speak of the Council, they being the mere automata of the officers, and we most earnestly entreat them, as the first step towards elevating the character of the institution, to suspend, if not to abolish, the "Archæologia" and "Monumenta Vetusta." If they refer to these volumes, and impartially examine the merits of the various papers inserted, they will find that, with very few exceptions, they have formed the place of refuge for essays of no value to any human being but their authors; that they have been the receptacle for absurd conjectures upon unimportant facts; for ridiculous attempts at deciphering the scribblings, or explaining the rude drawings of some herdsman upon the stone on which he sat to watch his flocks, and which were considered ancient, because they were unintelligible, or, to use the felicitous definition of a Fellow of the Society in the volume before us, because they were" inscriptions not intended to be intelligible." Against the perpetuation of this folly, in the name of common sense, we protest. We entreat the nobleman who condescends,—and we use the term not in reference to his rank or official situation, because these confer no lustre upon literature, but to his talents and character,-to preside over the institution, to render its proceedings consistent with the age in which we live. The demand for knowledge of all kinds is loud and irresistible; and history -history not adulterated by the hypotheses or meretricious ornaments of those who write it was never more fully appreciated, or more ardently sought. The most valuable materials for history are yet in manuscript, or concealed under the repulsive garb of monkish Latin; and it is to the publication of the one, and the translation of the other, that the funds and labours of a Society of Antiquaries ought to be directed. We could cite MSS. of the greatest historical interest, which would employ those resources for many years; and is there any man who will compare the utility of printing them, and of publishing translations of our early chroniclers, with the trash which for more than half a century has been put forth under the title of the Archæologia? We may be told, that for the learned such translations would be superfluous; but have the unlearned, the great mass of the English population, no claims upon a Society instituted for the advancement and diffusion of historical literature? Is it to cater alone for the wants of those who are able to read the early chroniclers in the original, a class from which the most elegant scholars, and those best acquainted with the French language, must be equally excluded, instead of being animated by that feeling which is every where abroad, and which inculcates, that the streams of knowledge, like the purest element, should be open to all who will drink; that the intellectual thirst shall be as easily slaked as the natural; and that

no man may seek and be refused? For this purpose, with respect to science, societies are daily created; it ought, then, to form the object of the institution incorporated for the promotion of a branch of knowledge honoured in all lands and in all ages-the history of our country-to increase and diffuse it, whilst, by the publication of important MSS., it will augment the stores of the best informed historian and antiquary. Let it do this rather than create an asylum for bricks and potsherds; and by making our countrymen, generally, acquainted with the moral and political condition of their ancestors, teach them, to appreciate the free and liberal government under which they live; to contrast the institutions for improving the minds and alleviating the miseries of their fellow-creatures, for which this age and country are distinguished, with the total want of the one and partial existence of the other in former times; above all, let it enable them to trace the gradual advancement of science and the consequent decline of superstition; the equal progress of education and the fall of bigotry; the general prosperity of the country, and its emancipation from political bondage: to compare the happiness of the community at large, under a popular monarch, with the misery which was experienced under warlike tyrants; and thus convince them, that the "good old times" were times of slavery and ignorance, and that the best "times" this country ever knew are the present.

Let the Society of Antiquaries labour to extend information which must produce such important results; and it will redeem itself from the obloquy which it has unfortunately deserved. This is a period when to be useless will be deemed to be little short of being mischievous; and its Fellows may rest assured, that the Argus of this country, the press, will not fail to discover, and, when discovered, to expose, in a manner which will command attention, the "laborious nothings" and "learned triflings" upon which so much money is now wasted, and which are published in the name of a Society consisting, it is true, of a great majority of persons, whose names, as individuals, it would be the bitterest satire to speak of in connexion with literature, but among whom are some men whom it is an honour to be acquainted with, and whose literary reputation is established on the firmest foundation,

Itineraria Symonis Simeonis et Willelmi de Worcestre; quibus accedit Tractatus de Metro, in quo traduntur regulæ a scriptoribus medii ævi in versibus Leoninis observatæ ; e codicibus MSS. in Biblioth. C. C. C. Cantab. asservatis, primus eruit ediditque Jac. Nasmith, A.M. ejusdem collegii socius.

The Itineraries of Simon Simeon and William Worcestre, with a Treatise upon Leonine verse, &c. Cambridge, 1778, 8vo. pp. 388.

DR. JAMES NASMITH', during his residence at Corpus Christi or Benet College, Cambridge, examined and classed the very valuable manuscripts bequeathed to their library by Archbishop Parker in 1575; and, in the course of his researches, considered the three articles, in particular, concerning which we are about to treat, as worthy of transcription, and of being published in one volume. Their subjects are different, but each of considerable interest to the antiquarian reader; and as the book itself had a confined circulation, and is become rare, we do not hesitate to offer a copious analysis of its very curious

contents.

The first in order is the Itinerary of Simon Simeon, called in English Fitz-Simeon, from Ireland, and probably Dublin, to Jerusalem, where it is concluded, and remains a fragment. He was a minorite of the rule of St. Francis, of a convent established in Dublin, from which city he tells us that, in company with another friar of the same order, called, from the art he professed, Hugh the Illuminator, he commenced his arduous pilgrimage, on the 15th of April, 13222, and the fifteenth year of King Edward the Second. The journal is written in Latin, with many monkish rather than classical phrases, but which seem to rise to a degree of eloquence, as exerted upon several occasions. He commences his narrative in a style considerably pompous for a humble mendicant and pilgrim, and boasts of "having despised the summit of honour, because he was inflated with the seraphic ardour of visiting the Holy Land"."

During the twelfth century, pilgrimages from Europe to Jerusalem had become frequent; and the institution of the

That gentleman published a new and enlarged edition of Tanner's Notitia Monastica in 1787, and died in 1808.

2 xvii Kal. Aprili, A. D. milesimo cccxxii.

3 Under an impression that a translation, rather than quotations from the original, may be more acceptable to many of our readers, we have given the subjoined as a specimen of Simeon's Latin style:

"Culmine honoris spreto ac aliis noxiis morarum dispendiis totaliter sublatis, agredi cum idea devotionis, nudum Christum in studio, devotissimæ peregrinationis terræ sanctæ currere atque discurrere cupientibus, &c. Symon Simeonis et Hugo Illuminator, ordinis Fratrum Minorum professores, seraphicis inflati ardoribus versus terram sanctam."

Knights Hospitallers had taken place, and that of the Knights Templars soon followed: the first to receive the pilgrims when arrived at the Holy Sepulchre, and the second to guard them through Palestine from the injuries which they might receive from its infidel inhabitants 1.

To such of our readers as may be inclined to an actual inspection of the MS. Itineraries of travellers into Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, we present the following slight catalogue raisonnée of several which are found in the English libraries, having, for the purpose of comparison, pored over them with certain perseverance.

I. The earliest MS. is probably that of Bernard, a Spanish monk, A. D. 970, in company with two other monks. "Itinerarium trium Monachorum, scilicet Bernardi, duobus fratribus sociati, Vincentio de Benevento et altro Hispano, nomine Stephanus." They sailed from Benevento to Alexandria, and having obtained a passport, they immediately commenced their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Passing up the Nile (per fluvium Gihon) they came to Damietta, and through the desert to Gaza, and from thence by the usual route to Jerusalem. The convents, as they occurred, and their reception in them, are the only circumstances mentioned; but not the slightest account of the country, with regard to its antiquities or natural history. The most memorable thing they mention is the perfect security from any insult from the natives, in which they travelled. At the close are described the Holy City, with its surrounding wall of eighty-four towers, and some of the adjacent places. The MS. is fairly written, of a much later date. Cotton. Plut. 25. B. 163. Mabillon has printed it among his " Acta.”

II. The next, MS. Cotton, A. 6, is a well-written MS. of 163 pages 4to. "Itinerarium et Gesta Richardi Regis Angliæ, Philippi Regis Franciæ, et Frederici Imperatoris Allemanniæ. Author Ricardus canonicus S. Trin. London." This Richard was an Augustin canon, who attended the King of England, probably as a chaplain and secretary. It gives a very minute and curious account of the march of the allies, and their engagements with Saladin, in the third crusade, in 1191, to which his observations are solely confined. Short and distinct notices are given of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, &c.

III. Our countryman, Sir John Mandevylle, commenced his journey the same year with Simon Simeon, as he tells us "I, Sir J. Mandevyll, that went out of the country, and passed the sea in the yeare of our Lorde M.CCC.XXII. I have completyt this boke, and do wryte it, in the yeare of our Lorde M.CCC.LVI., at thirty-three yeare from my d'parture from this countrey." MSS. Cotton. Titus, C. xvi. It is a well-written quarto of the date, containing 132 pages. The first printed edition is in a small 4to., 1568, embellished with various wood-cuts of reliques, and monstrous birds and beasts. See the last in 8vo. 1727. It must be allowed, that our worthy knight was not a little credulous, no less concerning the reliques which he saw, than the monsters and other incredibilia which he learned from the Coptic monks, and which he does not pretend to have seen. Aware that the English take less delight in marvellous relations than the orientals, he cites the perfect approbation of the Pope, to whom, upon his return through Rome, he had exhibited his journal. He tells us, that he saw at Constantinople," the crosse of our Lorde Jhesu Chryste, and the coat withoute semes, which ys clept tunica inconsumpta,” and adds, by way of illustration, that the cross preserved at Ĉyprus is that of the good thief Dymas.

In the third volume of the Retrospective Review, p. 269-293, so ample an account of "Sir John Mandeville, Knight, and his voiage and travaile," is given, as to preclude the necessity of any further remark..

IV. A Survey of Egypt and Syria, in the year 1422, by Sir Gilbert De Lannoy, Knight, translated from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, by Rev. J. Webb, M.A. F.S.A. and published in the 21st vol. of the Archæologia, p. 281-444. A perfect knowledge of the subject and successful investigation in the dissertation and notes, deserve the thanks of every reader. The MS. is in the French of that age. It was the result of a journey undertaken by the command of King Henry V. to make a correct report of the state of the ports and military positions in Egypt, previously to a projected crusade, upon which that monarch was firmly resolved, when prevented by death, in the castle at Rouen, in 1422. The commission appears to have been very ably performed, and the descriptions of places are copious and accurate.

The Crusades originated in 1095, in the preaching of Peter the Hermit, then newly returned from the sacred enterprise; and the fiat of the Vatican, issued by the Popes Gregory VII. and Urban II. with the promise of a plenary redemption from the pains of purgatory, held forth an imperative inducement to all ranks and degrees. The princes and nobles of every country in Europe felt an irresistible impulse to visit and recover the Holy Land. Men, women, and children were enrolled under the banner of the Cross; and, like the countless sands of the desert, when elevated by a whirlwind, which are soon dissipated; this ungovernable rabble was reduced and nearly destroyed by fatigue, disease, and famine, ere they had performed their vow, and few only returned to see their native land. In the six successive crusades the pilgrims were not necessarily attached to the armies. Of these, the last took place in 1291, thirty-one years only before this itinerary commences—and that was decisive. The Latin cities and churches were then destroyed by the Soldan, but the Holy Sepulchre was spared: as it is remarked by Gibbon, "a motive of avarice or fear still opened the Holy Sepulchre to some devout and defenceless pilgrims; and a mournful and solitary silence prevailed along the coast, which had so long resounded with the world's debate.""

So many volumes have been compiled to form a history of these expeditions that, if all were collected, they would occupy many pages in the catalogue of a library. We have alluded to these circumstances merely as a necessary preliminary to an investigation of Fitz-Simeon's MS. with respect to that part of the world at the precise period when he undertook the journey. The three chief ports by which there is an access to Palestine are in Egypt: Alexandria, Rosetta, and Damietta. The pilgrims from our own country usually passed to the south of France, and proceeded to Rome either by land or sea, and from thence to Loretto, and down the Adriatic; and having touched at Cyprus or Candia, landed at Alexandria: sometimes to Venice, without having visited Rome. Those from Constantinople sailed through the Archipelago to Rhodes, and from thence to a more eastern part of Egypt. But the greater number appear

V. William Wey, fellow of Eton College, who died in 1474, had twice made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. His Itinerary is extant in the Bodleian Library (MSS. No. 565), and contains, at the beginning of it, directions to succeeding pilgrims, how to facilitate their perilous journey, and avoid the dangers incident to it.

The first book ever printed concerning Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, was "Peregrinatio Bernhardi de Briedenbach. Moguntiæ, 1486." It is illustrated with wood-cuts of Venice, Rhodes, &c. probably one of the earliest attempts.

Marco Polo's travels were published in 1818, with most judicious notes.