Florence" and the "Buda." It would seem that the "Second
Florence", from the note at the end, dates back to the year 395,
though the Benedictines in their Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique
(vol. iii. pp. 278-9) thought they recognized in it a Lombard
writing of the tenth or eleventh century; Ernesti modified that to
the ninth; others again changed it to the seventh and even the
sixth; but it will be shown to satisfaction in the course of this
treatise that it belongs to the fifteenth century. So the Buda
MS., believed by Justus Lipsius to be as ancient as the Second
Florence (which he thought with the Benedictines was of the tenth
or eleventh century) was considered by James Gronovius to be very
modern; and very modern it is, being traceable to a little after
the same period as the Second Florence, namely, the fifteenth
century. The First Florence, which was stated to have been found
in the Abbey of Corvey, and which furnished the opening six books
of the Annals as first given to the world by Beroaldus, is of an
age that has hitherto never been determined; but that age will be
shown, towards the close of this work, to be the first quarter of
the sixteenth century. The MS. from which Vindelinus of Spire
published his edition, was in the Library of St Mark's, Venice,
but,--according, to Croll and Exter,--it is no longer to be found.

The case, then, stands thus with respect to the MSS.;--no MS. of
the works of Tacitus, whose existence can be traced back further
than the sixteenth century, contains the whole of the Annals; and
no MS. of the works of Tacitus, whose existence can be traced back
further than the first half of the preceding century, has the
closing books of the Annals.

Here let me briefly recapitulate;--it being very important for the