displayed some dignity in refusing to sacrifice his convictions to worldly interests; but at this time he was enthusiastic and heady, and as a result his work is an uncritical jumble.  ‘Puerile and silly’ Erasmus called it, when he saw some of the proof-sheets at Spires in 1518.  ‘A most unfortunate book’, wrote Beatus Rhenanus in 1525, ‘without style and without judgement.’  To Aventinus in 1531 it was ’an impudent compilation from Stabius and Trithemius, by a poor creature of the most despicable intelligence’.  But even a bad book can be a measure of the time, showing the ideas current and the catchwords that were thought likely to attract the reading public.  It is much larger than Wimpfeling’s Defence, and even more miscellaneous; ranging over many aspects of Germany ancient and modern.  To us in the present inquiry its interest lies in the frequency with which the excellence of Germany is asserted against Italian sneers.  The following specimen will illustrate this point, and also explain Erasmus’ epithets.  In the chapter on the German language (ii. 30) Irenicus is throughout engaged in refuting the charge of German barbarism.  ‘It may be true’, he says, ’that German is not so much declined as Latin:  but complexity does not necessarily bring refinement.  Germany is as rich in dialects as Italy, and to speak German well merits high praise.  Italian may be directly descended from Latin; but German too has a considerable element of Latin and Greek words.  Guarino and Petrarch have written poetry in their vernaculars, and so the Italians boast that their language is more suited to poetry.  But more than 1000 years ago Ovid wrote a book of German poetry[42]; and Trebeta, son of Semiramis, is known to have been the first person to compose in German.’

     [42] Ovid, Pont. 4. 13. 19:  Getico sermone.

In spite of such stuff, Pirckheimer, who saw the book in manuscript, was delighted with it.  ’You have achieved what many have wished but few could have carried out.  Every German must be obliged to you for the lustre you have brought to the Fatherland.’  After stating that he had arranged with Koberger for the printing, he points out details which might be improved:  more stress might be laid on the connexion of the Germans with the Goths, ’which the dregs of the Goths and Lombards—­by which I mean the Italians—­try to snatch from us’; and the universal conquests of the Goths might be more fully treated.  Finally he suggests that before publication the work should be submitted to Stabius:  ’the book deserves learned readers, and I should wish it to be as perfect as possible.’[43]

     [43] The letter is printed in Pirckheimer’s Opera, 1610, p.
          313:  but is addressed wrongly, to Beatus Rhenanus.

This brief survey may close with a far more considerable work, the Res Germanicae of Beatus Rhenanus, published in 1531; from which we have made some extracts above.  The book is sober and serious, and the subject-matter is handled scientifically; but in his preface Beatus is careful to point out that German history is as important as Roman, modern as much worth studying as ancient.