t the French National Library in
Paris, no attempt was made to compare Gruget's faulty version with the
originals until the Societe des Bibliophiles Francais entrusted this
delicate task to M. Le Roux de Lincy, whose labours led to some most
valuable discoveries, enabling him to produce a really authentic version
of Margaret's admired masterpiece, with the suppressed tales restored,
the omitted passages reinstated, and the Queen's real language given for
the first time in all its simple gracefulness.

It is from the authentic text furnished by M. Le Roux de Lincy that the
present translation has been made, without the slightest suppression or
abridgment. The work moreover contains all the more valuable notes to
be found in the best French editions of the _Heptameron_, as well as
numerous others from original sources, and includes a _resume_ of the
various suggestions made by MM. Felix Frank, Le Roux de Lincy, Paul
Lacroix, and A. de Montaiglon, towards the identification of the
narrators of the stories, and the principal actors in them, with
well-known personages of the time. An Essay on the _Heptameron_ from the
pen of Mr. George Saintsbury, M.A., and a Life of Queen Margaret,
are also given, as well as the quaint Prefaces of the earlier French
versions; and a complete bibliographical summary of the various editions
which have issued from the press.

It may be supposed that numerous illustrated editions have been
published of a work so celebrated as the _Heptameron_, which,
besides furnishing scholars with a favourite subject for research and
speculation, has, owing to its perennial freshness, delighted so many
generations of readers. Such, however, is not the case. Only two fully
illustrated editions claim the attention of connoisseurs. The first
of these was published at Amsterdam in 1698, with designs by the Dutch
artist, Roman de Hooge, whose talent has been much overrated. To-day
this edition is only valuable on account of its comparative rarity. Very
different was the famous edition illustrated by Freudenberg, a Swiss
artist--the friend of Boucher and of Greuze--which was published in
parts at Berne in 1778-81, and which among amateurs has long commanded
an almost prohibitive price.

The Full-page Illustrations to the present translation are printed from
the actual copperplates engraved for the Berne edition by Longeuil,
Halbou, and other eminent French artists of the eighteenth century,
after the designs of S