Introduction to the literature of Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries

"1. ALTHOUGH the subject of these volumes does not comprehend the literary history of Europe anterior to the commencement of the fifteenth century, a period as nearly coinciding as can be expected in any arbitrary division of time with what is usually denominated the revival of letters, it appears necessary to prefix such a general retrospect of the state of knowledge for some preceding ages as will illustrate its subsequent progress."