216-1333. By Goddard Henry Orpen. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1920.) Materials for the History of the Franciscan Province of Ireland, A.D. 1230- 1450. Collected and edited by the late Rev. Father E. B. Fitzmaurice, O.F.M., and A. G. Little. British Society of Franciscan Studies, vol. ix. (Manchester : University Press, 1920.) . The earlier volumes of Mr. Orpen's Ireland under the Normans were published in 1911 and noticed in this Review in the following year. 1 The concluding volumes are marked by the qualities which distinguished the first part of the work, grasp of facts, intimate knowledge of feudal history and topography, a cool judgement, a lucid style. They are also subject to the same limitations. If we would do full justice to his book, we must remember that the author is mainly concerned with the history of the great feudal franchises. He is an enthusiastic as well as an expert topographer who is able to bring a wide and sane scholarship to bear upon the details of local and family history. He has no use for vague generalizations. Hence he has laid a solid foundation, hitherto entirely lacking, which will be invaluable to future scholars, whatever their particular interests may be. He has given us a map of Ireland in the thirteenth century with its baronial centres and has revealed to us all the fluctuations of local feuds. We cannot admire too much the industry and zest with which Mr. Orpen has searched Pipe Rolls and Justiciary Rolls, the various calendars of royal letters, and the very extensive proceedings of the Irish archaeological societies, in order to elucidate the annals. His own intimate knowledge of Ireland has frequently enabled him to identify a fort or explain a doubtful allusion. Yet he has never permitted the details to distract him from his main task, the compilation of a balanced survey of Ireland in the thirteenth century. It is obvious that this is far from being a history of Ireland in the century of Frederick II and Saint Louis, of Alfonso the Wise and Edward I, of Bracton and St. Thomas Aquinas. The limitations of Mr. Orpen's method 1 Ante, xxvii. 144-7. Gg2
