[8] The _langue d'oïl_ was at this epoch the international
language of Europe; in Italy it was the language of games and
tourneys, and was spoken in the petty princely courts of
Northern Italy. Vide Dante, _De vulgari eloquio_, lib. I., cap.
x. Brunetto Latini wrote in French because "the speech of France
is more delectable and more common to all people." At the other
end of Europe the Abbot of Stade, in Westphalia, spoke of the
_nobility of the Gallic dialect_. _Ann._ 1224 _apud_ Pertz,
Script. xvi. We shall find St. Francis often making allusions to
the tales of the Round Table and the _Chanson de Roland_.

[9] We must not be led astray by certain remarks upon his
ignorance, from which one might at first conclude that he knew
absolutely nothing; for example, 2 Cel., 3, 45: _Quamvis homo
iste beatus nullis fuerit scientiæ studiis innutritus_. This
evidently refers to science such as the Franciscans soon came to
apprehend it, and to theology in particular.

The close of the passage in Celano is itself an evident proof of
this.

[10] Bon., 219; Cf. A. SS., p. 560a. 1 Cel., 23.

[11] Ozanam, _Documents inédits pour servir à l'histoire
littéraire d'Italie du VIIIe au XIIIe siècle_. Paris, 1851, 8vo,
pp. 65, 68, 71, 73. Fauriel, _Dante et les origines de la
littérature italienne_. Paris, 1854, 2 vols., 8vo, ii., p. 332,
379, 429.