Roman Forgeries and Christian Ethicks are two of three books by Thomas Traherne published during the seventeenth century. Traherne saw Roman Forgeries through the press but died before he was able to do so for Christian Ethicks, as the printer's apology ‘To the Reader’ indicates: ‘The Author's much lamented Death hapning immediately after this Copy came to the Press, may reasonably move the Readers charity, to pardon those few Errata's [sic] which have escaped in the Printing by so sad an occasion.’ Roman Forgeries was printed by S. and B. Griffin and published by Jonathan Edwin. No publisher is indicated on the title page of Christian Ethicks; it was however printed for Jonathan Edwin in 1675. The third book, A Serious and Pathethical Contemplation of the Mercies of God, was published by George Hicks and printed for Samuel Keeble in 1699.

Contrary to the common understanding that Traherne's works were not widely read and fell into obscurity until the dramatic discovery of his manuscripts by Bertram Dobell in the late nineteenth century; the details in book descriptions and provenance indicate that through the centuries Traherne's Roman Forgeries and Christian Ethicks had various owners; they were read, corrected, annotated and circulated. The primary copy texts for this edition of both Christian Ethicks and Roman Forgeries are held at the Cambridge University Library; of necessity to confirm as correct a text as possible, especially for Roman Forgeries, both texts were collated against other copies, primarily those listed in this edition.

There may have been more than one printed copy of Roman Forgeries: both have missing words and letters, irregular pagination and signatures; the irregularities, however, are not the same in all copies, for instance in some copies there are printed manicules as in those held at Brasenose College Library and Lambeth Palace Library, pages 152 and 291, whereas manicules are missing in other copies as in the two copies at the Cambridge University Library. Pagination is also erratic, for example Hereford Library prints page 82 upside down; Hereford Cathedral library prints ‘82’ right side up; Hereford Library prints p. 223 as 226; Hereford Cathedral Library prints p. 223 as 203. This is a conjecture; there may have been also various compositors.