who died A.D. 804, among his educational works left one of these, which has been studied and compared by Dr. Wilmanns [Disputatio Pippini cum Albino, Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, vol. xiv. (1869), p. 530.] with the Altercatio Hadriani et Epicteti, an ancient dialogue, of unknown authorship, purporting to be held between the Emperor and the philosopher on subjects of natural and speculative science. [The Altercatio or Disputatio was printed by F. Lindenbrog, Frankfurt, 1628, in a little volume. Another version may be found at the end of a folio volume, edited by S. Gelenius, Basle, 1522, entitled Notitia utraque cum Orientis tum Occidentis, &c.] In Old English (Anglo-Saxon) there also exist the Dialogues of Salomon and Saturn, in poetry and prose—the latter of which deals with the Creation, Adam, and the subjects arising out of Genesis. In editing these for the Ælfric Society, in 1848, Mr. Kemble also printed three other similar question-books or catechisms, one of which in Latin, of a later period (probably twelfth or thirteenth century), called Adrian and Epictus, [Page 212, from the Arundel MS. 351, fol. 39.] considerably resembles in substance our Brome poem. The same thing appears also to have been translated into Welsh and Provençal. [Kemble's Salomon, p. 216; Bartsch, Denkmäler der Prov. Litteratur, p. 306-310; Bulletin de la Soc. des Anc. Textes Franc. (1875), pp. 71-74.] On the Continent other copies of this dialogue, dating from the ninth century, have been found and printed, with many interesting notes and comparisons of individual questions with those in other collections, by Dr. Wilmanns [Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, vol. xv. p. 166; see also Ib., vol. xiv. p. 546, and on the general subject E. Schröder, in the Auzeiger, band viii. p. 121, bound with vol. xxvi. of the Zeitschrift.] and Dr. Bethmann, [See Schlettstadt MSS. in Serapeum for 1845, p. 29.] with which should also be compared versions in Provençal, Spanish, and Latin, studied by Dr. Bartsch. [Zur Räthsel Litteratur, in Germania (Vienna, 1859) iv. 308.]
Although this dialogue has played its part in the literature of every country in Europe, and as M. Meyer says, "apparait avec son carectère chrétien dès les premiers temps du moyen age," [Bulletin de la Soc. des Anc. Textes Fran. (1875), p. 72.] it should be noted that the various forms it takes belong to two distinct families, which existed contemporaneously, viz., the one in which Christian history and doctrine appear, the other in which they are wholly absent; the latter being current long after the rise of the
