THE CHRONICLES AND MEMORIALS 



OF 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND 



DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 



PrBT,TSHKTl BY THE AUTHORITY OF HER MAJESTY'S TRRASFRT. T'NPER 

 THF mrfVPTTON OF TTTF MASTER OF TTTF FAT T t 



On the 26tli of Jaiuiary 1857, the Master of the Rolls 

 submitted to the Treasury a proposal for the publication 

 of materials for the History of this Country from the 

 Invasion of the Romans to the Reign of Henry VIII. 



Tlie Master of the Rolls suggested that tliese materials 

 should be selected for publication under competent 

 editors without reference to periodical or chronological 

 arrangement, without mutilation or abridgment, prefer- 

 ence being given, in the first instance, to such materials 

 as were most scarce and valuable. 



He proposed that each chronicle or historical docu- 

 ment to be edited should be treated in the same way as 

 if the editor were engaged on an Editio Princeps ; and 

 for this purpose the most correct text should be formed 

 from an accurate collation of the best MSS. 



To render the work more generally useful, the Master 



of the Rolls suggested that the editor should give an 



accoimt of the MSS. employed by him, of their age and 



their peculiarities; that he should add to the work a 



brief account of the life and times of the author, and any 



remarks necessary to explain the chronology ; but no 



other note or comment was to be allowed, except what 



might be necessary to establish the correctness of the 



text. 



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