SOURCE: A Preface to De Nugis Curialium, by Walter Map, translated by Montague R. James, edited by E. Sidney Hartland, Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1923, pp. ix-xi.

In the following preface to his English translation of De Nugis Curialium, James argues that Map lacked proficiency in Latin and that, thus, his word choice is sometimes inaccurate and his sentences are cumber-some.

Walter Map is a very difficult author to translate. My aim, in making the English version of his book, which is here offered to the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, has been to produce something which shall be quite faithful to the sense which I think the writer is trying to convey, and at the same time shall be readable, and not over-antique in flavour. With this in view I have discarded a good many old ways of speaking, particularly the use of the second person singular, so that...