ABSTRACT
A view of the patronage accorded to the scop, the scald, and the bard, their privileges and general high esteem, has confirmed the fact which was noted of early patronage, that it is a universal custom. The first general effect, then, of patronage in the Middle Ages is upon production. The very fact that the man of letters was encouraged to write at all is itself a fact of momentous effect, especially since through patronage alone could he expect profit from his pen. The development of the lyric, likewise, was influenced by patronage, though in a very indirect fashion. It is generally conceded that the lyric of the Middle Ages had its origin ultimately in Provence, and developing in the eleventh century in the hands of the troubadours, it became something definitely aristocratic. In another respect patronage had a very wide-spread effect that of the fostering of the new art of printing.
