Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/26

xviii PEEFACE. much posterior to the date contained in the docu- ment itself. These pieces are in some cases to be found in one MS. only, and in others, there are different editions of them found in different MSS. Where only one ms. authority exists, the text has been carefully printed from it. Where there is more than one MS., the oldest MS. is as a general rule selected for the text, and the collations with the other MSS. printed at the foot of the page. The reference to the MS. used for the text is placed under the title, and where there is reference to more than one MS., the first named is the one from which the text is taken. Where it is written in old French, Welsh, or Irish, a translation has been appended. As these pieces consist in the main of fragments of old chronicles and other early memorials, in which the exact form of every name, and the exact con- struction of every sentence, may be of importance, the Editor has, as a general rule, resolved, after full consideration, to make no conjectural emendations, either in the orthography or in the construction, but to present the document in the exact shape in which he found it, and he has rarely departed from this rule, x. century. 1. The Pictish Cheonicle. — The first piece, both The Pictisli . . p- ip* i_ ' it i n chrouicie. ui poiut 01 time and of importance, is that usually known by the name of the " Pictish Chronicle." It has already been printed, both by Innes and by Pinkerton ; but a more correct text is now given, with a facsimile of the entire chronicle as it appears