is impossible to understand it. With the exception of a few traces of borrowings from the Passions of the martyrs, the compilation is in the form of a simple martyrology. There were three manuscript versions: that of Bern, Wolfenbuttel. and Echternach. The latter is thought to be the earliest, based on a copy possibly brought to England by Augustine of Canterbury in 597, and preserved in a manuscript at the Abbey of Echternach, founded by the English missionary Willibrord. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum Epternacense, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, is thought to have been written in the early eighth century as an Insular version of the "Hieronymianum", compiled from two separate copies. In some instances the feast is misplaced by a day. Also known as the Echternach recension, it was adapted to the English Church, incorporating memorials for Augustine of Canterbury, Paulinus of York and others. In 1885 De Rossi and Duchesne published a memoir entitled Les sources du martyrologe hiéronymien (in Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, V), which became the starting-point of a critical edition of the martyrology, published through their efforts in Vol. II for November of the "Acta SS." in 1894. The medievalist Dom Henri Quentin and Bollandist Hippolyte Delehaye collaborated on an annotated edition, Commentarius Perpetuus in Martyrologium Hieronymianum, (Brussels, in 1931); Quentin supplied the textual commentary and Delehaye the historical. Historical martyrologies There is another type of martyrology in which the name is followed by a short history of the saint. These are the historical martyrologies. There exists a large number of them, from the ninth century. It may be said that their chief sources are, besides the Hieronymian, accounts derived from the Acts of the martyrs and some ecclesiastical authors. Of the best-known historical martyrologies, the oldest go under the names of: Bede (eighth century) Florus of Lyon Wandelbert, a monk of Prüm (842) Rhabanus Maurus (c. 845) Ado of Vienne (d. 875) Notker the Stammerer (896) Wolfhard Tallaght Oengus The most famous of all is that of Usuard (c. 875), Martyrology of Usuard, on which the Roman martyrology was based. The first edition of the Roman martyrology appeared at Rome in 1583. The third edition, which appeared in 1584, was approved by Gregory XIII, who gave the Roman martyrology official status for the whole Church. In 1586, Baronius published his annotated edition, which in spite of its omissions and inaccuracies is a mine