PREFACE

THE Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew's Priory and Hospital by Rahere in the year 1123 is in the Cottonian Collection in the British Museum numbered Vespasian B. IX.

The text is in Latin with a translation in Middle English of about the time of Chaucer. The Latin version is a transcript from an earlier copy which no longer exists. The transcript was probably made at the same time as the Middle English translation, at the instance of Roger Walden when he was in retirement during the years 1400-1404.

The original Latin version was written, as we learn from the MS., by one of the canons of the monastery, and finished by him after the death of Rahere's successor, Prior Thomas, in 1174.

The evidence as regards the date of the Latin and English versions has been fully set out by the late Sir Norman Moore in his introduction to the M.E. translation which he published in 1886.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part describes Rahere's conversion and his founding of the priory and hospital, and is printed in extenso in Latin in Caley and Ellis's edition of Dugdale's Monasticon, and also some of the miracles which occurred in Rahere's lifetime. The second part gives a further account of Rahere's life after conversion and of his death, also an account of Rahere's successor, Prior Thomas, and of the miracles during his Priorate.

This translation of the Book of the Foundation into Modern English is offered as a convenience to those who may not have the time to read the Middle English version.

E. A. WEBB.

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