The following study aims to give a picture of the environ ment in which Luther and his guests conversed and of the men who noted down the sayings of the master. Each of these reporters was a source from whom others copied until practically all the sayings were united, after several stages of transcription, into great collections by various editors. We might compare the process of accumulation to that by which many springs pour their waters into the same great river, the original notebooks corresponding to the springs, the first copies to tributary streams, and the final editions to large rivers. From an account of this process, as little tech nical as possible, we naturally come to an appreciation of the literary and historical value of the Table Talk, treating it in a manner which is illustrative as well as critical.