INTRODUCTION.

number of full-page pictures and well-executed initials. In the Benedictine edition, it is denoted by the letters "bm," standing for Basil the Macedonian, because it contains a picture of that Emperor represented as still reigning. Since Basil died in the year 886, this gives us the approximate date of the manuscript. It contains all the Theological Orations along with all of Gregory’s other orations, except that the last few lines of our Oration ii, the first five and a half chapters of v, and the end of v are missing.

b = Coislin LI, in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris (see Montfaucon’s Bibliotheca Coisliniana p. 118). It is a folio manuscript of the 10th century, presenting a text markedly different from that of "a." In the Benedictine edition, it is called "Coisl. I."

c = Munich Cod. CCCCXLVIII. "Parchment, in folio, without illuminated titles, with minute and very neat letters, with very small marginal notes in another hand, with yellowing ink, 10th century, well preserved and inscribed." (Hardt’s Catalogus Codd. MSS. Graec. Bibl. Reg. Bavaricae tom. iv p. 394). It contains all five orations.

d = I have used this letter to denote two different manuscripts in the Bodleian Library. The first is Barocc. 218, which contains only Oration ii. It is described in Coxe’s Catalogue as "A parchment codex, in quarto, 11th century, written very well, though in minute characters." The other, which contains the last three orations, is Barocc. 181: "A parchment codex, in folio, perhaps 11th century, in two columns, very well written."

e = Magdalen College, Oxford, (Greek) Codex V—a parchment manuscript in quarto from the 11th century (Coxe’s Catalogus Codd. MSS. qui in Collegiis Aulisque Oxon. adservantur vol. ii p. 3).