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Rh views of the mss. The immediate source of these reports is his Collation-Book: see pages cxvii to cxix. In the Collation-BooK, the Berlin and Paris readings (B.P.) are in black ink; the Bodleian readings (M.W.) are in red; the London or "E.I.H." readings are in blue; and, excepting the variants of K.Kp. (which are also in blue), those of the mss. collated after publication (O.R.T.Op.D.) are in violet. The writing is a clear but small hand. The indications of agreement with the fundamental transcript are either implicit (the absence of any recorded variant), or else made explicit by the use of very small exclamation-points. The differences of method in recording are duly explained at the beginning of the Collation-Book, as are also the meanings of the various colored inks: and Whitney's procedure throughout the Book conforms rigorously to his prefatory explanations.

The interpretation of a record so highly condensed and not always complete was sometimes an occasion of error, even for Whitney who made the record and knew the circumstances of its making; and, as may well be imagined, such interpretation was positively difficult and embarrassing for the editor (who had not this knowledge), especially in cases where, after the lapse of years, the colors of the inks were somewhat faded. —Thus Whitney misinterprets his notes of collation at vi. 36. 2, where it is P.I.K. (and not Bp.$2$I.K., as he wrote it in his copy for the printer) that read víçvāḥ.—Again, at vi. 83. 3, it is W.O.D. (and not H.O.R., as he wrote it for the printer) that read galantás. —Again, in writing out his commentary for the printer so many years after making his collation, he frequently forgot that there was no Op. for books v.-xvii., and has accordingly often reported a reading in violet ink as a reading of Op. when he should have reported it as a reading of D. This slip happened occasionally through several hundred type-pages and remained unnoticed even until the electroplates were made; but I believe I have had all the instances of this error rectified in the plates. —Likewise, in writing out for the printer, the fact seems to have slipped from his mind that he had made his fundamental transcript of book v. from codex Chambers 109 (= Bp.$2$) and not, like all the rest of the first nine books, from Chambers 8 (= Bp.). I have accordingly had to change "Bp." into "Bp.$2$," or vice versa, some ten times in book v. (at 6. 8; 7. 3; 8. 3; 24. 3, 14; 27. 10; 30. 11). —I may add that in (the often critically desperate) book xix., Whitney seems to use such an expression as "half the mss." loosely in the sense of "a considerable part of the mss.": so at xix. 29. 1, where the record is presumably not complete for Whitney's authorities, and where "half" is not true for SPP's. —For my own part, in consulting the Collation-Book for manuscript readings, I have exercised all reasonable care, using a magnifying glass regularly and referring frequently to the prefatory explanations.