t that she made yt; But bicause she was a notable Benefactour
to Learned men and perchaunce to y^e autor of this Booke. And therefore
diuers of them sette furthe their Bookes under her name. See y^e Booke of
Noblesse in englishe and Chrystines Life amongste y^e autors de claris
mulieribus as I rem[=e]ber.
On the title-page are the autograph inscriptions of two of the former
owners of the volume, _Sum Humfridi LLoyd_ and _Lumley_: and at the end is
inscribed _Iste liber constat Joh'i Gamston' Generoso_. It seems not
improbable that the entry above extracted was written by Lord Lumley.
[7] At the end of the life of Saint Louis by Geoffroi de Beaulieu, in the
_Historiens de la_ _France_, tome xx. p. 26, (1840, folio,) will be found
the Instructions of king Louis to his Son, in their vernacular language. A
copy of them, headed "Ce sont les enseignemens que mons^r sainct Loys fist
a son filz Charles roy de France," occurs in the MS. at the College of Arms
which contains many things about sir John Fastolfe. (MS. Arundel XXVI. fol.
ii v.)
[8] Vegetius was a great authority with the writers of the middle ages.
Monstrelet commences the prologue to the second volume of his chronicles by
citing the book of "un tresrenomme philosophe nomme Vegece, qu'il feist de
la vaillance et prudence de chevalerie." The treatise of Vegetius de Re
Militari had been translated into French about the year 1284, by Jean de
Meun, one of the authors of the Roman de la Rose. In the fifteenth century
it was one of the principal sources of a book entitled "Lart de cheualerie
selon Vegece; lequel trait de la maniere que les princes doiuent tenir au
fait de leurs guerres et batailles." This was printed at Paris by Anthoine
Verard in 1488; and it was, at the command of king Henry VII. translated by
Caxton, and printed by him at Westminster in the following year, as "The
Fayttes of Armes and of Chyvallrye," which (he states in his colophon,)
"Christian of Pise made and drew out of the book named Vegecius de Re
Militari, and out of the Arbre of Battles." Now, Christina de Pisan was a
poetess: and it is not likely that she had more to do with this treatise on
the art of war than the "dame Christine" of our present author had with the
Arbre des Batailles. Indeed it is probable that the two misappropriations
are connected in their origin. On the actual productions of Christine de
Pisan, which furnished other works to our first English printer, see the
descrip
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