The Former, Who First Published The Narrative,
Professedly Printed From An Imperfect MS.
Belonging to the Lord
Lumley, which does not seem to be now known.
But all the MSS. collated
by Messrs. Francisque-Michel and Wright, in preparing their edition of
the Traveller, call him simply Willelmus de Rubruc or Rubruk.
Some old authors, apparently without the slightest ground, having
called him Risbroucke and the like, it came to be assumed that he
was a native of Ruysbroeck, a place in South Brabant.
But there is a place still called Rubrouck in French Flanders. This
is a commune containing about 1500 inhabitants, belonging to the
Canton of Cassel and arrondissement of Hazebrouck, in the Department
du Nord. And we may take for granted, till facts are alleged against
it, that this was the place from which the envoy of St. Lewis drew
his origin. Many documents of the Middle Ages, referring expressly to
this place Rubrouck, exist in the Library of St. Omer, and a detailed
notice of them has been published by M. Edm. Coussemaker, of Lille.
Several of these documents refer to persons bearing the same name as
the Traveller, e.g., in 1190, Thierry de Rubrouc; in 1202 and 1221,
Gauthier du Rubrouc; in 1250, Jean du Rubrouc; and in 1258, Woutermann
de Rubrouc. It is reasonable to suppose that Friar William was of the
same stock. See Bulletin de la Soc. de Geographie, 2nd vol. for
1868, pp. 569-570, in which there are some remarks on the subject by
M. d'Avezac; and I am indebted to the kind courtesy of that eminent
geographer himself for the indication of this reference and the main
facts, as I had lost a note of my own on the subject.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 331 of 1256
Words from 90414 to 90705
of 342071
