Description:
<jats:p><jats:sc>Twenty-five</jats:sc> years ago Cardinal Gasquet in a paper read before the Royal Historical Society pointed out the desirability of a new edition of Polydore Vergil's <jats:italic>Historia Anglica</jats:italic> based on an as yet unpublished manuscript in the Vatican Library. In this paper he referred to the important differences between the Vatican manuscript and the published versions of the <jats:italic>Historia</jats:italic>, and suggested certain significant possibilities in regard to some of the facts of Polydore Vergil's life. In the course of researches preliminary to the preparation of a critical edition of the <jats:italic>Historia</jats:italic>, the will of Polydore was discovered in the municipal archives of his birthplace, Urbino. The publication of this document provides a suitable opportunity for further comment upon the life and importance of “le premier historien humaniste en Angleterre.”</jats:p>