Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Errata (1904).djvu/9

 PREFACE

collection of 'Errata' has been prepared for presentation to subscribers to the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' in conformity with that desire for accuracy and completeness which actuated the projector and proprietor in all his relations with the undertaking. The work has been carried out by the Editor at the instance of Mrs. George M. Smith.

With its Supplement the 'Dictionary' supplies some two million facts and dates, which have been recorded by nearly seven hundred writers. The sixty-three volumes of the substantive work were issued at quarterly intervals between 1 Jan. 1885 and 1 July 1900, and the three volumes of the Supplement followed in the early autumn of 1901. No care could exclude a certain percentage of errors from a work of such character and dimensions. The aim of this collection of 'Errata' is to correct the inevitable misprints and misstatements. In some instances it has been found necessary to justify the correction by adding to the information that is already given in the published article some reference to new researches. But the main endeavour is to remove, as briefly as is consistent with clearness, typographical mistakes or undoubted errors of statement which are liable, if unnoticed, to puzzle or mislead.

The volume containing the 'Index and Epitome' of the 'Dictionary' supplies a full and revised list of cross references. It has, therefore, been unnecessary to deal with cross references here.

Various volumes of the 'Dictionary' have been reprinted from the stereotyped plates in the course of the past few years, and before the reprinting was begun in each case several corrections were incorporated in the plates. Recent purchasers of the 'Dictionary' will consequently find their sets to include some reprinted volumes in which many of the corrections that are noted here have been made already.

Most of the 'Errata' which are recorded in the following pages have been forwarded to the Editor by several hundred correspondents during the progress of the publication of the 'Dictionary,' or since its completion. To the