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  _Chap-Books
  and
  Folk-Lore Tracts._


  _Edited by
  G. L. Gomme, F.S.A.
  and
  H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A._


  _First Series._

  II.




  THE HISTORY

  OF

  THE SEVEN WISE MASTERS
  OF ROME.


  PRINTED FROM
  THE EDITION OF WYNKYN DE WORDE, 1520,

  AND EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION,

  BY

  GEORGE LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A.


  LONDON:
  PRINTED FOR THE VILLON SOCIETY.

  1885.




Introduction.


The history of the _Seven Wise Masters_ forms an important epoch in
the history of European popular stories, because it affords the most
remarkable evidence of the literary descent and origin of stories,
as distinct from a traditional descent. Professor Comparetti in
his _Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad_, published 