type, viz., that they clearly divide into two distinct recensions,
of which both have so many peculiarities and errors in common that
they must necessarily have been both derived from _one_ modification
of the original text, whilst at the same time there are such
differences between the two as cannot be set down to the accidents of
transcription. Pauthier’s MSS. A and B (Nos. 16 and 15 of the List
in App. F) form one of these subdivisions: his C (No. 17 of List),
Bern (No. 56), and Oxford (No. 6), the other. Between A and B the
differences are only such as seem constantly to have arisen from the
whims of transcribers or their dialectic peculiarities. But between
A and B on the one side, and C on the other, the differences are
much greater. The readings of proper names in C are often superior,
sometimes worse; but in the latter half of the work especially it
contains a number of substantial passages[7] which are to be found in
the G. T., but are altogether absent from the MSS. A and B; whilst in
one case at least (the history of the Siege of Saianfu, vol. ii. p.
159) it diverges considerably from the G. T. _as well_ as from A and
B.[8]
I gather from the facts that the MS. C represents an older form of the
work than A and B. I should judge that the latter had been derived from
that older form, but intentionally modified from it. And as it is the
MS. C, with its copy at Bern, that alone presents the certificate of
derivation from the Book given to the Sieur de Cepoy, there can be no
doubt that it is the true representative of that recension.
[Sidenote: Third; Friar Pipino’s Latin.]