After A.D. 1000 the Romance language may be considered as having become duly formed, and the age of the Troubadours began. William, count of Poictiers, is oue of the earliest whose works have been pre served. ln the 12th century the institution of the Courts of Love was established. That century was the brilliant age of Romance poetry, and in the same Wacc wrote in North or Norman French his Roman du Roy.' In the 13th century the war and massacre of the Albigenses, and the establishment of the Inquisition, frightened away many of the adepts of "la ga,ya ciencia ; " and afterwards several other events, such as the accession of the house of Anjou or Provence to the throne of Naples, and the encroachments of the Northern French, contributed to the decline of the troubadour poetry, and at the same time of the Romance language. The Italian or Tuscau rose upon its decay. When Dante appeared, the decline had already begun, and it was com pleted during the first part of the 14th century. (Raynouard, Choix de Poeaies Originates des Troubadours ; ' Professor Diez, 'Leben and W'erke der Troubadours,' Zwickau, 1S29.) In the 15th century king Rena made some attempts at reviving the poetry of the Longue d'Oe, but the race of the Troubadours was now extiuct, and the only result of his endeavours was tho collecting and compiling the lives of the old Troubadours by the monk of the isles of I iyeres, Le 3Ionge des Isles d'Or." In Eastern Spain also the Inquisition destroyed many mauu scripts in the Limosin or Valencian language, as being suspected of containing heresy. In 1431 the library of the Marquis de Villein at Barcelona was burnt on suspicion of containing sorcery. (Ferrario, Storia ed Analiai degli antichi Romani; &e.) Various political and social circumstances had contributed to give to the League d'Oc that early refinement in an age of comparative ignorance and barbarism which is still a matter of surprise to philo logists and historical inquirers. The provinces of Southern France had not, like Italy and the northern parts of France, been overrun by a succession of barbarians ; they had not been exposed to the ravages of the Slavonians, the Huns, and the Danes. The Burgundians and the Visigoths!, who had settled there nearly about the same time, were more civilised than the other German races ; they amalgamated gradually and quietly with the old inhabitants, and they applied them selves to agricultural pursuits, which a fertile soil and a happy climate rendered pleasant and productive. The country suffered no subsequent invasion from the northern tribes, and the victory of Charles Martel in the plains of Tours arrested the advance of the Saracens from the west. Southern France was, it is true, subjugated by the Franks, who had occupied the countries north of the Loire, but the Franks had by that time formed themselves into a regular monarchy under Pepin and Charlemagne, and were no longer unruly, barbarians. During the decline and imbecility of the latter princes of the Carlovingian dynasty, Southern France became a separate and independent state, of which duke Bozon, an active and vigorous man, became monarch, and the kingdom of Arles or Provence extended over the whole south of France. The descendants of Bozon retained their sovereignty for more than two hundred years; and when the male line ended in 1092, in the person of Count Gillibert, his stator became the dowry of his daughters, of whom the elder, Douce, heiress of Provence, was married in the year 1112 to Raymond Ilerenger, count of Barcelona, and her sister Stephanie married the count of Toulouse. A treaty, concluded in 1125, between the counts of Barcelona and Toulouse, fixed the division of the states of Oillibert between them. Another powerful baron, the count of Poitiers, became duke of Aquitaine or Guyenne, which afterwards came by marriage into the possession of Henry II. of England. These three states, Barcelona, Toulouse, and Guicnne included the whole country in which the Langue d'Oc was spoken. The union of Provence with Catalonia introduced into the former country a taste for poetry and chivalry, which was fostered in Spain by the Moors. The maritime towns of Catalonia and Provence carried on a lucrative trade all over the Mediterranean, and Catalonian armaments took an active part in the Eastern wars between the Greeks, the Normans, and the Saracens. All these circumstances contributed to refine the manners of the people as well as their language, and the singular institution of the Courts of Love gave a peculiar turn to their poetry. [Tirounanouns.] The Langue d'011, or Northern French, also called sometimes Nor man French, having become the language of the court and capital of the kingdom of France, gradually encroached upon the Lar.4nie d'Oe, as the various provinces south of the Loire became incorporated with the monarchy. From the 13th century downwards, the edicts and ordinances of the French kings being issued in the Longue d'Oil, were forwarded, either in the original or translated into Latin, to the pro vinces of the south. The writers of Northern France, the Trouveres, refined their own language, and found encouragement at court, which was not extended to the writers in the Langue d'Oc. Ronsard, who was a native of the south, in his Abregd de l'Art Poetique,' complains of this ; " Now that our France is all subject to one Icing, we are if we wish to attain honour or fame, to speak his language, rise our works, however honourable and perfect, would be thought Male of, or :night perhaps be altogether despised and neglected." With the invention of printing, copies of the works in the Laugue &Oil were speedily multiplied, while those of the Troubadours re mained meetly in manuscripts, confined to a few libraries. In the 16th century it was enactexi that all public acts and deeds should be written in French. The Longue d'Oc, being thus restricted to the mere purposes of a domestic idiom, degenerated Into various patois or dialects. Still there appeared, here and there, in the 17th and IStli centuries, several native poets who wrote with spirit and humour in their respective patois, such as Leave, a Languedocian, whose bur lesque and frequently licentious poems were published at 3lontpelier ' Les Folios de le Sage,' 1650; Atter, ' Lou Gentilhomme Gascoun; Toulouse, 1610, and ' Lou Catounet Gascon,' 1611 ; a version of Homer's' Batrachomyonuichia; in Gascon, La Granoul-Batromachio; Toulouse, 1664; ' La Paateumle (a comedy in 4 acts) deo Paysan qua cerqtie mestie a ae•u hide,' in the dialect of Warn by Fondeville de Lapeer, Pau, 1767 ; ' L'Etubarrats de la !leis° de Beaucaire,' by Michel, Amsterdam, 1700; 'Actea du Spied° de la Salute Reformation,' Montpelier, 1599, a satire against the Calvinists, by Reboul, a witty but profligate adventurer, who was at last executed at 'Rome, under pope Paul V., in September, 1611, in consequence of his undiscrimina
ting satirical propensity ; ' Lou Banquet, par Augid, Gaillard, Paris, 15S3 ; the' Jardin ileys Muses Proveneales; Aix, 1628; &c.
In Spain the Latin language became corrupted, though perhaps less rapidly and at a later date than In Italy and France, which is proved by the fact that during the 8th and 9th centuries masters were pro cured from the Peninsula to teach that language in Italy. It is another evidence of this, that till the beginning of the 12th century, Latin, though corrupt, was the only language used among the Christian population of the Peninsula, not only in the acts of the costes and councils, but also in the municipal fucros, the public edicts, diplomas, testaments, and the writings of authors. It was also the language of the tribunals, until San Fernando, about the middle of the 13th century, caused the Liber Judicum ' to be translated into the vulgar tongue.
The corrupt Latin of Spain gave rise to the Catalouiau and Valen elan, the old Portuguese or Galician, and the Castilian or modern Spanish. The last two, and especially the Castilian, received a con siderable admixture of Arabic words (said to be about 2000 in the Spanish language), from which the Catalonian remained comparatively free. The process of corruption of the Latin into Romance was the Immo as in France and Italy, and may be traced even in the writings of the clergy, who professed to use the literary language of the country. Elipando, bishop of Toledo, a man of learning for the time, who strongly opposed the introduction into Spain of the tenets of the supre macy and infallibility of the Roman see, writes to Felix, bishop of Urgel, in the following style : Domino Felice, sciente vos reddo quia vestro scriple acccpi ....direxi vobis scriptum parvum de fratre Mili tane ....ego vero direxi cpistolarn tuam ad Cordoba," &c.
It is impossible to fix the epochs of the origin of the various lau guages of the Spanish peninsula. The Catalonian and Galician or old Portuguese appear to be the oldest. The Castilian, notwithstanding the assertion of Bouterwek to the contrary, was not formed in the 11th century ; its oldest existing monument, the poem of ' El Cid,' is not older than the year 1200. Previous to the 12th century the Galician, or old Portuguese, appears to have prevailed in all western Spain. An old manuscript Cancioneiro in this dialect, belonging to the library of the Royal College of the Nobles at Lisbon, of which Sir Charles Stuart obtained a copy, which he communicated to Itaynouard, speaks of the Galician dialect as being spoken in Galicia and in Portugal, as far south as Coimbra, iu the 10th and I 1th centuries, after which the Portuguese grew into a separate and polished dialect, which was much in use for poetry among Galicians and Castilians as well as Portuguese. (Rayuouard,' Grammaire Comparde; Discount Prdliminaire.) In the' Elucidactio dais Palavras, Teranos, e Frases que em Portugal antiguamente se unfree, 2 vols. fol., Lisbon, 1793. are other specimens of old Portuguese or Galician compositions. The original text of the ' Amadis de (Mule,' by Vasco de Lobeira, which is lost, was written iu the same Language.
The Catalonian dialect became early a literary language, and as such subject to fixed grammatical rules; it has its grammars and diction aries, a great number of printed books, and a still greater number in manuscript. It had its historians; among others an anonymous his torian of Catalonia, mentioned by Zurita in his Chronieas de Aragon ;' Bernard do &lot, who lived in the 13th century, and wrote a history of the principality of Catalonia and of the Aragoneso kings subsequent to the junction of the two states; and King Jaymo I. of Aragon, who wrote an account of his own reign, which has been published under the following title: Chronica o Commentari del gleriosissina e invictissim Rey Jacule Rey d'Arag6 do 31allorques o de Valencia, Compto do Barcelona o du Urgell, o do Muntpellier, merit.' per aquell en sa ingua natural, e treita del Arehiu del molt inagnifich Rational de la insigue Ciutat de Valencia, loon estava custodita,' Valencia, 1557. King Jaymo also wrote a book ' de In Saviesa" on wisdom,' quoted by Nicelaus Antonio, in his Bibliotheca Vetus.' The Catalonian is rich in poetry, which was introduced into the l'cninaula by the Troubadours of Provence and Languedoc. Alonso II. of Aragon, in the 12th century, is numbered among its poets, as well as Guillermo do Bergue clan, a Catalonian noble, who lived iu the following century, and some of whose verses are preserved in a manuscript in the Vatican library. Mosey Pero March, Jacuie March, 3losen Jorde, 3losen Febler, and Auaias March of Valencia, rank also among the Catalonian, Aragoneae, and Valencian Troubadours. [Tuounanouas.] The languages of Aragon and Valencia, iu the time of the Aragonese monarchy, may be considered as one and the same with the Catalonian. It is worthy of seamark, that at the end of the 13th century, when the Castilian language had already gained the preponderance in a great part of Spain, we find a controversial conference between the Jews of Granada and some Christian missionaries from Castile, carried on in the Catalonian language, which appears to have been vernacular at Granada. (` Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Barcelona,' i., p. 615.) In the same Memoirs (p. 613) it is stated that the bishop of °reuse, having been requested to examine what analogy there might he between the vulgar Galician and the Catalonian, answered, that there were in both, not only nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech quite identical, but also entire phrases. And Terreros (in his Paleography') and others have stated, that the language of Asturias is the same as that of Galicia, bating the difference of prouunciatiou.