A litil boke for the Pestilence/Prefatory Note

by Henry Guppy

PREFATORY NOTE

THE present volume forms the third issue of a series of facsimile reproductions of unique and rare books in the possession of the John Rylands Library.

The series is to be known as "The John Rylands Facsimiles", and it may not be out of place, in this prefatory note, again to recall the considerations which led up to the undertaking.

It is a matter of common knowledge that, preserved in this library, there are a number of works, particularly of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which are of considerable importance on account of their extreme rarity.

Hitherto, many of these works have been accessible only to students in Manchester, because the only known copies are to be found here.

With a view to render these texts more readily accessible to students beyond Manchester, and also in order to avert the disaster and loss to scholarship involved in the destruction by fire or otherwise of unique and rare literary treasures of this importance, when they have not been multiplied by means of reproduction, the Governors of the library have sanctioned the publication of this series of facsimile reproductions of some of the more interesting and remarkable of the rarer books and prints of which they are the guardians.

The volumes will consist of minutely accurate facsimiles of the works selected, preceded by short bibliographical introductions.

It is proposed to limit the issue of each work to five hundred copies. Of this number two hundred will be reserved for distribution to the principal libraries of the world; the remainder will be offered for sale at a price calculated to cover the cost of reproduction.

The introduction to the present volume has been written by the sub-librarian, Mr. Guthrie Vine, to whom the thanks of the Governors of the library and of the writer of this note are due.

We are also indebted to the Controller of the Oxford University Press for the interest and care which he has bestowed upon the production of the work.

HENRY GUPPY

The John Rylands Library
September, 1910