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iv PREFACE
written over the top have proved illegible, I have adopted the
first version without recording the fact. But where a sentence
after much cutting about has been left with an imperfect con¬
struction, I have noted any rectifications that I have made.
As this edition advances, each volume contains more letters
found and published by modern pioneers, Much of that work
was done hurriedly and under pressure, for publication in
fugitive periodicals ; so that its accuracy is not always so great
as could be desired. It has therefore been necessary, before
reprinting such letters, to collate them with the original
manuscripts; and this has been done independently by my wife
and myself. Manifest misreadings of our predecessors are not,
however, included in the eritical notes; and in cases of diver¬
gence between this text and theirs, I would invite the reader to
give the preference here. For, besides the first collation of the
manuscripts, the proofsheets have been carefully corrected by
each of us,in many cases not with the ‘copy’ but with the
original manuscript; and they have also enjoyed the benefit of
searching revision by Mr. Ingram Bywater. Thus I venture to
hope that error in this text has been reduced to a narrow
compass.
As in the preceding volume, I have abundant aid to acknow¬
ledge. Besides the helpers mentioned in that preface, to many
of whom I am again no less indebted, my cordial thanks are
due to Dr. Lange and the authorities of the Royal Library at
Copenhagen for the loan of a rich codex of Erasmus’ rough
drafts ; to Count Grégoire Stroganoff and the Earl of Radnor
for permission to reproduce the two portions of Metsys’ diptych ;
and to the late Major-General E. Renouard James for allowing
me to publish Ep. 440—the existence of which was brought to
my notice by Dr. Stein from Srinagar on his return from Central
Asia. Dr. Reicke, Custos of the Town Library at Nuremberg,
has most generously placed at my disposal all the material he
has gathered in preparation for an edition of Pirckheimer’s
letters. Dr. Brom, Director of the Dutch Historical Institute
at Rome, has continually remembered me in his work, and has
communicated to me with the utmost readiness everything that
he has found in the Vatican which seemed likely to be of use.
Dr. Clauss, who has succeeded Dr. Gény at Schlettstadt, has
given me every facility and assistance; Dr. Cowley has inter¬
preted for me the occasional Hebrew; and for many varied