In the prologue, the author states that his
principal motive for publishing a work written in so strange a
language was his observing the damage which resulted from an
ignorance of the Germania, especially to the judges and ministers
of justice, whose charge it is to cleanse the public from the
pernicious gentry who use it. By far the greatest part of the
vocabulary consists of Spanish words used allegorically, which are,
however, intermingled with many others, most of which may be traced
to the Latin and Italian, others to the Sanscrit or Gitano,
Russian, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and German languages. (77) The
circumstances of words belonging to some of the languages last
enumerated being found in the Gitano, which at first may strike the
reader as singular, and almost incredible, will afford but slight
surprise, when he takes into consideration the peculiar
circumstances of Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Spain was at that period the most powerful monarchy in
Europe; her foot reposed upon the Low Countries, whilst her
gigantic arms embraced a considerable portion of Italy.
Maintaining always a standing army in Flanders and in Italy, it
followed as a natural consequence, that her Miquelets and soldiers
became tolerably conversant with the languages of those countries;
and, in course of time, returning to their native land, not a few,
especially of the former class, a brave and intrepid, but always a
lawless and dissolute species of soldiery, either fell in or
returned to evil society, and introduced words which they had
learnt abroad into the robber phraseology; whilst returned galley-
slaves from Algiers, Tunis, and Tetuan, added to its motley variety
of words from the relics of the broken Arabic and Turkish, which
they had acquired during their captivity.
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