Matheson Collection > Lebor na huidre

PREFACE
The lithographic Facsimile of Lebor na Huidre executed
by Joseph O'Longan, and published by the Royal Irish
Academy in 1870, having been out of print for many
years, the Council decided in 192 1 to issue under our
joint editorship a new edition of the ms., to be printed
in Roman characters, in which the different hands, more
especially the numerous interpolations to which atten-
tion had recently been drawn, and which gave a new
character to the ms., should be distinguished by different
founts of type. The aim of the present edition is to
provide not a critical text — so many of the tracts being
defective owing to lacunae in the volume — but rather an
accurate transcript, which will supplement the ' Fac-
simile ' and present the evidence of the ms. in a more
convenient form.
Some apology is necessary for the long delay that
has ensued since the work was taken in hands. The
task of editing, owing largely to difficulties of interpre-
tation, proved more arduous and exacting than had been
anticipated. The entire work, both in ms. and in proof,
was collated more than once with the original by both
editors, and frequent revision of the text took place.
The final comparison was with the ' Facsimile,' when a
number of inadmissible readings of the facsimilist, which
had before been overlooked, were noted, together with