John Smith's 1722 Edition of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica and the Burnt British Library Cotton MS Otho B XI

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This article traces the origins and progress toward publication of John Smith's edition of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Particular focus is centred on an annotated copy of Abraham Wheloc's edition of 1643/1644, now held in the British Library, containing manuscript collations of the Latin and Old English Bede texts, made by Smith himself and others. These collations and other surviving documents provide fresh insights into Smith's skill as an editor, and furnish new evidence about the state of the Old English manuscript Otho B XI, largely destroyed in the 1731 Cottonian Library fire.