The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).>br>Volume I. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.
X. English Scholars of Paris and Franciscans of Oxford§ 6. Gervase
One of Map’s younger contemporaries, Gervase, the author the Otia Imperialia, a native of Tilbury on the coast of Essex, was brought up in Rome; he lectured on law at Bologna, and probably died in England. The above work was written about 1211 to amuse the leisure hours of the German emperor, Otto IV. It is a miscellaneous collection of legendary tales and superstitions. The theme of the first three books and many of the quotations are borrowed, without acknowledgment, from the Historia Scholastica of that omnivorous compiler Petrus Comestor. The third book tells us of werewolves and lamias and barnacle-geese and other marvels, and also of the enchantments ascribed to Vergil at Naples.