264 JOHN DE TREVISA. 
parison of Caxton’s print with an authentic MS. of Trevisa’s 
translation is extremely valuable, as shewing the changes which 
the English language underwent in that interval of a century, the 
print gives avery incorrect notion of our author's diction. Caxton 
also, in a most unaccountable manner, gives the date of the trans- 
lation as 1352 instead of 1378. In 1352 Trevisa was only 10 
years old.* 
A few words on the edition of Higden referred to in the 
last Note. 
Higden’s Polychronicon was the standard work on General 
History at our Universities, in the 14th and 15th Centuries, and 
is of great value as enabling us “to form a very fair estimate of 
the knowledge of history and geography which well-informed 
readers of that date possessed.” (Introd. p. xlii). 
Professor Babington estimates that more than 100 Latin MSS. 
of the work are to be found in England ; yet, notwithstanding its 
popularity, intrinsic value, and the purity of its language, it has 
never until now been wholly printed in the original Latin. 
The various MSS. from which this work is compiled are fully 
described in the Introduction to Vol. I.; but it is sufficient for 
our purpose to refer to those of Trevisa’s translation, which are 
numerous. Two of the most perfect and beautiful of them have 
been selected, and are principally used by the editors, viz. (1), 
that which is considered by them as the Standard MS., a superb 
copy on vellum in the Library of St. John’s College, Cambridge, 
of which a fac-simile leaf is given at the commencement of Vol. 
I; and (2), that which was formerly in Archbishop Tenison’s 
Library, and was purchased in 1861 for the British Museum, 
where it is now marked as No. 24,194. <A fac-simile leaf of this 
is also given in Vol. II. Professor Babington gives good reasons 
for considering both these MSS. to have been written only a few 
years later than Trevisa’s translation (1387), and he says that 
“the orthography is substantially the same in both the MSS.” 
A fac-simile leaf is also given, in Vol. I., from the Hurl. WS. 
n. 2261, which contains the more recent English translation, now 
first printed. The author of this is unknown; but the date 
* See Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, published, under the direction of 
the Master of the Rolls; Vol. I, by Professor Babington, 1865. et sqq. ann. 
Introd: p. 1xii. 
