History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, Vols. 1 and 2Prescott, William Hickling
History
History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, Vols. 1 and 2
Prescott, William Hickling
Philip II, King of Spain, 1527-1598; Spain -- History -- Philip II, 1556-1598
The abbé did not live to publish to the world an account of his
collection, which at his death passed by his will to his brethren
of the abbey of St. Vincent, on condition that it should be for
ever open for the use of the town of Besançon. It may seem strange
that, notwithstanding the existence of this valuable body of
original documents was known to scholars, they should so rarely
have resorted to it for instruction. Its secluded situation, in the
heart of a remote province, was doubtless regarded as a serious
obstacle by the historical inquirer, in an age when the public took
things too readily on trust to be very solicitous about authentic
sources of information. It is more strange that Boissot's
Benedictine brethren should have shown themselves so insensible to
the treasures under their own roof. One of their body, Dom Prosper
l'Evesque, did indeed profit by the Boissot collection to give to
the world his Mémoires de Granvelle, a work in two volumes,
duodecimo, which, notwithstanding the materials at the writer's
command, contain little of any worth, unless it be an occasional
extract from Granvelle's own correspondence.
At length, in 1834, the subject drew the attention of M. Guizot,
then Minister of Public Instruction in France. By his direction a
commission of five scholars was instituted, with the learned Weiss
at its head, for the purpose of examining the Granvelle papers,
with a view to their immediate publication. The work was performed
in a prompt and accurate manner, that must have satisfied its
enlightened projector. In 1839 the whole series of papers had been
subjected to a careful analysis, and the portion selected that was
deemed proper for publication. The first volume appeared in 1841;
and the president of the commission, M. Weiss, expressed in his
preface the confident hope that in the course of 1843 the remaining
papers would all be given to the press. But these anticipations
have not been realized. In 1854 only nine volumes had appeared. How
far the publication has since advanced I am ignorant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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