PREFACE. The original French heading "Avertissement" translates literally as "Warning" or "Notice," but in 18th-century publishing, it serves as the author's or editor's preface.

Without the immense labors of M. de Sainte-Palaie Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (1697–1781), a pioneering French scholar of medieval history and linguistics., the literary history of Europe, and of France in particular, would have always remained incomplete. Only the author of the Memoirs on Ancient Chivalry Sainte-Palaye’s most famous work, which helped spark the 18th-century revival of interest in the Middle Ages. could have snatched the troubadours from the tomb where their fame was buried along with their works. This respectable academician, sacrificing everything—health and fortune—to the deepest research into our national antiquities, has succeeded in discovering everything one could reasonably desire in a field of study bristling with thorns and capable of daunting even the most passionate thirst for knowledge. The Public will judge that this is not merely a discovery of idle curiosity, nor of fruitless erudition.

To know the troubadours, these ancient Provençal poets While "Provençal" specifically refers to the region of Provence, it was historically used as a catch-all term for the Occitan language of Southern France used by the troubadours., the fathers of modern literature, it was necessary to find and explain their works. The King’s Library original: "bibliothèque du Roi"; the royal collection that became the modern National Library of France (BnF). possesses only four manuscripts of them. Italy possesses a great many. Although a love for antiquity and the arts had already led M. de Sainte-Palaie there, he undertook a second journey to collect so many unknown or neglected monuments... The text ends mid-word with "négli-," the first part of "négligés" (neglected), continuing on the next page.