ADVERTISEMENT то THE EDITION OF MDCCCXXII. IN the present edition of the Homilies, which is the fifth that has issued from the Clarendon press since the commencement of the nineteenth century, the text of the first part or book has been compared with four ancient editions, the various readings of which are exhibited at the bottom of the pages, and are distinguished by the letters A. B. C. D. A. is the first edition of the first book. It was printed in quarto by Richard Grafton in the year 1547, and is dated on the last day of July in the first year of king Edward the sixth. B. is the earliest edition in which the Homilies of the first book, being twelve in number, are divided into thirtytwo parts. It was printed in quarto by Grafton in the year 1549, and is dated in August of that year. The copies of both A. and B. employed in preparing the present edition, are preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College in this University. C. is an edition in quarto, printed by Richard Jugge and John Cawood in the year 1562. Two or more editions appear to have been printed by the same printers in the same year; but the present editor has had no opportunity of comparing them, and of endeavouring to select the earliest. The copy actually used is preserved in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, and is bound up in the same volume with an edition of the second part, printed in 1563, which will be mentioned hereafter. One of these editions is in small octavo. There is a copy of it in the British Museum. D. is an edition of both parts of the Homilies in folio (the earliest of that size which the editor has seen) printed by John Bill in the year 1623. The copy used belongs to the library of Christ Church. There are many other ancient editions both of the first part of the Homilies separately, and of the first and second united. They may be divided, as far as regards the first part, into four classes, which differ materially from each other in their readings. Although there is hardly any edition which exactly agrees with those which preceded it, the present editor has not thought it necessary to collate more than the earliest edition of each class". The editions of the second part of the Homilies may all be divided into two classes, and the copies used in preparing the text of the present edition are only two, marked A. and B. A. is an edition in quarto, printed by Jugge and Cawood in 1563. It is justly observed by Stryped, that there are two or more editions of this date; and another writer suspects that there are foure. The present editor has seen and examined two. The collation now printed is taken from a copy in the library of Exeter Collegef. The other edition, This copy differs in some respects date 1563. There is a third in the from one in the possession of the university library, and a fourth in editor, in which the first twenty-four Trinity college library, in the same pages appear to have been reprinted university, which bear the same date. with several inconsiderable altera- They are all in quarto, and in some tions, one of the most remarkable of respects different from each other. which is the strict rigour of the law Whether the diversity be such, as instead of the full request of the law, argues that they are of really differp. 28, 26. ed. 1822. [p. 20, line 23. of ent impressions, I wish some person this edit.] The editor's copy seems that has leisure and patience enough, to agree with a copy on large paper and understands printing well, would at Lambeth. examine and inform us." On comparing this collation with one which was made some years ago for a different purpose, it was discovered, that they were both defective in some respects, each collator having passed over in silence a certain number of various readings. This discovery will not surprise any person who is conversant with operations of this nature; and it is mentioned merely for the information of those readers, who are not aware of the extreme difficulty of collating books with perfect accuracy. [In the edition of 1822 these various readings were placed in an Appendix; but in subsequent editions they are incorporated in the notes.] |
