PREFACE.

I have explained this with many words also for this reason: so that through at least one example the addition might be manifestly argued, as many such occur in these books.

In these books, therefore, I did not think the Doric dialect should be restored; in the others, however, I have generally kept to that plan which I proposed in Quaest. Arch. p. 78 ff., but I did not judge that it should be harshly demanded, so that I might be more cautious than to fall into the opposite error.

What resources I have used in the epigram and those books which exist only in Latin will be mentioned in their proper places. Now I shall conclude, but not before I have given thanks to Nicolaus Anziani, a most learned man, prefect of the Laurentian Library, whose outstanding kindness I came to know in Florence.

These are the things I had to say concerning my plan in preparing this edition. I pray that my strength may not be too unequal to such a great burden!