Chapter I: Preface: Of the Editor

The aim and scope of this work are so explicitly set forth in the appended Preface by its Author as to require for the book no further introduction. The position held by M. LACROIX in the Imperial Library of the Arsenal, Paris, is a sufficient guarantee of his qualifications for undertaking a publication of this nature. How far his labours were appreciated in France is evident from the fact that, when the first edition made its appearance, it was exhausted within a few days.

It may fairly be presumed that THE ARTS IN THE MIDDLE AGES will find equal favour in England, where so much attention has of late years been given to the subject in all its various ramifications; and where,--in our National Museum, Kensington, especially,--we are accumulating so extensive and valuable a collection of objects associated with the epochs referred to by M. LACROIX.

In preparing these sheets for the press, my task has been little more than to put an excellent and conscientious _literal_ translation of the French text into language somewhat in harmony with the construction of our own. In so doing, however, it has been my object to retain, as far as practicable, the peculiar--sometimes the quaint--phraseology of the original writing. A few notes are added when they appeared necessary by way of explaining terms, &c., or to render them more intelligible to the general reader. But some words are used by the Author for which no English equivalent can be found: these have been allowed to stand without note or comment.

JAMES DAFFORNE.

BRIXTON, _February, 1870_.