Literary History of the Troubadours

modern [scholars], often found their language unintelligible. The OCR reads "in-telligibles," but given the context of the errors made by Redi and Crescimbeni, it likely means "inintelligible" (unintelligible). In 18th-century French, "intelligible" was often used where we might now expect a negative to describe the difficulty of the Troubadour dialect. Famous Italians who had studied their poems, Redi and Crescimbeni, Francesco Redi (1626–1698) and Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni (1663–1728) were prominent scholars of Italian literature who attempted to trace the origins of poetry back to the Provençal troubadours. were unable to translate even a few passages without falling into misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Mr. de Sainte-Palaye Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (1697–1781) was a pioneering French scholar of the Middle Ages. was reduced to creating his own Dictionary; he did so; and if one knows even a little of his exactness regarding the smallest details, one will not doubt that he examined, sifted through, and compared every word in order to grasp the meaning of everything that can be interpreted.

Finally, the mere idea of his work is staggering to the imagination. Fifteen folio term: in-folio|A large book format where the printer's sheets are folded only once, indicating a massive and expensive scholarly work. volumes, containing the Provençal term: Provençal|The Occitan language of the Troubadours in Southern France, which was the first literary language of the Middle Ages but had become obscure by the 18th century. pieces, with the variants from different manuscripts; eight other volumes of extracts, where these pieces are partly translated and where each is listed in the alphabetical order of the authors; to say nothing of the glossary, the tables, and an infinity of notes: here is one of the most extraordinary monuments of the courage that can be inspired in a man of Letters, not by ambition or self-interest, but by the sole desire to acquire knowledge and to share it.

However, Mr. de Sainte-Palaye, occupied with another work of scholarship even more impor— The text cuts off mid-word, likely "important."