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OCR
THE EPISTOLAE SELECTAE PER BARLANDVM 629 page of sheet a, the final sheet of the book. The earliest of the corrections, too, in which the text of F is followed rather than the text of E, is found on fo. i vo. in Ep. 165, which is Barland’s No. 86. It remains to enumerate a few cases, clearly fortuitous, in which Barland’s text differs from E and all the subsequent editions. In Ep. 89. trv. for sacris Barland (fo. b* vo.) reads secreTIS: in Ep. 151. 13 for vt, (f°. it vo.) oti: in Ep. 165.16 he has Courtenbournensi (f. iv®.): in Ep. 225. 13 for retwwenescam, (f°. k® v°.) rewiwiscam : in Ep. 264. 22 for perscripsero, (f°. 1) scripsero: in Hp. 416. 16 he omits est (f. h?): in Ep. 491. 10 he omits vt (f°. f°): in Ep. 516. 10 for immigrabo, (f°. f°) migrabo: in Ep. 584. 47 for tabellam, (f°. e vo.) tabellarium : in Ep. 830. 7 for Octobre, (f°. f) Octobri: in Ep. 867. 100 he omits aut (f. a vo): in 1 117 he has Vicepropositi (f°. a° v°.): in 1. 160 for vento, (fo. a*) ventis: in Ep. 968. 16 for faciat, (f°. d) fiat. These are examples of textual depravation arising through aberration, which in most cases would pass quite unsuspected by a subsequent editor. There is also one place (Ep. 869. 2) where Barland (f°. b) anticipates the necessary correction rewectam, which is not introduced until H. Other trifling divergences might be revealed by a collation of the whole book ; but these are all that we have observed in examining the various readings. From these details the story of Barland’s Epistolae selectae may be deduced. He began to work with E, as Martens had suggested. But when two-thirds of the book was already complete, Erasmus allowed him to make use of the text he had just revised for F, also contributing a few of the new letters which he had selected for publication. Barland’s book appeared eight months and more before F ; and as it had Erasmus’ concurrence, it is evident that for such new matter as it contains, it is the archetype.
