Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/531

xiv præfatio, sicut in Cod. Werferthiano ab aliena manu scripta, Codidi præmittur. Codex ipse, manu largiori, laxiori, elegantiori, & seculo Ælfrediano plane convenienti, exaratur; in usum forte cujusdam Magnatis, sea Regiæ stirpis Principis.'

3. 53, in the Bodleian (J.). A copy of the above, made by Junius in the seventeenth century. He has added many readings from H. and the MS. described below in the margin. Those parts of the work which are wanting in C. i. he has copied from H.

4. B. ii. (C. ii.). A small folio (in fol. min. W.), apparently of the beginning of the tenth century. The MS., which was originally defective towards the end, was burnt in the Cottonian fire, but has been partially restored and rebound. About a half of the work is more or less legible in the MS. The following is Wanley's account of the MS.:-

'Otho. B. ii. Cod. memb. in fol. min. in quo continetur Liber Pastoralis Gregorii Papæ, Saxonicè conversus per Ælfredum Regem.

'In Præfatione, nuncupavit Rex suum librum Hehstano Epis. Londoniensi, ad cujus Codicis fidem, hoc exemplar forte descriptum est ante Conquisitionem Angliæ. Olim fuit peculium Joannis Rogerii qui eum, ut videtur, dono dedit Gulielmo Bowiero. Dein pervenit in manus Henrici Ellzinge, qui eum dedit, D. R. Cottono, 6. die Octobris, 1597. Olim caruit duobus foliis integris, quorum alterum manu recentioris restituitur.'

There are also three MSS. of much later date, an account of which will be found in an Appendix. These MSS. are all at Cambridge, in Corpus Christi, Trinity, and the Public Library.

That the two MSS., whose texts are given in full in this edition, were written during Alfred's reign is proved not only by the handwriting - of which I shall speak presently - but also by internal evidence, which, as far as H. is concerned, was first stated by Wanley, in his Catalogue. I therefore quote his words in full, omitting his account of the contents of the MS.

'His versibus intelligimus, (Ðis ærendgewrit, &c., p. 8.) quod primus omnium Augustinus Anglorum Apostolus, Gregorii librum Pastoralem secum in Angliam adtulit: librum forsitan suæ Missioni inprimis necessarium. Quorum autem rogatu, & quo consilio, in