Studies in diplomatic history and historiography

This volume was planned as an act of pleasant duty, and carried out as one of infinite joy-a labour of love for a great and good man, George Peabody Gooch, as a tribute to him by his peers. It is eminently fitting that a group of friends and admirers, inspired in their quest for learning by a master, would gladly keep faith with him by showing, in some tangible manner, their appreciation for his unfailing guidance. And if that act takes the form of a Festschrift volume, that also is done in good faith, in keeping with the fine tradition which probably had its beginning, so far as historical scholarship is aware, in 1764, in Johann Friedrich Joachim's Kurtze Betrachtung über die lubeliahre und die lubelfeier akademischer Lehrer.
This is not, it may be permissible to say, an ordinary Festschrift volume. Usually such a work is prepared in honour of a university professor by his former students, all graduates of a particular university. In the present instance this volume differs from other Festschriften in that its contributors are not limited to one institution or to any one country, and that fact, together with the truly cosmopolitan character of its content, makes it an international Festschrift. Furthermore, though the master thus honoured has lectured at a large number of universities, and many of them have 'adopted' him with honorary degrees, he has never sought a university professorship. But he has merited the admiration of so many scholars in so many lands, and so immense has been his influence in the world of historical scholarship, that all point to him as the dean of diplomatic historians, and he himself has become a venerable institution.