Excerpt from Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, Vol. 2: Gemma Ecclesiastica That book, hitherto reserved for the exclusive perusal of popes and archbishops, is now submitted to the reader. It has never been printed before, and no other ms. Of it is known to exist except the one, now in the possession of his Grace the archbishop of Canterbury, to whose liberality and condescension I am indebted for the loan of it. Whether this be the very volume that was presented by Giraldus to pope Innocent III, or whether the papal copy still remains among the un sunned treasures of the Vatican, I can not undertake to determine. The Lambeth copy is worthy of pre sentation to pope or cardinal. It is a noble ms, very carefully written in double columns in a hand of the thirteenth century; the ink is still as glossy as a raven's down, and the vellum as rich as consular ivory. Strangely, too, some leaves in the middle are stained and shrivelled with sea water. But all theory on this subject I must leave to others. It is enough that a genuine ms. Of the work is still preserved at Lambeth, whatever may have been the fate of that which Innocent once kept at his bed's head. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.

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