Manuscript Tradition and Textual History
Two hundred and fifteen medieval manuscripts of the Historia survive, dozens of them copied before the end of the twelfth century. Even among the earliest manuscripts a large number of textual variants, such as the so-called 'First Variant', can be discerned. These are reflected in the three possible prefaces to the work and in the presence or absence of certain episodes and phrases. Certain variants may be due to 'authorial' additions to different early copies, but most probably reflect early attempts to alter, add to or edit the text.
Unfortunately, the task of disentangling these variants and establishing Geoffrey's original text is long and complex, and the extent of the difficulties surrounding the text has been established only recently.
Read more about this topic: Historia Regum Britanniae
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