The opening of the text
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Transcriber’s Notes │ │ │ │ │ │ Punctuation has been standardized. │ │ │ │ The Table of Contents has been updated to agree with the │ │ headings and subheadings of the text. │ │ │ │ The † symbol next to a date was not defined in the text. It │ │ appears to mean approximate year of death. │ │ │ │ Characters in small caps have been replaced by all caps. │ │ │ │ Non-printable characteristics have been given the following │ │ transliteration: │ │ Italic text: --> text │ │ bold text: --> =text=. │ │ │ │ Italics have been dropped on leading alpha characters (a. b. │ │ c.) to improved readability. │ │ │ │ This book was written in a period when many words had │ │ not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have │ │ multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in │ │ the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated │ │ with a Transcriber’s Note. │ │ │ │ Many names appear with multiple spelling variations.