After a collation of the manuscripts, and an initial survey of the
material for a critical edition of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels had been
made, the Delegates of the Clarendon Press suggested the plan of putting
forth in advance, with as little as possible of critical apparatus, a
separate edition of one of these Gospels. . . . This earliest extant
English version of the Gospels, of which a portion is given in this
little volume, possesses a unique interest for the student of the early
forms of the language; moreover, for the history of biblical
translations, it has a value that deserves wider and more precise
recognition. --from the Preface