Where this knowledge was obtained it is difficult to say, - perhaps
in Bulgaria, where two-thirds of the population profess the Greek
religion, or rather in Romania, where the Romaic is generally
understood; that they DID understand the Romaic in 1540, we gather
from a very remarkable work, called EL ESTUDIOSO CORTESANO, written
by Lorenzo Palmireno: this learned and highly extraordinary
individual was by birth a Valencian, and died about 1580; he was
professor at various universities - of rhetoric at Valencia, of
Greek at Zaragossa, where he gave lectures, in which he explained
the verses of Homer; he was a proficient in Greek, ancient and
modern, and it should be observed that, in the passage which we are
about to cite, he means himself by the learned individual who held
conversation with the Gitanos. (66) EL ESTUDIOSO CORTESANO was
reprinted at Alcala in 1587, from which edition we now copy.
'Who are the Gitanos? I answer; these vile people first began to
show themselves in Germany, in the year 1417, where they call them
Tartars or Gentiles; in Italy they are termed Ciani. They pretend
that they come from Lower Egypt, and that they wander about as a
penance, and to prove this, they show letters from the king of
Poland.
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