Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Hooper.djvu/16

viii in this very field. It is now clearly ascertained that no MS. corresponding to the printed collection of stories known as the Gesta Romanorum exists.

Before laying before the reader a succinct account of the facts relative to the Gesta with which Herr Oesterley's work supplies us, it is necessary to say that what is known par excellence as the Gesta Romanorum is a collection of 181 stories, first printed about 1473, and that this is the collection of which the present edition is a translation. But before the appearance of this collection there existed a great number of MSS. all over Western Europe, no two of which exactly resembled each other. I shall now give some details, chiefly obtained from Herr Oesterley, concerning both printed editions and MSS.

I. Printed editions.

Subsequent to the Vulgate numerous editions were printed resembling it in all essentials.

There is no doubt, according to Herr Oesterley, that all three editions [A, (a), & B] appeared between 1472 and 1475. He has adopted A and B as his text; A for the first 150 chapters (except chapter 18, which is found