As may
be anticipated, a great proportion of the works which it includes
relate to theology and scholastic divinity; and the Bollandists present
their formidable front of fifty-four ponderous folios.
[Illustration: Initial Letter from a MS. of the History of William of Jumieges]
The manuscripts, of which I understand there are full eight hundred, are
of much greater value than the printed books. But they are at present
unarranged and uncatalogued, though M. Licquet, the librarian, has been
for some time past laboring to bring them into order. Among those
pointed out to us, none interested me so much as an original autograph;
of the _Historica Normannorum_, by William de Jumiegies, brought from
the very abbey to which he belonged. There is no doubt, I believe, of
its antiquity; but, to enable you to form your own judgment upon the
subject, I send you a tracing of the first paragraph.
[Illustration: Historica Normannorum tracing of autograph]
I also add a fac-simile of the initial letter of the foregoing epistle,
illuminated by the monk, and in which he has introduced himself in the
act of humbly presenting his work to his royal namesake.
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