Decameron_, vol. i. p. clxxix.]




_LETTER IV._

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.


Are you thoroughly awake, and disenchanted from the magic which the
contents of the preceding letter may have probably thrown around you?
Arouse--to scenes of a different aspect, but of a not less splendid and
spirit-stirring character. Buckle on your helmet, ... for the trumpet
sounds to arms. The _Knights of the Round Table_ call upon you, from their
rock-hewn, or wood-embowered, recesses, to be vigilant, faithful,
enterprising, and undaunted. In language less elevated, and somewhat more
intelligible, I am about to place before you a few illuminated MSS.
relating to HISTORY and ROMANCE; not without, in the first place, making a
digression into one or two volumes of MORALITIES, if they may be so called.
Prepare therefore, in the first place, for the inspection of a couple of
volumes--which, for size, splendor, and general state of preservation, have
no superior in the Royal Library of France.

CITÉ DE DIEU: No. 6712: folio. 2 vols. These are doubtless among the most
magnificent _shew-books_ in this collection; somewhat similar, in size and
style of art, to the MS. of _Valerius Maximus_, in our British Museum--of
which, should you not have forgotten it, some account may be read in the
_Bibliographical Decameron_.[38] At the very first page we observe an
assemblage of Popes, Cardinals, and Bishops, with a King seated on his