Book II - Wilbourhall.org

xxii INTRODUCTION. [ii.authorities consider this the best MS. extant.In theLaurentian Library at Florence.G or Monacensis. Papyrus. Xlllth century. Collatedby GoUer and Bekker. At Munich. The top marginis eaten away throughout,3. The British MS.M or Britannus. Parchment. Xlth century, In theBritish Museum, Purchased 1840. No. 11,727.Collated by J. Eggeling, for Haase, in 1867. Thecollation first used by Stahl in his critical edition,1874. The 8th book collated by Herwerden. Specimenshave been published by the PalaeographicalSociety. The writing is very good, but there areconstant and absurd blunders. It is much correctedby a later hand. Pp. i., viii. are supplied by a morerecent hand ; pp. xxv. -xxxiii. and p. xl. by a thirdhand. Book II. begins p. xxix. »w6. fin.: c. 1-13,7, Tov T€ yap ^a\r)piKoO relxovs, are in the later hand.From that point onwards the ms. has been collatedfor this edition. P. xl. is denoted by m. The ms.agrees sometimes with the Vatican,with the Laurentian.at other timesIncluded in the critical notes will be found manyreadings of a 15th century MS. in the CambridgeLibrary, marked T, collated by Shilleto. This MS.agrees, often minutely, especially in omissions, withM, and is probably derived from some MS. copied fromthat from which M was copied.All the MSS, are derived ultimately from one commonsource, and that not a very good one. There is noattempt to make the critical notes of this editionexhaustive : onlysuch matter has been inserted aswas likely to prove useful to students.For the bestapparatus critici the reader should consult the editionsof Bekker, Stahl, and A. Schone.