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Transcribed from the 1901 Cassell and Company edition by David
Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk




THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO




PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.



The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic
family in the north of England. It was printed at Naples, in the
black letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written
does not appear. The principal incidents are such as were believed
in the darkest ages of Christianity; but the language and conduct
have nothing that savours of barbarism. The style is the purest
Italian.

If the story was written near the time when it is supposed to have
happened, it must have been between 1095, the era of the first
Crusade, and 1243, the date of the last, or not long afterwards.