PREFACE OF THE EDITOR

Here you have, benevolent reader, an edition of the Etymologiae Etymologies that is begun rather than perfected in every detail. I shall briefly explain why I have dared, or rather, by heaven, have been compelled, to offer it to you in this state. You must know that some years ago, while occupied with Latin grammar and the most ancient Latin writers, I desired a fuller knowledge of their citations found in Isidore. I gathered readings from ancient manuscripts from all quarters with the intention of handing them over, once collected, to Kuebler, who was preparing an edition of the Etymologiae. Then, gradually captured by a love for the subject, I added many readings from other parts of the Etymologiae, which served as evidence for what the diaspora dispersion of the Isidorian book had been throughout the monasteries of Europe, and by what marks the different families of manuscripts were to be distinguished from one another. Finally, after Kuebler had abandoned his plan of editing the book, it happened by good fortune that I purchased from an antiquarian bookseller the Ottonian edition, meticulously collated with the Wolfenbüttel manuscript by Joseph Klein. Once informed that the Toledo manuscript would soon be published in a phototype edition, I adopted more ambitious plans. Having obtained the opportunity for a journey for the purpose of paleographic studies through most of the libraries of Europe, I examined all the manuscripts of the Etymologiae that dated from the eighth or the beginning of the ninth century, and I transcribed as many readings as I could. For in utilizing manuscripts of the Etymologiae, that man is surely to be praised who returns to the annals and values excellence by years, since every most ancient manuscript is most free from the hand of an interpolator. Since, therefore, I had sufficiently discovered of the Isidorian manuscripts...