One of the oldest of them is probably the most curious and remarkable of the whole number. It is appropriately called “The Celestial Chivalry,” and was written by Hierónimo de San Pedro, at Valencia, and printed in 1554, in two thin folio volumes.[393] In his Preface, the author declares it to be his object to drive out of the world the profane books of chivalry; the mischief of which he illustrates by a reference to Dante’s account of Francesca da Rimini. In pursuance of this purpose, the First Part is entitled “The Root of the Fragrant Rose”; which, instead of chapters, is divided into “Wonders,” _Maravillas_, and contains an allegorical version of the most striking stories in the Old Testament, down to the time of the good King Hezekiah, told as the adventures of a succession of knights-errant. The Second Part is divided, according to a similar conceit, into “The Leaves of the Rose”; and, beginning where the preceding one ends, comes down, with the same kind of knightly adventures, to the Saviour’s death and ascension. The Third, which is promised under the name of “The Flower of the Rose,” never appeared, nor is it now easy to understand where consistent materials could have been found for its composition; the Bible having been nearly exhausted in the two former parts. But we have enough without it. [393] Who this Hierónimo de San Pedro was is a curious question. The Privilegio declares he was a Valencian, alive in 1554; and in the Bibliothecas of Ximeno and Fuster, under the year 1560, we have Gerónimo Sempere given as the name of the well-known author of the “Carolea,” a long poem printed in that year. But to him is not attributed the “Caballería Celestial”; nor does any other Hierónimo de San Pedro occur in these collections of lives, or in Nicolas Antonio, or elsewhere that I have noted. Are they, nevertheless, one and the same person, the name of the poet being sometimes written Sentpere, Senct Pere, etc.?