Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Hooper.djvu/17

only in B), and B for the remainder.^[1] His text therefore reproduces the two editiones principes, if such an expression is not a solecism.

C. Various editions in English, based on the Latin MSS. of English origin. They contain usually 44 chapters, but sometimes 43, and once 58. A few examples will suffice.

(a) Printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in small 4to., at London, date uncertain. It contains 43 chapters, and is a translation of MS. Harl. 5369.^[2] In the library of St. John's College, Cambridge.

(b) Printed in London, 1648. Contains 44 chapters.

(c) London, 1689. 44 chapters.

(d) London [1722?]. 58 chapters (British Museum, 1456a).

These editions all have some stories in common with the Vulgate, together with many which are peculiar to themselves. I may remark that Wynkyn de Worde's edition (a) is the only instance we have of a printed copy exactly corresponding to a MS. of the Gesta.

II. Manuscripts.

The MSS. of the Gesta fall naturally into three groups, or families, as Herr Oesterley calls them.^[3]

A. The English group; written in Latin. Of this the best representative is MS. Harl. 2270; date, fifteenth century. It contains 102 chapters, of which 72 are found in the Vulgate.^[4] This is the group which Mr. Douce^[5] calls the "English Gesta," and which he and others have maintained to have been com-

1. Oesterley, p. 268.
2. Ibid. p. 241.
3. Ibid. p. 244.
4. Ibid. pp. 187, 245.
5. Douce, Illustrations, &c., p. 535.