THE KOSCHWITZ LIBRARY

OWING to the timely generosity of Mr. Tuck, Dartmouth College has added to its library a valuable collection of works in, and dealing with, the Romance languages. The former owner of the collection, Edouard Koschwitz, had been professor of modern languages at Greifswald, Marburg; and at the time of his death in May, 1904, held the chair of Romance Languages at königsberg.

Besides his academic duties, Professor Koschwitz was active as an investigator in his special studies, Provencal French and French dialects. He was a contributor to the Romania, Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie, and other publications. With Körting he had founded and continued to direct the Zeitschrift fur französischeSprache u. Litteratur, and also the Französische Studien. Among his many separate publications may be mentioned his Alt-französicheUebungsbuch, and his recent edition of the modern Proven gal poem, Mireio, by Mistral.

The subject of Romance Philology as represented by Professor Koschwitz and other German scholars even better known, covers a wide field. Romance Philology is understood to signify the development and present status of the intellectual, moral, and artistic life of the Romance peoples, in so far as it finds expression in their languages and literatures. We have only to consult one of the books in the Koschwitz collection, namely, Gröber's Grundrissder romanischen Philologie, to perceive the ramifications of this immense study. In this Grundriss, which is intended to be an epitome of the whole subject, there is treated in separate articles by different scholars, each of the Romance countries from the point of view of language, literature, art, music, science, ethnolgy, and Kulturgeschichte in general.

This elaborated study of Romance Philology, though in certain manifestations dating back several centuries, received its great impulse during the early period of the Romantic School. The interest in the Middle Ages which was a characteristic of this movement, had stimulated several scholars, such as the Sclilegels in Germany, and Raynouard in France, to investigate the origins of the languages and literatures of southern Europe. At first these investigators were under the spirit of the supposed mystery and romantic sentimentality of the medieval period. However, under the same inspiration there soon began a large activity in the publication of early texts, as well as of histories of Romance literatures treated from the comparative point of view.

This interest in the medieval origins of the Romance languages and literatures had produced some attempts at analytical studies, but none of any lasting'value until 1836, when Ferdinand Diez published the first volume of his Grammatik der romanischenSprachen. Through this epoch-making work, Romance Philology, so far as language is concerned, was placed on a scientific basis; that is, scientific as to method, classification of phenomena, and the establishment of linguistic laws. After his grammar had passed through another edition, Diez brought out in 1853, his remarkable Etymologisches Wörterbach derromanischen Sprachen, a comprehensive etymological dictionary including words from all the Romance languages. '

Ferdinand Diez, then, may be regarded as the founder of Romance Philology as now studied. Since his day the subject has been developed in Germany by a host of industrious scholars, the best known of.whom are, perhaps, Adolf Tobler at Berlin, and Wendeln Förster, the success or of Diez at Bonn. In France, among many investigators in the Romance field, stands preeminent the name of Gaston Paris, who through his great personality as well as scholarship, had up to the time of his death in 1903 inspired with his own zeal hundreds of his pupils from all lands. In the United States during the past'twenty years there has been a considerable activity in the study of the Romance languages. For such students as wish to carry their work beyond the more elementary language and literature courses, all the larger American universities have departments of Romance Philology well organized and employing the German methods of study. By German methods is meant not only the stimulation of the student to private, independent investigation, but the methods which insist on breadth of knowledge as well as minute accuracy in details; methods which require a precise ascertaining of facts before there can be formulated the generalization or the law.

While the beginnings of the scientific and comparative method of the study of Romance languages dates back to 1836, the great development of the subject has taken place since 1870. And it is worth noting in this connection that each step of the advance is represented in the Koschwitz library. The collection is especially rich in periodical literature with its contributions from the best' scholars of the past thirty years. Foremost of these periodicals is a complete set of the Romania, a quarterly publication founded in 1872 by Gaston Paris and Paul Meyer. The Romania, which is the principal organ of the French Romance scholars, contains some of most important studies and texts that have appeared. The set complete is rare and diffcut to procure. In the sales it. is usually quoted at about $175. Hardly second in importance is the Zeiischrift fur romanische Philologic complete since its inception in 1877, and in which are printed some of the best results of German scholarship in the field of Romance languages.

Somewhat different in scope from these two publications, which are devoted in the main to questions of the early or medieval period, is the Zeitschrift für französische Sprache u.Litteratur, consecrated more particularly to matters of modern French language and literature. Having to do with French literature alone is the Revue de Phistoire littéraire de laFrance.

The Koschwitz library contains also several smaller but still fairly complete sets of periodicals, for example: the Jahrbuch fur romanische u.englische Litteratur (complete 185971); also Vollmüller' s Jahresberichtüber die Fortschritte der romanischePhilologie. This latter is a publication made up of able reviews and criticisms of the principal works on matters of Romance languages and literature which appear during each year. Of periodicals published at irregular intervals are the Französiche Studien:Romanische Forschungen: Romanische Studien; and Die Ausgabe u.Abhandlungen aus der Gebiete derromanische Philologie; all containing studies of considerable length, or, as in many cases, reprints of early texts.

For purposes of research or reference the contributions to the periodicals are independable. Much less so but still of great utility, is the large collection of doctors' theses which come with the Koschwitz library. Though it is true that these dissertations were written by young and inexperienced scholars, yet in almost every case there are certain facts brought together that have not been gathered elsewhere.

Through the purchase of the Koschwitz collection the Dartmouth College Library has acquired several valuable dictionaries. First in importance is Godfrey's great Dictionnaire de Pancienne langue francaise, with supplement, in ten large uqarto volumes. There is also in the collection a fine edition (Henschel's, 1883-87) of Du Cauge, GlossariumMediae et Infimae Latinitatis, which, besides being a comprehensive dictionary of late Latin, is a vast storehouse of medieval lore. To these great dictionaries, may be mentioned, in addition, the excellent George's Lateinisch-Deutsches Handwö rterbuch. There are also special lexicons, of the language of Corneille, La Rochefoucauld and Moliére. Classed as dictionaries may be two handbooks most necessary to students of Romance Philology, namely : Diez, Etymologisches Wörterbuch, and Körting Lateiniseh-romanisches Worterbuch. By the aid of the last mentioned work, the larger part of the words in any Romance language may be traced to their Vulgar Latin origins.

Grammars are as well represented as dictionaries in the Koschwitz collection. Thus far there have been written two unified, systematic grammars of the Romance languages. The first already mentioned is Diez Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen, and the second with the same title is the remarkably erudite compilation of Wilhelm Meyer—Lübcke (1893-1900). We find also in our collection a large number of school grammars and almost all the important historical grammars of the French language, including those of Brunot, Darmesteter, Schwan-Behrens, and Nyrop. To these may be added many special grammatical studies by Korting, Stengel, Suchier, Tobler and others.

Inasmuch as Professor Koschwitz was a phonetician of merit, it is not surprising to find the subject of Phonetics well represented in his library. Among others are well known works by Sievers, Rousselot, Passy, Vietor, Jesperson, etc. Periodical literature dealing with phonetics and general linguistics is not wanting. The collection contains sets not quite complete, of Techmer's Zeitschriftfur allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft; Vietor's Phonetische Studien; Rousselot and Natier's La Parole; and Le Maitre phonétique the organ of the Association phonétique internationale. There is also in the library a fair amount of pedagogical literature treating the problems connected with the teaching of modern languages in schools.

The number of good editions of modern French authors in the Koschwitz collection is not large. The Dartmouth College Library however is already fairly well supplied with the works of the principal French writers of the last three centuries. On the other hand the collection fills a decided gap with its texts in Old French and Provencal. In this group may be cited the Chanson de Roland in several editions, including that of Müller and the more recent one of Stengel. Other texts are Aucassin etNicolette; the Roman de Renart; Bartsch's Romanzen u. Pastourellen, and the various works of Chretien de Troyes. In Provencal are the poems of Bertrand de Born; Peire Rogier;Peires d' Auvergna; Jautre Rudel and others less well known.

The subject of Old French and Provencal literatures so well represented in texts, is completed by the large number of historical and critical studies of the literature itself. The Old French epic poetry is thoroughly treated in the four volumes of Gautier's Les Epopees francaises, and from a different point of view in Gaston Paris' Histoire poetique deCharlemagne. For the more modern periods there are at least fifteen general histories of French literature, not all of equal value, but among them some of the best manuals published on the subject. With these additions, and with the recently acquired Histoirelitteraire de la France in thirty-three volumes, the Dartmouth College Library could not be better equipped in histories of French literature.

All that has been said here gives but a few indications of the nature of the Koschwitz library. .It is evident that the collection contains very few works of general interest, but is for the most part extremely technical. Its value to Dartmouth College lies in the fact that it will furnish to advanced students and instructors in the several language departments indispensable reference material, and also a means for private study and research., the results of which will be eventually felt even by the students in the most elementary courses.

P. O. Skinner, Instructor in the Department of Romance Languages