THE CHRONICLES AND MEMORIALS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. PUBLTSnED BY THE AUTHORITY OP HER MAJESTY'S TREASURY, UNDER TIIF DrUECTION OF THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS. On the 26tli of Januaiy 1857, the Master of the Eolls suhmitted to the Treasury a proposal for the puhlication of materials for the History of this Country from the Invasion of the Romans to the Reign of Ilemy VIII. The Master of the Rolls suggested that these materials should he selected for puhlication under competent editors without reference to periodical or chronological arrange- ment, without mutilation or ahridgment, preference heing given, in the first instance, to such materials as were most scarce and valuahle. He proposed that each clironicle or liistorical document to he edited should he treated in the same way as if the editor were engaged on an Editio Princeps ; and for this purpose the most correct text should he formed from an* accurate collation of the host MSS. To render the work more generally useful, the Master of the Rolls suggested that the editor should give an account of the MSS. employed hy limi, of their age and their pecub'arities ; that lie should add to tlie work a hrief account of the life and times of the autlior, and any remarks necessaiy to explain the chronology; but no other note or comment was to he allowed, except what might be necessary to establish the correctness of the text. a 2
