Gualteri Mapes. De nugis curialium distinctiones quinque

of those tymes ; but for Becket's, though it bee my lord of Can-
terburyes, and, for ought I know, may have remayned in hys
library since the murther committed on hym, yet 1 find at y*^ end
there is 8 leaves left out, that some wicked hand hath cut out—for,
by ye little scraps that are left they may bee told, and two or
three at the top or beegining. Now I could wonderfully fayn en-
quire where there is a good one y* I might make it perfect, and so
send it to y^ presse ; for I know no man knowes what past in
former tymes so well as by the Epistles then passed between
learned men. I doe not find there is any copy of them in Oxford :
in Cambridge, amongst y^ M.S.S. in Benet College, there is one,
but I doe not know how to have y^ use of it, w°^ I should bee glad
of if I put this I have copyed out, w*"^ I have examyned twice w"'
my lord of Canterburies, and I dare say is well done.—Farewell
my good boy. I would bee glad thou couldest find out w^* they
would take to copy out y* 76 sheets of Gualterus Mapes. I have
Si" John Cotton's Anselm^s Epistles, about 140 more then are as
yet out, very well writ, so y* I beelieve there is no where a better
copy of them I suppose.
" Thy loving father,
" For Sr Twysden at Christ Colledge in Oxford.
" Roger Twysden.
" Leave this w*'' the Oxford carryer in Holbourne hyll—to bee
sent as directed."
Twysden's account of the difficulty of the writing of the only
existing manuscript of the treatise De Nugis Curialium is by no
means exaggerated. It is written in a very crabbed hand, and is
filled with unusual contractions, which are often by no means easy