Beowulf - Autotypes of the Unique Cotton Manuscript Vitellius a Xv in the British Museum

PRELIMINARY NOTICE. MR. FURNIVALL, at p. 12 of the Eleventh Report of the Com mittee of the Early English Text Society September, 1879, says as follows On Prof. Skeats receiving, to the Committees great pleasure, his well-earned and well-deserved reward of the Anglo- Saxon Professorship at Cambridge, he proposed that the Society should autotype the unique MS. of the great Anglo-Saxon epic of Beowulf. The Committee, relying on finding a translator and editor of the- text, adopted Prof. Skeats suggestion. The MS. was photographed by Mr. Praetorius he has delivered some of the autotypes, and undertakes to hand in the whole early next year. Part I. of the book is now in hand, and will be issued for 1880 in 1881. Before that Report was printed, I had promised Mr. Furnivall to act as editor. I collated the autotypes in the August and September of 1880, with the MS. as well as with the two transcripts of it, made nearly a hundred years ago the one by, the other for, the first editor of the poem, G. J. Thorkelin which now belong to the Large Royal Library at Copenhagen, but which, on our directors application, were kindly sent to the British Museum. After my return to Germany, however, having to perform the duties of Dean to the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Berlin for 1880- 1881, I was unable to go on with the Beoufrilf before the long vacation of 1881. My transliteration of the MS. was in type by the end of August, 1882, and I read the proof-sheets of it with the MS. in the earlier part of the following month. The transliteration contains more than can be read in the Facsimile or even in the MS., inasmuch as it has been my endeavour to give the text as far as possible in that condition in which it stood in the MS. a century ago. The MS. Cotton MSS. Vitellius A. xv. did not suffer so much from the fire of 1731 itself as from its consequences, which would, without doubt, have been avoided if the MS. had been at once rebound as carefully as it has been rebound in our days. Even when Thorkelin used it, the edges of a few pages only had crumbled off. But much morewas gone by Kembles time, and many letters and words which Kemble still saw are now no longer in existence. Further losses have been put a stop to by the new binding but, admirably as this was done, the binder could not help covering some letters or portions of letters in every back page with the edge of the paper which now surrounds every parchment leaf. I grudged no pains in trying to decipher as much of what is covered as possible. When, in my notes, I simply state that something is covered, I always mean to say that, by holding the leaf to the light, I was able to read it nevertheless. In case I could not make out what is covered distinctly, I always add a remark to that effect. Both in the front pages and in the back pages transparent paper was employed by the binder, which, although it does not prevent the reader of the MS...