folio editions of his works. At a later period this same subject was handled by Martene, who found two similar manuscripts, and from them published in his Thesaurus Anecdotorum,' vol. v., eleven homilies which had not previously seen the light. Ten of these are the same which Mabillon discovered: with regard to the eleventh, Martene, probably because he had not Mabillon's authority to support him, expressed doubts of its genuineness. From Martene till the present time no further attempts had been made to elucidate this subject. The discoveries of Mabillon and Martene had confirmed the suspicion which before existed, that the great mass of homilies ascribed to Bede were undoubtedly spurious. But the data furnished by these discoveries did not appear to throw so much light upon the question as would enable the editor to see his way with sufficient clearness in preparing his new edition; and after examining several public libraries in his own country without success, he determined to visit the continental libraries of the greatest note, if haply anything might there be found to assist him in his researches. This resolution was no sooner adopted, than a fortunate circumstance at once put him in possession of all that he required. In the public library of Boulogne sur Mer, although little known to the scholars of our own country, are some valuable Manuscripts of the Fathers of the Church. Among these is one of the earliest copies which exist of the Homilies of Venerable Bede. It is a large quarto of the eighth or ninth century, and formerly belonging to the monastery of St. Bertin at St. Omer: it is written in double columns on parchment, divided into two books, and contains fifty homilies, forty-nine of which are the same as those mentioned by Mabillon, and the fiftieth is one of those found in the folio editions of our author. This discovery appeared to clear up the whole subject. The obvious inference to be drawn from the concurrent testimony of these Manuscripts seemed to be, that Bede published two books of Homilies, each containing twenty-five, though from obvious reasons the order and even number of these would in lapse of time become deranged, and that, although more may in later Manuscripts be attributed to him, yet the authority of five of the most ancient copies ascribe to him that number only. This fortunate discovery enables the editor to put forth a collection of the Homilies of Venerable Bede, which has greater claims to be considered as genuine than any that have preceded. The volume contains the fifty found in the Boulogne Manuscript, forty-nine of which are those mentioned by Mabillon (and of these forty-nine, ten are given by Martene), and also the additional or eleventh Homily published by Martene. Besides these, which may, from the ar guments above-mentioned, be considered as undoubtedly genuine, will be found eight others, which are taken from the Bâle edition of the work, and which happened to have been collated and prepared for the press before the discovery of the Boulogne Manuscript. It was therefore not deemed necessary to reject them, though their genuineness rests on no such grounds as that of the others. The Homilies in this volume have been printed without regard to order, but as best suited the convenience of the compositors; the contents of the several Manuscripts will be easily seen from the annexed Table of Contents. The first column shows their order in this edition; whilst the second and third give the order in which they occur in the Manuscripts of Boulogne and of Mabillon. The various readings will be given in the Appendix to the sixth volume, in order to allow time for the complete collation of a valuable MS. in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris, which, though not earlier than the tenth century, contains exactly the same fifty Homilies found in the Boulogne MS., and in the same order. The editor takes this opportunity of acknowledging the attentions which he received from Mons. Gerard, keeper of the public library at Boulogne, the value of which can be appreciated by those only who know what difficulties environ the student in public libraries, when he has not the good fortune to secure the cooperation of those to whose charge they are committed. J. A. GILES. Paris, Sept. 20, 1843. Domin. 17 p. Trin. Hydropis morbus ............ 103 In festo inven. S. Crucis. Sicut ex 1. s. E., fr. car., audistis........ ......... 109 Dom. 1 post Epiph. Aperta est nobis, fr. c., s. 117 Dom. 2 post Epiph. Quod Dominus noster a. 172 179 In octav. Epiph. Lectio sancti Evang............. 163 demptor......... ... 200 124 134 142 In Quadrag. Mediator Dei............ 149 ............ 156 |