Facsimile [And] Text of the Book of Aneurin (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ... another. But it is essential never to forget that things which are equal to the same thing may be equal to one another in paleography. For instance,, t, are frequently confounded; and we have seen that k took the place of e, so k may appear occasionally as a misread or t. Unless the student can visualize the original script, and the varying possible mistakes in repeated transcriptions, the paleographie restorations look very like jugglery to all but the initiated.44 n, r, s, cannot very well be mistaken, any one for the other, but if the original script was in Hibemo-Saxon characters n is often confounded with p, and as n & a are a sort of indistinguishable twins in most writing we find Ji may be misread U which in turn may be misread rr, II, Ir, it, rl, ti, characters utterly unlike p. A friendly critic looking over my shoulder has warned me that these references to the transformations of c, m, n, p & u introduce an air of unreality into the subject. Let me then refer the reader to the Scribal Errors under the above letters, where he will find illustrations with chapter and verse for every statement. Truth is always stranger than fiction to the ignorant, but we can have no progress without shocking the " forty millions " and most of their leaders, who fancy that good sight is everything. Good sight is certainly wanted for bad MSS. Insight is wanted for all MSS., --it is knowledge, experience, and the faculty behind the eyes that count. 44 Unfortunately there is but one connected with the University of Wales who is experienced in Welsh paleography in the sense of having ordered knowledge of MSS. extending over a long period of time; knowledge based on scientific observation of the gradual but continuous change ...