of the catalogue there is a note, "Le Roy l'a par devers soy,"--"The
King has it by him." At the time of his death the volume had not yet been
returned to its proper place in the first hall of the Louvre; but in the
inventory drawn up in 1411 it appears again, with the following
description:(30)--

"Une grant partie de la vie et des fais de Monseigneur Saint Loys
que fist faire le Seigneur de Joinville; tres-bien escript et
historie. Convert de cuir rouge, a empreintes, a deux fermoirs
d'argent. Escript de lettres de forme en francois a deux
coulombes; commencant au deuxieme folio 'et porceque,' et au
derrenier 'en tele maniere.' "

This means, "A great portion of the life and actions of St. Louis which
the Seigneur de Joinville had made, very well written and illuminated.
Bound in red leather, tooled, with two silver clasps. Written in formal
letters in French, in two columns, beginning on the second folio with the
words '_et porceque_,' and on the last with '_en tele maniere_.' "

During the Middle Ages and before the discovery of printing, the task of
having a literary work published, or rather of having it copied, rested
chiefly with the author; and as Joinville himself, at his time of life,
and in the position which he occupied, had no interest in what we should
call "pushing" his book, this alone is quite sufficient to explain its
almost total neglect. But other causes, too, have been assigned by M.
Paulin Paris and others for what seems at first sight so very strange,--the
entire neglect of Joinville's work. From the beginning of the twelfth
century the monks of St. Denis were the recognized historians of France.
They at first collected the most important historical works of former
centuries, such as Gregory of Tours, Eginhard, the so-called Archbishop
Turpin, Nithard, and William of Jumieges. But beginning with the first
year of Philip I., 1060-1108, the monks became themselves the chroniclers
of passing events. The famous Abbot Suger, the contemporary of Abelard and
St. Bernard, wrote the life of Louis le Gros; Rigord and Guillaume de
Nangis followed with the history of his successors. Thus the official
history of St. Louis had been written by Guillaume de Nangis long before
Joinville thought of dictating his personal recollections of the King.
Besides the work of Guillaume de Nangis, there was the "History of the
Crusades," including that of St. Louis, written by Guillaume, Archbis