“In the first place I wished to amend more
thoroughly the text of J. Prevot, which, as I said, he himself largely
corrected and supplied from MSS. in the Vatican, and which I have
printed in this Edition: I have therefore compared it with all
the other Editions that I could collect, and in this manner have easily
removed many errors both of the printers and of Prevot himself.
Afterwards I carefully compared all the Catecheses and the Epistle to
Constantinus with two MSS. and some with three, namely iv., vi.,
viii.–x., xv., xvi., xviii. The first Codex, written on
parchment apparently six hundred years ago, I found among those MSS.
which Sir Tho. Roe, our first Ambassador from King James I. to the
Great Mogul, brought from the East, and presented to the Bodleian
Library. The second we owe to the diligence of Isaac Casaubon, who collated the
Catecheses and Epistle to Constantius with a MS. which he chanced
to find, I think, in some Library in France, and carefully noted all
the various readings in the margin. This copy of Casaubon’s
the Right Reverend Father in Christ, John Bishop of Norwich, very
kindly lent to me out of his well-furnished Library, and of his great
love for learning did not disdain to shew the highest favour to my
slight endeavours.”