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PREFACE

controversy' from the eighteenth-century writers, while the text itself is followed by a full (and, it is hoped, accurate) index of Scripture references, with such subject-index as was practicable.

The translators have encountered many unforeseen difficulties during the four years in which the work has been in their hands; much of the translation has been hewn out on pilgrimage, or in small hotel rooms, and far from books of reference.

But the hindrances have been more than matched by the generous and ungrudging help that they have received, especially from Italian savants, whose courtesy is, indeed, proverbial throughout Europe. Among those to whom they desire to acknowledge their debt are Padre Minocchi of Florence, Professors Guidi and Monaci of Rome, Professors Nallino and Cesareo of Palermo, Professor Crescini of Padua, and Commendatore Malagola of the Venetian Archivio.

Outside Italy their acknowledgements are due first and foremost to Prof. J. Hitter von Karabacek, Director of the Imperial Library at Vienna, and to his learned and amiable colleague Dr. Rudolph Beer, whose kindness has not limited itself to a laborious collation of the entire MS. To M. Briquet of Geneva thanks are due for an opinion on the subject which he has made his own.

Among English friends they would recognize with gratitude the services rendered by Dr. Paget Toynbee, whose friendly criticism of their earlier