PREFACE OF THE EDITOR

Phillippsianus Berolinensis (Phillippsianus 1831), written at Verona in the 8th–9th century, contains among other things part of books III and XIII. Within the second family, there seem to be two factions; for L (and OP?) aligns with K against MN Par. extr. Phill.

T Toletanus (the so-called Toledan), now in Madrid (Tol. 15. 8), recently issued in facsimile at Leiden (Sijthoff, 1909); it is barely certain to which century it should be referred (8th or 9th?), for the debate regarding Visigothic palaeographia study of ancient writing is "still under judgment." It contains books I–XX.

U Escorialensis I (T, formerly Q, II. 24), copied from an exemplar made in the year 743 (or 733), appears itself to be rather from the tenth century or the end of the ninth. It contains books I–XX.

V Escorialensis II (&. I. 14) is older, but lacks I–III. It violently emits the readings of XX. 12 and part of book VI (viii. 6 only through xvi. 9).

W Escorialensis III (P. I. 7), "book of Prince Alfonso," i.e., Alfonso II (795–843), unless perhaps it is Alfonso III (866–910), contains books I–XX.

X Sangallensis IV (237), 9th–10th century, contains books I–XX.

Ovet. extr. Codex Ovetensis (the so-called Oviedo codex), Escorial R. II. 18, in the part that was written in minuscule letters before the year 779, has certainly excerpted many things from books IX and XIV, but these are so freely altered and shortened (e.g., IX. ii. 28 "Madai from whom the Medes exist") that it serves as a reliable witness less often than I would wish.

Regarding the third family, it must be noted that there are places where the codices TW here, and UV there, appear to be more closely linked, e.g., I. iv. 17, where the words potestatem autem natura dedit voluntas ordinem original: "but nature gave the power, the will the order", written in the upper margin of the exemplar, were inserted into the middle of paragraph 16 (after the word habeatur) in TW (which, however, also appear repeated in their own place in T).

Finally, concerning that pre-archetype from which the three archetype codices [descended]