Transcribers’ Note

Some short pieces are not mentioned in the Contents.

Footnotes have been numbered 1 to 18 and have been moved to the end of the piece they elucidate.

Variant spelling, unconventional punctuation (for example, some opening quotation marks are closed more than a paragraph or stanza later, and some are not closed at all) and inconsistant hyphenation are retained. The use of accents has not been altered. A few changes, however, have been made, they are:

Page [xvi] “Pausilppo” changed to “Pausilippo” in the Contents.

Page [xii] the entry in the Contents for “Charles X.” has been changed to “Charles V.”

Page [3] “Cardinal d’Estrée” changed to “Cardinal d’Estrées” in the heading.

Page [63] “Linksum kehrt eveh marsek” has been changed to “Linksum kehrt euch marsch”.

Page [119] “rocks” changed to “rooks” in “the rooks and the ravens came into the towns”.

Page [153], Machevelli's age in 1494 was printed as 29, instead of 24.