Page 12 [12]
PREFACE
viii
necessary to do more than trace the variants through the
sequence of editions; for experiment has shown that it is
only very rarely that a change is introduced into an inter¬
mediate edition and removed in a later one, and such changes
are either obvious errors or entirely negligible. The present
text is therefore not an exact reproduction of any one edition
but a conflation from all. In the matter of headings to letters
I have usually given that of the earliest edition, with occa¬
sional exceptions where an amplification was made later; but
as the variations of headings in different editions are often
considerable but unimportant, I have allowed myself more
freedom to neglect them in the critical notes than I have used
in dealing with the letters themselves. Of the numerous
variations in the spelling of words I have not attempted to
preserve any record, except in the case of proper names, where
differences of form are sometimes noted. Variations in order
also are discarded except on rare occasions where the sense
of the passage is affected. The dates are reproduced from
the earliest form with a minuteness which may perhaps
seem somewhat scrupulous; but I have wished the reader
to feel that in scrutinizing them he has before him the
precise details of the original.
In preparing this volume I have met with abundant and
most ready help. To many institutions I am indebted for
the loan of manuscripts. The Bodleian Library has sheltered
for me the great Deventer codex, which the kindness of
Dr. van Slee and the Curators of the Athenaeum Library
at Deventer has enabled me to examine at leisure undis¬
turbed; some manuscripts of Cornelius Gerard, lent from
the University Library at Leiden through the friendship
of Dr. de Vries and Dr. Molhuysen; and the important
manuscripts from the Town Library of Gouda, whose value
Dr. Kesper, Archivar to the town, enabled me to recognize,
and of which his influence and that of Dr. van Ysendyk, the
Town Librarian, obtained for me the use. To Dr. Hippe and
the Curators of the Town Library of Breslau I owe the
permission to decipher and copy with my wife’s aid the
167 letters of the Codex Rehdigeranus 254 in a busy month
among Beatus Rhenanus’ books at Schlettstadt; and to the
authorities of Trinity College, Dublin, I owe the opportunity
to examine here in the Library of Corpus Christi College