Greatly favored in this comparative quiet, which, though sometimes broken by internal dissension, or by the ineffectual incursions of their new Arab neighbours, was nevertheless such as was hardly known elsewhere, and favored no less by a soil and climate almost without rivals in the world, the civilization and refinement of Provence advanced faster than those of any other portion of Europe. From the year 879, a large part of it was fortunately constituted into an independent government; and, what was very remarkable, it continued under the same family till 1092, two hundred and thirteen years.[488] During this second period, its territories were again much spared from the confusion that almost constantly pressed their borders and threatened their tranquillity; for the troubles that then shook the North of Italy did not cross the Alps and the Var; the Moorish power, so far from making new aggressions, maintained itself with difficulty in Catalonia; and the wars and convulsions in the North of France, from the time of the first successors of Charlemagne to that of Philip Augustus, flowed rather in the opposite direction, and furnished, at a safe distance, occupation for tempers too fierce to endure idleness. [488] Sismondi, Histoire des Français, Paris, 1821, 8vo, Tom. III. pp. 239, etc. In the course of these two centuries, a language sprang up in the South and along the Mediterranean, compounded, according to the proportions of their power and refinement, from that spoken by the Burgundians and from the degraded Latin of the country, and slowly and quietly took the place of both. With this new language appeared, as noiselessly, about the middle of the tenth century, a new literature, suited to the climate, the age, and the manners that produced it, and one which, for nearly three hundred years, seemed to be advancing towards a grace and refinement such as had not been known since the fall of the Romans. Thus things continued under twelve princes of the Burgundian race, who make little show in the wars of their times, but who seem to have governed their states with a moderation and gentleness not to have been expected amidst the general disturbance of the world. This family became extinct, in the male branch, in 1092; and in 1113, the crown of Provence was transferred, by the marriage of its heir, to Raymond Berenger, the third Count of Barcelona.[489] The Provençal poets, many of whom were noble by birth, and all of whom, as a class, were attached to the court and its aristocracy, naturally followed their liege lady, in considerable numbers, from Arles to Barcelona, and willingly established themselves in her new capital, under a prince full of knightly accomplishments and yet not disinclined to the arts of peace. [489] E. A. Schmidt, Geschichte Aragoniens im Mittelalter, Leipzig, 1828, 8vo, p. 92.