University, Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Lambeth Libraries do not possess a copy, nor are the noble collections of the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Huth, or the late Mr. Dyce richer in this respect than the public libraries. The only complete copy of the first edition that I have been able to trace is in the Bodleian, and the present volume has been printed from a transcript of this, though I have collated with an imperfect copy possessed by Dr. Williams’ Library. There was a second edition in 1601, but this is even rarer, only the British Museum copy being known to me.
The first edition received the license of the Stationers’ Company sometime towards the end of 1569 or the beginning of 1570, as we learn from the entry in their books (Arber Transcript i. fol. 184), “Recevyd of henry Denham for his lycense for pryntinge of a boke intituled phelophye (sic) of the Aumcyant ffaythers xijd.” It is a small quarto of 116 leaves, divided into four parts, of which the last two have separate title-pages, as in the Italian original: the last is dated 1570. We have exactly reproduced its typographical peculiarities for the first forty pages, after which the whole book was in gothic, for which
