The The description of Wales is in verse. information it contains is nearly the same as that already extracted from the Polychronicon, and its source was undoubtedly the same; unless, indeed, it were borrowed directly from that Chronicle-a supposition perhaps more probable. L THE FRUIT OF TIMES. IN the compilation of this Chronicle, the same authorities were probably resorted to, as employed by Gower, in his Confessio Amantis; of which the three following are the principal: Cassiodorus, Isidorus, and Godfrey of Viterbo; to which may perhaps be added, the Gesta Romanorum. Cassiodorus wrote, at the command of Theodoric king of the Goths, a work named Chronicon Breve, beginning from Adam, and descending to the year 519; which was deduced chiefly from Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, The Chronicles of Prosper and Jerom, with Aurelius Victor's Origin of the Roman Nation. A translation of this Chronicle into Italian, by Ludovico Dolce, was printed in 1561. Isidorus, called Hispalensis, who florished in the seventh century, framed from the last author, a Cronicon from Adam, to the time of the emperor Heraclius, first printed in the year 1477. This also was translated into Italian, under the title of Cronica D'Isidoro, in 1480. It is sometimes called Chronica de sex Mundi ætatibus; Imago Mundi & Abreviatio Temporum; by the last of which titles, that of Fructus Temporum," was probably suggested. It was continued by Isidorus Pacensis, from 610 to 754; which continuation was printed in 1634, fol. Pampelon, under the title Epitome Imperatorum vel Arabum Ephemeridos unà cum Hispania Chronico. Isidore also wrote a History or Chronicle of the Goths, from the year 176, to the death of king Sisebut, in the year 628. It is to be found in Grotius's Collectio rerum Gothicarum, p. 707. Amst. 1655. 8vo. Godfrey of Viterbo was chaplain and notary to three German emperors, and died in 1190. He compiled in Latin, partly in prose, and partly in verse, a Chronicle, entitled Pantheon, or Memoria Seculorum, which commences, according to the established practice of the historians of the middle ages, with the creation, and is brought down to the year 1186. The subject of the work, in the words of the author, is the Old and New Testament; and all the emperors and kings, which have existed from the beginning of the world to his own times; of whom the origin, end, names, and atchievements, are commemorated. The authors, to whom this Chronicler is indebted for his materials, are Josephus, Dion Cassius, Strabo, Orosius, Hegesippus, Suetonius, Solinus, and Julius Africanus; among whom it is observable, there is not one of the purer Roman historians. The same author wrote also another Chronicle, called Speculum Regum, or the " Mirror of Kings," containing a genealogy of the potentates, Trojan and German, from Noah's flood, to the reign of the emperor Henry VI. from the Chronicles of Venerable Bede, Eusebius, and Ambrosius. Warton supposes the oldest edition of Gesta Romanorum to be that entitled Incipiunt Hystorie Notabiles, collecte ex Gestis Romanorum, et quibusdam aliis libris cum applicationibus eorundem. It is supposed to have been printed before, or about the year 1473. Several other editions succeeded; after which, an English translation of it was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, without date; and afterwards was published, "A Record of ancient Histories, in Latin, Gesta Romanorum, perused, corrected, and bettered, by R. Robinson, Lond. 1577." This |