BARLAAM AND JOS'APHAT. One of the most widely spread religious romances of the Middle Ages. It is a Christianized version of the legendary history of Buddha, agreeing with it in ninny details. The story is briefly as follows: Josaphat was the only son of a heathen king in India, named Avenier. In order to prevent the fultilhnent of a prediction that he would be con verted to Christianity, Josaphat was brought up in close confinement under the care of heathen teachers, and surrounded by every luxury. Being visited, however, by a Christian hermit, Barlaam, be learned of the strange faith and was baptized. So great was his piety that he converted many of his companions, and finally even his father. On the latter's death he succeeded to the king don, but soon after abdicated and went into the wilderness. There he met Barlaam and lived a holy life. The celebrated divine, John Damas cene, was formerly regarded as the author of the original Greek MS., which was first published by M. de Boissonade in the fourth volume of his Ancedota (Paris, 1832), and translated into Ger man by Liebrecht ( Miinster, 1847). But even in the Middle Ages, a Latin version of this romance had been extensively circulated. About the end of the Fifteenth Century. it was often printed in a detached form, and later it appeared among the works of John Damascene (Paris, 1609). This theory of its authorship is no longer ac cepted. Vincent de Beauvais wove the story into his Speculum Historialc. In a condensed form the story appears in the Golden Legend of Ja cobus de Veragme. From the Latin version
sprang three French poetical versions belonging to the Thirteenth Century, and as yet Imprinted. The Italian Storia di S. Barbiam (latest edition, Rome, 1816) may be traced to a Provencal original as early as the beginning of the Four teenth Century. In Germany, Rudolf von Ems derived his poem, Barlaam and Josaphat, first printed at Konigsberg (1818), and later at Leip zig, from the Latin. There is also an Augsburg impression of a prose translation of the ancient Latin text, belonging to the close of the Fifteenth Century. Barlaum and Josaphat appears in Middle English, in both a prose and a poetic-al the former edited by C. Horstmann. The Spanish Ilistoria de Burlaant y Josaphat, by Juan de Arze Solorzano (Madrid, 1608), the Polish poetical version, by Kulizowsky (Cracow, 1688). and also the Bohemian (Prague, 1593), are all borrowed from the Latin; while the ice landic Barlaams Saga, and the Swedish popular tale, Barlaam. och Josaphat, both from the Fif teenth Century, have a German source. A Nor wegian version, printed from an old vellum MS. of the beginning of the Thirteenth Century, said to have been translated by King Halton Sverre son, appeared in 1851. This ronmnee has even been rendered into the Tagalog language of the Philippines, and there printed (Manila, 1712). Consult: Liebrecht. Znr lolkskunde (Heilbrmm, 1879) ; Max Muller, Selected Essays (London, 1881) ; and H. Zotenberg, Notice sae lc lirre de Barlaam et Joasaph (Paris, 1886).