Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/449

THE SPANISH ARABS. 305 Hence their histories are too often mere barren chapter chronological details, or fulsome panegyrics on their — princes, unenlivened by a single spark of philoso- phy or criticism. Although the Spanish Arabs are not entitled to usefm dis o i. coveiies. the credit of having wrought any important revolu- tion in intellectual or moral science, they are com- mended by a severe critic, as exhibiting in their writings " the germs of many theories, which have been reproduced as discoveries in later ages," ^^ and they silently perfected several of those useful arts, which have had a sensible influence on the happiness and improvement of mankind. Algebra, and the higher mathematics, were taught in their schools, and thence diffused over Europe. The manufacture of paper, which, since the invention of printing, has contributed so essentially to the rapid circulation of knowledge, was derived through them. Casiri has discovered several manuscripts of cotton paper in the Escurial as early as 1009, and of linen paper of the date of 1106 ; ^^ the ori- gin of which latter fabric Tiraboschi has ascribed to an Italian of Trevigi, in the middle of the four- teenth century. ^^ Lastly, the application of gun- powder to military science, which has wrought an equally important revolution, though of a more doubtful complexion, in the condition of society, was derived through the same channel. ^^ 42 Degerando, Hist, de la Philo- ^4 Letteratura Italiana, torn, v, sophie, torn. iv. ubi supra. p. 87. 43 Bibliotheca Escurialensis, torn. 45 The battle of Crecy furnishes ii. p. 9. — Andres, Letteratura, the earliest instance on record of part. 1, cap. 10. the use of artillery by the Euro- VOL. I. 39