Saint-Jean-Baptiste. See iii and xiv; Mark,vi

NOTES

Page 88. — 8. Saint François of Assisi (1182-1226), “blameless and gentle.” Two years before his death, according to tradition, he beheld a vision of an angel on a cross and shortly afterwards the stigmata, the signs of Christ’s wounds received on the cross, appeared on his body.

lo-ii. tant s’en faut, far from it.

25-27. Calandrino . . . imbécile. Calandrino was simpleminded and the butt of his companions.

Page 89. — 20. harmonie des sphères, produced, according to the old astronomy, by the revolution of the heavenly bodies in their orbits.

21. Aristote. Aristotle’s philosophy and science were reintroduced into Europe by the Moorish invaders of Spain, and were held in honor through the Middle Ages.

25. Ptolémée, Ptolemy, Greek astronomer of the second century A.D. By the Ptolemaic system, held till the sixteenth century, the world was the center of the universe. — Arabes. The Arabs early distinguished themselves in the study of astronomy, and the Moors introduced it into Spain.

LA CAUTION

The main idea of this story — ■ a Christian merchant borrowing money from a Jew, pledging the image of Christ as security, and repaying the money on the fixed day by miraculous means — Anatole France has taken from the fourteenth century Miracle de un marchant et un juif, in vol. VI of Miracles de Nostre Dame, published by the Société des Anciens Textes Français. (See especially 11. 655-664 and 953-1 134.) The circumstances and the incidents of the story are quite different from the medieval poem, but the spirit of simple faith has been retained.

Page 93. — r. Venise. The republic of Venice, covering much more territory than the present city, was rich and powerful from the thirteenth century, reaching the height of its greatness in the fifteenth century, when it was the center of the commerce of the world.

NOTES

6. San Zanipolo, otherwise SS. Giovanni e Paolo, a great Gothic church of the fourteenth century, burial-place of the Doges.

7. Sainte Catherine, probably Catherine of Sienna (fourteenth century).

11-12. la guerre ... Naples. Venice and Genoa were often at war, fighting for commercial supremacy, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Venice was finally victorious. Disturbances in Naples during the same period were very frequent.