Fasti Monastici Aevi Saxonici, or an Alphabetical List of the Heads of Religious Houses in England, Previous to the Norman Conquest: To Which Is ... of Contemporary Foundations (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Fasti Monastici Aevi Saxonici, or an Alphabetical List of the Heads of Religious Houses in England, Previous to the Norman Conquest: To Which Is Prefixed a Chronological Catalogue of Contemporary FoundationsIt would have been superfluous for me to add a secondary series of references. Those I have given are in almost every case the only ones which point directly to original sources, and consequently the only available ones for the plan I proposed to myself. It will be noticed that I appear to have occasionally deviated more or less from strict alphabetical sequence but this has been unavoidable, as I wished, by a particular but simple method Of grouping similar names, to indicate the possibility, but by no means to assert the positive fact, of their relation to identical personages. It is well known that great allowances must be made for dialectic variation and the caprices of authors and scribes at such an unsettled period. The great number of later copies of such early documents as those contained in the works tabulated, exhibit numerous variations in the orthography of proper names and to have introduced these in every case would have swelled the size of the present work far beyond reasonable limits, while no corresponding advantage would have been gained. As it is, in the orthography of even contemporary documents a very wide diversity will be found to exist; for instance, on pages 22 - 25, upwards of fifteen variants of the true Saxon forms [elfsige or Eeelsige present themselves. It would have been impossible to bring before the eye the fact that Dugdale's Egelsine, abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, was identical with zefielsige of the anglo-saxon Chronicle,' if I had tied myself down to strict adherence to the alphabetical system, as these names would have appeared in different portions of the List.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.