The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bibliomania; or Book-Madness, by Thomas
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Title: Bibliomania; or Book-Madness
A Bibliographical Romance
Author: Thomas Frognall Dibdin
Release Date: April 8, 2009 [eBook #28540]
Language: English
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Transcriber's Note:
Thomas Frognall Dibdin's _Bibliomania_ was originally published
in 1809 and was re-issued in several editions, including one
published by Chatto & Windus in 1876. This e-book was prepared
from a reprint of the 1876 edition, published by Thoemmes Press
and Kinokuniya Company Ltd. in 1997. Where the reprint was
unclear, the transcriber consulted a copy of the actual 1876
edition.
Footnotes
The original contains numerous footnotes, denoted by numbers
prior to Part I, and by symbols in the remainder of the book.
All of the footnotes are consecutively numbered in this
e-book; footnotes within footnotes are lettered.
Some of the footnotes contain lengthy book catalogues with
descriptions and prices. For ease of reading, in this e-book
these catalogues have been formatted as lists rather than
tables.
Text that in the original was rendered in blackletter is
enclosed between equal signs (=bold face=).
Letters with macrons are enclosed in brackets and preceded by
an equal sign, e.g. [=a].
Spelling and typographical errors are retained as they appear
in the original, with a [Transcriber's Note] containing the
correct spelling. Minor obvious punctuation and font errors
have been corrected without note. Inconsistent diacriticals and
hyphenation have been retained as they appear in the original.
There are frequent inconsistencies in the spelling of certain
proper names. These have been retained as they appear in the
original, for example:
Bibliothèque/Bibliothéque
Boccaccio/Bocaccio/Boccacio
De Foe/Defoe
Français/François
Loménie/Lomenie
Montfauçon/Montfaucon
Roxburgh/Roxburghe
Shakspeare/Shakespeare
Spenser/Spencer
Tewrdannckhs/Tewrdranckhs/Teurdanckhs (and other variations)
Vallière/Valliere
BIBLIOMANIA.
[Illustration]
_Libri quosdam ad Scientiam, quosdam AD INSANIAM, deduxêre._
GEYLER: Navis Stultifera: sign. B. iiij. rev.
BIBLIOMANIA;
OR
=Book-Madness;=
A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ROMANCE.
ILLUSTRATED WITH CUTS.
BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, D.D.
=New and improved Edition,=
TO WHICH ARE ADDED
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, AND A SUPPLEMENT INCLUDING A KEY
TO THE ASSUMED CHARACTERS IN THE DRAMA.
[Illustration: _Engraved by S. Freeman._]
=London:=
Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly.
MDCCCLXXVI.
[Illustration: T.F. DIBDIN, D.D.
_Engraved by James Thomson from the Original Painting by T. Phillips,
Esqr. R.A._
Published by the Proprietors (for the New Edition) of the Rev. Dr.
Dibdins Bibliomania 1840.]
[Illustration]
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF POWIS,
PRESIDENT OF
=The Roxburgh Club,=
THIS
NEW EDITION
OF
BIBLIOMANIA
IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.
[Illustration]
ADVERTISEMENT.
_The public may not be altogether unprepared for the re-appearance of
the BIBLIOMANIA in a more attractive garb than heretofore;--and, in
consequence, more in uniformity with the previous publications of the
Author._
_More than thirty years have elapsed since the last edition; an
edition, which has become so scarce that there seemed to be no
reasonable objection why the possessors of the_ other _works of the
Author should be deprived of an opportunity of adding the_ present
_to the number: and although this re-impression may, on first glance,
appear something like a violation of contract with the public, yet,
when the length of time which has elapsed, and the smallness of the
price of the preceding impression, be considered, there does not
appear to be any very serious obstacle to the present republication;
the more so, as the number of copies is limited to five hundred._
_Another consideration deeply impressed itself upon the mind of the
Author. The course of thirty years has necessarily brought changes and
alterations amongst "men and things." The dart of death has been so
busy during this period that, of the Bibliomaniacs so plentifully
recorded in the previous work, scarcely_ three,_--including the
Author--have survived. This has furnished a monitory theme for the
APPENDIX; which, to the friends both of the dead and the living,
cannot be perused without sympathising emotions--_
_"A sigh the absent claim, the DEAD a tear."_
_The changes and alterations in "things,"--that is to say in the_
=Bibliomania= _itself--have been equally capricious and unaccountable:
our countrymen being, in_ these _days, to the full as fond of novelty
and variety as in those of Henry the Eighth. Dr. Board, who wrote his_
Introduction of Knowledge _in the year 1542, and dedicated it to the
Princess Mary, thus observes of our countrymen:_
_I am an Englishman, and naked do I stand here,
Musing in my mind what raiment I shall wear;
For now I will wear_ this, _and now I will wear_ that,
_Now I will wear--I cannot tell what._
_This highly curious and illustrative work was reprinted, with all its
wood-cut embellishments, by Mr. Upcott. A copy of the original and
most scarce edition is among the Selden books in the Bodleian library,
and in the Chetham Collection at Manchester. See the_ Typographical
Antiquities, _vol._ iii. _p._ 158-60.
_But I apprehend the general apathy of Bibliomaniacs to be in a great
measure attributable to the vast influx of BOOKS, of every
description, from the Continent--owing to the long continuance of
peace; and yet, in the appearance of what are called_ English
Rarities, _the market seems to be almost as barren as ever. The
wounds, inflicted in the HEBERIAN contest, have gradually healed, and
are subsiding into forgetfulness; excepting where, from_ collateral
_causes, there are too many_ striking _reasons to remember their
existence._
_Another motive may be humbly, yet confidently, assigned for the
re-appearance of this Work. It was thought, by its late
proprietor,--MR. EDWARD WALMSLEY[1]--to whose cost and liberality this
edition owes its appearance--to be a volume, in itself, of pleasant
and profitable perusal; composed perhaps in a quaint and original
style, but in accordance with the characters of the_ Dramatis Personæ.
_Be this as it may, it is a work divested of all acrimonious
feeling--is applicable to all classes of society, to whom harmless
enthusiasm cannot be offensive--and is based upon a foundation not
likely to be speedily undermined._
_T.F. DIBDIN._
_May_ 1, 1842.
[Footnote 1: _Mr. EDWARD WALMSLEY, who died in 1841, at an
advanced age, had been long known to me. He had latterly
extensive calico-printing works at Mitcham, and devoted much
of his time to the production of beautiful patterns in that
fabrication; his taste, in almost every thing which he
undertook, leant towards the fine arts. His body was in the
counting-house; but his spirit was abroad, in the studio of
the painter or engraver. Had his natural talents, which were
strong and elastic, been cultivated in early life, he would,
in all probability, have attained a considerable reputation.
How he loved to embellish--almost to satiety--a favourite
work, may be seen by consulting a subsequent page towards
the end of this volume. He planned and published the_
Physiognomical Portraits, _a performance not divested of
interest--but failing in general success, from the prints
being, in many instances, a repetition of their precursors.
The thought, however, was a good one; and many of the heads
are powerfully executed. He took also a lively interest in
Mr. Major's splendid edition of Walpole's_ Anecdotes of
Painting in England, _a work, which can never want a reader
while taste has an abiding-place in one British bosom._
_Mr. Walmsley possessed a brave and generous spirit; and I
scarcely knew a man more disposed to bury the remembrance of
men's errors in that of their attainments and good
qualities._]
THE BIBLIOMANIA;
OR
=Book-Madness;=
CONTAINING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE
HISTORY, SYMPTOMS, AND CURE OF THIS FATAL DISEASE.
IN AN EPISTLE ADDRESSED TO
RICHARD HEBER, ESQ.
BY THE
REV. THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, F.S.A.
Styll am I besy bokes assemblynge,
For to have plenty it is a pleasaunt thynge
In my conceyt, and to have them ay in honde:
But what they mene I do nat understonde.
=Pynson's Ship of Fools.= Edit. 1509.
LONDON
REPRINTED FROM THE FIRST EDITION, PUBLISHED IN 1809.
=Advertisement.=
_In laying before the public the following brief and superficial
account of a disease, which, till it arrested the attention of Dr.
Ferriar, had entirely escaped the sagacity of all ancient and modern
physicians, it has been my object to touch chiefly on its leading
characteristics; and to present the reader (in the language of my old
friend Francis Quarles) with an "honest pennyworth" of information,
which may, in the end, either suppress or soften the ravages of so
destructive a malady. I might easily have swelled the size of this
treatise by the introduction of much additional, and not incurious,
matter; but I thought it most prudent to wait the issue of the present
"recipe," at once simple in its composition and gentle in its
effects._
_Some apology is due to the amiable and accomplished character to whom
my epistle is addressed, as well as to the public, for the apparently
confused and indigested manner in which the notes are attached to the
first part of this treatise; but, unless I had thrown them to the end
(a plan which modern custom does not seem to warrant), it will be
obvious that a different arrangement could not have been adopted; and
equally so that the perusal, first of the text, and afterwards of the
notes, will be the better mode of passing judgment upon both._
T.F.D.
_Kensington, June_ 5, 1809.
[Illustration]
TO THE READER.
_A short time after the publication of the first edition of this work,
a very worthy and shrewd Bibliomaniac, accidentally meeting me,
exclaimed that "the book_ would do, _but that there was not_ gall
_enough in it." As he was himself a_ Book-Auction-loving Bibliomaniac,
_I was resolved, in a future edition, to gratify him and similar
Collectors by writing_ PART III. _of the present impression; the motto
of which may probably meet their approbation._
_It will be evident, on a slight inspection of the present edition,
that it is so much altered and enlarged as to assume the character of
a new_ work. _This has not been done without mature reflection; and a
long-cherished hope of making it permanently useful to a large class
of General Readers, as well as to Book-Collectors and Bibliographers._
_It appeared to me that notices of such truly valuable, and oftentimes
curious and rare, books, as the ensuing pages describe; but more
especially a_ Personal History of Literature, _in the characters of_
Collectors of Books; _had long been a desideratum even with classical
students: and in adopting the present form of publication, my chief
object was to relieve the dryness of a didactic style by the
introduction of_ Dramatis Personæ.
_The worthy Gentlemen, by whom the_ Drama _is conducted, may be
called, by some, merely wooden machines or_ pegs _to hang notes upon;
but I shall not be disposed to quarrel with any criticism which may be
passed upon their acting, so long as the greater part of the
information, to which their dialogue gives rise, may be thought
serviceable to the real interests of_ Literature _and_ Bibliography.
_If I had chosen to assume a more imposing air with the public, by
spinning out the contents of this closely-printed book into two or
more volumes--which might have been done without violating the
customary mode of publication--the expenses of the purchaser, and the
profits of the author, would have equally increased: but I was
resolved to bring forward as much matter as I could impart, in a
convenient and not inelegantly executed form; and, if my own
emoluments are less, I honestly hope the reader's advantage is
greater._
_The_ Engraved Ornaments of Portraits, Vignettes, and Borders, _were
introduced, as well to gratify the eyes of tasteful Bibliomaniacs, as
to impress, upon the minds of readers in general, a more vivid
recollection of some of those truly illustrious characters by whom
the_ HISTORY OF BRITISH LITERATURE _has been preserved._
_It remains only to add that the present work was undertaken to
relieve, in a great measure, the anguish of mind arising from a severe
domestic affliction; and if the voice of those whom we tenderly loved,
whether parent or_ child, _could be heard from the_ grave, _I trust it
would convey the sound of approbation for thus having filled a part of
the measure of that time which, every hour, brings us nearer to those
from whom we are separated._
_And now_, BENEVOLENT READER, _in promising thee as much amusement and
instruction as ever were offered in a single volume, of a nature like
to the present, I bid thee farewell in the language of_ Vogt,[2] _who
thus praises the subject of which we are about to treat:--"Quis non_
AMABILEM _eam laudabit_ INSANIAM, _quæ universæ rei litterariæ non
obfuit, sed profuit; historiæ litterariæ doctrinam insigniter
locupletavit; ingentemque exercitum voluminum, quibus alias aut in
remotiora Bibliothecarum publicarum scrinia commigrandum erat, aut
plane pereundum, a carceribus et interitu vindicavit, exoptatissimæque
luci et eruditorum usui multiplici felicitur restituit?"_
T.F.D.
_Kensington, March_ 25, 1811.
[Footnote 2: Catalogus Librorum Rariorum, præf. ix. edit.
1793.]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PART I. THE EVENING WALK.
_On the right uses of Literature_ p. 3-20.
II. THE CABINET.
_Outline of Foreign and Domestic Bibliography_ p. 23-92.
III. THE AUCTION-ROOM.
_Character of Orlando. Of ancient Prices of Books,
and of Book-Binding. Book-Auction Bibliomaniacs_ p. 103-139.
IV. THE LIBRARY.
_Dr. Henry's History of Great Britain. A Game at
Chess. Of Monachism and Chivalry. Dinner at Lorenzo's.
Some Account of Book Collectors in England_ p. 143-207.
V. THE DRAWING ROOM.
_History of the Bibliomania, or Account of Book
Collectors, concluded_ p. 211-463.
VI. THE ALCOVE.
_Symptoms of the Disease called the Bibliomania.
Probable Means of its Cure_ p. 467-565.
SUPPLEMENT.
CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX.
GENERAL INDEX.
[Illustration: LUTHER.]
[Illustration: MELANCTHON.]
PUBLISHED BY THE PROPRIETOR (FOR THE NEW EDITION) OF THE REV. Dr.
DIBDINS BIBLIOMANIA, 1840.
[Illustration]
=The Bibliomania.=
MY DEAR SIR,
When the poetical Epistle of Dr. Ferriar, under the popular title of
"THE BIBLIOMANIA," was announced for publication, I honestly confess
that, in common with many of my book-loving acquaintance, a strong
sensation of fear and of hope possessed me: of fear, that I might have
been accused, however indirectly, of having contributed towards the
increase of this Mania; and of hope, that the true object of
book-collecting, and literary pursuits, might have been fully and
fairly developed. The perusal of this elegant epistle dissipated alike
my fears and my hopes; for, instead of caustic verses, and satirical
notes,[3] I found a smooth, melodious, and persuasive panegyric;
unmixed, however, with any rules for the choice of books, or the
regulation of study.
[Footnote 3: There are, nevertheless, some satirical
allusions which one could have wished had been suppressed.
For instance:
He turns where PYBUS rears his atlas-head
Or MADOC'S mass conceals its veins of lead;
What has Mr. Pybus's gorgeous book in praise of the late
Russian Emperor Paul I. (which some have called the
chef-d'oeuvre of Bensley's press[A]) to do with Mr.
Southey's fine Poem of Madoc?--in which, if there are "veins
of lead," there are not a few "of silver and gold." Of the
extraordinary talents of Mr. Southey, the indefatigable
student in ancient lore, and especially in all that regards
Spanish Literature and Old English Romances, this is not the
place to make mention. His "_Remains of Henry Kirk White_,"
the sweetest specimen of modern biography, has sunk into
every heart, and received an eulogy from every tongue. Yet
is his own life
"The more endearing song."
Dr. Ferriar's next satirical verses are levelled at Mr.
THOMAS HOPE.
"The lettered fop now takes a larger scope,
With classic furniture, design'd by HOPE.
(HOPE, whom upholsterers eye with mute despair,
The doughty pedant of an elbow chair.")
It has appeared to me that Mr. Hope's magnificent volume on
"_Household Furniture_" has been generally misunderstood,
and, in a few instances, criticised upon false
principles.--The first question is, does the _subject_ admit
of illustration? and if so, has Mr. Hope illustrated it
properly? I believe there is no canon of criticism which
forbids the treating of such a subject; and, while we are
amused with archæological discussions on Roman tiles and
tesselated pavements, there seems to be no absurdity in
making the decorations of our sitting rooms, including
something more than the floor we walk upon, a subject at
least of temperate and classical disquisition. Suppose we
had found such a treatise in the volumes of Gronovius and
Montfaucon? (and are there not a few, apparently, as
unimportant and confined in these rich volumes of the
Treasures of Antiquity?) or suppose something similar to Mr.
Hope's work had been found among the ruins of Herculaneum?
Or, lastly, let us suppose the author had printed it only as
a _private_ book, to be circulated as a present! In each of
these instances, should we have heard the harsh censures
which have been thrown out against it? On the contrary, is
it not very probable that a wish might have been expressed
that "so valuable a work ought to be made public."
Upon what principle, _a priori_, are we to ridicule and
condemn it? I know of none. We admit Vitruvius, Inigo Jones,
Gibbs, and Chambers, into our libraries: and why not Mr.
Hope's book? Is decoration to be confined only to the
exterior? and, if so, are works, which treat of these only,
to be read and applauded? Is the delicate bas-relief, and
beautifully carved column, to be thrust from the cabinet and
drawing room, to perish on the outside of a smoke-dried
portico? Or, is not _that_ the most deserving of
commendation which produces the most numerous and pleasing
associations of ideas? I recollect, when in company with the
excellent DR. JENNER,
----[clarum et venerabile nomen
Gentibus, et multum nostræ quod proderat urbi]
and a half dozen more friends, we visited the splendid
apartments in Duchess Street, Portland Place, we were not
only struck with the appropriate arrangement of every thing,
but, on our leaving them, and coming out into the dull foggy
atmosphere of London, we acknowledged that the effect
produced upon our minds was something like that which might
have arisen had we been regaling ourselves on the silken
couches, and within the illuminated chambers, of some of the
enchanted palaces described in the Arabian Nights'
Entertainments. I suspect that those who have criticised Mr.
Hope's work with asperity have never seen his house.
These sentiments are not the result of partiality or
prejudice, for I am wholly unacquainted with Mr. Hope. They
are delivered with zeal, but with deference. It is quite
consolatory to find a gentleman of large fortune, of
respectable ancestry, and of classical attainments, devoting
a great portion of that leisure time which hangs like a
leaden weight upon the generality of fashionable people, to
the service of the Fine Arts, and in the patronage of merit
and ingenuity. How much the world will again be indebted to
Mr. Hope's taste and liberality may be anticipated from the
"_Costume of the Ancients_," a work which has recently been
published under his particular superintendence.]
[Footnote A: This book is beautifully executed, undoubtedly,
but being little more than a thin folio pamphlet devoid of
_typographical_ embellishment--it has been thought by some
hardly fair to say this of a press which brought out so many
works characterized by magnitude and various elegance. B.B.]
To say that I was not gratified by the perusal of it would be a
confession contrary to the truth; but to say how ardently I
anticipated an amplification of the subject, how eagerly I looked
forward to a number of curious, apposite, and amusing anecdotes, and
found them not therein, is an avowal of which I need not fear the
rashness, when the known talents of the detector of Stern's
plagiarisms[4] are considered. I will not, however, disguise to you
that I read it with uniform delight, and that I rose from the perusal
with a keener appetite for
"The small, rare volume, black with tarnished gold."
_Dr. Ferriar's Ep._ v. 138.
[Footnote 4: In the fourth volume of the Transactions of the
Manchester Literary Society, part iv., p. 45-87, will be
found a most ingenious and amusing Essay, entitled
"_Comments on Sterne_," which excited a good deal of
interest at the time of its publication. This discovery may
be considered, in some measure, as the result of the
BIBLIOMANIA. In my edition of Sir Thomas More's Utopia, a
suggestion is thrown out that even Burton may have been an
imitator of Boisatuau [Transcriber's Note: Boiastuau]: see
vol. II. 143.]
Whoever undertakes to write down the follies which grow out of an
excessive attachment to any particular pursuit, be that pursuit
horses,[5] hawks, dogs, guns, snuff boxes,[6] old china, coins, or
rusty armour, may be thought to have little consulted the best means
of ensuring success for his labours, when he adopts the dull vehicle
of _Prose_ for the commnication [Transcriber's Note: communication] of
his ideas not considering that from _Poetry_ ten thousand bright
scintillations are struck off, which please and convince while they
attract and astonish. Thus when Pope talks of allotting for
"Pembroke[7] Statues, dirty Gods and Coins;
Rare monkish manuscripts for Hearne[8] alone;
And books to Mead[9] and butterflies to Sloane,"[10]
when he says that
These Aldus[11] printed, those Du S[=u]eil has bound[12]
moreover that
For Locke or Milton[13] 'tis in vain to look;
These shelves admit not any modern book;
he not only seems to illustrate the propriety of the foregoing
remark, by shewing the immense superiority of verse to prose, in
ridiculing reigning absurdities, but he seems to have had a pretty
strong foresight of the BIBLIOMANIA which rages at the present day.
However, as the ancients tell us that a Poet cannot be a
_manufactured_ creature, and as I have not the smallest pretensions
to the "rhyming art," [although in former times[14] I did venture to
dabble with it] I must of necessity have recourse to _Prose_; and, at
the same time, to your candour and forbearance in perusing the pages
which ensue.
[Footnote 5: It may be taken for granted that the first book
in this country which excited a passion for the _Sports of
the field_ was Dame Juliana Berners, or Barnes's, work, on
_Hunting and Hawking_, printed at St. Alban's, in the year
1486; of which Lord Spencer's copy is, I believe, the only
perfect one known. It was formerly the Poet Mason's, and is
mentioned in the quarto edition of Hoccleve's Poems, p. 19,
1786. See too Bibl. Mason. Pt. iv. No. 153. Whether the
forementioned worthy lady was really the author of the work
has been questioned. Her book was reprinted by Wynkyn de
Worde in 1497, with an additional Treatise on _Fishing_. The
following specimen, from this latter edition, ascertains the
general usage of the French language with our huntsmen in
the 15th century.
Beasts of Venery.
Where so ever ye fare by frith or by fell,
My dear child, take heed how Trystram do you tell.
How many manner beasts of Venery there were:
Listen to your dame and she shall you _lere_.
Four manner beasts of Venery there are.
The first of them is the _Hart_; the second is the _Hare_;
The _Horse_ is one of them; the _Wolf_; and not one _mo_.
Beasts of the Chace.
And where that ye come in plain or in place
I shall tell you which be beasts of enchace.
One of them is the _Buck_; another is the _Doe_;
The _Fox_; and the _Marteron_, and the wild _Roe_;
And ye shall see, my dear child, other beastes all:
Where so ye them find _Rascal_ ye shall them call.
Of the hunting of the Hare.
How to speke of the haare how all shall be wrought:
When she shall with houndes be founden and sought.
The fyrst worde to the ho[=u]dis that the hunter shall
out pit
Is at the kenell doore whan he openeth it.
That all maye hym here: he shall say "_Arere!_"
For his houndes would come to hastily.
That is the firste worde my sone of Venery.
And when he hath couplyed his houndes echoon
And is forth wyth theym to the felde goon,
And whan he hath of caste his couples at wyll
Thenne he shall speke and saye his houndes tyll
"_Hors de couple avant, sa avant!_" twyse soo:
And then "_So ho, so ho!_" thryes, and no moo.
And then say "_Sacy avaunt, so how_," I thou praye, etc. The
following are a few more specimens--"_Ha cy touz cy est
yll_--_Venez ares sa how sa_--_La douce la eit a venuz_--_Ho
ho ore, swet a lay, douce a luy_--_So how, so how, venez
acoupler!!!_"
Whoever wishes to see these subjects brought down to later
times, and handled with considerable dexterity, may consult
the last numbers of the Censura Literaria, with the
signature J.H. affixed to them. Those who are anxious to
procure the rare books mentioned in these bibliographical
treatises, may be pretty safely taxed with being infected by
the BIBLIOMANIA. What apology my friend Mr. Haslewood, the
author of them, has to offer in extenuation of the mischief
committed, it is _his_ business, and not mine, to consider;
and what the public will say to his curious forthcoming
reprint of the ancient edition of Wynkyn De Worde _on
Hunting, Hawking, and Fishing_, 1497 (with wood cuts), I
will not pretend to divine!
In regard to Hawking, I believe the enterprising Colonel
Thornton in [Transcriber's Note: is] the only gentleman of
the present day who keeps up this custom of "good old
times."
The Sultans of the East seem not to have been insensible to
the charms of Falconry, if we are to judge from the evidence
of Tippoo Saib having a work of this kind in his library;
which is thus described from the Catalogue of it just
published in a fine quarto volume, of which only 250 copies
are printed.
"_Sh[=a]bb[=a]r N[=a]meh_, 4to. a Treatise on Falcony;
containing Instructions for selecting the best species of
Hawks, and the method of teaching them; describing their
different qualities; also the disorders they are subject to,
and method of cure. Author unknown."--Oriental Library of
Tippoo Saib, 1809, p. 96.]
[Footnote 6: Of _Snuff boxes_ every one knows what a
collection the great Frederick, King of Prussia, had--many
of them studded with precious stones, and decorated with
enamelled portraits. Dr. C. of G----, has been represented
to be the most successful rival of Frederick, in this "line
of collection," as it is called; some of his boxes are of
uncommon curiosity. It may gratify a Bibliographer to find
that there are other MANIAS besides that of the book; and
that even physicians are not exempt from these diseases.
Of _Old China_, _Coins_, and _Rusty Armour_, the names of
hundreds present themselves in these departments; but to the
more commonly-known ones of Rawle and Grose, let me add that
of the late Mr. John White, of Newgate-Street; a catalogue
of whose curiosities [including some very uncommon books]
was published in the year 1788, in three parts, 8vo. Dr.
Burney tells us that Mr. White "was in possession of a
valuable collection of ancient rarities, as well as natural
productions, of the most curious and extraordinary kind; no
one of which however was more remarkable than the obliging
manner in which he allowed them to be viewed and examined by
his friends."--_History of Music_, vol. II. 539, note.]
[Footnote 7: The reader will find an animated eulogy on this
great nobleman in Walpole's _Anecdotes of Painters_, vol.
iv. 227: part of which was transcribed by Joseph Warton for
his Variorum edition of Pope's Works, and thence copied into
the recent edition of the same by the Rev. W.L. Bowles. But
PEMBROKE deserved a more particular notice. Exclusively of
his fine statues, and architectural decorations, the Earl
contrived to procure a number of curious and rare books; and
the testimonies of Maittaire [who speaks indeed of him with
a sort of rapture!] and Palmer shew that the productions of
Jenson and Caxton were no strangers to his library. _Annales
Typographici_, vol. I. 13. edit. 1719. _History of
Printing_, p. v. "There is nothing that so surely proves the
pre-eminence of virtue more than the universal admiration of
mankind, and the respect paid it even by persons in opposite
interests; and more than this, it is a sparkling gem which
even time does not destroy: it is hung up in the Temple of
Fame, and respected for ever." _Continuation of Granger_,
vol. I. 37, &c. "He raised, continues Mr. Noble, a
collection of Antiques that were unrivalled by any subject.
His learning made him a fit companion for the literati.
Wilton will ever be a monument of his extensive knowledge;
and the princely presents it contains, of the high
estimation in which he was held by foreign potentates, as
well as by the many monarchs he saw and served at home. He
lived rather as a primitive christian; in his behaviour,
meek: in his dress, plain: rather retired, conversing but
little." Burnet, in the _History of his own Times_, has
spoken of the Earl with spirit and propriety.]
[Footnote 8: In the recent Variorum Edition of Pope's Works,
all that is annexed to Hearne's name, as above introduced by
the Poet, is, "well known as an Antiquarian."
ALAS, POOR HEARNE!
thy merits, which are now fully appreciated, deserve an
ampler notice! In spite of Gibbon's unmerciful critique
[_Posthumous Works_, vol. II. 711.], the productions of this
modest, erudite, and indefatigable antiquary are rising in
price proportionably to their worth. If he had only edited
the _Collectanea_ and _Itinerary_ of his favourite Leland,
he would have stood on high ground in the department of
literature and antiquities; but his other and numerous works
place him on a much loftier eminence. Of these, the present
is not the place to make mention; suffice it to say that,
for copies of his works, on LARGE PAPER, which the author
used to advertise as selling for 7_s._ or 10_s._, or about
which placards, to the same effect, used to be stuck on the
walls of the colleges,--these very copies are now sometimes
sold for more than the like number of guineas! It is amusing
to observe that the lapse of a few years only has caused
such a rise in the article of HEARNE; and that the Peter
Langtoft on large paper, which at Rowe Mores's sale [Bibl.
Mores. No. 2191.] was purchased for £1. 2_s._ produced at
a late sale, [A.D. 1808] £37! A complete list of Hearne's
Pieces will be found at the end of his Life, printed with
Leland's, &c., at the Clarendon Press, in 1772, 8vo. Of
these the "_Acta Apostolorum_, Gr. Lat;" and "_Aluredi
Beverlacensis Annales_," are, I believe, the scarcest. It is
wonderful to think how this amiable and excellent man
persevered "through evil report and good report," in
illustrating the antiquities of his country. To the very
last he appears to have been molested; and among his
persecutors, the learned editor of Josephus and Dionysius
Halicarnasseus, Dr. Hudson, must be ranked, to the disgrace
of himself and the party which he espoused. "Hearne was
buried in the church yard of St. Peter's (at Oxford) in the
East, where is erected over his remains, a tomb, with an
inscription written by himself,
Amicitiæ Ergo.
Here lyeth the Body of
THOMAS HEARNE, M.A.
Who studied and preserved
Antiquities.
He dyed June 10, 1735.
Aged 57 years.
Deut. xxxii: 7.
Remember the days of old;
consider the years
of many generations;
ask thy Father
and he will shew thee;
thy elders
and they will tell thee.
Job. viii. 8, 9, 10.
Enquire I pray thee."
_Life of Hearne_, p. 34.]
[Footnote 9: Of Dr. MEAD and his Library a particular
account is given in the following pages.]
[Footnote 10: For this distinguished character consult
Nichols's _Anecdotes of Bowyer_, 550, note*; which, however,
relates entirely to his ordinary habits and modes of life.
His magnificent collection of Natural Curiosities and MSS.
is now in the British Museum.]
[Footnote 11: The annals of the Aldine Press have had ample
justice done to them in the beautiful and accurate work
published by Renouard, under the title of "_Annales de
L'Imprimerie des Alde_," in two vols., 8vo. 1804. One is
rather surprised at not finding any reference to this
masterly piece of bibliography in the last edition of Mr.
Roscoe's Leo X., where there is a pleasing account of the
establishment of the Aldine Press.]
[Footnote 12: I do not recollect having seen any book bound
by this binder. Of Padaloup, De Rome, and Baumgarten, where
is the fine collection that does not boast of a few
specimens? We will speak "anon" of the Roger Paynes,
Kalthoebers, Herrings, Stagemiers, and in Macklays of the
day!]
[Footnote 13: This is not the reproach of the age we live
in; for reprints of Bacon, Locke, and Milton have been
published with complete success. It would be ridiculous
indeed for a man of sense, and especially a University man,
to give £5 or £6 for "_Gosson's School of Abuse, against
Pipers and Players_," or £3. 3_s._ for a clean copy of
"_Recreation for Ingenious Head Pieces_, or a _Pleasant
Grove for their Wits to walk in,"_ and grudge the like sum
for a dozen handsome octavo volumes of the finest writers of
his country.]
[Footnote 14: About twelve years ago I was rash enough to
publish a small volume of Poems, with my name affixed. They
were the productions of my juvenile years; and I need hardly
say, at this period, how ashamed I am of their author-ship.
The monthly and Analytical Reviews did me the kindness of
just tolerating them, and of warning me not to commit any
future trespass upon the premises of Parnassus. I struck off
500 copies, and was glad to get rid of half of them as waste
paper; the remaining half has been partly destroyed by my
own hands, and has partly mouldered away in oblivion amidst
the dust of Booksellers' shelves. My only consolation is
that the volume is _exceedingly rare_!]
If ever there was a country upon the face of the globe--from the days
of Nimrod the beast, to Bagford[15] the book-hunter--distinguished for
the variety, the justness, and magnanimity of its views; if ever there
was a nation which really and unceasingly "felt for another's woe" [I
call to witness our Infirmaries, Hospitals, Asylums, and other public
and private Institutions of a charitable nature, that, like so many
belts of adamant, unite and strengthen us in the great cause of
HUMANITY]; if ever there was a country and a set of human beings
pre-eminently distinguished for all the social virtues which soften
and animate the soul of man, surely OLD ENGLAND and ENGLISHMEN ARE
THEY! The common cant, it may be urged, of all writers in favour of
the country where they chance to live! And what, you will say, has
this to do with Book Collectors and Books?--Much, every way: a nation
thus glorious is, at this present eventful moment, afflicted not only
with the Dog[16], but the BOOK, disease--
Fire in each eye, and paper in each hand
They rave, recite,----
[Footnote 15: "JOHN BAGFORD, by profession a bookseller,
frequently travelled into Holland and other parts, in search
of scarce books and valuable prints, and brought a vast
number into this kingdom, the greatest part of which were
purchased by the Earl of Oxford. He had been in his younger
days a shoemaker; and, for the many curiosities wherewith he
enriched the famous library of Dr. John Moore, Bishop of
Ely, his Lordship got him admitted into the Charter House.
He died in 1706, aged 65: after his death Lord Oxford
purchased all his collections and papers, for his library:
these are now in the Harleian collection in the British
Museum. In 1707 were published, in the Philosophical
Transactions, his Proposals for a General History of
Printing."--Bowyer and Nichols's _Origin of Printing_, p.
164, 189, note.
It has been my fortune (whether good or bad remains to be
proved) not only to transcribe the slender memorial of
Printing in the Philosophical Transactions, drawn up by
Wanley for Bagford, but to wade through _forty-two_ folio
volumes, in which Bagford's materials for a History of
Printing are incorporated, in the British Museum: and from
these, I think I have furnished myself with a pretty fair
idea of the said Bagford. He was the most hungry and
rapacious of all book and print collectors; and, in his
ravages, spared neither the most delicate nor costly
specimens. His eyes and his mouth seem to have been always
open to express his astonishment at, sometimes, the most
common and contemptible productions; and his paper in the
Philosophical Transactions betrays such simplicity and
ignorance that one is astonished how my Lord Oxford and the
learned Bishop of Ely could have employed so credulous a
bibliographical forager. A modern collector and lover of
_perfect_ copies will witness, with shuddering, among
Bagford's immense collection of Title Pages, in the Museum,
the frontispieces of the Complutensian Polyglot, and
Chauncy's History of Hertfordshire, torn out to illustrate a
History of Printing. His enthusiasm, however, carried him
through a great deal of laborious toil; and he supplied, in
some measure, by this qualification, the want of other
attainments. His whole mind was devoted to book-hunting; and
his integrity and diligence probably made his employers
overlook his many failings. His hand-writing is scarcely
legible, and his orthography is still more wretched; but if
he was ignorant, he was humble, zealous, and grateful; and
he has certainly done something towards the accomplishment
of that desirable object, an accurate General History of
Printing. In my edition of _Ames's Typographical
Antiquities_, I shall give an analysis of Bagford's papers,
with a specimen or two of his composition.]
[Footnote 16: For an eloquent account of this disorder
consult the letters of Dr. Mosely inserted in the Morning
Herald of last year. I have always been surprised, and a
little vexed, that these animated pieces of composition
should be relished and praised by every one--but _the
Faculty_!]
Let us enquire, therefore, into the origin and tendency of the
BIBLIOMANIA.
In this enquiry I purpose considering the subject under three points
of view: I. THE HISTORY OF THE DISEASE; or an account of the eminent
men who have fallen victims to it: II. THE NATURE, OR SYMPTOMS OF THE
DISEASE: and III. THE PROBABLE MEANS OF ITS CURE. We are to consider,
then,
1. THE HISTORY OF THE DISEASE. In treating of the history of this
disease, it will be found to have been attended with this remarkable
circumstance; namely, that it has almost uniformly confined its
attacks to the _male_ sex, and, among these, to people in the higher
and middling classes of society, while the artificer, labourer, and
peasant have escaped wholly uninjured. It has raged chiefly in
palaces, castles, halls, and gay mansions; and those things which in
general are supposed not to be inimical to health, such as
cleanliness, spaciousness, and splendour, are only so many inducements
towards the introduction and propagation of the BIBLIOMANIA! What
renders it particularly formidable is that it rages in all seasons of
the year, and at all periods of human existence. The emotions of
friendship or of love are weakened or subdued as old age advances; but
the influence of this passion, or rather disease, admits of no
mitigation: "it grows with our growth, and strengthens with our
strength;" and is oft-times
----The ruling passion strong in death.[17]
[Footnote 17: The writings of the Roman philologers seem to
bear evidence of this fact. Seneca, when an old man, says
that, "if you are fond of books, you will escape the ennui
of life; you will neither sigh for evening, disgusted with
the occupations of the day--nor will you live dissatisfied
with yourself, or unprofitable to others." _De
Tranquilitate_, ch. 3. Cicero has positively told us that
"study is the food of youth, and the amusement of old age."
_Orat. pro Archia_. The younger Pliny was a downright
Bibliomaniac. "I am quite transported and comforted," says
he, "in the midst of my books: they give a zest to the
happiest, and assuage the anguish of the bitterest, moments
of existence! Therefore, whether distracted by the cares or
the losses of my family, or my friends, I fly to my library
as the only refuge in distress: here I learn to bear
adversity with fortitude." _Epist._ lib. viii. cap. 19. But
consult Cicero _De Senectute_. All these treatises afford
abundant proof of the hopelessness of cure in cases of the
Bibliomania.]
We will now, my dear Sir, begin "making out the catalogue" of victims
to the BIBLIOMANIA! The first eminent character who appears to have
been infected with this disease was RICHARD DE BURY, one of the tutors
of Edward III., and afterwards Bishop of Durham; a man who has been
uniformly praised for the variety of his erudition, and the
intenseness of his ardour in book-collecting.[18] I discover no other
notorious example of the fatality of the BIBLIOMANIA until the time of
Henry VII.; when the monarch himself may be considered as having added
to the number. Although our venerable typographer, Caxton, lauds and
magnifies, with equal sincerity, the whole line of British Kings, from
Edward IV. to Henry VII. [under whose patronage he would seem, in some
measure, to have carried on his printing business], yet, of all these
monarchs, the latter alone was so unfortunate as to fall a victim to
this disease. His library must have been a magnificent one, if we may
judge from the splendid specimens of it which now remain.[19] It would
appear, too, that, about this time, the BIBLIOMANIA was increased by
the introduction of foreign printed books; and it is not very
improbable that a portion of Henry's immense wealth was devoted
towards the purchase of VELLUM copies, which were now beginning to be
published by the great typographical triumvirate, Verard, Eustace, and
Pigouchet.
[Footnote 18: It may be expected that I should notice a few
book-lovers, and probably BIBLIOMANIACS, previously to the
time of Richard De Bury; but so little is known with
accuracy of Johannes Scotus Erigena, and his patron Charles
the Bald, King of France, or of the book tête-a-têtes they
used to have together--so little, also, of Nennius, Bede,
and Alfred [although the monasteries at this period, from
the evidence of Sir William Dugdale, in the first volume of
the Monasticon were "opulently endowed,"--inter alia, I
should hope, with magnificent MSS. on vellum, bound in
velvet, and embossed with gold and silver], or the
illustrious writers in the Norman period, and the fine books
which were in the abbey of Croyland--so little is known of
book-collectors, previously to the 14th century, that I
thought it the most prudent and safe way to begin with the
above excellent prelate.
RICHARD DE BURY was the friend and correspondent of
Petrarch; and is said by Mons. de Sade, in his Memoires pour
la vie de Petrarque, "to have done in England what Petrarch
did all his life in France, Italy, and Germany, towards the
discovery of MSS. of the best ancient writers, and making
copies of them under his own superintendence." His passion
for book-collecting was unbounded ["vir ardentis ingenii,"
says Petrarch of him]; and in order to excite the same
ardour in his countrymen, or rather to propagate the disease
of the BIBLIOMANIA with all his might, he composed a
bibliographical work under the title of _Philobiblion_;
concerning the first edition of which, printed at Spires in
1483, Clement (tom. v. 142) has a long gossiping account;
and Morhof tells us that it is "rarissima et in paucorum
manibus versatur." It was reprinted in Paris in 1500, 4to.,
by the elder Ascensius, and frequently in the subsequent
century, but the best editions of it are those by Goldastus
in 1674, 8vo., and Hummius in 1703. Morhof observes that,
"however De Bury's work savours of the rudeness of the age,
it is rather elegantly written, and many things are well
said in it relating to Bibliothecism." _Polyhist. Literar._
vol. i. 187, edit. 1747.
For further particulars concerning De Bury, read Bale,
Wharton, Cave, and Godwin's Episcopal Biography. He left
behind him a fine library of MSS. which he bequeathed to
Durham, now Trinity, College, Oxford.
It may be worth the antiquary's notice, that, in consequence
(I suppose) of this amiable prelate's exertions, "in every
convent was a noble library and a great: and every friar,
that had state in school, such as they be now, hath AN HUGH
LIBRARY." See the curious Sermon of the Archbishop of
Armagh, Nov. 8, 1387, in Trevisa's works among the _Harleian
MSS._ No. 1900. Whether these Friars, thus affected with
the frensy of book-collecting, ever visited the "old
chapelle at the Est End of the church of S. Saink
[Berkshire], whither of late time resorted in pilgrimage
many folkes for the disease of _madness_," [see Leland's
_Itinerary_, vol. ii. 29, edit. 1770] I have not been able,
after the most diligent investigation, to ascertain.]
[Footnote 19: The British Museum contains a great number of
books which bear the royal stamp of Henry VII.'s arms. Some
of these printed by Verard, UPON VELLUM, are magnificent
memorials of a library, the dispersion of which is for ever
to be regretted. As Henry VIII. knew nothing of, and cared
less for, fine books, it is not very improbable that some of
the choicest volumes belonging to the late king were
presented to Cardinal Wolsey.]
During the reign of Henry VIII., I should suppose that the Earl of
Surrey[20] and Sir Thomas Wyatt were a little attached to
book-collecting; and that Dean Colet[21] and his friend Sir Thomas
More and Erasmus were downright Bibliomaniacs. There can be little
doubt but that neither the great LELAND[22] nor his Biographer
Bale,[23] were able to escape the contagion; and that, in the ensuing
period, Rogar [Transcriber's Note: Roger] Ascham became notorious for
the Book-disease. He purchased probably, during his travels
abroad[24] many a fine copy of the Greek and Latin Classics, from
which he read to his illustrious pupils, Lady Jane Grey, and Queen
Elizabeth: but whether he made use of an _Editio Princeps_, or a
_Large paper copy_, I have hitherto not been lucky enough to discover.
This learned character died in the vigour of life, and in the bloom
of reputation: and, as I suspect, in consequence of the
BIBLIOMANIA--for he was always collecting books, and always studying
them. His "Schoolmaster" is a work which can only perish with our
language.
[Footnote 20: The EARL of SURREY and SIR THOMAS WYATT were
among the first who taught their countrymen to be charmed
with the elegance and copiousness of their own language. How
effectually they accomplished this laudable object, will be
seen from the forthcoming beautiful and complete edition of
their works by the Rev. Dr. Nott.[B]]
[Footnote B: It fell to the lot of the printer of this
volume, during his apprenticeship to his father, to correct
the press of nearly the whole of Dr. Nott's labours, which
were completed, after several years of toil, when in the
extensive conflagration of the printing-office at Bolt
Court, Fleet-street, in 1819, all but _two_ copies were
totally destroyed!]
[Footnote 21: COLET, MORE, and ERASMUS [considering the
latter when he was in England] were _here_ undoubtedly the
great literary triumvirate of the early part of the 16th
century. The lives of More and Erasmus are generally read
and known; but of DEAN COLET it may not be so generally
known that his ardour for books and for classical literature
was keen, and insatiable; that, in the foundation of ST.
PAUL'S SCHOOL, he has left behind a name which entitles him
to rank in the foremost of those who have fallen victims to
the BIBLIOMANIA. How anxiously does he seem to have watched
the progress, and pushed the sale, of his friend Erasmus's
first edition of the Greek Testament! "Quod scribis de Novo
Testamento intelligo. Et libri _novæ editionis tuæ hic avide
emuntur et passim leguntur_!" The entire epistle (which may
be seen in Dr. Knight's dry Life of Colet, p. 315) is
devoted to an account of Erasmus's publications. "I am
really astonished, my dear Erasmus [does he exclaim], at the
fruitfulness of your talents; that, without any fixed
residence, and with a precarious and limited income, you
contrive to publish so many and such excellent works."
Adverting to the distracted state of Germany at this period,
and to the wish of his friend to live secluded and
unmolested, he observes--"As to the tranquil retirement
which you sigh for, be assured that you have my sincere
wishes for its rendering you as happy and composed as you
can wish it. Your age and erudition entitle you to such a
retreat. I fondly hope, indeed, that you will choose this
country for it, and come and live amongst us, whose
disposition you know, and whose friendship you have proved."
There is hardly a more curious picture of the custom of the
times, relating to the education of boys, than the Dean's
own Statutes for the regulation of St. Paul's School, which
he had founded. These shew, too, the _popular books_ then
read by the learned. "The children shall come unto the
School in the morning at seven of the clock, both winter and
summer, and tarry there until eleven; and return against one
of the clock, and depart at five, &c. In the school, no time
in the year, they shall use tallow candle in no wise, but
_only wax candle_, at the costs of their friends. Also I
will they bring no meat nor drink, nor bottle, nor use in
the school no breakfasts, nor drinkings, in the time of
learning, in no wise, &c. I will they use no cockfightings,
nor riding about of victory, nor disputing at Saint
Bartholomew, which is but foolish babbling and loss of
time." The master is then restricted, under the penalty of
40 shillings, from granting the boys a holiday, or "remedy,"
[play-day,] as it is here called "except the King, an
Archbishop, or a Bishop, present in his own person in the
school, desire it." The studies for the lads were,
"Erasmus's Copia & Institutum Christiani Hominis (composed
at the Dean's request) Lactantius, Prudentius, Juvencus,
Proba and Sedulius, and Baptista Mantuanus, and such other
as shall be thought convenient and most to purpose unto the
true Latin speech: all barbary, all corruption, all Latin
adulterate, which ignorant blind fools brought into this
world, and with the same hath distained and poisoned the old
Latin speech, and the _veray_ Roman tongue, which in the
time of Tully and Sallust and Virgil and Terence was used--I
say that filthiness, and all such abusion, which the later
blind world brought in, which more rather may be called
_Bloterature_ that [Transcriber's Note: than] _Literature_,
I utterly banish and exclude out of this school." _Life of
Knight's Colet_, 362-4.
What was to be expected, but that boys, thus educated, would
hereafter fall victims to the BIBLIOMANIA?]
[Footnote 22: The history of this great men [Transcriber's
Note: man], and of his literary labours, is most
interesting. He was a pupil of William Lilly, the first
head-master of St. Paul's School; and, by the kindness and
liberality of a Mr. Myles, he afterwards received the
advantage of a College education, and was supplied with
money in order to travel abroad, and make such collections
as he should deem necessary for the great work which even
then seemed to dawn upon his young and ardent mind. Leland
endeavoured to requite the kindness of his benefactor by an
elegant copy of Latin verses, in which he warmly expatiates
on the generosity of his patron, and acknowledges that his
acquaintance with the _Almæ Matres_ [for he was of both
Universities] was entirely the result of such beneficence.
While he resided on the continent, he was admitted into the
society of the most eminent Greek and Latin Scholars, and
could probably number among his correspondents the
illustrious names of Budæus, Erasmus, the Stephani, Faber
and Turnebus. Here, too, he cultivated his natural taste for
poetry; and from inspecting the fine BOOKS which the Italian
and French presses had produced, as well as fired by the
love of Grecian learning, which had fled, on the sacking of
Constantinople, to take shelter in the academic bowers of
the Medici, he seems to have matured his plans for carrying
into effect the great work which had now taken full
possession of his mind. He returned to England, resolved to
institute an inquiry into the state of the LIBRARIES,
Antiquities, Records and Writings then in existence. Having
entered into holy orders, and obtained preferment at the
express interposition of the King, (Henry VIII.), he was
appointed his Antiquary and Library Keeper, and a royal
commission was issued in which Leland was directed to search
after "ENGLAND'S ANTIQUITIES, and peruse the LIBRARIES of
all Cathedrals, Abbies, Priories, Colleges, etc., as also
all the places wherein Records, Writings, and Secrets of
Antiquity were reposited." "Before Leland's time," says
Hearne, in the Preface to the Itinerary, "all the literary
monuments of Antiquity were totally disregarded; and
Students of Germany, apprised of this culpable indifference,
were suffered to enter our libraries unmolested, and to cut
out of the books deposited there whatever passages they
thought proper--which they afterwards published as relics of
the ancient literature of their own country."
Leland was occupied, without intermission, in this immense
undertaking, for the space of six years; and, on its
completion, he hastened to the metropolis to lay at the feet
of his Sovereign the result of his researches. This was
presented to Henry under the title of A NEW YEAR'S GIFT; and
was first published by Bale in 1549, 8vo. "Being inflamed,"
says the author, "with a love to see thoroughly all those
parts of your opulent and ample realm, in so much that all
my other occupations intermitted, I have so travelled in
your dominions, both by the sea coasts and the middle parts,
sparing neither labour nor costs, by the space of six years
past, that there is neither cape nor bay, haven, creek, or
pier, river, or confluence of rivers, breeches, wastes,
lakes, moors, fenny waters, mountains, vallies, heaths,
forests, chases, woods, cities, burghes, castles, principal
manor places, monasteries and colleges, but I have seen
them; and noted, in so doing, a whole world of things very
memorable." Leland moreover tells his Majesty--that "By his
laborious journey and costly enterprise, he had conserved
many good authors, the which otherwise had been like to have
perished; of the which, part remained in the royal palaces,
part also in his own custody, &c."
As Leland was engaged six years in this literary tour, so he
was occupied for a no less period of time in digesting and
arranging the prodigious number of MSS. he had collected.
But he sunk beneath the immensity of the task! The want of
amanuenses, and of other attentions and comforts, seems to
have deeply affected him; in this melancholy state, he wrote
to Archbishop Cranmer a Latin epistle, in verse, of which
the following is the commencement--very forcibly describing
his situation and anguish of mind.
Est congesta mihi domi supellex
Ingens, aurea, nobilis, venusta
Qua totus studeo Britanniarum
Vero reddere gloriam nitori.
Sed fortuna meis noverca coeptis
Jam felicibus invidet maligna.
Quare, ne pereant brevi vel hora
Multarum mihi noctium labores
Omnes----
CRANMERE, eximium decus piorum!
Implorare tuam benignitatem
Cogor.
The result was that Leland lost his senses; and, after
lingering two years in a state of total derangement, he died
on the 18th of April, 1552. "Prôh tristes rerum humanarum
vices! prôh viri optimi deplorandam infelicissimamque
sortem!" exclaims Dr. Smith, in his preface to Camden's
Life, 1691, 4to.
The precious and voluminous MSS. of Leland were doomed to
suffer a fate scarcely less pitiable than that of their
owner. After being pilfered by some, and garbled by others,
they served to replenish the pages of Stow, Lambard, Camden,
Burton, Dugdale, and many other antiquaries and historians.
Polydore Virgil, who had stolen from them pretty freely, had
the insolence to abuse Leland's memory--calling him "a vain
glorious man;" but what shall we say to this flippant
egotist? who, according to Caius's testimony [_De Antiq.
Cantab. head. lib._ 1.] "to prevent a discovery of the many
errors of his own History of England, collected and burnt a
greater number of ancient histories and manuscripts than
would have loaded a waggon." The imperfect remains of
Leland's MSS. are now deposited in the Bodleian Library, and
in the British Museum.
Upon the whole, it must be acknowledged that Leland is a
melancholy, as well as illustrious, example of the influence
of the BIBLIOMANIA!]
[Footnote 23: In spite of BALE'S coarseness, positiveness,
and severity, he has done much towards the cause of
learning; and, perhaps, towards the propagation of the
disease under discussion. His regard for Leland does him
great honour; and although his plays are miserably dull,
notwithstanding the high prices which the original editions
of them bear, (vide ex. gr. Cat. Steevens, No. 1221;
which was sold for £12 12_s._ See also the reprints in the
Harleian Miscellany) the lover of literary antiquities must
not forget that his "_Scriptores Britanniæ_" are yet quoted
with satisfaction by some of the most respectable writers of
the day. That he wanted delicacy of feeling, and
impartiality of investigation, must be admitted; but a
certain rough honesty and prompt benevolence which he had
about him compensated for a multitude of offences. The
abhorrence with which he speaks of the dilapidation of some
of our old libraries must endear his memory to every honest
bibliographer: "Never (says he) had we been offended for the
loss of our LIBRARIES, being so many in number, and in so
desolate places for the more part, if the chief monuments
and most notable works of our excellent writers had been
reserved. If there had been in every shire of England, but
one SOLEMPNE LIBRARY, to the preservation of those noble
works, and preferment of good learning in our posterity, it
had been yet somewhat. But to destroy all without
consideration, is, and will be, unto England for ever, a
most horrible infamy among the grave seniors of other
nations. A great number of them which purchased those
superstitious mansions, reserved of those library-books,
some to serve the _jakes_, some to scour their candlesticks,
and some to rub their boots: some they sold to the grocers
and soap-sellers; some they sent over sea to the
book-binders, not in small number, but at times whole ships
full, to the wondering of the foreign nations. Yea, the
Universities of this realm are not all clear of this
detestable fact. But cursed is that belly which seeketh to
be fed with such ungodly gain, and shameth his natural
country. I know a merchant man, which shall at this time be
nameless, that _bought the contents of two noble libraries
for forty shillings price_; a shame it is to be spoken! This
stuff hath he occupied in the stead of grey paper, by the
space of more than ten years, and yet he hath store enough
for as many year to come!" Bale's Preface to Leland's
"_Laboryouse journey_, &c." Emprented at London by John
Bale. Anno M.D. xlix. 8vo.
After this, who shall doubt the story of the Alexandrian
Library supplying the hot baths of Alexandria with fuel for
six months! See Gibbon on the latter subject; vol. ix. 440.]
[Footnote 24: ASCHAM'S English letter, written when he was
abroad, will be found at the end of Bennet's edition of his
works, in 4to. They are curious and amusing. What relates to
the BIBLIOMANIA I here select from similar specimens. "Oct.
4. At afternoon I went about the town [of Bruxelles]. I went
to the frier [Transcriber's Note: friar] Carmelites house,
and heard their even song: after, I desired to see the
LIBRARY. A frier [Transcriber's Note: friar] was sent to me,
and led me into it. There was not one good book but _Lyra_.
The friar was learned, spoke Latin readily, entered into
Greek, having a very good wit, and a greater desire to
learning. He was gentle and honest, &c." p. 370-1. "Oct. 20.
to Spira: a good city. Here I first saw _Sturmius de
periodis_. I also found here _Ajax_, _Electra_, and
_Antigone Sophocles_, excellently, by my good judgment,
translated into verse, and fair printed this summer by
Gryphius. Your stationers do ill, that at least do 'not
provide you the register of all books, especially of old
authors, &c.'" p. 372. Again: "Hieronimus Wolfius, that
translated Demosthenes and Isocrates, is in this town. I am
well acquainted with him, and have brought him twice to my
Lord's to dinner. He looks very simple. He telleth me that
one Borrheus, that hath written well upon Aristot. priorum,
&c., even now is printing goodly commentaries upon
Aristotle's Rhetoric. But Sturmius will obscure them all."
p. 381.
It is impossible to read these extracts without being
convinced that Roger Ascham was a book-hunter, and infected
with the BIBLIOMANIA!]
If we are to judge from the beautiful Missal lying open before Lady
Jane Grey, in Mr. Copley's elegant picture now exhibiting at the
British Institution, it would seem rational to infer that this amiable
and learned female was slightly attacked by the disease. It is to be
taken for granted that Queen Elizabeth was not exempt from it; and
that her great Secretary,[25] Cecil, sympathised with her! In regard
to Elizabeth, her _Prayer-Book_[26] is quite evidence sufficient for
me that she found the BIBLIOMANIA irresistible! During her reign, how
vast and how frightful were the ravages of the Book-madness! If we are
to credit Laneham's celebrated Letter, it had extended far into the
country, and infected some of the worthy inhabitants of Coventry; for
one "Captain Cox,[27] by profession a mason, and that right skilful,"
had "as fair a library of sciences, and as many goodly monuments both
in Prose and Poetry, and at afternoon could talk as much without book,
as any Innholder betwixt Brentford and Bagshot, what degree soever he
be!"
[Footnote 25: It is a question which requires more time for
the solution than I am able to spare, whether CECIL'S name
stands more frequently at the head of a Dedication, in a
printed book, or of State Papers and other political
documents in MS. He was a wonderful man; but a little
infected--as I suspect--with the BOOK-DISEASE.
----Famous Cicill, treasurer of the land,
Whose wisedom, counsell, skill of Princes state
The world admires----
The house itselfe doth shewe the owners wit,
And may for bewtie, state, and every thing,
Compared be with most within the land.
_Tale of Two Swannes_, 1590. 4_to._
I have never yet been able to ascertain whether the owner's
attachment towards VELLUM, or LARGE PAPER, Copies was the
more vehement!]
[Footnote 26: Perhaps this conclusion is too precipitate.
But whoever looks at Elizabeth's portrait, on her bended
knees, struck off on the reverse of the title page to her
prayer book (first printed in 1565) may suppose that the
Queen thought the addition of her own portrait would be no
mean decoration to the work. Every page is adorned with
borders, engraved on wood, of the most spirited execution:
representing, amongst other subjects, "The Dance of Death."
My copy is the reprint of 1608--in high preservation. I have
no doubt that there was a _presentation_ copy printed UPON
VELLUM; but in what cabinet does this precious gem now
slumber?]
[Footnote 27: Laneham gives a splendid list of Romances and
Old Ballads possessed by this said CAPTAIN COX; and tells
us, moreover, that "he had them all at his fingers ends."
Among the ballads we find "Broom broom on Hil; So Wo is me
begon twlly lo; Over a Whinny Meg; Hey ding a ding; Bony
lass upon Green; My bony on gave me a bek; By a bank as I
lay; and two more he had fair wrapt up in parchment, and
bound with a whip cord." Edit. 1784, p. 36-7-8. Ritson, in
his Historical Essay on _Scottish Song_, speaks of some of
these, with a zest, as if he longed to untie the "whip-cord"
packet.]
While the country was thus giving proofs of the prevalence of this
disorder, the two Harringtons (especially the younger)[28] and the
illustrious Spenser[29] were unfortunately seized with it in the
metropolis.
[Footnote 28: SIR JOHN HARRINGTON, knt. Sir John, and his
father John Harrington, were very considerable literary
characters in the 16th century; and whoever has been
fortunate enough to read through Mr. Park's new edition of
the _Nugæ Antiquæ_, 1804, 8vo., will meet with numerous
instances in which the son displays considerable
bibliographical knowledge--especially in _Italian_
literature; Harrington and Spenser seem to have been the
Matthias and Roscoe of the day. I make no doubt but that the
former was as thoroughly acquainted with the _vera edizione_
of the Giuntæ edition of Boccaccio's Decamerone, 1527, 4to.,
as either Haym, Orlandi, or Bandini. Paterson, with all his
skill, was mistaken in this article when he catalogued
Croft's books. See Bibl. Crofts. No. 3976: his true
edition was knocked down for 6_s._!!!]
[Footnote 29: Spenser's general acquaintance with Italian
literature has received the best illustration in Mr. Todd's
Variorum edition of the poet's works; where the reader will
find, in the notes, a constant succession of anecdotes of,
and references to, the state of anterior and contemporaneous
literature, foreign and domestic.]
In the seventeenth century, from the death of Elizabeth to the
commencement of Anne's reign, it seems to have made considerable
havoc; yet, such was our blindness to it that we scrupled not to
engage in overtures for the purchase of Isaac Vossius's[30] fine
library, enriched with many treasures from the Queen of Sweden's,
which this versatile genius scrupled not to pillage without confession
or apology. During this century our great reasoners and philosophers
began to be in motion; and, like the fumes of tobacco, which drive the
concealed and clotted insects from the interior to the extremity of
the leaves, the infectious particles of the BIBLIOMANIA set a thousand
busy brains a-thinking, and produced ten thousand capricious works,
which, over-shadowed by the majestic remains of Bacon, Locke, and
Boyle, perished for want of air, and warmth, and moisture.
[Footnote 30: "The story is extant, and written in very
choice _French_." Consult Chauffepié's _Supplement to
Bayle's Dictionary_, vol. iv. p. 621. note Q. Vossius's
library was magnificent and extensive. The University of
Leyden offered not less than 36,000 florins for it. _Idem._
p. 631.]
The reign of Queen Anne was not exempt from the influence of this
disease; for during this period, Maittaire[31] began to lay the
foundation of his extensive library, and to publish some
bibliographical works which may be thought to have rather increased,
than diminished, its force. Meanwhile, Harley[32] Earl of Oxford
watched its progress with an anxious eye; and although he might have
learnt experience from the fatal examples of R. Smith,[33] and T.
Baker,[34] and the more recent ones of Thomas Rawlinson,[35]
Bridges,[36] and Collins,[37] yet he seemed resolved to brave and to
baffle it; but, like his predecessors, he was suddenly crushed within
the gripe of the demon, and fell one of the most splendid of his
victims. Even the unrivalled medical skill of Mead[38] could save
neither his friend nor himself. The Doctor survived his Lordship about
twelve years; dying of the complaint called the BIBLIOMANIA! He left
behind an illustrious character; sufficient to flatter and soothe
those who may tread in his footsteps, and fall victims to a similar
disorder.
[Footnote 31: Of MICHAEL MAITTAIRE I have given a brief
sketch in my Introduction to the _Greek and Latin Classics_,
vol. I, 148. Mr. Beloe, in the 3rd vol. of his _Anecdotes of
Literature_, p. ix., has described his merits with justice.
The principal value of Maittaire's _Annales Typographici_
consists in a great deal of curious matter detailed in the
notes; but the absence of the "lucidus ordo" renders the
perusal of these fatiguing and dissatisfactory. The author
brought a full and well-informed mind to the task he
undertook--but he wanted taste and precision in the
arrangement of his materials. The eye wanders over a vast
indigested mass; and information, when it is to be acquired
with excessive toil, is, comparatively, seldom acquired.
Panzer has adopted an infinitely better plan, on the model
of Orlandi; and, if his materials had been _printed_ with
the same beauty with which they appear to have been
composed, and his annals had descended to as late a period
as those of Maittaire, his work must have made us,
eventually, forget that of his predecessor. The
bibliographer is, no doubt, aware that of Maittaire's first
volume there are two editions. Why the author did not
reprint, in the second edition (1733), the facsimile of the
epigram and epistle of LASCAR prefixed to the edition of the
Anthology 1496, and the disquisition concerning the ancient
editions of Quintilian (both of which were in the first
edition of 1719), is absolutely inexplicable. Maittaire was
sharply attacked for this absurdity, in the "Catalogus
Auctorum," of the "_Annus Tertius Sæcularis Inv. Art.
Topog._" Harlem, 1741, 8vo. p. 11. "Rara certe Librum
augendi methodus (exclaims the author)! Satis patet auctorem
hoc eo fecisse consilio, ut et primæ et secundæ Libri sive
editioni pretium suum constaret, et una æque ac altera
Lectoribus necessaria esset."
The catalogue of Maittaire's library [1748, 2 parts, 8vo.],
which affords ample proof of the BIBLIOMANIA of its
collector, is exceedingly scarce. A good copy of it, even
unpriced, is worth a guinea: it was originally sold for 4
shillings; and was drawn up by Maittaire himself.]
[Footnote 32: In a periodical publication called "_The
Director_," to which I contributed under the article of
"_Bibliographiana_" (and of which the printer of this work,
Mr. William Savage, is now the sole publisher), there was
rather a minute analysis of the famous library of HARLEY,
EARL OF OXFORD: a library which seems not only to have
revived, but eclipsed, the splendour of the Roman one formed
by Lucullus. The following is an abridgement of this
analysis:
VOLUMES.
1. Divinity: _Greek, Latin, French and Italian_--about 2000
---- _English_ 2500
2. History and Antiquities 4000
3. Books of Prints, Sculpture, and Drawings--
_Twenty Thousand Drawings and Prints._
_Ten Thousand Portraits._
4. Philosophy, Chemistry, Medicine, &c. 2500
5. Geography, Chronology, General History 600
6. Voyages and Travels 800
7. Law 800
8. Sculpture and Architecture 900
9. Greek and Latin Classics 2400
10. Books printed UPON VELLUM 220
11. English Poetry, Romances, &c. 1000
12. French and Spanish do. 700
13. Parliamentary Affairs 400
14. Trade and Commerce 300
15. Miscellaneous Subjects 4000
16. Pamphlets--_Four Hundred Thousand_!
Mr. Gough says, these books "filled thirteen handsome
chambers, and two long galleries." Osborne the bookseller
purchased them for £13,000: a sum little more than two
thirds of the price of the binding, as paid by Lord Oxford.
The bookseller was accused of injustice and parsimony; but
the low prices which he afterwards affixed to the articles,
and the tardiness of their sale, are sufficient refutations
of this charge. Osborne opened his shop for the inspection
of the books on Tuesday the 14th of February, 1744; for fear
"of the curiosity of the spectators, before the sale,
producing disorder in the disposition of the books." The
dispersion of the HARLEIAN COLLECTION is a blot in the
literary annals of our country: had there then been such a
Speaker, and such a spirit in the House of Commons, as we
now possess, the volumes of Harley would have been reposing
with the MARBLES OF TOWNLEY!]
[Footnote 33: "BIBLIOTHECA SMITHIANA: sive Catalogus
Librorum in quavis facultate insigniorum, quos in usum suum
et Bibliothecæ ornamentum multo ære sibi comparavit vir
clarissimus doctissimusque D. RICHARDUS SMITH, &c., Londini,
1682," 4to. I recommend the collector of curious and
valuable catalogues to lay hold upon the present one (of
which a more particular description will be given in another
work) whenever it comes in his way. The address "To the
Reader," in which we are told that "this so much celebrated,
so often desired, so long expected, library is now exposed
to sale," gives a very interesting account of the owner.
Inter alia, we are informed that Mr. Smith "was as
constantly known every day to walk his rounds through the
shops, as to sit down to his meals, &c.;" and that "while
others were forming arms, and new-modelling kingdoms, _his_
great ambition was to become master of a good book."
The catalogue itself justifies every thing said in
commendation of the collector of the library. The
arrangement is good; the books, in almost all departments of
literature, foreign and domestic, valuable and curious; and
among the English ones I have found some of the rarest
Caxtons to refer to in my edition of Ames. What would Mr.
Bindley, or Mr. Malone, or Mr. Douce, give to have the
_creaming_ of such a collection of "Bundles of Stitcht Books
and Pamphlets," as extends from page 370 to 395 of this
catalogue! But alas! while the Bibliographer exults in, or
hopes for, the possession of such treasures, the
physiologist discovers therein fresh causes of disease, and
the philanthropist mourns over the ravages of the
BIBLIOMANIA!]
[Footnote 34: Consult Masters's "_Memoirs of the Life and
Writings of the late Rev._ THOMAS BAKER," Camb. 1864, 8vo.
Let any person examine the catalogue of _Forty-two_ folio
volumes of "MS. collections by Mr. Baker," (as given at the
end of this piece of biography) and reconcile himself, if he
can, to the supposition that the said Mr. Baker did not fall
a victim to the _Book-disease_! For some cause, I do not now
recollect what, Baker took his name off the books of St.
John's College, Cambridge, to which he belonged; but such
was his attachment to the place, and more especially to the
library, that he spent a great portion of the ensuing twenty
years of his life within the precincts of the same:
frequently comforted and refreshed, no doubt, by the sight
of the magnificent LARGE PAPER copies of Walton and Castell,
and of Cranmer's Bible UPON VELLUM!]
[Footnote 35: This THOMAS RAWLINSON, who is introduced in
the Tatler under the name _Tom Folio_, was a very
extraordinary character, and most desperately addicted to
book-hunting. Because his own house was not large enough, he
hired _London House_, in Aldersgate Street, for the
reception of his library; and here he used to regale himself
with the sight and the scent of innumerable black letter
volumes, arranged in "sable garb," and stowed perhaps "three
deep," from the bottom to the top of his house. He died in
1725; and Catalogues of his books for sale continued, for
nine succeeding years, to meet the public eye. The following
is a list of all the parts which I have ever met with; taken
from copies in Mr. Heber's possession.
_Part_ 1. _A Catalogue of choice and valuable Books in most
Faculties and Languages_: being the sixth part of the
collection made by THOS. RAWLINSON, Esq., &c., to be sold on
Thursday, the 2d day of March, 1726; beginning every evening
at 5 of the clock, by Charles Davis, Bookseller. Qui non
credit, eras credat. Ex Autog. T.R.
2. _Bibliotheca Rawlinsoniana_; sive Delectus Librorum in
omni ferè Linguâ et Facultate præstantium--to be sold on
Wednesday 26th April, [1726] by Charles Davis, Bookseller.
2600 Numbers.
3. _The Same_: January 1727-8. By Thomas Ballard,
Bookseller, 3520 Numbers.
4. _The Same_: March, 1727-8. By the same. 3840 Numbers.
5. _The Same_: October, 1728. By the same. 3200 Numbers.
6. _The Same_: November, 1728. By the same. 3520 Numbers.
7. _The Same_: April, 1729. By the same. 4161 Numbers.
8. _The Same_: November, 1729. By the same. 2700 Numbers.
9. _The Same_: [Of Rawlinson's MANUSCRIPTS] By the same.
March 1733-4. 800 Numbers.
10. _Picturæ Rawlinsonianæ._ April, 1734. 117 Articles.
At the end, it would seem that a catalogue of his prints,
and MSS. missing in the last sale, were to be published the
ensuing winter.
N.B. The black-letter books are catalogued in the Gothic
letter.]
[Footnote 36: "BIBLIOTHECÆ BRIDGESIANÆ CATALOGUS: or, A
Catalogue of the Entire Library of JOHN BRIDGES, late of
_Lincoln's Inn_, Esq., &c., which will begin to be sold, by
Auction, on Monday the seventh day of February, 1725-6, at
his chambers in _Lincoln's Inn_, No. 6."
From a priced copy of this sale catalogue, in my possession,
once belonging to Nourse, the bookseller in the Strand, I
find that the following was the produce of the sale:
The Amount of the books £3730 0 0
Prints and books of Prints 394 17 6
-----------
Total Amount of the Sale £4124 17 6
Two different catalogues of this valuable collection of
books were printed. The one was analysed, or a _catalogue
raisonné_; to which was prefixed a print of a Grecian
portico, &c., with ornaments and statues: the other
(expressly for the sale) was an indigested and extremely
confused one--to which was prefixed a print, designed and
engraved by A. Motte, of an oak felled, with a number of men
cutting down and carrying away its branches; illustrative of
the following Greek motto inscribed on a scroll
above--[Greek: Dryos pesousês pas anêr xyleuetai]: "An
affecting memento (says Mr. Nichols, very justly, in his
_Anecdotes of Bowyer_, p. 557) to the collectors of great
libraries, who cannot, or do not, leave them to some public
accessible repository."]
[Footnote 37: In the year 1730-1, there was sold by auction,
at St. Paul's Coffee-house, in St. Paul's Church-yard
(beginning every evening at five o'clock), the library of
the celebrated Free-Thinker,
ANTHONY COLLINS, ESQ.
"Containing a collection of several thousand volumes in
Greek, Latin, English, French, and Spanish; in divinity,
history, antiquity, philosophy, husbandry, and all polite
literature: and especially many curious travels and voyages;
and many rare and valuable pamphlets." This collection,
which is divided into _two parts_ (the first containing 3451
articles, the second 3442), is well worthy of being
consulted by the theologian, who is writing upon any
controverted point of divinity: there are articles in it of
the rarest occurrence. The singular character of its owner
and of his works is well known: he was at once the friend
and the opponent of Locke and Clarke, who were both anxious
for the conversion of a character of such strong, but
misguided, talents. The former, on his death-bed, wrote
Collins a letter to be delivered to him, after his decease,
which was full of affection and good advice.]
[Footnote 38: It is almost impossible to dwell on the memory
of this GREAT MAN without emotions of delight--whether we
consider him as an eminent physician, a friend to
literature, or a collector of books, pictures, and coins.
Benevolence, magnanimity, and erudition were the striking
features of his character: his house was the general
receptacle of men of genius and talent, and of every thing
beautiful, precious, or rare. His curiosities, whether
books, or coins, or pictures, were freely laid open to the
public; and the enterprising student, and experienced
antiquary, alike found amusement and a courteous reception.
He was known to all foreigners of intellectual distinction,
and corresponded both with the artisan and the potentate.
The great patron of literature, and the leader of his
profession (which he practised with a success unknown
before), it was hardly possible for unbefriended merit, if
properly introduced to him, to depart unrewarded. The
clergy, and in general, all men of learning, received his
advice _gratuitously_: and his doors were open every morning
to the _most indigent_, whom he frequently assisted with
money. Although his income, from his professional practice,
was very considerable, he died by no means a rich man--so
large were the sums which he devoted to the encouragement of
literature and the fine arts!
The sale of Dr. Mead's _books_ commenced on the 18th of
November, 1754, and again on the 7th of April, 1755: lasting
together 57 days. The sale of the _prints_ and _drawings_
continued 14 nights. The _gems_, _bronzes_, _busts_, and
_antiquities_, 8 days.
His books produced £5496 15 0
Pictures 3417 11 0
Prints and drawings 1908 14 0
Coins and medals 1977 17 0
Antiquities 3246 15 0
--------------
Amount of all the sales £16,047 12 0
It would be difficult to mention, within a moderate compass,
all the rare and curious articles which his library
contained--but the following are too conspicuous to be
passed over. The _Spira Virgil_ of 1470, _Pfintzing's
Tewrkdrancs_, 1527, _Brandt's Stultifera Navis_, 1498, and
the _Aldine Petrarch_ of 1501, ALL UPON VELLUM. The large
paper _Olivet's Cicero_ was purchased by Dr. Askew for £14
14_s._ and was sold again at his sale for £36 15_s._ The
King of France bought the editio princeps of _Pliny Senr._
for £11 11_s._; and Mr. Willock, a bookseller, bought the
magnificently illuminated _Pliny by Jenson_ of 1472, for £18
18_s._: of which Maittaire has said so many fine things. The
_French_ books, and all the works upon the _Fine Arts_, were
of the first rarity, and value, and bound in a sumptuous
manner. Winstanley's _Prospects of Audley End_ brought £50.
An amusing account of some of the pictures will be found in
Mr. Beloe's "_Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books_,"
vol. i. 166. 71. But consult also _Nichol's Anecdotes of
Bowyer_, p. 225, &c. Of the catalogue of Dr. Mead's books
there were only six copies printed on LARGE PAPER. See Bibl.
Lort, no. 1149.]
The years 1755-6 were singularly remarkable for the mortality excited
by the BIBLIOMANIA; and the well known names of Folkes,[39] and
Rawlinson,[40] might have supplied a modern Holbein a hint for the
introduction of a new subject in the "_Dance of Death_." The close of
George the Second's reign witnessed another instance of the fatality
of this disease. Henley[41] "bawled till he was hoarse" against the
cruelty of its attack; while his library has informed posterity how
severely and how mortally he suffered from it.
[Footnote 39: "A Catalogue of the entire and valuable
library of MARTIN FOLKES, ESQ., President of the Royal
Society, and member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at
Paris, lately deceased; which will be sold by auction by
Samuel Baker, at his house, in York Street, Covent Garden.
To begin on Monday, February 2, 1756, and to continue for
forty days successively (Sundays excepted). Catalogues to be
had at most of the considerable places in Europe, and all
the booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland, Price
Sixpence."
This collection was an exceedingly fine one; enriched with
many books of the choicest description, which Mr. Folkes had
acquired in his travels in Italy and Germany. The works on
natural history, coins, medals, and inscriptions, and on the
fine arts in general, formed the most valuable
department--those in the Greek, Latin and English classics,
were comparatively of inferior importance. It is a great
pity the catalogue was not better digested; or the books
classed according to the nature of their contents.
The following prices, for some of the more rare and
interesting articles, will amuse a bibliographer of the
present day. The chronicles of Fabian, Hall, and Grafton,
did not altogether bring quite £2: though the copies are
described as perfect and fair. There seems to have been a
fine set of Sir Wm. Dugdale's Works (Nos. 3074-81) in 13
vols. which, collectively, produced about 30 guineas.
In _Spanish literature_, the history of South America, By
Don Juan and Ant. di Ulloa, Madr. fol. in 5 vols., was sold
for £5: a fine large paper copy of the description of the
Monastery of St. Lorenzo, and the Escorial, Madr. 1657,
brought £1 2_s._: de Lastanosa's Spanish Medals, Huesca,
fol. 1645, £2 2_s._
In _English_, the first edition of Shakespeare, 1623, which
is now what a French bibliographer would say "presque
introuvable," produced the sum of £3 3_s._; and Fuller's
Worthies, 18_s._!
_Fine Arts, Antiquities, and Voyages._ Sandrart's works, in
9 folio volumes (of which a fine perfect copy is now rarely
to be met with, and of very great value) were sold for £13
13_s._ only: Desgodetz Roman edifices, Paris, 1682, £4
10_s._: Galleria Giustiniano, 2 vols., fol. £13 13_s._ Le
Brun's Voyages in Muscovy, &c., in large paper, £4 4_s._ De
Rossi's Raccolta de Statue, &c. Rom. 1704, £6 10_s._
Medailles du Regne de Louis le Grand, de l'imp. Roy. 1. p.
fol. 1702, £5 15_s._ 6_d._
The works on _Natural History_ brought still higher prices;
but the whole, from the present depreciation of specie, and
increased rarity of the articles, would now bring thrice the
sums then given.
Of the _Greek and Latin Classics_, the Pliny of 1469 and
1472 were sold to Dr. Askew for £11 11_s._ and £7 17_s._
6_d._ At the Doctor's sale they brought £43 and £23:
although the first was lately sold (A.D. 1805) among some
duplicates of books belonging to the British Museum, at a
much lower price: the copy was, in fact, neither large nor
beautiful. Those in the Hunter and Cracherode collections
are greatly superior, and would each bring more than double
the price.
From a priced copy of the sale catalogue, in my possession,
I find that the amount of the sale, consisting of 5126
articles, was £3091 5_s._
The _Prints and Drawings_ of Mr. Folkes occupied a sale of 8
days; and his _pictures_, _gems_, _coins_, and _mathematical
instruments_, of five days.
Mr. MARTIN FOLKES may justly be ranked among the most
useful, as well as splendid, literary characters of which
this country can boast. He appears to have imbibed, at a
very early age, an extreme passion for science and
literature; and to have distinguished himself so much at the
University of Cambridge, under the able tuition of Dr.
Laughton, that, in his 23rd year, he was admitted a Fellow
of the Royal Society. About two years afterwards he was
chosen one of the council, and rose, in gradual succession,
to the chair of the presidentship, which he filled with a
credit and celebrity that has since never been surpassed. On
this occasion he was told by Dr. Jurin, the Secretary, who
dedicated to him the 34th vol. of the Transactions, that
"the greatest man that ever lived (Sir Isaac Newton) singled
him out to fill the chair, and to preside in the society,
when he himself was so frequently prevented by
indisposition: and that it was sufficient to say of him that
he was _Sir Isaac's friend_."
Within a few years after this, he was elected President of
the Society of Antiquaries. Two situations, the filling of
which may be considered as the _ne plus ultra_ of literary
distinction. Mr. Folkes travelled abroad, with his family,
about two years and a half, visiting the cities of Rome,
Florence, and Venice--where he was noticed by almost every
person of rank and reputation, and whence he brought away
many a valuable article to enrich his own collection. He was
born in the year 1690, and died of a second stroke of the
palsy, under which he languished for three years, in 1754.
Dr. Birch has drawn a very just and interesting character of
this eminent man, which may be found in Nichol's _Anecdotes
of Bowyer_, 562. 7. Mr. Edwards, the late ornithologist, has
described him in a simple, but appropriate, manner. "He
seemed," says he, "to have attained to universal knowledge;
for, in the many opportunities I have had of being in his
company, almost every part of science has happened to be the
subject of discourse, all of which he handled as an adept.
He was a man of great politeness in his manners, free from
all pedantry and pride, and, in every respect, the real
unaffected fine gentleman."]
[Footnote 40: "BIBLIOTHECA RAWLINSONIANA, sive Catalogus
Librorum Richardi Rawlinson, LL.D. Qui prostabunt Venales
sub hasta, Apud Samuelem Baker. In Vico dicto _York Street,
Covent Garden Londini, Die Lunæ_, 22 Martii MDCCLVI."
This valuable library must have contained about 20,000
volumes; for the number of Articles amounted to 9405. On
examining a priced catalogue of it, which now lies before
me, I have not found any higher sum offered for a work than
£4 1_s._ for a collection of fine prints, by Aldegrave (No.
9405). The Greek and Latin classics, of which there were few
_Editiones Principes_, or on _large paper_, brought the
usual sums given at that period. The old English
black-lettered books, which were pretty thickly scattered
throughout the collection, were sold for exceedingly low
prices--if the copies were perfect. Witness the following:
£ _s._ _d._
The Newe Testament in English, 1530 0 2 9
The Ymage of both Churches, after the Revelation
of St. John, by Bale, 1550 0 1 6
The boke called the Pype or Tonne of Perfection,
by Richard Whytforde, 1532 0 1 9
The Visions of Pierce Plowman, 1561 0 2 0
The Creede of Pierce Plowman, 1553 0 1 6
The Bookes of Moses, in English, 1530 0 3 9
Bale's Actes of Englishe Votaryes, 1550 0 1 3
The Boke of Chivalrie, by Caxton 0 11 0
The Boke of St. Albans, by W. de Worde 1 1 0
These are only very few of the rare articles in English
literature, of the whole of which (perhaps upwards of 200 in
number) I believe, the 'Boke of St. Albans,' brought the
highest sum. Hence it will be seen that this was not the age
of curious research into the productions of our ancestors.
Shakspeare had not then appeared in a proper _Variorum
edition_. Theobald, and Pope, and Warburton, had not
investigated the black-letter lore of ancient English
writers, for the illustration of their favourite author.
This was reserved for Farmer, for Steevens, for Malone, for
Chalmers, Reed and Douce: and it is expressly to these
latter gentlemen (for Johnson and Hanmer were very sparing,
or very shy, of the black letter), that we are indebted for
the present spirit of research into the works of our
ancestors.
The sale of the books lasted 50 days. There was a second
sale of pamphlets, books of prints, &c., in the following
year, which lasted 10 days; and this was immediately
succeeded by a sale of the Doctor's single prints and
drawings, which continued 8 days.]
[Footnote 41: This gentleman's library, not so remarkable
for the black letter as for whimsical publications, was sold
by auction, by Samuel Paterson, [the earliest sale in which
I find this well known book-auctioneer engaged] in June,
1759, and the three ensuing evenings. The title of the Sale
Catalogue is as follows:
"A Catalogue of the original MSS. and manuscript collections
of the late Reverend Mr. JOHN HENLEY, A.M., Independent
Minister of the Oratory, &c., in which are included sundry
collections of the late Mons. des Maizeaux, the learned
editor of Bayle, &c., Mr. Lowndes, author of the Report for
the Amendment of Silver Coins, &c., Dr. Patrick Blair,
Physician at Boston, and F.R.S. &c., together with original
letters and papers of State, addressed to Henry d'Avenant,
Esq., her Britannic Majesty's Envoy at Francfort, from 1703
to 1708 inclusive."
Few libraries have contained more curious and remarkable
publications than did this. The following articles, given as
notable specimens, remind us somewhat of Addison's Memoranda
for the Spectator, which the waiter at the coffee-house
picked up and read aloud for the amusement of the company.
No. 166. God's Manifestation by a Star to the Dutch. A
mortifying Fast Diet at Court. On the Birth Day of the first
and oldest young gentleman. All corrupt: none good: no not
one.
No. 168. General Thumbissimo. The Spring reversed, or the
Flanderkin's Opera and Dutch Pickle Herrings. The Creolean
Fillip, or Royal Mishap. A Martial Telescope, &c., England's
Passion Sunday, and April Changelings.
No. 170. Speech upon Speech. A Telescope for Tournay. No
Battle, but worse, and the True Meaning of it. An Army
Beaten and interred.
No. 174. Signs when the P. will come. Was Captain Sw----n a
Prisoner on Parole, to be catechised? David's Opinion of
like Times. The Seeds of the plot may rise, though the
leaves fall. A Perspective, from the Blair of Athol, the
Pretender's Popery. Murder! Fire! Where! Where!
No. 178. Taking Carlisle, catching an eel by the tail.
Address of a Bishop, Dean and Clergy. Swearing to the
P----r, &c., Anathema denounced against those Parents,
Masters, and Magistrates, that do not punish the Sin at
Stokesley. A Speech, &c. A parallel between the Rebels to K.
Charles I. and those to his Successor. _Jane Cameron_ looked
killing at _Falkirk_.
No. 179. Let stocks be knighted, write, Sir Banks, &c. the
Ramhead Month. A Proof that the Writers against Popery fear
it will be established in this Kingdom. A Scheme, wisely
blabbed to root and branch the Highlanders. Let St. Patrick
have fair play, &c.
Of ORATOR HENLEY I have not been able to collect any
biographical details more interesting than those which are
to be found in Warburton's notes to Pope's Dunciad.]
We are now, my dear Sir, descending rapidly to our own times; and, in
a manner sufficiently rough, have traced the _History of the
Bibliomania_ to the commencement of the present illustrious reign:
when we discover, among its victims, a General, who had probably
faced many a cannon, and stormed many a rampart, uninjured. The name
of Dormer[42] will remind you of the small but choice library which
affords such a melancholy proof of its owners' fate; while the more
splendid examples of Smith[43] and West[44] serve to shew the
increased ravages of a disease, which seemed to threaten the lives of
all, into whose ears (like those of "Visto,") some demon had
"whispered" the sound of "TASTE." These three striking instances of
the fatality of the Bibliomania occurred--the first in the year 1764;
and the latter in 1773. The following year witnessed the sale of the
Fletewode[45] library; so that nothing but despair and havoc appeared
to move in the train of this pestiferous malady. In the year 1775 died
the famous Dr. Anthony Askew, another illustrious victim to the
Bibliomania. Those who recollect the zeal and scholarship of this
great book-collector, and the precious gems with which his library[46]
was stored from the cabinets of De Boze and Gaignat, as well as of
Mead and Folkes, cannot but sigh with grief of heart on the thought
of such a victim! How ardently, and how kindly [as I remember to have
heard his friend Dr. Burges say], would Askew unfold his glittering
stores--open the magnificent folio, or the shining duodecimo, UPON
VELLUM, embossed and fast held together with golden knobs and silver
clasps! How carefully would he unroll the curious MS.--decipher the
half effaced characters--and then, casting an eye of ecstacy over the
shelves upon which similar treasures were lodged, exult in the
glittering prospect before him! But death--who, as Horace tells us,
raps equally at the palaces of kings and cottages of peasants, made
no scruple to exercise the knocker of the Doctor's door, and sent, as
his avant-courier, THIS DEPLORABLE MANIA! It appeared; and even Askew,
with all his skill in medicine and books, fell lifeless before
it--bewailed, as he was beloved and respected!
[Footnote 42: "A Catalogue of the genuine and elegant
Library of the late Sir C.C. DORMER, collected by
Lieutenant-General James Dormer, which will be sold, &c., by
Samuel Baker, at his house in York Street, Covent Garden; to
begin on Monday, February the 20th, 1764, and to continue
the nineteen following evenings." At the end of the
catalogue we are told that the books were "in general of the
best editions, and in the finest condition, many of them in
_large paper_, bound in morocco, gilt leaves, &c."
This was a very choice collection of books, consisting
almost entirely of Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish and
French. The number of articles did not exceed 3082, and of
volumes, probably not 7000. The catalogue is neatly printed,
and copies of it on _large paper_ are exceedingly scarce.
Among the most curious and valuable articles were those
numbered 599, 604, 2249, 2590; from no. 2680, to the end,
was a choice collection of Italian and Spanish books.]
[Footnote 43: In the year 1755 was published at Venice,
printed by J.B. Pasquali, a catalogue of the books of JOSEPH
SMITH, Esq., Consul at Venice.
The catalogue was published under the following Latin title:
"Bibliotheca Smitheana, seu Catalogus Librorum D. Josephi
Smithii, Angli, per Cognomina Authorum dispositus, Venetiis,
typis Jo. Baptistæ Pasquali, M,DCCLV.;" in quarto; with the
arms of Consul Smith. The title page is succeeded by a Latin
preface of Pasquali, and an alphabetical list of 43 pages of
the authors mentioned in the catalogue: then follow the
books arranged alphabetically, without any regard to size,
language, or subject. These occupy 519 pages, marked with
the Roman numerals; after which are 66 pages, numbered in
the same manner, of "addenda et corrigenda." The most
valuable part of the volume is "The Prefaces and Epistles
prefixed to those works in the Library which were printed in
the 15th century:" these occupy 348 pages. A Catalogue, (in
three pages) of the Names of the illustrious Men mentioned
in these prefaces, &c., closes the book.
It would be superfluous to mention to bibliographers the
rare articles contained in this collection, which are so
generally known and so justly appreciated. They consist
chiefly of early editions of _Italian_, _Greek_, and _Latin
classics_; and of many copies of both printed UPON VELLUM.
The library, so rich in these articles, was, however,
defective in English Literature and Antiquities. There was
scarcely any thing of Shakspeare or Dugdale.
On the death of Mr. Smith in 1772, his collection was sold
in 1773, 8vo., by Baker and Leigh; and the books were
announced to the public, as being "in the finest
preservation, and consisting of the very best and scarcest
editions of the Latin, Italian, and French authors, from the
invention of printing; with manuscripts and missals, upon
vellum, finely illuminated." A glance upon the prices for
which most of these fine books were sold made Mr. Cuthell
exclaim, in my hearing, that "_they were given away_." On
these occasions, one cannot help now and then wishing, with
father Evander,
"O mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos!"
On comparing Pasquali's, with the sale, catalogue, it will
be obvious that a great number of rare and valuable articles
was disposed of before the books came to public auction.
Indeed it is known that his present MAJESTY enriched his
magnificent collection with many of the Consul's _first
editions_, and _vellum copies_, during the life of the
latter. The sale continued thirteen days only; and on the
last day were sold all the English books in the
_black-letter_. Some of these are rather curious.
Of CONSUL SMITH I am unable to present the lover of VIRTU
with any particulars more acceptable than the following.
Pasquali (whose Latin preface is curious enough--abounding
with as many interrogatories as Hamlet's soliloquies) has
told us that "as the Consul himself was distinguished for
his politeness, talents, and prudence, so was his house for
splendid and elegant decorations. You might there view, says
he, the most beautifully painted pictures, and exquisite
ornaments, whether gems, vases, or engravings. In short, the
whole furniture was so brilliant and classical that you
admired at once the magnificence and judgment of the owner."
He tells us, a little further, that he had frequently
solicited the Consul to print a catalogue of his books;
which proposition his modesty at first induced him to
reject; but, afterwards, his liberality, to comply with. He
then observes that, "in the compilation of the catalogue, he
has studied brevity as much as it was consistent with
perspicuity; and that he was once desirous of stating the
_value_ and _price_ of the books, but was dissuaded from it
by the advice of the more experienced, and by the singular
modesty of the Collector."
It must be confessed that Pasquali has executed his task
well, and that the catalogue ranks among the most valuable,
as well as rare, books of the kind.]
[Footnote 44: "BIBLIOTHECA WESTIANA; A catalogue of the
curious and truly valuable library of the late James West,
Esq., President of the Royal Society, deceased, &c.
Including the works of CAXTON, LETTOU, MACHLINIA, the
anonymous ST. ALBANS SCHOOLMASTE [Transcriber's Note:
Schoolmaster], WYNKYN DE WORDE, PYNSON, and the rest of the
old English typographers. Digested by Samuel Paterson,"
1773, 8vo.
ANALYSIS OF THE CATALOGUE.
1. _Volumes of Miscellaneous Tracts._
These volumes extend from No. 148 to 200, from 915 to
992, from 1201 to 1330, and from No. 1401 to 1480.
2. _Divinity._
In the whole, 560 articles; probably about 1200 volumes;
some of them exceedingly scarce and valuable.
3. _Education, Languages, Criticism, Classics, Dictionaries,
Catalogues of Libraries, &c._
There were about 700 volumes in these departments. The
catalogues of English books, from that of Maunsell, in 1595,
to the latest before Mr. West's time, were very complete.
The treatises on education and translations of the ancient
classics comprehended a curious and uncommon collection. The
Greek and Latin classics were rather select than rare.
4. _English Poetry, Romance, and Miscellanies._
This interesting part of the collection comprehended about
355 articles, or probably about 750 volumes: and if the
singularly rare and curious books which may be found _under
these heads alone_ were now concentrated in one library, the
owner of them might safely demand 4000 guineas for such a
treasure.
5. _Philosophy, Mathematics, Inventions, Agriculture and
Horticulture, Medicine, Cookery, Surgery, etc._
Two hundred and forty articles, or about 560 volumes.
6. _Chemistry, Natural History, Astrology, Sorcery,
Gigantology._
Probably not more than 100 volumes.
7. _History and Antiquities._
This comprehended a great number of curious and valuable
productions, relating both to foreign and domestic
transactions.
8. _Heraldry and Genealogy._
A great number of curious and scarce articles may be found
under these heads.
9. _Ancient Legends and Chronicles._
To the English antiquary, few departments of literature are
more interesting that these. Mr. West seems to have paid
particular attention to them, and to have enriched his
library with many articles of this description, of the
rarest occurrence. The lovers of Caxton, Fabian, Hardyng,
Hall, Grafton, and Holinshed, may be highly gratified by
inspecting the various editions of these old chroniclers. I
entreat the diligent bibliographer to examine the first
eight articles of page 209 of the catalogue. Alas, when will
all these again come under the hammer at one sale?!
10. _Topography._
Even to a veteran, like the late Mr. GOUGH, such a
collection as may be found from p. 217 to p. 239 of this
catalogue, would be considered a first-rate acquisition. I
am aware that the gothic wainscot, and stained glass
windows, of _Enfield Study_ enshrined a still more exquisite
topographical collection! But we are improved since the days
of Mr. West; and every body knows to _whom_ these
improvements are, in a great measure, to be attributed. When
I call to mind the author of '_British Topography_' and
'_Sepulchral Monuments_,' I am not insensible to the taste,
diligence, and erudition of the "par nobile fratrum," who
have gratified us with the '_Environs of London_,' '_Roman
Remains_,' and the first two volumes of '_Magna Britannia_!'
The preceding is to be considered as a very general, and
therefore superficial, analysis of the catalogue of Mr.
West's library; copies of it, with the sums for which the
books were sold, are now found with difficulty, and bring a
considerable price. I never saw or heard of one on LARGE
PAPER!]
[Footnote 45: "A catalogue of rare books and tracts in
various languages and faculties; including the _Ancient
Conventual Library_ of Missenden-Abbey, in Buckinghamshire;
together with some choice remains of that of the late
eminent Serjeant at law, WILLIAM FLETEWODE, Esq., Recorder
of London, in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; among which are
several specimens of the earliest Typography, foreign and
English, including CAXTON, WYNKYN DE WORDE, PYNSON, and
others; a fine collection of English Poetry, some scarce old
law-books, a great number of old English plays, several
choice MSS. upon vellum, and other subjects of literary
curiosity. Also several of the best editions of the
Classics, and modern English and French books. To begin
_December_ 5, 1774, and the 17 following evenings, precisely
at half an hour after five."
I am in possession of a _priced Catalogue_ of this
collection, which once belonged to Herbert, and which
contains all the purchasers' names, as well as the sums
given. The purchasers were principally Herbert, Garrick,
Dodd, Elmsley, T. Payne, Richardson, Chapman, Wagstaff,
Bindley, and Gough. The following is a specimen of some
curious and interesting articles contained in this
celebrated library, and of the prices for which they once
sold!
No. 172. _Bale's brefe Chronycle relating to Syr Johan
Oldecastell_, 1544. The Life off the 70th Archbishopp off
Canterbury presentleye sittinge, 1574, &c. Life of Hen.
Hills, Printer to O. Cromwell, _with the Relation of what
passed between him and the Taylor's Wife in Black Friars_,
1688, _&c._ £0 7_s._ 9_d._
Purchased by Mores.
Nos. 361 to 367. Upwards of thirty _scarce Theological
Tracts_, in Latin and English 1 5 0
Nos. 746 to 784. A fine collection of early English
Translations, in black letter, with some good foreign
editions of the classics. Not exceeding, in the whole 10 10 0
Nos. 837, 838. Two copies of the _first edition_ of Bacon's
Essays, 1597! 0 0 6
The reader will just glance at No. 970, in the catalogue,
en passant, to
Nos. 1082 (£1 2s.) and 1091 (12s.); but more particularly to
No. 1173. Caxton's _Boke of Tulle of olde age_, &c. 1481.
Purchased by the late Mr. T. Payne 8 8 0
No. 1174. CAXTON'S _Boke which is sayd or called Cathon_,
&c. 1483. 5 0 0
Purchased by Alchorn.
No. 1256. CAXTON'S _Doctrinal of Sapyence_, 1489 6 6 0
Purchased by Alchorn.
No. 1257. CAXTON'S _Cordyal_, 1479 6 12 6
No. 1258. WYNKYN DE WORDE'S _Ocharde of Syon_, &c. 1519. 1 13 0
I will, however, only add that there were upwards of 150
articles of _Old Plays_, mostly in quarto. See page 73. Of
_Antiquities_, _Chronicles_, and _Topography_, it would be
difficult to pitch upon the rarest volumes. The collection,
including very few MSS., contained 3641 articles, or
probably nearly 7000 volumes. The Catalogue is uncommon.]
[Footnote 46: I am now arrived, pursuing my chronological
arrangement, at a very important period in the annals of
book-sales. The name and collection of Dr. ASKEW are so well
known in the bibliographical world that the reader need not
be detained with laboured commendations on either: in the
present place, however, it would be a cruel disappointment
not to say a word or two by way of _preface_ or _prologue_.
Dr. ANTHONY ASKEW had eminently distinguished himself by a
refined taste, a sound knowledge, and an indefatigable
research relating to every thing connected with Grecian and
Roman literature. It was to be expected, even during his
life, as he was possessed of sufficient means to gratify
himself with what was rare, curious, and beautiful in
literature and the fine arts, that the public would, one
day, be benefited by such pursuits: especially as he had
expressed a wish that his treasures might be unreservedly
submitted to sale, after his decease. In this wish the
Doctor was not singular. Many eminent collectors had
indulged it before him: and, to my knowledge, many modern
ones still indulge it. Accordingly on the death of Dr.
Askew, in 1774, appeared, in the ensuing year, a catalogue
of his books for sale, by Messrs. Baker and Leigh, under the
following title:
"BIBLIOTHECA ASKEVIANA, sive Catalogus Librorum Rarissimorum
ANTONII ASKEW, M.D., quorum Auctio fiet apud S. Baker et G.
Leigh, in Vico dicto _York Street, Covent Garden_, Londini.
_Die Lunæ_, 13 _Februarii_, MDCCLXXV, et in undeviginti
sequentes dies." A few copies were struck off on large
paper.
We are told by the compiler of the catalogue that it was
thought unnecessary to say much with respect to this Library
of the late Dr. Anthony Askew, as the Collector and
Collection were so well known in almost all parts of Europe.
Afterwards it is observed that "The books in general are in
very fine condition, many of them bound in morocco, and
Russia leather, with gilt leaves." "To give a particular
account," continues the Compiler, "of the _many scarce
editions_ of books in this Catalogue would be almost
endless, therefore the _first editions_ of the Classics, and
some _extremely rare books_ are chiefly noticed. The
catalogue, without any doubt, contains the best, rarest, and
most valuable collection of GREEK and LATIN BOOKS that were
ever sold in England." This account is not overcharged. The
collection, in regard to Greek and Roman literature, was
_unique_ in its day.
The late worthy and learned Mr. M. CRACHERODE, whose library
now forms one of the most splendid acquisitions of the
British Museum, and whose _bequest_ of it will immortalize
his memory, was also among the "Emptores literarii" at this
renowned sale. He had enriched his collection with many
_Exemplar Askevianum_; and, in his latter days, used to
elevate his hands and eyes, and exclaim against the prices
_now_ offered for EDITIONES PRINCIPES!
The fact is, Dr. Askew's sale has been considered a sort of
_æra_ in bibliography. Since that period, rare and curious
books in Greek and Latin literature have been greedily
sought after, and obtained at most extravagant prices. It is
very well for a veteran in bibliography, as was Mr.
Cracherode, or as are Mr. Wodhull and Dr. Gosset, whose
collections were formed in the days of Gaignat, Askew, Duke
de la Valliere, and Lamoignon--it is very well for such
gentlemen to declaim against _modern prices_! But what is to
be done? Books grow scarcer every day, and the love of
literature, and of possessing rare and interesting works,
increases in an equal ratio. Hungry bibliographers meet, at
sales, with well furnished purses, and are resolved upon
sumptuous fare. Thus the hammer _vibrates_, after a bidding
of _Forty pounds_, where formerly it used regularly to
_fall_ at _Four_!
But we lose sight of Dr. Askew's _rare editions_, and _large
paper copies_. The following, gentle Reader, is but an
imperfect specimen!
No. 168. Chaucer's Works, by PYNSON, no date £7 17_s._ 6_d._
No. 172. Cicero of Old Age, by Caxton, 1481 13 13 0
No. 518. Gilles' (Nicole) Annales, &c. de France. Paris,
fol. 1520. 2 tom. SUR VELIN 31 10 6
No. 647. Æginetæ (Pauli) Præcepta Salubria. Paris, quarto,
1510. ON VELLUM 11 0 0
No. 666. Æsopi Fabulæ. EDIT. PRIN. _circ._ 1480 6 6 0
No. 684. Boccacio, la Teseide _Ferar._ 1475. PRIMA EDIZIONE
85 0 0
No. 1433. Catullus Tibullus, et Propertius, Aldi. 8vo. 1502.
IN MEMBRANA 17 10 0
This copy was purchased by the late Mr. M.C. Cracherode, and
is now, with his library, in the British Museum. It is a
beautiful book, but cannot be compared with Lord Spencer's
Aldine VELLUM Virgil, of the same size.
No. 1576. Durandi Rationale, &c. 1459. IN MEMBRANA 61 0 0
The beginning of the 1st chapter was wanting. Lord Spencer
has a perfect copy of this rare book on spotless VELLUM!
No. 2656. Platonis Opera, apud Aldum. 2 vol. fol. 1513.
_Edit. Prin._ ON VELLUM 55 13 0
Purchased by the late Dr. W. Hunter; and is at this moment,
in his Museum at _Glasgow_. The reader who has not seen them
can have no idea of the beauty of these vellum leaves. The
ink is of the finest lustre, and the whole typographical
arrangement may be considered a master-piece of printing.
Lord Oxford told Dr. Mead that he gave 100 guineas for this
very copy.]
After this melancholy event, one would have thought that future
_Virtuosi_ would have barricadoed their doors, and fumigated their
chambers, to keep out such a pest;--but how few are they who profit by
experience, even when dearly obtained! The subsequent history of the
disease is a striking proof of the truth of this remark; for the
madness of book-collecting rather increased--and the work of death
still went on. In the year 1776 died John Ratcliffe[47] another, and
a very singular, instance of the fatality of the BIBLIOMANIA. If he
had contented himself with his former occupation, and frequented the
butter and cheese, instead of the book, market--if he could have
_fancied himself_ in a brown peruke, and Russian apron, instead of an
embroidered waistcoat, velvet breeches, and flowing perriwig, he
might, perhaps, have enjoyed greater longevity; but, infatuated by the
Caxtons and Wynkyn De Wordes of Fletewode and of West, he fell into
the snare; and the more he struggled to disentangle himself, the more
certainly did he become a prey to the disease.
[Footnote 47: BIBLIOTHECA RATCLIFFIANA; or, "A Catalogue of
the elegant and truly valuable Library of JOHN RATCLIFFE,
Esq. late of Bermondsey, deceased. The whole collected with
great judgment and expense, during the last thirty years of
his life: comprehending a large and most choice collection
of the rare old English _black-letter_, in fine
preservation, and in elegant bindings, printed by CAXTON,
LETTOU, MACHLINIA, the anonymous St. Albans Schoolmaster,
Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Berthelet, Grafton, Day, Newberie,
Marshe, Jugge, Whytchurch, Wyer, Rastell, Coplande, and the
rest of the _Old English Typographers_: several missals and
MSS., and two Pedigrees on vellum, finely illuminated." The
title page then sets forth a specimen of these
black-lettered gems; among which our eyes are dazzled with a
galaxy of Caxtons, Wynkyn de Wordes, Pynsons, &c. &c. The
sale took place on March 27, 1776.
If ever there was a _unique_ collection, this was one--the
very essence of Old Divinity, Poetry, Romances, and
Chronicles! The articles were only 1675 in number, but their
intrinsic value amply compensated for their paucity.
The following is but an inadequate specimen.
No. 1315. Horace's Arte of Poetrie, Pistles and Satyres, by
Drant. 1567, _first English edition_ £0 16_s._ 6_d._
No. 1321. The Sheparde's Calender, 1579. Whetstone's Castle
of Delight, 1576 1 2 0
No. 1392. The Pastyme of the People, printed by Rastell.
Curious wood cuts. A copy of this book is not now to be
procured. I have known £40 offered for it, and rejected with
disdain 7 7 0
No. 1403. Barclay's Shyp of Folys, printed by Pynson, 1508,
_first edit._ fine copy 2 10 0
No. 1426. The Doctrinal of Sapyence, printed by CAXTON, 1489
8 8 0
No. 1427. The Boke, called Cathon, DITTO, 1483. _Purchased
by Dr. Hunter_, and now in his Museum 5 5 0
No. 1428. The Polytyque Boke, named Tullius de Senectute, in
Englishe, by CAXTON, 1481. _Purchased for his Majesty_ 14 0 0
No. 1429. The Game of Chesse Playe. 1474 16 0 0
No. 1665. The Boke of Jason, printed by CAXTON 5 10 0
No. 1669. The Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, printed by
CAXTON, 1482. _Purchased by Dr. Hunter_ 5 15 6
No. 1670. Legenda Aurea, or the Golden Legende 1483 9 15 0
No. 1674. Mr. Ratcliffe's MS. Catalogues of the _rare old
black letter_, and other curious and uncommon books, 4 vols.
7 15 0
This would have been the most delicious article to _my_
palate. If the present owner of it were disposed to part
with it, I could not find it in my heart to refuse him
_compound interest_ for his money. As is the wooden
frame-work to the bricklayer in the construction of his
arch, so might Mr. Ratcliffe's MS. Catalogues be to me in
the compilation of a certain _magnum opus_!
The memory of such a man ought to be dear to the
"_black-lettered dogs_" of the present day; for he had
[mirabile dictu!] _upwards of_ THIRTY CAXTONS!
If I might hazard a comparison between Mr. James West's and
Mr. John Ratcliffe's collections, I should say that the
former was more extensive, the latter more curious: Mr.
West's, like a magnificent _champagne_, executed by the hand
of Claude or Both, and enclosing mountains, and meadows, and
streams, presented to the eye of the beholder a scene at
once extensive, luxuriant, and fruitful: Mr. Ratcliffe's,
like one of those delicious pieces of scenery, touched by
the pencil of Rysdael or Hobbima, exhibited to the
beholder's eye a spot equally interesting, but less varied
and extensive. The sweeping foliage and rich pasture of the
former could not, perhaps, afford greater gratification than
did the thatched cottage, abrupt declivities, and gushing
streams of the latter. To change the metaphor--Mr. West's
was a magnificent repository, Mr. Ratcliffe's a choice
cabinet of gems.]
Thirty years have been considered by Addison (somewhere in his
Spectator) as a pretty accurate period for the passing away of one
generation and the coming on of another. We have brought down our
researches to within a similar period of the present times; but, as
Addison has not made out the proofs of such assertion, and as many of
the relatives and friends of those who have fallen victims to the
BIBLIOMANIA, since the days of Ratcliffe, may yet be alive; moreover,
as it is the part of humanity not to tear open wounds which have been
just closed, or awaken painful sensibilities which have been well nigh
laid to rest; so, my dear Sir, in giving you a further account of this
fatal disorder, I deem it the most prudent method _not to expatiate_
upon the subsequent examples of its mortality. We can only mourn over
such names as BEAUCLERK, CROFTS, PEARSON, LORT, MASON, FARMER,
STEEVENS, WOODHOUSE, BRAND, and REED! and fondly hope that the list
may not be increased by those of living characters!
We are, in the SECOND place, to describe the SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASE.
The ingenious Peignot, in the first volume of his 'Dictionnaire
Bibliologie,' p. 51, defines the Bibliomania[48] to be "a passion for
possessing books; not so much to be instructed by them, as to gratify
the eye by looking on them. He who is affected by this mania knows
books only by their titles and dates, and is rather seduced by the
exterior than interior"! This is, perhaps, too general and vague a
definition to be of much benefit in the knowledge, and consequent
prevention, of the disease: let us, therefore, describe it more
certainly and intelligibly.
[Footnote 48: There is a short, but smart and interesting,
article on this head in Mr. D'Israeli's _Curiosities of
Literature_, vol. 1. 10. "Bruyere has touched on this mania
with humour; of such a collector (one who is fond of superb
bindings only) says he, as soon as I enter his house, I am
ready to faint on the stair-case from a strong smell of
morocco leather. In vain he shows me fine editions, gold
leaves, Etruscan bindings, &c.--naming them one after
another, as if he were showing a gallery of pictures!"
Lucian has composed a biting invective against an ignorant
possessor of a vast library. "One who opens his eyes, with
an hideous stare, at an old book, and, after turning over
the pages, chiefly admires the _date_ of its publication."]
Symptoms of this disease are instantly known by a passion for I.
_Large Paper Copies_: II. _Uncut Copies_: III. _Illustrated Copies_:
IV. _Unique Copies_: V. _Copies printed upon Vellum_: VI. _First
Editions_: VII. _True Editions_: VIII. _A general desire for the Black
Letter_. We will describe these symptoms more particularly.
I. _Large Paper Copies._ These are a certain set or limited number of
the work printed in a superior manner, both in regard to ink and press
work, on paper of a larger size, and better quality, than the ordinary
copies. Their price is enhanced in proportion to their beauty and
rarity. In the note below[49] are specified a few works which have
been published in this manner, that the sober collector may avoid
approaching them.
[Footnote 49: 1. _Lord Bacon's Essays_, 1798, 8vo., of which
it is said only five copies were struck off on royal folio.
In Lord Spencer's and the Cracherode, collection I have seen
a copy of this exquisitely printed book; the text of which,
surrounded by such an amplitude of margin, in the language
of Ernesti [see his Critique on Havercamp's Sallust] "natut
velut cymba in oceano."
2. _Twenty Plays of Shakespeare_ published by Steevens from
the old quarto editions, 1766, 8vo. 6 vols. Of this edition
there were only twelve copies struck off on large paper. See
Bibl. Steevens, No. 1312.
3. _Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays_, 1780, 8vo., 12 vols.
only six copies printed on large paper. See Bibl. Woodhouse,
No. 198.
4. _The Grenville Homer._ Græce, 1800. 4to. 4 vols. Fifty
copies with plates were struck off on large paper, in royal
quarto. A copy of this kind was purchased at a sale in 1804,
for £99 15s.
5. _Sandford's Genealogical History_, etc. 1707, fol. Mr.
Arch of Cornhill purchased a copy of this work on large
paper, at the late sale of Baron Smyth's books, for £46. If
the largest paper of Clarke's Cæsar be excepted, this is the
highest priced single volume on large paper, that I just now
recollect.
6. _Hearne's Works_ on large paper.
Something relating to Hearne will be found in the note at
page 7 ante. Here it will be only necessary to observe that
the Hernëan rage for Large Paper is quite of recent growth,
but it promises to be giant-like. When the duplicates of a
part of Mr. Woodhull's library, in 1803, were sold, there
was a fine set of copies of this kind; but the prices,
comparatively with those now offered, were extremely
moderate. Mr. Otridge, the bookseller, told me an amusing
story of his going down to Liverpool, many years ago, and
accidentally purchasing from the library of the late Sir
Thomas Hanmer, a _magnificent set of Large Paper Hearnes_
for about 40 Guineas. Many of these are now in the choice
library of his Grace the Duke of Grafton. The copies were
catalogued as _small_ paper. Was there ever a more provoking
blunder?!]
This[50] symptom of the Bibliomania is, at the present day, both
general and violent, and threatens to extend still more widely. Even
modern publications are not exempt from its calamitous influence; and
when Mr. Miller, the bookseller, told me with what eagerness the large
paper copies of Lord Valentia's Travels were bespoke, and Mr. Evans
shewed me that every similar copy of his new edition of "Burnett's
History of his own Times" was disposed of, I could not help elevating
my eyes and hands, in token of commiseration at the prevalence of
this Symptom of the BIBLIOMANIA!
[Footnote 50: Analogous to Large Paper Copies are _tall
Copies_; that is, copies of the work published on the
ordinary size paper and not much cut down by the binder. The
want of _margin_ is a serious grievance complained of by
book-collectors; and when there is a contest of
margin-measuring, with books never professedly published on
large paper, the anxiety of each party to have the largest
copy is better conceived than described! How carefully, and
how adroitly, are the golden and silver rules then
exercised!]
II. _Uncut Copies._ Of all the symptoms of the Bibliomania, this is
probably the most extraordinary. It may be defined as a passion to
possess books of which the edges have never been sheared by the
binder's tools. And here, my dear Sir, I find myself walking upon
doubtful ground;--your UNCUT HEARNES rise up in "rough majesty" before
me, and almost "push me from my stool." Indeed, when I look around in
my book-lined tub, I cannot but be conscious that this symptom of the
disorder has reached my own threshold; but when it is known that a few
of my bibliographical books are left with the edges uncut _merely to
please my friends_ (as one must sometimes study their tastes and
appetites as well as one's own), I trust that no very serious
conclusions will be drawn about the probable fatality of my own case.
As to uncut copies, although their inconvenience [an uncut lexicon to
wit!] and deformity must be acknowledged, and although a rational man
can want for nothing better than a book _once well bound_, yet we find
that the extraordinary passion for collecting them not only obtains
with full force, but is attended with very serious consequences to
those "qui n'ont point des pistoles" (to borrow the language of
Clement; vol. vi. p. 36). I dare say an uncut _first Shakspeare_, as
well as an uncut _first Homer_[51] would produce a little annuity!
[Footnote 51: "Un superbe exemplaire de cette édition
_princeps_ a été vendu, chez M. de Cotte, en 1804, la somme
de 3601 livres; mais il faut ajouter que cet exemplaire
très-precieux est de la plus belle conservation; on dirait
qu'il sort dessous presse. De plus, il est peut-être
_l'unique dont les marges n'ont pas été rognées ni
coupées_!"
Peignot's _Curiosités Bibliographiques_, lxv-vi.]
III. _Illustrated Copies._ A passion for books illustrated or adorned
with numerous prints, representing characters or circumstances
mentioned in the work, is a very general and violent symptom of the
Bibliomania, which has been known chiefly within the last half
century. The origin, or first appearance, of this symptom has been
traced by some to the publication of Granger's "Biographical History
of England;" but whoever will be at the pains of reading the preface
of this work will see that Granger sheltered himself under the
authorities of Evelyn, Ashmole, and others; and that he alone is not
to be considered as responsible for all the mischief which this
passion for collecting prints has occasioned. Granger, however, was
the first who introduced it in the form of a treatise, and surely "in
an evil hour" was this treatise published--although its amiable author
must be acquitted of "malice prepense." His History of England[52]
seems to have sounded the tocsin for a general rummage after, and
slaughter of, old prints: venerable philosophers and veteran heroes,
who had long reposed in unmolested dignity within the magnificent
folio volumes which recorded their achievements, were instantly
dragged from their peaceful abodes to be inlaid by the side of some
spruce, modern engraving, within an ILLUSTRATED GRANGER! Nor did the
madness stop here. Illustration was the order of the day; and
Shakspeare[53] and Clarendon[54] became the next objects of its
attack. From these it has glanced off in a variety of directions, to
adorn the pages of humbler wights; and the passion, or rather this
symptom of the Bibliomania,[55] yet rages with undiminished force. If
judiciously[56] treated, it is, of all the symptoms, the least liable
to mischief. To possess a series of well executed portraits of
illustrious men, at different periods of their lives, from blooming
boyhood to phlegmatic old age, is sufficiently amusing[57]; but to
possess _every_ portrait, _bad, indifferent, and unlike_, betrays
such a dangerous and alarming symptom as to render the case almost
incurable!
[Footnote 52: It was first published in two quarto volumes,
1766; and went through several editions in octavo. The last
is, I believe, of the date of 1804; to which three
additional volumes were published by William Noble, in 1806;
the whole seven volumes form what is called an excellent
library work.]
[Footnote 53: About two or three years ago there was an
extraordinary set of prints disposed of, for the
illustration of Shakspeare, collected by a gentleman in
Cornwall, with considerable taste and judgment. Lord
Spencer's beautiful octavo illustrated Shakespeare,
bequeathed to him by the late Mr. Steevens, has been
enriched, since it came into the library of its present
noble possessor, with many a rare and many a beauteous
specimen of the graphic art.]
[Footnote 54: I have heard of an illustrated Clarendon
(which was recently in the metropolis), that has been valued
at 5000 Guineas! "a good round sum!"]
[Footnote 55: One of the most striking and splendid
instances of the present rage for illustration may be seen
in Mr. Miller's own copy of the Historical Work of Mr. Fox,
in two volumes, imperial quarto. Exclusively of a great
variety of Portraits, it is enriched with the original
drawing of Mr. Fox's bust from which the print, attached to
the publication, is taken; and has also many original notes
and letters by its illustrious author. Mr. Walter Scott's
edition of Dryden has also received, by the same publisher,
a similar illustration. It is on large paper, and most
splendidly bound in blue morocco, containing upwards of 650
portraits.]
[Footnote 56: The fine copy of Granger, illustrated by the
late Mr. Bull, is now in the library of the Marquis of Bute,
at Lutton. It extends to 37 atlas folio volumes, and is a
repository of almost every rare and beautiful print, which
the diligence of its late, and the skill, taste, and
connoisseurship of its present, noble owner have brought
together.]
[Footnote 57: In the Memoirs of Mr. Thomas Hollis there is a
series of the portraits of Milton (not executed in the best
manner) done in this way; and a like series of Pope's
portraits accompanies the recent edition of the poet's works
by the Rev. W.L. Bowles.]
There is another mode of illustrating copies by which this symptom of
the Bibliomania may be known: it consists in bringing together, from
different works, [by means of the scissors, or otherwise by
transcription] every page or paragraph which has any connection with
the character or subject under discussion. This is a useful and
entertaining mode of illustrating a favourite author; and copies of
works of this nature, when executed by skilful[58] hands, should be
preserved in public repositories. I almost ridiculed the idea of an
ILLUSTRATED CHATTERTON, in this way, till I saw Mr. Haslewood's copy,
in twenty-one volumes, which rivetted me to my seat!
[Footnote 58: Numerous are the instances of the peculiar use
and value of copies of this kind, especially to those who
are engaged in publication, of a similar nature. Oldys's
interleaved Langbaine is re-echoed in almost every recent
work connected with the belles-lettres of our country. Oldys
himself was unrivalled in this method of illustration; if,
besides his Langbaine, his copy of 'Fuller's Worthies' [once
Mrs. Steevens's, now Mr. Malone's, See Bibl. Steevens,
no. 1799] be alone considered! This Oldys was the oddest
mortal that ever scribbled for bread. Grose, in his _Olio_,
gives an amusing account of his having "a number of small
parchment bags inscribed with the names of the persons whose
lives he intended to write; into which he put every
circumstance and anecdote he could collect, and thence drew
up his history." See Noble's _College of Arms_, p. 420.
Of illustrated copies in this way, the Suidas of Kuster,
belonging to the famous D'Orville, is a memorable instance.
This is now in the Bodleian library. I should suppose that
one Narcissus Luttrell, in Charles the Second's reign, had a
number of like illustrated copies. His collection of
contemporaneous literature must have been immense, as we may
conclude from the account of it in Mr. Walter Scott's
Preface to his recent edition of Dryden's works. Luckily for
this brilliant poet and editor, a part of Luttrell's
collection had found its way into the libraries of Mr.
Bindley and Mr. Heber, and thence was doomed to shine, with
renewed lustre, by the side of the poetry of Dryden.]
IV. _Unique Copies._ A passion for a book which has any peculiarity
about it, by either, or both, of the foregoing methods of
illustration--or which is remarkable for its size, beauty, and
condition--is indicative of a rage for _unique copies_, and is
unquestionably a strong prevailing symptom of the Bibliomania. Let me
therefore urge every sober and cautious collector not to be fascinated
by the terms "_Matchless, and Unique_;" which, "in slim Italicks" (to
copy Dr. Ferriar's happy expression) are studiously introduced into
Bookseller's catalogues to lead the unwary astray. Such a Collector
may fancy himself proof against the temptation; and will, in
consequence, _call only to look at_ this unique book, or set of books;
but, when he views the morocco binding, silk water-tabby lining,
blazing gilt edges--when he turns over the white and spotless
leaves--gazes on the amplitude of margin--on a rare and lovely print
introduced--and is charmed with the soft and coaxing manner in which,
by the skill of Herring or Mackinlay,[59] "leaf succeeds to leaf"--he
can no longer bear up against the temptation--and, confessing himself
vanquished, purchases, and retreats--exclaiming with Virgil's
shepherd--
Ut vidi, ut perii--ut me malus abstulit error!
[Footnote 59: At page 8, note--the reader has been led to
expect a few remarks upon the luxuriancy of modern
book-binding. Mr. Roscoe, in his Lorenzo de Medici, vol.
ii., p. 79., edit. 8vo., has defended the art with so much
skill that nothing further need be said in commendation of
it. Admitting every degree of merit to our present
fashionable binders, and frankly allowing them the
superiority over De Rome, Padaloup, and the old school of
binding, I cannot but wish to see revived those beautiful
portraits, arabesque borders, and sharp angular ornaments,
that are often found on the outsides of books bound in the
16th century, with calf leather, upon oaken boards. These
brilliant decorations almost make us forget the ivory
crucifix, guarded with silver doors, which is frequently
introduced in the interior of the sides of the binding. Few
things are more gratifying to a genuine collector than a
fine copy of a book in its _original binding_!]
V. _Copies printed on vellum._ A desire for works printed in this
manner is an equally strong and general symptom of the Bibliomania;
but as these works are rarely to be obtained of modern[60] date, the
collector is obliged to have recourse to specimens, executed three
centuries ago, in the printing-offices of Aldus, Verard, and the
Juntæ. Although the Bibliothéque Imperiale, at Paris, and the library
of Count Macarty, at Toulouse, are said to contain the greatest number
of books printed upon vellum, yet, those who have been fortunate
enough to see copies of this kind in the libraries of his Majesty, the
Duke of Marlborough, Earl Spencer, Mr. Johnes, and the late Mr.
Cracherode (now in the British Museum), need not travel on the
Continent for the sake of being convinced of their exquisite beauty
and splendour. Mr. Edward's _unique_ copy (he will forgive the
epithet) of the first Livy, upon vellum, is a Library of itself!--and
the recent discovery of a vellum copy of Wynkyn De Worde's reprint of
_Juliana Barnes's book_,[61] complete in every respect, [to say
nothing of his Majesty's similar copy of Caxton's _Doctrinal of
Sapience_, 1489, in the finest preservation] are, to be sure,
sufficient demonstrations of the prevalence of this symptom of the
Bibliomania in the times of our forefathers; so that it cannot be
said, as some have asserted, to have appeared entirely within the last
half century.
[Footnote 60: The modern books, printed upon vellum, have in
general not succeeded; whether from the art of preparing the
vellum, or of printing upon it, being lost I will not
presume to determine. The reader may be amused with the
following prices for which a few works, executed in this
manner, were sold in the year 1804:
NO. £ _s._ _d._
250. Virgilii Opera, 1789, 4to. 33 12 0
251. Somervile's Chase, 1796, 4to. 15 4 6
252. Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell, 1795, 4to. 15 15 0
253. The Gardens, by Abbé Delille, 1798, 4to. 14 3 6
254. Castle of Otranto, printed by Bodoni, 1791, 4to. 13 2 6
260. La Guirlande Julie, 1784, 8vo. 37 17 6
263. Economy of Human Life, 1795, 8vo. 15 15 0
See "_Catalogue of a most splendid and valuable Collection
of Books, Superb Missals, &c._," sold by Mr. Christie, on
April 24, 1804. But the reader should procure the Catalogue
of Mr. Paris's Books, sold in the year 1790, which, for the
number of articles, is unrivalled. The eye is struck, in
every page, with the most sumptuous copies on VELLUM, AND
LARGE PAPER.]
[Footnote 61: See page 5, ante, for some account of this
curious work.]
VI. _First Editions._ From the time of Ancillon[62] to Askew, there
has been a very strong desire expressed for the possession of original
or first published editions of works, as they are in general
superintended and corrected by the author himself; and, like the first
impressions of prints, are considered more valuable. Whoever is
possessed with a passion for collecting books of this kind may
unquestionably be said to exhibit a strong symptom of the Bibliomania;
but such a case is not quite hopeless, nor is it deserving of severe
treatment or censure. All bibliographers have dwelt on the importance
of these editions, for the sake of collation with subsequent ones, and
detecting, as is frequently the case, the carelessness displayed by
future[63] editors. Of such importance is the _first edition of
Shakspeare_[64] considered, that a fac-simile reprint of it has been
published with success. In regard to the Greek and Latin Classics, the
possession of these original editions is of the first consequence to
editors who are anxious to republish the legitimate text of an author.
Wakefield, I believe always regretted that the first edition of
Lucretius had not been earlier inspected by him. When he began _his_
edition, the Editio Princeps was not (as I have understood) in the
library of Earl Spencer--the storehouse of almost every thing that is
exquisite and rare in ancient classical literature!
[Footnote 62: There is a curious and amusing article in
Bayle [English edition, vol. i., 672, &c.] about the elder
ANCILLON, who frankly confessed that he "was troubled with
the BIBLIOMANIA, or disease of buying books." Mr. D'Israeli
says "that he always purchased _first editions_, and never
waited for second ones,"--but I find it, in the English
Bayle, note D, "he chose _the best_ editions." The manner in
which Ancillon's library was pillaged by the Ecclesiastics
of Metz (where it was considered as the most valuable
curiosity in the town) is thus told by Bayle; "Ancillon was
obliged to leave Metz: a company of Ecclesiastics, of all
orders, came from every part, to lay hands on this fine and
copious library, which had been collected with the utmost
care during forty years. They took away a great number of
the books together, and gave a little money, as they went
out, to a young girl, of twelve or thirteen years of age,
who looked after them, that they might have it to say they
had _paid for them_. Thus Ancillon saw that valuable
collection dispersed, in which, as he was wont to say, his
chief pleasure and even his heart was placed!"--Edit. 1734.]
[Footnote 63: An instance of this kind may be adduced from
the _first edition_ of Fabian, printed in 1516; of which
Messrs. Longman, and Co., have now engaged a very able
editor to collate the text with that of the subsequent
editions. "The antiquary," says the late Mr. BRAND, "is
desired to consult the edition of Fabian, printed by Pynson,
in 1516, because there are others, and I remember to have
seen one in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with a
continuation to the end of Queen Mary, 1559, in which the
_language is much modernised_." Shakespeare, edit. 1803,
vol. xviii. p. 85-6.]
[Footnote 64: A singular story is "extant" about the
purchase of the late Duke of Roxburgh's fine copy of the
first edition of Shakespeare. A friend was bidding for him
in the sale-room: his Grace had retired to a distance, to
view the issue of the contest. Twenty guineas and more were
offered, from various quarters, for the book: a slip of
paper was handed to the Duke, in which he was requested to
inform his friend whether he was "to go on bidding"--His
Grace took his pencil, and wrote underneath, by way of reply--
----lay on Macduff!
And d----d be he who first cries, 'Hold, enough!'
Such a spirit was irresistible, and bore down all
opposition. His Grace retired triumphant, with the book
under his arm.]
It must not, however, be forgotten that if first editions are, in some
instances, of great importance, they are in many respects superfluous,
and an incumbrance to the shelves of a collector; inasmuch as the
labours of subsequent editors have corrected their errors, and
superseded, by a great fund of additional matter, the necessity of
consulting them. Thus, not to mention other instances (which present
themselves while noticing the present one), all the fine things which
Colomiés and Remannus have said about the rarity of La Croix du
Maine's Bibliotheque, published in 1584, are now unnecessary to be
attended to, since the ample and excellent edition of this work by De
La Monnoye and Juvigny, in six quarto volumes, 1772, has appeared. Nor
will any one be tempted to hunt for Gesner's Bibliotheca of 1545-8,
whatever may be its rarity, who has attended to Morhof's and Vogt's
recommendation of the last and best edition of 1583.
VII. _True Editions._ Some copies of a work are struck off with
deviations from the usually received ones, and, though these
deviations have neither sense nor beauty to recommend them, [and
indeed are principally _defects_] yet copies of this description are
eagerly sought after by collectors of a certain class! This particular
pursuit may therefore be called another, or the seventh, symptom of
the Bibliomania. The note below [65] will furnish the reader with a
few anecdotes relating to it.
[Footnote 65: _Cæsar. Lug. Bat._ 1635, 12mo. _Printed by
Elzevir._
In the Bibliotheca Revickzkiana we are informed that the
_true_ Elzevir edition is known by having the plate of a
Buffalo's head at the beginning of the preface, and body of
the work: also by having the page numbered 153, which
_ought_ to have been numbered 149. A further account is
given in my Introduction to the Classics, vol. i., 228.
_Horace_: Londini, 1733, 8vo., 2 vols. Published by Pine.
The _true_ edition is distinguished by having at page 108,
vol ii, the _incorrect_ reading 'Post Est.'--for 'Potest.'
_Virgil._ Lug. Bat. 1636, 12mo. Printed by Elzevir.
The _true_ edition is known by having at plate 1, before the
Bucolics, the following Latin passage _printed in red ink_.
"Ego vero frequentes a te litteras accipi"--Consult De Bure,
No. 2684.
_Idem._ Birmingh. 1763, 4to. Printed by Baskerville.
A particular account of the _true_ edition will be found in
the second volume of my 'Introduction to the Classics' p.
337--too long to be here inserted.
_Boccaccio._ Il Decamerone, Venet. 1527, 4to.
Consult De Bure, No. 3667: Bandini, vol. ii., 24: (who
however is extremely laconic upon this edition, but copious
upon the anterior one of 1516) and Haym., vol. iii., p. 8,
edit. 1803. Bibl. Paris. No. 408. Clement. (vol. iv., 352,)
has abundance of references, as usual, to strengthen his
assertion in calling the edition 'fort rare.' The reprint or
spurious edition has always struck me as the prettier book
of the two.]
VIII. Books printed in the _Black Letter_. Of all symptoms of the
Bibliomania, this eighth symptom (and the last which I shall notice)
is at present the most powerful and prevailing. Whether it was not
imported into this country from Holland, by the subtlety of
Schelhorn[66] (a knowing writer upon rare and curious books) may be
shrewdly suspected. Whatever be its origin, certain it is, my dear
Sir, that books printed in the black letter are now coveted with an
eagerness unknown to our collectors in the last century. If the
spirits of West, Ratcliffe, Farmer and Brand, have as yet held any
intercourse with each other, in that place 'from whose bourne no
traveller returns,' what must be the surprise of the three former, on
being told by the latter, of the prices given for some of the books in
his library, as mentioned below!?[67]
[Footnote 66: His words are as follow: "Ipsa typorum
ruditas, ipsa illa atra crassaque literarum facies _belle
tangit sensus, &c._" Was ever the black letter more
eloquently described? See his _Amoenitates Literariæ_,
vol. i., p. 5.]
[Footnote 67:
282. A Boke of Fishing with Hooke and Line, A Boke of
Engines and Traps to take Polcats, Buzzards, Rats, Mice, and
all other Kinds of Vermine and Beasts whatsoever, with cuts,
very rare, 1600 £3 3_s._ 0_d._
454. A Quip for an upstart Courtier; or, a quaint Dispute
between Velvet Breeches and Cloth Breeches, &c. 1620 2 16 0
475. A Checke, or Reproof of Mr. Howlet's untimely
screeching in her Majesty's Ear. _Black letter_ 1581 0 12 0
As a _striking conclusion_, I subjoin the following.
6479. Pappe with an Hatchett, _alias_, a Fig for my
Godsonne, or crake me this Nutt, or, a Countrie Cuffe, that
is a sound Box of the Eare for the Idiot Martin, to hold his
Peace: seeing the Patch will take no warning; written by one
that dares call a Dog a Dog. _Rare._ Printed by Anoke and
Astile 1 8 0]
A perusal of these articles may probably not impress the reader with
any lofty notions of the superiority of the black letter; but this
symptom of the Bibliomania is, nevertheless, not to be considered as
incurable, or wholly unproductive of good. Under a proper spirit of
modification it has done, and will continue to do, essential service
to the cause of English literature. It guided the taste, and
strengthened the judgment, of Tyrwhitt in his researches after
Chaucerian lore. It stimulated the studies of Farmer and of Steevens,
and enabled them to twine many a beauteous flower round the brow of
their beloved Shakespeare. It has since operated, to the same effect,
in the labours of Mr. Douce,[68] the _Porson_ of old English and
French literature; and in the editions of Milton and Spenser, by my
amiable and excellent friend Mr. Todd the public have had a specimen
of what the _Black Letter_ may perform, when temperately and skilfully
exercised.
[Footnote 68: In the criticisms on Mr. Douce's
_Illustrations of Shakspeare and Ancient Manners_, it has
not, I think, been generally noticed that this work is
distinguished; 1. For the singular diffidence and urbanity
of criticism, as well as depth of learning, which it
evinces: 2. For the happy illustrations, by means of wood
cuts: Let any one, for instance, read a laboured
disquisition on the punishment of "the boots"--and only
glance his eye on the plate representing it [vol. i. p.
34.]: from which will he obtain the clearer notions? 3. For
the taste, elegance, and general correctness with which it
is printed. The only omission I regret is that Mr. Douce did
not give us, at the end, a list of the works alphabetically
arranged, with their dates which he consulted in the
formation of his own. Such a BIBLIOTHECA SHAKSPEARIANA
might, however, have been only a fresh stimulus to the
increase of the black-letter symptom of the _Bibliomania_.
How Bartholomæus and Batman have risen in price since the
publication of Mr. Douce's work, let those who have lately
smarted for the increase tell!]
I could bring to your recollection other instances; but your own
copious reading and exact memory will better furnish you with them.
Let me not however omit remarking that the beautiful pages of the
_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and Sir Trestrem_, exhibit, in the
notes [now and then thickly studded with black letter references], a
proof that the author of "The Lay" and "Marmion" has not disdained to
enrich his stores of information by such intelligence as black
lettered books impart. In short, though this be also a strong and
general symptom of the Bibliomania, it is certainly not attended with
injurious effects when regulated by prudence and discretion. An
undistinguishable voracious appetite, to swallow every thing printed
in the black letter can only bring on inconquerable disease, if not
death, to the patient!
Having in the two preceding divisions of this letter discoursed
somewhat largely upon the HISTORY and SYMPTOMS of the Bibliomania, it
now remains, according to the original plan, to say a few words upon
the PROBABLE MEANS OF ITS CURE. And, indeed, I am driven to this view
of the subject from every laudable motive; for it would be highly
censurable to leave any reflecting mind impressed with melancholy
emotions concerning the misery and mortality that have been occasioned
by the abuse of those pursuits, to which the most soothing and
important considerations ought to be attached. Far from me, and my
friends, be such a cruel, if not criminal, conduct; let us then, my
dear Sir, seriously discourse upon the
III. PROBABLE MEANS OF THE CURE of the Bibliomania. _He_ will surely
be numbered among the philanthropists of his day who has, more
successfully than myself, traced and described the ravages of this
disease, and fortified the sufferer with the means of its cure. But,
as this is a disorder of quite a recent date, and as its
characteristics, in consequence, cannot be yet fully known or
described, great candour must be allowed to that physician who offers
a prescription for so obscure and complicated a case. It is in vain
that you search the works [ay, even the best editions] of Hippocrates
and Galen for a description of this malady; nor will you find it
hinted at in the more philosophical treatises of Sydenham and
Heberden. It had, till the medical skill of Dr. Ferriar first noticed
it to the public, escaped the observations of all our pathologists.
With a trembling hand, and fearful apprehension, therefore, I throw
out the following suggestions for the cure, or mitigatiou
[Transcriber's Note: mitigation], of this disorder:
In _the first place_, the disease of the Bibliomania is materially
softened, or rendered mild, by directing our studies to _useful and
profitable_ works--whether these be printed upon small or large paper,
in the gothic, roman, or italic type; To consider purely the
_intrinsic_ excellence, and not the exterior splendour, or
adventitious value, of any production, will keep us perhaps wholly
free from this disease. Let the midnight lamp be burnt to illuminate
the stores of antiquity--whether they be romances, or chronicles, or
legends, and whether they be printed by Aldus or by Caxton--if a
brighter lustre can thence be thrown upon the pages of modern
learning! To trace genius to its source, or to see how she has been
influenced or modified, by "the lore of past times" is both a pleasing
and profitable pursuit. To see how Shakspeare has here and there
plucked a flower, from some old ballad or popular tale, to enrich his
own unperishable garland--to follow Spenser and Milton in their
delightful labyrinths 'midst the splendour of Italian literature--are
studies which stamp a dignity upon our intellectual characters! But,
in such a pursuit let us not overlook the wisdom of modern times, nor
fancy that what is only ancient can be excellent. We must remember
that Bacon, Boyle, Locke, Taylor, Chillingworth, Robertson, Hume,
Gibbon, and Paley, are names which always command attention from the
wise, and remind us of the improved state of reason and acquired
knowledge during the two last centuries.
In the _second place_, the re-printing of scarce and intrinsically
valuable works is another means of preventing the propagation of this
disorder. Amidst all our present sufferings under the BIBLIOMANIA, it
is some consolation to find discerning and spirited booksellers
re-publishing the valuable Chronicles of Froissart, Holinshed, and
Hall,[69] and the collections known by the names of "The Harleïan
Miscellany," and "Lord Somer's Tracts." These are noble efforts, and
richly deserve the public patronage.
[Footnote 69: The re-publication of these chronicles is to
be followed by those of Grafton and Fabian. Meanwhile,
Hakluyt's Voyages, (projected by Mr. Evans), and Fuller's
Worthies (by Messrs. Longman, and Co.) will form admirable
acquisitions to these treasures of past times.]
In the _third place_, the editing of our best ancient authors, whether
in prose or poetry,[70] is another means of effectually counteracting
the progress of the Bibliomania, as it has been described under its
several symptoms.
[Footnote 70: The recent _Variorum_ editions of Shakspeare,
of which some yet prefer that of Steevens, 1793, 15 vols.
8vo.--Mr. Todd's editions of Milton and Spenser; Mr. G.
Chalmers' edition of Sir David Lyndsay's works; Mr.
Gifford's edition of Massinger; and Mr. Octavius
Gilchrist's, of Bishop Corbett's poems, exemplify the good
effects of this _third means of cure_.]
In the _fourth place_, the erecting of Public Institutions[71] is a
very powerful antidote against the prevalence of several symptoms of
this disease.
[Footnote 71: The Royal, London, Surrey, and Russel
Institutions have been the means of concentrating, in divers
parts of the metropolis, large libraries of _useful_ books;
which, it is to be hoped, will eventually suppress the
establishment of what are called _Circulating
Libraries_--vehicles, too often, of insufferable nonsense,
and irremediable mischief!]
In the _fifth place_, the encouragement of the study of
Bibliography,[72] in its legitimate sense, and towards its true
object, may be numbered among the most efficacious cures for this
destructive malady. To place competent Librarians over the several
departments of a large public Library, or to submit a library, on a
more confined scale, to one diligent, enthusiastic, well informed,
well bred, Bibliographer[73] or Librarian, [of which in this
metropolis we have so many examples] is doing a vast deal towards
directing the channels of literature to flow in their proper courses.
[Footnote 72: "UNNE BONNE BIBLIOGRAPHIE," says Marchand,
"soit générale soit particulière, soit profane, soit
écclésiastique, soit nationale, provinciale, ou locale, soit
simplement personnelle, en un mot de quelque autre genre que
ce puisse être, n'est pas un ouvrage aussi facile que
beaucoup de gens se le pourroient imaginer; mais, elles ne
doivent néanmoins nulelment [Transcriber's Note: nullement]
prévenir contre celle-ci. Telle qu'elle est, elle ne laisse
pas d'être bonne, utile, et digne d'être recherchée par les
amateurs, de l'Histoire Littéraire." _Diction. Historique_,
vol. i. p. 109.
"Our nation," says Mr. Bridgman, "has been too inattentive
to bibliographical criticisms and enquiries; for generally
the English reader is obliged to resort to foreign writers
to satisfy his mind as to the value of authors. It behoves
us to consider that there is not a more useful or a more
desirable branch of education than a _knowledge of books_;
which being correctly ascertained and judiciously exercised,
will prove the touch-stone of intrinsic merit, and have the
effect of saving many spotless pages from prostitution."
_Legal Bibliography_, p. v. vi.]
[Footnote 73: Peignot, in his _Dictionnaire de Bibliologie_,
vol. i. 50, has given a very pompous account of what ought
to be the talents and duties of a Bibliographer. It would be
difficult indeed to find such things united in one person!
De Bure, in the eighth volume of his _Bibliographie
Instructive_, has prefixed a "Discourse upon the Science of
Bibliography and the duties of a Bibliographer" which is
worth consulting: but I know of nothing which better
describes, in few words, such a character, than the
following: "In eo sit multijuga materiarum librorumque
notitia, ut saltem potiores eligat et inquirat: fida et
sedula apud exteras gentes procuratio, ut eos arcessat;
summa patientia ut rarè venalis expectet: peculium semper
præsens et paratum, ne, si quando occurrunt, emendi occasio
intercidat; prudens denique auri argentique contemptus, ut
pecuniis sponte careat quæ in bibliothecam formandam et
nutriendam sunt insumendæ. Si fortè vir literatus eo
felicitatis pervenit ut talem thesaurum coaceraverit, nec
solus illo invidios fruatur, sed usum cum eruditis qui
vigilias suas utilitati publicæ devoverunt, liberaliter
communicet; &c."--_Bibliotheca Hulsiana_, vol. i. Præfat. p.
3, 4.]
Thus briefly and guardedly have I thrown out a few suggestions, which
may enable us to avoid, or mitigate the severity of, the disease
called THE BIBLIOMANIA. Happy indeed shall I deem myself, if, in the
description of its symptoms, and in the recommendation of the means of
cure, I may have snatched any one from a premature grave, or lightened
the load of years that are yet to cone [Transcriber's Note: come]!
You, my dear Sir, who, in your observations upon society, as well as
in your knowledge of ancient times, must have met with numerous
instances of the miseries which "flesh is heir to," may be disposed
perhaps to confess that, of all species of afflictions, _the present
one_ under consideration has the least moral turpitude attached to it.
True, it may be so: for, in the examples which have been adduced,
there will be found neither Suicides, nor Gamesters, nor Profligates.
No woman's heart has been broken from midnight debaucheries: no
marriage vow has been violated: no child has been compelled to pine in
poverty or neglect: no patrimony has been wasted, and no ancestor's
fame tarnished! If men have erred under the influence of this disease,
their aberrations have been marked with an excess arising from
intellectual fevour, and not from a desire of baser gratifications.
If, therefore, in the wide survey which a philosopher may take of the
"Miseries of Human life"[74] the prevalence of this disorder may
appear to be less mischievous than that of others, and, if some of the
most amiable and learned of mortals seemed to have been both
unwilling, as well as unable, to avoid its contagion, you will
probably feel the less alarmed if symptoms of it should appear within
the sequestered abode of Hodnet![75] Recollecting that even in remoter
situations its influence has been felt--and that neither the pure
atmosphere of Hafod nor of Sledmere[76] has completely subdued its
power--you will be disposed to exclaim with violence, at the intrusion
of Bibliomaniacs--
What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide?
They pierce my thickets, through my grot they glide!
By land, by water, they renew the charge,
They stop the chariot, and they board the barge.[77]
[Footnote 74: In the ingenious and witty work so entitled, I
do not recollect whether the disappointment arising from a
_cropt_ or a _dirty_ copy has been classed among "_The
Miseries of Human Life_."]
[Footnote 75: _Hodnet Hall_, Shropshire. The country
residence of Mr. Heber.]
[Footnote 76: _Hafod_, South Wales, the seat of THOS.
JOHNES, Esq., M.P., the translator of the Chronicles of
Froissart and Monstrelet, and of the Travels of De Broquiere
and Joinville. The conflagration of part of his mansion and
library, two years ago, which excited such a general
sympathy, would have damped any ardour of collection but
that of Mr. Johnes--his Library has arisen, Phoenix-like,
from the flames!
_Sledmere_, in Yorkshire, the seat of SIR MARK MASTERMAN
SYKES, Bart., M.P. The library of this amiable and tasteful
Baronet reflects distinguished credit upon him. It is at
once copious and choice.]
[Footnote 77: Pope's "_Prologue to the Satires_," v. 7-10.]
Upon the whole, therefore, attending closely to the symptoms of this
disorder as they have been described, and practising such means of
cure as have been recommended, we may rationally hope that its
virulence may abate, and the number of its victims annually diminish.
But if the more discerning part of the community anticipate a
different result, and the preceding observations appear to have
presented but a narrow and partial view of the mischiefs of the
BIBLIOMANIA, my only consolation is that to advance _something_ upon
the subject is better than to preserve a sullen and invincible
silence. Let it be the task of more experienced bibliographers to
correct and amplify the foregoing outline!
Believe me, My dear Sir,
Very sincerely Yours, &c.
THOMAS FROGNALL DIBBIN [Transcriber's Note: DIBDIN].
_Kensington, May_ 16, 1809.
POSTSCRIPT.
On re-considering what has been written, it has struck me that a
SYNOPSIS of this disease, after the manner of BURTON, as prefixed to
his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, may be useful to some future pathologist.
The reader is, accordingly, presented with the following one:
SYNOPSIS.
Page.
{ I. HISTORY of; or an account of eminent Book
{ Collectors who have fallen victims to it 12
T {
H { II. SYMPTOMS OF; { 1. Large Paper Copies 44
E { being a passion for { 2. Uncut Copies 46
{ { 3. Illustrated Copies 47
B { { 4. Unique Copies 49
I { { 5. Vellum Copies 51
B { { 6. First Editions 52
L { { 7. True Editions 54
I { { 8. Black Letter Editions 56
O {
M { III. CURE OF { 1. Reading useful works 56
A { { 2. Reprints of scarce and
N { { valuable works _ib._
I { { 3. Editing our best ancient
A { { Writers 60
. { { 4. Erecting of Public
{ { Institutions _ib._
{ { 5. Encouragement of
{ { Bibliography _ib._
PART I.
=The Evening Walk.=
ON THE RIGHT USES OF LITERATURE.
Rede well thyselfe that other folke can'st rede.
CHAUCER'S _Good Counsail_.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
=The Evening Walk.=
ON THE RIGHT USES OF LITERATURE.
It was on a fine autumnal evening, when the sun was setting serenely
behind a thick copse upon a distant hill, and his warm tints were
lighting up a magnificent and widely-extended landscape, that,
sauntering 'midst the fields, I was meditating upon the various
methods of honourably filling up the measure of our existence; when I
discovered, towards my left, a messenger running at full speed towards
me. The abruptness of his appearance, and the velocity of his step,
somewhat disconcerted me; but on his near approach my apprehensions
were dissipated.
I knew him to be the servant of my old college friend, whom I chuse
here to denominate LYSANDER. He came to inform me, in his blunt and
honest manner, that his master had just arrived with PHILEMON, our
common friend; and that, as they were too fatigued with their journey
to come out to me, they begged I would quickly enter the house, and,
as usual, make them welcome. This intelligence afforded me the
liveliest satisfaction. In fifteen minutes, after a hearty shaking of
hands, I was seated with them in the parlour; all of us admiring the
unusual splendour of the evening sky, and, in consequence, partaking
of the common topics of conversation with a greater flow of spirits.
"You are come, my friends," said I (in the course of conversation),
"to make some stay with me--indeed, I cannot suffer you to depart
without keeping you at least a week; in order, amongst other things,
to view the beauty of our neighbour Lorenzo's grounds, the general
splendour of his house, and the magnificence of his LIBRARY." "In
regard to grounds and furniture," replied Lysander, "there is very
little in the most beautiful and costly which can long excite my
attention--but the LIBRARY--" "Here," exclaimed Philemon, "here you
have him in the toils." "I will frankly confess," rejoined Lysander,
"that I am an arrant BIBLIOMANIAC--that I love books dearly--that the
very sight, touch, and, more, the perusal--" "Hold, my friend," again
exclaimed Philemon, "you have renounced your profession--you talk of
_reading_ books--do BIBLIOMANIACS ever _read_ books?" "Nay," quoth
Lysander, "you shall not banter thus with impunity. We will, if it
please you," said he, turning round to me, "make our abode with you
for a few days--and, after seeing the library of your neighbour, I
will throw down the gauntlet to Philemon, challenging him to answer
certain questions which you may put to us, respecting the number,
rarity, beauty, or utility of those works which relate to the
literature and antiquities of our own country. We shall then see who
is able to return the readiest answer." "Forgive," rejoined Philemon,
"my bantering strain. I revoke my speech. You know that, with
yourself, I heartily love books; more from their contents than their
appearance." Lysander returned a gracious smile; and the hectic of
irritability on his cheek was dissipated in an instant.
The approach of evening made us think of settling our plans. My
friends begged their horses might be turned into the field; and that,
while they stayed with me, the most simple fare and the plainest
accommodation might be their lot. They knew how little able I was to
treat them as they were wont to be treated; and, therefore, taking
"the will for the deed," they resolved to be as happy as an humble
roof could make them.
While the cloth was laying for supper (for I should add that we dine
at three and sup at nine), we took a stroll in my small garden, which
has a mound at the bottom, shaded with lilacs and laburnums, that
overlooks a pretty range of meadows, terminated by the village church.
The moon had now gained a considerable ascendancy in the sky; and the
silvery paleness and profound quiet of the surrounding landscape,
which, but an hour ago, had been enlivened by the sun's last rays,
seemed to affect the minds of us all very sensibly. Lysander, in
particular, began to express the sentiments which such a scene excited
in him.--"Yonder," says he, pointing to the church-yard, "is the
bourne which terminates our earthly labours; and I marvel much how
mortals can spend their time in cavilling at each other--in murdering,
with their pens as well as their swords, all that is excellent and
admirable in human nature--instead of curbing their passions,
elevating their hopes, and tranquillizing their fears. Every evening,
for at least one-third of the year, heaven has fixed in the sky yonder
visible monitor to man. Calmness and splendour are her attendants: no
dark passions, no carking cares, neither spleen nor jealousy, seem to
dwell in that bright orb, where, as has been fondly imagined, "the
wretched may have rest."--"And here," replied Philemon, "we do nothing
but fret and fume if our fancied merits are not instantly rewarded, or
if another wear a sprig of laurel more verdant than ourselves; I could
mention, within my own recollection, a hundred instances of this
degrading prostitution of talent--aye, a thousand."--"Gently reprimand
your fellow creatures," resumed Lysander, "lest you commit an error as
great as any of those which you condemn in others. The most difficult
of human tasks seems to be the exercise of forbearance and temperance.
By exasperating, you only rekindle, and not extinguish, the evil
sparks in our dispositions. A man will bear being told he is in the
wrong; but you must tell him so gently and mildly. Animosity,
petulance, and persecution, are the plagues which destroy our better
parts."--"And envy," replied Philemon, "has surely enough to
do."--"Yes," said Lysander, "we might enumerate, as you were about to
do, many instances--and (what you were not about to do) pity while we
enumerate! I think," continued he, addressing himself particularly to
me, "you informed me that the husband of poor Lavinia lies buried in
yonder church-yard; and perhaps the very tomb which now glistens by
the moonbeam is the one which consecrates his memory! That man was
passionately addicted to literature;--he had a strong mind; a
wonderful grasp of intellect; but his love of paradox and hypothesis
quite ruined his faculties. NICAS happened to discover some glaring
errors in his last treatise, and the poor man grew sick at heart in
consequence. Nothing short of _infallibility_ and _invincibility_
satisfied him; and, like the Spaniard in the 'Diable Boiteux,' who
went mad because five of his countrymen had been beaten by fifty
Portugese, this unhappy creature lost all patience and forbearance,
because, in an hundred systems which he had built with the cards of
fancy, ninety-nine happened to tumble to the ground.
"This is the dangerous consequence, not so much of vanity and
self-love as of downright literary Quixotism. A man may be cured of
vanity as the French nobleman was--'Ecoutez messieurs! Monseigneur le
Duc va dire la meillure chose du monde!'[78] but for this raving,
ungovernable passion of soaring beyond all human comprehension, I fear
there is no cure but in such a place as the one which is now before
us. Compared with this, how different was MENANDER'S case! Careless
himself about examining and quoting authorities with punctilious
accuracy, and trusting too frequently to the _ipse-dixits_ of good
friends:--with a quick discernment--a sparkling fancy--great store of
classical knowledge, and a never ceasing play of colloquial wit, he
moved right onwards in his manly course--the delight of the gay, and
the admiration of the learned! He wrote much and variously: but in an
evil hour the demon Malice caught him abroad--watched his
deviations--noted down his failings--and, discovering his vulnerable
part, he did not fail, like another Paris, to profit by the discovery.
Menander became the victim of over-refined sensibility: he need not
have feared the demon, as no good man need fear Satan. His pen ceased
to convey his sentiments; he sickened at heart; and after his body had
been covered by the green grass turf, the gentle elves of fairy-land
took care to weave a chaplet to hang upon his tomb, which was never to
know decay! SYCORAX was this demon; and a cunning and clever demon was
he!"
[Footnote 78: This is the substance of the story related in
Darwin's _Zoonomia_: vol. iv. p. 81.]
"I am at a loss," said Philemon, "to comprehend exactly what you
mean?"--"I will cease speaking metaphorically," replied Lysander; "but
Sycorax was a man of ability in his way. He taught literary men, in
some measure, the value of careful research and faithful quotation; in
other words, he taught them to speak the truth as they found her; and,
doubtless, for this he merits not the name of a demon, unless you
allow me the priviledge of a Grecian.[79] That Sycorax loved truth
must be admitted; but that he loved no one so much as himself to speak
the truth must also be admitted. Nor had he, after all, any grand
notions of the goddess. She was, in his sight, rather of diminutive
than gigantic growth; rather of a tame than a towering mien; dressed
out in little trinkets, and formally arrayed in the faded point-lace
and elevated toupee of the ancient English school, and not in the
flowing and graceful robes of Grecian simplicity. But his malice and
ill-nature were frightful; and withal his love of scurrility and abuse
quite intolerable. He mistook, in too many instances, the manner for
the matter; the shadow for the substance. He passed his criticisms,
and dealt out his invectives, with so little ceremony, and so much
venom, that he seemed born with a scalping knife in his hand to commit
murder as long as he lived! To him, censure was sweeter than praise;
and the more elevated the rank, and respectable the character of his
antagonist, the more dexterously he aimed his blows, and the more
frequently he renewed his attacks. In consequence, scarcely one
beautiful period, one passionate sentiment of the higher order, one
elevated thought, or philosophical deduction, marked his numerous
writings. 'No garden-flower grew wild' in the narrow field of his
imagination; and, although the words decency and chastity were
continually dropping from his lips, I suspect that the reverse of
these qualities was always settled round his heart.[80] Thus you see,
my dear Philemon," concluded Lysander, "that the love of paradox, of
carelessness, and of malice, are equally destructive of that true
substantial fame which, as connected with literature, a wise and an
honest man would wish to establish. But come; the dews of evening
begin to fall chilly; let us seek the house of our friend."
[Footnote 79: Without turning over the ponderous tones of
Stephen, Constantine, and Scaliger, consult the sensible
remarks upon the word '[Greek: Daimôn]' in _Parkhurst's
Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament_, 8vo. edit.
1798. In the Greek language, it is equally applied to an
accomplished and unprincipled character. Homer alone will
furnish a hundred instances of this.]
[Footnote 80: Mark certain expressions, gentle reader, which
occur in the notes to the life of _Robin Hood_, prefixed to
the ballads which go under his name: 1795. 2 vols.
8vo.--also a Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy in the
first vol. of _Ancient Metrical Romances_, 1802, 3 vols.
8vo. A very common degree of shrewdness and of acquaintance
with English literature will shew that, in Menander and
Sycorax, are described honest TOM WARTON and snarling
'mister' JOSEPH RITSON.]
As Lysander concluded his discourse, we turned, abruptly, but
thoughtfully, towards my cottage; and, making the last circuit of the
gravel walk, Philemon stopped to listen to the song of a passing
rustic, who seemed to be uttering all the joy which sometimes strongly
seizes a simple heart. "I would rather," exclaimed he, "be this poor
fellow, chanting his 'native wood-notes wild,' if his heart know not
guilt--than the shrewdest critic in the universe, who could neither
feel, nor write, good-naturedly!" We smiled at this ejaculation; and
quickly reached the house.
The fatigue of travelling had sharpened the appetites of my friends;
and at a moment when, as the inimitable Cowper expresses it,
our drawing-rooms begin to blaze
With lights, by clear reflection multiplied
From many a mirror, in which he of Gath,
Goliath, might have seen his giant bulk
Whole, without stooping, towering crest and all,
_Our_ pleasures too _began_;
_Task_, b. iv.
but they were something more rational than those of merely eating and
drinking. "I seldom partake of this meal," observed Philemon, "without
thinking of the _omnium-gatherum_ bowl, so exquisitely described by
old Isaac Walton. We want here, it is true, the 'sweet shady
arbour--the contexture of woodbines, sweet-briar, jessamine, and
myrtle,'[81] and the time of the evening prevents our enjoying it
without; but, in lieu of all this, we have the sight of books, of
busts, and of pictures. I see there the ponderous folio chronicles,
the genuine quarto romances, and, a little above, a glittering row of
thin, closely-squeezed, curiously-gilt, volumes of original plays. As
we have finished our supper, let us--" "My friends," observed I, "not
a finger upon a book to-night--to-morrow you may ransack at your
pleasure. I wish to pursue the conversation commenced by Lysander, as
we were strolling in the garden." "Agreed," replied Philemon,--"the
quietness of the hour--the prospect, however limited, before us--(for
I shall not fail to fix my eyes upon a Froissart printed by Verard, or
a portrait painted by Holbein, while you talk)--every thing conspires
to render this discourse congenial." "As you have reminded me of that
pretty description of a repast in Walton," resumed Lysander, "I will
preface the sequel to my conversation by drinking a glass to your
healths--and so, masters, 'here is a full glass to you' of the liquor
before us." Lysander then continued, "It were to be wished that the
republic or region of LITERATURE could be described in as favourable a
manner as Camden has described the air, earth, and sky, of our own
country;[82] but I fear Milton's terrific description of the infernal
frozen continent,
beat with perpetual forms
Of whirlwind and dire hail,
_Par. Lost_, b. ii. v. 587.
is rather applicable to it. Having endeavoured to shew, my dear
friends, that the passionate love of hypothesis--(or a determination
to make every man think and believe as we do) incorrigible
carelessness--and equally incorrigible ill-nature--are each inimical
to the true interests of literature, let us see what other evil
qualities there are which principally frustrate the legitimate view of
learning.
[Footnote 81: _Complete Angler_, p. 335. Bagster's edit.
1808. In a similar style of description are "the faire grove
and swete walkes, letticed and gardened on both sides," of
Mr. Warde's letter--describing the nunnery of Little Gidding
in Huntingdonshire. See Hearne's edit. of _Peter Langtoft's
Chronicle_, vol. 1. p. cx.]
[Footnote 82: "The ayre is most temperate and wholesome,
sited in the middest of the temperate zone, subject to no
stormes and tempests, as the more southerne and northerne
are; but stored with infinite delicate fowle. For water, it
is walled and guarded with ye ocean most commodious for
trafficke to all parts of the world, and watered with
pleasant fishful and navigable rivers, which yeeld safe
havens and roads, and furnished with shipping and sailers,
that it may rightly be termed THE LADY OF THE SEA. That I
may say nothing of healthful bathes, and of meares stored
both with fish and fowl. The earth fertile of all kinde of
graine, manured with good husbandry, rich in minerall of
coals, tinne, lead, copper, not without gold and silver,
abundant in pasture, replenished with cattel, both tame and
wilde (for it hath more parks than all Europe besides),
plentifully wooded, provided with all complete provisions of
war, beautified with many populous cities, faire boroughs,
good towns, and well-built villages, strong munitions,
magnificent palaces of the prince, stately houses of the
nobilitie, frequent hospitals, beautiful churches, faire
colledges, as well in the other places as in the two
Vniversities." _Remains_, p. 12. edit. 1637.
How far Camden was indebted to the following curious
description of our country, written in the time of Edward
vj, (of which I shall modernize the orthography,) the reader
will judge for himself. The running title of the work is
"_The Debate between the_ [French and English] _Heralds_,"
8vo., printed in the bl. lett. (In the possession of Mr.
Heber.)
"We have all manner of grains, and fruits, and more plenty
than you; for, thanked be God, England is a fruitful and
plenteous region, so that we have some fruits whereof you
have few; as _wardeines_, quinces, peaches, medlers,
chesnuts, and other delicious fruits; serving for all
seasons of the year; and so plenty of pears and apples that,
in the west parts of England and Sussex, they make perry and
cider, and in such abundance that they convey part over the
sea, where, by the Monsieurs of France, it is coveted for
their beverage and drinks."--_Sign. L._ iiij. rev.
"We have in Cornwall and Devonshire (God be honoured) the
richest mines of silver and tin that may be, also in Ireland
mines of silver, in Derbyshire mines of lead, alabaster,
marble, black and white. In Sussex, Yorkshire, and Durham,
mines of iron, coal, slate, and freestone; and in every
shire of England, generally quarries of hard stone, chalk,
and flint: these be commodities honorable and not feigned,
being of such estimation that France, nor other realms, may
well forbear; and as for saltpetre, there is sufficient made
in England to furnish our turn for the wars. Also we have
hot fountains or bathes, which you nor no other realms
christened have."--_Sign. L._ v. rev. If ancient GILDAS
speak the truth, Great Britain was no contemptible place
twelve hundred years ago--the period when he lived and wrote
his lachrymable history.
"The iland of Britaine placed in the ballance of the divine
poising hand (as they call it) which weigheth the whole
world, almost the uttermost bound of his earth towards the
South and West; extending itself from the South-West, out
towards the North pole, eight hundred miles in length; and
containing two hundred in breadth, besides the fare
outstretched forelands of sundry promonteries, embraced by
the embowed bosomes of the ocean sea; with whose most
spacious, and on every side (saving only the Southern
Streights, by which we sale to Gallehelgicke) impassable
enclosure (as I may call it) she is strongly defended;
enriched with the mouths of two noble floods, Thames and
Severne, as it were two armes (by which out-landish
commodities have in times past been transported into the
same) besides other rivers of lesser account, strengthened
with eight and twenty cities, and some other castles, not
meanly fenced with fortresses of walls, embattled towers,
gates, and buildings (whose roofes being raised aloft with a
threatening hugenesse, were mightily in their aspiring
toppes compaced) adorned with her large spreading fields,
pleasant seated hils, even framed for good husbandry, which
over-mastereth the ground, and mountains most convenient for
the changeable pastures of cattell; whose flowers of sundry
collours, troden by the feete of men, imprint no unseemly
picture on the same, as a spouse of choice, decked with
divers jewels; watered with cleere fountains, and sundry
brokes, beating on the snow-white sands, together with
silver streames sliding forth with soft sounding noise, and
leaving a pledge of sweet savours on their bordering bankes,
and lakes gushing out abundantly in cold running
rivers."--_Epistle of Gildas_, Transl. 1638, 12mo. p. 1,
after the prologue.
Whoever looks into that amusing and prettily-printed little
book, "_Barclaii Satyricon_," 1629, 18mo., will find a
description of Germany, similar, in part, to the
preceding.--"Olim sylvis et incolis fera, nunc oppidis
passim insignis; nemoribus quoque quibus immensis tegebatur,
ad usum decusque castigatis." p. 316.]
"In the example of GONZALO, with whom Philemon is perfectly well
acquainted, a remarkable exemplification of the passion of _Vanity_
occurs. I recollect, one evening, he came rushing into a party where I
sat, screaming with the extatic joy of a maniac--'[Greek: Eurêka,
Eurêka]'; and, throwing down a scroll, rushed as precipitately out of
the room. The scroll was of vellum; the title to the contents of it
was penned in golden letters, and softly-painted bunches of roses
graced each corner. It contained a sonnet to love, and another to
friendship; but a principal mistake which struck us, on the very
threshold of our critical examination, was that he had incorrectly
entitled these sonnets. Friendship should have been called love, and
love, friendship. We had no sooner made the discovery than Gonzalo
returned, expecting to find us in like ecstacies with himself!--We
gravely told him that we stumbled at the very threshold. It was quite
sufficient--he seized his sonnets with avidity--and, crumpling the
roll (after essaying to tear it) thrust it into his pocket, and
retreated. One of the gentlemen in company made the following remarks,
on his leaving us: 'In the conduct of Gonzalo appears a strange
mixture of intellectual strength and intellectual debility; of wit and
dulness; of wisdom and folly; and all this arises chiefly from his
mistaking the means for the end--the instrument of achieving for the
object achieved. The fondest wish of his heart is literary fame: for
this he would sacrifice every thing. He is handsome, generous, an
affectionate son, a merry companion, and is, withal, a very excellent
belles-lettres scholar. Tell him that the ladies admire him, that his
mother doats on him, and that his friends esteem him--and--keeping
back the wished-for eulogy of literary excellence--you tell him of
nothing which he cares for. In truth he might attain some portion of
intellectual reputation, if he would throw aside his ridiculous
habits. He _must_, as soon as the evening shades prevail, burn wax
tapers--he must always have an Argand lamp lighted up before him, to
throw a picturesque effect upon a dark wood painted by Hobbima--his
pens must be made from the crow's wing--his wax must be green--his
paper must be thick and hot-pressed; and he must have a portfolio of
the choicest bits of ancient vellum that can be procured--his body
must recline upon a chintz sofa--his foot must be perched upon an
ottoman--in short he _must_ have every thing for which no man of
common sense would express the least concern. Can you be surprised,
therefore, that he should commence his sonnet to friendship thus:
Oh, sweetest softest thing that's friendship hight!
or that he should conceive the following address to women, by one
William Goddard, worthy of being ranked among the most beautiful
poetical efforts of the 16th century:
Stars of this earthly heaven, you whose essence
Compos'd was of man's purest quintessence,
To you, to virtuous you, I dedicate
This snaggy sprig[83]----"
[Footnote 83: From "_A Satyrical Dialogue, &c., betweene
Alexander the Great and that truelye woman-hater Diogynes_.
Imprinted in the low countryes for all such gentlewomen as
are not altogether idle nor yet well occupyed," 4to. no
date. A strange composition! full of nervous lines and
pungent satire--but not free from the grossest
licentiousness.]
"Enough," exclaimed Philemon--while Lysander paused a little, after
uttering the foregoing in a rapid and glowing manner--"enough for this
effeminate vanity in man! What other ills have you to enumerate, which
assail the region of literature?"--"I will tell you," replied
Lysander, "another, and a most lamentable evil, which perverts the
very end for which talents were given us--and it is in mistaking and
misapplying these talents. I speak with reference to the individual
himself, and not to the public. You may remember how grievously
ALFONSO bore the lot which public criticism, with one voice, adjudged
to him! This man had good natural parts, and would have abridged a
history, made an index, or analyzed a philosophical work, with great
credit to himself and advantage to the public. But he set his heart
upon eclipsing Doctors Johnson and Jamieson. He happened to know a few
etymons more correctly, and to have some little acquaintance with
black letter literature, and hence thought to give more weight to
lexicographical inquiries than had hitherto distinguished them. But
how miserably he was deceived in all his undertakings of this kind
past events have sufficiently shewn. No, my good Philemon, to be of
use to the republic of literature, let us know our situations; and let
us not fail to remember that, in the best appointed army, the serjeant
may be of equal utility with the captain.
"I will notice only one other, and a very great, failing observable in
literary men--and this is severity and self-consequence. You will find
that these severe characters generally set up the trade of _Critics_;
without attending to the just maxim of Pope, that
Ten censure wrong, for one that writes amiss.
"With them, the least deviation from precise correctness, the most
venial trippings, the smallest inattention paid to doubtful rules and
equivocal positions of criticism, inflames their anger, and calls
forth their invectives. Regardless of the sage maxims of Cicero,
Quintilian, and Horace, they not only disdain the sober rules which
their ancient brethren have wisely laid down, and hold in contempt
the voice of the public,[84] but, forgetting the subject which they
have undertaken to criticise, they push the author out of his seat,
quietly sit in it themselves, and fancy they entertain you by the
gravity of their deportment, and their rash usurpation of the royal
monosyllable 'Nos.'[85] This solemn pronoun, or rather 'plural
style,'[86] my dear Philemon, is oftentimes usurped by a half-starved
little _I_, who sits immured in the dusty recess of a garret, and who
has never known the society nor the language of a gentleman; or it is
assumed by a young graduate, just settled in his chambers, and flushed
with the triumph of his degree of 'B.A.', whose 'fond conceyte' [to
borrow Master Francis Thynne's[87] terse style,] is, to wrangle for an
asses shadowe, or to seke a knott in a rushe!'
[Footnote 84: "Interdum vulgus rectum videt:" says
Horace.--_Epist. lib._ ii. _ad. Augustum_, v. 63.]
[Footnote 85: Vide RYMERI _Foedera_--passim.]
[Footnote 86: A very recent, and very respectable, authority
has furnished me with this expression.]
[Footnote 87: See Mr. Todd's _Illustrations of Gower and
Chaucer_, p. 10.]
"For my part," continued Lysander, speaking with the most unaffected
seriousness--"for my part, nothing delights me more than modesty and
diffidence, united with 'strong good sense, lively imagination, and
exquisite sensibility,'[88] whether in an author or a critic. When I
call to mind that our greatest sages have concluded their labours
with doubt, and an avowal of their ignorance; when I see how carefully
and reverently they have pushed forward their most successful
inquiries; when I see the great Newton pausing and perplexed in the
vast world of planets, comets, and constellations, which were, in a
measure, of his own creation--I learn to soften the asperity of my
critical anathemas, and to allow to an author that portion of
fallibility of which I am conscious myself.
[Footnote 88: It is said, very sensibly, by La Bruyere, I
will allow that good writers are scarce enough; but then I
ask where are the people that know how to read and judge? A
union of these qualities, which are seldom found in the same
person, seems to be indispensably necessary to form an able
critic; he ought to possess strong good sense, lively
imagination, and exquisite sensibility. And of these three
qualities, the last is the most important; since, after all
that can be said on the utility or necessity of rules and
precepts, it must be confessed that the merit of all works
of genius must be determined by taste and sentiment. "Why do
you so much admire the Helen of Zeuxis?" said one to
Nicostratus. "You would not wonder why I so much admired it
(replied the painter) if you had my eyes."--WARTON: Note to
Pope's Essay on Criticism. _Pope's Works_, vol. i. 196,
edit. 1806.]
"I see then," rejoined Philemon, "that you are an enemy to
_Reviews_."[89] "Far from it," replied Lysander, "I think them of
essential service to literature. They hold a lash over ignorance and
vanity; and, at any rate, they take care to bestow a hearty
castigation upon vicious and sensual publications. Thus far they do
good: but, in many respects, they do ill--by substituting their own
opinions for those of an author; by judging exclusively according to
their own previously formed decisions in matters of religion and
politics; and by shutting out from your view the plan, and real
tendency, of the book which they have undertaken to review, and
therefore ought to analyze. It is, to be sure, amusing to read the
clamours which have been raised against some of the most valuable, and
now generally received, works! When an author recollects the pert
conclusion of Dr. Kenrick's review of Dr. Johnson's Tour to the
Hebrides,[90] he need not fear the flippancy of a reviewer's wit, as
decisive of the fate of his publication!
[Footnote 89: The earliest publications, I believe, in this
country, in the character of REVIEWS were there
[Transcriber's Note: the] _Weekly Memorials for the
Ingenious_, &c. Lond. 1683, 4to.--and _The Universal
Historical Bibliotheque_: or an Account of most of the
considerable Books printed in all Languages, in the Month of
January 1686. London, 1687, 4to. Five years afterwards came
forth _The Young Student's Library_, by the Athenian
Society, 1692, folio, "a kind of common theatre where every
person may act, or take such part as pleases him best, and
what he does not like he may pass over, assuring himself
that, every one's judgment not being like his, another may
chuse what he mislikes, and so every one may be pleased in
their turns." Pref. A six weeks' frost is said to have
materially delayed the publication. After these, in the
subsequent century, appeared the _Old and New Memoirs of
Literature_; then, the _Works of the Learned_; upon which
was built, eclipsing every one that had preceeded it, and
not excelled by any subsequent similar critical journal,
_The Monthly Review_.]
[Footnote 90: After all, said the reviewing Doctor, we are
of opinion, with the author himself, that this publication
contains 'the sentiments of one who has seen but little:'
meaning, thereby, that the book was hardly worth perusal!
What has become of the said Dr. Kenrick now? We will not ask
the same question about the said DR. JOHNSON; whose works
are upon the shelf of every reading man of sense and
virtue.]
"It is certainly," pursued Lysander, "a very prolific age of
knowledge. There never was, at any one period of the world, so much
general understanding abroad. The common receptacles of the lower
orders of people present, in some degree, intellectual scenes. I mean,
that collision of logic, and corruscation of wit, which arise from the
perusal of a newspaper; a production, by-the-bye, upon which Cowper
has conferred immortality.[91] You may remember, when we were driven
by a sharp tempest of hail into the small public-house which stands at
the corner of the heath--what a _logomachy_--what a _war of words_ did
we hear! and all about sending troops to the north or south of Spain,
and the justice or injustice of the newly-raised prices of admission
to Covent Garden theatre!![92] The stage-coach, if you recollect,
passed by quickly after our having drunk a tumbler of warm brandy and
water to preserve ourselves from catching cold; and into it glad
enough we were to tumble! We had no sooner begun to be tolerably
comfortable and composed than a grave old gentleman commenced a most
furious Philippic against the prevailing studies, politics, and
religion of the day--and, in truth, this man evinced a wonderfully
retentive memory, and a fair share of powers of argument; bringing
everything, however, to the standard of his _own times_. It was in
vain we strove to edge in the great _Whig and Tory Reviews_ of the
northern and southern hemispheres! The obdurate champion of other
times would not listen a moment, or stir one inch, in favour of these
latter publications. When he quitted us, we found that he was a ----
of considerable consequence in the neighbourhood, and had acquired his
fortune from the superior sagacity and integrity he had displayed in
consequence of having been educated at the free-school in the village
of ----, one of the few public schools in this kingdom which has not
frustrated the legitimate views of its pious founder, by converting
that into a foppish and expensive establishment which was at once
designed as an asylum for the poor and an academy to teach wisdom and
good morals."
[Footnote 91: See the opening the fourth book of "_The
Task_;" a picture perfectly original and unrivalled in its
manner.]
[Footnote 92: It is not less true, than surprising, that the
ridiculous squabbles, which disgraced both this theatre and
the metropolis, have been deemed deserving of a regular
series of publications in the shape of numbers--1, 2, 3, &c.
As if the subject had not been sufficiently well handled in
the lively sallies and brilliant touches of satire which had
before appeared upon it in the _Monthly Mirror_!]
Philemon was about to reply, with his usual warmth and quickness, to
the latter part of these remarks--as bearing too severely upon the
eminent public seminaries within seventy miles of the metropolis--but
Lysander, guessing his intentions from his manner and attitude, cut
the dialogue short by observing that we did not meet to discuss
subjects of a personal and irritable nature, and which had already
exercised the wits of two redoubted champions of the church--but that
our object, and the object of all rational and manly discussion, was
to state opinions with frankness, without intending to wound the
feelings, or call forth the animadversions, of well-meaning and
respectable characters. "I know," continued he, "that you, Philemon,
have been bred in one of these establishments, under a man as
venerable for his years as he is eminent for his talents and worth;
who employs the leisure of dignified retirement in giving to the world
the result of his careful and profound researches; who, drinking
largely at the fountain head of classical learning, and hence feeling
the renovated vigour of youth (without having recourse to the black
art of a Cornelius Agrippa[93]), circumnavigates 'the Erythrean
sea'--then, ascending the vessel of Nearchus, he coasts 'from Indus to
the Euphrates'--and explores with an ardent eye what is curious and
what is precious, and treasures in his sagacious mind what is most
likely to gratify and improve his fellow-countrymen. A rare and
eminent instance this of the judicious application of acquired
knowledge!--and how much more likely is it to produce good, and to
secure solid fame, than to fritter away one's strength, and undermine
one's health, in perpetual pugilistic contests with snarling critics,
dull commentators, and foul-mouthed philologists."
[Footnote 93: Let him who wishes to be regaled in a dull
dreary night--when the snow is heavily falling, and the wind
whistles hollowly--open those leaves of Bayle's _Historical
and Biographical Dictionary_ which relate to this
extraordinary character; and see there how adroitly Agrippa
is defended against the accusation of "having two devils
attending him in the shape of two little dogs--one of them
being called Monsieur, and the other Mademoiselle"--"whereas
Paulus Jovius, Thevet, &c., speak only of _one_ dog, and
never mention his name." Vol. i. 357, 361; edit. 1736, 10
vols. folio.
The bibliographer, who wishes to be master of the most
curious and rare editions of his works, may go from Bayle to
Clement, and from Clement to Vogt. He must beware of the
castrated Lyons' editions "per Beringos fratres"--against
one of which Bayle declaims, and produces a specimen (quite
to his own liking) of the passage suppressed:--another, of a
similar kind, is adduced by Vogt (edit. 1793, pp. 19, 20);
who tells us, however, that an edition of 1544, 8vo.,
without mention of place or printer--and especially a
Cologne edition of 1598, by Hierat, in 12mo.--exhibits the
like castrations; p. 20. This has escaped Clement, learned
as he is upon the Lyons' editions, vol. i. 94, 95, 96. Bauer
(_Bibl. Libr. Rarior._) is here hardly worth consulting; and
the compilers of the celebrated _Nouveau Dict. Historique_
(Caen edit. 1789, vol. i. p. 7. Art. Agrippa) deserve
censure for the recommendation of these Lyons' editions
only.
Agrippa's "VANITY OF SCIENCES" was first published at
Antwerp in 4to. 1530; a book, upon the rarity of which
bibliographers delight to expatiate. His "OCCULT
PHILOSOPHY"--according to Bayle, in 1531 (at least, the
Elector of Cologne had seen several printed leaves of it in
this year), but according to Vogt and Bauer, in 1533.--There
is no question about the edition of 1533; of which Vogt
tells us, "An Englishman, residing at Frankfort, anxiously
sought for a copy of it, offering fifty crowns (imperiales)
and more, without success." All the editions in Agrippa's
life-time (before 1536) are considered uncastrated, and the
best. It should not be forgotten that Brucker, in his _Hist.
Crit. Phil._, has given a masterly account of Agrippa, and
an analysis of his works.]
Philemon heartily assented to the truth of these remarks; and, more
than once, interrupted Lysander in his panegyrical peroration by his
cheerings:[94] for he had, in his youth (as was before observed), been
instructed by the distinguished character upon whom the eulogy had
been pronounced.
[Footnote 94: This word is almost peculiar to our own
country, and means a vehement degree of applause. It is
generally used previous to, and during, a contest of any
kind--whether by men in red coats, or blue coats, or black
coats--upon land, upon water, or within doors. Even the
walls of St. Stephen's chapel frequently echo to the "_loud
cheerings_" of some kind or other. See every newspaper on
every important debate.]
The effort occasioned by the warmth in discussing such interesting
subjects nearly exhausted Lysander--when it was judged prudent to
retire to rest. Each had his chamber assigned to him; and while the
chequered moon-beam played upon the curtains and the wall, through the
half-opened shutter, the minds of Lysander and Philemon felt a
correspondent tranquillity; and sweet were their slumbers till the
morning shone full upon them.
[Illustration]
PART II.
=The Cabinet.=
OUTLINE OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Condemn the daies of elders great or small,
And then blurre out the course of present tyme:
Cast one age down, and so doe orethrow all,
And burne the bookes of printed prose or ryme:
Who shall beleeve he rules, or she doth reign,
In tyme to come, if writers loose their paine
The pen records tyme past and present both:
Skill brings foorth bookes, and bookes is nurse to troth.
CHURCHYARD'S _Worthiness of Wales_
p. 18, edit. 1776.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
=The Cabinet.=
OUTLINE OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Tout autour oiseaulx voletoient
Et si tres-doulcement chantoient,
Qu'il n'est cueur qui n'ent fust ioyeulx.
Et en chantant en l'air montoient
Et puis l'un l'autre surmontoient
A l'estriuee a qui mieulx mieulx.
Le temps n'estoit mie mieulx.
De bleu estoient vestuz les cieux,
Et le beau Soleil cler luisoit.
Violettes croissoient par lieux
Et tout faisoit ses deuoirs tieux
Comme nature le duisoit.
OEUVRES DE CHARTIER, Paris, 1617, 4to. p. 594.
Such is the lively description of a spring morning, in the opening of
Alain Chartier's "_Livre des quatre dames_;" and, excepting the
violets, such description conveyed a pretty accurate idea of the
scenery which presented itself, from the cabinet window, to the eyes
of Lysander and Philemon.
PHIL. How delightful, my dear friend, are the objects which we have
before our eyes, within and without doors! The freshness of the
morning air, of which we have just been partaking in yonder field, was
hardly more reviving to my senses than is the sight of this exquisite
cabinet of bibliographical works, adorned with small busts and
whole-length figures from the antique! You see these precious books
are bound chiefly in Morocco, or Russia leather: and the greater part
of them appear to be printed upon _large paper_.
LYSAND. Our friend makes these books a sort of hobby-horse, and
perhaps indulges his vanity in them to excess. They are undoubtedly
useful in their way.
PHIL. You are averse then to the study of bibliography?
LYSAND. By no means. I have already told you of my passion for books,
and cannot, therefore, dislike bibliography. I think, with Lambinet,
that the greater part of bibliographical works are sufficiently dry
and soporific:[95] but I am not insensible to the utility, and even
entertainment, which may result from a proper cultivation of
it--although both De Bure and Peignot appear to me to have gone
greatly beyond the mark, in lauding this study as "one of the most
attractive and vast pursuits in which the human mind can be
engaged."[96]
[Footnote 95: _Recherches, &c., sur l'Origine de
l'Imprimerie_: Introd. p. x. Lambinet adds very justly,
"L'art consiste à les rendre supportables par des objets
variés de littérature, de critique, d'anecdotes," &c.]
[Footnote 96: See the "Discours sur la Science
Bibliographique," &c., in the eighth volume of De Bure's
_Bibl. Instruct._ and Peignot's _Dictionnaire Raisonné de
Biblilolgie_, [Transcriber's Note: Bibliologie] vol. i. p.
50. The passage, in the former authority, beginning "Sans
cesse"--p. xvj.--would almost warm the benumbed heart of a
thorough-bred mathematician, and induce him to exchange his
Euclid for De Bure!!]
PHIL. But to know what books are valuable and what are worthless;
their intrinsic and extrinsic merits; their rarity, beauty, and
particularities of various kinds; and the estimation in which they are
consequently held by knowing men--these things add a zest to the
gratification we feel in even looking upon and handling certain
volumes.
LYSAND. It is true, my good Philemon; because knowledge upon any
subject, however trivial, is more gratifying than total ignorance; and
even if we could cut and string cherry-stones, like Cowper's rustic
boy, it would be better than brushing them aside, without knowing that
they could be converted to such a purpose. Hence I am always pleased
with Le Long's reply to the caustic question of Father Malebranche,
when the latter asked him, "how he could be so foolish as to take such
pains about settling the date of a book, or making himself master of
trivial points of philosophy!"--"Truth is so delightful," replied Le
Long, "even in the most trivial matters, that we must neglect nothing
to discover her." This reply, to a man who was writing, or had
written, an essay upon truth was admirable. Mons. A.G. CAMUS, a good
scholar, and an elegant bibliographer, [of whom you will see some
account in "_Les Siecles Litteraires de la France_,"] has, I think,
placed the study of bibliography in a just point of view; and to his
observations, in the first volume of the "_Memoires de l'Institut
National_," I must refer you.[97]
[Footnote 97: Lysander had probably the following passage
more particularly in recollection; which, it must be
confessed, bears sufficiently hard upon fanciful and
ostentatious collectors of books. "[Il y a] deux sortes de
connoissance des livres: l'une qui se renferme presque
uniquement dans les dehors et la forme du livre, pour
apprécier, d'après sa date, d'après la caractère de
l'impression, d'après certaines notes, quelquefois seulement
d'après une erreur typographique, les qualités qui le font
ranger dans la classe des livres rares où curieux, et qui
fixent sa valeur pecuniaire: l'autre genre de connoissance
consiste à savoir quels sont les livres les plus propres à
instruire, ceux où les sujets sont le plus clairement
présentés et le plus profondement discutés; les ouvrages à
l'aide desquels il est possible de saisir l'origine de la
science, de la suivre dans ses développemens, d'atteindre le
point actuel de la perfection. Sans doute il seroit
avantageux que ces deux genres de connoisances fussent
toujours réunis: l'expérience montre qu'ils le sont
rairement; l'expérience montre encore que le premier des
deux genres a été plus cultivé que le second. Nous
possédons, sur l'indication des livres curieux et rares, sur
les antiquités et les bijoux litteraires, si l'on me permet
d'employer cette expression, des instructions meilleures que
nous n'en avons sur les livres propres à instruire
foncièrement des sciences. En recherchant la cause de cette
difference, on la trouvera peut-être dans la passion que des
hommes riches et vains ont montrée pour posséder des livres
sans être en état de les lire. Il a fallu créer pour eux une
sorte de bibliotheque composée d'objets qui, sous la forme
exterieure de livres, ne fussent réellement que des raretés,
des objets de curiosité, qu'on ne lit pas, mais que tantôt
on regarde avec complaisance, tantôt en montre avec
ostentation; et comme après cela c'est presque toujours le
goût des personnes en état de récompenser qui dirige le but
des travailleurs, on ne doit pas être surpris qu'on se soit
plus occupé d'indiquer aux hommes riches dont je parle, des
raretés à acquérir, ou de vanter celles qu'ils avoient
rassemblées, que de faciliter, par des indications utiles,
les travaux des hommes studieux dont on n'attendoit aucune
récompense." _Memoires de l'Institut_, vol. i. 664. See also
the similar remarks of Jardé, in the "Précis sur les
Bibliotheques," prefixed to Fournier's _Dict. portatif de
Bibliographie_, edit. 1809.
Something like the same animadversions may be found in a
useful book printed nearly two centuries before: "Non enim
cogitant quales ipsi, sed qualibus induti vestibus sint, et
quanta pompa rerum fortunæque præfulgeant--sunt enim omnino
ridiculi, qui in nuda librorum quantumvis selectissimorum
multitudine gloriantur, et inde doctos sese atque admirandos
esse persuadent." Draudius: _Bibliotheca Classica_, ed.
1611. Epist. ad. Lect. Spizelius has also a good passage
upon the subject, in his description of Book-Gluttons
("Helluones Librorum"): "cum immensa pené librorum sit
multitudo et varietas, fieri non potest, quin eorum opibus
ditescere desiderans (hæres), non assiduam longamque
lectionem adhibeat." _Infelix Literatus_, p. 296, edit.
1680, 8vo.]
PHIL. I may want time, and probably inclination, to read these
observations: and, at any rate, I should be better pleased with your
analysis of them.
LYSAND. That would lead me into a wide field indeed; and, besides, our
friend--who I see walking hastily up the garden--is impatient for his
breakfast; 'tis better, therefore, that we satisfy just now an
appetite of a different kind.
PHIL. But you promise to renew the subject afterwards?
LYSAND. I will make no such promise. If our facetious friend LISARDO,
who is expected shortly to join us, should happen to direct our
attention and the discourse to the sale of MALVOLIO'S busts and
statues, what favourable opportunity do you suppose could present
itself for handling so unpromising a subject as bibliography?
PHIL. Well, well, let us hope he will not come: or, if he does, let us
take care to carry the point by a majority of votes. I hear the gate
bell ring: 'tis Lisardo, surely!
Three minutes afterwards, Lisardo and myself, who met in the passage
from opposite doors, entered the Cabinet. Mutual greetings succeeded:
and, after a hearty breakfast, the conversation was more
systematically renewed.
LIS. I am quite anxious to give you a description of the fine things
which were sold at Malvolio's mansion yesterday! Amongst colossal
Minervas, and pigmy fauns and satyrs, a magnificent set of books, in
ten or twelve folio volumes (I forget the precise number) in Morocco
binding, was to be disposed of.
LYSAND. The Clementine and Florentine museums?
LIS. No indeed--a much less interesting work. A catalogue of the
manuscripts and printed books in the library of the French king, Louis
the fifteenth. It was odd enough to see such a work in such a sale!
PHIL. You did not probably bid ten guineas for it, Lisardo?
LIS. Not ten shillings. What should I do with such books? You know I
have a mortal aversion to them, and to every thing connected with
bibliographical learning.
PHIL. That arises, I presume, from your profound knowledge of the
subject; and, hence, finding it, as Solomon found most pursuits,
"vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit."
LIS. Not so, truly! I have taken an aversion to it from mere whim and
fancy: or rather from downright ignorance.
PHIL. But I suppose you would not object to be set right upon any
subject of which you are ignorant or misinformed? You don't mean to
sport _hereditary_ aversions, or hereditary attachments?
LIS. Why, perhaps, something of the kind. My father, who was the best
creature upon earth, happened to come into the possession of a huge
heap of catalogues of private collections, as well as of booksellers'
books--and I remember, on a certain fifth of November, when my little
hands could scarcely grasp the lamplighter's link that he bade me set
fire to them, and shout forth--"Long live the King!"--ever since I
have held them in sovereign contempt.
PHIL. I love the king too well to suppose that his life could have
been lengthened by any such barbarous act. You were absolutely a
little Chi Ho-am-ti, or Omar![98] Perhaps you were not aware that his
majesty is in possession of many valuable books, which are described
with great care and accuracy in some of these very catalogues.
[Footnote 98: Pope, in his Dunciad, has treated the
conflagration of the two great ancient libraries, with his
usual poetical skill:
"Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the sun
And orient Science their bright course begun:
One god-like monarch all that pride confounds,
He, whose long wall the wandering Tartar bounds;
Heavens! what a pile! whole ages perish there,
And one bright blaze turns Learning into air.
Thence to the south extend thy gladden'd eyes;
There rival flames with equal glory rise,
From shelves to shelves see greedy Vulcan roll,
And lick up all their PHYSIC OF THE SOUL."
"Chi Ho-am-ti, Emperor of China, the same who built the
great wall between China and Tartary, destroyed all the
books and learned men of that empire."
"The caliph, Omar I. having conquered Egypt, caused his
general to burn the Ptolemean library, on the gates of which
was this inscription: '[Greek: PSYCHÊS IATREION]:'
'THE PHYSIC OF THE SOUL.'" Warburton's note. The last editor
of Pope's works, (vol. v. 214.) might have referred us to
the very ingenious observations of Gibbon, upon the
probability of this latter event: see his "_Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire_," vol. ix. 440, &c.]
LIS. The act, upon reflection, was no doubt sufficiently foolish. But
why so warm upon the subject?
LYSAND. Let me defend Philemon; or at least account for his zeal. Just
before you came in, he was leading me to give him some account of the
RISE AND PROGRESS OF BIBLIOGRAPHY; and was fearful that, from your
noted aversion to the subject, you would soon cut asunder the thread
of our conversation.
LIS. If you can convert me to be an admirer of such a subject, or even
to endure it, you will work wonders; and, unless you promise to do so,
I know not whether I shall suffer you to begin.
PHIL. Begin, my dear Lysander. A mind disposed to listen attentively
is sometimes half converted. O, how I shall rejoice to see this
bibliographical incendiary going about to buy up copies of the very
works which he has destroyed! Listen, I entreat you, Lisardo.
LIS. I am all attention; for I see the clouds gathering in the south,
and a gloomy, if not a showery, mid-day, promises to darken this
beauteous morning. 'Twill not be possible to attend the antiques at
Malvolio's sale.
LYSAND. Whether the sun shine, or the showers fall, I will make an
attempt--not to convert, but to state simple truths: provided you
"lend me your ears."
PHIL. And our hearts too. Begin: for the birds drop their notes, and
the outlines of the distant landscape are already dimmed by the
drizzling rain.
LYSAND. You call upon me as formally as the shepherds call upon one
another to sing in Virgil's eclogues. But I will do my best.
It is gratifying to the English nation--whatever may have been
the strictures of foreigners[99] upon the paucity of their
bibliographico-literary works in the 16th century--that the earliest
printed volume upon the love and advantages of book-collecting was the
_Philobiblion_[100] of RICHARD DE BURY; who was bishop of Durham at
the close of the 14th century, and tutor to Edward III. I will at
present say nothing about the merits and demerits of this short
treatise; only I may be permitted to observe, with satisfaction, that
the head of the same see, at the present day, has given many proofs of
his attachment to those studies, and of his reward of such merit as
attracted the notice of his illustrious predecessor. It is with pain
that I am compelled to avow the paucity of publications, in our own
country, of a nature similar to the _Philobiblion_ of De Bury, even
for two centuries after it was composed; but while Leland was making
his library-tour, under the auspices of that capricious tyrant Henry
VIII., many works were planned _abroad_, which greatly facilitated the
researches of the learned.
[Footnote 99: "Anglica gens longe fuit negligentior in
consignandis ingeniorum monumentis; nihil enim ab illis
prodiit, quod mereatur nominari, cum tamen sint extentque
pene innumera ingeniossimæ gentis in omnibus doctrinis
scripta, prodeantque quotidie, tam Latina, quam vernacula
lingua, plura," Morhof: _Polyhist. Literar._ vol. i. 205,
edit. 1747.
Reimmannus carries his strictures, upon the jealousy of
foreigners at the success of the Germans in bibliography,
with a high hand: "Ringantur Itali, nasum incurvent Galli,
supercilium adducant Hispani, scita cavilla serant Britanni,
frendeant, spument, bacchentur ii omnes, qui præstantiam
MUSARUM GERMANICARUM limis oculis aspiciunt," &c.--"hoc
tamen certum, firmum, ratum, et inconcussum est, GERMANOS
primos fuisse in Rep. Literaria, qui Indices Librorum
Generales, Speciales et Specialissimos conficere, &c. annisi
sunt."--A little further, however, he speaks respectfully of
our James, Hyde, and Bernhard. See his ably-written _Bibl.
Acroamatica_, pp. 1, 6.]
[Footnote 100: "_Sive de Amore Librorum._" The first
edition, hitherto so acknowledged, of this entertaining
work, was printed at Spires, by John and Conrad Hist, in
1483, 4to., a book of great rarity--according to Clement,
vol. v. 435; Bauer (_Suppl. Bibl. Libr. Rarior_, pt. i.
276); Maichelius, p. 127; and Morhof, vol. i. 187. Mons. De
La Serna Santander has assigned the date of 1473 to this
edition: see his _Dict. Bibliog. Chois._ vol. ii. 257,--but,
above all, consult Clement--to whom Panzer, vol. iii. p. 22,
very properly refers his readers. And yet some of Clement's
authorities do not exactly bear him out in the
identification of this impression. Mattaire, vol. i. 449,
does not appear to have ever seen a copy of it: but, what is
rather extraordinary, Count Macarty has a copy of a Cologne
edition in 4to., of the date of 1473. No other edition of it
is known to have been printed till the year 1500; when two
impressions of this date were published at Paris, in 4to.:
the one by Philip for Petit, of which both Clement and
Fabricius (_Bibl. Med. et Inf. Ætat._ vol. i. 842, &c.) were
ignorant; but of which, a copy, according to Panzer, vol.
ii. 336, should seem to be in the public library at
Gottingen; the other, by Badius Ascensius, is somewhat more
commonly known. A century elapsed before this work was
deemed deserving of republication; when the country that had
given birth to, and the university that had directed the
studies of, its illustrious author, put forth an inelegant
reprint of it in 4to. 1599--from which some excerpts will be
found in the ensuing pages--but in the meantime the reader
may consult the title-page account of Herbert, vol. iii. p.
1408. Of none of these latter editions were the sharp eyes
of Clement ever blessed with a sight of a copy! See his
_Bibl. Curcuse_, &c. vol. v. 438.
The 17th century made some atonement for the negligence of
the past, in regard to RICHARD DE BURY. At Frankfort his
_Philobiblion_ was reprinted, with "a Century of
Philological Letters," collected by Goldastus, in 1610,
8vo--and this same work appeared again, at Leipsic, in 1674,
8vo. At length the famous Schmidt put forth an edition, with
some new pieces, "typis et sumtibus Georgii Wolffgangii
Hammii, Acad. Typog. 1703," 4to. Of this latter edition,
neither Maichelius nor the last editor of Morhof take
notice. It may be worth while adding that the subscription
in red ink, which Fabricius (_ibid._) notices as being
subjoined to a vellum MS. of this work, in his own
possession--and which states that it was finished at
Auckland, in the year 1343, in the 58th of its author, and
at the close of the 11th year of his episcopacy--may be
found, in substance, in Hearne's edition of Leland's
_Collectanea_, vol. ii. 385, edit. 1774.]
Among the men who first helped to clear away the rubbish that impeded
the progress of the student, was the learned and modest CONRAD GESNER;
at once a scholar, a philosopher, and a bibliographer: and upon whom
Julius Scaliger, Theodore Beza, and De Thou, have pronounced noble
eulogiums.[101] His _Bibliotheca Universalis_ was the first thing,
since the discovery of the art of printing, which enabled the curious
to become acquainted with the works of preceding authors: thus
kindling, by the light of such a lamp, the fire of emulation among his
contemporaries and successors. I do not pretend to say that the
_Bibliotheca_ of Gesner is any thing like perfect, even as far as it
goes: but, considering that the author had to work with his own
materials alone, and that the degree of fame and profit attached to
such a publication was purely speculative, he undoubtedly merits the
thanks of posterity for having completed it even in the manner in
which it has come down to us. Consider Gesner as the father of
bibliography; and if, at the sale of Malvolio's busts, there be one of
this great man, purchase it, good Lisardo, and place it over the
portico of your library.
[Footnote 101: His _Bibliotheca_, or _Catalogus Universalis,
&c._, was first printed in a handsome folio volume at
Zurich, 1545. Lycosthyne put forth a wretched abridgement of
this work, which was printed by the learned Oporinus, in
4to., 1551. Robert Constantine, the lexicographer, also
abridged and published it in 1555, Paris, 8vo.; and William
Canter is said by Labbe to have written notes upon Simler's
edition, which Baillet took for granted to be in existence,
and laments not to have seen them; but he is properly
corrected by De La Monnoye, who reminds us that it was a
mere report, which Labbe gave as he found it. I never saw
Simler's own editions of his excellent abridgement and
enlargement of it in 1555 and 1574; but Frisius published
it, with great improvements, in 1583, fol., adding many
articles, and abridging and omitting many others. Although
this latter edition be called the _edit. opt._ it will be
evident that the _editio originalis_ is yet a desideratum in
every bibliographical collection. Nor indeed does Frisius's
edition take away the necessity of consulting a supplement
to Gesner, which appeared at the end of the _Bibliothéque
Françoise_ of Du Verdier, 1584. It may be worth stating that
Hallevordius's _Bibliotheca Curiòsa_, 1656, 1687, 4to., is
little better than a supplement to the preceding work.
The _Pandects_ of Gesner, 1548, fol. are also well worth the
bibliographer's notice. Each of the 20 books, of which the
volume is composed, is preceded by an interesting dedicatory
epistle to some eminent printer of day. Consult Baillet's
_Jugemens des Savans_, vol. ii. p. 11. _Bibl. Creven._ vol.
v. p. 278; upon this latter work more particularly; and
Morhof's _Polyhistor. Literar._ vol. i. 197, and Vogt's
_Catalog. Libr. Rarior._, p. 164: upon the former. Although
the _Dictionnaire Historique_, published at Caen, in 1789,
notices the botanical and lexicographical works of Gesner,
it has omitted to mention these Pandects: which however, are
uncommon.]
LIS. All this is very well. Proceed with the patriarchal age of your
beloved bibliography.
LYSAND. I was about resuming, with observing that our BALE speedily
imitated the example of Gesner, in putting forth his _Britanniæ
Scriptores_;[102] the materials of the greater part of which were
supplied by Leland. This work is undoubtedly necessary to every
Englishman, but its errors are manifold. Let me now introduce to your
notice the little work of FLORIAN TREFLER, published in 1560;[103]
also the first thing in its kind, and intimately connected with our
present subject. The learned, it is true, were not much pleased with
it; but it afforded a rough outline upon which Naudæus afterwards
worked, and produced, as you will find, a more pleasing and perfect
picture. A few years after this, appeared the _Erotemata_ of MICHAEL
NEANDER;[104] in the long and learned preface to which, and in the
catalogue of his and of Melancthon's works subjoined, some brilliant
hints of a bibliographical nature were thrown out, quite sufficient to
inflame the lover of book-anecdotes with a desire of seeing a work
perfected according to such a plan: but Neander was unwilling, or
unable, to put his design into execution. Bibliography, however, now
began to make rather a rapid progress; and, in France, the ancient
writers of history and poetry seemed to live again in the
_Bibliotheque Françoise_ of LA CROIX DU MAINE and DU VERDIER.[105] Nor
were the contemporaneous similar efforts of CARDONA to be despised: a
man, indeed, skilled in various erudition, and distinguished for his
unabating perseverance in examining all the MSS. and printed books
that came in his way. The manner, slight as it was, in which
Cardona[106] mentioned the Vatican library, aroused the patriotic
ardor of PANSA; who published his _Bibliotheca Vaticana_, in the
Italian language, in the year 1590; and in the subsequent year
appeared the rival production of ANGELUS ROCCHA, written in Latin,
under the same title.[107] The magnificent establishment of the
VATICAN PRESS, under the auspices of Pope Sixtus V. and Clement VIII.
and under the typographical direction of the grandson of Aldus,[108]
called forth these publications--which might, however, have been
executed with more splendour and credit.
[Footnote 102: The first edition of this work, under the
title of "_Illustrium maioris Britanniæ Scriptorum, hoc est,
Anglæ, Cambriæ, ac Scotiæ summarium, in quasnam centurias
divisum, &c._," was printed at Ipswich, in 1548, 4to.,
containing three supposed portraits of Bale, and a spurious
one of Wicliffe. Of the half length portrait of Bale, upon a
single leaf, as noticed by Herbert, vol. iii. 1457, I have
doubts about its appearance in all the copies. The above
work was again published at Basil, by Opornius, in 1559,
fol., greatly enlarged and corrected, with a magnificent
half length portrait of Bale, from which the one in a
subsequent part of this work was either copied on a reduced
scale, or of which it was the prototype. His majesty has
perhaps the finest copy of this last edition of Bale's
_Scriptores Britanniæ_, in existence.]
[Footnote 103: "Les Savans n'ont nullemont été satisfaits des
règles prescrites par FLORIAN TREFFER (Trefler) le premièr
dont on connoisse un écrit sur ce sujet [de la disposition
des livres dans une bibliothèque]. Sa méthode de classer les
livres fut imprimée à Augsbourg en 1560." Camus: _Memoires
de l'Institut_. vol. i. 646. The title is "Methodus
Ordinandi Bibliothecam," Augustæ, 1560. The extreme rarity
of this book does not appear to have arisen from its
utility--if the authority quoted by Vogt, p. 857, edit.
1793, may be credited. Bauer repeats Vogt's account; and
Teisser, Morhof, and Baillet, overlook the work.]
[Footnote 104: It would appear, from Morhof, that NEANDER
meditated the publication of a work similar to the
_Pandects_ of Gesner; which would, in all probability, have
greatly excelled it. The "_Erotemata Græcæ Linguæ_" was
published at Basil in 1565, 8vo. Consult _Polyhist. Liter._
vol. i. 199: _Jugemens des Savans_, vol. iii. art. 887, but
more particularly Niceron's _Memoires des Hommes Illustres_,
vol. xxx. In regard to Neander, Vogt has given the title at
length (a sufficiently tempting one!) calling the work "very
rare," and the preface of Neander (which is twice the length
of the work) "curious and erudite." See his _Catalog.
Libror. Rarior._, p. 614, edit. 1793.]
[Footnote 105: LA CROIX DU MAINE'S book appeared toward the
end of the year 1584; and that of his coadjutor, ANTHONY
VERDIER, in the beginning of the subsequent year. They are
both in folio, and are usually bound in one volume. Of these
works, the first is the rarest and best executed; but the
very excellent edition of both of them, by DE LA MONNOYE and
JUVIGNY, in six volumes, 4to., 1772, which has realized the
patriotic wishes of Baillet, leaves nothing to be desired in
the old editions--and these are accordingly dropping fast
into annihilation. It would appear from an advertisement of
De Bure, subjoined to his catalogue of Count Macarty's
books, 1779, 8vo., that there were then remaining only
eleven copies of this new edition upon LARGE PAPER, which
were sold for one hundred and twenty livres. Claude Verdier,
son of Antony, who published a supplement to Gesner's
Bibliotheca, and a "_Censio auctorum omnium veterum et
recentiorum_," affected to censure his father's work, and
declared that nothing but parental respect could have
induced him to consent to its publication--but consult the
_Jugemens des Savans_, vol. ii. 87-8, upon Claude's filial
affection; and Morhof's _Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., 176,
concerning the "Censio," &c.--"misere," exclaims Morhof,
"ille corvos deludit hiantes: nam ubi censuram suam exercet,
manifestum hominis phrenesin facile deprehendas!" The
ancient editions are well described in _Bibl. Creven._, vol.
v., 277-8, edit. 1776--but more particularly by De Bure,
nos. 6020-1. A copy of the ancient edition was sold at
West's sale for 2_l._ 15_s._ See _Bibl. West._, No. 934.]
[Footnote 106: JOHN BAPTIST CARDONA, a learned and
industrious writer, and bishop of Tortosa, published a
quarto volume at Tarracona, in 1537, 4to.--comprehending the
following four pieces: 1. _De regia Sancti Lamentii
Bibliotheca_: 2. _De Bibliothecis_ (_Ex Fulvio Ursino_,) et
_De Bibliotheca Vaticana (ex Omphrii Schedis)_: 3. _De
Expurgandis hæreticorum propriis nominibus_: 4. _De
Dipthycis_. Of these, the first, in which he treats of
collecting all manner of useful books, and having able
librarians, and in which he strongly exhorts Philip II. to
put the Escurial library into good order, is the most
valuable to the bibliographer. Vogt, p. 224, gives us two
authorities to shew the rarity of this book; and Baillet
refers us to the _Bibliotheca Hispana_ of Antonio.]
[Footnote 107: MUTIUS PANZA'S work, under the title of
_Ragionamenti della Libraria Vaticana_, Rome, 1590, 4to.,
and ANGELUS ROCCHA'S, that of _Bibliotheca Apostolica
Vaticana, Rome_, 1591, 4to., relate rather to the ornaments
of architecture and painting, than to a useful and critical
analysis, or a numbered catalogue, of the books within the
Vatican library. The authors of both are accused by Morhof
of introducing quite extraneous and uninteresting matter.
Roccha's book, however, is worth possessing, as it is
frequently quoted by bibliographers. How far it may be
"Liber valde quidem rarus," as Vogt intimates, I will not
pretend to determine. It has a plate of the Vatican Library,
and another of St. Peter's Cathedral. The reader may
consult, also, the _Jugemens des Savans_, vol. ii., p. 141.
My copy of this work, purchased at the sale of Dr. Heath's
books, has a few pasted printed slips in the margins--some
of them sufficiently curious.]
[Footnote 108: Consult Renouard's _L'Imprimerie des Alde_,
vol. ii., 122, &c. One of the grandest works which ever
issued from the Vatican press, under the superintendence of
Aldus, was the vulgate bible of Pope Sixtus V., 1590, fol.,
the copies of which, upon LARGE PAPER, are sufficiently well
known and coveted. A very pleasing and satisfactory account
of this publication will be found in the _Horæ Biblicæ_ of
Mr. Charles Butler, a gentleman who has long and justly
maintained the rare character of a profound lawyer, an
elegant scholar, and a well-versed antiquary and
philologist.]
Let us here not forget that the celebrated LIPSIUS condescended to
direct his talents to the subject of libraries; and his very name, as
Baillet justly remarks, "is sufficient to secure respect for his
work," however slender it may be.[109] We now approach, with the
mention of Lipsius, the opening of the 17th century; a period
singularly fertile in bibliographical productions. I will not pretend
to describe, minutely, even the leading authors in this department.
The works of PUTEANUS can be only slightly alluded to, in order to
notice the more copious and valuable ones of POSSEVINUS and of
SCHOTTUS;[110] men who were ornaments to their country, and whose
literary and bibliographical publications have secured to them the
gratitude of posterity. While the labours of these authors were
enriching the republic of literature, and kindling all around a love
of valuable and curious books, the _Bibliotheca Historica_ of
BOLDUANUS, and the _Bibliotheca Classica_ of DRAUDIUS[111] highly
gratified the generality of readers, and enabled the student to
select, with greater care and safety, such editions of authors as were
deserving of a place in their libraries.
[Footnote 109: LIPSIUS published his _Syntagma de
Bibliothecis_, at Antwerp, in 1603, 4to., "in quo de ritibus
variis et antiquitatibus circa rem bibliothecariam agitur."
An improved edition of it, by Maderus, was printed at
Helmstadt, in 1666, 4to., with other curious bibliographical
opuscula. A third edition of it was put forth by Schmid, at
the same place, in 1702, 4to. Consult Morhof. _Poly. Lit._,
vol. i., 188.]
[Footnote 110: "Scripsit et ERYCIUS PUTEANUS librum _De Usu
Bibliothecæ et quidem speciatim Bibliothecæ Ambrosianæ
Mediol._, in 8vo., 1606, editum, aliumque, cui titulus
_Auspicia Bibliothecæ Lovaniensis_, an. 1639, in 4to."
Morhof. "It is true," says Baillet, "that this Puteanus
passed for a gossipping sort of writer, and for a great
maker of little books, but he was, notwithstanding, a very
clever fellow." _Jugemens des Savans_, vol. ii., 150. In the
_Bibl. Crev._, vol. v., 311, will be found one of his
letters, never before published. He died in 1646. POSSEVINUS
published a _Bibliotheca selecta_ and _Apparatus sacer_--of
the former of which, the Cologne edition of 1607, folio, and
of the latter, that of 1608, are esteemed the most complete.
The first work is considered by Morhof as less valuable than
the second. The "_Apparatus_" he designates as a book of
rather extraordinary merit and utility. Of the author of
both these treatises, some have extolled his talents to the
skies, others have depreciated them in proportion. His
literary character, however, upon the whole, places him in
the first class of bibliographers. Consult the _Polyhist.
Literar._, vol. i., 175. He was one of the earliest
bibliographers who attacked the depraved taste of the
Italian printers in adopting licentious capital-initial
letters. Catherinot, in his _Art d'imprimer_, p. 3, makes
the same complaint: so Baillet informs us, vol. i., pt. i.,
p. 13, edit. 1725: vol. iii., pt. 1, p. 78. SCHOTTUS'S work,
_de Bibl. claris Hispaniæ viris, France_, 1608, 4to., is
forgotten in the splendour of Antonio's similar production;
but it had great merit in its day. _Jugemens des Savans_,
vol. ii., pt. 1, 132, edit. 1725.]
[Footnote 111: BOLDUANUS published a _Theological_ (Jenæ,
1614) and _Philosophico Philological_ (Jenæ, 1616), as well
as an _Historical_ (Lipsiæ, 1620), library; but the latter
work has the pre-eminence. Yet the author lived at too great
a distance, wanting the requisite materials, and took his
account chiefly from the Frankfort catalogues--some of which
were sufficiently erroneous. _Polyhist. Literar._ vol. i.,
199. See also the very excellent historical catalogue,
comprehending the 1st chap. of Meusel's new edition of
Struvius's _Bibl. Histor._, vol. i., p. 26. DRAUDIUS'S work
is more distinguished for its arrangement than for its
execution in detail. It was very useful, however, at the
period when it was published. My edition is of the date of
1611, 4to.: but a second appeared at Frankfort, in 1625,
4to.]
The name of DU CHESNE can never be pronounced by a sensible Frenchman
without emotions of gratitude. His _Bibliotheca Historiarum Galliæ_
first published in the year 1627, 8vo.--although more immediately
useful to foreigners than to ourselves, is nevertheless worth
mentioning. Morhof, if I recollect aright, supposes there was a still
later edition; but he probably confused with this work the _Series
Auctorum, &c. de Francorum Historia_;[112] of which two handsome folio
editions were published by Cramoisy. French writers of bibliographical
eminence now begin to crowd fast upon us.
[Footnote 112: The reader will find a good account of some
of the scarcer works of Du Chesne in Vogt's _Catalog.
Libror. Rarior._, p. 248, &c., and of the life and literary
labours of this illustrious man in the 7th volume of
Niceron's _Memoires des Hommes Illustres_.]
LIS. But what becomes of the English, Spanish, and Italian
bibliographers all this while?
LYSAND. The reproach of Morhof is I fear too just; namely that,
although we had produced some of the most learned, ingenious, and able
men in Europe--lovers and patrons of literature--yet our librarians,
or university scholars, were too lazy to acquaint the world with the
treasures which were contained in the several libraries around
them.[113] You cannot expect a field-marshal, or a statesman in
office, or a nobleman, or a rich man of extensive connections,
immersed in occupations both pressing and unavoidable--doggedly to set
down to a _Catalogue Raisonné_ of his books, or to an analysis of the
different branches of literature--while his presence is demanded in
the field, in the cabinet, or in the senate--or while all his bells,
at home, from the massive outer gate to the retired boudoir, are torn
to pieces with ringing and jingling at the annunciation of
visitors--you cannot, I say, my good Lisardo, call upon a person, thus
occupied, to produce--or expect from him, in a situation thus
harassed, the production of--any solid bibliographical publication;
but you have surely a right to expect that librarians, or scholars,
who spend the greater part of their time in public libraries, will
vouchsafe to apply their talents in a way which may be an honour to
their patrons, and of service to their country.[114] Not to walk with
folded arms from one extremity of a long room (of 120 feet) to
another, and stop at every window to gaze on an industrious gardener,
or watch the slow progress of a melancholy crow "making wing to the
rooky wood," nor yet, in winter, to sit or stand inflexibly before the
fire, with a duodecimo jest book or novel in their hands--but to look
around and catch, from the sight of so much wisdom and so much worth,
a portion of that laudable emulation with which the Gesners, the
Baillets, and the Le Longs were inspired; to hold intimate
acquaintance with the illustrious dead; to speak to them without the
fear of contradiction; to exclaim over their beauties without the
dread of ridicule, or of censure; to thank them for what they have
done in transporting us to other times, and introducing us to other
worlds; and constantly to feel a deep and unchangeable conviction of
the necessity of doing all the good in our power, and in our way, for
the benefit of those who are to survive us!
[Footnote 113: See the note at p. 29, ante. "It is a pity,"
says Morhof, "that the _Dutch_ had such little curiosity
about the literary history of their country--but the
_English_ were yet more negligent and incurious."--And yet,
Germany, France, and Italy, had already abounded with
treasures of this kind!!]
[Footnote 114: Senebier, who put forth a very useful and
elegantly printed catalogue of the MSS. in the public
library of Geneva, 1779, 8vo., has the following
observations upon this subject--which I introduce with a
necessary proviso, or caution, that _now-a-days_ his
reproaches cannot affect us. We are making ample amends for
past negligence; for, to notice no others, the labours of
those gentlemen who preside over the BRITISH MUSEUM
abundantly prove our present industry. Thus speaks Senebier:
'Ill sembleroit d'abord étonnant qu'on ait tant tradé à
composer le Catalogue des Manuscripts de la Bibliothéque de
Genéve; mais on peut faire plus raisonnablement ce reproche
aux Bibliothécaires bien payés et uniquement occupés de leur
vocation, qui sont les dépositaires de tant de collections
précieuses qu'on voit en Italie, en France, en Allemagne, et
en Angleterre; ils le mériteront d'autant mieux, qu'ils
privent le public des piéces plus précieuses, et qu'ils ont
plusieurs aids intelligens qui peuvent les dispenser de la
partie le plus méchanique et la plus ennuyeuse de ce
travail,' &c.]
PHIL. Hear him, hear him![115]
[Footnote 115: This mode of exclamation or expression, like
that of _cheering_ (vide p. 20, ante) is also peculiar to
our own country; and it is uttered by both friend and foe.
Thus, in the senate, when a speaker upon one side of the
question happens to put an argument in a strong point of
view, those of the same party or mode of thinking
exclaim--_hear him, hear him!_ And if he should happen to
state any thing that may favour the views, or the mode of
thinking, of his opponents, these latter also take advantage
of his eloquence, and exclaim, _hear him, hear him!_ Happy
the man whom friend and foe alike delight to hear!]
LIS. But what is become, in the while, of the English, Italian, and
Spanish bibliographers--in the seventeenth century?
LYSAND. I beg pardon for the digression; but the less we say of these,
during this period, the better; and yet you must permit me to
recommend to you the work of PITSEUS, our countryman, which grows
scarcer every day.[116] We left off, I think, with the mention of Du
Chesne's works. Just about this time came forth the elegant little
work of NAUDÆUS;[117] which I advise you both to purchase, as it will
cost you but a few shillings, and of the aspect of which you may
inform yourselves by taking it down from yonder shelf. Quickly
afterwards CLAUDE CLEMENT, "haud passibus æquis," put forth his
_Bibliothecæ tam privatæ quam publicæ[118] extructio_, &c.; a work,
condemned by the best bibliographical judges. But the splendour of
almost every preceding bibliographer's reputation was eclipsed by that
arising from the extensive and excellent publications of LOUIS
JACOB;[119] a name at which, if we except those of Fabricius and
Muratori, diligence itself stands amazed; and concerning whose life
and labours it is to be regretted that we have not more extended
details. The harsh and caustic manner in which Labbe and Morhof have
treated the works of GADDIUS,[120] induce me only to mention his name,
and to warn you against looking for much corn in a barn choked with
chaff. We now approach the close of the seventeenth century; when,
stopping for a few minutes only, to pay our respects to CINELLI,
CONRINGIUS, and LOMEIER,[121] we must advance to do homage to the more
illustrious names of Labbe, Lambecius, and Baillet; not forgetting,
however, the equally respectable ones of Antonio and Lipenius.
[Footnote 116: Pitseus's work "_De Rebus Anglicis_," Paris,
1619, 4to., vol. i., was written in opposition to Bale's
(vid. p. 31, ante). The author was a learned Roman Catholic;
but did not live to publish the second volume. I was glad to
give Mr. Ford, of Manchester, 1_l._ 16_s._ for a stained and
badly bound copy of it.]
[Footnote 117: "GABRIELE NAUDÆO nemo vixit suo tempore
[Greek: empeirias] Bibliothecariæ peritior:" _Polyhist.
Liter._, vol. i., 187. "Naudæi scripta omnia et singula
præstantissima sunt," Vogt, p. 611. "Les ouvrages de Naudé
firent oublier ce qui les avoient précédé." Camus, _Mem. de
l'Institut._, vol. i., 646. After these eulogies, who will
refuse this author's "_Avis pour dresser une Bibliothéque_,
Paris, 1627, 1644, 8vo." a place upon his shelf? Unluckily,
it rarely comes across the search of the keenest collector.
The other, yet scarcer, productions of Naudé will be found
well described in Vogt's _Catalog. Libror. Rarior._, p. 610.
The reader of ancient politics may rejoice in the possession
of what is called, the "_Mascurat_"--and "_Considerations
politiques_"--concerning which Vogt is gloriously diffuse;
and Peignot (who has copied from him, without
acknowledgement--_Bibliogr. Curieuse_, pp. 49, 50,) may as
well be consulted. But the bibliographer will prefer the
"_Additions à l'Histoire de Louis XI._," 1630, 8vo., and
agree with Mailchelius that a work so uncommon and so
curious "ought to be reprinted." See the latter's amusing
little book "_De Præcipuis Bibliothecis Parisiensibus_," pp.
66, 67, &c. Naudæus was librarian to the famous Cardinal
Mazarin, the great Mæcenas of his day; whose library,
consisting of upwards of forty thousand volumes, was the
most beautiful and extensive one which France had then ever
seen. Its enthusiastic librarian, whom I must be allowed to
call a very wonderful bibliomaniac, made constant journeys,
and entered into a perpetual correspondence, relating to
books and literary curiosities. He died at Abbeville in
1653, in his 53rd year, on returning from Sweden, where the
famous Christian had invited him. Naudæus's "_Avis, &c._",
[ut supr.] was translated by Chaline; but his "_Avis à
Nosseigneurs du Parlement, &c._" 1652, 4to.--upon the sale
of the Cardinal's library--and his "_Remise de la
Bihliothéque_ [Transcriber's Note: Bibliothèque] [Du
Cardinal] _entre le mains de M. Tubeuf_, 1651," are much
scarcer productions. A few of these particulars are gathered
from Peignot's _Dict. de la Bibliolologie_ [Transcriber's
Note: Bibliologie], vol. ii., p. 1--consult also his _Dict.
Portatif de Bibliographie_, p. v. In the former work I
expected a copious piece of biography; yet, short as it is,
Peignot has subjoined a curious note from Naudé's
"_Considerations politiques_"--in which the author had the
hardihood to defend the massacre upon St. Bartholomew's day,
by one of the strangest modes of reasoning ever adopted by a
rational being.]
[Footnote 118: This work, in four books, was published at
Lyons, 1635, 4to. If it be not quite "Much ado about
nothing"--it exhibits, at least, a great waste of ink and
paper. Morhof seems to seize with avidity Baillet's lively
sentence of condemnation--"Il y a trop de babil et trop de
ce que nous appellons _fatras_," &c.]
[Footnote 119: Le Pere LOUYS JACOB published his "_Traicté
des plus belles Bibliothéques publiques et particulières,
qui ont esté, et qui sont à présents dans le monde_," at
Paris, in 1644--again in 1655, 8vo.--in which he first
brought together the scattered notices relating to
libraries, especially to modern ones. His work is well worth
consultation; although Baillet and Morhof do not speak in
direct terms of praise concerning it--and the latter seems a
little angry at his giving the preference to the Parisian
libraries over those of other countries. It must be
remembered that this was published as an unfinished
production: as such, the author's curiosity and research are
highly to be commended. I have read the greater part of it
with considerable satisfaction. The same person meditated
the execution of a vast work in four folio volumes--called
"_La Bibliothéque universelle de tous les Autheurs de
France, qui ont escrits en quelque sorte de sciences et de
langues_"--which, in fact, was completed in 1638: but, on
the death of the author it does not appear what became of
it. Jacob also gave an account of books as they were
published at Paris, and in other parts of France, from the
year 1643 to 1650; which was printed under the title of
_Bibliographia Parisina_, Paris, 1651, 4to. Consult
_Polyhist. Liter._, vol. i., pp. 189, 202: _Bibl. Creven._,
vol. v., pp. 281, 287. _Jugemens des Savans_, vol. ii., p.
151.]
[Footnote 120: He published a work entitled "_De
scriptoribus non-ecclesiasticis_," 1648, vol. i., 1649, vol.
ii., folio: in which his opinions upon authors are given in
the most jejune and rash manner. His other works, which
would form a little library, are reviewed by Leti with
sufficient severity: but the poor man was crack brained! And
yet some curious and uncommon things, gleaned from MSS.
which had probably never been unrolled or opened since their
execution, are to be found in this "Sciolum Florentinum," as
Labbe calls him. Consult the _Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i.,
p. 175.]
[Footnote 121: Magliabechi put CINELLI upon publishing his
BIBLIOTHECA VOLANTE, 1677, 8vo., a pretty work, with a happy
title!--being an indiscriminate account of some rare books
which the author picked up in his travels, or saw in
libraries. It was republished, with valuable additions, by
Sancassani, at Venice, in 1734, 4to. See _Cat. de Lomenie_,
No. 2563. Works of this sort form the ANA of
bibliography! CONRINGIUS compiled a charming bibliographical
work, in an epistolary form, under the title of _Bibliotheca
Augusta_; which was published at Helmstadt, in 1661,
4to.--being an account of the library of the Duke of
Brunswick, in the castle of Wolfenbuttle. Two thousand
manuscripts, and one hundred and sixteen thousand printed
volumes, were then contained in this celebrated collection.
Happy the owner of such treasures--happy the man who
describes them! LOMEIER'S, or Lomejer's "_De Bibliothecis
Liber singularis_," Ultraj, 1669-1680, 8vo., is considered
by Baillet among the best works upon the subject of ancient
and modern libraries. From this book, Le Sieur LE GALLOIS
stole the most valuable part of his materials for his
"_Traité des plus belles Bibliothéques de l'Europe_," 1685,
1697--12mo.: the title at full length (a sufficiently
imposing one!) may be seen in _Bibé. Crevenn._, vol. v., p.
281; upon this latter treatise, Morhof cuttingly
remarks--"Magnos ille titulus strepitus facit: sed pro
thesauris carbones." _Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., p. 191.
See also "_Jugemens des Savans_," vol. ii., p. 152. Gallois
dispatches the English libraries in little more than a page.
I possess the second edition of Lomeier's book (1680--with
both its title pages), which is the last and best--and an
interesting little volume it is! The celebrated Grævius used
to speak very favourably of this work.]
LIS. Pray discuss their works, or merits, _seriatim_, as the judges
call it; for I feel overwhelmed at the stringing together of such
trisyllabic names. These gentlemen, as well as almost every one of
their predecessors, are strangers to me; and you know my bashfulness
and confusion in such sort of company.
LYSAND. I hope to make you better acquainted with them after a slight
introduction, and so rid you of such an uncomfortable diffidence. Let
us begin with LABBE,[122] who died in the year 1667, and in the
sixtieth of his own age; a man of wonderful memory and of as wonderful
application--whose whole life, according to his biographers, was
consumed in gathering flowers from his predecessors, and thence
weaving such a chaplet for his own brows as was never to know decay.
His _Nova Bibliotheca_, and _Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum
Manuscriptorum_, are the principal works which endear his memory to
bibliographers. More learned than Labbe was LAMBECIUS;[123] whose
_Commentarii de Bibliotheca Cæsareâ-Vindobonensis_, with Nesselius's
supplement to the same, [1696, 2 vols. fol.] and Kollarius's new
edition of both, form one of the most curious and important, as well
as elaborate, productions in the annals of literature and
bibliography. Less extensive, but more select, valuable, and accurate,
in its choice and execution of objects, is the _Bibliotheca Hispana
Vetus et Nova_ of Nicholas ANTONIO;[124] the first, and the best,
bibliographical work which Spain, notwithstanding her fine palaces and
libraries, has ever produced. If neither Philemon nor yourself,
Lisardo, possess this latter work [and I do not see it upon the
shelves of this cabinet], seek for it with avidity; and do not fear
the pistoles which the purchase of it may cost you. LIPENIUS[125] now
claims a moment's notice; of whose _Bibliotheca Realis_ Morhof is
inclined to speak more favourably than other critics. 'Tis in six
volumes; and it appeared from the years 1679 to 1685 inclusive. Not
inferior to either of the preceding authors in taste, erudition, and
the number and importance of his works, was ADRIEN BAILLET;[126] the
simple pastor of Lardiéres, and latterly the learned and
indefatigable librarian of Lamoignon. His _Jugemens des Savans_,
edited by De la Monnoye, is one of those works with which no man, fond
of typographical and bibliographical pursuits, can comfortably
dispense. I had nearly forgotten to warn you against the capricious
works of BEUGHEM; a man, nevertheless, of wonderful mental elasticity;
but for ever planning schemes too vast and too visionary for the
human powers to execute.[127]
[Footnote 122: "Vir, qui in texendis catalogis totam pene
vitam consumpsit." "Homo ad Lexica et Catalogos conficiendos
a naturâ factus." Such is Morhof's account of LABBE; who, in
the works above-mentioned, in the text, has obtained an
unperishable reputation as a bibliographer. The _Bibliotheca
Bibliothecarum_, thick duodecimo, or crown octavo, has run
through several impressions; of which the Leipsic edit. of
1682, is as good as any; but TEISSER, in his work under the
same title, 1686, 4to., has greatly excelled Labbe's
production, as well by his corrections of errata as by his
additions of some hundreds of authors. The _Bibliotheca
Nummaria_ is another of Labbe's well-known performances: in
the first part of which he gives an account of those who
have written concerning medals--in the second part, of those
who have publishe [Transcriber's Note: published] separate
accounts of coins, weights, and measures. This is usually
appended to the preceding work, and is so published by
Teisser. The _Mantissa Suppellectilis_ was an unfinished
production; and the _Specimen novæ Bibliothecæ
Manuscriptorum Librorum_, Paris, 1653, 4to., is too
imperfectly executed for the exercise of rigid criticism;
although Baillet calls it 'useful and curious.' Consult the
_Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., 197, 203: and _Jugemens des
Savans_, vol. ii., pt. 1, p. 24, edit. 1725. A list of
Labbe's works, finished, unfinished, and projected, was
published at Paris, in 1656 and 1662. He was joint editor
with Cossart of that tremendously voluminous work--the
"Collectio Maxima Conciliorum"--1672, 18 volumes, folio.]
[Footnote 123: LAMBECIUS died at, one may almost say, the
premature age of 52: and the above work (in eight folio
volumes), which was left unfinished in consequence, (being
published between the years 1665-79 inclusive) gives us a
magnificent idea of what its author would have accomplished
[see particularly Reimanni _Bibl. Acroamatica_, p. 51] had
it pleased Providence to prolong so valuable an existence.
It was originally sold for 24 _imperiali_; but at the
commencement of the 18th century for not less than 80
_thaleri_, and a copy of it was scarcely ever to be met
with. Two reasons have been assigned for its great rarity,
and especially for that of the 8th volume; the one, that
Lambecius's heir, impatient at the slow sale of the work,
sold many copies of it to the keepers of herb-stalls: the
other, that, when the author was lying on his death-bed, his
servant maid, at the suggestion and from the stinginess of
the same heir, burnt many copies of this eighth volume
[which had recently left the press] to light the fire in the
chamber. This intelligence I glean from Vogt, p. 495: it had
escaped Baillet and Morhof. But consult De Bure, vol. vi.,
Nos. 6004-5. Reimannus published a _Bibliotheca
Acroamatica_, Hanov., 1712, 8vo., which is both an
entertaining volume and a useful compendium of Lambecius's
immense work. But in the years 1766-82, KOLLARIUS published
a new and improved edition of the entire commentaries, in
six folio volumes; embodying in this gigantic undertaking
the remarks which were scattered in his "_Analecta
Monumentorum omnis ævi Vindobonensia_," in two folio
volumes, 1761. A posthumous work of Kollarius, as a
supplement to his new edition of Lambecius's Commentaries,
was published in one folio volume, 1790. A complete set of
these volumes of Kollarius's bibliographical labours,
relating to the Vienna library, was in Serna Santander's
catalogue, vol. iv., no. 6291, as well as in Krohn's: in
which latter [nos. 3554, 3562] there are some useful
notices. See my account of M. Denis: post. Critics have
accused these "Commentaries concerning the MSS. in the
imperial library at Vienna," as containing a great deal of
rambling and desultory matter; but the vast erudition,
minute research, and unabateable diligence of its author,
will for ever secure to him the voice of public praise, as
loud and as hearty as he has received it from his abridger
Reimannus. In these volumes appeared the first account of
the Psalter, printed at Mentz in 1457, which was mistaken by
Lambecius for a MS. The reader will forgive my referring him
to a little essay upon this and the subsequent Psalters,
printed at Mentz, in 1459, 1490, &c., which was published by
me in the 2nd volume of the _Athenæum_, p. 360, 490.]
[Footnote 124: Morhof considers the labours of ANTONIO as
models of composition in their way. His grand work began to
be published in 1672, 2 vols., folio--being the _Bibliotheca
Hispana Nova_: this was succeeded, in 1696, by the
_Bibliotheca Hispana Antiqua_--in two folio volumes: the
prefaces and indexes contain every thing to satisfy the
hearts of Spanish Literati. A new edition of the first work
was published at Madrid, in 1783, 2 vols., folio; and of the
latter work, in 1788, 2 vols., folio.--These recent editions
are very rarely to be met with in our own country: abroad,
they seem to have materially lowered the prices of the
ancient ones, which had become excessively scarce. See
_Polyhist Literar._, vol. i., 203-4: _Dictionn. Bibliogr._,
vol. iv., p. 22: and _Mem. de l'Inst._, vol. i., 651. Let us
here not forget the learned Michael CASIRI'S _Bibliotheca
Arabico-Hispana Escorialensis_, published in two superb
folio volumes at Madrid in 1760. All these useful and
splendid works place the Spaniards upon a high footing with
their fellow-labourers in the same respectable career. De La
Serna Santander tells us that Casiri's work is dear, and
highly respected by the Literati. See _Cap. de Santander_,
vol iv., no. 6296.]
[Footnote 125: The _Bibliotheca Realis_, &c., of LIPENIUS
contains an account of works published in the departments of
_Jurisprudence_, _Medicine_, _Philosophy_, and _Theology_:
of these, the _Bibliotheca Theologica_, et _Philosophica_,
are considered by Morhof as the best executed. The _Bibl.
Juridica_ was, however, republished at Leipsic in two folio
volumes, 1757, with considerable additions. This latter is
the last Leipsic reprint of it. Saxius notices only the
re-impressions of 1720, 1736, 1742. See his _Onomast. Lit._,
vol. v., 588. I will just notice the _Bibliotheca Vetus et
Recens_ of KOENIGIUS, 1678, folio--as chart-makers notice
shoals--to be avoided. I had long thrown it out of my own
collection before I read its condemnation by Morhof. Perhaps
the following account of certain works, which appear to have
escaped the recollection of Lysander, may not be
unacceptable. In the year 1653, Father RAYNAUD, whose
lucubrations fill 20 folio volumes, published a quarto
volume at Lyons, under the title of "_Erotemata de malis ac
bonis Libris, deque justa aut injusta eorum conditione_;"
which he borowed [Transcriber's Note: borrowed] in part from
the "_Theotimus, seu de tollendis et expurgandis malis
libris_," (Paris, 1549, 8vo.) of Gabriel PUHTHERB. Of these
two works, if [Transcriber's Note: it] were difficult to
determine which is preferable. The bibliographer need not
deeply lament the want of either: consult the _Polyhist.
Literar._, vol. i., 177. In the year 1670, VOGLER published
a very sensible "_Universalis in notitiam cujusque generis
bonorum Scriptorum Introductio_"--of this work two
subsequent editions, one in 1691, the other in 1700, 4to.,
were published at Helmstadt. The last is the best; but the
second, to him who has neither, is also worth purchasing.
The seven dissertations "_De Libris legendis_" of BARTHOLIN,
Hafniæ, 1676, 8vo., are deserving of a good coat and a front
row in the bibliographer's cabinet. "Parvæ quidem molis
liberest, sed in quo quasi constipata sunt utilissima de
libris monita et notitiæ ad multas disciplinas utiles." So
speaks Morhof.]
[Footnote 126: ADRIEN BAILLET was the eldest of seven
children born in a second marriage. His parents were in
moderate circumstances: but Adrien very shortly displaying a
love of study and of book-collecting, no means, compatible
with their situation, were left untried by his parents to
gratify the wishes of so promising a child. From his
earliest youth, he had a strong predilection for the church;
and as a classical and appropriate education was then easily
to be procured in France, he went from school to college,
and at seventeen years of age had amassed, in two fair sized
volumes, a quantity of extracts from clever works; which,
perhaps having Beza's example in his mind, he entitled
_Juvenilia_. His masters saw and applauded his diligence;
and a rest of only five hours each night, during two years
and a half of this youthful period, afforded Baillet such
opportunities of acquiring knowledge as rarely fall to the
lot of a young man. This habit of short repose had not
forsaken him in his riper years: "he considered and treated
his body as an insolent enemy, which required constant
subjection; he would not suffer it to rest more than five
hours each night; he recruited it with only one meal a
day--drank no wine--never came near the fire--and walked out
but once a week." The consequence of this absurd regime was
that Baillet had ulcers in his legs, an erysipelatous
affection over his body, and was, in other respects,
afflicted as sedentary men usually are, who are glued to
their seats from morn till night, never mix in society, and
rarely breathe the pure air of heaven. These maladies
shortened the days of Baillet; after he had faithfully
served the LAMOIGNONS as a librarian of unparalleled
diligence and sagacity; leaving behind him a "_Catalogue des
Matieres_," in 35 volumes folio. "All the curious used to
come and see this catalogue: many bishops and magistrates
requested to have either copies or abridgments of it." When
Baillet was dragged, by his friend M. Hermant, from his
obscure vicarage of Lardiéres, to be Lamoignon's librarian,
he seems to have been beside himself for joy.--"I want a man
of such and such qualities," said Lamoignon.--"I will bring
one exactly to suit you," replied Hermant--"but you must put
up with a diseased and repulsive exterior."--"Nous avons
besoin de fond," said the sensible patron, "la forme ne
m'embarasse point; l'air de ce pays, et un grain de sel
discret, fera le reste: il en trouvera ici." Baillet came,
and his biographer tells us that Lamoignon and Hermant
"furent ravis de le voir." To the eternal honour of the
family in which he resided, the crazy body and nervous mind
of Baillet met with the tenderest treatment. Madame
Lamoignon and her son (the latter, a thorough bred
bibliomaniac; who, under the auspices of his master, soon
eclipsed the book celebrity of his father) always took a
pleasure in anticipating his wishes, soothing his
irritabilities, promoting his views, and speaking loudly and
constantly of the virtues of his head and heart. The last
moments of Baillet were marked with true Christian piety and
fortitude; and his last breath breathed a blessing upon his
benefactors. He died A.D. 1706, ætatis 56. Rest his ashes in
peace!--and come we now to his bibliographical publications.
His "_Jugemens des Savans_," was first published in 1685,
&c., in nine duodecimo volumes. Two other similar volumes of
_Anti Baillet_ succeeded it. The success and profits of this
work were very considerable. In the year 1722, a new edition
of it in seven volumes, quarto, was undertaken and completed
by De La Monnoye, with notes by the editor, and additions of
the original author. The "Anti Baillet" formed the 8th
volume. In the year 1725, De La Monnoye's edition, with his
notes placed under the text--the corrections and additions
incorporated--and two volumes of fresh matter, including the
Anti Baillet--was republished at Amsterdam, in eight
duodecimo volumes, forming 16 parts, and being, in every
respect, the best edition of the _Jugemens des Savans_. The
curious, however, should obtain the portrait of Baillet
prefixed to the edition of 1722; as the copy of it in the
latter edition is a most wretched performance. These
particulars, perhaps a little too long and tedious, are
gleaned from the "Abregé" de la Vie de Baillet, printed in
the two last editions of the work just described.]
[Footnote 127: It will not be necessary to notice _all_ the
multifarious productions, in MS. and in print, of this
indefatigable bibliographer; who had cut out work enough for
the lives of ten men, each succeeding the other, and well
employed from morn 'till even, to execute. This is
Marchand's round criticism: _Dict. Hist._ vol. i., p. 100.
Beughem's _Incunabula Typographica_, 1688, 12mo., is both
jejune and grossly erroneous. The "_Bibliographia Eruditorum
Critico-Curiosa_," 1689, 1701, 4 vols., 12mo., being an
alphabetical account of writers--extracts from whom are in
the public literary Journals of Europe from 1665 to
1700--with the title of their works--is Beughem's best
production, and if each volume had not had a separate
alphabet, and contained additions upon additions, the work
would have proved highly useful. His "_Gallia Euridita_,"
Amst., 1683, 12mo., is miserably perplexing. In addition to
Marchand, consult the _Polyhist. Literar._ of Morhof, vol.
i., p. 179; and the note therein subjoined. See also "_Bibl.
Creven._," vol. v., p. 298: _Cat. de Santander_, vol. iv.,
nos. 6273-4: 6281-2.]
PHIL. You have at length reached the close of the 17th century; but my
limited knowledge of bibliographical literature supplies me with the
recollection of two names which you have passed over: I mean, THOMAS
BLOUNT and ANTONY-A-WOOD. There is surely something in these authors
relating to editions of the works of the learned.
LYSAND. You have anticipated me in the mention of these names. I had
not forgotten them. With the former,[128] I have no very intimate
acquaintance; but of the latter I could talk in commendation till
dinner time. Be sure, my good Lisardo, that you obtain _both_ editions
of the _Athenæ Oxoniensis_.[129]
[Footnote 128: Sir Thomas Pope Blount's "_Censura
Celebriorum Authorum_," Londini, 1690, folio, is
unquestionably a learned work--the production of a rural and
retired life--"Umbraticam enim vitam et ab omni strepitu
remotam semper in delitiis habui,"--says its author, in the
preface. It treats chiefly of the most learned men, and
sparingly of the English. His "_Remarks upon Poetry_,"
Lond., 1694, 4to. (in English) is more frequently read and
referred to. It is a pity that he had not left out the whole
of what relates to the Greek and Latin, and confined himself
entirely to the English, poets. A life of Sir Thomas Pope
Blount will be found in the new edition of the _Biographia
Britannica_.]
[Footnote 129: The first, and, what Hearne over and over
again calls the genuine edition of the _Athenæ Oxoniensis_,
was published in two folio volumes, 1691, 1692. That a
_third_ volume was intended by the author himself may be
seen from Hearne's remarks in his _Thom. Caii. Vind. Antiq.
Oxon._, vol. i., p. xliii. For the character of the work
consult his _Rob. de Avesb._, pp. xxvi, xxxiii. After the
lapse of nearly half a century, it was judged expedient to
give a new edition of these valuable biographical memoirs;
and Dr. Tanner, afterwards bishop of St. Asaph, was selected
to be the editor of it. It was well known that Wood had not
only made large corrections to his own printed text, but had
written nearly _500_ new lives--his MS. of both being
preserved in the Ashmolean Museum. This new edition,
therefore, had every claim to public notice. When it
appeared, it was soon discovered to be a corrupt and garbled
performance; and that the genuine text of Wood, as well in
his correctness of the old, as in his compositions of the
new, lives, had been most capriciously copied. Dr. Tanner,
to defend himself, declared that Tonson "would never let him
see one sheet as they printed it." This was sufficiently
infamous for the bookseller; but the editor ought surely to
have abandoned a publication thus faithlessly conducted, or
to have entered his caveat in the preface, when it did
appear, that he would not be answerable for the authenticity
of the materials: neither of which were done. He wrote,
however, an exculpatory letter to Archbishop Wake, which the
reader may see at length in Mr. Beloe's _Anecdotes of
Literature_, vol. ii., p. 304. Consult the life of the
author in Mr. Gutch's valuable reprint of Wood's "_History
and Antiquities of the University of Oxford_," 1792, 4to., 2
vols.: also, Freytag's _Analect. Literar._, vol. ii., 1105.
I have great pleasure in closing this note, by observing
that Mr. Philip Bliss, of St. John's College, Oxford, is
busily engaged in giving us, what we shall all be glad to
hail, a new and faithful edition of Wood's text of the
_Athenæ Oxoniensis_, in five or six quarto volumes.]
We have now reached the boundaries of the 17th century, and are just
entering upon the one which is past: and yet I have omitted to mention
the very admirable _Polyhistor. Literarius_ of MORHOF:[130] a work by
which I have been in a great measure guided in the opinions pronounced
upon the bibliographers already introduced to you. This work, under a
somewhat better form, and with a few necessary omissions and
additions, one could wish to see translated into our own language. The
name of MAITTAIRE strikes us with admiration and respect at the very
opening of the 18th century. His elaborate _Annales Typographici_ have
secured him the respect of posterity.[131] LE LONG, whose pursuits
were chiefly biblical and historical, was his contemporary; an able,
sedulous, and learned bibliographer. His whole soul was in his
library; and he never spared the most painful toil in order to
accomplish the various objects of his inquiry.[132] And here, my dear
friends, let me pay a proper tribute of respect to the memory of an
eminently learned and laborious scholar and bibliographer: I mean JOHN
ALBERT FABRICIUS. His labours[133] shed a lustre upon the scholastic
annals of the 18th century; for he opened, as it were, the gates of
literature to the inquiring student; inviting him to enter the field
and contemplate the diversity and beauty of the several flowers which
grew therein--telling him by whom they were planted, and explaining
how their growth and luxuriancy were to be regulated. There are few
instructors to whom we owe so much; none to whom we are more indebted.
Let his works, therefore, have a handsome binding, and a conspicuous
place in your libraries: for happy is that man who has them at hand to
facilitate his inquiries, or to solve his doubts. While Fabricius was
thus laudably exercising his great talents in the cause of ancient
literature, the illustrious name of LEIBNITZ[134] appeared as author
of a work of essential utility to the historian and bibliographer. I
allude to his _Scriptores Rerum Brunwicensium_, which has received a
well pointed compliment from the polished pen of Gibbon. After the
successful labours of Fabricius and Leibnitz, we may notice those of
STRUVIUS! whose _Historical Library_[135] should be in every
philological collection.
[Footnote 130: DANIEL GEORGE MORHOF, professor of poetry,
eloquence, and history, was librarian of the University of
Khiel. He published various works, but the above--the best
edition of which is of the date of 1747--is by far the most
learned and useful--"liber non sua laude privandus; cum
primus fere fuerit Morhofius qui hanc amoeniorum literarum
partem in meliorum redigerit." _Vogt._, pref. ix., edit.
1793. Its leading error is the want of method. His
"_Princeps Medicus_," 1665, 4to., is a very singular
dissertation upon the cure of the evil by the royal touch;
in the efficacy of which the author appears to have
believed. His "_Epistola de scypho vitreo per sonum humanæ
vocis rupto_," Kiloni, 1703, 4to.--which was occasioned by a
wine merchant of Amsterdam breaking a wine-glass by the
strength of his voice--is said to be full of curious matter.
Morhof died A.D. 1691, in his 53rd year: beloved by all who
knew the excellent and amiable qualities of his head and
heart. He was so laborious that he wrote during his meals.
His motto, chosen by himself,--PIETATE, CANDORE, PRUDENTIA,
should never be lost sight of by bibliomaniacs! His library
was large and select. These particulars are gleaned from the
_Dict. Historique_, Caen, 1789, vol. vi., p. 350.]
[Footnote 131: A compendious account of MAITTAIRE will be
found in the third edition of my _Introduction to the
Knowledge of rare and valuable Editions of the Greek and
Latin Classics_, vol. i., p. 148. See too Mr. Beloe's
_Anecdotes of Literature, &c._, vol iii., p. ix. The various
volumes of his _Annales Typographici_ are well described in
the _Bibl. Crevenn._, vol. v. p. 287. To these may be added,
in the bibliographical department, his _Historia
Stephanorum, vitas ipsorum ac libros complectens_, 1709,
8vo.--and the _Historia Typographorum aliquot Parisiensium
vitas et libros complectens_, 1717, 8vo.--Of these two
latter works, (which, from a contemporaneous catalogue, I
find were originally published at 4_s._ the common paper,)
Mr. T. Grenville has beautiful copies upon LARGE PAPER. The
books are rare in any shape. The principal merit of
Maittaire's _Annales Typographici_ consists in a great deal
of curious matter detailed in the notes; but the absence of
the "lucidus ordo" renders the perusal of these fatiguing
and unsatisfactory. The author brought a full and
well-informed mind to the task he undertook--but he wanted
taste and precision in the arrangement of his materials. The
eye wanders over a vast indigested mass; and information,
when it is to be acquired with excessive toil, is,
comparatively, seldom acquired. Panzer has adopted an
infinitely better plan, on the model of Orlandi; and if his
materials had been _printed_ with the same beauty with which
they appear to have been composed, and his annals had
descended to as late a period as those of Maittaire, his
work must have made us eventually forget that of his
predecessor. The bibliographer is, no doubt, aware that of
Maittaire's first volume there are two editions: why the
author did not reprint, in the second edition (1733), the
fac-simile of the epigram and epistle of Lascar prefixed to
the edition of the Anthology, 1496, and the Disquisition
concerning the ancient editions of Quintilian (both of which
were in the first edition of 1719), is absolutely
inexplicable. Maittaire was sharply attacked for this
absurdity, in the "Catalogus Auctorum," of the "_Annus
Tertius Sæcularis Inv. Art. Typog._," Harlem, 1741, 8vo., p.
11. "Rara certe Librum augendi methodus! (exclaims the
author) Satis patet auctorem hoc eo fecisse concilio, ut et
primæ et secundæ Libri sui editioni pretium suum constaret,
et una æque ac altera Lectoribus necessaria esset." Copies
of the Typographical Antiquities by Maittaire, upon LARGE
PAPER, are now exceedingly scarce. The work, in this shape,
has a noble appearance. While Maittaire was publishing his
Typographical Annals, ORLANDI put forth a similar work under
the title of "_Origine e Progressi della Stampa o sia dell'
Arte Impressoria, e Notizie dell' Opere stampate dall' Anno
1462, sino all' Anno 1500_." Bologna, 1722, 4to. Of this
work, which is rather a compendious account of the several
books published in the period above specified, there are
copies upon strong WRITING PAPER--which the curious prefer.
Although I have a long time considered it as superseded by
the labours of Maittaire and Panzer, yet I will not withhold
from the reader the following critique: "Cet ouvrage doit
presque nécessairement être annexé à celui de Maittaire à
cause de plusieurs notices et recherches, qui le rendent
fort curieux et intéressant." _Bibl. Crevenn._, vol. v.,
286-7. As we are upon publications treating of Typography,
we may notice the "_Annalium Typographicorum selecta quædam
capita_," Hamb., 1740, 4to., of LACKMAN; and HIRSCHIUS'S
supplement to the typographical labours of his
predecessors--in the "_Librorum ab Anno I. usque ad Annum L.
Sec. xvi. Typis exscriptorum ex Libraria quadam
supellectile, Norimbergæ collecta et observata, Millenarius
I._" &c. Noriberg, 1746, 4to. About this period was
published a very curious, and now uncommon, octavo volume,
of about 250 pages, by SEIZ; called "_Annus Tertius
Sæcularis Inventæ Artis Typographicæ_," Harlem, 1741--with
several very interesting cuts relating to Coster, the
supposed inventor of the art of printing. It is a little
strange that Lysander, in the above account of eminent
typographical writers, should omit to mention
CHEVILLIER--whose _L'Origine de l'Imprimerie de Paris, &c._,
1694, 4to., is a work of great merit, and is generally found
upon every bibliographer's shelf. Baillet had supplied him
with a pretty strong outline, in his short account of
Parisian printers. All the copies of Chevillier's book,
which I have seen, are printed upon what is called Foxey
paper. I believe there are none upon LARGE PAPER. We may
just notice LA CAILLE'S _Histoire de l'Imprimerie et de la
Librarie_, 1689, 4to., as a work full of errors. In order
that nothing may be wanting to complete the typographical
collection of the curious, let the "portraits of booksellers
and printers, from ancient times to our own," published at
Nuremberg, in 1726, folio--and "the Devices and Emblems" of
the same, published at the same place, in 1730, folio, be
procured, if possible. The Latin titles of these two latter
works, both by SCHOLTZIUS, will be found in the _Bibl.
Crevenn._ vol. v. 281. Renouard mentions the last in his
"_Annales de l'Imprimerie des Alde_," vol. ii. p. 63.
Meanwhile the _Monumenta Typographica_ of WOLFIUS, Hamb.,
1740, 2 vols., 8vo., embraces a number of curious and
scattered dissertations upon this interesting and valuable
art. It may be obtained for 8_s._ or 10_s._ at present! The
_Amoenitatus [Transcriber's Note: Amoenitates]
Literariæ, &c._, of SCHELHORN had like to have been passed
over. It was published in 14 small octavo volumes, at
Frankfort and Leipsic, from the year 1725 to 1731 inclusive.
The _Amoenitates Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ et Literariæ_, of
the same person, and published at the same place in two
octavo volumes, 1738, should accompany the foregoing work.
Both are scarce and sought after in this country. In the
former there are some curious dissertations, with cuts, upon
early printed books. Concerning the most ancient edition of
the Latin Bibles, Schelhorn put forth an express treatise,
which was published at Ulm in 1760, 4to. This latter work is
very desirable to the curious in biblical researches, as one
meets with constant mention of Schelhorn's bible. Let me not
omit ZAPF'S _Annales Typographiæ Augustanæ_, Aug. Vindel.,
1778; which was republished, with copious additions, at
Augsbourg, in two parts, 1786, 4to.--but unluckily, this
latter is printed in the German language. Upon Spanish
Typography (a very interesting subject), there is a
dissertation by Raymond Diosdado Caballero, entitled "_De
Prima Typographiæ Hispanicæ Ætate Specimen_," Rome, 1793,
4to.]
[Footnote 132: From the Latin life of LE LONG, prefixed to
his _Bibliotheca Sacra_, we learn that he was an adept in
most languages, ancient and modern; and that "in that part
of literature connected with BIBLIOGRAPHY (Typographorum et
Librorum Historia), he retained every thing so correctly in
his memory that he yielded to few literary men, certainly to
no bookseller." Of the early years of such a man it is a
pity that we have not a better account. His _Bibliotheca
Sacra_, Paris, 1725, folio, has been republished by MASCH
and BOERNER, in four volumes, 4to., 1778, and enriched with
copious and valuable additions. This latter work is quite
unrivalled: no young or old theologian, who takes any
interest in the various editions of the Holy Scriptures, in
almost all languages, can possibly dispense with such a fund
of sacred literature. The _Bibliothéque Historique de la
France_, 1719, folio, by the same learned and industrious
bibliographer, has met with a fate equally fortunate.
FONTETTE republished it in 1768, in five folio volumes, and
has immortalized himself and his predecessor by one of the
most useful and splendid productions that ever issued from
the press. De Bure used to sell copies of it upon LARGE
PAPER, in sheets, for 258 livres: according to the
advertisement subjoined to his catalogue of Count Macarty's
books in 1779, 8vo. The presses of England, which groan too
much beneath the weight of ephemeral travels and trumpery
novels, are doomed, I fear, long to continue strangers to
such works of national utility.]
[Footnote 133: The chief labours of Fabricius ("Vir [Greek:
ellênichôtatos]"--as Reimannus truly calls him), connected
with the present object of our pursuit, have the following
titles: 1. "_Bibliotheca Græca, sive Notitia Scriptorum
Græcorum, &c._," Hamb. 1705-8-14-18, &c., 4to., 14 vols.--of
which a new edition is now published by HARLES, with great
additions, and a fresh arrangement of the original matter:
twelve volumes have already been delivered to the public. 2.
_Bibliotheca Latina_; first published in one volume,
1703--then in three volumes, 1721, and afterwards in two
volumes, 1728, 4to.;--but the last and best edition is that
of 1773, in three vols. 8vo., published by Ernesti at
Leipsic--and yet not free from numerous errors. 3.
_Bibliographia Antiquaria_, 1716, 4to.: a new edition of
Schaffshausen, in 1760, 4to., has superseded the old one. A
work of this kind in our own language would be very useful,
and even entertaining. Fabricius has executed it in a
masterly manner. 4. _Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica, in quâ
continentur variorum authorum tractatus de scriptoribus
ecclesiasticis_, Hamb., 1718, folio. An excellent work; in
which the curious after theological tracts and their authors
will always find valuable information. It is generally
sharply contended for at book-auctions. 5. _Bibliotheca
Latina Mediæ et Infimæ Ætatis, &c._, Leipsic, 1734, 6 vols.
8vo.--again, with Schoettgenius's supplement, in 1754, 4to.,
6 vols. in 3. This latter is in every respect the best
edition of a work which is absolutely indispensable to the
philologist. A very excellent synopsis or critical account
of Fabricius's works was published at Ams., 1738, in 4to.,
which the student should procure. Let me here recommend the
_Historia Bibliothecæ Fabricianæ_, compiled by JOHN
FABRICIUS, 1717-24, 6 vols. 4to., as a necessary and
interesting supplement to the preceding works of John Albert
Fabricius. I have often gleaned some curious bibliographical
intelligence from its copious pages. The reader may consult
_Bibl. Crevenn._, vol. v., 272-3.]
[Footnote 134: He is noticed here only as the author of
"_Idea Bibliothecæ Publicæ secundum classes scientiarum
ordinandæ, fusior et contractior_," and of the "_Scriptores
Rerum Brunswicarum_," Hanov., 1707, fol., 3 vols. "The
antiquarian, who blushes at his alliance with Thomas Hearne,
will feel his profession ennobled by the name of LEIBNITZ.
That extraordinary genius embraced and improved the whole
circle of human science; and, after wrestling with Newton
and Clark in the sublime regions of geometry and
metaphysics, he could descend upon earth to examine the
uncouth characters and barbarous Latin of a chronicle or
charter." Gibbon: _Post. Works_, vol. ii., 712. Consult also
_Mem. de l'Inst._, vol. v., 648.]
[Footnote 135: I will not pretend to enumerate all the
learned works of BURCHARD GOTTHLIEB STRUVIUS. His
"_Bibliotheca Librorum Rariorum_" was published in 1719,
4to. The first edition of the _Bibliotheca Historica_
appeared as early as 1705: a very valuable one was published
by Buder, in 1740, 2 vols.: but the last, and by far the
most copious and valuable, is that which exhibits the joint
editorial labours of BUDER and MEUSEL, in eleven octavo
volumes, 1782, 1802--though I believe it does not contain
every thing which may be found in the edition of the _Bibl.
Hist. Selecta_, by Jugler, 1754, three vols. 8vo.: vide pp.
iv. and vii. of the preface of Meusel's edition. The _Bibl.
Hist. Select._, by Jugler, was formerly published under the
title of _Introd. in notitiam rei literariæ et usum
Bibliothecæ_. Jugler's edition of it contains a stiff
portrait of himself in a finely embroidered satin waistcoat.
The first volume, relating to foreign libraries, is very
interesting: but, unluckily, the work is rare. Of Struvius's
_Bibl. Saxonica_, 1736, 8vo., I never saw a copy.]
PHIL. You are advancing towards the middle of the 18th century, in
enumerating foreign publications, without calling to mind that we
have, at home, many laudable publications relating to typography and
bibliography, which merit at least some notice, if not commendation.
LYSAND. I thank you for the reproof. It is true, I was running
precipitately to introduce a crowd of foreigners to your notice,
without paying my respects, by the way, to the _Historical Libraries_
of Bishop NICOLSON, the _Bibliotheca Literaria_ of WASSE, and the
_Librarian_ of WILLIAM OLDYS. Nor should I omit to mention the still
more creditable performance of Bishop TANNER: while the typographical
publications of WATSON, PALMER, and MIDDLETON,[136] may as well be
admitted into your libraries, if you are partial to such works;
although upon this latter subject, the elegant quarto volume of AMES
merits particular commendation.
[Footnote 136: Let us go gently over this _British_ ground,
which Lysander depictures in rather a flowery manner. The
first edition of BISHOP NICOLSON'S _English Historical
Library_ was published in the years 1696, 1697, and
1699--comprehending the entire three parts. In 1702, came
forth the _Scottish_ Historical library; and in 1724, the
_Irish_ Historical Library. These three libraries, with the
author's letter to Bishop Kennet in defence of the same, are
usually published in one volume; and the last and best
editions of the same are those of 1736, fol., and 1776, 4to.
Mr. John Nichols has recently published an entertaining
posthumous work of the bishop's _Epistolary Correspondence_,
in two octavo volumes, 1809. Some of these letters throw
light and interest upon the literature of the times. As to
the authority of Bishop Nicolson, in his historical matters,
I fear the sharp things which are said of his libraries by
Tyrrell (Pref. to _Hist. Engl._, vol. ii., p. 5.), and Wood
(_Athen. Brit._, vol. ii., col. 980, ed. 1721), all which
authorities are referred to by Mr. Nichols, are sufficiently
founded upon truth. He was a violent and wrong-headed writer
in many respects; but he had acumen, strength, and fancy.
The _Bibliotheca Literaria_ of WASSE (although his name does
not appear as the professed editor) is a truly solid and
valuable publication; worthy of the reputation of the
learned editor of Sallust. The work was published in
numbers, which were sold at one shilling each; but, I
suppose from the paucity of classical readers, it could not
be supported beyond the 10th number (1724); when it ceased
to be published. Some of the dissertations are very
interesting as well as erudite. OLDYS'S _British Librarian_
was published in six numbers, during the first six months of
the year 1737; forming, with the index, an octavo volume of
402 pages. It is difficult to say, from the conclusion (p.
373-4), whether the work was dropped for want of
encouragement, or from the capriciousness or indolence of
the author: but I suspect that the ground was suffered "to
lie fallow" (to use his own words) till it was suffocated
with weeds--owing to the _former_ cause: as Oldys never
suffered his pen to lie idle while he could "put money in
his purse" from his lucubrations. We shall speak of him more
particularly in PART V. Meanwhile, the reader is informed
that the _British Librarian_ is a work of no common
occurrence, or mean value. It is rigidly correct, if not
very learned, in bibliographical information. I once sent
three guineas to procure a copy of it, according to its
description, upon LARGE PAPER; but, on its arrival, I found
it to be not quite so large as my own tolerably
amply-margined copy. Bishop TANNER'S _Bibliotheca
Britanico-Hibernica_, which cost the author forty years'
labour, was published in 1748, folio; with a preface by Dr.
Wilkins. We must receive it with many thanks, imperfect and
erroneous as many parts of it are; but I hope the period is
not very remote when a literary friend, living, as he
constantly is, in an inexhaustible stock of British
literature of all kinds, will give us a new edition, with
copious additions and corrections, translated into our
native tongue. _The History of the Art of Printing_ by
WATSON, Edit., 1713, 8vo., is at best but a meagre
performance. It happens to be rare, and, therefore,
bibliomaniacs hunt after it. My copy of it, upon LARGE
PAPER, cost me 1_l._ 8_s._ It was formerly Paton's, of
Edinburgh, a knowing antiquary in Scottish printing. The
_History of Printing_, by PALMER, 1733, 4to., and Dr.
MIDDLETON'S _Dissertations upon the same_, 1735, 4to., have
been particularly treated by me, as well as the similar
works of AMES and HERBERT, in the first volume of my new
edition of Herbert's _British Typographical Antiquities_;
and the public is too well acquainted with the merits and
demerits of each to require their being pointed out in the
present place. I will close this note by observing that the
_Censuria Literaria_, in ten volumes octavo; and the
_British Bibliographer_ (now publishing) which grew out of
it; Mr. BELOE'S _Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books_,
six volumes, 8vo.; and Mr. Savage's continuation of _The
British Librarian_; are works which render the list of
English publications, relating to typography and curious
books, almost complete. I believe I may safely affirm that
the period is not very distant when some of these latter
publications, from the comparatively few copies which were
struck off, will become very rare.]
LIS. I am glad to hear such handsome things said of the performances
of our own countrymen. I was fearful, from your frequent sly
allusions, that we had nothing worth mentioning. But proceed with your
Germans, Italians, and Frenchmen.
LYSAND. You draw too severe a conclusion. I have made no sly
allusions. My invariable love of truth impels me to state facts as
they arise. That we have philosophers, poets, scholars, divines,
lovers and collectors of books, equal to those of any nation upon
earth is most readily admitted. But bibliography has never been, till
now, a popular (shall I say fashionable?) pursuit amongst the English.
LIS. Well, if what you call bibliography has produced such eminent
men, and so many useful works, as those which have been just
enumerated, I shall begin to have some little respect for this
department of literature; and, indeed, I already feel impatient to go
through the list of your bibliographical heroes.--Who is the next
champion deserving of notice?
LYSAND. This confession gives me sincere pleasure. Only indulge me in
my rambling manner of disquisition, and I will strive to satisfy you
in every reasonable particular.
If ever you should be disposed to form a bibliographical collection,
do not omit securing, when it comes across you, the best edition of Du
Fresnoy's[137] _Methode pour étudier l'Histoire_: it is rare, and
sought after in this country. And now--softly approach, and gently
strew the flowers upon, the tomb of worthy NICERON:[138] Low lies the
head, and quiescent has become the pen, of this most excellent and
learned man!--whose productions have furnished biographers with some
of their choicest materials, and whose devotion to literature and
history has been a general theme of admiration and praise. The mention
of this illustrious name, in such a manner, has excited in my mind a
particular train of ideas. Let me, therefore, in imagination, conduct
you both to yonder dark avenue of trees--and, descending a small
flight of steps, near the bottom of which gushes out a salient
stream--let us enter a spacious grotto, where every thing is cool and
silent; and where small alabaster busts, of the greater number of
those bibliographers I am about to mention, decorate the niches on
each side of it. How tranquil and how congenial is such a resting
place!--But let us pursue our inquires. Yonder sharp and well turned
countenances, at the entrance of the grotto, are fixed there as
representations of CARDINAL QUIRINI[139] and GOUJET; the _Bibliothéque
Françoise_ of the latter of whom--with which I could wish book
collectors, in general, to have a more intimate acquaintance--has
obtained universal reputation.[140] Next to him, you may mark the
amiable and expressive features of DAVID CLEMENT:[141] who, in his
_Bibliothéque Curieuse_, has shown us how he could rove, like a bee,
from flower to flower; sip what was sweet; and bring home his
gleanings to a well-furnished hive. The principal fault of this bee
(if I must keep up the simile) is that he was not sufficiently choice
in the flowers which he visited; and, of course, did not always
extract the purest honey. Nearly allied to Clement in sprightliness,
and an equally gossipping bibliographer, was PROSPER MARCHAND;[142]
whose works present us with some things no where else to be found,
and who had examined many curious and rare volumes; as well as made
himself thoroughly acquainted with the state of bibliography previous
to his own times.
[Footnote 137: The last edition of this work is the one
which was printed in fifteen volumes, crown 8vo., at Paris,
1772: with a copious index--and proportionable improvements
in corrections and additions. It is now rare. I threw out
the old edition of 1729, four vols., 4to., upon LARGE PAPER;
and paid three guineas to boot for the new one, neatly
bound.]
[Footnote 138: It is quite delightful to read the account,
in the _Dict. Hist._, published at Caen, 1789, (vol. vi., p.
475) of JEAN PIERRE NICERON; whose whole life seems to have
been devoted to bibliography and literary history. Frank,
amiable, industrious, communicative, shrewd, and
learned--Niceron was the delight of his friends, and the
admiration of the public. His "_Memoires pour servir à
l'Histoire des Hommes Illustres, &c., avec un Catalogue
raisonné de leur Ouvrages_," was published from the years
1729 to 1740, in forty crown 8vo. volumes. A supplement of
three volumes, the latter of which is divided into _two
parts_, renders this very useful, and absolutely necessary,
work complete in 44 volumes. The bibliomaniac can never
enjoy perfect rest till he is in possession of it!]
[Footnote 139: QUIRINI published his "_Specimen variæ
Literaturæ quæ in urbe Brixiæ ejusque Ditione paulo post
Typographiæ incunabula florebat_," _&c._, at Brescia, in
1739; two vols., 8vo.: then followed "_Catalogo delle Opere
del Cardinale Quirini uscite alla luce quasi tuttee da'
Torchi di mi Gian Maria Rizzardi Stampatore in Brescia_,"
8vo. In 1751, Valois addressed to him his "_Discours sur les
Bibliothéques Publiques_," in 8vo.: his Eminence's reply to
the same was also published in 8vo. But the Cardinal's chief
reputation, as a bibliographer, arises from the work
entitled "_De Optimorum Scriptorum Editionibus_." Lindaugiæ,
1761, 4to. This is Schelhorn's edition of it, which is
chiefly coveted, and which is now a rare book in this
country. It is a little surprising that Lysander, in his
love of grand national biographical works, mingled with
bibliographical notices, should have omitted to mention the
_Bibliotheca Lusitana_ of Joaov and Barbosa, published at
Lisbon, 1741, in four magnificent folio volumes. A lover of
Portuguese literature will always consider this as "opus
splendidissimum et utilissimum."]
[Footnote 140: _La Bibliothéque Françoise, ou Histoire de la
Littérature Françoise_, of CLAUDE PIERRE GOUJET, in eighteen
volumes, crown 8vo., 1741, like the similar work of Niceron,
is perhaps a little too indiscriminate in the choice of its
objects: good, bad, and indifferent authors being enlisted
into the service. But it is the chéf-d'oeuvre of Goujet,
who was a man of wonderful parts; and no bibliographer can
be satisfied without it. Goujet was perhaps among the most
learned, if not the "facile princeps," of those who
cultivated ancient French literature. He liberally assisted
Niceron in his Memoires, and furnished Moreri with 2000
corrections for his Dictionary.]
[Footnote 141: The "_Bibliothèque Curieuse, Historique et
Critique, ou Catalogue raisonné de Livres difficiles à
trouver_," of DAVID CLEMENT, published at Gottingen,
Hanover, and Leipsic, in 9 quarto volumes, from the year
1750 to 1760--is, unfortunately, an unfinished production;
extending only to the letter H. The reader may find a
critique upon it in my _Introduction to the Greek and Latin
Classics_, vol. i., p. 370; which agrees, for the greater
part, with the observations in the _Bibl. Crevenn._, vol.
v., 290. The work is a _sine quâ non_ with collectors; but
in this country it begins to be--to use the figurative
language of some of the German bibliographers--"scarcer than
a white crow,"--or "a black swan." The reader may admit
which simile he pleases--or reject both! But, in sober
sadness, it is very rare, and unconscionably dear. I know
not whether it was the same CLEMENT who published "_Les cinq
Années Littéraires, ou Lettres de M. Clément, sur les
ouvrages de Littérature, qui ont parus dans les Années
1748--á 1752_;" Berlin, 1756, 12mo., two volumes. Where is
the proof of the assertion, so often repeated, that Clement
borrowed his notion of the above work from WENDLER'S
_Dissertatio de variis raritatis librorum impressorum
causis_, Jen., 1711, 4to.?--Wendler's book is rare among us:
as is also BERGER'S _Diatribe de libris rarioribus, &c._,
Berol. 1729, 8vo.]
[Footnote 142: The principal biographical labours of this
clever man have the following titles: "_Histoire de
l'Imprimerie_," La Haye, 1740, 4to.--an elegant and
interesting volume, which is frequently consulted by
typographical antiquaries. Of MERCIER'S supplement to it,
see note in the ensuing pages under the word "Mercier." His
"_Dictionnaire Historique, ou Memoires Critiques et
Littéraires_," in two folio volumes, 1758, was a posthumous
production; and a very extraordinary and amusing
bibliographical common-place book it is! My friend Mr.
Douce, than whom few are better able to appreciate such a
work, will hardly allow any one to have a warmer attachment
to it, or a more thorough acquaintance with its contents,
than himself--and yet there is no bibliographical work to
which I more cheerfully or frequently turn! In the editor's
advertisement we have an interesting account of Marchand:
who left behind, for publication, a number of scraps of
paper, sometimes no bigger than one's nail; upon which he
had written his remarks in so small a hand-writing that the
editor and printer were obliged to make use of a strong
magnifying glass to decypher it--"et c'est ici (continues
the former) sans doute le premier livre qui n'ait pu être
imprimé sans le secours continuel du Microscope." Marchand
died in 1753, and left his MSS. and books, in the true
spirit of a bibliomaniac, to the University of Leyden. I
see, from the conclusion of this latter authority, that a
new edition of Marchand's History of Printing was in
meditation to be published, after the publication of the
Dictionary. Whether Mercier availed himself of Marchand's
corrected copy, when he put forth his supplement to the
latter's typographical history, I have no means of
ascertaining. Certainly there never was a second edition of
the _Histoire de l'Imprimerie_, by Marchsnd [Transcriber's
Note: Marchand].]
Perhaps I ought to have noticed the unoccupied niche under which the
name of VOGT[143] is inscribed; the title of whose work has been
erroneously considered more seductive than the contents of it. As we
go on, we approach FOURNIER; a man of lively parts, and considerable
taste. His works are small in size, but they are written and printed
with singular elegance.[144] See what a respectable and almost
dignified air the highly finished bust of the pensionary MEERMAN[145]
assumes! Few men attained to greater celebrity in his day; and few
men better deserved the handsome things which were said of him.
Polite, hospitable, of an inquisitive and active turn of
mind--passionately addicted to rare and curious books--his library was
a sort of bibliographical emporium, where the idle and the diligent
alike met with a gracious reception. Peace to the manes of such a man!
Turn we now round to view the features of that truly eminent and
amiable bibliographer, DE BURE!
[Footnote 143: The earliest edition of VOGT'S _Catalogus
Librorum Rariorum_ was published in 1732; afterwards in
1737; again in 1748; again in 1752, much enlarged and
improved; and, for the last time, greatly enlarged and
corrected, forming by far the "editio optima," of the
work--at Frankfort and Leipsic, 1793, 8vo.--We are told, in
the new preface to this last edition, that the second and
third impressions were quickly dispersed and anxiously
sought after. Vogt is a greater favourite with me than with
the generality of bibliographers. His plan, and the
execution of it, are at once clear and concise; but he is
too prodigal of the term "rare." Whilst these editions of
Vogt's amusing work were coming forth, the following
productions were, from time to time, making their
appearance, and endeavouring perhaps to supplant its
reputation. First of all BEYER put forth his _Memoriæ
Historico-Criticæ Librorum Rariorum_. Dresd. and Lips.,
1734, 8vo.; as well has [Transcriber's Note: as] his _Arcana
Sacra Bibliothecarum Dresdensium_, 1738, 8vo.--with a
continuation to the latter, preceded by an epistle
concerning the electoral library, separately published in
the same year. Then ENGEL (in Republicâ Helveto-Bernensi
Bibliothecarius primus) published his _Bibliotheca
selectissima, sive Catalogus librorum in omni genere
scientiarum rarissimorum_, &c., Bernæ, 1743, 8vo.; in which
work some axioms are laid down concerning the rarity of
books not perhaps sufficiently correct; but in which a great
deal of curious matter, very neatly executed, will repay the
reader for any expense he may incur in the purchase of it.
Afterwards FREYTAG'S _Analecta Literaria de libris
rarioribus_, Lips., 1750, two vols. 8vo.;--and his
_Adparatus Literarius ubi libri partim antiqui partim rari
recensentur_, Lipsiæ, 1755, three volumes 8vo., highly
gratified the curious in bibliography. In the former work
the books are described alphabetically, which perhaps is the
better plan: in the latter, they are differently arranged,
with an alphabetical index. The latter is perhaps the more
valuable of the two, although the former has long been a
great favourite with many; yet, from Freytag's own
confession, he was not then so knowing in books, and had not
inspected the whole of what he described. They are both
requisite to the collector; and their author, who was an
enthusiast in bibliography, ranks high in the literature of
his country. In the last place we may notice the
_Florilegium Historico-Criticum Librorum Rariorum, cui multa
simul scitu jucunda intersperguntur_, &c., of DANIEL GERDES;
first published at Groningen, in 1740; but afterwards in
1763, 8vo., at the same place, the third and best edition.
It was meant, in part, to supply the omission of some rare
books in Vogt: and under this title it was published in the
_Miscellaneæ Groninganæ_, vol. ii., and vol. iii. This work
of Gerdes should have a convenient place in every
bibliographical cabinet. I will close this attempt to supply
Lysander's omission of some very respectable names connected
with bibliography by exhorting the reader to seize hold of a
work (whenever it comes across him, which will be rarely)
entitled _Bibliotheca Librorum Rariorum Universalis_, by
JOHN JACOB BAUER, a bookseller at Nuremberg, and printed
there in 1770, 8vo., two vols.; with three additional
volumes by way of Supplement, 1774-1791, which latter are
usually bound in one. It is an alphabetical Dictionary, like
Vogt's and Fournier's, of what are called rare books. The
descriptions are compendious, and the references
respectable, and sometimes numerous. My copy of this scarce,
dear, and wretchedly-printed, work, which is as large and
clean as possible, and bound in pale Russia, with marbled
edges to the leaves--cost me 5_l._ 5_s._]
[Footnote 144: We are indebted to PIERRE SIMON FOURNIER le
jeune, for some very beautiful interesting little volumes
connected with engraving and printing. 1. _Dissertation sur
l'Origine et les Progrés de l'art de Graver en Bois, &c._,
Paris, 1758, 8vo. 2. _De l'Origine et des Productions de
l'Imprimerie primitive en taille de bois_, Paris, 1759, 8vo.
3. _Traité sur l'Origine et les Progrés de l'Imprimerie_,
Paris, 1764. 4. _Observations sur un Ouvrage intitulé
Vindiciæ Typographicæ_, Paris, 1760. These treatises are
sometimes bound in one volume. They are all elegantly
printed, and rare. We may also mention--5. _Epreuves de deux
petits caractères nouvellement gravès, &c._, Paris, 1757;
and especially his chef-d'oeuvre. 6. _Manuel
Typographique_, Paris, 1764-6, 8vo., two vols.: of which
some copies want a few of the cuts: those upon LARGE PAPER
(there is one of this kind in the Cracherode collections)
are of the first rarity. Fournier's typographical manual
should be in every printing office: his types "are the
models (says his namesake,) of those of the best printed
books at Paris at this day." _Dict. Port. de Bibliogr._, p.
218, edit. 1706.]
[Footnote 145: The _Origines Typographicæ_ of MEERMAN, which
was published at the Hague in two handsome quarto volumes,
1765, (after the plan or prospectus had been published in
1761, 8vo.), secured its author a very general and rather
splendid reputation, till the hypothesis advanced therein,
concerning Laurence Coster, was refuted by Heinecken. The
reader is referred to a note in the first volume of my new
edition of the _Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain_,
p. xxxi. It is somewhat singular that, notwithstanding
Meerman's hypothesis is now exploded by the most knowing
bibliographers, his dissertation concerning the claims of
Haerlem should have been reprinted in French, with useful
notes, and an increased catalogue of all the books published
in the Low Countries, during the 15th century. This latter
work is entitled "_De l'Invention de l'Imprimerie, ou
analyse des deux ouvrages publiés sur cette matière par M.
Meerman, &c.; suivi d'une notice chronologique et raisonnée
des livres avec et sans date_," Paris, 1809, 8vo. The author
is Mons. Jansen. Prefixed there is an interesting account,
of Meerman. Lysander might have noticed, with the encomium
which it justly merits the _Vindiciæ Typographicæ_ of
SCHOEPFLIN, printed at Strasburg, in 1760, 4to.; where the
claimes of Gutenburg (a native of the same city) to the
invention of the typographic art are very forcibly and
successfully maintained.]
LIS. You absolutely transport me! I see all these interesting busts--I
feel the delicious coolness of the grotto--I hear the stream running
over a bed of pebbles--The zephyrs play upon my cheeks--O dolt that I
was to abuse----
PHIL. Hear him, hear him![146]
[Footnote 146: Vide note at p. 37, ante.]
LYSAND. From my heart I pity and forgive you. But only look upon the
bust of DE BURE; and every time that you open his _Bibliographie
Instructive_,[147] confess, with a joyful heart, the obligations you
are under to the author of it. Learn, at the same time, to despise the
petty cavils of the whole Zoilean race; and blush for the Abbé
RIVE,[148] that he could lend his name, and give the weight of his
example, to the propagation of coarse and acrimonious censures.
[Footnote 147: The works of GUILLAUME-FRANÇOIS DE BURE
deserve a particular notice. He first published his _Musæum
Typographicum_, Paris, 1755, 12mo.; of which he printed but
TWELVE copies, and gave away every one of them (including
even his own) to his book-loving friends. It was published
under the name of G.F. Rebude. Peignot is very particular in
his information concerning this rare morçeau of
bibliography--see his _Bibliographie Curieuse_, p. 21.
Afterwards appeared the _Bibliographie Instructive_, in
seven volumes, 8vo., 1763-68--succeeded by a small volume of
a catalogue of the anonymous publications, and an essay upon
Bibliography: this 8th volume is absolutely necessary to
render the work complete, although it is frequently missing.
Fifty copies of this work were printed upon LARGE PAPER, of
a quarto size. Its merits are acknowledged by every candid
and experienced critic. In the third place, came forth his
_Catalogue des Livres, &c., de L.J. Gaignat, Paris_, 1769,
8vo., two vols.: not, however, before he had published two
brochures--"_Appel aux Savans_," _&c._, 1763, 8vo.--and
"_Reponse à une Critique de la Bibliographie Instructive_,"
1763, 8vo.--as replies to the tart attacks of the Abbé RIVE.
The Catalogue of Gaignat, and the fairness of his answers to
his adversary's censures, served to place De Bure on the
pinnacle of bibliographical reputation; while Rive was
suffered to fret and fume in unregarded seclusion. He died
in the year 1782, aged 50: and was succeeded in his
bibliographical labours by his cousin WILLIAM; who, with
Mons. Van-Praet, prepared the catalogue of the Duke de la
Valliere's library, in 1783, and published other valuable
catalogues as late as the year 1801. But both are eclipsed,
in regard to the _number_ of such publications, by their
predecessor GABRIEL MARTIN; who died in the year 1761, aged
83--after having compiled 148 catalogues since the year
1705. This latter was assisted in his labours by his son
Claude Martin, who died in 1788. See Peignot's _Dict. de
Bibliologie_, vol. i., 221, 422: vol iii., 277.]
[Footnote 148: The mention of De Bure and the Abbé RIVE
induces me to inform the reader that the _Chasse aux
Bibliographes_, Paris, 1789, 8vo., of the latter, will be
found a receptacle of almost every kind of gross abuse and
awkward wit which could be poured forth against the
respectable characters of the day. It has now become rare.
The Abbé's "_Notices calligraphiques et typographiques_," a
small tract of 16 pages--of which only 100 copies were
printed--is sufficiently curious; it formed the first number
of a series of intended volumes (12 or 15) "_des notices
calligraphiques de manuscrits des differens siécles, et des
notices typographiques de livres du quinziéme siécle_," but
the design was never carried into execution beyond this
first number. The other works of Rive are miscellaneous; but
chiefly upon subjects connected with the belles lettres. He
generally struck off but few copies of his publications; see
the _Bibliographie Curieuse_, pp. 58-9; and more
particularly the _Dictionnaire de Bibliologie_, vol. iii.,
p. 277, by the same author, where a minute list of Rive's
productions is given, and of which Fournier might have
availed himself in his new edition of the _Dict. Portatif de
Bibliographie_. From Peignot, the reader is presented with
the following anecdotes of this redoubted champion of
bibliography. When Rive was a young man, and curate of
Mollèges in Provence, the scandalous chronicle reported that
he was too intimate with a young and pretty Parisian, who
was a married woman, and whose husband did not fail to
reproach him accordingly. Rive made no other reply than that
of taking the suspicious Benedick in his arms, and throwing
him headlong out of the window. Luckily he fell upon a
dunghill! In the year 1789, upon a clergyman's complaining
to him of the inflexible determination of a great lord to
hunt upon his grounds--"_Mettez-lui une messe dans le
ventre_"--repiled [Transcriber's Note: replied] Rive. The
clergyman expressing his ignorance of the nature of the
advice given, the facetious Abbé replied, "Go and tear a
leaf from your _mass book_, wrap a musket-ball in it, and
discharge it at the tyrant." The Duke de la Valliere used to
say--when the knowing ones at his house were wrangling about
some literary or bibliographical point--"Gentlemen, I'll go
and let loose my bull dog,"--and sent into them the Abbé,
who speedily put them all to rights. Rive died in the year
1791, aged seventy-one. He had great parts and great
application; but in misapplying both he was his own
tormentor. His library was sold in 1793.]
Next to the bust of De Bure, consider those of the five Italian
bibliographers and literati, HAYM, FONTANINI, ZENO, MAZZUCHELLI, and
TIRABOSCHI; which are placed in the five consecutive niches. Their
works are of various merit, but are all superior to that of their
predecessor DONI. Although those of the first three authors should
find a place in every bibliographical collection, the productions of
Mazzuchelli,[149] and especially of the immortal Tiraboschi, cannot
fail to be admitted into every judicious library, whether vast or
confined. Italy boasts of few literary characters of a higher class,
or of a more widely-diffused reputation than TIRABOSCHI.[150] His
diligence, his sagacity, his candour, his constant and patriotic
exertions to do justice to the reputation of his countrymen, and to
rescue departed worth from ill-merited oblivion, assign to him an
exalted situation: a situation with the Poggios and Politians of
former times, in the everlasting temple of Fame! Bind his _Storia
della Letteratura Italiana_ in the choicest vellum, or in the stoutest
Russia; for it merits no mean covering!
[Footnote 149: We may first observe that "_La Libraria del_
DONI _Fiorentino_;" Vinegia, 1558, 8vo., is yet coveted by
collectors as the most complete and esteemed of all the
editions of this work. It is ornamented with many portraits
of authors, and is now rare. Consult _Bibl. Crevenn._, vol.
v., p. 275. Numerous are the editions of HAYM'S _Biblioteca
Italiana_; but those of Milan, of the date of 1771, 4to., 2
vols., and 1803, 8vo. 4 vols., are generally purchased by
the skilful in Italian bibliography. The best edition of
FONTANINI'S _Biblioteca dell' Eloquenza Italiana_ is with
the annotations of ZENO, which latter are distinguished for
their judgment and accuracy. It was published at Venice in
1753, 4to., 2 vols.; but it must be remembered that this
edition contains only the _third_ book of Fontanini, which
is a library of the principal Italian authors. All the three
books (the first two being a disquisition upon the orgin
[Transcriber's Note: origin] and progress of the Italian
language) will be found in the preceeding [Transcriber's
Note: preceding] Venice edition of 1737, in one volume 4to.
In the year 1753-63, came forth the incomparable but
unfinished work of COUNT MAZZUCHELLI, in two folio volumes,
[the latter vol. being divided into four thick parts]
entittled [Transcriber's Note: entitled]: _Gli Scrittori
d'Italia, cioé Notizie Storiche e Critiche intorno alle Vite
e agli Scritti dei Letterati Italiani_. The death of the
learned author prevented the publication of it beyond the
first two letters of the alphabet. The Count, however, left
behind ample materials for its execution according to the
original plan, which lay shamefully neglected as late as the
year 1776. See _Bibl. Crevenn._, vol. v., p. 274. This work
is rare in our own country. If the lover of Italian
philology wishes to increase his critico-literary stores,
let him purchase the _Biblioteca degli Autori Antichi Greci,
e Latini volgarizzati_, &c., of PAITONI, in five quarto
volumes, 1766: the _Notizie Istorico-Critiche &c., degli
Scrittori Viniziani_, [Transcriber's Note: corrected printer
error in original; 'degli' was misplaced on preceding line]
of AGOSTINI, Venez., 1752, 4to., 2 vols.: and the
_Letteratura Turchesca of_ GIAMBATISTA TODERINI, Venez.,
1787, 8vo., 3 vols.--works nearly perfect of their kind, and
(especially the latter one) full of curious matter.]
[Footnote 150: The best edition of his _Letteratura
Italiana_ is that of Modena, 1787-94, 4to., in fifteen
volumes, as it contains his last corrections and additions,
and has the advantage of a complete index. An excellent
account of the life and labours of its wonderful author
appeared in the fifth volume of the _Athenæum_, to the
perusal of which I strongly recommend the reader.]
The range of busts which occupies the opposite niches represents
characters of a more recent date. Let us begin with MERCIER;[151] a
man of extraordinary, and almost unequalled, knowledge in every thing
connected with bibliography and typography; of a quick apprehension,
tenacious memory, and correct judgment; who was more anxious to
detect errors in his own publications than in those of his fellow
labourers in the same pursuit; an enthusiast in typographical
researches--the Ulysses of bibliographers! Next to him stand the
interesting busts of SAXIUS and LAIRE;[152] the latter of whom has
frequently erred, but who merited not such a castigation as subsequent
bibliographers have attempted to bestow upon him: in the number of
which, one is sorry to rank the very respectable name of
AUDIFFREDI[153]--whose bust, you observe, immediately follows that of
Laire. Audiffredi has left behind him a most enviable reputation: that
of having examined libraries with a curious eye, and described the
various books which he saw with scrupulous fidelity. There are no
lively or interesting sallies, no highly-wrought, or tempting
descriptions--throughout his two quarto volumes: but, in lieu of this,
there is sober truth, and sound judgment. I have mentioned Audiffredi
a little out of order, merely because his name is closely connected
with that of Laire: but I should have first directed your attention to
the sagacious countenance of HEINECKEN;[154] whose work upon ancient
printing, and whose _Dictionary of Engravers_ (although with the
latter we have nothing just now to do) will never fail to be justly
appreciated by the collector. I regret, Lisardo, for your own sake--as
you are about to collect a few choice books upon typography--that you
will have so much to pay for the former work, owing to its extreme
rarity in this country, and to the injudicious phrenzy of a certain
class of buyers, who are resolved to purchase it at almost any price.
Let me not forget to notice, with the encomiums which they deserve,
the useful and carefully compiled works of SEEMILLER, BRAUN,
WURDTWEIN, DE MURR, ROSSI, and PANZER, whose busts are arranged in
progressive order. All these authors[155] are greatly eminent in the
several departments which they occupy; especially Panzer--whose
_Annales Typographici_, in regard to arrangement and fulness of
information, leaves the similar work of his precedessor, Maittaire,
far behind. It is unluckily printed upon wretched paper--but who
rejects the pine-apple from the roughness of its coat? Get ready the
wherry; man it with a choice bibliomanical crew, good Lisardo!--and
smuggle over in it, if you can, the precious works of these latter
bibliographers--for you may saunter "from rise to set of sun," from
Whitechapel to Hyde-Park Corner--for them--in vain!
[Footnote 151: Barthelemy, MERCIER DE ST. LEGER, died in the
year 1800, and in the sixty-sixth of his age, full of
reputation, and deeply regretted by those who knew the
delightful qualities of his head and heart. It is not my
intention to enumerate _all_ his publications, the titles of
which may be found in the _Siécles Littéraires_, vol. iv.,
p. 350: but, in the present place, I will only observe that
his "_Supplement à l'Histoire de l'Imprimerie, par P.
Marchand_," was first published in 1773, and afterwards in
1775, 4to., a rare and curious work; but little known in
this country. His _Bibliothéque des Romans, traduit de
Grec_, was published in 1796, 12 vols. 12mo. His letter
concerning De Bure's work, 1763, 8vo., betrayed some severe
animadversions upon the _Bibliogr. Instruct._: but he got a
similar flagellation in return, from the Abbé Rive, in his
_Chasse aux Bibliographes_--who held him and De Bure, and
all the bibliographical tribe, in sovereign contempt. His
letter to Heinecken upon the rare editions of the 15th
century, 1783, 8vo., and his other works, I never saw in any
collection. The imperial library at Paris purchased his copy
of Du Verdier's and La Croix du Maine's Bibliothéques,
covered with his marginal annotations, as well as his copy
of Clement's _Bibl. Curieuse_. Le Blond, member of the
Institute, obtained his copy of De Bure's _Bibliographie
Instructive_, also enriched with MS. notes. Mr. Ochéda, Lord
Spencer's librarian, who knew well the Abbé de St. Leger,
informed me that he left behind him ample materials for a
History of Printing, in a new edition of his Supplement to
Marchand's work, which he projected publishing, and which
had received from him innumerable additions and corrections.
"He was a man," says Mr. Ochéda, "the most conversant with
editions of books of all kinds, and with every thing
connected with typography and bibliography, that I ever
conversed with." The reader may consult Peignot's _Dict. de
Bibliologie_, vol. i., p. 452, vol. iii., p. 212.]
[Footnote 152: The _Onomasticon Literarium_ of CHRISTOPHER
SAXIUS, _Traject. ad Rhenum_, 1775-90, seven vols. 8vo.,
with a supplement, or eighth volume, published in 1803, is
considered as a work of the very first reputation in its
way. The notices of eminent men are compendious, but
accurate; and the arrangement is at once lucid and new. An
elegantly bound copy of this scarce work cannot be obtained
for less than six and seven guineas. The first
bibliographical production of the Abbé LAIRE was, I believe,
the _Specimen Historicum Typographiæ Romanæ, xv. seculi,
Romæ_, 1778, large 8vo.; of which work, a copy printed UPON
VELLUM (perhaps unique) was sold at the sale of M.
d'Hangard, in 1789, for 300 livres. _Dictionn. Bibliogr._,
vol. iv., p. 250. In my Introduction, &c., to the Greek and
Latin Classics, some account of its intrinsic merit will be
found: vol. i., p. xviii. In the year 1784 Laire published a
"_Dissertation sur l'origine et Progrès de l'Imprimerie en
Franche-Comté_," 8vo.; and, in the year 1791, came forth his
Catalogue Raisonné of the early printed books in the library
of Cardinal de Lomenie de Brienne; under the title of
"_Index Librorum ab Inventa Typographia, ad annum 1500_," in
two octavo volumes. See the article "LOMENIE," in the list
of foreign catalogues, post. Laire was also the author of a
few other minor bibliographical productions. All the books
in his library, relating to this subject, were covered with
marginal notes; some of them very curious. See Peignot's
_Dict. de Bibliologie_, vol. i., p. 330: and _Les Siecles
Littéraires_, (1801, 8vo.) vol. iv., p. 75.]
[Footnote 153: The works and the merits of AUDIFFREDI have
been before submitted by me to the public; and Mr. Beloe, in
the third volume of his "_Anecdotes of Literature_," &c.,
has justly observed upon the latter. In Lord Spencer's
magnificent library at Althorpe, I saw a copy of the
"_Editiones Italicæ_," sec. xv., 1793, 4to., upon LARGE
PAPER. It is much to be wished that some knowing
bibliographer upon the Continent would complete this
unfinished work of Audiffredi. His _Editiones Romanæ_, sec.
xv., 1783, 4to., is one of the most perfect works of
bibliography extant: yet Laire's "_Index Librorum_," &c.
(see preceeding note), is necessary to supply the omission
of some early books printed at Rome, which had escaped even
this keen bibliographer!]
[Footnote 154: HEINECKEN'S name stands deservedly high
(notwithstanding his tediousness and want of taste) among
bibliographical and typographical antiquaries. Of his
"_Nachrichten von Kunstlern und Kunst-Sachen_," Leipzig,
1768, 8vo., two vols., (being "New Memoirs upon Artists and
the objects of Art"--and which is frequently referred to by
foreigners,) I never saw a copy. It was again published in
1786. His "_Idée Générale d'une Collection complette
d'Estampes_," &c., Leips., 1771, 8vo., is a most curious and
entertaining book; but unconscionably dear in this country.
His "_Dictionnaire des Artistes dont nous avons des
Estampes_," &c., Leips. 1778, 8vo., four vols., is an
unfinished performance, but remarkably minute as far as it
goes. The remainder, written in the German language,
continues in MS. in the Electorate library at Dresden,
forming twelve volumes. Of the character of Heinecken's
latter work, consult Huber's _Manuel, &c., des Amateurs de
l'Art_, Zurich, 1797, 8vo.: and a recent work entitled
"_Notices des Graveurs_," Paris, 1804, 8vo., two vols.
Heinecken died at the advanced age of eighty.]
[Footnote 155: We will discuss their works _seriatim_, as
Lisardo has said above. SEEMILLER'S _Bibliothecæ
Incolstadiensis Incunabula Typographica_, contains four
parts, or fasciculi: they are bound in one volume, quarto,
1787, &c.; but, unfortunately for those who love curious and
carefully executed works, it is rather rare in this country.
The _Notitia Historico-Critica de libris ab art typog.
invent._, by PLACID BRAUN, in two parts, or volumes, 1788,
4to., with curious plates, has long been a desideratum in my
own collection; and my friend Mr. Beloe, who is luckily in
possession of a copy, enjoys his triumph over me when he
discovers it not in my bibliographical boudoir. The same
author also published his "_Notitia Historico-Literaria de
cod. MSS. in Bibl. Monast. ord. S. Bened. ad SS. Vidal. et
Afram Augustæ ex tantibus_," Aug. Vindel., 1791, 4to., two
vols. _Cat. de Santander_, vol. iv., p. 170. I know not how
any well versed bibliographer can do without the
"_Bibliotheca Moguntina libris sæculo primo Tpyographico
[Transcriber's Note: Typographico] Moguntiæ impressis
instructa_;" 1787, 4to., of WURDTWEIN. It has some curious
plates of fac-similes, and is rarely seen in the Strand or
King-street book-markets.----C.T. DE MURR published a work
of some interest, entitled, "_Memorabilia Bibliothecarum
Publicarum Norimbergensium_," Norimb., 1786-91, three parts
or vols. 8vo.; which is also rare.----ROSSI'S valuable work
concerning the annals of Hebrew typography: _Annales
Hebræo-Typographici, à 1475, ad 1540_, Parmæ, 1795, 1799,
4to., two separate publications, is prettily printed by
Bodoni, and is an indispensable article in the collection of
the typographical antiquary. See the _Dict. de Bibliologie_,
vol. iii., p. 286.----PANZER'S _Annales Typographici_, in
eleven quarto volumes (1793-1803) is a work of the very
first importance to bibliographers. Its arrangement, after
the manner of Orlandi's, is clear and most convenient; and
the references to authorities, which are innumerable, are,
upon the whole, very faithful. The indexes are copious and
satisfactory. This work (of which I hear there are only
three copies upon LARGE PAPER) contains an account of books
which were printed in all parts of Europe from the year
1457, to 1536, inclusive; but it should be remembered that
the author published a distinct work in the year 1788, 4to.,
relating to books which were printed, within the same
period, in the _German Language_; and this should always
accompany the eleven Latin volumes. I will just add from it,
as a curiosity, the title and colophon (translated into
English) of the first printed book in the German
language:--"THE PUBLICATION OF DIETHERS, ELECTOR OF MAYENCE,
AGAINST COUNT ADOLPHUS OF NASSAU; _given out under our
impressed seal on Tuesday, after the fourth Sunday in
Advent, anno Domini 1462_." Consult also Wurdtwein's _Bibl.
Mogunt._, p. 80; and the authorities there referred to. It
seems doubtful whether this curious little brochure, of
which scarcely any thing more than a fragment now remains,
was printed by Fust and Schoeffer, or by Gutenberg.]
What countenances are those which beam with so much quiet, but
interesting, expression? They are the resemblances of DENIS and
CAMUS:[156] the former of whom is better known from his _Annalium
Typographicorum Maittaire Supplementum_; and the latter very generally
respected abroad, although our acquaintance with him in this country
is exceedingly slight. If I mistake not, I observe the mild and modest
countenance of my old acquaintance, HERBERT, in this bibliographical
group of heads? Do not despise his toil[157] because it is not
sprinkled with gay conceits, or learned digressions: he wrote to be
useful, not to be entertaining; and so far as he went, his work was
such an improvement upon his predecessor's plan as to place it quite
at the head of NATIONAL TYPOGRAPHY. See yonder the sensible
countenance of HARWOOD![158] the first writer in this country who
taught us to consider the respective merits and demerits of the
various editions of Greek and Latin authors.
[Footnote 156: MICHAEL DENIS, the translator of Ossian, and
a bibliographer of justly established eminence, was
principal librarian of the Imperial library at Vienna, and
died in the year 1800, at the age of 71. His _Supplement to
Maittaire's Typographical Annals_, in two parts or volumes,
1789, 4to., is a work of solid merit, and indispensable to
the possessor of its precursor. The bibliographical
references are very few; but the descriptions of the volumes
are minutely accurate. The indexes also are excellent. In
the year 1793, Denis published the first volume (in three
thick parts in folio) of his _Codices Manuscripti Theologici
Bibl. Palat. Vindob._; a production which the reader will
find somewhat fully described in the ensuing pages. The
second volume appeared after his death in 1801. In 1795-6,
came forth his second edition of an _Introduction to the
Knowledge of Books_, in two quarto volumes; unfortunately
written in the German language--but mentioned with
approbation in the first volume of the _Mem. de l'Inst._, p.
648. Consult also Peignot's _Dict. de Bibliologie_, vol. i.,
p. 122; ii., 232.----ARMAND GASTON CAMUS is a bibliographer
of very first rate reputation. The reader has only to peruse
the following titles of some of his works, and he will
certainly bewail his ill fortune if they are not to be found
in his library. 1. _Observations sur la distribution et le
classement des livres d'une Bibliothéque_: 2. _Additions aux
mêmes_; 3. _Memoire sur un livre Allemand_ (which is the
famous TEWRDANNCKHS; and about which is to be hoped that Mr.
Douce will one day favour us with his curious remarks): 4.
_Addition au même_: 5. _Memoire sur l'histoire et les
procédés du Polytypage et de la Stéréotypie_: 6. _Rapport
sur la continuation de la Collection des Historiens de
France, et de celle des Chartres et Diplomes_: 7. _Notice
d'un livre imprimé à Bamberg en 1462_. All these works are
thus strung together, because they occur in the first three
volumes of the _Memoires de l'Institut_. This curious book,
printed at Bamberg, was discovered by a German clergyman of
the name of Stenier, and was first described by him in the
_Magasin Hist.-Litt., bibliogr._ Chemintz, 1792: but Camus's
memoir is replete with curious matter, and is illustrated
with fac-simile cuts. In the "_Notices et Extraits des MSS.
de la Bibl. Nationale_," vol. vi., p. 106, will be found a
most interesting memoir by him, relating to two ancient
manuscript bibles, in two volumes folio, adorned with a
profusion of pictures: of some of which very elegant
fac-similes are given. These pictures are 5152 in number!
each of them having a Latin and French verse beautifully
written and illuminated beneath.--Camus supposes that such a
work could not now be executed under 100,000 francs!--"Where
(exclaims he) shall we find such modern specimens of
book-luxury?" In the year 1802, he published an admirable
"_Mémoire sur la collection des grands et petits voyages, et
sur la Collection des Voyages des Melchesedech Thevenot_,"
4to., with an excellent "Table des Matières." Of his own
journey into the Low Countries, recently published, I never
met with a copy. All the preceding works, with the exception
of the last, are in my own humble collection.]
[Footnote 157: A short bibliographical memoir of HERBERT
will be found in the first volume of my edition of the
_Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain_. Since that was
published, I have gleaned a few further particulars relating
to him, which may be acceptable to the reader. Shortly after
the appearance of his third volume, he thus speaks in a
letter to Mr. Price, librarian of the Bodleian library, "If
at any time you meet with any book of which I have not taken
notice, or made any mistake in the description of it, your
kind information will be esteemed a favour; as I purpose to
continue collecting materials for a future publication, when
enough shall be collected to make another volume." This was
in April, 1790. In the ensuing month he thus addresses his
old friend Mr. White, of Crickhowell, who, with himself, was
desperately addicted to the black-letter. "To morrow my wife
and self set out for Norfolk to take a little relaxation for
about a fortnight. I hope my labours will in some good
measure answer the expectation of my friends and subscribers
in general. Sure I am my best endeavours have been exerted
for that purpose. I have been 24 years collecting materials;
have spent many a fair pound, and many a weary hour; and it
is now ten years since the first part was committed to the
press. I purpose to continue collecting materials in order
to a fourth volume, &c.;--yet by no means will I make myself
debtor to the public when to publish: if it shall please God
to take me to himself, Isaac will in due time set it forth.
However I shall keep an interleaved copy for the purpose."
In a letter to a Mr. John Banger Russell (in Dorsetshire),
written in the ensuing month of June, the same sentiments
and the same intention are avowed. Thus ardent was the
bibliomaniacal spirit of Herbert in his 72d year! The
_interleaved copy_ here alluded to (which was bound in six
volumes 4to., in Russia binding, and for which Mr. Gough had
given Herbert's widow 52_l._ 10_s._) is now in my
possession; as well as the yet more valuable acquisition of
some numerous MS. addenda to his History of Printing--both
of these articles having been purchased by me at the sale of
Mr. Gough's MSS. and printed books, A.D. 1810.]
[Footnote 158: Dr. EDWARD HARWOOD published the fourth and
last edition of his "_View of the various editions of the
Greek and Roman Classics_," in the year 1790, 8vo. A work
which, in the public estimation, has entitled its author's
memory to very considerable respect in the classical world;
although the late Professor Porson, in the fly leaf of a
copy of my second edition of a similar publication, was
pleased to call the Doctor by a name rather unusually harsh
with _him_, who was "Criticus et lenis et acutus;" censuring
also my dependance upon my predecessor. In the year 1808,
was published my third edition of "_An introduction to the
knowledge of rare and valuable editions of the Greek and
Latin Classics_," two volumes 8vo.: in which, if I may
presume to talk of anything so insignificant, I have
endeavoured to exhibit the opinions--not of Dr. Harwood
alone, but of the most eminent foreign critics and
editors--upon the numerous editions which, in a
chronological series, are brought before the reader's
attention. The remarks of the first bibliographers in Europe
are also, for the first time in a English publication,
subjoined; so that the lover of curious, as well as of
valuable, editions may be equally gratified. The
authorities, exceedingly numerous as well as respectable,
are referred to in a manner the most unostentatious; and a
full measure of text, and to be really useful, was my design
from the beginning to the end of it. To write a long and
dull homily about its imperfections would be gross
affectation. An extensive sale has satisfied my publishers
that its merit a little counterbalances its defects.]
LIS. You are, no doubt, a fond and partial critic in regard to the
works of Herbert and Harwood: but I am glad to recognise my fellow
countrymen in such an illustrious assemblage. Go on.
LYSAND. We are just at the close. But a few more busts, and those very
recently executed, remain to be noticed. These are the resemblances of
LA SERNA SANTANDER, CAILLEAU, and OBERLIN;[159] while several vacant
niches remain to be filled up with the busts of more modern
bibliographers of eminence: namely, of VAN-PRAET, FISCHER, LAMBINET,
RENOUARD, PEIGNOT, FOURNIER, BARBIER, BOUCHER, and BRUNET.[160]
[Footnote 159: DE LA SERNA SANTANDER will always hold a
distinguished place amongst bibliographers, not only from
the care and attention with which he put forth the catalogue
of his own books--the parting from which must have gone near
to break his heart--but from his elegant and useful work
entitled, "_Dictionnaire Bibliographique choisi du quinzieme
Siécle_," 1805, &c., 8vo., in three parts or volumes. His
summary of researches, upon the invention of printing, Mr.
Edwards told me, he read "with complete satisfaction"--this
occupies the first part or volume. The remaining volumes
form a necessary, as well as brilliant, supplement to De
Bure. Just at this moment, I believe that Mr. Beloe's, and
my own, copy of the work, are the only ones in this
country.----CAILLEAU has the credit of being author of the
_Dictionnaire Bibliographique_, &c., in three volumes,
octavo, 1790--of which there are a sufficient number of
counterfeited and faulty re-impressions; but which, after
all, in its original shape, edit. 1790, is not free from
gross errors; however useful it is in many respects. I
suspect, however, that the Abbé DUCLOS had the greater share
in this publication: but, be this as it may, the fourth
supplemental volume (by the younger Brunet) is, in every
respect, a more accurate and valuable performance. OBERLIN,
librarian of the central school or college at Strasbourg, is
author of a bibliographical treatise particularly deserving
of the antiquary's attention: namely, _Essai d'annales de la
vie de Jean Gutenburg [Transcriber's Note: Gutenberg], &c._,
Stasb. [Transcriber's Note: Strasb.], an. ix., 8vo. His
other numerous (belles-lettres) works are minutely specified
by Peignot in his _Dict. de Bibliologie_, vol. iii., p. 230.
His edition of Horace, Argent., 1788, 4to., is both elegant
and correct.]
[Footnote 160: Let us go quietly through the modern French
school of bibliography.----Mons. JOSEPH VAN-PRAET is
principal librarian of the Imperial collection at Paris, and
is justly called, by some of his fellow-labourers in the
same career, "one of the first bibliographers in Europe." He
is known to me, as a bibliographical writer, only by the
part which he took, and so ably executed, in the Valliere
catalogue of 1783. Peignot informs us that M. Van-Praet is
now busy in composing a little work--which I am sure will
rejoice the hearts of all true bibliomaniacs to be apprised
of--called a _Catalogue raisonné_ of books PRINTED UPON
VELLUM; for which he has already prepared not fewer than
2000 articles! See the _Curiosités Bibliogr._, p. iij. Among
these VELLUM articles, gentle reader, I assure thee that
thine eyes will be blest with the description of "THE SHYP
OF FOOLES," printed by Pynson, 1509! The urbanity and
politeness of this distinguished librarian are equal to his
knowledge.----GOTTHELF FISCHER, a Saxon by birth, and
librarian of the public collection at Mentz, has given us
the following interesting treatises, of which, I believe,
not five copies are to be found in this country:
namely--_Essai sur les Monumens Typographiques de Jean
Gutenberg, &c._, an. x. [1801], 4to.: and _Descriptions de
raretés typographiques et de Manuscrits remarquables, &c._,
Nuremb., 1801, 8vo.--the latter is in the German language,
and has cuts--with a portrait of Fust. By this time, the
work has most probably been translated into French, as it is
frequently referred to and highly spoken of by foreigners.
Peignot [_Dict. de Bibliologie_, vol. iii., p. 128] refers
us to the fine eulogy pronounced upon Fisher [Transcriber's
Note: Fischer] (not yet 40 years of age) by Camus, in his
"Voyage dans les departemens réunis," p. 12.----LAMBINET
will always be remembered and respected, as long as printing
and bibliography shall be studied, by his "_Recherches
Historiques Littéraires et Critiques, sur l'Originè de
L'Imprimerie; particulièrement sur les premiers
établissemens au_ XVme _siécle dans la Belgique_," &c.,
Brux., an. vii. (1798), 8vo. It is, indeed, a very
satisfactory performance: the result of judgment and
taste--rare union!----In like manner, RENOUARD has procured
for himself a bibliographical immortality by his _Annales de
l'Imprimerie des Aide_, 1803, 8vo., two vols.: a work almost
perfect of its kind, and by many degrees superior to
Bandini's dry _Annales Typog. Juntarum._, Lucæ, 1761. In
Renouard's taste, accuracy and interest are delightfully
combined; and the work is printed with unrivalled beauty.
There were only six copies of it printed upon LARGE PAPER;
one of which I saw in the fine collection of the Rt. Hon. T.
Grenville.----Few modern bibliographers have displayed so
much diligence as GABRIEL PEIGNOT: from whom we have, 1.
_Dictionnaire Raisonné de Bibliologie_, Paris, 1802, 8vo.,
two vols., with a third, by way of supplement (1804). With
necessary corrections and additions, this work would answer
many useful purposes in an English translation. 2. _Essai de
Curiosités Bibliographiques_, 1804, 8vo. This is a very
amusing (but scarce and unconscionably dear) book. It
contains elaborate descriptions of many curious and
sumptuous works, which were sold for 1000 and more livres at
public sales. 3. _Dictionnaire, &c., des principaux livres
condamnés au feu, supprimés ou censurés_, Paris, 1806, 8vo.,
2 vols. The very title of such a work must sharpen the edge
of curiosity with those bibliomaniacs who have never seen
it. 4. _Bibliographie Curieuse, ou Notice Raisonnée des
livres imprimés a cent exemplaires au plus, suivie d'une
notice de quelques ouvrages tirés sur papier de couleur_,
Paris, 1808, 8vo. Only one hundred copies of this thin
volume were struck off: of which I possess the 86th copy,
according to Peignot's notification. Indeed I am fortunate
in having all his preceding works. Let us wish long life and
never-failing success to so brave a book-chevalier as
Gabriel Peignot.----FRANÇOIS IGNACE FOURNIER, at 18 years of
age, published an elegantly printed little volume, entitled
_Essai Portatif de Bibliographie_, 1796, 8vo., of which only
26 copies were struck off. In the year 1805, this essay
assumed the form of a Dictionary, and appeared under the
title of _Dictionnaire portatif de Bibliographie, &c._,
8vo., comprising 17,000 articles, printed in a very small
character. Last year, in the month of May, Fournier put
forth a new edition of this _Dictionnaire_, considerably
augmented; but in which (such is the fate of bibliographical
studies) notwithstanding all the care of the author, Brunet
tells us that he has discovered not fewer than five hundred
errors! Let not Fournier, however be discouraged; in a few
years he will achieve something yet more worthy of his
laudable seal in bibliography.----ANTOINE-ALEXANDRE BARBIER,
librarian of the Council of State, has favoured us with an
admirably well executed work, entitled _Dictionnaire des
Ouvrages Anonymes et Pseudonymes, composés, traduits ou
publiés en Français, &c., accompagneé de notes historiques
et critiques_, Paris, _Imprimis Bibliogr._, 1806, 8vo., two
vols. See also art. "Conseil d'Etat," in the list of French
Catalogues, post. From these the reader will judge of the
warm thanks to which this eminent bibliographer is entitled
for his very useful labours.----G. BOUCHER de la Richarderie
has, in an especial manner, distinguished himself by his
_Bibliothéque Universelle des Voyages_, Paris, 1808, 8vo.,
six vols.: a work executed with care, minuteness, and
considerable interest. Some of its extracts are, perhaps,
unnecessarily long. The index to the sixth volume will lead
the reader to consult an account of some of the most
ancient, rare, and curious publications of voyages which
have ever appeared: and Boucher "has deserved well" of the
book world by this truly valuable and almost indispensable
performance.----BRUNET Le Fils. This able writer, and
enthusiastic devotee to bibliography, has recently published
an excellent and copious work which would appear greatly to
eclipse Fournier's; entitled "_Manuel du Libraire et de
l'Amateur de Livres, contenant, 1. Un Nouveau Dictionnaire
Bibliographigue, 2. Une Table en forme de Catalogue
Raisonnée_," Paris, 1810, 8vo., 3 vols.: in which he tells us
he has devoted at least thirty years to the examination of
books. The first two volumes form a scientific arrangement:
the latter is an alphabetical one, referring to one or the
other of the preceding volumes for a more copious account of
the work. It must be confessed that Brunet has, in this
publication, executed a difficult task with great ability.]
LIS. I am quite anxious to possess the publications of these moderns:
but you say nothing of their comparative value with the ancients.
LYSAND. Generally speaking, in regard to discoveries of rare books and
typographical curiosities, the moderns have the advantage. They have
made more rational conclusions, from data which had escaped their
predecessors: and the sparkling and animated manner in which they
dress out the particular objects that they describe renders the
perusal of their works more pleasant and gratifying. I am not sure
that they have the learning of the old school: but their works are, in
general, less ponderous and repulsive. The ancient bibliographers were
probably too anxious to describe every thing, however minute and
unimportant: they thought it better to say too much than too little;
and, finding the great mass of readers in former times, uninstructed
in these particular pursuits, they thought they could never exhaust a
subject by bringing to bear upon it every point, however remotely
connected! They found the plain, it is true, parched and sandy; but
they were not satisfied with pouring water upon it, 'till they had
converted it into a deluge.[161]
[Footnote 161: What Denis says, in the preface to his
_Catalog. Cod. MSS. Bibl. Palat. Vindob._ (of which see p.
65, ante) is very just; "media incedendum via; neque nudis
codicum titulis, ut quibusdam bibliothecis placuit, in
chartam conjectis provehi multum studia, neque _doctis, quæ
superioris seculi fuit intemperantia, ambagibus et
excursibus_."--This is certainly descriptive of the OLD
SCHOOL of bibliography.]
LIS. Let me ask you, at this stage of our inquiries, what you mean by
bibliographical publications?--and whether the works of those authors
which you have enumerated are sufficient to enable a novice, like
myself, to have pretty accurate notions about the rarity and intrinsic
value of certain works?
LYSAND. By bibliographical publications, I mean such works as give us
some knowledge of the literary productions, as well as of the life,
of certain learned men; which state the various and the best editions
of their lucubrations; and which stimulate us to get possession of
these editions. Every biographical narrative which is enriched with
the mention of curious and rare editions of certain works is, to a
great extent, a bibliographical publication. Those works which treat
professedly upon books are, of course, immediately within the pale of
bibliography.
LIS. But am I to be satisfied with the possession of those works
already recommended?
PHIL. I suppose Lisardo has heard of certain valuable CATALOGUES, and
he wishes to know how far the possession of these may be requisite in
order to make him a bibliographer?
LYSAND. At present I will say nothing about the catalogues of the
collections of our own countrymen. As we have been travelling
principally abroad, we may direct our attention to those which relate
to foreign collections.
And first, let us pay a due tribute of praise to the published
Catalogues of Libraries collected by the JESUITS: men of shrewd
talents and unabating research, and in derogation of whose merits
Voltaire and D'Alembert disgraced themselves by scribbling the most
contemptible lampoons. The downfall of this society led, not very
indirectly, to the destruction of the ancient French monarchy. Men
seemed to forget that while the most shameless depredations were
committed within the libraries of the Jesuits, the cause of learning,
as well as of liberty, suffered,--and the spoils which have glittered
before our eyes, as the precious relics of these collections, serve to
afford a melancholy proof how little those men stick at any thing who,
in raising the war-whoop of liberty and equality, tear open the very
bowels of order, tranquillity, peace, and decorum! But, to the
subject. Let the catalogues of PUBLIC COLLECTIONS, when they are well
arranged, be received into your library. Of foreign PRIVATE
COLLECTIONS, the catalogues[162] of DU FRESNE, CORDES, HEINSIAS,
BALUZE, COLBERT, ROTHELIN, DE BOZE, PREFOND, POMPADOUR, GAIGNAT,
GOUTTARD, BUNAU, SOUBISE, LA VALLIERE, CREVENNA, LAMOIGNON, and of
several other collections, with which my memory does not just now
serve me, will enable you to form a pretty correct estimate of the
_marketable value_ of certain rare and sumptuous publications.
Catalogues are, to bibliographers, what _Reports_ are to lawyers: not
to be read through from beginning to end--but to be consulted on
doubtful points, and in litigated cases. Nor must you, after all,
place too strong a reliance upon the present prices of books, from
what they have produced at former sales; as nothing is more
capricious and unsettled than the value of books at a public auction.
But, in regard to these catalogues, if you should be fortunate enough
to possess any which are printed upon _Large Paper, with the Names of
the Purchasers, and the Prices_ for which each set of books was sold,
thrice and four times happy may you account yourself to be, my good
Lisardo!
[Footnote 162: As it would have required more breath than
usually falls to the lot of an individual, for Lysander to
have given even a rough sketch of the merits, demerits, and
rarity of certain foreign catalogues of public and private
collections--in his discourse with his friends--I have
ventured to supply the deficiency by subjoining, in the
ensuing _tolerably copious_ note, a list of these
catalogues, alphabetically arranged; as being, perhaps, the
most convenient and acceptable plan. Such an attempt is
quite novel; and must be received, therefore, with many
grains of allowance. Although I am in possession of the
greater number (at least of two thirds) of the catalogues
described, I am aware that, in regard to the description of
those not in my own library, I subject myself to the lash of
P. Morhof. "Inepti sunt, qui librorum catalogos scribunt e
catalogis. Oculata fides et judicium præsens requiritur."
_Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., 230. But the weight of my
authorities will, I trust, secure me from any great violence
of critical indignation. To render so dry a subject (the
very "_Hortus Siccus_" of bibliography) somewhat palatable,
I have here and there besprinkled it with biographical
anecdotes of the collectors, and of the state of French
literature in the last century and a half.----D'AGUESSEAU.
_Catalogue des Livres Imprimés et Manuscrits de la
Bibliothéque de feu Monsieur D'Aguesseau_, &c., Paris, 1785,
8vo. "Anxious to enrich his collection, (says the compiler
of this catalogue) the Bibliomaniac sees with delight the
moment arrive when, by the sale of a library like this, he
may add to his precious stores. It is, in truth, a grand
collection; especially of history, arts, and sciences, and
jurisprudence. The famous Chancellor D'Aguesseau laid the
foundation of this library, which was as universal as his
own genius." It would appear that the son, to whom the
collection latterly belonged, was gracious in the extreme in
the loan of books; and that, in consequence, a public
advertisement was inserted at the foot of the "Avis
preliminaire," to entreat those, who had profited by such
kindness, to return their borrowed (shall I say stolen?)
goods? For want of these volumes, many sets of books were
miserably defective.----ANONYMIANA. _Catalogus Bibliothecæ
Anonymianæ, in quo libri rariores recensentur, una cum notis
litterariis_, Norimb., 1738, 8vo. This is a catalogue of
value, and may be well ranged with its brethren upon the
bibliographer's shelf. Another "_Bibliotheca Anonymiana_,"
was published ten years preceding the present one; at the
Hague, in three parts, one vol., 8vo.: which, in the _Bibl.
Solger._, vol iii., no. 1388, is said to contain many
rare books: see also no. 1370, _ibid._----D'ARTOIS.
_Catalogue des Livres du Cabinet de Monseigneur Le Compte
D'Artois_, Paris, 1783, 8vo. Very few copies of this
catalogue, which is printed in a wide octavo page,
resembling that of a quarto, were struck off: according to
Fournier's _Dict. Portat. de Bibliogr._, p. 120, edit. 1809.
See also _Cat. de Boutourlin_, no. 3876.----AUGUSTANA.
_Catalogus Bibliothecæ inclytæ Reipubl. Augustanæ utriusque
linguæ tum Græcæ tum Latinæ librorum et impressorum et manu
exaratorum._ Aug. Vindel., 1600, fol. Morhof informs us that
this catalogue, of which Hoeschelius was the compiler,
contains an account of some manuscripts which have never
been printed, as well as of some which Marcus Velserus
published. It is, moreover, full of precious bibliographical
matter; but unfortunately (the possessor of it may think
otherwise) only ONE HUNDRED COPIES were struck off.
_Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., 211. I find, however, some
little difficulty about distinguishing this catalogue of the
Augsbourg library from the impression of 1633, fol., which
Vogt mentions at p. 323, and of which he also talks of 100
copies being printed. It should not be forgotten that
Hoeschelius published an admirable catalogue of the Greek
MSS. in the library of Augsbourg, 1595, and again 1605, in
4to. Colomiés pronounces it a model in its way. _Bibl.
Choisie_, p. 194-5. The catalogue of the Greek MSS. in the
library of the Duke of Bavaria, at Munich, was published
about the same period; namely, in 1602: the compiler was a
skilful man, but he tells us, at the head of the catalogue,
that the MSS. were open to the inspection of every one who
had any work in hand, provided he were a _Roman Catholic_!
This was being very kind to protestants! _Jugemens des
Savans_, vol. ii., part i., p. 215, edit. 1725. See also
Vogt's _Catalog. Libror. Rarior._, p. 232.----AUGUSTANA.
_Notitia historica-literaria de libris ab artis typographicæ
inventione usque ad annum, 1478, impressis, in Bibliotheca
Monasterii ad SS. Udalricum et Afram Augustæ extantibus._
August, Vindel, 1788, 4to. This volume, which I have no
doubt would gratify the curious bibliographer, it has never
been my good fortune to meet with. It is here introduced
upon the authority of the _Cat. du Cardinal de Loménie_,
no. 2647: ed. 1797. I ought not to close this account of
the Augsbourg catalogues of books, without remarking, on the
authority of Reimannus, that the _first_ published catalogue
of books is that which Villerius, a bookseller at Augsburg,
put forth in the year 1564. See the _Bibl. Acroam._, p.
5.----AURIVILLIUS. _Catalogus Bibliothecæ quam collegerat
Carolus Aurivillius_, sectio [Transcriber's Note: section]
i. and ii., Upsal, 1787, 8vo. This catalogue contains a
plentiful sprinkling of short literary and bibliographical
notes; according to _Bibl. Krohn_, p. 256, no.
3582.----BADENHAUPT. _Bibliotheca selectissima; sive
Catalogus librorum magnam partem philologicorum, quos inter
eminent. Auctores Græci et Romani classica quos collegit
E.F. Badenhaupt_, Berol, 1773, 8vo. The pithy
bibliographical notes which are here and there scattered
throughout this catalogue, render it of estimation in the
opinion of the curious.----BALUZE. _Bibliotheca Balusiana;
seu catalogus librorum bibliothecæ D.S. Baluzii, A. Gab.
Martin_, Paris, 1719, 8vo., two vols. Let any enlightened
bibliographers read the eulogy upon the venerable Baluze
(who died in his eighty-eighth year, and who was the great
Colbert's librarian), in the preface of the _Bibl.
Colbertina_ (vide post), and in the _Dict. Hist._ (Caen,
1789, vol. i., p. 443-4), and he will not hesitate a moment
about the propriety of giving this volume a conspicuous
place upon his shelf. From the _Bibl. Mencken_, p. 10, it
would appear that a third volume, containing translations of
some MSS. in the royal library, is wanting to make this
catalogue complete. This third volume is
uncommon.----BARBERINI. _Index Bibliothecæ Francisci
Barberini Cardinalis. Romæ, Typis Barberinis_, 1681, fol.,
three vols. in two. The widely spread celebrity of Cardinal
Barberini suffers no diminution from this publication of the
riches contained within his library. The authors are
arranged alphabetically, and not according to classes.
Although it be not the most luminous in its arrangement, or
the most accurate in its execution, this finely printed
catalogue will never remain long upon a bookseller's shelf
without a purchaser. It were much to be desired that our own
noblemen, who have fine collections of books, would put
forth (after the example of Cardinal Barberini) similar
publications.----BARTHELEMY. _Catalogue des Livres de la
Bibliothéque de M. l'Abbé Barthelemy, par M. Bernard_, 1800,
8vo. The high reputation of the owner of this collection
will always secure purchasers for this catalogue of useful
and interesting books.----BIBLIOGRAPHIE _des Pays Bas, avec
quelques notes. Nyon, en Suisse_, 1783, 4to. Only fifty
copies of this work were printed. It is a pity that Peignot,
who gives us this information, does not accompany it with
some account of the nature and merits of the work--which
probably grew out of the _Histoire Littéraire des Pays
Blas_, 1725, in three folio volumes. _Bibl. Curieuse_, p.
10.----BODLEIAN. _Catalog. Libr. Bibl. Publ., &c., in Acad.
Oxon._, 1605, 4to. _Catal. Libr. Impr._, 1674, fol.
_Catalogi Libror. MSS. Angl. et Hibern._, 1697, fol.
_Catalogus Impress. Libror. Bibl. Bodl._, 1733, fol., two
vols. Although none but catalogues of foreign public and
private collections were intended to be noticed in this
list, the reader will forgive a little violation of the rule
laid down by myself, if I briefly observe upon the
catalogues of the Bodleian library and the British Museum.
[For the latter, vide 'MUSEUM.'] The first of these Bodleian
catalogues contains an account of the MSS. It was prepared
by Dr. James, the editor of the Philobiblion of De Bury
(vide p. 30, ante), and, as it was the first attempt to
reduce to "lucid order" the indigested pile of MSS.
contained in the library, its imperfections must be
forgiven. It was afterwards improved, as well as enlarged,
in the folio edition of 1697, by Bernard; which contains the
MSS. subsequently bequeathed to the library by Selden,
Digby, and Laud, alone forming an extensive and valuable
collection. The editor of Morhof (vol. i., 193, n.) has
highly commended this latter catalogue. Let the purchaser of
it look well to the frontispiece of the portraits of Sir
Thomas Bodley and of the fore-mentioned worthies, which
faces the title-page; as it is frequently made the prey of
some prowling Grangerite. The first catalogue of the
_Printed Books_ in the Bodleian library was compiled by the
celebrated orientalist, Dr. Hyde: the second by Fisher: of
these, the latter is the more valuable, as it is the more
enlarged. The plan adopted in both is the same: namely, the
books are arranged alphabetically, without any reference to
their classes--a plan fundamentally erroneous: for the chief
object in catalogues of public collections is to know what
works are published upon particular subjects, for the
facility of information thereupon--whether our inquiries
lead to publication or otherwise: an alphabetical index
should, of course, close the whole. It is with reluctance my
zeal for literature compels me to add that a _Catalogue
Raisonnée of the Manuscripts and Printed Books in the
Bodleian Library_ is an urgent desideratum--acknowledged by
every sensible and affectionate son of ALMA MATER. Talent
there is, in abundance, towards the completion of such an
honourable task; and the only way to bring it effectually
into exercise is to employ heads and hands enough upon the
undertaking. Let it be remembered what Wanley and Messrs.
Planta and Nares have done for the Cottonian and Harleian
MSS.--and what Mr. Douce is now doing for those of the
Lansdowne collection! One gentleman alone, of a very
distinguished college, in whom the acuteness and solidity of
Porson seem almost revived, might do wonders for the Greek
MSS., and lend an effectual aid towards the arrangement of
the others. The printed books might be assigned, according
to their several classes, to the gentlemen most conversant
with the same; and the numerous bibliographical works,
published since the catalogue of 1733, might be occasionally
referred to, according to the plan observed in the _Notitia
Editionum vel Primariæ, &c., in Bibl. Bodl. Oxon._, 1795,
8vo.; which was judiciously drawn up by the Bishop of
London, and the Rev. Dr. William Jackson. I am aware that
the aged hands of the present venerable librarian of the
Bodleian library can do little more than lay the
foundation-stone of such a massive superstructure; but even
this would be sufficient to enrol his name with the
Magliabecchis and Baillets of former times--to entitle him
to be classed among the best benefactors to the library--and
to shake hands with its immortal founder, in that place
where are
et amoena vireta
Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatæ.
BONNIER. _Catalogue des livres de la Bibliothéque de
Bonnier._ Paris, 1800, 8vo. This catalogue is here
introduced to the bibliographer's notice in order to sharpen
his bibliomaniacal appetite to obtain one of the four copies
only which were printed upon LARGE PAPER of Dutch
manufacture. See _Cat. de Caillard_ (1808), no.
2596.----BOUTOURLIN. _Catalogue des livres de la
Bibliothéque de S.E.M. Le Comte de Boutourlin._ Paris (an.
xiii.), 1805, 8vo. Every one must conceive a high respect
for the owner of this choice collection, from the amiable
sentiments which pervade the preface to the catalogue. It
has a good index; and is elegantly printed. My copy is upon
LARGE PAPER.----DE BOZE. _Catalogue des Livres du Cabinet de
M. Claude Gros de Boze._ Paris. _De l'Imp. Royale_, 1745,
small folio. This is the first printed catalogue of the
choice and magnificent library of De Boze, the friend and
correspondent of Dr. Mead, between whom presents of books
were continually passing--as they were the first collectors
of the day in their respective countries. Some have said 50,
some 35, others 25, and others ONLY 12 COPIES of this
impression were struck off, as presents for the collector's
friends. Consult _Bibl. Mead_, p. 81, no. 617. _Bibl.
Creven._, vol. v., 291. _Bauer's Bibl. Rarior._, vol. i.,
151. _Bibl. Curieuse_, p. 12. _Bibl. Askev._, no. 508.
Barbier's _Dict. des Anonymes_, vol. ii., no. 8002.----DE
BOZE, _de la même bibliothéque_, 1753, 8vo. This catalogue,
which was executed by Martin, after the death of De Boze,
does not contain all the notices of works mentioned in the
preceding one. It is, however, well deserving of a place in
the bibliographer's library. Peignot tells us that there was
yet a _third_ catalogue printed, in 8vo., containing 192
pages, and giving an account of some books taken out of De
Boze's collection: a few of which are described in the
preceding edition of 1753. See his _Bibl. Cur._, p.
12.----BOZERIAN. _Notice des livres précieux ye
[Transcriber's Note: de] M. Bozérian, par M. Bailly_, 1798,
8vo. A cabinet of "precious books," indeed! The misfortune
is, so small a number of modern foreign catalogues come over
here that the best of them will be found in few of our
libraries. Whenever the "Bibliotheca Bozeriana" shall be
imported, it will not stop seven days upon a bookseller's
shelf!----BULTEAU. _Bibliotheca Bultelliana; (Caroli
Bulteau) a Gabr. Martin_, Paris, 1711, 12mo., 2 vols. in
one. This catalogue, which is carefully compiled, contains
curious and uncommon books; many of which were purchased for
the collections of Préfond, De Boze, and others.----BUNAU.
_Catalogus Bibliothecæ Bunavianæ._ Lipsiæ, 1750. Six parts,
in three volumes, each volume having two parts--usually
bound in six vols. Highly and generally esteemed as is this
extensive collection, and methodically arranged catalogue,
of Count Bunau's books, the latter has always appeared to me
as being branched out into too numerous ramifications, so as
to render the discovery of a work, under its particular
class, somewhat difficult, without reference to the index. I
am aware that what Camus says is very true--namely, that
"nothing is more absurd than to quarrel about
catalogue-making: and that every man ought to have certain
fixed and decisive ideas upon the subject," [_Mem. de
l'Inst._ vol. i., 650,] but simplicity and perspicuity,
which are the grand objects in every undertaking, might have
been, in my humble apprehension, more successfully exhibited
than in this voluminous catalogue. It represents _over-done
analysis_! yet those who are writing upon particular
subjects will find great assistance in turning to the
different works here specified upon the same. It is rare and
high-priced. From the preface, which is well worth an
attentive perusal, it appears that this grand collection,
now deposited in the electoral library at Dresden (see _Cat.
de Caillard_, no. 2545, 1808,) was at Count Bunau's
country-house, situated in a pleasant village about half a
mile from Dresden--
Vicinam videt unde lector urbem.
Saxius, in his _Onomast. Literar._, vol i., p. xxxiii.,
edit. 1775, &c., has a smart notice of this splendid
collection.----BUNNEMAN. _J.L. Bunnemanni Catalogus
Manuscriptorum, item librorum impressorum rarissimorum pro
assignato pretio venalium._ Minda, 1732, 8vo. For the sake
of knowing, by way of curiosity, what books (accounted rare
at this period) were sold for, the collector may put this
volume into his pocket, when he finds it upon a book-stall
marked at 1_s._ 6_d._ In the _Bibl. Solger._, vol iii.,
no. 1396, there was a priced copy upon LARGE PAPER with
bibliographical memoranda.----CAILLARD. _Catalogue des
livres du Cabinet de M.A.B. Caillard_, Paris, 1805, 8vo. Of
this private catalogue, compiled by Caillard himself, and
printed upon fine Dutch paper, in super-royal 8vo., only
twenty-five copies were struck off. So says Fournier, _Dict.
Portatif de Bibliographie_: p. 120; edit. 1809, and the
"avant-propos" prefixed to the subsequent catalogue here
following:----_Livres rares et précieux de la Bibliothéque
de feu M. Ant. Bern. Caillard_, Paris, 1808, 8vo. There were
but twenty-five copies of this catalogue of truly valuable,
and, in many respects, rare, and precious, books, printed
upon LARGE PAPER, of the same size as the preceding. This
was the sale catalogue of the library of Caillard, who died
in 1807, in his sixty-ninth year, and of whose
bibliomaniacal spirit we have a most unequivocal proof in
his purchasing De Cotte's celebrated uncut copy of the first
printed Homer, at an enormous sum! [vide COTTE, post.] "Sa
riche bibliothéque est á-la-fois un monument de son amour
pour l'art typographique, et de la vaste étendue de ses
connoissances," p. xiv. Some excellent indexes close this
volume; of which Mr. Payne furnished me with the loan of his
copy upon LARGE PAPER.----CAMBIS. _Catalogue des principaux
manuscrits du cabinet de M. Jos. L.D. de Cambis_, Avignon,
1770, 4to. Although this is a catalogue of MSS., yet, the
number of copies printed being very few, I have given it a
place here. Some of these copies contain but 519, others
766, pages; which shews that the owner of the MSS. continued
publishing his account of them as they increased upon him.
Rive, in his "_Chasse aux bibliographes_," has dealt very
roughly with the worthy Cambis; but Peignot tells us that
this latter was a respectable literary character, and a
well-informed bibliographer--and that his catalogue, in
spite of Rive's diatribe, is much sought after. See the
_Bibliogr. Curieuse_, p. 14; also _Cat. de la Valliere_,
vol. iii., no. 5543.----CAMUS DE LIMARE. _Catalogues des
livres de M. le Camus de Limare_, Paris, 1779, 12mo.--_Des
livres rares et précieux de M---- (Camus de Limare)_, Paris,
1786, 8vo.--_Des livres rares et précieux, reliés en
maroquin, de la bibliothéque du même, Paris, an trois_
(1795), 8vo. Of the _first_ catalogue only a small number of
copies was printed, and those for presents. _Bibliogr.
Curieuse_, p. 15. It contains a description of De Boze's
extraordinary copy of Du Fresnoy's "Methode pour étudier
l'Histoire," 1729, 4to., four volumes, with the supplement,
1740, two vols.; which was sold for 1500 livres; and which
was, of course, upon LARGE PAPER, with a thousand inviting
additions, being much more complete than the similar copies
in _Cat. de Valliere_, no. 4467; and _Cat. de Crevenna_,
no. 5694, edit. 1789; although this latter was preferable
to the Valliere copy. Consult also the _Curiosités
Bibliographiques_, p. 77-8. The _second_ catalogue was
prepared by De Bure, and contains a very fine collection of
natural history, which was sold at the Hôtel de Bullion. The
printed prices are added. The _third_ catalogue, which was
prepared by Santus, after the decease of Camus, contains
some very choice articles [many printed UPON VELLUM] of
ancient and modern books superbly bound.----CATALOGUE _des
livres rares. Par Guillaume de Bure, fils âiné._ Paris,
1786, 8vo. We are told, in the advertisement, that this
collection was formed from a great number of sales of
magnificent libraries, and that particular circumstances
induced the owner to part with it. The books were in the
finest order, and bound by the most skilful binders. The
bibliographical notices are short, but judicious; and a good
index closes the catalogue. The sale took place at the Hôtel
de Bullion.----CATALOGUE _fait sur un plan nouveau,
systématique et raisonné, d'une Bibliothéque de Littérature,
particulièrement d'Histoire et de Poésie, &c._ Utrecht,
1776, 8vo., two vols. A judicious and luminous arrangement
of 19,000 articles, or sets of books; which, in the
departments specified in the title-page, are singularly
copious and rich.----CATALOGUS _Librorum rarissimorum, ab
Artis Typographicæ inventoribus, aliisque ejus artis
Principibus ante annum 1500 excusorum; omnium optime
conservatorum_, 8vo., _Sine loco aut anno_. Peignot, who has
abridged Vogt's excellent account of this very uncommon and
precious catalogue, of which ONLY TWENTY-FIVE COPIES were
printed, has forgotten to examine the last edition of the
_Catalog. Libror. Rarior._, pp. 262-3; in which we find that
the collection contained 248 (and not 217) volumes. At the
end, it is said: "Pretiosissima hæc Librorum Collectio,
cujusvis magni Principis Bibliotheca dignissima, constat
voll. ccxlviii." Consult the respectable references in Vogt,
_ibid._; also the _Bibliogr. Curieuse_ of Peignot, p.
15.----CERAN. _Catalogue des livres de M. Mel de Saint
Ceran._ Paris, 1780, 8vo., again in 1791, 8vo. These
catalogues were compiled by De Bure, and are carefully
executed. Some of the books noticed in them are sufficiently
curious and rare.----CLEMENTINO-VATICANA. _Bibliotheca
Orientalis Clementino Vaticana, in quâ manuscriptos codices
Orientalium Linguarum recensuit Joseph Simonius Assemanus_,
Romæ, 1719. Folio, four vols. Asseman's son compiled an
excellent catalogue of the Oriental MSS. in the
Medico-Laurentian library; but this work of the father is
more curious and elaborate. Whenever a few half-guineas can
procure it, let the country-settled philologist send his
"henchman" to fly for it!--"Speed, Malise, speed." But alas!
Santander tells us that copies of it are rare. _Cat. de
Santander_, vol. iv., no. 6287.----COLBERT. _Bibliotheca
Colbertina: seu Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecæ quæ fuit
primum J.B. Colbert, deinde J.B. Colbert (fil) postea J.
Nic. Colbert, ac demum C.L. Colbert._ Parisiis, 1728, 8vo.,
three vols. The preface to this valuable catalogue (executed
by Martin) gives us a compressed, but sufficiently
perspicuous, account of the auspices under which such an
extensive and magnificent collection was assembled and
arranged. It contains not fewer than 18,219 articles; being
perhaps 60,000 volumes. The celebrated Baluze was the
librarian during the life of the former branches of the
Colbert family; a family which, if nothing remained to
perpetuate their fame but this costly monument of literary
enterprise, will live in the grateful remembrance of
posterity--but it wants not even such a splendid memorial!
The lover of fine and curious books will always open the
volumes of the COLBERT CATALOGUE with a zest which none but
a thorough bred bibliomaniac can ever hope to
enjoy.----CONSEIL D'ETAT. _Catalogue des livres de la
Bibliothéque du Conseil d'Etat (par M. Barbier,
Bibliothecaire du Conseil d'Etat)._ Paris, an. xi. (1802),
folio. "This catalogue is most superbly executed. The
richness of the materials of which it is composed, the fine
order of its arrangement, and the skilful researches
exhibited in it relating to anonymous authors, are worthy of
the typographical luxury of the national press, from which
this curious work was put forth. It will be perfect in three
parts: the third part, containing the supplement and tables,
is now at press." (A.D. 1804.) The preface and table of the
divisions of this catalogue were published in a small 8vo.
volume, 1801. This information I glean from Peignot's
_Curiosités Bibliographiques_, p. lix.; and from the _Cat.
de Boutourlin_, no. 3892, I learn that only 190 copies of
so useful, as well as splendid, a work were printed, of
which the French government took upon itself the
distribution.----CORDES. _Bibliothecæ Cordesianæ Catalogus,
cum indice titulorum_, Parisiis, 1643, 4to. The celebrated
Naudé had the drawing up and publishing of this catalogue,
which is highly coveted by collectors, and is now of rare
occurrence. De Cordes was intimate with all the learned men
of his country and age; and his eulogy, by Naudé, prefixed
to the catalogue, gives us a delightful account of an
amiable and learned man living in the bosom, as it were, of
books and of book-society. This collection, which was
purchased by Cardinal Mazarin, formed the foundation of the
latter's magnificent library. Consult the _Jugemens des
Savans_, vol. ii., p. 142; Colomié's _Biblioth. Choisie_, p.
126; _Mem. de l'Inst._, vol. i., p. 647. Nor must we forget
Morhof--_Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., p. 211; who, after a
general commendation of the collection, tells us it is
remarkable for containing a fine body of foreign history. De
Cordes died A.D. 1642, in the 72d year of his age--nearly 50
years having been devoted by him to the formation of his
library. "Fortunate senex!"----COTTE. _Catalogue des Livres
rares et précieux et de MSS. composant la bibliothéque de
M---- (le President de Cotte)_, Paris, 1804, 8vo. We are
told by Peignot that the books at this sale were sold for
most exorbitant sums: "the wealthy amateurs striving to make
themselves masters of the LARGE PAPER Alduses, Elzevirs, and
Stephenses, which had been Count d'Hoym's copies." An uncut
first edition of Homer, in the highest state of
preservation, was purchased by Mons. Caillaird
[Transcriber's Note: Caillard] for 3,601 livres! See the
_Curiosités Bibliographiques_, pp. lxv, lxvj. According to
_Cat. de Caillard_, no. 2600 (1808, 8vo.), there were
only ten copies of this catalogue printed upon LARGE
PAPER.----COUVAY. _Catalogue de la bibliothéque de M.
Couvay, chevalier de l'ordre de Christ, secrétaire du Roi_,
Paris, 1728, fol. Very few copies of this catalogue were
printed, and those only for presents. _Bibliogr. Curieuse_,
p. 21.----CREVENNA. _Catalogue raisonnée de la collection
des Livres de M. Pierre Antoine Crevenna, Négocient à
Amsterdam_, 1776, 4to., six vols.--_De la même collection_,
1789, 8vo., five vols.--_De la même collection_, 1793, 8vo.
Of these catalogues of one of the most extensive and
magnificent collections ever formed in Amsterdam, the first
impression of 1776 (to which I have generally referred) is
by far the most valuable in regard to bibliographical
remarks and copious description. Peignot tells us that no
bibliographer can do without it. It was commenced in the
year 1774, and published during the life time of Peter
Antony Crevenna, the father; from whom the collection passed
into the hands of the son Bolongari Crevenna, and in whose
lifetime it was sold by public auction. The second
impression of 1789 is the sale-catalogue, and contains more
books than the preceding one; but the bibliographical
observations are comparatively trifling. There are copies of
this latter impression upon LARGE PAPER in quarto. I possess
an interesting copy of the small paper, which has numerous
marginal remarks in pencil, by Mr. Edwards; who examined the
library at Amsterdam, with a view to purchase it entire. The
last catalogue of 1793, which was published after the death
of the son, contains a few choice books which he had
reserved for himself, and, among them, a curious set of
fac-simile drawings of old prints and title-pages; some of
which were obtained at the sale of the elder Mirabeau (vide
post). It seems to have been the ruling passion of B.
Crevenna's life to collect all the materials, from all
quarters, which had any connection, more or less, with "THE
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PRINTING," and it is for ever to be
regretted that such extensive materials as those which he
had amassed, and which were sold at the sale of 1793 should
have been dissipated beyond the hope of restoration. See
Peignot's _Dict. de Bibliologie_, vol. iii., p. 100; and his
_Curiosités Bibliographiques_, p. 139.----CROZAT. _Catalogue
des Livres de Monsieur Le President Crozat de Tugny_, Paris,
1751, 8vo. This collection was particularly rich in the
belles-lettres--and especially in Italian and French
Romance-Literature.----VAN DAMME. _Catalogue d'une
Bibliotheque, vendue publiquement à la Haye, le 8 Octobre,
par Varon et Gaillard_, 1764, three vols. 8vo. "This
precious and rare collection belonged to M. Pierre Van
Damme, book-merchant at Amsterdam, equally well known for
his knowledge of bibliography and of medals; of which latter
he had a beautiful and uncommon collection." _Bibl.
Crevenn._, vol. v., p. 306.----DUBOIS. _Bibliotheca
Duboisiana, ou Catalogue de la Bibliothéque du Cardinal
Dubois. A la Haye_, 1725, 8vo., four vols. A collection
which evinces the fine taste and sound judgment of the
Cardinal Du Bois. It is not rare abroad.----ELZEVIR.
_Catalogus librorum qui in Bibliopolio Officinæ Danielis
Elzevirii venales extant_, Ams. 1674, 12mo.: 1681,
12mo.--_qui in Bibliopoli Elzeviriano venales extant_, Lug.
Bat., 1634, 1684, 4to. These, and other catalogues of the
books printed by the distinguished family of the Elzevirs,
should find a place within the cabinet of bibliographers.
The first book ever published by the Elzevirs was of the
date of 1595; the last, of 1680 or 1681, by Daniel Elzevir,
who was the only surviving branch. His widow carried on the
business after his decease in 1680. In the _Dictionnaire de
Bibliologie_ of Peignot, vol. i., p. 216, vol. iii., p. 116,
will be found a pleasing account of this family of (almost)
unrivalled printers.----DU FAY. _Bibliotheca Fayana seu
Catalogus librorum Bibl. Cor. Hier. de Cisternay du Fay,
digestus à Gabriel Martin_, Paris, 1725, 8vo. The catalogue
of this collection, which is a judicious one, and frequently
referred to, is very carefully put forth by Martin. I think
that I have seen a copy of it upon LARGE PAPER.----FAGEL.
_Bibliotheca Fageliana. A catalogue of the valuable and
extensive Library of the Greffier Fagal, of the Hague: in
two parts._ London, 1802, 8vo. It is highly creditable to
that most respectable establishment, Trinity College,
Dublin, that the present grand collection of books was
purchased "en masse" (for 7000_l._) to be deposited within
its library; thus rendering the interior of the latter
"companion meet" for its magnificent exterior. The
title-page of the first part announces the sale of the books
by auction by Mr. Christie; but the above offer having been
made for the whole collection, the same was forthwith
transported to Ireland. Collectors should take care that the
second part of this catalogue be not wanting, which is
oftentimes the case. A good index only is requisite to make
the BIBLIOTHECA FAGELIANA rank with the most valuable
publications of its kind in existence. It was compiled by
the well-known S. Paterson.----FAULTRIER. _Catalogus
Librorum Bibliothecæ Domini Joachimi Faultrier, digestus à
Prosper Marchand_, Paris, 1709, 8vo. The bibliographical
introductory remarks, by Marchand, render this volume (which
rarely occurs) very acceptable to collectors of catalogues.
Maittaire has spoken well of the performance, _Annal.
Typog._ iii., p. 482. Consult also the _Mem. de l'Inst._,
vol. i., p. 675, and the _Dict. de Bibliologie_, vol. ii.,
p. 235, upon Marchand's introductory remarks relating to the
arrangement of a library.----FAVIER. _Catalogue des Livres
de la Bibliothéque de feu Mons. L'Abbé Favier, Prêtre à
Lille_, Lille, 1765, 8vo. A well arranged catalogue of a
choice collection of books, which cost the Abbé fifty years
of pretty constant labour in amassing. Prefixed, are some
interesting notices of MSS.: and, among them, of a valuable
one of Froissart. The prints of the Abbé were afterwards
sold, from a catalogue of 143 pages, printed at Lisle in the
same year.----DU FRESNE. _Raphaelis Tricheti du Fresne
Bibliothecæ Catalogus._ Paris, 1662, 4to. "I have observed,"
says Morhof, "a number of authors in this catalogue which I
have in vain sought after elsewhere. The typographical
errors (especially in regard to dates, adds Baillet) are
innumerable: and the theological, legal, and medical works,
comparatively few--but in the departments of history,
antiquities, and general literature, this collection is
wonderfully enriched--containing authors hardly ever heard
of." _Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., p. 212. Colomiés and
Labbe unite in conferring the highest praises upon Du Fresne
and his collection. See the _Jugemens des Savans_, vol. ii.,
p. 143; where, however, the confused and inaccurate manner
in which the catalogue is executed is sharply censured by
Baillet. Morhof informs us that this collection was disposed
of by Du Fresne's widow, to the Royal Library, for 24,000
_livres_, after she had refused 33,000 for the
same.----GAIGNAT. _Catalogue des Livres du Cabinet de feu M.
Louis Jean Gaignat, disposé et mis en ordre par Guill.
François de Bure le Jeune._ Paris, 1769, 8vo., two vols. One
of the best executed, and most intrinsically valuable
catalogues in existence. Almost all the books of Gaignat
were in the choicest condition; being the cream of the
collections of Colbert, Préfond, and De Boze. The possession
of this rare catalogue, which is indispensable to the
collector, forms what is called a Supplement to De Bure's
"_Bibliographie Instructive_." There are 50 copies struck
off upon SMALL QUARTO paper, to arrange with a like number
of this latter work. Consult _Bibl. Crevenn._, vol. v., p.
291.----GENÈVE. _Catalogue raisonné des Manuscrits conservés
dans la bibliothéque, &c., de Genève; par Jean Senibier._
Genève, 1779, 8vo. A neatly executed and useful catalogue of
some manuscripts of no mean value. It has received a good
character by Mons. Van-Praet, in the _Cat. de la Valliere_,
vol. iii., no. 5542. See also p. 36, ante.----GOEZ.
_Bibliothecæ Goësinæ Catalogus_, Leidæ, 1687, 8vo. A fine
collection of books and of coins distinguished the Museum of
Goez.----GOLOWKIN. _Catalogue des Livres de la Bibliothéque
du Comte Alexis de Golowkin_, Leipsic, 1798, 4to. It is said
that ONLY 25 COPIES of this catalogue were struck off, and
that not more than two of these are known to be in France.
Neither the type nor paper has the most inviting aspect; but
it is a curious volume, and contains a description of books
"infiniment précieux." Consult Peignot's _Bibliogr.
Curieuse_, p. 31. Dr. Clarke, in his _Travels in Russia,
&c._, p. 138, has noticed the extraordinary library of Count
Botterline, but says nothing of Golowkin's.----GOUTTARD.
_Catalogue des Livres rares et precieux de feu M. Gouttarde
par Guillaume de Bure fils aîné._ Paris, 1780, 8vo. A short
bibliographical notice of the amiable and tasteful owner of
this select collection precedes the description of the
books. The bibliographical observations are sometimes
copious and valuable. This catalogue is indispensable to the
collector.----GUYON. _Catalogue des livres de la
Bibliothéque de feu M.J.B. Denis Guyon, Chev. Seigneur de
Sardiere, Ancien Capitaine au Regiment du Roi, et l'un des
Seigneurs du Canal de Briare._ Paris, 1759, 8vo. It is
justly said, in the "advertisement" prefixed to this
catalogue, that, in running over the different classes of
which the collection is composed, there will be found
articles "capable de piquer la curiosité des bibliophiles."
In ancient and modern poetry, and in romances--especially
relating to chivalry--this "ancient Captain" appears to have
been deeply versed. The advertisement is followed by 28
pages of "Eclaircissemens"--which give an interesting
account of some precious manuscripts of old poetry and
romances. A MS. note, in my copy of this catalogue, informs
me that the books were sold "en masse."----HEINSIUS. (NIC.)
_Nicolai Heinsii Bibliothecæ Catalogus_, (1682) 8vo. A
portrait of the elegant and learned owner of this collection
faces the title-page. The books contained in it are
remarkable both for their rarity and intrinsic value; and a
great number of them were enriched with the notes of
Scaliger, Salmasius, and others. Few collections display
more judgment and taste in the selection than the present
one; and few critics have been of more essential service to
the cause of ancient classical literature than Nicholas
Heinsius. He excelled particularly in his editions of the
poets. Mr. Dyer, of Exeter, the bookseller, has a copy of
this catalogue, which was formerly Grævius's; in which that
celebrated critic has made marginal remarks concerning the
rarity and value of certain works described in
it.----HOHENDORF. _Bibliotheca Hohendorfiana; ou Catalogue
de la Bibliothéque de feu Mons. George Guillaume Baron de
Hohendorf: à la Haye_, 1720, 8vo., three parts. A
magnificent collection; which a MS. note, by Dr. Farmer (in
my copy of the catalogue), informs me was "added to the
Emperor's library at Vienna." In the _Bibl. Mencken_, p. 10,
it is thus loftily described: "Catalogus per-rarus
rarissimis libris superbiens."----HOYM. _Catalogus Librorum
Bibliothecæ Caroli Henrici Comitis de Hoym_, 1738, 8vo. This
catalogue, which is exceedingly well "digested by Martin,"
is a great favourite with collectors. A copy out of Count
Hoym's collection tells well--whether at a book-sale, or in
a bookseller's catalogue. There are copies upon LARGE PAPER,
which, when priced, sell high.----HULSIUS. _Bibliotheca
Hulsiana, sive Catalogus Librorum quos magno labore, summa
cura et maximis sumptibus collegit Vir Consularis Samuel
Hulsius._ Hag. Com. 1730, four vols. 8vo. (the second and
third being in two parts, and the fourth in three). This is,
in sober truth, a wonderful collection of books; containing
nearly 34,000 articles--which, allowing three volumes to an
article, would make the owner to have been in possession of
100,000 volumes of printed books and MSS. The English
library, (vol. iv., pt. ii.) of nearly 3300 articles,
comprehended nearly all the best books of the day. There
were about 1200 articles of Spanish Literature. Nor was the
worthy Consul deficient in the love of the fine arts ("hæc
est, sitque diu, Senis optimi voluptas et oblectatio," says
the compiler of the catalogue); having 11,000 most beautiful
prints of subjects relating to the Bible, bound up in 92
atlas folio volumes. Long live the memory of Hulsius; a
consular hero of no ordinary renown!----JENA. _Memorabilia
Bibliothecæ Academicæ Jenensis: sive designatio Codicum
manuscriptorum illa Bibliothecâ et Librorum impressorum
plerumque rariorum. Joh. Christophoro Mylio._ Jenæ, 1746,
8vo. A work of some little importance; and frequently
referred to by Vogt and Panzer. It is uncommon.----JESU SOC.
_Bibliotheca Scriptorum Societatis Jesu._ Antv., 1643. Romæ,
1676, fol. Although this work is not a professed catalogue
of books, yet, as it contains an account of the writings of
those learned men who were in the society of the
Jesuits--and as Baillet, Antonio, and Morhof, have said
every thing in commendation of it--I strongly recommend one
or the other of these editions to the bibliographer's
attention. I possess the edition of 1643; and have
frequently found the most satisfactory intelligence on
referring to it. How clever some of the Jesuits were in
their ideas of the arrangement of a library may be seen from
their "_Systema Bibliothecæ Jesuitarum Collegii
Ludoviciani_"--which was written by Garnier for the private
use of the Louvain college, and which is now extremely
difficult to be found. See Maichelius, _de Præcip. Bibl.
Parisiens_, p. 128. Their "_Systema bibliothecæ collegii
Parisiensis societatis Jesu_," 1678, 4to. (or catalogue of
books in the college of Clermont), is handsomely noticed by
Camus in the _Mem. de l'Inst._, vol. i., 647.----JUST, ST.
_Catalogue des livres en très-petit nombre qui composent la
Bibliothéque de M. Merard de St. Just, ancien maitre-d'hotêl
de Monsieur, frère du Roi (avec les prix d'achat)._ Paris,
1783, 18mo. Of this book, printed upon superfine paper, of
the manufactory of d'Annonay, only 25 copies were struck
off. _Bibl. Curieuse_, p. 43. Another catalogue of the same
collection (perhaps a more copious one) was put forth in
1799, 8vo., prepared by M. Mauger, See _Diction.
Bibliographique_, tom. iv., p. xiv.----KROHN. _Catalogus
Bibliothecæ Præstantissimorum &c., Librorum selectum
complectentis. Libros collegit et Literariis Catalogum
Animadversionibus instruxit, B.N. Krohn. Editio altera._
Hamb. 1796, 8vo. The preface to this very excellent
collection of books is written in Latin by Rambach; and a
most interesting one it is. After giving a slight sketch of
the life and literary occupations of Krohn, he thus finishes
the picture of his death--"Ego certe (exclaims the grateful
biographer), mi KROHNI, te amabo, et quamdiu 'spiritus hos
reget artus' gratam Tui memoriam ex animo nunquam elabi
patiar. O! me felicem, si, qua olim me beasti, amicitiâ nunc
quoque frui possem. Sed fruar aliquando, cum Deus me ad
beatorum sedes evocaverit, ac Te mihi rediderit
conjunctissimum. Vale, interim, pia anima; et quem jam
tristem reliquisti, prope diem exspecta, in tenerrimos Tuos
amplexus properantem, ac de summa, quam nunc habes,
felicitate Tibi congratulantem," p. xix. This is the genuine
language of heart-felt grief; language, which those who have
lost an old and good friend will know well how to
appreciate. This catalogue, which was given to me by my
friend the Rev. Dr. Gosset, 'vir in re bibliographicâ
[Greek: polymathestatos],' exhibits a fine collection of
books (3821 in number) relating to history and philology.
Some of Krohn's notes are sufficiently shrewd and
intelligent.----LAMOIGNON. _Catalogue des Livres Imprimés et
manuscrits de la Bibliothéque de M. le President de
Lamoignon (redigé par L. Fr. Delatour) avec une table des
auteurs, et des anonymes._ Paris, 1770, fol. The
bibliographer has only to hear Peignot speak in his own
language, and he will not long hesitate about the price to
be given for so precious [Transcriber's Note: 'a' missing in
original] volume: "Catalogue fort rare, tiré a QUINZE
EXEMPLAIRES seulement, sur du papier de coton fabriqué, par
singularité, à Angoulême." Mr. Harris, of the Royal
Institution, possesses a copy of it, bound in
orange-coloured Morocco, which was presented to him by Mr.
Payne; and, as Alexander placed his beloved Homer--so does
he this catalogue--uner [Transcriber's Note: under] his
pillow "quand il vent se reposer--a cause des songes
agréables qu'il doit inspirer." This beautiful volume, which
was printed for Lamoignon's own convenience, in supplemental
parts, does not, however, contain Baillet's interesting
Latin prefece, which may be seen in the _Jugemens des
Savans_, vol. [Transcriber's Note: volume number missing in
original] pt. ii., p. 140, ed. 1725.----LAMOIGNON. _Des
Livres de la Bibliothéque de feu M. de Lamoignon, Garde de
Sçeaux de France._ Paris, 1791, 8vo., 3 vols. These volumes
contain the sale catalogue of Lamoignon's books as they were
purchased by Mr. T. Payne, the bookseller. Like the great
libraries of Crevenna and Pinelli, this immense collection
(with the exception of the works upon French jurisprudence)
has been dissipated by public sale. It yet delights Mr.
Payne to think and to talk of the many thousand volumes
which were bound in Morocco, or Russia, or
white-calf-leather, "with gilt on the edges"--which this
extraordinary family of book-collectors had amassed with so
much care and assiduity. The preface gives us a short, but
pleasing, account of the bibliomanical spirit of Lamoignon's
father-in-law, Monsieur Berryer; who spent between thirty
and forty years in enriching this collection with all the
choice, beautiful, and extraordinary copies of works which,
from his ministerial situation, and the exertions of his
book-friends, it was possible to obtain. M. Berryer died in
1762, and his son-in-law in 1789.----LAMOIGNON. _Des Livres
de la même Biblothéque, par Nyon l'âiné._ Paris, 1797, 8vo.
This volume presents us with the relics of a collection
which, in its day, might have vied with the most splendid in
Europe. But every thing earthly must be
dissipated.----LANCELOT. _Catalogue des Livres de feu M.
Lancelot de l'Academie Royale des Belles Lettres._ Paris,
1741, 8vo. Those who are fond of making their libraries rich
in French History cannot dispense with this truly valuable
catalogue. Lancelot, like the elder Lamoignon, appears to
have been "buried in the benedictions of his
countrymen"--according to the energetic language of
Bourdaloue.----LEMARIÉ. _Catalogue des livres de feu M.
Lemarié, disposé et mis en ordre, par Guil. De Bure, fils
aîné_, Paris, 1776, 8vo. A well digested catalogue of a rich
collection of Greek and Latin Literature, which evinces a
man of taste and judgment. Nothing can be more handsomely
said of a collection than what De Bure has prefixed to the
present one. In the _Cat. de Gouttard_, no. 1545, I find
a copy of it upon LARGE PAPER.----LOMÉNIE. _Index Librorum
ab inventa Typographia da annum 1500, &c., cum notis, &c._
Senonis, 1791, 8vo., two vols. The owner of this collection,
whose name does not appear in the title-page, was the
celebrated Cardinal DE LOMÉNIE DE BRIENNE: who is described,
in the advertisement prefixed to the catalogue of his books
in 1797, [vide infra] as having, from almost early youth,
pushed his love of book-collecting to an excess hardly
equalled by any of his predecessors. When he was but a young
ecclesiastic, and had only the expectation of a fortune, his
ruling passion for books, and his attachment to fellow
bibliomaniacs, was ardent and general. But let his
panegyrist speak in his own language--"Si le hazard
procuroit à ses amis quelque objét précieux, il n'avoit de
repos qu'aprés l'avoir obtenu; les sacrifices ne
l'effrayoient pas; il étoit né généreaux; mais ce qu'on lui
accordoit, il le devoit sur-tout à ses manières insinuantes.
Ses sollicitations étoient toujours assaisonnées d'un ton
d'amabilité auquel on résistoit difficilement. Lorsque le
tems et les grâces de la cour eurent aggrandi ses moyens,
ses veus s'etendirent à proportion. Insensiblement il
embressa tous les genres, et sa bibliothéque devint un dépôt
universel. Dans ses fréquens voyages, s'il s'arrêtoit
quelques instans dans une ville, on le voyoit visiter
lui-même les libraries, s'introduire dans les maisons
religieuses, s'insinuer dans les cabinets d'amateurs,
chercher par-tout à acquérir; c'etoit un besoin pour lui
d'acheter sans cesse, d'entasser les volumes. Cette passion
a peut-être ses excés; mais du moins, elle ne fut pas pour
le cardinal de Loménie une manie stérile. Non seulement il
aimoit, il connoissoit les livres, mais il savoit s'en
servir; sans contredit il fut un des hommes les plus
éclairés du Clergé de France."----To return from this
pleasing rhapsody to the catalogue, the title of which is
above given. It is composed by Laire, in the Latin language,
with sufficient bibliographical skill: but the index is the
most puzzling one imaginable. The uncommonly curious and
magnificent collection, not being disposed of "en
masse"--according to advertisement--was broken up; and the
more ancient books were sold by auction at Paris, in 1792,
from a French catalogue prepared by De Bure. Some of the
books were purchased by Mr. Edwards, and sold at London in
the Paris collection [vide p. 90, post]; as were also those
relating to Natural History; which latter were sold by
auction without his Eminence's name: but it is a gross error
in the _Bibl. Krohn_, p. 259, no. 3466, to say that many
of these books were impious and obscene. These are scarce
and dear volumes; and as they supply some deficiencies
[Transcriber's Note: missing 'in'] Audiffredi's account of
books published at Rome in the xvth century [vid. p. 62,
ante], the bibliographer should omit no opportunity of
possessing them.----LOMÉNIE. _D'une partie des livres de la
Bibliothéque du Cardinal de Loménie de Brienne_, Paris, an.
v. [1797], 8vo. This collection, the fragments or ruins of
the Lomenie library, contains 2754 articles, or numbers,
with a rich sprinkling of Italian literature; leaving
behind, however, a surplus of not fewer than twelve hundred
pieces relating to the Italian Drama--many of them
rare--which were to be sold at a future auction. From the
biographical memoir prefixed to this catalogue, I have given
the preceding extract concerning the character of the owner
of the collection--who died in the same year as the
sale.----MACARTHY. _Catalogue des livres rares et précieux
du cabinet de M.L.C.D.M._ (_M. Le Comte de Macarthy_),
Paris, 1779, 8vo. _Supplement au Catalogue des livres, &c._,
de M.L.C.D.M., Paris, 1779, 8vo. _Chez de Bure, fils aîné._
These books were sold in January, 1780; and great things are
said, in the advertisement, of their rarity and beauty. The
Count Macarthy has, at this moment, one of the most
magnificent collections upon the continent. His books
printed UPON VELLUM are unequalled by those of any private
collection. Of the above catalogue, a copy upon strong
writing paper occurs in the _Cat. de Gouttard_, no.
1549.----MAGLIABECHI. _Catalogus Codicum Sæculo_ xv.
_Impressorum qui in publica Bibliotheca Magliabechiana
Florentiæ adservantur. Autore Ferdinando Fossio; ejusd.
bibl. Præf._, Florent., 1793, folio, three vols. A
magnificent and truly valuable publication (with excellent
indexes) of the collection of the famous Magliabechi;
concerning whom the bibliographical world is full of curious
anecdotes. The reader may consult two volumes of letters
from eminent men to Magliabechi, published in 1745, &c.,
vide _Bibl. Pinell_, no. 8808, &c., edit. 1789: Wolfius's
edition of the _Bibliotheca Aprosiana_, p. 102; and the
Strawberry Hill[C] edition of the _Parallel between
Magliabechi and Mr. Hill_, 1758, 8vo.--an elegant and
interesting little volume. Before we come to speak of his
birth and bibliographical powers, it may be as well to
contemplate his expressive physiognomy.
[Illustration]
MAGLIABECHI was born at Florence October 29, 1633. His
parents, of low and mean rank, were well satisfied when they
got him into the service of a man who sold herbs and fruit.
He had never learned to read; and yet he was perpetually
poring over the leaves of old books that were used in his
master's shop. A bookseller, who lived in the neighbourhood,
and who had often observed this, and knew the boy could not
read, asked him one day "what he meant by staring so much on
printed paper?" Magliabechi said that "he did not know how
it was, but that he loved it of all things." The consequence
was that he was received, with tears of joy in his eyes,
into the bookseller's shop; and hence rose, by a quick
succession, into posts of literary honour, till he became
librarian to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In this situation
Magliabechi had nothing further, or more congenial to his
feelings, to sigh for: in the Florentine library he revelled
without cessation in the luxury of book-learning. The
strength of his memory was remarkable; one day, the Grand
Duke sent for him to ask whether he could procure a book
that was particularly scarce. "No, sir," answered
Magliabechi, "it is impossible; for there is but one in the
world, and that is in the Grand Signior's Library at
Constantinople, and is the seventh book on the second shelf
on the right hand as you go in." In spite of his cobwebs,
dirt, and cradle lined with books, Magliabechi reached his
81st year. Hearne has contrived to interweave the following
(rather trifling) anecdote of him, in his _Johan. Confrat.,
&c., de Reb. Glaston_, vol. ii., 486--which I give merely
because it is the fashion to covet every thing which
appertaineth to Tom Hearne. "I have mentioned the bank where
the MSS. (concerning the Epistles of St. Ignatius; Bank
LVII.) stands, and the title of the book, because Vossius
tells us not in his preface which of the several MSS. in
this library he made use of; and to finde it out gave me so
much trouble that, if the Grand Duke's library-keeper had
not known the book, and searched it for me, I think I should
never have met with it, there being not one canon of St.
Laurence, not their library-keeper himself, nor, I believe,
any other in Florence, except this Sre. MAGLIABECHI, that
could direct me to it. The learned Bishop will be pleased to
take notice of Sre. Maliabechi's [Transcriber's Note:
Magliabechi's] civility; who, besides procuring me the Grand
Duke's leave to collate the epistles, attended himself in
the library, all the time I was there (the licence being
granted by the Grand Duke upon this condition): and since,
as a mark of his respect to the reverend bishop, hath been
pleased to present him with a book (about the Florentine
history) which I have committed to Mr. Ferne, my Lord
Lexinton's Gentleman, to be conveyed to his lordship." (Mr.
Ledgerd's account of his collations of the Florentine MS.
with the edition of Vossius.)----ST. MARK. _Græca D. Marci
Bibliotheca Codicum Manuscriptorum Præside Laurentio
Theopolo._ Venet. 1740, folio: _Ejusdem Latina et Italica
Bibliotheca Codicum Manuscriptorum Præside eodem_, Venet.
1741, folio. These useful and handsomely executed volumes
should be found in every extensive philological
collection.----MEDICI-LORENZO. _Bibliothecæ
Mediceo-Laurentianæ et Palatinæ Codicum Manuscriptorum
Orientalium Catalogus digessit S.E. Assemanus._ Florent.
1742, folio. A very valuable and splendid publication;
evincing the laudable ambition of the Medici in their
encouragement of oriental literature. The editor is
commended in the preface of the subsequent catalogue, p.
xxxxv.----MEDICI-LORENZO. _Bibliothecæ Hebraico-Grecæ
Florentinæ sive Bibliothecæ Mediceo-Laurentianæ Catalogus ab
Antonio Maria Biscionio, &c., digestus atque editus_,
Florent., 1752, folio, two vols. in one. A grand book; full
of curious fac-similes of all sorts of things. It was begun
to be printed in 1752, but Biscioni's death, in May, 1756,
prevented the completion of the publication 'till May 1757.
See præfat., p. xxxxvii--and particularly the
colophon.----MEDICI-LORENZO. _Catalogus Codicum
Manuscriptorum, Græcorum, Latinorum, et Italicoram,
Bibliothecæ Medicæ Laurentianæ: Angelus Maria Bandinus
recensuit, illustravit edidit._ Florent., 1764; 3 vols.,
1774; 5 vols., folio. An equally splendid work with the
preceding--and much more copious and erudite in regard to
intrinsically valuable matter. The indexes are excellent. No
extensive philological library should be without these
volumes--especially since the name of MEDICI has recently
become so popular, from the able biographical memoirs of the
family by Mr. Roscoe.----MENARSIANA. _Bibliotheca
Menarsiana; ou Catalogue de la Bibliothéque de feu Messire
Jean Jaques Charron, Chevalier Marquis de Menars_, &c. A La
Haye, 1720, 8vo. A very fine collection of books in all
branches of literature. After the "Ordo Venditionis," there
is an additional leaf pasted in, signifying that a
magnificent copy of Fust's bible of 1462, upon paper, would
be sold immediately after the theological MSS. in folio. It
brought the sum of 1200 florins. The sale commenced at nine
and at two; giving the buyers time to digest their
purchases, as well as their dinners, at twelve! "Tempora
mutantur!"----MENCKENIUS. _Catalogus Bibliothecæ Menckenianæ
ab Ottone et Burchardo collectæ. Editior altera longe
emendatior._ Lips., 1727, 8vo. There are some curious and
uncommon books in this collection; which evince the taste
and judgment of Menckenius, who was a scholar of no mean
reputation. Perhaps the word "rare" is too lavishly bestowed
upon some of the books described in it.----MEON. _Catalogue
des livres précieux singuliéres et rares de la Bibliothèque
de M. Meon._ Paris, an. xii. (1804), 8vo. A very choice
collection of books; catalogued with considerable
care.----MERCIER. _Catalogue de la Bibliothéque de M.
Mercier, Abbé de Saint Leger_, par. M. De Bure, 1799, 8vo.
If the reader has chanced to cast his eye over the account
of the Abbé de St. Leger, at p. 61, ante, he will not
hesitate long about procuring a copy of the catalogue of the
library of so truly eminent a bibliographer.----MÉRIGOT.
_Catalogue des livres de M.J.G. Mérigot, Libraire_, par M.
De Bure, 1800, 8vo. It is very seldom that this catalogue
appears in our own country: which is the more provoking as
the references to it, in foreign bibliographical works,
render its possession necessary to the collector. Mérigot
was an eminent bookseller, and prepared a good catalogue of
M. Lorry's library, which was sold in 1791, 8vo.----ST.
MICHAEL. _Bibliotheca Codicum Manuscriptorum Monasterij
Sancti Michaelis Venetiarum, una cum appendice librorum
impressorum sæculi_ xv. _Opus posthumum Joannis Bened.
Mittarelli._ Venet., 1779, folio. It were much to be wished
that, after the example of this and other monasteries, all
religious houses, which have large libraries attached to
them, would publish accounts of their MSS. and printed
books. There is no knowing what treasures are hid in them,
and of which the literary world must remain ignorant, unless
they are thus introduced to general notice. How many curious
and amusing anecdotes may be told of precious works being
discovered under barbarous titles! Among others, take,
gentle reader, the two following ones--relating to books of
a very different character. Within a volume, entitled
_Secreta Alberti_, were found "_The Fruyte of Redempcyon_,"
printed by W. De Worde, 1532, 4to.; and a hitherto
imperfectly described impression of _The Boke of Fyshinge_,
printed by W. De Worde, in 4to., without date; which usually
accompanies that fascinating work, ycleped Dame Juliana
Barnes's _Boke of Hawkyng, Huntyng, and Cote Armoor_. My
friend Mr. J. Haslewood first made me acquainted with this
rare treasure--telling me he had "a famous tawny little
volume" to shew me: his pulse, at the same time, I ween,
beating one hundred and five to the minute! The second
anecdote more exactly accords with the nature of my
preliminary observations. In one of the libraries abroad,
belonging to the Jesuits, there was a volume entitled, on
the back of it "_Concilium Tridenti_:" the searching eye and
active hands of a well-educated Bibliomaniac discovered and
opened this volume--when lo! instead of the _Council of
Trent_, appeared the _First_, and almost unknown, _Edition_
of the _Decameron of Boccaccio_! This precious volume is now
reposing upon the deserted shelves of the late Duke of
Roxburgh's library; and, at the forth-coming sale of the
same, it will be most vigorously contended for by all the
higher and more knowing powers of the bibliographical world;
But when the gods descending swell'd the fight,
Then tumult rose; fierce rage and pale affright
Varied each face:
[_Pope's_] _Homer's Iliad_, b. xx. v. 63.
MIRABEAU. _Catalogue de la Bibliotheque de Mirabeau l'aîné,
par Rozet_, 1792, 8vo. A fine collection of books; some of
them very curious and uncommon. At the head of the choice
things contained in it must be noticed the "Recueil de
Calques, ou dessins des titres et figure d'un grand nombre
des plus anciens ouvrages, gravés en bois, ou imprimés en
caractères mobiles, depuis l'origine de l'imprimerie," &c.
These designs were 226 in number; of which a description is
given at the head of the catalogue. They were purchased for
1105 livres, and again sold, with the same description
prefixed, at the last Crevenna sale of 1793 (see p. 79,
ante). Consult the _Curiosités Bibliographiques_ of Peignot,
p. 139.----MIROMENIL. _Catalogue des Livres de la
Bibliothéque de M. Hüe de Miromenil, garde des sceaux de
France_, Paris, 1781, 4to. "It appears, from the catalogue
of M. de Coste, that this is a rare book, of which only few
copies were printed, and those never sold." _Bibliogr.
Curieuse_, p. 33.----MONTFAUÇON. _Diarium Italicum; sive
Monumentorum Veterum, Bibliothecarum, Musæorum Notitiæ
Singulares a D. Bernardo de Montfauçon_, Paris, 1702, 4to.
_Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum Manuscriptorum nova, autore De
Bern. de Montfauçon_, Paris, 1739, folio, two vols. These
are the bibliographical works (which I thought would be
acceptable if placed in this list of Catalogues) of the
illustrious Montfauçon; whose publications place him on the
summit of antiquarian fame. So much solid sense, careful
enquiry, curious research, and not despicable taste, mark
his voluminous productions! The bibliographer may rest
assured that he will not often be led into confusion or
error in the perusal of the above curious and valuable
volumes, which have always been considered precious by the
philologist.----MORELLI. _Jacobi Morellii Bibliothecæ Regiæ
divi Marci Venetiarum Custodis, Bibliotheca Manuscripta
Græca et Latina._ Tom. prim. Bassani, 8vo. Morelli was the
amiable and profoundly learned librarian of St. Mark's at
Venice; and this catalogue of his Greek and Latin MSS. is
given upon the authority of Peignot's _Curiosités
Bibliographiques_, p. lix.----MUSEUM BRITISH. _Catalogus
Librorum Manuscript. Bibl. Cotton._, Oxon., 1696, fol. _A
Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library_,
Lond. 1777, 8vo. _A Catalogue of the same_, 1802, fol. _A
Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, &c._, Lond., 1759,
fol., 2 vols. _A Catalogue of the same_, Lond., 1808, fol.,
3 vols. _A Catalogue of the MSS. of the Kings Library, &c._,
1734, 4to. _A Catalogue of the MSS., &c., hitherto
undescribed_, Lond., 1782, 4to., two vols. _Catalog. Libror.
Impress., &c._, Lond., 1787, folio, 2 vols. These are the
published catalogues of the literary treasures, in
manuscript and in print, which are contained in the British
Museum. The _first Cottonian_ catalogue has a life of Sir
Robert Cotton, and an account of his library prefixed to it.
The _second_, by Samuel Hooper, was intended "to remedy the
many defects" in the preceding catalogue, and "the
injudicious manner" in which it was compiled; but it is of
itself sufficiently confused and imperfect. The _third_,
which is the most copious and valuable, with an index (and
which has an abridged account of Sir Robert Cotton, and of
his Library), was drawn up by Mr. Planta, the principal
librarian of the British Museum. A great part of the first
catalogue of the _Harleian MSS._ was compiled by the
celebrated Humphrey Wanley, and a most valuable and ably
executed publication it is! The _Second_ is executed by the
Rev. R. Nares: it contains the preface of the first, with an
additional one by himself, and a copious index; rendering
this the most complete catalogue of MSS. which has ever yet
appeared in our own country; although one regrets that its
typographical execution should not have kept pace with its
intrinsic utility. The two latter catalogues of MSS. above
described give an account of those which were presented by
royal munificence, and collected chiefly by Sir Hans Sloane
and Dr. Birch. The catalogue of 1734 (which is now rare) was
compiled by David Casley: that of 1782, by Samuel Ascough.
Of the catalogue of _Printed Books_, it would be unfair to
dwell upon its imperfections, since a new, and greatly
enlarged and improved, impression of it is about going to
press, under the editorial care and inspection of Messrs. H.
Ellis and Baber, the gentlemen to whom the printed books are
at present intrusted. Mr. Douce, who has succeeded Mr. Nares
as head librarian of the MSS., is busily employed in
examining the multifarious collection of the _Lansdowne
MSS._ (recently purchased by the Trustees of the Museum),
and we may hope that the day is not very far distant when
the public are to be congratulated on his minute and
masterly analysis of these treasures.----PARIS. _Catalogue
de la Bibliothéque de M. Paris de Meyzieux_, Paris, 1779,
8vo. _Bibliotheca elegantissima Parisina, par M. Lourent_,
1790, 8vo. _The same_: Lond., 1791, 8vo. Since the days of
Gaignat and the Duke de la Valliere, the longing eyes of
bibliographers were never blessed with a sight of more
splendid and choice books than were those in the possession
of M. PARIS DE MEYZIEUX. The Spira Virgil of 1470, UPON
VELLUM, will alone confer celebrity upon the _first_
catalogue--but what shall we say to the _second_? It
consists of only 635 articles, and yet, as is well observed
in the preface, it was never equalled for the like number.
Happy is that noviciate in bibliography who can forget the
tedium of a rainy day in sitting by the side of a log-wood
fire, and in regaling his luxurious fancy, by perusing the
account of "fine, magnificent, matchless, large paper," and
"vellum" copies which are thickly studded from one end of
this volume to the other. Happier far the veteran, who can
remember how he braved the _perils of the sale_, in
encountering the noble and heavy metalled competitors who
flocked, from all parts of the realm, to partake of these
_Parisian_ spoils! Such a one casts an eye upon his
well-loaded shelves, and while he sees here and there a
yellow morocco Aldus, or a Russian leather Froben, he
remembers how bravely he fought for each, and with what
success his exertions were crowned! For my own part, gentle
reader, I frankly assure thee that--after having seen the
"HEURES DE NOTRE DAME," written by the famous Jarry, and
decorated with SEVEN small exquisite paintings of the Virgin
and Christ--and the _Aldine Petrarch_ and _Virgil_ of 1501,
all of them executed upon SNOW-WHITE VELLUM--after having
seen only these books out of the Paris collection, I hope to
descend to my obscure grave in perfect peace and
satisfaction! The reader may smile; but let him turn to
nos. 14, 201, 328, of the _Bibl. Paris_: no. 318 of
the _Cat. de la Valliere_; and _Curiositès
Bibliographiques_, p. 67. This strain of "ètourderie
bibliographique," ought not to make me forget to observe
that we are indebted to the enterprising spirit and correct
taste of Mr. Edwards for these, as well as for many other,
beautiful books imported from the Continent. Nor is it yet
forgotten that some thorough-bred bibliomaniacs, in their
way to the sale, used to call for a glass of ice, to allay
the contagious inflammation which might rage in the
auction-room. And now take we leave of Monsieur Paris de
Meyzieux. Peace to the ashes of so renowned a
book-chevalier.----PETAU ET MANSART. _Bibliotheca Potavina
et Mansartiana; ou Catalogue des Bibliothéques de Messrs.
Alexander Petau, et François Mansart; auxquells on a ajouté
le Cabinet des MSS. de Justus Lipsius._ Haye, 1722, 8vo. A
catalogue not very common, and well worth the
bibliographer's consultation.----PINELLI. _Bibliotheca
Maphæi Pinelli Veneti, &c. A Jacobo Morellio._ Venetiis,
1787, 6 vols., 8vo. _Bibliotheca Pinelliana: a catalogue of
the magnificent and celebrated library of Maffæi Pinelli,
late of Venice_, &c., London, 1789, 8vo. There can be no
question about the priority, in point both of typographical
beauty and intrinsic excellence, of these catalogues; the
latter being only a common sale one, with the abridgment of
the learned preface of Morelli, and of his bibliographical
notices. This immense collection (of the ancient owners of
which we have a short sketch in Morhof, vol. i., pp. 28,
202) was purchased by Messrs. Edwards and Robson: the Greek
and Latin books were sold for 6786_l._, the Italian, for
2570_l._--which barely repaid the expenses of purchase,
including duties, carriage, and sale. Although, as Dr.
Harwood has observed, "there being no dust in Venice, this
most magnificent library has in general lain reposited for
some centuries, in excellent preservation,"--yet the copies
were not, upon the whole, in the choicest condition. There
are copies of the catalogue of 1789 upon LARGE PAPER. The
catalogue of 1787 (with an elegant portrait of Pinelli
prefixed) has, at first sight, the aspect of a work printed
in small quarto.----POMPADOUR. _Catalogue des Livres de la
Bibliothéque de feue Madame La Marquise de Pompadour, Dame
du Palais de la Reine_, Paris, 1765, 8vo. The name of Madame
de Pompadour will be always respected by bibliographers, on
account of the taste and judgment which are displayed in
this elegant collection. The old popular romances form the
leading feature; but there is an ample sprinkling of the
belles-lettres and poetry. An animated eulogium is
pronounced upon Mad. de Pompadour by Jardé, in his "Précis
sur les Bibliothéques;" prefixed to the last edition of
Fournier's _Dictionnaire Portatif de Bibliographie_, p.
vij.----PRÉFOND. _Catalogue des Livres du Cabinet de M.D.P.
(Girardot de Préfond) Par Guillaume F. De Bure_, Paris,
1757, 8vo. An excellent collection; not wanting in rare and
magnificent productions. The owner of it was distinguished
for many solid, as well as splendid, qualifications. Only
six copies of it were printed upon LARGE PAPER. See _Cat. de
Gaignat_, vol. ii., no. 3467.----RANDON DE BOISSET.
_Catalogue des livres du cabinet de feu M. Randon du
Boisset. Par Guil. de Bure, fils aîné_, Paris, 1777, 12mo.
Although the generality of catalogue collectors will be
satisfied with the usual copy of this well-digested volume,
yet I apprehend the curious will not put up with any thing
short of a copy of it upon strong WRITING PAPER. Such a one
was in the Gouttard collection. See _Cat. de Gouttard_,
no. 1546.----_Reimannus._ _J.F. Reimanni Catalogus
Bibliothecæ Theologicæ Systematico-Criticus._ Hildes. 1731,
8vo., two vols. _Ejusdem accessiones uberiores ad Catalogum
Systematico-Criticum, editæ a Jo. W. Reimannus_, Brunsv.,
1747, 8vo. I have before given the character of this work in
the introductory part of my "Knowledge of the Greek and
Latin Classics." Every thing commendatory of it may be here
repeated.----RENATI. _Bibliothecæ Josephi Renati Imperialis,
&c., Cardinalis Catalogus, &c._ Romæ, 1711, fol. This
excellent catalogue, which cost the compiler of it,
Fontanini, nine years of hard labour, is a most useful and
valuable one; serving as a model for catalogues of large
libraries. See the more minute criticism upon it in _Cat. de
Santander_, no. 6315. My copy, which wants the
title-page, but luckily contains the Latin preface, was
formerly Ruddiman's. The volume has 738 pages: this is
noticed because all the appendixes and addenda are
comprehended in the same.----REVICKZKY. _Bibliotheca Græca
et Latina, complectens auctores fere omnes Græcia et Latii
veteris, &c., cum delectu editionum tam primariarum, &c.,
quam etiam optimarum, splendidissimarum, &c., quas usui meo
paravi._ PERIERGUS DELTOPHILUS (the feigned name for
REVICKZKY), Berolini, 1784: 1794, 8vo. It was the delight of
Count Revickzky, the original owner of this collection, to
devote his time and attention to the acquisition of scarce,
beautiful, and valuable books; and he obtained such fame in
this department of literature as to cause him to be ranked
with the Vallieres, Pinellis, and Loménies of the day. He
compiled, and privately disposed of, the catalogue of his
collection, which bears the above title; and to some few of
which are prefixed a letter to M. L' A.D. [enini] (Member of
the French Academy) and a preface. _Three Supplements_ to
this catalogue were also, from time to time, circulated by
him; so that the purchaser must look sharply after these
acquisitions to his copy--as some one or the other of them
are generally missing. Peignot supposes there are only _two_
supplements. _Bibl. Curieuse_, p. 58. When Count Revickzky
came over to England, he made an offer to Earl Spencer to
dispose of the whole collection to his lordship, for a
certain "round sum" to be paid immediately into his hands,
and to receive, in addition, a yearly sum by way of annuity.
So speaks fame. Shortly after this contract was closed, the
Count died; and Earl Spencer, in consequence, for a
comparatively small sum (the result of an immediate and
generous compliance with the Count's wishes!), came into the
possession of a library which, united with his previous
magnificent collection, and the successful ardour with which
he has since continued the pursuit, places him quite at the
head of all the collectors in Europe--for early, rare,
precious, and beautiful, books. Long may he possess such
treasures!--and fleeing from the turbulence of politics, and
secluded as he is, both in the metropolis and at Althorp,
from the stunning noise of a city, may he always exclaim,
with Horace, as the Count did before him--
Sit mihi, quod nunc est, etiam minus; ut mihi vivam
Quod superest ævi, si quid superesse volunt Dí.
Sit bona librorum et provisæ frugis in annum
Copia, ne fluitem dubiæ spe pendulus horæ.
_Epist. Lib._ i.: _Epist._ xviii. v., 107.
Sir M.M. Sykes, Bart., has a copy of the edition of 1784
[which is in every respect the better one], printed upon
FINE VELLUM PAPER. A similar copy of the edition of 1794 is
noticed in the _Cat. de Caillard_,(1808) no. 2572. At the
sale of M. Meon's books, in 1804, a copy of the first
edition, charged with MS. notes of the celebrated Mercier
St. Leger, was sold for 30 livres.----RIVE. _Catalogue de la
Bibliothéque de l'Abbé Rive, par Archard_, Marseille, 1793,
8vo. A catalogue of the books of so sharp-sighted a
bibliographer as was the Abbé Rive cannot fail to be
interesting to the collector.----DU ROI [Louis XV.]
_Catalogus Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Regiæ (studio
et labore Anicetti Mellot). Paris, e Typog. Reg._, 1739,
folio, four vols.----DU ROI. _Des Livres imprimés de la même
Bibliothéque Royale. (Disposè par Messrs. les Abbés Sallier
et Boudot, &c.) Paris, De L'Imprim. Royale_, 1739-53, folio,
six vols. The most beautiful and carefully executed
catalogue in the world: reflecting a truly solid lustre upon
the literary reputation of France! The first four volumes,
written in Latin, comprehend an account of MSS.: the six
last, written in French, of printed works in THEOLOGY,
JURISPRUDENCE, and BELLES-LETTRES; the departments of
HISTORY and the ARTS AND SCIENCES still remaining to be
executed. De Bure told us, half a century ago, that the
"Gens de Lettres" were working hard at the completion of it;
but the then complaints of bibliographers at its imperfect
state are even yet continued in Fournier's last edition of
his _Dictionnaire Portatif de Bibliographie_, p. 468. So
easy it is to talk; so difficult to execute! I believe,
however, that M. Van-Praet, one of the principal librarians,
is now putting all engines to work to do away the further
disgrace of such unaccountably protracted negligence. My
copy of this magnificent set of books is bound in red
Morocco, gilt leaves, and was a presentation one from the
King "au Comte de Neny, comme une marque de son estime,
1770." I should add that the first volume of "Theology"
contains a history of the rise and progress of the royal
library, which was reprinted in 8vo., 1782.----DU ROI.
_Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothéque du
Roi, Paris. De l'Imprim. Roy._ 1787, 4to., seven vols. It
will be obvious to the candid reader that this work could
not be better introduced than in the present place; and a
most interesting and valuable one it is! My copy of it,
which is only in six volumes [but a seventh is mentioned in
_Cat. de Boutourlin_, no. 3845, and in Caillot's _Roman
Bibliographique_, p. 195], was purchased by me of Mr. Evans
of Pall-Mall, who had shewn it to several lovers of
bibliography, but none of whom had courage or curiosity
enough to become master of the volumes. How I have profited
by them, the Supplement to my first volume of the
"Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain," may in part
shew. The public shall be made acquainted with still more
curious excerpts. In my humble judgment the present work is
a model of extraction of the marrow of old MSS. It may be
worth adding, the plates in the sixth volume are singular,
curious and beautiful.----DU ROI. _Accounts and Extracts of
the Manuscripts in the Library of the King of France.
Translated from the French_, London, 1789, 8vo., two vols.
"The French Monarch [Louis XVI.], in the publication now
before us, has set an example to all Europe, well worthy to
be followed"--says the opening of the translator's preface.
The present volumes contain a translation of only twenty-two
articles from the preceding work; and very strongly may they
be recommended to the curious philologist, as well as to the
thorough-bred bibliomaniac.----RÖVER. _Bibliotheca
Röveriana, sive Catalogus Librorum qui studiis inservierunt
Matthiæ Röveri._ Lug. Bat. 1806, 8vo., _two parts_. From the
elegant and pleasing Latin preface to this most carefully
compiled catalogue, we learn that the owner of the books
lived to his 82d year--and [what must be a peculiar
gratification to Bibliomaniacs] that he beat Pomponius
Atticus in the length of time during which he never had
occasion to take physic; namely, 50 years! Röver's life
seemed to glide away in rational tranquillity, and in total
seclusion from the world; except that he professed and
always shewed the greatest kindness to his numerous, and
many of them helpless, relatives--"vix in publicum prodiit,
nisi cultus Divini externi aut propinquorum caussâ," p. xv.
His piety was unshaken. Like the venerable Jacob Bryant, his
death was hastened in consequence of a contusion in his leg
from a fall in endeavouring to reach a book.----ROTHELIN.
_Catalogue des livres de feu M'L. Abbé D'Orleans de
Rothelin. Par G. Martin_, Paris, 1746, 8vo. This catalogue
of the library of the amiable and learned Abbé Rothelin,
"known (says Camus) for his fine taste for beautiful books,"
is judiciously drawn up by Martin, who was the De Bure of
his day. A portrait of its owner faces the title-page. It
was the Abbé Rothelin who presented De Boze with the
celebrated '_Guirlande de Julie_'--a work which afterwards
came into the Valliere collection, and was sold for 14,510
livres,--"the highest price (says Peignot) ever given for a
modern book." Consult his _Curiosités Bibliographiques_, pp.
62, 67; and _Bibl. Curieuse_, p. 61.----SARRAZ. _Bibliotheca
Sarraziana._ Hag. Com., 1715, 8vo. This catalogue, which is
frequently referred to by bibliographers, should not escape
the collector when he can obtain it for a few shillings. A
tolerably good preface or diatribe is prefixed, upon the
causes of the rarity of Books, but the volume itself is not
deserving of all the fine things in commendation of it which
are said in the _Bibl. Reiman_, pt. ii., p. 671,
&c.----SARTORI. _Catalogus Bibliographicus Librorum
Latinorum et Germanicorum in Bibliotheca Cæsar. reg. et
equestris Academiæ Theresianæ extantium, cum accessionibus
originum typographicarum. Vindobonensium, et duobus
supplementis necnon, indice triplici, systematico,
bibliographico, et typographico; auctore Josepho de
Sartori._ Vindobonæ, 1801-3, 4to. Vol. i., ii., iii. Of this
very curious and greatly-to-be-desired catalogue, which is
to be completed in eight volumes, it is said that only ONE
HUNDRED copies are struck off. Peignot has a long and
interesting notice of it in his _Bibliographie Curieuse_, p.
64.----SCHALBRUCK. _Bibliotheca Schalbruchiana; sive
Catalogus exquisitissimorum rarissimorumque librorum, quos
collegit Joh. Theod. Schalbruch._ Amst. 1723, 8vo. A very
fine collection of rare and curious books. From a priced
copy of the catalogue, accidentally seen, I find that some
of them produced rather large sums.----SCHWARTZ. _Catalogus
Librorum continens codd. MSS. et libros sæculo_ xv.
_impressos, quos possedit et notis recensuit A.G.
Schwarzius_, Altorf. 1769, 8vo. The name of Schwartz is so
respectable in the annals of bibliography that one cannot
help giving the present catalogue a place in one's
collection. According to _Bibl. Solger._, vol. iii., no.
1459, a first part (there said to be printed upon LARGE
PAPER) was published in 1753. Schwartz's treatise, "_De
Orig. Typog. Document. Primar._" Altorf, 1740, 4to., should
have been noticed at p. 41, ante.----SCRIVERIUS.
_Bibliothecæ Scriverianæ Catalogus_, Amst., 1663,
4to.--"exquisitissimus est: constat enim selectissimus
omnium facultatum et artium autoribus." This is the strong
recommendatory language of Morhof: _Polyhist. Literar._,
vol. i., 212.----SERNA SANTANDER. _Catalogue des livres de
la Bibliothéque de M.C. De La Serna Santander; redigé et mis
en ordre par lui même; avec des notes bibliographiques et
littèraires_, &c. Bruxelles, 1803, 8vo., five volumes. An
extensive collection of interesting works; with a
sufficiently copious index at the end of the fourth volume.
The fifth volume contains a curious disquisition upon the
antiquity of signatures, catchwords, and numerals; and is
enriched with a number of plates of watermarks of the paper
in ancient books. This catalogue, which is rarely seen in
our own country, is well worth a place in any library. It is
a pity the typographical execution of it is so very
indifferent. For the credit of a bibliographical taste, I
hope there were a few copies struck off upon LARGE
PAPER.----SION COLLEGE. _Catalogus universalis librorum
omnium in Bibliotheca Collegii Sionii apud Londinenses_;
Londini, 1650, 4to. _Ejusdem Collegii librorum Catalogus,
&c., Cura Reading_, Lond., 1724, fol. As the first of these
catalogues (of a collection which contains some very curious
and generally unknown volumes) was published before the
great fire of London happened, there will be found some
books in it which were afterwards consumed, and therefore
not described in the subsequent impression of 1724. This
latter, which Tom Osborne, the bookseller, would have called
a "pompous volume," is absolutely requisite to the
bibliographer: but both impressions should be procured, if
possible. The folio edition is common and cheap.----SMITH
[CONSUL]. _Bibliotheca Smithiana, seu Catalogus Librorum
D.J. Smithii Angli, per cognomina Authorum dispositus._
Venetiis, 1755, 4to. _A Catalogue of the curious, elegant,
and very valuable library of Joseph Smith, Esq., His
Britannic Majesty's Consul at Venice, lately deceased_,
1773, 8vo. These are the catalogues of the collections of
books occasionally formed at Venice, by Mr. Joseph Smith,
during his consulship there. The quarto impression contains
a description of the books which were purchased "en masse"
by his present majesty. It is singularly well executed by
Paschali, comprehending, by way of an appendix, the prefaces
to those volumes in the collection which were printed in the
fifteenth century. I possess a brochûre of 71 pages,
containing a catalogue of books printed in the fifteenth
century, which has Consul Smith's arms at the beginning,
and, at the end, this subscription, "Pretiosissima hæc
librorum collectio, cujusvis magni principis Bibliotheca
dignissima, constat voluminibus ccxlviii." The title-page
has no date. I suspect it to be the same catalogue of books
which is noticed at p. 77, ante, and which probably the
Consul bought: forming the greater part of his own library
of early printed books. See too the _Bibliogr. Miscellany_,
vol. ii., 72. The collection of 1773 was sold by auction,
for Mr. Robson, by Messrs. Baker and Leigh--and a fine one
it was. Among these books, the Spira Virgil of 1470, printed
UPON VELLUM, was purchased for _only twenty-five guineas_!
Excidat ille dies ævo--ne postera credant
Sæcula--!
----SOLGER. _Bibliotheca sive Supellex Librorum Impressorum,
&c., et Codicum Manuscriptorum, quos per plurimos annos
collegit, &c., Adamus Rudolphus Solger._ Norimb., 1760,
8vo., three parts or vols. I should almost call this
publication "facile princeps Catalogorum"--in its way. The
bibliographical notices are frequent and full; and saving
that the words "rarus, rarior, et rarissimus," are sometimes
too profusely bestowed, nothing seems to be wanting to
render this a very first rate acquisition to the collector's
library. I am indebted to the bibliomanical spirit of honest
Mr. Manson, of Gerard-street, the bookseller, for this
really useful publication.----SOUBISE. _Catalogue des livres
imprimés et manuscrits, &c., de feu Monseigneur Le Prince de
Soubise (par feu Le Clerc)_, Paris, 1788, 8vo. A short
history of this collection will be the best inducement to
purchase the present catalogue, whenever it comes in the way
of the collector. The foundation of this splendid library
was that of the famous De Thou's [vide Art. THUANUS, post],
which was purchased by the Cardinal de Rohan, who added it
to his own grand collection--"the fruit of a fine taste and
a fine fortune." It continued to be augmented and enriched
'till, and after, it came into the possession of the PRINCE
DE SOUBISE--the last nobleman of his name--who dying in
January, 1789, the entire collection was dispersed by public
auction: after it had been offered for the purchase of one
or two eminent London booksellers, who have repented, and
will repent to their dying day, their declining the offer.
This catalogue is most unostentatiously executed upon very
indifferent paper; and, while an excellent index enables us
to discover any work of which we may be in want, the
beautiful copies from this collection which are in the
Cracherode library in the British Museum, give
unquestionable proof of the splendour of the books. For the
credit of French bibliography, I hope there are some few
copies upon LARGE PAPER.----TELLIER. _Bibliotheca
Tellereana, sive Catalogus Librorum Bibliotheca Caroli
Mauritii Le Tellier, Archiepiscopi Ducis Remensis. Parisiis,
e Typographia Regia_, 1693, fol. A finely engraved portrait
of Tellier faces the title-page. This is a handsome volume,
containing a numerous and well-chosen collection of
books.----THUANUS. [DE THOU] _Bibliothecæ Thuanæ Catalogus_,
Parisiis, 1679, 8vo. "Three particular reasons," says
Baillet, "should induce us to get possession of this
catalogue; first, the immortal glory acquired by De Thou in
writing his history, and in forming the most perfect and
select library of his age: and secondly, the abundance and
excellence of the books herein specified; and, thirdly, the
great credit of the bibliographers Du Puys and Quesnel, by
whom the catalogue was compiled." _Jugemens des Savans_,
vol. ii., p. 144, &c. Morhof is equally lavish in
commendation of this collection. See his _Polyhist.
Literar._, vol. i., 36, 211. The Books of De Thou, whose
fame will live as long as a book shall be read, were
generally in beautiful condition, with his arms stamped upon
the exterior of the binding, which was usually of Morocco;
and, from some bibliographical work (I think it is
Santander's catalogue), I learn that this binding cost the
worthy president not less than 20,000 crowns. De Thou's copy
of the editio princeps of Homer is now in the British
Museum; having been presented to this national institution
by the Rev. Dr. Cyril Jackson, who has lately resigned the
deanery of Christ Church College, Oxford,--"and who is now
wisely gone to enjoy the evening of life in repose,
sweetened by the remembrance of having spent the day in
useful and strenuous exertion." For an account of the
posterior fate of De Thou's library, consult the article
"SOUBISE," ante. I should add that, according to the _Bibl.
Solgeriana_, vol. iii., p. 243, no. 1431, there are
copies of this catalogue upon LARGE PAPER.----UFFENBACH.
_Catalogus universalis Bibliothecæ Uffenbachinæ librorum tam
typis quam manu exaratorum._ Francof. ad Moen, 1729, 8vo.,
4 vols. This catalogue is no mean acquisition to the
bibliographer's library. It rarely occurs in a perfect and
clean condition.----VALLIERE (DUC DE LA). _Catalogue des
Livres provenans de la Bibliothéque de M.L.D.D.L.V._, (M. le
Duc de la Valliere) _disposé et mis en ordre par Guill.
Franc. De Bure le Jeune._ Paris, 1767, 8vo., 2 vols.--_Des
Livres de la même Bibliothéque._ Paris, 1772, 8vo.--_Des
Livres et Manuscrits de la même Bibliothéque_, Paris, 1783,
8vo., 3 vols.--_Des Livres de la même Bibliothéque_, Paris,
1783, 6 vols. 8vo. These twelve volumes of catalogues of
this nobleman's library impress us with a grand notion of
its extent and value--perhaps never exceeded by that of any
private collection! It would seem that the Duke de la
Valliere had two sales of part of his books (of which the
two first catalogues are notifications) during his
life-time: the two latter catalogues of sales having been
put forth after his decease. Of these latter (for the former
contain nothing remarkable in them, except that there are
copies of the first on LARGE PAPER, in 4to.), the impression
of 1783, which was compiled by Van Praet and De Bure, is the
most distinguished for its notices of MSS. and early printed
books: and in these departments it is truly precious, being
enriched with some of the choicest books in the Gaignat
Collection. Those printed UPON VELLUM alone would form a
little library! Of the impression of 1783, which has a
portrait of the owner prefixed, there were fifty copies
printed upon LARGE PAPER, in 4to., to harmonize with the
_Bibliographie Instructive_, and _Gaignat's Catalogue_. See
_Bibliographical Miscell._, vol. ii., 66. Twelve copies were
also printed in royal 8vo., upon fine stout VELLUM PAPER; of
which the Rt. Hon. T. Grenville has a beautiful uncut copy
in six volumes. See also _Cat. de Loménie_ [1797], no.
2666. The last publication of 1788 was put forth by Nyon
l'aîné; and although the bibliographical observations are
but few in comparison with those in the preceding catalogue,
and no index is subjoined, yet it is most carefully
executed; and presents us with such a copious collection of
French topography, and old French and Italian poetry and
romances, as never has been, and perhaps never will be,
equalled. It contains 26,537 articles. The Count D'Artois
purchased this collection "en masse;" and it is now
deposited in the "bibliothéque de l'Arsenal." See _Dictionn.
Bibliographique_, vol. iv., p. 133. It was once offered for
purchase to a gentleman of this country--highly
distinguished for his love of Virtû. Mr. Grenville has also
a similar large paper copy of this latter edition, of the
date of 1784.----VIENNA. _Codices Manuscripti Theologici.
Bibl. Palat. Vindob. Latini aliarumque Occidentis
Linguarum_, vol. i. (in tribus partibus.) _Recens._, &c.,
_Michael Denis._ Vindob. 1793, folio. Some mention of this
work has been made at page 65, ante. It may be here
necessary to remark that, from the preface, it would appear
to contain a ninth additional book to Lambecius's well-known
Commentaries (vide, p. 41, ante) which Kollarius had left
unpublished at his death. The preface is well worth perusal,
as it evinces the great pains which Denis has taken; and the
noble, if not matchless, munificence of his patron--"qui
præter augustam Bibliothecæ fabricam in ipsos libros
centenis plura Rhenensium expendit millia."--This catalogue
is confined to a description of Latin, with some few notices
of Oriental Manuscripts; as the preceding work of Lambecius
and Kollarius contained an account of the Greek MSS. These
three parts, forming one volume, are closed by an excellent
index. The second volume was published in 1801. Upon the
whole, it is a noble and highly useful publication; and
places its author in the foremost rank of
bibliographers.----VOLPI. _Catalogo della Libreria de
Volpi_, &c. _Opera di Don Gaetano Volpi._ Padova, 1756, 8vo.
The Crevenna library was enriched with a great number of
valuable books which came from the library of the celebrated
Vulpii; of which the present is a well-arranged and uncommon
catalogue. Annexed to it there is an account of the press of
the Comini, which belonged to the owners of this collection.
The reader may consult _Bibl. Crevenn._, vol. v., pp. 302-3;
and Dr. Clarke's _Bibliogr. Miscell._, vol. ii.,
72.----VOYAGE _de deux Français dans le nord de l'Europe, en
1790-92, (par M. de Fortia)_ Paris, 1796, 8vo., 5 vols. That
the collector of catalogues may not scold me for this
apparent deviation from the subject discussed in this note,
I must inform him, upon the authority of Peignot, that these
interesting volumes contain "some account of the most
beautiful and curious books contained in the Libraries of
the North, and in those of Italy, Spain, Holland, &c."
_Curiosités Bibliographiques_, p. lviii.----DE WITT.
_Catalogus Bibliothecæ Joannis De Witt_, Dordraci, 1701,
12mo. The preface to this catalogue, (from which an extract
was given in the _first_ edition of my "_Introduction to the
Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics_," 1802, 8vo.,)
gives us a pleasing account of an ardent and elegant young
man in the pursuit of every thing connected with Virtû. De
Witt seems to have been, in books and statues, &c., what his
great ancestor was in politics--"paucis comparandus." A
catalogue of the library of a collector of the same name was
published at Brussels, in 1752, by De Vos. See _Cat. de
Santander_, vol. iv., no. 6334.----ZURICH. _Catalogus
librorum Bibliothecæ Tigurinæ._ Tiguri, 1744, 8vo., 4 vols.
Although the last, this is not the most despicable,
catalogue of collections here enumerated. A reading man, who
happens to winter in Switzerland, may know, upon throwing
his eyes over this catalogue, that he can have access to
good books at Zurich--the native place of many an
illustrious author! The following, which had escaped me, may
probably be thought worthy of forming an
APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING NOTE.
BERN. _Cat. Codd. MSS. Bibl. Bernensis. Cum annotationibus,
&c. Curante Sinner._ Bernæ, 1760, 8vo. A very curious and
elegantly printed Catalogue with three plates of
fac-similes.----PARKER [ABP.] _Catalog. Libror. MSS. in
Bibl. Coll. Corporis Christi in Cantab., quos legavit M.
Parkerus Archiepiscop. Cant._ Lond., 1722, fol.; _Eorundem
Libror. MSS. Catalogus. Edidit J. Nasmith._ Cantab., 1777,
4to. Of these catalogues of the curious and valuable MSS.
which were bequeathed to Corpus College (or Bennet College,
as it is sometimes called) by the immortal Archbishop
Parker, the first is the more elegantly printed, but the
latter is the more copious and correct impression. My copy
of it has a fac-simile etching prefixed, by Tyson, of the
rare print of the Archbishop, which will be noticed in PART
V., post.----ROYAL INSTITUTION. _A Catalogue of the Library
of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, &c. By William
Harris, Keeper of the Library._ Lond., 1809, 8vo. If a lucid
order, minute and correct description of the volumes of an
admirably chosen library, accompanied with a copious and
faithful alphabetical index, be recommendations with the
bibliographer, the present volume will not be found wanting
upon his shelf. It is the most useful book of its kind ever
published in this country. Let the bibliomaniac hasten to
seize one of the five remaining copies only (out of the
_fifty_ which were printed) upon LARGE PAPER!----WOOD
(ANTHONY). _A Catalogue of Antony-a-Wood's Manuscripts in
the Ashmolean Museum; by W. Huddesford_, Oxon, 1761, 8vo.
The very name of _old Anthony_ (as it delights some
facetious book-collectors yet to call him!) will secure
respect for this volume. It is not of common occurrence.]
[Footnote C: In Part VI. of this work will be found a List
of Books printed here. The armorial bearings of Lord Orford
are placed at p. 100.]
LIS. You have so thoroughly animated my feelings, and excited my
curiosity, in regard to BIBLIOGRAPHY, that I can no longer dissemble
the eagerness which I feel to make myself master of the several books
which you have recommended.
LYSAND. Alas, your zeal will most egregiously deceive you! _Where_
will you look for such books? At what bookseller's shop, or at what
auction, are they to be procured? In this country, my friend, few are
the private collections, however choice, which contain two third
parts of the excellent works before mentioned. Patience, vigilance,
and personal activity, are your best friends in such a dilemma.
LIS. But I will no longer attend the sale of Malvolio's busts and
statues, and gaudy books. I will fly to the Strand, or King-street:
peradventure--
PHIL. Gently, my good Lisardo. A breast thus suddenly changed from the
cold of Nova Zembla to the warmth of the torrid zone requires to be
ruled with discretion. And yet, luckily for you--
LIS. Speak--are you about to announce the sale of some bibliographical
works?
PHIL. Even so. To morrow, if I mistake not, GONZALVO'S choice gems, in
this way, are to be disposed of.
LIS. Consider them as my own. Nothing shall stay me from the
possession of them.
LYSAND. You speak precipitately. Are you accustomed to attend
book-auctions?
LIS. No; but I will line my pockets with pistoles, and who dare oppose
me?
PHIL. And do you imagine that no one, but yourself, has his pockets
"lined with pistoles," on these occasions?
LIS. It may be so--that other linings are much warmer than my
own:--but, at any rate, I will make a glorious struggle, and die with
my sword in my hand.
PHIL. This is _Book-Madness_ with a vengeance! However, we shall see
the issue. When and how do you propose going?
LIS. A chaise shall be at this door by nine in the morning. Who will
accompany me?
LYSAND. Our friend and Philemon will prevent your becoming absolutely
raving, by joining you. I shall be curious to know the result.
LIS. Never fear. _Bibliomania_ is, of all species of insanity, the
most rational and praise-worthy. I here solemnly renounce my former
opinions, and wish my errors to be forgotten. I here crave pardon of
the disturbed manes of the Martins, De Bures, and Patersons, for that
flagitious act of _Catalogue-Burning_; and fondly hope that the
unsuspecting age of boyhood will atone for so rash a deed. Do you
frankly forgive--and will you henceforth consider me as a worth
[Transcriber's Note: worthy] "_Aspirant_" in the noble cause of
bibliography?
LYSAND. Most cordially do I forgive you; and freely admit you into the
fraternity of Bibliomaniacs. Philemon, I trust, will be equally
merciful.
PHIL. Assuredly, Lisardo, you have my entire forgiveness: and I exult
a little in the hope that you will prove yourself to be a sincere
convert to the cause, by losing no opportunity of enriching your
bibliographical stores. Already I see you mounted, as a book
chevalier, and hurrying from the country to London--from London again
to the country--seeking adventures in which your prowess may be
displayed--and yielding to no competitor who brandishes a lance of
equal weight with your own!
LIS. 'Tis well. At to-morrow's dawn my esquire shall begin to burnish
up my armour--and caparison my courser. Till then adieu!
* * * * *
Here the conversation, in a connected form, ceased; and it was
resolved that Philemon and myself should accompany Lisardo on the
morrow.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: FARI QUÆ SENTIAT]
PART III.
=The Auction Room.=
CHARACTER OF ORLANDO.
OF ANCIENT PRICES OF BOOKS, AND BOOK-BINDING.
BOOK-AUCTION BIBLIOMANIACS.
"As to the late method used in selling books by AUCTION in
London, I suppose that many have paid dear for their
experience in this way--it being apparent that most books
bought in an auction may be had cheaper in booksellers'
shops."
CLAVEL: _Cat. of Books for 1680, Pref._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
=The Auction Room.=
CHARACTER OF ORLANDO.
OF ANCIENT PRICES OF BOOKS, AND BOOK-BINDING.
BOOK AUCTION BIBLIOMANIACS.
Never, surely, did two mortals set off upon any expedition with
greater glee and alacrity than did Lisardo and Philemon for the sale,
by auction, of GONZALVO'S bibliographical library. The great pains
which Lysander had taken in enumerating the various foreign and
domestic writers upon Bibliography, with his occasionally animated
eulogies upon some favourite author had quite inflamed the sanguine
mind of Lisardo; who had already, in anticipation, fancied himself in
possession of every book which he had heard described. Like Homer's
high-bred courser, who
--ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost--
our young bibliomaniac began to count up his volumes, arrange his
shelves, bespeak his binder, and revel in the luxury of a splendid
and nearly matchless collection. The distance from my house to the
scene of action being thirteen miles, Lisardo, during the first six,
had pretty nearly exhausted himself in describing the delightful
pictures which his ardent fancy had formed; and finding the
conversation beginning to flag, Philemon, with his usual good-nature
and judgment, promised to make a pleasing digression from the dry
subject of book-catalogues, by an episode with which the reader shall
be presently gratified. Having promised to assist them both, when we
arrived at Messrs. L. and S., in the Strand, with some information
relating to the prices of such books as they stood in need of, and to
the various book-collectors who attended public sales, Lisardo
expressed himself highly obliged by the promise; and, sinking quietly
into a corner of the chaise, he declared that he was now in a most apt
mood to listen attentively to Philemon's digressive chat: who
accordingly thus began.
"Lord Coke,"--exclaimed PHILEMON, in a mirthful strain--"before he
ventured upon '_The Jurisdiction of the Courts of the Forest_,' wished
to 'recreate himself' with Virgil's description of 'Dido's Doe of the
Forest;'[163] in order that he might 'proceed the more cheerfully'
with the task he had undertaken; and thus exchange somewhat of the
precise and technical language of the lawyer for that glowing tone of
description which woodland scenes and hunting gaieties seldom fail to
produce. Even so, my good friends (pursued Philemon), I shall make a
little digression from the confined subject to which our attentions
have been so long directed by taking you with me, in imagination, to
the delightful abode of ORLANDO."
[Footnote 163: The quaint language of Lord Coke is well
worth quotation: "And seeing we are to treat of matters of
game, and hunting, let us (to the end we may proceed the
more chearfully) recreate ourselves with the excellent
description of Dido's Doe of the Forest wounded with a
deadly arrow sticken in her, and not impertinent to our
purpose:
Uritur infælix Dido, totaque vagatur
Urbe furens, &c.
And in another place, using again the word (Sylva) and
describing a forest saith:
Ibat in antiquam sylvam stabula alta ferarum."
_Institutes_, pt. iv., p. 289, ed. 1669.
Thus pleasantly could our sage expounder of the laws of the
realm illustrate the dry subject of which he treated!]
LIS. I have heard of him: a very "_Helluo Librorum_!" Thus we only
change sides--from things to men; from books to book-collectors. Is
this digressive? Is this an episode?
PHIL. Why this abrupt interruption? If I did not know you and myself,
too, Lisardo, I should observe an obstinate silence during the
remainder of the journey. An episode, though it suspend the main
action for a while, partakes of the nature of the subject of the work.
It is an _appropriate_ digression. Do pray read Dr. Blair[164] upon
the subject--and now only listen.
[Footnote 164: _Lecture_ XLII., vol. iii.]
Orlando (continued Philemon) had from his boyhood loved books and
book-reading. His fortune was rather limited; but he made shift--after
bringing up three children, whom he lost from the ages of nineteen to
twenty-four, and which have been recently followed to their graves by
the mother that gave them birth--he made shift, notwithstanding the
expenses of their college education, and keeping up the reputation of
a truly hospitable table, to collect, from year to year, a certain
number of volumes, according to a certain sum of money appropriated
for the purchase of them; generally making himself master of the
principal contents of the first year's purchase, before the ensuing
one was placed upon his shelves. He lives in a large ancestral house;
and his library is most advantageously situated and delightfully
fitted up. Disliking such a wintry residence as Thomson has
described[165]--although fond of solemn retirement, and of Cowper's
"boundless contiguity of shade,"--he has suffered the rules of common
sense always to mingle themselves in his plans of domestic comfort;
and, from the bow-windowed extremity of his library, he sees realized,
at the distance of four hundred yards, Cæsar's gently-flowing river
_Arar_,[166] in a stream which loses itself behind some low shrubs;
above which is a softly-undulating hill, covered with hazel, and
birch, and oak. To the left is an open country, intersected with
meadows and corn fields, and terminated by the blue mountains of
Malvern at the distance of thirteen miles. Yet more to the left, but
within one hundred and fifty yards of the house, and forming something
of a foreground to the landscape, are a few large and lofty elm trees,
under which many a swain has rested from his toil; many a tender vow
has been breathed; many a sabbath-afternoon[167] innocently kept; and
many a village-wake cordially celebrated! Some of these things yet
bless the aged eyes of ORLANDO!
[Footnote 165:
"In the wild depth of Winter, while without
The ceaseless winds blow ice, be my retreat
Between the groaning forest and the shore,
Beat by the boundless multitude of waves,
A rural, sheltered, solitary scene!"----
_Winter._
One would like a situation somewhat more _sheltered_, when
"The ceaseless winds blow ice!"]
[Footnote 166: "Flumen est _Arar_, quod per fines Æduorum et
Sequanorum in Rhodanum fluit, incredibili lenitate, ita ut
oculis, in utram partem fluat, judicari nos possit." _De
Bell. Gall._, lib. i., § x. Philemon might as happily have
compared Orlando's quiet stream to "the silent river"
----quæ Liris quietâ
Mordet aquâ----
which Horace has so exquisitely described, in contrast with
----obliquis laborat
Lympha fugax trepidare rivo.
_Carm._, _lib._ i., _Od._ xxxi., _lib._ ii., _Od._ ii.
Yet let us not forget Collin's lovely little bit of landscape--
"Where slowly winds the stealing wave."]
[Footnote 167: There is a curious proclamation by Q.
Elizabeth, relating to some Sabbath recreations or games,
inserted in Hearne's preface to his edition of _Camden's
Annals_, p. xxviii. It is a little too long to be given
entire; but the reader may here be informed that "shooting
with the standard, shooting with the broad arrow, shooting
at the twelve score prick, shooting at the Turk, leaping for
men, running for men, wrestling, throwing the sledge, and
pitching the bar," were suffered to be exhibited, on several
Sundays, for the benefit of one "John Seconton Powlter,
dwelling within the parish of St. Clements Danes, being a
poor man, having four small children, and fallen to decay."]
I have slightly noticed the comfortable interior of his library.--
LIS. You spoke of a bow-windowed extremity--
PHIL. Yes, in this bow-window--the glass of which was furnished full
two hundred and fifty years ago, and which has recently been put into
a sensible modern frame-work--thereby affording two hours longer light
to the inhabitant--in this bow-window, you will see a great quantity
of stained glass of the different arms of his own, and of his wife's,
family; with other appropriate embellishments.[168] And when the
evening sun-beams throw a chequered light throughout the room, 'tis
pleasant to observe how Orlando enjoys the opening of an Aldine Greek
Classic--the ample-margined leaves of which receive a mellower tint
from the soft lustre that pervades the library. Every book, whether
opened or closed, is benefited by this due portion of light; so that
the eye, in wandering over the numerous shelves, is neither hurt by
morning glare nor evening gloom. Of colours, in his furniture, he is
very sparing: he considers white shelves, picked out with gold, as
heretical--mahogany, wainscot, black, and red, are, what he calls,
orthodox colours. He has a few busts and vases; and as his room is
very lofty, he admits above, in black and gold frames, a few portraits
of eminent literary characters; and whenever he gets a genuine
Vandyke, or Velasquez, he congratulates himself exceedingly upon his
good fortune.
[Footnote 168: The reader, who is partial to the
lucubrations of Thomas Hearne, may peruse a long gossipping
note of his upon the importance of _stained glass
windows_--in his account of Godstow nunnery. See his _Guil.
Neubrig._, vol. ii., 768.]
LIS. All this bespeaks a pretty correct taste. But I wish to know
something of the man.
PHIL. You shall, presently; and, in hearing what I am about to relate,
only let us both strive, good Lisardo, so to regulate our studies and
feelings that our old age may be like unto Orlando's.
Last year I went with my uncle to pay him our annual visit. He
appeared quite altered and shaken from the recent misfortune of losing
his wife; who had survived the death of her children fifteen years;
herself dying in the sixtieth of her own age. The eyes of Orlando were
sunk deeply into his forehead, yet they retained their native
brilliancy and quickness. His cheeks were wan, and a good deal
withered. His step was cautious and infirm. When we were seated in his
comfortable library chairs, he extended his right arm towards me, and
squeezing my hand cordially within his own--"Philemon," said he, "you
are not yet thirty, and have therefore sufficient ardour to enable you
to gratify your favourite passion for books. Did you ever read the
inscription over the outside of my library door--which I borrowed from
Lomeir's account of one over a library at Parma?[169]" On my telling
him that it had escaped me--"Go," said he, "and not only read, but
remember it."--The inscription was as follows:
INGREDERE MUSIS SACER, NAM
ET HIC DII HABITANT.
ITEM
NULLUS AMICUS MAGIS LIBET,
QUAM LIBER.
[Footnote 169: _De Bibliothecis_: p. 269, edit. 1680.]
"Have a care," said he, on my resuming my seat--"have a care that you
do not treat such a friend ill, or convert him into a foe. For myself,
my course is well nigh run. My children have long taken their leave of
me, to go to the common parent who created, and to the Saviour who has
vouchsafed to redeem, us all; and, though the usual order of nature
has been here inverted, I bow to the fate which Heaven has allotted me
with the unqualified resignation of a Christian. My wife has also
recently left me, for a better place; and I confess that I begin to
grow desolate, and anxious to take my departure to join my family. In
my solitude, dear Philemon, I have found these (pointing to his books)
to be what Cicero, and Seneca, and our own countryman De Bury,[170]
have so eloquently and truly described them to be--our friends, our
instructors, and our comforts. Without any affectation of hard
reading, great learning, or wonderful diligence, I think I may venture
to say that I have read more valuable books than it falls to the lot
of the generality of book-collectors to read; and I would fain believe
that I have profited by my studies. Although not of the profession of
the church, you know that I have always cherished a fondness for
sacred literature; and there is hardly a good edition of the Greek
Testament, or a commentator of repute upon the Bible, foreign or
domestic, but what you will find some reference to the same in my
interleaved copy of Bishop Wilson's edition of the Holy Scriptures. A
great number of these commentators themselves are in my library, as
well as every authoritative edition of the Greek Testament, from the
Complutensian to Griesbach's. Yet do not suppose that my theological
books are equal in measure to one fourth part of those in the Imperial
library at Paris.[171] My object has always been instruction and
improvement; and when these could be obtained from any writer, whether
Roman Catholic or Protestant, Arminian or Calvinistic, I have not
failed to thank him, and to respect him, too, if he has declared his
opinions with becoming diffidence and moderation. You know that
nothing so sorely grieves me as dogmatical arrogance, in a being who
will always be frail and capricious, let him think and act as he
please. On a Sunday evening I usually devote a few hours to my
theological studies--(if you will allow my sabbath-meditations to be
so called) and, almost every summer evening in the week, saunter
'midst yon thickets and meadows by the river side, with Collins, or
Thompson, or Cowper, in my hand. The beautiful sentiments and grand
imagery of Walter Scott are left to my in-door avocations; because I
love to read the curious books to which he refers in his notes, and
have always admired, what I find few critics have noticed, how
adroitly he has ingrafted fiction upon truth. As I thus perambulate,
with my book generally open, the villagers treat me as Sir Roger De
Coverley made his tenants treat the Spectator--by keeping at a
respectful distance--but when I shut up my volume, and direct my steps
homewards, I am always sure to find myself, before I reach my
threshold, in company with at least half a dozen gossipping and
well-meaning rustics. In other departments of reading, history and
poetry are my delight. On a rainy or snowy day, when all looks sad and
dismal without, my worthy friend and neighbour, PHORMIO, sometimes
gives me a call--and we have a rare set-to at my old favourite
volumes--the '_Lectiones Memorabiles et Reconditæ_' of WOLFIUS[172]--a
commonplace book of as many curious, extraordinary, true and false
occurrences, as ever were introduced into two ponderous folios. The
number of strange cuts in it used to amuse my dear children--whose
parent, from the remembrance of the past, still finds a pleasing
recreation in looking at them. So much, dear Philemon, for my
desultory mode of studying: improve upon it--but at all events, love
your books for the good which they may produce; provided you open them
with 'singleness of heart--' that is, a sincerity of feeling.
[Footnote 170: Every school-lad who has written a copy under
a writing-master, or who has looked into the second book of
the _"Selectæ è Profanis Scriptoribus," &c._, has probably
been made acquainted with the sentiments of the above
ancient heathen philosophers relating to Learning and Books;
but may not have been informed of the conciliatory manner in
which our countryman De Bury has invited us to approach the
latter. "Hi sunt magistri (says he) qui nos instruunt sine
vergis et ferula, sine verbis et colera, sine pane et
pecunia. Si accedis, non dormiunt; si inquiris, non se
abscondunt; non remurmurant, si oberres; cachinnos nesciunt,
si ignores." These original and apt words are placed in the
title-page to the first volume of _Dr. Clarke's
Bibliographical Dictionary_.]
[Footnote 171: "Il y a 300 pieds cubes de livres de
théologie,"--"qui tapissent les murs des deux premières
salles de la Bibliothéque Impériale." Caillot: _Roman
Bibliographique_, tom. i., 72, edit. 1809.]
[Footnote 172: There are few men, of any literary curiosity,
who would not wish to know something of the work here
noticed; and much more than appears to be known of its
illustrious author; concerning whom we will first discourse
a little: "JOHANNES WOLFIUS (says Melchoir [Transcriber's
Note: Melchior] Adam), the laborious compiler of the
_Lectionum Memorabilium et Reconditarum Centenarii_ xvi.
(being a collection of curious pieces from more than 3000
authors--chiefly Protestant) was a civilian, a soldier, and
a statesman. He was born A.D. 1537, at Vernac, in the duchy
of Deux Ponts; of which town his father was chief
magistrate. He was bred under Sturmius at Strasbourg, under
Melancthon at Wittemberg, and under Cujas at Bruges. He
travelled much and often; particularly into France and
Burgundy, with the Dukes of Stettin, in 1467. He attended
the Elector Palatine, who came with an army to the
assistance of the French Hugonots in 1569; and, in 1571, he
conducted the corpse of his master back to Germany by sea.
After this, he was frequently employed in embassies from the
electors Palatine to England and Poland. His last patrons
were the Marquisses of Baden, who made him governor of
Mündelsheim, and gave him several beneficial grants. In
1594, Wolfius bade adieu to business and courts, and retired
to Hailbrun; where he completed his "_Lectiones_," which had
been the great employment of his life. He died May 23, A.D.
1600--the same year in which the above volumes were
published." Thus far, in part, our biographer, in his _Vitæ
Eruditorum cum Germanorum tum Exterorum_: pt. iii., p. 156,
edit. 1706. These particulars may be gleaned from Wolfius's
preface; where he speaks of his literary and diplomatic
labours with great interest and propriety. In this preface
also is related a curious story of a young man of the name
of Martin, whom Wolfius employed as an amanuensis to
transcribe from his "three thousand authors"--and who was at
first so zealously attached to the principles of the Romish
Church that he declared "he wished for no heaven where
Luther might be." The young man died a Protestant; quite
reconciled to a premature end, and in perfect good will with
Luther and his doctrine. As to Wolfius, it is impossible to
read his preface, or to cast a glance upon his works--"magno
et pene incredibili labore multisque vigiliis
elaboratum"--(as Linsius has well said, in the opening of
the admonition to the reader, prefixed to his index) without
being delighted with his liberality of disposition, and
astonished at the immensity of his labour. Each volume has
upwards of 1000 pages closely printed upon an indifferent
brown-tinted paper; which serves nevertheless to set off the
several hundreds of well executed wood cuts which the work
contains. Linsius's index, a thin folio, was published in
the year 1608: this is absolutely necessary for the
completion of a copy. As bibliographers have given but a
scanty account of this uncommon work (mentioned, however,
very properly by Mr. Nicol in his interesting preface to the
catalogue of the Duke of Roxburgh's books; and of which I
observe in the _Bibl. Solgeriana_, vol. i., no. 1759,
that a second edition, printed in 1672, is held in
comparatively little estimation), so biographers (if we
except Melchior Adam, the great favourite of Bayle) have
been equally silent respecting its author. Fabricius, and
the Historical Dictionary published at Caen, do not mention
him; and Moreri has but a meagre and superficial notice of
him. Wolfius's _Penus Artis Historicæ_, of which the best
edition is that of 1579, is well described in the tenth
volume of Fournier's _Methode pour étudier l'histoire_, p.
12, edit. 1772. My respect for so extraordinary a
bibliomaniac as WOLFIUS, who was groping amongst the books
of the public libraries belonging to the several great
cities which he visited, (in his diplomatic character--vide
præf.) whilst his masters and private secretary were
probably paying their devotions to Bacchus--induces me to
treat the reader with the following impression of his
portrait.
[Illustration]
This cut is taken from a fac-simile drawing, made by me of
the head of Wolfius as it appears at the back of the
title-page to the preceding work. The original impression is
but an indifferent one; but it presents in addition, the
body of Wolfius as far as the waist; with his right hand
clasping a book, and his left the handle of a sword. His
ponderous chain has a medallion suspended at the end. This
print, which evidently belongs to the English series, has
escaped Granger. And yet I know not whether such
intelligence should be imparted!--as the scissars may hence
go to work to deprive many a copy of these "_Lectiones_," of
their elaborately-ornamented title-pages. Forbid it, good
sense!]
"In a short time," continued the venerable Orlando, after a pause of
fifteen seconds, "in a short time I must bid adieu to this scene; to
my choice copies; beautiful bindings: and all the classical furniture
which you behold around you. Yes!--as Reimannus[173] has well
observed,--'there is no end to accumulating books, whilst the
boundaries of human existence are limited, indeed!' But I have made
every necessary, and, I hope, appropriate, regulation; the greater
part of my library is bequeathed to one of the colleges in the
University of Oxford; with an injunction to put an inscription over
the collection very different from what the famous Ranzau[174]
directed to be inscribed over his own.--About three hundred volumes
you will find bequeathed to you, dear Philemon--accompanied with a few
remarks not very different from what Lotichius[175] indited, with his
dying breath, in his book-legacy to the learned Sambucus. I will, at
present, say no more. Come and see me whenever you have an
opportunity. I exact nothing extraordinary of you; and shall therefore
expect nothing beyond what one man of sense and of virtue, in our
relative situations, would pay to the other."
[Footnote 173: "Vita brevis est, et series librorum longa."
He adds: "Æs magnum tempus, quo id dispungere conatus est,
parvum." _Bibl. Acroamat._, p. 51, sign. d [dagger symbol]
2.]
[Footnote 174: "Henry de Ranzau--avoit dressé une excellente
bibliothéque au chateau de Bredemberg, dans laquelle
estoient conservez plusieurs manuscrits Grecs et Latins, et
autres raretez, &c.--Ce sçavant personnage a fait un decret
pour sa bibliothéque, qui merite d'estre icy inseré, pour
faire voir a la posterité l'affection qu'il auoit pour sa
conservation."
... Libros partem ne aliquam abstulerit,
Extraxerit, clepserit, rapserit,
Concerpserit, coruperit,
Dolo malo:
Illico maledictus,
Perpetuo execrabilis,
Semper detestabilis
Esto maneto.
JACOB: _Traicté des Bibliothéques_, pp. 237, 240.
I have inserted only the fulminatory clause of this
inscription, as being that part of it against which
Orlando's indignation seems to be directed.]
[Footnote 175: "Petrus Lotichius Johanni Sambuco Pannonio
gravissimo morbo laborans Bononiæ, bibliothecam suam
legaverit, _lib._ 3, _eleg._ 9, verba ejus lectu non
injucunda:
Pro quibus officiis, hæres abeuntis amici,
Accipe fortunæ munera parva meæ.
Non mihi sunt Baccho colles, oleisque virentes,
Prædiave Æmiliis conspicienda jugis.
Tu veterum dulces scriptorum sume libellos,
Attritos manibus quos juvat esse meis.
Invenies etiam viridi quæ lusimus ævo,
Dum studiis ætas mollibus apta fuit.
Illa velim rapidis sic uras carmina flammis
Ut vatem ipse suis ignibus jussit Amor."
LOMEIER: _de Bibliothecis_, p. 288.]
"So spake Orlando," said Philemon, with tears in his eyes, who, upon
looking at Lisardo and myself, found our faces covered with our
handkerchiefs, and unable to utter a word.
The deliberate manner in which this recital was made--the broken
periods, and frequent pauses--filled up a great measure of our
journey; and we found that St. Paul's dome was increasing upon us in
size and distinctness, and that we had not more than three miles to
travel, when Lisardo, wishing to give a different turn to the
discourse, asked Philemon what was the cause of such extravagant sums
being now given at book-sales for certain curious and uncommon--but
certainly not highly intrinsically-valuable--publications; and whether
our ancestors, in the time of Hen. VIII. and Elizabeth, paid in
proportion for the volumes of _their_ Libraries?
Upon Philemon's declaring himself unable to gratify his friend's
curiosity, but intimating that some assistance might probably be
derived from myself, I took up the discourse by observing that--
"In the infancy of printing in this country (owing to the competition
of foreigners) it would seem that our own printers (who were both
booksellers and book-binders) had suffered considerably in their
trade, by being obliged to carry their goods to a market where the
generality of purchasers were pleased with more elegantly executed
works at an inferior price. The legislature felt, as every patriotic
legislature would feel, for their injured countrymen; and,
accordingly, the statute of Richard III. was enacted,[176] whereby
English printers and book-binders were protected from the mischiefs,
which would otherwise have overtaken them. Thus our old friend Caxton
went to work with greater glee, and mustered up all his energies to
bring a good stock of British manufacture to the market. What he
usually sold his books for, in his life time, I have not been able to
ascertain; but, on his decease, one of his _Golden Legends_ was
valued, in the churchwardens' books, at six shillings and eight
pence.[177] Whether this was a great or small sum I know not; but,
from the same authority we find that twenty-two pounds were given,
twelve years before, for eleven huge folios, called '_Antiphoners_.'[178]
In the reign of Henry VIII. it would seem, from a memorandum in the
catalogue of the Fletewode library (if I can trust my memory with such
minutiæ) that Law-Books were sold for about ten sheets to the
groat.[179] Now, in the present day, Law-Books--considering the
wretched style in which they are published, with broken types upon
milk-and-water-tinted paper--are the dearest of all modern
publications. Whether they were anciently sold for so comparatively
extravagant a sum may remain to be proved. Certain it is that, before
the middle of the sixteenth century, you might have purchased
Grafton's abridgment of Polydore Virgil's superficial work about _The
Invention of Things_ for fourteen pence;[180] and the same printer's
book of _Common Prayer_ for four shillings. Yet if you wanted a
superbly bound _Prymer_, it would have cost you (even five and twenty
years before) nearly half a guinea.[181] Nor could you have purchased
a decent _Ballad_ much under sixpence; and _Hall's Chronicle_ would
have drawn from your purse twelve shillings;[182] so that,
considering the then value of specie, there is not much ground of
complaint against the present prices of books."
[Footnote 176: By the 1st of Richard III. (1433, ch. ix.
sec. xii.) it appeared that, Whereas, a great number of the
king's subjeets [Transcriber's Note: subjects] within this
realm having "given themselves diligently to learn and
exercise THE CRAFT OF PRINTING, and that at this day there
being within this realm a great number cunning and expert in
the said science or craft of printing, as able to exercise
the said craft in all points as any stranger, in any other
realm or country, and a great number of the king's subjects
living by the craft and mystery of BINDING OF BOOKS, and
well expert in the same;"--yet "all this notwithstanding,
there are divers persons that bring from beyond the sea
great plenty of printed books--not only in the Latin tongue,
but also in our maternal English tongue--some bound in
boards, some in leather, and some in parchment, and them
sell by retail, whereby many of the king's subjects, being
binders of books, and having no other faculty therewith to
get their living, be destitute of work, and like to be
undone, except some reformation herein be had,--Be it
therefore enacted, &c." By the 4th clause or provision, if
any of these printers or sellers of printed books vend them
"at too high and unreasonable prices," then the Lord
Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, or any of the Chief Justices of
the one bench or the other--"by the oaths of twelve honest
and discreet persons," were to regulate their prices. This
remarkable act was confirmed by the 25th Hen. VIII., ch. 15,
which was not repealed till the 12th Geo. II., ch. 36, § 3.
A judge would have enough to do to regulate the prices of
books, by the oaths of twelve men, in the present times!]
[Footnote 177: The reader will be pleased to refer to p. cx.
of the first volume of my recent edition of the
_Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain_.]
[Footnote 178: The following is from 'the churchwardens'
accompts of St. Margaret's, Westminster. "A.D. 1475. Item,
for 11 great books, called Antiphoners, 22_l._ 0_s._ 0_d._"
_Manners and Expenses of Ancient Times in England_, &c.,
collected by John Nichols, 1797, 4to., p. 2. _Antiphonere_
is a book of anthems to be sung with responses: and, from
the following passage in Chaucer, it would appear to have
been a common school-book used in the times of papacy:
This litel childe his litel book lerning,
As he sate in the scole at his primere
He _Alma Redemptoris_ herde sing,
As children lered hir _Antiphonere_:
_Cant. Tales_, v. 13,446, &c.
"A legend, an _Antiphonarye_, a grayle, a psalter," &c.,
were the books appointed to be kept in every parish church
"of the province of Canterbury" by Robert Winchelsen.
_Const. Provin. and of Otho and Octhobone_, fol. 67, rect.,
edit. 1534.]
[Footnote 179: "The year books, 9 v. parcels, as published,
impr. in different years by Pynson, Berthelet, Redman,
Myddylton, Powell, Smythe, Rastell, and Tottyl, 1517 to
1531." Some of them have the prices printed at the end; as
"The Prisce of thys Boke ys xiid. unbounde--The Price of
thys Boke is xvid. un bownde;" and upon counting the sheets,
it appears that the stated price of Law-Books, in the reign
of Hen. 8, was ten sheets for one groat. _Bibl.
Monast-Fletewodiana_, no. 3156.]
[Footnote 180: In a copy of this book, printed by Grafton in
1546, which was in the library of that celebrated
bibliomaniac, Tom Rawlinson, was the following singular MS.
note: "At Oxforde the yeare 1546, browt down to Seynbury by
John Darbye _pryce_ 14_d._ When I kepe Mr. Letymers shype I
bout thys boke when the testament was obberagatyd that shepe
herdys myght not red hit I pray god amende that blyndnes
wryt by Robert Wyllyams keppynge shepe uppon Seynbury hill.
1546." _Camdeni Annales: Edit. Hearne_, vol. i., p. xxx.]
[Footnote 181: From Mr. Nichol's curious work, I make the
following further extracts:
£ _s._ _d._
A.D.
1539. Item, paid for the half part of the Bybell, }
accordingly after the King's injunction } 0 9 9
1544. Item, also paid for six books of the Litany }
in English } 0 1 6
1549. Paid for iv books of the service of the church 0 16 0
[This was probably Grafton's Prayer book of 1549, fol.]
1559. Paid for a Bybyl and Parafrawse 0 16 0
[From the Ch. Wardens Accts. of St. Margaret's Westminster]
The Inventory of John Port, 1524.
In the shop.
Item, a premmer lymmed with gold, and with imagery }
written honds } 0 8 4
(From the do. of St. Mary Hill, London.)
To William Pekerynge, a ballet, called a Ryse and }
Wake } 0 0 4
(From the books of the Stationers' Company).
See pp. 13, 15, 126, and 133, of Mr. Nichols's work.]
[Footnote 182: By the kindness of Mr. William Hamper, of
Birmingham (a gentleman with whom my intercourse has as yet
been only epistolary, but whom I must be allowed to rank
among our present worthy bibliomaniacs), I am in possession
of some original entries, which seem to have served as part
of a day-book of a printer of the same name: "it having been
pasted at the end of '_The Poor Man's Librarie_' printed by
John Day in 1565." From this sable-looking document the
reader has the following miscellaneous extracts:
A.D. 1553. £ _s._ _d._
(Two) Meserse of bloyene in bordis }
One Prymare latane & englis } 0 ii 0
Balethis (ballads) nova of sortis 0 0 ii
Boke of paper 1 quire in forrell 0 0 vi
Morse workes in forrell 0 9 viij
Castell of Love in forrelle wi: a sarmo nova 0 0 x
A.D. 1554.
Balethis nova arbull in 8vo. 1 catechis 0 0 viiij
Prymare for a chyllde in 8vo. englis 0 iv
Halles Croneckelle nova englis 0 xii 0
From a Household Book kept in London, A.D. 1561
(in the possession of the same Gent.)
Item, p-d for a Lyttellton in English xij_d._
---- for the booke of ij englishe lovers vj_d._
---- for the booke of Songes and Sonnettes }
and the booke of dyse, and a frenche booke } ij_s._ viij_d._
(viz. the frenche booke xvj_d._ the ij other bookes at
viij_d._ the pece.)
---- ---- for printing the xxv orders of honest men xx_d._]
LIS. All this is very just. You are now creeping towards the
seventeenth century. Go on with your prices of books 'till nearly the
present day; when the BIBLIOMANIA has been supposed to have attained
its highest pitch.
"Don't expect," resumed I, "any antiquarian exactness in my
chronological detail of what our ancestors used to give for their
curiously-covered volumes. I presume that the ancient method of
_Book-Binding_[183] added much to the expense of the purchase. But be
this as it may, we know that Sir Ralph Sadler, at the close of the
sixteenth century, had a pretty fair library, with a _Bible_ in the
chapel to boot, for £10.[184] Towards the close of the seventeenth
century, we find the Earl of Peterborough enlisting among the book
champions; and giving, at the sale of Richard Smith's books in 1682,
not less than eighteen shillings and two pence for the first English
edition of his beloved _Godfrey of Boulogne_.[185] In Queen Ann's
time, Earl Pembroke and Lord Oxford spared no expense for books; and
Dr. Mead, who trod closely upon their heels, cared not at what price
he purchased his _Editiones Principes_, and all the grand books which
stamped such a value upon his collection. And yet, let us look at the
priced catalogue of his library, or at that of his successor Dr.
Askew, and compare the sums _then_ given for those _now_ offered for
similar works!"
[Footnote 183: As a little essay, and a very curious one
too, might be written upon the history of BOOK-BINDING, I
shall not attempt in the present note satisfactorily to
supply such a desideratum; but merely communicate to the
reader a few particulars which have come across me in my
desultory researches upon the subject. Mr. Astle tells us
that the famous _Textus Sancti Cuthberti_, which was written
in the 7th century, and was formerly kept at Durham, and is
now preserved in the Cottonian library, (Nero, D. IV.) was
adorned in the Saxon times by Bilfrith, a monk of Durham,
with a silver cover gilt, and precious stones. Simeon
Dunelmensis, or Turgot, as he is frequently called, tells us
that the cover of this fine MS. was ornamented "forensecis
Gemmis et Auro." "A booke of Gospelles garnished and wrought
with antique worke of silver and gilte with an image of the
crucifix with Mary and John, poiz together cccxxij oz." In
the secret Jewel House in the Tower. "A booke of gold
enameled, clasped with a rubie, having on th' one side, a
crosse of dyamounts, and vj other dyamounts, and th' other
syde a flower de luce of dyamounts, and iiij rubies with a
pendaunte of white saphires and the arms of Englande. Which
booke is garnished with small emerades and rubies hanging to
a cheyne pillar fashion set with xv knottes, everie one
conteyning iij rubies (one lacking)." _Archæologia_, vol.
xiii., 220. Although Mr. Astle has not specified the time in
which these two latter books were bound, it is probable that
they were thus gorgeously attired before the discovery of
the art of printing. What the ancient Vicars of Chalk (in
Kent) used to pay for binding their missals, according to
the original endowment settled by Haymo de Hethe in 1327
(which compelled the vicars to be at the expense of the
same--_Reg. Roff._, p. 205), Mr. Denne has not informed us.
_Archæologia_, vol. xi., 362. But it would seem, from
Warton, that "students and monks were anciently the binders
of books;" and from their Latin entries respecting the same,
the word "conjunctio" appears to have been used for
"ligatura." _Hist. of Engl. Poetry_, vol. ii., p. 244.
Hearne, in No. III. of the appendix to _Adam de Domerham
de reb. gest. Glast._, has "published a grant from Rich. de
Paston to Bromholm abbey, of twelve pence a year rent charge
on his estates to _keep their books in repair_." This I
gather from Gough's _Brit. Topog._, vol. ii., p. 20: while
from the _Liber Stat. Eccl. Paulinæ_, Lond. MSS., f. 6, 396
(furnished me by my friend Mr. H. Ellis,[D] of the British
Museum), it appears to have been anciently considered as a
part of the Sacrist's duty to bind and clasp the books:
"Sacrista curet quod _Libri bene ligentur et haspentur_," &c.
In Chaucer's time, one would think that the fashionable
binding for the books of young scholars was
_various-coloured velvet_: for thus our poet describes the
library of the Oxford Scholar:
A twenty bokes, clothed in black and red
Of Aristotle----
(_Prolog. to Cant. Tales._)
We have some account of the style in which Chaucer's royal
patron, Edward III., used to have his books bound; as the
following extract (also furnished me by Mr. H. Ellis) will
testify:----"To Alice Claver, for the making of XVI laces
and XVI tasshels for the garnyshing of diuers of the Kings
books, ij_s._ viij_d._----And to Robert Boillet for blac
paper and nailles for closing and fastenyng of diuers cofyns
of ffyrre wherein the Kings boks were conveyed and caried
from the Kings grete warderobe in London vnto Eltham
aforesaid, v_d._----Piers Bauduyn Stacioner for bynding
gilding and dressing of a booke called Titus Liuius, xx_s_:
for binding gilding and dressing of a booke called
Ffrossard, xvj_s_: or binding gilding and dressing of a
booke called the Bible, xvj_s_: for binding gilding and
dressing of a booke called le Gouuernement of Kings and
Princes, xvj_s._" "For the dressing of ij books whereof oon
is called la forteresse de Foy and the other called the
booke of Josephus, iij_s._ iiij_d._ And for binding gilding
and dressing of a booke called the bible historial, xx_s._"
Among the expenses entered in the Wardrobe Accompts 20th
Edw. III. I suspect that it was not 'till towards the close
of the 15th century, when the sister art of painting
directed that of engraving, that books were bound in thick
boards, with leather covering upon the same; curiously
stamped with arabesque, and other bizarre, ornaments. In the
interior of this binding, next to the leaves, there was
sometimes an excavation, in which a silver crucifix was
safely guarded by a metal door, with clasps. The exterior of
the binding had oftentimes large embossed ornaments of
silver, and sometimes of precious stones [as a note in the
Appendix to the _History of Leicester_, by Mr. Nichols, p.
102, indicates--and as Geyler himself, in his _Ship of
Fools_, entitled "_Navicula, sive Speculum Fatuorum_," edit.
1511, 4to., thus expressly declares:--"sunt qui libros
inaurunt et serica tegimenta apponunt preciosa et superba,"
sign. B. v. rev.], as well as the usual ornaments upon the
leather; and two massive clasps, with thick metalled corners
on each of the outward sides of the binding, seemed to
render a book impervious to such depredations of time as
could arise from external injury. Meantime, however the worm
was secretly engendered within the wood: and his perforating
ravages in the precious leaves of the volume gave dreadful
proof of the defectiveness of ancient binding, beautiful and
bold as it undoubtedly was! The reader is referred to an
account of a preciously bound diminutive godly book (once
belonging to Q. Elizabeth), in the first volume of my
edition of the British _Typographical Antiquities_, p. 83;
for which I understand the present owner asks the sum of
160_l._ We find that in the sixteenth year of Elizabeth's
reign, she was in possession of "Oone Gospell booke covered
with tissue and garnished on th' onside with the crucifix
and the Queene's badges of silver guilt, poiz with wodde,
leaves, and all, czij. oz." _Archæologia_, vol. xiii., 221.
I am in possession of the covers of a book, bound (A.D.
1569) in thick parchment or vellum, which has the whole
length portrait of Luther on one side, and of Calvin on the
other. These portraits, which are executed with uncommon
spirit and accuracy, are encircled with a profusion of
ornamental borders of the most exquisite taste and richness.
We shall speak occasionally of more modern book-binding as
we proceed. Meanwhile, let the curious bibliomaniac glance
his eye upon the copper-plate print which faces this
concluding sentence--where he will see fac-similes of the
portraits just mentioned.]
[Footnote 184: See the recent very beautiful edition of Sir
Ralph Sadler's _State Papers_, vol. ii., p. 590.]
[Footnote 185: See the _Catalogue of R. Smith's Books_,
1682, 4to., p. 199 (falsely numbered 275), no. 94.]
[Footnote D: Since created a Knight.]
LIS. You allude to a late sale in Pall Mall, of one of the choicest
and most elegant libraries ever collected by a man of letters and
taste?
"I do, Lisardo--but see we are just entering the smoke and bustle of
London; and in ten minutes shall have reached the scene of action."
PHIL. How do you feel?
LIS. Why, tolerably calm. My pulse beats as leisurely as did my Lord
Strafford's at his trial--or (to borrow Hamlet's phrase)
--as yours, it doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music.
PHIL. Ninety-five to the minute! You are just now in a fit frame of
mind to write a political pamphlet. Pray consider what will be the
issue of this madness?
LIS. No more! Now for my catalogue; and let me attend to my marks. But
our friend is not forgetful of his promise?
PHIL. I dare say he will assist us in regulating the prices we ought
to give--and more particularly in making us acquainted with the most
notable book-collectors.
Upon my readily acquiescing in their demand, we leapt from the chaise
(giving orders for it to attend by three o'clock) and hurried
immediately up stairs into THE AUCTION ROOM.
The clock had struck twelve, and in half an hour the sale was to
begin. Not more than nine or ten gentlemen were strolling about the
room: some examining the volumes which were to be sold, and making
hieroglyphical marks thereupon, in their catalogues: some giving
commissions to the clerk who entered their names, with the sums they
intended staking, in a manner equally hieroglyphical. Others, again,
seemed to be casting an eye of vacancy over the whole collection; or
waiting till a book friend arrived with whom they might enter into a
little chat. You observe, my friends, said I, softly, yonder active
and keen-visaged gentleman? 'Tis LEPIDUS. Like Magliabechi, content
with frugal fare and frugal clothing[186] and preferring the riches of
a library to those of house-furniture, he is insatiable in his
bibliomaniacal appetites. "Long experience has made him sage:" and it
is not therefore without just reason that his opinions are courted,
and considered as almost oracular. You will find that he will take his
old station, commanding the right or left wing of the auctioneer; and
that he will enliven, by the gaiety and shrewdness of his remarks, the
circle that more immediately surrounds him. Some there are who will
not bid 'till Lepidus bids; and who surrender all discretion and
opinion of their own to his universal book-knowledge. The consequence
is that Lepidus can, with difficulty, make purchases for his own
library; and a thousand dexterous and happy manoeuvres are of
necessity obliged to be practised by him, whenever a rare or curious
book turns up. How many fine collections has this sagacious
bibliomaniac seen disposed of! Like Nestor, who preaches about the
fine fellows he remembered in his youth, Lepidus (although barely yet
in his grand climacteric!) will depicture, with moving eloquence, the
numerous precious volumes of far-famed collectors, which he has seen,
like Macbeth's witches,
"Come like shadows, so depart!"
[Footnote 186: Tenni cultu, victuque contentus, quidquid ei
pecuniæ superaret in omnigenæ eruditionis libros comparandos
erogabat, selectissimamque voluminum multitudinem ea mente
adquisivit, ut aliquando posset publicæ utilitati--dicari,
_Præf. Bibl. Magliab. a Fossio_, p. x.]
And when any particular class of books, now highly coveted, but
formerly little esteemed, comes under the hammer, and produces a large
sum,--ah then! 'tis pleasant to hear Lepidus exclaim--
O mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos!
Justly respectable as are his scholarship and good sense, he is not
what you may call a _fashionable_ collector; for old chronicles and
romances are most rigidly discarded from his library. Talk to him of
Hoffmen, Schoettgenius, Rosenmuller, and Michaelis, and he will listen
courteously to your conversation; but when you expatiate, however
learnedly and rapturously, upon Froissart and Prince Arthur, he will
tell you that he has a heart of stone upon the subject; and that even
a clean uncut copy of an original impression of each, by Verard or by
Caxton, would not bring a single tear of sympathetic transport in his
eyes.
LIS. I will not fail to pay due attention to so extraordinary and
interesting a character--for see, he is going to take his
distinguished station in the approaching contest. The hammer of the
worthy auctioneer, which I suppose is of as much importance as was Sir
Fopling's periwig of old,[187] upon the stage--the hammer is upon the
desk!--The company begin to increase and close their ranks; and the
din of battle will shortly be heard. Let us keep these seats. Now,
tell me who is yonder strange looking gentleman?
[Footnote 187: See Warburton's piquant note, in Mr. Bowles's
edition of _Pope's Works_, vol. v., p. 116. "This remarkable
_periwiy_ [Transcriber's Note: periwig] (says he) usually
made its entrance upon the stage in a sedan chair, brought
in by two chairmen with infinite approbation of the
audience." The _snuff-box_ of Mr. L. has not a less imposing
air; and when a high-priced book is balancing between 15_l._
and 20_l._ it is a fearful signal of its reaching an
additional sum, if Mr. L. should lay down his hammer, and
delve into this said crumple-horned snuff-box!]
"'Tis MUSTAPHA, a vender of books. Consuetudine invalescens, ac veluti
callum diuturna cogitatione obducens,[188] he comes forth, like an
alchemist from his laboratory, with hat and wig 'sprinkled with
learned dust,' and deals out his censures with as little ceremony as
correctness. It is of no consequence to him by whom positions are
advanced, or truth is established; and he hesitates very little about
calling Baron Heinecken a Tom fool, or ---- a shameless impostor. If
your library were as choice and elegant as Dr. H----'s he would tell
you that his own disordered shelves and badly coated books presented
an infinitely more precious collection; nor must you be at all
surprised at this--for, like Braithwait's Upotomis,
'Though weak in judgment, in opinion strong;'
or, like the same author's Meilixos,
'Who deems all wisdom treasur'd in his pate,'
our book-vender, in the catalogues which he puts forth, shews himself
to be 'a great and bold carpenter of words;'[189] overcharging the
description of his own volumes with tropes, metaphors, flourishes, and
common-place authorities; the latter of which one would think had but
recently come under his notice, as they had been already before the
public in various less ostentatious forms."
[Footnote 188: The curious reader may see the entire caustic
passage in Spizelius's _Infelix Literatus_, p. 435.]
[Footnote 189: _Coryat's Crudities_, vol. i., sign. (b. 5.)
edit. 1776.]
PHIL. Are you then an enemy to booksellers, or to their catalogues
when interlaced with bibliographical notices?
"By no means, Philemon. I think as highly of our own as did the author
of the Aprosian library[190] of the Dutch booksellers; and I love to
hear that the bibliographical labour bestowed upon a catalogue has
answered the end proposed, by sharpening the appetites of purchasers.
But the present is a different case. Mustapha might have learnt good
sense and good manners, from his right hand, or left hand, or
opposite, neighbour; but he is either too conceited, or too obstinate,
to have recourse to such aid. What is very remarkable, although he is
constantly declaiming against the enormous sums of money given for
books at public auctions, Mustapha doth not scruple to push the
purchaser to the last farthing of his commission; from a ready knack
which he hath acquired, by means of some magical art in his foresaid
laboratory, of deciphering the same; thus adopting in a most
extraordinary manner, the very line of conduct himself which he so
tartly censures in others."
[Footnote 190: See pages 103-4, of Wolfius's edition of the
_Bibliotheca Aprosiana_, 1734, 8vo. It is not because Mr.
Ford, of Manchester, has been kind enough to present me with
one of the _six_ copies of his last catalogue of books,
printed upon STRONG WRITING PAPER--that I take this
opportunity of praising the contents of it,--but that his
catalogues are to be praised for the pains which he exhibits
in describing his books, and in referring to numerous
bibliographical authorities in the description. While upon
this subject, let me recommend the youthful bibliomaniac to
get possession of Mr. Edwards's catalogues, and especially
of that of 1794. If such a catalogue were but recently
published, it would be one of the pleasantest breakfast
lounges imaginable to _tick off_ a few of the volumes with
the hope of possessing them at the prices therein afixed.]
PHIL. Was this the gentleman whose catalogue (as you shewed me)
contained the fascinating colophon of Juliana Berner's book of
hawking, hunting, and heraldry, printed in the year 1486, subjoined to
a copy of the common reprint of it by Gervase Markham--thereby
provoking a thousand inquiries after the book, as if it had been the
first edition?
"The same," resumed I. "But let us leave such ridiculous vanity."
LIS. Who is that gentleman, standing towards the right of the
auctioneer, and looking so intently upon his catalogue?
"You point to my friend BERNARDO. He is thus anxious, because an
original fragment of the fair lady's work, which you have just
mentioned, is coming under the hammer; and powerful indeed must be the
object to draw his attention another way. The demure prioress of
Sopewell abbey is his ancient sweetheart; and he is about introducing
her to his friends, by a union with her as close and as honourable as
that of wedlock. Engaged in a laborious profession (the duties of
which are faithfully performed by him) Bernardo devotes his few
leisure hours to the investigation of old works; thinking with the
ancient poet, quoted by Ashmole, that
'----out of old fields as men saythe
Cometh all this new corne fro yeare to yeare;
And out of olde Bokes in good faythe
Cometh all this scyence that men leare:'
or, with Ashmole himself; that 'old words have strong emphasis: others
may look upon them as rubbish or trifles, but they are grossly
mistaken: for what some light brains may esteem as foolish toys,
deeper judgments can and will value as sound and serious matter.[191]'
[Footnote 191: _Theatrum Chemicum_: proleg. sign. A. 3.
rev.: B. 4. rect. The charms of ancient phraseology had been
before not less eloquently described by Wolfius: "Habet hoc
jucundi priscorum quorundam obsoleta dictio, ac suo quodam
modo rudius comta oratio, ut ex ea plus intelligamus quam
dicitur; plus significetur quam effertur." _Lect. Memorab.
Epist. Ded._ fol. xiv. rev. Of Wolfius, and of this his
work, the reader will find some mention at page 110, ante.]
"If you ask me whether Bernardo be always successful in his labours, I
should answer you, as I have told him, No: for the profit and applause
attendant upon them are not commensurate with his exertions. Moreover,
I do verily think that, in some few instances, he sacrifices his
judgment to another's whim; by a reluctance to put out the strength of
his own powers. He is also, I had almost said, the admiring slave of
Ritsonian fastidiousness; and will cry 'pish' if a _u_ be put for a
_v_, or a _single e_ for a _double one_: but take him fairly as he is,
and place him firmly in the bibliographical scale, and you will
acknowledge that his weight is far from being inconsiderable. He is a
respectable, and every way a praise-worthy man: and although he is
continually walking in a thick forest of black letter, and would
prefer a book printed before the year 1550, to a turtle dressed
according to the rules of Mr. Farley, yet he can ever and anon sally
forth to enjoy a stroll along the river side, with Isaac Walton[192]
in his hand; when 'he hath his wholesome walk and merry, at his ease:
a sweet air of the sweet savour of the mead flowers, that maketh him
hungry.'[193]
[Footnote 192: "Let me take this opportunity of recommending
the amiable and venerable ISAAC WALTON'S _Complete Angler_:
a work the most singular of its kind, breathing the very
spirit of contentment, of quiet, and unaffected
philanthrophy, and interspersed with some beautiful relics
of poetry, old songs, and ballads." So speaks the Rev. W.
Lisle Bowles, in his edition of _Pope's Works_, vol i., p.
135. To which I add--Let me take this opportunity of
recommending Mr. Bagster's very beautiful and creditable
reprint of Sir John Hawkin's edition of Walton's amusing
little book. The plates in it are as true as they are
brilliant: and the bibliomaniac may gratify his appetite,
however voracious, by having copies of it upon paper of all
sizes. Mr. Bagster has also very recently published an
exquisite facsimile of the original edition of old Isaac.
Perhaps I ought not to call it a fac-simile, for it is, in
many respects, more beautifully executed.]
[Footnote 193: The reader may see all this, and much more,
dressed in its ancient orthographic garb, in a proheme to
the first edition of the merry art of fishing, extracted by
Herbert in his first volume, p. 131. I have said the
"_merry_," and not the "_contemplative_," art of
fishing--because we are informed that "Yf the angler take
fyshe, surely thenne is there noo man _merier_ than he is in
his spyryte!!" Yet Isaac Walton called this art, "The
_Contemplative_ Man's Recreation." But a _book-fisherman_,
like myself, must not presume to reconcile such great and
contradictory authorities.]
"But see--the hammer is vibrating, at an angle of twenty-two and a
half, over a large paper priced catalogue of Major Pearson's
books!--Who is the lucky purchaser?
"QUISQUILIUS:--a victim to the Bibliomania. If one single copy of a
work happen to be printed in a more particular manner than another;
and if the compositor (clever rogue) happen to have transposed or
inverted a whole sentence or page; if a plate or two, no matter of
what kind or how executed; go along with it, which is not to be found
in the remaining copies; if the paper happen to be _unique_ in point
of size--whether MAXIMA or MINIMA--oh, then, thrice happy is
Quisquilius! With a well-furnished purse, the strings of which are
liberally loosened, he devotes no small portion of wealth to the
accumulation of _Prints_; and can justly boast of a collection of
which few of his contemporaries are possessed. But his walk in
book-collecting is rather limited. He seldom rambles into the
luxuriancy of old English black-letter literature; and cares still
less for a _variorum_ Latin classic, stamped in the neat mintage of
the Elzevir press. Of a Greek _Aldus_, or an Italian _Giunta_, he has
never yet had the luxury to dream:--'trahit sua quemque voluptas;' and
let Quisquilius enjoy his hobby-horse, even to the riding of it to
death! But let him not harbour malevolence against supposed injuries
inflicted: let not foolish prejudices, or unmanly suspicions, rankle
in his breast: authors and book-collectors are sometimes as
enlightened as himself, and have cultivated pursuits equally
honourable. Their profession, too, may sometimes be equally beneficial
to their fellow creatures. A few short years shall pass away, and it
will be seen who has contributed the more effectively to the public
stock of amusement and instruction. We wrap ourselves up in our own
little vanities and weaknesses, and, fancying wealth and wisdom to be
synonymous, vent our spleen against those who are resolutely striving,
under the pressure of mediocrity and domestic misfortune, to obtain an
honourable subsistence by their intellectual exertions."
LIS. A truce to this moralizing strain. Pass we on to a short
gentleman, busily engaged yonder in looking at a number of volumes,
and occasionally conversing with two or three gentlemen from five to
ten inches taller than himself. What is his name?
"ROSICRUSIUS is his name; and an ardent and indefatigable book-forager
he is. Although just now busily engaged in antiquarian researches
relating to British typography, he fancies himself nevertheless deeply
interested in the discovery of every ancient book printed abroad.
Examine his little collection of books, and you will find that
'There Caxton sleeps, with Wynkyn at his side,
One clasp'd in wood, and one in strong cow-hide!'[194]
--and yet, a beautiful volume printed at 'Basil or Heidelberg makes
him spinne: and at seeing the word Frankford or Venice, though but on
the title of a booke, he is readie to break doublet, cracke elbows,
and over-flowe the room with his murmure.'[195] Bibliography is his
darling delight--'una voluptas et meditatio assidua;'[196] and in
defence of the same he would quote you a score of old-fashioned
authors, from Gesner to Harles, whose very names would excite
scepticism about their existence. He is the author of various works,
chiefly bibliographical; upon which the voice of the public (if we
except a little wicked quizzing at his _black-letter_ propensities in
a celebrated North Briton Review) has been generally favourable.
Although the old maidenish particularity of Tom Hearne's genius be not
much calculated to please a bibliomaniac of lively parts, yet
Rosicrusius seems absolutely enamoured of that ancient wight; and to
be in possession of the cream of all his pieces, if we may judge from
what he has already published, and promises to publish, concerning the
same. He once had the temerity to dabble in poetry;[197] but he never
could raise his head above the mists which infest the swampy ground at
the foot of Parnassus. Still he loves 'the divine art' enthusiastically;
and affects, forsooth, to have a taste in matters of engraving and
painting! Converse with him about Guercino and Albert Durer, Berghem
and Woollett, and tell him that you wish to have his opinion about the
erection of a large library, and he will 'give tongue' to you from
rise to set of sun. Wishing him prosperity in his projected works, and
all good fellows to be his friends, proceed we in our descriptive
survey."
[Footnote 194: Pope's _Dunciad_, b. i. v. 149.]
[Footnote 195: _Coryat's Crudities_, vol. i., sign. (b. 5.)
edit. 1776.]
[Footnote 196: Vita Jacobi Le Long., p. xx., _Biblioth.
Sacra_, edit. 1778.]
[Footnote 197: See the note p. 11, in the first edition of
the _Bibliomania_.]
LIS. I am quite impatient to see ATTICUS in this glorious group; of
whom fame makes such loud report--
"Yonder see he comes, Lisardo! 'Like arrow from the hunter's bow,' he
darts into the hottest of the fight, and beats down all opposition. In
vain BOSCARDO advances with his heavy artillery, sending forth
occasionally a forty-eight pounder; in vain he shifts his mode of
attack--now with dagger, and now with broadsword, now in plated, and
now in quilted armour: nought avails him. In every shape and at every
onset he is discomfited. Such a champion as Atticus has perhaps never
before appeared within the arena of book-gladiators:
'Blest with talents, wealth, and taste;'[198]
and gifted with no common powers of general scholarship, he can easily
master a knotty passage in Eschylus or Aristotle; and quote Juvenal
and Horace as readily as the junior lads at Eton quote their '_As in
præsenti_:' moreover, he can enter, with equal ardour, into a minute
discussion about the romance literature of the middle ages, and the
dry though useful philology of the German school during the 16th and
17th centuries. In the pursuit after rare, curious, and valuable
books, nothing daunts or depresses him. With a mental and bodily
constitution such as few possess, and with a perpetual succession of
new objects rising up before him, he seems hardly ever conscious of
the vicissitudes of the seasons, and equally indifferent to petty
changes in politics. The cutting blasts of Siberia, or the fainting
heat of a Maltese sirocco, would not make him halt, or divert his
course, in the pursuit of a favourite volume, whether in the Greek,
Latin, Spanish, or Italian language. But as all human efforts, however
powerful, if carried on without intermission, must have a period of
cessation; and as the most active body cannot be at 'Thebes and at
Athens' at the same moment; so it follows that Atticus cannot be at
every auction and carry away every prize. His rivals narrowly watch,
and his enemies closely way-lay, him; and his victories are rarely
bloodless in consequence. If, like Darwin's whale, which swallows
'millions at a gulp,' Atticus should, at one auction, purchase from
two to seven hundred volumes, he must retire, like the '_Boa
Constrictor_,' for digestion: and accordingly he does, for a short
season, withdraw himself from 'the busy hum' of sale rooms, to
collate, methodize, and class his newly acquired treasures--to repair
what is defective, and to beautify what is deformed. Thus rendering
them 'companions meet' for their brethren in the rural shades of H----
Hall; where, in gay succession, stands many a row, heavily laden with
'rich and rare' productions. In this rural retreat, or academic bower,
Atticus spends a due portion of the autumnal season of the year; now
that the busy scenes of book-auctions in the metropolis have changed
their character--and dreary silence, and stagnant dirt, have succeeded
to noise and flying particles of learned dust.
[Footnote 198: Dr. Ferriar's _Bibliomania_, v. 12.]
"Here, in his ancestral abode, Atticus can happily exchange the
microscopic investigation of books for the charms and manly exercises
of a rural life; eclipsing, in this particular, the celebrity of Cæsar
Antoninus; who had not universality of talent sufficient to unite the
love of hawking and hunting with the passion for book-collecting.[199]
The sky is no sooner dappled o'er with the first morning sun-beams,
than up starts our distinguished bibliomaniac, either to shoot or to
hunt; either to realize all the fine things which Pope has written
about 'lifting the tube, and levelling the eye;'[200] or to join the
jolly troop while they chant the hunting song of his poetical
friend.[201] Meanwhile, his house is not wanting in needful garniture
to render a country residence most congenial. His cellars below vie
with his library above. Besides 'the brown October'--'drawn from his
dark retreat of thirty years'--and the potent comforts of every
species of 'barley broth'--there are the ruddier and more sparkling
juices of the grape--'fresh of colour, and of look lovely, smiling to
the eyz of many'--as Master Laneham hath it in his celebrated
letter.[202] I shall leave you to finish the picture, which such a
sketch may suggest, by referring you to your favourite, Thomson."[203]
[Footnote 199: This anecdote is given on the authority of
Kesner's [Transcriber's Note: Gesner's] _Pandects_, fol. 29:
rect. '[Greek: Alloi men hippôn] (says the grave Antoninus)
[Greek: alloi de orneôn, alloi thêriôn ebôsin: emoi de
bibliôn ktêseôs ek paidoiriou deinos entetêke pothos].']
[Footnote 200: See Pope's _Windsor Forest_, ver. 110 to
134.]
[Footnote 201:
Waken lords and ladies gay;
On the mountain dawns the day.
All the jolly chase is here,
With hawk and horse and hunting spear:
Hounds are in their couples yelling,
Hawks are whistling, horns are knelling;
Merrily, merrily, mingle they.
"Waken lords and ladies gay."
Waken lords and ladies gay,
The mist has left the mountain grey.
Springlets in the dawn are steaming,
Diamonds on the lake are gleaming;
And foresters have busy been,
To track the buck in thicket green:
Now we come to chaunt our lay,
"Waken lords and ladies gay."
HUNTING SONG, by Walter Scott: the remaining stanzas will be
found in the _Edinb. Annual Register_, vol. i., pt. ii.,
xxviii.]
[Footnote 202: "_Whearin part of the Entertainment untoo the
Queenz Majesty of Killingworth Castl in Warwick Sheer, &c.,
1576, is signified._" edit. 1784, p. 14.]
[Footnote 203: _Autumn_, v. 519, 701, &c.]
LIS. Your account of so extraordinary a bibliomaniac is quite amusing:
but I suspect you exaggerate a little.
"Nay, Lisardo, I speak nothing but the truth. In book-reputation,
Atticus unites all the activity of De Witt and Lomanie, with the
retentiveness of Magliabechi and the learning of Le Long.[204] And
yet--he has his peccant part."
[Footnote 204: The reader will be pleased to turn for one
minute to pages 49, 85, 86, ante.]
LIS. Speak, I am anxious to know.
"Yes, Lisardo; although what Leichius hath said of the library
attached to the senate-house of Leipsic be justly applicable to his
own extraordinary collection[205]--yet ATTICUS doth sometimes sadly
err. He has now and then an ungovernable passion to possess more
copies of a book than there were ever parties to a deed, or stamina to
a plant: and therefore I cannot call him a duplicate or triplicate
collector. His best friends scold--his most respectable rivals
censure--and a whole 'mob of gentlemen' who think to collect 'with
ease,' threaten vengeance against--him, for this despotic spirit which
he evinces; and which I fear nothing can stay or modify but an act of
parliament that no gentleman shall purchase more than two copies of a
work; one for his town, the other for his country, residence."
[Footnote 205: Singularis eius ac propensi, in iuvandam
eruditionem studii insigne imprimis monumentum exstat,
Bibliotheca instructissima, sacrarium bonæ menti dicatum, in
quo omne, quod transmitti ad posteritatem meretur, copiose
reconditum est. _e [Transcriber's Note: De] Orig. et
Increment. Typog. Lipsiens. Lips. An. Typog._ sec. iii.,
sign. 3.]
PHIL. But does he atone for his sad error by being liberal in the loan
of his volumes?
"Most completely so, Philemon. This is the 'pars melior' of every book
collector, and it is indeed the better part with Atticus. The learned
and curious, whether rich or poor, have always free access to his
library--
His volumes, open as his heart,
Delight, amusement, science, art,
To every ear and eye impart.
His books, therefore, are not a stagnant reservoir of unprofitable
water, as are those of PONTEVALLO'S; but like a thousand rills, which
run down from the lake on Snowdon's summit, after a plentiful fall of
rain, they serve to fertilize and adorn every thing to which they
extend. In consequence, he sees himself reflected in a thousand
mirrors: and has a right to be vain of the numerous dedications to
him, and of the richly ornamented robes in which he is attired by his
grateful friends."
LIS. Long life to Atticus, and to all such book heroes! Now pray
inform me who is yonder gentleman, of majestic mien and shape?--and
who strikes a stranger with as much interest as Agamemnon did
Priam--when the Grecian troops passed at a distance in order of
review, while the Trojan monarch and Helen were gossipping with each
other on the battlements of Troy!
"That gentleman, Lisardo, is HORTENSIUS; who, you see is in close
conversation with an intimate friend and fellow-bibliomaniac--that
ycleped is ULPIAN. They are both honourable members of an honourable
profession; and although they have formerly sworn to purchase no old
book but Machlinia's first edition of Littleton's Tenures, yet they
cannot resist, now and then, the delicious impulse of becoming masters
of a black-letter chronicle or romance. Taste and talent of various
kind they both possess; and 'tis truly pleasant to see gentlemen and
scholars, engaged in a laborious profession, in which, comparatively,
'little vegetation quickens, and few salutary plants take root,'
finding 'a pleasant grove for their wits to walk in' amidst rows of
beautifully bound, and intrinsically precious, volumes. They feel it
delectable, 'from the loop-holes of such a retreat,' to peep at the
multifarious pursuits of their brethren; and while they discover some
busied in a perversion of book-taste, and others preferring the
short-lived pleasures of sensual gratifications--which must 'not be
named' among good bibliomaniacs--they can sit comfortably by their
fire-sides; and, pointing to a well-furnished library, say to their
wives--who heartily sympathize in the sentiment--
This gives us health, or adds to life a day!"[206]
[Footnote 206: Braithwaite's _Arcadian Princesse_: lib. 4,
p. 15, edit. 1635. The two immediately following verses,
which are worthy of Dryden, may quietly creep in here:
Or helps decayed beauty, or repairs
Our chop-fall'n cheeks, or winter-molted hairs.]
LIS. When I come to town to settle, pray introduce me to these amiable
and sensible bibliomaniacs. Now gratify a curiosity that I feel to
know the name and character of yonder respectably-looking gentleman,
in the dress of the old school, who is speaking in so gracious a
manner to Bernardo?
"'Tis LEONTES: a man of taste, and an accomplished antiquary. Even yet
he continues to gratify his favourite passion for book and
print-collecting; although his library is at once choice and copious,
and his collection of prints exquisitely fine. He yet enjoys, in the
evening of life, all that unruffled temper and gentlemanly address
which delighted so much in his younger days, and which will always
render him, in his latter years, equally interesting and admired. Like
Atticus, he is liberal in the loan of his treasures; and, as with him,
so 'tis with Leontes--the spirit of book-collecting 'assumes the
dignity of a virtue.'[207] Peace and comfort be the attendant spirits
of Leontes, through life, and in death: the happiness of a better
world await him beyond the grave! His memory will always be held in
reverence by honest bibliomaniacs; and a due sense of his kindness
towards myself shall constantly be impressed upon me--
Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regret artus."
[Footnote 207: _Edinburgh Review_, vol. xiii., p. 118.]
PHIL. Amen. With Leontes I suppose you close your account of the most
notorious bibliomaniacs who generally attend book sales in person; for
I observe no other person who mingles with those already
described--unless indeed, three very active young ones, who
occasionally converse with each other, and now and then have their
names affixed to some very expensive purchases--
"They are the three MERCURII, oftentimes deputed by distinguished
bibliomaniacs: who, fearful of the sharp-shooting powers of their
adversaries, if they _themselves_ should appear in the ranks, like
prudent generals, keep aloof. But their aides-de-camp are not always
successful in their missions; for such is the obstinacy with which
book-battles are now contested, that it requires three times the
number of guns and weight of metal to accomplish a particular object
to what it did when John Duke of Marlborough wore his full-bottomed
periwig at the battle of Blenheim.
"Others there are, again, who employ these Mercurii from their own
inability to attend in person, owing to distance, want of time, and
other similar causes. Hence, many a desperate bibliomaniac keeps in
the back-ground; while the public are wholly unacquainted with his
curious and rapidly-increasing treasures. Hence SIR TRISTRAM,
embosomed in his forest-retreat,
--down the steepy linn
That hems his little garden in,
is constantly increasing his stores of tales of genii, fairies, fays,
ghosts, hobgoblins, magicians, highwaymen, and desperadoes--and
equally acceptable to him is a copy of Castalio's elegant version of
Homer, and of St. Dunstan's book '_De Occulta Philosophia_;'
concerning which lattter [Transcriber's Note: latter], Elias Ashmole
is vehement in commendation.[208] From all these (after melting them
down in his own unparalleled poetical crucible--which hath charms as
potent as the witches' cauldron in Macbeth) he gives the world many a
wondrous-sweet song. Who that has read the exquisite poems, of the
fame of which all Britain 'rings from side to side,' shall deny to
such ancient legends a power to charm and instruct? Or who, that
possesses a copy of PROSPERO'S excellent volumes, although composed in
a different strain (yet still more fruitful in ancient matters), shall
not love the memory and exalt the renown of such transcendent
bibliomaniacs? The library of Prospero is indeed acknowledged to be
without a rival in its way. How pleasant it is, dear Philemon, only to
contemplate such a goodly prospect of elegantly bound volumes of old
English and French literature!--and to think of the matchless stores
which they contain, relating to our ancient popular tales and romantic
legends!
[Footnote 208: He who shall have the happiness to meet with
St. Dunstan's Worke "_De Occulta Philosophia_," may therein
reade such stories as will make him amaz'd, &c. Prolegom. to
his _Theatrum Chemicum_, sign A., 4. rev.]
"Allied to this library, in the general complexion of its literary
treasures, is that of MARCELLUS: while in the possession of numberless
rare and precious volumes relating to the drama, and especially to his
beloved Shakespeare, it must be acknowledged that Marcellus hath
somewhat the superiority. Meritorious as have been his labours in the
illustration of our immortal bard, he is yet as zealous, vigilant, and
anxious, as ever, to accumulate every thing which may tend to the
further illustration of him. Enter his book-cabinet; and with the
sight of how many _unique_ pieces and tracts are your ardent eyes
blessed! Just so it is with AURELIUS! He also, with the three last
mentioned bibliomaniacs, keeps up a constant fire at book auctions;
although he is not personally seen in securing the spoils which he
makes. Unparalleled as an antiquary in Caledonian history and poetry,
and passionately attached to every thing connected with the fate of
the lamented Mary, as well as with that of the great poetical
contemporaries, Spenser and Shakespeare, Aurelius is indefatigable in
the pursuit of such ancient lore as may add value to the stores,
however precious, which he possesses. His _Noctes Atticæ_, devoted to
the elucidation of the history of his native country, will erect to
his memory a splendid and imperishable monument. These, my dear
friends, these are the virtuous and useful, and therefore salutary
ends of book-collecting and book-reading. Such characters are among
the proudest pillars that adorn the greatest nations upon earth.
"Let me, however, not forget to mention that there are bashful or busy
bibliomaniacs, who keep aloof from book-sales, intent only upon
securing, by means of these Mercurii, _stainless_ or _large paper_
copies of ancient literature. While MENALCAS sees his oblong cabinet
decorated with such a tall, well-dressed, and perhaps matchless,
regiment of _Variorum Classics_, he has little or no occasion to
regret his unavoidable absence from the field of battle, in the Strand
or Pall Mall. And yet--although he is environed with a body guard, of
which the great Frederick's father might have envied him the
possession, he cannot help casting a wishful eye, now and then, upon
still choicer and taller troops which he sees in the territories of
his rivals. I do not know whether he would not sacrifice the whole
right wing of his army, for the securing of some magnificent treasures
in the empire of his neighbour RINALDO: for there he sees, and adores,
with the rapture-speaking eye of a classical bibliomaniac, the tall,
wide, thick, clean, brilliant, and illuminated copy of the _first
Livy_ UPON VELLUM--enshrined in an impenetrable oaken case, covered
with choice morocco!
"There he often witnesses the adoration paid to this glorious object,
by some bookish pilgrim, who, as the evening sun reposes softly upon
the hill, pushes onward, through copse, wood, moor, heath, bramble,
and thicket, to feast his eyes upon the mellow lustre of its leaves,
and upon the nice execution of its typography. Menalcas sees all
this; and yet has too noble a heart to envy Rinaldo his treasures!
These bibliomaniacs often meet and view their respective forces; but
never with hostile eyes. They know their relative strength; and wisely
console themselves by being each 'eminent in his degree.' Like
Corregio, they are 'also painters' in their way."
PHIL. A well-a-day, Lisardo! Does not this recital chill your blood
with despair? Instead of making your purchases, you are only listening
supinely to our friend!
LIS. Not exactly so. One of these obliging Mercurii has already
executed a few commissions for me. You forget that our friend entered
into a little chat with him, just before we took possession of our
seats. As to despair of obtaining book-gems similar to those of the
four last mentioned bibliomaniacs, I know not what to say--yet this I
think must be granted: no one could make a better use of them than
their present owners. See, the elder Mercurius comes to tell me of a
pleasant acquisition to my library! What a murmur and confusion
prevail about the auctioneer! Good news, I trust?
At this moment Lisardo received intelligence that he had obtained
possession of the catalogues of the books of Bunau, Crevenna, and
Pinelli; and that, after a desperate struggle with QUISQUILIUS, he
came off victorious in a contest for De Bure's _Bibliographie
Instructive_, _Gaignat's Catalogue_, and the two copious ones of the
_Duke de la Valliere_: these four latter being half-bound and uncut,
in nineteen volumes. Transport lit up the countenance of Lisardo, upon
his receiving this intelligence; but as pleasure and pain go hand in
hand in this world, so did this young and unsuspecting bibliomaniac
evince heavy affliction, on being told that he had failed in his
attack upon the best editions of Le Long's _Bibliotheca Sacra_,
Fresnoy's _Méthode pour etudier l'Histoire_, and Baillet's _Jugemens
des Savans_--these having been carried off, at the point of the
bayonet, by an irresistible onset from ATTICUS. "Remember, my
friend," said I, in a soothing strain, "remember that you are but a
Polydore; and must expect to fall when you encounter Achilles.[209]
Think of the honour you have acquired in this day's glorious contest;
and, when you are drenching your cups of claret, at your hospitable
board, contemplate your De Bure as a trophy which will always make you
respected by your visitors! I am glad to see you revive. Yet further
intelligence?"
[Footnote 209: The reader may peruse the affecting death of
this beautiful youth, by the merciless Achilles, from the
407 to 418th verso of the xxth book of _Homer's Iliad_.
Fortunately for Lisardo, he survives the contest, and even
threatens revenge.]
LIS. My good Mercurius, for whom a knife and fork shall always be laid
at my table, has just informed me that Clement's _Bibliotheque
Curieuse_, and Panzer's _Typographical Annals_, are knocked down to
me, after Mustapha had picked me out for single combat, and battered
my breast-plate with a thousand furious strokes!
"You must always," said I, "expect tough work from such an enemy, who
is frequently both wanton and wild. But I congratulate you heartily on
the event of this day's contest. Let us now pack up and pay for our
treasures. Your servant has just entered the room, and the chaise is
most probably at the door."
LIS. I am perfectly ready. Mercurius tells me that the whole amounts
to----
PHIL. Upwards of thirty guineas?
LIS. Hard upon forty pounds. Here is the draft upon my banker: and
then for my precious tomes of bibliography! A thousand thanks, my
friend. I love this place of all things; and, after your minute
account of the characters of those who frequent it, I feel a strong
propensity to become a deserving member of so respectable a
fraternity. Leaving them all to return to their homes as satisfied as
myself, I wish them a hearty good day.
Upon saying this, we followed Lisardo and his bibliographical
treasures into the chaise; and instantly set off, at a sharp trot, for
the quiet and comfort of green fields and running streams. As we
rolled over Westminster-bridge, we bade farewell, like the historian
of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, to the
"Fumum et opes strepitumque Romæ."
[Illustration]
[Illustration: CHISWICK HOUSE as in 1740.]
PART IV.
=The Library.=
DR. HENRY'S HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.
A GAME AT CHESS.--OF MONACHISM AND CHIVALRY.
DINNER AT LORENZO'S.
SOME ACCOUNT OF BOOK-COLLECTORS IN ENGLAND.
----Wisdom loves
This seat serene, and Virtue's self approves:--
Here come the griev'd, a change of thought to find;
The curious here, to feed a craving mind:
Here the devout, their peaceful temple chuse;
And here, the poet meets his favouring Muse.
CRABBE'S POEMS. (_The Library._)
[Illustration:
=Ingredere
ut
Proficias.=]
[Illustration]
=The Library.=
DR. HENRY'S HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.
A GAME OF CHESS.--OF MONACHISM AND CHIVALRY.
DINNER AT LORENZO'S.
SOME ACCOUNT OF BOOK-COLLECTORS IN ENGLAND.
During the first seven miles of our return from the busy scene which
has just been described, it was sufficiently obvious that Lisardo was
suffering a little under the pangs of mortification. True it was, he
had filled his pocket with an ampler supply of pistoles than it ever
fell to the lot of Gil Blas, at the same time of life, to be master
of; but he had not calculated upon the similar condition of his
competitors; some of whom had yet greater powers of purchase, and a
more resolute determination, as well as nicer skill, in exercising
these powers, than himself. Thus rushing into the combat with the heat
and vehemence of youth, he was of necessity compelled to experience
the disappointment attendant upon such precipitancy. It was in vain
that Philemon and myself endeavoured to make him completely satisfied
with his purchase: nothing produced a look of complacency from him. At
length, upon seeing the rising ground which was within two or three
miles of our respective homes, he cheered up by degrees; and a sudden
thought of the treasures contained in his Clement, De Bure and Panzer,
darted a gleam of satisfaction across his countenance. His eyes
resumed their wonted brilliancy, and all the natural gaiety of his
disposition returned with full effect to banish every vapour of
melancholy. "Indeed, my good friend," said he to me--"I shall always
have reason to think and speak well of your kindness shewn towards me
this day; and although some years may elapse before a similar
collection may be disposed of--and I must necessarily wait a tedious
period 'ere I get possession of Maittaire, Audiffredi, and others of
the old school--yet I hope to convince Lysander, on the exhibition of
my purchase, that my conversion to bibliography has been sincere. Yes:
I perceive that I have food enough to digest, in the volumes which are
now my travelling companions, for two or three years to come--and if,
by keeping a sharp look-out upon booksellers' catalogues when they are
first published, I can catch hold of Vogt, Schelhorn and Heinecken, my
progress in bibliography, within the same period, must be downright
marvellous!" "I congratulate you," exclaimed PHILEMON, "upon the
return of your reason and good sense. I began to think that the story
of Orlando had been thrown away upon you; and that his regular yearly
purchases of a certain set of books, and making himself master of
their principal contents before he ventured upon another similar
purchase, had already been banished from your recollection."
We were now fast approaching the end of our journey; when the groom of
Lorenzo, mounted upon a well-bred courser, darted quickly by the
chaise, apparently making towards my house--but on turning his head,
and perceiving me within it, he drew up and bade the postilion stop. A
note from his master soon disclosed the reason of this interruption.
LORENZO, upon hearing of the arrival of Lysander and Philemon, and of
their wish to visit his library, had sent us all three a kind
invitation to dine with him on the morrow. His close intimacy with
Lisardo (who was his neighbour) had left no doubt in the mind of the
latter but that a similar note had been sent to his own house. After
telling the messenger that we would not fail to pay our respects to
his master, we drove briskly homewards; and found Lysander sitting on
a stile under some wide-spreading beech trees, at the entrance of the
paddock, expecting our arrival. In less than half an hour we sat down
to dinner (at a time greatly beyond what I was accustomed to);
regaling Lysander, during the repast, with an account of the contest
we had witnessed; and every now and then preventing Lisardo from
rushing towards his packet (even in the midst of his _fricandeau_),
and displaying his book-treasures. After dinner, our discussion
assumed a more methodical shape. Lysander bestowed his hearty
commendations upon the purchase; and, in order to whet the
bibliomaniacal appetite of his young convert, he slyly observed that
his set of De Bure's pieces were _half bound_ and _uncut_; and that by
having them bound in morocco, with gilt leaves, he would excel my own
set; which latter was coated in a prettily-sprinkled calf leather,
with speckled edges. Lisardo could not repress the joyful sensations
which this remark excited; and I observed that, whenever his eyes
glanced upon my shelves, he afterwards returned them upon his own
little collection, with a look of complacency mingled with exultation.
It was evident, therefore, that he was now thoroughly reconciled to
his fortune.
LYSAND. During your absence, I have been reading a very favourite work
of mine--DR. HENRY'S _History of Great Britain_; especially that part
of it which I prefer so much to the history of human cunning and
human slaughter; I mean, the account of learning and of learned men.
PHIL. It is also a great favourite with me. But while I regret the
inexcuseable omission of an index to such a voluminous work, and the
inequality of Mr. Andrews's partial continuation of it, I must be
permitted to observe that the history of our literature and learned
men is not the most brilliant, or best executed, part of Dr. Henry's
valuable labours. There are many omissions to supply, and much
interesting additional matter to bring forward, even in some of the
most elaborate parts of it. His account of the arts might also be
improved; although in commerce, manners and customs, I think he has
done as much, and as well, as could reasonably be expected. I
question, however, whether his work, from the plan upon which it is
executed, will ever become so popular as its fondest admirers seem to
hope.
LYSAND. You are to consider, Philemon, that in the execution of such
an important whole, in the erection of so immense a fabric, some parts
must necessarily be finished in a less workman-like style than others.
And, after all, there is a good deal of caprice in our criticisms. You
fancy, in this fabric (if I may be allowed to go on with my simile), a
boudoir, a hall, or a staircase; and fix a critical eye upon a recess
badly contrived, an oval badly turned, or pillars weakly put
together:--the builder says, Don't look at these parts of the fabric
with such fastidious nicety; they are subordinate. If my boudoir will
hold a moderate collection of old-fashioned Dresden China, if my
staircase be stout enough to conduct you and your company to the upper
rooms; and, if my hall be spacious enough to hold the hats, umbrellas
and walking-sticks of your largest dinner-party, they answer the ends
proposed:--unless you would _live_ in your boudoir, upon your
staircase, or within your hall! The fact then is, you, Philemon,
prefer the boudoir, and might, perhaps, improve upon its structure;
but, recollect, there are places in a house of equal, or perhaps more,
consequence than this beloved boudoir. Now, to make the obvious
application to the work which has given rise to this wonderful stretch
of imagination on my part:--Dr. Henry is the builder, and his history
is the building, in question: in the latter he had to put together,
with skill and credit, a number of weighty parts, of which the "_Civil
and Ecclesiastical_" is undoubtedly the most important to the
generality of readers. But one of these component parts was the _The
History of Learning and of Learned Men_; which its author probably
thought of subordinate consequence, or in the management of which, to
allow you the full force of your objection, he was not so well
skilled. Yet, still, never before having been thus connected with such
a building, it was undoubtedly a delightful acquisition; and I
question whether, if it had been more elaborately executed--if it had
exhibited all the fret-work and sparkling points which you seem to
conceive necessary to its completion; I question, whether the
popularity of the work would have been even so great as it is, and as
it unquestionably merits to be! A few passionately-smitten literary
antiquaries are not, perhaps, the fittest judges of such a production.
To be generally useful and profitable should be the object of every
author of a similar publication; and as far as candour and liberality
of sentiment, an unaffected and manly style, accompanied with weighty
matter, extensive research, and faithful quotation, render a work
nationally valuable--the work of Dr. Henry, on these grounds, is an
ornament and honour to his country.
PHIL. Yet I wish he had rambled (if you will permit me so to speak) a
little more into book-men and book-anecdotes.
LYSAND. You may indulge this wish very innocently; but, certainly, you
ought not to censure Dr. Henry for the omission of such minutiæ.
LIS. Does he ever quote Clement, De Bure, or Panzer?
LYSAND. Away with such bibliomaniacal frenzy! He quotes solid, useful
and respectable authorities; chiefly our old and most valuable
historians. No writer before him ever did them so much justice, or
displayed a more familiar acquaintance with them.
LIS. Do pray give us, Lysander, some little sketches of
book-characters--which, I admit, did not enter into the plan of Dr.
Henry's excellent work. As I possess the original quarto edition of
this latter, bound in Russia, you will not censure me for a want of
respect towards the author.
PHIL. I second Lisardo's motion; although I fear the evening presses
too hard upon us to admit of much present discussion.
LYSAND. Nothing--(speaking most unaffectedly from my heart) nothing
affords me sincerer pleasure than to do any thing in my power which
may please such cordial friends as yourselves. My pretensions to that
sort of antiquarian _knowledge_, which belongs to the history of
book-collectors, are very poor, as you well know,--they being greatly
eclipsed by my _zeal_ in the same cause. But, as I love my country and
my country's literature, so no conversation or research affords me a
livelier pleasure than that which leads me to become better acquainted
with the ages which have gone by; with the great and good men of old;
who have found the most imperishable monuments of their fame in the
sympathizing hearts of their successors. But I am wandering--
LIS. Go on as you please, dear Lysander; for I have been too much
indebted to your conversation ever to suppose it could diverge into
any thing censoriously irrelevant. Begin where and when you please.
LYSAND. I assure you it is far from my intention to make any formal
exordium, even if I knew the exact object of your request.
PHIL. Tell us all about book-collecting and BIBLIOMANIACS in this
country--
LIS. "Commençez au commençement"--as the French adage is.
LYSAND. In sober truth, you impose upon me a pretty tough task! "One
Thousand and One Nights" would hardly suffice for the execution of it;
and now, already, I see the owl flying across the lawn to take her
station in the neighbouring oak; while even the middle ground of
yonder landscape is veiled in the blue haziness of evening. Come a
short half hour, and who, unless the moon befriend him, can see the
outline of the village church? Thus gradually and imperceptibly, but
thus surely, succeeds age to youth--death to life--eternity to
time!--You see in what sort of mood I am for the performance of my
promise?
LIS. Reserve these meditations for your pillow, dear Lysander: and
now, again I entreat you--"commençez au commençement."
PHIL. Pray make a beginning only: the conclusion shall be reserved, as
a desert, for Lorenzo's dinner to-morrow.
LYSAND. Lest I should be thought coquettish, I will act with you as I
have already done; and endeavour to say something which may gratify
you as before.
It has often struck me my dear friends, continued Lysander--(in a
balanced attitude, and seeming to bring quietly together all his
scattered thoughts upon the subject) it has often struck me that few
things have operated more unfavourably towards the encouragement of
learning, and of book-collecting, than the universal passion for
_chivalry_--which obtained towards the middle ages; while, on the
other hand, a _monastic life_ seems to have excited a love of
retirement, meditation, and reading.[210] I admit readily, that,
considering the long continuance of the monastic orders, and that
almost all intellectual improvement was confined within the cloister,
a very slow and partial progress was made in literature. The system of
education was a poor, stinted, and unproductive one. Nor was it till
after the enterprising activity of Poggio had succeeded in securing a
few precious remains of classical antiquity,[211] that the wretched
indolence of the monastic life began to be diverted from a constant
meditation upon "antiphoners, grailes, and psalters,"[212] towards
subjects of a more generally interesting nature. I am willing to admit
every degree of merit to the manual dexterity of the cloistered
student. I admire his snow-white vellum missals, emblazoned with gold,
and sparkling with carmine and ultramarine blue. By the help of the
microscopic glass, I peruse his diminutive penmanship, executed with
the most astonishing neatness and regularity; and often wish in my
heart that our typographers printed with ink as glossy black as that
which they sometimes used in their writing. I admire all this; and now
and then, for a guinea or two, I purchase a specimen of such
marvellous leger-de-main: but the book, when purchased, is to me a
sealed book. And yet, Philemon, I blame not the individual, but the
age; not the task, but the task-master; for surely the same exquisite
and unrivalled beauty would have been exhibited in copying an ode of
Horace, or a dictum of Quintilian. Still, however, you may say that
the intention, in all this, was pure and meritorious; for that such a
system excited insensibly a love of quiet, domestic order, and
seriousness: while those counsels and regulations which punished a
"Clerk for being a hunter," and restricted "the intercourse of
Concubines,"[213] evinced a spirit of jurisprudence which would have
done justice to any age. Let us allow, then, if you please, that a
love of book-reading, and of book-collecting, was a meritorious trait
in the monastic life; and that we are to look upon old abbies and
convents as the sacred depositories of the literature of past ages.
What can you say in defence of your times of beloved chivalry?
[Footnote 210: As early as the sixth century commenced the
custom, in some monasteries, of copying ancient books and
composing new ones. It was the usual, and even only,
employment of the first monks of Marmoutier. A monastery
without a library was considered as a fort or a camp
deprived of the necessary articles for its defence:
"claustrum sine armario, quasi castrum sine armentario."
Peignot, _Dict. de Bibliolog._, vol. i., 77. I am fearful
that this good old bibliomanical custom of keeping up the
credit of their libraries among the monks had ceased--at
least in the convent of Romsey, in Hampshire--towards the
commencement of the sixteenth century. One would think that
the books had been there disposed of in bartering for
_strong liquors_; for at a visitation by Bishop Fox, held
there in 1506, Joyce Rows, the abbess, is accused of
_immoderate drinking_, especially in the night time; and of
inviting the nuns to her chamber every evening, for the
purpose of these excesses, "post completorium." What is
frightful to add,--"this was a rich convent, and filled with
ladies of the best families." See Warton's cruel note in his
_Life of Sir Thomas Pope_, p. 25, edit. 1772. A
tender-hearted bibliomaniac cannot but feel acutely on
reflecting upon the many beautifully-illuminated vellum
books which were, in all probability, exchanged for these
inebriating gratifications! To balance this unfavourable
account read Hearne's remark about the libraries in ancient
monasteries, in the sixth volume of _Leland's Collectanea_,
p. 86-7, edit. 1774: and especially the anecdotes and
authorities stated by Dr. Henry in book iii., chap, iv.,
sec. 1.]
[Footnote 211: See the first volume of Mr. Roscoe's _Lorenzo
de Medici_; and the Rev. Mr. Shepherd's _Life of Poggio
Bracciolini_.]
[Footnote 212: When Queen Elizabeth deputed a set of
commissioners to examine into the superstitious books
belonging to All-Souls library, there was returned, in the
list of these superstitious works, "eight grailes, seven
antiphoners of parchment and bound." Gutch's _Collectanea
Curiosa_, vol. ii., 276. At page 115, ante, the reader will
find a definition of the word "Antiphoner." He is here
informed that a "gradale" or "grail," is a book which ought
to have in it "the office of sprinkling holy water: the
beginnings of the masses, or the offices of _Kyrie_, with
the verses of _gloria in excelsis_; the _gradales_, or what
is gradually sung after the epistles; the hallelujah and
tracts, the sequences, the creed to be sung at mass, the
offertories, the hymns holy, and Lamb of God, the communion,
&c., which relate to the choir at the singing of a solemn
mass." This is the Rev. J. Lewis's account; _idem opus_,
vol. ii., 168.]
[Footnote 213: "_Of a Clerk that is an Hunter._"
"We ordain that if any clerk be defamed of trespass
committed in forest or park of any man's, and thereof be
lawfully convicted before his ordinary, or do confess it to
him, the diocesan shall make redemption thereof in his
goods, if he have goods after the quality of his fault; and
such redemption shall be assigned to him to whom the loss,
hurt, or injury, is done; but if he have no goods, let his
bishop grievously punish his person according as the fault
requireth, lest through trust to escape punishment they
boldly presume to offend." _Fol._ 86, _rev._: vide _infra_.
(The same prohibition against clergymen being Hunters
appears in a circular letter, or injunctions, by Lee,
Archbishop of York, A.D. 1536. "Item; they shall not be
common _Hunters ne Hawkers_, ne playe at gammes prohibytede,
as dycese and cartes, and such oder." Burnet's _Hist. of the
Reformation_; vol. iii. p. 136, "Collections.")
"_Of the removing of Clerks' Concubines._"
"Although the governors of the church have always laboured
and enforced to drive and chase away from the houses of the
church that rotten contagiousness of pleasant filthiness
with the which the sight and beauty of the church is
grievously spotted and defiled, and yet could never hitherto
bring it to pass, seeing it is of so great a lewd boldness
that it thursteth in unshamefastly without ceasing; we,
therefore," &c. _Fol._ 114, _rect._
"_Of Concubines, that is to say of them that keep
Concubines._"
"How unbecoming it is, and how contrary to the pureness of
Christians, to touch sacred things with lips and hands
polluted, or any to give the laws and praisings of
cleanness, or to present himself in the Lord's temple, when
he is defiled with the spots of lechery, not only the divine
and canonical laws, but also the monitions of secular
princes, hath evidently seen by the judgment of holy
consideration, commanding and enjoining both discreetly and
also wholesomely, shamefacedness unto all Christ's faithful,
and ministers of the holy church." _Fol._ 131, _rect._
_Constitutions Provincialles, and of Otho aud [Transcriber's
Note: and] Octhobone._ Redman's edit. 1534, 12mo. On looking
into Du Pin's _Ecclesiastical History_, vol. ix., p. 58,
edit. 1699, I find that Hugh of Dia, by the ninth canon in
the council of Poictiers, (centy. xi.) ordained "That the
sub-deacons, deacons, and priests, shall have no concubine,
or any other suspicious women in their houses; and that all
those who shall wittingly hear the mass of a priest that
keeps a concubine, or is guilty of simony, shall be
excommunicated."]
PHIL. Shew me in what respect the gallant spirit of an ancient knight
was hostile to the cultivation of the belles-lettres?
LYSAND. Most readily. Look at your old romances, and what is the
system of education--of youthful pursuits--which they in general
inculcate? Intrigue and bloodshed.[214] Examine your favourite new
edition of the _Fabliaux et Contes_ of the middle ages, collected by
Barbazan! However the editor may say that "though some of these pieces
are a little too free, others breathe a spirit of morality and
religion--"[215] the main scope of the poems, taken collectively, is
that which has just been mentioned. But let us come to particulars.
What is there in the _Ordene de Chevalerie_, or _Le Castoiement d'un
Pere à son fils_ (pieces in which one would expect a little
seriousness of youthful instruction), that can possibly excite a love
of reading, book-collecting, or domestic quiet? Again; let us see what
these chivalrous lads do, as soon as they become able-bodied! Nothing
but assault and wound one another. Read concerning your favourite
_Oliver of Castile_,[216] and his half-brother _Arthur_! Or, open
the beautiful volumes of the late interesting translation of
Monstrelet, and what is almost the very first thing which meets your
eye? Why, "an Esquire of Arragon (one of your chivalrous heroes) named
Michel D'Orris, sends a challenge to an English esquire of the same
complexion with himself--and this is the nature of the challenge:
[which I will read from the volume, as it is close at my right hand,
and I have been dipping into it this morning in your absence--]
[Footnote 214: The celebrated LUDOVICUS VIVES has strung
together a whole list of ancient popular romances, calling
them "ungracious books." The following is his saucy
philippic: "Which books but idle men wrote unlearned, and
set all upon filth and viciousness; in whom I wonder what
should delight men, but that vice pleaseth them so much. As
for learning, none is to be looked for in those men, which
saw never so much as a shadow of learning themselves. And
when they tell ought, what delight can be in those things
that be so plain and foolish lies? One killeth twenty by
himself alone, another killeth thirty; another, wounded with
a hundred wounds, and left for dead, riseth up again; and on
the next day, made whole and strong, overcometh two giants,
and then goeth away loaden with gold and silver and precious
stones, mo than a galley would carry away. What madness is
it of folks to have pleasure in these books! Also there is
no wit in them, but a few words of wanton lust; which be
spoken to move her mind with whom they love, if it chance
she be steadfast. And if they be read but for this, the best
were to make books of bawd's crafts, for in other things
what craft can be had of such a maker that is ignorant of
all good craft? Nor I never heard man say that he liked
these books, but those that never touched good
books."--_Instruction of a Christian Woman_, sign. D. 1.
rev., edit. 1593. From the fifth chapter (sufficiently
curious) of "What books be to be read, and what not."]
[Footnote 215: Vol. ii., p. 39, edit. 1808.]
[Footnote 216: "When the king saw that they were puissant
enough for to wield armour at their ease, he gave them
license for to do cry a Justing and Tournament. The which
OLIVER and ARTHUR made for to be cried, that three
aventurous knights should just against all comers, the which
should find them there the first day of the lusty month of
May, in complete harness, for to just against their
adversaries with sharp spears. And the said three champions
should just three days in three colours: that is to wit, in
black, grey and violet--and their shields of the same hue;
and them to find on the third day at the lists. There justed
divers young knights of the king's court: and the justing
was more _asperer_ of those young knights than ever they had
seen any in that country. And, by the report of the ladies,
they did so knightly, every one, that it was not possible
for to do better, as them thought, by their strokes. But,
above all other, OLIVER and ARTHUR (his loyal fellow) had
the _bruit_ and _loos_. The justing endured long: it was
marvel to see the hideous strokes that they dealt; for the
justing had not finished so soon but that the night
_separed_ them. Nevertheless, the adversary party abode
'till the torches were light. But the ladies and
_damoyselles_, that of all the justing time had been there,
were weary, and would depart. Wherefore the justers departed
in likewise, and went and disarmed them for to come to the
banquet or feast. And when that the banquet was finished and
done, the dances began. And there came the king and the
valiant knights of arms, for to enquire of the ladies and
_damoyselles_, who that had best borne him as for that day.
The ladies, which were all of one accord and agreement, said
that Oliver and Arthur had surmounted all the best doers of
that _journey_. And by cause that Oliver and Arthur were
both of one party, and that they could find but little
difference between them of knighthood, they knew not the
which they might sustain. But, in the end, they said that
Arthur had done right valiantly: nevertheless, they said
that Oliver had done best unto their seeming. And therefore
it was concluded that the _pryce_ should be given unto
Oliver, as for the best of them of within. And another noble
knight, of the realm of Algarbe, that came with the queen,
had the pryce of without. When the pryce of the juste that
had been made was brought before Oliver, by two fair
_damoyselles_, he waxed all red, and was ashamed at that
present time; and said that it was of their bounty for to
give him the pryce, and not of his desert: nevertheless, he
received it; and, as it was of custom in guerdoning them, he
kissed them. And soon after they brought the wine and
spices; and then the dances and the feast took an end as for
that night." _Hystorye of Olyuer of Castylle, and of the
fayre Helayne, &c._, 1518, 4to., sign. A. v. vj. This I
suppose to be the passage alluded to by Lysander. The
edition from which it is taken, and of which the title was
barely known to Ames and Herbert, is printed by Wynkyn De
Worde. Mr. Heber's copy of it is at present considered to be
unique. The reader will see some copious extracts from it in
the second volume of the _British Typographical
Antiquities_.]
"First, to enter the lists on foot, each armed in the manner he shall
please, having a dagger and sword attached to any part of his body,
and a battle-axe, with the handle of such length as the challenger
shall fix on. The combat to be as follows: ten strokes of the
battle-axe, without intermission; and when these strokes shall have
been given, and the judge shall cry out 'Ho!' ten cuts with the sword
to be given without intermission or change of armour. When the judge
shall cry out 'Ho!' we will resort to our daggers, and give ten stabs
with them. Should either party lose or drop his weapon, the other may
continue the use of the one in his hand until the judge shall cry out
'Ho!'" &c.[217] A very pretty specimen of honourable combat,
truly!--and a mighty merciful judge who required even more cuts and
thrusts than these (for the combat is to go on) before he cried out
"Ho!" Defend us from such ejaculatory umpires!--
[Footnote 217: See _Monstrelet's Chronicles_, translated by
Thomas Johnes, Esq., vol. i., p. 8, edit. 1809, 4to. Another
elegant and elaborate specimen of the Hafod press; whose
owner will be remembered as long as literature and taste
shall be cultivated in this country.]
LIS. Pray dwell no longer upon such barbarous heroism! We admit that
_Monachism_ may have contributed towards the making of bibliomaniacs
more effectually than _Chivalry_. Now proceed--
These words had hardly escaped Lisardo, when the arrival of my worthy
neighbour NARCOTTUS (who lived by the parsonage house), put a stop to
the discourse. Agreeably to a promise which I had made him three days
before, he came to play a GAME OF CHESS with Philemon; who, on his
part, although a distinguished champion at this head-distracting game,
gave way rather reluctantly to the performance of the promise: for
LYSANDER was now about to enter upon the history of the Bibliomania in
this country. The Chess-board, however was brought out; and down to
the contest the combatants sat--while Lisardo retired to one corner of
the room to examine thoroughly his newly-purchased volumes, and
Lysander took down a prettily executed 8vo. volume upon the Game of
Chess, printed at Cheltenham, about six years ago, and composed "by an
amateur." While we were examining, in this neat work, an account of
the numerous publications upon the Game of Chess, in various countries
and languages, and were expressing our delight in reading anecdotes
about eminent chess players, Lisardo was carefully packing up his
books, as he expected his servant every minute to take them away. The
servant shortly arrived, and upon his expressing his inability to
carry the entire packet--"Here," exclaimed Lisardo, "do you take the
quartos, and follow me; who will march onward with the octavos." This
was no sooner said than our young bibliomaniacal convert gave De Bure,
Gaignat, and La Valliere, a vigorous swing across his shoulders; while
the twenty quarto volumes of Clement and Panzer were piled, like "Ossa
upon Pelion," upon those of his servant--and
"Light of foot, and light of heart"
Lisardo took leave of us 'till the morrow.
Meanwhile, the chess combat continued with unabated spirit. Here
Philemon's king stood pretty firmly guarded by both his knights, one
castle, one bishop, and a body of common soldiers[218]--impenetrable
as the Grecian phalanx, or Roman legion; while his queen had made a
sly sortie to surprise the only surviving knight of Narcottus.
Narcottus, on the other hand, was cautiously collecting his scattered
foot soldiers, and, with two bishops, and two castle-armed elephants,
were meditating a desperate onset to retrieve the disgrace of his lost
queen. An inadvertent remark from Lysander, concerning the antiquity
of the game, attracted the attention of Philemon so much as to throw
him off his guard; while his queen, forgetful of her sex, and
venturing unprotected, like Penthesilea of old, into the thickest of
the fight, was trampled under foot, without mercy,[219] by a huge
elephant, carrying a castle of armed men upon his back. Shouts of
applause, from Narcottus's men, rent the vaulted air; while grief and
consternation possessed the astonished army of Philemon. "Away with
your antiquarian questions," exclaimed the latter, looking sharply at
Lysander: "away with your old editions of the Game of Chess! The
moment is critical; and I fear the day may be lost. Now for desperate
action!" So saying, he bade the King exhort his dismayed subjects. His
Majesty made a spirited oration; and called upon _Sir Launcelot_, the
most distinguished of the two Knights,[220] to be mindful of his own
and of his country's honour: to spare the effusion of blood among his
subjects as much as possible; but rather to place victory or defeat in
the comparative skill of the officers: and, at all events, to rally
round that throne which had conferred such high marks of distinction
upon his ancestors. "I needed not, gracious sire," replied Sir
Launcelot--curbing in his mouth-foaming steed, and fixing his spear in
the rest--"I needed not to be here reminded of your kindness to my
forefathers, or of the necessity of doing every thing, at such a
crisis, beseeming the honour of a true round-table knight.--Yes,
gracious sovereign, I swear to you by the love I bear to THE LADY OF
THE LAKE[221]--by the remembrance of the soft moments we have passed
together in the honey-suckle bowers of her father--by all that an
knight of chivalry is taught to believe the most sacred and binding--I
swear that I will not return this day alive without the laurel of
victory entwined round my brow. Right well do I perceive that deeds
and not words must save us now--let the issue of the combat prove my
valour and allegiance." Upon this, Sir Launcelot clapped spurs to his
horse, and after driving an unprotected Bishop into the midst of the
foot-soldiers, who quickly took him prisoner, he sprang forward, with
a lion-like nimbleness and ferocity, to pick out _Sir Galaad_, the
only remaining knight in the adverse army, to single combat. Sir
Galaad, strong and wary, like the Greenland bear when assailed by the
darts and bullets of our whale-fishing men, marked the fury of Sir
Launcelot's course, and sought rather to present a formidable defence
by calling to aid his elephants, than to meet such a champion
single-handed. A shrill blast from his horn told the danger of his
situation, and the necessity of help. What should now be done? The
unbroken ranks of Philemon's men presented a fearful front to the
advance of the elephants, and the recent capture of a venerable bishop
had made the monarch, on Narcottus's side, justly fearful of risking
the safety of his empire by leaving himself wholly without episcopal
aid. Meanwhile the progress of Sir Launcelot was marked with blood;
and he was of necessity compelled to slaughter a host of common men,
who stood thickly around Sir Galaad, resolved to conquer or die by his
side. At length, as Master Laneham aptly expresses it, "get they
grysly together."[222] The hostile leaders met; there was neither time
nor disposition for parley. Sir Galaad threw his javelin with
well-directed fury; which, flying within an hair's breadth of Sir
Launcelot's shoulder, passed onward, and, grazing the cheek of a foot
soldier, stood quivering in the sand. He then was about to draw his
ponderous sword--but the tremendous spear of Sir Launcelot, whizzing
strongly in the air, passed through his thickly quilted belt, and,
burying itself in his bowels, made Sir Galaad to fall breathless from
his horse. Now might you hear the shouts of victory on one side, and
the groans of the vanquished on the other; or, as old Homer expresses
it,
Victors and vanquished shouts promiscuous rise.
With streams of blood the slippery fields are dyed,
And slaughtered heroes swell the dreadful tide.
_Iliad_ [passim].
[Footnote 218: "Whilst there are strong, able, and active
men of the king's side, to defend his cause, there is no
danger of [this] misfortune." _Letter to the Craftsman on
the Game of Chess_, p. 13.]
[Footnote 219: "When therefore the men of one party attack
those of the other, though their spleen at first may only
seem bent against a _Bishop_, a _Knight_, or an inferior
officer; yet, if successful in their attacks on that servant
of the king, they never stop there: they come afterwards to
think themselves strong enough even to attack _the Queen_,"
&c. _The same_, p. 12.]
[Footnote 220: "_The Knight_ (whose steps, as your
correspondent justly observes, are not of an ordinary kind,
and often surprise men who oppose him) is of great use in
extricating _the King_ out of those difficulties in which
his foes endeavour to entangle him.--He is a man whom a wise
player makes great use of in these exigences, and who
oftenest defeats the shallow schemes and thin artifices of
unskilful antagonists. They must be very bad players who do
not guard against the steps of _the Knight_." _The same_, p.
14.]
[Footnote 221: "The Lady of the Lake; famous in King Arthurz
Book"--says Master Laneham, in his Letter to Master Humfrey
Martin; concerning the entertainment given by Lord Leicester
to Q. Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle: A.D. 1575, edit. 1784,
p. 12. Yet more famous, I add, in a poem under this express
title, by WALTER SCOTT, 1810.]
[Footnote 222: See the authority (p. 40) quoted in the note
at page 157, ante.]
And, truly, the army of Narcottus seemed wasted with a great
slaughter: yet on neither side, had the monarch been _checked_, so as
to be put in personal danger! "While there is life there is hope,"
said the surviving Bishop[223] on the side of Narcottus: who now
taking upon him the command of the army, and perceiving Sir Launcelot
to be pretty nearly exhausted with fatigue, and wantonly exposing
his person, ordered the men at arms to charge him briskly on all
sides; while his own two castles kept a check upon the remaining
castle, knight, and bishop of the opposite army: also, he exhorted the
king to make a feint, as if about to march onwards. Sir Launcelot, on
perceiving the movement of the monarch, sprang forward to make him a
prisoner; but he was surprised by an elephant in ambuscade, from whose
castle-bearing back a well-shot arrow pierced his corslet, and
inflicted a mortal wound. He fell; but, in falling, he seemed to smile
even sweetly, as he thought upon the noble speech of Sir Bohort[224]
over the dead body of his illustrious ancestor, of the same name; and,
exhorting his gallant men to revenge his fall, he held the handle of
his sword firmly, till his whole frame was stiffened in death. And now
the battle was renewed with equal courage and equal hopes of victory
on both sides: but the loss of the flower of their armies, and
especially of their beloved spouses, had heavily oppressed the adverse
monarchs: who, retiring to a secured spot, bemoaned in secret the
hapless deaths of their queens, and bitterly bewailed that injudicious
law which, of necessity, so much exposed their fair persons, by giving
them such an unlimited power. The fortune of the day, therefore,
remained in the hands of the respective commanders; and if the knight
and bishop, on Philemon's side, had not contested about superiority of
rule, the victory had surely been with Philemon. But the strife of
these commanders threw every thing into confusion. The men, after
being trampled upon by the elephants of Narcottus, left their king
exposed, without the power of being aided by his castle. An error so
fatal was instantly perceived by the bishop of Narcottus's shattered
army; who, like another Ximenes,[225] putting himself at the head of
his forces, and calling upon his men resolutely to march onwards, gave
orders for the elephants to be moved cautiously at a distance, and to
lose no opportunity of making the opposite monarch prisoner. Thus,
while he charged in front, and captured, with his own hands, the
remaining adverse knight, his men kept the adverse bishop from sending
reinforcements; and Philemon's elephant not having an opportunity of
sweeping across the plain to come to the timely aid of the
king,[226] the victory was speedily obtained, for the men upon the
backs of Narcottus's elephants kept up so tremendous a discharge of
arrows that the monarch was left without a single attendant: and, of
necessity, was obliged to submit to the generosity of his captors.
[Footnote 223: "I think _the Bishops_ extremely considerable
throughout the whole game. One quality too they have, which
is peculiar to themselves; this is that, throughout the
whole game, they have a _steadiness_ in their conduct,
superior to men of any other denomination on the board; as
they never change their colour, but always pursue the path
in which they set out." _The same_ (vid. 206-7) p. 20.]
[Footnote 224: This truly chivalrous speech may be seen
extracted in Mr. Burnet's _Specimens of English Prose
Writers_, vol. i., 269. One of Virgil's heroes, to the best
of my recollection, dies serenely upon thinking of his
beloved countrymen:
----dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos!]
[Footnote 225: It is always pleasant to me to make
comparisons with eminent book-patrons, or, if the reader
pleases, bibliomaniacs. CARDINAL XIMENES was the promoter
and patron of the celebrated Complutensian Polyglott Bible;
concerning which I have already submitted some account to
the public in my _Introduction to the Classics_, vol. i.,
pp. 7, 8. His political abilities and personal courage have
been described by Dr. Robertson (in his history of Charles
V.), with his usual ability. We have here only to talk of
him as connected with books. Mallinkrot and Le Long have
both preserved the interesting anecdote which is related by
his first biographer, Alvaro Gomez, concerning the
completion of the forementioned Polyglott. "I have often
heard John Brocarius (says Gomez) son of Arnoldus Brocarius,
who printed the Polyglott, tell his friends that, when his
father had put the finishing stroke to the last volume, he
deputed _him_ to carry it to the Cardinal. John Brocarius
was then a lad; and, having dressed himself in an elegant
suit of clothes, he gravely approached Ximenes, and
delivered the volume into his hands. 'I render thanks to
thee, oh God!' exclaimed the Cardinal, 'that thou hast
protracted my life to the completion of these biblical
labours.' Afterwards, when conversing with his friends,
Ximenes would often observe that the surmounting of the
various difficulties of his political situation did not
afford him half the satisfaction which he experienced from
the finishing of his Polyglott. He died in the year 1517,
not many weeks after the last volume was published." Gomez,
or Gomecius's work "_de rebus gestis, à Francisco Ximenio
Cisnerio Archiepiscopo Complut_," 1569, fol., is a book of
very uncommon occurrence. It is much to be wished that Lord
Holland, or Mr. Southey, would give us a life of this
celebrated political character: as the biographies of
Flechier and Marsolier seem miserably defective, and the
sources of Gomez to have been but partially consulted. But I
must not let slip this opportunity of commemorating the
book-reputation of XIMENES, without making the reader
acquainted with two other singularly scarce and curious
productions of the press, which owe their birth to the
bibliomanical spirit of our Cardinal. I mean the "_Missale
mixtum secundun [Transcriber's Note: secundum] regulum B.
Isidori, dictum Mozarabes, cum præfat._" _A. Ortiz._ Toleti,
1500, fol. and the "_Breviarium, mixtum," &c._ _Mozarabes._
Toleti, 1502, fol.: of the former of which there was a copy
in the Harleian collection; as the ensuing interesting note,
in the catalogue of Lord Harley's books, specifies. I shall
give it without abridgment: "This is the scarcest book in
the whole Harleian collection. At the end of it are the
following words, which deserve to be inserted
here:--Adlaudem Omnipotentis Dei, nec non Virginis Mariæ
Matris ejus, omnium sanctorum sanctarumq; expletum est
Missale mixtum secundum regulam beati Isidori dictum
Mozarabes: maxima cum diligentia perlectum et emendatum, per
Reverendum in utroq; Jure Doctorem Dominum Alfonsum Ortiz,
Canonicum Toletanum. Impressum in regal. civitate Toleti,
Jussu Reverendissimi in Christo Patris Domini D. Francisci
Ximenii, ejusdem civitatis Archiepiscopi. Impensis Nobilis
Melchioris Gorricii Novariensis, per Magistrum Petrum
Hagembach, Almanum, anno salutis nostræ 1500, Die 29o
mensis Januarii." "This is supposed to be the ancient Missal
amended and purged by St. Isidore, archbishop of Sevil, and
ordered by the Council of Toledo to be used in all churches;
every one of which before that time had a missal peculiar to
itself. The Moors afterwards committing great ravages in
Spain, destroying the churches, and throwing every thing
there, both civil and sacred, into confusion, all St.
Isidore's missals, excepting those in the city of Toledo,
were lost. But those were preserved even after the Moors had
made themselves masters of that city; since they left six of
the churches there to the Christians, and granted them the
free exercise of their religion. Alphonsus the Sixth, many
ages afterwards, expelled the Moors from Toledo, and ordered
the Roman missal to be used in those churches where St.
Isidore's missal had been in vogue, ever since the council
above-mentioned. But the people of Toledo insisting that
their missal was drawn up by the most ancient bishops,
revised and corrected by St. Isidore, proved to be the best
by the great number of saints who had followed it, and been
preserved during the whole time of the Moorish government in
Spain, he could not bring his project to bear without great
difficulty. In short, the contest between the Roman and
Toletan missals came to that height that, according to the
genius of the age, it was decided by a single combat,
wherein the champion of the Toletan missal proved
victorious. But King Alphonsus, say some of the Spanish
writers, not being satisfied with this, which he considered
as the effect of chance only, ordered a fast to be
proclaimed, and a great fire to be then made; into which,
after the king and people had prayed fervently to God for
his assistance in this affair, both the missals were thrown;
but the Toletan only escaped the violence of the flames.
This, continue the same authors, made such an impression
upon the king that he permitted the citizens of Toledo to
use their own missal in those churches that had been granted
the Christians by the Moors. However, the copies of this
missal grew afterwards so scarce, that Cardinal Ximenes
found it extremely difficult to meet with one of them: which
induced him to order this impression, and to build a chapel,
in which this service was chanted every day, as it had at
first been by the ancient Christians. But, notwithstanding
this, the copies of the Toletan missal are become now so
exceeding rare that it is at present almost in as much
danger of being buried in oblivion as it was when committed
to the press by Cardinal Ximenes." _Bibl. Harl._, vol. iii.,
p. 117. But let the reader consult the more extended details
of De Bure (_Bibl. Instruct._, vol. i., no. 210, 211),
and De La Serna Santander (_Dict. Chois. Bibliogr. du_ xv.
_Siecle_, part iii., p. 178); also the very valuable notice
of Vogt; _Cat. Libror. Rarior._, p. 591; who mention a fine
copy of the missal and breviary, each struck off UPON
VELLUM, in the collegiate church of St. Ildefonso. If I
recollect rightly, Mr. Edwards informed me that an Italian
Cardinal was in possession of a similar copy of each. This
missal was republished at Rome, with a capital preface and
learned notes, by Lesleus, a Jesuit, in 1755, 4to.: and
Lorenzana, archbishop of Toledo, republished the breviary in
a most splendid manner at Madrid, in 1788. Both these
re-impressions are also scarce. I know not whether the late
king of Spain ever put his design into execution of giving a
new edition of these curious religious volumes; some ancient
MSS. of which had been carefully collated by Burriel.
Consult Osmont's _Dict. Typog._, vol. i., p. 477; _Cat. de
Gaignat_, nos. 179, 180; _Cat. de la Valliere_, nos.
271, 272; _Bibl. Solger._, vol. ii. no. 1280; and _Bibl.
Colbert_, nos. 342, 366. Having expatiated thus much, and
perhaps tediously, about these renowned volumes, let me
introduce to the notice of the heraldic reader the _Coat of
Arms_ of the equally renowned Cardinal--of whose genuine
editions of the Mozarabic Missal and Breviary my eyes were
highly gratified with a sight, in the exquisite library of
Earl Spencer, at Althorp.
[Illustration]]
[Footnote 226: Of the _Tower_ or _Rook_ (or _Elephant_) one
may indeed--to speak in the scripture style--(and properly
speaking, considering its situation) call this piece "the
head stone of the corner." There are two of them; and,
whilst they remain firm, his majesty is ever in safety. The
common enemies, therefore, of them and their king watch
their least motion very narrowly, and try a hundred tricks
to decoy them from the king's side, by feints, false alarms,
stumbling blocks, or any other method that can be contrived
to divert them from their duty. The _same_, p. 15. (vide.
159, ante.)]
Thus ended one of the most memorable chess contests upon record. Not
more stubbornly did the Grecians and Romans upon Troy's plain, or the
English and French upon Egypt's shores, contend for the palm of
victory, than did Philemon and Narcottus compel their respective
forces to signalize themselves in this hard-fought game. To change the
simile for a more homely one; no Northamptonshire hunt was ever more
vigorously kept up; and had it not been (at least so Philemon
thought!) for the inadvertent questions of Lysander, respecting the
antiquity of the amusement, an easy victory would have been obtained
by my guest over my neighbour. Lysander, with his usual politeness,
took all the blame upon himself. Philemon felt, as all chess-combatants
feel upon defeat, peevish and vexed. But the admirably well adapted
conversation of Lysander, and the natural diffidence of Narcottus,
served to smooth Philemon's ruffled plumage; and at length diffused
o'er his countenance his natural glow of good humour.
It was now fast advancing towards midnight; when Narcottus withdrew to
his house, and my guests to their chambers.
To-morrow came; and with the morrow came composure and hilarity in the
countenances of my guests. The defeat of the preceding evening was no
longer thought of; except that Philemon betrayed some little marks of
irritability on Lysander's shewing him the fac-simile wood-cuts of the
pieces and men in Caxton's edition of the game of chess, which are
published in the recent edition of the Typographical Antiquities of
our country.
Lisardo visited us betimes. His countenance, on his entrance gave
indication of vexation and disappointment--as well it might; for, on
his return home the preceding evening, he found the following note
from Lorenzo:--
"My dear Lisardo;
Our friend's visitors, Lysander and Philemon, are coming with their
host to eat old mutton, and drink old sherry, with me to-morrow; and
afterwards to discuss subjects of bibliography. I do not ask you to
join them, because I know your thorough aversion to every thing
connected with such topics. Adieu!
Truly yours,
LORENZO."
"Little," exclaimed Lisardo, "does he know of my conversion. I'll join
you uninvited; and abide by the consequences."
At four o'clock we set off, in company with Lisardo, for Lorenzo's
dinner. I need hardly add that the company of the latter was cordially
welcomed by our host; who, before the course of pastry was cleared
away, proposed a sparkling bumper of Malmsey madeira, to commemorate
his conversion to Bibliomaniacism. By half-past-five we were ushered
into THE LIBRARY, to partake of a costly dessert of rock melons and
Hamburgh grapes, with all their appropriate embellishments of
nectarines and nuts. Massive and curiously cut decanters, filled with
the genuine juice of the grape, strayed backwards and forwards upon
the table: and well-furnished minds, which could not refuse the luxury
of such a feast, made every thing as pleasant as rational pleasure
could be.
LIS. If Lorenzo have not any thing which he may conceive more
interesting to propose, I move that you, good Lysander, now resume the
discussion of a subject which you so pleasantly commenced last night.
PHIL. I rise to second the motion.
LOREN. And I, to give it every support in my power.
LYSAND. There is no resisting such adroitly levelled attacks. Do pray
tell me what it is you wish me to go on with?
PHIL. The history of book-collecting and of book-collectors in this
country.
LIS. The history of BIBLIOMANIA, if you please.
LYSAND. You are madder than the maddest of book-collectors, Lisardo.
But I will gossip away upon the subjects as well as I am able.
I think we left off with an abuse of the anti-bibliomaniacal powers of
chivalry. Let us pursue a more systematic method; and begin, as
Lisardo says, "at the beginning."
In the plan which I may pursue, you must forgive me, my friends, if
you find it desultory and irregular: and, as a proof of the sincerity
of your criticism, I earnestly beg that, like the chivalrous judge, of
whom mention was made last night, you will cry out "_Ho!_" when you
wish me to cease. But where shall we begin? From what period shall we
take up the history of BOOKISM (or, if you please, BIBLIOMANIA) in
this country? Let us pass over those long-bearded gentlemen called the
Druids; for in the various hypotheses which sagacious antiquaries have
advanced upon their beloved _Stone-henge_, none, I believe, are to be
found wherein the traces of a _Library_, in that vast ruin, are
pretended to be discovered. As the Druids were sparing of their
writing,[227] they probably read the more; but whether they carried
their books with them into trees, or made their pillows of them upon
Salisbury-plain, tradition is equally silent. Let us therefore
preserve the same prudent silence, and march on at once into the
seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries; in which the learning of Bede,
Alcuin, Erigena, and Alfred, strikes us with no small degree of
amazement. Yet we must not forget that their predecessor THEODORE,
archbishop of Canterbury, was among the earliest book-collectors in
this country; for he brought over from Rome, not only a number of able
professors, but a valuable collection of books.[228] Such, however,
was the scarcity of the book article, that Benedict Biscop (a founder
of the monastery of Weremouth in Northumberland), a short time
after, made not fewer than five journeys to Rome to purchase books,
and other necessary things for his monastery--for one of which books
our immortal Alfred (a very _Helluo Librorum_! as you will presently
learn) gave afterwards as much land as eight ploughs could
labour.[229] We now proceed to BEDE; whose library I conjecture to
have been both copious and curious. What matin and midnight vigils
must this literary phenomenon have patiently sustained! What a full
and variously furnished mind was his! Read the table of contents of
the eight folio volumes of the Cologne edition[230] of his works, as
given by Dr. Henry in the appendix to the fourth volume of his history
of our own country; and judge, however you may wish that the author
had gone less into abstruse and ponderous subjects, whether it was
barely possible to avoid falling upon such themes, considering the
gross ignorance and strong bias of the age? Before this, perhaps, I
ought slightly to have noticed INA, king of the West Saxons, whose
ideas of the comforts of a monastery, and whose partiality to
_handsome book-binding_, we may gather from a curious passage in
Stow's Chronicle or Annals.[231]
[Footnote 227: Julius Cæsar tells us that they dared not to
commit their laws to writing. _De Bell. Gall._, lib. vi., §
xiii.-xviii.]
[Footnote 228: Dr. Henry's _Hist. of Great Britain_, vol.
iv., p. 12, edit. 1800, 8vo. We shall readily forgive
Theodore's singularity of opinions in respect to some cases
of pharmacy, in which he held it to be "dangerous to perform
bleeding on the fourth day of the moon; because both the
light of the moon and the tides of the sea were then upon
the increase."--We shall readily forgive this, when we think
of his laudable spirit of BIBLIOMANIA.]
[Footnote 229: Dr. Henry says that "This bargain was
concluded by Benedict with the king a little before his
death, A.D. 690; and the book was delivered, and the estate
received by his successor abbot Ceolfred." _Hist. of Great
Britain_, vol. iv., p. 21. There must be some mistake here:
as Alfred was not born till the middle of the ninth century.
_Bed. Hist. Abbat Wermuthien, edit. Smith_, pp. 297-8, is
quoted by Dr. Henry.]
[Footnote 230: 1612, folio. De Bure (_Bibliogr. Instruct._
no. 353) might have just informed us that the Paris and
Basil editions of Bede's works are incomplete: and, at
no. 4444, where he notices the Cambridge edition of
Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_, (1644, fol.) we may add
that a previous English translation of it, by the celebrated
Stapleton, had been printed at Antwerp in 1565, 4to.,
containing some few admirably-well executed wood cuts.
Stapleton's translation has become a scarce book; and, as
almost every copy of it now to be found is in a smeared and
crazy condition, we may judge that it was once popular and
much read.]
[Footnote 231: The passage is partly as follows--"the sayde
king did also erect a chapell of gold and silver (to wit,
garnished) with ornaments and vesselles likewise of golde
and siluer, to the building of the which chappell hee gaue
2640 pounds of siluer, and to the altar 264 pounde of golde,
a chaleis with the patten, tenne pounde of golde, a censar 8
pound, and twenty mancas of golde, two candlesticks, twelue
pound and a halfe of siluer, A KIVER FOR THE GOSPEL BOOKE
TWENTY POUNDS"! &c. This was attached to the monastery of
Glastonbury; which Ina built "in a fenni place out of the
way, to the end the monkes mought so much the more giue
their minds to heauenly things," &c. _Chronicle_, edit.
1615, p. 76.]
We have mentioned ALCUIN: whom Ashmole calls one of the
school-mistresses to France.[232] How incomparably brilliant and
beautifully polished was this great man's mind!--and, withal, what an
enthusiastic bibliomaniac! Read, in particular, his celebrated letter
to Charlemagne, which Dr. Henry has very ably translated; and see, how
zealous he there shews himself to enrich the library of his
archiepiscopal patron with good books and industrious students.[233]
Well might Egbert be proud of his librarian: the first, I believe upon
record, who has composed a catalogue[234] of books in Latin hexameter
verse: and full reluctantly, I ween, did this librarian take leave of
his _Cell_ stored with the choicest volumes--as we may judge from his
pathetic address to it, on quitting England for France! If I recollect
rightly, Mr. Turner's elegant translation[235] of it begins thus:
"O my lov'd cell, sweet dwelling of my soul,
Must I for ever say, dear spot, farewell?"
[Footnote 232: _Theatrum Chemicum_, proleg. sign. A. 3.
rect.]
[Footnote 233: _History of Great Britain_, vol. iv., pp. 32,
86. "Literatorum virorum fautor et Mæcenas habebatur ætate
sua maximus ac doctissimus," says Bale: _Scrip. Brytan.
Illustr._, p. 109, edit. 1559. "Præ cæteris (says Lomeier)
insignem in colligendis illustrium virorum scriptis operam
dedit Egbertus Eboracensis archiepiscopus, &c.: qui
nobilissimam Eboraci bibliothecam instituit, cujus meminit
Alcuinis," &c. _De Bibliothecis_, p. 151. We are here
informed that the archbishop's library, together with the
cathedral of York, were accidentally burnt by fire in the
reign of Stephen.]
[Footnote 234: This curious catalogue is printed by Dr.
Henry, from Gale's _Rer. Anglicar. Scriptor. Vet._, tom. i.,
730. The entire works of Alcuin were printed at Paris, in
1617, folio: and again, at Ratisbon, in 1777, fol., 2 vols.
See Fournier's _Dict. Portat. de Bibliographie_, p. 12. Some
scarce separately-printed treatises of the same great man
are noticed in the first volume of the appendix to Bauer's
_Bibl. Libror. Rarior._, p. 44.]
[Footnote 235: _Anglo-Saxon History_, vol. ii., p. 355,
edit. 1808, 4to.]
Now, don't imagine, my dear Lisardo, that this anguish of heart
proceeded from his leaving behind all the woodbines, and apple-trees,
and singing birds, which were wont to gratify his senses near the
said cell, and which he could readily meet with in another clime!--No,
no: this monody is the genuine language of a bibliomaniac, upon being
compelled to take a long adieu of his choicest _book-treasures_,
stored in some secretly-cut recess of his hermitage; and of which
neither his patron, nor his illustrious predecessor, Bede, had ever
dreamt of the existence of copies! But it is time to think of Johannes
SCOTUS ERIGENA; the most facetious wag of his times, notwithstanding
his sirname of the _Wise_. "While Great Britain (says Bale) was a prey
to intestine wars, our philosopher was travelling quietly abroad
amidst the academic bowers of Greece;"[236] and there I suppose he
acquired, with his knowledge of the Greek language, a taste for
book-collecting and punning.[237] He was in truth a marvellous man; as
we may gather from the eulogy of him by Brucker.[238]
[Footnote 236: Freely translated from his _Script. Brytan.
Illustr._, p. 124.]
[Footnote 237: Scot's celebrated reply to his patron and
admirer, Charles the Bald, was first made a popular story, I
believe, among the "wise speeches" in _Camden's Remaines_,
where it is thus told: "Johannes Erigena, surnamed Scotus, a
man renowned for learning, sitting at the table, in respect
of his learning, with Charles the Bauld, Emperor and King of
France, behaved himselfe as a slovenly scholler, nothing
courtly; whereupon the Emperor asked him merrily, _Quid
interest inter Scotum et Sotum_? (what is there between a
Scot and a Sot?) He merrily, but yet malapertly answered,
'_Mensa_'--(the table): as though the emperor were the Sot
and he the Scot." p. 236. _Roger Hoveden_ is quoted as the
authority; but one would like to know where Hoveden got his
information, if Scotus has not mentioned the anecdote in his
own works? Since Camden's time, this facetious story has
been told by almost every historian and annalist.]
[Footnote 238: _Hist. Philosoph._, tom. 3, 616: as referred
to and quoted by Dr. Henry; whose account of our
book-champion, although less valuable than Mackenzie's, is
exceedingly interesting.]
In his celebrated work upon predestination, he maintained that
"material fire is no part of the torments of the damned;"[239] a very
singular notion in those times of frightful superstition, when the
minds of men were harrowed into despair by descriptions of hell's
torments--and I notice it here merely because I should like to be
informed in what curious book the said John Scotus Erigena acquired
the said notion? Let us now proceed to ALFRED; whose bust, I see,
adorns that department of Lorenzo's library which is devoted to
English History.
[Footnote 239: "He endeavours to prove, in his logical way,
that the torments of the damned are mere privations of the
happiness, or the trouble of being deprived of it; so that,
according to him, material fire is no part of the torments
of the damned; that there is no other fire prepared for them
but the fourth element, through which the bodies of all men
must pass; but that the bodies of the elect are changed into
an ætherial nature, and are not subject to the power of
fire: whereas, on the contrary, the bodies of the wicked are
changed into air, and suffer torments by the fire, because
of their contrary qualities. And for this reason 'tis that
the demons, who had a body of an ætherial nature, were
massed with a body of air, that they might feel the fire."
_Mackenzie's Scottish Writers_: vol. i., 49. All this may be
ingenious enough; of its truth, a future state only will be
the evidence. Very different from that of Scotus is the
language of Gregory Narienzen: "Exit in inferno frigus
insuperabile: ignis inextinguibilis: vermis immortalis:
fetor intollerabilis: tenebræ palpabiles: flagella
cedencium: horrenda visio demonum: desperatio omnium
bonorum." This I gather from the _Speculum Christiani_, fol.
37, printed by Machlinia, in the fifteenth century. The idea
is enlarged, and the picture aggravated, in a great number
of nearly contemporaneous publications, which will be
noticed, in part, hereafter. It is reported that some
sermons are about to be published, in which the personality
of Satan is questioned and denied. Thus having, by the
ingenuity of Scotus, got rid of the fire "which is never
quenched"--and, by means of modern scepticism, of the devil,
who is constantly "seeking whom he may devour," we may go on
comfortably enough, without such awkward checks, in the
commission of every species of folly and crime!]
This great and good man, the boast and the bulwark of his country, was
instructed by his mother, from infancy, in such golden rules of virtue
and good sense that one feels a regret at not knowing more of the
family, early years, and character, of such a parent. As she told him
that "a wise and a good man suffered no part of his time, but what is
necessarily devoted to bodily exercise, to pass in unprofitable
inactivity"--you may be sure that, with such book-propensities as he
felt, Alfred did not fail to make the most of the fleeting hour.
Accordingly we find, from his ancient biographer, that he resolutely
set to work by the aid of his wax tapers,[240] and produced some
very respectable compositions; for which I refer you to Mr. Turner's
excellent account of their author:[241] adding only that Alfred's
translation of Boethius is esteemed his most popular performance.
[Footnote 240: The story of the _wax tapers_ is related both
by Asser and William of Malmesbury, differing a little in
the unessential parts of it. It is this: Alfred commanded
six wax tapers to be made, each 12 inches in length, and of
as many ounces in weight. On these tapers he caused the
inches to be regularly marked; and having found that one
taper burnt just four hours, he committed them to the care
of the keepers of his chapel; who, from time to time gave
him notice how the hours went. But as in windy weather the
tapers were more wasted--to remedy this inconvenience, he
placed them in a kind of lanthorn, there being no glass to
be met with in his dominions. This event is supposed to have
occurred after Alfred had ascended the throne. In his
younger days, Asser tells us that he used to carry about, in
his bosom, day and night, a curiously-written volume of
hours, and psalms, and prayers, which by some are supposed
to have been the composition of Aldhelm. That Alfred had the
highest opinion of Aldhelm, and of his predecessors and
contemporaries, is indisputable; for in his famous letter to
Wulfseg, Bishop of London, he takes a retrospective view of
the times in which they lived, as affording "churches and
monasteries filled with libraries of excellent books in
several languages." It is quite clear, therefore, that our
great Alfred was not a little infected with the
bibliomaniacal disease.]
[Footnote 241: _The History of the Anglo-Saxons_; by Sharon
Turner, F.S.A., 1808, 4to., 2 vols. This is the last and
best edition of a work which places Mr. Turner quite at the
head of those historians who have treated of the age of
Alfred.]
After Alfred, we may just notice his son EDWARD, and his grandson
ATHELSTAN; the former of whom is supposed by Rous[242] (one of the
most credulous of our early historians) to have founded the University
of Cambridge. The latter had probably greater abilities than his
predecessor; and a thousand pities it is that William of Malmesbury
should have been so stern and squeamish as not to give us the
substance of that old book, containing a life of Athelstan--which he
discovered, and supposed to be coeval with the monarch--because,
forsooth, the account was too uniformly flattering! Let me here,
however, refer you to that beautiful translation of a Saxon ode,
written in commemoration of Athelstan's decisive victory over the
Danes of Brunamburg, which Mr. George Ellis has inserted in his
interesting volumes of _Specimens of the Early English Poets_:[243]
and always bear in recollection that this monarch shewed the best
proof of his attachment to books by employing as many learned men as
he could collect together for the purpose of translating the
Scriptures into his native Saxon tongue.
[Footnote 242: Consult _Johannis Rossi Historia Regum
Angliæ; edit. Hearne_, 1745, 8vo., p. 96. This passage has
been faithfully translated by Dr. Henry. But let the lover
of knotty points in ancient matters look into Master Henry
Bynneman's prettily printed impression (A.D. 1568) of _De
Antiquitate Cantabrigiensis Academiæ_, p. 14--where the
antiquity of the University of Cambridge is gravely assigned
to the æra of Gurguntius's reign, A.M. 3588!--Nor must we
rest satisfied with the ingenious temerity of this author's
claims in favour of his beloved Cambridge, until we have
patiently examined Thomas Hearne's edition (A.D. 1720) of
_Thomæ Caii Vindic. Antiquitat. Acad. Oxon._: a work well
deserving of a snug place in the antiquary's cabinet.]
[Footnote 243: Edit. 1803, vol. i., p. 14.]
Let us pass by that extraordinary scholar, courtier, statesman, and
monk--ST. DUNSTAN; by observing only that, as he was even more to
Edgar than Wolsey was to Henry VIII.--so, if there had then been the
same love of literature and progress in civilization which marked the
opening of the sixteenth century, Dunstan would have equalled, if not
eclipsed, Wolsey in the magnificence and utility of his institutions.
How many volumes of legends he gave to the library of Glastonbury, of
which he was once the abbot, or to Canterbury, of which he was
afterwards the Archbishop, I cannot take upon me to guess: as I have
neither of Hearne's three publications[244] relating to Glastonbury in
my humble library.
[Footnote 244: There is an ample Catalogue Raisonné of these
three scarce publications in the first volume of the
_British Bibliographer_. And to supply the deficiency of any
extract from them, in this place, take, kind-hearted reader,
the following--which I have gleaned from Eadmer's account of
St. Dunstan, as incorporated in Wharton's
_Anglia-Sacra_--and which would not have been inserted could
I have discovered any thing in the same relating to
book-presents to Canterbury cathedral.--"Once on a time, the
king went a hunting early on Sunday morning; and requested
the Archbishop to postpone the celebration of the mass till
he returned. About three hours afterwards, Dunstan went into
the cathedral, put on his robes, and waited at the altar in
expectation of the king--where, reclining with his arms in a
devotional posture, he was absorbed in tears and prayers. A
gentle sleep suddenly possessed him; he was snatched up into
heaven; and in a vision associated with a company of angels,
whose harmonious voices, chaunting _Kyrie eleyson, Kyrie
eleyson, Kyrie eleyson_, burst upon his ravished ears! He
afterwards came to himself, and demanded whether or not the
king had arrived? Upon being answered in the negative, he
betook himself again to his prayers, and, after a short
interval, was once more absorbed in celestial extasies, and
heard a loud voice from heaven saying--_Ite, missa est_. He
had no sooner returned thanks to God for the same, when the
king's clerical attendants cried out that his majesty had
arrived, and entreated Dunstan to dispatch the mass. But he,
turning from the altar, declared that the mass had been
already celebrated; and that no other mass should be
performed during that day. Having put off his robes, he
enquired of his attendants into the truth of the
transaction; who told him what had happened. Then, assuming
a magisterial power, he prohibited the king, in future, from
hunting on a Sunday; and taught his disciples the _Kyrie
eleyson_, which he had heard in heaven: hence this
ejaculation, in many places, now obtains as a part of the
mass service." Tom. ii., p. 217. What shall we say to "the
amiable and elegant Eadmer" for this valuable piece of
biographical information?--"The face of things was so
changed by the endeavours of Dunstan, and his master,
Ethelwald, that in a short time learning was generally
restored, and began to flourish. From this period, the
monasteries were the schools and seminaries of almost the
whole clergy, both secular and regular." Collier's _Eccles.
History_, vol. ii., p. 19, col. 2. That Glastonbury had many
and excellent books, vide Hearne's _Antiquities of
Glastonbury_; pp. LXXIV-VII. At Cambridge there is a
catalogue of the MSS. which were in Glastonbury library,
A.D. 1248.]
We may open the eleventh century with CANUTE; upon whose political
talents this is not the place to expatiate: but of whose
bibliomaniacal character the illuminated MS. of _The Four Gospels_ in
the Danish tongue--now in the British Museum, and once this monarch's
own book--leaves not the shadow of a doubt! From Canute we may proceed
to notice that extraordinary literary triumvirate--Ingulph, Lanfranc,
and Anselm. No rational man can hesitate about numbering them among
the very first rate book-collectors of that age. As to INGULPH, let us
only follow him, in his boyhood, in his removal from school to
college: let us fancy we see him, with his _Quatuor Sermones_ on a
Sunday--and his _Cunabula Artis Grammaticæ_[245] on a week day--under
his arm: making his obeisance to Edgitha, the queen of Edward the
Confessor, and introduced by her to William Duke of Normandy! Again,
when he was placed, by this latter at the head of the rich abbey of
Croyland, let us fancy we see him both adding to, and arranging, its
curious library[246]--before he ventured upon writing the history of
the said abbey. From Ingulph we go to LANFRANC; who, in his earlier
years, gratified his book appetites in the quiet and congenial
seclusion of his little favourite abbey in Normandy: where he
afterwards opened a school, the celebrity of which was acknowledged
throughout Europe. From being a pedagogue, let us trace him in his
virtuous career to the primacy of England; and when we read of his
studious and unimpeachable behaviour, as head of the see of
Canterbury,[247] let us acknowledge that a love of books and of mental
cultivation is among the few comforts in this world of which neither
craft nor misfortune can deprive us. To Lanfranc succeeded, in
book-fame and in professional elevation, his disciple ANSELM; who was
"lettered and chaste of his childhood," says Trevisa:[248] but who was
better suited to the cloister than to the primacy. For, although, like
Wulston, Bishop of Worcester, he might have "sung a long mass, and
held him _apayred_ with only the offering of Christian men, and was
holden a clean _mayde_, and did no outrage in drink,"[249] yet in his
intercourse with William II. and Henry I., he involved himself in
ceaseless quarrels; and quitted both his archiepiscopal chair and the
country. His memory, however, is consecrated among the fathers of
scholastic divinity.
[Footnote 245: These were the common school books of the
period.]
[Footnote 246: Though the abbey of Croyland was burnt only
twenty-five years after the conquest, its library then
consisted of 900 volumes, of which 300 were very large. The
lovers of English history and antiquities are much indebted
to Ingulph for his excellent history of the abbey of
Croyland, from its foundation, A.D. 664, to A.D. 1091: into
which he hath introduced much of the general history of the
kingdom, with a variety of curious anecdotes that are no
where else to be found. DR. HENRY: book iii., chap. iv., § 1
and 2. But Ingulph merits a more particular eulogium. The
editors of that stupendous, and in truth, matchless
collection of national history, entitled _Recueil des
Historiens des Gaules_, thus say of him: "Il avoit tout vu
en bon connoisseur, et ce qu'il rapporte, il l'écrit en
homme lettré, judicieux et vrai:" tom. xi., p. xlij. In case
any reader of this note and lover of romance literature
should happen to be unacquainted with the French language, I
will add, from the same respectable authority, that "The
readers of the _Round Table History_ should be informed that
there are many minute and curious descriptions in INGULPH
which throw considerable light upon the history of _Ancient
Chivalry_." Ibid. See too the animated eulogy upon him, at
p. 153, note _a_, of the same volume. These learned editors
have, however, forgotten to notice that the best, and only
perfect, edition of Ingulph's History of Croyland Abbey,
with the continuation of the same, by Peter de Blois and
Edward Abbas, is that which is inserted in the first volume
of Gale's _Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores Veteres_: Oxon, 1684.
(3 vols.)]
[Footnote 247: LANFRANC was obliged, against his will, by
the express command of Abbot Harlein, to take upon him the
archbishopric in the year 1070. He governed that church for
nineteen years together, with a great deal of wisdom and
authority. His largest work is a commentary upon the
Epistles of St. Paul; which is sometimes not very faithfully
quoted by Peter Lombard. His treatise in favour of the real
presence, in opposition to Birenger, is one of his most
remarkable performances. His letters "are short and few, but
contain in them things very remarkable." Du Pin's
_Ecclesiastical History_, vol. xi., p. 12, &c., edit. 1699.]
[Footnote 248: _Polychronicon_, Caxton's edit., sign. 46,
rev.]
[Footnote 249: _Polychronicon._ Caxton's edit., fol. cccvj.
rev. Poor Caxton (towards whom the reader will naturally
conceive I bear some little affection) is thus dragooned
into the list of naughty writers who have ventured to speak
mildly (and justly) of Anselm's memory. "They feign in
another fable that he (Anselm) tare with his teeth Christ's
flesh from his bones, as he hung on the rood, for
withholding the lands of certain bishoprics and abbies:
Polydorus not being ashamed to rehearse it. Somewhere they
call him a red dragon: somewhere a fiery serpent, and a
bloody tyrant; for occupying the fruits of their vacant
benefices about his princely buildings. Thus rail they of
their kings, without either reason or shame, in their
legends of abominable lies: Look Eadmerus, Helinandus,
Vincentius, Matthew of Westminster, Rudborne, Capgrave,
WILLIAM CAXTON, Polydore, and others." This is the language
of master Bale, in his _Actes of Englyshe Votaryes_, pt.
ii., sign. I. vij. rev. Tisdale's edit. No wonder Hearne
says of the author, "erat immoderata
intemperantia."--_Bened. Abbas._, vol. i., præf. p. xx.]
And here you may expect me to notice that curious book-reader and
Collector, GIRALD, _Archbishop of York_, who died just at the close of
the 11th century. Let us fancy we see him, according to Trevisa,[250]
creeping quietly to his garden arbour, and devoting his midnight
vigils to the investigation of that old-fashioned author, Julius
Firmicus; whom Fabricius calls by a name little short of that of an
old woman. It is a pity we know not more of the private studies of
such a bibliomaniac. And equally to be lamented it is that we have not
some more substantial biographical memoirs of that distinguished
bibliomaniac, HERMAN, bishop of Salisbury; a Norman by birth; and who
learnt the art of book-binding and book-illumination, before he had
been brought over into this country by William the Conqueror.[251] (A
character, by the bye, who, however completely hollow were his claims
to the crown of England, can never be reproached with a backwardness
in promoting learned men to the several great offices of church and
state.)
[Footnote 250: "This yere deyd thomas archbisohop of york
and gyralde was archebishop after him; a lecherous man, a
wytch and euyl doer, as the fame tellyth, for under his pyle
whan he deyde in an erber was founde a book of curyous
craftes, the book hight Julius frumeus. In that booke he
radde pryuely in the under tydes, therefor unnethe the
clerkes of his chirche would suffre him be buryed under
heuene without hooly chirche," _Polychronicon: Caxton's
edit._, sign. 43., 4 rect. (fol. cccxlij.) Godwyn says that
"he was laide at the entrance of the church porch." "Bayle
chargeth him (continues he) with sorcery and coniuration,
because, forsooth, that, after his death, there was found in
his chamber a volume of Firmicus: who writ of astrology
indeed, but of coniuration nothing that ever I heard."
_Catalogue of the Bishops of England_, p. 453--edit. 1601.
Concerning Girard's favourite author, consult Fabricius's
_Bibl. Lat.: cura Ernesti_, vol. iii., p. 114, &c., edit.
1773.]
[Footnote 251: Leland tells us that Herman erected "a noble
library at Sailsbury, having got together some of the best
and most ancient works of illustrious authors:" _de
Scriptor. Britan._, vol. i., 174: and Dugdale, according to
Warton (_Monasticon Anglican._; vol. iii., p. 375), says
that "he was so fond of letters that he did not disdain to
bind and illuminate books."]
LOREN. If you proceed thus systematically, my good Lysander, the
morning cock will crow 'ere we arrive at the book-annals even of the
Reformation.
LYSAND. It is true; I am proceeding rather too methodically. And yet I
suppose I should not obtain Lisardo's forgiveness if, in arriving at
the period of HENRY THE SECOND,[252] I did not notice that
extraordinary student and politician, BECKET!
[Footnote 252: I make no apology to the reader for
presenting him with the following original character of our
once highly and justly celebrated monarch, Henry II.--by the
able pen of Trevisa. "This HENRY II. was somewhat reddish,
with large face and breast; and yellow eyen and a dim voice;
and fleshy of body; and took but scarcely of meat and drink:
and for to _alledge_ the fatness, he travailed his body with
business; with hunting, with standing, with wandering: he
was of mean stature, renable of speech, and well y lettered;
noble and _orped_ in knighthood; and wise in counsel and in
battle; and dread and doubtfull destiny; more manly and
courteous to a Knight when he was dead than when he was
alive!" _Polychronicon_, Caxton's edit., fol. cccliij.,
rev.]
LIS. At your peril omit him! I think (although my black-letter reading
be very limited) that Bale, in his _English Votaries_, has a curious
description of this renowned archbishop; whose attachment to books, in
his boyish years, must on all sides be admitted.
LYSAND. You are right. Bale has some extraordinary strokes of
description in his account of this canonized character: but if I can
trust to my memory (which the juice of Lorenzo's nectar, here before
us, may have somewhat impaired), Tyndale[253] has also an equally
animated account of the same--who deserves, notwithstanding his pomp
and haughtiness, to be numbered among the most notorious bibliomaniacs
of his age.
[Footnote 253: We will first amuse ourselves with Bale's
curious account of
"_The fresh and lusty beginnings of_ THOMAS BECKET."
As those authors report, which chiefly wrote Thomas Becket's
life--whose names are Herbert Boseham, John Salisbury,
William of Canterbury, Alen of Tewkesbury, Benet of
Peterborough, Stephen Langton, and Richard Croyland--he
bestoyed his youth in all kinds of lascivious lightness, and
lecherous wantonness. After certain robberies, rapes, and
murders, committed in the king's wars at the siege of
Toulouse in Languedoc, and in other places else, as he was
come home again into England, he gave himself to great
study, not of the holy scriptures, but of the bishop of
Rome's lousy laws, whereby he first of all obtained to be
archdeacon of Canterbury, under Theobald the archbishop;
then high chancellor of England; metropolitan, archbishop,
primate; pope of England, and great legate from antichrist's
own right side. In the time of his high-chancellorship,
being but an ale-brewer's son of London, John Capgrave saith
that he took upon him as he had been a prince. He played the
courtier altogether, and fashioned himself wholly to the
king's delights. He ruffled it out in the whole cloth with a
mighty rabble of disguised ruffians at his tail. He sought
the worldly honour with him that sought it most. He thought
it a pleasant thing to have the flattering praises of the
multitude. His bridle was of silver, his saddle of velvet,
his stirrups, spurs, and bosses double gilt; his expenses
far passing the expenses of an earl. That delight was not on
the earth that he had not plenty of. He fed with the
fattest, was clad with the softest, and kept company with
the plesantest. Was not this (think you) a good mean to live
chaste? I trow it was. _Englyshe Votaryes_, pt. ii., sign.
P. vi. rect. Printed by Tisdale, 8vo. The orthography is
modernized, but the words are faithfully _Balëan_! Thus
writes Tyndale: and the king made him (Becket) his
chancellor, in which office he passed the pomp and pride of
Thomas (Wolsey) cardinal, as far as the ones shrine passeth
the others tomb in glory and riches. And after that, he was
a man of war, and captain of five or six thousand men in
full harness, as bright as St. George, and his spear in his
hand; and encountered whatsoever came against him, and
overthrew the jollyest rutter that was in the host of
France. And out of the field, hot from bloodshedding, was he
made bishop of Canterbury; and did put off his helm, and put
on his mitre; put off his harness, and on with his robes;
and laid down his spear, and took his cross ere his hands
were cold; and so came, with a lusty courage of a man of
war, to fight an other while against his prince for the
pope; when his prince's cause were with the law of God, and
the pope's clean contrary. _Practise of Popish Prelates._
_Tyndale's Works_, edit. 1572, p. 361. The curious
bibliographer, or collector of ancient books of biography,
will find a very different character of Becket in a scarce
Latin life of him, printed at Paris in the black letter, in
the fifteenth century. His archiepiscopal table is described
as being distinguished for great temperance and propriety:
"In ejus mensa non audiebantur tibicines non cornicines, non
lira, non fiala, non karola: nulla quidem præterquam mundam
splendidam et inundantem epularum opulentiam. Nulla gule,
nulla lascivie, nulla penitus luxurie, videbantur
incitamenta. Revera inter tot et tantas delicias quæ ei
apponebantur, in nullo penitus sardanapalum sed solum
episcopum sapiebat," &c. _Vita et processus sancti Thome
Cantuariensis martyris super libertate ecclesiastica_;
Paris, 1495, sign. b. ij. rect. From a yet earlier, and
perhaps the first printed, mention of Becket--and from a
volume of which no perfect copy has yet been found--the
reader is presented with a very curious account of the
murder of the Archbishop, in its original dress. "Than were
there iiij. cursed knyghtes of leuyng yt thoughte to haue
had a grete thanke of the kyng and mad her a vowe to gedir
to sle thomas. And so on childremasse day all moste at
nyghte they come to caunterbury into thomas hall Sire
Reynolde beriston, Sire william tracy, Sire Richard breton,
and sire hewe morley. Thanne Sire Reynolde beriston for he
was bitter of kynde a none he seyde to thomas the king that
is be yonde the see sente us to the and bad that thou
shuldst asoyle the bishoppe that thou cursiddiste than seyde
thomas seris they be not acursed by me but by the Pope and I
may not asoyle that he hathe cursid well seyde Reynolde than
we see thou wolte not do the kynges byddynge and swore a
grete othe by the eyon of God thou shalt be dede. than cryde
the othir knyghtes sle sle and they wente downe to the
courte and armyd hem. Than prestis and clerkis drowe hem to
the church to thomas and spered the dores to hem. But whan
thomas herde the knyghtes armed and wold come into the
churche and myghte not he wente to the dore and un barred it
and toke one of the knyghtes by the honde and seyde hit be
semyth not to make a castell of holy churche, and toke hem
by the honde and seyde come ynne my children in goddis name
Thanne for it was myrke that they myghte not see nor knowe
thomas they seyde where is the traytour nay seyde thomas no
traytour but Archebishoppe. Than one seyde to hym fle fore
thou arte but dede. Nay seyde thomas y come not to fle but
to a byde Ego pro deo mori paratus sum et pro defensione
iusticie et ecclesie libertate I am redy to dye for the loue
of God and for the fredomme and righte of holy churche Than
reynold with his swerdes poynte put off thomas cappe and
smote at his hede and cutte of his crowne that it honge by
like a dysche Than smote anothir at him and smote hit all of
than fill he downe to the grounde on his knees and elbowes
and seyde god into thy hondes I putte my cause and the
righte of holy churche and so deyde Than the iij knyghte
smote and his halfe stroke fell upon his clerkis arme that
helde thomas cross be fore him and so his swerde fill down
to the grounde and brake of the poynte and he seyde go we
hens he is dede. And when they were all at the dore goyng
robert broke wente a geyne and sette his fote to thomas
necke and thruste out the brayne upon the pauement Thus for
righte of holoye churche and the lawe of the londe thomas
toke his dethe." _The boke that is callid Festiuall_; 1486,
fol. sign. m. iij. These anecdotes, which are not to be
found in Lyttleton or Berrington, may probably be gratifying
to the curious.]
Although I wish to be as laconic as possible in my _Catalogue
Raisonné_ of libraries and of book-collectors, during the earlier
periods of our history, yet I must beg to remind you that some of the
nunneries and monasteries, about these times, contained rather
valuable collections of books: and indeed those of Glasgow,
Peterborough, and Glastonbury,[254] deserve to be particularly noticed
and commended. But I will push on with the personal history of
literature, or rather of the BIBLIOMANIA.
[Footnote 254: "I shall retire back to _Godstowe_, and, for
the farther reputation of the nunns there, shall observe
that they spent a great part of their time in reading good
books. There was a common library for their use well
furnished with books, many of which were English, and divers
of them historical. The lives of the holy men and women,
especially of the latter, were curiously written ON VELLUM,
and many ILLUMINATIONS appeared throughout, so as to draw
the nunns the more easily to follow their examples."
Hearne's edit. _Guil. Neubrig._, vol. ii., p. 768. Again he
says, "It is probable they (certain sentences) were written
in large letters, equal to the writing that we have in the
finest books of offices, the best of which were for the use
of the nunns, and for persons of distinction, and such as
had weak eyes; and many of them were finely covered, not
unlike the Kiver for the Gospell book, given to the chapell
of Glastonbury by king Ina." p. 773. Can the enlightened
reader want further proof of the existence of the
BIBLIOMANIA in the nunnery of Godstow? As to _Peterborough_
abbey, Gunston, in his history of the same place, has copied
the catalogue of the different libraries belonging to the
abbots. Benedict, who became abbot in 1177, had a collection
of no less than _fifty-seven_ volumes. But alas! the book
reputation of this monastery soon fell away: for master
Robert, who died abbot in 1222, left but _seven_ books
behind him; and Geoffrey de Croyland, who was abbot in 1290,
had only that dreary old gentleman, _Avicenna_, to keep him
company! At its dissolution, however, it contained 1700
volumes in MSS. _Gunton's Peterborough_, p. 173.
_Glastonbury_ seems to have long maintained its reputation
for a fine library; and even as late as the year 1248 it
could boast of several classical authors, although the
English books were only four in number; the rest being
considered as "vetustas et inutilia." The classical authors
were Livy, Sallust, Tully, Seneca, Virgil, and Persius. See
_Joh. Confrat. Glaston._, vol. ii., p. 423, 435: Hearne's
edit. "Leland," says Warton, "who visited all the
monasteries just before their dissolution, seems to have
been struck with the venerable air and amplitude of this
library." _Hist. Engl. Poetry_, Diss. ii.]
I should be wanting in proper respect to the gentlemanly and
scholar-like editor of his works, if I omitted the mention of that
celebrated tourist and topographer, GIRALD BARRI, or Giraldus
Cambrensis; whose Irish and Welch itinerary has been recently so
beautifully and successfully put forth in our own language.[255]
Giraldus, long before and after he was bishop of St. David's, seems
to have had the most enthusiastic admiration of British antiquities;
and I confess it would have been among the keenest delights of my
existence (had I lived at the period) to have been among his auditors
when he read aloud (perhaps from a stone pulpit) his three books of
the Topography of Ireland.[256] How many choice volumes, written and
emblazoned upon snow-white vellum, and containing many a curious and
precious genealogy, must this observing traveller and curious
investigator have examined, when he was making the tour of Ireland in
the suite of Prince, afterwards King, John! Judge of the anxiety of
certain antiquated families, especially of the Welch nation, which
stimulated them to open their choicest treasures, in the book way, to
gratify the genealogical ardour of our tourist!
[Footnote 255: There is a supplemental volume to the two
English ones, containing the only complete Latin edition
extant of the Welsh Itinerary. Of this impression there are
but 200 copies printed on small, and 50 on large, paper. The
whole work is most creditably executed, and does great
honour to the taste and erudition of its editor, Sir Richard
Colt Hoare, bart.]
[Footnote 256: "Having finished his topography of Ireland,
which consisted of three books, he published it at Oxford,
A.D. 1187, in the following manner, in three days. On the
first day he read the first book to a great concourse of
people, and afterwards entertained all the poor of the town.
On the second day he read the second book, and entertained
all the Doctors and chief scholars: and on the third day he
read the third book, and entertained the younger scholars,
soldiers, and burgesses."--"A most glorious spectacle (says
he), which revived the ancient times of the poets, and of
which no example had been seen in England." This is given by
Dr. Henry (b. iii., ch. 4, § 2), on the authority of
Giraldus's own book, _De rebus a se gestis_, lib. i. c. 16.
Twyne, in his arid little quarto Latin volume of the
_Antiquities of Oxford_, says not a word about it; and, what
is more extraordinary, it is barely alluded to by Antony
Wood! See Mr. Gutch's genuine edition of Wood's _Annals of
the University of Oxford_, vol. i., pp. 60, 166. Warton, in
his _History of English Poetry_, vol. i., Diss. ii., notices
Giraldus's work with his usual taste and interest.]
LIS. I wish from my heart that Girald Barri had been somewhat more
communicative on this head!
LOREN. Of what do you suppose he would have informed us, had he
indulged this bibliographical gossipping?
LIS. Of many a grand and many a curious volume.
LYSAND. Not exactly so, Lisardo. The art of book-illumination in this
country was then sufficiently barbarous, if at all known.
LIS. And yet I'll lay a vellum Aldus that Henry the second presented
his fair Rosamond with some choice _Heures de Notre Dame_! But
proceed. I beg pardon for this interruption.
LYSAND. Nay, there is nothing to solicit pardon for! We have each a
right, around this hospitable table, to indulge our book whims: and
mine may be as fantastical as any.
LOREN. Pray proceed, Lysander, in your book-collecting history! unless
you will permit me to make a pause or interruption of two minutes--by
proposing as a sentiment--"SUCCESS TO THE BIBLIOMANIA!"
PHIL. 'Tis well observed: and as every loyal subject at our great
taverns drinks the health of his Sovereign "with three times three
up-standing," even so let us hail this sentiment of Lorenzo!
LIS. Philemon has cheated me of an eloquent speech. But let us receive
the sentiment as he proposes it.
LOREN. Now the uproar of Bacchus has subsided, the instructive
conversation of Minerva may follow. Go on, Lysander.
LYSAND. Having endeavoured to do justice to Girald Barri, I know of no
other particularly distinguished bibliomaniac till we approach the æra
of the incomparable ROGER, or FRIAR, BACON. I say incomparable,
Lorenzo; because he was, in truth, a constellation of the very first
splendour and magnitude in the dark times in which he lived; and
notwithstanding a sagacious writer (if my memory be not treacherous)
of the name of Coxe, chooses to tell us that he was "miserably starved
to death, because he could not introduce a piece of roast beef into
his stomach, on account of having made a league with Satan to eat only
cheese;"[257]--yet I suspect that the end of Bacon was hastened by
other means more disgraceful to the age and equally painful to
himself.
[Footnote 257: "_A short treatise declaringe the detestable
wickednesse of magicall sciences, as necromancie,
coniuration of spirites, curiouse astrologie, and suche
lyke, made by_ FRANCIS COXE." Printed by Allde, 12mo.,
without date (14 leaves). From this curious little volume,
which is superficially noticed by Herbert (vol. ii., p.
889), the reader is presented with the following extract,
appertaining to the above subject: "I myself (says the
author) knew a priest not far from a town called
Bridgewater, which, as it is well known in the country, was
a great magician in all his life time. After he once began
these practices, he would never eat bread, but, instead
thereof, did always eat _cheese_: which thing, as he
confessed divers times, he did because it was so concluded
betwixt him and the spirit which served him," &c. sign. A
viii. rect. "(R.) Bacon's end was much after _the like
sort_; for having a greedy desire unto meat, he could cause
nothing to enter the stomach--wherefore thus miserably he
starved to death." Sign. B. iij. rev. Not having at hand
John Dee's book of the defence of Roger Bacon, from the
charge of astrology and magic (the want of which one laments
as pathetically as did Naudé, in his "_Apologie pour tous
les grands personnages, &c., faussement soupçonnez de
Magic_," Haye, 1653, 8vo., p. 488), I am at a loss to say
the fine things, which Dee must have said, in commendation
of the extraordinary talents of ROGER BACON; who was
miserably matched in the age in which he lived; but who,
together with his great patron GROSTESTE, will shine forth
as beacons to futurity. Dr. Friend in his _History of
Physic_ has enumerated what he conceived to be Bacon's
leading works; while Gower in his _Confessio Amantis_
(Caxton's edit., fol. 70), has mentioned the brazen head--
=for to telle
Of such thyngs as befelle:=
which was the joint manufactory of the patron and his èleve.
As lately as the year 1666, Bacon's life formed the subject
of a "famous history," from which Walter Scott has given us
a facetious anecdote in the seventh volume (p. 10) of
_Dryden's Works_. But the curious investigator of ancient
times, and the genuine lover of British biography, will
seize upon the more prominent features in the life of this
renowned philosopher; will reckon up his great discoveries
in optics and physics; and will fancy, upon looking at the
above picture of his study, that an explosion from
gun-powder (of which our philosopher has been thought the
inventor) has protruded the palings which are leaning
against its sides. Bacon's "_Opus Majus_," which happened to
meet the eyes of Pope Clement IV., and which _now_ would
have encircled the neck of its author with an hundred golden
chains, and procured for him a diploma from every learned
society in Europe--just served to liberate him from his
first long imprisonment. This was succeeded by a subsequent
confinement of twelve years; from which he was released only
time enough to breathe his last in the pure air of heaven.
Whether he expended 3000, or 30,000 pounds of our present
money, upon his experiments, can now be only matter of
conjecture. Those who are dissatisfied with the meagre
manner in which our early biographers have noticed the
labours of Roger Bacon, and with the _tetragonistical_
story, said by Twyne to be propagated by our philosopher, of
Julius Cæsar's seeing the whole of the British coast and
encampment upon the Gallic shore, "maximorum ope speculorum"
(_Antiquit. Acad. Oxon. Apolog._ 1608, 4to., p. 353), may be
pleased with the facetious story told of him by Wood
(_Annals of Oxford_, vol. i., 216, Gutch's edit.) and yet
more by the minute catalogue of his works noticed by Bishop
Tanner (_Bibl. Brit. Hibern._ p. 62): while the following
eulogy of old Tom Fuller cannot fail to find a passage to
every heart: "For mine own part (says this delightful and
original writer) I behold the name of Bacon in Oxford, not
as of an individual man, but corporation of men; no single
cord, but a twisted cable of many together. And as all the
acts of strong men of that nature are attributed to an
Hercules; all the predictions of prophecying women to a
Sibyll; so I conceive all the achievements of the Oxonian
Bacons, in their liberal studies, are ascribed to ONE, as
chief of the name." _Church History_, book iii., p. 96.]
[Illustration]
Only let us imagine we see this sharp-eyed philosopher at work in his
study, of which yonder print is generally received as a
representation! How heedlessly did he hear the murmuring of the stream
beneath, and of the winds without--immersed in the vellum and
parchment rolls of theological, astrological, and mathematical lore,
which, upon the dispersion of the libraries of the Jews,[258] he was
constantly perusing, and of which so large a share had fallen to his
own lot!
[Footnote 258: Warton, in his second Dissertation, says that
"great multitudes of their (the Jews) books fell into the
hands of Roger Bacon;" and refers to Wood's _Hist. et
Antiquit. Univ. Oxon._, vol. i., 77, 132--where I find
rather a slight notification of it--but, in the genuine
edition of this latter work, published by Mr. Gutch, vol.
i., p. 329, it is said: "At their (the Jews) expulsion,
divers of their tenements that were forfeited to the king,
came into the hands of William Burnell, Provost of Wells;
and _their books_ (for many of them were learned) to divers
of our scholars; among whom, as is verily supposed, ROGER
BACON was one: and that he furnished himself with such
Hebrew rarities, that he could not elsewhere find. Also
that, when he died, he left them to the Franciscan library
at Oxon, which, being not well understood in after-times,
were condemned to moths and dust!" Weep, weep, kind-hearted
bibliomaniac, when thou thinkest upon the fate of these poor
Hebrew MSS.!]
Unfortunately, my friends, little is known with certainty, though much
is vaguely conjectured, of the labours of this great man. Some of the
first scholars and authors of our own and of other countries have been
proud to celebrate his praises; nor would it be considered a disgrace
by the most eminent of modern experimental philosophers--of him, who
has been described as "unlocking the hidden treasures of nature, and
explaining the various systems by which air, and earth, and fire, and
water, counteract and sustain each other"[259]--to fix the laureate
crown round the brows of our venerable Bacon!
[Footnote 259: See a periodical paper, entitled _The
Director_! vol. ii., p. 294.]
We have now reached the close of the thirteenth century and the reign
of EDWARD THE FIRST;[260] when the principal thing that strikes us,
connected with the history of libraries, is this monarch's insatiable
lust of strengthening his title to the kingdom of Scotland by
purchasing "the libraries of all the monasteries" for the securing of
any record which might corroborate the same. What he gave for this
tremendous book-purchase, or of what nature were the volumes
purchased, or what was their subsequent destination, is a knot yet
remaining to be untied.
[Footnote 260: "King Edward the first caused and committed
divers copies of the records, and much concerning the realm
of Scotland, unto divers abbies for the preservance thereof;
which for the most part are now perished, or rare to be had;
and which privilie by the dissolution of monasteries is
detained. The same king caused the libraries of all
monasteries, and other places of the realm, to be purchased,
for the further and manifest declaration of his title, as
chief Lord of Scotland: and the record thereof now extant,
doth alledge divers leger books of abbeys for the
confirmation thereof": Petition (to Q. Elizabeth) for an
academy of Antiquities and History. _Hearne's Curious
Discourses written by eminent Antiquaries_; vol. ii., 326,
edit. 1775.]
Of the bibliomaniacal propensity of Edward's grandson, the great
EDWARD THE THIRD, there can be no question. Indeed, I could gossip
away upon the same 'till midnight. His severe disappointment upon
having Froissart's presentation copy of his Chronicles[261]
(gergeously [Transcriber's Note: gorgeously] attired as it must have
been) taken from him by the Duke of Anjou, is alone a sufficient
demonstration of his love of books; while his patronage of Chaucer
shews that he had accurate notions of intellectual excellence.
Printing had not yet begun to give any hint, however faint, of its
wonderful powers; and scriveners or book-copiers were sufficiently
ignorant and careless.[262]
[Footnote 261: Whether this presentation copy ever came,
eventually, into the kingdom, is unknown. Mr. Johnes, who is
as intimate with Froissart as Gough was with Camden, is
unable to make up his mind upon the subject; but we may
suppose it was properly emblazoned, &c. The duke detained it
as being the property of an enemy to France!--Now, when we
read of this wonderfully chivalrous age, so glowingly
described by the great Gaston, Count de Foix, to Master
Froissart, upon their introduction to each other (vide St.
Palaye's memoir in the 10th vol. of _L'Acadamie des
Inscriptions_, &c.), it does seem a gross violation (at
least on the part of the Monsieur of France!) of all
gentlemanly and knight-like feeling, to seize upon a volume
of this nature, as legitimate plunder! The robber should
have had his skin tanned, after death, for a case to keep
the book in! Of Edward the Third's love of curiously bound
books, see p. 118, ante.]
[Footnote 262: "How ordinary a fault this was (of
'negligently or willfully altering copies') amongst the
transcribers of former times, may appear by Chaucer; who (I
am confident) tooke as greate care as any man to be served
with the best and heedfullest scribes, and yet we finde him
complayning against Adam, his scrivener, for the very same:
So ofte a daye I mote thy worke renew,
If to correct and eke to rubbe and scrape,
And all is thorow thy neglegence and rape."
Ashmole _Theatrum Chemicum_; p. 439.]
The mention of Edward the Third, as a patron of learned men, must
necessarily lead a book-antiquary to the notice of his eminent
chancellor, RICHARD DE BURY; of whom, as you may recollect, some
slight mention was made the day before yesterday.[263] It is hardly
possible to conceive a more active and enthusiastic lover of books
than was this extraordinary character; the passion never deserting him
even while he sat upon the bench.[264] It was probably De Bury's
intention to make his royal master eclipse his contemporary CHARLES
THE VTH, of France--the most renowned foreign bibliomaniac of his
age![265] In truth, my dear friends, what can be more delightful to a
lover of his country's intellectual reputation than to find such a
character as De Bury, in such an age of war and bloodshed, uniting the
calm and mild character of a legislator, with the sagacity of a
philosopher, and the elegant-mindedness of a scholar! Foreigners have
been profuse in their commendations of him, and with the greatest
justice; while our Thomas Warton, of ever-to-be-respected memory, has
shewn us how pleasingly he could descend from the graver tone of a
historical antiquary, by indulging himself in a chit-chat style of
book-anecdote respecting this illustrious character.[266]
[Footnote 263: See p. 29, ante.]
[Footnote 264: "--patescebat nobis aditus facilis, regalis
favoris intuitu, ad librorum latebras libere perscrutandas.
Amoris quippe nostri fama volatilis jam ubique percrebuit,
tamtumque librorum, et maxime veterum, ferebamur cupiditate
languescere; posse vero quemlibet, nostrum _per quaternos_
facilius, quam _per pecuniam_, adipisci favorem."
_Philobiblion; sive de Amore Librorum_ (vide p. 29, ante),
p. 29: edit. 1599, 4to. But let the reader indulge me with
another extract or two, containing evidence [Transcriber's
Note: 'of' missing in original] the most unquestionable of
the severest symptoms of the BIBLIOMANIA that ever assailed
a Lord Chancellor or a Bishop!--Magliabechi must have read
the ensuing passage with rapture: "Quamobrem cum prædicti
principis recolendæ memoriæ bonitate suffulti, possemus
obesse et prodesse, officere et proficere vehementer tam
maioribus quam pusillis; affluxerunt, loco xeniorum et
munerum, locoque, donorum et iocalium, temulenti quaterni,
ac decripiti codices; nostris tamen tam affectibus, quam
aspectibus, pretiosi. Tunc nobilissimorum monasteriorum
aperiebantur armaria, referebantur scrinia, et cistulæ
solvebantur, et per longa secula in sepulchris soporata
volumina, expergiscunt attonita, quæque in locis tenebrosis
latuerant, novæ lucis radiis perfunduntur." "Delicatissimi
quondam libri, corrupti et abhominabiles iam effecti, murium
fætibus cooperti, et vermium morsibus terebrati, iacebant
exanimes--et qui olim purpura vestiebantur et bysso, nunc in
cinere et cilicio recubantes, oblivioni traditi videbantur,
domicilia tinearum. Inter hæc nihilominus, captatis
temporibus, magis voluptuose consedimus, quam fecisset
Medicus delicatus inter aromatum apothecas, ubi amoris
nostri objectum reperimus et fomentum; sic sacra vasa
scientiæ, ad nostræ dispensationis provenerunt arbitrium:
quædam data, quædam vendita, ac nonnulla protempore
commodata. Nimirum cum nos plerique de hujusmodi donariis
cernerent contentatos, ea sponte nostris usibus studuerent
tribuere, quibus ipsi libentius caruerunt: quorum tamen
negotia sic expedire curavimus gratiosi, ut et eisdem
emolumentum accresceret, nullum tamen iustitia detrimentum
sentiret." "Porro si scyphos aureos et argenteos, si equos
egregios, si nummorum summas non modicas amassemus tunc
temporis, dives nobis ærarium instaurasse possemus: sed
revera LIBROS NON LIBRAS maluimus, codicesque plusquam
florenos, ac panfletos exiguos incrassatis prætulimus
palfridis," _Philobiblion_; p. 29, 30, &c. Dr. James's
preface to this book, which will be noticed in its proper
place, in another work, is the veriest piece of old
maidenish particularity that ever was exhibited! However,
the editor's enthusiastic admiration of De Bury obtains his
forgiveness in the bosom of every honest bibliomaniac!]
[Footnote 265: CHARLES THE FIFTH, of France, may be called
the founder of the Royal Library there. The history of his
first efforts to erect a national library is thus, in part,
related by the compilers of _Cat. de la Bibliothéque
Royale_, pt. i., p. ij.-iij.: "This wise king took advantage
of the peace which then obtained, in order to cultivate
letters more successfully than had hitherto been done. He
was learned for his age; and never did a prince love reading
and book-collecting better than did he! He was not only
constantly making transcripts himself, but the noblemen,
courtiers, and officers that surrounded him voluntarily
tendered their services in the like cause; while, on the
other hand, a number of learned men, seduced by his liberal
rewards, spared nothing to add to his literary treasures.
Charles now determined to give his subjects every possible
advantage from this accumulation of books; and, with this
view, he lodged them in one of the _Towers of the Louvre_;
which tower was hence called _La Tour de la Librarie_. The
books occupied three stories: in the first, were desposited
269 volumes; in the second 260; and in the third, 381
volumes. In order to preserve them with the utmost care (say
Sauval and Felibien), the king caused all the windows of the
library to be fortified with iron bars; between which was
painted glass, secured by brass-wires. And that the books
might be accessible at all hours, there were suspended, from
the ceiling, thirty chandeliers and a silver lamp, which
burnt all night long. The walls were wainscotted with Irish
wood; and the ceiling was covered with cypress wood: the
whole being curiously sculptured in bas-relief." Whoever has
not this catalogue at hand (vide p. 93, ante) to make
himself master of still further curious particulars relating
to this library, may examine the first and second volume of
_L'Academie des Inscriptions_, &c.--from which the preceding
account is taken. The reader may also look into Warton
(Diss. 11, vol. i., sign. f. 2); who adds, on the authority
of Boivin's _Mem. Lit._, tom. ii., p. 747, that the Duke of
Bedford, regent of France, "in the year 1425 (when the
English became masters of Paris) sent his whole library,
then consisting of only 853 volumes, and valued at 2223
livres, into England," &c. I have little doubt but that
Richard De Bury had a glimpse of this infantine royal
collection, from the following passage--which occurs
immediately after an account of his ambassadorial
excursion--"O beate Deus Deorum in Syon, quantus impetus
fluminis voluptatis lætificavit cor nostrum, quoties
Paradisum mundi _Parisios_ visitare vacavimus ibi moraturi?
Ubi nobis semper dies pauci, præ amoris magnitudine,
videbantur. Ibi Bibliothecæ jucundæ super sellas aromatum
redolentes; ibi virens viridarium universorum voluminum,"
&c. _Philobiblion_; p. 31, edit. 1559.]
[Footnote 266: After having intruded, I fear, by the
preceding note respecting _French Bibliomania_, there is
only room left to say of our DE BURY--that he was the friend
and correspondent of Petrarch--and that Mons. Sade, in his
_Memoirs of Petrarch_, tells us that "the former did in
England, what the latter all his life was doing in France,
Italy, and Germany, towards the discovery of the best
ancient writers, and making copies of them under his own
superintendence." De Bury bequeathed a valuable library of
MSS. to Durham, now Trinity College, Oxford. The books of
this library were first packed up in chests; but upon the
completion of the room to receive them, "they were put into
pews or studies, and chained to them." Wood's _History of
the University of Oxford_, vol. ii., p. 911. Gutch's edit.
De Bury's _Philobiblion_, from which so much has been
extracted, is said by Morhof to "savor somewhat of the
rudeness of the age, but is rather elegantly written; and
many things are well expressed in it relating to
bibliothecism." _Polyhist. Literar._, vol. i., 187. The real
author is supposed to have been Robert Holcott, a Dominican
friar. I am, however, loth to suppress a part of what Warton
has so pleasantly written (as above alluded to by Lysander)
respecting such a favourite as DE BURY. "Richard de Bury,
otherwise called Richard Aungervylle, is said to have alone
possessed more books than all the bishops of England
together. Beside the fixed libraries which he had formed in
his several palaces, the floor of his common apartment was
so covered with books that those who entered could not with
due reverence approach his presence. He kept binders,
illuminators, and writers, in his palaces. Petrarch says
that he had once a conversation with him, concerning the
island called by the ancients Thule; calling him 'virum
ardentis ingenii.' While chancellor and treasurer, instead
of the usual presents and new-year's gifts appendant to his
office, he chose to receive those perquisites in books. By
the favour of Edward III. he gained access to the libraries
of most of the capital monasteries; where he shook off the
dust from volumes, preserved in chests and presses, which
had not been opened for many ages." _Philobiblion_, cap. 29,
30.--Warton also quotes, in English, a part of what had been
already presented to the reader in its original Latin form.
_Hist. Engl. Poetry_, vol. i., Diss. II., note g., sign. h.
4. Prettily painted as is this picture, by Warton, the
colouring might have been somewhat heightened, and the
effect rendered still more striking, in consequence, if the
authority and the words of Godwyn had been a little attended
to. In this latter's _Catalogue of the Bishops of England_,
p. 524-5, edit. 1601, we find that De Bury was the son of
one SIR RICHARD ANGARUILL, knight: "that he saith of
himselfe 'exstatico quodam librorum amore potenter se
abreptum'--that he was mightily carried away, and even
beside himself, with immoderate love of bookes and desire of
reading. He had alwaies in his house many chaplaines, all
great schollers. His manner was, at dinner and supper-time,
to haue some good booke read unto him, whereof he would
discourse with his chaplaines a great part of the day
following, if busines interrupted not his course. He was
very bountiful unto the poore. Weekely he bestowed for their
reliefe, 8 quarters of wheat made into bread, beside the
offall and fragments of his tables. Riding betweene
Newcastle and Durham he would give 8_l._ in almes; from
Durham to Stocton, 5_l._: from Durham to Aukland, 5 marks;
from Durham to Middleham, 5_l._" &c. This latter is the
"pars melior" of every human being; and bibliomaniacs seem
to have possessed it as largely as any other tribe of
mortals. I have examined Richardson's magnificent reprint of
Godwyn's book, in the Latin tongue, London, 1743, folio; p.
747; and find nothing worth adding to the original text.]
LOREN. The task we have imposed upon you, my good Lysander, would be
severe indeed if you were to notice, with minute exactness, all the
book-anecdotes of the middle ages. You have properly introduced the
name and authority of Warton; but if you suffered yourself to be
beguiled by his enchanting style, into all the bibliographical
gossiping of this period, you would have no mercy upon your lungs, and
there would be no end to the disquisition.
LYSAND. Forgive me, if I have transgressed the boundaries of good
sense or good breeding: it was not my intention to make a "_Concio ad
Aulam_"--as worthy old Bishop Saunderson was fond of making--but
simply to state facts, or indulge in book chit-chat, as my memory
served me.
LIS. Nay, Lorenzo, do not disturb the stream of Lysander's eloquence.
I could listen 'till "Jocund day stood tip-toe on the mountain."
PHIL. You are a little unconscionable, Lisardo: but I apprehend
Lorenzo meant only to guard Lysander against that minuteness of
narration which takes us into every library and every study of the
period at which we are arrived. If I recollect aright, Warton was
obliged to restrain himself in the same cause.[267]
[Footnote 267: The part alluded to, in Warton, is at the
commencement of his second Dissertation "On the Introduction
of Learning into Great Britain." After rambling with the
utmost felicity, among the libraries, and especially the
monastic ones, of the earlier and middle ages--he thus
checks himself by saying, that "in pursuit of these
anecdotes, he is imperceptibly seduced into later periods,
or rather is deviating from his subject."]
LOREN. It belongs to me, Lysander, to solicit your forgiveness. If you
are not tired with the discussion of such a various and extensive
subject (and more particularly from the energetic manner in which it
is conducted on your part), rely upon it that your auditors cannot
possibly feel _ennui_. Every thing before us partakes of your
enthusiasm: the wine becomes mellower, and sparkles with a ruddier
glow; the flavour of the fruit is improved; and the scintillations of
your conversational eloquence are scattered amidst my books, my busts,
and my pictures. Proceed, I entreat you; but first, accept my libation
offered up at the shrine of an offended deity.
LYSAND. You do me, and the _Bibliomania_, too much honour. If my
blushes do not overpower me, I will proceed: but first, receive the
attestation of the deity that he is no longer affronted with you. I
drink to your health and long life!--and proceed:
If, among the numerous and gorgeous books which now surround us, it
should be my good fortune to put my hand upon one, however small or
imperfect, which could give us some account of the _History of British
Libraries_, it would save me a great deal of trouble, by causing me to
maintain at least a chronological consistency in my discourse. But,
since this cannot be--since, with all our love of books and of
learning, we have this pleasing desideratum yet to be supplied--I must
go on, in my usual desultory manner, in rambling among libraries, and
discoursing about books and book-collectors. As we enter upon the
reign of HENRY IV., we cannot avoid the mention of that distinguished
library hunter, and book describer, JOHN BOSTON of Bury;[268] who may
justly be considered the Leland of his day. Gale, if I recollect
rightly, unaccountably describes his bibliomaniacal career as having
taken place in the reign of Henry VII.; but Bale and Pits, from whom
Tanner has borrowed his account, unequivocally affix the date of 1410
to Boston's death; which is three years before the death of Henry. It
is allowed, by the warmest partizans of the reformation, that the
dissolution of the monastic libraries has unfortunately rendered the
labours of Boston of scarcely any present utility.
[Footnote 268: It is said of BOSTON that he visited almost
every public library, and described the titles of every book
therein, with punctilious accuracy. Pits (593) calls him
"vir pius, litteratus, et bonarum litterarum fautor ac
promotor singularis." Bale (p. 549, edit. 1559) has even the
candour to say, "mirâ sedulitate et diligentia omnes omnium
regni monasteriorum bibliothecas invisit: librorum collegit
titulos, et authorum eorum nomina: quæ omnia alphabetico
disposuit ordine, et quasi unam omnium bibliothecam fecit."
What Lysander observes above is very true: "non enim
dissimulanda (says Gale) monasteriorum subversio, quæ brevi
spatio subsecuta est--libros omnes dispersit et BOSTONI
providam diligentiam, maxima ex parte, inutilem reddidit."
_Rer. Anglicar. Scrip. Vet._, vol. iii., præf. p. 1. That
indefatigable antiquary, Thomas Hearne, acknowledges that,
in spite of all his researches in the Bodleian library, he
was scarcely able to discover any thing of Boston's which
related to Benedictus Abbas--and still less of his own
compositions. _Bened. Abbat._ vol. i., præf. p. xvii. It is
a little surprising that Leland should have omitted to
notice him. But the reader should consult Tanner's _Bibl.
Britan._, p. xvii., 114.]
There is a curious anecdote of this period in Rymer's Foedera,[269]
about taking off the duty upon _six barrels of books_, sent by a Roman
Cardinal to the prior of the Conventual church of St. Trinity,
Norwich. These barrels, which lay at the custom-house, were imported
duty free; and I suspect that Henry's third son, the celebrated John
Duke of Bedford, who was then a lad, and just beginning to feed his
bibliomaniacal appetite, had some hand in interceding with his father
for the redemption of the duty.
[Footnote 269: Vol. viii., p. 501. It is a Clause Roll of
the 9th of Henry IV. A.D. 1407: "De certis Libris, absque
Custumenda solvenda, liberandis;" and affords too amusing a
specimen of custom-house latinity to be withheld from the
reader. "Mandamus vobis, quod certos libros _in sex Barellis
contentos_, Priori qt Conventui Ecclesiæ Sanctæ Trinitatis
Norwici, per quendam Adam nuper Cardinalem legatos, et in
portum civitatis nostræ predictæ (Londinensis) ab urbe
Romanâ jam adductos, præfato, Priori, absque Custuma seu
subsidio inde ad opus nostrum capiendis, liberetis
indilate," &c.]
LIS. This DUKE OF BEDFORD was the most notorious bibliomaniac as well
as warrior of his age; and, when abroad, was indefatigable in stirring
up the emulation of Flemish and French artists, to execute for him the
most splendid books of devotion. I have heard great things of what
goes by the name of _The Bedford Missal_![270]
[Footnote 270: This missal, executed under the eye and for
the immediate use of the famous John, Duke of Bedford
(regent of France), and Jane (the daughter of the Duke of
Burgundy) his wife, was, at the beginning of the 18th
century, in the magnificent library of Harley, Earl of
Oxford. It afterwards came into the collection of his
daughter, the well-known Duchess of Portland; at whose sale,
in 1786, it was purchased by Mr. Edwards for 215 guineas;
and 500 guineas have been, a few years ago, offered for this
identical volume. It is yet the property of this last
mentioned gentleman. Among the pictures in it, there is an
interesting one of the whole length portraits of the Duke
and Duchess;--the head of the former of which has been
enlarged and engraved by Vertue for his portraits to
illustrate the History of England. The missal frequently
displays the arms of these noble personages; and also
affords a pleasing testimony of the affectionate gallantry
of the pair; the motto of the former being "A VOUS ENTIER:"
that of the latter, "J'EN SUIS CONTENTE." There is a former
attestation in the volume, of its having been given by the
Duke to his nephew, Henry VI. as "a most suitable present."
But the reader shall consult (if he can procure it) Mr.
Gough's curious little octavo volume written expressly upon
the subject.]
LYSAND. And not greater than what merits to be said of it. I have seen
this splendid bijou in the charming collection of our friend ----. It
is a small thick folio, highly illuminated; and displaying, as well in
the paintings as in the calligraphy, the graphic powers of that age,
which had not yet witnessed even the dry pencil of Perugino. More
gorgeous, more beautifully elaborate, and more correctly graceful,
missals may be in existence; but a more curious, interesting, and
perfect specimen, of its kind, is no where to be seen: the portraits
of the Duke and of his royal brother Henry V. being the best paintings
known of the age. 'Tis, in truth, a lovely treasure in the book way;
and it should sleep every night upon an eider-down pillow encircled
with emeralds!
LIS. Hear him--hear him! Lysander must be a collateral descendant of
this noble bibliomaniac, whose blood, now circulating in his veins,
thus moves him to "discourse most eloquently."
LYSAND. Banter as you please; only "don't disturb the stream of my
eloquence."
The period of this distinguished nobleman was that in which
book-collecting began to assume a fixed and important character in
this country. Oxford saw a glimmering of civilization dawning in her
obscured atmosphere. A short but dark night had succeeded the
patriotic efforts of De Bury; whose curious volumes, bequeathed to
Trinity College, had laid in a melancholy and deserted condition 'till
they were kept company by those of COBHAM, Bishop of Worcester, REDE,
Bishop of Chichester, and HUMPHREY the good Duke of Gloucester.[271]
Now began the fashion (and may it never fall to decay!) of making
presents to public libraries:--but, during the short and splendid
career of HENRY V., learning yielded to arms: the reputation of a
scholar to that of a soldier. I am not aware of any thing at this
period, connected with the subject of our discourse, that deserves
particular mention; although we ought never to name this illustrious
monarch, or to think of his matchless prowess in arms, without
calling to mind how he adorned the rough character of a soldier by
the manners of a prince, the feelings of a Christian, and, I had
almost said, the devotion of a saint.
[Footnote 271: We will first notice COBHAM, Bishop of
Worcester: who "having had a great desire to show some love
to his mother the university of Oxford, began, about the
year 1320, to build, or at least to make some reparations
for _a Library_, over the old congregation house in the
north church-yard of St. Mary's; but he dying soon after,
before any considerable matter was done therein, left
certain moneys for the carrying on of the work, and all his
books, with others that had been lately procured, to be,
with those belonging to the university (as yet kept in
chests) reposed therein." Some controversy afterwards
arising between the University and Oriel College, to which
latter Cobham belonged, the books lay in dreary and
neglected state till 1367; when a room having been built for
their reception, it was settled that they "should be reposed
and chained in the said room or solar; that the scholars of
the University should have free ingress and regress, at
certain times, to make proficiency in them; that certain of
the said books, of greater price, should be sold, till the
sum of _l._ 40 was obtained for them (unless other remedy
could be found) with which should be bought an yearly rent
of _l._ 3, for the maintenance of a chaplain, that should
pray for the soul of the said bishop, and other benefactors
of the University both living and dead, and have the custody
or oversight of the said books, and of those in the ancient
chest of books, and chest of rolls." Wood's _Hist. of the
University of Oxford_, vol. ii., pt. ii., 911. Gutch's edit.
WILLIAM REDE, or READ, bishop of Chichester, "sometimes
Fellow (of Merton College) gave a chest with _l._ 100 in
gold in it, to be borrowed by the Fellows for their relief;
bond being first given in by them to repay it at their
departure from the college; or, in case they should die, to
be paid by their executors: A.D. 1376. He also built, about
the same time, _a Library_ in the college; being the first
that the society enjoyed, and gave books thereunto." Wood's
_History of the Colleges and Halls_, p. 15, Gutch's edit. In
Mr. Nicholl's _Appendix to the History of Leicester_, p.
105, note 20, I find some account of this distinguished
literary character, taken from Tanner's _Bibl. Britan._, p.
618. He is described, in both authorities, as being a very
learned Fellow of Merton College, where he built and
furnished _a noble library_; on the wall of which was
painted his portrait, with this inscription: "GULIELMUS
REDÆUS, EPISCOPUS CICESTRENSIS, MAGISTER IN THEOLOGIA,
PROFUNDUS ASTRONOMUS, QUONDAM SOCIUS ISTIUS COLLEGII, QUI
HANC LIBRARIAM FIERI FECIT." Many of Read's mathematical
instruments, as well as his portrait, were preserved in the
library when Harrison wrote his description of England,
prefix'd to Holinshed's Chronicles; some of the former of
which came into the possession of the historian. For thus
writes Harrison: "William Read, sometime fellow of Merteine
college in Oxford, doctor of divinitie, and the most
profound astronomer that liued in his time, as appeareth by
his collection, which some time I did possesse; his image is
yet in the librarie there; and manie instruments of
astronomie reserued in that house," &c. _Chronicles_ (1587),
edit. 1807, vol. i., p. 237. In the year 1808, when I
visited the ancient and interesting brick-floored library of
Merton College, for the purpose of examining early printed
books, I looked around in vain for the traces, however
faded, of Read's portrait: nor could I discover a single
vestige of the BIBLIOTHECA READIANA! The memory of this once
celebrated bishop lives therefore only in what books have
recorded of him; and this brief and _verbal picture_ of Read
is here drawn--as was the more finished resemblance of
Chaucer by the pencil, which Occleve has left behind--
=That thei that have of him lost thoute and mynde
By this peinture may ageine him fynde.=
HUMPHREY, Duke of GLOUCESTER, "commonly called _the good_,
was youngest brother to Henry V. and the first founder of
the university library in Oxford, which was pillaged of the
greater part of its books in the reign of Edward the Sixth."
Park's edit. of the _Royal and Noble Authors_; vol. i., 198.
"As for the books which he gave (says Wood) they were very
many, more by far than authors report; for whereas 'tis said
he gave 129, you shall find anon that they were more than
treble the number." The Duke's first gift, in 1439, of one
hundred and twenty-nine treatises, was worth, according to
Wood, a thousand pounds. All his book presents, "amounting
to above 600 (mostly treating of divinity, physic, history,
and humanity) which were from several parts of the world
obtained, were transmitted to the university, and for the
present laid up in chests in Cobham's library. The catalogue
also of them which were then sent, and the indentures for
the receipt of the said books, were laid up in the chest
called _Cista Librorum et Rotulorum_." _History_ (or Annals)
_of the University of Oxford_; vol. ii., pt. ii., 914.
Gutch's edit. Consult also the recent and very amusing
_History of the same University_, by Mr. A. Chalmers, vol.
ii., p. 459. Leland has not forgotten this distinguished
bibliomaniac; for he thus lauds him in roman verse:
Tam clari meminit viri togata
Rectè Gallia; tum chorus suavis
Cygnorum Isidis ad vadum incolentûm
Cui magnum numerum dedit BONORUM
LIBRORUM, statuitque sanctiori
Divinus studio scholæ theatrum;
Nostro quale quidem videtur esse
Magnum tempore, forsan et futuro
_Cygn. Cant._ Vide Lelandi Itinerarium
Curâ Hearne; edit. 1770, vol. ix., p. 17.]
The reign of his successor, HENRY VI., was the reign of trouble and
desolation. It is not to be wondered that learning drooped, and
religion "waxed faint," 'midst the din of arms and the effusion of
human blood. Yet towards the close of this reign some attempt was made
to befriend the book cause; for the provost and fellows of Eton and
Cambridge petitioned the king to assist them in increasing the number
of books in their libraries;[272] but the result of this petition has
never, I believe, been known.
[Footnote 272: In the manuscript history of Eton College, in
the British Museum (_MSS. Donat._ 4840, p. 154.), the
Provost and Fellows of Eton and Cambridge are stated, in the
25th of Henry the Sixth, to have petitioned the king that,
as these new colleges were not sufficiently seised of books
for divine service, and for their libraries, he would be
pleased to order one of his chaplains, Richard Chestre, "to
take to him such men as shall be seen to him expedient in
order to get knowledge where such bookes may be found,
paying a reasonable price for the same, and that the sayd
men might have the first choice of such bookes, ornaments,
&c., before any man, and in especiall of all manner of
bookes, ornaments, and other necessaries as now _late were
perteynyng to the Duke of Gloucester_, and that the king
would particular(ly) cause to be employed herein John Pye
his stacioner of London." For this anecdote I am indebted to
Sir H. Ellis. See also the interesting note in Warton's
_Hist. Engl. Poet._, diss. ii., sign. f. 2.]
I had nearly passed through the reign of Henry the Sixth without
noticing the very meritorious labours of a sort of precursor of Dean
Colet; I mean, SIR WALTER SHERINGTON. He was a most assiduous
bibliomaniac;[273] and, in the true spirit of ancient monachism,
conceived that no cathedral could be perfect without a library.
Accordingly, he not only brought together an extraordinary number of
curious books, but framed laws or regulations concerning the treatment
of the books, and the hours of perusing them; which, if I can trust to
my memory, are rather curious, and worth your examination. They are in
Hearne's edition of the Antiquities of Glastonbury, composed in our
own language.
[Footnote 273: "Over the east quadrant of this (great)
cloyster (on the north side of this church) was a fayre
librarie, builded at the costes and charges of (Sir) WALTAR
SHERINGTON, chancellor of the duchie of Lancaster, in the
raigne of Henrie the 6. which hath beene well furnished with
faire written books IN VELLEM: but few of them now do
remaine there." _Antiquities of Glastonbury_; Hearne's edit.
1722; p. 308.
_Regulations concerning Sherington's Library._
"Quodque dicta libraria, hostiis ipsius per præfatos
capellanos custodes ejusdem, et eorum successores, aut
alterum ipsorum, apertis singulis diebus profestis annuatim
á festo Nativ. beat. Mar. Virg. usque festum Annunciacionis
ejusdem, ob ortu solis, donec hora nona post altam missam de
servicio diei in dicta ecclesiâ cathedrali finiatur: et
iterum ab hora prima post meridiem usque ad finem
completorii in eadem ecclesia cathedrali, vel saltem usque
ad occasum solis per eosdem, seu eorum alterum, sic continue
diligenter custodiatur. Et eciam singulis diebus profestis
annuatim, ab eodem festo Annunciacionis beatæ Mariæ Virginis
usque ad prædictum festum nativitatis ejusdem, ab hora diei
sexta, donec hora nona post altam missam in dicta ecclesia
cathedrali, et iterum ab hora prima post meridiem quosque
completorium in eadem ecclesia cathedrali finiatur, per
præfatos capellanos, seu eorum alterum et successores suos
custodes dictæ librariæ debitè et diligenter aperta,
custodiatur, nisi causa racionabilis hoc fieri impediat. Ita
quod nullum dampnum eidem librariæ aut in libris, aut in
hostiis, seruris vel fenestris vitreis ejusdem, ex
negligencia dictorum capellanorum aut successorum suorum
custodum dictæ librariæ evenire contingat. Et si quid
dampnum hujusmodi in præmissis, seu aliquo præmissorum, per
negligenciam ipsorum capellanorum, seu eorum alterius, aut
successorum suorum quoque modo imposterum evenerit, id vel
ipsa dampnum aut dampna recompensare, emendare et
satisfacere, tociens quociens contigerit, de salariis seu
stipendiis suis propriis, auctoritate et judicio dictorum
Decani et Capituli, debeant et teneantur, ut est justum.
Ceteris vero diebus, noctibus et temporibus hostia prædicta,
cum eorum seruris et clavibus, omnino sint clausa et secure
serata." _Id._: p. 193.]
We now enter upon the reign of an active and enterprising monarch;
who, though he may be supposed to have cut his way to the throne by
his sword, does not appear to have persecuted the cause of learning;
but rather to have looked with a gracious eye upon its operations by
means of the press. In the reign of EDWARD IV., our venerable and
worthy Caxton fixed the first press that ever was set to work in this
country, in the abbey of Westminster. Yes, Lorenzo; now commenced more
decidedly, the æra of BIBLIOMANIA! Now the rich, and comparatively
poor, began to build them small _Book Rooms_ or _Libraries_. At first,
both the architecture and furniture were sufficiently rude, if I
remember well the generality of wood cuts of ancient book-boudoirs:--a
few simple implements only being deemed necessary; and a three-legged
stool, "in fashion square or round," as Cowper[274] says, was thought
luxury sufficient for the hard student to sit upon. Now commenced a
general love and patronage of books: now (to borrow John Fox's
language) "tongues became known, knowledge grew, judgment increased,
BOOKS WERE DISPERSED, the scripture was read, stories were opened,
times compared, truth discerned, falsehood detected, and with finger
pointed (at)--and all, THROUGH THE BENEFIT OF PRINTING."[275]
[Footnote 274: The entire passage is worth extraction: as it
well describes many an old stool which has served for many a
studious philosopher:
"Joint stools were then created: on three legs
Upborne they stood. Three legs upholding firm
A massy slab, in fashion square or round.
On such a stool immortal Alfred sat,
And sway'd the sceptre of his infant realms.
And such in ancient halls and mansions drear
May still be seen; but perforated sore,
And drilled in holes, the solid oak is found,
By worms voracious eating through and through."
_Task_: b. i., v. 19, &c.
It had escaped the amiable and sagacious author of these
verses that such tripodical seats were frequently introduced
into OLD BOOK-ROOMS; as the subjoined print--which gives us
also a curious picture of one of the libraries alluded to by
Lysander--may serve to shew:
[Illustration: _Revelaciones Sancte Birgitte; ed. 1521,
sign. z. 3 rev._]]
[Footnote 275: _Book of Martyrs_, vol. i., p. 927; edit.
1641.]
LIS. Now you have arrived at this period, pray concentrate your
anecdotes into a reasonable compass. As you have inveigled us into the
printing-office of Caxton, I am fearful, from your strong attachment
to him, that we shall not get over the threshhold of it, into the open
air again, until midnight.
PHIL. Order, order, Lisardo! This is downright rudeness. I appeal to
the chair!--
LORENZ. Lisardo is unquestionably reprehensible. His eagerness makes
him sometimes lose sight of good breeding.
LYSAND. I was going to mention some _Vellum_ and _Presentation_
copies--but I shall hurry forward.
LIS. Nay, if you love me, omit nothing about "vellum and presentation
copies." Speak at large upon these glorious subjects.
LYSAND. Poor Lisardo!--we must build an iron cage to contain such a
book-madman as he promises to become!
PHIL. Proceed, dear Lysander, and no longer heed these interruptions.
LYSAND. Nay, I was only about to observe that, as Caxton is known to
have printed _upon vellum_,[276] it is most probable that one of his
presentation copies of the romances of _Jason and Godfrey of Boulogne_
(executed under the patronage of Edward IV.), might have been printed
in the same manner. Be this as it may, it seems reasonable to conclude
that Edward the Fourth was not only fond of books, as objects of
beauty or curiosity, but that he had some affection for literature and
literary characters; for how could the firm friend and generous
patron of TIPTOFT, EARL of WORCESTER--with whom this monarch had spent
many a studious, as well as jovial, hour--be insensible to the charms
of intellectual refinement! Pause we here for one moment--and let us
pour the juice of the blackest grape upon the votive tablet,
consecrated to the memory of this illustrious nobleman! and, as Caxton
has become so fashionable[277] among us, I will read to you, from
yonder beautiful copy of his English edition of "_Tully upon
Friendship_," a part of our printer's affecting eulogy upon the
translator:--"O good blessed Lord God, what great loss was it of that
noble, virtuous, and well-disposed lord! When I remember and advertise
his life, his science, and his virtue, me thinketh God not displeased
over a great loss of such a man, considering his estate and cunning,"
&c. "At his death every man that was there, might learn to die and
take his (own) death patiently; wherein I hope and doubt not, but that
God received his soul into his everlasting bliss. For as I am informed
he right advisedly ordained all his things, as well for his last will
of worldly goods, as for his soul's health; and patiently, and holily,
without grudging, in charity, to fore that he departed out of this
world: which is gladsome and joyous to hear."--What say you to this
specimen of Caxtonian eloquence?
[Footnote 276: Consult the recent edition of the
_Typographical Antiquities_ of our own country: vol. i., p.
56, 137, 268.]
[Footnote 277: As a proof of the ardour with which the books
printed by him are now sought after, the reader shall judge
for himself--when he is informed that an imperfect copy of
the _Golden Legend_, one of Caxton's commonest productions,
produced at a book sale, a few months ago, the sum of
_twenty-seven_ guineas!]
LIS. It has a considerable merit; but my attention has been a good
deal diverted, during your appropriate recital of it, to the beautiful
condition of the copy. Thrice happy Lorenzo! what sum will convey this
volume to my own library!
LOREN. No offer, in the shape of money, shall take it hence. I am an
enthusiast in the cause of Tiptoft; and am always upon the watch to
discover any volume, printed by Caxton, which contains the composition
of the hapless Earl of Worcester! Dr. Henry has spoken so handsomely
of him, and Mr. Park, in his excellent edition of Walpole's Royal and
Noble Authors,[278] has made his literary character so interesting
that, considering the dearth of early good English authors,[279] I
know of no other name that merits greater respect and admiration.
[Footnote 278: Vol i., p. 200, &c. _History of Great
Britain_, by Dr. Henry, vol. x., p. 143, &c.]
[Footnote 279: "In the library of Glastonbury abbey, in
1248, there were but four books in Engleish, &c. We have not
a single historian, in Engleish prose, before the reign of
Richard the Second; when John Treviza translateëd the
Polychronicon of Randal Higden. Boston of Bury, who seems to
have consulted all the monasterys in Engleland, does not
mention one author who had written in Engleish; and Bale, at
a lateër period, has, comparatively, but an insignificant
number: nor was Leland so fortunate as to find above two or
three Engleish books, in the monastick and other librarys,
which he rummage'd, and explore'd, under the king's
commission." Ritson's Dissertation on Romance and
Minstrelsy: prefixed to his _Ancient Engleish Metrical
Romanceës_, vol. i., p. lxxxi.]
LYSAND. True; and this nobleman's attention to the acquisition of fine
and useful books, when he was abroad, for the benefit of his own
country,[280] gives him a distinguished place in the list of
BIBLIOMANIACS. I dare say Lisardo would give some few hundred guineas
for his bust, executed by Flaxman, standing upon a pedestal composed
of the original editions of his works, bound in grave-coloured morocco
by his favourite Faulkener?[281]
[Footnote 280: Dr. Henry's _History of Great Britain_;
_ibid._: from which a copious note has been given in the new
edition of our _Typographical Antiquities_; vol. i., p. 127,
&c.]
[Footnote 281: Henry Faulkener, no. 4, George Court, near
the Adelphi, in the Strand. An honest, industrious, and
excellent book-binder: who, in his mode of re-binding
ancient books is not only scrupulously particular in the
preservation of that important part of a volume, the margin;
but, in his ornaments of tooling, is at once tasteful and
exact. Notwithstanding these hard times, and rather a
slender bodily frame, and yet more slender purse--with five
children, and the prospect of five more--honest Mr.
Faulkener is in his three-pair-of-stairs confined workshop
by five in the morning winter and summer, and oftentimes
labours 'till twelve at night. Severer toil, with more
uniform good humour and civility in the midst of all his
embarrassments, were never perhaps witnessed in a brother of
the ancient and respectable craft of _Book-binding_!]
LIS. I entreat you not to inflame my imagination by such tantalizing
pictures! You know this must ever be a fiction: the most successful
bibliomaniac never attained to such human happiness.
PHIL. Leave Lisardo to his miseries, and proceed.
LYSAND. I have supposed Edward to have spent some jovial hours with
this unfortunate nobleman. It is thought that our monarch and he
partook of the superb feast which was given by the famous NEVELL,
archbishop of York, at the inthronization of the latter; and I am
curious to know of what the library of such a munificent
ecclesiastical character was composed! But perhaps this feast
itself[282] is one of Lisardo's fictions.
[Footnote 282: Lysander is perfectly correct about the feast
which was given at the archbishop's inthronization; as the
particulars of it--"out of an old paper roll in the archives
of the Bodleian library," are given by Hearne in the sixth
volume of _Leland's Collectanea_, p. 1-14: and a most
extraordinary and amusing bill of fare it is. The last
twenty dinners given by the Lord Mayors at Guildhall, upon
the first day of their mayoralties, were only
_sandwiches_--compared with such a repast! What does the
reader think of 2000 chickens, 4000 pigeons, 4000 coneys,
500 "and mo," stags, bucks, and roes, with 4000 "pasties of
venison colde?"--and these barely an 18th part of the kind
of meats served up! At the high table our amiable EARL of
WORCESTER was seated, with the Archbishop, three Bishops,
the Duke of Suffolk, and the Earl of Oxford. The fictitious
archiepiscopal feast was the one intended to be given by
NEVELL to Edward IV.; when the latter "appointed a day to
come to hunt in More in Hertfordshire, and make merry with
him." Nevell made magnificent preparations for the royal
visit; but instead of receiving the monarch as a guest, he
was saluted by some of his officers, who "arrested him for
treason," and imprisoned him at Calais and Guisnes. The
cause of this sudden, and apparently monstrous, conduct, on
the part of Edward, has not been told by Stow (_Chronicles_,
p. 426; edit. 1615), nor by Godwyn, (_Catalogue of the
Bishops of England_, p. 481, edit. 1601): both of whom
relate the fact with singular naiveté. I have a strong
suspicion that Nevell was so far a bibliomaniac as to have
had a curious collection of _astrological books_; for "there
was greate correspondency betweene this Archbishop and the
Hermetique philosophers of his time; and this is partly
confirmed to me from Ripley's dedication of his '_Medulla_'
to him, ann. 1746; as also the presentation of Norton's
'_Ordinall_,'" &c. Thus writes Ashmole, in his _Theatrum
Chemicum_, p. 455.]
Enough has probably been said of Edward. We will stop, therefore, but
a minute, to notice the completion of the HUMPHREY LIBRARY, and the
bibliomaniacal spirit of master RICHARD COURTNEY,[283] during the same
reign; and give but another minute to the mention of the statute of
RICHARD III. in protection of English printers,[284] when we reach the
AUGUSTAN BOOK-AGE, in the reign of HENRY VII.
[Footnote 283: Speaking of the public library of Oxford, at
this period, Hearne tells us, from a letter sent by him to
Thomas Baker, that there was "a chaplein of the Universitie
chosen, after the maner of a Bedell, and to him was the
custodie of the librarye committed, his stipend--cvi_s_. and
viii_d_. his apparell found him _de secta generosorum_. No
man might come in to studdie but graduats and thoes of 8
years contynuance in the Universitie, except noblemen. All
that come in must firste sweare to use the bookes well, and
not to deface theim, and everye one after at his proceedings
must take the licke othe. Howers apoynted when they shuld
come in to studdie, viz. betwene ix and xi aforenoone, and
one and four afternoone, the keper geving attendaunce: yet a
prerogative was graunted the chancelour MR. RICHARD COURTNEY
to come in when he pleased, during his own lieffe, so it was
in the day-tyme: and the cause seemeth, that he was CHEIFFE
CAWSER AND SETTER ON OF THE LIBRARYE." _Curious Discourses
by Eminent Antiquaries_; vol. ii., p. 410., edit. 1775.]
[Footnote 284: See page 114, ante. When Lysander talks,
above, of the reign of Henry the Seventh being the "AUGUSTAN
AGE for BOOKS," he must be supposed to allude to the
facility and beauty of publishing them by means of THE
PRESS: for at this period, abroad, the typographical
productions of Verard, Eustace, Vostre, Bonfons, Pigouchet,
Regnier, and many others ("quæ nunc perscribere longum est")
were imitated, and sometimes equalled by W. de Worde,
Pynson, and Notary, at home. In regard to _intellectual_
fame, if my authority be good, "in the reign of Henry VII.
Greek was a stranger in both universities; and so little
even of Latin had Cambridge, of its own growth, that it had
not types sufficient to furnish out the common letters and
epistles of the University. They usually employed an
Italian, one Caius Auberinus, to compose them, whose
ordinarry [Transcriber's Note: ordinary] fee was twentypence
a letter." (MSS. in Benet College Library, lib. P. p. 194,)
_Ridley's Life of Ridley_, p. 22. "Greek began to be taught
in both universities: quietly at Cambridge, but ('Horresco
referens!') with some tumult at Oxford!" _ibid._]
PHIL. Before we proceed to discuss the bibliomaniacal ravages of this
age, we had better retire, with Lorenzo's leave, to the DRAWING-ROOM;
to partake of a beverage less potent than that which is now before us.
LORENZ. Just as you please. But I should apprehend that Lysander could
hold out 'till he reached the Reformation;--and, besides, I am not
sure whether our retreat be quite ready for us.
LIS. Pray let us not take leave of all these beauteous books, and
busts, and pictures, just at present. If Lysander's lungs will bear
him out another twenty minutes, we shall, by that time, have reached
the Reformation; and then "our retreat," as Lorenzo calls it, may be
quite ready for our reception.
LYSAND. Settle it between yourselves. But I think I could hold out for
another twenty minutes--since you will make me your only book-orator.
LORENZ. Let it be so, then. I will order the lamps to be lit; so that
Lisardo may see his favourite Wouvermans and Berghems, in company with
my romances, (which latter are confined in my satin-wood book-case) to
every possible degree of perfection!
LYSAND. Provided you indulge me also with a sight of these delightful
objects, you shall have what you desire:--and thus I proceed:
Of the great passion of HENRY THE VIITH for fine books, even before he
ascended the throne of England,[285] there is certainly no doubt. And
while he was king, we may judge, even from the splendid fragments of
his library, which are collected in the British Museum, of the nicety
of his taste, and of the soundness of his judgment. That he should
love extravagant books of devotion,[286] as well as histories and
chronicles, must be considered the fault of the age, rather than of
the individual. I will not, however, take upon me to say that the
slumbers of this monarch were disturbed in consequence of the
extraordinary and frightful passages, which, accompanied with bizarre
cuts,[287] were now introduced into almost every work, both of
ascetic divinity and also of plain practical morality. His
predecessor, Richard, had in all probability been alarmed by the
images which the reading of these books had created; and I guess that
it was from such frightful objects, rather than from the ghosts of his
murdered brethren, that he was compelled to pass a sleepless night
before the memorable battle of Bosworth Field. If one of those
artists who used to design the horrible pictures which are engraved in
many old didactic volumes of this period had ventured to take a peep
into Richard's tent, I question whether he would not have seen, lying
upon an oaken table, an early edition of some of those fearful works
of which he had himself aided in the embellishment, and of which
Heinecken has given us such curious fac-similes:[288]--and this, in my
humble apprehension, is quite sufficient to account for all the
terrible workings in Richard, which Shakespeare has so vividly
described.
[Footnote 285: Mr. Heber has a fine copy of one of the
volumes of a black-letter edition of Froissart, printed by
Eustace, upon the exterior of the binding of which are
HENRY'S arms, with his name--HENRICVS DVX RICHMVNDIÆ. The
very view of such a book, while it gives comfort to a
low-spirited bibliomaniac, adds energy to the perseverance
of a young collector! the latter of whom fondly, but vainly,
thinks he may one day be blessed with a similar treasure!]
[Footnote 286: The possession of such a volume as "_The
Revelations of the monk of Euesham_" (vide vol. ii., of the
new edition of _Brit. Typog. Antiquities_), is evidence
sufficient of Henry's attachment to extravagant books of
devotion.]
[Footnote 287: It is certainly one of the comforts of modern
education, that girls and boys have nothing to do, even in
the remotest villages, with the perusal of such books as
were put into the juvenile hands of those who lived towards
the conclusion of the 15th century. One is at a loss to
conceive how the youth of that period could have ventured at
night out of doors, or slept alone in a darkened room,
without being frightened out of their wits! Nor could
maturer life be uninfluenced by reading such volumes as are
alluded to in the text: and as to the bed of death--_that_
must have sometimes shaken the stoutest faith, and disturbed
the calmest piety. For what can be more terrible, and at the
same time more audacious, than human beings arrogating to
themselves the powers of the deity, and denouncing, in
equivocal cases, a certainty and severity of future
punishment, equally revolting to scripture and common sense?
To drive the timid into desperation, and to cut away the
anchor of hope from the rational believer, seem, among other
things, to have been the objects of these "ascetic" authors;
while the pictures, which were suffered to adorn their
printed works, confirmed the wish that, where the reader
might not comprehend the text, he could understand its
illustration by means of a print. I will give two extracts,
and one of these "bizarre cuts," in support of the preceding
remarks. At page 168, ante, the reader will find a slight
mention of the subject: he is here presented with a more
copious illustration of it. "In likewise there is none that
may declare the piteous and horrible cries and howlings the
which that is made in hell, as well of devils as of other
damned. And if that a man demand what they say in crying;
the answer: All the damned curseth the Creator. Also they
curse together as their father and their mother, and the
hour that they were begotten, and that they were born, and
that they were put unto nourishing, and those that them
should correct and teach, and also those the which have been
the occasion of their sins, as the bawd, cursed be the bawd,
and also of other occasions in diverse sins. The second
cause of the cry of them damned is for the consideration
that they have of the time of mercy, the which is past, in
the which they may do penance and purchase paradise. The
third cause is of their cry for by cause of the horrible
pains of that they endure. As we may consider that if an
hundred persons had every of them one foot and one hand in
the fire, or in the water seething without power to die,
what _bruit_ and what cry they should make; but that should
be less than nothing in comparison of devils and of other
damned, for they ben more than an hundred thousand
thousands, the which all together unto them doeth
_noysaunce_, and all in one thunder crying and braying
horribly."--_Thordynary of Crysten Men_, 1506, 4to., k k.
ii., rect. Again: from a French work written "for the
amusement of all worthy ladies and gentlemen:"
De la flamme tousiours esprise
De feu denfer qui point ne brise
De busches nest point actise
Ne de soufflemens embrase
Le feu denfer, mais est de Dieu
Cree pour estre en celuy lieu
Des le premier commencement
Sans jamais pendre finement
Illec nya point de clarte
Mais de tenebres obscurte
De peine infinie durte
De miseres eternite
Pleur et estraignement de dens
Chascun membre aura la dedans
Tourmmens selon ce qua forfait
La peine respondra au fait,
&c. &c. &c.
_Le passe tempe de tout home, et de toute femme_;
sign. q. ii., rev.
Printed by Verard in 8vo., without date: (from a copy,
printed upon vellum, in the possession of John Lewis
Goldsmyd, Esq.)--The next extract is from a book which was
written to amuse and instruct the common people: being
called by Warton a "universal magazine of every article of
salutary and useful knowledge." _Hist. Engl. Poetry_: vol.
ii., 195.
In hell is great mourning
Great trouble of crying
Of thunder noises roaring
with plenty of wild fire
Beating with great strokes like guns
with a great frost in water runs
And after a bitter wind comes
which goeth through the souls with ire
There is both thirst and hunger
fiends with hooks putteth their flesh asunder
They fight and curse and each on other wonder
with the fight of the devils dreadable
There is shame and confusion
Rumour of conscience for evil living
They curse themself with great crying
In smoak and stink they be evermore lying
with other pains innumerable.
_Kalendar of Shepherds. Sign G. vij. rev.
Pynson's edit., fol._
[Illustration]
Specimens of some of the tremendous cuts which are crowded
into this thin folio will be seen in the second volume of
the new edition of the _Typographical Antiquities_. However,
that the reader's curiosity may not here be disappointed, he
is presented with a similar specimen, on a smaller scale, of
one of the infernal tortures above described. It is taken
from a book whose title conveys something less terrific; and
describes a punishment which is said to be revealed by the
Almighty to St. Bridget against those who have "ornamenta
indecentia in capitibus et pedibus, et reliquis membris, ad
provocandum luxuriam et irritandum deum, in strictis
vestibus, ostensione mamillarum, unctionibus," &c.
_Revelaciones sancte Birgitte; edit. Koeberger, 1521, fol.,
sign. q., 7, rev._]
[Footnote 288: See many of the cuts in that scarce and
highly coveted volume, entitled, "_Idée Generale d'une
Collection complètte d'Estampes_." Leips. 1771, 8vo.]
LIS. This is, at least, an original idea; and has escaped the sagacity
of every commentator in the last twenty-one volume edition of the
works of our bard.
LYSAND. But to return to Henry. I should imagine that his mind was not
much affected by the perusal of this description of books: but rather
that he was constantly meditating upon some old arithmetical work--the
prototype of Cocker--which, in the desolation of the ensuing half
century, has unfortunately perished. Yet, if this monarch be accused
of avaricious propensities--if, in consequence of speculating deeply
in _large paper_ and _vellum_ copies, he made his coffers to run over
with gold--it must be remembered that he was, at the same time, a
patron as well as judge of architectural artists; and while the
completion of the structure of King's college Chapel, Cambridge, and
the building of his own magnificent chapel[289] at Westminster (in
which latter, I suspect, he had a curiously-carved gothic closet for
the preservation of choice copies from Caxton's neighbouring press),
afford decisive proofs of Henry's skill in matters of taste, the
rivalship of printers and of book-buyers shews that the example of the
monarch was greatly favourable to the propagation of the Bibliomania.
Indeed, such was the progress of the book-disease that, in the very
year of Henry's death, appeared, for the first time in this country,
an edition of _The Ship of Fools_--in which work, ostentatious and
ignorant book-collectors[290] are, amongst other characters, severely
satirized.
[Footnote 289: Harpsfield speaks with becoming truth and
spirit of Henry's great attention to ecclesiastical
establishments: "Splendidum etiam illud sacellum
westmonasterij, magno sumptu atque magnificentia ab eodem
est conditum. In quod coenobium valde fuit liberalis et
munificus. Nullumque fere fuit in tota Anglia monachorum,
aut fratrum coenobium, nullum collegium, cujus preces, ad
animam ipsius Deo post obitum commendandam, sedulo non
expetierat. Legavit autem singulorum præfectis sex solidos
et octo denarios, singulis autem eorundem presbyteris, tres
solidos et quatuor denarios: ceteris non presbyteris viginti
denarios." _Hist. Eccles. Anglic._, p. 606, edit. 1622,
fol.]
[Footnote 290: The reader is here introduced to his old
acquaintance, who appeared in the title-page to my first
"_Bibliomania_:"--
[Illustration]
I am the firste fole of all the hole navy
To kepe the pompe, the helme, and eke the sayle:
For this is my mynde, this one pleasoure have I--
Of bokes to haue great plenty and aparayle.
I take no wysdome by them: nor yet avayle
Nor them perceyve nat: And then I them despyse.
Thus am I a foole, and all that serue that guyse.
_Shyp of Folys_, &c., _Pynson's edit._, 1509, fol.]
We have now reached the threshhold of the reign of HENRY VIII.--and of
the era of THE REFORMATION. An era in every respect most important,
but, in proportion to its importance, equally difficult to
describe--as it operates upon the history of the Bibliomania. Now
blazed forth, but blazed for a short period, the exquisite talents of
Wyatt, Surrey, Vaux, Fischer, More, and, when he made his abode with
us, the incomparable Erasmus. But these in their turn.
PHIL. You omit Wolsey. Surely he knew something about books?
LYSAND. I am at present only making the sketch of my grand picture.
Wolsey, I assure you, shall stand in the foreground. Nor shall the
immortal Leland be treated in a less distinguished manner. Give me
only "ample room and verge enough," and a little time to collect my
powers, and then--
LIS. "Yes, and then"--you will infect us from top to toe with the
BOOK-DISEASE!
PHIL. In truth I already begin to feel the consequence of the
innumerable miasma of it, which are floating in the atmosphere of this
library. I move that we adjourn to a purer air.
LYSAND. I second the motion: for, having reached the commencement of
Henry's reign, it will be difficult to stop at any period in it
previous to that of the Reformation.
LIS. Agreed. Thanks to the bacchanalian bounty of Lorenzo, we are
sufficiently enlivened to enter yet further, and more enthusiastically,
into this congenial discourse. Dame nature and good sense equally
admonish us now to depart. Let us, therefore, close the apertures of
these gorgeous decanters:--
"Claudite jam rivos, pueri: sat prata bibêrunt!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The striking device of M. MORIN, Printer, Rouen.]
PART V.
=The Drawing Room.=
HISTORY OF THE BIBLIOMANIA, OR ACCOUNT
OF BOOK COLLECTORS, CONCLUDED.
Some in Learning's garb
With formal hand, and sable-cinctur'd gown,
And rags of mouldy volumes.
AKENSIDE; _Pleasures of Imagination_, b. iii., v. 96.
[Illustration]
=The Drawing Room.=
HISTORY OF THE BIBLIOMANIA, OR ACCOUNT OF
BOOK-COLLECTORS, CONTINUED.
Volatile as the reader may comceive [Transcriber's Note: conceive] the
character of Lisardo to be, there were traits in it of marked goodness
and merit. His enthusiasm so frequently made him violate the rules of
severe politeness; and the quickness with which he flew from one
subject to another, might have offended a narrator of the gravity,
without the urbanity, of Lysander; had not the frankness with which he
confessed his faults, and the warmth with which he always advocated
the cause of literature, rendered him amiable in the eyes of those who
thoroughly knew him. The friends, whose company he was now enjoying,
were fully competent to appreciate his worth. They perceived that
Lisardo's mind had been rather brilliantly cultivated; and that, as
his heart had always beaten at the call of virtue, so, in a due
course of years, his judgment would become matured, and his opinions
more decidedly fixed. He had been left, very early in life, without a
father, and bred up in the expectation of a large fortune; while the
excessive fondness of his mother had endeavoured to supply the want of
paternal direction, and had encouraged her child to sigh for every
thing short of impossibility for his gratification.
In consequence, Lisardo was placed at College upon the most
respectable footing. He wore the velvet cap, and enjoyed the rustling
of the tassels upon his silk gown, as he paraded the High street of
Oxford. But although he could translate Tacitus and Theocritus with
creditable facility, he thought it more advantageous to gratify the
cravings of his body than of his mind. He rode high-mettled horses; he
shot with a gun which would have delighted an Indian prince; he drank
freely out of cut-glasses, which were manufactured according to his
own particular taste; and wines of all colours and qualities sparkled
upon his table; he would occasionally stroll into the Bodleian Library
and Picture Gallery, in order to know whether any acquisitions had
been recently made to them; and attended the Concerts when any
performer came down from London. Yet, in the midst of all his gaiety,
Lisardo passed more sombrous than joyous hours: for when he looked
into a book, he would sometimes meet with an electrical sentence from
Cicero, Seneca, or Johnson, from which he properly inferred that life
was uncertain, and that time was given us to prepare for eternity.
He grew dissatisfied and melancholy. He scrambled through his terms;
took his degree; celebrated his anniversary of twenty-one, by
drenching his native village in ale which had been brewed at his
birth; added two wings to his father's house; launched out into coin
and picture collecting; bought fine books with fine bindings; then
sold all his coins and pictures; and, at the age of twenty-five, began
to read, and think, and act for himself.
At this crisis, he became acquainted with the circle which has already
been introduced to the reader's attention; and to which circle the
same reader may think it high time now to return.
Upon breaking up for THE DRAWING ROOM, it was amusing to behold the
vivacity of Lisardo; who, leaping about Lysander, and expressing his
high gratification at the discourse he had already heard, and his
pleasure at what he hoped yet to hear, reminded us of what Boswell has
said of Garrick, who used to flutter about Dr. Johnson, and try to
soften his severity by a thousand winning gestures.
The doors were opened; and we walked into Lorenzo's Drawing Room. The
reader is not to figure to himself a hundred fantastical and fugitive
pieces of furniture, purchased at Mr. Oakley's, and set off with
curtains, carpet, and looking-glasses--at a price which would have
maintained a country town of seven hundred poor with bread and soup
during the hardest winter--the reader will not suppose that a man of
Lorenzo's taste, who called books his best wealth, would devote two
thousand pounds to such idle trappings; which in the course of three
years, at farthest, would lose their comfort by losing their fashion.
But he will suppose that elegance and propriety were equally consulted
by our host.
Accordingly, a satin-wood book-case of 14 feet in width and 11 in
height, ornamented at the top with a few chaste Etruscan vases--a
light blue carpet, upon which were depicted bunches of grey roses,
shadowed in brown--fawn-coloured curtains, relieved with yellow silk
and black velvet borders--alabaster lamps shedding their soft light
upon small marble busts--and sofas and chairs corresponding with the
curtains--(and upon which a visitor might sit without torturing the
nerves of the owner of them) these, along with some genuine pictures
of Wouvermans, Berghem, and Rysdael, and a few other (subordinate)
ornaments, formed the furniture of Lorenzo's Drawing Room. As it was
_en suite_ with the library, which was fitted up in a grave style or
character, the contrast was sufficiently pleasing.
Lisardo ran immediately to the book-case. He first eyed, with a greedy
velocity, the backs of the folios and quartos; then the octavos; and,
mounting an ingeniously-contrived mahogany rostrum, which moved with
the utmost facility, he did not fail to pay due attention to the
duodecimos; some of which were carefully preserved in Russia or
morocco backs, with water-tabby silk linings, and other appropriate
embellishments. In the midst of his book-reverie, he heard, on a
sudden, the thrilling notes of a harp--which proceeded from the
further end of the library!--it being Lorenzo's custom, upon these
occasions, to request an old Welch servant to bring his instrument
into the library, and renew, if he could, the strains of "other
times." Meanwhile the curtains were "let fall;" the sofa wheeled
round;
--and the cups
That cheer, but not inebriate,
with "the bubbling and loud hissing urn," "welcomed the evening in."
Lorenzo brought from his library a volume of Piranesi, and another of
engravings from the heads of Vandyke. Lisardo, in looking at them,
beat time with his head and foot; and Philemon and Lysander
acknowledged that Dr. Johnson himself could never have so much enjoyed
the beverage which was now before them.
If it should here be asked, by the critical reader, why our society is
not described as being more congenial, by the presence of those "whom
man was born to please," the answer is at once simple and
true--Lorenzo was a bachelor; and his sisters, knowing how long and
desperate would be our discussion upon the black letter and white
letter, had retreated, in the morning, to spend the day with Lisardo's
mother--whither ---- ---- had been invited to join them.
The harper had now ceased. The tea-things were moved away; when we
narrowed our circle, and, two of us upon the sofa, and three upon
chairs, entreated Lysander to resume his narrative; who, after
"clearing his pipes (like Sir Roger de Coverley) with a loud hem or
two," thus proceeded.
"I think we left off," said Lysander, "with seating HENRY THE EIGHTH
upon the throne of England. It will be as well, therefore, to say
something of this monarch's pretensions to scholarship and love of
books. Although I will not rake together every species of abuse which
has been vented against him by one Anthony Gilbie,[291] yet Henry must
be severely censured, in the estimation of the most candid inquirer,
for that gross indifference which he evinced to the real interests of
literature, in calmly suffering the libraries of convents and
monasteries to be pillaged by the crafty and rapacious. He was
bibliomaniac enough to have a few copies of his own work, in defence
of the Roman Catholic exposition of the Sacrament, struck off UPON
VELLUM:[292] but when he quarrelled with the Roman pontiff about his
divorce from Queen Catharine, in order to marry Anne Boleyn,[293] he
sounded the tocsin for the eventful destruction of all monastic
libraries: and although he had sent Leland, under an express
commission, to make a due examination of them, as well as a
statistical survey of the realm, yet, being frustrated in the
forementioned darling object, he cared for nothing about books,
whether _upon vellum_ or _large paper_. But had we not better speak of
the book ravages, during the reformation, in their proper place?"
[Footnote 291: "In the time (saith he) of King HENRIE THE
EIGHT, when by Tindall, Frith, Bilney, and other his
faithful seruantes, God called England to dresse his
vineyarde, many promise ful faire, whome I coulde name, but
what fruite followed? Nothing but bitter grapes, yea, bryers
and brambles, the wormewood of auarice, the gall of
crueltie, the poison of filthie fornication, flowing from
head to fote, the contempt of God, and open defence of the
cake idole, by open proclamation to be read in the churches
in steede of God's Scriptures. Thus was there no
reformation, but a deformation, in the time of the tyrant
and lecherouse monster. The bore I graunt was busie,
wrooting and digging in the earth, and all his pigges that
followed him, but they sought onely for the pleasant
fruites, that they winded with their long snoutes; and for
their own bellies sake, they wrooted up many weeds; but they
turned the grounde so, mingling goode and badde togeather,
sweet and sower, medecine and poyson, they made, I saye,
suche confusion of religion and lawes, that no good thinge
could growe, but by great miracle, under suche gardeners.
And no maruaile, if it be rightlye considered. For this bore
raged against God, against the Divell, against Christe, and
against Antichrist, as the fome that he cast oute against
Luther, the racing out of the name of the pope, and yet
allowing his lawes, and his murder of many Christian
souldiars, and of many Papists, doe declare and evidentlie
testifie unto us; especially the burning of Barnes, Jerome,
and Garrette, their faithfull preachers of the truthe, and
hanging the same daye for the maintenaunce of the pope,
Poel, Abel, and Fetherstone, dothe clearlie painte his
beastlines, that he cared for no religion. This monsterous
bore for all this must needes be called the head of the
church in paine of treason, displacing Christ, our onely
head, who ought alone to haue this title." _Admonition to
England and Scotland, &c._, Geneva, 1558, p. 69. Quoted by
Stapleton in his _Counter Blaste to Horne's Vayne Blaste_,
Lovan., 1567, 4to., fol. 23. Gilbie was a Protestant; upon
which Stapleton who was a rigid Roman Catholic, shrewdly
remarks in the margin: "See how religiously the Protestantes
speak of their princes!"]
[Footnote 292: Mr. Edwards informs me that he has had a copy
of the "_Assertio Septem Sacramentorum aduersus Martin
Lutherum_," &c. (printed by Pynson in 4to., both with and
without date--1521), UPON VELLUM. The presentation copy to
Henry, and perhaps another to Wolsey, might have been of
this nature. I should have preferred a similar copy of the
small book, printed a few years afterwards, in 12mo., of
Henry's Letters in answer to Luther's reply to the foregoing
work. This is not the place to talk further of these curious
pieces. I have seen some of Pynson's books printed upon
vellum; which are not remarkable for their beauty.]
[Footnote 293: Those readers who are not in possession of
Hearne's rare edition of _Robert de Avesbury_, 1720, 8vo.,
and who cannot, in consequence, read the passionate letters
of Henry VIII. to his beloved Boleyn, which form a leading
feature in the Appendix to the same, will find a few
extracts from them in the _British Bibliographer_; vol. ii.,
p. 78. Some of the monarch's signatures, of which Hearne has
given fac-similes, are as follow:
[Illustration]
When one thinks of the then imagined happiness of the fair
object of these epistles--and reads the splendid account of
her coronation dinner, by Stow--contrasting it with the
melancholy circumstances which attended her death--one is at
loss to think, or to speak, with sufficient force, of the
fickleness of all sublunary grandeur! The reader may,
perhaps, wish for this, "coronation dinner?" It is, in part,
strictly as follows: "While the queen was in her chamber,
every lord and other that ought to do service at the
coronation, did prepare them, according to their duty: as
the Duke of Suffolk, High-Steward of England, which was
richly apparelled--his doublet and jacket set with orient
pearl, his gown crimson velvet embroidered, his courser
trapped with a close trapper, head and all, to the ground,
of crimson velvet, set full of letters of gold, of
goldsmith's work; having a long white rod in his hand. On
his left-hand rode the Lord William, deputy for his brother,
as Earl Marshall, with ye marshal's rod, whose gown was
crimson velvet, and his horse's trapper purple velvet cut on
white satin, embroidered with white lions. The Earl of
Oxford was High Chamberlain; the Earl of Essex, carver; the
Earl of Sussex, sewer; the Earl of Arundel, chief butler; on
whom 12 citizens of London did give their attendance at the
cupboard; the Earl of Derby, cup-bearer; the Viscount Lisle,
panter; the Lord Burgeiny, chief larder; the Lord Broy,
almoner for him and his copartners; and the Mayor of Oxford
kept the buttery-bar: and Thomas Wyatt was chosen ewerer for
Sir Henry Wyatt, his father." "When all things were ready
and ordered, THE QUEEN, under her canopy, came into the
hall, and washed; and sat down in the middest of the table,
under her cloth of estate. On the right side of her chair
stood the Countess of Oxford, widow: and on her left hand
stood the Countess of Worcester, all the dinner season;
which, divers times in the dinner time, did hold a fine
cloth before the Queen's face, when she list to spit, or do
otherwise at her pleasure. And at the table's end sate the
Archbishop of Canterbury, on the right hand of the Queen;
and in the midst, between the Archbishop and the Countess of
Oxford, stood the Earl of Oxford, with a white staff, all
dinner time; and at the Queen's feet, under the table, sate
two gentlewomen all dinner time. When all these things were
thus ordered, came in the Duke of Suffolk and the Lord
William Howard on horseback, and the Serjeants of arms
before them, and after them the sewer; and then the knights
of the Bath, bringing in the _first course_, which was eight
and twenty dishes, besides subtleties, and ships made of
wax, marvellous gorgeous to behold: all which time of
service, the trumpets standing in the window, at the nether
end of the hall, played," &c. _Chronicles_; p. 566: edit.
1615, fol.]
LORENZ. As you please. Perhaps you will go on with the mention of some
distinguished patrons 'till you arrive at that period?
LYSAND. Yes; we may now as well notice the efforts of that
extraordinary _bibliomaniacal triumvirate_, Colet, More, and Erasmus.
PHIL. Pray treat copiously of them. They are my great favourites. But
can you properly place Erasmus in the list?
LYSAND. You forget that he made a long abode here, and was Greek
professor at Cambridge. To begin, then, with the former. COLET, as you
well know, was Dean of St. Paul's; and founder of the public school
which goes by the latter name. He had an ardent and general love of
literature;[294] but his attention to the improvement of youth, in
superintending appropriate publications, for their use, was
unremitting. Few men did so much and so well, at this period: for
while he was framing the statutes by which his little community was to
be governed, he did not fail to keep the presses of Wynkyn De Worde
and Pynson pretty constantly at work, by publishing the grammatical
treatises of Grocyn, Linacre, Stanbridge, Lilye, Holte, Whittington,
and others--for the benefit, as well of the public, as of his own
particular circle. I take it, his library must have been both choice
and copious; for books now began to be multiplied in an immense ratio,
and scholars and men of rank thought _a Study_, or _Library_, of some
importance to their mansions. What would we not give for an
authenticated representation of Dean Colet in his library,[295]
surrounded with books? You, Lisardo, would be in ecstacies with such a
thing!
[Footnote 294: How anxiously does COLET seem to have watched
the progress, and pushed the sale, of his friend Erasmus's
first edition of the Greek Testament! "Quod scribis de Novo
Testamento intelligo. Et libri novæ editionis tuæ _hic avide
emuntur et passim leguntur_!" The entire epistle (which may
be seen in Dr. Knight's dry Life of Colet, p. 315) is
devoted to an account of Erasmus's publications. "I am
really astonished, my dear Erasmus (does he exclaim), at the
fruitfulness of your talents; that, without any fixed
residence, and with a precarious and limited income, you
contrive to publish so many and such excellent works."
Adverting to the distracted state of Germany at this period,
and to the wish of his friend to live secluded and
unmolested, he observes--"As to the tranquil retirement
which you sigh for, be assured that you have my sincere
wishes for its rendering you as happy and composed as you
can wish it. Your age and erudition entitle you to such a
retreat. I fondly hope, indeed, that you will choose this
country for it, and come and live amongst us, whose
disposition you know, and whose friendship you have proved."
There is hardly a more curious picture of the custom of the
times relating to the education of boys, than the Dean's own
Statutes for the regulation of St. Paul's School, which he
had founded. These shew, too, the _popular books_ then read
by the learned. "The children shall come unto the school in
the morning at seven of the clock, both winter and summer,
and tarry there until eleven; and return again at one of the
clock, and depart at five, &c. In the school, no time in the
year, they shall use tallow candle, in no wise, but _only
wax candle_, at the costs of their friends. Also I will they
bring no meat nor drink, nor bottle, nor use in the school
no breakfasts, nor drinkings, in the time of learning, in no
wise, &c. I will they use no cockfighting, nor riding about
of victory, nor disputing at Saint Bartholomew, which is but
foolish babbling and loss of time." The master is then
restricted, under the penalty of 40 shillings, from granting
the boys a holiday, or "remedy" (play-day), as it is here
called, "except the king, an archbishop, or a bishop,
present in his own person in the school, desire it." The
studies for the lads were "Erasmus's _Copia_ et _Institutum
Christiani Hominii_ (composed at the Dean's request),
_Lactantius_, _Prudentius_, _Juvencus_, _Proba_ and
_Sedulius_, and _Baptista Mantuanus_, and such other as
shall be thought convenient and most to purpose unto the
true Latin speech; all barbary, all corruption, all Latin
adulterate, which ignorant blind fools brought into this
world, and with the same hath distained and poisoned the old
Latin speech, and the _veray_ Roman tongue, which in the
time of Tully, and Sallust, and Virgil, and Terence, was
used--I say, that filthiness, and all such abusion, which
the later blind world brought in, which more rather may be
called BLOTERATURE than LITERATURE, I utterly banish and
exclude out of THIS SCHOOL." Knight's _Life of Colet_, 362,
4. The sagacious reader will naturally enough conclude that
boys, thus educated, would, afterwards, of necessity, fall
victims to the ravages of the BIBLIOMANIA!]
[Footnote 295: I wish it were in my power to come forward
with any stronger degree of probability than the exhibition
of the subjoined cut, of what might have been the interior
of _Dean Colet's Study_. This print is taken from an old
work, printed in the early part of the sixteenth century,
and republished in a book of Alciatus's emblems, translated
from the Latin into Italian, A.D. 1549, 8vo. There is an air
of truth about it; but the frame work is entirely modern,
and perhaps not in the purest taste. It may turn out that
this interior view of a private library is somewhat too
perfect and finished for the times of Colet, in this
country; especially if we may judge from the rules to be
observed in completing a public one, just about the period
of Colet's death: "Md. couenawntyd and agreid wyth Comell
Clerke, for the making off the dextis in the library, (of
Christ Church College, Oxford) to the summe off xvi, after
the maner and forme as they be in Magdalyn college, except
the popie heedes off the seites, this to be workmanly
wrought and clenly, and he to have all manner off stooff
foond hym, and to have for the makyng off one dexte xs.
the sum off the hole viii. li. Item: borowd att Magdaleyn
college one c. off v. d nayle, a c. off vi. d nayle, dim. c.
x. d. nayle."--_Antiquities of Glastonbury_; edit. Hearne,
p. 307.
[Illustration]]
LIS. Pray don't make such tantalizing appeals to me! Proceed, proceed.
LYSAND. Of this amiable and illustrious character I will only further
observe that he possessed solid, good sense--unaffected and unshaken
piety--a love towards the whole human race--and that he dignified his
attachment to learning by the conscientious discharge of his duty
towards God and man. He sleeps in peace beneath a monument, which has
been consecrated by the tears of all who were related to him, and by
the prayers of those who have been benefitted by his philanthropy.
Of SIR THOMAS MORE,[296] where is the schoolboy that is ignorant? He
was unquestionably, next to Erasmus, the most brilliant scholar of his
age: while the precious biographical memoirs of him, which have
luckily descended to us, place his character, in a domestic point of
view, beyond that of all his contemporaries. Dr. Wordsworth[297] has
well spoken of "the heavenly mindedness" of More: but how are
bibliomaniacs justly to appreciate the classical lore, and
incessantly-active book-pursuits,[298] of this scholar and martyr! How
he soared "above his compeers!" How richly, singularly, and
curiously, was his mind furnished! Wit, playfulness, elevation, and
force--all these are distinguishable in his writings, if we except his
polemical compositions; which latter, to speak in the gentlest terms,
are wholly unworthy of his name. When More's head was severed from his
body, virtue and piety exclaimed, in the language of Erasmus,--"He is
dead: More, whose breast was purer than snow, whose genius was
excellent above all his nation."[299]
[Illustration: Behold him going to execution--his beloved daughter
(Mrs. Roper) rushing through the guards, to take her last embrace.]
[Footnote 296: In the first volume of my edition of SIR
THOMAS MORE'S _Utopia_, the reader will find an elaborate
and faithful account of the biographical publications
relating to this distinguished character, together with a
copious _Catalogue Raisonnè_ of the engraved portraits of
him, and an analysis of his English works. It would be
tedious to both the reader and author, here to repeat what
has been before written of Sir Thomas More--whose memory
lives in every cultivated bosom. Of this edition of the
Utopia there appeared a flimsy and tart censure in the
_Edinburgh Review_, by a critic, who, it was manifest, had
never examined the volumes, and who, when he observes upon
the fidelity of Bishop Burnet's translation of the original
Latin of More, was resolved, from pure love of Whiggism, to
defend an author at the expense of truth.]
[Footnote 297: I have read this newly published biographical
memoir of Sir Thomas More: which contains nothing very new,
or deserving of particular notice in this place.]
[Footnote 298: A bibliomanical anecdote here deserves to be
recorded; as it shews how More's love of books had infected
even those who came to seize upon him to carry him to the
Tower, and to endeavour to inveigle him into treasonable
expressions:--"While Sir Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer
were bussie in _trussinge upp his bookes_, Mr. Riche,
pretending," &c.--"Whereupon Mr. Palmer, on his desposition,
said, that he was soe bussie about the _trussinge upp Sir
Tho. Moore's bookes_ in a sacke, that he tooke no heed to
there talke. Sir Richard Southwell likewise upon his
disposition said, that because he was appoynted only to
looke to the conveyance _of his bookes_, he gave noe ear
unto them."--_Gulielmi Roperi Vita D.T. Mori_; edit Herne,
p. 47, 51.]
[Footnote 299: Epistle Dedicatory to Ecclesiastes: quoted in
that elegant and interesting quarto volume of the "_Lives of
British Statesmen_," by the late Mr. Macdiarmid; p. 117.]
How can I speak, with adequate justice, of the author of these
words!--Yes, ERASMUS!--in spite of thy timidity, and sometimes, almost
servile compliances with the capricious whims of the great; in spite
of thy delicate foibles, thou shalt always live in my memory; and dear
to me shall be the possession of thy intellectual labours! No pen has
yet done justice to thy life.[300] How I love to trace thee, in all
thy bookish pursuits, from correcting the press of thy beloved Froben,
to thy social meetings with Colet and More! You remember well,
Lisardo,--we saw, in yonder room, a _large paper_ copy of the fine
Leyden edition of this great man's works! You opened it; and were
struck with the variety--the solidity, as well as gaiety, of his
productions.
[Footnote 300: It were much to be wished that Mr. Roscoe,
who has so successfully turned his attention to the history
of _Italian Literature_, of the period of Erasmus, would
devote himself to the investigation of the philological
history of the German schools, and more especially to the
literary life of the great man of whom Lysander is above
speaking. The biographical memoirs of Erasmus by Le Clerc,
anglicised and enlarged by the learned Jortin, and Dr.
Knight's life of the same, can never become popular. They
want method, style and interest. Le Clerc, however, has made
ample amends for the defectiveness of his biographical
composition, by the noble edition of Erasmus's works which
he put forth at Leyden, in the year 1703-6, in eleven
volumes folio: of which volumes the reader will find an
excellent analysis or review in the _Act. Erudit._, A.D.
1704, &c. Le Clerc, _Bibl. Choisie_, vol. i., 380; Du Pin's
_Bibl. Eccles._, vol. xiv., and _Biblioth. Fabric_, pt. i.,
359; from which latter we learn that, in the public library,
at Deventer, there is a copy of Erasmus's works, in which
those passages, where the author speaks freely of the laxity
of the monkish character, have been defaced, "chartâ
fenestrata." A somewhat more compressed analysis of the
contents of these volumes appeared in the _Sylloge
Opusculorum Hist.-Crit., Literariorum, J.A. Fabricii, Hamb._
1738, 4to., p. 363, 378--preceded, however, by a pleasing,
yet brief account of the leading features of Erasmus's
literary life. Tn one of his letters to Colet, Erasmus
describes himself as "a very poor fellow in point of
fortune, and wholly exempt from ambition." A little before
his death he sold his library to one John a Lasco, a
Polonese, for only 200 florins. (Of this amiable foreigner,
see Stypye's [Transcriber's Note: Strype's] _Life of
Crammer_ [Transcriber's Note: Cranmer]; b. ii., ch. xxii.)
Nor did he--notwithstanding his services to booksellers--and
although every press was teeming with his lucubrations--and
especially that of Colinæeus--(which alone put forth 24,000
copies of his _Colloquies_) ever become much the wealthier
for his talents as an author. His bibliomaniacal spirit was
such, that he paid most liberally those who collated or
described works of which he was in want. In another of his
letters, he declares that "he shall not recieve
[Transcriber's Note: receive] an _obolus_ that year; as he
had spent more than what he had gained in rewarding those
who had made book-researches for him;" and he complains,
after being five months at Cambridge, that he had,
fruitlessly, spent upwards of fifty crowns. "Noblemen," says
he, "love and praise literature, and my lucubrations; but
they praise and do not reward." To his friend Eobanus Hessus
(vol. vi., 25), he makes a bitter complaint "de Comite
quodam." For the particulars, see the last mentioned
authority, p. 363, 4. In the year 1519, Godenus, to whom
Erasmus had bequeathed a silver bowl, put forth a facetious
catalogue of his works, in hexameter and pentameter verses;
which was printed at Louvain by Martin, without date, in
4to.; and was soon succeeded by two more ample and
methodical ones by the same person in 1537, 4to.; printed by
Froben and Episcopius. See Marchand's _Dict. Bibliogr. et
Histor._, vol. i., p. 98, 99. The bibliomaniac may not
object to be informed that Froben, shortly after the death
of his revered Erasmus, put forth this first edition of the
entire works of the latter, in nine folio volumes; and that
accurate and magnificent as is Le Clerc's edition of the
same (may I venture to hint at the rarity of LARGE PAPER
copies of it?), "it takes no notice of the _Index
Expurgatorius_ of the early edition of Froben, which has
shown a noble art of curtailing this, as well as other
authors." See _Knight's Life of Erasmus_, p. 353. The
mention of Froben and Erasmus, thus going down to
immortality together, induces me to inform the curious
reader that my friend Mr. Edwards is possessed of a chaste
and elegant painting, by Fuseli, of this distinguished
author and printer--the portraits being executed after the
most authentic representations. Erasmus is in the act of
calmly correcting the press, while Froben is urging with
vehemence some emendations which he conceives to be of
consequence, but to which his master seems to pay no
attention! And now having presented the reader (p. 221,
ante) with the _supposed_ study of Colet, nothing remains
but to urge him to enter in imagination, with myself, into
the _real_ study of Erasmus; of which we are presented with
the exterior in the following view--taken from Dr. Knight's
_Life of Erasmus_; p. 124.
[Illustration]
I shall conclude this ERASMIANA (if the reader will premit
[Transcriber's Note: permit] me so to entitle it) with a
wood-cut exhibition of a different kind: it being perhaps
the earliest portrait of Erasmus published in this country.
It is taken from a work entitled, "_The Maner and Forme of
Confesion_," printed by Byddell [Transcriber's Note:
Byddel], in 8vo., without date; and is placed immediately
under an address from Erasmus, to Moline, Bishop of Condome;
dated 1524; in which the former complains bitterly of "the
pain and grief of the reins of his back." The print is taken
from a tracing of the original, made by me, from a neat copy
of Byddel's edition, in the collection of Roger Wilbraham,
Esq. I am free to confess that it falls a hundred degrees
short of Albert Durer's fine print of him, executed A.D.
1526.
[Illustration: 1524]]
LIS. Let me go and bring it here! While you talk thus, I long to feast
my eyes upon these grand books.
LYSAND. You need not. Nor must I give to Erasmus a greater share of
attention than is due to him. We have a large and varied field--or
rather domain--yet to pass over. Wishing, therefore, Lorenzo speedily
to purchase a small bronze figure of him, from the celebrated large
one at Rotterdam, and to place the same upon a copy of his first
edition of the _Greek Testament_ printed _upon vellum_,[301] by way of
a pedestal--I pass on to the notice of other bibliomaniacs of this
period.
[Footnote 301: In the library of York cathedral there is a
copy of the first edition of Erasmus's Greek and Latin
Testament, 1516, fol., struck off UPON VELLUM. This, I
believe, was never before generally known.]
Subdued be every harsher feeling towards WOLSEY, when we contemplate
even the imperfect remains of his literary institutions which yet
survive! That this chancellor and cardinal had grand views, and a
magnificent taste, is unquestionable: and I suppose few libraries
contained more beautiful or more numerous copies of precious volumes
than his own. For, when in favour with his royal master, Henry VIII.,
Wolsey had, in all probability, such an ascendency over him as to coax
from him almost every choice book which he had inherited from his
father, Henry VII.; and thus I should apprehend, although no
particular mention is made of his library in the inventories of his
goods[302] which have been published, there can be no question about
such a character as that of Wolsey having numerous copies of the
choicest books, bound in velvet of all colours, embossed with gold or
silver, and studded even with precious stones! I conceive that his
own _Prayer Book_ must have been gorgeous in the extreme! Unhappy
man--a pregnant and ever-striking example of the fickleness of human
affairs, and of the instability of human grandeur! When we think of
thy baubles and trappings--of thy goblets of gold, and companies of
retainers--and turn our thoughts to Shakspeare's shepherd, as
described in the soliloquy of one of our monarchs, we are fully
disposed to admit the force of such truths as have been familiar to us
from boyhood, and which tell us that those shoulders feel the most
burdened upon which the greatest load of responsibility rests. Peace
to the once proud, and latterly repentant, spirit of Wolsey!
[Footnote 302: In the last _Variorum edition of Shakspeare_,
1803, vol. xv., p. 144, we are referred by Mr. Douce to "the
particulars of this inventory at large, in Stowe's
_Chronicle_, p. 546, edit. 1631:" my copy of Stowe is of the
date of 1615; but, not a syllable is said of it in the place
here referred to, or at any other page; although the account
of Wolsey is ample and interesting. Mr. Douce (_ibid._) says
that, among the _Harl. MSS._ (no. 599) there is one
entitled "An Inventorie of Cardinal Wolsey's rich householde
stuffe; temp. Hen. VIII.; the original book, as it seems,
kept by his own officers." In Mr. Gutch's _Collectanea
Curiosa_, vol. ii., 283-349, will be found a copious account
of Wolsey's plate:--too splendid, almost, for belief. To a
life and character so well known as are those of Wolsey, and
upon which Dr. Fiddes has published a huge folio of many
hundred pages, the reader will not here expect any
additional matter which may convey much novelty or interest.
The following, however, may be worth submitting to his
consideration. The Cardinal had poetical, as well as
political, enemies. Skelton and Roy, who did not fail to
gall him with their sharp lampoons, have shewn us, by their
compositions which have survived, that they were no
despicable assailants. In the former's "_Why come ye not to
Court?_" we have this caustic passage:
He is set so high
In his hierarchy
Of frantic _frenesy_
And foolish fantasy,
That in chamber of stars
All matters there he mars,
Clapping his rod on the _borde_
No man dare speake a word;
For he hath all the saying
Without any _renaying_:
He rolleth in his records
He saith: "How say ye my lords?
Is not my reason good?"
Good!--even good--Robin-hood?
Borne upon every side
_With pomp and with pride, &c._
To drink and for to eat
Sweet _ypocras_, and sweet meat,
To keep his flesh chaste
In Lent, for his repast
He eateth capons stew'd
Pheasant and partidge mewed.
WARTON'S _Hist. Engl. Poetry_, vol. ii., 345.
Steevens has also quoted freely from this poem of Skelton;
see the editions of _Shakspeare_, 1793, and 1803, in the
play of "King Henry VIII." Skelton's satire against Wolsey
is noticed by our chronicler Hall: "In this season, the
cardinal, by his power legantine, dissolved the convocation
at Paul's, called by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and
called him and all the clergy to his convocation to
Westminster, which was never seen before in England; whereof
Master Skelton, a merry poet, wrote:
Gentle Paul lay down thy _sweard_
For Peter of Westminster hath shaven thy beard."
_Chronicle_, p. 637, edit. 1809.
In Mr. G. Ellis's _Specimens of the Early English Poets_,
vol. ii., pp. 7, 8, there is a curious extract from the same
poet's "_Image of Ypocrycye_"--relating to Sir Thomas
More--which is printed for the first time from "an
apparently accurate transcript" of the original, in the
possession of Mr. Heber. From the last mentioned work (vol.
ii., p. 11, &c.), there is rather a copious account of a yet
more formidable poetical attack against Wolsey, in the
"_Rede me and be not wroth_," of William Roy: a very rare
and precious little black-letter volume, which, although it
has been twice printed, is scarcely ever to be met with, and
was unknown to Warton. It will, however, make its appearance
in one of the supplemental volumes of Mr. Park's valuable
reprint of the _Harleian Miscellany_. While the cardinal was
thus attacked, in the biting strains of poetry, he was
doomed to experience a full share of reprobation in the
writings of the most popular theologians. William Tyndale
stepped forth to shew his zeal against papacy in his
"_Practise of Popishe Prelates_," and from this work, as it
is incorporated in those of Tyndale, Barnes, and Frith,
printed by Day in 1572, fol., the reader is presented with
the following amusing specimen of the author's vein of
humour and indignation: "And as I heard it spoken of divers,
he made, by craft of necromancy, graven imagery to bear upon
him; wherewith he bewitched the king's mind--and made the
king to doat upon him, more than he ever did on any lady or
gentlewoman: so that now the king's grace followed him, as
he before followed the king. And then what he said, that was
wisdom; what he praised, that was honourable only." Practise
of Popishe Prelates, p. 368. At p. 369, he calls him "Porter
of Heaven." "There he made a journey of gentlemen, arrayed
altogether in silks, so much as their very shoes and lining
of their boots; more like their mothers than men of war:
yea, I am sure that many of their mothers would have been
ashamed of so nice and wanton array. Howbeit, they went not
to make war, but peace, for ever and a day longer. But to
speak of the pompous apparel of my lord himself, and of his
chaplains, it passeth the xij Apostles. I dare swear that if
Peter and Paul had seen them suddenly, and at a blush, they
would have been harder in belief that they, or any such,
should be their successors than Thomas Didimus was to
believe that Christ was risen again from death." _Idem_, p.
370,--"for the worship of his hat and glory of his precious
shoes--when he was pained with the cholic of an evil
conscience, having no other shift, because his soul could
find no other issue,--he took himself a medicine, _ut
emitteret spiritum per posteriora_." Exposition upon the
first Ep. of St. John, p. 404. Thomas Lupset, who was a
scholar of Dean Colet, and a sort of _elève_ of the
cardinal, (being appointed tutor to a bastard son of the
latter) could not suppress his sarcastical feelings in
respect of Wolsey's pomp and severity of discipline. From
Lupset's works, printed by Berthelet in 1546, 12mo., I
gather, in his address to his "hearty beloved Edmond"--that
"though he had there with him plenty of books, yet the place
suffered him not to spend in them any study: for you shall
understand (says he) that I lie waiting on my LORD CARDINAL,
whose hours I must observe to be always at hand, lest I
should be called when I am not by: the which should be taken
for a fault of great negligence. Wherefore, that I am now
well satiated with the beholding of these gay hangings, that
garnish here every wall, I will turn me and talk with you."
(_Exhortacion to yonge men_, fol. 39, rev.) Dr. Wordsworth,
in the first volume of his _Ecclesiastical Biography_, has
printed, for the first time, the genuine text of Cavendish's
interesting life of his reverend master, Wolsey. It is well
worth perusal. But the reader, I fear, is beginning to be
outrageous (having kept his patience, during this
long-winded note, to the present moment) for some
_bibliomaniacal_ evidence of Wolsey's attachment to gorgeous
books. He is presented, therefore, with the following case
in point. My friend Mr. Ellis, of the British Museum,
informs me that, in the splendid library of that
establishment, there are two copies of Galen's "_Methodus
Medendi_," edited by Linacre, and printed at Paris, in
folio, 1519. One copy, which belonged to Henry the Eighth,
has an illuminated title, with the royal arms at the bottom
of the title-page. The other, which is also illuminated, has
the cardinal's cap in the same place, above an empty shield.
Before the dedication to the king, in the latter copy,
Linacre has inserted an elegant Latin epistle to WOLSEY, in
manuscript. The king's copy is rather the more beautiful of
the two: but the _unique_ appendage of the Latin epistle
shews that the editor considered the cardinal a more
distinguished bibliomaniac than the monarch.]
We have now reached the REFORMATION; upon which, as Burnet, Collier,
and Strype, have written huge folio volumes, it shall be my object to
speak sparingly: and chiefly as it concerns the history of the
Bibliomania. A word or two, however, about its origin, spirit, and
tendency.
It seems to have been at first very equivocal, with Henry the Eighth,
whether he would take any decisive measures in the affair, or not. He
hesitated, resolved, and hesitated again.[303] The creature of caprice
and tyranny, he had neither fixed principles, nor settled data, upon
which to act. If he had listened to the temperate advice of CROMWELL
or CRANMER,[304] he would have attained his darling object by less
decisive, but certainly by more justifiable, means. Those able and
respectable counsellors saw clearly that violent measures would
produce violent results; and that a question of law, of no mean
magnitude, was involved in the very outset of the transaction--for
there seemed, on the one side, no right to possess; and, on the other,
no right to render possession.[305]
[Footnote 303: "The king seemed to think that his subjects
owed an entire resignation of their reasons and consciences
to him; and, as he was highly offended with those who still
adhered to the papal authority, so he could not bear the
haste that some were making to a further reformation, before
or beyond his allowance. So, in the end of the year 1538, he
set out a proclamation, in which he prohibits the importing
of all foreign books, or the printing of any at home without
license; and the printing of any parts of the scripture,
'till they were examined by the king and his council," &c.
"He requires that none may argue against the presence of
Christ in the Sacrament, under the pain of death, and of the
loss of their goods; and orders all to be punished who did
disuse any rites or ceremonies not then abolished; yet he
orders them only to be observed without superstition, only
as remembrances, and not to repose in them a trust of
salvation."--Burnet's _Hist. of the Reformation_. But long
before this obscure and arbitrary act was passed, Henry's
mind had been a little shaken against papacy from a singular
work, published by one Fish, called "_The Supplication of
Beggers_." Upon this book being read through in the presence
of Henry, the latter observed, shrewdly enough, "If a man
should pull down an old stone wall, and begin at the lower
part, the upper part thereof might chance to fall upon his
head." "And then he took the book, and put it into his desk,
and commanded them, upon their allegiance, that they should
not tell to any man that he had seen this book." Fox's _Book
of Martyrs_; vol. ii., p. 280: edit. 1641. Sir Thomas More
answered this work (which depicted, in frightful colours,
the rapacity of the Roman Catholic clergy), in 1529; see my
edition of the latter's _Utopia_; vol. i., xciii.]
[Footnote 304: "These were some of the resolute steps King
Henry made towards the obtaining again this long struggled
for, and almost lost, right and prerogative of kings, in
their own dominions, of being supreme, against the
encroachments of the bishops of Rome. Secretary CROMWEL had
the great stroke in all this. All these counsels and methods
were struck out of his head." Strype's _Ecclesiastical
Memorials_; vol. i., p. 205. When great murmurs ensued, on
the suppression of the monasteries, because of the cessation
of hospitality exercised in them, "CROMWELL advised the king
to sell their lands, at very easie rates, to the gentry in
the several counties, obliging them, since they had them
upon such terms, to keep up the wonted hospitality. This
drew in the gentry apace," &c. Burnet's _Hist. of the
Reformation_; vol. i., p. 223. "ARCHBISHOP CRANMER is said
to have counselled and pressed the king to dissolve the
monasteries; but for other ends (than those of personal
enmity against 'the monks or friars'--or of enriching
himself 'with the spoils' of the same); viz. that, out of
the revenues of these monasteries, the king might found more
bishoprics; and that dioceses, being reduced into less
compass, the diocesans might the better discharge their
office, according to the scripture and primitive
rules.----And the archbishop hoped that, from these ruins,
there would be new foundations in every cathedral erected,
to be nurseries of learning for the use of the whole
diocese." Strype's _Life of Archbishop Cranmer_, p. 35.]
[Footnote 305: "A very rational doubt yet remained, how
religious persons could alienate and transfer to the king a
property, of which they themselves were only tenants for
life: and an act of parliament was framed in order to remove
all future scruples on this head, and 'settle rapine and
sacrilege,' as Lord Herbert terms them, 'on the king and his
heirs for ever.'----It does not appear to have been debated,
in either house, whether they had a power to dispossess some
hundred thousand persons of their dwellings and fortunes,
whom, a few years before, they had declared to be good
subjects: if such as live well come under that
denomination."--"Now," says Sir Edward Coke, "observe the
conclusion of this tragedy. In that very parliament, when
the great and opulent priory of St. John of Jerusalem was
given to the king, and which was the last monastery seized
on, he demanded a fresh subsidy of the clergy and laity: he
did the same again within two years; and again three years
after; and since the dissolution exacted great loans, and
against law obtained them."--_Life of Reginald Pole_; vol.
i., p. 247-9: edit. 1767, 8vo. Coke's 4th _Institute_, fol.
44.]
LATIMER, more hasty and enthusiastic than his episcopal brethren, set
all the engines of his active mind to work, as if to carry the point
by a _coup de main_; and although his resolution was, perhaps, upon
more than one occasion, shaken by the sufferings of the innocent,
yet, by his example, and particularly by his sermons,[306] he tried
to exasperate every Protestant bosom against the occupiers of
monasteries and convents.
[Footnote 306: "It was once moved by LATYMER, the good
bishop of Worcester, that two or three of these foundations
might be spared in each diocese, for the sake of
hospitality. Which gave the foresaid bishop occasion to move
the Lord Crumwell once in the behalf of the _Priory of
Malvern_." Strype's _Ecclesiastical Memorials_, vol. i.,
259. Latimer's letter is here printed; and an interesting
one it is. Speaking of the prior, he tells Cromwell that
"The man is old, a good housekeeper, feedeth many; and that,
daily. For the country is poor, and full of penury." But the
hospitality and infirmities of this poor prior were less
likely to operate graciously upon the rapacious mind of
Henry than "the 500 marks to the king, and 200 marks more to
the said Lord Crumwell," which he tendered at the same time.
See Strype, _ibid._ For the credit of Latimer, I hope this
worthy prior was not at the head of the priory when the
former preached before the king, and thus observed: "To let
pass the _solempne_ and nocturnal bacchanals, the prescript
miracles, that are done upon certain days in the West part
of England, who hath not heard? I think ye have heard of
Saint _Blesis's_ heart, which is _at Malvern_, and of Saint
Algar's bones, how long they deluded the people!" See
Latimer's _Sermons_: edit. 1562, 4to.: fol. 12, rect. In
these Sermons, as is justly said above, there are many
cutting philippics--especially against "in-preaching
prelates;" some of whom Latimer doth not scruple to call
"minters--dancers--crouchers--pamperers of their paunches,
like a monk that maketh his jubilee--mounchers in their
mangers, and moilers in their gay manors and mansions:" see
fol. 17, rect. Nevertheless, there are few productions which
give us so lively and interesting a picture of the manners
of the age as the SERMONS OF LATIMER; which were spoilt in
an "_editio castrata_" that appeared in the year 1788, 8vo.
But Latimer was not the only popular preacher who directed
his anathemas against the Roman Catholic clergy. The well
known JOHN FOX entered into the cause of the reformation
with a zeal and success of which those who have slightly
perused his compositions can have but a very inadequate
idea. The following curious (and I may add very interesting)
specimen of Fox's pulpit eloquence is taken from "_A Sermon
of Christ crucified, preached at Paule's Crosse, the Friday
before Easter, commonly called Good Fridaie_:"--"Let me tell
you a story, which I remember was done about the beginning
of Queen Mary's reign, anno 1554. There was a certain
message sent, not from heaven, but from Rome: not from God,
but from the pope: not by any apostle, but by a certain
cardinal, who was called Cardinal Poole, Legatus a latere,
Legatus natus, a legate from the pope's own white side, sent
hither into England. This cardinal legate, first coming to
Dover, was honourably received and brought to Greenwich:
where he again, being more honourably received by lords of
high estate, and of the Privy Council (of whom some are yet
alive) was conducted thence to the privy stairs of the
queen's court at Westminster, no less person than King
Philip himself waiting upon him, and receiving him; and so
was brought to the queen's great chamber, she then being, or
else pretending, not to be well at ease. Stephen Gardiner,
the bishop of Winchester, and Lord Chancellor of England,
receiving this noble legate in the king and the queen's
behalf, to commend and set forth the authority of this
legate, the greatness of his message, and the supreme
majesty of the sender, before the public audience of the
whole parliament at that time assembled, there openly
protested, with great solemnity of words, what a mighty
message, and of what great importance was then brought into
the realm, even the greatest message (said he) that ever
came into England, and therefore desired them to give
attentive and inclinable ears to such a famous legation,
sent from so high authority." "Well, and what message was
this? forsooth, that the realm of England should be
reconciled again unto their father the pope; that is to say,
that the queen, with all her nobility and sage council, with
so many learned prelates, discreet lawyers, worthy commons,
and the whole body of the realm of England, should captive
themselves, and become underlings to an Italian stranger,
and friarly priest, sitting in Rome, which never knew
England, never was here, never did, or shall do, England
good. And this forsooth (said Gardiner) was the greatest
ambassage, the weightiest legacy that ever came to England:
forgetting belike either this message of God, sent here by
his apostles unto vs, or else because he saw it made not so
much for his purpose as did the other, he made the less
account thereof." "Well, then, and will we see what a
weighty message this was that Gardiner so exquisitely
commended? first, the sender is gone, the messenger is gone,
the queen is gone, and the message gone, and yet England
standeth not a rush the better. Of which message I thus say,
answering again to Gardiner, _per inversionem Rhetoricam_,
that, as he sayeth, it was the greatest--so I say again, it
was the lightest--legacy; the most ridiculous trifle, and
most miserablest message, of all other that ever came, or
ever shall come, to England, none excepted, for us to be
reconciled to an outlandish priest, and to submit our necks
under a foreign yoke. What have we to do more with him than
with the great Calypha of Damascus? If reconciliation ought
to follow, where offences have risen, the pope hath offended
us more than his coffers are able to make us amends. We
never offended him. But let the pope, with his
reconciliation and legates, go, as they are already gone
(God be thanked): and I beseech God so they may be gone,
that they never come here again. England never fared better
than when the pope did most curse it. And yet I hear
whispering of certain privy reconcilers, sent of late by the
pope, which secretly creep in corners. But this I leave to
them that have to do with all. Let us again return to our
matter."--_Imprinted by Jhon Daie_, &c., 1575, 8vo., sign.
A. vij.-B. i.]
With Henry, himself, the question of spiritual supremacy was soon
changed, or merged (as the lawyers call it) into the exclusive
consideration of adding to his wealth. The Visitors who had been
deputed to inspect the abbies, and to draw up reports of the same
(some of whom, by the bye, conducted themselves with sufficient
baseness[307]), did not fail to inflame his feelings by the tempting
pictures which they drew of the riches appertaining to these
establishments.[308] Another topic was also strongly urged upon
Henry's susceptible mind: the alleged abandoned lives of the owners of
them. These were painted with a no less overcharged pencil:[309] so
that nothing now seemed wanting but to set fire to the train of
combustion which had been thus systematically laid.
[Footnote 307: Among the visitors appointed to carry into
execution the examination of the monasteries, was a Dr.
London; who "was afterwards not only a persecutor of
Protestants, but a suborner of false witnesses against them,
and was now zealous even to officiousness in suppressing the
monasteries. He also studied to frighten the abbess of
Godstow into a resignation. She was particularly in
Cromwell's favour:" &c. Burnet: _Hist. of the Reformation_,
vol. iii., p. 132. Among Burnet's "Collection of Records,"
is the letter of this said abbess, in which she tells
Cromwell that "Doctor London was suddenly _cummyd_ unto her,
with a great rout with him; and there did threaten her and
her sisters, saying that he had the king's commission to
suppress the house, spite of her teeth. And when he saw that
she was content that he should do all things according to
his commission, and shewed him plain that she would never
surrender to his band, being her ancient enemy--then he
began to entreat her and to inveigle her sisters, one by
one, otherwise than ever she heard tell that any of the
king's subjects had been handel'd;" vol. iii., p. 130.
"Collection." It is not very improbable that this treatment
of Godstow nunnery formed a specimen of many similar
visitations. As to London himself, he ended his days in the
Fleet, after he had been adjudged to ride with his face to
the horse's tail, at Windsor and Oakingham. Fox in his _Book
of Martyrs_, has given us a print of this transaction;
sufficiently amusing. Dod, in his _Church History_, vol. i.,
p. 220, has of course not spared Dr. London. But see, in
particular, Fuller's shrewd remarks upon the character of
these visitors, or "emissaries;" _Church History_, b. vi.,
pp. 313, 314.]
[Footnote 308: "The yearly revenue of all the abbies
suppressed is computed at £135,522_l._ 18_s._ 10_d._ Besides
this, the money raised out of the stock of cattle and corn,
out of the timber, lead, and bells; out of the furniture,
plate, and church ornaments, amounted to a vast sum, as may
be collected from what was brought off from the monastery of
St. Edmonsbury. Hence, as appears from records, 5000 marks
of gold and silver, besides several jewels of great value,
were seized by the visitors." Collier's _Ecclesiastical
History_, vol. ii., 165. See also Burnet's similar work,
vol. i., p. 223. Collier specifies the valuation of certain
monasteries, which were sufficiently wealthy; but he has not
noticed that of St. Swithin's in Winchester--of which Strype
has given so minute and interesting an inventory. A lover of
old coins and relics may feed his imagination with a
gorgeous picture of what might have been the "massive silver
and golden crosses and shrines garnished with stones"--but a
tender-hearted bibliomaniac will shed tears of agony on
thinking of the fate of "A BOOK OF THE FOUR EVANGELISTS,
WRITTEN AL WITH GOLD; AND THE UTTER SIDE OF PLATE OF GOLD!"
_Life of Cranmer_, _Appendix_, pp. 24-28.]
[Footnote 309: The amiable and candid Strype has polluted
the pages of his valuable _Ecclesiastical Memorials_ with an
account of such horrid practices, supposed to have been
carried on in monasteries, as must startle the most
credulous Anti-Papist; and which almost leads us to conclude
that _a legion of fiends_ must have been let loose upon
these "Friar Rushes!" The author tells us that he takes his
account from authentic documents--but these documents turn
out to be the letters of the visitors; and of the character
of one of these the reader has just had a sufficient proof.
Those who have the work here referred to, vol. i., p. 256-7,
may think, with the author of it, that "this specimen is
enough and too much." What is a little to be marvelled at,
Strype suffers his prejudices against the conduct of the
monks to be heightened by a letter from one of the name of
Beerly, at Pershore; who, in order that he might escape the
general wreck, turned tail upon his brethren, and vilified
them as liberally as their professed enemies had done. Now,
to say the least, this was not obtaining what Chief Baron
Gilbert, in his famous Law of Evidence, has laid it down as
necessary to be obtained--"the best possible evidence that
the nature of the case will admit of." It is worth remarking
that Fuller has incorporated a particular account of the
names of the abbots and of the carnal enormities of which
they are supposed to have been guilty; but he adds that he
took it from the 3d edition of Speed's _Hist. of Great
Britain_, and (what is worth special notice) that it was not
to be found in the prior ones: "being a posthume addition
after the author's death, attested in the margine with the
authority of Henry Steven his _Apologie for Herodotus_, who
took the same out of an English book, containing the
_Vileness discovered at the Visitation of Monasteries_."
_Church History_, b. vi., pp. 316, 317.]
A pause perhaps of one moment might have ensued. A consideration of
what had been done, in these monasteries, for the preservation of the
literature of past ages, and for the cultivation of elegant and
peaceful pursuits, might, like "the still small voice" of conscience,
have suspended, for a second, the final sentence of confiscation. The
hospitality for which the owners of these places had been, and were
then, eminently distinguished; but more especially the yet higher
consideration of their property having been left with them only as a
sacred pledge to be handed down, unimpaired, to their successors--these
things,[310] one would think, might have infused some little mercy
and moderation into Henry's decrees!
[Footnote 310: There are two points, concerning the
subversion of monasteries, upon which all sensible Roman
Catholics make a rest, and upon which they naturally indulge
a too well-founded grief. The dispersion of books or
interruption of study; and the breaking up of ancient
hospitality. Let us hear Collier upon the subject: "The
advantages accruing to the public from these religious
houses were considerable, upon several accounts. To mention
some of them: The temporal nobility and gentry had a
creditable way of providing for their younger children.
Those who were disposed to withdraw from the world, or not
likely to make their fortunes in it, had a handsome retreat
to the cloister. Here they were furnished with conveniences
for life and study, with opportunities for thought and
recollection; and, over and above, passed their time in a
condition not unbecoming their quality."--"The abbies were
very serviceable places for the education of young people:
every convent had one person or more assigned for this
business. Thus the children of the neighbourhood were taught
grammar and music without any charge to their parents. And,
in the nunneries, those of the other sex learned to work and
read English, with some advances into Latin," &c.--"Farther,
it is to the abbies we are obliged for most of our
historians, both of church and state: these places of
retirement had both most learning and leisure for such
undertakings: neither did they want information for such
employment," _Ecclesiastical History_, vol. ii., 165. A host
of Protestant authors, with Lord Herbert at the head of
them, might be brought forward to corroborate these sensible
remarks of Collier. The hospitality of the monastic life has
been on all sides admitted; and, according to Lord Coke, one
of the articles of impeachment against Cardinal Wolsey was
that he had caused "this hospitality and relief to grow into
decay and disuse;" which was "a great cause that there were
so many vagabonds, beggars, and thieves;"--_Fourth
Institute_; p. 91, edit. 1669. So that the author of an
ancient, and now rarely perused work had just reason, in
describing the friars of his time as "living in common upon
the goods of a monastery, either gotten by common labour, or
else upon lands and possessions where with the monastery was
endowed." _Pype or Tonne of the Lyfe of Perfection_; fol.
clxxii., rev. 1532, 4to. And yet, should the active
bibliomaniac be disposed to peruse this work, after
purchasing Mr. Triphook's elegant copy of the same, he might
probably not think very highly of the author's good sense,
when he found him gravely telling us that "the appetite of
clean, sweet, and fair, or fine cloaths, and oft-washing and
curious _pykyng_ of the body, is an enemy of chastity," fol.
ccxxix. rect. The DEVASTATION OF BOOKS was, I fear,
sufficiently frightful to warrant the following writers in
their respective conclusions. "A judicious author (says
Ashmole) speaking of the dissolution of our monasteries,
saith thus: Many manuscripts, guilty of no other
superstition then (having) _red letters_ in the front, were
condemned to the fire: and here a principal key of antiquity
was lost, to the great prejudice of posterity. Indeed (such
was learning's misfortune, at that great devastation of our
English libraries, that) where a _red letter_ or a
mathematical diagram appeared, they were sufficient to
entitle the book to be popish or diabolical." _Theatrum
Chemicum_; prolegom. A. 2. rev. "The avarice of the late
intruders was so mean, and their ignorance so
undistinguishing, that, when the books happened to have
COSTLY COVERS, they tore them off, and threw away the works,
or turned them to the vilest purposes." _Life of Reginald
Pole_; vol. i., p. 253-4, edit. 1767, 8vo. The author of
this last quotation then slightly notices what Bale has said
upon these book-devastations; and which I here subjoin at
full length; from my first edition of this work:--"Never
(says Bale) had we been offended for the loss of our
LIBRARIES, being so many in number, and in so desolate
places for the more part, if the chief monuments and most
notable works of our excellent writers had been preserved.
If there had been, in every shire of England, but one
SOLEMPNE LIBRARY, to the preservation of those noble works,
and preferment of good learning in our posterity, it had
been yet somewhat. But to destroy all, without
consideration, is, and will be, unto England, for ever, a
most horrible infamy among the grave seniors of other
nations. A great number of them, which purchased those
superstitious mansions, reserved of those library-books some
to serve the _jakes_, some to scour their candlesticks, and
some to rub their boots: some they sold to the grocers and
soap sellers; some they sent over sea to the book-binders,
not in small number, but at times whole ships full, to the
wondering of the foreign nations. Yea, the Universities of
the realm are not all clear of this detestable fact. But
cursed is that belly which seeketh to be fed with such
ungodly gains, and shameth his natural country. I know a
merchant man, which shall at this time be nameless, that
_bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty
shillings price_; a shame it is to be spoken! This stuff
hath he occupied in the stead of grey paper, by the space of
more than ten years, and yet he hath store enough for as
many years to come!" Preface to _Leland's Laboryouse
Journey_, &c., 1549, 8vo. Reprint of 1772; sign. C.]
PHIL. But what can be said in defence of the dissolute lives of the
monks?
LYSAND. Dissoluteness shall never be defended by me, let it be shewn
by whom it may; and therefore I will not take the part, on this head,
of the tenants of old monasteries. But, Philemon, consider with what
grace could this charge come from HIM who had "shed innocent blood,"
to gratify his horrid lusts?
LIS. Yet, tell me, did not the dissolution of these libraries in some
respects equally answer the ends of literature, by causing the books
to come into other hands?
LYSAND. No doubt, a few studious men reaped the benefit of this
dispersion, by getting possession of many curious volumes with which,
otherwise, they might never have been acquainted. If my memory be not
treacherous, the celebrated grammarian ROBERT WAKEFIELD[311] was
singularly lucky in this way. It is time, however, to check my
rambling ideas. A few more words only, and we cease to sermonize upon
the Reformation.
[Footnote 311: "This ROBERT WAKEFIELD was the prime linguist
of his time, having obtained beyond the seas the Greek,
Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac tongues. In one thing he is to
be commended, and that is this, that he carefully preserved
divers books of Greek and Hebrew at the dissolution of
religious houses, and especially some of those in the
library of Ramsey abbey, composed by Laurence Holbecke, monk
of that place, in the reign of Henry IV. He died at London
8th October, 1537, leaving behind him the name of _Polypus_,
as Leland is pleased to style him, noting that he was of a
witty and crafty behaviour." Wood's _Hist. of Colleges and
Halls_, p. 429, Gutch's edit.]
PHIL. There is no occasion to be extremely laconic. The evening has
hardly yet given way to night. The horizon, I dare say, yet faintly
glows with the setting-sun-beams. But proceed as you will.
LYSAND. The commotions which ensued from the arbitrary measures of
Henry were great;[312] but such as were naturally to be expected. At
length Henry died, and a young and amiable prince reigned for a few
months. Mary next ascended the throne; and the storm took an opposite
direction. Then an attempt was made to restore chalices, crucifixes,
and missals. But the short period of her sovereignty making way for
the long and illustrious one of her sister Elizabeth, the Cecils and
Walsinghams[313] united their great talents with the equally vigorous
ones of the Queen and her favourite archbishop Parker, in establishing
that form of religion which, by partaking in a reasonable degree of
the solemnity of the Romish church, and by being tempered with great
simplicity and piety in its prayers, won its way to the hearts of the
generality of the people. Our _Great English Bibles_[314] were now
restored to their conspicuous situations; and the Bibliomania, in
consequence, began to spread more widely and effectively.
[Footnote 312: Fuller has devoted one sentence only, and
that not written with his usual force, to the havoc and
consternation which ensued on the devastation of the
monasteries. _Ch. Hist._, b. vi., p. 314. Burnet is a little
more moving: _Hist. of the Reformation_; vol. i., p. 223.
But, from the foregoing premises, the reader may probably be
disposed to admit the conclusion of a virulent Roman
Catholic writer, even in its fullest extent: namely, that
there were "subverted monasteries, overthrown abbies, broken
churches, torn castles, rent towers, overturned walls of
towns and fortresses, with the confused heaps of all ruined
monuments." _Treatise of Treasons_, 1572, 8vo., fol. 148,
rev.]
[Footnote 313: There are few bibliographers at all versed in
English literature and history, who have not heard, by some
side wind or other, of the last mentioned work; concerning
which Herbert is somewhat interesting in his notes:
_Typographical Antiquities_, vol. iii., p. 1630. The reader
is here presented with a copious extract from this curious
and scarce book--not for the sake of adding to these
ponderous notes relating to the REFORMATION--(a subject,
upon which, from a professional feeling, I thought it my
duty to say something!)--but for the sake of showing how
dexterously the most important events and palpable truths
may be described and perverted by an artful and headstrong
disputant. The work was written expressly to defame
ELIZABETH, CECIL, and BACON, and to introduce the Romish
religion upon the ruins of the Protestant. The author thus
gravely talks
"_Of Queen Mary and her Predecessors._
"She (Mary) found also the whole face of the commonwealth
settled and acquieted in the ancient religion; in which, and
by which, all kings and queens of that realm (from as long
almost before the conquest as that conquest was before that
time) had lived, reigned, and maintained their states; and
the terrible correction of those few that swerved from it
notorious, as no man could be ignorant of it. As King John,
without error in religion, for contempt only of the See
Apostolic, plagued with the loss of his state, till he
reconciled himself, and acknowledged to hold his crown of
the Pope. King Henry VIII., likewise, with finding no end of
heading and hanging, till (with the note of tyranny for
wasting his nobility) he had headed him also that procured
him to it. Fol. 85, 86.
"_Libellous Character of Cecil._
"In which stem and trunk (being rotten at heart, hollow
within, and without sound substance) hath our spiteful
pullet (CECIL) laid her ungracious eggs, mo than a few: and
there hath hatched sundry of them, and brought forth
chickens of her own feather, I warrant you. A hen I call
him, as well for his cackling, ready and smooth tongue,
wherein he giveth place to none, as for his deep and subtle
art in hiding his serpentine eggs from common men's sight:
chiefly for his hennish heart and courage, which twice
already hath been well proved to be as base and deject at
the sight of any storm of adverse fortune, as ever was hen's
heart at the sight of a fox. And, had he not been by his
confederate, as with a dunghill cock, trodden as it were and
gotten with egg, I doubt whether ever his hennish heart,
joined to his shrewd wit, would have served him, so soon to
put the Q.'s green and tender state in so manifest peril and
adventure. Fol. 88, rect.
"_Libellous Characters of Cecil and N. Bacon._
"Let the houses and possessions of these two Catalines be
considered, let their furniture, and building, let their
daily purchases, and ready hability to purchase still, let
their offices and functions wherein they sit, let their
titles, and styles claimed and used, let their places in
council, let their authority over the nobility, let their
linking in alliance with the same, let their access to the
prince, let their power and credit with her: let this their
present state, I say, in all points (being open and unknown
to no men) be compared with their base parentage and
progeny, (the one raised out of the robes, and the other
from a _Sheeprive's_ son) and let that give sentence as well
of the great difference of the tastes, that the several
fruits gathered of this tree by your Q., and by them do
yield, as whether any man at this day approach near unto
them in any condition wherein advancement consisteth. Yea,
mark you the jollity and pride that in this prosperity they
shew; the port and countenance that every way they carry; in
comparison of them that be noble by birth. Behold at whose
doors your nobility attendeth. Consider in whose chambers
your council must sit, and to whom for resolutions they must
resort; and let these things determine both what was the
purpose indeed, and hidden intention of that change of
religion, and who hath gathered the benefits of that
mutation: that is to say, whether for your Q., for your
realms, or for their own sakes, the same at first was taken
in hand, and since pursued as you have seen. For according
to the principal effects of every action must the intent of
the act be deemed and presumed. For the objected excuses
(that they did it for conscience, or for fear of the French)
be too frivolous and vain to abuse any wise man. For they
that under King Henry were as catholic, as the six articles
required: that under King Edward were such Protestants as
the Protector would have them; that under Q. Mary were
Catholics again, even to creeping to the Cross: and that
under Q. Elizabeth were first Lutheran, setting up Parker,
Cheiny, Gest, Bill, &c., then Calvinists, advancing
Grindall, Juell, Horne, &c.: then Puritans, maintaining
Sampson, Deering, Humfrey, &c.; and now (if not Anabaptists
and Arians) plain Machiavellians, yea, that they persuade in
public speeches that man hath free liberty to dissemble his
religion, and for authority do allege their own examples and
practice of feigning one religion for another in Q. Mary's
time (which containeth a manifest evacuation of Christ's own
coming and doctrine, of the Apostles, preaching and
practice, of the blood of the martyrs, of the constancy of
all confessors; yea, and of the glorious vain deaths of all
the stinking martyrs of their innumerable sects of
hereticks, one and other having always taught the confession
of mouth to be as necessary to salvation as the belief of
heart): shall these men now be admitted to plead conscience
in religion; and can any man now be couzined so much, as to
think that these men by conscience were then moved to make
that mutation?" Fol. 96, 97. "At home, likewise, apparent it
is how they provided, every way to make themselves strong
there also. For being by their own marriages allied already
to the house of Suffolk of the blood royal, and by
consequence thereof to the house of Hertford also, and their
children thereby incorporated to both: mark you how now by
marriage of their children with wily wit and wealth
together, they wind in your other noblest houses unto them
that are left, I mean in credit and countenance. Consider
likewise how, at their own commendation and preferment, they
have erected, as it were, almost a new half of your nobility
(of whom also they have reason to think themselves assured)
and the rest then (that were out of hope to be won to their
faction) behold how, by sundry fine devices, they are either
cut off, worn out, fled, banished or defaced at home," &c.,
fol. 105, rect. The good LORD BURGHLEY, says Strype, was so
moved at this slander that he uttered these words: "God
amend his spirit, and confound his malice." And by way of
protestation of the integrity and faithfulness of both their
services, "God send this estate no worse meaning servants,
in all respects, than we two have been." _Annals of the
Reformation_, vol. ii., 178. Camden's _Hist. of Q.
Elizabeth_, p. 192,--as quoted by Herbert.]
[Footnote 314: "All curates must continually call upon their
parochians to provide a book of the _Holy Bible in English_,
of THE LARGEST FORM, within 40 days next after the
publication hereof, that may be chained in some open place
in the church," &c. Injunctions by Lee, Archbishop of York:
Burnet's _Hist. of the Reformation_, vol. iii., p. 136,
Collections. This custom of fixing a great bible in the
centre of a place of worship yet obtains in some of the
chapels attached to the colleges at Oxford. That of Queen's,
in particular, has a noble brazen eagle, with outstretched
wings, upon which the foundation members read the lessons of
the day in turn.]
LOREN. Had you not better confine yourself to personal anecdote,
rather than enter into the boundless field of historical survey?
LYSAND. I thank you for the hint. Having sermonized upon the general
features of the Reformation, we will resume the kind of discourse with
which we at first set out.
PHIL. But you make no mention of the number of curious and fugitive
pamphlets of the day, which were written in order to depreciate and
exterminate the Roman Catholic religion? Some of these had at least
the merit of tartness and humour.
LYSAND. Consult Fox's _Martyrology_,[315] if you wish to have some
general knowledge of these publications; although I apprehend you will
not find in that work any mention of the poetical pieces of Skelton
and Roy; nor yet of Ramsay.
[Footnote 315: The curious reader who wishes to become
master of all the valuable, though sometimes loose,
information contained in this renowned work--upon which Dr.
Wordsworth has pronounced rather a warm eulogium
(_Ecclesiastical Biography_, vol. i., p. xix.)--should
secure the _first_ edition, as well as the latter one of
1641, or 1684; inasmuch as this first impression, of the
date of 1563, is said by Hearne to be "omnium optima:" see
his Adami de Domerham, _Hist. de reb. gest. Glaston._, vol.
i., p. xxii. I also learn, from an original letter of
Anstis, in the possession of Mr. John Nichols, that "the
late editions are not quite so full in some particulars, and
that many things are left out about the Protector Seymour."]
LOREN. Skelton and Roy are in my library;[316] but who is RAMSAY?
[Footnote 316: Vide p. 226, ante.]
LYSAND. He wrote a comical poetical satire against the Romish priests,
under the title of "_A Plaister for a galled Horse_,"[317] which
Raynald printed in a little thin quarto volume of six or seven pages.
[Footnote 317: In Herbert's _Typographical Antiquities_,
vol. i., p. 581, will be found rather a slight notice of
this raw and vulgar satire. It has, however, stamina of its
kind; as the reader may hence judge:
Mark the gesture, who that lyst;
First a shorne shauelynge, clad in a clowt,
Bearinge the name of an honest priest,
And yet in no place a starker lowte.
A whore monger, a dronkard, ye makyn him be snowte--
At the alehouses he studieth, till hys witte he doth lacke.
Such are your minysters, to bringe thys matter about:
But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe.
Then wraped in a knaues skynne, as ioly as my horse,
Before the aulter, in great contemplacion
Confessinge the synnes of his lubbrysh corse
To god and all saynctes, he counteth hys abhomination
Then home to the aulter, with great saintification
With crosses, and blesses, with his boy lytle Jacke:
Thus forth goeth syr Jhon with all his preparation.
But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe.
Then gloria in excelsis for ioye dothe he synge
More for his fat liuinge, than for devocion:
And many there be that remember another thinge
Which syng not wyth mery hart for lacke of promocion
Thus some be mery, some be sory according to their porcion
Then forth cometh collects, bounde up in a packe,
For this sainct and that sainct, for sickenes, and extorcion
But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe.
Stanzas, 17, 18, 19.
At the sale of Mr. Brand's books, in 1807, a copy of this
rare tract, of six or seven pages, was sold for 3_l._ 17_s._
6_d._ Vide _Bibl. Brand_, part i., no. 1300. This was
surely more than both plaister and horse were worth! A
poetical satire of a similar kind, entitled "_John Bon and
Mast Person_," was printed by Daye and Seres; who struck off
but a few copies, but who were brought into considerable
trouble for the same. The virulence with which the author
and printer of this lampoon were persecuted in Mary's reign
is sufficiently attested by the care which was taken to
suppress every copy that could be secured. The only perfect
known copy of this rare tract was purchased at the sale of
Mr. R. Forster's books, for the Marquis of Bute; and Mr.
Stace, the bookseller, had privilege to make a fac-simile
reprint of it; of which there were six copies struck off
UPON VELLUM. It being now rather common with
book-collectors, there is no necessity to make a quotation
from it here. Indeed there is very little in it deserving of
republication.]
LOREN. I will make a memorandum to try to secure this "comical" piece,
as you call it; but has it never been reprinted in our "_Corpora
Poetarum Anglicorum_?"
LYSAND. Never to the best of my recollection. Mr. Alexander Chalmers
probably shewed his judgment in the omission of it, in his lately
published collection of our poets. A work, which I can safely
recommend to you as being, upon the whole, one of the most faithful
and useful, as well as elegant, compilations of its kind, that any
country has to boast of. But I think I saw it in your library,
Lorenzo?--
LOREN. It was certainly there, and bound in stout Russia, when we
quitted it for this place.
LIS. Dispatch your "gall'd horse," and now--having placed a justly
merited wreath round the brow of your poetical editor, proceed--as
Lorenzo has well said--with personal anecdotes. What has become of
Wyatt and Surrey--and when shall we reach Leland and Bale?
LYSAND. I crave your mercy, Master Lisardo! One at a time. Gently ride
your bibliomaniacal hobby-horse!
WYATT and SURREY had, beyond all question, the most exquisitely
polished minds of their day. They were far above the generality of
their compeers. But although Hall chooses to notice _the whistle_[318]
of the latter, it does not follow that I should notice his _library_,
if I am not able to discover any thing particularly interesting
relating to the same. And so, wishing every lover of his country's
literature to purchase a copy of the poems of both these heroes,[319]
I march onward to introduce a new friend to you, who preceded Leland
in his career, and for an account of whom we are chiefly indebted to
the excellent and best editor of the works of Spencer and Milton.
Did'st ever hear, Lisardo, of one WILLIAM THYNNE?
[Footnote 318: About the year 1519, Hall mentions the Earl
of Surrey "on a great coursir richely trapped, and a greate
whistle of gold set with stones and perle, hanging at a
great and massy chayne baudrick-wise." Chronicles: p. 65, a.
See Warton's _Life of Sir Thomas Pope_: p. 166, note o., ed.
1780. This is a very amusing page about the custom of
wearing whistles, among noblemen, at the commencement of the
16th century. If Franklin had been then alive, he would have
had abundant reason for exclaiming that these men "paid too
much for their _whistles_!"]
[Footnote 319: Till the long promised, elaborate, and
beautiful edition of the works of SIR THOMAS WYATT and LORD
SURREY, by the Rev. Dr. Nott,[E] shall make its appearance,
the bibliomaniac must satisfy his book-appetite, about the
editions of the same which have already appeared, by
perusing the elegant volumes of Mr. George Ellis, and Mr.
Park; _Specimens of the Early English Poets_; vol. ii., pp.
43-67: _Royal and Noble Authors_, vol. i., pp. 255-276. As
to early black letter editions, let him look at _Bibl.
Pearson_, no. 2544; where, however, he will find only the
7th edition of 1587: the first being of the date of 1557.
The eighth and last edition was published by Tonson, in
1717, 8vo. It will be unpardonable not to add that the Rev.
Mr. Conybeare is in possession of a perfect copy of Lord
Surrey's Translation of a part of the Æneid, which is the
third only known copy in existence. Turn to the animating
pages of Warton, _Hist. Engl. Poetry_; vol. iii., pp. 2-21,
about this translation and its author.]
[Footnote E: Conducting this celebrated book through the
press occupied Dr. Nott several years; it was printed by the
father of the printer of this work, in two large 4to.
volumes--and was just finished when, in the year 1819, the
Bolt Court printing-office, and all it contained, was
destroyed by fire. Only _two_ copies of the works of Wyatt
and Surrey escaped, having been sent to Dr. Nott by the
printer, as _clean sheets_.]
LIS. Pray make me acquainted with him.
LYSAND. You will love him exceedingly when you thoroughly know him;
because he was the first man in this country who took pains to do
justice to Chaucer, by collecting and collating the mutilated editions
of his works. Moreover, he rummaged a great number of libraries, under
the express order of Henry VIII.; and seems in every respect (if we
may credit the apparently frank testimony of his son[320]), to have
been a thoroughbred bibliomaniac. Secure Mr. Todd's _Illustrations of
Gower and Chaucer_, and set your heart at ease upon the subject.
[Footnote 320: "--but (my father, WILLIAM THYNNE) further
had commissione to serche all the libraries of England for
Chaucer's works, so that oute of all the abbies of this
realme (which reserved any monuments thereof), he was fully
furnished with multitude of bookes," &c. On Thynne's
discovering Chaucer's Pilgrim's Tale, when Henry VIII. had
read it--"he called (continues the son) my father unto hym,
sayinge, 'William Thynne, I doubt this will not be allowed,
for I suspecte the byshoppes will call thee in question for
yt.' To whome my father beinge in great fauore with his
prince, sayed, 'yf your Grace be not offended, I hope to be
protected by you.' Whereupon the kinge bydd hym goo his waye
and feare not," &c. "But to leave this, I must saye that, in
those many written bookes of Chaucer, which came to my
father's hands, there were many false copyes, which Chaucer
shewethe in writinge of Adam Scriuener, of which written
copies there came to me, after my father's death, some fyve
and twentye," &c. _Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_; pp.
11, 13, 15. Let us not hesitate one moment about the
appellation of _Helluo Librorum_,--justly due to MASTER
WILLIAM THYNNE!]
But it is time to introduce your favourite LELAND: a bibliomaniac of
unparalleled powers and unperishable fame. To entwine the wreath of
praise round the brow of this great man seems to have been considered
by Bale among the most exquisite gratifications of his existence. It
is with no small delight, therefore, Lorenzo, that I view, at this
distance, the marble bust of Leland in yonder niche of your library,
with a laureate crown upon its pedestal. And with almost equal
satisfaction did I observe, yesterday, during the absence of Philemon
and Lisardo at the book-sale, the handsome manner in which
Harrison,[321] in his _Description of England_, prefixed to
Holinshed's Chronicles, has spoken of this illustrious antiquary. No
delays, no difficulties, no perils, ever daunted his personal
courage, or depressed his mental energies. Enamoured of study, to the
last rational moment of his existence, Leland seems to have been born
for the "Laborious Journey" which he undertook in search of truth, as
she was to be discovered among mouldering records, and worm-eaten
volumes. Uniting the active talents of a statist with the painful
research of an antiquary, he thought nothing too insignificant for
observation. The confined streamlet or the capacious river--the
obscure village or the populous town--were, with parchment rolls and
oaken-covered books, alike objects of curiosity in his philosophic
eye! Peace to his once vexed spirit!--and never-fading honours attend
the academical society in which his youthful mind was disciplined to
such laudable pursuits!
[Footnote 321: "One helpe, and none of the smallest, that I
obtained herein, was by such commentaries as LELAND had
sometime collected of the state of Britaine; books vtterlie
mangled, defaced with wet and weather, and finallie
vnperfect through want of sundrie volumes." _Epistle
Dedicatorie_; vol. i., p. vi., edit. 1807. The history of
this great man, and of his literary labours, is most
interesting. He was a pupil of William Lilly, the first
head-master of St. Paul's school; and, by the kindness and
liberality of a Mr. Myles, he afterwards received the
advantage of a college education, and was supplied with
money in order to travel abroad, and make such collections
as he should deem necessary for the great work which even
then seemed to dawn upon his young and ardent mind. Leland
endeavoured to requite the kindness of his benefactor by an
elegant copy of Latin verses, in which he warmly expatiates
on the generosity of his patron, and acknowledges that his
acquaintance with the _Almæ Matres_ (for he was of both
Universities) was entirely the result of such beneficence.
While he resided on the continent, he was admitted into the
society of the most eminent Greek and Latin scholars, and
could probably number among his correspondents the
illustrious names of Budæus, Erasmus, the Stephenses, Faber
and Turnebus. Here, too, he cultivated his natural taste for
poetry; and, from inspecting the FINE BOOKS which the
Italian and French presses had produced, as well as fired by
the love of Grecian learning, which had fled, on the sacking
of Constantinople, to take shelter in the academic bowers of
the Medici--he seems to have matured his plans for carrying
into effect the great work which had now taken full
possession of his mind. He returned to England, resolved to
institute an inquiry into the state of the LIBRARIES,
ANTIQUITIES, RECORDS, and WRITINGS then in existence. Having
entered into holy orders, and obtained preferment at the
express interposition of the king (Henry VIII.), he was
appointed his antiquary and library-keeper; and a royal
commission was issued, in which Leland was directed to
search after "ENGLAND'S ANTIQUITIES, and peruse the
libraries of all cathedrals, abbies, priories, colleges,
&c., as also all the places wherein records, writings, and
secrets of antiquity were reposited." "Before Leland's
time," says Hearne--in a strain which makes one
shudder--"all the literary monuments of antiquity were
totally disregarded; and students of Germany, apprized of
this culpable indifference, were suffered to enter our
libraries unmolested, and to cut out of the books, deposited
there, whatever passages they thought proper--which they
afterwards published as relics of the ancient literature of
their own country." _Pref. to the Itinerary._ Leland was
occupied, without intermission, in his laborious
undertaking, for the space of six years; and, on its
completion, he hastened to the metropolis to lay at the feet
of his sovereign the result of his researches. As John Kay
had presented his translation of the _Siege of Rhodes_ to
Edward IV., as "A GIFT of his labour," so Leland presented
his Itinerary to Henry VIII., under the title of _A New
Year's Gift_; and it was first published as such by Bale in
1549, 8vo. "Being inflamed," says the author, "with a love
to see thoroughly all those parts of your opulent and ample
realm, in so much that all my other occupations intermitted,
I have so travelled in your dominions both by the sea coasts
and the middle parts, sparing neither labour nor costs, by
the space of six years past, that there is neither cape nor
bay, haven, creek, or pier, river, or confluence of rivers,
breaches, wastes, lakes, moors, fenny waters, mountains,
valleys, heaths, forests, chases, woods, cities, burghes,
castles, principal manor places, monasteries, and colleges,
but I have seen them; and noted, in so doing, a whole world
of things very memorable." Leland moreover tells his
majesty--that "By his laborious journey and costly
enterprise, he had conserved many good authors, the which
otherwise had been like to have perished; of the which part
remained in the royal palaces, part also in his own
custody," &c. As Leland was engaged six years in this
literary tour, so he was occupied for a no less period of
time in digesting and arranging the prodigious number of
MSS. which he had collected. But he sunk beneath the
immensity of the task. The want of amanuenses, and of other
attentions and comforts, seems to have deeply affected him.
In this melancholy state, he wrote to Archbishop Cranmer a
Latin epistle, in verse, of which the following is the
commencement--very forcibly describing his situation and
anguish of mind:
Est congesta mihi domi supellex
Ingens, aurea, nobilis, venusta,
Qua totus studeo Britanniarum
Vero reddere gloriam nitori;
Sed fortuna meis noverca coeptis
Jam felicibus invidet maligna.
Quare, ne pereant brevi vel hora
Multarum mihi noctium labores
Omnes----
CRANMERE, eximium decus priorum!
Implorare tuam benignitatem
Cogor.
The result was that Leland lost his senses; and, after
lingering two years in a state of total derangement, he died
on the 18th of April, 1552. "Prôh tristes rerum humanarum
vices! prôh viri optimi deplorandam infelicissimamque
sortem!" exclaims Dr. Smith, in his preface to Camden's
Life, 1691, 4to. The precious and voluminous MSS. of Leland
were doomed to suffer a fate scarcely less pitiable that
[Transcriber's Note: than] that of their owner. After being
pilfered by some, and garbled by others, they served to
replenish the pages of Stow, Lambard, Camden, Burton,
Dugdale, and many other antiquaries and historians.
"Leland's Remains," says Bagford, "have been ever since a
standard to all that have any way treated of the Antiquities
of England. Reginald Wolfe intended to have made use of
them, although this was not done 'till after his death by
Harrison, Holinshed, and others concerned in that work.
Harrison transcribed his Itinerary, giving a Description of
England by the rivers, but he did not understand it. They
have likewise been made use of by several in part, but how
much more complete had this been, had it been finished by
himself?" _Collectanea_: Hearne's edit., 1774; vol. i., p.
LXXVII. Polydore Virgil, who had stolen from these Remains
pretty freely, had the insolence to abuse Leland's
memory--calling him "a vain-glorious man;" but what shall we
say to this flippant egotist? who according to Caius's
testimony (_De Antiq. Cantab. Acad._, lib. 1.) "to prevent a
discovery of the many errors of his own History of England,
collected and burnt a greater number of ancient histories
and manuscripts than would have loaded a waggon." There are
some (among whom I could number a most respectable friend
and well qualified judge) who have doubted of the propriety
of thus severely censuring Polydore Virgil; and who are even
sceptical about his malpractices. But Sir Henry Savile, who
was sufficiently contemporaneous to collect the best
evidence upon the subject, thus boldly observes: "Nam
Polydorus, ut homo Italus, et in rebus nostris hospes, et
(quod caput est) neque in republica versatus, nec magni
alioqui vel judicii vel ingenii, pauca ex multis delibans,
et falsa plerumque pro veris amplexus, historiam nobis
reliquit cum cætera mendosam tum exiliter sanè et jejunè
conscriptam." _Script. post. Bedam._, edit. 1596; pref. "As
for Polydore Virgil, he hath written either nothing or very
little concerning them; and that so little, so false and
misbeseeming the ingenuitie of an historian, that he seemeth
to have aimed at no other end than, by bitter invectives
against Henry VIII., and Cardinal Wolsey, to demerit the
favour of Queen Mary," &c., Godwyn's translation of the
_Annales of England_; edit. 1630, author's Preface. "It is
also remarkable that Polydore Virgil's and Bishop Joscelin's
edition of Gildas's epistle differ so materially that the
author of it hardly seems to be one and the same person."
This is Gale's opinion: _Rer. Anglican. Script. Vet._; vol.
i., pref., p. 4. Upon the whole--to return to Leland--it
must be acknowledged that he is a melancholy, as well as
illustrious, example of the influence of the BIBLIOMANIA!
But do not let us take leave of him without a due
contemplation of his expressive features, as they are given
in the frontispiece of the first volume of the Lives of
Leland, Hearne, and Wood. 1772, 8vo.
[Illustration: IN REFECTORIO COLL. OMN. ANIM. OXON.]]
BALE follows closely after Leland. This once celebrated, and yet
respectable, writer had probably more zeal than discretion; but his
exertions in the cause of our own church can never be mentioned
without admiration. I would not, assuredly, quote Bale as a decisive
authority in doubtful or difficult cases;[322] but, as he lived in
the times of which he in a great measure wrote, and as his society was
courted by the wealthy and powerful, I am not sure whether he merits
to be treated with the roughness with which some authors mention his
labours. He had, certainly, a tolerable degree of strength in his
English style; but he painted with a pencil which reminded us more
frequently of the horrific pictures of Spagnoletti than of the tender
compositions of Albano. That he idolized his master, Leland, so
enthusiastically, will always cover, in my estimation, a multitude of
his errors: and that he should leave a scholar's inventory (as Fuller
saps [Transcriber's Note: says]), "more books than money behind him,"
will at least cause him to be numbered among the most renowned
bibliomaniacs.
[Footnote 322: Like all men, who desert a religion which
they once enthusiastically profess, Bale, after being
zealous for the papal superstitions, holding up his hands to
rotten posts, and calling them his "fathers in heaven,"
(according to his own confession) became a zealous
Protestant, and abused the church of Rome with a virulence
almost unknown in the writings of his predecessors. But in
spite of his coarseness, positiveness, and severity, he
merits the great praise of having done much in behalf of the
cause of literature. His attachment to Leland is,
unquestionably, highly to his honour; but his biographies,
especially of the Romish prelates, are as monstrously
extravagant as his plays are incorrigibly dull. He had a
certain rough honesty and prompt benevolence of character,
which may be thought to compensate for his grosser failings.
His reputation as a _bibliomaniac_ is fully recorded in the
anecdote mentioned at p. 234, ante. His "magnum opus," the
_Scriptores Britanniæ_, has already been noticed with
sufficient minuteness; vide p. 31, ante. It has not escaped
severe animadversion. Francis Thynne tells us that Bale has
"mistaken infynyte thinges in that booke de Scriptoribus
Anglie, being for the most part the collections of Lelande."
_Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_; p. 23. Picard, in his
wretched edition of _Gulielmus Neubrigensis_ (edit. 1610, p.
672), has brought a severe accusation against the author of
having "burnt or torn all the copies of the works which he
described, after he had taken the titles of them;" but see
this charge successfully rebutted in Dr. Pegge's
_Anonymiana_; p. 311. That Bale's library, especially in the
department of manuscripts, was both rich and curious, is
indisputable, from the following passage in _Strype's Life
of Archbishop Parker_. "The archbishop laid out for BALE'S
rare collection of MSS. immediately upon his death, fearing
that they might be gotten by somebody else. Therefore he
took care to bespeak them before others, and was promised to
have them for his money, as he told Cecil. And perhaps
divers of those books that do now make proud the University
Library, and that of Benet and some other colleges, in
Cambridge, were Bale's," p. 539. It would seem, from the
same authority, that our bibliomaniac "set himself to search
the libraries in Oxford, Cambridge, London (wherein there
was but one, and that a slender one), Norwich, and several
others in Norfolk and Suffolk: whence he had collected
enough for another volume De Scriptoribus Britannicis."
_Ibid._ The following very beautiful wood-cut of Bale's
portrait is taken from the original, of the same size, in
the _Acta Romanorum Pontificum_; Basil, 1527, 8vo. A similar
one, on a larger scale, will be found in the "_Scriptores_,"
&c., published at Basil, 1557, or 1559--folio. Mr. Price,
the principal librarian of the Bodleian Library, shewed me a
rare head of Bale, of a very different cast of features--in
a small black-letter book, of which I have forgotten the
name.
[Illustration]]
Before I enter upon the reign of Elizabeth, let me pay a passing, but
sincere, tribute of respect to the memory of CRANMER; whose _Great
Bible_[323] is at once a monument of his attachment to the Protestant
religion, and to splendid books. His end was sufficiently lamentable;
but while the flames were consuming his parched body, and while his
right hand, extended in the midst of them, was reproached by him for
its former act of wavering and "offence," he had the comfort of
soothing his troubled spirit by reflecting upon what his past life had
exhibited in the cause of learning, morality, and religion.[324] Let
his memory be respected among virtuous bibliomaniacs!
[Footnote 323: I have perused what Strype (_Life of
Cranmer_, pp. 59, 63, 444), Lewis (_History of English
Bibles_, pp. 122-137), Johnson (_Idem opus_, pp. 33-42), and
Herbert (_Typog. Antiquities_, vol. i., p. 513,) have
written concerning the biblical labours of Archbishop
Cranmer; but the accurate conclusion to be drawn about the
publication which goes under the name of CRANMER'S, or THE
GREAT BIBLE, [Transcriber's Note: 'is' missing in original]
not quite so clear as bibliographers may imagine. However,
this is not the place to canvass so intricate a subject. It
is sufficient that a magnificent impression of the Bible in
the English language, with a superb frontispiece (which has
been most feebly and inadequately copied for Lewis's work),
under the archiepiscopal patronage of CRANMER, did make its
appearance in 1539: and it has been my good fortune to turn
over the leaves of the identical copy of it, printed UPON
VELLUM, concerning which Thomas Baker expatiates so
eloquently to his bibliomaniacal friend, Hearne. _Rob. of
Gloucester's Chronicle_; vol. i., p. xix. This copy is in
the library of St. John's College, Cambridge; and is now
placed upon a table, to the right hand, upon entering of the
same: although formerly, according to Bagford's account, it
was "among some old books in a private place nigh the
library." _Idem_; p. xxii. There is a similar copy in the
British Museum.]
[Footnote 324: "And thus"--says Strype--(in a strain of
pathos and eloquence not usually to be found in his
writings) "we have brought this excellent prelate unto his
end, after two years and a half hard imprisonment. His body
was not carried to the grave in state, nor buried, as many
of his predecessors were, in his own cathedral church, nor
inclosed in a monument of marble or touchstone. Nor had he
any inscription to set forth his praises to posterity. No
shrine to be visited by devout pilgrims, as his
predecessors, S. Dunstan and S. Thomas had. Shall we
therefore say, as the poet doth:
Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo,
Pompeius nullo. Quis putet esse Deos?
No; we are better Christians, I trust, than so: who are
taught, that the rewards of God's elect are not temporal but
eternal. And Cranmer's martyrdom is his monument, and his
name will outlast an epitaph or a shrine." _Life of
Cranmer_; p. 391. It would seem, from the same authority,
that RIDLEY, LATIMER, and CRANMER, were permitted to dine
together in prison, some little time before they suffered;
although they were "placed in separate lodgings that they
might not confer together." Strype saw "a book of their
diet, every dinner and supper, and the charge thereof,"--as
it was brought in by the bailiffs attending them.
_Dinner Expenses of Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer._
Bread and Ale ii_d._
Item, Oisters i_d._
Item, Butter ii_d._
Item, Eggs ii_d._
Item, Lyng viii_d._
Item, A piece of fresh Salmon x_d._
Wine iii_d._
Cheese and pears ii_d._
_Charges for burning Ridley and Latimer._
_s._ _d._
For three loads of wood fagots 12 0
Item, One load of furs fagots 3 4
For the carriage of the same 2 0
Item, A Post 1 4
Item, Two chains 3 4
Item, Two staples 0 6
Item, Four Labourers 2 8
_Charges for burning Cranmer._
_s._ _d._
For an 100 of wood fagots, 06 0
For an 100 and half of furs fagots 03 4
For the carriage of them 0 8
To two labourers 1 4
I will draw the curtain upon this dismal picture, by a short
extract from one of Cranmer's letters, in which this great
and good man thus ingeniously urges the necessity of the
Scriptures being translated into the English language; a
point, by the bye, upon which neither he, nor Cromwell, nor
Latimer, I believe, were at first decided; "God's will and
commandment is, (says Cranmer) that when the people be
gathered together, the minister should use such language as
the people may understand, and take profit thereby; or else
hold their peace. For as an harp or lute, if it give no
certain sound that men may know what is stricken, who can
dance after it--for all the sound is vain; so is it vain and
profiteth nothing, sayeth Almighty God, by the mouth of St.
Paul, if the priest speak to the people in a language which
they know not." _Certain most godly, fruitful, and
comfortable letters of Saintes and holy Martyrs, &c._, 1564;
4to., fol. 8.]
All hail to the sovereign who, bred up in severe habits of reading and
meditation, loved books and scholars to the very bottom of her heart!
I consider ELIZABETH as a royal bibliomaniac of transcendent fame!--I
see her, in imagination, wearing her favourite little _Volume of
Prayers_,[325] the composition of Queen Catherine Parr, and Lady
Tirwit, "bound in solid gold, and hanging by a gold chain at her
side," at her morning and evening devotions--afterwards, as she became
firmly seated upon her throne, taking an interest in the
embellishments of the _Prayer Book_,[326] which goes under her own
name; and then indulging her strong bibliomaniacal appetites in
fostering the institution "for the erecting of _a Library and an
Academy for the study of Antiquities and History_."[327]
Notwithstanding her earnestness to root out all relics of the Roman
Catholic religion (to which, as the best excuse, we must, perhaps,
attribute the sad cruelty of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots), I
cannot in my heart forbear to think but that she secured, for her own
book-boudoir, one or two of the curious articles which the
commissioners often-times found in the libraries that they inspected:
and, amongst other volumes, how she could forbear pouncing upon "_A
great Pricksong Book of parchment_"--discovered in the library of All
Soul's College[328]--is absolutely beyond my wit to divine!
[Illustration]
[Footnote 325: Of this curious little devotional volume the
reader has already had some account (p. 119, ante); but if
he wishes to enlarge his knowledge of the same, let him
refer to vol. lx. pt. ii. and vol. lxi. pt. i. of the
_Gentleman's Magazine_. By the kindness of Mr. John Nichols,
I am enabled to present the bibliomaniacal virtuoso with a
fac-simile of the copper-plate inserted in the latter volume
(p. 321) of the authority last mentioned. It represents the
GOLDEN COVER, or binding, of this precious manuscript. Of
the Queen's attachment to works of this kind, the following
is a pretty strong proof: "In the Bodl. library, among the
MSS. in mus. num. 235, are the _Epistles of St. Paul, &c._,
printed in an old black letter in 12o. which was _Queen
Elizabeth's own book_, and her own hand writing appears at
the beginning, viz.: "August. I walke many times into the
pleasant fieldes of the Holy Scriptures, where I plucke up
the goodliesome herbes of sentences by pruning: eate them by
reading: chawe them by musing: and laie them up at length in
the hie seate of memorie by gathering them together: that so
having tasted their sweetenes I may the lesse perceave the
bitterness of this miserable life." The covering is done in
needle work by the Queen [then princess] herself, and
thereon are these sentences, viz. on one side, on the
borders; CELVM PATRIA: SCOPVS VITÆ XPVS. CHRISTVS VIA.
CHRISTO VIVE. In the middle a heart, and round about it,
ELEVA COR SVRSVM IBI VBI E.C. [est Christus]. On the other
side, about the borders, BEATVS QVI DIVITIAS SCRIPTVRÆ
LEGENS VERBA VERTIT IN OPERA. In the middle a star, and
round it, VICIT OMNIA PERTINAX VIRTVS with E.C., _i.e._ as I
take it, ELISABETHA CAPTIVA, or [provided it refer to
Virtus] ELISABETHÆ CAPTIVÆ, she being, then, when she worked
this covering, a prisoner, if I mistake not, at Woodstock."
_Tit. Liv. For. Jul. vit. Henrici_ v., p. 228-229.
[Illustration]]
[Footnote 326: In the PRAYER-BOOK which goes by the name of
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S, there is a portrait of her Majesty
kneeling upon a superb cushion, with elevated hands, in
prayer. This book was first printed in 1575; and is
decorated with wood-cut borders of considerable spirit and
beauty; representing, among other things, some of the
subjects of Holbein's dance of death. The last impression is
of the date of 1608. Vide _Bibl. Pearson_; no. 635. The
presentation copy of it was probably printed UPON
VELLUM.[F]]
[Footnote 327: The famous John Dee entreated QUEEN MARY to
erect an institution similar [Transcriber's Note: 'to'
missing in original] the one above alluded to. If she
adopted the measure, Dee says that "her highnesse would have
a most NOTABLE LIBRARY, learning wonderfully be advanced,
the passing excellent works of our forefathers from rot and
worms preserved, and also hereafter continually the whole
realm may (through her grace's goodness) use and enjoy the
incomparable treasure so preserved: where now, no one
student, no, nor any one college, hath half a dozen of those
excellent jewels, but the whole stock and store thereof
drawing nigh to utter destruction, and extinguishing, while
here and there by private men's negligence (and sometimes
malice) many a famous and excellent author's book is rent,
burnt, or suffered to rot and decay. By your said
suppliant's device your Grace's said library might, in very
few years, most plentifully be furnisht, and that without
any one penny charge unto your Majesty, or doing injury to
any creature." In another supplicatory article, dated xv.
Jan. 1556, Dee advises copies of the monuments to be taken,
and the original, after the copy is taken, to be restored to
the owner. That there should be "allowance of all necessary
charges, as well toward the riding and journeying for the
recovery of the said worthy monuments, as also for the
copying out of the same, and framing of necessary stalls,
desks, and presses."--He concludes with proposing to make
copies of all the principal works in MS. "in the NOTABLEST
libraries beyond the sea"--"and as concerning all other
excellent authors printed, that they likewise shall be
gotten in wonderful abundance, their carriage only to be
chargeable." He supposes that three months' trial would shew
the excellence of his plan; which he advises to be instantly
put into practice "for fear of the spreading of it abroad
might cause many to hide and convey away their good and
ancient writers--which, nevertheless, were ungodly done, and
a certain token that such are not sincere lovers of good
learning." [In other words, not sound bibliomaniacs.] See
the Appendix to Hearne's edition of _Joh. Confrat. Monach.
de Reb. Glaston._ Dee's "supplication" met with no attention
from the bigotted sovereign to whom it was addressed. A
project for a similar establishment in Queen Elizabeth's
reign, when a Society of Antiquaries was first established
in this kingdom, may be seen in Hearne's _Collection of
Curious Discourses of Antiquaries_; vol. ii., p. 324,--when
this library was "to be entitled THE LIBRARY OF QUEEN
ELIZABETH, and the same to be well furnished with divers
ancient books, and rare monuments of antiquity," &c., edit.
1775.]
[Footnote 328: In Mr. Gutch's _Collectanea Curiosa_, vol.
ii., p. 275, we have a "Letter from Queen Elizabeth's high
commissioners, concerning the superstitious books belonging
to All Soul's College:" the "schedule" or list returned was
as follows:
Three mass books, old and new, and 2 portmisses
Item, 8 grailes, 7 antiphoners of parchment and bound
---- 10 Processionals old and new
---- 2 Symnalls
---- an old manual of paper
---- an Invitatorie book
---- 2 psalters--and one covered with a skin
---- _A great pricksong book of parchment_
---- One other pricksong book of vellum covered with a hart's
skyn
---- 5 other of paper bound in parchment
---- The Founder's mass-book in parchment bound in board
---- In Mr. Mill his hand an antiphoner and a legend
---- A portmisse in his hand two volumes, a manual, a
mass-book, and a processional.]
[Footnote F: The two following pages are appropriated to
copies of the frontispiece (of the edit. of 1608), and a
page of the work, from a copy in the possession of the
printer of this edition of the _Bibliomania_.
[Illustration: =Elizabeth Regina.=
2 PARALIPOM 6.
=Domine Deus Israel, non est similis tui Deus in coelo & in
terra, qui pacta custodis & misericordiam cum seruis tuis,
qui ambulant coram te in toto corde suo.=]
[Illustration: A prayer for charitie, or loue towards our
neighbours.
=Lord, inlighten and instruct our mindes, that we may esteeme
euerie thing as it is worth, & yet not make the lesse
reckoning of thee, sith nothing can be made better then
thou. And secondly let us make account of man, then whome,
there is nothing more excellent among the things of this
world. Make vs to loue him next thee, either as likest our
selues, or as thy childe, and therefore our brother, or as
one ordayned to bee a member of one selfe same countrie with
vs.=
=And cause vs also euen heere, to resemble the heauenly
kingdome through mutual loue, where all hatred is quite
banished, and all is full of loue, and consequently full of
joy and gladnes.= Amen.
=Giue a sweete smell as incense, &c.=
=Eccles. 39.=
=Matthew xxvi. 26-29.=]]
LOREN. You are full of book anecdote of Elizabeth: but do you forget
her schoolmaster, ROGER ASCHAM?
LYSAND. The master ought certainly to have been mentioned before his
pupil. Old Roger is one of my most favourite authors; and I wish
English scholars in general not only to read his works frequently,
but to imitate the terseness and perspicuity of his style. There is a
great deal of information in his treatises, respecting the manners and
customs of his times; and as Dr. Johnson has well remarked, "his
philological learning would have gained him honour in any
country."[329] That he was an ardent bibliomaniac, his letters when
upon the continent, are a sufficient demonstration.
[Footnote 329: ROGER ASCHAM is now, I should hope, pretty
firmly established among us as one of the very best
classical writers in our language. Nearly three centuries
are surely sufficient to consecrate his literary celebrity.
He is an author of a peculiar and truly original cast. There
is hardly a dull page or a dull passage in his lucubrations.
He may be thought, however, to have dealt rather harshly
with our old romance writers; nor do I imagine that the
original edition of his _Schoolmaster_ (1571), would be
placed by a _Morte d'Arthur_ collector alongside of his thin
black-letter quarto romances. Ascham's invectives against
the Italian school, and his hard-hearted strictures upon the
innocent ebullitions of Petrarch and Boccaccio, have been
noticed, with due judgment and spirit, by Mr. Burnet, in his
pleasing analysis of our philosopher's works. See _Specimens
of English Prose Writers_; vol. ii., p. 84. Our tutor's
notions of academical education, and his courteous treatment
of his royal and noble scholars, will be discoursed of anon;
meantime, while we cursorily, but strongly, applaud Dr.
Johnson's almost unqualified commendation of this able
writer; and while the reader may be slightly informed of the
elegance and interest of his epistles; let the bibliomaniac
hasten to secure Bennet's edition of Ascham's works (which
incorparates [Transcriber's Note: incorporates] the notes of
Upton upon the Schoolmaster, with the Life of, and remarks
upon Ascham, by Dr. Johnson), published in a handsome quarto
volume [1761]. This edition, though rather common and cheap,
should be carefully reprinted in an octavo volume; to
harmonize with the greater number of our best writers
published in the same form. But it is time to mention
something of the author connected with the subject of this
work. What relates to the BIBLIOMANIA, I here select from
similar specimens in his English letters, written when he
was abroad: "Oct. 4. at afternoon I went about the town [of
Bruxelles]. I went to the frier Carmelites house, and heard
their even song: after, I desired to see the LIBRARY. A
frier was sent to me, and led me into it. There was not one
good book but _Lyra_. The friar was learned, spoke Latin
readily, entered into Greek, having a very good wit, and a
greater desire to learning. He was gentle and honest," &c.
pp. 370-1. "Oct. 20. to Spira: a good city. Here I first saw
_Sturmius de Periodis_. I also found here _Ajax_, _Electra_,
and _Antigone_ of _Sophocles_, excellently, by my good
judgment, translated into verse, and fair printed this
summer by Gryphius. Your stationers do ill, that at least do
not provide you the register of all books, especially of old
authors," &c., p. 372. Again: "Hieronimus Wolfius, that
translated Demosthenes and Isocrates, is in this town. I am
well acquainted with him, and have brought him twice to my
lord's to dinner. He looks very simple. He telleth me that
one Borrheus, that hath written well upon Aristot. priorum,
&c., even now is printing goodly commentaries upon
Aristotle's Rhetoric. But Sturmius will obscure them all."
p. 381. These extracts are taken from Bennet's edition. Who
shall hence doubt of the propriety of classing Ascham among
the most renowned bibliomaniacs of the age?]
From the tutor of Elizabeth let us go to her prime minister,
CECIL.[330] We have already seen how successfully this great man
interposed in matters of religion; it remains to notice his zealous
activity in the cause of learning. And of this latter who can possibly
entertain a doubt? Who that has seen how frequently his name is
affixed to Dedications, can disbelieve that Cecil was a LOVER OF
BOOKS? Indeed I question whether it is inserted more frequently in a
diplomatic document or printed volume. To possess all the presentation
copies of this illustrious minister would be to possess an ample and
beautiful library of the literature of the sixteenth century.
[Footnote 330: The reader, it is presumed, will not form his
opinion of the bibliomaniacal taste of this great man, from
the distorted and shameful delineation of his character,
which, as a matter of curiosity only, is inserted at p. 237,
ante. He will, on the contrary, look upon Cecil as a lover
of books, not for the sake of the numerous panegyrical
dedications to himself, which he must have so satisfactorily
perused, but for the sake of the good to be derived from
useful and ingenious works. With one hand, this great man
may be said to have wielded the courageous spirit, and
political virtue, of his country--and with the other, to
have directed the operations of science and literature.
Without reading the interesting and well-written life of
Cecil, in Mr. Macdiarmid's _Lives of British Statesmen_ (a
work which cannot be too often recommended, or too highly
praised), there is evidence sufficient of this statesman's
bibliomaniacal passion and taste, in the FINE OLD LIBRARY
which is yet preserved at Burleigh in its legitimate
form--and which, to the collector of such precious volumes,
must have presented a treat as exquisite as are the fresh
blown roses of June to him who regales himself in the
flowery fragrance of his garden--the production of his own
manual labour! Indeed Strypes tells us that Cecil's "library
was a very choice one:" his care being "in the preservation,
rather than in the private possession of (literary)
antiquities." Among other curiosities in it, there was a
grand, and a sort of presentation, copy of Archbishop
Parker's Latin work of the _Antiquity of the British
Church_; "bound costly, and laid in colours the arms of the
Church of Canterbury, empaled with the Archbishop's own
paternal coat." Read Strype's tempting description; _Life of
Parker_; pp. 415, 537. Well might Grafton thus address Cecil
at the close of his epistolary dedication of his
_Chronicles_: "and now having ended this work, and seeking
to whom I might, for testification of my special good-will,
present it, or for patronage and defence dedicate it, and
principally, for all judgment and correction to submit
it--among many, I have chosen your MASTERSHIP, moved thereto
by experience of your courteous judgment towards those that
travail to any honest purpose, rather helping and comforting
their weakness, than condemning their simple, but yet well
meaning, endeavours. By which, your accustomed good
acceptation of others, I am the rather boldened to beseech
your Mastership to receive this my work and me, in such
manner as you do those in whom (howsoever there be want of
power) there wanteth no point of goodwill and serviceable
affection." Edit. 1809, 4to. If a chronicler could talk
thus, a poet (who, notwithstanding the title of his poem,
does not, I fear, rank among Pope's bards, that "sail aloft
among _the Swans of Thames_,") may be permitted thus to
introduce Cecil's name and mansion:
Now see these Swannes the new and worthie seate
Of famous CICILL, treasorer of the land,
Whose wisedome, counsell skill of Princes state
The world admires, then Swannes may do the same:
The house itselfe doth shewe the owner's wit,
And may for bewtie, state, and every thing,
Compared be with most within the land,
Vallan's _Tale of Two Swannes_, 1590, 4to., reprinted in
_Leland's Itinerary_; vol. v. p. xiii, edit. 1770.]
But the book-loving propensities of Elizabeth's minister were greatly
eclipsed by those of her favourite archbishop, PARKER:
clarum et venerabile nomen
Gentibus, et multum nostræ quod proderat urbi.
For my part, Lorenzo, I know of no character, either of this or of any
subsequent period, which is more entitled to the esteem and veneration
of Englishmen. Pious, diffident, frank, charitable, learned, and
munificent, Parker was the great episcopal star of his age, which
shone with undiminished lustre to the last moment of its appearance.
In that warm and irritable period, when the Protestant religion was
assailed in proportion to its excellence, and when writers mistook
abuse for argument, it is delightful to think upon the mild and
temperate course which this discreet metropolitan pursued! Even with
such arrant bibliomaniacs as yourselves, Parker's reputation must
stand as high as that attached to any name, when I inform you that of
his celebrated work upon the "_Antiquity of the British Church_"[331]
are only twenty copies supposed to have been printed. He had a
private press, which was worked with types cast at his own expense;
and a more determined book-fancier, and treasurer of ancient lore, did
not at that time exist in Great Britain.
[Footnote 331: This is not the place to enter minutely into
a bibliographical account of the above celebrated work; such
account being with more propriety reserved for the history
of our _Typographical Antiquities_. Yet a word or two may be
here said upon it, in order that the bibliomaniac may not be
wholly disappointed; and especially as Ames and Herbert have
been squeamishly reserved in their comunications
[Transcriber's Note: communications] respecting the same.
The above volume is, without doubt, one of the scarcest
books in existence. It has been intimated by Dr. Drake, in
the preface of his magnificent reprint of it, 1729, fol.,
that only 20 copies were struck off: but, according to Stype
[Transcriber's Note: Strype], Parker tells Cecil, in an
emblazoned copy presented to him by the latter, that he had
not given the book to _four_ men in the whole realm: and
peradventure, added he, "it shall never come to sight
abroad, though some men, smelling of the printing of it,
were very desirous cravers of the same." _Life of Parker_,
p. 415. This certainly does not prove any thing respecting
the number of copies printed; but it is probable that Dr.
Drake's supposition is not far short of the truth. One thing
is remarkable: of all the copies known, no two are found to
accord with each other. The archbishop seems to have altered
and corrected the sheets as they each came from the press.
The omission of the Archbishop's own life in this volume, as
it contained the biography of 69 archbishops, exclusively of
himself, was endeavoured to be supplied by the publication
of a sharp satirical tract, entitled, "_The life off the 70
Archbishop of Canterbury, presenttye sittinge Englished, and
to be added to the 69 lately sett forth in Latin_," &c.,
12mo., 1574. After this title page there is another.
"_Histriola, a little storye of the acts and life of Mathew,
now Archbishoppe of Canterb._" This latter comprehends 17
leaves, and was written either by the archbishop himself, or
by his Chaplain Joscelyne; but whether it be at all like a
distinct printed folio tract, of twelve leaves and a half,
which was kept carefully undispersed in the archbishop's own
possession, 'till his death--being also a biography of
Parker--I am not able to ascertain. The following extracts
from it (as it is a scarce little volume) may be acceptable,
_Archbishop Parker's early Studies and popular Preaching._
"But now, he being very well and perfectly instructed in the
liberal sciences, he applied all his mind to the study of
divinity, and to the reading of the volumes of the
ecclesiastical fathers; and that so earnestly that, in short
space of time, he bestowed his labour not unprofitably in
this behalf; for, after the space of four or five years, he,
issuing from his secret and solitary study into open
practice in the commonwealth, preached every where unto the
people with great commendation; and that in the most famous
cities and places of this realm, by the authority of King
Henry VIII., by whose letters patent this was granted unto
him, together with the license of the Archbishop of
Canterbury. In execution of this function of preaching, he
gained this commodity; that the fame of him came unto the
ears of King Henry," &c. Sign. A. iij. recto.
_His attention to Literature and Printing, &c._
"----he was very careful, and not without some charges, to
seek the monuments of former times; to know the religion of
the ancient fathers, and those especially which were of the
English church. Therefore in seeking up the Chronicles of
the Britons and English Saxons, which lay hidden every where
contemned and buried in forgetfulness, and through the
ignorance of the languages not well understanded, his own
especially, and his mens, diligence wanted not. And to the
end that these antiquities might last long, and be carefully
kept, he caused them, being brought into one place, _to be
well bound and trimly covered_. And yet, not so contented,
he endeavoured to set out in print certain of those ancient
monuments, whereof he knew very few examples to be extant;
and which he thought would be most profitable for the
posterity, to instruct them in the faith and religion of the
elders. [Orig. 'to instructe them in the faythe and religion
off the elders.] Hereupon, he caused the perpetual histories
of the English affairs, by _Mathæus Parisiensis_, once a
monk of Saint Alban's, and _Mathæus Florilegus_, a monk of
Saint Peter in Westminster, written in Latin, to be printed;
after he had diligently conferred them with the examples
which he could get in any place; to the end that, as
sincerely as might be, as the authors first left them, he
might deliver them into other men's hands. Lastly, that he
might not be unmindful of those monuments which, both in
antiquity, worthiness, and authority, excelled all other, or
rather wherewith none are to be compared (I mean the Holy
Scriptures) here he thought to do great good if, by his
number, he increased the _Holy Bibles_, which shortly would
be wanting to many churches, if this discommodity were not
provided for in time. Therefore it seemed good unto him,
first, with his learned servants, to examine thoroughly the
English translation; wherein he partly used the help of his
brethren bishops, and other doctors; with whom he dealt so
diligently in this matter that they disdained not to be
partners and fellows with him of his labor. And now all
their work is set out in very fair forms and letters of
print," &c. Sign. C. rect. & rev.
_His work De Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ._
"----Much more praiseworthy is she (the 'Assyrian Queen of
Babylon,') than he, whosoever it was, that of late hath set
forth, to the hurt of christian men, certain rhapsodies and
shreds of the old forworn stories, almost forgotten--had he
not (Parker) now lately awakened them out of a dead sleep,
and newly sewed them together in one book printed; whose
glorious life promiseth not mountains of gold, as that silly
heathen woman's (the aforesaid Queen) tomb, but beareth
Christ in the brow, and is honested with this title in the
front, 'De Antiquitate,' &c." Sign. C. iiij. rev. The
satirical part, beginning with "To the Christian Reader,"
follows the biography from which these extracts have been
taken. It remains to observe, that our ARCHBISHOP was a
bibliomaniac of the very first order; and smitten with every
thing attached to a BOOK, to a degree beyond any thing
exhibited by his contemporaries. Parker did not scruple to
tell Cecil that he kept in his house "drawers of pictures,
wood-cutters, painters, limners, writers, and
book-binders,"--"one of these was LYLYE, an excellent
writer, that could counterfeit any antique writing. Him the
archbishop customarily used to make old books
compleat,"--&c. _Strype's Life of Parker_; pp. 415, 529.
Such was his ardour for book-collecting that he had agents
in almost all places, abroad and at home, for the purpose of
securing everything that was curious, precious, and rare:
and one of these, of the name of Batman (I suppose the
commentator upon Bartholomæus) "in the space of no more than
four years, procured for our archbishop to the number of
6700 books." _Id._ p. 528. The riches of his book bequests
to Cambridge are sufficiently described by Strype; pp. 501,
518, 519, 529, &c. The domestic habits and personal
appearance of PARKER are described by his biographer (p.
504) as being simple and grave. Notwithstanding his aversion
to wearing silk, to plays and jests, and hawks and hounds
(even when he was a young man), I take it for granted he
could have no inward dislike to the beautiful and
appropriate ceremony which marked his consecration, and
which is thus narrated by the lively pen of Fuller: "The
east part of the chapel of Lambeth was hung with tapestry,
the floor spread with red cloth, chairs and cushions are
conveniently placed for the purpose: morning prayers being
solemnly read by Andrew Peerson, the archbishop's chaplain,
Bishop Scory went up into the pulpit, and took for his text,
_The Elders which are among you I exhort, who also am an
elder; and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, &c._
Sermon ended, and the sacrament administered, they proceed
to the consecration. The ARCHBISHOP had his rochet on, with
HEREFORD; and the suffragan of Bedford, CHICHESTER, wore a
silk cope; and COVERDALE a plain cloth gown down to his
ancles. All things are done conformable to the book of
ordination: Litany sung; the Queen's patent for Parker's
consecration audibly read by Dr. Vale: He is presented: the
oath of supremacy tendered to him; taken by him; hands
reverently imposed on him; and all with prayers begun,
continued, concluded. In a word, though here was no
theatrical pomp to made it a popish pageant; though no
sandals, gloves, ring, staff, oil, pall, &c., were used upon
him--yet there was ceremony enough to clothe his
consecration with decency, though not to clog it with
superstition." _Church History_, b. ix., p. 60. But the
virtues of the primate, however mild and unostentatious,
were looked upon with an envious eye by the maligant
observer of human nature; and the spontaneous homage which
he received from some of the first noblemen in the realm was
thus lampooned in the satirical composition just before
noticed:
_Homage and Tribute paid to Archbishop Parker._
"The next is, what great tributes every made bishop paid
him. How they entertained his whole household or court, for
the time, with sumptuous feasting. How dearly they redeemed
their own cloaths, and carpets, at his chaplain's hands.
What fees were bestowed on his crucifer, marshall, and other
servants. All which plentiful bounty, or rather, he might
have said, largess, is shrunk up, he saith, to a small sum
of ten pounds, somewhat beside, but very small, bestowed, he
might have said cast away, upon the archbishop's family,
&c.--The same earl (of Gloucester) must be his steward and
chief cupbearer, the day of his inthronization: This is not
to be called gracious Lords, as the Lords of the earth, but
this is to be beyond all grace; and to be served of these
gracious Lords, and to be their Lord paramount. In this roll
of his noble tenants, the next are the Lord Strangways, the
Earl of Oxford, the Lord Dacy, all which (saith he) owe
service to that Archbishop. Then descendeth he to the gifts
that every his suffragan provincial bishop bestoweth on him,
in their life, and at their death: some their palfrey with
saddle and furniture; some their rings, and some their
seals. Among the rest, the Bishop of Rochester, who is there
called specially his chaplain, giveth him a brace of dogs.
These be trim things for prelates to give or receive;
especially of them to make such account as to print them
among such special prerogatives." Sign. D. iiij. v. Yet even
to this libel was affixed the following epitaph upon Parker;
which shews that truth "is great, and will prevail."
Matthew Parker liued sober and wise
Learned by studie, and continuall practise,
Louinge, true, off life uncontrold
The courte did foster him, both young and old.
Orderly he delt, the ryght he did defend,
He lyved unto God, to God he mad his ende.
Let us take leave of this amiable, erudite, and truly
exemplary, character, by contemplating his
features--according to the ensuing cut of Tyson's fac-simile
of the rare ancient print, prefixed to some of the copies of
the _Antiquity of the British Church_; premising that the
supposed original painting of Parker, at Benet College,
Cambridge, is nothing more than one of the aforesaid ancient
prints, delicately coloured: as a tasteful antiquary, of the
first authority, discovered, and mentioned to me.
[Illustration]]
PHIL. You have called the reign of Henry the Seventh the
AUGUSTAN-BOOK-AGE; but, surely, this distinction is rather due to the
æra of Queen Elizabeth?
LYSAND. Both periods merit the appellation. In Henry's time, the
invention of printing was of early growth; but the avidity of readers
considerable. The presses of Rome, Venice, and Paris, sent forth their
costly productions; and a new light, by such means, was poured upon
the darkened mind. Our own presses began to contribute to the
diffusion of this light; and, compared with the preceding part of the
fifteenth century, the reign of Henry VII. was highly distinguished
for its bibliomaniacal celebrity. Undoubtedly, the æra of Queen
Elizabeth was the GOLDEN AGE of Bibliomaniacism.
Do not let me forget, in my rambling method of treating of books and
book-men, the name and celebrity of the renowned DR. JOHN DEE. Let us
fancy we see him in his conjuring cap and robes--surrounded with
astrological, mathematical, and geographical instruments--with a
profusion of Chaldee characters inscribed upon vellum rolls--and with
his celebrated _Glass_ suspended by magical wires. Let us then follow
him into his study at midnight, and view him rummaging his books;
contemplating the heavens; making calculations; holding converse with
invisible spirits; writing down their responses: anon, looking into
his correspondence with _Count a Lasco_ and the emperors Adolphus and
Maximilian; and pronouncing himself, with the most heartfelt
complacency, the greatest genius of his age![332] In the midst of
these self-complacent reveries, let us imagine we see his wife and
little ones intruding; beseeching him to burn his books and
instruments; and reminding him that there was neither a silver spoon,
nor a loaf of bread, in the cupboard. Alas, poor DEE!--thou wert the
dupe of the people and of the Court: and, although Meric Casaubon has
enshrined thy conjurations in a pompous folio volume, thy name, I
fear, will only live in the memory of bibliomaniacs!
[Footnote 332: Those who are fond of copious biographical
details of astrologers and conjurers will read, with no
small pleasure and avidity, the long gossipping account of
DEE, which Hearne has subjoined to his edition of _John
Confrat. Monach. de rebus gestis Glaston._, vol. ii.; where
twelve chapters are devoted to the subject of our
philosopher's travels and hardships. Meric Casaubon--who put
forth a pompous folio volume of "_A true and faithful
relation of what passed for many yeers between Dr. John Dee
and some spirits_:" 1659--gravely assures us, in an
elaborate, learned, and rather amusing preface, that the
volume contains what "he thinks is not to be paralleled in
that kind by any book that hath been set out in any age to
read:" sign A. This is true enough; for such a farago of
incongruous, risible, and horrible events, are no where else
recorded. "None but itself can be its parallel." Casaubon
wrote a professed dissertation (1652, 8vo.) upon witches,
and nothing seemed to be too unpalatable for his credulity
to swallow. A compressed and rather interesting account of
Dee, who was really the weakest as well as the ablest
scholar and philosopher of his day, will be found in
Ashmole's _Theatrum Chemicum_, p. 480. From the substance of
these authorities, the reader is presented with the
following sketch. The first chapter in Hearne's publication,
which treats of the "entrance and ground plot of his first
studies," informs us that he had received his Latin
education in London and Chelmsford: that he was born in
July, 1527, and at 15 years of age was entered at the
University of Cambridge, 1542. In the three following years,
"so vehemently was he bent to study that, for those years,
he did inviolably keep this order; only to sleep 4 hours
every night; to allow to meat and drink (and some refreshing
after) 2 hours every day; and of the other 18 hours, all
(excepting the time of going to, and being at, divine
service) was spent in his studies and learning." In May,
1547, after having taken his Bachelor's decree, he went
abroad. "And after some months spent about the Low
Countries, he returned home, and brought with him the first
astronomer's staff in brass, that was made of Gemma Frisius
devising; the two great globes of Gerardus Mercator's
making, and the astronomer's ring of brass, as Gemma Frisius
had newly framed it." Dee's head now began to run wild upon
astronomy, or rather astrology; and the tremendous
assistance of the "occult art" was called in to give effect
to the lectures which he read upon it at home and abroad.
"He did set forth (and it was seen of the University) a
Greek comedy of Aristophanes, named, in Greek, [Greek:
eirênê], in Latin, _Pax_; with the performance of the
_Scarabæus_ his flying up to Jupiter's palace, with a man
and his basket of victuals on his back: whereat was great
wondering and many vain reports spread abroad of the means
how that was effected. In that college (Trinity, for he had
now left St. John's), by his advice and endeavours, was
their Christmas magistrate first named and confirmed an
EMPEROR." The first emperor of this sort, (whose _name_, it
must be confessed, is rather unpopular in a University) he
takes care to inform us, "was one Mr. Thomas _Dun_, a very
goodly man of person, stature, and complexion, and well
learned also." Dee afterwards ranks these things among "his
boyish attempts and exploits scholastical." In 1548 he was
made Master of Arts, and in the same year "went over beyond
the seas again, and never after that was any more student in
Cambridge." Abroad, almost every emperor and nobleman of
distinction, according to his own account, came to see and
hear him. "For recreation, he looked into the method of the
civil law, and profitted therein so much that, in
_Antinomiis_, imagined to be in the law, he had good hap to
find out (well allowed of) their agreements; and also to
enter into a plain and due understanding of diverse civil
laws, accounted very intricate and dark." At Paris, when he
gave lectures upon Euclid's elements, "a thing never done
publicly in any university in Christendom, his auditory in
Rhemes college was so great, and the most part elder than
himself, that the mathematical schools could not hold them;
for many were fain, without the schools, at the windows, to
be _Auditores et Spectatores_, as they could best help
themselves thereto. And by the first four principal
definitions representing to their eyes (which by imagination
only are exactly to be conceived) a greater wonder arose
among the beholders than of his _Aristophanes Scarabæus_
mounting up to the top of Trinity Hall, _ut supra_."
Notwithstanding the tempting offers to cause him to be
domiciled in France and Germany, our astrologer, like a true
patriot, declined them all. The French king offered an
annual stipend of 200 French crowns; a Monsieur Babeu,
Monsieur de Rohan, and Monsieur de Monluc, offered still
greater sums, but were all refused. In Germany he was
tempted with the yearly salary of 3000 dollars; "and lastly,
by a messenger from the Russie or Muscovite Emperor,
purposely sent with a very rich present unto him at Trebona
castle, and with provision for the whole journey (being
above 1200 miles from the castle where he lay) of his coming
to his court at Moscow, with his wife, children, and whole
family, there to enjoy at his imperial hands 2000 lib.
sterling yearly stipend; and of his Protector yearly a
thousand rubles; with his diet also to be allowed him free
out of the emperor's own kitchen: and to be in dignity with
authority amongst the highest sort of the nobility there,
and of his Privy Counsellors."--But all this was heroically
declined by our patriotic philosopher. Lord Pembroke and
Lord Leicester introduced Dee to the notice of Q. Elizabeth,
before her coronation. At which time her Majesty used these
words--"_Where my brother hath given him a crown, I will
give him a noble!_" Before the accession of Elizabeth, he
was imprisoned on being accused of destroying Queen Mary by
enchantment. "The Queen Elizabeth herself became a prisoner
in the same place (Hampton Court) shortly afterwards; and
Dee had for bedfellow one Barthelet Green, who was
afterwards burnt." Dee himself was examined by Bishop
Bonner. On the deanery of Gloucester becoming void in 1564,
Dee was nominated to fill it: but the same deanery was
afterwards bestowed on Mr. Man, who was sent into Spain in
her Majesty's service. "And now this Lent, 1594, when it
became void again (says Dee), I made a motion for it, but I
came too late; for one that might spend 400 or 500 lib. a
year already, had more need of it than I belike; or else
this former gift was but words only to me, and the fruit
ever due to others, that can espy and catch better than I
for these 35 years could do." Mistris Blanche à Parry came
to his house with an offer from the Queen of "any
ecclesiastical dignity within her kingdom, being then, or
shortly becoming, void and vacant"--but "Dee's most humble
and thankful answer to her Majesty, by the same messenger,
was that _cura animarum annexa_ did terrifie him to deal
with." He was next promised to "have of her Majesty's gift
other ecclesiastical livings and revenues (without care of
souls annexed) as in her Majesty's books were rated at two
hundred pounds yearly revenue; of which her Majesty's gift
he never as yet had any one penny." In Oct. 1578, he had a
consultation with Mr. Doctor Bayly, her Majesty's physician,
"about her Majestie's grievous pangs and pains by reason of
the toothake and rheum," &c. "He set down in writing, with
hydrographical and geographical description, what he then
had to say or shew, as concerning her Majesty's title royal
to any foreign countries. Whereof two parchment great rolls
full written, of about XII WHITE VELLUM SKINS, were good
witnesses upon the table before the commissioners." Dee had
refused an hundred pounds for these calligraphical labours.
A list of his printed and unprinted works: the former 8
(ending with the year 1573), the latter 36 (ending with the
year 1592), in number. Anno 1563, Julii ultimo, the Earl of
Leicester and Lord Laskey invited themselves to dine with
Dee in a day or two; but our astrologer "confessed sincerely
that he was not able to prepare them a convenient dinner,
unless he should presently sell some of his plate or some of
his pewter for it. Whereupon," continues Dee, "her Majesty
sent unto me very royally within one hour after forty angels
of gold, from Sion; whither her Majesty was now come by
water from Greenwich." A little before Christmas, 1599, Dee
mentions a promise of another royal donation of
100_l._--"which intent and promise, some once or twice
after, as he came in her Majesty's sight, she repeated unto
him; and thereupon sent unto him _fifty pounds_ to keep his
Christmas with that year--but what, says he, is become of
the other fifty, truly I cannot tell! If her Majesty can, it
is sufficient; '_Satis, citò, modò, satis bene_, must I
say.'" In 1591, his patroness, the Countess of Warwick, made
a powerful diversion at Court to secure for him the
mastership of St. Cross, then filled by Dr. Bennet, who was
to be made a bishop.--The queen qualified her promise of
Dee's having it with a nota bene, _if he should be fit for
it_. In 1592, the Archbishop of Canterbury openly "affirmed
that the mastership of St. Crosse was a living most fit for
him; and the Lord Treasurer, at Hampton Court, lately to
himself declared, and with his hand very earnestly smitten
on his breast used these very words to him--'_By my faith_,
if her Majestie be moved in it by any other for you, I will
do what I can with her Majestie to pleasure you therein, Mr.
Dee.'" But it is time to gratify the BIBLIOMANIAC with
something more to his palate. Here followeth, therefore, as
drawn up by our philosopher himself, an account of
DEE'S LIBRARY:
"4000 _Volumes_--printed and unprinted--bound and
unbound--valued at 2000 _lib._
1 Greek, 2 French, and 1 High Dutch, volumes of MSS., alone
worth 533 _lib._ 40 years in getting these books together."
Appertaining thereto,
_Sundry rare and exquisitely made Mathematical Instruments._
_A radius Astronomicus_, ten feet long.
_A Magnet Stone, or Loadstone_; of great virtue--"which was
sold out of the library for _v shill._ and for it afterwards
(yea piece-meal divided) was more than xx _lib._ given in
money and value."
"_A great case or frame of boxes_, wherein some hundreds of
very rare evidences of divers Irelandish territories,
provinces, and lands, were laid up. Which territories,
provinces, and lands were therein notified to have been in
the hands of some of the ancient Irish princes. Then, their
submissions and tributes agreed upon, with seals appendant
to the little writings thereof in parchment: and after by
some of those evidences did it appear how some of those
lands came to the Lascies, the Mortuomars, the Burghs, the
Clares," &c.
"_A box of Evidences_ antient of some Welch princes and
noblemen--the like of Norman donation--their peculiar titles
noted on the forepart with chalk only, which on the poor
boxes remaineth." This box, with another, containing similar
deeds, were embezzled.
"One great bladder with about 4 pound weight, of a very
sweetish thing, like a brownish gum in it, artificially
prepared by thirty times purifying of it, hath more than I
could well afford him for 100 crownes; as may be proved by
witnesses yet living."
To these he adds his _three Laboratories_, "serving for
Pyrotechnia"--which he got together after 20 years' labour.
"All which furniture and provision, and many things already
prepared, is unduly made away from me by sundry meanes, and
a few spoiled or broken vessels remain, hardly worth 40
shillings." But one more feature in poor Dee's
character--and that is his unparalleled serenity and good
nature under the most griping misfortunes--remains to be
described: and then we may take farewell of him, with aching
hearts. In the 10th chapter, speaking of the wretched
poverty of himself and family--("having not one penny of
certain fee, revenue, stipend, or pension, either left him
or restored unto him,")--Dee says that "he has been
constrained now and then to send parcels of his little
furniture of plate to pawn upon usury; and that he did so
oft, till no more could be sent. After the same manner went
his wives' jewels of gold, rings, bracelets, chains, and
other their rarities, under the thraldom of the usurer's
gripes: 'till _non plus_ was written upon the boxes at
home." In the 11th chapter, he anticipates the dreadful lot
of being brought "to the stepping out of doors (his house
being sold). He, and his, with bottles and wallets
furnished, to become wanderers as homish vagabonds; or, as
banished men, to forsake the kingdom!" Again: "with bloody
tears of heart, he, and his wife, their seven children, and
their servant (seventeen of them in all), did that day make
their petition unto their honours," &c. Can human misery be
sharper than this--and to be the lot of a philosopher and
bibliomaniac?! But "VENIET FELICIUS ÆVUM."]
Of a wholly different cast of character and of reading was the
renowned CAPTAIN COX of Coventry. How many of Dee's magical books he
had exchanged for the pleasanter magic of _Old Ballads_ and
_Romances_, I will not take upon me to say; but that this said
bibliomaniacal Captain had a library, which, even from Master
Laneham's imperfect description of it,[333] I should have preferred
to the four thousand volumes of Dr. John Dee, is most nuquestionable
[Transcriber's Note: unquestionable].
[Footnote 333: Let us be introduced to the sprightly figure
and expression of character of this renowned Coventry
captain, before we speak particularly of his library.
"CAPTAIN COX (says the above-mentioned Master Laneham) came
marching on valiantly before, clean trust and gartered above
the knee, all fresh in a velvet cap (Master Golding a lent
it him), flourishing with his _ton_ sword; and another fence
master with him:" p. 39. A little before, he is thus
described as connected with his library: "And first, Captain
Cox; an odd man, I promise you: by profession a mason, and
that right skilful: very cunning in fens (fencing); and
hardy as Gawin; for his _ton_ sword hangs at his table's
end. Great oversight hath he in matters of story: for as for
_King Arthur's_ Book, _Huon of Bourdeaux_, the _Four Sons of
Aymon_, _Bevys of Hampton_, _The Squyre of Low Degree_, _The
Knight of Curtsy_, and the _Lady Fagnel_, _Frederick of
Gene_, _Syr Eglamour_, _Syr Tryamour_, _Syr Lamurell_, _Syr
Isenbras_, _Syr Gawyn_, _Olyver of the Castl_, _Lucres and
Eurialus_, _Virgil's Life_, _the Castl of Ladies_, _the
Widow Edyth_, _the King and the Tanner_, _Frier Rous_,
_Howleglas_, _Gargantua_, _Robin Hood_, _Adam Bel_, _Clim on
the Clough_, and _William of Cloudsley_, _the Churl and the
Burd_, _the Seaven Wise Masters_, _the Wife lapt in a
Morel's skin_, _the Sakful of Nuez_, _the Sergeaunt that
became a Fryar_, _Skogan_, _Collyn Cloout_, _the Fryar and
the Boy_, _Elynor Rumming_, and _the Nutbrooun Maid_, with
many more than I rehearse here. I believe he has them all at
his finger's ends," p. 36. The preceding is a list of the
worthy Captain's ROMANCES; some of which, at least in their
original shape, were unknown to Ritson: what would be the
amount of their present produce under the hammer of those
renowned black-letter-book auctioneers in King-street,
Covent Garden--? Speak we, in the next place, of the said
military bibliomaniac's collection of books in "PHILOSOPHY
MORAL and NATURAL." "Beside _Poetry_ and _Astronomy_, and
other hid sciences, as I may guess by the omberty of his
books: whereof part are, as I remember, _The Shepherd's
Kalendar_, _the Ship of Fools_, _Daniel's Dreams_, _the Book
of Fortune_, _Stans_, _puer ad mensam_, _the bye way to the
Spitl-house_, _Julian of Brainford's Testament_, _the Castle
of Love_, _the Booget of Demaunds_, _the Hundred Mery
Talez_, _the Book of Riddels_, _the Seaven Sorows of Wemen_,
_the Proud Wives' Pater-Noster_, _the Chapman of a
Penniworth of Wit_: Beside his AUNCIENT PLAYS; _Youth and
Charitee_, _Hikskorner_, _Nugize_, _Impacient Poverty_, and
herewith Doctor _Boord's Breviary of Health_. What should I
rehearse here, what a bunch of BALLADS AND SONGS, all
ancient?!--Here they come, gentle reader; lift up thine eyen
and marvel while thou dost peruse the same: _Broom Broom on
Hill_, _So wo iz me begon_, _trolly lo Over a Whinny Meg_,
_Hey ding a ding_, _Bony lass upon a green_, _My bony on
gave me a bek_, _By a bank az I lay_; and _two more_ he hath
fair wrapt up in parchment, and bound with a whipcord!" It
is no wonder that Ritson, in the historical essay prefixed
to his collection of _Scottish Songs_, should speak of some
of these ballads with a zest as if he would have sacrificed
half his library to untie the said "whipcord" packet. And
equally joyous, I ween, would my friend Mr. R.H. Evans, of
Pall-Mall, have been--during his editorial labours in
publishing a new edition of his father's collection of
Ballads--(an edition, by the bye, which gives us more of the
genuine spirit of the COXEAN COLLECTION than any with which
I am acquainted)--equally joyous would Mr. Evans have been
to have had the inspection of some of these 'bonny' songs.
The late Duke of Roxburgh, of never-dying bibliomaniacal
celebrity, would have parted with half the insignia of his
order of the Garter to have obtained _clean original copies_
of these fascinating effusions! But let us return, and take
farewell of Captain Cox, by noticing only the remaining
department of his library, as described by Laneham. "As for
ALMANACS of antiquity (a point for Ephemerides) I ween he
can shew from _Jasper Laet of Antwerp_, unto _Nostradam of
Frauns_, and thence unto our _John Securiz of Salisbury_. To
stay ye no longer herein (concludes Laneham) I dare say he
hath as fair a library of these sciences, and as many goodly
monuments both in prose and poetry, and at afternoon can
talk as much without book, as any innholder betwixt
Brentford and Bagshot, what degree soever he be." _A Letter
wherein part of the Entertainment untoo the Queenz Majesty
at Killingwoorth Castl in Warwick-Sheer, in this Soomerz
Progrest, 1575, is signefied_: Warwick, 1784, 8vo. O RARE
CAPTAIN COX!]
We now approach two characters of a more dignified cast; and who, in
every respect, must be denominated the greatest bibliomaniacs of the
age: I mean SIR ROBERT COTTON and SIR THOMAS BODLEY. We will touch
upon them separately.
The numerous relics which are yet preserved of the _Cottonian
Collection_, may serve to convey a pretty strong idea of its splendour
and perfection in its original shape. Cotton had all the sagacity and
judgment of Lord Coke, with a more beautifully polished mind, and a
more benevolent heart. As to books, and book men, he was the
Mecænas[334] of his day. His thirst for knowledge could never be
satiated; and the cultivation of the mind upon the foundation of a
good heart, he considered to be the highest distinction, and the most
permanent delight, of human beings. Wealth, pomp, parade, and titles,
were dissipated, in the pure atmosphere of his mind before the
invigorating sun of science and learning. He knew that the tomb which
recorded the _worth_ of the deceased had more honest tears shed upon
it than the pompous mausoleum which spoke only of his pedigree and
possessions. Accordingly, although he had excellent blood flowing in
his veins, Cotton sought connection with the good rather than with the
great; and where he found a cultivated understanding, and an honest
heart, there he carried with him his _Lares_, and made another's
abode his own.
[Footnote 334: There are few eminent characters of whom so
many, and such ably-executed, memoirs are extant as of SIR
ROBERT COTTON, KNT. In the present place we have nothing to
do with his academical studies, his philosophical, or
legislative, or diplomatic, labours: literature and _Book
Madness_ are our only subjects of discussion. Yet those who
may wish for more general, and possibly more interesting,
details, may examine the authorities referred to by Mr.
Planta in his very excellent _Catalogue of the MSS. in the
Cottonian Library_, 1802, folio. Sir Robert Cotton was
educated at Trinity-College, Cambridge. The number of
curious volumes, whether in the roman, gothic, or italic
type, which he in all probability collected during his
residence at the university, has not yet been ascertained;
but we know that, when he made his antiquarian tour with the
famous Camden, ("par nobile fratrum!") in his 29th year,
Cotton must have greatly augmented his literary treasures,
and returned to the metropolis with a sharpened appetite, to
devour every thing in the shape of a book. Respected by
three sovereigns, Elizabeth, James, and Charles, and admired
by all the literati in Europe, Sir Robert saw himself in as
eminent a situation as wealth, talents, taste, and integrity
can place an individual. His collection of books increased
rapidly; but MS. records, deeds, and charters, were the
chief objects of his pursuit. His mansion was noble, his
library extensive, and his own manners such as conciliated
the esteem of almost every one who approached him. Dr. Smith
has well described our illustrious bibliomaniac, at this
golden period of his life: "Ad Cottoni ædes, tanquam ad
communem reconditioris doctrinæ apothecam, sive ad novam
Academiam, quotquot animo paulo erectiori musis et gratiis
litaverint, sese recepere, nullam a viro humanissimo
repulsam passuri: quippe idem literas bonas promovendi
studium erat omni auctoramento longe potentius. Nec ista
obvia morum facilitas, qua omnes bonos eruditionisque
candidatos complexus est, quicquam reverentiæ qua vicissim
ille colebatur, detraxerat: potius, omnium, quos familiari
sermone, repititisque colloquiis dignari placuit, in se
amores et admirationem hac insigni naturæ benignitate
excitavit." Vit. Rob. Cottoni, p. xxiv., prefixed to the
_Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibl. Cott._, 1696,
folio. Sir Robert was, however, doomed to have the evening
of his life clouded by one of those crooked and disastrous
events, of which it is now impossible to trace the correct
cause, or affix the degree of ignominy attached to it, on
the head of its proper author. Human nature has few blacker
instances of turpitude on record than that to which our
knight fell a victim. In the year 1615, some wretch
communicated to the Spanish ambassador "the valuable state
papers in his library, who caused them to be copied and
translated into the Spanish:" these papers were of too much
importance to be made public; and James the 1st had the
meanness to issue a commission "which excluded Sir Robert
from his own library." The storm quickly blew over, and the
sunshine of Cotton's integrity diffused around its wonted
brilliancy. But in the year 1629, another mischievous wretch
propagated a report that Sir Robert had been privy to a
treasonable publication: because, forsooth, the original
tract, from which this treasonable one had been taken, was,
in the year 1613, without the knowledge of the owner of the
library, introduced into the Cottonian collection. This
wretch, under the abused title of librarian, had, "for
pecuniary considerations," the baseness to suffer one or
more copies of the pamphlet of 1613 (writtten [Transcriber's
Note: written] at Florence by Dudley, Duke of
Northumberland, under a less offensive title) to be taken,
and in consequence printed. Sir Robert was therefore again
singled out for royal vengeance: his library was put under
sequestration; and the owner forbidden to enter it. It was
in vain that his complete innocence was vindicated. To
deprive such a man as COTTON of the ocular and manual
comforts of his library--to suppose that he could be happy
in the most splendid drawing room in Europe, without his
books--is to suppose what our experience of virtuous
bibliomaniacs will not permit us to accede to. In
consequence, Sir Robert declared to his friends, "that they
had broken his heart who had locked up his library from
him:" which declaration he solemnly repeated to the Privy
Council. In the year 1631, this great and good man closed
his eyes for ever upon mortal scenes; upon those whom he
gladdened by his benevolence, and improved by his wisdom.
Such was the man, of whom Gale has thus eloquently
spoken:--"quisquis bona fide Historiam nostram per omne ævum
explicare sataget, nullum laudatum Scriptorem à se
desiderari exoptarique posse, quem COTTONIANUS ille
incomparabilis thesaurus promptissime non exhibebit: Ea est,
et semper fuit, nobilis Domus ergo literatos
indulgentia--Hujus fores (ut illæ Musaram, apud Pindarum)
omnibus patent. Testes apello Theologos, Antiquarios,
Jurisconsultos, Bibliopolas; qui quidem omnes, ex Cottoniana
Bibliotheca, tanquam ex perenni, sed et communi fonte, sine
impensis et molestiâ, abundè hauserunt." _Rer. Anglic.
Script. Vet._, vol. i., præf., p. 3. The loss of such a
character--the deprivation of such a patron--made the whole
society of book-collectors tremble and turn pale. Men began
to look sharply into their libraries, and to cast a
distrustful eye upon those who came to consult and to copy:
for the spirit of COTTON, like the ghost of Hamlet's father,
was seen to walk, before cock-crow, along the galleries and
balconies of great collections, and to bid the owners of
them "remember and beware"!--But to return. The library of
this distinguished bibliomaniac continued under
sequestration some time after his death, and was preserved
entire, with difficulty, during the shock of the civil wars.
In the year 1712, it was removed to Essex House, in
Essex-street, Strand, where it continued till the year 1730,
when it was conveyed back to Westminster, and deposited in
Little Dean's Yard. In October, 1731, broke out that
dreadful fire, which Hearne (_Benedict. Abbat._, vol. i.,
præf. p. xvi.) so pathetically deplores; and in which the
nation so generally sympathized--as it destroyed and
mutilated many precious volumes of this collection. Out of
958 volumes, 97 were destroyed, and 105 damaged. In the year
1753 the library, to the honour of the age, and as the only
atonement which could be made to the injured name of Cotton,
as well as to the effectual _laying_ of his perturbed
spirit--was purchased by parliament, and transported within
the quiet and congenial abode of the BRITISH MUSEUM: and
here may it rest, unabused, for revolving ages! The
collection now contains 26,000 articles. Consult Mr.
Planta's neatly written preface to the catalogue of the
same; vide p. 39, 267, ante. And thus take we leave of the
ever-memorable bibliomaniac, Sir ROBERT COTTON, KNT.]
Equally celebrated for literary zeal, and yet more for bibliomaniacal
enthusiasm, was the famous SIR THOMAS BODLEY; whose account of
himself, in _Prince's Worthies of Devon_, and particularly in one of
_Hearne's publications_,[335] can never be read without transport by
an affectionate son of our Oxford _Alma Mater_. View this illustrious
bibliomaniac, with his gentleman-like air, and expressive countenance,
superintending, with the zeal of a Custom-house officer, the shipping,
or rather _barging_, of his books for the grand library which is now
called by his OWN NAME! Think upon his activity in writing to almost
every distinguished character of the realm: soliciting, urging,
arguing, entreating for their support towards his magnificent
establishment; and, moreover, superintending the erection of the
building, as well as examining the timbers, with the nicety of a
master-carpenter!--Think of this; and when you walk under the grave
and appropriately-ornamented roof, which tells you that you are within
the precincts of the BODLEIAN LIBRARY, pay obeisance to the portrait
of the founder, and hold converse with his gentle spirit that dwells
therein!
[Footnote 335: There are few subjects--to the bibliomaniac
in general--and particularly to one, who, like the author of
this work, numbers himself among the dutiful sons of the
FAIR OXONIAN MOTHER--that can afford a higher gratification
than the history of the BODLEIAN LIBRARY, which, like
Virgil's description of fame,
"Soon grew from pigmy to gigantic size."
The reader is therefore here informed, as a necessary
preliminary piece of intelligence, that the present note
will be more monstrous than any preceding one of a similar
nature. Let him, however, take courage, and only venture to
dip his feet in the margin of the lake, and I make little
doubt but that he will joyfully plunge in, and swim across
it. Of the parentage, birth, and education of Bodley there
seems to be no necessity for entering into the detail. The
monument which he has erected to his memory is lofty enough
for every eye to behold; and thereupon may be read the
things most deserving of being known. How long the subject
of his beloved library had occupied his attention it is
perhaps of equal difficulty and unimportance to know; but
his determination to carry this noble plan into effect is
thus pleasingly communicated to us by his own pen: "when I
had, I say, in this manner, represented to my thoughts, my
peculiar estate, I resolved thereupon to possess my soul in
peace all the residue of my days; to take my full farewell
of state employments; to satisfy my mind with that
mediocrity of worldly living that I have of my own, and so
to retire me from the Court; which was the epilogue and end
of all my actions and endeavours, of any important note,
till I came to the age of fifty-three years."--"Examining
exactly, for the rest of my life, what course I might take;
and, having, as I thought, sought all the ways to the wood,
I concluded, at the last, to set up my staff AT THE LIBRARY
DOOR IN OXON, being thoroughly persuaded, in my solitude and
surcease from the commonwealth affairs, I could not busy
myself to better purpose than by reducing that place (which
then in every part lay ruinated and waste) to the public use
of Students." Prince's _Worthies of Devon_, p. 95, edit.
1810. Such being the reflections and determination of Sir
Thomas Bodley, he thus ventured to lay open his mind to the
heads of the University of Oxford:
"_To the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Ravis) of Oxon; about
restoring the public library._
(This letter was published in a convocation holden March 2,
1597)
SIR,
Although you know me not, as I suppose, yet for the
farthering an offer, of evident utility, to your whole
university, I will not be too scrupulous in craving your
assistance. I have been always of a mind that, if God, of
his goodness, should make me able to do any thing, for the
benefit of posterity, I would shew some token of affection,
that I have ever more borne, to the studies of good
learning. I know my portion is too slender to perform, for
the present, any answerable act to my willing disposition:
but yet, to notify some part of my desire in that behalf, I
have resolved thus to deal. Where there hath been heretofore
a public library in Oxford, which, you know, is apparent by
the room itself remaining, and by your statute records, I
will take the charge and cost upon me to reduce it again to
his former use: and to make it fit and handsome, with seats,
and shelves, and desks, and all that may be needfull, to
stir up other men's benevolence, to help to furnish it with
books. And this I purpose to begin, as soon as timber can be
gotten, to the intent that you may reap some speedy profit
of my project. And where before, as I conceive, it was to be
reputed but a store of books of divers benefactors, because
it never had any lasting allowance, for augmentation of the
number, or supply of books decayed: whereby it came to pass
that, when those that were in being were either wasted or
embezelled, the whole foundation came to ruin:--to meet with
that inconvenience, I will so provide hereafter (if God do
not hinder my present design) as you shall be still assured
of a standing annual rent, to be disbursed every year in
buying of books, in officers' stipends, and other pertinent
occasions, with which provision, and some order for the
preservation of the place, and of the furniture of it, from
accustomed abuses, it may, perhaps, in time to come, prove a
notable treasure for the multitude of volumes; an excellent
benefit for the use and ease of students; and a singular
ornament in the University. I am, therefore, to intreat you,
because I will do nothing without their public approbation,
to deliver this, that I have signified, in that good sort,
that you think meet: and when you please to let me know
their acceptation of my offer, I will be ready to effect it
with all convenient expedition. But, for the better
effecting of it, I do desire to be informed whether the
University be sufficiently qualified, by licence of
Mortmain, or other assurance, to receive a farther grant of
any rent or annuity than they do presently enjoy. And, if
any instruments be extant of the ancient donations to their
former library, I would, with their good liking, see a
transcript of them: and likewise of such statutes as were
devised by the founders, or afterwards by others for the
usage of the books. Which is now as much as I can think on,
whereunto, at your good leisure, I would request your
friendly answer. And, if it lie in my ability to deserve
your pains in that behalf, although we be not yet
acquainted, you shall find me very forward. From London,
Feb. 23, 1597.
Your affectionate friend,
THO. BODLEY."
In the Easter following, "Mr. Bodley came to Oxford to view
the place on which he intended his bounty, and making them a
model of the design with the help of Mr. Saville, Warden of
Merton College, ordered that the room, or place of stowage,
for books, should be new planked, and that benches and
repositories fo [Transcriber's Note: for] books should be
set up." Wood's _Annals of the University_, vol. ii., pt.
ii., p. 920. The worthy founder then pursued his epistolary
intercourse with the Vice-Chancellor:
"_To Mr. Vice Chancellor._
SIR,
I find myself greatly beholden unto you for the speed that
you have used in proposing my offer to the whole University,
which I also hear by divers friends was greatly graced in
their meeting with your courteous kind speeches. And though
their answer of acceptance were over thankful and
respective; yet I take it unto me for a singular comfort,
that it came for that affection, whose thanks in that behalf
I do esteem a great deal more than they have reason to
esteem a far better offer. In which respect I have returned
my dutiful acknowledgement, which I beseech you to present,
when you shall call a convocation, about some matter of
greater moment. Because their letter was in _Latin_,
methought it did enforce me not to show myself a truant, by
attempting the like, with a pen out of practice: which yet I
hope they will excuse with a kind construction of my
meaning. And to the intent they may perceive that my good
will is as forward to perform as to promise, and that I
purpose to shew it to their best contentation, I do hold it
very requisite that some few should be deputed by the rest
of the House to consider, for the whole, of the fittest kind
of facture of desks, and other furniture; and when I shall
come to Oxford, which I determine, God willing, some time
before Easter, I will then acquaint the self same parties
with some notes of a platform, which I and Mr. Savile have
conceived here between us: so that, meeting altogether, we
shall soon resolve upon the best, as well for shew, and
stately form, as for capacity and strength, and commodity of
students. Of this my motion I would pray you to take some
notice in particular, for that my letter herewith to your
public assembly doth refer itself in part to your delivery
of my mind. My chiefest care is now, the while, how to
season my timber as soon as possible. For that which I am
offered by the special favour of Merton College, although it
were felled a great while since, yet of force it will
require, after time it is sawed, a convenient seasoning;
least by making too much haste, if the shelves and seats
should chance to warp, it might prove to be an eye sore, and
cost in a manner cast away. To gain some time in that
regard, I have already taken order for setting sawyers
a-work, and for procuring besides all other materials;
wherein my diligence and speed shall bear me witness of my
willingness to accomplish all that I pretend, to every man's
good liking. And thus I leave and commend you to God's good
tuition. From London, March 19, --97
Your assured to use in all your occasions,
THO. BODLEY."
Neither this nor the preceding letter are published in Mr.
Gutch's valuable edition of Wood's original text: but are to
be found, as well as every other information here subjoined,
in Hearne's edition of _Joh. Confrat. &c., de Reb.
Glaston._, vol. ii., pp. 612 to 645. We will next peruse the
curious list of the first benefactors to the Bodleian
Library.
_My Lord of Essex_: about 300 volumes: greater part in
folio.
_My Lord Chamberlain_: 100 volumes, all in a manner new
bound, with his arms, and a great part in folio.
_The Lord Montacute_: 66 costly great volumes, in folio; all
bought of set purpose, and fairly bound with his arms.
_The Lord Lumley_: 40 volumes in folio.
_Sir Robert Sidney_: 102 new volumes in folio, to the value
of one hundred pounds, being all very fair, and especially
well bound with his arms.
_Merton College_: 38 volumes of singular good books in
folio, &c.
_Mr. Philip Scudamor_: 50 volumes: greatest part in folio.
_Mr. William Gent_: 100 volumes at the least.
_Mr. Lawrence Bodley_: 37 very fair and new bought books in
folio. (There were seven other donations--in money, from 4
to 10_l._)
Another list of benefactors; read in Convocation, July 17,
1601.
_Sir John Fortescue, Knt._: 47 volumes: of which there are 5
Greek MSS. of singular worth.
_Mr. Jo. Crooke_: Recorder of the City of London: 27 good
volumes; of which 25 are in folio.
_Mr. Henry Savile_: all the Greek interpreters upon
Aust(in).
_Mr. William Gent, of Glocester Hall_: 160 volumes; of which
there are 50 in folio.
_Mr. Thomas Allen, of do._, hath given 12 rare MSS., with a
purpose to do more, and hath been ever a most careful
provoker and solicitor of sundry great persons to become
benefactors.
_Mr. William Camden_, by his office _Clarentius_: 7 volumes;
of which 4 are manuscripts.
_Mr. Thomas James, of New College_: 100 volumes: almost all
in folio, and sundry good manuscripts. With about 50 other
donations, chiefly in money.
To Dr. Raves, Vice-Chanc. (Read in Convoc. May 10, 1602.)
A yet larger, and more complete, list will be found in Mr.
Gutch's publication of Wood's text. Let us next observe how
this distinguished bibliomaniac seized every
opportunity--laying embargoes upon barges and carriages--for
the conveyance of his book-treasures. The ensuing is also in
Mr. Gutch's work:
"_To the Right W. Mr. D. King, Dean of Christ-Church, and
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxon, or, in his
absence, to his Deputies there._
(Read in Convocation, July 8, 1608.)
SIR,
I have sent down, by a western barge, all the books that I
have of this year's collection, which I have requested Mr.
James, and other of my friends, to see safely brought from
Burcote, and placed in the library. Sir Francis Vere hath
sent me this year his accustomed annual gift of ten pounds.
The Lady Mary Vere, wife to Sir Horace Vere, in the time of
her widowhood (for so she is desired it should be recorded),
being called Mrs. Hoby, of Hales, in Gloucestershire, hath
given twenty pound. (He then enumerates about 15 other
donations, and thus goes on:) Thus I thought meet to observe
my yearly custom, in acquainting the University with the
increase of their store: as my care shall be next, and that
very shortly, to endow them with that portion of revenue and
land that I have provided, whensoever God shall call me, for
the full defraying of any charge that, by present
likelihood, the conservation of the books, and all needful
allowances to the keeper and others, may from time to time
require. I will send you, moreover, a draught of certain
statutes, which I have rudely conceived about the employment
of that revenue, and for the government of the library: not
with any meaning that they should be received, as orders
made by me (for it shall appear unto you otherwise) but as
notes and remembrances to abler persons, whom hereafter you
may nominate (as I will also then request you) to consider
of those affairs, and so frame a substantial form of
government, sith that which is a foot is in many thinges
defective for preservation of the library: for I hold it
altogether fitting that the University Convocation should be
always possessed of an absolute power to devise any
statutes, and of those to alter as they list, when they find
an occasion of evident utility. But of these and other
points, when I send you my project, I will both write more
of purpose, and impart unto you freely my best cogitations,
being evermore desirous, whatsoever may concern your public
good, to procure and advance it so, to the uttermost of my
power: as now in the meanwhile, reminding unto you my
fervent affection, I rest for any service,
Your most assured, at commandment,
THO. BODLEIE.
London, June 30, 1608."
In a letter to his "dearest friends, Doctor Kinge,
Vice-Chancellor, the Doctors, Proctors, and the rest of the
Convocation House in Oxon," (16th June, 1609) after telling
them how he had secured certain landed property for the
payment of the salaries and other expenses attendant upon
the library, Sir Thomas thus draws to a conclusion: "Now
because I presuppose that you take little pleasure in a
tedious letter, having somewhat besides to impart unto you,
I have made it known by word to Mr. Vicechancellor, who, I
know, will not fail to acquaint you with it: as withall I
have intreated him to supply, in my behalf, all my negligent
omissions, and defective form of thanks, for all your public
honours, entertainments, letters, gifts, and other graces
conferred upon me, which have so far exceeded the compass of
my merits that, where before I did imagine that nothing
could augment my zealous inclination to your general good,
now methinks I do feel it (as I did a great while since) was
very highly augmented: insomuch as I cannot but shrive
myself thus freely and soothly unto you. That, albeit, among
a number of natural imperfections, I have least of all
offended in the humour of ambition, yet now so it is, that I
do somewhat repent me of my too much niceness that way: not
as carried with an appetite to rake more riches to myself
(wherein, God is my witness, my content is complete) but
only in respect of my greedy desire to make a livelier
demonstration of the same that I bear to my COMMON MOTHER,
than I have hitherto attained sufficient ability to put in
execution. With which unfeigned testification of my devotion
unto you, and with my daily fervent prayers for the endless
prosperity of your joint endeavours, in that whole
institution of your public library, I will close up this
letter, and rest, as I shall ever,
Yours, in all loving and dutiful affection,
THOMAS BODLEY.
London, May 31, 1609."
The following, which is also in Mr. Gutch's publication,
shews the laudable restlessness, and insatiable ambition, of
our venerable bibliomaniac, in ransacking foreign libraries
for the completion of his own.
"_To the Right Worshipfull Mr. D. Singleton, Vicechancellor
of the University of Oxon._
(Read in Convocation, Nov. 9, 1611.)
SIR,
About some three years past, I made a motion, here in
London, to Mr. Pindar, Consul of the Company of English
Merchants at Aleppo (a famous port in the Turk's dominions)
that he would use his best means to procure me some books in
the Syriac, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian tongues, or in any
other language of those Eastern nations: because I make no
doubt but, in process of time, by the extraordinary
diligence of some one or other student, they may be readily
understood, and some special use made of their kind of
learning in those parts of the world: and where I had a
purpose to reimburse all the charge that might grow
thereupon, he sent of late unto me 20 several volumes in the
foresaid tongues, and of his liberal disposition hath
bestowed them freely on the library. They are manuscripts
all (for in those countries they have no kind of printing)
and were valued in that place at a very high rate. I will
send them, ere be long, praying you the while to notify so
much unto the University, and to move them to write a letter
of thanks, which I will find means to convey to his hands,
being lately departed from London to Constantinople. Whether
the letter be indited in Latin or English, it is not much
material, but yet, in my conceit, it will do best to him in
English."
(The remainder of this letter is devoted to a scheme of
building the public schools at Oxford; in which Sir Thomas
found a most able and cheerful coadjutor, in one, _Sir Jo.
Benet_; who seems to have had an extensive and powerful
connection, and who set the scheme on foot, "like a true
affected son to his ANCIENT MOTHER, with a cheerful
propension to take the charge upon him without groaning.")
In April 1585, Queen Elizabeth granted Sir Thomas "a
passport of safe conveyance to Denmark"; and wrote a letter
to the King of Denmark of the same date, within two days.
She wrote, also, a letter to Julius, Duke of Brunswick of
the same date: in which the evils that were then besetting
the Christian world abroad were said to be rushing suddenly,
as "from the Trojan Horse." "These three letters (observes
Mr. Baker to his friend Hearne) are only copies, but very
fairly wrote, and seem to have been duplicates kept by him
that drew the original letters."
We will peruse but two more of these Bodleian epistles,
which Hearne very properly adds as an amusing appendix, as
well to the foregoing, as to his _Reliquiæ Bodleianæ_ (1703,
8vo). They are written to men whose names must ever be held
in high veneration by all worthy bibliomanacs.
"_Sir Tho. Bodley to Sir Robert Cotton._ (_Ex. Bibl.
Cotton._)
SIR,
I was thrice to have seen you at your house, but had not the
hap to find you at home. It was only to know how you hold
your old intention for helping to furnish the University
Library: where I purpose, God willing, to place all the
books that I have hitherto gathered, within these three
weeks. And whatsoever any man shall confer for the storing
of it, such order is taken for a due memorial of his gift as
I am persuaded he cannot any way receive a greater
contentment of any thing to the value otherwise bestowed.
Thus much I thought to signify unto you: and to request you
to hear how you rest affected.
Yours, to use in any occasion,
THO. BODLEY.
From my house, June 6."
"_Sir Henry Savile to Sir R(obert) C(otton)._
SIR,
I have made Mr. Bodley acquainted with your kind and
friendly offer, who accepteth of it in most thankful manner:
and if it pleaseth you to appoint to-morrow at afternoon, or
upon Monday or Tuesday next, at some hour likewise after
dinner, we will not fail to be with you at your house for
that purpose. And remember I give you fair warning that if
you hold any book so dear as that you would be loth to have
him out of your sight, set him aside before hand. For my own
part, I will not do that wrong to my judgment as to chuse of
the worst, if better be in place: and, beside, you would
account me a simple man.
But to leave jesting, we will any of the days come to you,
leaving, as great reason is, your own in your own power
freely to retain or dispose. True it is that I have raised
some expectation of the quality of your gift in Mr. Bodley,
whom you shall find a gentleman in all respects worthy of
your acquaintance. And so, with my best commendations, I
commit you to God. This St. Peter's day.
Your very assured friend,
HENRY SAVILE."
It only remains now to indulge the dutiful sons of ALMA
MATER with a fac-simile wood-cut impression of the profile
of the venerable founder of the Bodleian Library, taken from
a print of a medal in the _Catalogi Librorum Manuscriptorum
Angliæ, &c._, 1697, fol.; but whether it have any
resemblance to the bust of him, "carved to the life by an
excellent hand at London, and shortly after placed in a
niche in the south wall of the same library," with the
subjoined inscription, I cannot at this moment recollect.
[Illustration:
THOMAS SACKVILLUS DORSET, COMES,
SUMMUS ANGLIÆ THESAURAR. ET
HUJUS ACAD. CANCELLAR.
THOMÆ BODLEIO EQUITI AURATO
QUI BIBLIOTHECAM HANC INSTITUIT
HONORIS CAUSA P.P.]
The library of Sir Thomas Bodley, when completed, formed the
figure of a T: it was afterwards resolved, on the books
accumulating, and the benefactions increasing, to finish it
in the form of an H; in which state it now remains. Sir
Kenelm Digby, like a thorough bred bibliomaniac, "gave fifty
very good oaks, to purchase a piece of ground of Exeter
College, laying on the north west side of the library; on
which, and their own ground adjoining, they might erect the
future fabric." The laying of the foundation of this
erection is thus described by Wood; concluding with a
catastrophe, at which I sadly fear the wicked reader will
smile. "On the thirteenth of May, being Tuesday, 1634, the
Vice-chancellor, Doctors, Heads of Houses, and Proctors, met
at St. Mary's church about 8 of the clock in the morning;
thence each, having his respective formalities on came to
this place, and took their seats that were then erected on
the brim of the foundation. Over against them was built a
scaffold, where the two proctors, with divers masters,
stood. After they were all settled, the University
Musicians, who stood upon the leads at the west end of the
library, sounded a lesson on their wind music. Which being
done, the singing men of Christ-Church, with others, sang a
lesson, after which the senior Proctor, Mr. Herbert Pelham,
of Magdalen College, made an eloquent oration: that being
ended also, the music sounded again, and continued playing
till the Vice-Chancellor went to the bottom of the
foundation to lay the first stone in one of the south
angles. But no sooner had he deposited a piece of gold on
the said stone, according to the usual manner in such
ceremonies, but the earth fell in from one side of the
foundation, and the scaffold that was thereon broke and fell
with it; so that all those that were thereon, to the number
of a hundred at least, namely, the Proctors, Principals of
Halls, Masters, and some Bachelaurs, fell down all together,
one upon another, into the foundation; among whom, the under
butler of Exeter College had his shoulder broken or put out
of joint, and a scholar's arm bruised." "The solemnity being
thus concluded with such a sad catastrophe, the breach was
soon after made up and the work going chearfully forward,
was in four years space finished." _Annals of the University
of Oxford_; vol. ii., pt. ii., p. 939. Gutch's edition. We
will take leave of SIR THOMAS BODLEY, and of his noble
institution, with the subjoined representation of the
University's Arms--as painted upon the ceiling of the
library, in innumerable compartments; hoping that the period
is not very remote when a _History of the Bodleian Library_,
more ample and complete than any thing which has preceded
it, will appear prefixed to a _Catalogue of the Books_, like
unto that which is hinted at p. 74, ante, as "an urgent
desideratum."
[Illustration: DOMINVS ILLVMINATIO MEA]]
LIS. Alas, you bring to my mind those precious hours that are gone by,
never to be recalled, which I wasted within this glorious palace of
Bodley's erection! How I sauntered, and gazed, and sauntered again.--
PHIL. Your case is by no means singular. But you promise, when you
revisit the library, not to behave so naughtily again?
LIS. I was not then a convert to the BIBLIOMANIA! Now, I will
certainly devote the leisure of six autumnal weeks to examine
minutely some of the precious tomes which are contained in it.
LYSAND. Very good. And pray favour us with the result of your profound
researches: as one would like to have the most minute account of the
treasures contained within those hitherto unnumbered volumes.
PHIL. As every sweet in this world is balanced by its bitter, I wonder
that these worthy characters were not lampooned by some sharp-set
scribbler--whose only chance of getting perusers for his work, and
thereby bread for his larder, was by the novelty and impudence of his
attacks. Any thing new and preposterous is sure of drawing attention.
Affirm that you see a man standing upon one leg, on the pinnacle of
Saint Paul's[336]--or that the ghost of Inigo Jones had appeared to
you, to give you the extraordinary information that Sir Christopher
Wren had stolen the whole of the plan of that cathedral from a design
of his own--and do you not think that you would have spectators and
auditors enough around you?
[Footnote 336: This is now oftentimes practised by some wag,
in his "_Walke in Powles_." Whether the same anecdote is
recorded in the little slim pamphlet published in 1604,
4to., under the same title--not having the work--(and indeed
how should I? vide _Bibl. Reed_, no. 2225, _cum
pretiis_!) I cannot take upon me to determine.]
LIS. Yes, verily: and I warrant some half-starved scrivener of the
Elizabethan period drew his envenomed dart to endeavour to perforate
the cuticle of some worthy bibliomaniacal wight.
LYSAND. You may indulge what conjectures you please; but I know of no
anti-bibliomaniacal satirist of this period. STUBBES did what he
could, in his "_Anatomy of Abuses_,"[337] to disturb every social and
harmless amusement of the age. He was the forerunner of that snarling
satirist, Prynne; but I ought not thus to cuff him, for fear of
bringing upon me the united indignation of a host of black-letter
critics and philologists. A _large and clean_ copy of his sorrily
printed work is among the choicest treasures of a Shakspearian
virtuoso.
[Footnote 337: "THE ANATOMIE OF ABUSES: _contayning a
discoverie, or briefe summarie of such notable vices and
imperfections as now raigne in many Christian Countreyes of
the Worlde: but (especiallie) in a very famous Ilande called
Ailgna_:" &c. Printed by Richard Jones, 1583, small 8vo.
Vide Herbert's _Typographical Antiquities_, vol. iii., p.
1044, for the whole title. Sir John Hawkins, in his _History
of Music_, vol iii., 419, calls this "a curious and very
scarce book;" and so does my friend, Mr. Utterson; who
revels in his morocco-coated copy of it--"_Exemplar olim
Farmerianum!_" But let us be candid; and not sacrifice our
better judgments to our book-passions. After all, Stubbes's
work is a caricatured drawing. It has strong passages, and a
few original thoughts; and, is moreover, one of the very few
works printed in days of yore which have running titles to
the subjects discussed in them. These may be recommendations
with the bibliomaniac; but he should be informed that this
volume contains a great deal of puritanical cant, and
licentious language; that vices are magnified in it in order
to be lashed, and virtues diminished that they might not be
noticed. Stubbes equals Prynne in his anathemas against
"Plays and Interludes:" and in his chapters upon "Dress" and
"Dancing" he rakes together every coarse and pungent phrase
in order to describe "these horrible sins" with due
severity. He is sometimes so indecent that, for the credit
of the age, and of a virgin reign, we must hope that every
virtuous dame threw the copy of his book, which came into
her possession, behind the fire. This may reasonably account
for its present rarity. I do not discover it in the
catalogues of the libraries of _Pearson_, _Steevens_, or
_Brand_; but see _Bibl. Wright_, no. 1390.]
But admitting even that Stubbes had drawn his arrow to the head, and
grazed the skin of such men as Bodley and Cotton, the wound inflicted
by this weapon must have been speedily closed and healed by the
balsamic medicine administered by ANDREW MAUNSELL, in his _Catalogue
of English Printed Books_.[338] This little thin folio volume afforded
a delicious treat to all honest bibliomaniacs. It revived the drooping
spirits of the despondent; and, like the syrup of the renowned Dr.
Brodum, circulated within the system, and put all the generous juices
in action. The niggardly collector felt the influence of rivalship; he
played a deeper stake at book-gambling; and hastened, by his painfully
acquired knowledge of what was curious and rare in books, to
anticipate the rustic collector--which latter, putting the best wheels
and horses to his carriage, rushed from the country to the metropolis,
to seize, at Maunsell's shop, a choice copy of _Cranmer's Bible, or
Morley's Canzonets_.[339]
[Footnote 338: This Catalogue, the first publication of the
kind ever put forth in this country, is complete in two
parts; 1595, folio: first part containing 123 pages,
exclusive of three preliminary epistles: the second, 27
pages; exclusive of three similar introductory pieces. The
_first part_ is devoted entirely to Divinity: and in the
dedicatory epistle to Queen Elizabeth, Maunsell tells her
majesty that he thought it "worth his poor labour to collect
a catalogue of the divine books, so mightily increased in
her reign; whereby her majesty's most faithful and loving
subjects may be put in remembrance of the works of so
excellent authors," &c. The second part is devoted to a
brief account of books in the remaining branches of
literature, arts, sciences, &c. Maunsell promised to follow
it up by a _third_ part; but a want of due encouragement
seems to have damped the bibliographical ardour of the
compiler; for this third part never appeared: a circumstance
which, in common with the late Mr. Steevens, all
bibliomaniacs may "much lament." See the _Athenæum_, vol i.,
155; also Herbert's _Typographical Antiquities_, vol ii., p.
1137. A copy of this volume has found its way into the
Advocates' Library at Edinburgh; _Cat. Adv. Libr._, vol ii.,
p. 99. Ruddiman, who was formerly the librarian of this
latter valuable collection, had probably read Hearne's
commendation of it:--namely, that it was "a very scarce, and
yet a very useful, book." _Bened. Abbat._, vol. i., p. LIV.
Mr. Heber possesses a curious copy of it, which was formerly
Herbert's, with the margins filled with his MS. addenda.]
[Footnote 339: "Of the translation appointed to bee read in
churches, in Kinge Henry the 8, his daies," printed in the
largest volume, 1539. "THO. MORLEY, Bachiler of Musique, and
one of her Maiestie's Royal Chappell, _his Conzonets_, or
little short songes to three voyces. Prin. by Tho. Est.
1593. 4to." See p. 10., pt. i., p. 17, pt. ii., of
_Maunsell's Catalogue_; but let the reader consult p. 248,
ante, concerning this "largest volume" of the Holy
Scriptures.]
Let us, however, not forget that we have reached the reign of JAMES
I.; a monarch who, like Justinian, affected to be "greatly given to
study of books;"[340] and who, according to Burton's testimony, wished
he had been chained to one of the shelves of the Bodleian
library.[341] Of all literary tastes, James had the most strange and
sterile. Let us leave him to his _Demonology_; but notice, with the
respect that it merits, the more rational and even elegantly
cultivated mind of his son PRINCE HENRY;[342] of whose passion for
books there are some good evidences upon record. We will next proceed
to the mention of a shrewd scholar and bibliomaniac, and ever active
voyager, ycleped THOMAS CORYATE, the _Peregrine of Odcombe_. This
facetious traveller, who was as quaint and original a writer as old
Tom Fuller, appears (when he had time and opportunity) to have taken
special notice of libraries; and when he describes to us his "worm
eaten" copy of _Josephus's Antiquities_,[343] "written in ancient
Longobard characters in parchment," one cannot but indulge a natural
wish to know something of the present existence of a MS. which had
probably escaped Oberthür, the last laborious editor of Josephus.
[Footnote 340: "Greatly gyuen to study of bokys:" _Rastell's
Chronicle, or Pastyme of People_, p. 28, edit. 1811, 4to.]
[Footnote 341: The passage is somewhere in Burton's _Anatomy
of Mechanoly_. But I cannot just now, put my finger upon
it.]
[Footnote 342: The works of KING JAMES I. (of England) were
published in rather a splendid folio volume in the year
1616. Amongst these, his _Demonology_ is the "opus maximum."
Of his son PRINCE HENRY, there is, in this volume, at the
top of one of the preliminary pieces, a very pretty half
length portrait; when he was quite a boy. A charming whole
length portrait of the same accomplished character, when he
was a young man, engraved by Paas, may be seen in the first
folio edition of Drayton's _Polyolbion_: but this, the
reader will tell me, is mere Grangerite information. Proceed
we, therefore, to a pithy, but powerful, demonstration of
the bibliomaniacal character of the said Prince Henry. "In
the paper office, there is a book, No. 24, containing
Prince Henry's privy-purse expences, for one year," &c. The
whole expense of one year was 1400_l._ Among other charges,
the following are remarkable:
£ _s._ _d._
17th October, paid to a Frenchman, that
presented _a book_ 4 10 0
20th October, paid Mr. Holyoak for writing a
_Catalogue of the Library_ which the Prince
had of Lord Lumley 8 13 4
&c. &c. &c.
_Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare-Papers_, 1797,
8vo., p. 233.]
[Footnote 343: Look, gentle reader, at the entire ungarbled
passage--amongst many similar ones which may be adduced--in
vol. i., p. 116, of his "_Crudities_"--or Travels: edit.
1776, 8vo. Coryat's [Transcriber's Note: alternative
spelling] talents, as a traveller, are briefly, but
brilliantly, described in the _Quarterly Review_, vol. ii.,
p. 92.]
Let me here beseech you to pay due attention to the works of HENRY
PEACHAM, when they come across you. The first edition of that
elegantly written volume, "_The Compleat Gentleman_," was published I
believe in the reign of James I., in the year 1622.
LOREN. I possess not only this, but every subsequent copy of it, and a
fair number of copies of his other works. He and BRAITHWAIT were the
"par nobile fratrum" of their day.
PHIL. I have often been struck with some curious passages in Peacham,
relating to the Education of Youth[344] in our own country; as I
find, from them, that the complaint of _severity of discipline_ still
continued, notwithstanding the able work of Roger Ascham, which had
recommended a mild and conciliatory mode of treatment.
[Footnote 344: The HISTORY of the EDUCATION OF YOUTH in this
country might form an amusing little octavo volume. We have
_Treatises_ and _Essays_ enough upon the subject; but a
narrative of its first rude efforts, to its present, yet not
perfected, form, would be interesting to every parent, and
observer of human nature. My present researches only enable
me to go back as far as Trevisa's time, towards the close of
the 14th century; when I find, from the works of this Vicar
of Berkeley, that "every friar that had _state in school_,
such as they were then, had an HUGE LIBRARY." _Harl. MSS._,
no. 1900. But what the particular system was, among
youth, which thus so highly favoured the BIBLIOMANIA, I have
not been able to ascertain. I suspect, however, that
knowledge made but slow advances; or rather that its
progress was almost inverted; for, at the end of the
subsequent century, our worthy printer, Caxton, tells us
that he found "but few who could write in their registers
the occurrences of the day." _Polychronicon; prol. Typog.
Antiquit._, vol. i., 148. In the same printer's prologue to
_Catho Magnus_ (_Id._, vol. i., 197) there is a melancholy
complaint about the youth of London; who, although, when
children, they were "fair, wise, and prettily bespoken--at
the full ripening, they had neither kernel nor good corn
found in them." This is not saying much for the academic or
domestic treatment of young gentlemen, towards the close of
the 15th century. At the opening of the ensuing century, a
variety of elementary treatises, relating to the education
of youth, were published chiefly under the auspices of Dean
Colet, and composed by a host of learned grammarians, of
whom honourable mention has been made at page 218, ante.
These publications are generally adorned with a rude
wood-cut; which, if it be copied from truth, affords a
sufficiently striking proof of the severity of the ancient
discipline: for the master is usually seated in a large
arm-chair, with a tremendous rod across his knees; and the
scholars are prostrate before him, either on the ground upon
bended knees, or sitting upon low benches. Nor was this
rigid system relaxed in the middle of the same (xvith)
century; when Roger Ascham composed his incomparable
treatise, intitled the "_Schoolmaster_;" the object of which
was to decry the same severity of discipline. This able
writer taught his countrymen the value of making the road to
knowledge smooth and inviting, by smiles and remunerations,
rather than by stripes and other punishments. Indeed, such
was the stern and Draco-like character which schoolmasters
of this period conceived themselves authorized to assume
that neither rank, nor situation, nor sex, were exempt from
the exercise of their tyranny. Lady Jane Grey tells Ascham
that her former teacher used to give her "pinches, and
cuffs, and bobs," &c. The preface to the Schoolmaster
informs us that two gentlemen, who dined with Ascham at
Cecil's table, were of opinion that NICOLAS UDAL, then head
master of Eaton School, "was the best schoolmaster of their
time, and the _greatest beater_!" Bishop Latimer, in his
fourth sermon (edit. 1562, fol. 15 to 18), has drawn such a
picture of the Londoners of this period that the philosopher
may imagine that youths, who sprung from such parents,
required to be ruled with a rod of iron. But it has been the
fashion of all writers, from the age of St. Austin
downwards, to depreciate the excellences, and magnify the
vices, of the times in which they lived. Ludovicus Vives,
who was Latimer's contemporary, has attacked both
schoolmasters and youths, in an ungracious style; saying of
the former that "some taught Ovid's books of love to their
scholars, and some make expositions and expounded the
vices." He also calls upon the young women, in the language
of St. Jerome, "to avoid, as a mischief or poison of
chastity, young men with heads bushed and trimmed; and sweet
smelling skins of outlandish mice." _Instruction of a
Christian Woman_; edit. 1592, sign. D 3, rect. &c. I am not
aware of any work of importance, relating to the education
of youth, which appeared till the publication of the
_Compleat Gentleman_ by HENRY PEACHAM: an author, who richly
deserves all the handsome things above said of him in the
text. His chapters "_Of the Duty of Masters_," and "_Of the
Duty of Parents_," are valuable upon many accounts: inasmuch
as they afford curious anecdotes of the system of academic
and domestic education then pursued, and are accompanied
with his own sagacious and candid reflections. Peacham was
an _Aschamite_ in respect to lenity of discipline; as the
following extracts, from the foregoing work, (edit. 1661)
will unequivocally prove. Peacham first observes upon the
different modes of education: "But we see on the contrary,
out of the master's carterly judgment, like horses in a
team, the boys are set to draw all alike, when some one or
two prime and able wits in the school, [Greek: auto
didaktoi] (which he culs out to admiration if strangers
come, as a costardmonger his fairest pippins) like fleet
hovnds go away with the game, when the rest need helping
over a stile a mile behind: hence, being either quite
discouraged in themselves, or taken away by their friends
(who for the most part measure their learning by the form
they set in), they take leave of their books while they
live," &c. p. 23. "Some affect, and severer schools enforce,
a precise and tedious strictness, in long keeping the
schollers by the walls: as from before six in the morning,
till twelve or past: so likewise in the afternoon. Which,
beside the dulling of the wit and dejecting the spirit (for,
"otii non minus quam negotii ratio extare debet") breeds in
him, afterwards, a kind of hate and carelessness of study
when he comes to be "sui juris," at his own liberty (as
experience proves by many, who are sent from severe schools
unto the universities): withall over-loading his memory, and
taking off the edge of his invention, with over heavy tasks,
in themes, verses," &c., p. 25. "Nor is it my meaning that I
would all masters to be tyed to one method, no more than all
the shires of England to come up to London by one highway:
there may be many equally alike good. And since method, as
one saith, is but [Greek: odopoiêtikê], let every master, if
he can, by pulling up stiles and hedges, make a more near
and private way to himself; and in God's name say, with the
divinest of poets,
_deserta per avia dulcis
Raptat amor. Juvat ire iugis, quâ nulla priorum_
CASTALIAM _molli divertitur orbita clivo._
(Georg. libi. iij.)
With sweet love rapt, I now by deserts pass,
And over hills where never track of yore:
Descending easily, yet remembered was,
That led the way to CASTALIE before.
(Peacham.)
But instead of many good, they have infinite bad; and go
stumbling from the right, as if they went blindfold for a
wager. Hence cometh the shifting of the scholler from master
to master; who, poor boy (like a hound among a company of
ignorant hunters hollowing every deer they see), misseth the
right, begetteth himself new labour, and at last, by one of
skill and well read, beaten for his paines," pp. 29, 30.
Peacham next notices the extreme severity of discipline
exercised in some schools. "I knew one, who in winter would
ordinarily, in a cold morning, whip his boys over for no
other purpose than to get himself a heat: another beats them
for swearing, and all the while sweares himself with
horrible oaths. He would forgive any fault saving that! I
had, I remember, myself (neer St. Alban's in Hertfordshire,
where I was born) a master, who, by no entreaty, would teach
any scholler he had farther than his father had learned
before him; as if he had only learned but to read English,
the son, though he went with him seven years, should go no
further: his reason was, they would then prove saucy rogues,
and controle their fathers! Yet these are they that
oftentimes have our hopefull gentry under their charge and
tuition, to bring them up in science and civility!" p. 27.
This absurd system is well contrasted with the following
account of the lenity observed in some of the schools on the
continent: "In Germany the school is, and as the name
imports, it ought to be, merely, LUDUS LITERARIUS, a very
pastime of learning, where it is a rare thing to see a rod
stirring: yet I heartily wish that our children of England
were but half so ready in writing and speaking Latin, which
boys of ten and twelve years old will do so roundly, and
with so neat a phrase and style, that many of our masters
would hardly mend them; having only for their punishment,
shame; and for their reward, praise," p. 24. "Wherefore I
cannot but commend the custome of their schools in the
Low-countries, where for the avoyding of this tedious
sitting still, and with irksome poring on the book all day
long, after the scholler hath received his lecture, he
leaveth the school for an houre, and walkes abroad with one
or two of his fellows, either into the field or up among the
trees upon the rampire, as in ANTWERP, BREDA, VTRECHT, &c.,
when they confer and recreate themselves till time calls
them in to repeat, where perhaps they stay an hour; so
abroad again, and thus at their pleasure the whole day," p.
26. Thus have we pursued the _History of the Education of
Boys_ to a period quite modern enough for the most
superficial antiquary to supply the connecting links down to
the present times. Nor can we conclude this prolix note
without observing upon two things which are remarkable
enough: first, that in a country like our own--the
distinguishing characteristics of whose inhabitants are
gravity, reserve, and good sense--lads should conduct
themselves with so much rudeness, flippancy, and tyranny
towards each other--and secondly, that masters should, in
too many instances, exercise a discipline suited rather to a
government of despotism and terror than to a land of liberty
and social comfort! But all human improvement, and human
happiness, is progressive. Speramus meliora!]
LYSAND. But you must not believe every thing that is said in favour of
_Continental_ lenity of discipline, shewn to youth, if the testimony
of a modern newspaper may be credited!----
LIS. What your newspaper may hold forth I will not pretend to enter
into.
LYSAND. Nay, here is the paragraph; which I cut out from "_The
Observer_," and will now read it to you. "A German Magazine recently
announced the death of a schoolmaster in Suabia, who, for 51 years,
had superintended a large institution with old fashioned severity.
From an average, inferred by means of recorded observations, one of
the ushers had calculated that, in the course of his exertions, he had
given _911,500 canings, 121,000 floggings, 209,000 custodes, 136,000
tips with the ruler, 10,200 boxes on the ear, and 22,700 tasks by
heart_. It was further calculated that he had made _700 boys stand on
peas, 6000 kneel on a sharp edge of wood, 5000 wear the fool's cap,
and 1,700 hold the rod_. How vast (exclaims the journalist) the
quantity of human misery inflicted by a single perverse educator!"
Now, my friends, what have you to say against the _English_ system of
education?
PHIL. This is only defending bad by worse.
LIS. Where are we digressing? What are become of our bibliomaniacal
heroes?
LYSAND. You do right to call me to order. Let us turn from the birch,
to the book, history.
Contemporaneous with Peacham, lived that very curious collector of
ancient popular little pieces, as well as lover of "sacred secret soul
soliloquies," the renowned _melancholy_ composer, ycleped ROBERT
BURTON;[345] who, I do not scruple to number among the most marked
bibliomaniacs of the age; notwithstanding his saucy railing against
Frankfort book-fairs. We have abundance of testimony (exclusive of the
fruits of his researches, which appear by his innumerable marginal
references to authors of all ages and characters) that this original,
amusing, and now popular, author was an arrant book-hunter; or, as old
Anthony hath it, "a devourer of authors." Rouse, the Librarian of
Bodleian, is said to have liberally assisted Burton in furnishing him
with choice books for the prosecution of his extraordinary work.
[Footnote 345: I suppose Lysander to allude to a memorandum
of Hearne, in his _Benedictus Abbas_, p. iv., respecting
ROBERT BURTON being a collector of "ancient popular little
pieces." From this authority we find that he gave "a great
variety" of these pieces, with a multitude of books, of the
best kind, to the "Bodleian Library."--One of these was that
"opus incomparabile," the "_History of Tom Thumb_," and the
other, the "_Pleasant and Merry History of the Mylner of
Abingdon_." The expression "sacred secret soul soliloquies"
belongs to Braithwait: and is thus beautifully interwoven in
the following harmonious couplets:
----No minute but affords some tears.
No walks but private solitary groves
Shut from frequent, his contemplation loves;
No treatise, nor discourse, so sweetly please
As sacred-secret soule soliloquies.
_Arcadian Princesse_, lib. 4, p. 162.
And see, gentle reader, how the charms of solitude--of
"walking alone in some solitary grove, betwixt wood and
water, by a brook-side, to meditate upon some delightsome
and pleasant subject" are depicted by the truly original
pencil of this said Robert Burton, in his _Anatomy of
Melancholy_, vol. i., p. 126, edit. 1804. But our theme is
Bibliomania. Take, therefore, concerning the same author,
the following: and then hesitate, if thou canst, about his
being infected with the BOOK-DISEASE. "What a catalogue of
new books all this year, all this age (I say) have our
Frank-furt marts, our domestic marts, brought out! Twice a
year, 'Proferunt se nova ingenia et ostentant;' we stretch
our wits out! and set them to sale: 'Magno conatu nihil
agimus,' &c. 'Quis tam avidus librorum helluo,' who can read
them? As already, we shall have a vast chaos and confusion
of books; we are oppressed with them; our eyes ake with
reading, our fingers with turning," &c. This is painting _ad
vivum_--after the life. We see and feel every thing
described. Truly, none but a thorough master in
bibliomaniacal mysteries could have thus thought and
written! See "_Democritus to the Reader_," p. 10; perhaps
the most highly finished piece of dissection in the whole
_anatomical work_.]
About this period lived LORD LUMLEY; a nobleman of no mean reputation
as a bibliomaniac. But what shall we say to Lord Shaftesbury's
eccentric neighbour, HENRY HASTINGS? who, in spite of his hawks,
hounds, kittens, and oysters,[346] could not for [Transcriber's Note:
extraneous 'for'] forbear to indulge his book propensities though in a
moderate degree! Let us fancy we see him, in his eightieth year, just
alighted from the toils of the chase, and listening, after dinner,
with his "single glass" of ale by his side, to some old woman with
"spectacle on nose" who reads to him a choice passage out of John
Fox's _Book of Martyrs_! A rare old boy was this Hastings. But I
wander--and may forget another worthy, and yet more ardent,
bibliomaniac, called JOHN CLUNGEON, who left a press, and some books
carefully deposited in a stout chest, to the parish church at
Southampton. We have also evidence of this man's having _erected a
press_ within the same; but human villany has robbed us of every relic
of his books and printing furniture.[347] From Southampton, you must
excuse me if I take a leap to London; in order to introduce you into
the wine cellars of one JOHN WARD; where, I suppose, a few choice
copies of favourite authors were sometimes kept in a secret recess by
the side of the oldest bottle of hock. We are indebted to Hearne for a
brief, but not uninteresting, notice of this _vinous_ book
collector.[348]
[Footnote 346: Of the bibliomaniacal spirit of LORD LUMLEY
the reader has already had some slight mention made at pages
273, 281, ante. Of HENRY HASTINGS, Gilpin has furnished us
with some anecdotes which deserve to be here recorded. They
are taken from Hutchin's _Hist. of Dorsetshire_, vol. ii.,
p. 63. "Mr. HASTINGS was low of stature, but strong and
active, of a ruddy complexion, with flaxen hair. His cloaths
were always of green cloth. His house was of the old
fashion; in the midst of a large park, well stocked with
deer, rabbits, and fish-ponds. He had a long narrow bowling
green in it, and used to play with round sand bowls. Here
too he had a banquetting room built, like a stand in a large
tree. He kept all sorts of hounds, that ran buck, fox, hare,
otter, and badger; and had hawks of all kinds, both long and
short winged. His great hall was commonly strewed with
marrow-bones, and full of hawk-perches, hounds, spaniels,
and terriers. The upper end of it was hung with fox-skins of
this and the last year's killing. Here and there a pole-cat
was intermixed, and hunter's poles in great abundance. The
parlour was a large room, completely furnished in the same
style. On a broad hearth, paved with brick, lay some of the
choicest terriers, hounds, and spaniels. One or two of the
great chairs had litters of cats in them, which were not to
be disturbed. Of these, three or four always attended him at
dinner, and a little white wand lay by his trencher, to
defend it, if they were too troublesome. In the windows,
which were very large, lay his arrows, cross-bows, and other
accoutrements. The corners of the room were filled with his
best hunting and hawking poles. His oyster table stood at
the lower end of the room, which was in constant use twice a
day, all the year round; for he never failed to eat oysters
both at dinner and supper, with which the neighbouring town
of Pool supplied him. At the upper end of the room stood a
small table with a double desk; one side of which held a
CHURCH BIBLE: the other the BOOK OF MARTYRS. On different
tables in the room lay hawks'-hoods, bells, old hats, with
their crowns thrust in, full of pheasant eggs, tables, dice,
cards, and store of tobacco pipes. At one end of this room
was a door, which opened into a closet, where stood bottles
of strong beer and wine; which never came out but in single
glasses, which was the rule of the house, for he never
exceeded himself, nor permitted others to exceed. Answering
to this closet was a door into an old chapel; which had been
long disused for devotion; but in the pulpit, as the safest
place, was always to be found a cold chine of beef, a
venison pasty, a gammon of bacon, or a great apple-pye, with
thick crust, well baked. His table cost him not much, though
it was good to eat at. His sports supplied all but beef and
mutton, except on Fridays, when he had the best of fish. He
never wanted a London pudding, and he always sang it in with
"_My part lies therein-a_." He drank a glass or two of wine
at meals; put syrup of gilly-flowers into his sack, and had
always a tun glass of small beer standing by him, which he
often stirred about with rosemary. He lived to be an
hundred, and never lost his eyesight, nor used spectacles.
He got on horseback without help, and rode to the death of
the stag till he was past fourscore." Gilpin's _Forest
Scenery_, vol. ii., pp. 23, 26. I should add, from the same
authority, that Hastings was a neighbour of Anthony Ashley
Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, with whom (as was likely
enough) he had no cordial agreement.]
[Footnote 347: "In the northern chapel which is parted from
the side aile by a beautiful open Gothic screen, is a
handsome monument to the memory of the lord Chancellor
Wriothesly, and a _large and costly standing chest_, carved
and inlaid, and stated, by an inscription on its front, to
have been given, _with the books in it_, by JOHN CLUNGEON.
The inscription is as follows:
"John, the sonne of John Clungeon of this towne, Alderman,
_erected this presse_ and gave certain books, who died, anno
1646.
"The books are, however, now gone, and the surplices, &c.
are kept in the chest." See a tasteful and elegantly printed
little volume, entitled "_A Walk through Southampton_;" by
Sir H.C. Englefield, Bart. 1801, 8vo., p. 64.]
[Footnote 348: Ward is described by Hearne as being "a
citizen and vintner of London," and "a lover of
antiquity's." He had a copy of the _Chartulary of
Dunstaple_, in MS., which was put by Wanley into the
Harleian collection. The following entry is too much of a
characteristic trait, not to be gratifying to the palate of
a thorough bred bibliomaniac; it relates to the said
Chartulary:--"also this vellum, at both ends of the booke,
was then added, put in, and inserted, at the costs of the
said Mr. (JOHN) WARD, in the said yeare of our Lord, 1655,
_s._ _d._
binding and claspes 4 00
vellum 4 00"
_Annals of Dunstaple Priory_, vol. i., p. xxx., note.]
LIS. If Master Cox, "by profession a mason," and living in the
country, could have collected such a cabinet of romances and
ballads--why should not a wine merchant, living in the metropolis,
have turned his attention to a similar pursuit, and have been even
more successful in the objects of it?
PHIL. I know not; particularly as we have, at the present day, some
commercial characters--whose dealings in trade are as opposite to
books as frogs are to roast beef--absolute madmen in search after
black-letter, large paper, and uncut copies! But proceed, Lysander.
LYSAND. Such was the influence of the _Book Mania_ about, or rather a
little before, this period that even the sacred retirement of a
monastery, established upon Protestant principles, and conducted by
rules so rigid as almost to frighten the hardiest ascetic, even such a
spot was unable to resist the charms of book-collecting and
book-embellishment. How St. Jerome or St. Austin would have lashed the
FERRAR FAMILY[349] for the gorgeous decorations of their volumes, and
for devoting so much precious time and painful attention to the art
and mystery of Book-binding! Yes, Lisardo; it is truly curious to
think upon the _Little Gidding Monastery_--near which, perhaps, were
----"rugged rocks, that holy knees had worn--"
and to imagine that the occupiers of such a place were infected--nay,
inflamed--with a most powerful ardour for curious, neat, splendid,
and, I dare venture to affirm, matchless copies of the several volumes
which they composed! But I will now hasten to give very different
evidence of the progress of this disease, by noticing the labours of a
bibliomaniac of first rate celebrity; I mean ELIAS ASHMOLE:[350] whose
museum at Oxford abundantly proves his curious and pertinacious
spirit in book-collecting. His works, put forth under his own
superintendence, with his name subjoined, shew a delicate taste, an
active research, and, if we except his _Hermetical_ propensities, a
fortunate termination. His "opus maximum" is the _Order of the
Garter_; a volume of great elegance both in the composition and
decorations. Your copy of it, I perceived, was upon _large paper_; and
cost you--
[Footnote 349: It remains here to make good the above
serious charges brought against the ancient and worthy
family of the FERRARS; and this it is fully in my power to
do, from the effectual aid afforded me by Dr. Wordsworth, in
the fifth volume of his _Ecclesiastical Biography_; where
the better part of Dr. Peckard's Life of Nicholas Ferrar is
published, together with some valuable and original addenda
from the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth. Be it, however,
known to Dr. Wordsworth, and the reviewer of the
Ecclesiastical Biography in the _Quarterly Review_, vol.
iv., pp. 93, 103, that Hearne had previously published a
copious and curious account of the monastery at Little
Gidding in the supplement to his _Thom. Caii. Vind.
Antiquit. Oxon._, 1730, 8vo., vol. ii.: which, as far as I
have had an opportunity of examining Dr. Wordsworth's
account, does not appear to have been known to this latter
editor. We will now proceed to the bibliomaniacal anecdotes
of NICHOLAS FERRAR, SENIOR AND JUNIOR. "Amongst other
articles of instruction and amusement, Mr. FERRAR (senior)
entertained an ingenious _Book-binder_ who taught the
family, females as well as males, the whole art and skill of
_book-binding_, gilding, lettering, and what they called
pasting-printing, by the use of the rolling press. By this
assistance he composed a full harmony, or concordance, of
the four evangelists, _adorned with many beautiful
pictures_, which required more than a year for the
composition, and was divided into 150 heads or chapters."
There is then a minute account of the mechanical process (in
which the nieces assisted) how, by means of "great store of
the best and strongest white paper, nice knives and
scissars, pasting and rolling-press" work--the arduous task
was at length accomplished: and Mary Collet, one of Mr.
Ferrar's nieces, put the grand finishing stroke to the
whole, by "doing a deed"--which has snapt asunder the
threads of Penelope's web for envy:--"She bound the book
entirely, ALL WROUGHT IN GOLD, in a new and most elegant
fashion." The fame of this book, or concordance, as it was
called, reached the ears of Charles I., who "intreated"
(such was his Majesty's expression) to be favoured with a
sight of it. Laud and Cousins, who were then chaplains in
waiting, presented it to the King; who "after long and
serious looking it over, said, 'This is indeed a most
valuable work, and in many respects to be presented to the
greatest prince upon earth: for the matter it contains is
the richest of all treasures. The laborious composure of it
into this excellent form of _an Harmony_, the judicious
contrivance of the method, the curious workmanship in so
neatly cutting out and disposing the text, _the nice laying
of these costly pictures, and the exquisite art expressed in
the binding_, are, I really think, not to be equalled. I
must acknowledge myself to be, indeed, greatly indebted to
the family for THIS JEWEL: and whatever is in my power I
shall, at any time, be ready to do for any of them.'"
_Eccles. Biogr._, vol. v., 172-8. This was spoken, by
Charles, in the true spirit of a Book-Knight! Cromwell, I
suppose, would have shewn the same mercy to this treasure as
he did to the madonnas of Raffaelle--thrown it behind the
fire, as idolatrous! The nephew emulated and eclipsed the
bibliomaniacal celebrity of his uncle. At the age of
twenty-one, he executed three books (or "works" as they are
called) of uncommon curiosity and splendour. Archbishop
Laud, who had a keen eye and solid judgment for things of
this sort (as the reader will find in the following pages)
undertook to introduce young Ferrars to the King. The
introduction is told in such a pleasing style of _naiveté_,
and the manual dexterity of the young bibliomaniac is so
smartly commended by Charles, that I cannot find it in my
heart to abridge much of the narrative. "When the king saw
the Archbishop enter the room, he said, 'What have you
brought with you those _rarities_ and _jewels_ you told me
of?' 'Yea, sire,' replied the bishop; 'here is the YOUNG
GENTLEMAN and his works.' So the bishop, taking him by the
hand, led him up to the king. He, falling down on his knees,
the king gave him his hand to kiss, bidding him rise up. The
box was opened, and NICHOLAS FERRAR, first presented to the
king that book made for the prince; who taking it from him,
looking well on the outside, which was _all green velvet,
stately and richly gilt all over, with great broad strings,
edged with gold lace, and curiously bound_, said, 'Here is a
fine book for Charles, indeed! I hope it will soon make him
in love with what is within it, for I know it is good,' &c.
And lo! here are also store of _rare pictures_ to delight
his eye with! &c., &c. Then, turning him to the Lord of
Canterbury, he said, 'Let this young gentleman have your
letters to the princes to-morrow, to Richmond, and let him
carry this present. It is a good day, you know, and a good
work would be done upon it.' So he gave Nicholas Ferrar the
book; who, carrying it to the box, took out of it a very
large paper book, which was the FOURTH WORK, and laid it on
the table before the king. 'For whom,' said the king, 'is
this model?' 'For your majesty's eyes, if you please to
honour it so much.' 'And that I will gladly do,' said the
king, 'and never be weary of such sights as I know you will
offer unto me.' The king having well perused the title page,
beginning, 'The Gospel of our Lord and blessed Saviour,
Jesus Christ, in eight several languages,' &c., said unto
the lords, 'You all see that one good thing produceth
another. Here we have more and more rarities; from print now
to pen. These are fair hands, well written, and as well
composed.' Then replied the Lord of Canterbury, 'When your
majesty hath seen all, you will have more and more cause to
admire.' 'What!' said the king, 'is it possible we shall
behold yet more rarities?' then said the bishop to Nicholas
Ferrar, 'Reach the other piece that is in the box:' and this
we call the FIFTH WORK; the title being _Novum Testamentum,
&c., in viginti quatuor linguis, &c._ The king, opening the
book, said, 'Better and better. This is the largest and
fairest paper that ever I saw.' Then, reading the
title-page, he said, 'What is this? What have we here? The
incomparablest book this will be, as ever eye beheld. My
lords, come, look well upon it. This finished, must be the
EMPEROR OF ALL BOOKS. It is the crown of all works. It is an
admirable masterpiece. The world cannot match it. I believe
you are all of my opinion.' The lords all seconded the king,
and each spake his mind of it. 'I observe two things amongst
others,' said the king, 'very remarkable, if not admirable.
The first is, how is it possible that a young man of
twenty-one years of age (for he had asked the Lord of
Canterbury before, how old Nicholas Ferrar was) should ever
attain to the understanding and knowledge of more languages
than he is of years; and to have the courage to venture upon
such an Atlas work, or Hercules labour. The other is also of
high commendation, to see him write so many several
languages, so well as these are, each in its proper
character. Sure so few years had been well spent, some men
might think, to have attained only to the _writing_ thus
fairly, of these twenty-four languages!' All the lords
replied his majesty had judged right; and said, except they
had seen, as they did, the young gentleman there, and the
book itself, all the world should not have persuaded them to
the belief of it." _Ecclesiastical Biography_, vol. v., pp.
216, 220. But whatever degree of credit or fame of young
FERRARS might suppose to have been attached to the execution
of these "pieces," his emulation was not damped, nor did his
industry slacken, 'till he had produced a specimen of much
greater powers of book-decoration. His appetite was that of
a giant; for he was not satisfied with any thing short of
bringing forth a volume of such dimensions as to make the
bearer of it groan beneath its weight--and the beholders of
it dazzled with its lustre, and astonished at its amplitude.
Perhaps there is not a more curious book-anecdote upon
record than the following. "Charles the 1st, his son
Charles, the Palsgrave, and the Duke of Lennox, paid a visit
to the monastery of Little Gidding, in Huntingdonshire--the
abode of the Ferrars."--"Then, the king was pleased to go
into the house, and demanded where the GREAT BOOK was, that
he had heard was made for Charles's use. It was soon brought
unto him; and the _largeness_ and _weight_ of it was such
that he that carried it seemed to be _well laden_. Which the
duke, observing, said, 'Sir, one of your strongest guard
will but be able to carry this book.' It being laid on the
table before the king, it was told him that, though it were
then fairly bound up in _purple velvet_, that the outside
was not fully finished, as it should be, for the prince's
use and better liking. 'Well,' said the king, 'it is very
well done.' So he opened the book, the prince standing at
the table's end, and the Palsgrave and Duke on each side of
the king. The king read the title page and frontispice all
over very deliberately; and well viewing the form of it, how
adorned with _a stately garnish of pictures, &c._, and the
curiousness of the writing of it, said, 'Charles, here is a
book that contains excellent things. This will make you both
wise and good.' Then he proceeded to turn it over, leaf by
leaf, and took exact notice of all in it: and it being _full
of pictures of sundry mens cuts_, he could tell the
palsgrave, who seemed also to be knowing in that kind, that
this and this, and that and that, were of such a man's
graving and invention. The prince all the while greatly eyed
all things; and seemed much to be pleased with the book. The
king having spent some hours in the perusal of it, and
demanding many questions was occasion as, concerning the
contrivement, and having received answers to all he
demanded, at length said, 'It was only _a jewel for a
Prince_, and hoped CHARLES would make good use of it: and I
see and find, by what I have myself received formerly from
this good house, that they go on daily in the prosecution of
these excellent pieces. They are brave employments of their
time.' The Palsgrave said to the prince, 'Sir, your father
the king is master of the goodliest ship in the world, and I
may now say you will be master of the GALLANTEST GREATEST
BOOK in the world: for I never saw _such paper_ before; and
believe there is no book of this largeness to be seen in
Christendom.' 'The paper and the book in all conditions,'
said the king, 'I believe it not to be matched. Here hath
also in this book not wanted, you see, skill, care, nor
cost.' 'It is a most admirable piece,' replied the Duke of
Richmond. So the king, closing the book, said, 'Charles,
this is yours.' He replied, 'But, Sir, shall I not now have
it with me?' Reply was made by one of the family, 'If it
please your highness, the book is not _on the outside so
finished_ as it is intended for you, but shall be, with all
expedition, done, and you shall have it.' 'Well,' said the
king, 'you must content yourself for a
while.'"--_Ecclesiastical Biography_, vol. v., p. 237.]
[Footnote 350: In the year 1774, was published an octavo
volume, containing the lives of WILLIAM LILLY the
astrologer, and ELIAS ASHMOLE the antiquary: two of the
greatest _cronies_ of their day. The particulars of
Ashmole's life are drawn from his own _Diary_, in which is
detailed every thing the most minute and ridiculous; while
many of the leading features in his character, and many
interesting occurrences in his life, are wholly suppressed.
The editor has not evinced much judgment in causing
posterity to be informed when Ashmole's "_great and little
teeth ached, or were loose_:" when his "_neck break forth,
occasioned by shaving his beard with a bad razor_" (p. 312);
when "_his maid's bed was on fire, but he rose quickly
(thanking God) and quenched it_" (p. 313); and when he
"_scratched the right-side of his buttocks, &c., and applied
pultices thereunto, made of white bread crums, oil of roses,
and rose leaves_;" (p. 363--and see particularly the long
and dismal entries at p. 368.) All this might surely have
been spared, without much injury to the reputation of the
sufferer. Yet, in some other minute entries, we glean
intelligence a little more interesting. At p. 324, we find
that Ashmole had quarrelled with his wife; and that "Mr.
Serjeant Maynard observed to the Court that there were 800
sheets of depositions on his wife's part, and not one word
proved against him of using her ill, or ever giving her a
bad or provoking word:" at page 330, we find Ashmole
accompanying his heraldic friend Dugdale, in his
"visitations" of counties; also that "his picture was drawn
by Le Neve in his herald's coat:" Loggan afterwards drew it
in black lead: p. 352. But here again (p. 353) we are
gravely informed that "_his tooth, next his fore tooth in
his upper jaw, was very loose, and he easily pulled it out,
and that one of his middle teeth in his lower jaw, broke out
while he was at dinner_." He sat (for the last time) for "a
second picture to Mr. Ryley," p. 379. Ashmole's intimacy
with Lilly was the foundation of the former's (supposed)
profundity in alchemical and astrological studies. In this
Diary we are carefully told that "Mr. Jonas Moore brought
and acquainted him with Mr. William Lilly, on a Friday
night, on the 20th of November," p. 302. Ashmole was then
only 26 years of age; and it will be readily conceived how,
at this susceptible period, he listened with rapture to his
master's exposition of the black art, and implicitly adopted
the recipes and maxims he heard delivered. Hence the pupil
generally styled himself _Mercuriophilus Anglicus_, at the
foot of most of his title-pages: and hence we find such
extraordinary entries, in the foresaid diary, as the
following: "This night (August 14, 1651) about one of the
clock, I fell ill of a surfeit, occasioned by drinking
_water after Venison_. I was greatly oppressed in my
stomach; and next day Mr. Saunders, _the astrologian_, sent
me a piece of briony-root to hold in my hand; and within a
quarter of an hour my stomach was freed from that great
oppression," p. 314. "Sep. 27, 1652, I came to Mr. John
Tompson's, who dwelt near Dove Bridge; he used a call, and
had responses in a soft voice," p. 317. At p. 318 is
narrated the commencement of his acquaintance with the
famous Arise Evans, a Welsh prophet: whose "_Echo from
Heaven_," &c., 2 parts, 1652, 12mo., is a work noticed by
Warburton, and coveted by bibliomaniacs. Yet one more
quack-medicine entry: "March 11, 1681. I took early in the
morning a good dose of Elixir, and hung three spiders about
my neck, and they drove my ague away--Deo gratias!" p. 359.
It seems that Ashmole always punctually kept "_The
Astrologer's Feast_;" and that he had such celebrity as a
curer of certain diseases, that Lord Finch the Chancellor
"sent for him to cure him of his rheumatism. He dined there,
but would not undertake the cure," p. 364. This was behaving
with a tolerable degree of prudence and good sense. But let
not the bibliomaniac imagine that it is my wish to degrade
honest old Elias Ashmole, by the foregoing delineation of
his weaknesses and follies. The ensuing entries, in the said
Diary, will more than counterbalance any unfavourable effect
produced by its precursors; and I give them with a full
conviction that they will be greedily devoured by those who
have been lucky enough to make good purchases of the entire
libraries of deceased characters of eminence. In his 37th
year, Ashmole "bought of Mr. Milbourn all his books and
mathematical instruments;" and the day after (N.B. "8
o'clock, 39 min. post merid.") "he bought Mr. Hawkins's
books," p. 312. In the ensuing year he "agreed with Mrs.
Backhouse, of London, for her deceased husband's books," p.
313. He now became so distinguished as a successful
bibliomaniac that Seldon and Twysden sought his
acquaintance; and "Mr. Tredescant and his wife told him that
they had been long considering upon whom to bestow their
_closet of curiosities_, and at last had resolved to give it
unto him," p. 326. Having by this time (A.D. 1658) commenced
his famous work upon _The Order of the Garter_, he was
introduced to Charles II.: kissed hands, and was appointed
by the king "to make a description of his medals, and had
them delivered into his hands, and _Henry the VIIIth's
closet_ assigned for his use," p. 327. In this same year
came forth his "_Way to Bliss_;" 4to.: a work so invincibly
dull that I despair of presenting the reader with any thing
like entertainment even in the following heterogeneous
extract: "When our natural heat, the life of this little
world, is faint and gone, the body shrinks up and is
defaced: but bring again heat into the parts, and likewise
money into the bankrupt's coffers, and they shall be both
lusty, and flourish again as much as ever they did. But how
may this heat be brought again? To make few words, even as
she is kept and held by due _meat_ and _motion_; for if she
faint, and falleth for want of them only, then give her
them, and she shall recover herself again. Meat is the bait
that draws her down: motion comes after, like a _Gad-Bee_,
to prick her forward; but the work is performed in this
order. First this meat, which is that fine and æthereal oyl
often above-described, by the exceeding piercing swifteness,
divides, scatters, and scowres away the gross and foul dregs
and leavings which, for want of the tillage of heat, had
overgrown in our bodies, and which was cast, like a blockish
stay-fish in the way, to stay the free course of the ship of
life: these flying out of all sides, abundantly pluck up all
the old leavings of hair, nails, and teeth, by the roots,
and drive them out before them: in the mean while, our
medicine makes not onely clear way and passage for life, if
she list to stir and run her wonted race (which some think
enough of this matter), but also scattereth all about her
due and desired meat, and first moisture to draw her
forward. By which means our life, having gotten both her
full strength and liveliness, and returned like the sun in
summer into all our quarters, begins to work afresh as she
did at first; (for being the same upon the same, she must
needs do the same) knitting and binding the weak and loose
joynts and sinews, watering and concocting all by good
digestion; and then the idle parts like leaves shall, in
this hot summer, spring and grow forth afresh, out of this
new and young temper of the body: and all the whole face and
shew shall be young again and flourishing," pp. 119, 120.
With such a farrago of sublime nonsense were our worthy
forefathers called upon to be enlightened and amused! But I
lose sight of Ashmole's _book-purchases_. That he gave away,
as well as received, curious volumes, is authenticated by
his gift of "five volumes of Mr. Dugdale's works to the
Temple Library:" p. 331. "Again: I presented the public
library at Oxford with three folio volumes, containing a
description of the Consular and Imperial coins there, which
I had formerly made and digested, being all fairly
transcribed with my own hand," p. 332. But mark well: "My
first boatful of books, which were carried to Mrs.
Tredescant's, were brought back to the Temple:" also, (May
1667) "I bought Mr. John Booker's study of books, and gave
140_l._ for them," p. 333. In the same year that his _Order
of the Garter_ was published, his "good friend Mr. Wale sent
him Dr. DEE'S original books and papers," p. 339. But he yet
went on buying: "Nil actum reputans, dum quid superesset
agendum:" for thus journalises our super-eminent
bibliomaniac:--(June 12, 1681) "I bought Mr. Lilly's library
of books of his widow, for fifty pounds," p. 360. In August,
1682, Ashmole went towards Oxford, "to see the building
prepared to receive his rarities;" and in March, 1683, "the
last load of his rarities was sent to the barge." In July,
1687, he received a parcel of books from J.W. Irnhoff, of
Nurembergh, among which was his _Excellentium Familiarum in
Gallia Genealogia_: p. 379. But it is time to put an end to
this unwieldly note: reserving the account of Ashmole's
_Order of the Garter_, and _Theatrum Chemicum_, for the
ensuing one--and slightly informing the reader, of what he
may probably be apprized, that our illustrious bibliomaniac
bequeathed his museum of curiosities and library of books to
his beloved ALMA MATER OXONIENSIS--having first erected a
large building for their reception. It is justly said of
him, in the inscription upon his tombstone,
DURANTE MUSÆO ASHMOLEANO OXON.
NUNQUAM MORITURUS.
A summer month might be profitably passed in the Ashmolean
collection of Books! Let us not despair that a complete
_Catalogue Raisonné_ of them may yet be given.]
LOREN. Not eight guineas--although you were about to say _fourteen_!
LYSAND. Even so. But it must have been obtained in the golden age of
book-collecting?
LOREN. It was obtained, together with an uncut copy of his _Theatrum
Chemicum_,[351] by my father, at the shop of a most respectable
bookseller, lately living, at Mews-Gate, and now in Pall-Mall--where
the choicest copies of rare and beautiful books are oftentimes to be
procured, at a price much less than the extravagant ones given at
book-sales. You observed it was bound in blue morocco--and by that
Coryphæus of book-binders, the late ROGER PAYNE!
[Footnote 351: First let us say a few words of the THEATRUM
CHEMICUM BRITANNICUM, as it was the anterior publication. It
contains a collection of ancient English poetical pieces
relating to Alchemy, or the "Hermetique Mysteries;" and was
published in a neat quarto volume, in 1652; accompanied with
a rich sprinkling of plates "cut in brass," and copious
annotations, at the end, by Ashmole himself. Of these
plates, some are precious to the antiquary; for reasons
which will be given by me in another work. At present, all
that need be said is that a fine tall copy of it brings a
fair sum of money. I never heard of the existence of a
_large paper_ impression. It went to press in July 1651; and
on the 26th of January following, "the first copy of it was
sold to the Earl of Pembroke:" see the Diary, pp. 313-315.
In May, 1658, Ashmole made his first visit to the Record
Office in the Tower, to collect materials for his work of
"THE ORDER OF THE GARTER." In May following, Hollar
accompanied the author to Windsor, to take views of the
castle. In the winter of 1665, Ashmole composed a "good part
of the work at Roe-Barnes (the plague increasing)." In May,
1672, a copy of it was presented to King Charles II.: and in
June, the following year, Ashmole received "his privy-seal
for 400_l._ out of the custom of paper, which the king was
pleased to bestow upon him for the same." This, it must be
confessed, was a liberal remuneration. But the author's
honours increased and multiplied beyond his most sanguine
expectations. Princes and noblemen, abroad and at home, read
and admired his work; and Ashmole had golden chains placed
round his neck, and other superb presents from the greater
part of them; one of which (from the Elector of
Brandenburgh) is described as being "composed of ninety
links, of philagreen links in great knobs, most curious
work," &c. In short, such was the golden harvest which
showered down upon him on all sides, on account of this
splendid publication, that "he made a feast at his house in
South Lambeth, in honour to his benefactors of the work of
THE GARTER." I hope he had the conscience to make HOLLAR his
Vice-President, or to seat him at his right hand; for this
artist's _Engravings_, much more than the author's
composition, will immortalize the volume. Yet the
artist--died in penury! These particulars relating to this
popular work, which it was thought might be amusing to the
lover of fine books, have been faithfully extracted from the
'forementioned original and amusing Diary. _The Order of the
Garter_ was originally sold for 1_l._ 10_s._ See _Clavel's
Catalogue_, 1675, p. 31.]
LYSAND. I observed it had a "glorious aspect," as bibliographers term
it.
LIS. But what has become of Ashmole all this while?
LYSAND. I will only further remark of him that, if he had not suffered
his mind to wander in quest of the puzzling speculations of alchemy
and astrology--which he conceived himself bound to do in consequence,
probably, of wearing John Dee's red velvet night cap--he might have
mingled a larger portion of common sense and sound practical
observations in his writings.
But a truce to worthy old Elias. For see yonder the bibliomaniacal
spirit of ARCHBISHOP LAUD pacing your library! With one hand resting
upon a folio,[352] it points, with the other, to your favourite print
of the public buildings of the University of Oxford--thereby reminding
us of his attachment, while living, to literature and fine books, and
of his benefactions to the Bodleian Library. Now it "looks frowningly"
upon us; and, turning round, and shewing the yet reeking gash from
which the life-blood flowed, it flits away--
Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno!
[Footnote 352: ARCHBISHOP LAUD, who has [Transcriber's Note:
was] beheaded in the year 1644, had a great fondness for
sumptuous decoration in dress, books, and ecclesiastical
establishments; which made him suspected of a leaning
towards the Roman Catholic religion. His life has been
written by Dr. Heylin, in a heavy folio volume of 547 pages;
and in which we have a sufficiently prolix account of the
political occurrences during Laud's primacy, but rather a
sparing, or indeed no, account of his private life and
traits of domestic character. In Lloyd's _Memoirs of the
Sufferers_ from the year 1637 to 1660 inclusive (1668, fol.)
are exhibited the articles of impeachment against the
Archbishop; and, amongst them, are the following
bibliomaniacal accusations. "Art. 5. Receiving a _Bible_,
with a crucifix embroidered on the cover of it by a lady.
Art. 6. A book of popish pictures, _two Missals_,
Pontificals, and Breviaries, which he made use of as a
scholar. Art. 7. His (own) admirable _Book of Devotion_,
digested according to the ancient way of canonical hours,
&c. Art. 19. _The book of Sports_, which was published first
in King James his reign, before he had any power in the
church; and afterward in King Charles his reign, before he
had the chief power in the church," &c., pp. 235-237. But if
Laud's head was doomed to be severed from his body in
consequence of these his bibliomaniacal frailties, what
would have been said to the fine copy of one of the
_Salisbury Primers or Missals_, printed by Pynson UPON
VELLUM, which once belonged to this archbishop, and is now
in the library of St. John's College, Oxford?! Has the
reader ever seen the same primate's copy of the _Aldine
Aristophanes_, 1498, in the same place? 'Tis a glorious
volume; and I think nearly equals my friend Mr. Heber's
copy, once Lord Halifax's, of the same edition. Of Laud's
benefactions to the Bodleian Library, the bibliographer will
see ample mention made in the _Catalogus Librorum
Manuscriptorum Angliæ, Hiberniæ_, &c., 1697, folio. The
following, from Heylin, is worth extracting: "Being come
near the block, he (Laud) put off his doublet, &c., and
seeing through the chink of the boards that some people were
got under the scaffold, about the very place where the block
was seated, he called to the officer for some dust to stop
them, or to remove the people thence; saying, it was no part
of his desire 'that his blood should fall upon the heads of
the people.' Never did man put off mortality with a better
courage, nor look upon his bloody and malicious enemies with
more christian charity." _Cyprianus Anglicus_; or the _Life
and Death of Laud_; 1668, fol.; p. 536. In the Master's
library at St. John's, Oxford, they shew the velvet cap
which it is said Laud wore at his execution; and in which
the mark of the axe is sufficiently visible. The archbishop
was a great benefactor to this college. Mr. H. Ellis, of the
Museum, who with myself were "quondam socii" of the same
establishment, writes me, that "Among what are called the
king's pamphlets in the British Museum, is a fragment of a
tract, without title, of fifty-six pages only, imperfect;
beginning, 'A briefe examination of a certaine pamphlet
lately printed in Scotland, and intituled _Ladensium
Autocatacrisis_,' &c., 'The Cantabarians Self-Conviction.'
On the blank leaf prefixed, is the following remark in a
hand of the time. 'This Briefe Examen following, was found
in the Archbishop's (Laud?) Library, wher the whole
impression of these seauen sheets was found, but nether
beginning nor ending more then is hearein contained. May
11th, 1644.' This work, (continues Mr. Ellis,) which is a
singular and valuable curiosity, is in fact a personal
vindication of Archbishop Laud, not only from the slanders
of the pamphlet, but from those of the times in general: and
from internal evidence could have been written by no one but
himself. It is in a style of writing beyond that of the
ordinary productions of the day."]
Peace, peace, thou once "lofty spirit"--peace to thy sepulchre--always
consecrated by the grateful student who has been benefited by thy
bounty!
Perhaps Laud should have been noticed a little earlier in this list of
bibliomanical heroes; but, having here noticed him, I cannot refrain
from observing to you that the notorious HUGH PETERS revelled in some
of the spoils of the archbishop's library; and that there are, to the
best of my recollection, some curious entries on the journals of the
House of Commons relating to the same.[353]
[Footnote 353: I am indebted to the same literary friend who
gave me the intelligence which closes the last note, for the
ensuing particulars relating to HUGH PETERS; which are taken
from the journals of the lower house: "Ao. 1643-4. March 8.
Ordered, that a study of books, to the value of 100_l._ out
of such books as are sequestered, be forthwith bestowed upon
Mr. PETERS." _Journals of the House of Commons_, vol. ii.,
p. 421. "Ao. 1644. 25 April. Whereas this House was formerly
pleased to bestow upon Mr. Peters books to the value of
100_l._, it is this day ordered that Mr. Recorder, Mr.
Whitlock, Mr. Hill, or two of them, do cause to be delivered
to Mr. Peters, to the value of 100_l._, books out of the
private and particular study of the ARCHBISHOP OF
CANTERBURY." _Id._, vol. iii., p. 469. "Ao. 1644. 26 Junij.
Dies publicæ Humiliationis. Mr. Peters made a large and full
relation of the state of the western counties, and of the
proceedings of my Lord General's army, since its coming
thither," &c. "Whereas, formerly, books to the amount of
100_l._ were bestowed upon Mr. Peters out of the
archbishop's private library, and whereas the said study is
appraised at above 40_l._ more than the 100_l._, it is
ordered this day that Mr. Peters shall have the whole study
of books freely bestowed upon him." _Id._ p. 544. "Ao. 1660.
May 16. Ordered, That all books and papers, heretofore
belonging to the library of the archbishop of Canterbury,
and now, or lately, in the hands of Mr. HUGH PETERS, be
forthwith secured." In Ashmole's life, before the first
volume of his Antiq. of Berkshire, it is said in Aug. 1660,
"Mr. Ashmole had a commission to examine that infamous
buffoon and trumpeter of rebellion, Hugh Peters, concerning
the disposal of the pictures, jewels, &c., belonging to the
royal family, which were committed chiefly to his care, and
sold and dispersed over Europe: which was soon brought to a
conclusion by the obstinacy or ignorance of their criminal,
who either would not, or was not able to, give the desired
satisfaction."]
LIS. This is extraordinary enough. But, if I well remember, you
mentioned, a short time ago, the name of BRAITHWAIT as connected with
that of Peacham. Now, as I persume [Transcriber's Note: presume]
Lorenzo has not tied down his guests to any rigid chronological rules,
in their literary chit-chat, so I presume you might revert to
Braithwait, without being taxed with any great violation of colloquial
order.
LYSAND. Nay, I am not aware of any _bookish_ anecdote concerning
Braithwait. He was mentioned with Peacham as being a like accomplished
character.[354] Some of his pieces are written upon the same subjects
as were Peacham's, and with great point and elegance. He seems,
indeed, to have had the literary credit and moral welfare of his
countrymen so much at stake that, I confess, I have a vast fondness
for his lucubrations. His "_English Gentlewoman_" might be reprinted
with advantage.
[Footnote 354: The talents of RICHARD BRAITHWAIT do not
appear to me to be so generally known and highly commended
as they merit to be. His _Nursery for Gentry_, 1651, 4to.
(with his portrait in an engraved frontispiece by Marshall),
is written with the author's usual point and spirit; but, as
I humbly conceive, is a less interesting performance than
his _English Gentleman_, 1633, 4to. (with a frontispiece by
Marshall), or _English Gentlewoman_, 1631, 4to. (also with a
frontispiece by the same artist). There is a terseness and
vigour in Braithwait's style which is superior to that of
his contemporary, Peacham; who seems to excel in a calm,
easy, and graceful manner of composition. Both these eminent
writers are distinguished for their scholastic and
gentlemanly attainments; but in the "divine art of poesy"
(in which light I mean here more particularly to display the
powers of Braithwait) Peacham has no chance of being
considered even as a respectable competitor with his
contemporary. Mr. George Ellis, in his pleasing _Specimens
of the early English Poets_, vol. iii., p. 103, has selected
two songs of Braithwait "from a work not enumerated by
Wood;" calling the author, "a noted wit and poet." His fame,
however, is not likely to "gather strength" from these
effusions. It is from some passages in _The Arcadian
Princesse_--a work which has been already, and more than
once, referred to, but which is too dislocated and
heterogeneous to recommend to a complete perusal--it is from
some passages in _this_ work that I think Braithwait shines
with more lustre as a poet than in any to which his name is
affixed. Take the following miscellaneous ones, by way of
specimens. They are sometimes a little faulty in rhyme and
melody: but they are never lame from imbecility.
----he has the happiest wit,
Who has discretion to attemper it.
And of all others, those the least doe erre,
Who in opinion are least singular.
Let Stoicks be to opposition given,
Who to extreames in arguments are driven;
Submit thy judgment to another's will
If it be good; oppose it mildly, ill.
_Lib._ iv., p. 7.
Strong good sense has been rarely exhibited in fewer lines
than in the preceding ones. We have next a vigorously drawn
character which has the frightful appellation of
_Uperephanos_, who still thought
That th' world without him would be brought to nought:
For when the dogge-starre raged, he used to cry,
"No other Atlas has the world but I.
I am that only _Hee_, supports the state;
Cements divisions, shuts up Janus' gate;
Improves the publike fame, chalks out the way
How princes should command, subjects obey.
Nought passeth my discovery, for my sense
Extends itself to all intelligence."
&c. &c. &c.
So well this story and this embleme wrought,
_Uperephanos_ was so humble brought,
As he on earth disvalu'd nothing more,
Than what his vainest humour priz'd before.
More wise, but lesse conceited of his wit;
More pregnant, but lesse apt to humour it;
More worthy, 'cause he could agnize his want;
More eminent, because less arragant.
In briefe, so humbly-morally divine,
He was esteem'd the _Non-such_ of his time.
_Id._, pp. 8, 11.
Another character, with an equally bizarre name, is drawn
with the same vigour:
_Melixos_; such a starved one,
As he had nothing left but skin and bone.
The shady substance of a living man,
Or object of contempt wheree'er he came.
Yet had hee able parts, and could discourse,
Presse moving reasons, arguments enforce,
Expresse his readings with a comely grace,
And prove himselfe a _Consul_ in his place!
_Id._, p. 12.
We have a still more highly-coloured, and indeed a terrific,
as well as original, picture, in the following animated
verses:
Next him, _Uptoomos_; one more severe,
Ne'er purple wore in this inferiour sphere:
Rough and distastefull was his nature still,
His life unsociable, as was his will.
_Eris_ and _Enio_ his two pages were,
His traine stern _Apuneia_ us'd to beare.
Terrour and thunder echo'd from his tongue,
Though weake in judgment, in opinion strong.
A fiery inflammation seiz'd his eyes,
Which could not well be temper'd any wise:
For they were bloud-shot, and so prone to ill,
As basiliske-like, where'ere they look, they kill.
No laws but Draco's with his humour stood,
For they were writ in characters of bloud.
His stomacke was distemper'd in such sort
Nought would digest; nor could he relish sport.
His dreames were full of melancholy feare,
Bolts, halters, gibbets, halloo'd in his eare:
Fury fed nature with a little food,
Which, ill-concocted, did him lesser good,
_Id._, p. 16.
But it is time to pause upon Braithwait. Whoever does not
see, in these specimens, some of the most powerful rhyming
couplets of the early half of the seventeenth century, if
not the model of some of the verses in Dryden's satirical
pieces, has read both poets with ears differently
constructed from those of the author of this book.]
As I am permitted to be desultory in my remarks, (and, indeed, I
craved this permission at the outset of them) I may here notice the
publication of an excellent _Catalogue of Books_, in 1658, 4to.;
which, like its predecessor, Maunsell's, helped to inflame the
passions of purchasers, and to fill the coffers of booksellers.
Whenever you can meet with this small volume, purchase it, Lisardo; if
it be only for the sake of reading the spirited introduction prefixed
to it.[355] The author was a man, whoever he may chance to be, of no
mean intellectual powers. But to return.
[Footnote 355: This volume, which has been rather fully
described by me in the edition of More's _Utopia_, vol. ii.,
p. 260, 284--where some specimens of the "Introduction," so
strongly recommended by Lysander, will be found--is also
noticed in the _Athenæum_, vol. ii., 601; where there is an
excellent analysis of its contents. Here, let me subjoin
only one short specimen: In praise of learning, it is said:
"Wise and learned men are the surest stakes in the hedge of
a nation or city: they are the best conservators of our
liberties: the hinges on which the welfare, peace, and
happiness, hang; the best public good, and only
commonwealth's men. These lucubrations, meeting with a true
and brave mind, can conquer men; and, with the basilisk,
kill envy with a look." Sign. E. 4. rect.]
Where sleep now the relics of DYSON'S Library, which supplied that
_Helluo Librorum_, Richard Smith, with "most of his rarities?"[356] I
would give something pretty considerable to have a correct list--but
more to have an unmolested sight--of this library, in its original
state: if it were merely to be convinced whether or not it contained a
copy of the _first edition of Shakespeare_, of larger dimensions, and
in cleaner condition, than the one in PHILANDER'S Collection!
[Footnote 356: "H. DYSON (says Hearne) a person of a very
strange, prying, and inquisitive genius, in the matter of
books, as may appear from many libraries; there being books,
chiefly in old English, almost in every library, that have
belonged to him, with his name upon them." _Peter Langtoft's
Chronicles_, vol. i., p. xiii. This intelligence Hearne
gleaned from his friend Mr. T. Baker. We are referred by the
former to the _Bibl. R. Smith_, p. 371, alias 401, No.
115, to an article, which confirms what is said of Smith's
"collecting most of his rarities out of the library of H.
Dyson." The article is thus described in Bibl. Smith,
_ibid._; "115 Six several catalogues of all such books,
touching the state ecclesiastical as temporal of the realm
of England, which were published upon several occasions, in
the reigns of K. Henry the viith and viiith, Philip and
Mary, Q. Elizabeth, K. James, and Charles I., collected by
Mr. H. Dyson: out of whose library was gathered, by Mr.
Smith, a great part of the rarities of this catalogue." A
catalogue of the books sold in the reign of Hen. VII. would
be invaluable to a bibliographer! Let me add, for the sake
of pleasing, or rather, perhaps, tantalising my good friend
Mr. Haleswood, that this article is immediately under one
which describes "_An Ancient MS. of Hunting_, IN VELLUM
(wanting something) _quarto_." I hear him exclaim--"Where is
this treasure now to be found?" Perhaps, upon the cover of a
book of Devotion!]
I have incidentally mentioned the name of RICHARD SMITH.[357] Such a
bibliomaniac deserves ample notice, and the warmest commendation. Ah,
my Lisardo! had you lived in the latter days of Charles II.--had you,
by accident, fallen into the society of this indefatigable
book-forager, while he pursued his book-rounds in _Little
Britain_--could you have listened to his instructive conversation, and
returned home with him to the congenial quiet and avocations of his
book-room--would you, however caressed St. James's, or even smiled
upon by the first Duchess in the land--have cared a rush for the
splendours of a Court, or concentrated your best comforts in a coach
drawn by six cream-coloured horses? Would you not, on the contrary,
have thought with this illustrious bibliomaniac, and with the sages of
Greece and Rome before him, that "in books is wisdom, and in wisdom is
happiness."
[Footnote 357: From the address To the Reader, prefixed to
the Catalogue of RICHARD SMITH'S books, which was put forth
by Chiswel the bookseller, in May 1682, 4to.--the
bibliomaniac is presented with the following interesting but
cramply written, particulars relating to the owner of them:
"Though it be needless to recommend what to all intelligent
persons sufficiently commend itself, yet, perhaps, it may
not be unacceptable to the ingenious to have some short
account concerning _This so much celebrated, so often
desired, so long expected, Library_, now exposed to sale.
The gentleman that collected it was a person infinitely
curious and inquisitive after books; and who suffered
nothing considerable to escape him, that fell within the
compass of his learning; for he had not the vanity of
desiring to be master of more than he knew how to use. He
lived to a very great age, and spent a good part of it
almost entirely in the search of books. Being as constantly
known every day to walk his rounds through the shops as he
sat down to meals, where his great skill and experience
enabled him to make choice of what was not obvious to every
vulgar eye. He lived in times which ministered peculiar
opportunities of meeting with books that are not every day
brought into publick light; and few eminent libraries were
bought where he had not the liberty to pick and choose. And
while others were forming arms, and new-modelling kingdoms,
_his_ great ambition was to become master of a good BOOK.
Hence arose, as that vast number of his books, so the
choiceness and rarity of the greatest part of them; and that
of all kinds, and in all sorts of learning," &c. "Nor was
the owner of them a meer idle possessor of so great a
treasure: for as he generally _collated_ his books upon the
buying of them (upon which account the buyer may rest pretty
secure of their being perfect) so he did not barely turn
over the leaves, but observed the defects of impressions,
and the ill arts used by many; compared the differences of
editions; concerning which, and the like cases, he has
entered memorable, and very useful, remarks upon very many
of the books under his own hand: Observations wherein,
certainly, never man was more diligent and industrious. Thus
much was thought fit to be communicated to publick notice,
by a gentleman who was intimately acquainted both with Mr.
Smith and his books. _This excellent library will be exposed
by auction, and the sale will begin on Monday the 15th day
of May next, at the auction house, known by the name of_ THE
SWAN, _in Great St. Bartholomew's Close, and there continue,
day by day, the five first days of every week, till all the
books be sold._" In this catalogue of Richard Smith's books,
the sharp-eyed bibliomaniac will discover twelve volumes
printed by CAXTON; which collectively, produced only the sum
of 3_l._ 7_s._ 5_d._ The price of each of these volumes has
been already given to the public (_Typog. Antiq._, vol i.,
p. cxxxii.) I suppose a thousand guineas would _now_ barely
secure perfect copies of them! The catalogue itself is most
barbarously printed, and the arrangement and description of
the volumes such as to damn the compiler "to everlasting
fame." A number of the most curious, rare, and intrinsically
valuable books--the very insertion of which in a
bookseller's catalogue would probably now make a hundred
bibliomaniacs start from their homes by star-light, in order
to come in for the _first pickings_--a number of volumes of
this description are huddled together in one lot, and all
these classed under the provoking running title of "_Bundles
of Books_," or "_Bundles of sticht Books_!" But it is time
to bid adieu to this matchless collection. Leaving the
virtuoso "to toil, from rise to set of sun" after W.
Sherwin's "extra rare and fine" portrait of the collector,
which will cost him hard upon ten pounds (see _Sir William
Musgrave's Catalogue of English Portraits_, p. 92, no.
82), and to seize, if it be in his power, a copy of the
catalogue itself, "with the prices and purchasers' names"
(vide _Bibl. Lort._, no. 1354). I proceed to attend upon
Lysander: not, however, without informing him that Strype
(_Life of Cranmer_, p. 368), as well as Hearne (_Liber Niger
Scaccarii_, vol. ii., p. 542), has condescended to notice
the famous library of this famous collector of books,
RICHARD SMITH!]
LIS. In truth I should have done even more than what your barren
imagination has here depicted. Smith's figure, his address, his
conversation, his library--
LOREN. Enough--peace! There is no end to Lisardo's _fruitful_
imagination. We are surfeited with the richness of it. Go on, dear
Lysander; but first, satisfy a desire which I just now feel to be
informed of the period when _Sales of Books, by Auction_, were
introduced into this country.
LYSAND. You take _that_ for granted which remains [Transcriber's Note:
missing 'to' in original] be _proved_: namely, my ability to gratify
you in this particular. Of the precise period when this memorable
revolution in the sale of books took place I have no means of being
accurately informed: but I should think not anterior to the year 1673,
or 1674; for, in the year 1676, to the best of my recollection, the
catalogue of the Library of Dr. SEAMAN was put forth; to which is
prefixed an address to the reader, wherein the custom of selling books
by auction is mentioned as having been but of recent origin in our
country.[358] It was, however, no sooner introduced than it caught
the attention, and pleased the palates, of bibliomaniacs exceedingly:
and Clavel, a bookseller, who published useful catalogues of books to
be sold in his own warehouse, retorted in sharp terms upon the folly
and extravagance which were exhibited at book auctions. However,
neither Clavel nor his successors, from that period to the present,
have been able to set this custom aside, nor to cool the fury of
book-auction bibliomaniacs--who, to their eternal shame be it said,
will sometimes, from the hot and hasty passions which are stirred up
by the poisonous miasmata floating in the auction-room, give a sum
twice or thrice beyond the real value of the books bidden for! Indeed,
I am frequently amused to see the vehemence and rapture with which a
dirty little volume is contended for and embraced--while a respectable
bookseller, like PORTIUS, coolly observes across the table--"I have a
better copy on sale at one third of the price!"
[Footnote 358: A part of the address "To the Reader," in the
catalogue above-mentioned by Lysander, being somewhat of a
curiosity, is here reprinted in its unadulterated
[Transcriber's Note: remainder of sentence missing in
original]
"Reader,
"It hath not been usual here in England to make _Sale of
Books by way of Auction or who will give most for them_: But
it having been practised in other countreys to the advantage
both of buyers and sellers, it was therefore conceived (for
the encouragement of learning) to publish the sale of these
books this manner of way; and it is hoped that this will not
be unacceptable to schollers: and therefore, methought it
convenient to give an advertisement concerning the manner of
proceeding therein. _First_, That having this catalogue of
the books, and their editions, under their several heads and
numbers, it will be more easie for any person of quality,
gentleman, or others, to depute any one to buy such books
for them as they shall desire, if their occasions will not
permit them to be present at the auction themselves." The
_second_ clause is the usual one about _differences_
arising. The _third_, about discovering the imperfections of
the copies before they are taken away. The _fourth_, that
the buyers are to pay for their purchases within one month
after the termination of the auction. The _fifth_, that the
sale is to begin "punctually at 9 o'clock in the morning,
and two in the afternoon; and this to continue daily until
all the books be sold; wherefore it is desired that the
gentlemen, or those deputed by them, may be there precisely
at the hours appointed, lest they should miss the
opportunity of buying those books which either themselves or
their friends desire." As this is the earliest auction
catalogue which I have chanced to meet with, the _present_
reader may probably be pleased with the following specimens,
selected almost at random of the prices which were given for
books at a public sale, in the year 1676.
_In Folio._ PHILOLOGISTS.
_s._ _d._
Pet. Heylyn's Cosmographie, Lond. 1652. 14 0
Io. Stow's Annals, or Chronicles of England,
&c. ibid., 1631. 15 0
Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxon, 1638. 6 0
Geo. Withers, his Emblems; illustrated with brass
figures, 1635. 8 6
Os. Gabelhower's book called the Dutch Physic,
Dort, 1579. 3 0
p. 12.
_In Quarto._ PHILOLOGIE.
The Royal Passage of her Majesty, from the }
tower to Whitehall, Lond., 1604. }
The Vision of the Goddesses, a mask by the }
Queen and her Ladies, 1604. }
King James his Entertainment through the city }
of London, ibid. }
A particular Entertainment of the Queen and }
Prince, 1608. }
The magnificent Entertainment of King James, }
Queen Anne, and Prince Henry Frederick, 1604. }
Her Majesties speech to both Houses of }
Parliament, 1604. } _s._ _d._
Vox Coeli, or News from Heaven, 1624. } 5 0
An experimental Discovery of the Spanish }
Practises, 1623. }
Tho. Scotts aphorisms of State, or secret }
articles for the re-edifying the Romish }
Church, 1624. }
The Tongue Combat between two English }
Souldiers, 1621. }
Votivæ Angliæ, or the Desires and Wishes of }
England, 1624. }
A book of Fishing, with hook and line, and }
other instruments, 1600. }
p. 63.
Now a-days, the last article alone would pr duce
[Transcriber's Note: produce]--shall I say _nine_ times the
sum of the whole? But once more:
_In Octavo._ PHILOLOGISTS.
Rob. Crowley's Confutation and Answer to a }
wicked ballade of the abuse of the }
sacrament of the altar, 1548. }
Philargyne, or Covetousness of Great Britain, }
1551. }
A Confutation of 13 articles of Nicol Sharton's, }
1551. }
The Voice of the last Trumpet, blown by the }
seventh angel, 1550. } _s._ _d._
Rob. Crowley's four last things. } 3 2
A petition against the oppressors of the poor }
of this realm, 1550. }
A supplication of the poor Commons, 1550. }
Piers Plowman Exhortation to the Parliament, }
and a New-Year's gift, 1550. }
The Hurt of Sedition to the Commonwealth, 1549. }
To continue the _History of Book Auctions_, a little
further. Two years after the preceding sale, namely, in
1678, were sold the collections of Dr. MANTON, Dr. WORSLEY,
and others. In the address to the Reader, prefixed to
Manton's catalogue, it would seem that this was the
"_fourth_ triall" of this mode of sale in our own country.
The conditions and time of sale the same as the preceding;
and because one Briggs, and not one Cooper, drew up the
same, Cooper craves the reader's "excuse for the mistakes
that have happened; and desires that the saddle may be laid
upon the right horse." In this collection there is a more
plentiful sprinkling of English books; among which,
Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1656, was sold for 1_l._ 6_s._; and
Fuller's Worthies for the same sum. The "Collections of
Pamphlets, bound together in Quarto," were immense. Dr.
Worsley's collection, with two others, was sold two months
afterwards; namely, in May, 1678: and from the address "To
the Reader," it would appear that Dr. Manton's books brought
such high prices as to excite the envy of the trade.
Worsley's collection was sold at 9 and 2, the usual hours
"at the house over against the hen and chickens, in
Pater-Noster Row." The venders thus justify themselves at
the close of their address: "We have only this to add in
behalf of ourselves; that, forasmuch as a report has been
spread that we intend to use indirect means to advance the
prices, we do affirm that it is a groundless and malicious
suggestion of some of our own trade, envious of our
undertaking: and that, to avoid all manner of suspicion of
such practice, we have absolutely refused all manner of
commissions that have been offered us for buying (some of
them without limitation): and do declare that the company
shall have nothing but candid and ingenuous dealing from
JOHN DUNMORE.
RICHARD CHISWEL."
At this sale, the Shakspeare of 1632 brought 16_s._; and of
1663, 1_l._ 8_s._
In the November and December of the same year were sold by
auction the books of VOET, SANGAR, and others, and from the
preface to each catalogue it would seem that the sale of
books by auction was then but a recent, yet a very
successful, experiment; and that even collections from
abroad were imported, in order to be disposed of in a like
manner.]
LIS. From what you say, it would appear to be wiser to lay out one's
money at a bookseller's than at a book-auction?
LYSAND. Both methods must of necessity be resorted to: for you cannot
find with the one what you may obtain at the other. A distinguished
collector, such as the late Mr. Reed, or Mr. Gough, or Mr. Joseph
Windham, dies, and leaves his library to be sold by auction for the
benefit of his survivors. Now, in this library so bequeathed, you have
the fruits of book-labour, collected for a long period, and cultivated
in almost every department of literature. A thousand radii are
concentrated in such a circle; for it has, probably, been the object
of the collector's life to gather and to concentrate these radii. In
this case, therefore, you must attend the auction; you must see how
such a treasure is scattered, like the Sibylline leaves, by the winds
of fate. You must catch at what you want, and for what you have been
a dozen years, perhaps, in the pursuit of. You will pay dearly for
these favourite volumes; but you have them, and that is comfort
enough; and you exclaim, as a consolation amidst all the agony and
waste of time which such a contest may have cost you,--"Where, at what
bookseller's, are such gems now to be procured?" All this may be well
enough. But if I were again to have, as I have already had, the power
of directing the taste and applying the wealth of a young
collector--who, on coming of age, wisely considers books of at least
as much consequence as a stud of horses--I would say, go to Mr. Payne,
or Mr. Evans, or Mr. Mackinlay, or Mr. Lunn, for your Greek and Latin
Classics; to Mr. Dulau, or Mr. Deboffe, for your French; to Mr.
Carpenter, or Mr. Cuthell, for your English; and to Mr. White for your
Botany and rare and curious books of almost every description. Or, if
you want delicious copies, in lovely binding, of works of a sumptuous
character, go and drink coffee with Mr. Miller, of Albemarle
Street--under the warm light of an Argand lamp--amidst a blaze of
morocco and russia coating, which brings to your recollection the view
of the Temple of the Sun in the play of Pizarro! You will also find,
in the vender of these volumes, courteous treatment and "gentlemanly
notions of men and things." Again, if you wish to speculate deeply in
books, or to stock a newly-discovered province with what is most
excellent and popular in our own language, hire a vessel of 300 tons'
burthen, and make a contract with Messrs. Longman, Hurst, and Co., who
are enabled, from their store of _quires_, which measure 50 feet in
height, by 40 in length, and 20 in width, to satisfy all the wants of
the most craving bibliomaniacs. In opposition to this pyramid, enter
the closet of Mr. Triphook, jun., of St. James's Street--and resist,
if it be in your power to resist, the purchase of those clean copies,
so prettily bound, of some of our rarest pieces of black-letter
renown!
LOREN. From this digression, oblige us now by returning to our
bibliomaniacal history.
LYSAND. Most willingly. But I am very glad you have given me an
opportunity of speaking, as I ought to speak, of some of our most
respectable booksellers, who are an ornament to the cause of THE
BIBLIOMANIA.
We left off, I think, with noticing that renowned book-collector,
Richard Smith. Let me next make honourable mention of a "_par nobile
fratrum_" that ycleped are NORTH. The "Lives" of these men, with an
"Examen" (of "Kennet's History of England"), were published by a
relative (I think a grandson) of the same name; and two very amusing
and valuable quarto volumes they are! From one of these Lives, we
learn how pleasantly the LORD KEEPER used to make his meals upon some
one entertaining Law-volume or another: how he would breakfast upon
_Stamford_,[359] dine upon _Coke_, and sup upon _Fitzherbert_, &c.;
and, in truth, a most insatiable book appetite did this eminent judge
possess. For, not satisfied ("and no marvel, I trow") with the
foregoing lean fare, he would oftentimes regale himself with a
well-served-up course of the _Arts_, _Sciences_, and the
_Belles-Lettres_!
[Footnote 359: These are the words of LORD KEEPER NORTH'S
Biographer: "There are of Law-Books, institutions of various
sorts, and reports of cases (now) almost innumerable. The
latter bear most the controversial law, and are read as
authority such as may be quoted: and I may say the gross of
law lecture lies in them. But to spend weeks and months
wholly in them, is like horses in a string before a loaden
waggon. They are indeed a careful sort of reading, and
chiefly require common-placing, and that makes the work go
on slowly. His LORDSHIP therefore used to mix some
institutionary reading with them, as after a fulness of the
reports in a morning, about noon, to take a repast in
_Stamford_, _Compton_, or the Lord _Coke's_ Pleas of the
Crown and Jurisdiction of Courts, _Manwood_ of the Forest
Law, _Fitzherbert's_ Natura Brevium; and also to look over
some of the Antiquarian Books, as _Britton_, _Bracton_,
_Fleta_, _Fortescue_, _Hengham_, _the old Tenures
Narrationes Novæ_, the old _Natura Brevium_, and the
Diversity of Courts. These, at times, for change and
refreshment, being books all fit to be known. And those
that, as to authority, are obsoleted, go rounder off-hand,
because they require little common-placing, and that only as
to matter very singular and remarkable, and such as the
student fancies he shall desire afterwards to recover. And,
besides all this, the day afforded him room for a little
History, especially of England, modern books, and
Controversy in Print, &c. In this manner he ordered his own
studies, but with excursions into _Humanity_ and _Arts_,
beyond what may be suitable to the genius of every young
student in the law." _Life of Lord Keeper Guildford_, pp.
18, 19. _North's Lives_, edit. 1754, 4to.]
His brother, Dr. JOHN NORTH, was a still greater _Helluo Librorum_;
"his soul being never so staked down as in an old bookseller's shop."
Not content with a superficial survey of whatever he inspected, he
seems to have been as intimately acquainted with all the book-selling
fraternity of _Little-Britain_ as was his contemporary, Richard Smith;
and to have entered into a conspiracy with ROBERT SCOTT[360]--the most
renowned book vender in this country, if not in Europe--to deprive
all bibliomaniacs of a chance of procuring rare and curious volumes,
by sweeping every thing that came to market, in the shape of a book,
into their own curiously-wrought and widely-spread nets. Nay, even
Scott himself was sometimes bereft of all power, by means of the
potent talisman which this learned Doctor exercised--for the latter,
"at one lift," would now and then sweep a whole range of shelves in
Scott's shop of every volume which it contained. And yet how
whimsical, and, in my humble opinion, ill-founded, was Dr. North's
taste in matters of typography! Would you believe it, Lisardo, he
preferred the meagre classical volumes, printed by the _Gryphii_, in
the italic letter, to the delicate and eye-soothing lustre of the
_Elzevir_ type--?
[Footnote 360: "Now he began to look after books, and to lay
the foundation of a competent library. He dealt with Mr.
ROBERT SCOTT, of _Little-Britain_, whose sister was his
grandmother's woman; and, upon that acquaintance he
expected, and really had from him, useful information of
books and their editions. This Mr. Scott was, in his time,
the greatest librarian in Europe; for, besides his stock in
England, he had warehouses in Francfort, Paris, and other
places, and dealt by factors. After he was grown old, and
much worn by multiplicity of business, he began to think of
his ease and to leave off. Whereupon he contracted with one
Mills, of St. Paul's Church-yard, near £10,000 deep, and
articled not to open his shop any more. But Mills, with his
auctioneering, Atlasses, and projects, failed, whereby poor
Scott lost above half his means: but he held to his contract
of not opening his shop, and when he was in London (for he
had a country house), passed most of his time at his house
amongst the rest of his books; and his reading (for he was
no mean scholar) was the chief entertainment of his time. He
was not only an expert bookseller, but a very conscientious
good man; and when he threw up his trade, Europe had no
small loss of him. Our Doctor, at one lift, bought of him a
whole set of Greek Classics in folio, of the best editions.
This sunk his stock at that time; but afterwards, for many
years of his life, all that he could (as they say) rap or
run, went the same way. But the progress was small; for such
a library as he desired, compared with what the pittance of
his stock would purchase, allowing many years to the
gathering, was of desperate expectation. He was early
sensible of a great disadvantage to him in his studies, by
the not having a good library in his reach; and he used to
say that a man could not be a scholar at the second-hand:
meaning, that learning is to be had from the original
authors, and not from any quotations, or accounts in other
books, for men gather with divers views, and, according to
their several capacities, often perfunctorily, and almost
always imperfectly: and through such slight reading, a
student may know somewhat, but not judge of either author or
subject. He used to say _an old author could not be
unprofitable_; for although in their proper time they had
little or no esteem, yet, in after times, they served to
interpret words, customs, and other matters, found obscure
in other books; of which A. Gellius is an apt instance. He
courted, as a fond lover, all _best editions, fairest
character, best bound and preserved_. If the subject was in
his favour (as the Classics) he cared not how many of them
he had, even of the same edition, if he thought it among the
best, either _better bound_, _squarer cut_, _neater covers_,
or some such qualification caught him. He delighted in the
small editions of the Classics, by Seb. Gryphius; and divers
of his acquaintance, meeting with any of them, bought and
brought them to him, which he accepted as choice presents,
although perhaps he had one or two of them before. He said
that the _black italic_ character agreed with his eye sight
(which he accounted but weak) better than any other print,
the old Elzevir not excepted, whereof the characters seemed
to him more blind and confused than those of the other.
Continual use gives men a judgment of things comparatively,
and they come to fix on that as most proper and easy which
no man, upon cursory view, would determine. _His soul was
never so staked down as in an old bookseller's shop_; for
having (as the statutes of the college required) taken
orders, he was restless till he had compassed some of that
sort of furniture as he thought necessary for his
profession. He was, for the most part, his own factor, and
seldom or never bought by commission; which made him lose
time in turning over vast numbers of books, and he was very
hardly pleased at last. I have borne him company at shops
for hours together, and, minding him of the time, he hath
made a dozen proffers before he would quit. By this care and
industry, at length, he made himself master of a very
considerable library, wherein the choicest collection was
_Greek_." There is some smartness in the foregoing
observations. The following, in a strain of equal interest,
affords a lively picture of the _bookselling trade_ at the
close of the 17th century: "It may not be amiss to step a
little aside, to reflect on the vast change in the trade of
books, between that time and ours. Then, _Little-Britain_
was a plentiful and perpetual emporium of learned authors;
and men went thither as to a market. This drew to the place
a mighty trade; the rather because the shops were spacious,
and the learned gladly resorted to them, where they seldom
failed to meet with agreeable conversation. And the
booksellers themselves were knowing and conversible men,
with whom, for the sake of bookish knowledge, the greatest
wits were pleased to converse. And we may judge the time as
well spent there, as (in latter days) either in tavern or
coffee-house: though the latter hath carried off the spare
hours of most people. But now this emporium is vanished, and
trade contracted into the hands of two or three persons,
who, to make good their monopoly, ransack, not only their
neighbours of the trade that are scattered about town, but
all over England, aye, and beyond sea too, and send abroad
their circulators, and, in that manner, get into their hands
all that is valuable. The rest of the trade are content to
take their refuse, with which, and the fresh scum of the
press, they furnish one side of a shop, which serves for the
sign of a bookseller, rather than a real one; but, instead
of selling, dealing as factors, and procure what the country
divines and gentry send for; of whom each hath his book
factor, and, when wanting any thing, writes to his
bookseller, and pays his bill. And it is wretched to
consider what pickpocket work, with help of the press, these
demi-booksellers make. They crack their brains to find out
selling subjects, and keep hirelings in garrets, at hard
meat, to write and correct by the great (qu. groat); and so
puff up an octavo to a sufficient thickness, and there's six
shillings current for an hour and a half's reading, and
perhaps never to be read or looked upon after. One that
would go higher must take his fortune at blank walls, and
corners of streets, or repair to the sign of Bateman, Innys,
and one or two more, where are best choice and better
pennyworth's. I might touch other abuses, as bad paper,
incorrect printing, and false advertising; all which, and
worse, is to be expected, if a careful author is not at the
heels of them." Life of the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North.
_North's Lives_, edit. 1744, 4to., p. 240, &c. At page 244,
there is a curious account of the doctor's amusing himself
with keeping spiders in a glass case--feeding them with
bread and flies--and seeing these spiders afterwards quarrel
with, and destroy, each other--"parents and offspring!"]
LIS. "_De gustibus_--" you know the rest. But these Norths were brave
bibliomaniacs! Proceed, we are now advancing towards the threshold of
the eighteenth century; and the nearer you come to it, the greater is
the interest excited.
LYSAND. Take care that I don't conclude with the memorable
catalogue-burning deed of your father! But I spare your present
feelings.
All hail to the noble book-spirit by which the _Lives of
Oxford-Athenians_, and the _Antiquities of Oxford University_, are
recorded and preserved beyond the power of decay![361] All hail to
thee, OLD ANTHONY A-WOOD! May the remembrance of thy researches,
amidst thy paper and parchment documents, stored up in chests, pews,
and desks, and upon which, alas! the moth was "feeding sweetly," may
the remembrance of these thy laborious researches always excite
sensations of gratitude towards the spirit by which they were
directed! Now I see thee, in imagination, with thy cautious step, and
head bowing from premature decay, and solemn air, and sombre visage,
with cane under the arm, pacing from library to library, through
gothic quadrangles; or sauntering along the Isis, in thy way to some
neighbouring village, where thou wouldst recreate thyself with "pipe
and pot." Yes, Anthony! while the _Bodleian_ and _Ashmolean_
collections remain--or rather as long as Englishmen know how to value
that species of literature by which the names and actions of their
forefathers are handed down to posterity, so long shall the memory of
thy laudable exertions continue unimpaired!
[Footnote 361: The name and literary labours of ANTHONY WOOD
are now held in general, and deservedly high, respect: and
it is somewhat amusing, though not a little degrading to
human nature, to reflect upon the celebrity of that man who,
when living, seems to have been ridiculed by the proud and
flippant, and hated by the ignorant and prejudiced, part of
his academical associates. The eccentricities of Wood were
considered heretical; and his whims were stigmatized as
vices. The common herd of observers was unable to discover,
beneath his strange garb, and coarse exterior, all that
acuteness of observation, and retentiveness of memory, as
well as inflexible integrity, which marked the intellectual
character of this wonderful man. But there is no necessity
to detain and tantalize the reader by this formal train of
reasoning, when a few leading features of Wood's person,
manners, and habits of study, &c., have been thus pleasingly
described to us by Hearne, in the life of him prefixed to
the genuine edition of the _History and Antiquities (or
Annals) of the University of Oxford_. "He was equally
regardless of envy or fame, out of his great love to truth,
and therefore 'twas no wonder he took such a liberty of
speech, as most other authors, out of prudence, cunning, or
design, have usually declined. And indeed, as to his
language, he used such words as were suitable to his
profession. It is impossible to think that men, who always
converse with old authors, should not learn the dialect of
their acquaintance--an antiquary retains an old word, with
as much religion as an old relick. And further, since our
author was ignorant of the rules of conversation, it is no
wonder he uses so many severe reflections, and adds so many
minute passages of men's lives. I have been told that it was
usual with him, for the most part, to rise about four
o'clock in the morning, and to eat hardly any thing till
night; when, after supper, he would go into some by-alehouse
in town, or else to one in some village near, and there by
himself take his _pipe and pot_," &c. "But so it is that,
notwithstanding our author's great merits, he was but little
regarded in the University, being observed to be more
clownish than courteous, and always to go in an old
antiquated dress. Indeed he was a mere scholar, and
consequently must expect, from the greatest number of men,
disrespect; but this notwithstanding, he was always a true
lover of his mother, the University, and did more for her
than others care to do that have received so liberally from
her towards their maintenance, and have had greater
advantages of doing good than he had. Yea, his affection was
not at all alienated, notwithstanding his being so hardly
dealt with as to be expelled; which would have broken the
hearts of some. But our author was of a most noble spirit,
and little regarded whatever afflictions he lay under,
whilst he was conscious to himself of doing nothing but what
he could answer. At length after he had, by continual
drudging, worn out his body, he left this world contentedly,
by a stoppage of his urine, anno domini 1695, and was buried
in the east corner of the north side of St. John's Church,
adjoyning to Merton College, and in the wall is a small
monument fixed, with these words:
H.S.E.
ANTONIUS WOOD, ANTIQUARIUS.
_ob. 28 Nov._ AO. 1695, æt. 64."
In his person, he was of a large robust make, tall and thin,
and had a sedate and thoughtful look, almost bordering upon
a melancholy cast. Mr. Hearne says, in his _Collectanea
MSS._, that though he was but sixty-four years of age when
he died, he appeared to be above fourscore; that he used
spectacles long before he had occasion for them, that he
stooped much when he walked, and generally carried his stick
under his arm, seldom holding it in his hand. As to the
manner of his life, it was solitary and ascetic. The
character which Gassendus gives of Peireskius, may, with
propriety, be used as descriptive of Mr. Wood's. "As to the
care of his person, cleanliness was his chief object, he
desiring no superfluity or costliness, either in his habit
or food. His house was furnished in the same manner as his
table; and as to the ornament of his private apartment, he
was quite indifferent. Instead of hangings, his chamber was
furnished with the prints of his particular friends, and
other men of note, with vast numbers of commentaries,
transcripts, letters, and papers of various kinds. His bed
was of the most ordinary sort; his table loaded with papers,
schedules, and other things, as was also every chair in the
room. He was a man of strict sobriety, and by no means
delicate in the choice of what he eat. Always restrained by
temperance, he never permitted the sweet allurements of
luxury to overcome his prudence." Such, as is here
represented, was the disposition of Mr. WOOD: of so retired
a nature as seldom to desire or admit a companion at his
walks or meals; so that he is said to have dined alone in
his chamber for thirty years together. Mr. Hearne says that
it was his custom to "go to the booksellers at those hours
when the greater part of the University were at their
dinners," &c. And at five leaves further, in a note, we find
that, "when he was consulting materials for his _Athenæ
Oxon._, he would frequently go to the booksellers, and
generally give money to them, purposely to obtain titles of
books from them; and 'twas observed of him that he spared no
charges to make that work as compleat and perfect as
possible." _Hearne's Coll. MSS. in Bodl. Lib._, vol. ix., p.
185. The following letter, describing Wood's last illness,
and the disposition of his literary property, is
sufficiently interesting to be here, in part, laid before
the reader: it was written by Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Tanner
to Dr. Charlett.
"Honoured Master,
Yesterday, at dinner-time, Mr. Wood sent for me; when I
came, I found Mr. Martin and Mr. Bisse of Wadham (college)
with him, who had (with much ado) prevailed upon him to set
about looking over his papers, so to work we went, and
continued tumbling and separating some of his MSS. till it
was dark. We also worked upon him so far as to sign and
declare that sheet of paper, which he had drawn up the day
before, and called it _his will_; for fear he should not
live till night. He had a very bad night of it last night,
being much troubled with vomiting. This morning we three
were with him again, and Mr. Martin bringing with him the
form of a will, that had been drawn up by Judge Holloway, we
writ his will over again, as near as we could, in form of
law. He has given to the University, to be reposited in the
_Museum Ashmol._, all his MSS., not only those of his own
collection, but also all others which he has in his
possession, except some few of Dr. Langbain's Miscellanea,
which he is willing should go to the public library. He has
also given all his printed books and pamphlets to the said
musæum which are not there already. This benefaction will
not, perhaps, be so much valued by the University as it
ought to be, because it comes from Anthony Wood; but truly
it is a most noble gift, his collection of MSS. being
invaluable, and his printed books, most of them, not to be
found in town," &c. This letter is followed by other
accounts yet more minute and touching, of the last mortal
moments of poor old Anthony! It now remains to say a few
words about his literary labours. A short history of the
editions of the _Athenæ Oxonienses_ (vide p. 45, ante) has
already been communicated to the reader. We may here observe
that his _Antiquities of the University_ shared a similar
fate; being garbled in a Latin translation of them, which
was put forth under the auspices of Bishop Fell: 1676, fol.,
in 2 vols. Wood's own MS. was written in the English
language, and lay neglected till towards the end of the 18th
century, when the Rev. Mr. Gutch conferred a real benefit
upon all the dutiful sons of ALMA MATER, by publishing the
legitimate text of their venerable and upright historian;
under the title of _The History and Antiquities of the
Colleges and Halls_, 1786, 4to., with a supplemental volume
by way of _Appendix_, 1790, 4to., containing copious indexes
to the two. Then followed the Annals of the University at
large, viz. _The History and Antiquities of the University
of Oxford_; 1792, 4to., in two volumes; the latter being
divided into _two_ parts, or volumes, with copious indexes.
These works, which are now getting scarce, should be in
every philological, as well as topographical, collection. In
order to compensate the reader for the trouble of wading
through the preceding tremendous note, I here present him
with a wood-cut facsimile of a copper-plate print of Wood's
portrait, which is prefixed to his Life, 1772, 8vo. If he
wishes for more curious particulars respecting Wood's
literary labours, let him take a peep into _Thomæ Caii
Vindic. Antiq. Acad. Oxon._: 1730, 8vo., vol. i., pp. xl.
xliii. _Edit. Hearne._ Wood's study, in the Ashmolean
museum, is yet to be seen. It is filled with curious books,
which, however, have not hitherto been catalogued with
accuracy. Ritson has availed himself, more successfully than
any antiquary in poetry, of the book treasures in this
museum.
[Illustration]]
A very few years after the death of this distinguished character, died
Dr. FRANCIS BERNARD;[362] a stoic in bibliography. Neither beautiful
binding, nor amplitude of margin, ever delighted his eye or rejoiced
his heart: for he was a stiff, hard, and straight-forward reader--and
learned, in Literary History, beyond all his contemporaries. His
collection was copious and excellent; and although the compiler of the
catalogue of his books sneers at any one's having "an entire
collection in physic," (by the bye, I should have told you that
Bernard was a _Doctor of Medicine_,) yet, if I forget not, there are
nearly 150 pages in this said catalogue which are thickly studded with
"_Libri Medici_," from the folio to the duodecimo size. Many very
curious books are afterwards subjoined; and some precious _bijous_, in
English Literature, close the rear. Let Bernard be numbered among the
most learned and eminent bibliomaniacs.
[Footnote 362: I do not know that I could produce a better
recipe for the cure of those who are affected with the worst
symptoms of the BOOK-MANIA, in the _present day_, than by
shewing them how the same symptoms, upwards of a _century
ago_, were treated with ridicule and contempt by a collector
of very distinguished fame, both on account of his literary
talents and extensive library. The following copious extract
is curious on many accounts; and I do heartily wish that
foppish and tasteless collectors would give it a very
serious perusal. At the same time, all collectors possessed
of common sense and liberal sentiment will be pleased to see
their own portraits so faithfully drawn therein. It is taken
from the prefatory address,
"TO THE READER.
The character of the person whose collection this was, is so
well known, that there is no occasion to say much of him,
nor to any man of judgment that inspects the catalogue of
the collection itself. Something, however, it becomes us to
say of both; and this I think may with truth and modesty
enough be said, that as few men knew books, and that part of
learning which is called _Historia Litteraria_, better than
himself, so there never yet appeared in England so choice
and valuable a catalogue to be thus disposed of as this
before us: more especially of that sort of books which are
out of the common course, which a man may make the business
of his life to collect, and at last not to be able to
accomplish. A considerable part of them being so little
known, even to many of the learned buyers, that we have
reason to apprehend this misfortune to attend the sale, that
there will not be competitors enough to raise them up to
their just and real value. Certain it is this library
contains not a few which never appeared in any auction here
before; nor indeed, as I have heard him say, for ought he
knew, (and he knew as well as any man living) _in any
printed catalogue in the world_."--"We must confess that,
being a person who collected his books for use, and not for
ostentation or ornament, he seemed no more solicitous about
_their_ dress than _his own_; and therefore you'll find that
a _gilt back_, or a _large margin_, was very seldom any
inducement to him to buy. 'Twas sufficient that he had the
book." "Though considering that he was so unhappy as to want
heirs capable of making that use of them which he had done,
and that therefore they were to be dispersed after this
manner; I have heard him condemn his own negligence in that
particular; observing, that the garniture of a book was as
apt to recommend it to a great part of our _modern
collectors_ (whose learning goes not beyond the edition, the
title-page, and the printer's name) as the intrinsic value
could. But that he himself was not a mere nomenclator, and
versed only in title-pages, but had made that just and
laudable use of his books which would become all those that
set up for collectors, I appeal to the Literati of his
acquaintance, who conversed most frequently with him; how
full, how ready, and how exact he was in answering any
question that was proposed to him relating to learned men,
or their writings; making no secret of any thing that he
knew, or any thing that he had; being naturally one of the
most communicative men living, both of his knowledge and his
books."--"And give me leave to say this of him, upon my own
knowledge; that he never grudged his money in procuring, nor
his time or labour in perusing, any book which he thought
could be any ways instructive to him, and having the
felicity of a memory always faithful, always officious,
which never forsook him, though attacked by frequent and
severe sickness, and by the worst of diseases, old age, his
desire of knowledge attended him to the last; and he pursued
his studies with equal vigour and application to the very
extremity of his life." It remains to add a part of the
title of the catalogue of the collection of this
extraordinary bibilomaniac [Transcriber's Note:
bibliomaniac]: "_A Catalogue of the Library of the late
learned_ DR. FRANCIS BERNARD, _Fellow of the College of
Physicians, and Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital,
&c._," 1698, 8vo. The English books are comprised in 1241
articles; and, among them, the keen investigator of ancient
catalogues will discover some prime rarities.]
Having at length reached the threshold, let us knock at the door, of
the eighteenth century. What gracious figures are those which approach
to salute us? They are the forms of BISHOPS FELL and MORE:[363]
prelates, distinguished for their never ceasing admiration of
valuable and curious works. The former is better known as an editor;
the latter, as a collector--and a collector, too, of such multifarious
knowledge, of such vivid and just perceptions, and unabating
activity--that while he may be hailed as the _Father of_ =black-letter=
_Collectors_ in this country, he reminds us of his present successor
in the same see; who is not less enamoured of rare and magnificent
volumes, but of a different description, and whose library assumes a
grander cast of character.
[Footnote 363: As I have already presented the public with
some brief account respecting BISHOP FELL, and sharpened the
appetites of Grangerites to procure rather a rare portrait
of the same prelate (See _Introd. to the Classics_, vol. i.,
89), it remains only to add, in the present place, that
Hearne, in his _Historia Vitæ et Regni Ricardi II._, 1729,
8vo., p. 389, has given us a curious piece of information
concerning this eminent bibliomaniac, which may not be
generally known. His authority is Anthony Wood. From this
latter we learn that, when Anthony and the Bishop were
looking over the _History and Antiquities of the University
of Oxford_, to correct it for the press, Fell told Wood that
"WICLIFFE was a grand dissembler; a man of little
conscience; and what he did, as to religion, was more out of
vain glory, and to obtain unto him a name, than out of
honesty--or to that effect." Can such a declaration, from
such a character, be credited? BISHOP MORE has a stronger
claim on our attention and gratitude. Never has there
existed an episcopal bibliomaniac of such extraordinary
talent and fame in the walk of _Old English Literature_!--as
the reader shall presently learn. The bishop was admitted of
Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1662. In 1691, he became Bishop of
Norwich; and was translated to Ely in 1707; but did not
survive the translation above seven years. How soon and how
ardently the passion for collecting books possessed him it
is out of my present power to make the reader acquainted.
But that More was in the zenith of his bibliomaniacal
reputation while he filled the see of Norwich is
unquestionable; for thus writes Strype: "The Right Reverend,
the Lord Bishop of Norwich, the possessor of a great and
curious collection of MSS. and other ancient printed pieces
(little inferior to MSS. in regard of their scarceness) hath
also been very considerably assistant to me as well in this
present work as in others;" &c. Preface (sign. a 2) to _Life
of Aylmer_, 1701, 8vo. Burnet thus describes his fine
library when he was Bishop of Ely. "This noble record was
lent me by my reverend and learned brother, Dr. MORE, Bishop
of Ely, who has gathered together a most valuable treasure,
both of printed books and manuscripts, beyond what one can
think that the life and labour of one man could have
compassed; and which he is as ready to communicate, as he
has been careful to collect it." _Hist. of the Reformation_,
vol. iii., p. 46. It seems hard to reconcile this testimony
of Burnet with the late Mr. Gough's declaration, that "The
bishop collected his library by plundering those of the
clergy in his diocese; some he paid with sermons or more
modern books; others only with '_quid illiterati cum
libris_.'" On the death of More, his library was offered to
Lord Oxford for 8000_l._; and how that distinguished and
truly noble collector could have declined the purchase of
such exquisite treasures--unless his own shelves were
groaning beneath the weight of a great number of similar
volumes--is difficult to account for. But a public-spirited
character was not wanting to prevent the irreparable
dispersion of such book-gems: and that patriotic character
was GEORGE I.!--who gave 6000_l._ for them, and presented
them to the public library of the University of Cambridge!--
"These are imperial works, and worthy kings!"
And here, benevolent reader, the almost unrivalled
_Bibliotheca Moriana_ yet quietly and securely reposes. Well
do I remember the congenial hours I spent (A.D. 1808) in the
_closet_ holding the most precious part of Bishop More's
collection, with my friend the Rev. Mr. ----, tutor of one
of the colleges in the same University, at my
right-hand--(himself "greatly given to the study of books")
actively engaged in promoting my views, and increasing my
extracts--but withal, eyeing me sharply "ever and anon"--and
entertaining a laudable distrust of a keen book-hunter from
a rival University! I thank my good genius that I returned,
as I entered, with clean hands! My love of truth and of
bibliography compels me to add, with a sorrowful heart, that
not only is there no printed catalogue of Bishop More's
books, but even the FINE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY
remains unpublished in print! In this respect they really do
"order things better in France." Why does such indifference
to the cause of general learning exist--and in the 19th
century too? Let me here presume to submit a plan to the
consideration of the syndics of the press; provided they
should ever feel impressed with the necessity of informing
the literati, of other countries as well as our own, of the
book treasures contained in the libraries of Cambridge. It
is simply this. Let the books in the Public Library form the
substratum of the _Catalogue Raisonné_ to be printed in
three or more quarto volumes. If, in any particular
department, there be valuable editions of a work which are
_not_ in the public, but in another, library--ex. gr. in
Trinity, or St. John's--specify this edition in its
appropriate class; and add _Trin. Coll., &c._--If this copy
contain notes of Bentley, or Porson, add "_cum notis
Bentleii_," _&c._: so that such a catalogue would present,
not only _every_ volume in the _Public Library_, but _every
valuable_ edition of a work in the whole University. Nor is
the task so Herculean as may be thought. The tutors of the
respective colleges would, I am sure, be happy, as well as
able, to contribute their proportionate share of labour
towards the accomplishment of so desirable and invaluable a
work.]
The opening of the 18th century was also distinguished by the death of
a bibliomaniac of the very first order and celebrity. Of one, who had,
no doubt, frequently discoursed largely and eloquently with Luttrell,
(of whom presently) upon the rarity and value of certain editions of
old _Ballad Poetry_: and between whom presents of curious black-letter
volumes were, in all probability, frequently passing. I allude to the
famous SAMUEL PEPYS;[364] Secretary to the Admiralty.
[Footnote 364: "_The Maitland Collection of Manuscripts_ was
ever in the collector's (Sir Richard Maitland's)
family."--"His grandson was raised to the dignity of Earl of
Lauderdale." "The Duke of Lauderdale, a descendant of the
collector's grandson, presented the Maitland Collection,
along with other MSS., to SAMUEL PEPYS, Esq. Secretary of
the Admiralty to Charles II. and James II. Mr. Pepys was one
of the earliest collectors of rare books, &c. in England;
and the duke had no taste for such matters; so either from
friendship, or some point of interest, he gave them to Mr.
Pepys,"--who "dying 26 May, 1703, in his 71st year, ordered,
by will, the PEPYSIAN LIBRARY at Magdalen College,
Cambridge, to be founded, in order to preserve his very
valuable collection entire. It is undoubtedly the most
curious in England, those of the British Museum excepted;
and is kept in excellent order." Mr. Pinkerton's preface, p.
vii., to _Ancient Scottish Poems from the Maitland
Collection, &c._, 1786, 8vo., 2 vols. I wish it were in my
power to add something concerning the parentage, birth,
education, and pursuits of the extraordinary collector of
this extraordinary collection; but no biographical work,
which I have yet consulted, vouchsafes even to mention his
name. His merits are cursorily noticed in the _Quarterly
Review_, vol. iv., p. 326-7. Through the medium of a friend,
I learn from Sir Lucas Pepys, Bart., that our illustrious
bibliomaniac, his great uncle, was President of the Royal
Society, and that his collection at Cambridge contains a
_Diary_ of his life, written with his own hand. But it is
high time to speak of the black-letter gems contained in the
said collection. That the PEPYSIAN COLLECTION is at once
choice and valuable cannot be disputed; but that access to
the same is prompt and facile, is not quite so indisputable.
There is a MS. catalogue of the books, by Pepys himself,
with a small rough drawing of a view of the interior of the
library. The books are kept in their original (I think
walnut-wood) presses: and cannot be examined unless in the
presence of a fellow.--Such is the nice order to be
observed, according to the bequest, that every book must be
replaced where it was taken from; and the loss of a single
volume causes the collection to be confiscated, and
transported to Benet-college library. Oh, that there were
_an act of parliament_ to regulate bequests of this
kind!--that the doors to knowledge might, by a greater
facility of entrance, be more frequently opened by students;
and that the medium between unqualified confidence and
unqualified suspicion might be marked out and followed. Are
these things symptomatic of an iron or a brazen age! But the
bibliomaniac is impatient for a glance at the 'forementioned
black-letter treasures!--Alas, I have promised more than I
can perform! Yet let him cast his eye upon the first volume
of the recent edition of _Evans' Collection of Old Ballads_
(see _in limine_, p. ix.) and look into the valuable notes
of _Mr. Todd's Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_,--in
which latter, he will find no bad specimen of these
_Pepysian gems_, in the exultation of my friend, the author,
over another equally respected friend--in consequence of his
having discovered, among these treasures, a strange, merry,
and conceited work, entitled "_Old Meg of Herefordshire for
a Mayd-Marian; and Hereford Town for a Morris-daunce, &c._,"
1609, 4to., p. 273. EX UNO DISCE OMNES. The left-handed
critic, or anti-black-letter reader, will put a wicked
construction upon the quotation of this motto in capital
letters: let him: he will repent of his folly in due time.]
Now it was a convincing proof to me, my dear friends, that the
indulgence of a PASSION FOR BOOKS is perfectly compatible with any
situation, however active and arduous. For while this illustrious
bibliomaniac was sending forth his messengers to sweep every
bookseller's shop from the Tweed to Penzance, for the discovery of old
and almost unknown ballads--and while his name rung in the ears of
rival collectors--he was sedulous, in his professional situation, to
put the _Navy of Old England_ upon the most respectable footing; and
is called the _Father_ of that system which, carried into effect by
British hearts of oak, has made the thunder of our cannon to be heard
and feared on the remotest shores. Nor is it a slight or common
coincidence that a spirit of book-collecting, which stimulated the
_Secretary_ of the Admiralty at the opening of the 18th century,
should, at the close of it, have operated with equal or greater force
in a _First Lord_ of the same glorious department of our
administration. But we shall speak more fully of this latter
character, and of his matchless collection, in a future stage of our
discussion.
While we are looking round us at this period, we may as well slightly
notice the foundation of the _Blenheim Library_. The DUKE OF
MARLBOROUGH[365] was resolved that no naval commander, or person
connected with the navy, should eclipse himself in the splendour of
book-collecting: but it was to PRINCE EUGENE that Marlborough was
indebted for his taste in this particular; or rather the English
commander was completely bitten with the bibliomaniacal disease in
consequence of seeing Eugene secure rare and magnificent copies of
works, when a city or town was taken: and the German Prince himself
expatiates upon the treasures of his library, with a rapture with
which none but the most thorough-bred bibliomaniacs can ever
adequately sympathise.
[Footnote 365: The LIBRARY AT BLENHEIM is one of the
grandest rooms in Europe. The serpentine sheet of water,
which flows at some little distance, between high banks of
luxuriant and moss-woven grass, and is seen from the
interior, with an overhanging dark wood of oaks, is
sufficient to awaken the finest feelings that ever animated
the breast of a bibliomaniac. The books are select and
curious, as well as numerous; and although they may be
eclipsed, in both these particulars, by a few rival
collections, yet the following specimen is no despicable
proof of the ardour with which MARLBOROUGH, the founder of
the Library, pushed forward his bibliomaniacal spirit. I am
indebted to Mr. Edwards for this interesting list of the
ANCIENT CLASSICS PRINTED UPON VELLUM IN THE BLENHEIM LIBRARY.
Apoll. Rhodius 1496
Augustinus, _de Civ. Dei_ _Spiræ_ 1470
A. Gellius, _Romæ_ 1469
Aug. _de Civ. Dei_ _Jenson_ 1475
Biblia Moguntina 1462
Bonifacii Decretalia 1465
Ciceronis _Rhetorica_ _Jens_ 1470
---- _Epist. Fam._ _Spiræ_ 1469
---- _Officia_ _Mogunt_ 1465
---- ---- 1466
---- _Tuscul. Ques._ _Jenson_ 1472
_Clementis Const._ _Mogunt_ 1460
---- _Fust. s.a._
Durandus 1459
Horatius Landini 1482
---- Epist. 1480
Justinian _Mogunt_ 1468
Lactantius _A Rot_ 1471
Lucian _Florent_ 1496
Petrarca _Spira_ 1470
Plinius _Jenson_ 1472
Quintilian _Campani_ 1470
Sallustius _Spira_ 1470
V. Maximus, s.a.
Virgilius _Spira_ 1470
The present MARQUIS OF BLANDFORD inherits, in no small
degree, the book-collecting spirit of his illustrious
ancestor. He is making collections in those departments of
literature in which the Blenheim Library is comparatively
deficient; and his success has already been such as to lead
us to hope for as perfect a display of volumes printed by
_Caxton_ as there is of those executed by foreign printers.
The Marquis's collection of _Emblems_ is, I believe, nearly
perfect: of these, there are a few elegantly printed
catalogues for private distribution. Lysander, above,
supposes that Marlborough caught the infection of the
_book-disease_ from PRINCE EUGENE; and the supposition is,
perhaps, not very wide of the truth. The library of this
great German prince, which is yet entire, (having been
secured from the pillage of Gallic Vandalism, when a certain
emperor visited a certain city) is the proudest feature in
the public library at Vienna. The books are in very fine old
binding, and, generally of the largest dimensions. And,
indeed, old England has not a little to boast of (at least,
so bibliomaniacs must always think) that, from the recently
published _Memoirs of Eugene_ (1811, 8vo., p. 185), it would
appear that the prince "bought his fine editions of books AT
LONDON:"--he speaks also of his "excellent French, Latin,
and Italian works, well bound"--as if he enjoyed the
"arrangment" of _them_, as much as the contemplation of his
"cascades, large water-spouts, and superb basins." _Ibid._
Whether Eugene himself was suddenly inflamed with the ardour
of buying books, from some lucky spoils in the pillaging of
towns--as Lysander supposes--is a point which may yet admit
of fair controversy. For my own part, I suspect the German
commander had been straying, in his early manhood, among the
fine libraries in _Italy_, where he might have seen the
following exquisite _bijous_--
_In St. Mark's, at Venice._
Apuleius 1469 }
Aulus Gellius 1469 } PRINTED UPON VELLUM.
Petrarca 1479 }
_In the Chapter House at Padua._
Ciceronis _Epist. ad Atticum_ _Jenson_ 1470 }
Quintilian _Jenson_ 1471 }
Macrobius 1472 }
Solinus _Jenson_ 1473 } PRINTED UPON VELLUM.
Catullus 1472 }
Plautus 1472 }
Ovidii Opera _Bonon._ 1471 }
The public is indebted to Mr. Edwards for the timely supply
of the foregoing bibliographical intelligence.]
Ever ardent in his love of past learning, and not less voracious in
his bibliomaniacal appetites, was the well known NARCISSUS LUTTRELL.
Nothing--if we may judge from the spirited sketch of his book
character, by the able editor[366] of Dryden's works--nothing would
seem to have escaped his Lynx-like vigilance. Let the object be what
it would (especially if it related to _poetry_) let the volume be
great or small, or contain good, bad, or indifferent warblings of the
muse--his insatiable craving had "stomach for them all." We may
consider his collection as the fountain head of those copious streams
which, after fructifying the libraries of many bibliomaniacs in the
first half of the eighteenth century, settled, for a while, more
determinedly, in the curious book-reservoir of a Mr. WYNNE--and hence,
breaking up, and taking a different direction towards the collections
of Farmer, Steevens, and others, they have almost lost their identity
in the innumerable rivulets which now inundate the book-world.
[Footnote 366: "In this last part of his task, the editor
(Walter Scott) has been greatly assisted by free access to a
valuable collection of fugitive pieces of the reigns of
Charles II., James II., William III., and Queen Anne. This
curious collection was made by NARCISSUS LUTTRELL, Esq.,
under whose name the Editor usually quotes it. The
industrious collector seems to have bought every poetical
tract, of whatever merit, which was hawked through the
streets in his time, marking carefully the price and date of
the purchase. His collection contains the earliest editions
of many of our most excellent poems, bound up, according to
the order of time, with the lowest trash of Grub-street. It
was dispersed on Mr. Luttrell's death," &c. Preface to _The
Works of John Dryden_, 1808: vol. i., p. iv. Mr. James
Bindley and Mr. Richard Heber are then mentioned, by the
editor, as having obtained a great share of the Luttrell
collection, and liberally furnished him with the loan of the
same, in order to the more perfect editing of Dryden's
Works. But it is to the persevering book-spirit of Mr.
EDWARD WYNNE, as Lysander above intimates, that these
notorious modern bibliomaniacs are indebted for the
preservation of most of the choicest relics of the
_Bibliotheca Luttrelliana_. Mr. Wynne lived at Little
Chelsea; and built his library in a room which had the
reputation of having been LOCKE'S _study_. Here he used to
sit, surrounded by innumerable books--a "great part being
formed by an eminent and curious collector in the last
century"--viz. the aforesaid Narcissus Luttrell. (See the
title to the Catalogue of his Library.) His books were sold
by auction in 1786; and, that the reader may have some faint
idea of the treasures contained in the _Bibliotheca
Wynniana_, he is presented with the following extracts:
LOT 2 A parcel of pamphlets on poetry, 8vo. £2 0_s._ 0_d._
3 Do. Tragedies and Comedies, 4to. and 8vo. 3 13 6
4 Do. Historical and Miscellaneous, 4to. and 8vo. 1 1 0
5 Poetical, Historical, and Miscellaneous, folio 1 4 0
11 Do. giving an account of horrid Murders, Storms,
Prodigies, Tempests, Witchcraft, Ghosts, Earthquakes, &c.,
_with frontispieces_ and _cuts_, 4to. and 8vo. 1606 1 14 0
12 Do. Historical and Political, English and Foreign, from
1580 to 1707 2 0 0
13 Do. consisting of Petitions, Remonstrances, Declarations,
and other political matters, from 1638 to 1660, during the
great Rebellion, and the whole of the Protectorate: _a very
large parcel, many of them with cuts_. Purchased by the
present Marquis of Bute 7 7 0
14 Do. of single sheets, giving an account of the various
sieges in Ireland in 1695-6; and consisting likewise of
Elegies, Old Ballads, accounts of Murders, Storms, Political
Squibs, &c. &c., _many of them with curious plates_, from
1695 to 1706. Purchased by the same 6 16 6
Lots 23-4 comprised a great number of "_Old Poetry and
Romances_," which were purchased by Mr. Baynes for 7_l._
9_s._ Lot 376 comprehended a "_Collection of Old
Plays--Gascoigne, White, Windet, Decker, &c._," 21 vols.:
which were sold for 38_l._ 17_s._ Never, to be sure, was a
precious collection of English History and Poetry so
wretchedly detailed to the public, in an auction catalogue!
It should be noticed that a great number of poetical tracts
was disposed of, previous to the sale, to Dr. FARMER, who
gave not more than forty guineas for them. The Doctor was
also a determined purchaser at the sale, and I think the
ingenious Mr. Waldron aided the illustrious commentator of
Shakspeare with many a choice volume. It may be worth adding
that Wynne was the author of an elegant work, written in the
form of dialogues, entitled _Eunomus_, or _Discourses upon
the Laws of England_, 4 vols., 8vo. It happened to be
published at the time when Sir William Blackstone's
_Commentaries on the Laws of England_ made their appearance;
and, in consequence, has seen only three editions: the
latter being published in 1809, 2 vols., 8vo.]
Why have I delayed, to the present moment, the mention of that
illustrious bibliomaniac, EARL PEMBROKE? a patron of poor scholars,
and a connoisseur, as well as collector, of every thing the most
precious and rare in the book-way. Yet was his love of _Virtû_ not
confined to objects in the shape of volumes, whether printed or in
MS.: his knowledge of statues and coins was profound;[367] and his
collection of these, such as to have secured for him the admiration
of posterity.
[Footnote 367:
[Illustration]
The reader will find an animated eulogy on this great
nobleman in Walpole's _Anecdotes of Painters_, vol. iv.,
227; part of which was transcribed by Joseph Warton for his
variorum edition of Pope's works, and thence copied into the
recent edition of the same by the Rev. W.L. Bowles. But
PEMBROKE deserved a more particular notice. Exclusively of
his fine statues and architectural decorations, the Earl
contrived to procure a great number of curious and rare
books; and the testimonies of Maittaire (who speaks indeed
of him with a sort of rapture!) and Palmer show that the
productions of Jenson and Caxton were no strangers to his
library. _Annales Typographici_, vol. i., 13. edit. 1719.
_History of Printing_, p. 5. "There is nothing that so
surely proves the pre-eminence of virtue more than the
universal admiration of mankind, and the respect paid it by
persons in opposite interests; and, more than this, it is a
sparkling gem which even time does not destroy: it is hung
up in the Temple of Fame, and respected for ever."
_Continuation of Granger_, vol. i., 37, &c. "He raised
(continues Mr. Noble) a collection of antiques that were
unrivalled by any subject. His learning made him a fit
companion for the literati. Wilton will ever be a monument
of his extensive knowledge; and the princely presents it
contains, of the high estimation in which he was held by
foreign potentates, as well as by the many monarchs he saw
and served at home. He lived rather as a primitive
christian; in his behaviour, meek; in his dress, plain:
rather retired, conversing but little." Burnet, in the
_History of his own Times_, has spoken of the Earl with
spirit and propriety. Thus far the first edition of the
Bibliomania. From an original MS. letter of Anstis to Ames
(in the possession of Mr. John Nichols) I insert the
following memoranda, concerning the book celebrity of Lord
Pembroke. "I had the book of Juliana Barnes (says Anstis)
printed at St. Albans, 1486, about hunting, which was
afterwards reprinted by W. de Worde at Westminster,
1496--but the EARL OF PEMBROKE would not rest till he got it
from me." From a letter to Lewis (the biographer of Caxton)
by the same person, dated Oct. 11, 1737, Anstis says that
"the Earl of Pembroke would not suffer him to rest till he
had presented it to him." He says also that "he had a later
edition of the same, printed in 1496, _on parchment_, by W.
de Worde, which he had given away: but he could send to the
person who had it." From another letter, dated May 8, 1740,
this "person" turns out to be the famous JOHN MURRAY; to
whom we are shortly to be introduced. The copy, however, is
said to be "imperfect; but the St. Albans book, a fair
folio." In this letter, Lord Pembroke's library is said to
hold "the greatest collection of the first books printed in
England." Perhaps the reader will not be displeased to be
informed that in the _Antiquities of Glastonbury_, published
by Hearne, 1722, p. LVIII, there is a medal, with the
reverse, of one of the Earl's ancestors in Queen Elizabeth's
time, which had escaped Evelyn. It was lent to Hearne by Sir
Philip Sydenham, who was at the expense of having the plate
engraved.]
While this nobleman was the general theme of literary praise there
lived a _Bibliomaniacal Triumvirate_ of the names of BAGFORD, MURRAY,
and HEARNE: a triumvirate, perhaps not equalled, in the mere love of
book-collecting, by that which we mentioned a short time ago. At the
head, and the survivor of these three,[368] was Thomas Hearne; who,
if I well remember, has been thus described by Pope, in his Dunciad,
under the character of Wormius:
But who is he, in closet close ypent,
Of sober face, with learned dust besprent?
Right well mine eyes arede the myster wight,
On parchment scraps y-fed, and WORMIUS hight.
[Footnote 368: The former bibliomaniacal triumvirate is
noticed at p. 217, ante. We will now discuss the merits of
the above, _seriatim_. And first of JOHN BAGFORD, "by
profession a bookseller; who frequently travelled into
Holland and other parts, in search of scarce books and
valuable prints, and brought a vast number into this
kingdom, the greater part of which were purchased by the
Earl of Oxford. He had been in his younger days a shoemaker;
and for the many curiosities wherewith he enriched the
famous library of Dr. John More, Bishop of Ely, his Lordship
got him admitted into the Charter House. He died in 1716,
aged 65; after his death, Lord Oxford purchased all his
collections and papers for his library: these are now in the
Harleian collection in the British Museum. In 1707 were
published, in the Philosophical transactions, his Proposals
for a General History of Printing."--Bowyer and Nichol's
_Origin of Printing_, pp. 164, 189, note. It has been my
fortune (whether good or bad remains to be proved) not only
to transcribe, and cause to be reprinted, the slender
Memorial of Printing in the Philosophical Transactions,
drawn up by Wanley for Bagford, but to wade through
_forty-two_ folio volumes, in which Bagford's materials for
a History of Printing are incorporated, in the British
Museum: and from these, I think I have furnished myself with
a pretty correct notion of the collector of them. Bagford
was the most hungry and rapacious of all book and print
collectors; and, in his ravages, he spared neither the most
delicate nor costly specimens. He seems always to have
expressed his astonishment at the most common productions;
and his paper in the Philosophical Transactions betrays such
simplicity and ignorance that one is astonished how my Lord
Oxford, and the learned Bishop of Ely, could have employed
so credulous a bibliographical forager. A modern collector
and lover of _perfect_ copies, will witness, with
shuddering, among Bagford's immense collection of
title-pages in the Museum, the frontispieces of the
Complutensian Polyglot, and Chauncy's History of
Hertfordshire, torn out to illustrate a History of Printing.
His enthusiasm, however, carried him through a great deal of
laborious toil; and he supplied in some measure, by this
qualification, the want of other attainments. His whole mind
was devoted to book-hunting; and his integrity and diligence
probably made his employers overlook his many failings. His
handwriting is scarcely legible, and his orthography is
still more wretched; but if he was ignorant, he was humble,
zealous, and grateful; and he has certainly done something
towards the accomplishment of that desirable object, an
accurate GENERAL HISTORY OF PRINTING. The preceding was
inserted in the _first edition_ of this work. It is
incumbent on me to say something more, and less declamatory,
of so extraordinary a character; and as my sources of
information are such as do not fall into the hands of the
majority of readers, I trust the prolixity of what follows,
appertaining to the aforesaid renowned bibliomaniac, will be
pardoned--at least by the lover of curious biographical
memoranda. My old friend, Tom Hearne, is my chief authority.
In the preface to that very scarce, but rather curious than
valuable, work, entitled _Guil. Roper Vita D. Thomæ Mori_,
1716, 8vo., we have the following brief notice of Bagford:
§. ix. "Epistolas et Orationes excipit Anonymi Scriptoris
chronicon; quod idcirco Godstovianum appellare visum est,
quia in illud forte fortuna inciderim, quum, anno MDCCXV.
una cum JOANNÆ BAGFORDIO, amico egregio ad rudera Prioratûs
de Godstowe juxta Oxoniam animi recreandi gratia,
perambularem. De illo vero me prius certiorem fecerat ipse
Bagfordius, qui magno cum nostro moerore paullo post
Londini obiit, die nimirum quinto Maij anno MDCCXVI. quum
jam annum ætatis sexagessimum quintum inplerisset, ut è
litteris intelligo amici ingenio et humanitate ornati
Jacobei Sothebeii, junioris, qui, si quis alius, è
familiaribus erat Bagfordii. Virum enimvero ideo mihi quam
maxime hâc occasione lugendum est, quod amicum probitate et
modestia præditum amiserim, virumque cum primis diligentem
et peritum intercidisse tam certum sit quam quod
certissimum. Quamvis enim artes liberales nunquam
didicisset, vi tamen ingenii ductus, eruditus plane evasit;
et, ut quod verum est dicam, incredibile est quam feliciter
res abstrusas in historiis veteribus explicaverit, nodosque
paullo difficiliores ad artis typographicæ incunabula
spectantes solverit et expedierit. Expertus novi quod
scribo. Quotiescunque enim ipsum consului (et quidem id
sæpissime faciendum erat) perpetuo mihi aliter atque
exspectaveram satisfecit, observationis itidem nonnunquam
tales addens, quales antea neque mihi neque viris longe
doctioribus in mentem venerant. Quidni itaque virum magnum
fuisse pronunciarem, præcipue quum nostra sententia illi
soli magni sint censendi, qui recte agant, et sint vere boni
et virtute præditi?"--_Præf._ pp. xxi., ii. In Hearne's
perface [Transcriber's Note: preface] to _Walter
Hemingford's_ history, Bagford is again briefly introduced:
"At vero in hoc genere fragmenta colligendi omnes quidem
alios (quantum ego existimare possum) facile superavit
JOANNES BAGFORDIUS, de quo apud Hemingum, &c. Incredibile
est, quanta usus sit diligentia in laciniis veteribus
coacervandis. Imo in hoc labore quidem tantum versari
exoptabat quantum potuit, tantum autem re vera versabatur,
quantum ingenio (nam divino sane fruebatur) quantum mediocri
doctrina (nam neque ingenue, neque liberaliter, unquam fuit
educatus) quantum usu valuit," p. ciii. The reader here
finds a reference to what is said of Bagford, in the
_Hemingi Wigornensis Chartularium_; which, though copious,
is really curious and entertaining, and is forthwith
submitted to his consideration. "It was therefore very
laudable in my friend, Mr. J. BAGFORD (who I think was born
in Fetter-lane, London) to employ so much of his time as he
did in collecting remains of antiquity. Indeed he was a man
of a very surprising genius, and had his education (for he
was first a shoe-maker, and afterwards for some time a
book-seller) been equal to his natural genius, he would have
proved a much greater man than he was. And yet, without this
education, he was certainly the greatest man in the world in
his way. I do not hear of any monument erected to his
memory, but 'twas not without reason that a worthy
gentleman, now living in London, designed the following
epitaph for him:
Hic. Sitvs. JOANNES. BAGFORDIVS.
Antiquarivs. Penitvs. Britannvs.
Cujvs. Nuda. Solertia. Aliorvm.
Vicit. Operosam. Diligentiam.
Obiit. Maii. v. A.D. M.DCC.XVI.
Ætatis [LXV.]
Viri. Simplicis. Et. Sine. Fvco.
Memoria. Ne. Periret.
Hunc. Lapidem. Posvit....
"'Tis very remarkable that, in collecting, his care did not
extend itself to books and to fragments of books only; but
even to the very _Covers_, and to _Bosses_ and _Clasps_; and
all this that he might, with greater ease, compile the
History of Printing, which he had undertaken, but did not
finish. In this noble work he intended a Discourse about
_Binding Books_ (in which he might have improved what I have
said elsewhere about the ancient Æstels) and another about
the _Art of making Paper_, in both which his observations
were very accurate. Nay, his skill _in paper_ was so
exquisite that, at first view, he could tell the place
where, and the time when, any paper was made, though at
never so many years' distance. I well remember that, when I
was reading over a famous book of collections (written by
John Lawerne, Monk of Worcester, and now preserved) in the
Bodleian Library, Mr. Bagford came to me (as he would often
come thither on purpose to converse with me about
curiosities) and that he had no sooner seen the book, but he
presently described the time when, and the place where, the
paper of which it consists, was made. He was indefatigable
in his searches, and was so ambitious of seeing what he had
heard of, relating to his noble design, that he had made
several journies into Holland to see the famous books there.
Nor was he less thirsty after other antiquities, but, like
old John Stow, was for seeing himself, if possible (although
he travelled on foot), what had been related to him.
Insomuch that I cannot doubt, but were he now living, he
would have expressed a very longing desire of going to
Worcester, were it for no other reason but to be better
satisfied about the famous monumental stones mentioned by
Heming (_Chart, Wigorn._, p. 342), as he often declared a
most earnest desire of walking with me (though I was
diverted from going) to Guy's Cliff by Warwick, when I was
printing that most rare book called, _Joannis Rossi
Antiquarii Warwicensis Historia Regum Angliæ_. And I am apt
to think that he would have shewed as hearty an inclination
of going to Stening in Sussex, that being the place
(according to Asser's Life of Ælfred the Great) where K.
Ethelwulph (father of K. Alfred) was buried, though others
say it was at Winchester," &c. "Mr. BAGFORD was as
communicative as he was knowing: so that some of the chief
curiosities in some of our best libraries are owing to him;
for which reason it was that the late _Bishop of Ely_, Dr.
MORE (who received so much from him), as an instance of
gratitude, procured him a place in the Charter-House. I wish
all places were as well bestowed. For as Mr. Bagford was,
without all dispute, a very worthy man, so, being a despiser
of money, he had not provided for the necessities of old
age. He never looked upon those as true philosophers that
aimed at heaping up riches, and, in that point, could never
commend that otherwise great man, Seneca, who had about two
hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling, at use in
Britain; the loan whereof had been thrust upon the Britains,
whether they would or no. He would rather extol such men as
a certain rector near Oxford, whose will is thus put down in
writing, by Richard Kedermister, the last abbot but one of
Winchcomb (_Leland Collect._ vol. vi., 168), in the margin
of a book (I lately purchased) called _Hieronymi Cardinalis
Vitas Patrum_, Lugd. MCCCCCII. 4to. Nihil habeo, nihil
debeo, benedicamus Domino. Testamentum cujusdam rectoris,
juxta Oxoniam decedentis circiter annum salutis, 1520." "Nor
was Mr. Bagford versed only in our own old writers, but in
those likewise of other countries, particularly the Roman.
His skill in that part of the Roman history that immediately
relates to Britain is sufficiently evident from his curious
letter, printed at the beginning of Leland's Collectanea.
That he might be the better acquainted with the Roman
stations, and the several motions of the soldiers from one
place to another, he used to pick up coins, and would, upon
occasion, discourse handsomely, and very pertinently, about
them; yet he would keep none, but would give them to his
friends, telling them (for he was exemplarily modest and
humble) that he had neither learning nor sagacity enough to
explain and illustrate them, and that therefore it was more
proper they should be in the possession of some able
persons. He would have done any thing to retrieve a Roman
author, and would have given any price for so much as a
single fragment (not yet discovered) of the learned
commentaries, written by Agrippina, mother to Nero, touching
the fortunes of her house, which are (as I much fear) now
utterly lost, excepting the fragment or two cited out of
them by Pliny the elder and Cornelius Tacitus; as he would
also have stuck at no price for a grammar _printed at
Tavistock_, commonly called =The long Grammar=. When he went
abroad he was never idle, but if he could not meet with
things of a better character, he would divert himself with
looking over _Ballads_, and he was always mightily pleased
if he met with any that were old. Anthony à Wood made good
collections, with respect to ballads, but he was far outdone
by Mr. Bagford. Our modern ballads are, for the most part,
romantic; but the old ones contain matters of fact, and were
generally written by good scholars. In these old ones were
couched the transactions of our great heroes: they were a
sort of Chronicles. So that the wise founder of New College
permitted them to be sung, by the fellows of that college,
upon extraordinary days. In those times, the poets thought
they had done their duty when they had observed truth, and
put the accounts they undertook to write, into rhythm,
without extravagantly indulging their fancies. Nobody knew
this better than Mr. Bagford; for which reason he always
seemed almost ravished when he happened to light upon old
rhythms, though they might not, perhaps, be so properly
ranged under the title of ballads," &c., pp. 656-663. Being
unable to furnish a portrait of Bagford (although I took
some little trouble to procure one) I hope the reader--if
his patience be not quite exhausted--will endeavour to
console himself, in lieu thereof, with a specimen of
Bagford's epistolary composition; which I have faithfully
copied from the original among the _Sloanian MSS._, no.
4036, in the British Museum. It is written to Sir Hans
Sloane.
_From my Lodgings_, July 24, 1704.
WORTHY SIR,
Since you honoured me with your good company for seeing
printing and card-making, I thought it my duty to explain
myself to you per letter on this subject. Till you had seen
the whole process of card-making, I thought I could not so
well represent it unto you by writing--for this I take to be
the first manner of printing. In this short discouse
[Transcriber's Note: discourse] I have explained myself when
I design to treat of it in the famous subject of the Art of
Printing. It hath been the labour of several years past, and
if now I shall have assistance to midwife it into the world,
I shall be well satisfied for the sake of the curious. For
these 10 years past I have spared no cost in collecting
books on this subject, and likewise drafts of the effigies
of our famous printers, with other designs that will be
needful on this subject. If this short account of the design
of the whole shall give you any satisfaction, I shall esteem
my pains well bestowed. Hitherto, I have met with no
encouragement but from three reverend gentlemen of Bennet
College in Cambridge, who generously, of their own accord,
gave me 10 pound each, which is all I ever received of any
person whatsoever. It may indeed be imputed to my own
neglect, in not acquainting the learned with my design, but
modesty still keeps me silent. I hope your goodness will
pardon my impertinence. I shall be ready at all times to
give you any satisfaction you desire on this subject, who
am,
Honoured Sir,
Your most humble Servant to command,
JO. BAGFORD.
_For the Worthy Sir Hans Slone_ [Transcriber's Note:
Sloane].
And now it only remains to close the whole of this
BAGFORDIANA by the following unique communication. One of
Bagford's friends sent him this letter with the subjoined
device:--"_For my Lovinge friend Mr. Jno. Bagford._--You
having shewed me so many rebuses, as I was returning home, I
thought of one for you--a bagge, and below that, a fourd or
passable water." (_Harl. MS._, no. 5910.)
[Illustration]
I wish it were in my power to collect information, equally
acceptable with the foregoing, respecting the above-named
JOHN MURRAY; but Hearne, who was his intimate friend, has
been very sparing in his anecdotes of him, having left us
but a few desultory notices, written chiefly in the Latin
language. The earliest mention of him that I find is the
following: "Verum illud præcipue mentionem meretur, quod
mutuo accepi, schedula una et altera jam excusa, á JOANNE
MURARIO Londinensi, rei antiquariæ perscrutatore diligenti,
cui eo nomine gratias ago." "Denique subdidi descriptionem
fenestrarum depictarum ecclesiæ parochialis de Fairford in
agro Glocestriensi, è schedula quam mutuo sumpsi ab amico
supra laudato Johanne Murrario, qui per literas etiam
certiorem me fecit è codice quodam vetusto MS. fuisse
extractum. Neque dubito quin hic idem fuerit Codex quem olim
in ecclesia de Fairford adservatum surripuisse nebulonem
quempiam mihi significavit ecclesiæ ædituus, vir simplex,
necnon ætate et scientia venerandus." Præf: p. XXII. _Guil.
Roperi Vita Thomæ Mori_, 1716, 8vo., edit. Hearne. There is
another slight mention of Murray, by Hearne, in the latter's
edition of _Thom. Caii. Vindic. Antiq. Acad. Oxon_, vol.
ii., 803-4--where he discourses largely upon the former's
copy of _Rastel's Pastyme of People_: a book which will be
noticed by me very fully on a future occasion. At present,
it may suffice to observe that a perfect copy of it is
probably the rarest English book in existence. There is a
curious copper plate print of Murray, by Vertue, in which
our bibliomaniac's right arm is resting upon some books
entitled "_Hearne's Works, Sessions Papers, Tryals of
Witches_." Beneath is this inscription:
_Hoh Maister John Murray of Sacomb,
The Works of old Time to collect was his pride,
Till Oblivion dreaded his Care:
Regardless of Friends, intestate he dy'd,
So the Rooks and the Crows were his Heir._
G.N.
Of the above-mentioned THOMAS BRITTON, I am enabled to
present a very curious and interesting account, from a work
published by Hearne, of no very ordinary occurrence, and in
the very words of Hearne himself. It is quite an unique
picture. "Before I dismiss this subject, I must beg leave to
mention, and to give a short account of, one that was
intimately acquainted with Mr. Bagford, and was also a great
man, though of but ordinary education. The person I mean is
Mr. THOS. BRITTON, the famous _Musical Small Coal Man_, who
was born at or near Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire.
Thence he went to London, where he bound himself apprentice
to a small coal man in St. John Baptist's Street. After he
had served his full time of seven years, his master gave him
a sum of money not to set up. Upon this, Tom went into
Northamptonshire again, and after he had spent his money, he
returned again to London, set up the _small coal trade_
(notwithstanding his master was still living) and withall,
he took a stable, and turned it into a house, which stood
the next door to the little gate of St. John's of Jerusalem,
next Clerkenwell Green. Some time after he had settled here,
he became acquainted with Dr. Garenciers, his near
neighbour, by which means he became an excellent chymist,
and perhaps, he performed such things in that profession, as
had never been done before, with little cost and charge, by
the help of a moving elaboratory, that was contrived and
built by himself, which was much admired by all of that
faculty that happened to see it; insomuch that a certain
gentleman in Wales was so much taken with it that he was at
the expense of carrying him down into that country, on
purpose to build him such another, which Tom performed to
the gentleman's very great satisfaction, and for the same he
received of him a very handsome and generous gratuity.
Besides his great skill in chymistry, he was as famous for
his knowledge in the _Theory of Music_; in the practical
part of which Faculty he was likewise very considerable. He
was so much addicted to it that he pricked with his own hand
(very neatly and accurately), and left behind him, a
valuable collection of music, mostly pricked by himself,
which was sold upon his death for near a hundred pounds. Not
to mention the excellent collection of PRINTED BOOKS, that
he also left behind him, both of chemistry and music.
Besides these books that he left behind him, he had, some
years before his death, sold by auction a _noble collection
of books_, most of them in the _Rosacrucian Faculty_ (of
which he was a great admirer): whereof there is a printed
catalogue extant (as there is of those that were sold after
his death), which I have often looked over with no small
surprize and wonder, and particularly for the great number
of MSS. in the before mentioned faculties that are specified
in it. He had, moreover, a considerable collection of
musical instruments, which were sold for fourscore pounds
upon his death, which happened in September 1714, being
upwards of threescore years of age; and (he) lyes buried in
the church-yard of Clerkenwell, without monument or
inscription: being attended to his grave, in a very solemn
and decent manner, by a great concourse of people,
especially of such as frequented the Musical club, that was
kept up for many years at his own charges (he being a man of
a very generous and liberal spirit) at his own little cell.
He appears by the print of him (done since his death) to
have been a man of an ingenuous countenance and of a
sprightly temper. It also represents him as a comely person,
as indeed he was; and withal, there is a modesty expressed
in it every way agreeable to him. Under it are these verses,
which may serve instead of an epitaph:
Tho' mean thy rank, yet in thy humble cell
Did gentle peace and arts unpurchas'd dwell;
Well pleas'd Apollo thither led his train,
And music warbled in her sweetest strain.
Cyllenius, so, as fables tell, and Jove,
Came willing guests to poor PHILEMON'S grove.
Let useless pomp behold, and blush to find
So low a station, such a liberal mind.
In short, he was an extraordinary and very valuable man,
much admired by the gentry; even those of the best quality,
and by all others of the more inferior rank, that had any
manner of regard for probity, sagacity, diligence, and
humility. I say humility, because, though he was so much
famed for his knowledge, and might, therefore, have lived
very reputably without his trade, yet he continued it to his
death, not thinking it to be at all beneath him. Mr. BAGFORD
and he used frequently to converse together, and when they
met _they seldom parted very soon_. Their conversation was
very often about OLD MSS. and the havock made of them. They
both agreed to retrieve what fragments of antiquity they
could, and, upon that occasion, they would frequently divert
themselves in talking of OLD CHRONICLES, which both loved to
read, though, among our more late Chronicles printed in
English, Isaackson's was what they chiefly preferred for a
general knowledge of things; a book which was much esteemed
also by those two eminent Chronologers, Bishop Lloyd and Mr.
Dodwell. By the way, I cannot but observe that Isaackson's
Chronicle is really, for the most part, Bishop Andrews's;
Isaackson being amanuensis to the bishop." _Hemingi
Chartular. Eccles. Wigornien._, vol. ii., 666-9, Edit.
Hearne. See also, _Robert of Glocester's Chronicle_, vol.
i., p. LXXII. We will close our account of this perfectly
_unique_ bibliomaniac by subjoining the title of the
_Catalogue of his Books_; for which I am indebted to the
ever-active and friendly assistance of Mr. Heber. The volume
is so rare that the late Mr. Reed told Mr. H. he had never
seen another copy: but another has recently been sold, and
is now in the curious collection of Mr. R. Baker. "The
Library of Mr. THOMAS BRITTON, Small-coal man, Deceas'd:
who, at his own charge, kept up a Concort of Musick above 40
years, in his little Cottage. Being a curious Collection of
every Ancient and Uncommon book in Divinity, History,
Physick, Chemistry, Magick, &c. Also a Collection of MSS.
chiefly on vellum. _Which will be sold by auction at Paul's
Coffee House, &c., the 24th day of January, 1714-15, at Five
in the Evening._ By Thomas Ballard, Esq., 8vo., p. 30.
Containing 102 articles in folio--274 in 4to.--664 in
octavo--50 pamphlets--and 23 MSS." A few of the works, in
octavo, were sufficiently amatory. The third and last
character above mentioned, as making this illustrious
bibliomaniacal triumvirate complete, is THOMAS HEARNE. That
Pope, in the verses which Lysander has quoted, meant this
distinguished antiquary seems hardly to be questioned; and
one wonders at the Jesuitical note of Warburton, in striving
to blow the fumes of the poet's satire into a different
direction. They must settle upon poor Hearne's head: for
WANLEY'S antiquarian talents were equally beyond the touch
of satire and the criticism of the satirist. Warton has,
accordingly, admitted that HEARNE was represented under the
character of WORMIUS; and he defends the character of Hearne
very justly against the censures of Pope. His eulogy will be
presently submitted to the reader. Gibbon, in his
_Posthumous Works_, vol. ii., 711, has aimed a deadly blow
at the literary reputation of Hearne; and an admirer of this
critic and historian, as well as an excellent judge of
antiquarian pursuits, has followed up Gibbon's mode of
attack in a yet more merciless manner. He calls him "Thomas
Hearne, of black-letter memory, _carbone notandus_"--"a
weaker man (says he) never existed, as his prefaces, so
called, lamentably show." He continues in this hard-hearted
strain: but I have too much humanity to make further
extracts. He admits, however, the utility of most of
Hearne's publications--"of which he was forced to publish a
few copies, at an extravagant subscription." The remarks of
this (anonymous) writer, upon the neglect of the cultivation
of ENGLISH HISTORY, and upon the want of valuable editions
of OUR OLD HISTORIANS, are but too just, and cannot be too
attentively perused. See _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. 58,
pt. 1, 196-8 (A.D. 1788). Thus far in deterioration of poor
Hearne's literary fame. Let us now listen to writers of a
more courteous strain of observation. Prefixed to Tanner's
_Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica_, there is a preface, of
which Dr. Wilkins is the reputed author. The whole of
Hearne's publications are herein somewhat minutely
criticised, and their merits and demerits slightly
discussed. It is difficult to collect the critic's summary
opinion upon Hearne's editorial labours; but he concludes
thus: "Quia autem leporis est mortuis insultare leonibus,
cineres celeberrimi hujus et olim mihi amicissimi viri
turbare, neutiquam in animum inducere possum," p. xlvii. Mr.
Gough, in his _British Topography_, vol. ii., p. 579, calls
Hearne an "acute observer;" but, unluckily, the subject to
which the reader's attention is here directed discovers our
antiquary to have been in error. J. Warton, in the passage
before alluded to, observes: "In consideration of the many
very accurate and very elegant editions which Hearne
published of our valuable old chronicles, which shed such a
light on English history, he (Hearne) ought not to have been
so severely lashed as in these bitter lines," (quoted in the
text, p. 327, ante) _Pope's Works_, edit. Bowles; vol. v.,
232. Let the reader consult also Dr. Pegge's _Anonymiana_,
in the passages referred to, in the truly valuable index
attached to it, concerning Hearne. Thus much, I submit, may
be fairly said of our antiquary's labours. That the greater
part of them are truly useful, and absolutely necessary for
a philological library, must on all sides be admitted. I
will mention only the _Chronicles of Langtoft and Robert of
Gloucester_; _Adam de Domerham, de rebus Glastoniensibus_;
_Gulielmus Neubrigensis_; _Forduni Scotichronicon_; and all
his volumes appertaining to _Regal Biography_:--these are,
surely, publications of no mean importance. Hearne's
prefaces and appendices are gossiping enough; sometimes,
however, they repay the labour of perusal by curious and
unlooked-for intelligence. Yet it must be allowed that no
literary cook ever enriched his dishes with such little
piquant sauce, as did Hearne: I speak only of their
_intrinsic_ value, for they had a very respectable
exterior--what Winstanley says of Ogilvey's publications
being, applicable enough to Hearne's;--they were printed on
"special good paper, and in a very good letter." We will now
say a few words relative to Hearne's habits of study and
living--taken from his own testimony. In the preface
prefixed to _Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More_, p. xix.
(edit. 1716), he describes himself "as leading the life of
an ascetic." In the preface to the _Annals of Dunstable
Priory_, his bibliographical diligence is evinced by his
saying he had "turned over every volume in the Bodleian
Library." In one of his prefaces (to which I am not able
just now to refer) he declares that he was born--like our
British tars--"for action:" and indeed his activity was
sufficiently demonstrated; for sometimes he would set about
transcribing for the press papers which had just been put
into his hands. Thus, in the _Antiquities of Glastonbury_,
p. 326, he writes, "the two following old evidences were
lent me _to-day_ by my friend the Hon. Benedict Leonard
Calvert, Esq." His excessive regard to fidelity of
transcription is, among many other evidences that may be
brought forward, attested in the following passage: "Have
taken particular care (saith Mr. Harcourt, in his letter to
me from Aukenvyke, Sep. 25, 1734) in the copying; well
knowing your exactness." _Benedict Abbas_, vol ii., 870. But
this servility of transcription was frequently the cause of
multiplying, by propagating, errors. If Hearne had seen the
word "faith" thus disjointed--"fay the"--he would have
adhered to this error, for "faythe." As indeed he has
committed a similar one, in the _Battle of Agincourt_, in
the appendix to Thomas de Elmham: for he writes "breth
reneverichone"--instead of "brethren everichone"--as Mr.
Evans has properly printed it, in his recent edition of his
father's _Collection of Old Ballads_, vol. ii., 334. But
this may be thought trifling. It is certainly not here meant
to justify capriciousness of copying; but surely an obvious
corruption of reading may be restored to its genuine state:
unless, indeed, we are resolved to consider antiquity and
perfection as synonymous terms. But there are some traits in
Hearne's character which must make us forgive and forget
this blind adherence to the errors of antiquity. He was so
warm a lover of every thing in the shape of a BOOK that, in
the preface to _Alured of Beverley_, pp. v. vi., he says
that he jumped almost out of his skin for joy, on reading a
certain MS. which Thomas Rawlinson sent to him ("vix credi
potest qua voluptate, qua animi alacritate, perlegerim,"
&c.). Similar feelings possessed him on a like occasion:
"When the pious author (of the _Antiquities of Glastonbury_)
first put it (the MS.) into my hands, I read it over with as
much delight as I have done anything whatsoever upon the
subject of antiquity, and I was earnest with him to print
it," p. lxxviii. Hearne's horror of book-devastations is
expressed upon a variety of occasions: and what will
reconcile him to a great portion of _modern_ readers--and
especially of those who condescend to read this account of
him--his attachment to the black-letter was marvelously
enthusiastic! Witness his pathetic appeal to the English
nation, in the 26th section of his preface to _Robert of
Gloucester's Chronicle_, where he almost predicts the
extinction of "right good" literature, on the disappearance
of the _black-letter_! And here let us draw towards the
close of these HEARNEANA, by contemplating a wood-cut
portrait of this illustrious Bibliomaniac; concerning whose
life and works the reader should peruse the well-known
volumes published at Oxford in 1772, 8vo.: containing the
biographical memoirs of Leland, Bale, Hearne, and Wood.
[Illustration: OBIIT MDCCXXXV: ÆTATIS SUÆ LVII.
_Deut. xxxii: 7. Remember the days of old._]
The library of Hearne was sold in February, 1736, by Osborne
the book-seller; "the lowest price being marked in each
book." The title-page informs us of what all bibliomaniacs
will be disposed to admit the truth, that the collection
contained "a very great variety of uncommon books, and
scarce ever to be met withal," &c. There is, at bottom, a
small wretched portrait of Hearne, with this well known
couplet subjoined:
Pox on't quoth _Time_ to _Thomas Hearne_,
Whatever I _forget_ you learn.
Let the modern collector of Chronicles turn his eye towards
the 15th page of this catalogue--nos. 384, 390--and see
what "compleat and very fair" copies of these treasures were
incorporated in Hearne's extensive library!]
A little volume of book chit-chat might be written upon the marvellous
discovesies [Transcriber's Note: discoveries] and voluminous
compilations of Bagford and Hearne: and to these, we may add another
_unique_ bibliomaniac, who will go down to posterity under the
distinguished, and truly enviable, title of "_The Musical Small-Coal
Man_;" I mean, master THOMAS BRITTON. Yes, Lisardo; while we give to
the foregoing characters their full share of merit and praise; we
admit that Bagford's personal activity and manual labour have hardly
been equalled--while we allow John Murray to have looked with sharper
eyes after black-letter volumes than almost any of his predecessors
or successors--while we grant Thomas Hearne a considerable portion of
scholarship, an inflexible integrity, as well as indefatigable
industry, and that his works are generally interesting, both from the
artless style in which they are composed, and the intrinstic utility
of the greater part of them, yet let our admiration be [Transcriber's
Note: superfluous 'be'] "be screwed to its sticking place," when we
think upon the wonderous genius of the aforesaid Thomas Britton; who,
in the midst of his coal cellars, could practise upon "fiddle and
flute," or collate his curious volumes; and throwing away, with the
agility of a harlequin, his sombre suit of business-cloths, could put
on his velvet coat and bag-wig, and receive his concert visitors, at
the stair-head, with the politeness of a Lord of the Bedchamber!
LOREN. In truth, a marvellous hero was this _Small-Coal Man_! Have you
many such characters to notice?
LYSAND. Not many of exactly the same stamp. Indeed, I suspect that
Hearne, from his love of magnifying the simple into the marvellous,
has a little caricatured the picture. But Murray seems to have been a
quiet unaffected character; passionately addicted to old books of
whatever kind they chanced to be; and, in particular, most
enthusiastically devoted to a certain old English Chronicle, entitled
_Rastell's Pastime of (the) People_.
PHIL. I observed a notification of the re-appearance of this Chronicle
in some of the Magazines or Reviews: but I hope, for the benefit of
general readers, the orthography will be modernized.
LOREN. I hope, for the sake of consistency with former similar
publications,[369] the ancient garb will not be thrown aside. It would
be like--what Dr. Johnson accuses Pope of having committed--"clothing
Homer with Ovidian graces."
[Footnote 369: The ANCIENT CHONICLES of the history of our
country are in a progressive state of being creditably
reprinted, with a strict adherence to the old phraseology.
Of these Chronicles, the following have already made their
appearance: HOLINSHED, 1807, 4to., 6 vols.; HALL, 1809,
4to.; GRAFTON, 1809, 4to., 2 vols.; FABIAN, 1811, 4to. This
latter is not a mere reprint of the first edition of Fabian,
but has, at the bottom, the various readings of the
subsequent impressions. The index is copious and valuable.
Indeed, all these re-impressions have good indexes. The
public will hear, with pleasure, that ARNOLD, HARDING, and
LORD BERNERS' translation of FROISSARD, and RASTELL, are
about to bring up the rear of these popular Chroniclers.]
LYSAND. Much may be said on both sides of the question. But why are we
about to make learned dissertations upon the old English Chronicles?
LIS. Proceed, and leave the old chroniclers to settle the matter
themselves. Who is the next bibliomaniac deserving of particular
commendation?
LYSAND. As we have sometimes classed our bibliomaniacs in tribes, let
me now make you acquainted with another _Trio_, of like renown in the
book-way: I mean Anstis, Lewis, and Ames. Of these in their turn.
ANSTIS[370] stands deservedly the first in the list; for he was, in
every respect, a man of thorough benevolent character, as well as a
writer of taste and research. I do not know of any particulars
connected with his library that merit a distinct recital; but he is
introduced here from his connection with the two latter
bibliographers. LEWIS[371] is known to us, both as a topographer and
bibliographical antiquary. His _Life of Caxton_ has been reprinted
with additions and corrections; and, in particular, his edition of
_Wicliffe's New Testament_ has been recently put forth by the Rev. Mr.
Baber, in a handsome quarto volume, with valuable emendations. Lewis
was a sharp censurer of Hearne, and was somewhat jealous of the
typographical reputation of Ames. But his integrity and moral
character, as well as his love of rare and curious books, has secured
for him a durable reputation. Of AMES, and here--though a little out
of order--I may add HERBERT--the public has already heard probably
"more than enough." They were both, undoubtedly, men of extraordinary
mental vigour and bodily activity in the darling pursuit which they
cultivated.[372] Indeed, Herbert deserves high commendation; for while
he was rearing, with his own hands, a lofty pyramid of typographical
fame, he seems to have been unconscious of his merits; and, possessing
the most natural and diffident character imaginable, he was always
conjuring up supposed cases of vanity and arrogance, which had no
foundation whatever but in the reveries of a timid imagination. His
_Typographical Antiquities_ are a mass of useful, but occasionally
uninteresting, information. They are as a vast plain, wherein the
traveller sees nothing, immediately, which is beautiful or inviting;
few roses, or cowslips, or daisies; but let him persevere, and walk
only a little way onward, and he will find, in many a shelter'd
recess, "flowers of all hue," and herbs of all qualities: so that
fragrance and salubrity are not wanting in this said plain, which has
been thus depicted in a style so marvellously metaphorical!
[Footnote 370: The reader will be pleased to consult the
account of Earl Pembroke, p. 325, ante, where he will find a
few traits of the bibliomaniacal character of ANSTIS. He is
here informed, from the same authority, that when Anstis
"acquainted BAGFORD that he would find in Rymer a commission
granted to Caxton, appointing him ambassador to the Duchess
of Burgundy, he (Bagford) was transported with joy." Of
HEARNE he thus speaks: "I am ashamed that Mr. Hearne hath
made so many mistakes about the translation of _Boetius,
printed at Tavistock_; which book I had, and gave it to the
Duke of Bedford." But in another letter (to Lewis) Anstis
says, "I lent this book to one Mr. Ryder, who used me
scurvily, by presenting it, without my knowledge, to the
Duke of Bedford." There are some curious particulars in this
letter about the abbey of Tavistock. Anstis's _Order of the
Garter_ is a valuable book; and will one day, I
prognosticate, retrieve the indifferent credit it now
receives in the book-market. The author loved rare and
curious volumes dearly; and was, moreover, both liberal and
prompt in his communications. The reader will draw his own
conclusions on Anstis's comparative merit with Lewis and
Ames, when he reaches the end of the second note after the
present one.]
[Footnote 371: Concerning the Rev. JOHN LEWIS, I am enabled
to lay before the reader some particulars now published for
the first time, and of a nature by no means uninteresting to
the lovers of literary anecdote. His printed works, and his
bibliographical character, together with his conduct towards
Ames, have been already sufficiently described to the
public: _Typographical Antiquities_, vol. i., 30-3. And
first, the aforesaid reader and lovers may peruse the
following extract from an original letter by Lewis to Ames:
"I have no other design, in being so free with you, than to
serve you, by doing all I can to promote your credit and
reputation. I take it, that good sense and judgment,
attended with care and accuracy in making and sorting a
collection, suits every one's palate: and that they must
have none at all who are delighted with trifles and play
things fit only for fools and children: such, for the most
part, as THOMAS HEARNE dished out for his chaps, among whom
I was so silly as to rank myself." Again, to the same
person, he thus makes mention of LORD OXFORD and Hearne: "I
can truly say I never took ill any thing which you have
written to me: but heartily wish you well to succeed in the
execution of your projects. I han't sense to see, by the
death of Lord Oxford, how much more you are likely to make
your account better. But time will shew. I don't understand
what you mean by his having a love to surprize people with
his vast communications. Dr. R(awlinson, qu.?) tells me he
knew nobody who had so free a use of his Lordship's rarities
as T. Hearne, a sure proof of the exactness and solidity of
his Lordship's judgment. But Hearne answered, perhaps, his
Lordship's design of making the world have a very great
opinion of his collections, and setting an inestimable value
on them. And this Hearne attempted; but his daubing is, I
think, too coarse, and the smoke of his incense troublesome
and suffocating." But it is to the loan of a copy of Lewis's
folio edition of the _History of the Translations of the
Bible_, belonging to my friend Mr. G.V. Neunburg, that I am
indebted for the following further, and more interesting,
particulars. This valuable copy, illustrated with some rare
prints, and charged with numerous MS. memoranda, contains
some original letters to Lewis by the famous Dr. White
Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough: from which these extracts
are taken. "Jan. 23, 1720-1. Dear Sir; I thank you for your
kind acceptance of the advice to my clergy: well meant, I
pray God well applied. I have wisht long to see your _Life
of Wiclif_, and shall now impatiently expect it. I am not
surprised that a man of dignity, near you, should be jealous
of publishing an impartial account of that good old
evangelical author, &c. I have a mighty veneration for
Wicliff, and am the more angry with Mr. Russell for
deceiving the world in his promise of the Bible, after
proposals given and money taken. But he has in other
respects behaved so very basely that, forgiving him, I have
done with him for ever. I would not have you discouraged, by
an ungrateful world, or by a sharp bookseller. Go on, and
serve truth and peace what you can, and God prosper your
labours." Signed "Wh. Peterbor." "Feb. 20, 1720-1. You
perceive your own unhappiness in not being able to attend
the press. I cannot but importune you to revise the whole,
to throw the additions and corrections into their proper
places, to desire all your friends and correspondents to
suggest any amendments, or any new matter; in order to
publish a new correct edition that will be a classic in our
history, &c.--If the booksellers object against a second
edition till the full disposal of the first, I hope we may
buy them off with subscription for a new impression; wherein
my name should stand for six copies, and better example I
hope would be given by more able friends. I pray God bless
your labours and reward them." Several letters follow, in
which this amiable prelate and learned antiquary sends Lewis
a good deal of valuable information for his proposed second
edition of the Life of Wicliffe; but which was never put to
press. One more extract only from the Bishop of
Peterborough, and we bid farewell to the Rev. John Lewis: a
very respectable bibliomaniac. "Rev. Sir; In respect to you
and your good services to the church and our holy religion,
I think fit to acquaint you that, in the _Weekly Journal_,
published this day, Oct. 28 (1721), by _Mr. Mist_, there is
a scandalous advertisement subscribed M. Earbury, beginning
thus: 'Whereas a pretended _Vindication of John Wickliffe_
has been published under the name of one Lewis of Margate,
by the incitement, as the preface asserts, of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and in the same I am injuriously reflected
upon as a scurrilous writer, this is to inform the public
that I shall reserve the author for a more serious whipping
in my leisure hours, and in the meantime give him a short
correction for his benefit, if he has grace and sense to
take it'--and ending thus--'Why does this author persuade
the world the late Archbishop of Canterbury could have any
veneration for the memory of one who asserts God ought to
obey the devil; or that he could be desirous to open the
impure fountains from whence the filth of Bangorianism has
been conveyed to us? M. EARBURY." "I confess (proceeds the
bishop) I don't know that, in the worst of causes, there has
appeared a more ignorant, insolent, and abandoned writer
than this Matth. Earbury. Whether you are to answer, or not
to answer, the F. according to his folly, I must leave to
your discretion. Yet I cannot but wish you would revise the
Life of Wickliffe; and, in the preface, justly complain of
the spiteful injuries done to his memory, and, through his
sides, to our Reformation. I have somewhat to say to you on
that head, if you think to resume it. I am, in the mean
time, your affectionate friend and brother, WH. PETESBOR."]
[Footnote 372: It is unnecessary for me to add any thing
here to the copious details respecting these eminent
bibliomaniacs, AMES and HERBERT, which have already been
presented to the public in the first volume of the new
edition of the _Typographical Antiquities_ of our own
country. See also p. 66, ante; and the note respecting the
late GEORGE STEEVENS, post.]
By mentioning Herbert in the present place, I have a little inverted
the order of my narrative. A crowd of distinguished bibliomaniacs, in
fancy's eye, is thronging around me, and demanding a satisfactory
memorial of their deeds.
LOREN. Be not dismayed, Lysander. If any one, in particular, looks
"frowningly" upon you, leave him to me, and he shall have ample
satisfaction.
LYSAND. I wish, indeed, you would rid me of a few of these
book-madmen. For, look yonder, what a commanding attitude THOMAS
BAKER[373] assumes!
[Footnote 373: THOMAS BAKER was a learned antiquary in most
things respecting _Typography_ and _Bibliography_; and seems
to have had considerable influence with that distinguished
corps, composed of Hearne, Bagford, Middleton, Anstis, and
Ames, &c. His life has been written by the Rev. Robert
Masters, Camb., 1784, 8vo.; and from the "Catalogue of
forty-two folio volumes of MS. collections by Mr.
Baker"--given to the library of St. John's College,
Cambridge--which the biographer has printed at the end of
the volume--there is surely sufficient evidence to warrant
us in concluding that the above-mentioned Thomas Baker was
no ordinary bibliomaniac. To Hearne in particular (and
indeed to almost every respectable author who applied to
him) he was kind and communicative; hence he is frequently
named by the former in terms of the most respectful
admiration: thus--"Vir amicissimus, educatus optime,
emendatus vitâ, doctrinâ clarus, moribus singularis et
perjucundus, exemplum antiquitatis, cujus judicio plurimum
esse tribuendum mecum fatebuntur litterati:" _Vita Mori_, p.
XVIII. In his preface to the _Antiquities of Glastonbury_,
p. CXXX., Hearne calls him "that great man;" and again, in
his _Walter Hemingford_, vol. i., p. XVII.--"amicus
eruditissimus, mihi summe colendus; is nempe, qui è scriniis
suis MSS. tam multa meam in gratiam deprompsit." Indeed,
Hearne had good occasion to speak well of the treasures of
Baker's "_scrinia_;" as the Appendix to his _Thomas de
Elmham_ alone testifies. Of Baker's abilities and private
worth, we have the testimonies of Middleton (_Origin of
Printing_, p. 5) and Warburton. The latter thus mentions
him: "Good old Mr. Baker, of St John's College, has indeed,
been very obliging. The people of St. John's almost adore
the man." _Masters's Life of Baker_, p. 94. This authority
also informs us that "Mr. Baker had, for many years before
his death, been almost a recluse, and seldom went farther
than the college walks, unless to a coffee-house in an
evening, after chapel, where he commonly spent an hour with
great chearfulness, conversing with a select number of his
friends and acquaintance upon literary subjects," p. 108.
Every thing the most amiable, and, I had almost said,
enviable, is here said of the virtues of his head and heart;
and that this venerable bibliomaniac should have reached his
80th year is at least a demonstration that tarrying amongst
folios and octavos, from morn till night (which Baker used
to do, in St. John's Library, for nearly 20 years together),
does not unstring the nerves, or dry up the juices, of the
human frame. Yet a little further extension of this note,
gentle reader, and then we bid adieu to Thomas Baker, of
ever respectable book-memory. Among the MSS., once the
property of Herbert, which I purchased at the late sale of
Mr. Gough's MSS., I obtained a volume full of extracts from
original letters between Baker and Ames; containing also the
_Will_ of the former, which is not inserted in Master's Life
of him, nor in the _Biographia Britannica_. The original
documents are in his Majesty's library, and were bought at
the sale of Mr. Tutet's books, A.D. 1786; no. 375. From
this will, as Herbert has copied it, the reader is presented
with the following strong proofs of the bibliomaniacal
"ruling passion, strong in death," of our illustrious
antiquary. But let us not omit the manly tone of piety with
which this Will commences. "In the name of God, Amen! I,
THOMAS BAKER, ejected Fellow of St. John's college,
Cambridge, do make my last will and testament, as follows:
First, I commend my soul into the hands of Almighty God (my
most gracious and good God), my faithful Creator and
merciful Redeemer, and, in all my dangers and difficulties,
a most constant protector. Blessed for ever be his holy
name." "As to the temporal goods which it hath pleased the
same good God to bestow upon me (such as all men ought to be
content with) and are, I bless God, neither poverty nor
riches--I dispose of them in the following manner." Here
follow a few of his book bequests, which may be worth the
attention of those whose pursuits lead them to a particular
examination of these authors. "Whereas I have made a deed of
gift or sale for one guinea, of 21 volumes in folio, of my
own hand-writing, to the Right Honourable EDWARD EARL OF
OXFORD, I confirm and ratify that gift by this my last will.
And I beg his lordship's acceptance of 'em, being sensible
that they are of little use or value, with two other volumes
in fol., markt Vol. 19, 20, since convey'd to him in like
manner. To my dear cosin, George Baker, of Crook, Esq., I
leave the _Life of Cardinal Wolsey_, noted with my own hand,
_Lord Clarendon's History_, with cuts and prints; and
_Winwood's Memorials_, in three volumes, fol., with a five
pound (Jacobus) piece of gold, only as a mark of respect and
affection, since he does not want it. To my worthy kinsman
and Friend Mr. George Smith, I leave _Godwin de Præsulibus
Angliæ_, and _Warræus de Præsulibus Hibernia_, both noted
with my own hand. To St. John's College Library I leave all
such books, printed or MSS., as I have and are wanting
there: excepting that I leave in trust to my worthy friend,
Dr. Middleton, for the University Library, _Archbishop
Wake's State of the Church_, noted and improved under his
own hand; _Bp. Burnet's History of the Reformation_, in
three volumes, noted in my hand; and _Bp. Kennett's Register
and Chronicle_ (for the memory of which three great
prelates, my honoured friends, I must always have due
regard). To these I add Mr. Ansty's, my worthy friend,
_History of the Garter_, in two vols., fol. _Wood's Athenæ
Oxon._; and _Maunsell's Catalogue_; both noted with my own
hand--and _Gunton's and Patrick's History of The Church of
Peterburgh_, noted (from Bishop Kennett) in my hand; with
fifteen volumes (more or less) in fol., all in my own hand;
and three volumes in 4to., part in my own hand." Let us
conclude in a yet more exalted strain of christian piety
than we began. "Lastly, I constitute and appoint my dear
nephew, Richard Burton, Esq., my sole executor, to whom I
leave every thing undisposed of, which I hope will be enough
to reward his trouble. May God Almighty bless him, and give
him all the engaging qualities of his father, all the
vertues of his mother, and none of the sins or failings of
his uncle, which God knows are great and many:--and humbly,
O my God, I call for mercy! In testimony of this my will, I
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this 15th day of
October, 1739.
THO. BAKER.
And now, O my God, into thy hands I contentedly resign
myself: whether it be to life or death, thy will be done!
Long life I have not desired (and yet thou hast given it
me). Give me, if it be thy good pleasure, an easy and happy
death. Or if it shall please thee to visit me sorely, as my
sins have deserved, give me patience to bear thy correction,
and let me always say (even with my dying breath) Thy will
be done, Amen, Amen." Subjoined was this curious memorandum:
"At the making of this will, I have, in the corner of my
outer study, next my chamber, 170 guineas; and on the other
side of the study towards the river, 100 guineas, more or
less, in several canvass bags, behind the shelves, being
more secret and hidden, to prevent purloyning. One or more
of the shelves markt G. among the latter is a five pound
(Jacobus) piece of gold."]
LOREN. Never fear. He is an old acquaintance of mine; for, when
resident at St. John's, Cambridge, I was frequently in the habit of
conversing with his spirit in the library, and of getting curious
information relating to choice and precious volumes, which had escaped
the sagacity of his predecessors, and of which I fear his successors
have not made the most proper use.
PHIL. This is drawing too severe a conclusion. But Baker merits the
thanks of a book-loving posterity.
LYSAND. He is satisfied with this mention of his labours; for see, he
retreats--and THEOBALD[374] and Tom Rawlinson rush forward to claim a
more marked attention: although I am not much disposed to draw a
highly finished picture of the editor of Shakespeare.
[Footnote 374: Notwithstanding Pope has called THEOBALD by
an epithet which I have too much respect for the ears of my
readers to repeat, I do not scruple to rank the latter in
the list of bibliomaniacs. We have nothing here to do with
his edition of Shakspeare; which, by the bye, was no
despicable effort of editorial skill--as some of his notes,
yet preserved in the recent editions of our bard,
testify--but we may fairly allow Theobald to have been a
lover of Caxtonian lore, as his curious extract in _Mist's
Journal_, March 16, 1728, from our old printer's edition of
Virgil's Æneid, 1490, sufficiently testifies. While his
gothic library, composed in part of "Caxton, Wynkyn, and De
Lyra," proves that he had something of the genuine blood of
bibliomaniacism running in his veins. See Mr. Bowles's
edition of _Pope's Works_, vol. v., 114, 257.]
LIS. Is THOMAS RAWLINSON[375] so particularly deserving of
commendation, as a bibliomaniac?
[Footnote 375: Let us, first of all, hear Hearne discourse
rapturously of the bibliomaniacal reputation of T.
Rawlinson: "In his fuit amicus noster nuperus THOMAS
RAWLINSONUS; cujus peritiam in supellectile libraria,
animique magnitudinem, nemo fere hominum eruditorum unquam
attigit, quod tamen vix agnoscet seculum ingratum. Quanquam
non desunt, qui putent, ipsius memoriæ statuam deberi, idque
etiam ad sumptus Bibliopolarum, quorum facultates mire
auxerat; quorum tamen aliqui (utcunque de illis optime
meritus fuisset) quum librorum Rawlinsoni auctio fieret, pro
virili (clandestinò tamen) laborabant, ut minus auspicatò
venderentur. Quod videntes probi aliquot, qui rem omuem
noverant, clamitabant, ô homines scelestos! hos jam oportet
in cruciatum hinc abripi! Quod hæc notem, non est cur vitio
vertas. Nam nil pol falsi dixi, mi lector. Quo tempore vixit
Rawlinsonus (et quidem perquam jucundum est commemorare),
magna et laudabilis erat æmulatio inter viros eruditos,
aliosque etiam, in libris perquirendis ac comparandis, imo
in fragmentis quoque. Adeo ut domicilia, ubi venales id
genus res pretiosæ prostabant, hominum coetu frequenti
semper complerentur, in magnum profecto commodum eorum, ad
quos libri aliæque res illæ pertinebant; quippe quod
emptores parvo ære nunquam, aut rarissime, compararent."
_Walter Hemingford, præfat._, p. CIV. In his preface to
_Alured de Beverly_, pp. v. vi., the copious stores of
Rawlinson's library, and the prompt kindness of the
possessor himself, are emphatically mentioned; while in the
preface to _Titi Livii Foro-Juliensis Vit. Henrici V._, p.
xi., we are told, of the former, that it was "plurimis
libris rarissimis referta:" and, in truth, such a
"Bibliotheca refertissima" was perhaps never before beheld.
Rawlinson was introduced into the Tatler, under the name TOM
FOLIO. His own house not being large enough, he hired
_London House_, in Aldersgate Street, for the reception of
his library; and there he used to regale himself with the
sight and the scent of innumerable black letter volumes,
arranged in "sable garb," and stowed perhaps "three deep,"
from the bottom to the top of his house. He died in 1725;
and catalogues of his books for sale continued, for nine
succeeding years, to meet the public eye. The following is,
perhaps, as correct a list of these copious and
heterogeneously compiled catalogues, as can be presented to
the reader. I am indebted to the library of Mr. Heber for
such a curious bibliographical morçeau. I. _A Catalogue of
choice and valuable Books in most Faculties and Languages;
being part of the Collection made by Thomas Rawlinson,
Esq._, which will begin to be sold by auction at Paul's
Coffee House, the West-end of St. Paul's, 4th Dec., 1721,
beginning every evening at 5, by Thomas Ballard, bookseller,
at the Rising Sun, Little Britain. 12mo. Price 1s. 144
pages.----II. _A Catalogue_, &c., being the 2nd part of the
Collection by T. Rawlinson, Esq., to be sold by auction at
Paul's Coffee-House, 7th March, 1721-2, every evening at 5,
by T. Ballard. 12mo. Price 1s., paged on from the last, pp.
145 to 288. [These two parts contain together 1438 8vo.
lots; 1157 in 4to., 618 in folio.]----III. _A Catalogue_,
&c., being the third part of the Collection by T. Rawlinson,
Esq., to be sold by auction at Paul's Coffee-House, 17th
Oct., 1722, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard. 12mo. Price
1s. (no paging or printer's letter.)----IV. _A Catalogue_,
&c., being the 4th part of the Collection by T. Rawlinson,
Esq., to be sold by auction at Paul's Coffee-House, 2nd
April, 1723, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard, 12mo. Price
1s. (no paging or printer's letter.)----V. & VI. _A
Catalogue_, &c., being the 5th part of the Collection by T.
Rawlinson, Esq., to be sold by auction at Paul's
Coffee-House, 20th Jan. 1723, every evening at 5, by T.
Ballard. 12mo. Price 1s. Altho' this vol. seems to have been
the last of only one sale--yet it may be collected, from the
concurrent testimony of his notes in more copies than
one--that it was divided and sold at two different times;
the latter part commencing about the middle of the volume,
with the _Libri Theologici_. In folio.--Test. Nov. 1588,
being the first article. This collection began to be sold in
Feb. 2. [1724?]--VII. _A Catalogue_, &c., being the 6th part
of the Collection made by T. Rawlinson, Esq., _Deceased_,
which will begin to be sold by auction at London-House, in
Aldersgate Street, 2nd March, 1726, every evening at 5, by
Charles Davis, bookseller. 12mo. Price 2_s._ 6_d._ (no
paging--printer's mark at bottom irregularly continued from
1 to 35.)--VIII. _Bibliotheca Rawlinsoniana_, being a Cat.
of part the Val. Libr. of Tho. Rawlinson, Esq., Deceased:
which will begin to be sold by auction at the Bedford
Coffee-House, in the great Piazza, Covent Garden, the 26th
of this present April [1727] every evening at 5, by Charles
Davis, bookseller. 8vo. Price 6_d._ (20 days' sale--2600
lots.)----IX. _Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, &c., Pars_ IX.
being a Cat. of part of the Libr. of Th. Rawlinson, Esq.,
Deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House,
16th Oct., 1727, every evening at 6, by T. Ballard. 8vo.
Price 1_s._ (20 days' sale, 3200 lots.)----X. _Bibliothecæ
Rawlinsonianæ, &c., Pars altera_, being a Cat. of part of
Lib. of Th. Rawlinson, Esq., Deceased, to be sold by auction
at St. Paul's Coffee-House, 22d Nov., 1727, every evening at
6, by Th. Ballard. 8vo. Price 1_s._ (22 days' sale, 3520
articles.)----XI. _Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera_,
being a Catalogue of part of the Library of T. Rawlinson,
Esq., deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's
Coffee-House, 22d Jan. 1727-8, every evening, Saturdays
excepted, at 6. 8vo. Price 1_s._ (22 days' sale, 3520
lots.)----XII. _Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera_,
being a Cat. of part of the Library of Th. Rawlinson, Esq.,
deceased, to be sold by auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House,
18th March, 1727-8, every evening at 5, by T. Ballard. Price
1_s._ (8vo. 24 days' sale, 3840 lots.)----XIII. _Bibliothecæ
Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera_, being a Cat. of part of the
Library of Th. Rawlinson, Esq., deceased, to be sold by
auction at St. Paul's Coffee-House, 21st April, 1729, every
evening at 5, by T. Ballard. Price 1_s._ (8vo. 26 days'
sale, 4161 lots.)----XIV. _Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars
altera_, being a Cat. of part of the Library of T.
Rawlinson, Esq., deceased, to be sold by auction at St.
Paul's Coffee-House, 24 Nov. 1729, every evening at 5, by T.
Ballard. Price 1_s._ (8vo. 18 days' sale, 2700 lots.)----XV.
_Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ, Pars altera_, being a Cat. of
part of the Library of T. Rawlinson, F.R.S., deceased, to be
sold by auction 13th Nov., 1732, at St. Paul's Coffee-House,
every evening at 5, by Tho. Ballard. Price 1_s._ (8vo. 26
days' sale, 3456 lots.)----XVI. _Codicum Manuscriptorum
Bibliothecæ Rawlinsonianæ Catalogus--cum appendice
Impressorum_--to be sold 4th March, 1733-4, at St. Paul's
Coffee-House, every night at 6, by T. Ballard. Price 1_s._
(8vo., 16 days' sale, MSS. 1020 lots--appendix 800). To
these may be added, _Picturæ Rawlinsonianæ_--being the
collection of original paintings of T. Rawlinson, Esq.,
F.R.S., by the best masters--part of which were formerly the
Earl of Craven's Collection. To be sold by auction, at the
Two Golden Balls, in Hart Street, Covent Garden, 4th April,
1734, at 11. 8vo. (117 lots.) Now let any man, in his sober
senses, imagine what must have been the number of volumes
contained in the library of the above-named THOMAS
RAWLINSON? Does he imagine that the tomes in the Bodleian,
Vatican, and British Museum were, in each single collection,
more numerous than those in the _Aldersgate Street_
repository?--Or, at any rate, would not a view of this
Aldersgate Street collection give him the completest idea of
the _ne plus ultra_ of BOOK-PHRENSY in a private collector?
Rawlinson would have cut a very splendid figure, indeed,
with posterity, if some judicious catalogue-maker, the
Paterson of former times, had consolidated all these
straggling _Bibliothecal_ corps into one compact wedge-like
phalanx. Or, in other words, if one thick octavo volume,
containing a tolerably well classed arrangement of his
library, had descended to us--oh, then we should all have
been better able to appreciate the extraordinary treasures
of SUCH A COLLECTION! The genius of Pearson and Crofts would
have done homage to the towering spirit of Rawlinson.]
LYSAND. If the most unabating activity and an insatiable appetite--if
an eye, in regard to books, keen and sparkling as the ocean-bathed
star--if a purse, heavily laden and inexhaustible--if store-rooms
rivalled only by the present warehouses of the East-India Company--if
a disposition to spread far and wide the influence of the BIBLIOMANIA,
by issuing a _carte blanche_ for every desperately smitten antiquary
to enter, and partake of the benefits of, his library--be criteria of
BOOK-PHRENSY--why then the resemblance of this said Tom Rawlinson
ought to form a principal ornament in the capital of that gigantic
column, which sustains the temple of BOOK FAME! He was the _Tom Folio_
of the Tatler, and may be called the _Leviathan_ of book-collectors
during nearly the first thirty years of the eighteenth century.
LIS. I suppose, then, that Bagford, Murray, and Hearne, were not
unknown to this towering bibliomaniac?
LYSAND. On the contrary, I conclude, for certain, that, if they did
not drink wine, they constantly drank coffee, together: one of the
huge folio volumes of Bleau's Atlas serving them for a table.
But see yonder the rough rude features of HUMPHREY WANLEY[376] peering
above the crowd! All hail to thy honest physiognomy--for thou wert a
rare _Book-wight_ in thy way! and as long as the fame of thy patron
Harley shall live, so long, honest Humphrey, dost thou stand a sure
chance of living "for aye," in the memory of all worthy bibliomaniacs.
[Footnote 376: Lysander is well warranted in borrowing the
pencil of Jan Steen, in the above bold and striking portrait
of WANLEY: who was, I believe, as honest a man, and as
learned a librarian, as ever sat down to morning chocolate
in velvet slippers. There is a portrait of him in oil in the
British Museum, and another similar one in the Bodleian
Library--from which latter it is evident, on the slightest
observation, that the inestimable, I ought to say immortal,
founder of the _Cow Pox system_ (my ever respected and
sincere friend, Dr. JENNER) had not then made known the
blessings resulting from the vaccine operation: for poor
Wanley's face is absolutely _peppered_ with _variolous_
indentations! Yet he seems to have been a hale and hearty
man, in spite of the merciless inroads made upon his visage;
for his cheeks are full, his hair is cropt and curly, and
his shoulders have a breadth which shew that the unrolling
of the HARLEIAN MSS. did not produce any enervating effluvia
or mismata [Transcriber's Note: miasmata]. Our poet, Gay, in
his epistle to Pope, _ep._ 18, thus hits off his
countenance:
O WANLEY, whence com'st thou with _shorten'd hair_,
And _visage_, from thy shelves, _with_ dust besprent?
But let us hear the testimony of a friend and fellow
bibliomaniac, called Thomas Hearne. The following desultory
information is translated from the preface to the _Annales
Prioratûs de Dunstable_--wherein, by the bye, there is a
good deal of pleasant information relating to Wanley. We are
here told that Wanley was "born at Coventry; and, in his
younger days, employed his leisure hours in turning over
ancient MSS., and imitating the several hands in which they
were written. Lloyd, Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, in
one of his episcopal visitations, was the first who noticed
and patronized him. He demanded that Wanley should be
brought to him; he examined him "suis ipsius, non alterius,
oculis;" and ascertained whether what so many respectable
people had said of his talents was true or false--'A few
words with you, young man,' said the Bishop. Wanley
approached with timidity--'What are your pursuits, and where
are the ancient MSS. which you have in your possession?'
Wanley answered readily; exhibited his MSS., and entered
into a minute discussion respecting the ancient method of
painting." Hearne then expatiates feelingly upon the
excessive care and attention which Wanley devoted to ancient
MSS.; how many pieces of vellum he unrolled; and how,
sometimes, in the midst of very urgent business, he would
lose no opportunity of cultivating what was useful and
agreeable in his particular pursuit. His hobby horse seems
to have been the discovery of the ancient method of
colouring or painting--yet towards BRITISH HISTORY and
ANTIQUITIES he constantly cast a fond and faithful eye. How
admirably well-calculated he was for filling the situation
of librarian to Lord Oxford is abundantly evinced by his
catalogue of the Harleian MSS.; vide p. 89, ante. Of his
attachment to the Bibliomania there are innumerable proofs.
Take this, _inter alia_; "I spoke to Mr. Wanley, who is not
unmindful of his promise, but says he will not trouble you
with a letter, till he has something better to present you,
which he doubts not he shall have this winter _among Mr.
Harley's MSS._ Mr. Wanley has the greatest collection of
_English Bibles, Psalters, &c._, that ever any one man had.
They cost him above 50_l._, and he has been above twenty
years in collecting them. He would part with them, I
believe, but I know not at what price." _Masters's Life of
Baker_, p. 27. Consult also the preface to the _Catalogue of
the Harleian MSS._, 1808, 3 vols., folio, p. 6.]
A softer noise succeeds; and the group becomes calm and attentive, as
if some grand personage were advancing. See, 'tis HARLEY, EARL OF
OXFORD![377]
[Footnote 377: There was an amusing little volume, printed
in 1782, 8vo., concerning the library of the late King of
France; and an equally interesting one might have been
composed concerning the HARLEIAN COLLECTION--but who can now
undertake the task?--who concentrate all the rivulets which
have run from this splendid reservoir into other similar
pieces of water? The undertaking is impracticable. We have
nothing, therefore, I fear, left us but to sit down and
weep; to hang our harps upon the neighbouring willows, and
to think upon the Book "SION," with desponding sensations
that its foundations have been broken up, and its wealth
dissipated. But let us adopt a less flowery style of
communication. Before HARLEY was created a peer, his library
was fixed at Wimple, in Cambridgeshire, the usual place of
his residence; "whence he frequently visited his friends at
Cambridge, and in particular Mr. BAKER, for whom he always
testified the highest regard. This nobleman's attachment to
literature, the indefatigable pains he took, and the large
sums he expended in making the above collection, are too
well known to stand in need of any further notice."
_Masters's life of Baker_, p. 107. The eulogies of Maittaire
and Hearne confirm every thing here advanced by Masters; and
the testimony of Pope himself, that Harley "left behind him
one of the finest libraries in Europe," warrants us, if
other testimonies were not even yet daily before our eyes,
to draw the same conclusion. In a periodical publication
entitled _The Director_, to which I contributed all the
intelligence under the article "BIBLIOGRAPHIANA," there
appeared the following copious, and, it is presumed, not
uninteresting, details respecting the Earl of Oxford, and
his Library. After the sale of Mr. Bridges's books, no event
occurred in the bibliographical world, worthy of notice,
till the sale of the famous _Harleian Library_, or the books
once in the possession of the celebrated HARLEY, EARL OF
OXFORD. This nobleman was not less distinguished in the
political than in the literary world; and "was a remarkable
instance of the fickleness of popular opinion, and the
danger of being removed from the lower to the upper house of
parliament." (Noble's _Continuation of Granger_, vol. ii.,
23.) He was born in the year 1661, was summoned to the house
of Lords by the titles of Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, in
1711; declared minister and lord high treasurer in the same
year; resigned, and was impeached, in the year 1715;
acquitted, without being brought to a trial, in 1717; and
died at his house in Albemarle Street, in 1724. A character
so well known in the annals of this country needs no
particular illustration in the present place. The _Harleian
Collection of MSS._ was purchased by government for
10,000_l._, and is now deposited in the British Museum (vide
p. 89, ante). The _Books_ were disposed of to THOMAS
OSBORNE, of Gray's Inn, bookseller;--to the irreparable
loss, and, I had almost said, the indelible disgrace, of the
country. It is, indeed, for ever to be lamented that a
collection so extensive, so various, so magnificent, and
intrinsically valuable, should have become the property of
one who necessarily, from his situation in life, became a
purchaser, only that he might be a vender, of the volumes.
Osborne gave 13,000_l._ for the collection; a sum which must
excite the astonishment of the present age, when it is
informed that Lord Oxford gave 18,000_l._ for the _Binding_
only, of the least part of them. (From Oldys's _interleaved
Langbaine_. See Brydges's _Cens. Literar._, vol. i., p.
438.) In the year 1743-4 appeared an account of this
collection, under the following title, _Catalogus
Bibliothecæ Harleianæ, &c._, in four volumes (the 5th not
properly appertaining to it). Dr. Johnson was employed by
Osborne to write the preface, which, says Boswell, "he has
done with an ability that cannot fail to impress all his
readers with admiration of his philological attainments."
_Life of Johnson_, vol. i., 81, edit. 4to. In my humble
apprehension, the preface is unworthy of the doctor: it
contains a few general philological reflections, expressed
in a style sufficiently stately, but is divested of
bibliographical anecdote and interesting intelligence. The
first two volumes are written in Latin by Johnson; the third
and fourth volumes, which are a repetition of the two
former, are composed in English by Oldys: and,
notwithstanding its defects, it is the best catalogue of a
large library of which we can boast. It should be in every
good collection. To the volumes was prefixed the following
advertisement: "As the curiosity of spectators, before the
sale, may produce disorder in the disposition of the books,
it is necessary to advertise the public that there will be
no admission into the library before the day of sale, which
will be on Tuesday, the 14th of February, 1744." It seems
that Osborne had charged the sum of 5_s._ to each of his
first two volumes, which was represented by the booksellers
"as an avaricious innovation;" and, in a paper published in
"_The Champion_," they, or their mercenaries, reasoned so
justly as to allege that "if Osborne could afford a very
large price for the library, he might therefore afford to
_give away_ the catalogue." _Preface to_ vol. iii., p. 1. To
this charge Osborne answered that his catalogue was drawn up
with great pains, and at a heavy expense; but, to obviate
all objections, "those," says he, "who have paid five
shillings a volume shall be allowed, at any time within
three months after the day of sale, either to return them in
exchange for books, or to send them back, and receive their
money." This, it must be confessed, was sufficiently
liberal. Osborne was also accused of _rating his books at
too high a price_: to this the following was his reply, or
rather Dr. Johnson's; for the style of the Doctor is
sufficiently manifest: "If, therefore, I have set a high
value upon books--if I have vainly imagined literature to be
more fashionable than it really is, or idly hoped to revive
a taste well nigh extinguished, I know not why I should be
persecuted with clamour and invective, since I shall only
suffer by my mistake, and be obliged to keep those books
which I was in hopes of selling."--_Preface to the 3d
volume._ The fact is that Osborne's charges were extremely
moderate; and the sale of the books was so very slow that
Johnson assured Boswell "there was not much gained by the
bargain." Whoever inspects Osborne's catalogue of 1748 (four
years after the Harleian sale), will find in it many of the
most valuable of Lord Oxford's books; and, among them, a
copy of the Aldine Plato of 1513, _struck off upon vellum_,
marked at 21_l._ only: for this identical copy Lord Oxford
gave 100 guineas, as Dr. Mead informed Dr. Askew; from the
latter of whose collections it was purchased by Dr. Hunter,
and is now in the Hunter Museum. There will also be found,
in Osborne's catalogues of 1748 and 1753, some of the
scarcest books in English Literature, marked at 2, or 3, or
4_s._, for which three times the number of _pounds_ is now
given.
ANALYSIS OF THE HARLEIAN LIBRARY.
I shall take the liberty of making an arrangement of the
books different from that which appears in the Harleian
catalogue; but shall scrupulously adhere to the number of
departments therein specified. And first of those in
1. _Divinity._
In the _Greek_, _Latin_, _French_, and _Italian_ languages,
there were about 2000 theological volumes. Among these, the
most rare and curious were Bamler's bible of 1466,
beautifully illuminated, in 2 volumes: Schæffer's bible of
1472. The famous Zurich bible of 1543, "all of which, except
a small part done by Theodoras Bibliander, was translated
from the Hebrew by a Jew, who styled himself Leo Judæ, or
the Lion of Judah. The Greek books were translated by Petrus
Cholinus. The New Testament is Erasmus's." The Scrutinium
Scripturarum of Rabbi Samuel, Mant., 1475; a book which is
said "to have been concealed by the Jews nearly 200 years:
the author of it is supposed to have lived at a period not
much later than the destruction of Jerusalem." The Islandic
bible of 1664, "not to be met with, without the utmost
difficulty, and therefore a real curiosity." The works of
Hemmerlin, Basil: 1497; "the author was ranked in the first
class of those whose works were condemned by the church of
Rome." The Mozarabic Missal printed at Toledo, in 1500--of
which some account is given at p. 161, ante. The collection
of _English_ books in Divinity could not have amounted to
less than 2500 volumes. Among the rarest of these, printed
in the fifteenth century, was "The Festyvall, begynning at
the fyrst Sonday of Advent, in worship of God and all his
Sayntes," &c., printed at Paris, in 1495. There was ten
books printed by Caxton, and some exceedingly curious ones
by Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson.
2. _History and Antiquities._
There appear to have been, on the whole, nearly 4000 volumes
in this department: of which, some of those relating to
Great Britain were inestimable, from the quantity of MS.
notes by Sir William Dugdale, Archbishop Parker, Thomas
Rawlinson, Thomas Baker, &c. The preceding number includes
600 relating to the history and antiquities of Italy; 500 to
those of France. (This part of the catalogue deserves
particular attention, as it contains a larger collection of
pieces relating to the history of France than was, perhaps,
ever exposed to sale in this nation; here being not only the
ancient chronicles and general histories, but the memoirs of
particular men, and the genealogies of most of the families
illustrious for their antiquity. See _Bibl. Harl._, vol.
iii., p. 159.) 150 to those of Spain; and about 250 relating
to Germany and the United Provinces.
3. _Books of Prints, Sculpture, and Drawings._
In this department, rich beyond description, there could not
have been fewer than 20,000 articles, on the smallest
computation: of which nearly 2000 were original drawings by
the great Italian and Flemish masters. The works of CALLOT
were preserved in 4 large volumes, containing not fewer than
_nine hundred and twelve prints_. "All choice impressions,
and making the completest set of his works that are to be
seen." See _Bibl. Harl._, vol. iii., no. 562, "HOLLAR'S
works, consisting of all his pieces, and bound in 12 folio
volumes, in morocco. One of the completest and best sets in
the world, both as to the number and goodness of the
impressions." Vid. _ibid._, no. 468. It is now in the
library of the Duke of Rutland. "One hundred and
thirty-three heads of illustrious men and women, after
VANDYKE. This set of Vandyke's heads may be said to be the
best and completest that is to be met with any where: there
being the 12 heads which he etched himself, as likewise 79
worked off by Martin Vanden Enden: and what adds still to
the value of them is that the greater part were collected by
the celebrated Marriette at Paris, his name being signed on
the back, as warranting them good proofs." Tne
[Transcriber's Note: The] engravings from RAPHAEL'S
paintings, upwards of 200 in number, and by the best foreign
masters, were contained in 4 splendid morocco volumes. The
works of the SADELERS, containing upwards of 959 prints, in
8 large folio volumes, were also in this magnificent
collection: and the Albert Durers, Goltziuses, Rembrandts,
&c., innumerable!
4. _Collection of Portraits._
This magnificent collection, uniformly bound in 102 large
folio volumes, contained a series of heads of illustrious
and remarkable characters, to the amount of nearly 10,000 in
number. It is said, in the catalogue, to be "perhaps the
largest collection of heads ever exposed to sale." We are
also informed that it "was thought proper, for the
accommodation of the curious, to separate the volumes."
Eheu! Eheu!
5. _Philosophy, Chemistry, Medicine, &c._
Under this head, comprehending anatomy, astronomy,
mathematics, and alchemy, there appear to have been not
fewer than 2500 volumes in the foreign languages, and about
600 in the English: some of them of the most curious kind,
and of the rarest occurrence.
6. _Geography, Chronology, and General History._
There were about 290 volumes on these subjects, written in
the Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish languages: and about
300 volumes in our own language. Some of the scarcest books
printed by Caxton were among the latter.
7. _Voyages and Histories relating to the East and West
Indies._
About 800 volumes:--nearly equally divided into the English
and foreign languages. Among the English, were Caxton's
"Recuyell of the historys of Troye," 1471 (supposed to be
the first book printed in this country;) and his "Siege and
conquest of Jherusalem," 1481.
8. _Civil, Canon, and Statute Law._
At least 800 volumes: 300 in the foreign languages, and the
remaining in English.
9. _Books of Sculpture, Architecture, &c._
Not fewer than 900 volumes, comprehending every thing
published up to that period which was valuable or rare. Of
these, more than 700 were written in Latin, Italian, French,
or Spanish--and embellished with every beauty of graphic
illustration.
10. _Greek and Latin Classics; Grammars and Lexicons._
This very valuable body of Grecian and Roman literature
could not have included fewer than 2400 volumes--and, among
these, almost every work of rarity and excellence. In the
article of "Cicero" alone, there were 115 volumes printed in
the _fifteenth century_; every subsequent edition of that
and other authors, then distinguished for its accuracy or
erudition, may also, I believe, be discovered in the
catalogue. Most book-collectors know the sumptuous manner in
which the Harleian copies are bound.
11. _Books printed upon Vellum._
In this interesting department of typography, there were
about 220 volumes--upwards of 70 in folio, 40 in quarto, and
100 in octavo. Of the former, the most curious and rare
articles were the Mentz bible of 1462, 2 vols., and the
travels of Breydenbachus, printed at Mentz in 1486. "This
book is an uncommon object of curiosity, as it is, perhaps,
the first book of travels that was ever printed, and is
adorned with maps and pictures very remarkable. The view of
_Venice_ is more than five feet long, and the map of the
_Holy Land_ more than three; there are views of many other
cities. It is printed in the Gothic character." See _Bibl.
Harl._, vol. iii., no. 3213. The octavos were chiefly
"Heures à l'usage," so common at the beginning of the 16th
century: but, if the catalogue be correctly published, there
appears to have been one of these books printed at Paris, as
early as the year 1466, "extremely beautiful cuts." See the
_Bibl. Harl._, vol. iv., no. 18406. Now, if this were
true, it would make known a curious fact in Parisian
typography--for the usually received opinion among
bibliographers is that no printed book appeared in France
before the year 1467, when the art was first introduced at
_Tours_; and none at _Paris_ before the year 1469-70--when
Crantz and Friburger were engaged to print there.
12. _English Poetry, Romances, and Novels._
There could not have been fewer than 900 volumes in this
amusing department; and among them some editions of the
rarest occurrence. Every thing printed by Caxton on these
subjects, including a complete and magnificent copy of
_Morte d'Arthur_, was in the collection--and, in respect to
other curious works, it will be sufficient to mention only
the following, as a specimen. "Kynge-Richarde Cuer du Lyon,
W. de Worde, 1528: Gascoigne's Poesies, 1575--Spenser's
Shepheardes Calenders, 1586: Webbe's Discourse of English
Poetrie, 1586: Nash's Art of English Poesie, 1589." Some of
these volumes were afterwards marked by Osborne, in his
catalogues, at 3 or 4 shillings!
13. _Livres François, Ital., et Hispan._
There might have been 700 volumes in these foreign
languages, of which nearly 500 related to _poetry_
(exclusively of others in the foregoing and following
departments).
14. _Parliamentary Affairs and Trials._
Upwards of 400 volumes.
15. _Trade and Commerce._
About 300 volumes.
It will be seen from the preceding divisions, and from the
gradual diminution of the number of volumes in each, that I
have gone through the principal departments of the Harleian
collection of books: and yet there remain _fifty
departments_ to be enumerated! These are the following: 16.
_Critici et Opera collecta._ 17. _Vultus et Imagines Illust.
Virorum._ 18. _Pompæ, Ceremoniæ, et Exequiæ._ 19. _De re
Militari, de Arte Equestri, et de re Navali._ 20.
_Heraldica._ 21. _Epistolæ, Panegyrici, et Orationes._ 22.
_Bibliothecarii et Miscellanei._ 23. _Tractatus Pacis et
Politici._ 24. _Traductions des Auteurs Gr. et Latin._ 25.
_Translations from Greek and Latin Authors._ 26. _Laws,
Customs, &c., of the City of London._ 27. _Military, Naval
affairs, and Horsemanship._ 28. _Heraldry._ 9.
[Transcriber's Note: 29.] _Husbandry, Gardening,
Agriculture._ 30. _Magic, Sorcery, Witchcraft._ 31.
_Miraculous, Monstrous, and Supernatural._ 32. _Lives of
Eminent Persons._ 33. _Laws and Customs of divers Places._
34. _Tythes, Sacrilege, and Non-residence, &c._ 35. _Cases
of divers Persons._ 36. _Prisons and Prisoners._ 37. _Lives
of Murderers, Highwaymen, Pirates, &c._ 38. _Speeches of
Persons executed for divers Offences._ 39. _Justices,
Juries, and Charges._ 40. _Poor, and Charitable Uses._ 41.
_Matrimony, Divorce, &c._ 42. _Universities._ 43.
_Allegiance, Supremacy, Non Resistance, &c._ 44. _Bank and
Bankers._ 45. _Funds, Taxes, Public Credit, Money, Coin,
&c._ 46. _War and Standing Armies._ 47. _Admiralty and
Navy._ 48. _Letters on various Subjects._ 49. _Treatises of
Peace, Royal Prerogative, &c._ 50. _Navigation._ 51.
_Education, Grammar and Schools._ 52. _Ludicrous,
Entertaining, Satirical, and Witty._ 53. _English
Miscellanies._ 54. _Ecclesiastical and Civil History of
Scotland._ 55. _Do. of Ireland._ 56. _Grammars and
Dictionnaries._ 57. _Plays, and relating to the Theatre._
58. _Mathematics._ 59. _Astrology, Astronomy, and
Chymistry._ 60. _Horsemanship._ 61. _Cookery._ 62.
_Convocation._ 63. _Sieges, Battles, War, &c._ 64. _Pomp and
Ceremony._ 65. _Books relating to Writing and Printing._ 66.
_Essays on various Subjects._ It will probably be no very
unreasonable computation to allow to each of these remaining
divisions 80 volumes: so that multiplying the whole 50
divisions by 80 there will be the additional number of 4000
volumes to make the library complete. I ought to mention
that, in my account of this extensive library, I have not
included the _Pamphlets_. Of these alone, according to Mr.
Gough (_Brit. Topog._ v., i., 669), there were computed to
be 400,000! We will now say a few words about the private
character of Lord Oxford, and conclude with a brief account
of Osborne. Every body has heard of the intimacy which
subsisted between POPE and the Earl of Oxford. In the year
1721, when the latter was at his country seat, Pope sent him
a copy of Parnell's poems (of which he had undertaken the
publication on the decease of Parnell), with a letter in
poetry and prose. It seems that Pope wished to prefix his
own verses to the collection; and thus alludes to them, in
his letter to Lord Harley of the date of 1721: "Poor
Parnell, before he died, left me the charge of publishing
those few remains of his: I have a strong desire to make
them, their author, and their publisher, more considerable,
by addressing and dedicating them all to you, &c. All I
shall say for it is that 'tis the only dedication I ever
writ, and shall be the only one, whether you accept it or
not: for I will not bow the knee to a less man than my Lord
Oxford, and I expect to see no greater in my time."
The following is the latter part of the _Poetical Epistle_
here alluded to:
And sure, if aught below the seats divine
Can touch immortals, 'tis a soul like thine:
A soul supreme, in each hard instance tried,
Above all pain, all passion, and all pride;
The rage of power, the blast of public breath,
The lust of lucre, and the dread of death.
In vain to deserts thy retreat is made;
The muse attends thee to thy silent shade:
'Tis her's the brave man's latest steps to trace,
Rejudge his acts, and dignify disgrace.
When int'rest calls off all her sneaking train,
And all th' obliged desert, and all the vain;
She waits, or to the scaffold, or the cell,
When the last lingering friend has bid farewell.
Ev'n now, she shades thy evening walk with bays,
(No hireling she, no prostitute of praise)
Ev'n now, observant of the parting ray,
Eyes the calm sun-set of thy various day;
Thro' fortune's cloud ONE truly great can see,
Nor fears to tell that MORTIMER is he!
_Pope's Works_, vol. ii., p. 320-3. Bowles's edit.
The following was the reply of the Earl of Oxford to Mr.
Pope.
SIR,
I received your packet, which could not but give me great
pleasure to see you preserve an old friend in your memory;
for it must needs be very agreeable to be remembered by
those we highly value. But then, how much shame did it cause
me when I read your very fine verses inclosed! My mind
reproached me how far short I came of what your great
friendship and delicate pen would partially describe me. You
ask my consent to publish it: to what straits doth this
reduce me! I look back, indeed, to those evenings I have
usefully and pleasantly spent with Mr. Pope, Mr. Parnell,
Dean Swift, the Doctor (Arbuthnot), &c. I should be glad the
world knew you admitted me to your friendship; and since
your affection is too hard for your judgment, I am contented
to let the world know how well Mr. Pope can write upon a
barren subject. I return you an exact copy of the verses,
that I may keep the original, as a testimony of the only
error you have been guilty of. I hope, very speedily, to
embrace you in London, and to assure you of the particular
esteem and friendship wherewith I am your, &c.,
OXFORD.
Of TOM OSBORNE I have in vain endeavoured to collect some
interesting biographical details. What I know of him shall
be briefly stated. He was the most celebrated bookseller of
his day; and appears, from a series of his catalogues in my
possession, to have carried on a successful trade from the
year 1738 to 1768. What fortune he amassed, is not, I
believe, very well known: his collections were truly
valuable, for they consisted of the purchased libraries of
the most eminent men of those times. In his stature he was
short and thick; and, to his inferiors, generally spoke in
an authoritative and insolent manner. "It has been
confidently related," says Boswell, "that Johnson, one day,
knocked Osborne down in his shop with a folio, and put his
foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson
himself. 'Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But
it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber.'" 4to.
edit., i., 81. Of Osborne's philological attainments, the
meanest opinion must be formed, if we judge from his
advertisements, which were sometimes inserted in the London
Gazette, and drawn up in the most ridiculously vain and
ostentatious style. He used to tell the public that he
possessed "all the pompous editions of Classicks and
Lexicons." I insert the two following advertisements,
prefixed, the one to his catalogue of 1748, the other to
that of 1753, for the amusement of my bibliographical
readers, and as a model for Messrs. Payne, White, Miller,
Evans, Priestley, and Cuthell. "This catalogue being very
large, and of consequence very expensive to the proprietor,
he humbly requests that, if it falls into the hands of any
gentleman _gratis_, who chooses not himself to be a
purchaser of any of the books contained in it, that such
gentleman will be pleased to recommend it to any other whom
he thinks may be so, or to return it." To his catalogue of
1753 was the following: "To the Nobility and Gentry who
please to favour me with their commands. It is hoped, as I
intend to give no offence to any nobleman or gentleman, that
do me the honour of being my customer, by putting a price on
my catalogue, by which means they may not receive it as
usual--it is desired that such nobleman or gentleman as have
not received it, would be pleased to send for it; and it's
likewise requested of such gentleman who do receive it,
that, if they chuse not to purchase any of the books
themselves, _they would recommend it to any bookish
gentleman of their acquaintance, or to return it_, and the
favour shall be acknowledged by, their most obedient and
obliged,
T. OSBORNE."
I shall conclude with the following curious story told of
him, in Mr. Nichols's _Anecdotes of Bowyer_ the Printer.
"Mr. David Papillon, a gentleman of fortune and literary
taste, as well as a good antiquary (who died in 1762)
contracted with Osborne to furnish him with an 100_l._ worth
of books, at _threepence a piece_. The only conditions were,
that they should be perfect, and that there should be no
duplicate. Osborne was highly pleased with his bargain, and
the first great purchase he made, he sent Mr. P. a large
quantity; but in the next purchase, he found he could send
but few, and the next, still fewer. Not willing, however, to
give up, he sent books worth _five shillings_ a piece; and,
at last, was forced to go and beg to be let off the
contract. Eight thousand books would have been wanted!"--See
p. 101-2, note [symbol: double dagger].]
LIS. Let us rise to pay him homage!
PHIL. Lisardo is now fairly bewitched. He believes in the existence
of the group!--Help, ho! Fetters and warder for--
LOREN. Philemon loves to indulge his wit at his friend's expense. Is't
not so, Lisardo?
LIS. I forgive him. 'Twas a "glorious fault." But, indeed, I would
strip to the skin, if this said nobleman longed for my coat,
waistcoat, small clothes, and shirt, to form him a cushion to sit
upon! I have heard such wonderful things said of his library!--
LYSAND. And not more wonderful than its reputation justifies. Well
might Pope be enamoured of such a noble friend--and well might even
Dr. Mead bow to the superior splendour of such a book-competitor!
While the higher order of bibliomaniacs, reposing upon satin sofas,
were quaffing burgundy out of Harley's curiously cut goblets, and
listening to the captivating tale of Mead or Folkes, respecting a
VELLUM _Editio Princeps_--the lower order, with Bagford at their head,
were boisterously regaling themselves below, drinking ale round an
oaken table, and toasting their patron, till the eye could no longer
discover the glass, nor the tongue utter his name. Aloft, in mid air,
sat the soothed spirits of Smith and North; pointing, with their thin,
transparent fingers, to the apotheosis of CAXTON and ALDUS! Suddenly,
a crowd of pipy fragrance involves the room: these ærial forms cease
to be visible; and broken sounds, like the retiring tide beneath Dover
cliff, die away into utter silence. Sleep succeeds: but short is the
slumber of enthusiastic bibliomaniacs! The watchman rouses them from
repose: and the annunciation of the hour of "two o'clock, and a
moonlight morning," reminds them of their cotton night-caps and flock
mattrasses. They start up, and sally forwards; chaunting, midst the
deserted streets, and with eyes turned sapiently towards the moon,
"Long life to the King of Book-Collectors, HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD!"
LOREN. A truce, Lysander! I entreat a truce!
LYSAND. To what?
LOREN. To this discourse. You must be exhausted.
PHIL. Indeed I agree with Lorenzo: for Lysander has surpassed, in
prolixity, the reputation of any orator within St. Stephen's chapel.
It only remains to eclipse, in a similar manner, the speeches which
were delivered at Hardy's trial--and then he may be called the
_Nonpareil_ of orators!
LYSAND. If you banter me, I am dumb. Nor did I know that there was any
thing of eloquence in my chit-chat. If Lisardo had had my experience,
we might _then_ have witnessed some glittering exhibitions of
imagination in the book-way!
LIS. My most excellent friend, I will strive to obtain this
experience, since you are pleased to compliment me upon what I was not
conscious of possessing--But, in truth, Lysander, our obligations to
you are infinite.
LYSAND. No more; unless you are weary of this discourse--
PHIL. LIS. Weary!?
LOREN. Let me here exercise my undeniable authority. A _sandwich_,
like the evening rain after a parching day, will recruit Lysander's
exhausted strength. What say you?
LYSAND. "I shall in all things obey your high command." But hark--I
hear the outer gate bell ring! The ladies are arrived: and you know my
bashfulness in female society. Adieu, BIBLIOMANIA! 'till the morrow.
LOREN. Nay, you are drawing too dismal conclusions. My sisters are not
sworn enemies to this kind of discourse.
* * * * *
The arrival of ALMANSA and BELINDA, the sisters of Lorenzo put a stop
to the conversation. So abrupt a silence disconcerted the ladies; who,
in a sudden, but, it must be confessed, rather taunting, strain--asked
whether they should order their bed-chamber candlesticks, and retire
to rest?
LIS. Not if you are disposed to listen to the most engaging
book-anecdote orator in his majesty's united realms!
ALMAN. Well, this may be a sufficient inducement for us to remain. But
why so suddenly silent, gentlemen?
LOREN. The conversation had ceased before you arrived. We were
thinking of a _hung-beef sandwich_ and a glass of madeira to recruit
Lysander's exhausted powers. He has been discoursing ever since
dinner.
BELIND. I will be his attendant and cup-bearer too, if he promises to
resume his discourse. But you have probably dispatched the most
interesting part.
LYSAND. Not exactly so, I would hope, fair Lady! Your brother's
hospitality will add fresh energy to my spirit; and, like the renewed
oil in an exhausted lamp, will cause the flame to break forth with
fresh splendour.
BELIND. Sir, I perceive your ingenuity, at least, has not forsaken
you--in whatever state your memory may be!--
* * * * *
Here the _sandwiches_ made their appearance: and Lorenzo seated his
guests, with his sisters, near him, round a small circular table. The
repast was quickly over: and Philemon, stirring the sugar within a
goblet of hot madeira wine and water, promised them all a romantic
book-story, if the ladies would only lend a gracious ear. Such a
request was, of course, immediately complied with.
PHIL. The story is short--
LIS. And sweet, I ween.
PHIL. That remains to be proved. But listen.
You all know my worthy friend, FERDINAND: a very _Helluo Librorum_. It
was on a warm evening in summer--about an hour after sunset--that
Ferdinand made his way towards a small inn, or rather village
alehouse, that stood on a gentle eminence, skirted by a luxuriant
wood. He entered, oppressed with heat and fatigue; but observed, on
walking up to the porch "smothered with honey-suckles" (as I think
Cowper expresses it), that every thing around bore the character of
neatness and simplicity. The holy-oaks were tall and finely variegated
in blossom: the pinks were carefully tied up: and roses of all colours
and fragrance stood around, in a compacted form, like a body-guard,
forbidding the rude foot of trespasser to intrude. Within, Ferdinand
found corresponding simplicity and comfort.
The "gude" man of the house was spending the evening with a neighbour;
but poached eggs and a rasher of bacon, accompanied with a flagon of
sparkling ale, gave our guest no occasion to doubt the hospitality of
the house, on account of the absence of its master. A little past ten,
after reading some dozen pages in a volume of Sir Egerton Brydges's
_Censura Literaria_, which he happened to carry about him, and
partaking pretty largely of the aforesaid eggs and ale, Ferdinand
called for his candle, and retired to repose. His bed-room was small,
but neat and airy: at one end, and almost facing the window, there was
a pretty large closet, with the door open: but Ferdinand was too
fatigued to indulge any curiosity about what it might contain.
He extinguished his candle, and sank upon his bed to rest. The heat of
the evening seemed to increase. He became restless; and, throwing off
his quilt, and drawing his curtain aside, turned towards the window,
to inhale the last breeze which yet might be wafted from the
neighbouring heath. But no zephyr was stirring. On a sudden, a broad
white flash of lightning--(nothing more than summer heat) made our
bibliomaniac lay his head upon his pillow, and turn his eyes in an
opposite direction. The lightning increased--and one flash, more vivid
than the rest, illuminated the interior of the closet, and made
manifest--_an old mahogany Book-Case_, STORED WITH BOOKS. Up started
Ferdinand, and put his phosphoric treasures into action. He lit his
match, and trimmed his candle, and rushed into the closet--no longer
mindful of the heavens--which now were in a blaze with the summer
heat.
The book-case was guarded both with glass and brass wires--and the
key--no where to be found! Hapless man!--for, to his astonishment, he
saw _Morte d'Arthur_, printed by _Caxton_--_Richard Coeur de Lyon_,
by _W. de Worde_--_The Widow Edyth_, by _Pynson_--and, towering above
the rest, a LARGE PAPER copy of the original edition of _Prince's
Worthies of Devon_; while, lying transversely at top, reposed _John
Weever's Epigrams_, "The spirit of Captain Cox is here revived"--exclaimed
Ferdinand--while, on looking above, he saw a curious set of old plays,
with _Dido, Queen of Carthage_, at the head of them! What should he
do? No key: no chance of handling such precious tomes--'till the
morning light, with the landlord, returned! He moved backwards and
forwards with a hurried step--prepared his pocket knife to cut out the
panes of glass, and untwist the brazen wires--but a "_prick of
conscience_" made him desist from carrying his wicked design into
execution. Ferdinand then advanced towards the window; and throwing it
open, and listening to the rich notes of a concert of nightingales,
forgot the cause of his torments--'till, his situation reminding him
of "_The Churl and the Bird_," he rushed with renewed madness into the
cupboard--then searched for the bell--but, finding none, he made all
sorts of strange noises. The landlady rose, and, conceiving robbers to
have broken into the stranger's room, came and demanded the cause of
the disturbance.
"Madam," said Ferdinand, "is there no possibility of inspecting the
_books_ in the _cupboard_--where is the key?" "Alack, sir," rejoined
the landlady, "what is there that thus disturbs you in the sight of
those books? Let me shut the closet-door and take away the key of it,
and you will then sleep in peace." "Sleep in _peace_!" resumed
Ferdinand--"sleep in _wretchedness_, you mean! I can have no peace
unless you indulge me with the key of the book-case. To whom do such
gems belong?" "Sir, they are not stolen goods."--"Madam, I ask
pardon--I did not mean to question their being honest property--but"--"Sir,
they are not mine or my husband's." "Who, madam, who is the lucky
owner?" "An elderly gentleman of the name of--Sir, I am not at liberty
to mention his name--but they belong to an elderly gentleman." "Will
he part with them--where does he live? Can you introduce me to
him?"--The good woman soon answered all Ferdinand's rapid queries, but
the result was by no means satisfactory to him.
He learnt that these uncommonly scarce and precious volumes belonged
to an ancient gentleman, whose name was studiously concealed; but who
was in the habit of coming once or twice a week, during the autumn, to
smoke his pipe, and lounge over his books: sometimes making extracts
from them, and sometimes making observations in the margin with a
pencil. Whenever a very curious passage occurred, he would take out a
small memorandum book, and put on a pair of large tortoise-shell
spectacles, with powerful magnifying glasses, in order to insert this
passage with particular care and neatness. He usually concluded his
evening amusements by sleeping in the very bed in which Ferdinand had
been lying.
Such intelligence only sharpened the curiosity, and increased the
restlessness, of poor Ferdinand. He retired to this said
bibliomaniacal bed, but not to repose. The morning sun-beams, which
irradiated the book-case with complete effect, shone upon his pallid
countenance and thoughtful brow. He rose at five: walked in the
meadows till seven; returned and breakfasted--stole up stairs to take
a farewell peep at his beloved _Morte d'Arthur_--sighed "three times
and more"--paid his reckoning; apologised for the night's adventure;
told the landlady he would shortly come and visit her again, and try
to pay his respects to the anonymous old gentleman. "Meanwhile," said
he, "I will leave no bookseller's shop in the neighbourhood unvisited,
'till I gain intelligence of his name and character." The landlady
eyed him steadily; took a pinch of snuff with a significant air; and,
returning, with a smile of triumph, to her kitchen, thanked her stars
that she had got rid of such a madman!
Ladies and gentlemen, I have done.
LIS. And creditably done, too!
ALMAN. If this be a specimen of your previous conversation, we know
not what we have lost by our absence. But I suspect, that the
principal ingredient of poetry, fiction, has a little aided in the
embellishment of your story.
BELIN. This is not very gallant or complimentary on your part,
Almansa. I harbour no suspicion of its verity; for marvellous things
have been told me, by my brother, of the whimsical phrensies of
book-fanciers.
LOREN. If you will only listen a little to Lysander's _sequel_, you
will hear almost equally marvellous things; which I suspect my
liberally minded sister, Almansa, will put down to the score of
poetical embellishment. But I see she is conscious of her treasonable
aspersions of the noble character of bibliomaniacs, and is only
anxious for Lysander to resume.
ALMAN. Sir, I entreat you to finish your HISTORY OF BIBLIOMANIACS.
Your friend, Philemon, has regaled us with an entertaining episode,
and you have probably, by this time, recovered strength sufficient to
proceed with the main story.
LYSAND. Madam, I am equally indebted to your brother for his care of
the body, and to my friend for his recreation of the mind. The
midnight hour, I fear, is swiftly approaching.
LOREN. It is yet at a considerable distance. We have nearly reached
the middle of the eighteenth century, and you may surely carry on your
reminiscential exertions to the close of the same. By that time, we
may be disposed for our nightcaps.
LYSAND. Unheeded be the moments and hours which are devoted to the
celebration of eminent BOOK-COLLECTORS! Let the sand roll down the
glass as it will; let "the chirping on each thorn" remind us of
Aurora's saucy face peering above the horizon! in such society, and
with such a subject of discussion, who--
LIS. Lysander brightens as his story draws to a close: his colouring
will be more vivid than ever.
BELIND. Tell me--are bibliographers usually thus eloquent? They have
been described to me as a dry, technical race of mortals--quoting only
title-pages and dates.
LYSAND. Madam, believe not the malicious evidence of book-heretics.
Let ladies, like yourself and your sister, only make their appearance
with a choice set of bibliomaniacs, at this time of night, and if the
most interesting conversation be not the result--I have very much
under-rated the colloquial powers of my brethren. But you shall hear.
We left off with lauding the bibliomaniacal celebrity of Harley, Earl
of Oxford. Before the dispersion of his grand collection, died JOHN
BRIDGES,[378] a gentleman, a scholar, and a notorious book-collector.
The catalogue of his books is almost the first classically arranged
one in the eighteenth century: and it must be confessed that the
collection was both curious and valuable. Bridges was succeeded by
ANTHONY COLLINS,[379] the Free Thinker; a character equally strange
and unenviable. Book-fanciers now and then bid a few shillings, for a
copy of the catalogue of his library; and some sly free-thinkers, of
modern date, are not backward in shewing a sympathy in their
predecessor's fame, by the readiness with which they bid a
half-guinea, or more, for a _priced copy_ of it.
[Footnote 378: _Bibliothecæ Bridgesianæ Catalogus_: or a
Catalogue of the Library of JOHN BRIDGES, Esq., consisting
of above 4000 books and manuscripts in all Languages and
Faculties; particularly in Classics and History; and
especially the History and Antiquities of Great Britain and
Ireland, &c., London, 1725, 8vo. Two different catalogues of
this valuable collection of books were printed. The one was
analysed, or a _catalogue raisonné_, to which was prefixed a
print of a Grecian portico, &c., with ornaments and statues:
the other (expressly for the sale) was an indigested and
extremely confused one--to which was prefixed a print,
designed and engraved by A. Motte, of an oak felled, with a
number of men cutting down and carrying away its branches;
illustrative of the following Greek Motto inscribed on a
scroll above--[Greek: Dryos pesousês pas anêr xyleuetai];
"An affecting momento (says Mr. Nichols, very justly, in his
_Anecdotes of Bowyer_, p. 557) to the collectors of great
libraries, who cannot, or do not, leave them to some public
accessible repository." My friend, Dr. Gosset, was once so
fortunate as to pick up for me a _large paper_ copy of the
analysed catalogue, bound in old blue morocco, and ruled
with red lines, for 4_s._!--"Happy day!"]
[Footnote 379: In the year 1730-1, there was sold by auction
at St. Paul's Coffee House, in St. Paul's Church Yard
(beginning every evening at five o'clock), the library of
the celebrated Free Thinker, ANTHONY COLLINS, Esq.
"Containing a collection of several thousand volumes in
Greek, Latin, English, French, and Spanish; in divinity,
history, antiquity, philosophy, husbandry, and all polite
literature: and especially many curious travels and voyages;
and many rare and valuable pamphlets." This collection,
which is divided into _two parts_ (the first containing 3451
articles, the second 3442), is well worthy of being
consulted by the theologian who is writing upon any
controverted point of divinity; as there are articles in it
of the rarest occurrence. The singular character of its
owner and of his works is well known: he was at once the
friend and the opponent of Locke and Clarke, who both were
anxious for the conversion of a character of such strong,
but misguided, talents. The former, on his death-bed, wrote
Collins a letter to be delivered to him after his decease,
which was full of affection and good advice.]
We may here but slightly allude to the bibliographical reputation of
MAITTAIRE, as so much was said of him the day before yesterday.[380]
[Footnote 380: The reader will find some account of
MAITTAIRE'S bibliographical labours at p. 47, ante; and of
his editions of the ancient Classics, at p. 442, vol. ii.,
of my _Introduction to the Knowledge of rare and valuable
editions of the Greek and Latin Classics_. He need here only
be informed that Maittaire's books were sold by auction in
November, 1748, and January, 1749; the catalogue of them
forming _two parts_, with one of these dates affixed to
each. The collection must have been uncommonly numerous; and
of their intrinsic value the reader will best judge by the
following extract from the "Advertisement," by Cock the
auctioneer, at the back of the title-page: "tho' the books,
in their present condition, make not the most ostentatious
appearance, yet, like the late worthy possessor of them,
however plain their outside may be, they contain within an
invaluable treasure of ingenuity and learning. In fine, this
is (after fifty years' diligent search and labour in
collecting) THE ENTIRE LIBRARY OF MR. MAITTAIRE; whose
judgement in the choice of books, as it ever was confessed,
so are they, undoubtedly, far beyond whatever I can attempt
to say in their praise. In exhibiting them thus to the
public, I comply with the will of my deceased friend; and in
printing the catalogue from his OWN COPY just as he left it
(tho' by so doing it is the more voluminous) I had an
opportunity, not only of doing the justice I owe to his
memory, but also of gratifying the curious." I incline
strongly to think there were no copies of this catalogue
printed upon large paper. When priced, the usual copy brings
a fair round sum.]
BELIN. All this may be very learned and just. But of these gentlemen I
find no account in the fashionable necrologies.
LOREN. Only wait a little, and Lysander will break forth with the
mention of some transcendental bibliomaniac.
LYSAND. Yes, ever renowned RICHARD MEAD![381] thy _pharmacopæal_
reputation is lost in the blaze of thy _bibliomaniacal_ glory!
Æsculapius may plant his herbal crown round thy brow, and Hygeia may
scatter her cornucopia of roses at thy feet--but what are these
things compared with the homage offered thee by the Gesners,
Baillets, and Le Longs, of old? What avail even the roseate blushes of
thousands, whom thy medical skill, may have snatched from a premature
grave--compared with the life, vigour, animation and competition which
thy example infused into the BOOK-WORLD!
[Footnote 381: It is almost impossible to dwell on the
memory of THIS GREAT MAN, without emotions of
delight--whether we consider him as an eminent physician, a
friend to literature, or a collector of books, pictures, and
coins. Benevolence, magnanimity, and erudition were the
striking features of his character. His house was the
general receptacle of men of genius and talent, and of every
thing beautiful, precious, and rare. His curiosities,
whether books, or coins, or pictures, were freely laid open
to the public; and the enterprising student, and experienced
antiquary, alike found amusement and a courteous reception.
He was known to all foreigners of intellectual distinction,
and corresponded both with the artisan and the potentate.
The great patron of literature, and the leader of his
profession, it was hardly possible, as Lysander has well
observed, "for modest merit if properly introduced to him,
to depart unrewarded or ungratified." The clergy, and, in
general, all men of learning, received his advice
gratuitously; and his doors were open every morning to the
most indigent, whom he frequently assisted with money.
Although his income, from his professional practice, was
very considerable, he died by no means a rich man--so large
were the sums which he devoted to the encouragement of
literature and the fine arts! The sale of Dr. Mead's _Books_
commenced on the 18th of November, 1754, and again on the
7th of April, 1755: lasting together 57 days. The sale of
the _prints_ and _drawings_ continued 14 nights. The _gems_,
_bronzes_, _busts_, and _antiquities_, 8 days.
His books produced £5496 15 0
Pictures 3417 11 0
Prints and drawings 1908 14 0
Coins and medals 1977 17 0
Antiquities 3246 15 0
------------
Amount of all the sales £16,047 12 0
------------
It would be difficult to mention, within a moderate compass,
all the rare and curious articles which his library
contained--but the following are too conspicuous to be
passed over. The _Spira Virgil_, of 1470, _Pfintzing's
Tewrdanchk's_, 1527, _Brandt's Stultifera Navis_, 1498, and
the _Aldine Petrarch_, of 1501, ALL UPON VELLUM. The large
paper _Olivet's Cicero_ was purchased by Dr. Askew, for
14_l._ 14_s._, and was sold again at his sale for 36_l._
15_s._ The King of France bought the editio princeps of
_Pliny Senior_ for 11_l._ 11_s._: and Mr. Wilcock, a
bookseller, bought the magnificently illuminated _Pliny by
Jenson_, of 1472, for 18_l._ 18_s._: of which Maittaire has
said so many fine things. The _French_ books, and all the
works upon the _Fine Arts_, were of the first rarity and
value, and bound in a sumptuous manner. Winstanley's
_Prospects of Audley End_ brought 50_l._ An amusing account
of some of the pictures will be found in Mr. Beloe's
_Anecdotes of Literature and scarce Books_, vol. i., 166,
71. But consult also _Nichols's Anecdotes of Bowyer_, p.
225, &c. Of the catalogue of Dr. Mead's books, there were
only six copies printed upon _large paper_. See _Bibl.
Lort_, no. 1149. I possess one of these copies, uncut and
priced. Dr. MEAD had parted, in his life-time, to the
present king's father, with several miniature pictures of
great value (Walpole Anec., vol. i., 165) by Isaac Oliver
and Holbein, which are now in his majesty's collection. Dr.
Askew had purchased his Greek MSS. for 500_l._ Pope has
admirably well said,
"Rare _monkish manuscripts_ for HEARNE alone,
And _Books_ FOR MEAD, and _butterflies_ for SLOANE."
_Epistle_ iv.
Upon which his commentator, Warburton, thus observes: "These
were two eminent physicians; the one had an excellent
library, the other the finest collection in Europe of
natural curiosities." For nearly half a century did Dr. Mead
pursue an unrivalled career in his profession. He was
(perhaps "thrice") presented with the presidentship of the
College of Physicians, which he ("thrice") refused. One year
it is said he made 7000_l._, a great sum in his time! His
regular emoluments were between 5000_l._ and 6000_l._ per
annum. He died on the 25th of February, 1754, in the 81st
year of his age. On his death, Dr. ASKEW, who seems to have
had a sort of filial veneration for his character, and whose
pursuits were in every respect congenial with Dr. Mead's,
presented the College of Physicians with a marble bust of
him, beautifully executed by Roubilliac, and for which he
paid the sculptor 100_l._ A whimsical anecdote is connected
with the execution of this bust. Roubilliac agreed with Dr.
Askew for 50_l._: the doctor found it so highly finished
that he paid him for it 100_l._ The sculptor said this was
not enough, and brought in a bill for 108_l._ 2_s._ Dr.
Askew paid this demand, even to the odd shillings, and then
enclosed the receipt to Mr. Hogarth, to produce at the next
meeting of artists. Nichols's _Anec. of Bowyer_, p. 580. "I
cannot help," says Mr. Edwards, the late ornithologist,
"informing succeeding generations that they may see the
_real features_ of Dr. Mead in this bust: for I, who was as
well acquainted with his face as any man living, do
pronounce this bust of him to be so like that, as often as I
see it, my mind is filled with the strongest idea of the
original." Hearne speaks of the MEADEAN FAMILY with proper
respect, in his _Alured de Beverly_, p. XLV.; and in _Walter
Hemingford_, vol. i., XXXV. In his _Gulielmus Nubrigensis_,
vol. iii., p. 744 (note), he says of our illustrious
bibliomaniac:--"that most excellent physician, and truly
great man, Dr. Richard Mead, to whom I am eternally
obliged." There is an idle story somewhere told of Dr.
Mead's declining the acceptance of a challenge to fight with
swords--alleging his want of skill in the art of fencing:
but this seems to be totally void of authority. Thus far,
concerning Dr. Mead, from the first edition of this work,
and the paper entitled "The Director." The following
particulars, which I have recently learnt of the MEAD
FAMILY, from John Nicholl, Esq., my neighbour at Kensington,
and the maternal grandson of the Doctor, may be thought well
worth subjoining. MATTHEW MEAD, his father, was a clergyman.
He gave up his living at Stepney in 1662; which was
afterwards divided into the four fine livings now in the
gift of Brazen-Nose College, Oxford. His parishioners built
him a chapel; but he retired to a farm in the country, and
had the reputation of handling a bullock as well as any
butcher in the county. He went abroad in the reign of James
II., and had his sons, Samuel and Richard, educated under
Grævius. SAMUEL MEAD, _his brother_, was a distinguished
Chancery barrister, and got his 4000_l._ per ann.; his
cronies were Wilbraham and Lord Harcourt. These, with a few
other eminent barristers, used to meet at a coffee-house,
and drink their favourite, and then fashionable,
liquor--called _Bishop_, which consisted of red wine, lemon,
and sugar. Samuel was a shy character, and loved privacy. He
had a good country house, and handsome chambers in Lincoln's
Inn, and kept a carriage for his sister's use, having his
coachmaker's arms painted upon the panel. What is very
characteristic of the modesty of his profession, he
pertinaciously refused a silk gown! A word or two remains to
be said of our illustrious bibliomaniac RICHARD. His brother
left him 30,000_l._, and giving full indulgence to his noble
literary feelings, the Doctor sent Carte, the historian, to
France, to rummage for MSS. of _Thuanus_, and to restore the
castrated passages which were not originally published for
fear of offending certain families. He made Buckley, the
editor, procure the best _ink and paper_ from Holland, for
this edition of Thuanus, which was published at his own
expense; and the Doctor was remarkably solicitous that
nothing of exterior pomp and beauty should be wanting in the
publication. The result verified his most sanguine
expectation; for a finer edition of a valuable historian has
never seen the light. Dr. Ward, says Mr. Nichols, is
supposed to have written Mead's Latin, but the fact is not
so; or it is exclusively applicable to the _later_ pieces of
Mead. The Doctor died in his 83rd year (and in full
possession of his mental powers), from a fall occasioned by
the negligence of a servant. He was a great _diagnostic_
physician; and, when he thought deeply, was generally
correct in judging of the disorder by the appearance of the
countenance.]
The tears shed by virtuous bibliomaniacs at Harley's death were
speedily wiped away, when the recollection of thine, and of thy
contemporary's, FOLKES'S[382] fame, was excited in their bosoms.
Illustrious Bibliomaniacs! your names and memories will always live in
the hearts of noble-minded Literati: the treasures of your Museums and
Libraries--your liberal patronage and ever-active exertions in the
cause of VIRTU--whether connected with coins, pictures, or books--can
never be banished, at least, from my grateful mind:--And if, at this
solemn hour, when yonder groves and serpentine walks are sleeping in
the quiet of moon-light, your spirits could be seen placidly to flit
along, I would burst from this society--dear and congenial as it
is--to take your last instructions, or receive your last warnings,
respecting the rearing of a future age of bibliomaniacs! Ye were, in
good earnest, noble-hearted book-heroes!--but I wander:--forgive me!
[Footnote 382: "_A Catalogue of the entire and valuable
library of_ MARTIN FOLKES, Esq., President of the Royal
Society, and Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at
Paris, lately deceased; which will be sold by auction, by
Samuel Baker, at his house in York Street, Covent-Garden. To
begin on Monday, February 2, 1756, and to continue for forty
days successively (Sundays excepted). Catalogues to be had
at most of the considerable places in Europe, and all the
booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland. Price sixpence."
This collection was an exceedingly fine one; enriched with
many books of the choicest description, which Mr. Folkes had
acquired in his travels in Italy and Germany. The works on
natural history, coins, medals, inscriptions, and on the
fine arts in general, formed the most valuable
department--those on the Greek, Latin, and English classics
were comparatively of inferior importance. It is a great
pity the catalogue was not better digested; or the books
classed according to the nature of their contents. The
following prices, for some of the more rare and interesting
articles, will amuse a bibliographer of the present day. The
chronicles of Fabian, Hall, and Grafton, did not,
altogether, bring quite 2_l._, though the copies are
described as perfect and fair. There seems to have been a
fine set of Sir Wm. Dugdale's Works (Nos. 3074-81) in 13
vols., which, collectively, produced about 30 guineas! At
the present day, they are worth about 250_l._--In _Spanish
literature_, the history of South America, by John Duan and
Ant. di Ulloa, Madr., fol., in 5 vols., was sold for 5_l._:
a fine large paper copy of the description of the monastery
of St. Lorenzo, and the Escorial, Madr., 1657, brought 1_l._
2_s._; de Lastanosa's Spanish medals, Huesca, fol., 1645,
2_l._ 2_s._--In _English_, the first edition of Shakspeare,
1623, which is now what a French bibliographer would say,
"presque introuvable," produced the sum of 3_l._ 3_s._; and
Fuller's Worthies, 18_s._!----_Fine Arts, Antiquities, and
Voyages._ Sandrart's works, in 9 folio volumes (of which a
fine perfect copy is now rarely to be met with, and of very
great value) were sold for 13_l._ 13_s._ only: Desgodetz
Roman edifices, Paris, 1682, 4_l._ 10_s._ Galleria
Giustiniano, 2 vols., fol., 13_l._ 13_s._ Le Brun's Voyages
in Muscovy, &c., in large paper, 4_l._ 4_s._ De Rossi's
Raccolta de Statue, &c., Rom., 1704, 6_l._ 10_s._ Medailles
du Regne de Louis le Grand: de l'Imp. Roy. 1. p. fol., 1702,
5_l._ 15_s._ 6_d._----The works on _Natural History_ brought
still higher prices: but the whole, from the present
depreciation of money, and increased rarity of the articles,
would now bring thrice the sums then given.--Of the _Greek
and Latin Classics_, the Pliny of 1469 and 1472 were sold to
Dr. Askew, for 11_l._ 11_s._ and 7_l._ 17_s._ 6_d._ At the
Doctor's sale they brought 43_l._ and 23_l._, although the
first was lately sold (A.D. 1805) among some duplicates of
books belonging to the British Museum, at a much lower
price: the copy was, in fact, neither large nor beautiful.
Those in Lord Spencer's, and the Hunter and Cracherode
collections, are greatly superior, and would each bring more
than double the price. From a priced copy of the sale
catalogue, upon _large paper_, and uncut, in my possession,
I find that the amount of the sale, consisting of 5126
articles, was 3091_l._ 6_s._ The _Prints, and Drawings_ of
Mr. Folkes occupied a sale of 8 days: and his _pictures_,
_gems_, _coins_, and _mathematical instruments_, of five
days. Mr. MARTIN FOLKES may justly be ranked among the most
useful, as well as splendid, literary characters, of which
this country can boast. He appears to have imbibed, at a
very early age, an extreme passion for science and
literature; and to have distinguished himself so much at the
University of Cambridge, under the able tuition of Dr.
Laughton, that, in his 23rd year, he was admitted a Fellow
of the Royal Society. About two years afterwards he was
chosen one of the council; and rose in succession to the
chair of the presidentship, which, as Lysander above truly
says, he filled with a credit and celebrity that has since
never been surpassed. On this occasion he was told by Dr.
Jurin, the Secretary, who dedicated to him the 34th vol. of
the Transactions, that "the greatest man that ever lived
(Sir Isaac Newton) singled him out to fill the chair, and to
preside in the society, when he himself was so frequently
prevented by indisposition; and that it was sufficient to
say of him that he was _Sir Isaac's friend_." Within a few
years afterwards, he was elected President of the Society of
Antiquaries. Two situations, the filling of which may be
considered as the _ne plus ultra_ of literary distinction.
Mr. Folkes travelled abroad, with his family, about two
years and a half, visiting the cities of Rome, Florence, and
Venice--where he was noticed by almost every person of rank
and reputation, and whence he brought away many a valuable
article to enrich his own collection. He was born in the
year 1690, and died of a second stroke of the palsy, under
which he languished for three years, in 1754. He seems to
have left behind him a considerable fortune. Among his
numerous bequests was one to the Royal Society of 200_l._,
along with a fine portrait of Lord Bacon, and a large
cornelian ring, with the arms of the society engraved upon
it, for the perpetual use of the president and his
successors in office. The MSS. of his own composition, not
being quite perfect, were, to the great loss of the learned
world, ordered by him to be destroyed. The following
wood-cut portrait is taken from a copper-plate in the
_Portraits des Hommes Illustres de Denmark_, 4to., 7 parts,
1746: part 4th, a volume which abounds with a number of
copper-plate engravings, _worked off_ in a style of uncommon
clearness and brilliancy. Some of the portraits themselves
are rather stiff and unexpressive; but the vignettes are
uniformly tasteful and agreeable. The seven parts are rarely
found in an equal state of perfection.
[Illustration]
Dr. Birch has drawn a very just and interesting character of
this eminent man, which may be found in Nichols's _Anecdotes
of Bowyer_, pp. 562-7. Mr. Edwards, the late ornithologist,
has described him in a simple, but appropriate, manner. "He
seemed," says he, "to have attained to universal knowledge;
for, in the many opportunities I have had of being in his
company, almost every part of science has happened to be the
subject of discourse, all of which he handled as an adept.
He was a man of great politeness in his manners, free from
all pedantry and pride, and, in every respect, the real,
unaffected, fine gentleman."]
ALMAN. Pray keep to this earth, and condescend to notice us mortals of
flesh and blood, who have heard of Dr. Mead, and Martin Folkes, only
as eminently learned and tasteful characters.
LYSAND. I crave your forgiveness. But Dr. Mead's cabinet of coins,
statues, and books, was so liberally thrown open for the public
inspection that it was hardly possible for modest merit, if properly
made known to him, to depart unrewarded or ungratified. Nor does the
renowned President of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies--Martin
Folkes--merit a less warm eulogy; for he filled these distinguished
situations with a credit which has never since been surpassed.
But there is yet an illustrious tribe to be recorded. We have, first,
RICHARD RAWLINSON,[383] brother of the renowned _Tom Folio_, whose
choice and tasteful collection of books, as recorded in auctioneering
annals, is deserving of high commendation. But his name and virtues
are better known in the University, to which he was a benefactor, than
to the noisy circles of the metropolis. The sale of ORATOR HENLEY'S
books "followed hard upon" that of Richard Rawlinson's; and if the
spirit of their owner could, from his "gilt tub," have witnessed the
grimaces and jokes which marked the sale--with the distorted
countenances and boisterous laughter which were to be seen on every
side--how it must have writhed under the smart of general ridicule, or
have groaned under the torture of contemptuous indignation! Peace to
Henley's[384] vexed _manes_!--and similar contempt await the efforts
of all literary quacks and philosophical knaves!
[Footnote 383: "BIBLIOTHECA RAWLINSONIANA, _sive Catalogus
Librorum Richardi Rawlinson_, LL.D. Qui prostabunt Venales
sub hasta, Apud Samuelem Baker, In Vico dicto York-street,
Covent Garden, Londoni, Die Lunæ 29 Marti MDCCLVI." With the
following whimsical Greek motto in the title-page:
[Greek: Kai gar o taôs dia to spanion thaumazetai].
EUBULUS.
("The peacock is admired on account of its rarity.")
This valuable library must have contained nearly 25,000
volumes, multiplying the number of articles (9405) by 3--the
usual mode of calculation. Unfortunately, as was the case
with Dr. Mead's and Mr. Folkes's, the books were not
arranged according to any particular classification. Old
black-letter English were mixed with modern Italian, French,
and Latin; and novels and romances interspersed with
theology and mathematics. An _alphabetical_ arrangement, be
the books of whatever kind they may, will in general obviate
the inconvenience felt from such an undigested plan; and it
were "devoutly to be wished," by all true bibliographers,
that an act of parliament should pass for the due observance
of this alphabetical order. We all know our A, B, C, but
have not all analytical heads; or we may differ in our ideas
of analysis. The scientific and alphabetical _united_ is
certainly better; like Mr. Harris's excellent catalogue,
noticed at p. 99, ante. The "_Méthode pour dresser une
bibliothéque_," about which De Bure, Formey, and Peignot
have so solemnly argued, is not worth a moment's discussion.
Every man likes to be his own librarian, as well as "his own
broker." But to return to Dr. Rawlinson's collection. On
examining a priced catalogue of it, which now lies before
me, I have not found any higher sum offered for a work than
4_l._ 1_s._ for a collection of fine prints, by Aldegrever.
(No. 9405.) The Greek and Latin Classics, of which there
were few _Editiones Principes_, or on _large paper_, brought
the usual sums given at that period. The old English
black-letter books, which were pretty thickly scattered
throughout the collection, were sold for exceedingly low
prices--if the copies were perfect. Witness the following:
£ _s._ _d._
The Newe Testament in English, 1500 0 2 9
The Ymage of both Churches, after the Revelation
of St. John, by Bale, 1550 0 1 6
The boke called the Pype or Tonne of Perfection,
by Richard Whytforde, 1553 0 1 9
The Visions of Pierce Plowman, 1561 0 2 0
The Creede of Pierce Plowman, 1532 0 1 6
The Bookes of Moses, in English, 1530 0 3 9
Bale's Actes of English Votaryes, 1550 0 1 3
The Boke of Chivalrie, by Caxton 0 11 0
The Boke of St. Alban's, by W. de Worde 1 1 0
These are only very few of the rare articles in English
literature; of the whole of which (perhaps upwards of 200 in
number) I believe the boke of St. Albans brought the highest
sum. Hence it will be seen that this was not the age of
curious research into the productions of our ancestors.
Shakspeare had not then appeared in a proper _variorum
edition_. Theobald, Pope, and Warburton, had not
investigated the =black-letter= lore of ancient English
writers for the illustration of their favourite author. This
was reserved for Capell, Farmer, Steevens, Malone, Chalmers,
Reed, and Douce: and it is expressly to these latter
gentlemen (for Johnson and Hanmer were very sparing, or very
shy, of the black-letter), that we are indebted for the
present spirit of research into the works of our ancestors.
The sale of the _books_ lasted 50 days. There was a second
sale of _pamphlets, books of prints, &c._, in the following
year, which lasted 10 days: and this was immediately
succeeded by a sale of the doctor's _single prints and
drawings_, which continued 8 days. Dr. Rawlinson's
benefactions to Oxford, besides his Anglo-Saxon endowment at
St. John's College, were very considerable; including,
amongst other curiosities, _a series of medals of the
Popes_, which the Doctor supposed to be one of the most
complete collections in Europe; and a great number of
valuable MSS., which he directed to be safely locked up, and
not to be opened till seven years after his decease. He died
on the 6th of April, 1755. To St. John's College, where he
had been a gentleman commoner, Dr. Rawlinson left the bulk
of his estate, amounting to near 700_l._ a year: _a plate of
Abp. Laud_, 31 volumes of _Parliamentary Journals and
Debates_, a set of _Rymer's Foedera_, his _Greek_,
_Roman_, and _English coins_, not given to the Bodleian
Library; all his plates engraved at the expense of the
Society of Antiquaries; his diploma, and his _heart_; which
latter is placed in a beautiful urn against the chapel wall,
with this inscription:
Urbi thesaurus, ibi cor.
RIC. RAWLINSON, LL.D. & ANT. S.S.
Olim hujus collegii superioris ordinis
commensalis.
Obiit. vi. Apr. MDCCLV.
Hearne speaks of him, in the preface of his _Tit. Liv. For.
Jul. vita Hen. V._, p. xvi., as "vir antiquis moribus
ornatus, perque eam viam euns, quæ ad immortalem gloriam
ducit."]
[Footnote 384: This gentleman's library, not so remarkable
for the black-letter as for whimsical publications, was sold
by auction, by Samuel Paterson (the earliest sale in which I
find this well known book-auctioneer engaged), in June,
1759, and the three ensuing evenings. The title of the Sale
Catalogue is as follows:----"_A Catalogue of the original
MSS. and manuscript collections of the late_ Reverend Mr.
JOHN HENLEY, A.M., Independent Minister of the Oratory, &c.,
in which are included sundry collections of the late Mons.
des Maizeaux, the learned editor of Bayle, &c., Mr. Lowndes,
author of the Report for the Amendment of Silver coins, &c.,
Dr. Patrick Blair, Physician at Boston, and F.R.S., &c.
Together with original letters and papers of State,
addressed to Henry d'Avenant, Esq., her Britannic Majesty's
Envoy at Francfort, from 1703 to 1708 inclusive." Few
libraries have contained more curious and remarkable
publications than did this. The following articles, given as
notable specimens, remind us somewhat of Addison's memoranda
for the Spectator, which the waiter at the coffee-house
picked up and read aloud for the amusement of the
company.----No. 166. God's Manifestation by a Star to the
Dutch. A mortifying Fast-Diet at Court. On the Birth Day of
the first and oldest young Gentleman. All corrupt: none
good; no, not one.----168. General Thumbissimo. The Spring
reversed, or the Flanderkin's Opera and Dutch Pickle
Herrings. The Creolean Fillip, or Royal Mishap. A Martial
Telescope, &c. England's Passion Sunday, and April
Changelings.----170. Speech upon Speech. A Telescope for
Tournay. No Battle, but worse, and the True Meaning of it.
An Army beaten and interred.----174. Signs when the P. will
come. Was Captain Sw-n, a Prisoner on Parole, to be
catechised? David's Opinion of like Times. The Seeds of the
plot may rise though the leaves fall. A Perspective, from
the Blair of Athol. The Pretender's Popery. Murder! Fire!
Where! Where!----178. Taking Carlise, catching an eel by the
tail. Address of a Bishop, Dean, and Clergy. Swearing to the
P----r, &c. Anathema denounced against those parents,
Masters, and Magistrates, that do not punish the Sin at
Stokesley. A Speech, &c. A Parallel between the Rebels to K.
Charles I. and those to his successor. _Jane Cameron_ looked
killing at _Falkirk_.----179. Let Stocks be knighted, write,
Sir Bank, &c., the Ramhead Month. A Proof that the Writers
against Popery, fear it will be established in this Kingdom.
A Scheme wisely blabbed to root and branch the Highlanders.
Let St. Patrick have fair Play, &c.----Of ORATOR HENLEY I
have not been able to collect any biographical details, more
interesting than those which are to be found in Warburton's
notes to Pope's Dunciad: He was born at Melton Mowbray, in
Leicestershire, in 1692, and was brought up at St. John's
College, in the University of Cambridge. After entering into
orders, he became a preacher in London, and established a
lecture on Sunday evenings, near Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and
another on Wednesday evenings, chiefly on political and
scientific subjects. Each auditor paid one shilling for
admission. "He declaimed," says Warburton, "against the
greatest persons, and occasionally did our poet (Pope) that
honour. When he was at Cambridge, he began to be uneasy; for
it shocked him to find he was commanded to believe against
his own judgment in points of religion, philosophy, &c.: for
his genius leading him freely to _dispute all propositions_,
and _call all points to account_, he was impatient under
those fetters of the free-born mind." When he was admitted
into priest's orders, he thought the examination so short
and superficial that he considered it "_not necessary to
conform to the Christian religion_, in order either to be a
deacon or priest." With these quixotic sentiments he came to
town; and "after having, for some years, been a writer for
the booksellers, he had an ambition to be so for ministers
of state." The only reason he did not rise in the church, we
are told, "was the envy of others, and a disrelish
entertained of him, because _he was not qualified to be a
complete spaniel_." However, he offered the service of his
pen to two great men, of opinions and interests directly
opposite: but being rejected by both of them, he set up a
new project, and styled himself, "_The restorer of ancient
eloquence._" Henley's pulpit, in which he preached, "was
covered with velvet, and adorned with gold." It is to this
that Pope alludes, in the first couplet of his second book
of the Dunciad:
High on a gorgeous seat, that far outshone
HENLEY'S _gilt tub_----
"He had also an altar, and placed over it this extraordinary
inscription, '_The primitive Eucharist._'" We are told by
his friend Welsted (narrative in Oratory Transact. No. 1)
that "he had the assurance to form a plan, which no mortal
_ever thought of_; he had success against all opposition;
challenged his adversaries to fair disputations, and _none
would dispute with him_: he wrote, read, and studied, twelve
hours a day; composed three dissertations a week on all
subjects; undertook to teach in _one year_ what schools and
universities teach in _five_: was not terrified by menaces,
insults, or satires; but still proceeded, matured his bold
scheme, and put the church and _all that in danger_!" See
note to Dunciad, book iii., v. 199. Pope has described this
extraordinary character with singular felicity of
expression:
But, where each science lifts its modern type,
Hist'ry her Pot, Divinity her Pipe,
While proud philosophy repines to shew,
Dishonest sight! his breeches rent below;
Imbrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands,
Tuning his voice and balancing his hands.
How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue!
How sweet the periods, neither said nor sung!
Still break the benches, Henley! with thy strain,
While SHERLOCK, HARE, and GIBSON, preach in vain.
Oh great restorer of the good old stage,
Preacher at once, and zany of thy age,
Oh worthy thou, of Egypt's wise abodes,
A decent priest, where monkeys were the gods!
But fate with butchers plac'd thy priestly stall,
Meek modern faith to murder, hack, and mawl;
And bade thee live, to crown Britannia's praise,
In TOLAND'S, TINDAL'S, and in WOOLSTON'S days.
_Dunciad_, b. iii., v. 190, &c.
Bromley, in his catalogue of engraved Portraits, mentions
_four_ of orator Henley: two of which are inscribed, one by
Worlidge "The Orator of Newport Market;" another (without
engraver's name) "A Rationalist." There is a floating story
which I have heard of Henley. He gave out that he would shew
a new and expeditious method of converting a pair of boots
into shoes. A great concourse of people attended, expecting
to see something very marvellous; when Henley mounted his
"tub," and, holding up a boot, he took a knife, and _cut
away the leg part of the leather_!]
There are, I had almost said, innumerable contemporaneous
bibliomaniacal characters to be described--or rather, lesser stars or
satellites that move, in their now unperceived orbits, around the
great planets of the book world--but, at this protracted hour of
discussion, I will not pretend even to mention their names.
LIS. Yet, go on--unless the female part of the audience be weary--go
on describing, by means of your great telescopic powers, every little
white star that is sprinkled in this bibliomaniacal _Via Lactea_![385]
[Footnote 385: With great submission to the "reminescential"
talents of Lysander, he might have devoted one _minute_ to
the commendation of the very curious library of JOHN HUTTON,
which was disposed of, by auction, in the same year (1764)
in which Genl. Dormer's was sold. Hutton's library consisted
almost entirely of _English Literature_: the rarest books in
which are printed in the italic type. When the reader is
informed that "_Robinsons Life, Actes, and Death of Prince
Arthur_," and his "_ancient order, societie, and unitie,
laudable of the same_," 1583, 4to. (see no. 2730;
concerning which my worthy friend, Mr. Haslewood, has
discoursed so accurately and copiously: _British
Bibliographer_, vol. i., pp. 109; 125), when he is informed
that this produced only 9_s._ 6_d._--that
"_Hypnerotomachia_," 1592, 4to. (no. 2755), was sold for
only 2_s._--the _Myrrour of Knighthood_, 1585, 4to. (no.
2759), only 5_s._--_Palmerin of England_, 3 pts. in 3 vols.
1602, 1639, 4to. (no. 2767), 14_s._--_Painter's Palace of
Pleasure_, 2 vols. in 1, 1566-7, 4to. (no. 2770)--when, I
say, the tender-hearted bibliomaniac thinks that all these
rare and precious black letter gems were sold, collectively,
for only 2_l._ 16_s._ 6_d._!--what must be his reproaches
upon the lack of spirit which was evinced at this sale!
Especially must his heart melt within him, upon looking at
the produce of some of these articles at the sale of George
Steevens' books, only 36 years afterwards! No depreciation
of money can account for this woful difference. I possess a
wretchedly priced copy of the _Bibl. Huttoniana_, which I
purchased, without title-page or a decent cover, at the sale
of Mr. Gough's books, for 11_s._ Lysander ought also to have
noticed in its chronological order, the extensive and truly
valuable library of ROBERT HOBLYN; the catalogue of which
was published in the year 1769, 8vo., in two parts: pp. 650.
I know not who was the author of the arrangement of this
collection; but I am pretty confident that the judicious
observer will find it greatly superior to every thing of its
kind, with hardly even the exception of the _Bibliotheca
Croftsiana_. It is accurately and handsomely executed, and
wants only an index to make it truly valuable. The
collection, moreover, is a very sensible one. My copy is
upon _large paper_; which is rather common.]
ALMAN. Upon my word, Lisardo, there is no subject however barren, but
what may be made fruitful by your metaphorical powers of imagination.
LIS. Madam, I entreat you not to be excursive. Lysander has taken a
fresh sip of his nectar, and has given a hem or two--preparing to
resume his narrative.
LYSAND. We have just passed over the bar that separates the one half
of the 18th century from the other: and among the ensuing eminent
collectors, whose brave fronts strike us with respect, is GENERAL
DORMER:[386] a soldier who, I warrant you, had faced full many a
cannon, and stormed many a rampart, with courage and success. But he
could not resist the raging influence of the Book-Mania: nor could all
his embrasures and entrenchments screen him from the attacks of this
insanity. His collection was both select and valuable.
[Footnote 386: "_A Catalogue of the genuine and elegant
Library of the late_ Sir C.C. DORMER, collected by
Lieutenant General James Dormer; which will be sold, &c., by
Samuel Baker, at his house in York-Street, Covent Garden; to
begin on Monday, February the 20th, 1764, and to continue
the nineteen following evenings." At the end of the
catalogue we are told that the books were "in general of the
best editions, and in the finest condition, many of them in
_large paper_, bound in morocco, gilt leaves," &c. This was
a very choice collection of books; consisting almost
entirely of French, Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish. The
number of articles did not exceed 3082; and of volumes,
probably not 7000. The catalogue is neatly printed, and
copies of it on _large paper_ are exceedingly scarce. Among
the most curious and valuable articles are the
following:----no. 599. Les Glorieuses Conquestes de Louis
le Grand, par Pontault, _en maroquin_. Paris, 1678. ("_N.B.
In this copy many very fine and rare portraits are added,
engraved by the most eminent masters._")----no. 604.
Recueil des Maisons Royales, fort bien gravés par Sylvestre,
&c. (N.B. In the book was the following note. "_Ce recueil
des Maisons Royales n'est pas seulement complet, en toutes
manières, mais on y a ajouté plusieurs plans, que l'on ne
trouvent que très rarement._")----no. 731. Fabian's
Chronicle, 1559.----752, Hall's ditto. 1548.----751.
Higden's Polychronicon. 1527. (I suspect that Dr. Askew
purchased the large paper Hutchinson's Xenophon, and
Hudson's Thucydides. nos. 2246, 2585.)----no. 2249.
Don Quixote, por Cervantes. Madr., 4to., 1605. In hoc libro
hæc nota est. "_Cecy est l'edition originale; il y a une
autre du mesme année, imprimée en quarto à Madrid, mais
imprimée apres cecy. J'ay veu l'autre, et je les ay comparez
avec deux autres editions du mesme année, 1605; une imprimée
à Lisbonne, en 4to., l'autre en Valentia, en_
8vo."----no. 2590. Thuanus by Buckley, on _large paper_,
in 14 volumes, folio; a magnificent copy, illustrated with
many beautiful and rare portraits of eminent characters,
mentioned by De Thou. (N.B. This very copy was recently sold
for 74_l._)----From no. 2680 to the end of the Catalogue
(401 articles) there appears a choice collection of Italian
and Spanish books.]
We have before noticed the celebrated diplomatic character, CONSUL
SMITH, and have spoken with due respect of his library: let us here,
therefore, pass by him,[387] in order to take a full and complete
view of a _Non-Pareil_ Collector: the first who, after the days of
Richard Smith, succeeded in reviving the love of black-letter lore and
of Caxtonian typography--need I say JAMES WEST?[388]
[Footnote 387: The reader has had a sufficiently particular
account of the book-collections of CONSUL SMITH, at p. 95,
ante, to render any farther discussion superfluous. As these
libraries were collected _abroad_, the catalogues of them
were arranged in the place here referred to.]
[Footnote 388: I am now to notice, in less romantic manner
than Lysander, a collection of books, in _English
Literature_, which, for rarity and value, in a proportionate
number, have never been equalled; I mean the library of
JAMES WEST, Esq., _President of the Royal Society_. The sale
commenced on March 29, 1773, and continued for the
twenty-three following days. The catalogue was digested by
Samuel Paterson, a man whose ability in such undertakings
has been generally allowed. The title was as follows:
"BIBLIOTHECA WESTIANA; _A Catalogue of the curious and truly
valuable library of the late_ JAMES WEST, Esq., _President
of the Royal Society, deceased_; comprehending a choice
collection of books in various languages, and upon most
branches of polite literature: more especially such as
relate to the history and antiquities of Great Britain and
Ireland; their early navigators, discoverers, and improvers,
and the _ancient English literature_: of which there are a
great number of uncommon books and tracts, elucidated by MS.
notes and original letters, and embellished with scarce
portraits and devices, rarely to be found: including the
works of Caxton, Lettou, Machlinia, the anonymous St. Albans
school-master, Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, and the rest of the
old English typographers. Digested by Samuel Paterson, and
sold by Messrs. Langfords." The title-page is succeeded by
the
PREFACE.
"The following catalogue exhibits a very curious and
uncommon collection of printed books and tracts. Of British
History and Antiquities, and of _Rare Old English
Literature_, the most copious of any which has appeared for
several years past; formed with great taste, and a thorough
knowledge of authors and characters, by that judicious
critic and able antiquary the late JAMES WEST, Esq.,
President of the Royal Society. Several anonymous writers
are herein brought to light--many works enlarged and further
explained by their respective authors and editors--and a far
greater number illustrated with the MS. notes and
observations of some of our most respectable antiquaries:
among whom will be found the revered names of Camden,
Selden, Spelman, Somner, Dugdale, Gibson, Tanner, Nicolson,
Gale, Le Neve, Hearne, Anstis, Lewis, St. Amand, Ames,
Browne, Willis, Stukely, Mr. West, &c. But, above all, the
intense application and unwearied diligence of the admirable
Bishop White Kennett, upon the ecclesiastical, monastical,
constitutional, and topographical history of Great Britain,
so apparent throughout this collection, furnish matter even
to astonishment; and are alone sufficient to establish the
reputation, and to perpetuate the memory, of this
illustrious prelate, without any other monuments of his
greatness." "In an age of general inquiry, like the present,
when studies less interesting give place to the most
laudable curiosity and thirst after investigating every
particular relative to the history and literature of our own
country, nothing less than an elaborate digest of this
valuable library could be expected; and, as a supplement to
the history of English literature, more desired." "That task
the Editor has cheerfully undertaken: and, he flatters
himself, executed as well as the short time allowed would
permit. He further hopes, to the satisfaction of such who
are capable of judging of its utility and importance." "The
lovers of engraved English portraits (a species of modern
connoisseurship which appears to have been first started by
the late noble Earl of Oxford, afterwards taken up by Mr.
West, Mr. Nicolls, editor of Cromwell's State-Papers, Mr.
Ames, &c., and since perfected by the Muse of
Strawberry-Hill, the Rev. Wm. Granger, and some few more
ingenious collectors) may here look to find a considerable
number of singular and scarce heads, and will not be
disappointed in their search." Thus much Paterson; who, it
must be confessed, has promised more than he has performed:
for the catalogue, notwithstanding it was the _second_ which
was published (the first being by a different hand, and most
barbarously compiled) might have exhibited better method and
taste in its execution. Never were rare and magnificent
books more huddled together and smothered, as it were, than
in this catalogue. Let us now proceed to an analysis of Mr.
West's Collection.
1. _Volumes of Miscellaneous Tracts._
These volumes extend from no. 148 to 200, from 915 to
992, from 1201 to 1330, and from no. 1401 to 1480.--Among
them are some singularly choice and curious articles. The
following is but an imperfect specimen.
NO. 154. Atkyns on Printing, _with the frontispiece_, &c.,
&c., 4to.
164. G. Whetstone's Honorable Profession of a Soldier, 1586,
&c., 4to.
179. Life and death of Wolsey, 1641, &c.
183. Nashe's Lenten Stuffe, with the Praise of the Red
Herring, 1599, &c. 4to. (the three articles together did not
exceed) £0 12_s._ 0_d._
188. A Mornynge Remembrance, had at the Moneth Mynde of the
Noble Prynces Countesse of Rychmonde, &c. Wynkyn de Worde,
&c. 4to. 2 2 0
194. Oh! read over Dr. John Bridges, for it is a worthie
Worke, &c. bl. letter, &c. 4to. Strange and fearful Newes
from Plasto, near Bow, in the house of one Paul Fox, a Silk
Weaver, where is daily to be seene throwing of Stones,
Bricbats, Oyster-shells, Bread, cutting his Work in Pieces,
breaking his Windows, &c. _No date_, 4to. 0 12 6
1477. Leylande's Journey and Serche, given of hym as a Newe
Yeares Gyfte to K. Henry 8th, enlarged by Bale, bl. letter,
1549, 8vo., (with three other curious articles.) 0 17 6
1480. A disclosing of the great Bull and certain Calves that
he hath gotten, and especially the Monster Bull that roared
at my Lord Byshop's gate. Bl. letter, pr. by Daye. No date.
4to.
The preceding affords but a very inadequate idea of the
"pithie, pleasant, and profitable" discourses mid tracts
which abounded among the miscellaneous articles of Mr.
West's library. Whatever be the defects of modern
literature, it must be allowed that we are not _quite so
coarse_ in the _title pages_ of our books.
2. _Divinity._
This comprehended a vast mass of information, under the
following general title. Scarce Tracts: Old and New
Testaments (including almost all the first English editions
of the New Testament, which are now of the rarest
occurrence): Commentators: Ecclesiastical History: Polemics:
Devotions, Catholic and Calvinistical: Enthusiasm:
Monastical History: Lives of Saints: Fathers: Missionaries:
Martyrs: Modern Divines and Persons of eminent piety: Free
Thinkers: Old English Primers: Meditations: Some of the
earliest Popish and Puritanical Controversy: Sermons by old
English Divines, &c. In the whole 560 articles: probably
about 1200 volumes. These general heads are sufficient to
satisfy the bibliographer that, with such an indefatigable
collector as was Mr. West, the greater part of the
theological books must have been extremely rare and curious.
From so _many Caxtons_, _Wynkyn de Wordes_, _Pynsons, &c._,
it would be difficult to select a _few_ which should give a
specimen of the value of the rest. Suffice it to observe
that such a cluster of _Black Letter Gems_, in this
department of English literature, has never since been seen
in any sale catalogue.
3. _Education, Languages, Criticism, Classics, Dictionaries,
Catalogues of Libraries, &c._
There were about 700 volumes in these departments. The
catalogues of English books, from that of Maunsell in 1595,
to the latest before Mr. West's time, were nearly complete.
The treatises on education, and translations of the ancient
classics, comprehended a curious and uncommon collection.
The Greek and Latin Classics were rather select than rare.
4. _English Poetry, Romances, and Miscellanies._
This interesting part of the collection comprehended about
355 articles, or probably about 750 volumes: and, if the
singularly rare and curious books which may be found _under
these heads alone_ were now to be concentrated in one
library, the owner of them might safely demand 4000 guineas
for such a treasure! I make no doubt but that his MAJESTY is
the fortunate possessor of the greater number of articles
under all the foregoing heads.
5. _Philosophy, Mathematics, Inventions, Agriculture, and
Horticulture, Medicine, Cookery, Surgery, &c._
Two hundred and forty articles, or about 560 volumes.
6. _Chemistry, Natural History, Astrology, Sorcery,
Gigantology._
Probably not more than 100 volumes. The word "Gigantology,"
first introduced by Mr. Paterson, I believe, into the
English language, was used by the French more than two
centuries ago. See no. 2198 in the catalogue.
7. _History and Antiquities._
This comprehended a great number of curious and valuable
productions, relating both to foreign and domestic
transactions.
8. _Heraldry and Genealogy._
An equal number of curious and scarce articles may be found
under these heads.
9. _Antient Legends and Chronicles._
To the English antiquary, few departments of literature are
more interesting than this. Mr. West seems to have paid
particular attention to it, and to have enriched his library
with many articles of this description of the rarest
occurrence. The lovers of Caxton, Fabian, Hardyng, Hall,
Grafton, and Holinshed, may be highly gratified by
inspecting the various editions of these old chroniclers. I
entreat the diligent bibliographer to examine the first 8
articles of page 209 of the catalogue. Alas! when will such
gems again glitter at one sale? The fortunate period for
collectors is gone by: a knowledge of books almost every
where prevails. At York, at Exeter, at Manchester, and at
Bristol, as well as in London, this knowledge may be found
sometimes on the dusty stall, as well as in the splendid
shop. The worth of books begins to be considered by a
different standard from that of the quantity of gold on the
exterior! We are now for "_drinking deep_," as well as
"_tasting_!" But I crave pardon for this digression, and
lose sight of Mr. West's _uniques_.
10. _Topography._
Even to a veteran like the late Mr. Gough, such a collection
as may be found from p. 217 to 239 of the catalogue, would
be considered a very first-rate acquisition. I am aware that
the Gothic wainscot and stained glass windows of _Enfield
Study_ enshrined a still more exquisite topographical
collection! But we are improved since the days of Mr. West;
and every body knows to _whom_ these improvements are, in a
great measure, to be attributed! When I call to mind the
author of "_British Topography_" and "_Sepulchral
Monuments_," I am not insensible to the taste, diligence,
and erudition of the "par nobile fratrum," who have
gratified us with the "_Environs of London_," and the three
volumes of "_Magna Britannia_!" Catalogues of Mr. West's
library, with the sums for which the books were sold, are
now found with difficulty, and bring a considerable price.
The late Mr. G. Baker, who had a surprisingly curious
collection of priced catalogues, was in possession of the
_original sale_ one of West's library. It is interleaved,
and, of course, has the prices and names of the purchasers.
Mr. Heber has also a priced copy, with the names, which was
executed by my industrious and accurate predecessor, William
Herbert, of typographico-antiquarian renown. The number of
articles, on the whole, was 4653; and of the volumes as many
articles were single, probably about 8000. _Ample_ as some
"pithy" reader may imagine the foregoing analysis to be, I
cannot find it in my heart to suffer such a collection, as
was the _Bibliotheca Westiana_, to be here dismissed in so
_summary_ a manner. Take, therefore, "pleasaunt" reader, the
following account of the _prices_ for which some of the
aforesaid book-gems were sold. They are presented to thee as
a matter of curiosity only; and not as a criterion of their
present value. And as MASTER CAXTON has of late become so
popular amongst us, we will see, inter alios, what some of
the books printed by so "simple a person" produced at this
renowned sale.
NO. 564. Salesbury (Wyllyam) his Dictionary in Englyshe and
Welshe, moste necessary to all such Welshemen as wil spedly
learne the English tongue, &c. _Printed by Waley_, 1547,
4to. £0 17_s._ 0_d._
566. Mulcaster (Rich.) of the right writing of our English
Tung. _Imp. by Vautrollier_, 1582, 4to. 0 2 6
575. Florio's Frutes to be gathered of 12 trees of divers
but delyghtfule tastes to the Tongues of Italians and
Englishmen, also his Garden of Recreation, &c., 1591, 4to. 0
6 6
580. Eliot's Indian Grammar, _no title_. 0 4 0
Thus much for GRAMMATICAL TRACTS.
808. The fyve Bokes of Moses, wythe the Prologes of Wyllyam
Tyndale, b.b. 1534, _printed in different characters at
different periods_, 8vo. 4 4 0
813. The Actes of the Apostles translated into Englyshe
metre, by Chrystofer Tye, Doctor in musyke, with notes to
synge, and also to play upon the lute. _Printed by Seres_,
1553, 12mo. 0 11 6
819. The Newe Testament, with the Prologes of Wyllyam
Tyndale, cuts, printed at Andwarp, &c., 1534, 12mo. 0 18 0
820. The same, with the same cuts, emprynted at Antwerpe, by
M. Crom, 1538, _a fine copy, in morocco binding_ (title
wanting). 2 4 0
1341. The Gospels of the fower Evangelists, translated in
the olde Saxons Tyme, &c. Sax. and Eng. Imprinted by Daye,
1571, 4to. 1 12 0
1383. The Discipline of the Kirk of Scotlande, subscribet by
the Handes off Superintendentes, one parte off Ministers,
and scribet in oure generalle Assemblies ad Edenbourg, 28
Decemb., 1566. _No title._ 4to. 1 3 0
1714. The most sacred Bible, recognised with great diligence
by Richard Taverner, &c., _printed by Byddell for Barthelet,
1539, in russia_. 3 5 0
1716. The Byble in Englyshe of the largest and greatest
volume, &c. _Printed by Grafton_, 1541, Folio. 1 3 0
1870. Speculum Vite Christi, the Booke that is cleped the
Myrroure of the blessed Lyf of Jhesu Cryste, _emprynted by
Caxton_, fol., _no date, fine copy in morocco_. 9 9 0
1871. The prouffytable Boke for Mannes Soule, &c.,
_emprynted by Caxton_, fol., no date, a fine copy in
morocco. 5 0 0
1873. Cordyale, or of the fowre last Thynges, &c.,
_emprynted by Caxton_, 1480, fol., _fine copy in morocco_.
14 0 0
1874. The Pylgremage of the Sowle, &c., 1483, folio,
_emprynted by Caxton_. 8 17 6
1875. The Booke entytled and named Ryal, &c., _translated
and printed by Caxton_, 1484, _fine morocco copy_. 10 0 0
1876. The Arte and Crafte to knowe well to dye; _translated
and prynted by Caxton_, 1490, folio. 5 2 6
So take we leave of DIVINITY!
1047. Hall's Virgidemiarum, lib. vi. 1599, 1602, 12mo. "Mr.
Pope's copy, who presented it to Mr. West, telling him that
he esteemed them the best poetry and truest satire in the
English language." (N.B. These satires were incorrectly
published in 1753, 8vo.: a republication of them, with
pertinent notes, would be very acceptable.) 0 18 0
1658. Churchyard's Works; 3 vols. in 1, _very elegant_, bl.
letter. 3 13 6
1816. The Passe Tyme of Pleasure, &c., _printed by Wynkyn de
Worde_, 1517, 4to., fine copy. 3 3 0
1821. Merie conceited Jests of George Peele, Gent. 1607,
4to. Robin the Devil, his two penni-worth of Wit in half a
penni-worth of paper, &c., 1607, 4to. 0 18 6
1846. The Hye Waye to the Spyttell Hous; printed by the
compyler Rob. Copland, no date. 0 6 6
1847. Another copy of the Spyttell House; "A thousande fyve
hundredth fortye and foure," no printer's name, mark, or
date, 4to. Here begynneth a lytell propre Jest, called
Cryste Crosse me spede, a b c. 1 11 6
2274. Chaucer's Work; first edition, _emprentyd by Caxton_,
folio, _in russia_. 47 15 6
2280. ---- Troylus and Creseyde, _printed b [Transcriber's
Note: by] Caxton_, folio. 10 10 0
2281. ---- Booke of Fame, _printed by Caxton_, folio. 4 5 0
2297. Gower de Confessione Amantis; _printed by Caxton_,
1483, folio, _in morocco_. 9 9 0
2282. The Bokys of Haukyng and Hunting; _printed at Seynt
Albons_, 1486, _folio: fine copy in morocco_. 13 0 0
And here farewell POETRY!
1678. The Booke of the moste victoryouse Prynce, Guy of
Warwick. _Impr. by W. Copland_, 4to. 1 1 0
1683. The Historye of Graunde Amoure and la bell Pucel, &c.
_Impr. by John Wayland_, 1554, 4to. 1 2 0
1685. The Historye of Olyver of Castylle, &c. _Impr. by
Wynkyn de Worde_, 1518, 4to. 1 12 0
1656. The Booke of the Ordre of Chyvalry or Knyghthode.
_Translated and printed by William Caxton_; no date, a fine
copy in russia, 4to. 5 5 0
(Shall I put one, or one hundred marks--not of admiration
but of astonishment--at this price?! but go on kind reader!)
2480. The Boke of Jason: _emprynted by Caxton_, folio. 4 4 0
2481. The Boke of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyvalrye,
_emprynted by Caxton_, 1489, folio. 10 10 0
2582. Thystorye, &c., of the Knyght Parys, and of the fayre
Vyenne, &c. 1485, fol., _translated and printed by Caxton_.
14 0 0
[Illustration: CAXTON.]
But why should I go on tantalising the S----s, H----s,
S----s, R----s, and U----s, of the day, by further specimens
of the _enormous_ sums here given for such _common_ editions
of old ROMANCES? Mr. George Nicol, his majesty's bookseller,
told me, with his usual pleasantry and point, that he got
abused in the public papers, by Almon and others, for his
having purchased nearly the whole of the Caxtonian volumes
in this collection for his Majesty's library. It was said
abroad that "a Scotchman had lavished away the king's money
in buying old black-letter books." A pretty specimen of
_lavishing_ away royal money, truly! There is also another
thing, connected with these _invaluable_ (I speak as a
bibliomaniac--and, perhaps, as a metaphysician may think--as
a fool! but let it pass!) with these invaluable
purchases:--his Majesty, in his directions to Mr. Nicol,
forbade any competition with those purchasers who wanted
books of science and belles-lettres for their _own
professional_ or _literary_ pursuits: thus using, I ween,
the powers of his purse in a manner at once merciful and
wise.--"O si sic"--may we say to many a heavy-metalled
book-auction bibliomaniac of the present day!--Old Tom
Payne, the father of the respectable Mr. Payne, of
Pall-Mall, used to tell Mr. Nichol--_pendente hastâ_--that
he had been "raising all the CAXTONS!" "Many a copy," quoth
he, "hath _stuck_ in my shop at two guineas!" Mr. NICHOLS,
in his amusing biography of Bowyer, has not devoted so large
a portion of his pages to the description of Mr. West's
collection, life, and character, as he has to many
collectors who have been less eminently distinguished in the
bibliographical world. Whether this was the result of the
paucity, or incongruity, of his materials, or whether, from
feelings of delicacy he might not choose to declare all he
knew, are points into which I have neither right nor
inclination to enquire. There seems every reason to conclude
that, from youth, West had an elegant and well-directed
taste in matters of literature and the fine arts. As early
as the year 1720, he shewed the munificence of his
disposition, in these respects, by befriending Hearne with a
plate for his _Antiquities of Glastonbury_; see p.
285--which was executed, says Hearne, "Sumptibus ornatissimi
amicissimique Juvenis (multis sane nominibus de studiis
nostris optime meriti) JACOBI WEST," &c. So in his pref. to
_Adam de Domerham de reb. gest. Glaston_:--"antiquitatum ac
historiarum nostrarum studiosus in primis--Jacobus West." p.
xx. And in his _Walter Hemingford_, we have:--"fragmentum,
ad civitatem Oxoniensem pertinens, admodum egregium, mihi
dono dedit amicus eximius Jacobus West--is quem alibi
juvenem ornatissimum appellavi," &c., p. 428. How the
promise of an abundant harvest, in the mature years of so
excellent a young man, was realized, the celebrity of West,
throughout Europe, to his dying day, is a sufficient
demonstration. I conclude with the following; which is
literally from Nichols's _Anecdotes of Bowyer_. "James West,
of Alscott, in the county of Warwick, Esq., M.A., of Baliol
College, Oxford, (son of Richard West, said to be descended,
according to family tradition, from Leonard, a younger son
of Thomas West, Lord Delawar, who died in 1525) was
representative in parliament for St. Alban's, in 1741; and
being appointed one of the joint Secretaries of the
Treasury, held that office till 1762. In 1765 or 1766, his
old patron the Duke of Newcastle, obtained for him a pension
of 2000_l._ a year. He was an early member, and one of the
Vice Presidents, of the Antiquary Society; and was first
Treasurer, and afterwards President, of the Royal Society.
He married the daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Stephens,
timber merchant, in Southwark, with whom he had a large
fortune in houses in Rotherhithe; and by whom he had a son,
James West, Esq., now (1782) of Alscott, one of the Auditors
of the Land-Tax, and sometime Member of Parliament for
Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire (who in 1774 married the
daughter of Christopher Wren, of Wroxhall in Warwickshire,
Esq.), and had two daughters. Mr. West died in July, 1772.
His large and valuable collection of MANUSCRIPTS was sold to
the _Earl of Shelburne_, and is now deposited in the British
Museum."]
LOREN. All hail to thee--transcendant bibliomaniac of other times!--of
times, in which my father lived, and procured, at the sale of thy
precious book-treasures, not a few of those rare volumes which have so
much gladdened the eyes of Lisardo.
BELIN. I presume you mean, dear brother, some of those _black-looking_
gentlemen, bound in fancifully marked coats of morocco, and _washed_
and _ironed_ within (for you collectors must have recourse to a
woman's occupation) with so much care and nicety that even the eyes
of our ancient Rebecca, with "spectacle on nose" to boot, could hardly
detect the cunning' conceit of your binder!
LOREN. Spare my feelings and your own reputation, if you wish to
appreciate justly the noble craft of book-repairing, &c.--But proceed,
dear Lysander.
LYSAND. You cannot have a greater affection towards the memory of the
collector of the _Bibliotheca Westiana_ than myself. Hark--! or is it
only a soft murmur from a congregation of autumnal zephyrs!--but
methought I heard a sound, as if calling upon us to look well to the
future fate of our libraries--to look well to their being _creditably
catalogued_--"For" (and indeed it _is_ the voice of West's spirit that
speaks) "my collection was barbarously murdered; and hence I am doomed
to wander for a century, to give warning to the ----, ----, and ----,
of the day, to execute this useful task with their own hands! Yes;
even the name of PATERSON has not saved my collection from censure;
but his hands were then young and inexperienced--yet I suffer from
this innocent error!" Away, away, vexed spirit--and let thy head rest
in peace beneath the sod!
ALMAN. For heaven's sake, into what society are we introduced, sister?
All mad--book mad! but I hope harmless.
LYSAND. Allay your apprehensions; for, though we may have the
energies of the lion, we have the gentleness of the "unweaned lamb."
But, in describing so many and such discordant characters, how can I
proceed in the jog-trot way of--"next comes such a one--and then
follows another--and afterwards proceeds a third, and now a fourth!?"
ALMAN. Sir, you are right, and I solicit your forgiveness. If I have
not sufficient bookish enthusiasm to fall down and worship your
CAXTONIAN DEITY, JAMES WEST, I am at least fully disposed to concede
him every excellent and amiable quality which sheds lustre upon a
literary character.
LYSAND. All offence is expiated: for look, the spirit walks off
calmly--and seems to acknowledge, with satisfaction, such proper
sentiments in the breast of one whose father and brother have been
benefited by his book treasures.
The rapturous, and, I fear you will think, the wild and incoherent,
manner in which I have noticed the sale of the _Bibliotheca Westiana_
had nearly driven from my recollection that, in the preceding, the
same, and subsequent, year, there was sold by auction a very curious
and extraordinary collection of books and Prints belonging to honest
TOM MARTIN,[389] _of Palgrave_, in Suffolk: a collector of whom, if I
remember rightly, Herbert has, upon several occasions, spoken with a
sort of veneration. If Lavater's system of physiognomy happen to
receive your approbation, you will conclude, upon contemplating Tom's
frank countenance--of which a cut precedes the title-page of the first
catalogue--that the collector of Palgrave must have been "a fine old
fellow." Martin's book-pursuits were miscellaneous, and perhaps a
little too wildly followed up; yet some good fortune contributed to
furnish his collection with volumes of singular curiosity.
[Footnote 389: "Hereafter followeth" rather a rough outline
of the contents of honest Tom Martin's miscellaneous and
curious collection. To the IVth part I have added a few
prices, and but a few. I respect too much the quiet and
comfort of the present race of bibliomaniacs, to inflame
their minds by a longer extract of such tantalizing sums
given for some of the most extraordinary volumes in English
Literature.----I. _A Catalogue of the Library of_ Mr. THOMAS
MARTIN, _of Palgrave, in Suffolk, lately deceased. Lynn,
Printed by W. Whittingham_, 1772, 8vo. With a portrait
engraved by Lamborn, from a painting of Bardwell. 5240
articles; with 15 pages of Appendix, containing
MSS.----no. 86. Juliana Barnes on Hawking, &c.,
black-letter, wants a leaf, folio. 56. Chauncey's History of
Hertfordshire, with marginal notes, by P. Le Neve, Esq.,
1700, folio. 757. Scriptores Rerum Brunsvicensium, 3 vols.
folio, 1707. ("N.B. Only 3 sets in England at the accession
of Geo. III.")----II. _A Catalogue of the very curious and
numerous collection of Manuscripts of_ THOMAS MARTIN, Esq.,
_of Suffolk, lately deceased_. Consisting of Pedigrees,
Genealogies, Heraldic Papers, Old Deeds, Charters, Sign
Manuals, Autographs, &c., likewise some very rare old
printed books. Sold by auction by Baker and Leigh, April 28,
1773, 8vo. The MSS. (of many of which Edmonson was a
purchaser) consisted of 181 articles, ending with "The 15
O's, in old English verse--St. Bridget." Among the 19
volumes only of "Scarce Printed Books" were the
following:--no. 188. Edwards' Paradyse of daynty Devices,
1577. 196. The Holy Life of Saynt Werburge, printed by
Pynson, 1521. The Lyfe of Saynte Radegunde, by Pynson. Lyfe
of Saynt Katherine, printed by Waley, 4to.----III. _A
Catalogue of the remaining Part of the valuable Collection
of the late well known Antiquary_, Mr. MARTIN, _of Palgrave,
Suffolk_: consisting of many very valuable and ancient
Manuscripts on vellum, early printed black-letter Books, and
several other scarce Books; his Law Library, Deeds, Grants,
and Pedigrees; a valuable collection of Drawings and Prints,
by the best masters--and his Collection of Greek, Roman,
Saxon, and English Coins--with some curiosities. Sold by
auction by Baker and Leigh, 18th May, 1774. 8vo. This
collection consisted of 537 articles, exclusively of the
coins, &c., which were 75 in number. Among the printed books
were several very curious ones; such as----no. 88. The
Death and Martyrdom of Campione the Jesuite, 1581, 8vo. 124.
Heywood's "If you know not me, you know nobody," 1623, 4to.
"This has a wood-cut of the whole length of Q. Elizabeth,
and is very scarce." 183. Fabyan's Chronicle. This I take it
was the first edition. 186. Promptuarium Parvulorum. Pynson,
folio, 1499. See Hearne's Peter Langtoft, vol. ii., 624-5.
228. Dives et Pauper; yis Tretyys ben dyvydit into elevene
partys, and ev'ry part is dyvidit into chapitalis. "The
above extremely curious and valuable Manuscript on vellum is
wrote on 539 pages. Vide Leland, vol. ii., 452: Bale, 609.
Pits, 660. MS., 4to." 236. Original Proclamations of Q.
Elizabeth, folio. "A most rare collection, and of very great
value: the Earl of Oxford once offered Mr. Martin one
hundred guineas for them, which he refused." Qu. what they
sold for? 237. The Pastyme of the People; the Cronycles of
dyvers Realmys, and most specyally of the Realme of Englond,
&c., by John Rastell. An elegant copy, in the original
binding, large folio, black-letter, London, 1529. "Supposed
to be only two or three copies existing;" but see page 337,
ante. The folio Manuscripts, extending to no. 345, are
very curious; especially the first 60 numbers.----IV.
_Bibliotheca Martiniana. A Catalogue of the entire Library
of the late eminent Antiquary_ Mr. THOMAS MARTIN, _of
Suffolk_. Containing some thousand volumes in every
Language, Art, and Science, a large collection of the
scarcest early Printers, and some hundreds of Manuscripts,
&c., which will begin to be sold very cheap, on Saturday,
June 5 (1773). By Martin Booth and John Berry, Booksellers,
at their Warehouse in the Angel Yard, Market Place, Norwich,
and continue on sale only two months: 8vo. This Catalogue is
full of curious, rare, and interesting books; containing
4895 articles; all priced. Take, as a sample, the following:
NO. 4071. Wynkyn de Worde's reprint of Juliana Berners' book
of Hawking, &c., 1496, folio, 1_l._ 11_s._ 6_d._: no.
4292. Copland's ditto of ditto, fair 7_s._ 6_d._
4099. A collection of Old Romances in the Dutch Language,
with wood-cuts, very fair, 1544 to 1556, folio 10 6
4169. Horace's Art of poetry, by Drant, 1567, 4to. 3 6
4234. A certayne Tragedye, &c., entitled, Freewil, wants
title, very fair and scarce, 4to. 5 0
4254. Historie of Prince Arthur and his Knights of the Round
Table, 1634, 4to. 7 6
4336. The Life off the 70 Archbishopp off Canterbury
presentlye sittinge, &c. Imprinted in 1574, 8vo., neat 10 6
A severe satire against Parker, Abp. of Canterbury, for
which 'tis said the author was punished with the loss of his
arm.
4345. Amorous Tales, by James Sanforde, very rare, printed
by Bynneman, 1567, 12mo. (or small 8vo. perhaps) 5 0
4432. Hereafter followeth a little boke whyche hath to name
Whye come ye not to court: by Mayster Skelton; printed by
Anthony Kytson, no date. A little boke of Philip Sparrow,
compiled by Mayster Skelton; printed by Ant. Veale, no date,
very fair, both 8vo. 7 6
"This is a most extraordinarily scarce edition of Skelton's
Pieces, and has besides these, some other fragments of his
by various early printers."]
But I proceed. The commotions excited in the book world, by means of
the sales of the _Bibliotheca Westiana_ and _Martiniana_, had hardly
ceased, when a similar agitation took place from the dispersion of the
_Monastic Library_ which once belonged to SERJEANT FLETEWODE;[390] a
bibliomaniac who flourished in full vigour during the reign of
Elizabeth. The catalogue of these truly curious books is but a sorry
performance; but let the lover of rare articles put on his bathing
corks, and swim quietly across this ocean of black-letter, and he will
be abundantly repaid for the toil of such an aquatic excursion.
[Footnote 390: The year following the sale of Mr. West's
books, a very curious and valuable collection, chiefly of
English literature, was disposed of by auction, by Paterson,
who published the catalogue under the following title:
"BIBLIOTHECA MONASTICO-FLETEWODIANA." "_A Catalogue of rare
books and tracts in various languages and faculties;
including the Ancient Conventual Library of Missenden Abbey,
in Buckinghamshire_; together with some choice remains of
that of the late eminent Serjeant at Law, WILLIAM FLETEWODE,
Esq., Recorder of London, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth;
among which are several specimens of the earliest
typography, foreign and English, including Caxton, Wynkyn de
Worde, Pynson, and others: a fine collection of English
history, some scarce old law books, a great number of old
English plays, several choice MSS. upon vellum, and other
subjects of literary curiosity. Also several of the best
editions of the classics, and modern English and French
books. Sold by auction by S. Paterson, December," 1774,
8vo., 3641 lots, or articles. I am in possession of a
_priced catalogue_ of this collection, with the names of the
purchasers. The latter were principally Herbert, Garrick,
Dodd, Elmsley, T. Payne, Richardson, Chapman, Wagstaff,
Bindley, and Gough. The following is a specimen of some
curious and interesting articles contained in this
celebrated library:
NO. 172. Bale's brefe Chronycle relating to Syr Johan
Oldecastell, 1544. The Life off the 70th Archbishop off
Canterbury, presentlye sittinge, 1574, &c. Life of Hen.
Hills, Printer to O. Cromwell, with the Relation of what
passed between him and the Taylor's Wife in Black Friars,
1688, 8vo., &c. £0 7_s._ 9_d._
Purchased by Mores.
361 to 367. Upwards of thirty _scarce Theological Tracts_,
in Latin and English. 1 5 0
746 to 784. A fine collection of early English Translations,
in black letter, with some good foreign editions of the
classics. Not exceeding, in the whole 10 10 0
837, 838. Two copies of the _first edition_ of Bacon's
Essays, 1597. MIRABILE DICTU! 0 0 6
The reader will just glance at no. 970, in the catalogue,
en passant, to
1082. (1_l._ 2_s._) and 1091 (12_s._) but more particularly
to
1173. The Boke of Tulle of Olde Age, &c. _Emprynted by
Caxton_, 1481, folio 8 0 0
1174. The Boke which is sayd or called Cathon, &c. _printed
by the same_, 1483, folio. Purchased by Alchorne 5 0 0
1256. The Doctrinal of Sapyence, _printed by the same_,
1489, folio. Purchased by Alchorne 6 6 0
1257. The Booke named the Cordyal, _printed by the same_,
1479, folio 6 12 6
But there is no end to these curious volumes. I will,
however, only add that there were upwards of 150 articles of
_Old Plays_, mostly in quarto. See page 73. Of
_Antiquities_, _Chronicles_, and _Topography_, it would be
difficult to pitch upon the rarest volumes. The collection,
including very few MSS., contained probably about 7000
volumes. The catalogue, in a clean condition, is somewhat
uncommon.]
You will imagine that the BOOK-DISEASE now began to be more active and
fatal than ever; for the ensuing year (namely, in 1775) died the
famous ANTHONY ASKEW, M.D. Those who recollect the zeal and
scholarship of this illustrious bibliomaniac,[391] and the precious
volumes with which his library was stored, from the choice
collections of De Boze, Gaignat, Mead, and Folkes, cannot but sigh,
with grief of heart, on reflecting upon such a victim! How ardently,
and how kindly (as I remember to have heard one of his intimate friend
[Transcriber's Note: friends] say) would Askew unlock the stores of
his glittering book-treasures!--open the magnificent folio, or the
shining duodecimo, _printed upon vellum_, and embossed with golden
knobs, or held fast with silver clasps! How carefully would he unrol
the curious _manuscript_, decipher the half effaced characters--and
then, casting an eye of ecstacy over the shelves upon which similar
treasures were lodged, exult in the glorious prospect before him! But
death--who, as Horace tells us, equally exercises the knocker of the
palace and cottage-door, made no scruple to rap at that of our
renowned Doctor--when Askew, with all his skill in medicine and
knowledge of books, yielded to the summons of the grim tyrant--and
died lamented, as he lived beloved!
[Footnote 391: Lysander is now arrived, pursuing his
chronological order, at a very important period in the
annals of book-sales. The name and collection of Dr. ASKEW
are so well known in the bibliographical world that the
reader need not be detained with laboured commendations on
either: in the present place, however, it would be a cruel
disappointment not to say a word or two by way of preface or
prologue. Dr. ANTHONY ASKEW had eminently distinguished
himself by a refined taste, a sound knowledge, and an
indefatigable research, relating to every thing connected
with Grecian and Roman literature. It was to be expected,
even during his life, as he was possessed of sufficient
means to gratify himself with what was rare, curious, and
beautiful, in literature and the fine arts, that the public
would one day be benefited by such pursuits: especially as
he had expressed a wish that his treasures might be
unreservedly submitted to sale, after his decease. In this
wish the doctor was not singular. Many eminent collectors
had indulged it before him: and, to my knowledge, many
modern ones still indulge it. Accordingly, on the death of
Dr. Askew, in 1774, appeared, in the ensuing year, a
catalogue of his books for sale, by Messrs. Baker and Leigh,
under the following title: "BIBLIOTHECA ASKEVIANA, _sive
Catalogus Librorum Rarissimorum Antonii Askew, M.D., quorum
Auctio fiet apud S. Baker et G. Leigh, in Vico dicto York
Street, Covent Garden, Londini, Die Lunæ, 13 Februarii_,
MDCCLXXV, _et in undeviginti sequentes dies_." A few copies
were struck off on _large paper_, which are yet rather
common. My own copy is of this kind, with the prices, and
names of the purchasers. We are told, by the compiler of the
catalogue, that it was thought "unnecessary to say much with
respect to this library of the late Dr. Anthony Askew, as
the collector and the collection were so well known in
almost all parts of Europe." Afterwards it is observed that
"The books in general are in very fine condition, many of
them bound in morocco, and russia leather, with gilt
leaves." "To give a particular account," continues the
compiler, "of the _many scarce editions_ of books in this
catalogue would be almost endless, therefore the _first
editions_ of the classics, and some _extremely rare books_,
are chiefly noticed. The catalogue, without any doubt,
contains the best, rarest, and most valuable collection of
GREEK and LATIN BOOKS that was ever sold in England, and the
great time and trouble of forming it will, it is hoped, be a
sufficient excuse for the price put to it." (1_s._ 6_d._ the
small paper, and 4_s._ the large.) This account is not
overcharged. The collection in regard to Greek and Roman
literature was _unique_ in its day. Enriched with many a
tome from the Harleian, Dr. Mead's, Martin Folkes's, and Dr.
Rawlinson's library, as well as with numerous rare and
splendid articles from foreign collections (for few men
travelled with greater ardour, or had an acuter
discrimination than Dr. Askew), the books were sought after
by almost every one then eminent for bibliographical
research. HIS MAJESTY was a purchaser, says Mr. J. Nichols,
to the amount of about 300_l._; Dr. Hunter, to the amount of
500_l._; and De Bure (who had commissions from the King of
France and many foreign collectors, to the amount of
1500_l._) made purchases to the same amount; Dr. Maty was
solicited by the trustees of the British Museum not to be
unmindful of _that repository_; and accordingly he became a
purchaser to a considerable amount. The late worthy and
learned Mr. M. CRACHERODE, whose library now forms one of
the most splendid acquisitions of the British Museum, and
whose _bequest_ of it will immortalize his memory, was also
among the "Emptores literarii" at this renowned sale. He had
enriched his collection with many an "_Exemplar
Askevianum_;" and, in his latter days, used to elevate his
hands and eyes, and exclaim against the prices _now_ offered
for EDITIONES PRINCIPES. The fact is, Dr. Askew's sale has
been considered a sort of _era_ in bibliography. Since that
period, rare and curious books in Greek and Latin literature
have been greedily sought after, and obtained (as a recent
sale abundantly testifies) at most extravagant prices. It is
very well for a veteran in bibliographical literature, as
was Mr. Cracherode, or as are Mr. Wodhull, and Dr.
Gosset--whose collections were, in part, formed in the days
of De Bure, Gaignat, Askew, Duke de la Valliere, and
Lamoignon--it is very well for such gentlemen to declaim
against _modern prices_! But what is to be done? Classical
books grow scarcer every day, and the love of literature,
and of possessing rare and interesting works, increases in
an equal ratio. Hungry bibliographers meet, at sales, with
well-furnished purses, and are resolved upon sumptuous fare!
Thus the hammer _vibrates_, after a bidding of FORTY POUNDS,
where formerly it used regularly to _fall_ at FOUR! But we
lose sight of Dr. Askew's _rare editions_, and _large paper
copies_. The following, gentle reader, is but an imperfect
specimen!
NO. 168. Chaucer's Works, by _Pynson_, no date £7 17_s._
6_d._
172. Cicero of Old Age, by Caxton, 1481 13 13 0
518. Gilles (Nicole) Annales, &c., de France. Paris, fol.
1520, 2 tom. SUR VELIN 31 10 6
647. Æginetæ (Pauli) Præcepta Salubria; Paris, quarto, 1510.
On VELLUM 11 0 0
666. Æsopi Fabulæ. _Edit. Princeps circ._ 1483 6 6 0
684. Boccacio, il Teseide, _Ferar._, 1475. _Prima Edizione_
85 0 0
[This copy, which is called, "_probably unique_," was once,
I suspect, in Consul Smith's library. See _Bibl. Smith_, p.
lxiii. The reader will find some account of it in Warton's
History of Engl. Poetry, vol. i., 347. It was printed, as
well as the subsequent editions of 1488, and 1528, "with
some deviations from the original, and even
misrepresentations of the story." His majesty was the
purchaser of this precious and uncommon book.]
708. Cornelius Nepos, 1471. _Edit. Prin._ 11 11 0
713. Alexander de Ales, super tertium Sententiar. 1474, ON
VELLUM 15 15 0
817. Anthologia Græca. _Edit. Prin._ 1494, ON VELLUM 28 7 0
In Dr. Hunter's Museum.
856. Ammianus Marcellinus, 1474. _Edit. Prin._ 23 0 0
1332. Ciceronis Opera omnia, Oliveti, 9 vols. quarto, 1740,
_Charta Maxima_ 36 15 0
1389. Ejusdem Officia, 1465. _Edit. Prin._ 30 0 0
1433. Catullus, Tibullus, et Propertius; Aldi, 8vo., 1502.
IN MEMBRANIS 17 10 0
This copy was purchased by the late Mr. M.C. Cracherode, and
is now, with his library, in the British Museum. It is a
beautiful book; but cannot be compared with Lord Spencer's
Aldine VELLUM Virgil, of the same size.
1576. Durandi Rationale, &c., 1459. IN MEMBRANIS 61 0 0
The beginning of the 1st chapter was wanting. Lord Spencer
has a perfect copy of this rare book, printed upon spotless
VELLUM.
2656. Platonis Opera, apud Aldum; 2 vols., fol., 1513.
_Edit. Prin._ ON VELLUM. 55 13 0
Purchased by the late Dr. William Hunter; and is, at this
moment, with the Doctor's books and curiosities, at
_Glasgow_. The reader can have no idea of the beauty of
these vellum leaves. The ink is of the finest lustre, and
the whole typographical arrangement may be considered a
masterpiece of printing. If I could forget the magnificent
copy which I have seen (but not upon vellum) of the
"Etymologicum magnum," in the Luton Library, I should call
_this_ the chef-d'oeuvre of the ALDINE PRESS.
2812. Plinii Hist. Natural; apud Spiram, fol., 1469. _Edit.
Princeps._ 43 0 0
This copy has been recently sold for a sum considerably less
than it brought. It bears no kind of comparison with the
copy in Lord Spencer's, Dr. Hunter's, and the Cracherode,
collections. These latter are _giants_ to it!
2813. Id. cum notis Harduini; 1723, 3 vols., ON VELLUM 42 0 0
3345. Tewrdranckhs; Poema Germanica, Norimb. fol., 1517, ON
VELLUM. 21 0 0
This is a book of uncommon rarity. It is a poetical
composition on the life and actions of the Emperor
Maximilian I., and was frequently reprinted; but not with
the same care as were the earlier editions of 1517 and
1519--the latter, at Augsburg, by John Schouspergus.
Koellerus, who purchased a copy of this work on vellum,
for 200 crowns, has given a particularly tempting
description of it. See Schelhorn's "_Amoenitates Literaræ
[Transcriber's Note: Literariæ]_," tom. ii., 430-iii., 144.
Dr. Hunter purchased Dr. Askew's copy, which I have seen in
the Museum of the former: the wood-cuts, 118 in number,
justify every thing said in commendation of them by Papillon
and Heinecken. Probably Dr. Askew purchased the above copy
of Osborne; for I find one in the _Bibl. Harleian_, vol.
iii., no. 3240. See, too, _Bibl. Mead_, p. 239, no.
43; where a VELLUM copy, of the edition of 1527, was sold
for 9_l._ 9_s._ My friend, Mr. Douce, has also beautiful
copies of the editions of 1517 and 1519, upon paper of the
finest lustre. It has been a moot point with bibliographers
whether the extraordinary type of this book be _wood_, and
cut in solid blocks, or moveable types of _metal_. No one is
better able to set this point "at rest," as lawyers call it,
than the gentleman whose name is here last mentioned.
3337. Terentianus Maurus de Literis, Syllabis, et Metris
Horatii. _Mediol._ fol., 1497 12 12 0
"This is judged to be the only copy of this edition in
England, if not in the whole world. Dr. Askew could find no
copy in his travels over Europe, though he made earnest and
particular search in every library which he had an
opportunity of consulting." Note in the catalogue. It was
purchased by Dr. Hunter, and is now in his Museum.
Originally it belonged to Dr. Taylor, the editor of Lysias
and Demosthenes, who originally procured it from the
Harleian Library, for _four_ guineas only. We are told that,
during his life, _one hundred_ guineas would not have
obtained it!
* * * * *
Rare and magnificent as the preceding articles may be
considered, I can confidently assure the reader that they
form a very small part of the extraordinary books in Dr.
ASKEW'S library. Many a _ten_ and _twenty pounder_ has been
omitted--many a _prince_ of an edition passed by unregarded!
The articles were 3570 in number; probably comprehending
about 7000 volumes. They were sold for 4000_l._ It remains
only to add that Dr. ASKEW was a native of Kendal, in
Westmorland; that he practised as a physician there with
considerable success, and, on his establishment in London,
was visited by all who were distinguished for learning, and
curious in the fine arts. Dr. Mead supported him with a sort
of paternal zeal; nor did he find in his _protegé_ an
ungrateful son. (See the Director, vol. i., p. 309.) Few
minds were probably more congenial than were those of MEAD
and ASKEW: the former had, if I may so speak, a magnificence
of sentiment which infused into the mind of the latter just
notions of a character aiming at _solid intellectual_ fame;
without the petty arts and dirty tricks which we now see too
frequently pursued to obtain it. Dr. ASKEW, with less
pecuniary means of gratifying it, evinced an equal ardour in
the pursuit of books, MSS., and inscriptions. I have heard
from a very worthy old gentleman, who used to revel 'midst
the luxury of ASKEW'S table, that few men exhibited their
books and pictures, or, as it is called, _shewed the Lions_,
better than did the Doctor. Of his attainments in Greek and
Roman literature it becomes not me to speak, when such a
scholar as Dr. PARR has been most eloquent in their praise.
I should observe that the MSS. of Dr. ASKEW were separately
sold in 1781, and produced a very considerable sum. The
Appendix to Scapula, published in an 8vo. volume, in 1789,
was compiied [Transcriber's Note: compiled] from one of
these MSS.]
After an event so striking and so melancholy, one would think that
future _Virtuosi_ would have barricadoed their doors, and fumigated
their chambers, in order to escape the ravages of the _Book-Pest_:--but
how few are they who profit by experience, even when dearly obtained!
The subsequent HISTORY OF THE BIBLIOMANIA is a striking proof of the
truth of this remark: for the disease rather increased, and the work
of death yet went on. In the following year (1776) died JOHN
RATCLIFFE;[392] a bibliomaniac of a very peculiar character. If he
had contented himself with his former occupation, and frequented the
butter and cheese, instead of the book, market--if he could have
fancied himself in a brown peruke, and Russian apron, instead of an
embroidered waistcoat, velvet breeches, and flowing periwig, he might,
perhaps, have enjoyed greater longevity; but, infatuated by the
_Caxtons_ and _Wynkyn de Wordes_ of the West and Fletewode
collections, he fell into the snare; and the more he struggled to
disentangle himself, the more certainly did he become a victim to the
disease.
[Footnote 392: BIBLIOTHECA RATCLIFFIANA; or, "_A Catalogue
of the elegant and truly valuable Library of_ JOHN
RATCLIFFE, _Esq., late of Bermondsey, deceased_. The whole
collected with great judgment and expense, during the last
thirty years of his life: comprehending a large and most
choice collection of the rare old English _black-letter_, in
fine preservation, and in elegant bindings, printed by
Caxton, Lettou, Machlinia, the anonymous St. Alban's
Schoolmaster, Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Berthelet, Grafton,
Day, Newberie, Marshe, Jugge, Whytchurch, Wyer, Rastell,
Coplande, and the rest of the _Old English Typographers_:
several missals and MSS., and two pedigrees on vellum,
finely illuminated." The title-page then sets forth a
specimen of these black-letter gems; among which our eyes
are dazzled with a galaxy of Caxtons, Wynkyn de Wordes,
Pynsons, &c., &c. The sale took place on March 27, 1776;
although the _year_ is unaccountably omitted by that
renowned auctioneer, the late Mr. Christie, who disposed of
them. If ever there was a _unique_ collection, this was
one--the very essence of Old Divinity, Poetry, Romances, and
Chronicles! The articles were only 1675 in number; but their
intrinsic value amply compensated for their paucity. The
following is but an inadequate specimen:
NO. 1315. Horace's Arte of Poetrie, Pistles, and Satyres, by
Durant, 1567. _First English. Edition_ £0 16_s._ 0_d._
1321. The Shepard's Calendar, 1579. Whetstone's Castle of
Delight, 1576 1 2 0
1392. The Pastyme of People, _printed_ by Rastell. Curious
wood-cuts 4 7 0
1393. The Chronicles of Englande, _printed by Caxton_, fine
copy, 1480 5 5 0
1394. Ditto, _printed at St. Albans_, 1483. Purchased by Dr.
Hunter, and now in his Museum (which copy I have seen) 7 7 0
1403. Barclay's Shyp of Folys, printed by Pynson, 1508,
_first edit._, a fine copy 2 10 0
1426. The Doctrinal of Sapyence, _printed by Caxton_, 1489 8
8 0
1427. The Boke called Cathon, _ditto_, 1483. Purchased by
Dr. Hunter, and now in his Museum 5 5 0
1428. The Polytyque Boke, named Tullius de Senectute, in
Englyshe, _printed by Caxton_, 1481 14 0 0
1429. The Game of Chesse Playe. No date. _Printed by Caxton_
16 0 0
1665. The Boke of Jason, _printed by Caxton_ 5 10 0
1669. The Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, translated by
Trevisa, 1482. _Printed by the same_, and purchased by Dr.
Hunter 5 15 6
1670. Legenda Aurea, or the Golden Legende. _Printed by the
same_, 1483 9 15 0
1674. Mr. Ratcliffe's MS. Catalogue of the _rare old
black-letter and other curious and uncommon books_, 4 vols.
7 15 0
[This would have been the most delicious article to _my_
palate. If the present owner of it were disposed to part
with it, I could not find it in my heart to refuse him
_compound interest_ for his money. As is the wooden
frame-work to the bricklayer, in the construction of his
arch, so might Mr. Ratcliffe's MS. Catalogues be to me in
the compilation of a certain _magnum opus_!]
I beg pardon of the _manes_ of "John Ratcliffe, Esq.," for
the very inadequate manner in which I have brought forward
his collection to public notice. The memory of such a man
ought to be dear to the "_black-letter-dogs_" of the present
day: for he had (mirabile dictu!) _upwards of_ THIRTY
CAXTONS! I take the present opportunity of presenting the
reader with the following engraving of the Ratcliffe
Library, Oxon.
[Illustration]
If I might hazard a comparison between Mr. James West's and
Mr. John Ratcliffe's collections, I should say that the
former was more extensive; the latter more curious. Mr.
West's, like a magnificent _champagne_, executed by the hand
of Claude or Both, and enclosing mountains, meadows, and
streams, presented to the eye of the beholder a scene at
once luxuriant and fruitful: Mr. Ratcliffe's, like one of
those confined pieces of scenery, touched by the pencil of
Rysdael or Hobbima, exhibited to the beholder's eye a spot
equally interesting, but less varied and extensive: the
judgment displayed in both might be the same. The sweeping
foliage and rich pasture of the former could not, perhaps,
afford greater gratification than the thatched cottage,
abrupt declivities, and gushing streams of the latter. To
change the metaphor--Mr. West's was a magnificent
repository; Mr. Ratcliffe's, a cabinet of curiosities. Of
some particulars of Mr. Ratcliffe's life, I had hoped to
have found gleanings in Mr. Nichols's _Anecdotes of Bowyer_;
but his name does not even appear in the index; being
probably reserved for the second forth-coming enlarged
edition. Meanwhile, it may not be uninteresting to remark
that, like Magliabechi, (vide p. 86, ante) he imbibed his
love of reading and collecting from the accidental
possession of scraps and leaves of books. The fact is, Mr.
Ratcliffe once kept a _chandler's shop_ in the Borough; and,
as is the case with all retail traders, had great quantities
of old books brought to him to be purchased at so much _per
lb._! Hence arose his passion for collecting the
_black-letter_, as well as _Stilton cheeses_: and hence, by
unwearied assiduity, and attention to business, he amassed a
sufficiency to retire, and live, for the remainder of his
days, upon the luxury of OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE!]
It is with pain that I trace the ravages of the BOOK-MANIA to a later
period. Many a heart yet aches, and many a tear is yet shed, on a
remembrance of the mortality of this frightful disease. After the
purchasers of Ratcliffe's treasures had fully perused, and deposited
in fit places within their libraries, some of the scarcest volumes in
the collection, they were called upon to witness a yet more splendid
victim to the Bibliomania: I mean, the Honourable TOPHAM
BEAUCLERK.[393] One, who had frequently gladdened JOHNSON in his
gloomy moments; and who is allowed, by that splenetic sage and great
teacher of morality, to have united the elegant manners of a gentleman
with the mental accomplishments of a scholar. Beauclerk's Catalogue is
a fair specimen of the analytico-bibliographical powers of Paterson:
yet it must be confessed that this renowned champion of
catalogue-makers shines with greater, and nearly perfect, splendour,
in the collection of the REV. THOMAS CROFTS[394]--a collection which,
taking it "for all in all," I know not whether it be exceeded by any
which this country has recorded in the shape of a private catalogue.
The owner was a modest, careful, and acutely sagacious bibliomaniac:
learned, retired, yet communicative: and if ever you lay hold of a
_large paper_ copy of a catalogue of his books, which, as well as the
small, carries the printed prices at the end, seize it in triumph,
Lisardo, for it is a noble volume, and by no means a worthless prize.
[Footnote 393: There are few libraries better worth the
attention of a scholarlike collector than was the one of the
distinguished character above noticed by Lysander. The
Catalogue of Beauclerk's books has the following title:
"_Bibliotheca Beauclerkiana; A Catalogue of the large and
valuable Library of the late Honourable_ TOPHAM BEAUCLERK,
F.R.S., _deceased_; comprehending an excellent choice of
books, to the number of upwards of 30,000 volumes, &c. Sold
by auction, by Mr. Paterson, in April, 1781," 8vo. The
catalogue has two parts: part I. containing 230; part _ii._
137, pp. The most magnificent and costly volume was the
largest paper copy of Dr. Clarke's edition of Cæsar's
Commentaries, 1712, fol., which was sold for 44_l._; and of
which the binding, according to Dr. Harwood's testimony,
cost 5_l._ 5_s._ There is nothing, in _modern_ times, very
marvellous in this price of binding. Of the _two parts_ of
the Beauclerk collection, the _second_ is the most valuable
to the collector of English Antiquities and History, and the
_first_ to the general scholar. But let not the bibliomaniac
run too swiftly over the first, for at nos. 3450, 3453, he
will find two books which rank among the rarest of those in
old English poetry. At the close of the second part, there
are a few curious manuscripts; three of which are deserving
of a description here.
PART II.
3275. Thomas of Arundel, his Legend in old English verse;
VII parts, with the Entre, or Prologue: _written A.D.
M.C.VII. upon vellum, the Capitals illuminated_, fol. Here
follows a specimen of the verse £1 18_s._ 0_d._
_ye fyrst pt of ys yt es
of mon and of his urechednes._
_ye secounde pte folowyng es
of ye worldes unstabillnes._
_ye yyrdde pt yt is of deth
& of peyn yt wt hy geth._
_the ferthe parte is of purgatorye
yere soules ben clensed of her folye._
_ye fyfte pt of ys dey of doom
& of tokens yt byfore shul coom._
_ye syxte pt of ys boke to telle
yt speketh of ye peynes of helle._
_ye seventhe part of joys in heven
yat bene more yenne tong may neuen._
3276. The Life and Acts of St. Edmond, King and Martyr, by
John Lydgate, Monk of Bury, fol.: _a choice MS. upon vellum,
illuminated throughout, and embellished with 52 Historical
Miniatures_. For a specimen of the verse, take the first
stanza: 22 1 0
_The noble stoory to putte in remembraunce
Of Seynt Edmond mayd martre and kyng
With his suppoor: my style i wyl avaunce
ffirst to compyle afftre my konnyng
his gloryous lyff his birthe and his gynnying
And by discent how he was soo good
Was in Saxonye borne of the royal blood._
3288. The Armes, Honours, Matches, and Issues of the
auncient and illustrious FAMILY OF VEER: described in the
honourable progeny of the Earles of Oxenford and other
branches thereof. Together with a genealogical deduction of
this noble family from the blood of 12 forreyne princes:
viz. 3 Emperours, 3 Kings, 3 Dukes, and 3 Earles, &c.
_Gathered out of History, Recordes, and other Monuments of
Antiquity, by Percivall Goulding, Gent. The Arms
illuminated, folio._ 9 0 0
I will just add that this catalogue is creditably printed in
a good size octavo volume, and that there are copies upon
_large paper_. The arrangement of the books is very
creditable to the bibliographical reputation of Paterson.]
[Footnote 394: When the reader is informed that Paterson
tells us, in the preface of this volume, that "In almost
every language and science, and even under the shortest
heads, some one or more rare articles occur; but in the
copious classes, such as follow, literary curiosity is
gratified, is _highly feasted_"--and that the author of this
remark used, in his latter days, to hit his knee hard with
his open hand, and exclaim--"By G----, Crofts' Catalogue is
my chef d'oeuvre, out and out"--when he reflects, I say,
for a minute upon these two bibliographical stimuli, he will
hasten (if he have it not already) to seize upon that volume
of which the following is but an imperfect specimen of the
treasures contained in it: "_Bibliotheca Croftsiana: A
Catalogue of the curious and distinguished Library of the
late Reverend and Learned_ THOMAS CROFTS, A.M., &c. Sold by
auction, by Mr. Paterson, in April, 1783," 8vo. This
collection, containing 8360 articles, although not quite so
generally useful as the preceding, is admirably well
arranged; and evinces, from the rarity of some of the
volumes in the more curious departments of literature, the
sound bibliographical knowledge and correct taste of Mr.
Crofts: who was, in truth, both a scholar and bibliomaniac
of no ordinary reputation. I hasten to treat the reader with
the following _Excerpta Croftsiana_: being a selection of
articles from this catalogue, quite according with the
present prevailing fashion of Book-Collecting:
NO. 2741. Raccolta de Poeti Provenzali MS. antiq.
_Supermembr._, 8vo., _cor. turc. avec une table des noms des
troubadours contenu dans ce MS._ £5 7_s._ 6_d._
4920. Les cent nouvelles nouvelles, _Lettres Gothiques_,
fig. fol., _velin Paris, imprimées par Nic. Desprez_. M.D.V.
2 15 0
4921. Le Chevalier de la Tour. Et le guidon des guerres;
_lettres Gothiques, fig. fol. maroq. rouge, imprimé à Paris,
pour Guil. Eustace._ M.D.XIV. 2 17 0
4922. Le premier, second, et tiers volume de Lancelot du
Lac; _nouvellement imprimé à Paris. L'an mil cinq cens et
xx, pour Michel le Noir; Lettres Gothiques, fig. fol. maroq.
rouge_ 10 15 0
4923. Le premier et le second volume du Sainct Greaal,
contenant la conqueste dudict Sainct Greaal, faicte par
Lancelot du Lac, Galaad Perceval et Boors; _Lettres
Gothiques, fig. fol. maroq. rouge, Paris, imprimé par Phel
le Noir_, M.D.XXIII 5 7 6
"Ce volume est un des plus rares de la classe des Romans de
Chevalerie. T.C."
4924. Ci Commence Guy de Warwick chevalier Dangleterre qui
en son tems fit plusieurs prouesses et conquestes en
Allemaigne, Ytalie, et Dannemarche. Et aussi sur les
infidelles ennemys de la Crestienté; _Lettres Gothiques,
fig. fol. maroq. rouge. Paris, imprimé par Ant. Couteau_,
M.D.XXV. 1 18 0
4925. Le premier et le second volume de Merlin, qui est le
premier livre de la table ronde, avec plusieurs choses moult
recreative: aussi les Prophecies de Merlin, qui est le
tierce partie et derniere: _Lettres Gothiques, 2 tom. 4to.,
maroq. rouge, Paris_, M.D.XXVIII. 1 18 0
4926. La treselegante, delicieuse, melliflue, et
tresplaisante Hystoire du tresnoble, victori, et
excellentissime roy Perceforest, Roy de la Grand Bretaigne,
fundateur du Francpalais et du temple du souverain Dieu. En
laquelle lecture pourra veoir la source et decoration de
toute Chevalerie, culture de vraye Noblesse, Prouesses, &c.
Avecques plusieurs propheties, Comptes Damans, et leur
divers fortunes. _Lettres Gothiques, 6 tom. en 3 fol.,
Paris, chez Galliot du Pre_, M.D.XXVIII. 7 0 0
4927. Le tiers, quart, cinquiesme, sixiesme, et dernier
volumes des Anciennes Croniques Dangleterre, faictz et
gestes du trespreux et redoubte en chevalerie, le noble roy
Perceforest: _imprimé à Paris pour Egide Gourmont et Phil.
le Noir_, M.D.XXXII. 2 tom. folio 0 11 6
4298. Le Parangon des Nouvelles, honestes et delectables à
tous ceulx qui desirent voir et ouyr choses nouvelles et
recreatives soubz umbre et couleur de joyeuste, 8vo. fig.
maroq. rouge. _Imprimez à Lyon, par Denys de Harsy_, 1532.
Les Parolles joyeuses et Dicts memorables des nobles et
saiges Homes anciens, redigez par le gracieulx et honeste
Poete Messire Francoys Petrarcque, _fig. ib._ 1532 2 5 0
4929. L'Histoire de Isaie le triste filz de Tristan de
leonnoys, jadis Chevalier de la table ronde, et de la Royne
Izeut de Cornouaille, ensemble les nobles prouesses de
chevallerie faictes par Marc lexille filz. au dict Isaye:
_Lettres Gothiques, avec fig., 4to., maroq. rouge. On les
vend à Paris par Jehan Bonfons_, 1535 2 12 6
"There is no direct date either at the beginning or end, nor
any privilege annexed to this rare Romance. Mr. Crofts,
though extremely accurate, for the most part, has made no
remark; neither has the industrious Mr. de Bure taken notice
of this particular edition. The date is, nevertheless,
obvious, according to my conjecture. After the words filz du
dict Isaye, in the general title, at some distance, stand
these numerals lxv. c. At first I apprehended they referred
to the work, as containing so many chapters; but upon
examining the table, I found the Romance to consist of 92
chapters: I conclude they must relate to the date of the
book, and are to be read lxv. ante M.D.C., or 1535. S.P."
4932. Meliadus de Leonmoys. Du present Volume sont contenus
les nobles faictz darmes du vaillant roy Meliadus. Ensemble
plusieurs autres nobles proesses de Chevalerie faictes tant
par le roy Artus, Palamedes, &c., &c. _Lettres Gothiques,
fig., fol., maroq. bleu, Paris, chez Galliot du Pré_ 3 10 0
4933. Lhystoire tresrecreative, traictant des faictz et
gestes du noble et vaillant Chevalier Theseus de Coulongne,
par sa proesse Empereur de Rome. Et aussi de sons fils
Gadifer, Empereur de Grece. Pareillement des trois enfans de
Gadifer, cestassavoir Regnault, Reynier, et Regnesson, &c.
_Lettres Gothiques, avec fig. 4to., en peau russe. Paris,
pour Jehan Bonfons, s.a._ 5 0 0
4938. L'Histoire Palladienne, traitant des gestes et
genereux Faitz d'armes et d'armour de plusieurs Grandz
Princes et Seigneurs, specialement de Palladien filz du roy
Milanor d'Angleterre, et de la belle Selenine, &c.; par feu
Cl. Colet Champenois, _fig., fol., maroquin jaune. Paris, de
l'imprimerie d'Estien. Goulleau_, 1555 1 18 0
4945. Hist. du noble Tristan Prince de Leonnois, Chevalier de
la table ronde, et d'Yseulte, Princesse d'Yrlande, Royne de
Cornouaille; fait Francois par Jean Maugin, dit l'Angevin,
_fig., 4to., maroq. rouge, Rouen_. 1586 1 5 0
4953. L'Hist. du noble et vaillant Chevalier Paris et la
belle Vienne, _4to., Rouen_ 3 10 0
4961. Histoires Prodigieuses, extractes de plusieurs fameux
Autheurs, Grecs et Latins, par Pier Boaisteau, Cl. de
Tesserant, F. de Belleforest, Rod. Hoyer, &c., _fig. 6 tom.
en 3, 12mo., maroq. rouge. Par chez la Verfue Cavellat_,
1598 2 9 0
4964. Valentine and Orson, cuts, black letter, 4to. _London;
no date_. (Not sold.)
7276. Hollinshed's (Raphe) and William Harrison's Chronicles
of England, Scotland, and Ireland, continued by John Hooker,
alias Vowell, and others; _black letter, 3 vols. fol., large
paper, in Russia_, 1586 13 2 6
7399. Lynch (Jo.) Seu Gratiani Lucii Hiberni Cambrensis
Eversus, seu potius Historica fides, in Rebus Hibernicis,
Giraldo Cambrensi abrogata, fol. _Impress. An. 1662. Sine
Loco aut Nomine Impressoris_ 3 4 0
"Liber inter Historicos Hibernicos rarissimus et inventu
difficilimus, quippe cujus pars maxima exemplarium in
incendio periit Londinensi. Sub Lucii Gratiani nomine latet
verus autor Johannes Lynch (Tuamensis Archidiaconus) qui
post Gallvæ deditionem, Exul in Gallia hocce opus patriæ
vindex composuit. T.C."
This catalogue contains 8360 articles. There are printed
lists of the prices for which each set of books was sold:
but I am afraid that an arrant bibliomaniac, like myself
(for thus my friends are cruel enough to call me!) will be
content only with a _large paper_ copy of it, with the
prices neatly penned in the margin. I conclude that Lysander
recommends the volume in this shape to all tasteful
collectors.]
LIS. But there are surely other large paper----
ALMAN. What can there possibly be in a large paper copy of a
_Catalogue of Books_ which merits the appellation of "nobleness" and
"richness?"
LOREN. You are a little out of order. Such a question cuts the heart
of a bibliographer in twain. Pray let Lysander pursue his narrative.
LYSAND. I have no sort of objection to such interruptions. But I think
the day is not very far distant when females will begin to have as
high a relish for _large paper_ copies of every work as their male
rivals. Now let us go on quietly towards the close of my long-winded
bibliomaniacal history. And first let us not fail to pay due respect
to the cabinet of literary bijoux collected by that renowned
bibliomaniac, MARK CEPHAS TUTET.[395] His collection was distinguished
by some very uncommon articles of early date, both of foreign and
British typography; and, if you take a peep into Lorenzo's priced copy
of the catalogue containing also the purchasers' names, you will find
that most notorious modern bibliomaniacs ran away with the choicest
prizes. Tutet's catalogue, although drawn up in a meagre and most
disadvantageous style, is a great favourite with me; chiefly for the
valuable articles which it exhibits.
[Footnote 395: _A Catalogue of the genuine and valuable
Collection of printed Books and Manuscripts of the late_
MARK CEPHAS TUTET, Esq., to be sold by auction by Mr.
Gerard, on Wednesday, the 15th of February, 1786, 8vo. This
library evinces the select taste and accurate judgment of
its collector. There were only 513 articles, or lots; but
these in general were both curious and valuable. I will give
a specimen or two of the TUTET CABINET of books.
NO. 10. Various Catalogues of Curiosities, elegantly bound
in 14 volumes, and a few loose: _most of them priced, with
the purchasers' names_. A.D. 1721 to 1783, 8vo. £3 16_s._
0_d._
55. Two volumes of ancient and modern cards, _eleg. in
russia_ 5 5 0
[These volumes were purchased by Mr. Payne's father, and of
him by Mr. Gough. At the sale of the MSS. of the latter
(1810) they were purchased by Mr. Robert Triphook,
bookseller, of St. James's Street; with a view of making
them instrumental to a work which he is projecting, _Upon
the History and Antiquity of Playing Cards_.]
86. Broughton's Concent of Scripture: _printed upon vellum_
1 2 0
118. Snelling's Silver Coinage,--1762; ditto Gold Coinage,
1763; ditto Copper Coinage, 1768; ditto Miscellaneous Views,
1769; ditto Jettons, 1769: all in folio 7 0 0
"These form a complete set of Snelling's works in folio, and
are interspersed with a great number of very useful and
interesting notes and observations, by Mr. Tutet."
126. The Byble, &c. Printed by Grafton and Whitchurch, 1537,
folio 3 3 0
[There is a note here by Tutet which does not evince any
profound knowledge of English etymology.]
168. Rede me and be not wroth, 12mo., no place nor date 1 11 6
175. Servetus de Trinitatis erroribus, _cor. tur._, 1531,
12mo. 3 14 0
316. ---- de Trinitate divinâ, Lond., 1723, 4to. 1 12 0
329. The Arte and Crafte to know well to dye. _Printed by
Caxton_, 1490, folio 2 2 0
337. Hautin, Figures des Monnoyes de France, 1619, folio 6 0 0
364. Parker de Antiq. Brit. Ecclesiæ, 1572, folio. A long
and curious note is here appended 4 4 0
371. The Boke of Hawkinge, Huntynge, and Fysshynge, 1496,
fol. 2 9 0
372. Sancta Peregrinatio in Mont. Syon, &c. 1486, folio 7 7 0
["This is the first book of travels that was ever printed.
The maps are very remarkable; that of the Holy Land is above
4 feet long."]
463. Spaccio della Bestia trionfante. _Paris_, 1584, 8vo. 7
7 0
477. Expositio Sancti Jeronimi in Symbolum Apostolorum,
_cor. maur. Oxon._, 1468, 4to. 16 5 0
479. Polychronycon; _printed by Caxton_, 1482, 4to. 4 12 0
480. Pfintzing (Melchoir [Transcriber's Note: Melchior]) His
German Poem of the Adventures of the Emperor Maximilian,
under the name of Tewrdanckh's. Nuremb., 1517, folio 5 7 6
481. Initial Letters, Vignettes, Cul de Lampes, &c., 2
vols., _elegantly bound in russia_. [These beautiful books
are now in the possession of Mr. Douce] 4 6 0
483. Bouteroue, Recherches curieuses des Monnoyes de France:
_in morocco, gilt, Paris_, 1666, folio 5 0 0
486. Froissart's Chronicles; printed by Pynson, 1523, folio,
2 vols. _A beautiful copy elegantly bound._ 16 0 0
487. Recule of the Hystoryes of Troye; _printed by Caxton_,
(1471) Folio. _A very fine copy, and quite complete._ 21 0 0
490. Ciceronis Officia, 1466, 4to. _On paper._ 25 10 0
And thus we take leave of that judicious and tasteful
bibliomaniac, MARK CEPHAS TUTET!
Three months after the sale of the preceding library,
appeared the _Bibliotheca Universalis Selecta_ of SAMUEL
PATERSON; containing a collection to be sold by auction in
May, 1786. To this catalogue of 8001 articles, there is a
short (I wish I could add "sweet") preface, which has been
extracted in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lvi., p. 334;
and in the _Censura Literaria_, vol. ii., p. 252--but,
whatever accidental reputation the volume may have received
from the notice of it in these periodical works, I deem both
the preface and the work itself quite unworthy of Paterson's
credit. There is an alphabetical index (not always very
correct); and a few bibliographical notes are subjoined to
the specification of the titles; and these considerations
alone will give the book a place in the library of the
bibliomaniac. The collection is, in fact, neither universal
nor select: and the preface is written in the worst of all
styles, containing the most commonplace observations.]
The following year, was sold, in a similar way, the select and very
curious collection of RICHARD WRIGHT, M.D.;[396] the strength of which
lay chiefly in publications relating to the _Drama_ and _Romances_.
It is, in my humble opinion, a most judicious, as well as neatly
printed, little catalogue; and not more than a dozen copies of it, I
think, were printed upon _large paper_. Secure this volume, Lisardo,
if you wish to add to your riches in English bibliography.
[Footnote 396: Lysander has not drawn too strong an outline
in his picture of the _Bibliotheca Wrightiana_. The
collection was elegant and select. Let us say a little more
about it. "_A Catalogue of the Library of_ RICHARD WRIGHT,
M.D. &c., consisting of an elegant and extensive collection
of books in every branch of learning, &c., many of the
scarcest editions of the Old English Poets, Novels, and
Romances; also a most singular assemblage of Theatrical
Writers, including the rarest productions of the English
Drama." Sold by auction by T. and J. Egerton, April 23rd,
1787, 8vo. The volume is neatly printed, and the books in
the collection are arranged in alphabetical order under
their respective departments. We will now fill up a little
of the aforementioned strong outline of the picture of
Wright's library: which contained 2824 articles.
917, 920, 921-4-5-6-7, 931-2-3, exhibit a glorious specimen
of the ancient English Chronicles--which, collectively, did
not produce a sum above £45 0_s._ 0_d._
1223. England's Parnassus, 1600, 8vo. 0 14 0
1333. Churchyarde's Choice, 1579, 4to. 2 14 0
1334. ---- first part of his Chippes, 1575, 4to. 3 13 6
1343. Robert Greene's Works, 2 vols., _elegantly bound_,
4to. (containing 17 pieces.) 5 19 0
1374. Shyp of Folys. _Printed by Pynson_, 1508, fol. 3 13 0
1384. Skelton's Works: 1568, 8vo. 0 14 0
1398. Turberville's epitaphs, epigrams, songs and sonnets,
1567, 8vo.
My copy has no price to this article.
1493. Thomas Nashe's Works, in three vols. 4to., containing
21 pieces 12 15 0
1567 to 2091, comprehends _The English Theatre_.
These numbers exhibit almost every thing that is rare,
curious, and valuable in this popular department. I know not
how to select stars from such a galaxy of black-letter
lustre--but the reader may follow me to the ensuing numbers,
which will at least convince him that I am not insensible to
the charms of _dramatic bijoux_, nos. 1567-9: 1570-6-8:
1580: 1595-6-8-9: 1606: 1626: 1636-7-8: 1712 (Dekker's
Pieces: 15 in number--sold for 3_l._ 3_s._ EHEU!) 1742:
1762. (Heywood's 26 plays, 3_l._ 4_s._) 1776.--1814:
(Marston's 9 pieces, 3_l._ 4_s._) 1843. (Tragedie of Dido,
1594, 16_l._ 16_s._ EUGE!) 1850. (Middleton; 13 pieces:
4_l._ 5_s._) 1873-5. (George Peele's: 7_l._ 7_s._) 1902:
(Sackville's Ferrex and Porrex: 2_l._ 4_s._)--But--"quo Musa
tendis?" I conclude, therefore, with the following detailed
_seriatim_.
1960. Shakspeare's Works; 1623, folio. _First edition; bound
in Russia leather, with gilt leaves._ 10 0 0
1961. The same; 1632. _Second impression._ 2 9 0
1962. The same; 1632. _The same._ 1 6 0
1963. The same; 1663. _Third Edit. in Russia._ 1 1 0
1964. The same; 1683. _Fourth Edition._ 1 1 0
My copy of this catalogue is upon _large paper_, beautifully
priced by a friend who "hath an unrivalled pen in this way;"
and to whom I owe many obligations of a higher kind in the
literary department--but whose modesty, albeit he was born
on the banks of the Liffey, will not allow me to make the
reader acquainted with his name. Therefore, "STAT NOMINIS
UMBRA:" viz. ----!]
LOREN. Was Wright's the only collection disposed of at this period,
which was distinguished for its dramatic treasures? I think
HENDERSON'S[397] library was sold about this time?
[Footnote 397: _A Catalogue of the Library of_ JOHN
HENDERSON, Esq. (late of Covent Garden Theatre), &c. Sold by
auction by T. and J. Egerton, on February, 1786, 8vo. Do not
let the lover of curious books in general imagine that
Henderson's collection was entirely dramatical. A glance at
the contents of page 12 to page 22, inclusively, will shew
that this library contained some very first-rate rarities.
When the dramatic collector enters upon page 23, (to the end
of the volume, p. 71) I will allow him to indulge in all the
_mania_ of this department of literature, "withouten ony
grudgynge." He may also ring as many _peals_ as it pleaseth
him, upon discovering that he possesses all the copies of a
dramatic author, ycleped _George Peele_, that are notified
at nos. 923-4! Henderson's library was, without doubt, an
extraordinary one. As we are upon _Dramatic Libraries_, let
us, for fear Lysander should forget it, notice the
following, though a little out of chronological order. "_A
Catalogue, &c., of the late_ Mr. JAMES WILLIAM DODD, of the
_Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, &c. Sold by auction by Leigh and
Sotheby_, Jan. 19, 1797, 8vo., 2435 lots." There was more of
the _Drama_ in this than in Henderson's collection. Mr.
Kemble purchased the dearest volume, which was "Whetstone's
Promos and Cassandra," 1578, 4to. (no. 2396) for 7_l._
10_s._ Mr. George Nicol (for the late Duke of Roxburgh) kept
up a tremendous fire at this sale! Akin to Dodd's, was the
"_Curious and Valuable Library of_ GEORGE SMYTH, Esq.--sold
by Leigh and Sotheby, June 2, 1797, 8vo." There were many
uncommon books in this collection, exclusively of those
appertaining to the Drama; and when I mention, in this
latter department--Hughes's Misfortunes of Prince Arthur,
&c., printed by Robinson, 1587, 4to. (no. 1376; 16_l._
15_s._), both the parts of Shakespeare's Henry the Fourth
(1599-1600, 4to., nos. 1436-7; 18_l._ 18_s._), his Much
Ado about Nothing, 1600, 4to., (no. 1438; 7_l._
10_s._)--I say enough to sharpen the collector's appetite to
obtain, if he have it not, possession of this curious but
barbarously printed catalogue. To these, let me add the
"_Catalogue of a portion of the Library of_ WILLIAM
FILLINGHAM, Esq., _consisting of old quarto plays, early
English Poetry, and a few scarce Tracts, &c., sold by Leigh
and Sotheby_, April 1805, 8vo." The arrangement of this
small catalogue is excellent. Many of the books in it are of
the rarest occurrence; and, to my knowledge, were in the
finest preservation. The collector is no more! He died in
India; cut off in the prime of life, and in the midst of his
intellectual and book-collecting ardour! He was a man of
exceedingly gentlemanlike manners, and amiable disposition;
and his taste was, upon the whole, well cultivated and
correct. Many a pleasant, and many a profitable, hour have I
spent in his "delightsome" library!!!]
LYSAND. It was; and if you had not reminded me of it, I should have
entirely forgotten it. Catalogues of _dramatic Libraries_, well
arranged, are of great service to the cause of the Bibliomania.
LIS. I wish we could procure some act of parliament to induce the
dramatic collectors--by a fair remuneration--to give a well analysed
account of their libraries. We should then have the _Bibliotheca
Roxburghiana_, _Bibliotheca Maloniana_, and what say you to the
_Bibliotheca Kemblëiana_.
LYSAND. You are running wild. Let me continue my bibliomaniacal
history.
We may now advance directly to the exquisite--and shall I say,
unparalleled?--library of MAJOR PEARSON![398] a gentleman, who has
far eclipsed the bibliomaniacal reputation of his military
predecessor, General Dormer. This extraordinary collection was sold
by auction the very next year ensuing the sale of Dr. Wright's books
and so thickly and richly is it sprinkled with the black-letter, and
other curious lore--so varied, interesting, and valuable, are the
departments into which it is divided--that it is no wonder his present
Majesty, the late Duke of Roxburgh, and George Steevens, were earnest
in securing some of the choicest gems contained in the same. Such a
collection, sold at the present day--when there is such a "_qui vive_"
for the sort of literature which it displays--what would it produce?
At least four times more, than its sum total, two and twenty years
ago!
[Footnote 398: If the reader attend only to the above
flourishing eulogy, by Lysander, upon the extraordinary
collection of Major, or Thomas, Pearson, I fear he will not
rise from the perusal of these pages impressed with very
accurate notions of the same. To qualify such ardent
panegyric, and at the same time to please the hearts of all
honest bibliomaniacs, I here subjoin something like a sober
analysis of the _Bibliotheca Pearsoniana_. The title to the
Sale Catalogue is as follows: "_Biblioth. Pearson. A
Catalogue of the Library of_ THOMAS PEARSON, Esq.
_Containing a very extensive Collection of the best and
rarest books in every branch of English Literature, &c. Sold
by Auction by T. and J. Egerton, in April, 1788_," 8vo. Like
all the sale catalogues put forth by the Egertons, the
present is both judiciously arranged and neatly printed. It
is said that there are only twelve copies upon _large
paper_; but I doubt the smallness of this number. My own is
of this kind, superbly bound, and priced with a neatness
peculiar to the calligraphical powers of the 'forementioned
friend. It may not be amiss to prefix an extract from a
newspaper of the day; in which this sale was thus noticed:
"The Black-lettero-mania, which raged so furiously in the
course of last Spring at the Sale of Dr. WRIGHT'S Books, has
broken out with still greater violence at the present
auction of MAJOR PEARSON'S Library. This assertion may be
countenanced by the following examples." Then follow a few
specimens of the prices given. The reader is now presented
with copious specimens, selected according to their
numerical order: the addenda, between inverted commas, being
copied from the said newspaper.
1888. Webbe's Discourse of English Poetrie, 1586, 4to. £3
5_s._ 0_d._
"Bought by Mr. Steevens versus Mr. Malone."
1889. Puttenham's Art of English Poesie, 1589, 4to. 1 12 0
1900. The fyrst Boke of the Introduction to Knowledge, &c.;
_Printed by W. Copland_, no date, 4to. 4 15 0
"By the Rev. Mr. Brand versus Lord Charlemont."
1910. The Castell of Laboure; _Emprynted by Pynson_, 4to.,
_no date_. 2 2 0
1926. Dekker's Miscellaneous Pieces, 1604, &c., 4to. 2 2 0
1932. A curious collection of sundry rare pieces, 4to. 3 4 0
1951. Drollery's (eleven) 1661, &c., 8vo. 5 6 6
These droll pieces are now much coveted by knowing
bibliomaniacs. Mr. Heber and Mr. Hill have each a copious
collection of them; and Mr. Gutch of Bristol, a bookseller
of great spirit in his trade, and of equal love of general
literature, recently gratified the curious by exhibiting, in
his catalogue of 1810, a number of "_Garlands_;" which ere
now, have, in all probability, proved a successful bait for
some hungry book fish.
2035. Sir John Harrington's most elegant and witty Epigrams,
with portrait, 1618, 8vo. 2 3 0
2090. Flowers of Epigrammes, &c. _Impr. by Shepperd_, 1577,
12mo. 1 14 0
2130. The Paradise of Dainty Devises, &c., _printed for E.
White_, 1600, 4to. The workes of a Young Wit, by N.B. b.l.
_printed by Thomas Dawson, no date_. Watson's Mistresse,
&c., and Sonnets, b.l. _imperf._ Diana, by the Earl and
Countess of Oxenford, _printed for J. Roberts_, wanting
title, 4to. 9 12 6
"Bought by Mr. Steevens versus Mr. Malone."
2131. England's Helicon, 1600, 4to. 5 10 0
"By ditto versus ditto."
2147. The Example of Vertu; _printed by W. de Worde_, 4to.
"Bought by Mr. Mason versus Mr. Malone."
2162. A Mirrour of Mysterie; _finely written upon, vellum,
with two very neat drawings with pen and ink_, 1557, 4to. 2
0 0
2186. Manley's Affliction and Deliverance of Saints, portr.
1652, 8vo. 1 12 0
2190. Tragedie of Sir Richard Grenvile, Knt. printed by J.
Roberts, 1595, 8vo. 0 15 6
2289. Laquei Ridiculosi, or Springes for Woodcocks, by Henry
Parrot, 1613, 8vo. 0 4 6
N.B. _This little volume was sold for as many guineas at the
sale of Mr. Reed's books in 1807._
2373. Lyf of St. Ursula; _Impr. by Wynkyn de Worde_, no
date, 4to. 1 10 0
2374. Lyf and History of Saynt Werburge. _Printed by
Pynson_, 1521, 4to. 1 3 0
N.B. _This volume was sold for 18_l._ 18_s._ at the last
mentioned sale._
2575. This lot comprehends a cluster of precious little
black-letter pieces, which were purchased at the sale of
West's books, by Major Pearson. Eight in the whole: executed
before the year 1540. 3 19 0
2421. The Goodly Garlande, or Chaplet of Laurell, by Maister
Skelton; _Impr._ by Fawkes, 1523, 4to. See here a long note
upon the rarity and intrinsic worth of this curious little
volume. "Purchased by Brand versus the King." 7 17 6
2710. Ancient Songs and Ballads; written on various
subjects, and printed between the years 1560 and 1700;
chiefly collected by Robert Earl of Oxford, and purchased at
the sale of the library of James West, Esq., in 1773 (for
20_l._): increased by several additions: _2 volumes bound in
Russia leather_. 26 4 6
"Bought by Mr. Nicol for the Duke of Roxburgh, versus
Messrs. Arnold and Ritson." "N.B. The preceding numerous and
matchless collection of _Old Ballads_ are all printed in the
black-letter, and decorated with many hundred wooden prints.
They are pasted upon paper, with borders (printed on
purpose) round each ballad: also, a printed title and index
to each volume. To these are added the paragraphs which
appeared in the public papers respecting the above curious
collection, at the time they were purchased at Mr. West's."
Thus far Messrs. Egerton. I have to add that the late DUKE
OF ROXBURGH became the purchaser of these "matchless"
volumes. Whilst in Major Pearson's possession, "with the
assistance of Mr. Reed, the collection received very great
additions, and was bound in two very large volumes; in this
state (says Mr. Nicol,) it was bought by the Duke of
Roxburghe. After the industrious exertions of two such
skilful collectors as Major Pearson and Mr. Reed, the Duke
did not flatter himself with ever being able to add much to
the collection; but, as usual, he undervalued his own
industry. Finding that his success far exceeded his
expectations, he determined to add a _third volume_ to the
collection. Among these new acquisitions are some very rare
ballads; one quoted by Hamlet, of which no other copy is
known to exist." _Preface to the Roxburgh Catalogue_, p. 5.
The ballad here alluded to may be seen in Mr. Evans's recent
edition of his father's _Collection of Old Ballads_; vol.
i., p. 7.
3262 to 3329. These numbers comprehend a very uncommon and
interesting set of _Old Romances_! which, collectively, did
not produce 35_l._--but which now, would have been sold
for----!?
3330 to 4151. An extraordinary collection of the English
Drama.
And thus farewell MAJOR PEARSON!]
LIS. O rare THOMAS PEARSON! I will look sharply after a _large paper_,
_priced_, copy of the _Bibliotheca Pearsoniana_!
LYSAND. You must pay smartly for it, if you are determined to possess
it.
BELIN. Madness!--Madness inconceivable!--and undescribed by Darwin,
Arnold, and Haslam! But, I pray you, proceed.
LYSAND. Alas, madam, the task grows more and more complex as I draw
towards the completion of it.
In the year 1789 the book-treasures of the far-famed PINELLI[399]
Collection were disposed of by public auction: nor can one think,
without some little grief of heart, upon the dispersion of a library,
which (much more than commercial speculations and profits) had, for
upwards of a century, reflected so much credit upon the family of its
possessors. The atmosphere of our metropolis, about this period,
became as much infected with the miasmata of the BOOK-PLAGUE as it
did, about 130 years before, with the miasmata of a plague of a
different description: for the worthy inhabitants of Westminster had
hardly recovered from the shock of the bibliomaniacal attack from the
Pinelli sale, 'ere they were doomed to suffer the tortures of a
similar one in that of the PARIS[400] collection. This latter was of
shorter duration; but of an infinitely more powerful nature: for then
you might have seen the most notorious bibliomaniacs, with blood
inflamed and fancies intoxicated, rushing towards the examination of
the truly matchless volumes contained within this collection. Yet
remember that, while the whole of Pall Mall was thronged with the
carriages of collectors, anxious to carry off in triumph some _vellum
copy_ of foreign execution--there was sold, in a quiet corner of the
metropolis, the copious and scholar-like collection of MICHAEL LORT,
D.D. The owner of this latter library was a learned and amiable
character, and a bibliographer of no mean repute.[401] His books were
frequently enriched with apposite MS. remarks; and the variety and
extent of his collection, suited to all tastes, and sufficiently
abundant for every appetite, forms, I think, a useful model after
which future bibliomaniacs may build their libraries.
[Footnote 399: Mention has already been made of the
different _Catalogues of the_ PINELLI _Collection_: see p.
21, ante. Here, as Lysander has thought proper again to
notice the name of the collector, I am tempted to add a few
specimens of the extraordinary books contained in his
extraordinary library: adding thereto the prices for which
they were sold. But--again and again I observe, _in
limine_--these sums form no criterion of the _present_ worth
of the books; be the same more or less! It is a document
only of bibliographical curiosity.
NO. 703. La Biblia Sacra in Lingua Vulgare tradotta; 1471.
folio. 2 vols. £6 15_s._ 0_d._
2555. Bandello, Canti xi delle lodi della Signora Lucrezia
Gonzaga di Gazuolo, &c., 1545, 8vo. 15 15 0
2605. Dante, La Divina Comedia; 1472, folio. _Ediz. Prin._
25 14 6
3348. Petrarca, Le Rime. Venez. 1470, 4to. _Prin. Ediz._ 27
6 0
3458. Sannazzaro, L'Arcadia. Ven. Ald. 1514, 8vo. _Esemp.
stampata in Cartapecora._ 16 16 0
4909. Biblia Polyglotta; Complut. 1514, &c., folio. 6 vols.
_Exemplar integerrimum splendidissimum._ IMPRESSUM IN
MEMBRANIS. 483 0 0
All the world (perhaps I should have said the
_bibliographical_ world) has heard of this pre-eminently
wonderful set of books; now in Count Macarty's library at
Thoulouse. My friend, Dr. Gosset--who will not (I trust)
petition for excommunicating me from the orthodox church to
which I have the honour of belonging, if I number him in the
upper class of bibliomaniacs--was unable to attend the sale
of the Pinelli collection, from severe illness: but he _did
petition_ for a sight of one of these volumes of old
Ximenes's polyglott--which, much more effectually than the
spiders round Ashmole's neck (vide p. 293, ante), upon an
embrace thereof, effected his cure. Shakspeare, surely,
could never have meant to throw such "physic" as this "to
the dogs?!" But, to return.
8956. Anthologia Epig. Græc. 1494. 4to. _Exemp. impr. in
membranis._ 45 0 0
9308. Theocritus (absque ulla nota) 4to. _Editio Princeps._
31 10 0
9772. Plautus, 1472. folio. _Editio Princeps._ 36 0 0
11,215. Aulus Gellius, 1469, folio. _Edit. Princeps._ 58 16 0
11,233. Macrobius, 1472, folio. _Edit. Prin._ 33 12 0
12,141. Priscianus de art. gram. 1470. fol. _In Membranis._
51 9 0
[Sale Catalogue, 1789, 8vo.]
But--"Jam satis."
It probably escaped Lysander that, while the sale of the
Pinelli collection attracted crowds of bibliomaniacs to
Conduit Street, Hanover Square, a very fine library was
disposed of, in a quiet and comfortable manner, at the rooms
of Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby, in York Street, Covent Garden;
under the following title to the catalogue: _A Catalogue of
a very elegant and curious Cabinet of Books, lately imported
from France_, &c. (sold in May, 1789). My priced copy of
this catalogue affixes the name (in MS.) of MACARTNEY, as
the owner of this precious "Cabinet." There were only 1672
articles; containing a judicious sprinkling of what was
elegant, rare, and curious, in almost every department of
literature. The eleventh and twelfth days' sale were devoted
to MSS.; many of them of extraordinary beauty and
singularity. It was from this collection, no. 248, that
Lord Spencer obtained, for a comparatively small sum, one of
the most curious books (if not an unique volume) in the
class of early English printed ones, which are in his own
matchless collection. It is the "_Siege of Rhodes_," which
has a strong appearance of being the production of Caxton's
press. The copy is perfectly clean and almost uncut.]
[Footnote 400: If the reader will be pleased to turn to page
90, ante, he will find a tolerably copious and correct list
of the different sales of books which were once in the
possession of MONS. PARIS DE MEYZIEUX. In the same place he
will also find mention made of a singular circumstance
attending the sale of the above collection noticed by
Lysander. As a corollary, therefore, to what has been before
observed, take the following specimens of the books--with
the prices for which they are sold--which distinguished the
_Bibliotheca Parisiana_. They are from the French Catalogue,
1790, 8vo.
NO. 2. Biblia sacra latina vulgatæ editionis (ex
translatione et cum præfationibus S. Hieronymi); Venetiis,
N. Jenson, 1476, 2 vol. in fol.: _avec miniatures, relié en
mar. r. doublé de tabis, dentelles et boîtes_: IMPRIME SUR
VELIN. "On connoît l'extrême rareté de cette belle edition
quand les exemplaires sont sur vélin. Nous n'en connoissons
qu'un seul, bien moins beau que celui ci; celui que nous
annonçons est de toute beauté, et on ne peut rien ajouter au
luxe de la relieure." £59 17_s._ 0_d._
3. Biblia sacra vulgatæ editionis, tribus tomis distincta
(jussu Sixt. V., pontificis maximi edita); _Romæ, ex
typographia apostolica vaticana_, 1590; _in. fol. ch. mag.
maroquin rouge_.
"Superbe exemplaire d'un livre de la plus grande rareté; il
porte sur la couverture les armes de Sixte Quint." 64 1 0
10. Epitome passionis Jesu Christi, in 4o. SUR VELIN avec
miniatures. _Manuscrit très précieux_ du commencement du 16
siecle, contenant 37 feuillets écrits en ancienne ronde
bâtarde, et 17 pages de miniatures d'un dessein et d'un fini
inappréciables. "Les desseins sont d'Albert Durer, tels
qu'il les a gravés dans ses ouvrages, et l'exécution est si
animée qu'on peut croire qu'elle est, en tout ou en partie,
de la main de ce peintre célebre. On ne peut trop louer la
beauté de ce livre." 50 8 0
13. Officium beatæ Mariæ virginis cum calendario; in 4o.
mar. r. dentelles. "_Cette paire d'heures manuscrite_ SUR
VELIN, est sans contredit une des plus belles et des plus
achevées que l'on puisse trouver. Au rare mérite de sa
parfaite exécution elle réunit encore celui d'avoir été
faite pour Françoise 1er, roi de France, et d'être décoree
dans toutes ses pages de l'embléme et du chiffre de ce
monarque. Ce manuscrit, d'un prix inestimable, est ecrit en
lettres rondes sur un vélin très blanc"--"il est decoré de
très belles capitales, de guirlandes superbes de fleurs, de
culs-de-lampe, & de 12 bordures ornées d'oiseaux,
d'insectes, de fleurs et de lames d'or très brillant."--"Il
est impossible de donner une idée satisfaisante de le beauté
et de la richesse de 12 peintures admirables qui
enrichissent autant de pages de 8 pouces et demi de hauteur,
sur environ 6 pouces de largeur; elles sont au dessus de
toute expression; mais il n'y en a qu'une qui soit du temps
de François 1er.; un seigneur dont on voit les armes peintes
sur le second feuillet, a fait exécuter les autres dans la
siecle dernier, avec une magnificence peu commune. Les
tableaux et les ornemens dont il a enrichi ce précieux
manuscrit se distinguent par une composition savante et
gracieuse, un dessin correct, une touche précieuse et un
coloris agréable," &c. 109 4 0
14. Heures de Notre-Dame, écrites à la main, 1647, par
Jarry, Parisien, in 8o. _chagrin noir, avec deux fermoirs
d'or et boîte de mar. bl._ "Ces heures sont un
chef-d'oeuvre d'écriture & de peinture. Le fameux Jarry,
qui n'a pas encore eu son égal en l'art d'écrire, s'y est
surpassé, & y a prouvé que la regularité, la netteté & la
precision des caracteres du burin et de l'impression
pouvoient être imitées avec la plume à un degré de
perfection inconcevable."--"Le peintre, dont le nom nous est
inconnu, & qui doit avoir été un des plus fameux du siecle
de Louis XIV., a travaillé à l'envi avec Nicolas Jarry à
rendre ces heures dignes d'admiration."--"Les sept peintures
dont il les a enriches, sont recommendables par la purité de
leur dessein, la vivacité des couleurs, la verité de
l'expression, et leur précieux fini." 73 10 0
This matchless little volume was purchased by Mr. Johnes of
Hafod, and presented by him to his daughter, who has
successfully copied the miniatures; and, in the true spirit
of a female bibliomaniac, makes this book her travelling
companion "wherever she goes."
15. Office de la Vierge, _manuscrit_, avec 39 miniatures et
un grand nombre de figures bizarres, oiseaux, etc.
supérieurement executé; 2 vol. in 8o. _m. bl. doublé de
tapis, avec étuis_. "On ne peut rien voir de plus agréable &
de mieux diversifié que les différents sujets des
miniatures; en tout, cet exemplaire est un des plus beaux
que j'aie jamais vus; c'est celui de Picart. Il est à
remarquer à cause du costume de quelques figures; il a été
relié avec le plus grand soin et la plus grande dépense."
110 5 0
145. L'art de connoître et d'apprécier les miniatures des
anciens manuscrits; par M. l'abbé Rive, avec 30 tableaux
enlumines, copiés d'après les plus beaux manuscrits qui se
trouvoient dans la bibliothéque de M. le Duc de la Valliere,
et d'autres précieux cabinets. _Exemplaire peint_ SUR VELIN.
"M. l'abbé Rive se proposoit de donner une dissertation sur
les manuscrits enluminés pour accompagner ces dessins; mais
jusqu'ici ayant des raisons qui l'empêchent d'en gratifier
le public, il en a donné la description en manuscrit (le
seul qui existe) au propriétaire de ce superbe exemplaire."
56 14 0
240. Les faicts, dictes et ballades de maitre Alain
Chartier: _Paris, Pierre le Caron, sans date, in fol.
velours vert_; IMPRIME SUR VELIN. "Exemplaire qui ne laisse
rien à desirer, pour la grandeur des marges, la peinture des
miniatures et de toutes les lettres capitales. La finesse
des lignes rouges, qui divisent chaque ligne, demontre
combien on a été engagé à le rendre précieux. Il est dans sa
relieure originale parfaitement bien conservé; il a
appartenu à Claude d'Urfé: l'edition passe pour étre de
l'année, 1484. _Voyez Bibliographie Instructive_, no.
2999." 31 10 0
242. Contes de la Fontaine, avec miniatures, vignettes et
culs-de-lampes à chaque conte; 2 vol. in 4o.; m. bleu,
doublé de tapis, étuis. "_Manuscrit incomparable_ pour le
génie et l'exécution des dessins. Il est inconcevable que la
vie d'un artiste ait pu suffire pour exécuter d'une manière
si finie un si grand nombre de peintures exquises; le tout
est d'un coloris éclatant, d'une conservation parfaite, &
sur du vélin egalement blanc et uni; enfin c'est un
assemblage de miniatures précieuses et dignes d'orner le
plus beau cabinet."
L'ecriture a été faite par Monchaussé, et les miniatures par
le fameux Marolles. 315 0 0
328. Opere di Francesco Petrarcha; _senza luogho_ 1514,
_mar. r. doublé de tabis et étui_; IMPRIME SUR VELIN.
"Exemplaire sans prix, avec grand nombre de miniatures
charmantes. Il passoit pour constant à Florence, où je l'ai
acheté, qu'il avoite été imprimé à part probablement pour
quelqu'un des Mêdicis, et sur les corrections de l'edition
de 1514; car les fautes ne s'y trouvent pas, et il ne m'a
pas éte possible d'en découvrir une seule.--La parfaite
conservation de ce livre précieux démontre combien ses
possesseurs ont été sensible a sa valeur. P----." 116 11 0
486. Collectiones Peregrinationum in Indiam Orientalem et in
Indiam Occidentalem, xxv partibus comprehensæ, &c. _Francof.
ad Mæen. 1590, &c., 60 vol. reliés en 24, folio; maroq.
citr. bleu et rouge._ "Exemplaire de la plus grande beauté,
et qui possede autant de perfection que pouvoient lui donner
les soins et les connoissances des plus grands amateurs."
210 0 0
543. Les grands chroniques de France (dites les chroniques
de St. Denys); _Paris, Antoine Verard_, 1493, 3 vols. fol.
_vel. rouge, et boîtes_; IMPRIME SUR VELIN. "Exemplaire
d'une magnificence étonante pour la blancheur du vélin, la
grandeur des marges, et l'ouvrage immense de l'enluminure;
chaque lettre-capitale étant peinte en or, et contenant 953
miniatures, dont 13 sont de la grandeur des pages, et 940
environ de 4 pouces de hauteur sur 3 de largeur. Il est
encore dans sa relieure originale, et d'une fraîcheur &
d'une conservation parfaites: il a appartenu à Claude
d'Urfé." 151 4 0
546. Chroniques de France, d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse,
d'Espagnes, et de Bretaigne, etc.; par _Froissart; Paris, G.
Eustace, 1514. 4 vol. in fol. mar. r. doublé de tabis, et
boîtes_ IMPRIME SUR VELIN. "On peut regarder ce livre comme
un des plus rares qui existe. L'exemplaire est unique et
inconnu aux meilleurs bibliographes; Sauvage ne l'a jamaie
vu; il est de la premiere beauté par la blancheur du vélin,
& par sa belle conservation. On y a joint tout le luxe de la
rélieure." _In the Hafod Collection._ 149 2 0]
[Footnote 401: The following is the title of the Bibliotheca
Lortiana. "_A Catalogue of the entire and valuable Library
of the late_ REV. MICHAEL LORT, D.D., F.R.S. and A.S.,
_which will be sold by auction by Leigh and Sotheby, &c.,
April 5, 1791_," 8vo. The sale lasted twenty-five days; and
the number of lots or articles was 6665. The ensuing
specimens of a few of the book-treasures in this collection
prove that Lysander's encomium upon the collector is not
without foundation.
NO. 1738. Gardiner's (Bishop) Detection of the Devil's
Sophistry, MS. title: printed by _John Hertford, in
Aldersgate Street, at the cost and charges of Robert Toye_,
1546, 12mo. Note in this book: "Though this book is
imperfect, yet the remarkable part of it, viz. sheet E,
printed in the Greek letter, and sheet F in Latin, with the
Roman letter, are not wanting." £0 2_s._ 0_d._
1847. Hale's (T.) Account of New Inventions, in a letter to
the Earl of Marlborough, 8vo. Note in this book: "Many
curious particulars in this book, more especially a
prophetic passage relative to the Duke of Marlborough, p.
XLVII." 0 5 0
1880. Harrison's (Michael) four Sermons. "N.B. The author of
this book cut the types himself, and printed it at St.
Ives," 8vo. 0 3 0
1930. Festival (The) impressus Rothomage, 1499, 4to. In this
book (which is in English) at the end of each Festival is a
narration of the life of the Saint, or of the particular
festival. 0 16 0
1931. Festival (The) with wooden cuts, compleat: _emprynted
by Wynkyn de Worde_, 1408, 4to. 0 15 0
2156. Johnson's (Dr. Sam.) Journey to the Western Islands of
Scotland. "In this book is contained the cancelled part of
page 48, relative to Litchfield Cathedral; likewise the
cancelled part of page 296, respecting the cave at Egg, and
the transaction there; also parts of reviews and newspapers,
concerning Dr. Johnson; two plates, MS. copy of a letter of
Dr. Johnson's: and Henderson's letter to Johnson on his
journey to Scotland." 1776, 8vo. 0 15 0
2558. Muggleton's Acts of the Witnesses of the Spirit; _with
heads, MS. remarks, and notes_, 1699. Ludowick Muggleton,
born in Bishopgate Street, 1609; put apprentice to John
Quick, a taylor. Married a virgin of 19, ætat. suæ 22.
Another virgin of 19, ætat. 32. A third virgin wife of 25,
ætat. 53. Chosen a prophet 1665, 4to. 0 5 6
2559. Muggleton's and Reeve's volume of Spiritual Epistles;
elegantly bound, with a head of Muggleton underneath a MS.
note, 1755, 4to. 0 10 6
2579. Lower's Voyage of Charles II. made into Holland, head
and plates. Hague. 1660. Folio. N.B. "A very uncommon book,
containing many curious particulars." 1 3 0
2776. Owen's (Dr. John) Divine Originall, &c. of the
Scriptures, Oxford, 1659, 8vo. Note in this book: "One of
the scarcest and best of Dr. Owen's works." 0 1 0
3005. Psalms (The whole Booke of) with Hymns, by
Ravenscroft, with music, 8vo. "Note; in this book are some
tunes by John Milton, the great poet's father. See page 242,
62." 0 2 0
3342. Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, printed at London by
Richard Jones, 16 August, 1583, 8vo. Note in this book: "I
bought this rare book at the auction of Mr. Joseph Hart's
books, in May 1772, where it cost me 8_s._ &c." M.L. [The
reader may just run back to page 279, ante; where he will
find some account of this work.] 1 14 0
4185. Champ Fleury, auquel est contenu l'Art et Science de
la deue et vraye Proportion de Lettres Antiques et Romaines
selon le Corps et visage Humain, avec figures. Par. 1529.
Folio. "_This uncommon book was sold at an auction, 1722,
for 2l. 15s._" 0 12 6
4437. Alberti Descriptione di tutta Italia, Venez., 1568,
4to. Note in this book--"_This is a very scarce and much
valued account of Italy._" With another curious note
respecting the author. 0 9 6
4438. Aldrete Varias Antiguedales de Espana, Africa, y otras
Provincias. Amberes, 1641, 4to. _Note in this book_: "One of
the most valuable books of this kind in the Spanish
language, and very rarely to be met with." 0 9 6
5532. Humfredi, Vita Episcop. Juelli, foliis deauratis,
Lond. ap Dayum, 1573, 4to. _Note in this book_: "At the end
of this book are probably some of the first Hebrew types
used in England." 0 1 0
6227. Præsidis (Epistola R.A.P.) Generalis et Regiminis
totius Congregationis Anglicanæ Ordinis St. Benedicti.
Duaci, 1628. 8vo. 0 1 0
[_Note in this book_: "This is a very scarce book; it was
intended only for the use of the order, and care taken that
it should not get into improper hands. See the conclusion of
the General's mandate, and of the book itself."]
6616. Wakefeldi Oratio de Laudibus et Utilitate trium
linguarum, Arabicæ, Chaldaicæ, & Hebraicæ; atque idiomatibus
Hebraicis quæ in utroque Testamento inveniuntur. _Lond. ap.
Winandum de Worde._--Shirwode Liber Hebræorum concionatoris,
seu Ecclesiasten. Antv. 1523. 4to. _Note in this book_:
"These two pieces by Shirwood and Wakefield are exceedingly
rare." 0 4 0
For some particulars concerning the very respectable Dr.
LORT, the reader may consult the _Gentleman's Magazine_;
vol. lx. pt. ii. p. 1055, 1199.]
ALMAN. I am glad to hear you notice such kind of collections; for
utility and common sense have always appeared to me a great
desideratum among the libraries of your professed bibliomaniacs.
BELIN. Yes:--You pride yourselves upon your large paper, and clean,
and matchless copies--but you do not dwell quite so satisfactorily
upon your useful and profitable volumes--which, surely stand not in
need of expensive embellishments. Lort's collection would be the
library for my money--if I were disposed to become a female
bibliomaniac!
LIS. You are even a more jejune student than myself in bibliography,
or you would not talk in this strain, Belinda. Abuse fine copies of
books! I hope you forgive her, Lysander?
LYSAND. Most cordially. But have I not discoursed sufficiently? The
ladies are, I fear, beginning to be wearied; and the night is "almost
at odds with morning which is which."
LOREN. Nay, nay, we must not yet terminate our conversation. Pursue,
and completely accomplish, the noble task which you have begun. But a
few more years to run down--a few more renowned bibliomaniacs to "kill
off"--and then we retire to our pillows delighted and instructed by
your----
LYSAND. Halt! If you go on thus, there is an end to our "Table Talk."
I now resume.
LOREN. Yet a word to save your lungs, and slightly vary the discourse.
Let me take you with me to Ireland, about this time; where, if you
reremember [Transcriber's Note: remember], the library of DENIS
DALY[402] was disposed of by public auction. My father attended the
sale; and purchased at it a great number of the _Old English
Chronicles_, and volumes relating to _English History_, which Lisardo
so much admired in the library. You remember the copy of Birch's
_Lives of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain_!
[Footnote 402: _A Catalogue of the Library of the late Right
Honourable_ DENIS DALY, _which will be sold by auction on
the first of May, 1792, by James Vallance._ _Dublin_, 8vo. A
fac-simile copper-plate of a part of the first psalm, taken
from a Bible erroneously supposed to have been printed by
Ulric Zell in 1458, faces the title-page; and a short and
pertinent preface succeeds it. The collection was choice and
elegant: the books are well described, and the catalogue is
printed with neatness. The copies on _large paper_ are very
scarce. I subjoin, as a curiosity, and for the sake of
comparing with modern prices, the sums for which a few
popular articles in ENGLISH HISTORY were disposed of.
NO. 527. Tyrrell's General History of England, 5 vols. Lond.
1697, fol. "To this copy Mr. Tyrell has made considerable
additions in MS. written in a fair hand, which must be
worthy of the attention of the learned." £10 4_s._ 9_d._
533. Rapin's History of England with Tyndal's Continuation,
5 vols. _elegantly bound in russia_. Lond. 1743-1747, folio.
"One of the most capital sets of Rapin extant; besides the
elegant portraits of the kings and queens, monuments,
medals, &c. engraved for this work, it is further enriched
with the beautiful prints executed by Vertue and Houbraken,
for Birch's Illustrious Heads." folio. 17 2 7
534. Carte's General History of England, 4 vols., fine
paper, _elegant in russia_. Lond. 1747, folio. 7 19 3
537. Birch's Lives of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain,
with their heads by Houbraken and Vertue; 2 vols. in one,
_first impression of the plates, imperial paper_. Lond.
1743-1751, folio. It is impossible to give a perfect idea of
this book: every plate is fine, and appears to be selected
from the earliest impressions: it is now very scarce. 22 15 0
538. Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus, with Woolfe's and
Gandon's Continuation, 5 vols. _large paper, fine
impressions of the plates, elegantly bound in morocco, gilt
leaves, &c._ Lond. 1717-1767, folio. 25 0 6
540. Wood's Historia et Antiquitates Oxoniensis, _large
paper, russia, gilt leaves, &c._ Ox. 1674. 2 16 10
542. Biographia Britannica, 7 vols. _large paper, elegantly
bound_. Lond. 1747, fol. 13 13 0
543. ---- ---- 4 vols. new edition, _elegantly bound in
green Turkey_. Lond. 1778. 7 19 3
545. Mathæi Paris, Monachi Albanensis Angli, Historia Major,
a Wats. Lond. 1640, folio. 3 19 7
546. Mathæi Westmonasteriensis, Flores Historiarum. Franc.
1601, folio. 2 16 10
547. Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores Varii, a Sparke. Lond.
1723, folio. 2 5 6
548. Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores X. a Twysden; 2 tom. fol.
_deaurat._ Lond. 1652, folio. 4 11 0
549. Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam, a Saville, fol.
_deaurat._ Lond. 1596, folio. 2 5 6
550. Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum, a Gale; 3 tom.
fol. _deaurat._ Lond. 1684-91. 5 13 9
551. Rerum Britannicarum, Scriptores Vetustiores. Lugd.
1587, folio. 1 8 0
573. Prynne's Records, 3 vols., with the _frontispieces
complete, gilt, broad border of gold_. Lond. 1666-68. "For
an account of this rare and valuable work, see Oldy's
British Librarian, page II. Not more than 70 copies of the
first vol. were rescued from the fire of London, 1666."
folio. 80 15 3
I learn from the nephew of the late Mr. Archer, of Dublin,
bookseller, that the late Lord Clare offered 4000 guineas
for the collection--which contained only 1441 lots or
articles. The offer was rejected. Although the amount of the
sale did not exceed 3700_l._--according to a rough
calculation.]
LIS. I do:--and a marvellously fine one it is!
LOREN. Well, this was formerly _Exemplar Dalyanum_. But now proceed. I
wished only to convince you that the miasmata (as you call them) of
the bibliomaniacal disease had reached our Sister Kingdom. Of
Scotland[403]--I know nothing in commendation respecting the
BIBLIOMANIA.
[Footnote 403: This is rather a hasty speech, on the part of
Lorenzo. The copious and curious catalogues of those
booksellers, Messrs. CONSTABLE, LAING, and BLACKWOOD--are a
sufficient demonstration that the cause of the _Bibliomania_
flourishes in the city of Edinburgh. Whether they have such
desperate bibliomaniacs in Scotland, as we possess in
London, and especially of the book-auction species--is a
point which I cannot take upon me to decide. Certain it is
that the notes of their great poet are not deficient in
numerous tempting extracts from rare black-letter tomes; and
if his example be not more generally followed than it is,
the fault must lie with some scribe or other who counteracts
its influence by propagating opinions, and recommending
studies, of a different, and less tasteful, cast of
character. I am fearful that there are too many
politico-economical, metaphysical, and philosophical
miasmata, floating in the atmosphere of Scotland's
metropolis, to render the climate there just now favourable
to the legitimate cause of the BIBLIOMANIA.]
I had nearly forgotten to mention, with the encomiums which they
merit, the select, curious, and splendid collections of the
CHAUNCYS:[404] very able scholars, and zealous bibliomaniacs. Many a
heavy-metalled competitor attended the sale of the _Bibliotheca
Chauncyana_; and, I dare say, if such a collection of books were now
_sub hastâ_----
[Footnote 404: _A Catalogue of the elegant and valuable
Libraries of_ CHARLES CHAUNCY, M.D. F.R.S. and F.S.A.; _and
of his brother_, NATHANIEL CHAUNCY, _Esq., both deceased:
&c. Sold by auction by Leigh and Sotheby, April, 1790_,
8vo.: 3153 articles.
NO. 99. Booke of Raynarde the Foxe, morocco, gilt leaves,
_London by Thomas Gaultier_, 1550, 8vo. £2 3_s._ 0_d._
108. Merie Tales by Master Skelton, Poet Laureat; _imprinted
by Thomas Colwell_; no date, 12mo. 1 6 0
109. The Pleasunt Historie of Lazarillo de Tormes, by David
Rouland; _impr. at London, by Abel Jeffes_, 1586, 12mo. 0 11 0
112. The Newe Testament, corrected by Tyndal, with
exhortations by Erasmus; _gilt leaves_, 1536, 12mo. 5 2 6
113. More's Utopia, by Robynson; _impr. by Abraham Veale_,
12mo. (1551.) 0 8 0
"N.B. In this are the passages which have been left out in
the later editions." (But the reader may be pleased to
examine my edition of this translation of the Utopia; 1808,
2 vols., 8vo., see vol. i., p. clix.)
119. The Epidicion into Scotland of the most woorthely
fortunate Prince Edward, Duke of Somerset, Uncle unto our
most noble sovereign, &c., Edward the VIth; _imprinted by
Grafton_; 1548, 8vo. 2 18 0
(At the sale of Mr. Gough's books in 1810, a fine copy of
this work was sold for 10_l._ 10_s._)
362. Ben Jonson his Volpone, or the Foxe; _morocco, gilt
leaves_, 1607, 4to. 4 0 0
"In this book is this note written by Ben Jonson himself.
'To his loving father, and worthy friend Mr. John Florio:
the ayde of his Muses. Ben Jonson seales this testimony of
friendship and love.'"
384. Nychodemus's Gospell, _morocco, gilt leaves, emprynted
at London, by Wynkyn de Worde_, 1511, 4to. 2 2 0
388. Oxford and Cambridge Verses; _in blue and red morocco,
gilt leaves, with gold tassels_, 13 vols., 1617, &c., fol. 2
12 6
572. Caius of English Dogges, the diversities, the names,
the natures, and the properties, by Fleming; _imprinted at
London by Richard Johnes_, 1576, 4to. 5 10 0
592. The Life and Death of the merry Devill of Edmonton,
with the pleasant Prancks of Smug the smith, Sir John, and
mine Host of the George, about the stealing of Venison,
frontispiece, 4to. 1 10 0
599. Speculum Xristiani, corio turcico, impress. _London, p.
Willelmum de Machlinia_ ad instanciam nec non expensas
Henrici Urankenburg, mercatoris, _sine anno vel loco,
circa_, 1480, 4to. 11 0 0
599. [Transcriber's Note: sic] A Hundreth Sundrie Flowers,
bounde up in one small poesie, gathered in the fyne outlandish
gardins of Euripides, Ovid, Petrake, Aristo, and others.
_London_, 4to. 1 12 0
1669. The Recuile of the Historie of Troie; _imprynted_
1553, _by William Copland, folio_ 2 5 0
1670. The Pastyme of People. The Chronicles of dyvers
Realmys, and most specyally of the Realme of Englond,
brevely compylyd and _emprynted in Chepesyde at the sygne of
the Mearmayde, next Polly's Gate (made up with MS.) morocco,
gilt leaves_, folio 9 14 0
1684. Cunningham's Cosmographical Glasse. _Lond. printed by
Daye_, 1559, fol. 5 15 6
(I conclude that it had the portrait.)
2932. Ptolomæi Cosmographie; cum tab. georgr. [Transcriber's
Note: geogr.] illum. _Impress. in Membranis_, 1482, fol. 14
14 0
2933. Virgilii Opera: _Impres. in Membram. Venet. ap.
Barthol. Cremonens_, 1472, fol. (Two leaves on vellum in MS.
very fairly written) 43 1 0
Purchased by the late Mr. Quin.
2934. Plinii Hist. Naturalis; Venet. 1472, folio. _Impres.
in Membranis._ The first leaf illuminated on very fine
vellum paper. Note in this book: "This book, formerly Lord
Oxford's, was bought by him of Andrew Hay for 160 guineas."
65 2 0
Purchased by Mr. Edwards.
There was also a magnificent copy of _Pynson's first edition
of Chaucer's Works_, in folio, which is now in the
collection of Earl Spencer.]
LIS. He means "under the hammer."--Ladies are not supposed to know
these cramp Latin phrases.--
LYSAND. Well, "under the hammer:"--if, I say, such a collection were
now to be disposed of by public auction, how eager and emulous would
our notorious book-collectors be to run away with a few splendid
spoils!
We will next notice a not less valuable collection, called the
_Bibliotheca Monroiana_; or the library of Dr. JOHN MONRO;[405] the
sale of which took place in the very year, and a little before, the
preceding library was disposed of. Don't imagine that Monro's books
were chiefly medical; on the contrary, besides exhibiting some of the
rarest articles in Old English literature, they will convince
posterity of the collector's accurate taste in Italian Belles Lettres:
and here and there you will find, throughout the catalogue, some
interesting bibliographical memoranda by the Doctor himself.
[Footnote 405: "_Bibliotheca Elegantissima Monroiana: A
Catalogue of the elegant and valuable library of_ JOHN
MUNRO, M.D., _Physician to Bethelem Hospital, lately
deceased. Sold by auction by Leigh and Sotherby
[Transcriber's Note: Sotheby], &c. April 23d, 1792_, 8vo."
As usual I subjoin a few specimens of the collector's
literary treasures in confirmation of the accuracy of
Lysander's eulogy upon the collection----No. 709,
Cowell's Interpreter; or, Booke containing the signification
of words, _first edition_, ("rare to be met with.") _Camb.
by Legate_, 1607, 4to.----No. 1951. Cent (Les) Nouvelles
Nouvelles, ou pour mieux dire, Nouveaux Comptes à plaisance,
par maniere de Joyeuseté.----_Lettres Gothiques, fig. et
bois et titre MSS. feuilles dorées, en maroquin, Paris, par
Ant. Verard_, 1475, fol.----No. 1963, Heide Beschryving
der nieuevlyks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde
Slang-Brand-Spuiten, en Haare wijze van Brand-Blussen,
Tegenwoordig binnen _Amsterdam in gebruik zynde. Wyze
figuurs Amst._ 1690, fol. "_Note in this book: Paris_, 1736.
Paid for this book for his Grace the Duke of Kingston, by
Mr. Hickman, 24_l._" A great sum for a book about a "newly
discovered fire engine!"----No. 2105, Vivre (Le livre
intitulé l'art de bein) et de bien mourir, lettres
gothiques, avec fig. en maroquin dorées sur tranches.
_Imprimé à Paris_, 1543, 4to. Note by Dr. Munro: "It is a
very scarce book, more so than generally thought." With a
long account of the book on separate papers.----No. 2121,
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, con figure da Porro, foglio dorat.
Venet. 1584, 4to. N.B. In this copy the true print is
replaced _with a fine head of Ariosto_, and _elegantly
inlaid with morocco and calf_.----No. 2147, Boccacio
(Nimpale Fiesolano: composto par il Clarissimo Poeta Misser
Joanni) Fiorentino, &c. rigato. Senza data, 4to. See in this
book a long account of this poem from Dom. Maria Manni, in
the Istoria del Decamerone, p. 55. "From what Manni says in
the above account, I suppose this to be the first edition he
makes mention of, as there is no place or date to be found.
J.M."----No. 2194. Dante di Landino, con. fig. La prima
Edizione di Landino, impf. _Firenze per Nicholo di Lorenzo
della Magna_, 1481, folio. "In this book are several remarks
by Dr. Munro, on separate papers. An old scarce print,
separate. On the title-page the following initials
C M/DC R; upon which the Doctor remarks it might probably
be the signature of Charles the First, whose property it
might have been. The Doctor likewise observes this copy,
though imperfect, is still very valuable, on account of its
having eight plates, the generality having only the two
first."----No. 2208, Molinet (Les Faictz et dictz de bone
Memoire Maistre Jehan) _Lettres gothiques, en maroquin Par._
1537, 8vo.----No. 2366, Peri Fiesole Distrutta, poema:
with portrait and engraved title, Firenze, 1619, 4to. _Note
in this book_: "This is the only copy I ever saw of this
work, which I imagine is at present become extremely scarce.
The title and portrait are engraved by Callott. The portrait
is common enough, but the title, known by the name of the
Bella Giardiniera, very seldom seen. J.M."----No. 2379.
Ridolfi, Le Maraviglie dell'Arte, overo le vite di Pittori
Veneti e dello stato, con. fig. 2 tom. 4to. N.B. On the
blank leaf of this book is an etching by Carolus Rodolphus,
with this _MS. note_: "I imagine this to be an etching of
Cavaier Rodolphi, as I do not remember any other of the
name."----No. 2865, Lazii in Genealogiam Austriacam,
Basil. ap. Oporinum, 1564.--Lazii Vienna Austriæ Basil,
1546. Francolin Res Gestæ Viennensis, cum fig. _Viennæ
Austriæ excudebat Raphæl Hofhalter_, 1563. Folio. _Note in
this book_: "The last book in this volume is curious and
uncommon."]
We shall now run rapidly towards the close of the eighteenth century.
But first, you may secure, for a shilling or two, the SOUTHGATE
COLLECTION;[406] and make up your minds to pay a few more shillings
for good copies, especially upon _large paper_, of all the parts of
the catalogues of the library of GEORGE MASON[407]. This collection
was an exceedingly valuable one; rather select than extensive:
exhibiting, in pretty nearly an equal degree, some of the rarest
books in Greek, Latin, and English literature. The _keimelion_ of the
Masonian cabinet, in the estimation of the black-letter bibliomaniacs,
was a perfect copy of the _St. Albans' edition_ of Juliana Barnes's
book of _Hawking, Hunting_, and _Angling_; which perfect copy is now
reposing in a collection where there are _keimelia_ of far greater
value to dim its wonted lustre. But let Mason have our admiration and
esteem. His library was elegant, judicious, and, in many respects,
very precious: and the collector of such volumes was a man of worth
and learning.
[Footnote 406: "_Museum Southgatianum; being a Catalogue of
the valuable Collection of Books, Coins, Medals, and Natural
History of the late Rev._ RICHARD SOUTHGATE, A.B., F.A.S.,
&c. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life. London:
printed for Leigh and Sotheby," &c. 1795, 8vo. The books were
comprised in 2593 lots. The coins and medals extend, in the
catalogue, to 68 pages. The shells and natural curiosities
(sold in May, 1795) to 11 pages. This catalogue possesses,
what every similar one should possess, a compendious and
perspicuous account of the collector. My copy of it is upon
_large paper_; but the typographical execution is
sufficiently defective.]
[Footnote 407: Lysander is right in noticing "_all the
parts_" of the Masonian Library. I will describe them
particularly. Pt. I. _A Catalogue of a considerable
portion of the Greek and Latin Library of_ GEORGE MASON,
Esq., with some articles in the Italian, French, English,
and other languages, &c. Sold by auction by Leigh and
Sotheby, on Wednesday, January 24, 1798, 8vo. 497 articles.
Pt. II. _A Catalogue of most of the reserved portion of
the Greek and Latin Library of_ G.M., &c., chiefly classical
and bibliographical, with a few miscellaneous articles in
French: sold as before, May 16, 1798, &c. 480 articles.
Pt. III. _A Catalogue of a considerable portion of the
remaining Library of_ G.M., Esq.--chiefly historical, with
some curious theological, and some scientific, articles:
sold as before; Nov. 27 to 30; 1798, &c. 547 articles. Pt
IV. _A Catalogue, &c., of the remaining library of_ G.M.,
Esq.--chiefly Belles Lettres, English, French, and Italian,
&c., sold as before; April 25, 1799: 338 articles. These
FOUR PARTS, priced, especially the latter one--are uncommon.
My copies of all of them are upon _large paper_. It must
have been a little heart-breaking for the collector to have
seen his beautiful library, the harvest of many a year's
hard reaping, melting away piece-meal, like a
snow-ball--before the warmth of some potent cause or other,
which now perhaps cannot be rightly ascertained. See here,
gentle reader, some of the fruits of this golden Masonian
harvest!--gathered almost promiscuously from the several
parts. They are thus presented to thy notice, in order,
amongst other things, to stimulate thee to be equally choice
and careful in the gathering of similar fruits.
PART I.
NO. 150. Winstanley's Audley End, inscribed to James the
Second, fol. _Never published for sale_ £27 10_s._ 0_d._
158. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, C.T. _F.D. Ald._ 1499 5 0 0
162. Aquinæ (Thomæ) Quartiscriptum, C.R. _Moguntiæ
Schoeffer_, 1492, fol. 6 0 0
295. Cicero de Officiis, C.T. F.D. _Moguntiæ ap. Fust._
1465. 4to. In hoc exemplari Rubrica inter libros secundum ac
tertium habet singularia errata, quæ in nullo alio exemplari
adhuc innotuerunt; viz. _primus_ ponitur pro _secundus_,
_secundus_ pro _tertius_, et _secundum_ pro _tertium_ 26 5 0
307. Chalcondylas, Moschopulus, et Corinthus, Gr. _editio
princeps._ Vide notam ante Librum 8 18 6
308. Constantini Lexicon Græcum. _Genevæ_, 1592 4 5 0
324. Ciceronis Orationes, C.T. viridi F.D. _per Adamum de
Ambergau_, 1472, fol. 5 5 0
468. Homerus, Gr., 2 vol., _Editio princeps_, C.R. Flor.
1488 11 11 0
496. Xenophon, Gr., _editio princeps_, C.T. F.D. _Flor. ap.
Junt._ 1516, fol. 2 3 0
PART III.
70. Maundrel's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, _L.P. Oxf._
1714, 8vo. First edition of the entire work 3 18 0
101. The Psalter of David, large B.L. C.T. nigro F.D.
_Cantorbury, in St. Paule's Parysh, by John Mychell_, 1549,
4to. 4 4 0
102. The Gospels in Saxon and English, dedicated to Queen
Elizabeth, by John Foxe, C.T. nigro, F.D. _Lond. by Daye_,
1571, 4to. 4 5 0
103. The new Testament, by Thomas Matthew, 1538, 4to. 3 4 0
["There are cuts to the Revelations, different from any Mr.
Herbert had seen; nor had he seen the book itself, till he
was writing his 'Corrections and additions,' where, at p.
1833, he describes it."]
105. Nychodemus' Gospell, C.T. F.D. _wood prints. Wynkyn de
Worde_, 1511, 4to. 1 5 0
107. English Prymer, in red and black types: _with
emblematic frontispiece from a wood-cut_. C.T. cæruleo F.D.
_Byddell_, 1535, 4to. PRINTED ON VELLUM 8 18 6
110. Speculum Christiani (in Latin prose and English verse)
C.T. nigro. _In civitate Londoniarum, per Wilhelmum de
Machlinia. Supposed to be the first book printed in London,
and about_ 1480, 4to. 4 4 0
111. Contemplation of Synners, (Latin prose and English
verse) with double frontispiece, and other wood-cuts.
_Westminster, by Wynkyn de Worde_, 1499, 4to. 2 3 0
112. (Walter Hylton's) Scala Perfectionis, London, _without
Temple-Barre_, by Julyan Notary, 1507, 4to. 1 11 6
151. Dives and Pauper, C.R. _first dated impression by
Pynson_, 1493, folio 2 5 0
164. Hackluyt's Collection of Voyages, B.L. 3 vols. in 2.
Lond. 1599. "This work contains in vol. I. (beginning at p.
187) a political tract in verse (of the time of Henry VI.)
exhorting England to keep the sea." 4 10 0
178. Arnold's Chronicle, or Customs of London, B.L.
C.T.--F.D. (1521) folio 15 15 6
180. Chaucer's Hertfordshire; _with all the plates_, C.R.
_Once the book of White Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough;
whose marginal notes in are pp._ 64, 359, 523, folio 21 0 0
338. Froissart's Chronycles, 2 vols. C.R. F.D. _Printed by
Pynson_, 1523-5, _folio_, 2 vols.
341. Rastell's Pastyme of People, C.T.--F.D. Johannes
Rastell, (1529) _One page and part of a pieced leaf
written._
349. Monasticon Anglicanum, 3 vols. ligat. in 4, C.R. all
the plates, Lond. 1651, 61, 73. "This copy contains that
very scarce leaf, which sometimes follows the title-page of
the first volume: an account of which leaf (by Tanner and
Hearne) may be seen from p. 45 to p. 50 of the sixth volume
of Leland's Collectanea, and their account rectified by
Bridges, at the conclusion of Hearne's preface to Titus
Livius Foro-Juliensis." Folio.
466. Hardyng's Chronicle (in verse) C.R.--F.D. _With an
original grant (on vellum) from Henry VI. to Hardyng,
Londoni._ Grafton, 1543, 4to.
[This beautiful copy, formerly West's, is now in the
collection of George Hibbert, Esq.]
518. Fabian's Chronicle, C.T. cærulo F.D. 2 vols. in 1. B.L.
Lond. W. Rastell, 1533. "This edition (as well as Pynson's)
has the hymns to the Virgin, though Mr. T. Warton thought
otherwise." folio.
PART IV.
[Transcriber's Note: In this section, no prices are given in
the original.]
37. Kendall's Flowers of Epigrams, B.L.--C.R. _Leaf 93 is
wanting_, 12mo.
47. M(arloe)'s Ovid's Elegies and Epigrams, by J. D(avies of
Hereford). (Ovid's head engraved by W.M.) C.T.--F.D.
_Middlebourg_, 12mo.
57. Observations on Authors, Ancient and Modern, 2 vol.
Lond. 1731-2. "This was Dr. Jortin's own copy, who has
written the name of each author to every piece of criticism,
and added a few marginal remarks of his own," 8vo.
150. Valentine and Orson, B.L. cuts. _Wants title, two
leaves in one place, and a leaf in another_, 4to.
152. La Morte D'Arthur, B.L. _wood-cuts_, Lond. _Thomas
East._ _Wants one leaf in the middle of the table._ See _MS.
note prefixed_.
153. Barnes's (Dame Juliana) Boke of Haukynge, Huntynge, and
Cootarmuris, C.T.--F.D. _Seynt Albon's_, folio, 1486. "This
perhaps is the only perfect copy of this original edition,
which is extant. Its beginning with sig. a ii is no kind of
cantradiction [Transcriber's Note: contradiction] to its
being perfect; the registers of many Latin books at this
period mention the first leaf of A as quite blank. The copy
of the public library at Cambridge is at least so worn or
mutilated at the bottom of some pages that the bottom lines
are not legible." [This copy is now in the matchless
collection of Earl Spencer.]
157. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, C.R. _woodcuts, Pynson_,
folio, "This is Pynson's original edition, and probably the
first book he printed. See a long MS. note prefixed. Bound
up at the end of this copy are two leaves of a MS. on
vellum, which take in the conclusion of the Miller's
Prologue, and beginning of his Tale. One of these pages is
illuminated, and has a coloured drawing of the Miller on his
mule."
166. Mort D'Arthur, B.L. _woodcuts. Lond. W. Copland._ See
MS. notes at the beginning and end, folio.
175. Roy's _Rede me and be not wrothe,
For I say nothing but trothe._
"This is the famous satire against Cardinal Wolsey, printed
some years before his fall. See Herbert, p. 1538, 8vo." [The
reader may look for one minute at page 225, ante.]
263. Boetius, (The Boke of Comfort, by) translated into
Englishe Tonge (in verse) _Emprented in the exempt Monastery
of Taverstock, in Denshire, by me, Thomas Rycharde, Monke of
the said Monastery_, 1525, 4to.
261. Caxton's Blanchardyn and Eglantine, or Proude Lady of
Love, C.T.--F.D., _printed by Caxton_, folio. [See my
edition of the _Typograhical [Transcriber's Note:
Typographical] Antiquities_, vol. i. p. 346.]
274. Hawkyng, Huntyng, and Fyshyng, (from Juliana Barnes)
B.L. _woodcuts. Lond. Toye, and W. Copland_, 4to. _See MS.
notes prefixed._
275. Hawys's Compendions Story, or Exemple of Vertue,
B.L.--C.R. _wood-cuts_, _ib._ _Wynkyn de Worde_, 1533.
276. ---- Passe-Tyme of Pleasure, B.L. _wood-cuts ib. by W.
de Worde_, 1517, 4to.
306. Spenser's Shephearde's Calendar. C.T.--F.D.,
_wood-cuts: first edition, ib._ Singleton, 1579, 4to.
308. Taylor, the water poet (fifteen different pieces by)
all of posterior date to the collection of his works. Among
them is the Life of Old Par, with Par's head, and 31 plates
of curious needle-work. The volume also contains some
replies to Taylor. A written list of all the contents is
prefixed. Lond. and Oxford, 4to.
330. Tulle of Old Age (translated by William Botoner, or of
Worcester) _pr. by Caxton_, 1481. folio.
---- of Friendship, translated by Tiptoft, Earl of
Worcester; to which is added another tract written by the
same Earl, C.R.--F.D.--L.R. _Explicit per Caxton_, folio.]
How shall I talk of thee, and of thy wonderful collection, O RARE
RICHARD FARMER?[408]--and of thy scholarship, acuteness, pleasantry,
singularities, varied learning, and colloquial powers! Thy name will
live long among scholars in general; and in the bosoms of virtuous and
learned bibliomaniacs thy memory shall ever be enshrined! The walls of
Emanuel College now cease to convey the sounds of thy festive
wit--thy volumes are no longer seen, like Richard Smith's "bundles of
sticht books," strewn upon the floor; and thou hast ceased, in the
cause of thy beloved Shakspeare, to delve into the fruitful ore of
black-letter literature. Peace to thy honest spirit; for thou wert
wise without vanity, learned without pedantry, and joyous without
vulgarity!
[Footnote 408: There is but a scanty memorial of this
extraordinary and ever respectable bibliomaniac, in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_; vol. lxvii. pt. ii. p. 805: 888: nor
is it noticed, among Farmer's theologico-literary labours,
that he was author of an ingenious essay upon the
_Demoniacs_ mentioned in scripture; in which essay he took
up the idea of Mede, that these Demoniacs were _madmen_. Dr.
Farmer's essay upon the _Learning of Shakespeare_ is, in
respect to the materials, arguments, and conclusions--what
the late Bishop of Salisbury's [Douglas] was upon
_Miracles_--original, powerful, and incontrovertible. Never
was there an octavo volume, like Farmer's upon
Shakespeare--which embraced so many, and such curious,
points, and which displayed such research, ingenuity, and
acuteness--put forth with so little pomp, parade, or
pedantry. Its popularity was remarkable; for it delighted
both the superficial and deeply-versed reader in
black-letter lore. Dr. Parr's well applied Ciceronian
phrase, in lauding the "ingenious and joy-inspiring
language" of Farmer, gives us some notion of the colloquial
powers of this acute bibliomaniac; whose books were
generally scattered upon the floor, as Lysander above
observes, like old Richard Smith's "stitched bundles."
Farmer had his foragers; his jackalls: and his
avant-couriers: for it was well known how dearly he loved
every thing that was interesting and rare in the literature
of former ages. As he walked the streets of London--careless
of his dress--and whether his wig was full-bottomed or
narrow-bottomed--he would talk and "mutter strange speeches"
to himself; thinking all the time, I ween, of some curious
discovery he had recently made in the aforesaid precious
black-letter tomes. But the reader is impatient for the
_Bibliotheca Farmeriana_: the title to the catalogue whereof
is as follows. "_Bibl. Farm. A Catalogue of the curious,
valuable, and extensive Library in print and manuscript, of
the late_ REV. RICHARD FARMER, _D.D., Canon Residentiary of
St. Paul's; Master of Emanuel College: Librarian to the
University of Cambridge; and Fellow of the Royal & Antiquary
Societies_ (deceased, &c.) Sold by Auction by Mr. King; May,
1798," 8vo. [8199 articles]. The collection is justly said,
in the title page, to contain the "most rare and copious
assemblage of _Old English Poetry_ that, perhaps, was ever
exhibited at one view; together with a great variety of _Old
Plays_, and early printed books, English and Foreign, in the
black-letter." The reader has already (p. 324 ante) had some
intimation of the source to which Dr. Farmer was chiefly
indebted for these poetical and dramatical treasures; of
some of which, "hereafter followeth" an imperfect specimen:
NO. 5950. Marbecke (John) the book of Common Prayer, noted,
1550. 4to. See Dr. Burney's long account of this very scarce
book in his History of Musick, vol. ii. p. 578, &c. £2 6_s._
0_d._
6127. Skinner's Discovery and Declaration of the Inquisition
of Spayne, _imp. J. Daye_, 1569, 4to. 6128. Shippe of
Fooles, by Brant, wood cuts, _imp. Wynkyn de Worde_, 1517,
4to. 1 16 0
6194. Brunswyke's Medical Dictionary, translated by Huet,
_imp. by Treveris_, 1525. folio. 3 10 0
6195. Customs of the Citie of London, or Arnold's Chronicle,
with the Nut-Brown Mayde, _1st edition_, 1502, folio. 0 19 0
6386. Annalia Dubrensia, or Robert Dover's Olimpic Games
upon Cotswold-Hills, _with frontispiece_, 1636. 1 14 0
6387. Barley-breake, or a Warning for Wantons, by W.N. 1607,
4to. 0 5 0
6395. Britton's Bowre of Delights, by N.B. 1597. 4to. 1 13 0
6413. Byrd's (Will.) Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs of Sadnes
and Pietie made into Musicke of 5 partes. 1588. Ditto Sacræ
Cantiones, 2 parts; and various Madrigals and Canzonets, by
Morley, Weelkes, Wilbye, Bateson, &c. 4to. 0 15 0
6608. Copie of a Letter sent from the roaring Boyes in
Elizium, to the two arrant Knights of the Grape in Limbo,
Alderman Abel and M. Kilvert, the two projectors for wine;
with their portraits. 5 5 0
6785. Turbervile's (George) Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs and
Sonets, with a Discourse of the freendly affections of
Tymetes to Pyndara his ladie, b.l. 1570, _imp. by Denham_,
8vo. 1 16 0
6804. Virgil's Æneis, the first foure bookes, translated
into English heroicall verse, by Richard Stanyhurst, with
other poetical devises thereunto annexed; _impr. by
Bynneman_, 1583, 8vo. 2 17 0
6826. Essayes of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie
(King James VI.) _Edinburgh, by Vautrollier_, 1585, 8vo. 1
13 0
6846. Fulwell's (Ulpian) Flower of Fame, or bright Renoune
and fortunate Raigne of King Henry VIII. b.l. with curious
wood cuts: _imp. by Will. Hoskin_, 1575, 4to. 1 11 6
6847. Flytting (the) betwixt Montgomerie and Polwarte,
_Edin._, 1629, 4to. 2 5 0
7058. Horace's Art of Poetrie, Pistles, and Satyrs,
English'd by Drant, b.l. _Imp. by Marshe_, 1566, 4to. 0 7 6
7066. Humours Ordinarie, where a man may be verie merrie and
exceeding well used for his sixpence, 1607, 4to. 0 14 6
7187. Mastiffe Whelp, with other ruff-island-like curs
fetcht from among the Antipodes, which bite and barke at the
fantasticall humourist and abuses of the time. 0 19 0
7199. Merry Jest of Robin Hood, and of his Life, with a new
Play for to be plaied in May-Games; very pleasant and full
of pastime, b.l. _imp. by Edward White_, 4to. 3 13 6
7200. Milton's Paradise Lost, in 10 books, 1st _edit._ 1667.
0 11 0
7201. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- _2nd title page_, 1668.
0 11 0
7202. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- _3rd title page_,
1669.--"N.B. The three foregoing articles prove that there
were no less than three different title-pages used, to force
the sale of the first edition of this matchless poem." S.
P[aterson.] 0 7 0
7232. Paradyse of Daynty Devises, b.l. extremely scarce,
_imp. by Henry Disle_, 1576, 4to. 6 0 0
7240. Peele's (G.) Device of the Pageant borne before
Woolstone Dixie, Lord Mayor of London, Oct. 29, 1585, b.l.
See Dr. F.'s note; as probably the only copy. 4to. 1 11 6
7241. Percy's (W.) Sonnets to the fairest Cælia, 1594. 4to.
1 12 0
7249. Psalter (the whole) translated into English Metre,
which containeth an Hundreth and Fifty Psalms. The title and
first page written. _Imp. by John Daye_, 1567. "This
translation was by Archbishop Parker, and is so scarce that
Mr. Strype tells us he could never get a sight of it." See
Master's History of C.C.C.C. Mr. Wharton supposes it never
to have been published, but that the Archbishop's wife gave
away some copies. "It certainly (he adds) is at this time
extremely scarce, and would be deservedly deemed a fortunate
acquisition to those capricious students who labour to
collect a Library of Rarities." Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol.
iii. 186. It has a portrait of the Archbishop. 4to. 3 6 0
7828. Somner's (Henry) Orpheus and Eurydice, 1740. 4to. 0 1 6
7829. Shakespeare's Works, _1st edition, in folio, wants
title, last leaf written from the_ 4to. 1623. 7 0 0
8062. Metrical Romances, written in the reign of Richard
IId. or rather about the end of the reign of Henry IIId. or
beginning of Edward I. (See note,) _purchased at Dr. Monro's
Auction by Dr. Farmer_, for 29_l._ 4 14 0
8080. These Booke is called Ars moriendi, of William Baron,
Esq., to remayne for ever to the Nonnye of Deptford; _on
vellum, bound in purple velvet_. 2 3 0
6451. Chaucer's noble and amorous auncyent Hystory of
Troylus and Cresyde, in fyve Bokes, _imprynted by Wynkyn de
Worde_, 1517.
Here begynneth the Temple of Glass, _imp. by Wynkyn de
Worde_.
The Castell of Pleasure, _imp. by ditto_.
Here begynneth a lyttell Treatise cleped La Conusauce
D'Amours. _imp. by Pynson_.
The Spectacle of Lovers, _imp. by Wynkyn de Worde_.
History of Tytus and Gesippus, translated out of Latin into
Englyshe, by Wyllyam Walter, sometime servaunte to Syr Henry
Marney, Cnyght, Chaunceler of the Duchy of Lancastre, _imp.
by ditto_.
The Love and Complayntes betwene Mars and Venus.
The Fyrst Fynders of the VII Scyences Artificiall, _printed
by Julian Notarye_.
Guystarde and Sygysmonde, translated by Wyllyam Walter,
_imp. by Wynkyn de Worde_, 1532.
The Complaynte of a Lover's Lyfe, _imp. by ditto_.
Here begynneth a lytel Treatyse, called The Disputacyon of
Complaynte [of] the Harte, thorughe perced with the lokynge
of the Eye, _imp. by Wynkyn de Worde_.
This Boke is named the Beaultie of Women, translated out of
French into Englyshe, _imp. by Wier_.
Here begynneth a lytel Treatise, called the Controverse
betwene a Lover and a Jaye, lately compyled, _imp. by Wynkyn
de Worde_.
_The above 12 very rare and ancient pieces of poetry are
bound_ in one vol. _with curious wood-cuts, and in fine
preservation._
'The Temple of Glass alone was sold for 3_l._ 15_s._ and the
present vol. may, with propriety, be deemed matchless.' All
in quarto. 26 5 0
[N.B. _These articles should have preceded_ no. 6608; at
p. 423, ante.]
And here, benevolent reader, let us bid farewell to RICHARD
FARMER of transcendant bibliomaniacal celebrity! It is in
vain to look forward for the day when book-gems, similar to
those which have just been imperfectly described from the
_Bibl. Farmeriana_, will be disposed of at similar prices.
The young collector may indulge an ardent hope; but, if
there be any thing of the spirit of prophecy in my humble
predictions, that hope will never be realised. Dr. Farmer's
copies were, in general, in sorry condition; the possessor
caring little (like Dr. Francis Bernard; vide p. 316, ante)
for large margins and splendid binding. His own name,
generally accompanied with a bibliographical remark, and
both written in a sprawling character, usually preceded the
title-page. The science (dare I venture upon so magnificent
a word?) of bibliography was, even in Farmer's latter time,
but jejune, and of limited extent: and this will account for
some of the common-place bibliographical memoranda of the
owner of these volumes. We may just add that there are some
few copies of this catalogue printed on _large paper_, on
paper of a better quality than the small; which latter is
sufficiently wretched. I possess a copy of the former kind,
with the _prices_ and _purchasers' names_ affixed--and
moreover, _uncut_!]
A poor eulogy, this, upon Farmer!--but my oratory begins to wax faint.
For this reason I cannot speak with justice of the friend and
fellow-critic of Farmer--GEORGE STEEVENS[409]--of Shakspearian renown!
The Library of this extraordinary critic and collector was sold by
auction in the year 1800; and, being formed rather after the model of
Mason's, than of Farmer's, it was rich to an excess in choice and rare
pieces. Nor is it an uninteresting occupation to observe, in looking
among the prices, the enormous sums which were given for some volumes
that cost Steevens not a twentieth part of their produce:--but which,
comparatively with their present worth, would bring considerably
higher prices! What arduous contention, "_Renardine shifts_," and bold
bidding; what triumph on the one part, and vexation on the other,
were exhibited at the book-sale!--while the auctioneer, like Jove
looking calmly down upon the storm which he himself had raised, kept
his even temper; and "ever and anon" dealt out a gracious smile
amidst all the turbulence that surrounded him! Memorable æra!--the
veteran collector grows young again in thinking upon the valour he
then exhibited; and the juvenile collector talks "braggartly" of other
times--which he calls the golden days of the bibliomania--when he
reflects upon his lusty efforts in securing an _Exemplar
Steevensianum_!
[Footnote 409: If Lysander's efforts begin to relax--what
must be the debilitated mental state of the poor annotator,
who has accompanied the book-orator thus long and thus
laboriously? Can STEEVENS receive justice at _my_
hands--when my friends, aided by hot madeira, and beauty's
animating glances, acknowledge their exhausted state of
intellect?! However, I will make an effort:
'nothing extenuate
Nor set down aught in malice.'
The respectable compiler of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol.
lxx. p. 178, has given us some amusing particulars of
Steevens's literary life: of his coming from Hampstead to
London, at the chill break of day, when the overhanging
clouds were yet charged with the 'inky' purple of night--in
order, like a true book-chevalier, to embrace the first dank
impression, or proof sheet, of his own famous octavo edition
of _Shakspeare_; and of Mr. Bulmer's sumptuous impression of
the text of the same. All this is well enough, and savours
of the proper spirit of BIBLIOMANIACISM: and the edition of
our immortal bard, in fifteen well printed octavo volumes,
(1793) is a splendid and durable monument of the researches
of George Steevens. There were from 20 to 25 copies of the
octavo edition printed upon LARGE PAPER; and Lord Spencer
possesses, by bequest, Mr. Steevens' own copy of the same,
illustrated with a great number of rare and precious prints;
to which, however, his Lordship, with his usual zeal and
taste, has made additions more valuable even than the gift
in its original form. The 8vo. edition of 1793 is covetted
with an eagerness of which it is not very easy to account
for the cause; since the subsequent one of 1803, in 21
octavo volumes, is more useful on many accounts: and
contains Steevens's corrections and additions in every play,
as well as 177, in particular, in that of Macbeth. But I am
well aware of the stubbornness and petulancy with which the
previous edition is contended for in point of superiority,
both round a private and public table; and, leaving the
collector to revel in the luxury of an uncut, half-bound,
morocco copy of the same, I push onward to a description of
the _Bibliotheca Steevensiana_. Yet a parting word
respecting this edition of 1803. I learn, from
unquestionable authority, that Steevens stipulated with the
publishers that they should pay Mr. Reed 300_l._ for
editorship, and 100_l._ to Mr. W. Harris, Librarian of the
Royal Institution, for correcting the press: nor has the
editor in his preface parted from the truth, in
acknowledging Mr. Harris to be 'an able and vigiland
[Transcriber's Note: vigilant] assistant.' Mr. H. retained,
for some time, Steevens' corrected copy of his own edition
of 1793, but he afterwards disposed of it, by public
auction, for 28_l._ He has also at this present moment, Mr.
Josiah Boydell's copy of Mr. Felton's picture of our
immortal bard; with the following inscription, painted on
the back of the pannel, by Mr. Steevens:
_May, 1797._
_Copied by Josiah Boydell, at my
request, from the remains of the
only genuine Portrait of William
Shakspeare._ GEORGE STEEVENS.
The engraved portrait of Shakspeare, prefixed to this
edition of 1803, is by no means a faithful resemblance of
Mr. Boydell's admirably executed copy in oil. The expenses
of the edition amounted to 5844_l._; but no copies now
remain with the publishers. We will now give rather a
copious, and, as it must be acknowledged, rich, sprinkling
of specimens from the _Bibliotheca Steevensiana_, in the
departments of rare OLD POETRY and THE DRAMA. But first let
us describe the title to the catalogue of the same. _A
Catalogue of the curious and valuable Library of_ GEORGE
STEEVENS, _Esq., Fellow of the Royal and Antiquary Societies
(Lately deceased). Comprehending an extraordinary fine
Collection of Books, &c._, sold by auction by Mr. King, in
King Street, Covent Garden, May, 1800. 8vo. [1943 articles:
amount of sale 2740_l._ 15_s._]
OLD POETRY.
NO. 867. Gascoigne's (Geo.) Workes, or a Hundreth sundrie
Flowers bounde in one small Poesie, (including) Supposes,
com. from Ariosto; Jocosta, Tr. from Euripides, &c. b.l.
_first edition. Lond. impr. by Bynneman_, 1572, 4to. £1
19_s._ 0_d._
'With MS. notes respecting this copy and edition by Mr.
Steevens.'
868. Another copy, 2d edition (with considerable additions);
among other, the Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth Castle,
the Steele Glass, the Complainte of Phylomene, b.l. _ib.
impr. by Abell Jeffes_, 1587, 4to., _with MS. references, by
Messrs. Bowles and Steevens._ 4 4 0
869. Another copy, including all the aforementioned, and a
Delicate Diet for Daintie Mouthde Droonkardes, b.l. _Lond.
impr. by Rich. Jhones_, 1576, 8vo.
The Glasse of Gouernement, 4to. _b.l. russia, with MS.
references_.
The Droome of Doomesday, 3 parts, b.l. _ib._ 1576, 4to. 'The
above two volumes are supposed to comprise the compleatest
collection of Gascoigne's works extant.' 5 15 6
876. Googe (Barnabe) Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonnettes newly
written, b.l., _small 8vo. fine copy in Russia, Lond. impr.
by Tho. Colwell for Raffe Newbery, dwelynge in Fleet Streete
a little above the Conduit, in the late shop of Tho.
Bartelet_. See Mr. Steevens's note to the above; in which he
says there is no scarcer book in the English language, and
that Dr. Farmer, Messrs. T. Warton and Js. Reed, had never
seen another copy. 10 15 0
949. Lodge (Tho.) Life and death of William Longbeard, the
most famous and witty English traitor, borne in the citty of
London, accompanied with manye other most pleasant and
prettie Histories, 4to. _b.l. printed by Rich. Yardley and
Peter Short_, 1593. [cost Mr. Steevens 1_s._ 9_d._!] 4 7 0
995. The Paradyse of Dainty Devises, MS. a fac-simile of the
first edition, in 1576, _finished with the greatest neatness
by Mr. Steevens, 4to. in russia_. 5 15 0
996. The Paradice of Dainty Devises, devised and written for
the most part by M. Edwardes, sometime of her Majestie's
Chappell; the rest by sundry learned Gentlemen, both of
Honor and worship. _Lond. printed by Edwd. Allde_, 1595,
4to. 4 6 0
997. The Paradice of Daintie Devises, b.l. interleaved, _ib.
printed for Edw. White_, 1600, 4to.
Breton (Nich.) Workes of a young Wyt, trust up with a
Fardell of Prettie Fancies, profitable to young Poetes,
prejudicial to no Man, and pleasant to every Man, to pass
away Idle Tyme withal, _b.l. 4to. interleaved with a MS.
list of the Author's Works by Messrs. Steevens, Ritson, and
Park: impr. at Lond. nigh unto the Three Cranes in the
Vintree, by Tho. Dawson, and Tho. Gardyner_.
Soothern's Odes, 4to. b.l. interleaved with copious MS.
Notes, and an Extract from the European Magazine relative to
the Author: _wants title, no date_.
Watson (Tho.) Passionate Centurie of Love, 4to. b.l.
interleaved: the 12 first sonnets, and the latter ones, from
78, in MS. _Lond. impr. by John Wolfe_.
"The above curious Collection of Old Poems are bound
together in russia, with border of gold, and may be deemed
with propriety, _Matchless_." 21 10 6
1037. Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, in 3 bookes, with
a wood-cut of Queen Elizabeth; _choice copy, in morocco,
4to. ib. printed by Rich. Field_, 1589. 7 10 0
1073. Roy (Will.) Satire on Cardinal Wolsey, a Poem; _b.l.
sm._ 8vo. _russia, no date nor place_. 7 7 0
1078. Skelton (Jo.) Poet Laureat, lyttle Workes, viz. Speake
Parot. The Death of the Noble Prynce, King Edwarde the
Fourthe. A Treatyse of the Scottes. Ware the Hawke, The
Tunnynge of Elynoure Rummyng, sm. 8vo. b.l. _Impr. at Lond.
in Crede Lane, Jhon Kynge, and Thomas Marshe_, no date.
12mo.
Hereafter foloweth a lyttle Booke, called Colyn Clout, _b.l.
impr. by John Wyght_, 12mo.
Hereafter foloweth a little Booke of Phyllip Sparrow, _b.l.
impr. by Robert Tob._ 12mo.
Hereafter foloweth a little Booke which has to name, Whi
come ye not to Courte, _b.l. impr. by John Wyght_. 12mo. 4 5 0
1079. Skelton (Master, Poet Laureat) Merie Tales, b.l. 12mo.
_Lond. impr. by Tho. Colwell, no date._ 5 15 6
"See Note, in which Mr. Steevens says he never saw another
copy."
1119. Warren (Will.) A pleasant new Fancie of a Foundling's
Device intitled and cald the Nurcerie of Names, with wood
borders, b.l. 4to. _ib. impr. by Rich. Jhones_, 1581. 2 16 0
1125. Watson (Tho.) Passionate Centurie of Love; _b.l. 4to.
the title, dedication, and index, MS. by Mr. Steevens_.
"Manuscript Poems, transcribed from a Collection of Ancient
English Poetry, in the possession of Sam. Lysons, Esq.,
formerly belonging to Anne Cornwallis, by Mr. Steevens." 5
10 0
1126. ---- Passionate Centurie of Love, divided into two
parts, b.l. 4to. _russia. Lond. impr. by John Wolfe_. 5 18 0
1127. England's Helicon, collected by John Bodenham, with
copious additions, and an index in MS. by Mr. Steevens, 4to.
_russia, ib. printed by J.R._ 1600. 11 15 0
1128. Weblee [Webbe] (Will.) Discourse of English Poetrie,
together with the author's judgment, touching the
Reformation of our English Verse, _b.l._ 4to. _russia, ib.
by John Charlewood_, 1586. 8 8 0
THE DRAMA; AND EARLY PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE.
1216. The Plot of the Plays of Frederick and Basilea, and of
the Deade Man's Fortune, the original papers which hung up
by the side scenes in the playhouses, for the use of the
prompter and the acter, earlier than the time of Shakspeare.
11 0 0
1218. Anonymous, a pleasant Comedie, called Common
Conditions, _b.l. imperf. 4to. in russia._
"Of this Dramatick Piece, no copy, except the foregoing
mutilated one, has hitherto been discovered: with a long
note by Mr. Steevens, and references to Kirkman, Langbaine,
Baker, Reed," &c. 6 10 0
1221. Bale (John) Tragedie, or Enterlude, manifesting the
chiefe Promises of God unto Man, compyled An. Do. 1538, b.l.
4to. _now first impr. at Lond. by John Charlewood_, 1577. 12
15 0
1248. Marlow (Chr.) and Tho. Nash, Tragedie of Dido, Queene
of Carthage, played by the Children of her Majesties'
Chappell, 4to. _russia, Lond. printed by the Widdowe Owin_,
1594. 17 0 0
1259. Peele (Geo.) The Old Wives Tale, a pleasant conceited
Comedie played by the Queene's Majesties' Players; 4to. _in
russia; ib. impr. by John Danter_, 1595. 12 0 0
"N.B. A second of the above is to be found in the Royal
Library; a third copy is unknown." Steevens' note.
EARLY PLAYS OF SHAKSPEARE.
1263. The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, no title,
4to. _Lond._ 1611. _With MS. notes, &c., by Mr. Steevens._ 2
2 0
1264. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, 4to. _ib.
printed by R. Young_, 1637. 0 7 0
1265. The History of Henrie the Fourth, with the Battell of
Shrewsburie, &c.; with the famous conceits of Sir John
Falstaffe, part I. 4to. _ib. printed by S.S._ 1599. 3 10 0
1266. The same, _ib. printed for Mathew Lay_, 1608, 4to. 1 7 0
1267. The same, _ib. printed by W.W._ 1613. _With MS. notes,
&c. by Mr. Steevens._ 1 2 0
1268. The same, _ib. printed by Norton_, 1632. 0 10 0
1259. The 2d part of Henry the Fourth, continuing to his
Death, and Coronation of Henrie the Fift, with the Humours
of Sir John Falstaffe and Swaggering Pistoll, as acted by
the Lord Chamberlayne his Servants. _First Edit. 4to. ib.
printed by V.S._ 1600. 3 13 0
1270. The same, _ib. 4to. printed by Val. Simmes_, 1600. 2
15 0
1271. The Chronicle History of Henry the Fift, with his
Battell fought at Agincourt in France, together with
Auntient Pistoll, as playd by the Lord Chamberlayne his
servants. _First Edit._ 4to. _inlaid on large paper, ib.
printed by Thomas Creede_, 1600. 27 6 0
1272. The Chronicle History of Henry the Fift, &c. 4to.
_Lond._ 1608. 1 1 0
1273. The true Tragedie of Richarde, Duke of Yorke, and the
Death of good King Henrie the Sixt, as acted by the Earle of
Pembroke his Servants, 4to. _inlaid on large paper, ib.
printed by W.W._ 1600. 1 16 0
1274. The whole contention betweene the two famous Houses,
Lancaster and Yorke, with the Tragicall Ends of the good
Duke Humphrey, Richard, Duke of Yorke, and King Henrie the
Sixt, _divided into 2 parts_, 4to. _ib. no date_. 1 5 0
1275. The first and second part of the troublesome Raigne of
John, King of England, with the discoverie of King Richard
Cordelion's Base sonne (vulgarly named the Bastard
Fauconbridge) also the Death of King John at Swinstead
Abbey, as acted by her Majesties Players, 4to. _Lond. impr.
by Val. Simmes_, 1611. 1 18 0
1276. The first and second part of the troublesome Raigne of
John, King of England, &c., _ib. printed by Aug. Matthews_,
1622. 1 1 0
1277. The True Chronicle History of the Life and Death of
King Lear, and his three Daughters, with the unfortunate
Life of Edgar, Sonne and Heire to the Earl of Glocester, and
his sullen and assumed Humour of Tom of Bedlam, by his
Majestie's servants. _First Edit._ 4to. _ib._ 1608. 28 0 0
1578. [Transcriber's Note: 1278] Another Edition, differing
in the title-page and signature of the first leaf. 4to.
_ib._ 1608. 2 2 0
1279. The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice,
with the extreme crueltie of Shylocke the Jew towards the
sayd Merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh: and the
obtayning of Portia by his choyce of three chests, as acted
by the Lord Chamberlaine his servants, _First Edit. inlaid
oil large paper; 4to. at London, printed by John Roberts_,
1600. 2 0 0
1280. The excellent History of the Merchant of Venice, with
the extreme crueltie of Shylocke the Jew; _First Edit. 4to.
inlaid on large paper, printed by John Roberts_, 1600. 2 2 0
1281. A most pleasant and excellent conceited Comedie of Syr
John Falstaffe and the Merrie Wives of Windsor, as acted by
the Lord Chamberlaine's Servants. _First Edit. 4to. Lond.
printed by T.C._ 1602. 28 0 0
1282. A most pleasant and excellent conceited Comedy of Sir
John Falstaffe and the Merry Wives of Windsor, with the
swaggering vaine of Antient Pistoll and Corporal Nym, _4to.
inlaid. Lond._ 1619. 1 4 0
1283. The Merry Wives of Windsor, with the Humours of Sir
John Fallstaffe, also the swaggering Vaine of Ancient
Pistoll and Corporal Nym, 4to. _Lond. printed by T.H._ 1630.
0 10 6
1284. A Midsommer Night's Dreame, as acted by the Lord
Chamberlaine's Servantes, First Edit. _impr. at Lond. for
Thos. Fisher_, 4to. 1600, _part of one leaf wanting_. 25 10 0
1285. Another copy, _First Edit. inlaid, ib._ 1600. 1 15 0
1286. Much adoe about Nothing, as acted by the Lord
Chamberlaine his Servants, _First Edit._ 4to. _ib. printed
by Val. Simmes_, 1600. 25 10 0
1287. The Tragedy of Othello the Moore of Venice, as acted
at the Globe and at the Black Friers, by his Majesties
Servants, 4to. _Lond. printed by N.O._ 1622, _with MS. notes
and various readings by Mr. Steevens_. 29 8 0
1288. The Tragedy of Othello the Moore of Venice, as acted
at the Globe and at the Black Friers, 4to. _Lond. printed by
A.M._ 1630. 0 13 0
1289. Tragedie of Othello; _4th Edit._ 4to. _ib._ 1665. 0 4 0
1290. The Tragedie of King Richard the Second, as acted by
the Lord Chamberlaine his Servants, 4to. Lond. _printed by
Val. Simmes_, 1598. 4 14 6
1291. Tragedie of King Richard the Second, as acted by the
Lord Chamberlaine his Servants, 4to. _printed by W.W._ 1608.
10 0 0
1292. The Tragedie of King Richard the Second, with new
Additions of the Parliament Scene, and the deposing of King
Richard, as acted by his Majestie's Servants at the Globe,
4to. _Lond._ 1615, _with MS. notes, &c. by Mr. Steevens_. 1
12 0
1293. The Life and Death of King Richard the Second, with
new Additions of the Parliament Scene, and the deposing of
King Richard, as acted at the Globe by his Majesties
Servants, 4to. _Lond._ 1634. 0 5 0
1294. The Tragedie of King Richard the Third, as acted by
the Lord Chamberlain his Servants, 4to. Lond. _printed by
Tho. Creede_. 1602. _Defective at the end._ 0 10 0
1295. The Tragedie of King Richard the Third, containing his
treacherous Plots against his Brother Clarence, the pitiful
murther of his innocent Nephews, his tirannical usurpation,
with the whole course of his detested Life, and most
deserved Death, as acted by his Majesties Servants, 4to.
_Lond. printed by Tho. Creede_, 1612, _with notes and
various readings by Mr. Steevens._ 1 5 0
1296. The same, 4to. _ib._ 1629. 0 7 0
1297. Tragedie of King Richard the Third, as acted by the
King's Majesties Servants, 4to. _ib._ 1634. 0 6 0
1298. The most excellent and lamentable Tragedie of Romeo
and Juliet, 4to. _A fragment. Lond._ 1599. 0 5 6
1299. The same, compleat, inlaid on large paper, 4to. _ib.,
impr. by Tho. Creede_, 1599. [_Second Edition._] 6 0 0
1300. The same, 4to. Lond. 1609, _with MS. notes and
readings by Mr. Steevens_. 2 2 0
1301. The same, 4to. _ib. printed by R. Young_, 1637. 0 9 0
1302. A pleasant conceited Historie, called the Taming of
the Shrew, as acted by the Earle of Pembroke's Servants.
_First Edit._ 4to. _inlaid on large paper, ib., printed by
V.S._ 1607. 20 0 0
1303. A wittie and pleasant Comedie, called the Taming of a
Shrew, as acted by his Majesties Servants, at the Blacke
Friers and the Globe, 4to., _ib., printed by W.S._ 1631. 0
11 0
1304. The most lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus, as
plaide by the King's Majesties Servants, 4to. _inlaid, ib.,
printed for Edward White_, 1611. 2 12 6
1305. The History of Troylus and Cresseide, as acted by the
King's Majesties Servants at the Globe. _First. Edit._ 4to.,
_ib., imp. by G. Alde_, 1609. 5 10 0
1306. The lamentable Tragedie of Locrine, the eldest sonne
of King Brutus, discoursing the Warres of the Brittaines and
Hunnes, with ther discomfiture, 4to. _ib., printed by Thomas
Creede_, 1595. 3 5 0
1307. The London Prodigall, as plaide by the King's
Majesties Servants, 4to. _ib., printed by T.C._ 1705. 1 9 0
1308. The late and much admired Play called Pericles, Prince
of Tyre, with the true relation of the whole Historie and
Fortunes of the said Prince, as also the no lesse strange
and worthy accidents in the Birth and Life of his Daughter
Marianna, acted by his Majesties Servants at the Globe on
the Banck-side, 4to. _ib._, 1609. 1 2 0
1309. Another edition, 4to. _ib._ 1619. 0 15 0
1310. The first part of the true and honourable History of
the Life of Sir John Old-castle, the good Lord Cobham, as
acted by the Earle of Nottingham his servants, 4to. _Lond._
1600. 0 10 0
1311. A Yorkshire Tragedy, not so new, as lamentable and
true, 4to. Lond. 1619. 0 9 0
1312. (Twenty Plays) published by Mr. Steevens, 6 vols.
_large paper, ib._, 1766. _Only 12 copies taken off on large
paper_ 5 15 6
EDITIONS OF SHAKSPEARE'S WORKS.
1313. Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, published
according to the true originall copies, by John Heminge and
Hen. Condell, _fol. russia. Lond. printed by Isaac Juggard
and Edwd. Blount_. 1623; _with a MS. title, and a fac-simile
drawing of the portrait by Mr. Steevens_. 22 0 0
1314. The same: 2d edit. folio, fine copy morocco, gilt
leaves, _ib._ 1632. _In this book is the hand writing of
King Charles I. by whom it was presented to Sir Tho.
Herbert, Master of the Revels._ 18 18 0
1315. The same: 3d edit. with the 7 additional Plays, fol.,
neat and scarce, _ib._ 1664. See _Note by Mr. Steevens_. 8 8 0
1316. The same: 4th edit. 1685, folio. 2 12 6
1326. Hammer's (Sir Tho.) edition; 9 vols. 18mo. _Lond._
1748. 1 13 0
1327. The same: with cuts, 6 vols. 4to. _elegantly bound in
hog-skin_.
1328. Pope and Warburton, 8 vols. 8vo. _Lond._ 1747. 1 0 0
1329. ---- 8 vols. 12mo., with Sir Thos. Hammer's Glossary.
_Dub._ 1747. 0 15 0
1330. Capell, (Edw.) 10 vols. 8vo. Lond. _printed by Dryden
Leach_, 1768. 2 6 0
1331. Johnson, (Sam.) 8 vols. 8vo. _Lond._ 1765. 1 19 0
1332. ---- and Geo. Steevens, 10 vols. 8vo. _ib._ 1773. 2 14 0
1333. ---- in single Plays, 31 vols. _boards, ib._ 1 11 0
1334. Johnson and Steevens: 10 vols. 2d edit. with Malone's
Supplement, 2 vols., and the plates from Bell's edition,
_ib._ 1778. 4 16 0
1335. ---- 10 vols. 3d edit. _ib._ 1785. 3 5 0
1336. ---- 4th edit. with a glossarial Index, 15 vols. 8vo.
_ib._ 1793. 6 16 6
1337. Malone, (Edm.) 11 vols. 8vo. _ib._ 1790. 4 8 0
1338. ---- Another copy, 11 vols. 8vo. _ib._ 4 18 0
1339. Ran (Jos.) 6 vols. 8vo. Oxf. 1786. 1 11 6
1340. ---- with Ayscough's Index, 2 vols. 8vo. russia,
marbled leaves, published by Stockdale, _ib._ 1784-90. 0 15 6
1341. Eccles, 2 vols. 8vo. _ib._ 1794. 1 11 0
1342. From the Text of Mr. Malone's edit. by Nichols, 7
vols. 12mo. Lond. 1790. 0 18 0
1343. From the Text of Mr. Steevens, last edit. 8 vols.
12mo. _ib._ 1797. 1 0 0
1344. ---- 9 vols. 12mo. _ib._ 1798. 1 3 0
1345. ---- 9 vols. 12mo. Birm. by R. Martin. 1 1 0
1346. ---- 9 vols. Bell's edit. no plates. Lond. 1774. 0 18 0
1347. ---- 20 vols. 18mo. with annotations, Bell's edit.
fine paper, with plates, beautiful impressions, _ib._ 1788.
8 13 6
1348. ---- 20 vols. 12mo. Bell's edition; _large paper_,
finest possible impressions of the plates, superbly bound in
green turkey, double bands, gilt leaves, _ib._ 17 17 0
1349. The Dramatic Works of; Text corrected by Geo.
Steevens, Esq.; published by Boydell and Nichol, in large
4to., 15 nos. with the large and small plates; first and
finest impressions, 1791, &c. N.B. Three more numbers
complete the work. 36 4 6
1348. Harding, no. 31, l.p. containing 6 prints, with a
portrait of Lewis Theobald, as published by Richardson, and
some account of him, by Mr. Steevens. 0 4 6
1349. Ditto, ditto. 0 4 6
1350. Traduit de l'Anglois, 2 toms. Par. 1776. 0 6 0
1351. In German, 13 vols. 12mo. Zurich, 1775. 0 16 0
1352. King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and Julius Cæsar,
by Jennings, Lond. 1770. 0 11 0
1353. Macbeth, with Notes by Harry Rowe, 12mo. York, 1797. 0
1 6
1354. ---- 8vo. 2d edit. _ib._ 1799. 0 5 0
1355. Antony and Cleopatra, by Edw. Capell; 8vo. Lond. 1758.
0 1 0
1356. The Virgin Queen; a Drama, attempted as a Sequel to
Shakspeare's Tempest, by G.F. Waldron, 8vo. 1797.
1357. ---- Annotations on As You Like it, by Johnson and
Steevens, Bell's edit. 0 1 0
1358. ---- Another copy
1359. Shakspeare's Sonnets, never before imprinted, 4to. at
Lond. by G. Ald, 1609. 3 10 0
1360. ---- Poems, 8vo. _ib._ 1640. 0 4 6
1361. ---- Venis [Transcriber's Note: Venus] and Adonis, 8vo.
_ib._ 1602. 1 11 6
1362. Rymer (Tho.) Short View of Tragedy, with Reflection on
Shakspeare, &c. 8vo. b. 1698. 0 1 6
1363. Shakspeare restored, by Lewis Theobald, 4to. _ib._
1726. 0 4 6
1364. Whalley's (Peter) on the Learning of; _ib._ 1748.
Remarks on a late edition of Shakspeare, by Zach. Grey,
_ib._ 1755, and other Tracts. 0 8 6
1365. Morris (Corbyn) Essay towards fixing the true Standard
of Wit, Humour, &c. 8vo. _ib._ 1744. 0 8 0
1366. Critical Observations on, by John Upton; 8vo. 2d edit.
Lond. 1748. 0 1 6
1367. ---- Illustrated, by Charlotte Lennox; 3 vols. 12mo.
_ib._ 1754. 0 9 0
1368. Notes on Shakspeare, by Zachary Grey; 2 vols. 8vo.
_ib._ 1734. 0 3 0
1369. Beauties of Shakspeare, by William Dodd, 2 vols. 12mo.
_ib._ 1757. 0 3 6
1370. Beauties of Shakspeare, by Wm. Dodd; 3 vols. 12mo.
_ib._ 1780. 0 6 0
1371. ---- (Revival of) Text, by Heath, 8vo. _ib._ 1765. 0 1 0
1372. Observations and Conjectures on some passages of, by
Tho. Trywhit [Transcriber's Note: Tyrwhitt]; 8vo. Oxford,
1766. 0 5 0
1373. Farmer (Rich) on the Learning of; 8vo. morocco. Camb.
1767. _Only 12 copies on this paper._ 0 16 0
1374. ---- London. 8vo. 1789, with Mr. Capell's
Shakspeariana, 8vo., _only 20 copies printed_, 1779. 0 1 6
1375. Malone (Edm.) Letter on, to Dr. Farmer; 8vo. _ib._
1792. 0 4 6
1376. Letter to David Garrick (on a Glossary to) by Rich.
Warner, 8vo. _ib._ 1768. 0 2 6
There were copies of the Catalogue of Steeven's books struck
off on LARGE PAPER, on bastard _royal octavo_, and in
_quarto_.
It remains to say a few words of the celebrated collector of
this very curious library. The wit, taste, and classical
acquirements of GEORGE STEEVENS are every where recorded and
acknowledged. As an editor of his beloved Shakspeare, he
stands unrivalled; for he combined, with much recondite
learning and indefatigable research, a polish of style, and
vigour of expression, which are rarely found united in the
same person. His definitions are sometimes both happy and
singular; and his illustrations of ancient customs and
manners such as might have been expected from a head so
completely furnished, and a hand so thoroughly practised. I
will not say that George Steevens has evinced the learning
of Selden upon Drayton, or of Bentley upon Phalaris; nor did
his erudition, in truth, rise to the lofty and commanding
pitch of these his predecessors: nor does there seem much
sense or wit in hunting after every _pencil-scrap_ which
this renowned bibliomaniac committed to paper--as some sadly
bitten book-collectors give evidence of. If I have not
greatly misunderstood the characteristics of Steevens's
writings, they are these--wit, elegance, gaiety, and satire,
combined with almost perfect erudition in English dramatic
antiquities. Let us give a specimen of his classical
elegance in dignifying a subject, which will be relished
chiefly by GRANGERITES. Having learnt that a copy of
Skelton's Verses on Elinour Rummin, the famous Ale-wife of
England, with her portrait in the title-page, was in the
Library of the Cathedral of Lincoln (perhaps, formerly,
Captain Coxe's copy; vide p. 266, ante), he prevailed on the
late Dean, Sir Richard Kaye, to bring the book to London;
but as it was not suffered to go from the Dean's possession,
Mr. S. was permitted to make a _fac-simile_ drawing of the
title, at the Dean's house in Harley-street. This drawing he
gave to Richardson, the printseller, who engraved and
published it among the copies of scarce portraits to
illustrate Granger. The acquisition of this rarity produced
from him the following _Jeu d'Esprit_; the merit of which
can only be truly appreciated by those who had the pleasure
of knowing the eminent PORTRAIT COLLECTORS therein
mentioned, and whose names are printed in capital letters.
ELEONORA REDIVIVA.
To seek this Nymph among the glorious dead,
Tir'd with his search on earth, is GULSTON fled:--
Still for these charms enamoured MUSGRAVE sighs;
To clasp these beauties ardent BINDLEY dies:
For these (while yet unstaged to public view,)
Impatient BRAND o'er half the kingdom flew;
These, while their bright ideas round him play,
From Classic WESTON force the Roman lay:
Oft too, my STORER, Heaven has heard thee swear,
Not Gallia's murdered Queen was half so fair:
"A new Europa!" cries the exulting BULL,
"My Granger now, I thank the gods, is full:"--
Even CRACHERODE'S self, whom passions rarely move,
At this soft shrine has deign'd to whisper love.--
Haste then, ye swains, who RUMMING'S form adore,
Possess your Eleanour, and sigh no more.
It must be admitted that this is at once elegant and happy.
* * * * *
We will now say somewhat of the man himself. Mr. Steevens
lived in a retired and eligibly situated house, just on the
rise of Hampstead Heath. It was paled in; and had,
immediately before it, a verdant lawn skirted with a variety
of picturesque trees. Formerly, this house has been a
tavern, which was known by the name of the _Upper Flask_:
and which my fair readers (if a single female can have the
courage to peruse these bibliomaniacal pages) will recollect
to have been the same to which Richardson sends Clarissa in
one of her escapes from Lovelace. Here Steevens lived,
embosomed in books, shrubs, and trees: being either too coy,
or too unsociable, to mingle with his neighbours. His habits
were indeed peculiar: not much to be envied or imitated; as
they sometimes betrayed the flights of a madman, and
sometimes the asperities of a cynic. His attachments were
warm, but fickle both in choice and duration. He would
frequently part from one, with whom he had lived on terms of
close intimacy, without any assignable cause; and his
enmities, once fixed, were immovable. There was, indeed, a
kind of venom in his antipathies; nor would he suffer his
ears to be assailed, or his heat to relent, in favour of
those against whom he entertained animosities, however
capricious and unfounded. In _one_ pursuit only was he
consistent: _one_ object only did he woo with an inflexible
attachment; and that object was _Dame_ DRAMA.
I have sat behind him, within a few years of his death, and
watched his sedulous attention to the performances of
strolling players, who used to hire a public room in
Hampstead; and towards whom his gallantry was something more
substantial than mere admiration and applause: for he would
make liberal presents of gloves, shoes, and
stockings--especially to the female part of the company. His
attention, and even delight, during some of the most
wretched exhibitions of the dramatic art, was truly
surprising; but he was then drooping under the pressure of
age, and what passed before him might serve to remind him of
former days, when his discernment was quick and his judgment
matured. It is, however, but justice to this distinguished
bibliomaniac to add that, in his literary attachments he was
not influenced by merely splendid talents or exalted rank.
To my predecessor HERBERT (for whose memory I may be
allowed, at all times, to express a respectful regard)
Steevens seems to have shewn marked attention. I am in
possession of more than a dozen original letters from him to
this typographical antiquary, in which he not only evinces
great friendliness of disposition, but betrays an unusual
solicitude about the success of Herbert's labours; and,
indeed, contributes towards it by nearly a hundred notices
of rare and curious books which were unknown to, or
imperfectly described by, Herbert himself. At the close of a
long letter, in which, amongst much valuable information,
there is a curious list of CHURCHYARD'S _Pieces_--which
Steevens urges Herbert to publish--he thus concludes:
"DEAR SIR,
"I know not where the foregoing lists of Churchyard's Pieces
can appear with more propriety than in a work like yours;
and I therefore venture to recommend them as worth
republication. If you publish, from time to time, additions
to your book, you may have frequent opportunity of doing
similar service to old English literature, by assembling
catalogues of the works of scarce, and therefore almost
forgotten, authors. By occasional effusions of this kind you
will afford much gratification to literary antiquaries, and
preserve a constant source of amusement to yourself: for in
my opinion, no man is so unhappy as he who is at a loss for
something to do. Your present task grows towards an end, and
I therefore throw out this hint for your consideration."
(_July_ 27, 1789.)
A little further he adds: "In your vol. ii. p. 1920, you
have but an imperfect account of TYRO'S '_Roaring Megge_,'
&c. I shall therefore supply it underneath, as the book now
lies before me. I have only room left to tell you I am
always your very faithfully, G. STEEVENS." But the
bibliomanical spirit of the author of this letter, is
attested by yet stronger evidence:
_Hampstead Heath_, August 42th [Transcriber's Note: 12th],
1780.
"SIR,
"I have borrowed the following books for your use--Dr.
Farmer's copy of Ames, with MS. notes by himself, and an
interleaved Maunsell's Catalogue, with yet more considerable
additions by Baker the antiquary. The latter I have promised
to return at the end of this month, as it belongs to our
University Library. I should not choose to transmit either
of these volumes by any uncertain conveyance; and therefore
shall be glad if you will let me know how they may be safely
put into your hands. If you can fix a time when you shall be
in London, my servant shall wait on you with them; but I
must entreat that our library book may be detained as short
a time as possible. I flatter myself that it will prove of
some service to you, and am,
"Your very humble Servant,
"G. STEEVENS."
The following was Herbert's reply.
"_Cheshunt_, August 20th, 1780.
"SIR,
"As it must give you great satisfaction to know that the
books were received safe by me last night, it affords me
equal pleasure to send you the earliest assurance of it. I
thank you sincerely for the liberty you have allowed me of
keeping them till I come to London, on Monday, the 4th of
September; when I shall bring them with me, and hope to
return them safe at Mr. Longman's, between 10 and 11
o'clock; where, if it may be convenient to you, I shall be
very happy to meet you, and personally to thank you for the
kind assistance you have afforded me. If that may not suit
you, I will gladly wait on you where you shall appoint by a
line left there for me; and shall ever esteem myself,
"Your most obliged humble Servant,
"W. HERBERT."
The following, and the last, epistolary specimen of the
renowned G. Steevens--with which I shall treat my reader--is
of a general gossipping black-letter cast; and was written
two years before the preceding.
_Hampstead Heath_, June 26th, 1788.
"DEAR SIR,
"A desire to know how you do, and why so long a time has
elapsed since you were seen in London, together with a few
queries which necessity compels me to trouble you with, must
be my apology for this invasion of your retirement. Can you
furnish me with a transcript of the title-page to Watson's
Sonnets or Love Passions, 4to. bl. l.? As they are not
mentioned by Puttenham, in 1589, they must, I think, have
appeared after that year. Can you likewise afford me any
account of a Collection of Poems, bl. l., 4to. by one John
Southern? They are addressed 'to the ryght honourable the
Earle of Oxenforde;' the famous Vere, who was so much a
favourite with Queen Elizabeth. This book, which contains
only four sheets, consists of Odes, Epitaphs, Sonnets to
Diana, &c. I bought both these books, which seem to be
uncommonly rare, at the late sale of Major Pearson's
Library. They are defective in their title-pages, and
without your assistance must, in all probability, continue
imperfect. Give me leave to add my sincere hope that your
long absence from London has not been the result of
indisposition, and that you will forgive this interruption
in your studies, from
"Your very faithful and obedient Servant,
"GEO. STEEVENS."
"P.S. I hope your third volume is in the press, as it is
very much enquired after."
It is now time to bid farewell to the subject of this
tremendous note; and most sincerely do I wish I could 'draw
the curtain' upon it, and say 'good night,' with as much
cheerfulness and satisfaction at [Transcriber's Note: as]
Atterbury did upon the close of his professional labours.
But the latter moments of STEEVENS were moments of mental
anguish. He grew not only irritable, but outrageous; and, in
full possession of his faculties, he raved in a manner which
could have been expected only from a creature bred up
without notions of morality or religion. Neither complacency
nor 'joyful hope' soothed his bed of death. His language
was, too frequently, the language of imprecation; and his
wishes and apprehensions such as no rational Christian can
think upon without agony of heart. Although I am not
disposed to admit the whole of the testimony of the good
woman who watched by his bed-side, and paid him, when dead,
the last melancholy attentions of her office--although my
prejudices (as they may be called) will not allow me to
believe that the windows shook, and that strange noises and
deep groans were heard at midnight in his room--yet no
creature of common sense (and this woman possessed the
quality in an eminent degree) could mistake oaths for
prayers, or boisterous treatment for calm and gentle usage.
If it be said--why
"draw his frailties from their drear abode?"
the answer is obvious, and, I should hope, irrefragable. A
duty, and a sacred one too, is due TO THE LIVING. Past
examples operate upon future ones: and posterity ought to
know, in the instance of this accomplished scholar and
literary antiquary, that neither the sharpest wit, nor the
most delicate intellectual refinement, can, alone, afford a
man 'PEACE AT THE LAST.' The vessel of human existence must
be secured by other anchors than these, when the storm of
death approaches!]
LOREN. You have seen a few similar copies in the library; which I
obtained after a strenuous effort. There was certainly a very great
degree of Book-Madness exhibited at the sale of Steevens's
library--and yet I remember to have witnessed stronger symptoms of
the Bibliomania!
LIS. Can it be possible? Does this madness
'Grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength?'
Will not such volcanic fury burn out in time?
PHIL. You prevent Lysander from resuming, by the number and rapidity
of your interrogatories. Revert to your first question.
LIS. Truly, I forget it. But proceed with your history, Lysander; and
pardon my abruptness.
LYSAND. Upon condition that you promise not to interrupt me again this
evening?
LIS. I pledge my word. Proceed.
LYSAND. Having dispatched our account of the sale of the
last-mentioned distinguished book-collector, I proceed with my
historical survey: tho', indeed, it is high time to close this
tedious bibliomaniacal history. The hour of midnight has gone by:--and
yet I will not _slur over_ my account of the remaining characters of
respectability.
The collections of STRANGE[410] and Woodhouse are next, in routine, to
be noticed. The catalogue of the library of the former is a great
favourite of mine: the departments into which the books are divided,
and the compendious descriptions of the volumes, together with the
extent and variety of the collection, may afford considerable
assistance to judicious bibliomaniacs. Poor WOODHOUSE:[411] thy zeal
outran thy wit: thou wert indefatigable in thy search after rare and
precious _prints and books_; and thy very choice collection of both is
a convincing proof that, where there is wealth and zeal,
opportunities in abundance will be found for the gratification of that
darling passion, or insanity, now called by the name of Bibliomania!
[Footnote 410: _Bibliotheca Strangeiana; A Catalogue of the
general, curious, and extensive Library of that
distinguished naturalist and lover of the fine arts, the
late_ JOHN STRANGE, Esq., L.L.D. F.R.S. and S.A., many years
his Britannic Majesty's resident at the Republic of Venice.
Comprehending an extraordinary fine collection of books and
tracts, in most languages and sciences, to the number of
upwards of _four-score thousand, &c._ Digested by Samuel
Paterson. Sold by auction by Leigh and Sotheby, March 16,
1801, 8vo., 1256 articles. This is a plain, unaffected, but
exceedingly well-digested, catalogue of a very extraordinary
collection of books in all departments of literature. I do
not know whether it be not preferable, in point of
arrangement, to any catalogue compiled by Paterson. It has,
however, a wretched aspect; from the extreme indifference of
the paper.]
[Footnote 411: We will first give the title to the Catalogue
of the late Mr. WOODHOUSE'S Collection of Prints. "_A
Catalogue of the choice and valuable Collection of Antient
and Modern Prints, &c._, selected with the highest taste
from all the collections at home and abroad, &c. Sold by
auction by Mr. Christie; January, 1801." The _first part_
ends with the 5th day's sale; the second commences with the
sixth day's sale and concludes on the sixteenth, with the
Malborough [Transcriber's Note: Marlborough] Gems. Although
we may have to give specimens of some of the _rare and
precious_ prints contained in this collection, in the course
of PART VI. of this work, yet the reader, I would fain hope,
will not be displeased with the following interesting
extract, with the annexed prices, of the prints from the
MARLBOROUGH GEMS.
[_This assemblage, the result of twenty years' collecting,
contains a greater number than ever has been at one time
offered to the public.--The first volume is complete, and
may be accounted unique, as all the impressions are before
the numbers, the artists' names, or proofs without any
letters, as in the presentation copies: the subject of Cupid
and Psyche is with variations, and the whole may be regarded
as a great rarity. Those of the second volume are few in
number, but in point of curiosity, no ways inferior._]
LOT. £ _s._ _d._
72. _One._ Cæsar in the Temple of Venus.
_Proof before any letters._ 3 13 6
73. _Two._ no. 1. Scipio Africanus. 2 0 0
no. 2. Lucius C. Sylla.
74. _Two._ no. 3. Julias Cæsar; caput laureatum. 5 15 0
[Transcriber's Note: Julius]
no. 4. Marcus Junius Brutus.
75. _Two._ no. 5. Marcus Junius Brutus; cum
caduceo. 2 17 6
no. 6. Lepidus; cum lituo.
76. _Two._ no. 7. Augusti caput; cum corona
radiata. 4 14 6
no. 8. Augusti Pontificis maximi
insign. &c.
77. _Two._ no. 9. Marcellii Octaviæ, filii
Augusti nepotis caput: opus
elegantissimum. 3 0 0
no. 10. Liviæ protome: cum capite
laureato et velato pectore:
simul Tiberii pueri prope
adstantis caput arboris ignotæ
foliis redimitum.
78. _Two._ no. 11. Tiberii caput juvenile. 3 3 0
no. 12. Germanici togati protome; cum
capite laureato, facie plena,
&c.
79. _Two._ no. 13. Agrippinæ majoris uxoris
Germanici & Caligulæ matris
caput laureatum; sub effigie
Dianæ. 5 5 0
no. 14. Ejusdem Agrippinæ: sub effigie
Cereris.
80. _Two._ no. 15. Galbæ caput laureatum. 1 19 0
no. 16. Ejusdem Galbæ caput.
81. _Two._ no. 17. Nervæ togati protome; cum
capite laureato, plena facie;
opus pulcherrimum. 4 4 0
no. 18. Ejusdem Nervæ caput.
82. _Two._ no. 19. Marcianæ, Trajani sororis,
caput. 10 10 0
no. 20. Sabinæ Hadriani uxoris caput.
83. _Two._ no. 21. Antinoi caput, cum pectore
velato. 5 0 0
no. 22. Caracalla togati protome facie
plena.
84. _Two._ no. 23. Caracallæ caput laureatum. 1 18 0
no. 24. Juliæ Domnæ, Severi uxoris,
caput.
85. _Two._ no. 25. Laocoontes caput. 7 7 0
no. 26. Semiramidis, vel potius Musæ,
caput cum pectore.
86. _Three._ no. 27. Minervæ Alcidiæ caput
galeatum; operis egregii,
edit. var. 3 8 0
87. _Two._ no. 28. Phocionis caput. 3 3 0
no. 29. Jovis et Junonis capita
jugata.
88. _Three._ no. 30. Veneris caput. 4 14 6
no. 31. Bacchæ caput var.
89. _Two._ no. 32. Hercules Bibax, stans. 15 4 6
no. 33. Bacchus, stans.
90. _Two._ no. 34. Faunus tigridis pelli
insidens, cauda, &c. 9 9 0
no. 35. Athleta, stans, qui dextra
manus trigelem, &c.
91. _Two._ no. 36. Mercurius stans. 4 14 6
no. 37. Mars, stans, armatus.
92. _Two._ no. 38. Miles de rupe descendens,
eximii sculptoris Græci
opus. 7 0 0
no. 39. Diomedes Palladio potitus cum
Ulysse altercatione contendit.
93. _Two._ no. 40. Dei Marini natantes. 5 10 0
no. 41. Miles vulneratus a militibus
duobus sustentatur.
94. _Two._ no. 42. Miles militi vulnerato
opitulato. 3 3 0
no. 43. Mulier stolata cum virgine.
95. _Two._ no. 44. Faunus pelle caprina ex
humeris pendente vestitus;
pedem super suggestum ignotæ
figuræ figit et infantem genu
sustinet.
no. 45. Alexandri magni effigies.
96. _Two._ no. 46. Æneam Diomedes a saxo
percussum conservat. 8 18 0
no. 47. Pompeiæ cujusdam ob victoriam
partam descriptio.
97. _Two._ no. 48. Amazon Amazonem morientem }
sustinet juxta equus. } 6 16 6
}
98. no. 49. Fragmen Gemmæ Bacchi, &c. }
99. _One._ no. 50. Nuptiæ Psyches et Cupidonis,
_Rariss._ 4 14 6
100. _One._ no. 50. Ditto, Ditto, _Rariss._ 8 8 0
101. _One._ Frontispiece to SECOND VOLUME; _Proof,
before the inscription on the arms;
very rare_. 5 5 0
102. _Two._ no. 1. Ptolomæus. }
} 1 10 0
103. no. 2. Metrodorus. }
104. _Two._ no. 3. Socrates et Plato. 3 3 0
no. 5. Sappho.
105. _Two._ no. 8. Ignotum caput Scyllacis opus. 2 0 0
no. 9. Ignotum caput.
106. _Two._ no. 11. Medusa. 3 3 0
no. 18. Hercules et Iole.
107. _Two._ no. 19. L. Junius Brutus. 2 2 0
no. 20. Annibal.
108. _Two._ no. 22. Mecænes. 1 18 0
no. 25. Drusus Tiberii filius.
109. _Two._ no. 31. Caput ignotum, Antonini forsan
junioris. 2 2 0
no. 36. Equi.
110. _Two._ no. 38. Mercurii templum. 3 3 0
no. 40. Coronis.
111. _Two._ no. 41. Cupidonis. 2 12 6
no. 45. Faunus.
112. _Three._ no. 46. Omphale incedens. 3 13 5
no. 48. Biga, var.
113. _Two._ no. 50. Silenus, tigris, &c. var. 3 0 0
114. _Two._ The vignette to the second volume;
_Proof, very fine, and etching,
perhaps, unique_. 7 10 0
For an interesting account of the engravings of the
DEVONSHIRE GEMS--the rival publication of those from the
Marlborough collection--the reader may consult Mr. Beloe's
_Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books_; vol. I. 182-6.
The entire collection of Mr. Woodhouse's prints produced
3595_l._ 17_s._ 6_d._
We will now make handsome mention of the BIBLIOTHECA
WOODHOUSIANA. _A Catalogue of the entire, elegant, and
valuable Library of John Woodhouse, Esq., comprising a rich
and extensive collection of books, &c. Sold by auction by
Leigh and Sotheby, December, 1803._ 8vo. The collection was
rather choice and rich, than extensive: having only 861
articles. Some of the rarest editions in old English
Literature were vigorously contended for by well-known
collectors: nor did the Library want beautiful and useful
works of a different description. The following specimens
will enable the reader to form a pretty correct estimate of
the general value of this collection.
no. 8. Antonie (the Tragedie of) doone into English by
the Countesse of Pembroke, R.M. g.l. Lond. 1595. 12mo. £5
5_s._ 0_d._
24. Barnabee's Journal, with Bessie Bell, _First Edit. B.M.
g.l._ 1648. 12mo. 2 10 0
30. Bastard's (Thomas) Chrestoleros, seven Bookes of
Epigrammes, _G.M. g.l._ 1598. 12mo. 5 15 6
76. Chaucer, by Tyrwhitt, with the Glossary, G.M. g.l. 5
vol. 1775. 8vo. 6 0 0
82. Cokain's (Sir Aston) Poems and Plays, _with head_, R.M.
g.l. 2 vol. 1662. 8vo. 4 0 0
97. A Paire of Turtle Doves, or the History of Bellora and
Fidelio, bl. l. 4to. _see MS. note by Steevens_, 1606. 5 5 0
160. Burnet's History of his own Times, _large paper_, R.M.
g.l. 2 vol. 1724. 4to. 5 15 6
198. Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, _large paper_, 12
vols. 1780. 8vo. _Only six copies printed in this manner._
14 14 0
313. Latham's General Synopsis of Birds, with Index, 9 vols.
with reverse plates, elegantly painted by Miss Stone, now
Mrs. Smith: R.M. g.m.l. 4to. 'N.B. _Of the above set of
books, there are only_ 6 copies.' 40 0 0
314. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, with his Life,
large paper, 4 vols. _boards, uncut_, 1707, 1750, fol. 15 15 0
350. Heath's Chronicle, _frontispiece and heads_, R.M. g.l.
1663. 2 vols. 8vo. 5 5 0
394. Knight's Life of Colet, _large paper_; plates, elegant,
in light brown calf, g.l.m. 1724, 8vo. 5 10 0
395. Knight's Life of Erasmus, _large paper_, plates,
elegant, in light brown calf, g.l.m. 1726, 8vo. 9 9 0
431. Lewin's Birds of Great Britain, with the Eggs
accurately figured, elegantly painted with back ground, 7
vols. in 3. _A superb copy, in g.m. g.m.l._ 1789, 4to. 28 7 0
473. Martyn's Universal Conchologist; English Entomologist:
and Aranei, or Natural History of Spiders, 4 vols. elegantly
coloured. _A superb copy_, in R.M. g.m.l. 1789, 92, and 93,
4to. 33 12 0
490. Harrison's Seven Triumphal Arches, in honor of James
I., all the [seven] parts complete; _curious and very rare_,
R.M. g.l. 1604. folio. 27 6 0
493. Hearne and Bryne's Antiquities and Views in Great
Britain, _proof impressions_, M. g.l. 1786, oblong folio. 16
0 0
586. Skelton's (Mayster) Poems: Colyn Clout, _Lond. by John
Whygte_. Whi come ye not to Courte; _Lond. by John Whygte_.
Phillyp Sparow; Speak Parot; Death of the Noble Prynce, &c.
See note. _Lond. by John Kynge and Thomas Marshe_. Merie
Tales; _unique_, see note. _Lond. by Thomas Colwell_, 5 vol.
bl. l. R.M. g.l. 12mo. 23 0 0
624. Monument of Matrons, containing seven severall lamps of
Virginitie, by Thomas Bentley; bl. l. R. 3 vols. 1582, 4to.
16 5 6
632. Nychodemus Gospell, wood-cuts, bl. l. g.l. R.M. _Lond.
Wynkyn de Worde_, 1511, 4to. 6 16 6
640. Pennant's History of Quadrupeds, boards, _uncut, large
paper, proof plates_, 1793, 4to. 6 6 0
692. The late Expedition in Scotlande, made by the Kinges
Hyhnys Armye, under the conduit of the Ryht Honourable the
Earl of Hertforde, the yere of our Lorde God, 1544. bl. l.
R.M. g.l. _Lond. by Reynolde Wolfe_, 1554, 8vo. 16 16 0
762. Sommers's (Lord) Collection of scarce and valuable
Tracts, 19 vols. R. g.l. 1748, 50, 51, 52, folio. 85 1 0
780. Temple of Glas, bl. l. See notes by G. Mason. _Wynkyn
de Worde, no date_, 4to. 8 8 0
795. Tour (A) through the South of England, Wales, and part
of Ireland, in 1791, large paper, proof plates, coloured,
1793. N.B. "Of the above book only six copies were printed."
8 8 0
806. Vicar's England's Parliamentary Chronicle, R. g.l.
complete, 4 parts, 3 vols. 1646, 4to. 12 0 0
829. Speed's Theatre of Great Britain, maps, R. g.l. m.l. _A
remarkable fine copy_, 1611. 11 11 0
836. The Myrrour and Dyscrypcyon of the Worlde, with many
Mervaylles, wood-cuts, B.M. g.l. _Emprynted by me Lawrence
Andrewe_, 1527, folio. 26 0 0
837. The Recuile of the Histories of Troie, translated into
English by William Caxton, very fair, B.M. g.l. _Imprynted
at London by W. Copland_, 1553, fol. 23 0 0
852. The Myrroure of Golde for the Synfull Soule, bl. l.
wood-cuts. _Imprynted at Lond. in the Fleete-strete, at the
sygne of the Sun, by Wynkyn de Worde_, 1526, 4to. 12 1 6
856. Barclay's (Alexander) Egloges, out of a Boke named in
Latin, Miserie Curialium, compyled by Eneas Sylvius, Poete
and Oratour, bl. l. _woodcuts, five parts, and complete_,
G.M. _Imprynted by Wynkyn de Worde_, 4to. 25 0 0
859. Holy Life and History of Saynt Werburge, very frutefull
for all Christian People to rede. Poems, bl. l. G.M. _Imp.
by Richard Pynson_, 1521, 4to. 31 10 0
Amount of the sale, 3135_l._ 4_s._]
PHIL. I attended the sale of Woodhouse's prints and books; and
discovered at it as strong symptoms of the madness of which we are
discoursing as ever were exhibited on a like occasion. I have the
catalogue upon fine paper, which, however, is poorly printed; but I
consider it rather a curious bibliographical morçeau.
LYSAND. Make the most of it, for it will soon become scarce. And
now--notwithstanding my former boast to do justice to the remaining
bibliomaniacal characters of respectability--as I find my oral powers
almost exhausted, I shall barely mention the sales, by auction, of the
collections of WILKES, RITSON, and BOUCHER[412]--although I ought to
mention the _Bibliotheca Boucheriana_ with more respect than its two
immediate predecessors; as the collector was a man endowed with
etymological acumen and patience; and I sincerely wish the public
were now receiving the benefit of the continuation of his Dictionary;
of which the author published so excellent a specimen, comprehending
only the letter A. Dr. Jamieson has, to be sure, in a great measure
done away the melancholy impression which lexicographical readers
would otherwise have experienced--by the publication of his own
unrivalled "_Scottish Dictionary_;" yet there is still room enough in
the literary world for a continuation of Boucher.
[Footnote 412: It did not, perhaps, suit Lysander's notions
to make mention of book-sales to which no collectors' names
were affixed; but, as it has been my office, during the
whole of the above conversation, to sit in a corner and take
notes of what our book-orator has said, as well to correct
as to enlarge the narrative, I purpose, gentle reader,
prefacing the account of the above noticed three collections
by the following bibliomaniacal specimen: '_A Catalogue of a
capital and truly valuable Library, the genuine property of
a Gentleman of Fashion, highly distinguished for his fine
taste_,' &c.: sold by auction by Mr. Christie, May, 1800,
8vo. 326 articles: amount of the sale, 1828_l._ 18_s._;
being nearly 6_l._ an article. Now for the beloved
specimens:
NO. 35. Baptistæ Portæ de Humanâ Physiognomia, _with
wood-cuts. Hanoviæ_, 1593, et Johannis Physiophili Opuscula.
_Aug. Vin._ 1784, 8vo. £0 19_s._ 0_d._
38. Officium Beatæ Virginis. _This unique_ MANUSCRIPT _on
vellum of the 14th century, is enriched with highly finished
Miniature Paintings, and is one of the most perfect and best
preserved missals known in England._ 20 9 6
40. A complete set of the Barbou Classics, 68 vols.
_elegantly bound in green_ (_French_) morocco, with gilt
leaves, 8vo. 35 14 0
94. Gesta et Vestigia Danorum extra Daniam, 3 v. _large
paper, with a portrait in satin of the Prince to whom it is
dedicated, Lips: et Hafn_: 1740, 4to. _Black morocco, gilt
leaves._ N.B. 'It is supposed that the Rolliad was taken
from this work.' 10 10 0
133. Brittania, Lathmon, et villa Bromhamensis, poëmatia;
_Bodoni, Parma_, 1792, _red morocco_, folio. 9 19 6
211. Contes des Fées; Paris, 1781, 8vo. 4 vols. IMPRIMÉE SUR
VELIN. This unique copy is ornamented with nineteen original
drawings, and was made for the late Madame Royale:
_elegantly bound in blue morocco and enclosed in a morocco
case_. 35 14 0
237. Memoires du Comte de Grammont. _Edition printed for the
Comte d'Artois._ _Par._ 1781. 8vo. This beautiful small
work, from the text of which Harding's edition was copied,
is adorned with several high finished portraits in
miniature, painted by a celebrated artist, and is elegantly
bound in green morocco, with morocco case. 15 15 3
317. L'antiquité Expliquée, par Montfaucon, with fine
plates; _large paper copy_, 15 vol. red (French) _morocco,
with gilt leaves_; and Monarchie Françoise, 5, v. l. p.
_correspondently bound_, folio. 63 0 0
318. Anacreontis Carmina, Gr. et Lat. from a MS. in the
Vatican of the tenth century: with _beautiful coloured
miniatures by Piale, appropriate to each ode, in rich
morocco binding_. _Romæ_, 1781. folio. 56 14 0
Early in the year in which this collection was disposed of,
the very beautiful choice, and truly desirable library of
GEORGE GALWAY MILLS, Esq. was sold by auction by Mr.
Jeffery, in February, 1800. My copy of this well-executed
catalogue is upon _large paper_; but it has not the prices
subjoined. Meanwhile let the sharp-sighted bibliomaniac look
at no. 28, 68, 85, 106, 181, 412, 438, only. Thus it will
be seen that the year 1800 was most singularly distinguished
for _Book-Auction Bibliomaniacism_!
We now proceed to notice the sales of the libraries of those
bibliomaniacs above mentioned by Lysander. _A catalogue of
the very valuable Library of the late_ JOHN WILKES, Esq.,
M.P., _&c., sold by auction by Leigh and Sotheby, in
November_, 1802, 8vo.: 1478 articles. There are few
articles, except the following deserving of being extracted.
NO. 139. Bernier Theologie Portatif, Lond. 1768--Boulanger
Recherches sur l'Origine du Despotisme Oriental, morocco,
gilt leaves. Lond. 1763, 8vo. 'N.B. The "Recherches" were
printed by Mr. Wilkes, at his own private printing press, in
Great George Street, Westminster, in 1763.'
383. Catullus, recensuit Johannes Wilkes; _impress. in
Membranis_, red morocco, gilt leaves. Lond. ap. Nichols,
1788, 4to.
395. Copies taken from the Records of the C. of K.B. 1763.
"Note in this book--printed by P.C. Webe, one of the
solicitors to the Treasury, never published," &c.
1441. Theophrasti Characteres: Græce, Johannes Wilkes,
recensuit. _Impress. in Membranis_, Lond. 1790, 4to.
1460. Wilkes's History of England, no. I. 1768, 4to.
Next comes the account of the Library of that redoubted
champion of ancient lore, and anti-Wartonian critic, Joseph
Ritson. His books, upon the whole, brought very moderate
sums. _A Catalogue of the entire and curious Library and
Manuscripts of the late_ JOSEPH RITSON, Esq., _&c., sold by
auction by Leigh and Sotheby, December_ 5, 1803, 8vo.
NO. 521. Skelton's (Maister) Workes, MS. notes, and lists of
the different editions of Skelton's Works, and likewise of
those never printed; and of these last, in whose possession
many of them are, 1736, 8vo. £0 18_s._ 0_d._
600. Jeffrey of Monmouth's British History, by Thompson; a
great number of MS. notes, on separate papers, by Mr.
Ritson. Lond. 1718, 8vo. 1 5 0
950. The Sevin Seages. Translatit out of Paris in Scottis
meter, be Johne Rolland in Dalkeith, with one Moralitie
after everie Doctouris Tale, and siclike after the Emprice
Tale, togidder with one loving landaude to everie Doctour
after his awin Tale, and one Exclamation and outcrying upon
the Emprerouris Wife after his fals contrusit tale.
_Imprentit at Edinburgh, be Johne Ros, for Henrie
Charteris_, 1578, 4to. "Note in this book by Mr. Ritson; No
other copy of this edition is known to exist, neither was it
known to Ames, Herbert," &c. &c. 31 10 0
964. A new Enterlude, never before this tyme imprinted,
entreating of the Life and Repentance of Marie Magadelene
[Transcriber's Note: Magdalene], not only godlie, learned
and fruitfull, but also well furnished with pleasant myrth
and pastime, very delectable for those which shall heare or
reade the same, _made by the learned Charke [Transcriber's
Note: Clarke] Lewis Wager--printed_ 1567, MS. 1 11 6
985. Bibliographia Scotica; Anecdotes biographical and
literary of Scotish Writers, Historians, and Poets, from the
Earliest account to the nineteenth century, in two parts,
intended for publication. 45 3 0
986. Shakspeare, by Johnson and Steevens, 8 vols. containing
a great number of manuscript notes, corrections, &c. &c.
together with 3 vols. of manuscript notes, by Mr. Ritson,
prepared by him for the press, intending to publish it. 110
0 0
The year ensuing (of which Lysander has, very negligently,
taken no notice) was distinguished for the sale of a
collection of books, the like unto which had never been
seen, since the days of the dispersion of the Parisian
collection. The title of the auction catalogue was, in part,
as follows: _A Catalogue of a most splendid and valuable
collection of Books, superb missals, original drawings, &c.
the genuine property of a Gentleman of distinguished taste,
retiring into the country, &c._ Sold by auction by Mr.
Christie, April, 1804, 8vo. 339 articles: total amount,
4640_l._--being almost 14_l._ an article. I attended both
days of this sale and the reader shall judge of my own
satisfaction, by that which _he_ must receive from a perusal
of the following specimens of this _Bibliotheca
Splendidissima_.
NO. 221. A most complete set of Sir William Dugdale's Works,
containing Monasticon Anglicanum, in 5 vols. 1655;
Monasticon, vol. 1, editio secunda, 2 vols.; Monasticon, in
English, with Steevens's Continuation, 3 vols.;
Warwickshire, first edition; Warwickshire, second edition,
by Thomas, 2 vols.; St. Paul's, first and second edition, 2
vols.; Baronage, 2 vols.; History of Imbanking, first and
second editions, 2 vols.; Origines Juridiciales, third
edition; View of the Troubles; Summons of the Nobility;
Usage of Arms and office of Lord Chancellor. _This fine set
of Dugdale is elegantly bound in Russia leather in 23
volumes._ £136 10_s._ 0_d._
(Now worth 250_l._)
222. Biographia Britannica, 7 vols. 1747, folio. A matchless
set illustrated with portraits, fine and rare, and
_elegantly bound in Russia leather_. 99 15 0
223. Homeri Ilias et Odyssea, 4 vols. Glasgow, 1756, fol. An
unique copy, on _large paper_, illustrated with Flaxman's
plates to the Iliad, and original drawings, by Miss Wilkes,
to the Odyssey; _superbly bound in blue Turkey_. 39 18 0
225. Milton's Poetical Works, large paper, Tonson, 1695.
Milton's Historical Works, &c., by Birch, 2 vols. large
paper, 1738, 3 vols. _elegantly bound in Russia leather_. 5
10 0
229. Ogilby's Historical Works, containing Britannia, China,
2 vols. Japan, Asia, Africa, and America, with fine plates
by Hollar, 7 vols. folio, _fine copy in Russia_. 18 18 0
234. Lord Clarendon's History of the Grand Rebellion, 6
vols. folio, _large paper, splendidly bound in morocco_,
1702. 49 7 0
235. Winwood's Memorials of Affairs of State, 3 vols. 1725.
_Large Paper, elegantly bound, and gilt leaves_. 5 18 0
239. Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, 2 vols. best edition, 1721.
_A fine copy on Large Paper, elegantly bound in Russia, with
gilt leaves_, Fol. 7 17 6
From no. 292 to 307, inclusive (only 14 volumes), there
was a set of "_Painted Missals and curious manuscripts_,"
which were sold for 724_l._ Among them, was Mr. John
Towneley's matchless missal, decorated by the famous
Francesco Veronese--"one of the finest productions of the
kind ever imported from Italy:" see no. 296. For an
account of the books PRINTED UPON VELLUM in this collection,
see PART VI. Let us close this note with the _Bibliotheca
Boucheriana_; of which such respectable mention is above
justly made by Lysander. "_A Catalogue of the very valuable
and extensive Library of the late_ REV. JONATHAN BOUCHER,
_A.M., F.R.S., Vicar of Epsom, Surrey. Comprehending a fine
and curious collection in Divinity, History, &c.: sold by
auction by Leigh and Sotheby; in February_, 1806." _First
part_, 6646 articles: _Second part_, 1933 articles: _Third
part_, published in 1809: 857 articles. I attended many days
during this sale; but such was the warm fire, directed
especially towards divinity, kept up during nearly the whole
of it, that it required a heavier weight of metal than I was
able to bring into the field of battle to ensure any success
in the contest. I cannot help adding that these catalogues
are wretchedly printed.]
Ah, well-a-day!--have I not come to the close of my BOOK-HISTORY? Are
there any other bibliomaniacs of distinction yet to notice? Yes!--I
well remember the book-sale events of the last four years. I well
remember the curiosity excited by the collections of the MARQUIS OF
LANSDOWNE, JOHN BRAND, ISAAC REED, RICHARD PORSON, ALEXANDER
DALRYMPLE, and RICHARD GOUGH,[413] and with these I must absolutely
make my bibliomaniacal peroration! Illustrious men!----
[Footnote 413: For the same reason as has been adduced at p.
427, ante, and from a strong wish to render this _List of
Book Auctions_ as perfect as my opportunities will allow, I
shall persevere, at the foot of Lysander's narrative, in
submitting to the attention of the curious reader a still
further account of sales than those above alluded to in the
text. As this will be the last note in PART V., I hope,
however late the hour, or exhausted his patience, that the
reader will also persevere to the close of it, and then wish
the author "good night," along with his friends, whose
salutations are above so dramatically described. At the very
opening of the year in which Mr. Boucher's books were sold,
the magnificent collection of the Marquis of Lansdowne was
disposed of. I well remember the original destination of
this numerous library: I well remember the long, beautiful,
and classically ornamented room, in which, embellished and
guarded by busts, and statues of gods and heroes, the books
were ranged in quiet and unmolested order, adjoining to the
noblest mansion in London. If the consideration of external,
or out-of-door, objects be put out of the question, this
Library-room had not its superior in Great Britain. Let us
now come to particulars: "_Bibliotheca Lansdowniana. A
Catalogue of the entire Library of the late most noble
William_ MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE; _sold by auction by Leigh and
Sotheby, &c. January_, 1806." 8vo. The following is but a
slender specimen of the printed books in the Lansdowne
collection.
NO. 359. Arthur Kynge (the story of the most noble and
Worthy) the whiche was fyrst of the worthyes christen, and
also of his noble and valyaunt knyghtes of the Round Table;
_newly imprynted and corrected, black letter, title-page
emblazoned, Turkey. Imp. at Lond. by Wyllyam Coplande_,
1557, folio. In the collection of Mr. Dent. £25 0_s._ 0_d._
361. Ashmole's (Elias) Institution, Laws, and Ceremonies of
the Order of the Garter, plates by Hollar, _L. Paper, green
morocco, border of gold, gilt leaves_, 1672, folio. 10 10 0
1384. Chronica del Rey Don Alonso el Onzeno, Roy de
Castilla, &c. _Liter. Goth. Mar. verd. Volladolid
[Transcriber's Note: Valladolid]._ 1551, folio. 11 11 0
1385. ---- del Rey Don Pedro. D. Enrrique [Transcriber's
Note: Enrique], y D. Juan, _Pampl._ 1591, folio. 5 15 6
1386. ---- des Reys de Portugal, D. Joanno I. D. Duarte, e
D. Alfonso, _Lisboa_, 1543, folio. 4 2 0
2499. Gazette, London, from the beginning, 1665 to 1722
inclusive, 73 vol. folio. 84 0 0
3438. Leyes del Reyno, del Don Philippe II. Recopilacion de
las, 2 tom. Alcala, 1581. folio. 1 5 0
3439. ---- de los Reynos de las Indias, del Don Carlos II. 2
tom. Madrid, 1681, folio. 3 10 0
4108. Money; a very curious Collection of Single Sheets,
&c., and with several MS. Memorandums and Papers on that
Subject, bound in one volume. 10 10 0
5544. Somers' (Lord) Tracts, 16 vol. Lond. 1748, 52. 63 0 0
5786. Stuart's (James) Antiquities of Athens, plates, 3 vol.
1787, 94, folio. 16 16 0
5787. Stukeley's (Wm.) Itinerary, cuts, _Russia_, 2 vol. in
vol. 1, 1776, folio. 21 0 0
5916. A very rare collection of Tracts, Documents, and
Pamphlets, consisting of above 280 volumes, tending to
illustrate the History of the French Revolution--together
with more than 49 volumes relative to the transactions in
the Low Countries, between the years 1787 and 1792, and
their separation from the house of Austria:--amongst the
above will be found the following works.
Des Etats Generaux, &c. Par. 1789. 18 vol.
Process Verbaux de la première Assemblée, 75 vol.
Ditto de la seconde 16 vol.
Ditto de la Convocation 32 vol.
Revolution Françoise, 20 vol. from 1790 to 1803, wanting
vol. 1, 2, and 13.
La Bastile Devoilée. Par. 1789.
Sir James M'Intosh's Vindiciæ Gallicæ, and numerous pieces
relative to the Constitution and Administration of the
French Government, in its Executive, Legislative, Judicial,
and Financial Departments, by Messrs. Mirabeau, Turgot,
Barrere, Calonne, Necker, &c. 168 0 0
I should observe that the PRINTS or ENGRAVINGS of the
Marquis, together with the _printed prices_ for which they,
and the foregoing library, were sold, are usually added to
the Catalogue of the Books. In the spring of 1807, the
MANUSCRIPTS belonging to the same noble collector were
catalogued to be sold by public auction. These manuscripts,
in the preface of the _first_ volume of the Catalogue, are
said to 'form one of the noblest and most valuable private
collections in the kingdom.' It is well known that the
collection never came to the hammer; but was purchased by
parliament for 6000_l._, and is deposited in the British
Museum. A catalogue of it is now _sub prelo_; vide p. 89,
ante. We are next to notice the sale by auction of the
library of the late Rev. John Brand. The first part of this
collection was disposed of in the Spring of 1807; and the
catalogue had this title: _Bibliotheca Brandiana. A
Catalogue of the unique, scarce, rare, curious, and numerous
collection of Works, &c., being the entire Library of the
late_ REV. JOHN BRAND, _Fellow and Secretary of the
Antiquarian Society, Author of the History of Newcastle,
Popular Antiquities, &c. Sold by auction by Mr. Stewart_,
May, 1807. This first part contained 8611 articles, or lots,
of printed books; exclusively of 243 lots of manuscripts.
Hereafter followeth, gentle reader, some specimens, selected
almost at random, of the 'unique, scarce, rare, and curious'
books contained in the said library of this far-famed
Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries.
NO. 67. _Ane Compendious Booke of Godly and Spiritual
Songs_, bl. lett. 8vo. Edinb. 1621. £4 4_s._ 0_d._
69. Academy of Pleasure, with portraits of Drayton, G.
Withers, F. Quarles, and B. Jonson, Lon. 1656, 8vo. 2 17 6
109. A Curtaine Lecture, _rare and curious_, frontispiece,
Lond. 1637, 8vo. 0 15 0
110. A Banquet of Jests, or Change of Cheare, with portrait
of Archee, the King's jester. _Rare._ Lond. 1659, 8vo. 4 10 0
227. Arnold's Chronicle of the Customs of London, a fine
copy, perfect, _printed by Pynson_, fol. 1521. 18 18 0
241. An Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionarie, by Baret.
Francof. fol. 1580. 3 5 0
242. Dyalogue of Dives and Pauper, _that is to say, the Rich
and the Pore, fructuously tretyng upon the Ten
Commandments_, black-letter, printed by Pynson, fol. 1493. 4
3 0
272. Allot's England's Parnassus, 8vo. 1600. 2 10 0
282. A Booke of Fishing, with hooke and line, 1600, 8vo. A
Booke of Engines and Traps to take Polcats, Buzzards, Rats,
Mice, &c. cuts, _very rare_, [See p. 305, ante.] 3 3 0
283. Archy's Dream, sometimes jester to his Majestie, but
expelled the court by Canterbury's malice, _very rare_, 8vo.
1 13 0
337. A new Dialogue between the Angell of God and Shepherdes
in the Felde, black-letter. _Pr. by Day_, 8vo. 2 10 0
381. A Dialogue betweene two Neighbours, concernyng
Ceremonyes in the first year of Queen Mary, black-letter,
with portrait of Mary, by Delarum, from Roane, by
Michelwood, 1554, 8vo. 2 12 6
417. A short Inuentory of certayne idle Inventions,
black-letter, _very rare_. 2 15 0
418. A Juniper Lecture, with the Description of all Sorts of
Women, good and bad, _very rare_. Lond. 1639, 8vo. 1 16 0
454. A Quip for an Upstart Courtier; or a Quaint Dispute
betweene Velvet Breeches and Cloth Breeches, wherein is set
Downe the Disorders in all Estates and Trades, _with
portraits_. Lond. printed by G.P., 1620, 4to. 2 16 0
462. Articles to be enquired into by various Bishops, &c.,
in their Visitations; upwards of one hundred; _a very
curious, scarce, and unique collection_, 4to. 2 2 0
802. Barbiere (John) the famous Game of Chesse Play, cuts,
1673. The most ancient and learned play, The Philosopher's
Game, invented for the Honourable Recreation of the
Studious, by W.F., black-letter, 1563, 4to. 2 4 0
1300. A Plaister for a Galled Horse, _very rare_, 1548, 4to.
[See Herbert's Ames, vol. i. 581: and p. 239; ante.] 3 17 6
1312. A Counter Blaste to Tobacco. Lond. 1604, 4to. 0 17 0
1326. Bentley's (Thos.) Monument of Matrons, containing
seven severall Lamps of Virginitie, or Distinct Treatises,
collated and perfect, a very fine copy, extremely rare and
curious, _imprinted at London, by Thomas Dawson, for William
Seres, extremely rare_, black-letter, 1582, 4to. 8 18 6
1334. Bert (Edmund) an approved Treatise of Hawkes and
Hunting. Lond. 1619, 4to. 1 10 0
1540. Burton (Wm.) Seven Dialogues, black-letter. Lond.
1606. George Whetstone's Mirrour for Magistrates of cities,
b.l., printed by Richard Jones, 1584, 4to. 3 13 6
1542. Byshop's (John) beautifull Blossomes, black-letter,
imprinted by Henrie Cockyn, 1577, 4to. 4 10 0
1754. Characters (viz.) The Surfeit to A.B.C. Lond. 1656.
Dr. Lupton's London and Country carbonadoed and quartered
into Seuerall Characters, 1632. Essayes and Characters, by
L.G., 1661, 8vo. 4 7 0
2069. England's Jests refined and improved, 1660, 8vo. 2 14 0
2326. Catharo's Diogenes in his Singularitie, wherein is
comprehended his merrie Baighting fit for all men's
benefits: christened by him a _Nettle for Nice Noses_, by
L.T., black-letter, 1591, 4to. 2 10 0
3523. Fages (Mrs.) Poems, Fames Roule, &c., _rare_, Lond.
1637, 4to. 5 15 6
7817. Stukeley's (Wm.) Itinerarium Curiosum; 2 _vols. in_ 1,
_Russia_, folio. 14 14 0
8211. The blazon of Jealousie, written in Italian, by
Varchi. Lond. 1615, 8vo. 2 6 0
8223. Tracts: Dial of Witches, 1603; Lancaster Witches,
1613; Trial of Yorkshire Witches, 1612; The Golden Fleece,
1626; Cage of Diabolical Possession, 4to. 2 8 0
8224. The most strange and admirable Discoverie of the three
witches of Warboys, arraigned, convicted, and executed at
the last assizes at Huntington; for bewitching the five
daughters of Robert Throckmorton, Esq., and divers other
persons, with sundrie devilish and grievous torments; and
also for bewitching to death the Lady Crumwell. _Extra
rare_, 4to. 4 0 0
8230. Witches apprehended, examined, and executed for
notable villanies, by them committed both by land and water,
with a strange and most true triall how to know whether a
woman be a witch or not: _with the plate_. _Extra rare_,
4to. 3 5 0
8269. The Pleasure of Princes, the Art of Angling, together
with the Ordering and Dieting of the Fighting Cocke, 1635,
4to. 2 5 0
8296. The Knyght of the Toure; _a perfect and fine specimen
of the father of English Printers_, 1484, folio. The reader
(if he pleases) may consult my first volume, p. 202, of the
_Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain_, for some
account of this edition. 111 6 0
My copy of this first part of the Catalogue of Brand's books
is upon _large paper, with the prices inserted in the
margin_. The _second part_ of the BIBLIOTHECA BRANDIANA,
containing duplicates and Pamphlets, was sold in February,
1808, by Mr. Stewart. There were 4064 articles. Few
collections attracted greater attention before, and during,
the sale than did the library of the late Mr. Isaac Reed: a
critic and literary character of very respectable
second-rate reputation. The public Journals teemed, for a
time, with book-anecdotes concerning this collection; and
the _Athenæum_, _Monthly Mirror_, _Censura Literaria_,
_European Magazine_, struck out a more bold outline of the
Bibliotheca Reediana than did the generality of their fellow
Journals. Reed's portrait is prefixed to the European
Magazine, the Monthly Mirror, and the Catalogue of his own
Books: it is an indifferently stippled scraping, copied from
a fine mellow mezzotint, from the characteristic pencil of
Romney. This latter is a private plate, and, as such, is
rare. To return to the Library. The preface to the Catalogue
was written by the Rev. H.J. Todd. It is brief, judicious,
and impressive; giving abundant proof of the bibliomaniacal
spirit of the owner of the library--who would appear to have
adopted the cobler's well-known example of applying one room
to almost every domestic purpose: for Reed made his library
'his parlour, kitchen, and hall.' A brave and enviable
spirit this!--and, in truth, what is comparable with it? But
the reader is beginning to wax impatient for a more
particular account. Here it is: _Bibliotheca Reediana. A
Catalogue of the curious and extensive Library of the late
Isaac Reed, Esq., of Staple Inn, deceased. Comprehending a
most extraordinary collection of books in English
Literature, &c.: sold by auction, by Messrs. King and
Lochée: November_, 1807, _8vo._ The following specimens of
some of Reed's scarce volumes are copied, in part, from the
account which was inserted in the _Athenæum_, vol. iii., pp.
61, 157, under the extraordinary signatures of W. Caxton and
W. de Worde.
NO. 5867. A Portfolio of single-sheet Ballads. £15 15_s._
0_d._
6661. Colman (W.) Death's Duel, 8vo., _frontispiece_. 7 15 0
6685. Barnefield's Affectionate Shepherd, _very rare_, 4to.
1594. 15 10 0
6713. A musical Concort of Heavenly Harmonie, called
Churchyard's charitie. _See MS. notes in Churchyard's
Pieces, by Steevens, Reed_, &c., 1595, 4to. 8 15 0
6714. Churchyard's lamentable and pitiable Description of
the woeful Warres in Flanders, 1578, 4to. 4 19 0
6715. ---- a true Discourse of the succeeding Governors in
the Netherlands, and the Civil Warres there begun in 1565,
4to.
6716. ---- a light Bundle of Lively Discourses, called
Churchyard's Charge, presented as a New Year's Gift to the
Earl of Savoy, 1589, 4to. 11 5 0
6717. ---- Challenge, b.l., 1580, with a copious Manuscript
account of his works, by J. Reed, and a small octavo Tract,
called A Discourse of Rebellion, 1570, 4to. 17 10 0
6755. Gascoigne (George) whole workes, _fine copy in
Russia_, 4to., b.l., 1567. 15 5 0
6777. Cynthia, with certain Sonnets, _rare_, 1595, 8vo. 12 5 0
7479. Whetstone (George) Mirror of true Honor, and Christain
[Transcriber's Note: Christian] Nobilitie, exposing the
Life, Death, and Divine Vertues of Francis Earl of Bedford,
b.l., 1585, 4to. 7 0 0
7705. Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster; or Love lies a
bleeding, _frontispiece_, 4to., 1620. 24 0 0
8536. Shakspeariana, a Large Assemblage of Tracts by various
authors, relative to Shakspeare, neatly bound in 9 vols.
8vo. 23 0 0
8561. Stillingfleet (Benj.) Plays, never either finished or
published. _The only copy ever seen by Mr. Reed._ 3 13 6
8676. A volume of unpublished and unprinted Fables, by John
Ellis, scrivener and translator of Maphaeus. _Note by Mr.
Reed:_ 'It was given to me by Mr. John Sewell, bookseller,
to whom Mr. Ellis bequeathed his Manuscripts. See my account
of Mr. Ellis in the European Magazine, Jan. 1792: large
4to.' The volume is enriched with fine engravings,
appropriate to each Fable. 6 0 0
8833. Notitia Dramatica, both printed and manuscript;
containing a Chronological Account of the chief Incidents
relating to the English Theatres, from Nov. 1734, to 31st
Dec. 1785. "Collected from various sources, but chiefly the
Public Advertisers, which were lent me by Mr. Woodfall for
the purpose. This volume contains the most material facts
relating to the Theatres for the last fifty years, and will
be useful to any person who may wish to compile a History of
the Stage." Isaac Reed, Staple's Inn, Aug. 6. 1784. 41 0 0
Of this Catalogue, there are _only twelve copies_ printed
upon LARGE PAPER; which were all distributed previous to the
sale of the books. The common paper copies are very
indifferently executed. The late Mr. George Baker had the
completest _l.p._ copy of this catalogue in existence.
Before we proceed to give an account of subsequent
book-sales, it may be as well to pause for a few
minutes--and to take a retrospective view of the busy scene
which has been, in part, described: or rather, it may be no
incurious thing to lay before the reader for a future
century (when the ashes of the author shall have long
mouldered into their native dust) a statement of the
principal book-sales which took place from November, 1806,
to November, 1807--at Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby's King and
Lochée's, and Mr. Stewart's. The minor ones carried on under
Covent-Garden Piazza, Tom's Coffee-house, &c., are not
necessary to be noticed. In calculating the number of
volumes, I have considered one article, or lot, with the
other, to comprehend three volumes. The result is as
follows.
_Book-Sales by Messrs._ LEIGH _and_ SOTHEBY.
Volumes.
Rev. Edward Bowerbank's library. 2200
Earl of Halifax's 2000
Mr. John Voigt's 6000
Sutton Sharpe's, Esq. 4000
George Mason's, ditto 3800
Mr. Burdon's 14000
Charles Bedford's, Esq. 3500
Rev. Charles Bathurst's 3000
Sir John Sebright's, Bt. (duplicates). 3300
Bishop Horsley's 4400
Mr. E. Edward's 1100
Lieut. Col. Thos. Velley's 2200
_Four miscellaneous_ 6000
------
55,500
_Book-Sales by_ KING _and_ LOCHÉE.
Volumes.
R. Foster's, Esq. library 5000
Dr. John Millar's 3500
Mr. C. Martin's 1000
Mr. Daniel Waldron's 1200
Rev. Thomas Towle's 3000
Mr. Brice Lambert's 2000
C. Dilly's 3000
Isaac Reed's 30000
_Six miscellaneous_ 8400
------
57,100
_Book-Sales by_ Mr. STEWART.
Mr. Law's library 4000
Lord Thurlow's 3000
Mr. William Bryant's 4500
Rev. W.W. Fitzthomas's 2000
Rev. John Brand's 17000
George Stubbs, Esq. 1800
_Three miscellaneous_ 4300
------
36,600
TOTAL
Sold by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby 55500
Messrs. King and Lochée 57100
Mr. Stewart 36600
-------
149,200
Such has been the circulation of books, within the foregoing
period, by the hands of _three Auctioneers only_; and the
prices which a great number of _useful_ articles brought is
a sufficient demonstration that books are esteemed for their
_intrinsic value_, as well as for the adventitious
circumstances which render them _rare_ or _curious_. But
prosterity [Transcriber's Note: posterity] are not to judge
of the prevalence of knowledge in these times by the
criterion of, what are technically called, _book-sales_
only. They should be told that, within the same twelve
months, thousands and tens of thousands of books of all
sorts have been circulated by the _London Booksellers_; and
that, without travelling to know the number disposed of at
Bristol, Liverpool, York, Manchester, or Exeter, it may be
only necessary to state that _one distinguished House_
alone, established not quite a furlong from the railings of
St. Paul's Cathedral, sold not far short of _two hundred
thousand volumes_ within the foregoing period! If learning
continue thus to thrive, and books to be considered as
necessary furniture to an apartment; if wealthy merchants
are resolved upon procuring Large Paper copies, as well as
Indian spices and Russian furs; we may hail, in
anticipation, that glorious period when the book-fairs of
_Leipsic_ shall be forgotten in the superior splendour of
those of _London_! But to return to our chronological order:
The ensuing year, 1808, was distinguished for no small
mischief excited in the bibliomaniacal world by the sales of
many curious and detached libraries. The second part of Mr.
Brand's collection which was sold in the spring of this
year, has been already noticed. The close of the year
witnessed the sales, by auction, of the books of SAMUEL
EWER, Esq. (retiring into the country), and of Mr. MACHEL
STACE, bookseller. The former collection was very strong in
bibliography; and the latter presented a singularly valuable
'Collection of rare and select' books, relating to old
English Literature elegantly bound: containing 2607
articles. Mr. Stace had published, the preceding year, '_A
Catalogue of curious and scarce Books and Tracts_:' which,
with the preceding, merit a snug place upon the
bibliographer's shelf. We now enter upon a more busy year of
sales of books by auction. The Bibliomania had only
increased by the preceding displays of precious and
magnificent volumes. And first came on, in magnitude and
inportance [Transcriber's Note: importance], the sales of
ALEXANDER DALRYMPLE and PROFESSOR PORSON. Of these in turn.
_A Catalogue of the extensive and valuable Library of Books:
Part I. Late the property of_ ALEX. DALRYMPLE, Esq. F.R.S.,
_deceased_. Hydrographer to the Board of Admiralty, and the
Hon. East India Company, &c., sold by auction by King and
Lochée, May 29, 1809, 8vo.--7190 articles: _A Catalogue,
&c., Part II. of the same: sold by auction by the same_:
Nov. 1809.--8897 articles. I should add that there is a
stippled engraving of Dalrymple, with fac-simile of his
hand-writing, which faces the title page to _Part First_ of
this extraordinary and numerous collection; of books of
Geography, Voyages, and Travels. I strongly recommend copies
of these catalogues to be in every library of extent and
utility. We are now to notice: _A Catalogue of Part of the
Library of the late Richard Porson, A.M., Greek Professor of
the University of Cambridge_, &c.: sold by auction by Leigh
and Sotheby, June 16th, 1809, 8vo.--1391 articles: amount of
the books, 1254_l._ 18_s._ 6_d._ The subjoined is rather a
rich, though brief, specimen of some of the valuable books
contained in the library of this profound Greek scholar; in
whom the acuteness of Bentley, and the erudition of
Hemsterhusius, were more than revived.
NO. 116. Biblia Græca, et Novum Testamentum Græce,
lectionibus D.J.J. Griesbach, 2 vols., boards, uncut, MS.
notes at the beginning of each vol. Hal. Sax. 1796-1806,
8vo. £8 15_s._ 0_d._
The notes amounted to the correction of 9 typographical
errors and 1 addition to a note of Griesbach's, consisting
of authorities he ought to have added.
182. Athenæus, Gr. Lat., cum animadversionibus I. Casauboni,
2 vols., MS. notes, Lugduni, 1612, folio. 7 10 0
330. Chariton de Amor. Chaeræ et Callirrhoe, Gr. Lat. cum
animadversionibus, J.P. d'Orville--Amst. 1750, 4to. 2 5 0
Porson's note in the beginning. 'Opus plenum eruditionis,
judicii et sagacitatis non item.'
559. Homeri Ilias et Odyssea (the Grenville edition) boards,
uncut, with the original portrait. Oxoniæ, 4to., _large
paper_: 4 vols. 87 3 0
601. Eustathius in Homerum, 4 vols., morocco, gilt leaves,
Par. 1550, fol. 55 0 0
1078. Shakspeare's (William) Plays by Johnson and Steevens,
15 vols., boards, uncut, 1793, 8vo. 12 15 0
Anecdotes and Memoirs of RICHARD PORSON are strewn, like
spring flowers in an extensive pasture, in almost every
newspaper, magazine, and journal. Among the latter, there is
an interesting one by Dr. Adam Clarke in the _Classical
Journal_, no. IV., p. 720. The _hand-writing_ of Porson
is a theme of general admiration, and justly so; but his
_Greek_ characters have always struck me as being more stiff
and cramped than his Roman and Italic. I well remember when
he shewed me, and expatiated eloquently upon, the famous MS.
of Plato, of the 10th century. Poor Fillingham was of the
party. Little did I then expect that three years only would
deprive the world of its great classical ornament, and
myself of a well-informed and gentle-hearted friend! We will
now close our account of the book-ravages in the year 1809,
by noticing the dispersion of a few minor corps of
bibliomaniacal troops, in the shape of printed volumes.
_Bibliotheca Maddisoniana: A Catalogue of the extensive and
valuable library of the late_ JOHN MADDISON, _Esq., of the
foreign department in the Post Office, &c._: sold by auction
by King and Lochée, March, 1809, 8vo. A judicious and
elegant collection. 5239 articles. II. _A Catalogue of a
curious, valuable, and rare collection of Books in
Typography, History, Voyages, Early English Poetvy
[Transcriber's Note: Poetry], Romances, Classics_, &c.: the
property of a Collector well known for his literary taste,
&c. Sold by auction by Mr. Stewart, April, 1809, 8vo. Some
curious volumes were in these 1858 articles or lots. III. _A
Catalogue of the very valuable and elegant Library of_
EMPEROR JOHN ALEXANDER WOODFORD, Esq., sold by auction by
Leigh and Sotheby, May, 1809, 8vo.--1773 articles. This was
a sumptuous collection; and the books, in general, brought
large prices, from being sharply contended for. IV. _A
Catalogue of the interesting and curious historical and
biographical part of the_ LIBRARY OF A GENTLEMAN,
particularly interesting, during the reign of Elizabeth, the
grand rebellion, the usurpation, restoration, and
abdication, &c., sold by auction by Leigh and Sotheby, in
May, 1809, 8vo. Only 806 articles; but a singularly curious
and elegant collection; the catalogue of which I strongly
recommend to all 'curious, prying, and inquisitive'
bibliomaniacs. The first half of the ensuing year, 1810, was
yet more distinguished for the zeal and energy--shall I say
MADNESS?--displayed at BOOK-AUCTIONS. The sale of Mr.
Gough's books excited an unusual ferment among English
antiquaries: but the sale of a more extensive, and truly
beautifully classical, collection in Pall Mall, excited
still stronger sensations. As the _prices_ for some of the
articles sold in the Gough collection have already been
printed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxxx., pt. ii.,
and as those for which some of the _latter_ collection were
sold, appeared in the 4th number of _The Classical Journal_,
it only remains for me to subjoin the following account. I.
_A Catalogue of the entire and valuable Library (with the
exception of the department of Topography, bequeathed to the
Bodleian Library) of that eminent antiquary_, RICHARD GOUGH,
Esq., deceased, &c., sold by auction by Leigh and Sotheby,
April, 1810, 8vo.--4082 articles. The MANUSCRIPTS conclude
the catalogue, at no. 4373. Prefixed to the printed
books, there is an account of the collector, Mr. Gough,
executed by the faithful pen of Mr. Nichols. My own humble
opinion of this celebrated antiquary has already been before
the public: _Typog. Antiquit._, vol. I., 21. II. _A
Catalogue of books containing all the rare, useful, and
valuable publications in every department of Literature,
from the first invention of Printing to the present time,
all of which are in the most perfect condition, &c._: sold
by auction by Mr. Jeffery, May, 1810, 8vo.--4809 articles.
Another Catalogue of the same collection, elegantly printed
in royal octavo, but omitting the auctioneer's notices of
the relative value of certain editions, was published by Mr.
Constable of Edinburgh, bookseller: with the prices and
purchasers' names subjoined: and of which it is said only
250 copies are printed. The REV. MR. HEATH is reported to
have been the owner of this truly select and sumptuous
classical library: the sale of which produced 9000_l._ Never
did the bibliomaniac's eye alight upon 'sweeter copies'--as
the phrase is; and never did the bibliomaniacal barometer
rise higher than at this sale! The most marked phrensy
characterized it. A copy of the Editio Princeps of Homer (by
no means a first-rate one) brought 92_l._: and all the
ALDINE CLASSICS produced such an electricity of sensation
that buyers stuck at nothing to embrace them! Do not let it
hence be said that _black-letter lore_ is the only
fashionable pursuit of the present age of book-collectors.
This sale may be hailed as the omen of better and brighter
prospects in Literature in general: and many a useful
philological work, although printed in the Latin or Italian
language--and which had been sleeping, unmolested, upon a
bookseller's shelf these dozen years--will now start up from
its slumber, and walk abroad in a new atmosphere, and be
noticed and 'made much of.'
Here I terminate my _annotation labours_ relating to
ANECDOTES OF BOOK-COLLECTORS, and ACCOUNTS OF BOOK-AUCTIONS.
Unless I am greatly deceived, these labours have not been
thrown away. They may serve, as well to awaken curiosity in
regard to yet further interesting memoranda respecting
scholars, as to shew the progressive value of books, and the
increase of the disease called the BIBLIOMANIA. Some of the
most curious volumes in English literature have in these
notes, been duly recorded; nor can I conclude such a
laborious, though humble, task, without indulging a fond
hope that this account will be consulted by all those who
make book-collecting their amusement. But it is now time to
rise up, with the company described in the text, and to put
on my hat and great-coat. So I make my bow, wishing, with
_L'Envoy_ at the close of MARMION,
To all, to each, a fair good night,
And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light.]
LOREN. Do you mean to have it inferred that there were no collections,
of value or importance, which were sold in the mean time?
LYSAND. I thank you for stopping me: for I am hoarse as well as
stupid: I consider the foregoing only as the greater stars or
constellations in the bibliographical hemisphere. Others were less
observed from their supposed comparative insignificancy; although, if
you had attended the auctions, you would have found in them many very
useful, and even rare and splendid, productions. But we are all
'Tickled with the whistling of a name!'
LOREN. Ay, and naturally enough too. If I look at my Stubbes's
_Anatomy of Abuses_, which has received _your abuse_ this evening, and
fancy that the leaves have been turned over by the scientific hand of
Pearson, Farmer, or Steevens, I experience, by association of ideas, a
degree of happiness which I never could have enjoyed had I obtained
the volume from an unknown collector's library.
LIS. Very true; and yet you have only Master Stubbes's work after
all!
LOREN. Even so. But this _fictitious_ happiness, as you would call it,
is, in effect, _real_ happiness; inasmuch as it produces positive
sensations of delight.
LIS. Well, there is no arguing with such a bibliomaniac as yourself,
Lorenzo.
BELIN. But allow, brother, that this degree of happiness, of which
you boast, is not quite so exquisite as to justify the very high terms
of purchase upon which it is often times procured.
LYSAND. There is no such thing as the 'golden mediocrity' of Horace in
book pursuits. Certain men set their hearts upon certain copies, and
'_coûte qu'il coûte_' they must secure them. Undoubtedly, I would
give not a little for Parker's own copy of the Book of _Common
Prayer_, and Shakspeare's own copy of both parts of his _Henry the
Fourth_.
ALMAN. Well, Lisardo, we stand no chance of stemming the torrent
against two such lusty and opiniated bibliomaniacs as my brother and
Lysander: although I should speak with deference of, and acknowledge
with grateful respect, the extraordinary exertions of the latter, this
evening, to amuse and instruct us.
LIS. This evening?----say, this day:--this live-long day--and
yesterday also! But have you quite done, dear Lysander?
LYSAND. Have you the conscience to ask for more? I have brought you
down to the year of our Lord _One thousand eight hundred and eleven_;
and without touching upon the collections of LIVING BIBLIOMANIACS, or
foretelling what may be the future ravages of the Bibliomania in the
course of only the next dozen years, I think it proper to put an end
to my BOOK-COLLECTING HISTORY, and more especially to this long trial
of your auricular patience.
LOREN. A thousand thanks for your exertions! Although your friend,
with whom you are on a visit, knows pretty well the extent of my
bibliographical capacity, and that there have been many parts in your
narrative which were somewhat familiar to me, yet, upon the whole,
there has been a great deal more of novelty, and, in this novelty, of
solid instruction. Sincerely, therefore Lysander, I here offer you my
heart-felt thanks.
LYSAND. I receive them as cordially: from an assurance that my
digressions have been overlooked; or, if noticed, forgiven. It would
be gross vanity, and grosser falsehood, to affirm that the discourse
of this day, on my part, has given anything like a full and explicit
history of all the most eminent book-collectors and patrons of
Learning which have reflected such lustre upon the literary annals of
our country:--No, Lorenzo: a complete account, or a perfect
description, of these illustrious characters would engage a
conversation, not for one day--but one week. Yet I have made the most
of the transient hour, and, by my enthusiasm, have perhaps atoned for
my deficiency of information.
LIS. But cannot you resume this conversation on the morrow?
LYSAND. My stay with our friend is short, and I know not how he means
to dispose of me to-morrow. But I have done--certainly done--with
_Personal History_!
LOREN. That may be. Yet there are other departments of the Bibliomania
which may be successfully discussed. The weather will probably be
fine, and let us enjoy a morning _conversazione_ in THE ALCOVE?
BELIN. Surely, Lysander may find something in the fruitful
pigeon-holes of his imagination--as the Abbè Sieyes used to do--from
which he may draw forth some system or other?
ALMAN. You have all talked loudly and learnedly of the BOOK-DISEASE;
but I wish to know whether a _mere collector_ of books be a
bibliomaniac?
LYSAND. Certainly not. There are SYMPTOMS of this disease _within the
very books themselves_ of a bibliomaniac.
ALMAN. And pray what are these?
LYSAND. Alas, madam!--why are you so unreasonable? And how, after
knowing that I have harrangued for more than 'seven hours by
Westminster clock'--how can you have the conscience to call upon me to
protract the oration? The night has already melted into morning; and I
suppose grey twilight is discoverable upon the summit of the hills. I
am exhausted; and long for repose. Indeed, I must wish you all a good
night.
BELIN. But you promise to commence your _symptomatic_ harangue on the
morrow?
LYSAND. If my slumbers are sound, lady fair, and I rise tolerably
recruited in strength, I will surely make good my promise. Again, good
night!
BELIN. Sir, a very good night: and let our best thanks follow you to
your pillow.
ALMAN. Remember, as you sink to repose, what a quantity of good you
have done, by having imparted such useful information.
LYSAND. I shall carry your best wishes, and grateful mention of my
poor labours, with me to my orisons. Adieu!--'tis very late.
* * * * *
Here the company broke up. Lisardo slept at Lorenzo's. Philemon and
Lysander accompanied me to my home; and as we past Lorenzo's outer
gate, and looked backward upon the highest piece of rising ground, we
fancied we saw the twilight of morning. Never was a mortal more
heartily thanked for his colloquial exertions than was Lysander. On
reaching home, as we separated for our respective chambers, we shook
hands most cordially; and my eloquent guest returned the squeeze, in a
manner which seemed to tell that he had no greater happiness at heart
than that of finding a reciprocity of sentiment among those whom he
tenderly esteemed. At this moment, we could have given to each other
the choicest volume in our libraries; and I regretted that I had not
contrived to put my black-morocco copy of the small _Aldine Petrarch,
printed upon_ VELLUM, under Lysander's pillow, as a 'Pignus
Amicitiæ.'--But we were all to assemble together in Lorenzo's ALCOVE
on the morrow; and this thought gave me such lively pleasure that I
did not close my eyes 'till the clock had struck five. Such are the
bed-luxuries of a Bibliomaniac!
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The reader is here presented with one of the "Facs," or
ornamental letters in _Pierce Ploughman's Creed_.]
PART VI.
=The Alcove.=
SYMPTOMS OF THE BIBLIOMANIA.----PROBABLE MEANS OF ITS CURE.
"One saith this booke is too long: another, too short: the
third, of due length; and for fine phrase and style, the
like [of] that booke was not made a great while. It is all
lies, said another; the booke is starke naught."
_Choice of Change_; 1585. 4to., sign. N. i.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
=The Alcove.=
SYMPTOMS OF THE BIBLIOMANIA.----PROBABLE MEANS OF ITS CURE.
Softly blew the breeze, and merrily sung the lark, when Lisardo
quitted his bed-chamber at seven in the morning, and rang lustily at
my outer gate for admission. So early a visitor put the whole house in
commotion; nor was it without betraying some marks of peevishness and
irritability that, on being informed of his arrival, I sent word by
the servant to know what might be the cause of such an interruption.
The reader will readily forgive this trait of harshness and
precipitancy, on my part, when he is informed that I was then just
enjoying the "honey dew" of sleep, after many wakeful and restless
hours.
Lisardo's name was announced: and his voice, conveyed in the sound of
song-singing, from the bottom of the garden, left the name of the
visitor no longer in doubt. I made an effort, and sprung from my bed;
and, on looking through the venetian blinds, I discovered our young
bibliomaniacal convert with a book sticking out of his pocket, another
half opened in his hand (upon which his eyes were occasionally cast),
and a third kept firmly under his left arm. I thrust my head,
"night-cap, tassel and all," out of window, and hailed him; not,
however, before a delicious breeze, wafted over a bed of mignonette,
had electrified me in a manner the most agreeable imaginable.
Lisardo heard, and hailed me in return. His eyes sparkled with joy;
his step was quick and elastic; and an unusual degree of animation
seemed to pervade his whole frame. "Here," says he, "here is _The
British Bibliographer_[414] in my hand, a volume of Mr. Beloe's
_Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books_ in my pocket, while
another, of Mr. D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, is kept
snugly under my arm, as a corps de reserve, or rallying point. If
these things savour not of bibliography, I must despair of ever
attaining to the exalted character of a Bibliomaniac!"
[Footnote 414: _The British Bibliographer_ is a periodical
publication; being a continuation of a similar work under
the less popular title of _The Censura Literaria_;
concerning which see p. 52, ante. It is a pity that Mr.
Savage does not continue his _British Librarian_; (of which
18 numbers are already published) as it forms a creditable
supplement to Oldys's work under a similar title; vide p.
51, ante. A few of the ensuing numbers might be well devoted
to an analysis of _Sir William Dugdale's_ works, with
correct lists of the plates in the same.]
"You are up betimes," said I. "What dream has disturbed your rest?"
"None" replied he; "but the most delightful visions have appeared to
me during my sleep. Since you left Lorenzo's, I have sipt nectar with
Leland, and drunk punch with Bagford. Richard Murray has given me a
copy of Rastell's _Pastime of People_,[415] and Thomas Britton has
bequeathed to me an entire library of the Rosicrusian[416] philosophy.
Moreover, the venerable form of Sir Thomas Bodley has approached me;
reminding me of my solemn promise to spend a few autumnal weeks,[417]
in the ensuing year, within the precincts of his grand library. In
short, half the bibliomaniacs, whom Lysander so enthusiastically
commended last night, have paid their devoirs to me in my dreams, and
nothing could be more handsome than their conduct towards me."
[Footnote 415: The reader may have met with some slight
notices of this curious work in pp. 331; 337; 385; 392; 417;
ante.]
[Footnote 416: See p. 332, ante.]
[Footnote 417: See p. 49, ante.]
This discourse awakened my friends, Lysander and Philemon; who each,
from different rooms, put their heads out of window, and hailed the
newly-risen sun with night caps which might have been mistaken for
Persian turbans. Such an unexpected sight caused Lisardo to burst out
into a fit of laughter, and to banter my guests in his usual strain of
vivacity. But on our promising him that we would speedily join his
peripatetic bibliographical reveries, he gave a turn towards the left,
and was quickly lost in a grove of Acacia and Laurustinus. For my
part, instead of keeping this promise, I instinctively sought my bed;
and found the observation of Franklin,--of air-bathing being
favourable to slumber,--abundantly verified--for I was hardly settled
under the clothes 'ere I fell asleep: and, leaving my guests to make
good their appointment with my visitor, I enjoyed a sweet slumber of
more than two hours.
As early rising produces a keen appetite for bodily, as well as
mental, gratification, I found my companions clamorous for their
breakfast. A little before ten o'clock, we were all prepared to make a
formal attack upon muffins, cake, coffee, tea, eggs, and cold tongue.
The window was thrown open; and through the branches of the clustering
vine, which covered the upper part of it, the sun shot a warmer ray;
while the spicy fragrance from surrounding parterres, and jessamine
bowers, made even such bibliomaniacs as my guests forgetful of the
gaily-coated volumes which surrounded them. At length the conversation
was systematically commenced on the part of Lysander.
LYSAND. To-morrow, Philemon and myself take our departure. We would
willingly have staid the week; but business of a pressing nature calls
_him_ to Manchester--and _myself_ to Bristol and Exeter.
LIS. Some bookseller,[418] I warrant, has published a thumping
catalogue at each of these places. Ha!--here I have you, sober-minded
Lysander! You are as arrant a book-madman as any of those renowned
bibliomaniacs whom you celebrated yesterday evening!--Yet, if you love
me, take me with you! My pistoles are not exhausted.
[Footnote 418: I ought to have noticed, under Lysander's
eulogy upon _London Booksellers_ (see p. 308, ante) the very
handsome manner in which Mr. Roscoe alludes to their
valuable catalogues--as having been of service to him in
directing his researches into foreign literature. His words
are these: "The rich and extensive Catalogues published by
EDWARDS, PAYNE, and other _London Booksellers_, who have of
late years diligently sought for, and imported into England,
whatever is curious or valuable in foreign literature, have
also contributed to the success of my inquiries." _Lorenzo
de Medici_: pref. p. XXVII., edit. 1800, 8vo.]
PHIL. Peace, Lisardo!--but you are, in truth, a bit of a prophet. It
is even as you surmise. We have each received a forwarded letter,
informing us of very choice and copious collections of books about to
be sold at these respective places. While I take my departure for Mr.
Ford of Manchester, Lorenzo is about to visit the book-treasures of
Mr. Dyer of Exeter, and Mr. Gutch of Bristol:--but, indeed, were not
this the case, our abode here must terminate on the morrow.
LIS. I suppose the names you have just mentioned describe the
principal booksellers at the several places you intend visiting.
LYSAND. Even so: yet I will make no disparaging comparisons.[419] We
speak only of what has come within our limited experience. There may
be many brave and sagacious bibliopolists whose fame has not reached
our ears, nor perhaps has any one of the present circle ever heard of
the late Mr. Miller of Bungay;[420] who, as I remember my father to
have said, in spite of blindness and multifarious occupations,
attached himself to the book-selling trade with inconceivable ardour
and success. But a word, Lisardo!
[Footnote 419: Lysander is right. Since the note upon Mr.
Ford's catalogue of 1810 was written (see p. 123, ante), the
same bookseller has put forth another voluminous catalogue,
of nine thousand and odd articles; forming, with the
preceding, 15,729 lots. This is doing wonders for a
provincial town; and that a _commercial_ one!! Of Mr.
Gutch's spirit and enterprise some mention has been made
before at p. 404, ante. He is, as yet, hardly _mellowed_ in
his business; but a few years only will display him as
thoroughly _ripened_ as any of his brethren. He comes from a
worthy stock; long known at our _Alma Mater
Oxoniensis_:--and as a dutiful son of my University Mother,
and in common with every one who is acquainted with his
respectable family, I wish him all the success which he
merits. Mr. George Dyer of Exeter is a distinguished
_veteran_ in the book-trade: his catalogue of 1810, in two
parts, containing 19,945 articles, has, I think, never been
equalled by that of any provincial bookseller, for the value
and singularity of the greater number of the volumes
described in it. As Lysander had mentioned the foregoing
book-vending gentlemen, I conceived myself justified in
_appending_ this note. I could speak with pleasure and
profit of the catalogues of booksellers to the _north of the
Tweed_--(see p. 415, ante); but for fear of awaking all the
frightful passions of wrath, jealousy, envy--I stop:
declaring, from the bottom of my heart, in the language of
an auld northern bard:
I hait flatterie; and into wourdis plane,
And unaffectit language, I delyte:
(_Quod Maister Alexander Arbothnat; in anno_ 1572.)]
[Footnote 420: There is something so original in the
bibliomanical character of the above-mentioned Mr. Miller
that I trust the reader will forgive my saying a word or two
concerning him. Thomas Miller of Bungay, in Suffolk, was
born in 1731, and died in 1804. He was put apprentice to a
grocer in Norwich: but neither the fragrance of spices and
teas, nor the lusciousness of plums and figs, could seduce
young Miller from his darling passion of reading, and of
buying odd volumes of the _Gentleman's_ and _Universal
Magazine_ with his spare money. His genius was, however,
sufficiently versatile to embrace both trades; for in 1755,
he set up for himself in the character of _Grocer_ and
_Bookseller_. I have heard Mr. Otridge, of the Strand,
discourse most eloquently upon the brilliant manner in which
Mr. Miller conducted his complicated concerns; and which,
latterly, were devoted entirely to the _Bibliomania_.
Although Bungay was too small and obscure for a spirit like
Miller's to disclose its full powers, yet he continued in it
till his death; and added a love of portrait and coin, to
that of book, collecting. For fifty years his stock, in
these twin departments, was copious and respectable; and
notwithstanding total blindness, which afflicted him during
the last six years of his life, he displayed uncommon
cheerfulness, activity, and even skill in knowing where the
different classes of books were arranged in his shop. Mr.
Miller was a warm loyalist, and an enthusiastic admirer of
Mr. Pitt. In 1795, when provincial copper coins were very
prevalent, our bibliomaniac caused a die of himself to be
struck; intending to strike some impressions of it upon gold
and silver, as well as upon copper. He began with the
latter; and the die breaking when only 23 impressions were
struck off, Miller, in the true spirit of numismatical
_virtû_, declined having a fresh one made. View here, gentle
reader, a wood-cut taken from the same: "This coin, which is
very finely engraved, and bears a strong profile likeness of
himself, is known to collectors by the name of 'THE MILLER
HALFPENNY.' Mr. Miller was extremely careful into whose
hands the impressions went; and they are now become so rare
as to produce at sales from three to five guineas."
_Gentleman's Magazine_; vol. lxxiv., p. 664.
[Illustration]]
LIS. Twenty, if you please.
LYSAND. What are become of Malvolio's busts and statues, of which you
were so solicitous to attend the sale, not long ago?
LIS. I care not a brass farthing for them:--only I do rather wish that
I had purchased the Count de Neny's _Catalogue of the Printed Books
and Manscripts [Transcriber's Note: Manuscripts] in the Royal Library
of France_. That golden opportunity is irrevocably lost!
PHIL. You wished for these books, to _set fire_ to them
perhaps--keeping up the ancient custom so solemnly established by your
father?[421]
[Footnote 421: The reader may not object to turn for one
moment to p. 27, ante.]
LIS. No more of this heart-rending subject! I thought I had made ample
atonement.
LYSAND. 'Tis true: and so we forgive and forget. Happy change!--and
all hail this salubrious morning, which witnesses the complete and
effectual conversion of Lisardo! Instead of laughing at our
book-hobbies, and ridiculing all bibliographical studies--which, even
by a bibliographer in the dry department of the law, have been rather
eloquently defended and enforced[422]--behold this young
bibliomaniacal chevalier, not daunted by the rough handling of a
London Book-Auction, anxious to mount his courser, and scour the
provincial fields of bibliography! Happy change! From my heart I
congratulate you!
[Footnote 422: "Our nation (says Mr. Bridgeman) has been too
inattentive to bibliographical criticisms and enquiries;
for, generally, the English reader is obliged to resort to
foreign writers to satisfy his mind as to the value of
authors. It behoves us, however, to consider that there is
not a more useful, or a more desirable branch of education
than a knowledge of books; which, being correctly attained,
and judiciously exercised, will prove the touchstone of
intrinsic merit, and have the effect of saving many a
spotless page from prostitution." _Legal Bibliography_;
1807, 8vo. (To the reader.)]
LIS. From the bottom of mine, I congratulate you, Lysander, upon the
resuming of your wonted spirits! I had imagined that the efforts of
yesterday would have completely exhausted you. How rapturously do I
look forward for the SYMPTOMS OF THE BIBLIOMANIA to be told this
morning in Lorenzo's ALCOVE! You have not forgotten your promise!
LYSAND. No, indeed; but if I am able to do justice to the elucidation
of so important a subject, it will be in consequence of having enjoyed
a placid, though somewhat transient, slumber: notwithstanding the
occurrence of a very uncommon _dream_!
LIS. "I dreamt a dream last night;" which has been already told--but
what was yours?
LYSAND. Nay, it is silly to entertain one another with stories of
phantastic visions of the night. I have known the most placid-bosomed
men grow downright angry at the very introduction of such a discourse.
PHIL. That may be; but we have, luckily, no such _placidly-moulded_
bosoms in the present society. I love this sort of gossipping during
breakfast, of all things. If our host permit, do give us your dream,
Lysander!
LIS. The dream!--The dream!--I entreat you.
LYSAND. I fear you will fall asleep, and dream yourself, before the
recital of it be concluded. But I will get through it as well as I
can.
Methought I was gently lifted from the ground into the air by a being
of very superior size, but of an inexpressible sweetness of
countenance. Although astonished by the singularity of my situation, I
was far from giving way entirely to fear; but, with a mixture of
anxiety and resignation, awaited the issue of the event. My Guide or
Protector (for so this being must now be called) looked upon me with
an air of tenderness, mingled with reproof; intimating, as I
conceived, that the same superior Power, which had thus transported me
above my natural element, would of necessity keep me in safety. This
quieted my apprehensions.
We had travelled together through an immensity of space, and could
discover the world below as one small darkened spot, when my Guide
interrupted the awful silence that had been preserved, by the
following exclamation: "Approach, O man, the place of thy
destination--compose thy perturbed spirits, and let all thy senses be
awakened to a proper understanding of the scene which thou art about
to behold." So saying, he moved along with an indescribable velocity;
and while my eyes were dazzled by an unusual effulgence of light, I
found myself at rest upon a solid seat--formed of crystal, of
prodigious magnitude.
My guide then fixed himself at my right hand, and after a vehement
ejaculation, accompanied by gestures, which had the effect of
enchantment upon me, he extended a sceptre of massive gold, decorated
with emeralds and sapphires. Immediately there rose up a MIRROR of
gigantic dimensions, around which was inscribed, in fifty languages,
the word "TRUTH." I sat in mute astonishment. "Examine," said my
Guide, with a voice the most encouraging imaginable, "examine the
objects reflected upon the surface of this mirror." "There are none
that are discernible to my eyes," I replied. "Thou shalt soon be
gratified then," resumed this extraordinary being (with a severe smile
upon his countenance), "but first let me purge thine eyes from those
films of prejudice which, in the world you inhabit, are apt to
intercept the light of TRUTH." He then took a handful of aromatic
herbs, and, rubbing them gently upon my temples, gave me the power of
contemplating, with perfect discernment, the objects before me.
Wonderful indeed was this scene: for upon the surface of the MIRROR
the whole world seemed to be reflected! At first, I could not controul
my feelings: but, like a child that springs forward to seize an object
greatly beyond its grasp, I made an effort to leave my seat, and to
_mingle_ in the extraordinary scene. Here, however, my guide
interfered--and, in a manner the most peremptory and decisive, forbade
all further participation of it. "_View_ it attentively," replied he,
"and impress firmly on thy memory what thou shalt see--it may solace
thee the remainder of thy days."
The authoritative air, with which these words were delivered, quite
repressed and unnerved me. I obeyed, and intently viewed the objects
before me. The first thing that surprised me was the representation of
all the metropolitan cities of Europe. London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin,
and Petersburg, in particular, occupied my attention; and, what was
still _more_ surprising, I seemed to be perfect master of every event
going on in them--but more particularly of the transactions of _Bodies
Corporate_. I saw Presidents in their chairs, with Secretaries and
Treasurers by their sides; and to whatever observations were made the
most implicit attention was paid. Here, an eloquent Lecturer was
declaiming upon the beauty of morality, and the deformity of vice:
there, a scientific Professor was unlocking the hidden treasures of
nature, and explaining how Providence, in all its measures, was
equally wonderful and wise. The experiments which ensued, and which
corroborated his ingenious and profound remarks, suspended a
well-informed audience in rapturous attention; which was followed by
instinctive bursts of applause.
Again I turned my eyes, and, contiguous to this scene, viewed the
proceedings of two learned sister Societies, distinguished for their
labours in _Philosophy_ and _Antiquity_. Methought I saw the spirits
of NEWTON and of DUGDALE, looking down with complacency upon them, and
congratulating each other upon the _general_ progress of civilization
since they had ceased to mingle among men. "These institutions,"
observed my Guide, "form the basis of rational knowledge, and are the
source of innumerable comforts: for the _many_ are benefitted by the
researches and experiments of the _few_. It is easy to laugh at such
societies, but it is not quite so easy to remedy the inconveniences
which would be felt, if they were extinct. Nations become powerful in
proportion to their wisdom; it has uniformly been found that where
philosophers lived, and learned men wrote, there the arts have
flourished, and heroism and patriotism have prevailed. True it is that
discrepancies will sometimes interrupt the harmony of public bodies.
But why is perfection to be expected, where every thing must
necessarily be imperfect? It is the duty of man to make the _nearest
approaches_ to public and private happiness. And if, as with a sponge,
he wipe away such establishments, genius has little incentive to
exertion, and merit has still less hope of reward. Now cast your eyes
on a different scene."
I obeyed, and, within the same city, saw a great number of Asylums and
Institutions for the ignorant and helpless. I saw youth instructed,
age protected, the afflicted comforted, and the diseased cured. My
emotions at this moment were wonderfully strong--they were perceived
by my guide, who immediately begged of me to consider the manner by
which _epidemic maladies_ were prevented or alleviated, and especially
how _the most fatal of them_ had been arrested in its progress. I
attentively examined the objects before me, and saw thousands of
smiling children and enraptured mothers walking confidently 'midst
plague and death! I saw them, happy in the protection which had been
afforded them by the most useful and most nutritious of animals!
"Enough," exclaimed my guide, "thou seest here the glorious result of
a philosophical mind, gifted with unabatable ardour of experiment.
Thou wilt acknowledge that, compared with the triumph which SUCH A
MIND enjoys, the conquests of heroes are puerile, and the splendour of
monarchy is dim!" During this strain, I fancied I could perceive the
human being, alluded to by my guide, retire apart in conversation with
another distinguished friend of humanity, by those unwearied exertions
the condition of many thousand poor people had been meliorated.
"There is yet," resumed my guide, "another scene equally interesting
as the preceding. From a pure morality flows a pure religion: look
therefore on those engaged in the services of CHRISTIANITY." I
looked, and saw a vast number of my fellow-creatures prostrate in
adoration before their Creator and Redeemer. I fancied I could hear
the last strains of their hallelujahs ascending to the spot whereon I
sat. "Observe," said my Protector, "all do not worship in the same
manner, because all assent not to the same creed; but the intention of
each may be pure: at least, common charity teaches us thus to think,
till some open act betray a malignity of principle. Toleration is the
vital spark of religion: arm the latter with the whips of persecution,
and you convert her into a fiend scattering terror and dismay! In your
own country you enjoy a liberty of sentiment beyond every other on the
face of the globe. Learn to be grateful for such an inestimable
happiness."
These words had hardly escaped my guide, when I was irresistibly led
to look on another part of the Mirror where a kind of imperial
magnificence, combined with the severest discipline, prevailed. "You
are contemplating," resumed my preternatural Monitor, "one of the most
interesting scenes in Europe. See the effect of revolutionary
commotions! While you view the sable spirit of the last monarch of
France gliding along, at a distance, with an air of sorrow and
indignation; while you observe a long line of legitimate princes,
exiled from their native country, and dependant upon the contributions
of other powers; mark the wonderful, the unparalleled reverse of human
events! and acknowledge that the preservation of the finest specimens
of art, the acquisition of every thing which can administer to the
wants of luxury, or decorate the splendour of a throne--the
acclamations of hired multitudes or bribed senates--can reflect little
lustre on THAT CHARACTER which still revels in the frantic wish of
enslaving the world! It is true, you see yonder, Vienna, Petersburg,
Stockholm, and Berlin, bereft of their ancient splendour, and bowing,
as it were, at the feet of a despot--but had these latter countries
kept alive one spark of that patriotism which so much endears to us
the memories of Greece and Rome--had they not, in a great measure,
become disunited by factions, we might, even in these days, however
degenerate, have witnessed something like that national energy which
was displayed in the bay of Salamis, and on the plains of Marathon."
My Guide perceiving me to be quite dejected during these remarks,
directed my attention to another part of the Mirror, which reflected
the transactions of the _Western_ and _Eastern_ world.
At first, a kind of _mist_ spread itself upon the glass, and prevented
me from distinguishing any object. This, however, gradually dissolved,
and was succeeded by a thick, black smoke, which involved every thing
in impenetrable obscurity. Just as I was about to turn to my guide,
and demand the explanation of these appearances, the smoke rolled
away, and instantaneously, there flashed forth a thousand bickering
flames. "What," cried I, "is the meaning of these objects?" "Check,
for one moment, your impatience, and your curiosity shall be
gratified," replied my guide. I then distinctly viewed thousands of
_Black Men_, who had been groaning under the rod of oppression,
starting up in all the transport of renovated life, and shouting aloud
"WE ARE FREE!" One tall commanding figure, who seemed to exercise the
rights of a chieftain among them, gathered many tribes around him, and
addressed them in the following few, but comprehensive, words:
"Countrymen, it has pleased the Great God above to make man
instrumental to the freedom of his fellow-creatures. While we lament
our past, let us be grateful for our present, state: and never let us
cease, each revolving year, to build an altar of stones to the memory,
of that GREAT and GOOD MAN, who hath principally been the means of our
FREEDOM FROM SLAVERY. No: we will regularly perform this solemn act,
as long as there shall remain one pebble upon our shores."
"Thus much," resumed my Guide, "for the dawning felicities of the
_western_ world: but see how the _eastern_ empires are yet ignorant
and unsettled!" I was about to turn my eyes to Persia and India, to
China and Japan, when to my astonishment, the surface of the Mirror
became perfectly blackened, except in some few circular parts, which
were tinged with the colour of blood. "The future is a fearful sight,"
said my Guide; "we are forbidden its contemplation, and can only
behold the gloomy appearances before us: they are ominous ones!"
My mind, on which so many and such various objects had produced a
confused effect, was quite overpowered and distracted. I leaned upon
the arm of the chair, and, covering my face with my hands, became
absorbed in a thousand ideas, when a sudden burst of thunder made me
start from my seat--and, looking forward, I perceived that the MIRROR,
with all its magical illusions had vanished away! My preternatural
Guide then placed himself before me, but in an altered female form. A
hundred various coloured wings sprung from her arms, and her feet
seemed to be shod with sandals of rubies; around which numerous
cherubs entwined themselves. The perfume that arose from the flapping
of her wings was inexpressibly grateful; and the soft silvery voices
of these cherubic attendants had an effect truly enchanting.
No language can adequately describe my sensations on viewing this
extraordinary change of object. I gazed with rapture upon my wonderful
Guide, whose countenance now beamed with benevolence and beauty. "Ah!"
exclaimed I, "this is a vision of happiness never to be realized! Thou
art a being that I am doomed never to meet with in the world below."
"Peace:" whispered an unknown voice; "injure not thy species by such a
remark: the object before thee is called by a name that is familiar to
thee--it is 'CANDOUR.' She is the handmaid of Truth, the sister of
Virtue, and the priestess of Religion."
I was about to make reply, when a figure of terrific mien, and
enormous dimensions, rushed angrily towards me, and, taking me up in
my crystal chair, bore me precipitately to the earth. In my struggles
to disengage myself, I awoke: and on looking about me, with
difficulty could persuade myself that I was an inhabitant of this
world. My sensations were, at first, confused and unpleasant; but a
reflection on the MIRROR OF TRUTH, and its divine expositor, in a
moment tranquillized my feelings. And thus have I told you my dream.
* * * * *
Lysander had hardly concluded the recital of his dream--during which
it was impossible for us to think of quaffing coffee or devouring
muffins--when the servant entered with a note from Lorenzo:
"My dear Friend,
"The morning is propitious. Hasten to THE ALCOVE. My sisters are
twining honey-suckles and jessamine round the portico, and I have
carried thither a respectable corps of bibliographical volumes, for
Lysander to consult, in case his memory should fail. All here invoke
the zephyrs to waft their best wishes to you.
"Truly your's,
"LORENZO."
The note was no sooner read than we all, as if by instinct, started
up; and, finishing our breakfast as rapidly as did the Trojans when
they expected an early visit from the Grecians, we sallied towards
Lorenzo's house, and entered his pleasure grounds. Nothing could be
more congenial than every circumstance and object which presented
itself. The day was clear, calm, and warm; while a crisp autumnal air
Nimbly and sweetly recommend itself
Unto our gentle senses.[423]
[Footnote 423: _Macbeth_; Act I., Sc. VI. Dr. Johnson has
happily observed, upon the above beautiful passage of
Shakespeare, that "_Gentle sense_ is very elegant; as it
means _placid_, _calm_, _composed_; and intimates the
peaceable delight of a fine day." Shakespeare's Works; edit.
1803; vol x., p. 73. Alain Chartier, in the motto prefixed
to the Second part of this Bibliographical Romance, has
given us a yet more animated, and equally characteristic,
picture. Thomson's serene morning,
Unfolding fair the last autumnal day,
is also very apposite; and reminds us of one of those soft
and aërial pictures of Claude Loraine, where a heaven-like
tranquillity and peace seem to prevail. Delightful
scenes!--we love to steal a short moment from a bustling
world, to gaze upon landscapes which appear to have been
copied from the paradise of our first parents. Delusive yet
fascinating objects of contemplation! You whisper sweet
repose, and heart-soothing delight! We turn back upon the
world; and the stunning noises of Virgil's Cyclops put all
this fair Elysium to flight.]
At a distance, the reapers were carrying away their last harvest load;
and numerous groups of gleaners picking up the grain which they had
spared, were marching homewards in all the glee of apparent happiness.
Immediately on our left, the cattle were grazing in a rich pasture
meadow; while, before us, the white pheasant darted across the walk,
and the stock-dove was heard to wail in the grove. We passed a row of
orange trees, glittering with golden fruit; and, turning sharply to
our right, discovered, on a gentle eminence, and skirted with a
profusion of shrubs and delicately shaped trees, the wished-for
ALCOVE.
We quickly descried Almansa busied in twining her favourite
honey-suckles round the portico; while within Belinda was sitting
soberly at work, as if waiting our arrival. The ladies saluted us as
we approached; and Lorenzo, who till now had been unperceived, came
quietly from the interior, with his favourite edition of
_Thomson_[424] in his hand.
[Footnote 424: This must be a favourite edition with every
man of taste. It was printed by BENSLEY, and published by DU
ROVERAY, in the year 1802. The designs were by Hamilton, and
the engravings principally by Fittler. The copy which
Lorenzo had in his hand was upon _large paper_; and nothing
could exceed the lustre of the type and plates. The editions
of _Pope_, _Gray_, and _Milton_, by DU ROVERAY, as well as
those of _The Spectator_, _Guardian_, _Tatler_, by Messrs.
SHARPE and HAILES, are among the most elegant, as well as
accurate, publications of our old popular writers.]
The Alcove at a distance, had the appearance of a rustic temple.[425]
The form, though a little capricious, was picturesque; and it stood
so completely embosomed in rich and variegated foliage, and commanded
so fine a swell of landscape, that the visitor must be cold indeed who
could approach it with the compass of Palladio in one hand, and the
square of Inigo Jones in the other. We entered and looked around us.
[Footnote 425: Lorenzo was not unmindful that it had been
observed by Lipsius (_Syntag. de Bibliothecis_) and, after
him, by Thomasinus (_de Donar. et Tabell-votiv._ c. 3. p.
37.) that the ancients generally built their libraries near
to, or adjoining their _Temples_; "ut veram seram sedem
sacratorum ingenii fætuum loca sacra esse ostenderent:"
BIBLIOTHECAS (inquit) procul abesse (sc. a TEMPLIS)
noluerunt veteres, ut ex præclaris ingeniorum monumentis
dependens mortalium, gloria, in Deorum tutela esset. This I
gather from Spizolius's _Infelix Literatus_: p. 462.]
Those who have relished the mild beauties of Wynants' pictures would
be pleased with the view from the Alcove of Lorenzo. The country
before was varied, undulating, and the greater part, highly
cultivated. Some broad-spreading oaks here and there threw their
protecting arms round the humble saplings; and some aspiring elms
frequently reared their lofty heads, as land-marks across the county.
The copses skirted the higher grounds, and a fine park-wood covered
the middle part of the landscape in one broad umbrageous tone of
colouring. It was not the close rusticity of Hobbima--or the
expansive, and sometimes complicated, scenery of Berghem--or the
heat-oppressive and magnificent views of Both--that we contemplated;
but, as has been before observed, the mild and gentle scenery of
Wynants; and if a cascade or dimpling brook had been near us, I could
have called to my aid the transparent pencil of Rysdael, in order to
impress upon the reader a proper notion of the scenery. But it is high
time to make mention of the conversation which ensued among the
tenants of this Alcove.
LOREN. I am heartily glad we are met under such propitious
circumstances. What a glorious day!
ALMAN. Have you recovered, Sir, the immense fatigue you must have
sustained from the exertions of yesterday? My brother has no mercy
upon a thoroughly-versed book guest!
LYSAND. I am indeed quite hearty: yet, if any thing heavy and
indigested hung about me, would not the contemplation of such a
landscape, and such a day, restore every thing to its wonted ardour?!
You cannot conceive how such a scene affects me: even to shedding
tears of pleasure--from the reflections to which it gives rise.
BELIN. How strangely and how cruelly has the character of a
bibliographer been aspersed! Last night you convinced me of the ardour
of your enthusiasm, and of the eloquence of your expression, in regard
to your favourite subject of discussion!--but, this morning, I find
that you can talk in an equally impassioned manner respecting garden
and woodland scenery?
LYSAND. Yes, Madam: and if I possessed such a domain as does your
brother, I think I could even improve it a little--especially the
interior of the Alcove! I don't know that I could attach to the house
a more appropriate library than he has done; even if I adopted the
octagonal form of the _Hafod Library_;[426] which, considered with
reference to its local situation, is, I think, almost unequalled:--but
it strikes me that the interior of this Alcove might be somewhat
improved.
[Footnote 426: Hafod, in Cardiganshire, South Wales, is the
residence of THOMAS JOHNES, Esq., M.P., and Lord Lieutenant
of the county. Mr. Malkin, in his _Scenery, Antiquities, and
Biography, of South Wales_, 1804, 4to., and Dr. Smith, in
his _Tour to Hafod_, 1810, folio, have made us pretty well
acquainted with the local scenery of Hafod:--yet can any pen
or pencil do this
--Paradise, open'd in the wild,
perfect justice! I have seen Mr. Stothard's numerous little
sketches of the pleasure-grounds and surrounding country,
which are at once faithful and picturesque. But what were
this "Paridise" of rocks, waterfalls, streams, woods,
copses, dells, grottos, and mountains, without the
hospitable spirit of the owner--which seems to preside in,
and to animate, every summer-house and alcove. The
book-loving world is well acquainted with the _Chronicles of
Froissart_, _Joinville_, _De Brocquiere_, and _Monstrelet_,
which have issued from the HAFOD PRESS; and have long
deplored the loss, from fire, which their author, Mr.
Johnes, experienced in the demolition of the greater part of
his house and library. The former has been rebuilt, and the
latter replenished: yet no Phoenix spirit can revivify the
ashes of those volumes which contained the romances notified
by the renowned Don Quixote! But I am rambling too wildly
among the Hafod rocks--I hasten, therefore to return and
take the reader with me into the interior of Mr. Johnes's
largest library, which is terminated by a Conservatory of
upwards of 150 feet. As the ancient little books for
children [hight _Lac Puerorum_!] used to express it--"Look,
here it is."
[Illustration]]
LOREN. What defects do you discover here, Lysander?
LYSAND. They are rather omissions to be supplied than errors to be
corrected. You have warmed the interior by a Grecian-shaped stove, and
you do right; but I think a few small busts in yonder recesses would
not be out of character. Milton, Shakespeare, and Locke, would
produce a sort of inspiration which might accord with that degree of
feeling excited by the contemplation of these external objects.
LOREN. You are right. 'Ere you revisit this spot, those inspiring
gentlemen shall surround me.
BELIN. And pray add to them the busts of Thomson and Cowper: for these
latter, in my opinion, are our best poets in the description of rural
life. You remember what Cowper says--
God made the country, and Man made the town?
ALMAN. This may be very well--but we forget the purpose for which we
are convened.
LIS. True: so I entreat you, Master Lysander, to open--not the
debate--but the discussion.
LYSAND. You wish to know what are the SYMPTOMS OF THE
BIBLIOMANIA?--what are the badges or livery marks, in a library, of
the owner of the collection being a bibliomaniac?
ALMAN. Even so. My question, yesterday evening, was--if I remember
well--whether a _mere collector_ of books was necessarily a
bibliomaniac?
LYSAND. Yes: and to which--if I also recollect rightly--I replied that
the symptoms of the disease, and the character of a bibliomaniac, were
discoverable in the very books themselves!
LIS. How is this?
ALMAN & BELIN. Do pray let us hear.
PHIL. At the outset, I entreat you, Lysander, not to overcharge the
colouring of your picture. Respect the character of your auditors;
and, above all things, have mercy upon the phlogistic imagination of
Lisardo!
LYSAND. I will endeavour to discharge the important office of a
bibliomaniacal Mentor, or, perhaps, Æsculapius, to the utmost of my
power: and at all events, with the best possible intentions.
Before we touch upon the _Symptoms_, it may be as well to say a few
words respecting the _General Character_ of the BOOK DISEASE. The
ingenious Peignot[427] defines the bibliomania to be "a passion for
possessing books; not so much to be instructed by them, as to gratify
the eye by looking on them." This subject has amused the pens of
foreigners; although we have had nothing in our own language, written
expressly upon it, 'till the ingenious and elegantly-composed poem of
Dr. Ferriar appeared; after which, as you well know, our friend put
forth his whimsical brochure.[428]
[Footnote 427: "LA BIRLIOMANIE [Transcriber's Note:
BIBLIOMANIE] est la fureur de posséder des livres, non pas
tant pour s'instruire, que pour les avoir et pour en
repaître sa vue. Le bibliomane ne connait ordinairement les
livres que par leur titre, leur frontispice, et leur date;
il s'attache aux bonnes editiones et les poursuit à quelque
titre que ce soit; la relieure le seduit aussi, soit par son
ancienneté, soit par sa beauté," &c. _Dictionnaire de
Bibliologie_. vol. i. p. 51. This is sufficiently severe:
see also the extracts from the _Memoires de l'Institut_: p.
25, ante. The more ancient foreign writers have not scrupled
to call the BIBLIOMANIA by every caustic and merciless
terms: thus speaks the hard-hearted Geyler: "Tertia nola
est, multos libros coacervare propter animi voluptatem
curiosam. Fastidientis stomachi est multa degustare, ait
Seneca. Isti per multos libros vagant legentes assidue:
nimirum similles fatuis illis, qui in urbe cicumeunt domos
singulas, et earum picturas dissutis malis contuentur:
sicque curiositate trahuntur, &c. Contenti in hâc animi
voluptate, quam pascunt per volumina varia devagando et
liguriendo. Itaque gaudent hic de larga librorum copia,
operosa utique sed delectabilis sarcina, et animi jucunda
distractio: imo est hæc ingens librorum copia ingens simul
et laboris copia, et quietis inopia--huc illucque circum
agendum ingenium: his atque illis pregravanda
memoria."--_Navicula sive Sæculum Fatuorum_, 1511, 4to. sign
B. iiij rev. Thus speaks Sebastian Brandt upon the subject,
through the medium of our old translation:
Styll am I besy bokes assemblynge
For to have plenty it is a pleasaunte thynge
In my conceyt, and to have them ay in honde;
But what they mene do I nat understonde.
_Shyp of Folys_: see p. 206, ante.
There is a short, but smart and interesting, article on this
head in Mr. D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_: vol. i.
10. "Bruyere has touched on this mania with humour; of such
a collector (one who is fond of superb bindings only), says
he, as soon as I enter his house, I am ready to faint on the
stair-case from a strong smell of Russia and Morocco
leather. In vain he shews me fine editions, gold leaves,
Etruscan bindings, &c.--naming them one after another, as if
he were shewing a gallery of pictures!" Lucian has composed
a biting invective against an ignorant possessor of a vast
library. "One who opens his eyes with an hideous stare at an
old book; and after turning over the pages, chiefly admires
_the date_ of its publication." But all this, it may be
said, is only general declamation, and means nothing!]
[Footnote 428: The first work, I believe, written expressly
upon the subject above discussed was a French publication,
entitled _La Bibliomanie_. Of the earliest edition I am
uninformed; but one was published at the Hague in 1762, 8vo.
Dr. Ferriar's poem upon the subject, being an epistle to
Richard Heber, Esq.--and which is rightly called by Lysander
'ingenious and elegant'--was published in 1809, 4to.: pp.
14: but not before an equally ingenious, and greatly more
interesting, performance, by the same able pen, had appeared
in the Trans. of the Manchester Literary Society, vol. iv.,
p. 45-87--entitled _Comments upon Sterne_; which may be
fairly classed among the species of bibliomaniacal
composition; inasmuch as it shews the author to be well read
in old books; and, of these, in Burton's Anatomy of
Melancholy in particular. Look for half a minute at p. 286,
ante. In the same year of Dr. Ferriar's publication of the
Bibliomania, appeared the _Voyage autour de ma bibliothèque
Roman Bibliographique_: by Ant. Caillot; in three small
duodecimo volumes. There is little ingenuity and less
knowledge in these meagre volumes. My own superficial work,
entitled, _Bibliomania_, or _Book-Madness: containing some
account of the History, Symptoms and Cure of this fatal
Disease; in an epistle addressed to Richard Heber, Esq._,
quickly followed Dr. Ferriar's publication. It contained 82
pages, with a tolerably copious sprinkling of notes: but it
had many errors and omissions, which it has been my
endeavour to correct and supply in the present new edition,
or rather newly-constructed work. Vide preface. Early in the
ensuing year (namely, in 1810) appeared _Bibliosophia, or
Book-Wisdom: containing some account of the Pride, Pleasure,
and Privileges of that glorious Vocation, Book-Collecting.
By an Aspirant. Also, The Twelve Labours of an Editor,
separately pitted against those of Hercules_, 12mo. This is
a good-humoured and tersely written composition: being a
sort of Commentary upon my own performance. In the ensuing
pages will be found some amusing poetical extracts from it.
And thus take we leave of PUBLICATIONS UPON THE
BIBLIOMANIA!]
Whether Peignot's definition be just or not, I will not stop to
determine: but when I have described to you the various symptoms, you
will be better able to judge of its propriety.
LIS. Describe them _seriatim_, as we were observing yesterday.
LYSAND. I will; but let me put them in battle array, and select them
according to their appearances. There is, first, a passion for _Large
Paper Copies_; secondly, for _Uncut Copies_; thirdly, for _Illustrated
Copies_; fourthly, for _Unique Copies_; fifthly, for _Copies printed
upon Vellum_; sixthly, for _First Editions_; seventhly, for _True
Editions_; and eighthly, for _Books printed in the Black-Letter_.
BELIN. I have put these symptoms down in my pocket-book; and shall
proceed to catechise you according to your own method. First,
therefore, what is meant by LARGE PAPER COPIES?
LYSAND. A certain set, or limited number of the work, is printed upon
paper of a _larger dimension, and superior quality_, than the ordinary
copies. The press-work and ink are, always, proportionably better in
these copies: and the price of them is enhanced according to their
beauty and rarity.
_This Symptom_ of the Bibliomania is, at the present day, both general
and violent. Indeed, there is a set of collectors, the shelves of
whose libraries are always made proportionably stout, and placed at a
due distance from each other, in order that they may not break down
beneath the weight of such ponderous volumes.
BELIN. Can these things be?
PHIL. Yes; but you should draw a distinction, and not confound the
GROLLIERS, De Thous, and Colberts of modern times, with "a set of
collectors," as you call them, who are equally without taste and
knowledge.
LIS. We have heard of De Thou and Colbert, but who is GROLLIER?[429]
[Footnote 429: The reader may be better pleased with the
ensuing soberly-written account of this great man than with
Philemon's rapturous eulogy. JOHN GROLLIER was born at
Lyons, in 1479; and very early displayed a propensity
towards those elegant and solid pursuits which afterwards
secured to him the admiration and esteem of his
contemporaries. His address was easy, his manners were
frank, yet polished; his demeanour was engaging, and his
liberality knew no bounds. As he advanced in years, he
advanced in reputation; enjoying a princely fortune, the
result, in some measure, of a faithful and honourable
discharge of the important diplomatic situations which he
filled. He was Grand Treasurer to Francis I., and was sent
by that monarch as ambassador to Pope Clement VII. During
his abode at Rome, he did not fail to gratify his favourite
passion of BOOK-COLLECTING; and employed the Alduses to
print for him an edition of Terence in 8vo., 1521: of which
a copy _upon vellum_, was in the Imperial library at Vienna;
See _L'Imp. des Alde_; vol. I., 159. He also caused to be
published, by the same printers, an edition of his friend
Budæus's work, _De Asse et partibus ejus_, 1522, 4to.;
which, as well as the Terence, is dedicated to himself, and
of which the presentation copy, _upon vellum_, is now in the
Library of Count M'Carthy, at Toulouse: it having been
formerly in the Soubise collection: vide p. 96, ante--and
no. 8010 of the _Bibl. Soubise_. It was during Grollier's
stay at Rome, that the anecdote, related by Egnatio, took
place. 'I dined (says the latter) along with Aldus, his son,
Manutius, and other learned men, at Grollier's table. After
dinner, and just as the dessert had been placed on the
table, our host presented each of his guests with a pair of
gloves filled with ducats.' But no man had a higher opinion
of Grollier, or had reason to express himself in more
grateful terms of him, than De Thou. This illustrious author
speaks of him as "a man of equal elegance of manners, and
spotlessness of character. His books seemed to be the
counterpart of himself, for neatness and splendour; not
being inferior to the glory attributed to the library of
Asinius Pollio, the first who made a collection of books at
Rome. It is surprising, notwithstanding the number of
presents which he made to his friends, and the accidents
which followed on the dispersion of his library, how many of
his volumes yet adorn the most distinguished libraries of
Paris, whose chief boast consists in having an _Exemplar
Grollerianum_!" The fact was Grollier returned to Paris with
an immense fortune. During his travels he had secured, from
Basil, Venice, and Rome, the most precious copies of books
which could be purchased: and which he took care to have
bound in a singular manner, indicative at once of his
generosity and taste. The title of the book was marked in
gilt letters upon one side, and the words--of which the
annexed wood-cut is a fac-simile--upon the other; surrounded
with similar ornaments to the extremities of the sides,
whether in folio or duodecimo.
[Illustration:
PORTIO MEA DO
MINE SIT IN
TERRA VI
VENTI
VM.
Beneath the title of the book: 'IO: GROLLERII et AMICORUM.']
This extraordinary man, whom France may consider the first
Bibliomaniac of the sixteenth century, died at Paris in the
year 1565, and in the 86th of his age. Let us close this
account of him with an extract from Marville's _Melanges
d'Histoire et de Litérature_; "La Bibliothèque de M.
Grollier s'est conservée dans l'Hôtel de Vic jusqu'à ces
annêes dernieres qu'elle a été venduë à l'encan. Elle
meritoit bien, étant une des premieres et des plus
accomplies qu'aucun particulier se soit avisé de faire à
Paris, de trouver, comme celle de M. de Thou, un acheteur
qui en conservât le lustre. La plûpart des curieux de Paris
ont profité de ses débris. J'en ai eu à ma part quelques
volumes à qui rien ne manque: ni pour la bonté des editions
de ce tems là, ni pour la beauté du papier et la propreté de
la relieure. Il semble, à les voir, que les Muses qui ont
contribué à la composition du dedans, se soient aussi
appliquées à les approprier au dehors, tant il paroît d'art
et d'esprit dans leurs ornemens. Ils sont tous dorez avec
une delicatesse inconnuë aux doreurs d'aujourd'hui. Les
compartemens sont pients de diverses couleurs, parfaitemente
bien dessinez, et tous de differentes figures, &c.:" vol.
I., p. 187, edit. 1725. Then follows a description, of which
the reader has just had ocular demonstration. After such an
account, what bibliomaniac can enjoy perfect tranquillity of
mind unless he possess a _Grollier copy_ of some work or
other? My own, from which the preceding fac-simile was
taken, is a folio edition (1531) of _Rhenanus, de rebus
Germanicis_; in the finest preservation.]
PHIL. Lysander will best observe upon him.
LYSAND. Nay; his character cannot be in better hands.
PHIL. Grollier was both the friend and the treasurer of Francis the
First; the bosom companion of De Thou, and a patron of the Aldine
family. He had learning, industry, and inflexible integrity. His
notions of _Virtû_ were vast, but not wild. There was a magnificence
about every thing which he did or projected; and his liberality was
without bounds. He was the unrivalled Mecænas of book-lovers and
scholars; and a more insatiable bibliomaniacal appetite was never,
perhaps, possessed by any of _his_ class of character.
LIS. I thank you for this _Grollieriana_. Proceed, Lysander with your
large paper copies.
ALMAN. But first tell us--why are these copies so much coveted? Do
they contain more than the ordinary ones?
LYSAND. Not in the least. Sometimes, however, an extra embellishment
is thrown into the volume--but this, again, belongs to the fourth
class of symptoms, called _Unique Copies_--and I must keep strictly to
order; otherwise I shall make sad confusion.
BELIN. Keep to your large paper, exclusively.[430]
[Footnote 430: Let us first hear Dr. Ferriar's smooth
numbers upon this tremendous symptom of the Bibliomania:
But devious oft, from ev'ry classic Muse,
The keen collector meaner paths will choose:
And first the MARGIN'S BREADTH his soul employs,
Pure, snowy, broad, the type of nobler joys.
In vain might Homer roll the tide of song,
Or Horace smile, or Tully charm the throng;
If crost by Pallas' ire, the trenchant blade
Or too oblique, or near, the edge invade,
The Bibliomane exclaims, with haggard eye,
'NO MARGIN!'--turns in haste, and scorns to buy.
_The Bibliomania_; v. 34-43.
Next come the rivals strains of 'An Aspirant.'
FIRST MAXIM.
Who slaves the monkish folio through,
With lore or science in his view,
_Him_ ... visions black, or devils blue,
Shall haunt at his expiring taper;--
Yet, 'tis a weakness of the wise,
To chuse the volume by the size,
And riot in the pond'rous prize--
Dear Copies--_printed on_ LARGE PAPER!
_Bibliosophia_; p. IV.
After these saucy attacks, can I venture upon discoursing,
in a sober note-like strain--upon those large and
magnificent volumes concerning which Lysander, above, pours
forth such a torrent of eloquence? Yes--gentle reader--I
will even venture!--and will lay a silver penny to boot (See
Peacham's '_Worth of a Penny_'--) that neither Dr. Ferriar
nor the 'Aspirant' could withhold their ejaculations of
rapture upon seeing any one of the following volumes walk
majestically into their libraries. Mark well, therefore, a
few scarce
WORKS PRINTED UPON LARGE PAPER.
_Lord Bacon's Essays_; 1798, 8vo. There were only six copies
of this edition struck off upon royal folio paper: one copy
is in the Cracherode collection, in the British Museum; and
another is in the library of Earl Spencer. Mr. Leigh, the
book-auctioneer, a long time ago observed that, if ever one
of these copies were to be sold at an auction, it would
probably bring -00_l._--! I will not insert the _first_
figure; but _two noughts_ followed it.----_Twenty Plays of
Shakspeare from the old quarto editions_; 1766, 8vo., 6
vols. Only twelve copies printed upon large paper. See
_Bibl. Steevens_: no. 1312; and p. 581,
ante.----_Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays_; 1780, 8vo., 12
vols. Only six copies struck off upon large paper. Bibl.
Woodhouse, no. 698.----_The Grenville Homer_; 1800, 4to.,
4 vols. Fifty copies of this magnificent work are said to
have been printed upon large paper; which have
embellishments of plates. Mr. Dent possesses the copy which
was Professor Porson's, and which was bought at the sale of
the Professor's library, in boards, for 87_l._, see p. 459,
ante. Seven years ago I saw a sumptuous copy in morocco,
knocked down for 99_l._ 15_s._----_Mathæi Paris, Monachi
Albanenses, &c.; Historia Major; a Wats_; Lond. 1640; folio.
This is a rare and magnificent work upon large paper; and is
usually bound in two volumes.----_Historiæ Anglicanæ
Scriptores X; a Twysden_; 1652, folio. Of equal rarity and
magnificence are copies of this inestimable
production.----_Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores Veteres, a
Gale_; 1684, 91; folio, 3 volumes. There were but few copies
of this, now generally coveted, work printed upon large
paper. The difference between the small and the large, for
amplitude of margin and lustre of ink, is
inconceivable.----_Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores Varii, a
Sparke_; Lond. 1723, folio. The preface to this work shews
that there are copies of it, like those of Dr. Clarke's
edition of Cæsar's Commentaries, upon paper of three
different sizes. The 'charta maxima' is worthy of a
conspicuous place upon the collector's shelf; though in any
shape the book has a creditable aspect.----_Recueil des
Historiens des Gaules, &c., par Boucquet_; 1738, 1786;
folio, 13 vols. It is hardly possible for the eye to gaze
upon a more intrinsically valuable work, or a finer set of
volumes, than are these, as now exhibited in Mr. Evans's
shop, and bound in fine old red morocco by the best binders
of France. They were once in my possession; but the 'res
angusta domi' compelled me to part with them, and to seek
for a copy not so tall by head and shoulders. Since the year
1786, two additional volumes have been published.
We will now discourse somewhat of English books.
_Scott's Discoverie of Whitcraft_; 1584, 4to. Of this work,
which has recently become popular from Mr. Douce's frequent
mention of it (Illustrations of Shakspeare, &c., 1806, 2
vols., 8vo.), my friend, Mr. Utterson, possesses a very
beautiful copy upon large paper. It is rarely one meets with
books printed in this country, before the year 1600, struck
off in such a manner. This copy, which is secured from
'winter and rough weather' by a stout coat of
skilfully-tool'd morocco, is probably unique.----_Weever's
Funeral Monuments_; 1631, folio. Mr. Samuel Lysons informs
me that he has a copy of this work upon large paper. I never
saw, or heard of, another similar one.----_Sanford's
Genealogical History_; 1707, folio. At the sale of Baron
Smyth's books, in 1809, Messrs. J. and A. Arch purchased a
copy of this work upon large paper for 46_l._ A monstrous
price! A similar copy is in the library of Mr. Grenville,
which was obtained from Mr. Evans of Pall-Mall. The curious
should purchase the anterior edition (of 1677) for the sake
of better impressions of the plates; which, however, in any
condition, are neither tasteful nor well engraved. What is
called '_a good Hollar_' would weigh down the whole set of
them!----_Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials_; 1721, _Folio_,
3 vols.----_Annals of the Reformation_; 1725, _Folio_, 4
vols. Happy the collector who can regale himself by viewing
large paper copies of these inestimable works! In any shape
or condition, they are now rare. The latter is the scarcer
of the two; and upon large paper brings, what the French
bibliographers call, 'un prix enorme.' There is one of this
kind in the beautiful library of Mr. Thomas
Grenville.----_Hearne's Works_--'till Mr. Bagster issued his
first reprints of Robert of Gloucester and Peter Langtoft,
upon paper of three different sizes--(of which the largest,
in quarto, has hardly been equalled in modern
printing)--used to bring extravagant sums at book-auctions.
At a late sale in Pall-Mall, were [Transcriber's Note:
where] the books in general were sold at extraordinary
prices, the large paper Hearnes absolutely 'hung fire'--as
the sportsman's phrase is.----_Hudibras, with Dr. Grey's
Annotations, and Hogarth's cuts_; 1744, 2 vols. There were
but twelve copies of this first and best edition of Dr.
Grey's labours upon Hudibras (which Warburton strangely
abuses--) printed upon large paper: and a noble book it is
in this form!----_Milner's History of Winchester_; 1798,
4to., 2 vols. Of this edition there were, I believe, either
twelve or twenty-four copies printed upon large paper; which
brings serious sums in the present general rage for books of
this description.----_Kennet's (Bp.) Parochial Antiquities;
Oxford_, 1695, 4to. The only known copy of this work upon
large paper is in the fine library of Sir Richard Colt
Hoare, Bart. This copy was probably in the collection of
'that well-known collector, Joseph Browne, Esq., of Shepton
Mallet, Somersetshire:' as a similar one 'in Russia, gilt
leaves,' was sold in Pt. II. of his collection, no. 279,
for 7_l._ 17_s._ 6_d._ and purchased in the name of
Thornton.----_The Chronicles of Froissart and Monstrelet_:
translated by Thomas Johnes, Esq. Hafod, 1803, 1810, quarto,
9 vols.: including a volume of plates to Monstrelet. Of
these beautiful and intrinsically valuable works, there were
only 25 copies struck off upon folio; which bring tremendous
prices.----_History of the Town of Cheltenham, and its
Environs_; 1802, 8vo. There were a few copies of this
superficial work printed upon large paper in royal octavo,
and a _unique_ copy upon paper of a quarto size; which
latter is in the possession of my friend Mr. Thomas Pruen,
of the same place. A part of this volume was written by
myself; according to instructions which I received to make
it 'light and pleasant.' An author, like a barrister, is
bound in most cases to follow his instructions! As I have
thus awkwardly introduced myself, I may be permitted to
observe, at the foot of this note, that all the LARGE PAPER
copies of my own humble lucubrations have been attended with
an unexpectedly successful sale. Of the _Introduction to the
Classics_, edit. 1804, 8vo., there were fifty copies, with
extra plates, struck off in royal octavo, and published at
2_l._ 2_s._: these now sell for 5_l._ 5_s._: the portrait of
_Bishop Fell_ making them snapped at, with a perch-like
spirit, by all true Grangerites. Of the _Typographical
Antiquities_ of our own country there were 66 printed in a
superb style, upon imperial paper, in 4to.; these were
published at 6_l._ 6_s._ a copy. The following anecdote
shews how they are 'looking up'--as the book-market phrase
is. My friend ---- parted with his copy; but finding that his
slumbers were broken, and his dreams frightful, in
consequence, he sought to regain possession of it; and
cheerfully gave 10_l._ 10_s._! for what, but a few months
before, he had possessed for little more than one half the
sum! The same friend subscribes for a _large paper_ of the
_present work_, of which there are only eighteen copies
printed: and of which my hard-hearted printer and myself
seize each upon a copy. Will the same friend display equal
fickleness in regard to THIS volume? If he does, he must
smart acutely for it: nor will 15_l._ 15_s._ redeem it! It
is justly observed, in the first edition of this work, that,
'analogous to large paper, are TALL copies: that is, copies
of the work published on the ordinary size paper, and barely
cut down by the binder,' p. 45. To _dwarfise_ a volume is a
'grievous fault' on the part of any binder; but more
particularly is it an unpardonable one on the part of him
who has had a long intercourse with professed bibliomaniacs!
To a person who knows anything of typographical arrangement,
the distinction between _tall_ and _large paper_ copies is
sufficiently obvious. For this reason, I am quite decided
that the supposed large paper copy of _Scapula's Lexicon_,
possessed by Mr. ----, of Caversham, near Reading, is only a
_tall_ copy of the work, as usually printed: nor is this
copy more stately than another which I have seen. The owner
of the volume will suppress all feelings which he may
entertain against my heretical opinions (as I fear he will
call them), when he considers that he may dispose of his
Scapula for a sum three times beyond what he gave for it.
Let him put it by the side of his neighbour Dr. Valpy's
numerous large paper copies of the old folio classics, and
he will in a moment be convinced of the accuracy of the
foregoing remark. FINE PAPER copies of a work should be here
noticed; as they are sought after with avidity. The most
beautiful work of this kind which I ever saw, was _Rapin's
History of England, in nine folio volumes, bound in red
morocco, and illustrated with Houbraken's_ Heads; which Sir
M.M. Sykes recently purchased of Mr. Evans, the
bookseller,--for a comparatively moderate sum. A similar
copy (exclusively of the illustrations) of Rapin's History
of England, which was once in the library of the Royal
Institution, was burnt in the fire that destroyed
Covent-Garden Theatre; it having been sent to Mr. Mackinlay,
the book-binder, who lived near the Theatre.]
LYSAND. I have little to add to what has been already said of this
symptom. That a volume, so published, has a more pleasing aspect,
cannot be denied. It is the oak, in its full growth, compared with
the same tree in its sapling state: or, if you please, it is the same
picture a little more brilliant in its colouring, and put into a
handsomer frame. My friend MARCUS is a very dragon in this department
of book-collecting: nothing being too formidable for his attack. Let
the volume assume what shape it may, and let the price be ever so
unconscionable--he hesitates not to become a purchaser. In
consequence, exclusively of all the _Dugdales_ and _Montfaucons_, upon
large paper, and in the finest bindings, he possesses the _Grand Folio
Classics_, the _Benedictine Editions of the Fathers_, the _County
Histories_, and all works, of a recent date, upon _History_ and the
_Belles Lettres_. In short, nothing can be more magnificent than the
interior of his library; as nothing but giants, arrayed in the most
splendid attire, are seen to keep guard from one extremity of the room
to the other.
LIS. Who is this Marcus? I'll rival him in due time!--But proceed.
BELIN. Thus much, I presume, for the first symptom of the Bibliomania.
Now pray, Sir, inform us what is meant by that strange term, UNCUT
COPIES?
LYSAND. Of all the symptoms of the Bibliomania, this is probably the
most extraordinary.[431] It may be defined a passion to possess books
of which the edges have never been sheared by the binder's tools. And
here I find myself walking upon doubtful ground:--your friend [turning
towards me] Atticus's _uncut Hearnes_ rise up in "rough majesty"
before me, and almost "push me from my stool." Indeed, when I look
around in your book-lined tub, I cannot but acknowledge that this
symptom of the disorder has reached your own threshold; but when it is
known that a few of your bibliographical books are left with the edges
uncut _merely to please your friends_ (as one must sometimes study
their tastes as well as one's own), I trust that no very serious
conclusions will be drawn about the fatality of your own case.
[Footnote 431: As before, let us borrow the strains of 'An
Aspirant:'
SECOND MAXIM.
Who, with fantastic pruning-hook,
Dresses the borders of his book,
Merely to ornament its look--
Amongst philosophers a fop is:
What if, perchance, he thence discover
Facilities in turning over?
The Virtuoso is a Lover
Of coyer charms in "UNCUT COPIES."
_Bibliosophia_; p. v.
I have very little to add in illustration of Lysander's
well-pointed sarcasms relating to this _second symptom of_
BOOK-MADNESS. I think I once heard of an uncut _Cranmer's
Bible_; but have actually seen a similar conditioned copy of
_Purchas's Pilgrimes and Pilgrimage_, which is now in the
beautiful library of the Honourable T. Grenville.]
As to uncut copies, although their inconvenience [an uncut Lexicon to
wit!] and deformity must be acknowledged, and although a rational man
can wish for nothing better than a book _once well bound_, yet we find
that the extraordinary passion for collecting them not only obtains
with full force, but is attended with very serious consequences to
those "que n'out point des pistoles" (to borrow the idea of Clement;
vol. vi. p. 36). I dare say an uncut _first Shakspeare_, as well as an
_uncut vellum Aldus_[432] would produce a little annuity!
[Footnote 432: I doubt of the existence of an uncut _first
Shakspeare_; although we have recently had evidence of an
uncut _first Homer_; for thus speaks Peignot: "A superb copy
of this Editio Princeps was sold at the sale of M. de
Cotte's books, in 1804, for 3601 livres: but it must be
remarked that this copy was in the most exquisite
preservation, as if it had just come from the press.
Moreover, it is probably the only one the margins of which
have never been either 'shaven or shorn.'" _Curiosités
Bibliographiques_, p. lxv. vi.; see also p. 79, ante. Dr.
Harwood, at page 338, of his _View of the Editions of the
Classics_, speaks of an uncut vellum Aldus, of 1504, 8vo.
"Mr. Quin shewed me a fine copy of it printed in vellum with
the _leaves uncut_, which he bought of Mr. Egerton at a very
moderate price. It is, perhaps (adds he), the only _uncut_
vellum Aldus in the world." From the joyous strain of this
extract, the Doctor may be fairly suspected of having
strongly exhibited this second symptom of the Bibliomania!]
BELIN. 'Tis very strange'--as Hamlet says at the walking of his
father's ghost! But now for your ILLUSTRATED COPIES!
LYSAND. You have touched a vibrating string indeed!--but I will
suppress my own feelings, and spare those of my friend. A passion for
books _illustrated_, or adorned with _numerous Prints_[433]
representing characters, or circumstances, mentioned in the work, is a
very general and violent symptom of the Bibliomania. The origin, or
first appearance, of this symptom, has been traced by some to the
publication of the Rev. ---- GRANGER'S "_Biographical History of
England_;" but whoever will be at the pains of reading the preface of
that work will see that Granger shelters himself under the authorities
of EVELYN, ASHMOLE, and others; and that he _alone_ is not to be
considered as responsible for all the mischief which this passion for
collecting prints has occasioned. Granger, however, was the first who
introduced it in the form of a history; and surely "in an evil hour"
was that history published; although its amiable author must be
acquitted of "malice prepense."
[Footnote 433: This third symptom has not escaped the
discerning eye of the Manchester physician; for thus sings
Dr. Ferriar:
He pastes, from injur'd volumes snipt away,
His _English Heads_ in chronicled array,
Torn from their destin'd page (unworthy meed
Of Knightly counsel, and heroic deed),
Not _Faithorne's_ stroke, nor _Field's_ own types can save
The gallant Veres, and one-eyed Ogle brave.
Indignant readers seek the image fled,
And curse the busy fool who _wants a head_.
Proudly he shews, with many a smile elate,
The scrambling subjects of the _private plate_
While Time their actions and their names bereaves,
They grin for ever in the guarded leaves.
_The Bibliomania_; v. 119-130.
These are happy thoughts, happily expressed. In illustration
of v. 123, the author observes,--"three fine heads, for the
sake of which, the beautiful and interesting commentaries of
Sir Francis Vere have been mutilated by collectors of
English portraits." Dr. Ferriar might have added that, when
a Grangerian bibliomaniac commences his ILLUSTRATING CAREER,
he does not fail to make a desperate onset upon _Speed_,
_Boissard_, and the _Heroologia_. Even the lovely prints of
_Houbraken_ (in Dr. Birch's account of Illustrious Persons
of Great Britain) escape not the ravages of his passion for
illustration. The plates which adorn these books are
considered among the foundation materials of a Grangerian
building. But it is time, according to my plan, to introduce
other sarcastic strains of poetry.
THIRD MAXIM.
Who, swearing not a line to miss,
Doats on the leaf his fingers kiss,
Thanking the _words_ for all his bliss,--
Shall rue, at last, his passion frustrate:
_We_ love the page that draws its flavour
From Draftsman, Etcher, and Engraver
And hint the booby (by his favour)
_His_ gloomy copy to "ILLUSTRATE."
_Bibliosophia_; p. v.
At this stage of our inquiries, let me submit a new remedy
as an acquisition to the _Materia Medica_, of which many
first-rate physicians may not be aware--by proposing a
=Recipe for Illustration.=
Take any passage from any author--to wit: the following
(which I have done, quite at random) from SPEED: '_Henry le
Spenser_, the warlike _Bishop of Norwich_, being drawn on by
_Pope Vrban_ to preach _the Crusade_, and to be General
against _Clement_ (whom sundry _Cardinals_ and great
_Prelates_ had also elected Pope) having a fifteenth granted
to him, for that purpose, by _parliament_,' &c. _Historie of
Great Britaine_, p. 721, edit. 1632. Now, let the reader
observe, here are _only four_ lines; but which, to be
PROPERLY ILLUSTRATED, should be treated thus: 1st, procure
all the portraits, at all periods of his life, of _Henry le
Spencer_; 2dly, obtain every view, ancient and modern, like
or unlike, of the city of _Norwich_; and, if fortune favour
you, of _every Bishop of the same see_; 3dly, every portrait
of _Pope Vrban_ must be procured; and as many prints and
drawings as can give some notion of _the Crusade_--together
with a few etchings (if there be any) of _Peter the Hermit_
and _Richard I._, who took such active parts in the Crusade;
4thly, you must search high and low, early and late, for
every print of _Clement_; 5thly, procure, or you will be
wretched, as many fine prints of _Cardinals_ and _Prelates_,
singly or in groups, as will impress you with a proper idea
of _the Conclave_; and 6thly, see whether you may not
obtain, at some of our most distinguished old-print sellers,
views of the _house of Parliament_ at the period (A.D.
1383.) here described!!! The result, gentle reader, will be
this: you will have work enough cut out to occupy you for
one whole month at least, from rise to set of sun--in
parading the streets of our metropolis: nor will the expense
in _coach_ hire, or _shoe leather_, be the least which you
will have to encounter! The prints themselves may cost
_some_thing! Lest any fastidious and cynical critic should
accuse me, and with apparent justice, of gross exaggeration
or ignorance in this _recipe_, I will inform him, on good
authority, that a late distinguished and highly respectable
female collector, who had commenced an ILLUSTRATED BIBLE,
procured not fewer than _seven hundred prints_ for the
illustration of the 20th, 21st, 22d, 23d, 24th, and 25th
verses of the 1st chapter of Genesis! The illustrated copy
of Mr. Fox's Historical work, mentioned in the first edition
of this work, p. 63, is now in the possession of Lord
Mountjoy. The similar copy of Walter Scott's edition of
Dryden's works, which has upwards of 650 portraits, is yet
in the possession of Mr. Miller, the bookseller.]
Granger's work seems to have sounded the tocsin for a general rummage
after, and plunder of, old prints. Venerable philosophers, and veteran
heroes, who had long reposed in unmolested dignity within the
magnificent folio volumes which recorded their achievements, were
instantly dragged forth from their peaceful abodes, to be inlaid by
the side of some clumsy modern engraving, within an _Illustrated
Granger_!
Nor did the madness stop here. Illustration was the order of the day;
and _Shakspeare_[434] and _Clarendon_ became the next objects of its
attack. From these it has glanced off, in a variety of directions, to
adorn the pages of humbler wights; and the passion, or rather this
symptom of the Bibliomania, yet rages with undiminished force. If
judiciously treated, it is, of all the symptoms, the least liable to
mischief. To possess a series of well-executed portraits of
illustrious men, at different periods of their lives, from blooming
boyhood to phlegmatic old age, is sufficiently amusing; but to possess
_every_ portrait, _bad_, _indifferent_, and _unlike_, betrays such a
dangerous and alarming symptom as to render the case almost incurable!
[Footnote 434: Lysander would not have run on in this
declamatory strain, if it had been _his_ good fortune, as it
has been _mine_, to witness the extraordinary copy of an
ILLUSTRATED SHAKSPEARE in the possession of Earl Spencer;
which owes its magic to the perseverance and taste of the
Dowager Lady Lucan, mother to the present Countess Spencer.
For sixteen years did this accomplished Lady pursue the
pleasurable toil of illustration; having commenced it in her
50th, and finished it in her 66th year. Whatever of taste,
beauty, and judgment in decoration--by means of portraits,
landscapes, houses, and tombs--flowers, birds, insects,
heraldic ornaments, and devices,--could dress our immortal
bard in a yet more fascinating form, has been accomplished
by the noble hand which undertook so Herculean a task--and
with a truth, delicacy, and finish of execution, which have
been rarely equalled! These magnificent volumes (being the
folio edition printed by Bulmer) are at once beautiful and
secured by green velvet binding, with embossed clasps and
corners of solid silver, washed with gold. Each volume is
preserved in a silken cover--and the whole is kept inviolate
from the impurities of bibliomaniacal miasmata, in a
sarcophagus-shaped piece of furniture of cedar and mahogany.
What is the pleasure experienced by the most resolute
antiquary, when he has obtained a peep at the inmost
sarcophagus of the largest pyramid of Egypt, compared with
that which a tasteful bibliomaniac enjoys upon contemplating
this illustrated Shakespeare, now reposing in all the
classical magnificence and congenial retirement of its
possessor?--But why do I surpass Lysander in the warmth and
vehemence of narration! And yet, let me not forget that the
same noble owner has _another_ illustrated copy of the SAME
BARD, on a smaller scale, of which mention has already been
made in my account of the donor of it, the late George
Steevens. Turn, gentle reader, for one moment, to page 428,
ante. The illustrated CLARENDON, above hinted at by
Lysander, is in the possession of Mr. H.A. Sutherland; and
is, perhaps, a matchless copy of the author: every siege,
battle, town, and house-view--as well as portrait--being
introduced within the leaves. I will not even hazard a
conjecture for how many _thousand pounds_ its owner might
dispose of it, if the inclination of parting with it should
ever possess him. The British Museum has recently been
enriched with a similar copy of PENNANT'S _London_, on large
paper. Prints and drawings of all descriptions, which could
throw light upon the antiquities of our metropolis, are
inserted in this extraordinary copy, which belonged to the
late Mr. Crowles; who expended 2000_l._ upon the same, and
who bequeathed it, in the true spirit of _virtû_, to the
Museum. Let CRACHERODE and CROWLES be held in respectful
remembrance!]
There is another mode of _illustrating copies_ by which this symptom
of the Bibliomania may be known; it consists in bringing together,
from different works, [including newspapers and magazines, and by
means of the scissars, or otherwise by transcription] every page or
paragraph which has any connexion with the character or subject under
discussion. This is a useful[435] and entertaining mode of
illustrating a favourite author; and copies of works of this nature,
when executed by skilful hands, should be deposited in public
libraries; as many a biographical anecdote of eminent literary
characters is preserved in consequence. I almost ridiculed the idea of
an _Illustrated Chatterton_, 'till the sight of your friend BERNARDO'S
copy, in eighteen volumes, made me a convert to the utility that may
be derived from a judicious treatment of this symptom of the
Bibliomania: and indeed, of a rainy day, the same bibliomaniac's
similar copy of _Walton's Complete Angler_ affords abundant amusement
in the perusal.
[Footnote 435: Numerous are the instances of the peculiar
use and value of copies of this kind; especially to those
who are engaged in publications of a similar nature. OLDYS'S
_interleaved Langbaine_ (of Mr. Reed's transcript of which a
copy is in the possession of Mr. Heber) is re-echoed in
almost every recent work connected with the belles-lettres
of our country. Oldys himself was unrivalled in this method
of illustration; if, exclusively of Langbaine, his copy of
_Fuller's Worthies_ [once Mr. Steevens', now Mr. Malone's.
See _Bibl. Steevens_, no. 1799] be alone considered! This
Oldys was the oddest mortal that ever wrote. Grose, in his
_Olio_, gives an amusing account of his having "a number of
small parchment bags inscribed with the names of the persons
whose lives he intended to write; into which he put every
circumstance and anecdote he could collect, and from thence
drew up his history." See Noble's _College of Arms_, p. 420.
Thus far the first edition of this work; p. 64. It remains
to add that, whatever were the singularities and
capriciousness of Oldys, his talents were far beyond
mediocrity; as his publication of the _Harleian Miscellany_,
and _Raleigh's History of the World_, abundantly prove. To
the latter, a life of Raleigh is prefixed; and the number of
pithy, pleasant, and profitable notes subjoined shew that
Oldys's bibliographical talents were not eclipsed by those
of any contemporary. His _British Librarian_ has been more
than once noticed in the preceding pages: vide p. 51: 468.
There is a portrait of him, in a full-dressed suit and
bag-wig, in one of the numbers of the European Magazine;
which has the complete air of a fine gentleman. Let me just
observe, in elucidation of what Lysander above means by this
latter mode of illustrating copies, that in the Bodleian
library there is a copy of _Kuster's edition of Suidas_
filled, from beginning to end, with MS. notes and excerpts
of various kinds, by the famous D'Orville, tending to
illustrate the ancient lexicographer.]
LIS. Forgive me, if I digress a little. But is not the knowledge of
_rare_, _curious_, and _beautiful Prints_--so necessary, it would
seem, towards the perfecting of _illustrated copies_--is not this
knowledge of long and difficult attainment?
LYSAND. Unquestionably, this knowledge is very requisite towards
becoming a complete pupil in the SCHOOL OF GRANGER.[436] Nor is it, as
you very properly suppose, of short or easy acquirement.
[Footnote 436: GRANGER'S _Biographical History of England_
was first published, I believe, in 1769, 4to., 2 vols. It
has since undergone four impressions; the last being in
1804, 8vo., 4 vols. _A Continuation of the same_, by the
Rev. MARK NOBLE, was published in 1807, 8vo., 3 vols.: so
that if the lover of rare and curious prints get possession
of these volumes, with AMES'S _Catalogue of English Heads_,
1748, 8vo.; and WALPOLE'S _Catalogue of Engravers_, 1775,
8vo.; BROMLEY'S _Catalogue of Engraved Portraits_, 1793,
4to.; together with Catalogues of English Portraits, being
the collections of Mr. BARNARD, Sir W. MUSGRAVE, Mr. TYSSEN,
Sir JAMES-WINTER LAKE; and many other similar catalogues put
forth by Mr. RICHARDSON and Mr. GRAVE; he may be said to be
in a fair way to become master of the whole arcana of
PRINT-COLLECTING. But let him take heed to the severe
warning-voice uttered by ROWE MORES, in his criticism upon
the Catalogue of English Heads, published by Ames: 'This
performance (says the splenetic and too prophetic critic) is
not to be despised: judiciously executed, a work of this
sort would be an appendage entertaining and useful to the
readers of English biography; and it ought to be done at the
common labour, expense, and charges of these
_Iconoclasts_--because their depredations are a grand
impediment to another who should attempt it: and if this
_goût_ for prints and thieving continues, let private owners
and public libraries look well to their books, for there
will not remain a valuable book ungarbled by their
connoisseuring villany: for neither honesty nor oaths
restrain them. Yet these _fanciers_, if prints themselves
are to be collected, instead of being injurious to every
body, might make themselves serviceable to posterity, and
become a kind of _medalists_ (who, by the bye, are almost as
great thieves as themselves, though the hurt they do is not
so extensive, as it lies chiefly among themselves, who all
hold this doctrine, that "exchange is no robbery;" but, if
they could filch without exchanging, no scruple of
conscience would prevent them): we say they might render
themselves useful to posterity, by gathering together the
historical, political, satyrical, anecdotal and temporal
pieces, with which the age abounds; adding an explanation of
the intent and meaning for the instruction and amusement of
times to come. The misfortune is, they must buy the one, but
they can steal the other; and steal they will, although
watched with the eyes of Argus: unless the valuables, like
some other _jocalia_, are shewn to them through a grate; and
even _then_, the keeper must be vigilant!' _Of English
Founders and Foundries_; p. 85. This extract is curious on
account of the tart, but just, sentiments which prevail in
it; but, to the bibliomaniac, it is doubly curious, when he
is informed that _only eighty copies_ of this Typographical
Treatise (of 100 pages--including the Appendix) were
printed. The author was a testy, but sagacious,
bibliomaniac, and should have been introduced among his
brethren in PART V. It is not, however, too late to subjoin
the following: _Bibliotheca Moresiana. A Catalogue of the
Large and Valuable Library of Printed Books, rare old
tracts, Manuscripts, Prints, and Drawings, Copper Plates,
sundry Antiquities, Philosophical Instruments, and other
Curiosities, of that eminent British Antiquary_, the late
Rev. and learned EDWARD ROWE MORES, F.A.S., deceased, &c.
Sold by auction by Mr. Patterson, August 1779. This
collection exhibited, like its owner, a strange mixture of
what was curious, whimsical, and ingenious in human nature.
There were 2838 lots of printed books. _The rare old
black-letter books and tracts_, begin at p. 52.]
ALMAN. How so? A very little care, with a tolerably good taste, is
only required to know when a print is _well engraved_.
LYSAND. Alas, Madam! the excellence of engraving is oftentimes but a
_secondary_ consideration!
BELIN. Do pray explain.
LYSAND. I will, and as briefly and perspicuously as possible.
There are, first, _all the varieties of the same print_[437] to be
considered!--whether it have the _name of the character_, or _artist_,
omitted or subjoined: whether the head of the print be without the
body, or the body without the head--and whether this latter be
finished, or in the outline, or ghostly white! Then you must go to
_the dress_ of this supposed portrait:--whether full or plain; court
or country-fashioned: whether it have a hat, or no hat; feather, or no
feather; gloves, or no gloves; sword, or no sword; and many other such
momentous points.
[Footnote 437: The reader, by means of the preceding note,
having been put in possession of some of the principal works
from which information, relating to PRINT-COLLECTING may be
successfully gleaned, it remains for me--who have been
described as sitting in a corner to compile notes for
Lysander's text-discourse--to add something by way of
illustration to the above sweeping satire. One or the other
of the points touched upon in the text will be found here
more particularly elucidated.
CATALOGUE OF BARNARD'S PRINTS; 1798, 8vo.
7th Day's Sale.
NO. 47. Sir Thos. Isham de Lamport, by Loggan and Valck;
_before the names of the artists, very fine_. £5 5_s._ 0_d._
68. King Charles I. on horseback, with the page, by Lombard;
_very fine and scarce_. 1 14 0
69. The same plate; _with Cromwell's head substituted for
the King's--variation in the drapery_. 3 6 0
70. The same: a curious proof--_the face blank and no
inscription at bottom--drapery of the page different_--and
other variations. 1 2 0
90. Catharine, queen of K. Charles II.; _in the dress in
which she arrived: very scarce_. By Faithorne. 4 16 0
97. Queen Elizabeth; habited in the superb court dress in
which she went to St. Paul's to return thanks for the defeat
of the Spanish Armada--by Passe; from a painting of Isaac
Oliver. 6 12 6
[I have known from 14_l._ to 20_l._ given for a fine
impression of this curious print: but I am as well pleased
with Mr. Turner's recently published, and admirably
executed, facsimile mezzotint engraving of it; a proof of
which costs 1_l._ 1_s._ Every member of the two Houses--and
every land and sea Captain--ought to hang up this print in
his sitting-room.]
Eighth day's Sale.
6. Esther before Ahasuerus: engraved by Hollar; _first
impression; with the portraits at top; curious and extremely
rare_. 16 0 0
199. Jo. Banfi Hunniades; _proof; very fine and rare_. By
the same. 2 7 0
200. The same print, _with variations_. By the same. 3 15 0
202. The Stone-eater; _with his history below_. By the same.
_Very rare._ 4 4 0
248. Sir Thomas Chaloner; by the same. _A proof impression.
One of the scarcest prints in existence._ 59 17 0
[A similar print has been since sold for 74_l._; which is in
the collection of Mr. John Townley; whose HOLLARS are
unrivalled!]
256. Herbert, Earl of Pembroke; _before the alteration_. By
the same. 2 10 0
257. Devereux, Earl of Essex; _on horseback_. By the same. 4
5 0
258. Devereux, Earl of Essex: _standing on foot; whole
length_. By the same. 4 4 0
259. Algernon, Earl of Northumberland; _on horseback_. By
the same. 14 0 0
266. Lady Elizabeth Shirley; _an unfinished proof, the
chaplet round her head being only traced; curious and
extremely rare_. By the same. 10 10 0
267. _A reverse of the proof; very fine_. By the same. 5 5 0
CATALOGUE OF SIR WILLIAM MUSGRAVE'S PRINTS.
Third Day's Sale.
29. George, Earl of Berkeley; oval, _in his robes_, 1679;
_extra fie [Transcriber's Note: fine] and rare_. 10 5 0
45. George, Duke of Buckingham; oval; _cloak over his left
arm, hand on sword, nine lines expressive of his titles,
&c._ Sold by P. Stent: _fine and extra rare_. 4 12 0
109. George, Earl of Cumberland; _whole length, dressed for
a tournament_. By R. White. 11 0 0
Fifth Day's Sale.
94. The Newcastle Family, in a room, after Diepenbeke, by
Clowet; _a beautiful proof, before the verses, extra rare_.
39 18 0
[There is a very indifferent copy of this print. The
original may be seen in the collection of the Marquis of
Stafford and Sir M.M. Sykes, Bart. Nothing can exceed the
tenderness and delicacy of Clowet's engraving of this
naturally conceived and well-managed picture.]
Tenth Day's Sale.
82. Richard Smith; virtuoso and literary character. By W.
Sherwin; _extra rare and fine_. [See my account of this
distinguished bibliomaniac at p. 302, ante. Sir M.M. Sykes
is in possession of Sir William Musgrave's copy of the
portrait.] 7 17 0
Eleventh Day's Sale.
30. Sir Francis Willoughby; _with a view of Wollaton Hall_;
mezzotint by T. Man, _extra rare_. 13 2 6
43. Sir Francis Wortley; 1652, folio: with trophies, books,
&c., by A. Hertochs: extra rare and fine. 29 10 0
Eighteenth Day's Sale.
78. Dr. Francis Bernard; _a touched proof_; _very rare_.
[The reader may recollect this sagacious bibliomaniac, as
noticed at page 316, ante.] 4 14 6
Twentieth Day's Sale.
85. Sir Matthew Lister; M.D. 1646; by P. Van Somer; _fine
proof, extra rare_. 14 14 0
86. Humphrey Lloyd, of Denbigh, Antiquary, ætat. 34, 1651.
By Faber, 1717, _extra rare and fine_. 4 7 0
Twenty-first Day's Sale.
9. Sir John Marsham; ætat. 80. By R. White, _extra rare and
fine_. 6 6 0
19. Martin Master; ætat. 53. 1607. By R. Gaywood, _extra_
rare _and_ fine. 8 8 0
Twenty-seventh Day's Sale.
80. Lady Paston, wife of Sir William Paston, by W.
Faithorne; _extra rare and fine_. 31 0 0
82. Mary, Countess of Pembroke, by Simon Passe, 1618. _Fine
and rare._ 10 0 0
83. Penelope, Countess of Pembroke, in an oval, by W.
Hollar. _Rare._ 3 6 0
84. Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, by R. White:
_extra_ rare _and_ fine. 7 17 6
[The prints at this sale--the catalogue containing 323
pages--were sold for 4987_l._ 17_s._]
MISCELLANEOUS CATALOGUES OF PRINTS.
First Day's Sale.
58. Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector, in a square. "This
portrait was etched by Hollar, but he was afraid to put his
name to it; and the plate was destroyed as soon as Richard
resigned his pretensions to the Protectorship." Note by Mr.
Hillier. _Very rare._ 1 10 0
61. Lord Digby, in armour; after Vander Borcht. _Extra_ rare
_and_ fine. 9 9 0
64. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, _standing, whole length:
army in the distance_, 1644, _fine and rare_. 5 5 0
65. The same, on horseback: under the horse a map of
England; 1643: _first state of the plate; extra fine and
rare_. 9 0 0
73. Hollar's own portrait, in an oval, ætat. 40, 1647: _with
variations in the arms_. 3 3 0
Sixth Day's Sale.
53. Sir William Paston, 1659: esteemed Faithorne's finest
portrait: _extra rare_. 10 15 0
56. Carew Reynell, from the Fothergill collection: _extra_
fine _and_ rare. 16 5 6
62. Prince Rupert, in armour, _right hand on the breast_:
after Vandyck. Sold by Robert Peake. _Extra_ fine _and_
rare. 9 0 0
Thirteenth Day's Sale.
54. King and Queen of Bohemia, and five children, by Wm.
Passe, with thirty-two Englishes [qu?]; 1621: _extra fine
and rare_, The same plate; _with the addition of five
children; the youngest in a cradle_. 4 11 0
55. The same, sitting under a tree; with four children; the
youngest playing with a rabbit: fine _and_ rare. 6 6 0
92. James, Duke of York: _with the anchor, proof_; very fine
and rare. (16th day's sale.) 5 2 6
72. Sir Francis Winderbank and Lord Finch; _with Finch's
wings flying to Winderbank_; extra rare. (19th day.) 25 0 0
_A Catalogue of a genuine and valuable Collection of English
and Foreign Portraits, &c., sold by Auction by Mr.
Richardson, February_ 18, 1798.
1ST DAY'S SALE.
34. Princess Augusta Maria, daughter of Charles I. _in hat
and feather_, ætat. 15, 1646: by Henry Danckers, 1640. _Fine
and rare._ 3 3 0
57. Anne, Queen of James I. with her daughter Anne;
_curiously dressed, whole length_. By J. Visscher: _extra_
fine _and_ rare. 6 0 0
41. Mary, Queen of Scotts: "Scotorumque nunc Regina"--_in an
oval: cap adorned with jewels, feather-fan in her hand_, &c.
By Peter Mynginus: _extra_ fine _and_ rare. 6 12 0
53. Prince Frederick, Count Palatine, with Princess
Elizabeth, _whole length, superbly dressed_: By R.
Elstracke: _extra_ fine _and_ rare. 14 0 0
74. Henry the Eighth, _with hat and feather, large fur
tippet_: by C. M(atsis); _very_ fine, _and supposed unique_.
10 10 0
79. Mary, Queen of Scots: _veil'd cross at her breast:
ætat._ 44, 1583: _extra_ fine _and_ rare. 9 2 6
80. Queen Elizabeth; _superbly dressed, between two pillars:
extra_ fine _and_ rare. 15 15 0
_A Catalogue of a valuable and genuine Collection of Prints,
Drawings, and elegantly illustrated Books, &c., sold by
auction by Mr. Richardson; March_, 1800.
143. Henry, Lord Darnley, by Passe; fine _and very_ rare. 16
0 0
186. Sir Philip Sidney, by Elstracke; _extremely_ fine. 3 1 0
263. Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, by ditto, _extra_ fine
_and_ rare. 13 0 0
264. Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester, by Simon Passe:
rare _and_ fine. 7 15 0
265. Henry Vere, Earl of Oxford, sold by Compton Holland;
_very_ rare _and_ fine. 9 0 0
273. Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton, by Simon Passe;
_most brilliant impression, extra rare_. 13 5 0
278. Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, by the same; _rare and
very fine_. 5 0 0
279. Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset, by the same; _extra
fine and rare_--(with a copy by Thane). 3 0 0
280. John Digby, Earl of Bristol; rare and fine: from the
Fothergill Collection. 13 0 0
281. Robert Sidney, Viscount Lisle, by Simon Passe; _rare
and very fine_. 5 2 6
284. Edmund, Baron Sheffield: by Elstracke; _very fine_. 14
10 0
286. James, Lord Hay, by Simon Passe; _brilliant
impression_, fine _and_ rare. 9 0 0
294. George Mountaine, Bishop of London; G.Y. sculpsit;
_very fine and rare_. 5 10 0
330. Sir Julius Cæsar, by Elstracke; _extra_ fine _and_
rare. 23 12 6
335. Arthurus Severus Nonesuch O'Toole, by Delaram; _most
brilliant impression, and very rare_ (with the copy). 11 11 0
367. Sir John Wynn de Gwedir, by Vaughan; _very rare_. 6 6 0
472. Prince Frederic Henry, by Delaram: _very_ fine _and_
rare. 5 7 6
479. Prince Rupert, by Faithorne; _very_ fine _and_ rare. 7
5 0
567. Sir John Hotham, Governor of Hull; _whole length;
extremely_ rare _and_ fine. 43 1 0
812. Edward Mascall, by Gammon. 7 3 0
946. Edward Wetenhall, Bishop of Corke and Ross; mezzotint,
by Becket; _fine_. 5 0 0
960. Andrew Lortie, by Van Somer. 13 5 0
979. Thomas Cole, large mezzotint. 4 10 0
997. Sir William Portman, mezzotint. 7 10 0
1001. Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, by Blooteling;
_exceeding_ fine _impression_. 6 0 0
1013. Sir Patrick Lyon, of Carse, by White. 5 5 0
1033. Sir Greville Verney, by Loggan. 5 10 0
1045. Marmaduke Rawdon, by White; fine. 14 0 0
1048. Slingsby Bethel, _whole length_, by W. Sherwin (with
small copy). 17 5 0
1054. Samuel Malines, by Lombart; very fine. 12 0 0
1057. Thomas Killegrew, _as sitting with the dog_: by
Faithorne. 16 0 0
_A Catalogue of a very choice assemblage of ENGLISH
PORTRAITS, and of Foreigners who have visited England:
serving to illustrate GRANGER'S BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY; the
property of an eminent Collector_, &c., Sold by auction, by
Messrs. King and Lochée, April, 1810.
But it is time to pause. The present note may have
completely served to shew, not only that Lysander was right
in drawing such bold conclusions respecting the consequences
resulting from the publication of Granger's Biographical
History, and the capriciousness of print-fanciers respecting
impressions _in their various stages_, and with _all their
varieties_,--but, that the pursuit of PRINT-COLLECTING is
both costly and endless. For one 'fine and rare' _print_, by
Hollar, Faithorne, Elstracke, the Passes, Delaram, or White,
how many truly precious and useful _volumes_ may be
collected? "All this is vastly fine reasoning"--methinks I
hear a Grangerite exclaim--"but compare the comfort afforded
by your 'precious and useful volumes' with that arising from
the contemplation of eminent and extraordinary characters,
executed by the _burin_ of some of those graphic heroes
before-mentioned--and how despicable will the dry unadorned
volume appear!! On a dull, or rainy day, look at an
illustrated Shakespeare, or Hume, and then find it in your
heart, if you can, to depreciate the GRANGERIAN PASSION!!" I
answer, the Grangerite is madder than the Bibliomaniac:--and
so let the matter rest.]
Next let us discuss the serious subject of the _background_!--whether
it be square or oval; dark or light; put in or put out; stippled or
stroked; and sundry other similar, but most important, considerations.
Again; there are engravings of _different sizes_, and _at different
periods_, of the same individual, or object: and of these, the
varieties are as infinite as of any of those attached to the vegetable
system. I will not attempt even an outline of them. But I had nearly
forgotten to warn you, in your REMBRANDT _Prints_, to look sharply
after _the Burr_!
ALMAN. Mercy on us--what is this _Burr_?!
LYSAND. A slight imperfection only; which, as it rarely occurs, makes
the impression more valuable. It is only a sombre tinge attached to
the copper, before the plate is sufficiently polished by being worked;
and it gives a smeared effect, like smut upon a lady's face, to the
impression! But I am becoming satirical. Which is the next symptom
that you have written down for me to discourse upon?
LIS. I am quite attentive to this delineation of a _Print
Connoisseur_; and will not fail to mark _all the_ REMBRANDT[438]
_varieties_, and take heed to the _Burr_!
[Footnote 438: All the book and print world have heard of
DAULBY'S _Descriptive Catalogue of the works of Rembrandt_,
&c. Liverpool, 1796, 8vo. The author's collection of
Rembrandt's prints (according to a MS. note prefixed to my
copy of it, which is upon _large paper_ in 4to.--of which
_only fifty_ impressions were struck off) was sold at
Liverpool, in 1799, in one lot; and purchased by Messrs.
Colnaghi, Manson, and Vernon, for 610_l._ It was sold in
1800, in separate lots, for 650_l._, exclusively of every
expense; after the purchasers had been offered 800_l._ for
the same. Some of these prints came into the possession of
the late Mr. Woodhouse (vide p. 441, ante); and it is from
the Catalogue of _his_ Collection of prints that I present
the reader with the following
REMBRANDTIANA;
beseeching him to take due heed to what Lysander has above
alluded to by _all the Varieties and the Burr_!
Lot 5 Daulby 30. Abraham entertaining the three angels;
_very_ fine, _with the burr, on India paper_. £2 18_s._
0_d._
10 43. The Angel appearing to the Shepherds; _very fine,
presque unique_. 6 0 0
14 56. The flight into Egypt, in the style of Elsheimer; _on
India paper, the 1st impression, extremely rare_. 4 16 0
22 75. The Hundred Guilder Piece. This impression on India
paper, _with the burr_, is acknowledged by the greatest
connoisseurs in this kingdom to be the most brilliant
extant. 42 0 0
23 75. Ditto, restored plate, by Capt. Baillie, _likewise on
India paper, and very fine_. 2 12 6
25 77. The Good Samaritan; _the 1st impression with the
white tail_, most beautifully finished, with a light point,
and fine hand; very fine and rare. 6 6 0
27 79. Our Lord before Pilate, _second impression on India
paper_, fine _and_ scarce. 5 15 6
28 79. Same subject, third impression, _with the mask,
extremely rare_: from the collection of the Burgomaster Six.
4 4 0
30 84. The Descent from the Cross. This print is beautifully
executed, the composition is grand, and the head full of
character; _1st and most brilliant impression_. 15 15 0
39 117. The Rat-killer; _a most beautiful impression_. 3 3 0
42 126. The Marriage of Jason and Creusa; _a 1st impression,
without the crown_, on India paper, very brilliant. 4 10 0
45 152. The Hog; a remarkably fine impression, from
Houbraken's collection: _scarce_. 1 14 0
46 154. The Shell. This piece is finely executed, and this
impression, _with the white ground, may be regarded as
presque unique_. 9 10 0
47 178. Ledikant, or French Bed. _This is the entire plate,
and is a very great rarity._ 4 14 6
56 194. The Woman with the Arrow: _very scarce_. 2 15 0
61 204. The Three Trees; _as fine as possible_. 6 10 0
63 209. A Village near a high road, arched: _1st impression
on India paper, before the cross hatchings_: scarce. 4 14 6
67 213. A landscape of an irregular form; _1st impression,
with the burr, very scarce_. 5 0 0
82 232. Blement de Jonge; _1st impression, the upper bar of
the chair is left white, extremely rare_. 2 7 0
83 252. Ditto, _second impression_, very _scarce_. 1 7 0
84 252. Ditto, third impression, _very_ fine. 2 10 0
85 253. Abraham France, _with the curtain, on India paper_.
5 5 0
86 353. [Transcriber's Note: 253.] Ditto: _with the chair_.
3 18 0
87 254. Ditto; _with the figures on the paper which he holds
in his wands_. All these impressions are rare and fine. 5 10 0
88 254. Old Haaring or Haring, the Burgo-master; _beautiful
impression on India paper, with the burr, extremely rare_. 7
7 0
89 255. Young Haaring, beautiful impression from Houbraken's
collection; _scarce_. 6 6 0
90 256. John Lutma; _1st impression before the window_, &c.
_extremely rare_. 4 10 3
93 257. John Aselyn; _1st impression, with the easel,
extremely rare_. 9 2 0
97 259. Wtenbogardus, the Dutch Minister; a most beautiful
and brilliant impression, oval, on a square plate; _proof,
before the pillar, arch, verses, or any inscription: presque
unique_. 9 19 6
99 261. The Gold Weigher; _1st impression, with_ THE FACE
BLANK, _extremely rare_. 10 10 0
100 261. Ditto; _a most beautiful and brilliant impression;
and esteemed the_ finest _extant_. From the collection of
Capt. Baillie. 21 0 0
101 262. The Little Coppenol, with the picture; _the second
and rarest impression, generally esteemed the 1st_; from the
Earl of Bute's collection. 7 7 0
102 262. Ditto; without the picture, very fine. 1 13 0
103 263. The great Coppenol, remarkably fine. 4 14 6
104 265. The Advocate Tol; _a superb impression, extremely
rare with the copy_. 54 12 0
145 265. The Burgo-master Six; _a most extraordinary
impression, the name and age of the Burgo-master are
wanting, and the two middle figures in the date are
reversed: a very great rarity_. 36 15 0
Perhaps the finest collection of REMBRANDT'S PRINTS, in
great Britain, is that in the possession of Lord Viscount
Fitzwilliam, at Richmond; a nobleman of extremely retired
habits, and equally distinguished for his taste, candour,
and erudition. His Paintings and Books are of the very first
class.]
LYSAND. Do so; and attend the shops of Mr. Richardson, Mr. Woodburn,
and Mr. Grave, and you may soon have a chance of gratifying your
appetite in these strange particulars. But beware of a HOGARTH rage!
LIS. Is that so formidable?
LYSAND. The longest life were hardly able to make the collection of
Hogarth's prints complete! The late Mr. Ireland has been the Linnæus
to whom we are indebted for the most minute and amusing classification
of the almost innumerable varieties of the impressions of Hogarth's
plates.[439]
[Footnote 439: The Marquis of Bute has, I believe, the most
extraordinary and complete collection of HOGARTH'S PRINTS
that is known. Of the _Election Dinner_ there are six or
seven varieties; gloves, and no gloves; hats, from one to
the usual number; lemon, and no lemon; punch bowl, and no
punch bowl. But of these _varying_ prints, the most curious
is the one known by the name of _Evening_: with a little boy
and girl, crying, in the back-ground. At first, Hogarth did
_not_ paint _the girl_, and struck off very few impressions
of the plate in this state of the picture. A friend
observing to him that the boy was crying with no apparent
cause of provocation, Hogarth put in the little girl
tantalizing him. But--happy he! who has the print of the
'Evening' _without_ the little girl: fifteen golden guineas
(rare things now to meet with!) ought not to induce him to
part with it. Of the copper-plate portraits by Hogarth, the
original of '_Sarah Malcolm, executed_ 1732,' is among the
very rarest; a copy of this selling for 7_l._ 17_s._ 6_d._
at Barnard's sale. The reader has only to procure that most
interesting of all illustrative works, _Hogarth Illustrated
by John Ireland_, 1793, (2d edit.) 3 vols., 8vo.; and, for a
comparatively trifling sum, he may be initiated into all the
mysteries of Hogarthian _virtû_. The late Right Hon. W.
Wyndham's collection of Hogarth's prints, bequeathed to him
by Mr. George Steevens, was _bought in_ for little more than
300 guineas.]
LIS. I will stick to Rembrandt and leave Hogarth at rest. But surely,
this rage for _Portrait Collecting_ cannot be of long duration. It
seems too preposterous for men of sober sense and matured judgment to
yield to.
LYSAND. So think _you_--who are no Collector! But had you accompanied
me to Mr. Christie's on Friday[440] last, you would have had
convincing evidence to the contrary. A little folio volume, filled
with one hundred and fifty-two prints, produced--
[Footnote 440: If the reader casts his eye upon pages 505-6
he will find that the ardour of print and portrait
collecting has not abated since the time of Sir W. Musgrave.
As a corroboration of the truth of Lysander's remark, I
subjoin a specimen (being only four articles) of the present
rage for 'curious and rare' productions of the _burin_--as
the aforesaid Grangerite (p. 507) terms it.
NO. 54. The Right Honourable and truly generous Henry Veere,
Earl of Oxford, Viscount Bulbeck, &c. Lord High Chamberlain
of England. J. Payne sculp. With a large hat and feather,
small, in a border with many figures. Will. Passo, sculp.
Tho. Jenner exc. On distinct plates. _The most brilliant
impression of a print of the greatest rarity._ £30 9_s._
0_d._
63. Generall (Edward) Cecyll son to the Right Honourable the
Earle of Exeter, &c. In an oval; in armour. Simmon Passæs,
sculp. Anno 1618. Sould in Pope's Head Alley, also by John
Sudbury and George Humble. _Most brilliant impression of a
print of the greatest rarity._ 34 2 6
90. The true Portraicture of Richard Whitington, thrise Lord
Mayor of London, a vertuous and godly man, full of good
workes (and those famous) &c. R. Elstracke sculp. Are to be
sold by Compton Holland over against the Exchange: _First
impression with the hand on a skull. Extra fine and rare._
10 10 0
152. Mull'd Sack; a fantastic and humourous Chimney-Sweeper,
so called: with cap, feather, and lace band: cloak tuck'd
up; coat ragged; scarf on his arm; left leg in a fashionable
boot, with a spur; on his right foot a shoe with a rose;
sword by his side, and a holly bush and pole on his
shoulder; in his left hand, another pole with a horn on it;
a pipe, out of which issues smoke, is in his right hand; at
the bottom are eight verses (as given in Granger, vol. ii.,
p. 61). Are to be sold by Compton Holland over against the
Exchange, with further manuscript account by a provost of
Eton. _Considered Unique_ [but not so]. 42 10 6]
LIS. Perhaps, Three Hundred Guineas?
LYSAND. Just double the sum, I believe.
LIS. O rare JAMES GRANGER--thy immortality is secured! But we forget
our symptoms of the Bibliomania.
BELIN. As I am the examiner, I here demand of you, Sir, what may be
the meaning of the _fourth symptom_ of the bibliomaniacal disease,
which you call UNIQUE COPIES?
LYSAND. A passion for a book of which only one copy was printed, or
which has any peculiarity about it[441] by either, or both, of the
foregoing methods of illustration--or which is remarkable for its
size, beauty, and condition--or has any embellishment, rare, precious
and invaluable--which the researches of the most sedulous
bibliomaniac, for three and thirty long years, would not be able to
produce--is indicative of a rage for _unique copies_; and is
unquestionably a strong prevailing symptom of the Bibliomania. Let me
therefore urge every sober and cautious collector not to be fascinated
by the terms "_Curious and rare_;" which 'in slim italics' (to copy
Dr. Ferriar's happy expression[442]) are studiously introduced into
Booksellers' catalogues to lead the unwary astray. Such a Collector
may fancy himself proof against the temptation; and will, in
consequence, call _only to look at_ this unique book, or set of books;
but--led away by the passion which inflamed BERRYER and
CAILLARD[443]--when he views the morocco binding, silk water-tabby
lining, blazing gilt edges; when he turns over the white and unspotted
leaves; gazes on the amplitude of margin; on a rare and lovely print
introduced; and is charmed with the soft and coaxing manner in which,
by the skill of Herring, Mackinlay, Rodwell, Lewis, or Faulkener,
"leaf succeeds to leaf"--he can no longer bear up against the
temptation; and, confessing himself vanquished, purchases, and
retreats--exclaiming with Virgil's shepherd----
Ut vidi, ut perii--ut me malus abstulit error!
[Footnote 441: Let us again quote a stanza from the
'Aspirant:'
FOURTH MAXIM.
Who in _all_ copies finds delight--
The wrong not scenting from the right--
And, with a choiceless appetite,
Just comes to _feed_, ... like Soph, or Templar,
Out on his iron stomach!--_we_
Have rarities we merely _see_,
Nor taste our Phoenix though it be ...
Serv'd up in the "UNIQUE EXEMPLAR,"
_Bibliosophia_, p. v.
One of the most curious proofs of the seductive popularity
of unique copies may be drawn from the following excerpt
from a catalogue of a Library sold at Utrecht in 1776; which
was furnished me by Mr. H. Ellis from a copy of the
catalogue in the possession of Mr. Cayley of the
Augmentation Office.
NO. 6870. Les Avantures de Telemaque, 8o. Rotterd. _av.
fig. en cart._ 'Cet exemplaire est tout _barbouillé_. Mais
il est _de la main de la jeune Princesse Wilhelmine Auguste
de Saxe-Weimar, qui y a appris le François en_ 1701!!!'
I will mention a unique copy of a somewhat different cast of
character. Of the magnificent and matchless edition of
Shakspeare, printed by Mr. Bulmer and published by Mr.
Nicols, between the years 1790 and 1805, there were one
hundred copies, of the first six plays only, struck off upon
imperial folio, or _Colombier paper_; in which the large
engravings, published at the Shakspeare Gallery (now the
British Institution) might be incorporated and bound up. The
late George Steevens undertook the revision of the text,
intending to complete the entire plays in a similar form;
but the trouble and expense attending this part of the
undertaking were so great that the further prosecution of it
was abandoned. Mr. Bulmer preserved the whole of the
proof-sheets of this partial Colombier impression; and to
form a '_unique_ edition' (these are his own words) he bound
them up in the exact order in which the plays were printed.
On the margins of many of the sheets, besides the various
corrections, emendations, and notes to the printer, by Mr.
Steevens, there are some original sonnets, a scene for a
burlesque tragedy, and other happy effusions from the pen of
the same elegant and learned editor. Need I ask the reader,
whether he would have the _barbouillé_ (unique) copy of
Telemaque of the young Princesse Wilhelmine Auguste de
Saxe-Weimar (like the Vicar of Wakefield, I like to give the
full name) or Mr. Bulmer's similar copy of Shakspeare? The
difference would soon be found in King Street or the Strand!
I must mention one more example--of a nature different from
both the preceding--of what Lysander has above, elaborately,
and perhaps, a little confusedly, described as unique
copies. It is Colonel Stanley's copy of _De Bry_ (see a
superb one before noticed) which is bound in seven folio
volumes, in blue morocco, by Padaloup, and is considered
superior to every known copy. It contains all the maps and
prints, with their variations, according to the
_Bibliographie Instructive_, no. 4230, _Cat. de Paris de
Meyzieu_, 1790; no. 486, _Cat. de Santander_, no.
3690; and _Camus sur les Collections des Grands et Petits
Voyages_, 1802, 4to.: with both editions of the first nine
parts of the West Indies, and duplicates of parts x. and xi.
It has also a considerable number of duplicate plates, where
a superior impression could be procured at any expense. The
owner of this unique copy, of a work unrivalled for its
utility and elegance, is distinguished for a noble
collection, bound by our choicest binders, in whatever is
splendid and precious in the Belles Lettres, Voyages, and
Travels. Take two more illustrations, kind-hearted
reader!----_Goldsmith's Deserted Village_, 1802. Mr. Bulmer
printed a single copy of this beautiful poem, in quarto,
UPON SATIN--picked and prepared in a very curious manner. It
was purchased by a foreigner. His impressions UPON VELLUM
are noticed, post.----_Falconer's Shipwreck_, 1804, 8vo. Mr.
Miller caused _two_ copies only (is [Transcriber's Note: it]
is _almost_ unique!) of this beautiful edition, printed by
Bensley, to be struck off UPON SATIN, in imperial 8vo. One
of these copies now remains with him for sale.]
[Footnote 442: The passage, above alluded to, is as follows:
At ev'ry auction, bent on fresh supplies,
He cons his catalogue with anxious eyes:
Where'er the slim Italics mark the page,
_Curious and rare_ his ardent mind engage.
_The Bibliomania_; v. 54.]
[Footnote 443: A slight mention of Mons. Berryer, the
father-in-law of Lamoignon, is made at p. 84, ante. The
reader is here presented with a more finished portrait of
this extraordinary bibliomaniac: a portrait, which will
excite his unbounded admiration, if not envy!--for such a
careful and voluptuous collector, in regard to _binding_,
was, I believe, never before known; nor has he been since
eclipsed. 'M. Berryer, successivement Secrétaire d'Etat au
Département de la Marìne, Ministre, puis Garde des Sceaux de
France, s'étoit occupé pendant près de quarante années à se
former un cabinet des plus beaux livres grecs et latins,
anciennes éditions, soit de France, soit des pays étrangers,
&c. Par un soin et une patience infatigables, à l'aide de
plusieurs coopérateurs éclairés, savans même en
Bibliographie, qui connoissoient ses études, délassement de
ses places, il avoit recueilli les plus belles éditions; de
telle sorte qu'il a toujours su se procurer un exemplaire
parfait de chaque édition par un moyen simple quoique
dispendieux. Si les Catalogues des ventes publiques lui
apprenoient qu'il existoit un exemplaire _plus beau, plus
grand de marge, mieux conservé_, de tout auteur, &c., que
celui qu'il possédoit, il le fasoit acquérir sans
s'embarrasser du prix, et il se défaisoit à perte de
l'exemplaire moins beau. La majeure partie des auteurs
anciens et modernes de son cabinet a été changée huit ou dix
fois de cette manière. Il ne _s'arrêtoit_ qu'après s'être
assuré qu'il avoit _le plus bel exemplaire connu_, soit pour
la marge, soit pour la force du papier, soit pour la
magnificence de la conservation et _de la relieure_.' 'A
l'égard des ouvrages d'editions modernes, même celles faites
en pays étranger, M. Berryer vouloit les avoir en feuilles:
il en faisoit choisir, dans plusieurs exemplaires, un
parfait, et il le faisoit relier _en maroquin de choix_; le
Ministere de la Marìne qu'il avoit rempli, lui ayant donné
toutes les facilités d'en être abondamment et fidèlement
pourvu dans toutes les Echelles du Levant. On collationnoit
ensuite pour vérifier s' il n'y avoit ni transposition, ni
omission de feuilles ou de pages?!!' _Cat. M. Lamoignon_,
1791. pref. p. ij. iij. Berryer was slightly copied by
Caillard (of whom see p. 76, ante) in the luxury of
_book-binding_. 'M. Caillard avoit le soin _de faire
satiner_ presque tous livres qu'il faisoit relier, et
principalement les grands ouvrages; qu'il est difficile
d'avoir parfaitement reliés sans ce precedé.' _Cat. de
Caillard_; p. x. (avertisement.) But I know not whether
Caillard did not catch the phrensy from the elder Mirabeau.
In the catalogue of his books, p. II., we are thus told of
him:--'l'acquisition d'un _beau livre_ lui causoit des
transports de joie inexprimables: il l'examinoit, l'admiriot
[Transcriber's Note: l'admiroit]: il vouloit que chacun
partagêat avec lui le même enthousiasme.' His biographer
properly adds: 'De quelle surprise n'auroit-on pas été, si
l'on eût su que c'etoit la le même homme qui, du haut de la
tribune, faisoit trembler les despotes et les factieux!'
Ponder here, gentle reader, upon the effects of a
_beautiful_ book! Let no one, however, imagine that we
_grave Englishmen_ are averse or indifferent to 'le luxe de
la relieure'!! No: at this present moment, we have the best
bookbinders in Europe; nor do we want good authority for the
encouragement of this fascinating department relating to the
Bibliomania. Read here what Mr. Roscoe hath so eloquently
written in commendation of it: 'A taste for the exterior
decoration of books has lately arisen in this country, in
the gratification of which no small share of ingenuity has
been displayed; but if we are to judge of the present
predilection for learning by the degree of expense thus
incurred, we must consider it as greatly inferior to that of
the Romans during the times of the first Emperors, or of the
Italians at the 15th century. And yet it is, perhaps,
difficult to discover why a FAVOURITE BOOK should not be as
proper an object of elegant ornament as the head of a cane,
the hilt of a sword, or the latchet of a shoe.' _Lorenzo de
Medici_; vol. ii., 79, 8vo. edition. Did Geyler allude to
such bibliomaniacs in the following sentence? Sunt qui
libros inaurant et serica tegimenta apponunt preciosa et
superba. Grandis hæc fatuitas! _Navicula, sive Speculum
Fatuorum_; (Navis Stultifera) _sign. B. v. rev._]
BELIN. For the benefit--not of the 'Country Gentlemen,' but--of the
'Country Ladies,' do pray translate these Latin words. We are always
interested about the pastoral life.
LIS. It only means, Belinda, that this said shepherd was blockhead
enough to keep gazing upon his beloved fair, although every glance
shot him through the heart, and killed him a hundred times. Still he
caressed the cause of his ruin. And so bibliomaniacs hug the very
volumes of which they oftentimes know they cannot afford the purchase
money! I have not forgotten your account of Dr. Dee:[444] but the
ladies were then absent.
[Footnote 444: See p. 262, ante.]
BELIN. Well, let us now go on to the explanation of the _fifth
symptom_ of the Bibliomania; which you have called, Copies PRINTED
UPON VELLUM!
LYSAND. A desire for books printed in this manner[445] is an equally
strong and general symptom of the Biblomania; but, as these works are
rarely to be obtained of modern date, the collector is obliged to have
recourse to specimens executed, three centuries ago, in the printing
offices of Aldus, Verard, or the Giunti. Although the _Bibliotheque
Imperiale_, at Paris, and the library of Count M'Carthy, at Toulouse,
are said to contain the greatest number of books, printed upon vellum,
yet, those who have been fortunate enough to see copies of this kind
in the libraries of his Majesty, the Duke of Marlborough, Earl
Spencer, Mr. Johnes, and the late Mr. Cracherode (which latter is now
in the British Museum) need not travel on the Continent for the sake
of being convinced of their exquisite beauty and splendour. An
_unique_ copy of the first Livy, upon vellum, (of which the owner has
excited the envy of foreigners) is a library of itself!--and the
existence of vellum copies of Wynkyn De Worde's reprint of _Juliana
Barnes's Book of Hawking, &c._, complete in every respect, (to say
nothing of his Majesty's similar copy of Caxton's _Doctrinal of
Sapience_, in the finest preservation) are sufficient demonstrations
of the prevalance of this symptoms of the Bibliomania in the times of
our forefathers; so that it cannot be said, as some have asserted, to
have appeared entirely within the last half century.
[Footnote 445: William Horman, who was head master of Eton
school at the opening of the sixteenth century, was, I
apprehend, the earliest writer in this country who
propagated those symptoms of the Bibliomania indicative of a
passion for _large paper_ and _vellum_ copies; for thus
writes the said Horman, in his _Vulgaria_, printed by
Pynson, in folio, 1519: a book, curious and interesting upon
every account. 'The greatest and highest of price, is _paper
imperial_. (Herbert, vol i., p. 265.) _Parchment leaves_ be
wont to be ruled, that there may be a _comely margent_:
also, strait lines of equal distance be draw[en] within,
that the writing may shew fair,' _fol._ 82. From these two
sentences (without quoting Horman's praise of the presses of
Froben and Aldus; fol. 87) I think it may be fairly inferred
that a love of _large paper_ and _vellum_ copies was
beginning to display itself in the period just mentioned.
That this love or passion is now eagerly and generally
evinced, I shall proceed to give abundant proof; but first
let me not forget our bibliomaniacal satirist:
FIFTH MAXIM.
Who blindly take the book display'd
By pettifoggers in the trade.
Nor ask of what the leaf was made,
That _seems like paper_--I can tell 'em,
That though 'tis possible to squint
Through any page with letters in't,
No copy, though an angel print,
Reads elegantly--but "on VELLUM."
_Bibliosophia_, p. VI.
I proceed to give evidence of the present passion which
prevails, respecting books of the description of which we
are now speaking, by extracting a few articles from the
library of which such honourable mention was made at p.
448-9, ante. They are all
WORKS PRINTED UPON VELLUM.
NO. 241. Epistolæ Beati Jeronimi. Impressio Moguntinæ facta
per Virum famatum in hæc arte Petrum Schoiffer de Gernsheym,
2 vols., 1470. _A fine specimen of a grand book, superbly
bound in blue turkey._ Folio. £28 _s._7 0_d._
242. Sexti Decretalium Opus præclarum Bonifacii VII., Pont.
Max. In Nobili Urbe Moguncia non Atramento è plumali ereâque
Pennâ Cannâve per Petrum Schoiffer de Gernsheym consummatum.
A.D. 1476. _A most beautiful work, superbly bound in blue
turkey._ 19 19 0
253. [Transcriber's Note: 243.] Constitutiones Clementis Papæ
Quinti, unà cum apparatu Domini Joannis Andreæ. Venetiis impress.
Ere atque Industriâ Nicolai Jenson Gallici, 1476. _A most
beautiful specimen of clean vellum, with a fine illumination,
bound in purple velvet._ Folio. 21 10 0
244. Leonora, from the German of Burgher, by Mr. Spencer,
with the designs of Lady Diana Beauclerc, 1796. Folio. 25 4 0
_A beautiful unique copy, with the plates worked on satin,
superbly bound in blue turkey._
245. Dryden's Fables, with engravings from the pencil of
Lady Beauclerc. _A beautiful unique copy, splendidly bound
in morocco, with the plates worked on satin._ 34 13 0
246. Missale Monasticum secundum Ritum et consuetudinem
Ordinis Gallæ Umbrosæ. Venetiis, per Ant. de Giunta
Florentinum, 1503. _A most beautiful copy of a very rare
book, with plates and illuminations, bound in morocco._
Folio. 13 3 6
247. Postilla super Libros N. Testamenti Fratris Nicolai de
Lyra. Venet. per Joan. de Colonia et Nic. Jenson, 1481. _A
fine specimen of beautiful vellum, with illuminations, bound
in blue turkey._ Folio. 17 17 0
248. The German Bible, by Martin Luther, 2 vols. Augspurg,
1535, folio. _A most fair, and beautiful copy, with coloured
plates, in the finest preservation, and bound in crimson
velvet, with two cases._--'The copies on vellum of this fine
edition were printed at the charges of John Frederick,
Elector of Saxony, (vide Panzer).' Folio. 52 10 0
249. Le Livre de Jehan Bocasse de la Louenge et Vertu des
nobles et Cleres Dames. Paris, _par Ant. Verard_, 1493. _A
beautiful work, with curious illuminations, finely bound in
blue turkey._ Folio. 14 14 0
250. Virgilii Opera curâ Brunck. Argentorati, 1789. _An
unique copy, bound in morocco, with a case._ Quarto. 33 12 0
251. Somervile's Chace, a Poem, with fine plates on wood, by
Bewick. Printed by Bulmer, 1796. Quarto. _A beautiful unique
copy, splendidly bound in green, morocco._ 15 4 6
252. Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell, with fine plates on
wood by Bewick. Printed by Bulmer, 1795. _A beautiful unique
copy, superbly bound in green morocco._ 15 15 0
253. The Gardens, a poem, by the Abbe de Lisle, with fine
plates by Bartolozzi, coloured. Printed by Bensley, 1798. _A
fine book, and bound in green morocco._ Quarto. 14 3 6
254. The Castle of Otranto, by the Earl of Oxford. Printed
at Parma, 1791. _A fine copy elegantly bound in blue
morocco._ Quarto. 13 2 6
255. Coustumes du Pais de Normandie. Rouen, 1588. _A
beautiful unique copy, on fine white vellum, the
presentation copy to the Duke de Joyeuse; in old morocco._
14 3 6
256. P. Virgilii Maronis Codex antiquissimus in Bibliotheca
Mediceo-Laurentiana. Florent. 1741. _A curious facsimile of
the old MS. bound in yellow morocco_, 4to. 17 17 0
257. Junius's Letters, 4 vols., 8vo. Printed by Bensley,
1796. _A beautiful unique copy, with the plates also worked
on vellum, bound in morocco._ 25 4 0
258. Il Castello di Otranto, storia Gotica, Lond. 1795.
_Beautifully printed, with fine cuts, illuminated, bound in
morocco._ 4 16 0
259. Milton's Paradise Regained, Poems, and Sonnets, and
Latin Poems, with notes, 3 vols. Printed by Bensley, 1796,
8vo. _A unique and beautiful copy, bound in blue turkey._ 17
6 6
260. La Guirlande de Julie offerte a Mademoiselle de
Rambouillet, par le Marq. de Montausier. Paris de l'Imprim.
de Monsieur, 1784, 8vo. 'This matchless book is embellished
with exquisite miniatures, paintings of flowers, and wreaths
of flowers, to illustrate the work, and is one of the most
exquisite performances ever produced;' _superbly bound in
green morocco_.
[30 guineas were bidden; but the book was passed on and not
sold.]
261. La Vedova, Commedia facetissima di Nic. Buonaparte
Cittadino Florentino. Paris, 1803, 8vo. A curious work by an
ancestor of the First Consul; _a beautiful unique copy,
superbly bound in red morocco_. 4 4 0
262. The Old English Baron, a Gothic story, by Clara Reeve,
1794, 8vo. _Richly bound in blue turkey._ 2 0 0
263. The Oeconomy of Human Life, with fine plates, 1795.
_A beautiful unique copy, with the plates finely tinted in
colours and superbly bound in morocco_, 8vo. 15 15 0
264. Dr. Benjamin Franklin's Works. Paris, 1795, 8vo. _A
beautiful unique copy, and bound in crimson velvet._ 5 0 0
265. The Dance of Death. Painted by Holbein, and engraved by
Hollar, _a beautiful unique copy, with the plates
exquisitely painted, and very richly bound in red morocco_.
17 17 0
266. La Gerusalemme liberata di Torquato Tasso, 4 vols.
Parigi Presso Molini, 1783, 8vo. _A beautiful copy, bound in
green morocco._ 9 19 6
267. Catullus, Tibullus, et Propertius, 3 vols. Par. ap.
Coustelier, 1743, 8vo. _A singularly beautiful copy, and
bound in old blue turkey._ 14 14 0
268. Opere Toscane di Luigi Alamanni. Leoni. ap. Gryphia,
1552. _A most beautiful copy, presented to King Francis I.
of France: old morocco._ 6 6 0
269. A New Testament in German. Augsburg, 1535, 12mo. A fine
copy, with illuminations, of a very rare edition. 2 7 0
Lysander has above noticed the collection of Count M'Carthy
of Toulouse. By the kindness of Mr. Roche, banker, at Cork,
I learn that this collection 'is a truly splendid one.' The
possessor's talents are not confined to the partial walk of
bibliography: in his younger years, he was considered one of
the first gentlemen-violin players in Europe. He quitted
Ireland forty years ago, and now resides at Toulouse, in his
70th year, surrounded by a numerous and respectable family.
His leading passion, in book-collecting, (like his
countryman's, poor Mr. Quin--who gave 170 guineas for the
Spira Virgil of 1470, _in membranis_!) is marked by a
fondness for works _printed upon vellum_. From Mr. Roche,
Mr. Edwards, and other quarters, I am enabled to present the
reader with a list of a _few_ of
COUNT M'CARTHY'S BOOKS UPON VELLUM.
Psalmorum Codex; _Mogunt._ _Fust and Schoiffer._ Folio, 1457.
---- ----; _ibid._ _apud eosdem._ Folio, 1459.
Durandi Rationale; _ibid._ _apud eosdem._ Folio, 1459.
_Clementis Papæ V.
Constitutiones_; _ibid._ _apud eosdem._ Folio, 1460.
---- ---- ---- ----; _ibid._ _apud eosdem._ Folio, 1467.
Catholicon; _ibid._ _apud eosdem._ Folio, 1460.
Biblia Sacra Latina; _ibid._ _apud eosdem._ Folio, 1462.
[His Majesty and Earl Spencer possess similar copies of
these works.]
Franciscus de Retras
Comment. Vitiorum; _Nuremb._ Folio, 1470.
Hieronimi Epistolæ; _Mogunt._ _Fust and Schoiffer._ Folio, 1470.
(Another copy: very large thick paper.)
Priscianus de Art.
Grammat. _Venet._ _Vin. Spira._ Folio, 1470.
(See p. 407, ante.)
Liber Sextus
Decretalium
Bonif. Papæ
VIII. _Mogunt._ Folio, 1470.
Guarini Regulæ; Quarto, 1470.
Quintiliani
Institutiones; _Jenson_, Folio, 1471.
Baptista de Alberti
de Amore; Quarto, 1471.
de Amoris Remedio: Quarto, 1471.
Biblia in Ling. Volg. Folio, 1471,
2 vols.
Historia Natur. de
Plinio tradotto
da Landino; _Jenson, Venet._ 1476.
(A similar copy is in Mr. Coke's library at Holkam;
illuminated, and in magnificent condition.)
Biblia Sacra
Polyglotta;
Ximenis; _Complut._ Folio, 1516,
&c., 6 vols.
(See page 407, ante; for a brief account of this
extraordinary copy.)
Plutarchi Vitæ
(Lat.); _Venet._ _N. Jenson._ Folio, 1478.
vol. 1.
Aristotelis Opera
Varia (Lat.); _Venet._ Folio, 1483.
3 vols.
(This was the Pinelli copy, and was purchased for 73_l._
10_s._)
Statii Achilles; _Brixiæ._ Folio, 1485.
Chroniques de
France, dictes de
St. Denys; _Paris._ Folio, 1493.
vol. 2 & 3.
Anthologia Græca; _Florent._ Quarto, 1494.
Lancelot du Lac; _Paris._ _Verard_, Folio, 1494.
vol. 2.
Boccace des nobles
Malheureux; _ibid._ Folio, 1494.
Appollonius Rhodius; _Florent._ Quarto, 1496.
Destruction de Troy
le Grant; _Paris._ Folio, 1498.
Poliphili
Hyperonotomachia; _Venet._ Folio, 1499.
Mer des Histores; _Paris._ Folio, (no
date) 2 vols.
Monstrelet Chronique
de; _Paris._ Folio, (no
date) 3 vols.
Roman de la Rose; _Paris._ _Verard._ Folio, (no
date)
---- de Tristan; _ibid._ _id._ (no date)
---- d' Ogier le
Danois; _ibid._ _id._ (no date)
---- de Melis et
Lenin; _ibid._ _id._ (no date)
I have heard that Count M'Carthy's books do not exceed 4000
in number; and of these, perhaps, no private collector in
Europe has an equal number printed upon vellum. In our own
country, however, the finest VELLUM LIBRARY in the world
might be composed from the collections of His Majesty, the
Duke of Marlborough, Earl Spencer, Sir M.M. Sykes, Bart.,
Mr. Johnes, Mr. Coke, and the Quin collection. Yet let us
not forget the finest _vellum copy_ in the world of the
first edition of _Aristotle's works_ (wanting one volume)
which may be seen in the library of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford. Of Mr. Edward's _similar_ copy _of the first Livy_,
Lysander and myself (vide Part III.) have spoken like honest
bibliomaniacs. Earl Spencer possesses the rival volume,
printed by the same printers, (Sweynheym and Pannartz) and
upon the same material, in his Pliny Senior of 1470--But let
all quiet bibliomaniacs wait with patience till the work of
Mons. Praet upon this subject, alluded to at p. 68, ante,
shall have made its appearance! and then--let us see whether
we can prevail upon some Gnome to transport to us, through
the 'thin air,' Pynson's '_Ship of Fools_' UPON VELLUM!!]
LIS. Are we as successful in printing upon vellum as were our
forefathers?
LYSAND. Certainly not; if we except some of the works from the press
of Bodoni--which are oftentimes truly brilliant. But the fault, in
general, is rather in the preparation of the vellum than in the
execution of the press-work.
LOREN. You have seen, Lisardo, my small volumes of '_Heures_,' or
'_Missals_,' as they are called; some of them in MS. and others in
print--and what can be more delicate than the texture of the vellum
leaves, or more perfect than the execution of penmanship and printing?
ALMAN. I have often set whole hours, my dear brother, in contemplating
with rapture the sparkling radiance of these little volumes; and wish
in my heart I had a few favourite authors executed in a similar
manner! I should like to employ Bodoni[446] for life.
[Footnote 446: It is not because Bodoni printed better than
our popular printers--that his books upon vellum are more
beautiful than those produced by the London presses--but
that the Italian vellum (made of the abortive calf) is, in
general, more white and delicate. There is not, perhaps, a
lovelier little VELLUM BOOK in existence than the _Castle of
Otranto_, printed by Bodoni in 1796, 8vo. A copy of this,
with the plates worked on white satin, was in the collection
of Mr. G.G. Mills; and sold at the sale of his books in
1800; no. 181; see p. 447, ante. From the former
authority it would appear that only six copies were printed
in this manner. By the kindness of Mr. Edwards, I am in
possession of a '_Lettera Pastorale_' of Fr. Adeodato
Turchi--a small tract of 38 pages--printed upon paper, by
Bodoni, in a style of uncommon delicacy: having all the
finish and picturesque effect of copper-plate execution. But
the chef d'oeuvre of Bodoni seems to be an edition of
_Homer_, in three great folio volumes, each consisting of
370 pages, with the text only. The artist employed six years
in the preparations, and the printing occupied eighteen
months. One hundred and forty copies only were struck off.
The copy presented to Bonaparte was UPON VELLUM, of a size
and brilliancy altogether unparalleled. _American Review_,
no. 1., p. 171. January, 1811. In our admiration of
Bodoni, let us not forget DIDOT: who printed a single copy
of _Voltaire's Henriade_ UPON VELLUM, in quarto, with a
brilliancy of execution, and perfection of vellum, which can
never be suppassed [Transcriber's Note: surpassed]. This
copy formerly belonged to a Farmer General, one of Didot's
most intimate friends, who perished in the Revolution. Didot
also printed a number of copies of French translations of
English works, upon the same material: so correct,
beautiful, and tasteful, that Mr. Bulmer assures me nothing
could exceed it. All these small richly-feathered birds were
once here, but have now taken their flight to a warmer
climate. Our modern books upon vellum are little short of
being downright wretched. I saw the _Life of Nelson_, in two
large quartos, printed in this manner; and it would have
been the first work which I should have recommended a
first-rate collector to have thrown out of his library.[G]
Many of the leaves were afflicted with the jaundice beyond
hope of cure. The censure which is here thrown out upon
others reaches my own doors: for I attempted to execute a
single copy of my _Typographical Antiquities_ upon vellum,
with every possible attention to printing and to the
material upon which it was to be executed. But I failed in
every point: and this single wretchedly-looking book, had I
presevered [Transcriber's Note: persevered] in executing my
design, would have cost me about _seventy-five_ guineas!]
[Footnote G: This book was printed at Bolt Court during the
apprenticeship of the printer of this edit. of Biblio., who
speaking from remembrance, ventures to suggest that the
above remark is rather too strong--although there was
confessedly a great deal of trouble in procuring good
vellum. He believes only _one_ copy was done; it was the
property of Alexander Davidson, Esq. Banker, and, being in
his library in Ireland, when the mansion was burned down, it
was destroyed. He had insured it for £600--the Insurance
office disputed his claim, and a trial at Dublin took place.
The late Mr. Bensley was subpoenaed to give evidence of
its value, but, being reluctant to go, he persuaded the
parties that Warwick, one of his pressmen, who worked it
off, was a better witness; he accordingly went, his evidence
succeeding in establishing Mr. Davidson's claim. This same
Warwick worked off many of the splendid specimens of
typography mentioned in _Bibliomania_, being one of the very
best workmen in the Printing business--particularly in
wood-cuts. He afterwards became private printer to the late
Sir Egerton Bridges, Bart., at Lee Priory--and is long since
dead.]
LIS. I could go on, 'till midnight, indulging my wishes of having
favourite books printed upon vellum leaves; and at the head of these I
would put _Crammer's Bible_ for I want scholarship sufficient to
understand the _Complutensian Polyglott of Cardinal Ximenes_.[447]
[Footnote 447: See pages 160, 407, ante.]
BERLIN. [Transcriber's Note: Belin.] So much for the _Vellum Symptom_.
Proceed we now to the _sixth_: which upon looking at my memoranda, I
find to be the FIRST EDITIONS. What is the meaning of this odd
symptom?
LYSAND. From the time of Ancillon to Askew, there has been a very
strong desire expressed for the possesssion [Transcriber's Note:
possession] of _original_ or _first published editions_[448] of works;
as they are in general superintended and corrected by the author
himself, and, like the first impressions of prints are considered more
valuable. Whoever is possessed with a passion for collecting books of
this kind, may unquestionably be said to exhibit a strong symptom of
the Bibliomania: but such a case is not quite hopeless, nor is it
deserving of severe treatment or censure. All bibliographers have
dwelt on the importance of these editions[449] for the sake of
collation with subsequent ones; and of detecting, as is frequently the
case, the carelessness displayed by future editors. Of such importance
is the _first edition Shakspeare_[450] considered, on the score of
correctness, that a fac-simile reprint of it has been recently
published. In regard to the Greek and Latin Classics, the possession
of these original editions is of the first consequence to editors who
are anxious to republish the legitimate text of an author. Wakefield,
I believe, always regretted that the first edition of Lucretius had
not been earlier inspected by him. When he began _his_ edition, the
Editio Princeps was not (as I have understood) in that storehouse of
almost every thing which is exquisite and rare in ancient and modern
classical literature--need I add the library of Earl Spencer?[451]
[Footnote 448: All German and French bibliographers class
these FIRST EDITIONS among rare books; and nothing is more
apt to seduce a noviciate in bibliography into error than
the tempting manner in which, by aid of capital or italic
types, these EDITIONES PRIMARIÆ or _Editiones Principes_ are
set forth in the most respectable catalogues published
abroad as well as at home. But before we enter into
particulars, we must not forget that this sixth sympton
[Transcriber's Note: symptom] of the Bibliomania has been
thus pungently described in the poetical strains of an
"aspirant!"
SIXTH MAXIM.
Who of Editions recks the least,
But, when that hog, his mind would feast
Fattens the intellectual beast
With old, or new, without ambition,--
I'll teach the pig to soar on high,
(If pigs had pinions, by the bye)
How'er the _last_ may _satisfy_,
The _bonne bouche_ is the "FIRST EDITION."
_Bibliosophia_; p. VI.
These first editions are generally, with respect to foreign
works, printed in the fifteenth or in the early part of the
sixteenth century: and indeed we have a pretty rich
sprinkling of a similar description of first editions
executed in our own country. It is not, therefore, without
justice that we are described, by foreign bibliographers, as
being much addicted to this class of books: "With what
avidity, and at what great prices, this character of books
is obtained by the Dutch, and _especially by the English_,
the very illustrious Zach. Conrad ab Uffenbach shews, in the
preface to the second volume of his catalogue." Vogt; p.
xx., edit. 1793. There is a curious and amusing article in
Bayle (English edition, vol i., 672, &c.) about the elder
Ancillon, who frankly confessed that he "was troubled with
the Bibliomania, or disease of buying books." Mr. D'Israeli
says that he "always purchased _first editions_, and never
waited for second ones," but I find it, in the English
Bayle, note D, "he chose _the best_ editions." The manner in
which Ancillon's library was pillaged by the Ecclesiastics
of Metz (where it was considered as the most valuable
curiosity in the town) is thus told by Bayle: "Ancillon was
obliged to leave Metz: a company of Ecclesiastics, of all
orders, came from every part, to lay hands on this fine and
copious library, which had been collected with the utmost
care during forty years. They took away a great number of
the books together; and gave a little money, as they went
out, to a young girl, of twelve or thirteen years of age,
who looked after them, that they might have it to say they
had _paid for them_. Thus Ancillon saw that valuable
collection dispersed, in which, as he was wont to say, his
chief pleasure and even his heart was placed!"--Edit. 1734.
A pleasant circumstance, connected with our present subject,
occurred to the Rev. Dr. Charles Burney. At a small sale of
books which took place at Messrs. King and Lochée's, some
few years ago, the Doctor sent a commission, for some old
grammatical treatises; and calling with Mr. Edwards to see
the success of the commission, the latter, in the true
spirit of bibliomaniacism, pounced upon an anciently-bound
book, in the lot, which turned out to be--nothing less than
the _first edition_ of MANILIUS by Regiomontanus: one of the
very scarcest books in the class of those of which we are
treating! By the liberality of the purchaser, this _primary
bijou_ now adorns the noble library of the Bishop of Ely.]
[Footnote 449: An instance of this kind may be adduced from
the _first edition_ of Fabian, printed in 1516; of which
Chronicle Messrs. Longman, Hurst, and Co. have just
published a new edition, superintended by Mr. H. Ellis, and
containing various readings from all the editions at the
foot of the text. "The antiquary," says the late Mr. BRAND,
"is desired to consult the edition of Fabian, printed by
Pynson, in 1516, because there are others, and I remember to
have seen one in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with a
continuation to the end of Queen Mary, 1559, in which the
language is much modernized." _Shakspeare_, edit. 1803, vol.
xviii., pp. 85, 86. See also what has been before said (p.
233.) of an _after_ edition of Speed.]
[Footnote 450: A singular story is "extant" about the
purchase of the late Duke of Roxburgh's copy of the first
edition of Shakspeare. A friend was bidding for him in the
sale-room: his Grace had retired to one end of the room,
coolly to view the issue of the contest. The biddings rose
quickly to 20 guineas; a great sum in former times: but the
Duke was not to be daunted or defeated. A slip of paper was
handed to him, upon which the propriety of continuing the
contest was suggested. His Grace took out his pencil; and,
with a coolness which would have done credit to Prince
Eugene, he wrote on the same slip of paper, by way of reply--
lay on Macduff!
And d----d be he who first cries "Hold, enough!"
Such a spirit was irresistible, and bore down all
opposition. The Duke was of course declared victor, and he
marched off, triumphantly, with the volume under his arm.
Lord Spencer has a fine copy of this first edition of
Shakspeare, collated by Steevens himself.]
[Footnote 451: We raise the column to the hero who has
fought our battles by sea or land; and we teach our children
to look up with admiration and reverence towards an object
so well calculated to excite the best sympathies of the
human heart. All this is well; and may it never be
neglected! But there are other characters not less noble,
and of equal glory to a great nation like our own; and they
are those who, to the adventitious splendour of hereditary
rank, add all the worth and talent of a private condition,
less exposed to temptation, and suited to the cultivation of
peaceful and literary pursuits. Such a character is GEORGE
JOHN EARL SPENCER! A nobleman, not less upright and weighty
in the senate than polished and amiable in private life;
who, cool and respected amidst the violence of party, has
filled two of the most important offices of state in a
manner at once popular and effective; and who, to his
general love of the fine arts, and acquaintance with
classical literature, has superadded the noble achievement
of having collected the finest private library in Europe!
The reader has already met with sufficient mention of this
collection to justify what is here said in commendation of
it.... In the deepest recess of Althorpe Park--where the
larch and laurustinus throw their dark yet pleasing
shade--and where
----pinus ingens, albaque populus
Umbram hospitalem consociare amant
Ramis--
let the Doric Temple be raised, with its white-marbled
columns, sacred to the memory of this ILLUSTRIOUS NOBLEMAN!
Let his bust, in basso-relievo, with appropriate
embellishments, adorn the most conspicuous compartment
within: and peace and virtue, and filial affection, will, I
am sure, be the guardians of so cherished a spot!
[Illustration: ARMS OF EARL SPENCER.
DIEU DEFEND LE DROIT]]
It must not, however, be forgotten that, if first editions are, in
some instances, of great importance, they are in many respects
superfluous, and only incumber the shelves of a collector; inasmuch as
the labours of subsequent editors have corrected the errors of their
predecessors, and superseded, by a great fund of additional matter,
the necessity of consulting them. Thus, not to mention other instances
(which present themselves while noticing the present one), all the
fine things which Colomiés and Reimannus have said about the rarity of
La Croix du Maine's Bibliothéque, published in 1584, are now
unnecessary to be attended to, since the publication of the ample and
excellent edition of this work by De La Monnoye and Juvigny, in six
quarto volumes, 1772.
LIS. Upon the whole, I should prefer the best to the first edition;
and you, Lorenzo, may revel in the possession of your _first
Shakespeare_--but give me the last Variorum edition _in twenty-one
volumes_.
LOREN. "Chacun a son gout," yet it may be as well to possess them
_both_. Indeed, I not only have these editions, but a great number of
the early plays printed in quarto;[452] which are considered the _ne
plus ultra_ of Shakspearian bibliomaniacism.
[Footnote 452: A pretty copious list of these valuable early
plays will be found at pages 431-2-3-4, ante.]
BELIN. Much good may these wretchedly printed volumes do you! Now let
me proceed with my pupil. Tell us, good Lysander, what can you
possibly mean by the _seventh symptom_ of the Bibliomania, called TRUE
EDITIONS?
LYSAND. My definition of this strange symptom will excite your
mirth.[453] Some copies of a work are struck off with deviations from
the usually received ones, and although these deviations have
generally neither sense nor beauty to recommend them (and indeed are
principally _defects_!), yet copies of this description are eagerly
sought after by collectors of a certain class. What think you of such
a ridiculous passion in the book-way?
[Footnote 453: Observing the usual order of notification, we
will first borrow the poetical aid of "an aspirant:"
SEVENTH MAXIM.
Who dares to "write me down an ass,"
When, spying through the curious mass,
I rub my hands, and wipe my glass,
If, chance, an _error_ bless my notice--
Will prize when drill'd into his duty,
These lovely warts of ugly beauty;
For books, when _false_ (it may be new t'ye),
Are "TRUE EDITIONS:"--odd,--but _so_ 'tis.
Let us proceed to see whether this biting satire be founded
upon truth, or not. Accidental variations from the common
impressions of a work form what are called TRUE EDITIONS:
and as copies, with such variations (upon the same principle
as that of _Prints_; vide p. 501-2, ante) are rare, they are
of course sought after with avidity by knowing
bibliomaniacs. Thus speaks Ameilhon upon the
subject:--"pendant l'impression d'un ouvrage il est arrivé
un accident qui, à telle page et à telle ligne, a occasioné
un renversement dans les lettres d'un mot, et que ce
désordre n'a été rétabli qu'apres le tirage de six ou sept
exemplaires; ce qui rend ces exemplaires défectueux presque
uniques, et leur donne, â les entendre, une valeur
inappréciable; car voila un des grands secrets de cet art,
qui, au reste, s'acquiert aisément avec de la memoire."
_Mem. de l'Institut_: vol. ii., p. 485. The author of these
words then goes on to abuse the purchasers and venders of
these strange books; but I will not quote his saucy tirade
in defamation of this noble department of bibliomaniacism. I
subjoin a few examples in illustration of Lysander's
definition:--_Cæsar. Lug. Bat._ 1636, 12mo. _Printed by
Elzevir._ In the Bibliotheca Revickzkiana we are informed
that the _true_ Elzevir edition is known by having the plate
of a buffalo's head at the beginning of the preface and body
of the work: also by having the page numbered 153, which
_ought_ to have been numbered 149. A further account is
given in my Introduction to the Classics, vol. i., p.
228.--_Horace_, Londini, 1733, 8vo., 2 vols. Published by
Pine. The _true_ edition is distinguished by having at page
108, vol. ii., the _incorrect_ reading "Post Est."--for
"Protest."--_Virgil._ Lug. Bat., 1636, 12mo. Printed by
Elzevir. The _true_ edition is known, by having at plate 1,
before the Bucolics, the following Latin passage _printed in
red ink_. "Ego vero frequentes a te literas accepi." Consul
de Bure, no. 2684.--_Idem._ Birmingh. 1763, 4to. Printed
by Baskerville. A particular account of the _true_ edition
will be found in the second volume of my "Introduction to
the Classics," p. 337--too long to be here
inserted.--_Bocaccio._ Il Decamerone, Venet. 1527, 4to.
Consult De Bure no. 3667; Bandini, vol. ii. 105, 211;
(who, however, is extremely laconic upon this edition, but
copious upon the anterior one of 1516) and Haym, vol. iii.,
p. 8, edit. 1803. Bibl. Paris., no. 408. Clement. (vol.
iv. 352,) has abundance of reference, as usual, to
strengthen his assertion in calling the edition "_fort
rare_." The reprint, or spurious edition, has always struck
me as the prettier book of the two. These examples appeared
in the first edition of this work. I add to them what of
course I was not enabled to do before. In the second edition
of _The Bibliomania_, there are some variations in the
copies of the small paper; and one or two decided ones
between the small and large. In the small, at page 13, line
2, we read
"beat with perpetual _forms_."
in the large, it is properly
"beat with perpetual _storms_."
Which of these is indicative of the _true_ edition? Again:
in the small paper, p. 275, line 20, we read properly
"Claudite jam rivos pueri, sat _prata_ biberunt."
in the large paper,
"Claudite jam rivos pueri, sat _parta_ biberunt."
It was in my power to have cancelled the leaf in the large
paper as well as in the small; but I thought it might
thereby have taken from the former the air of a _true_
edition; and so the blunder (a mere transposition of the
letters _ar_) will go down to a future generation in the
large paper. There is yet another slight variation between
the small and large. At p. 111, in the account of the
catalogue of Krohn's books, the concluding sentence wholly
varies: but I believe there is not an _error_ in either, to
entitle one to the rank of _Truism_ more than another.[H]]
[Footnote H: During the youth of the printer of this book, a
curious mistake occurred: a splendid folio work was going on
for Dr. Bonnell Thornton; in a certain page, as printers
technically say, _a space stood up_; the Dr. (not
understanding printers' marks) wrote on a head page "take
out horizontal line at p. so and so"--the compositor
inserted these words as a _displayed line_ in the head-page
whereon they were written--the reader passed it in the
revise--and it was so worked off! Being eventually
detected--the leaf was of course cancelled.]
ALMAN. It seems to me to be downright idiotism. But I suspect you
exaggerate?
LYSAND. In sober truth, I tell you only what every day's experience in
the book-market will corroborate.
BELIN. Well!--what strange animals are you bibliomaniacs. Have we any
other symptom to notice? Yes, I think Lysander made mention of an
_eighth_; called a passion for THE BLACK-LETTER. Can any eyes be so
jaundiced as to prefer volumes printed in this crabbed, rough, and
dismal manner?
LOREN. Treason--downright treason! Lisardo shall draw up a bill of
indictment against you, and Lysander shall be your judge.
BELIN. My case would then be desperate; and execution must necessarily
follow.
LIS. I shall be better able to form an opinion of the expediency of
such a measure after Lysander has given us his definition of this
eighth and last symptom. Proceed, my friend.
LYSAND. Of all symptoms of the Bibliomania, this _eighth_ symptom is
at present the most powerful and prevailing. Whether it was imported
into this country, from Holland, by the subtlety of Schelhorn[454] (a
knowing writer upon rare and curious books) may be a point worthy of
consideration. But whatever be its origin, certain is that books
printed in the =black-letter=, are now coveted with an eagerness unknown
to our collectors in the last century. If the spirits of West,
Ratcliffe, Farmer, and Brand, have as yet held any intercourse with
each other, in that place "from whose bourne no traveller returns,"
which must be the surprise of the three former, on being told, by the
latter, of the prices given for some of the books at the sale of his
library!
[Footnote 454: His words are as follows: "Ipsa typorum
ruditas, ipsa illa atra crassaque literarum facies _belle
tangit sensus_," _&c._ Was ever the black-letter more
eloquently described: see his _Amoentates [Transcriber's
Note: Amoenitates] Literariæ_, vol. i., p. 5. But for the
last time, let us listen to the concluding symptomatic
stanza of an "aspirant;"
EIGHTH MAXIM.
Who dreams the _Type_ should please us all,
That's not too thin, and not too tall,
Nor much awry, nor over small,
And, if but ROMAN, asks no better--
May die in darkness:--I, for one,
Disdain to tell the barb'rous Hun
That Persians but adore the sun
Till taught to know _our_ God--=Black-Letter=.
_Bibliosophia_: p. vii.
However cruel may be the notes of one poet, it seems pretty
clear that the glorious subject, or bibliomaniacal symptom,
of which we are treating, excited numbers of a softer
character in the muse of Dr. Ferriar: for thus sings
he--inspired by the possession of _black-letter_ tomes:
In red morocco drest, he loves to boast
the bloody murder, or the yelling ghost;
or dismal ballads, sung to crowds of old,
now cheaply bought for thrice their weight in gold.
v. 62-65.
Ev'n I, debarr'd of ease and studious hours,
Confess, mid' anxious toil, its lurking pow'rs.
How pure the joy, when first my hands unfold
The small, rare volume, black with tarnished gold!
_The Bibliomania_, l. 135-8.
But let us attend to a more scientific illustration of this
eighth symptom. 'BLACK-LETTER, which is used in England,
descends from the Gothic characters; and is therefore called
_Gothic_ by some, _old English_ by others; but printers give
it the name of _Black-Letter_, because its face taking in a
larger compass than Roman or Italic of the same body, the
full and spreading strokes thereof appear more _black_ upon
paper than common.' _Smith's Printer's Grammar_; edit. 1755,
p. 18. The same definition is given in a recent similar
work; with the addition that 'black-letter is more expensive
than Roman or Italic, its broad face requiring an
extraordinary quantity of ink, which always gives the best
coloured paper a yellow cast, unless worked upon that of a
superior quality. It has a good effect in a title-page, if
disposed with taste.' Stower's _Printer's Grammar_; 1808, p.
41. To these authorities we may add, from Rowe Mores, that
'Wynkyn de Worde's letter was of _The Square English_ or
_Black face_, and has been the pattern for his successors in
the art.' _Of English Founders and Foundries_; 1778, 8vo. p.
4, 5. 'The same black-letter printer,' says Palmer or
Psalmanaazar, 'gave a greater scope to his fancy, and formed
such a variety of sorts and sizes of letter that, for
several years after him, none of his successors attempted to
imitate him therein.' _General History of Printing_; p. 343.
It is not necessary to collect, in formal array, the
authorities of foreigners upon this important subject;
although it may be as well to notice the strange manner in
which Momoro, in his _Traité elémentaire de L'Imprimerie_,
p. 185, refers us to an elucidation of the Gothic letter
('appelé du nom de certains peuples qui vinrent s'établir
dans la Gothie, plus de quatre cens ans avant J.C.') in one
of the plates of Fournier's _Dictionnaire Typographique_:
vol. ii. p. 205--which, in truth, resembles anything but the
Gothic type, as understood by modern readers.--Smith and Mr.
Stower have the hardihood to rejoice at the present general
extinction of the black-letter. They were not, probably,
aware of Hearne's eulogy upon it--'As it is a reproach to us
(says this renowned antiquary) that the Saxon language
should be so forgot as to have but few (comparatively
speaking) that are able to read it; so 'tis a greater
reproach that the BLACK-LETTER, which was the character so
much in use in our grandfathers' days, should be now (as it
were) disused and rejected; especially when we know the best
editions of our English Bible and Common-Prayer (to say
nothing of other books) are printed in it.' _Robert of
Gloucester's Chronicle_: vol. i., p. LXXXV. I presume the
editor and publisher of the forth-coming fac-simile
re-impression of Juliana Barnes's Book of Hawking, Hunting,
&c., are of the same opinion with Hearne: and are resolved
upon eclipsing even the black-letter reputation of the
afore-named Wynkyn De Worde.--A pleasant black-letter
anecdote is told by Chevillier, of his having picked up, on
a bookseller's stall, the first edition of the _Speculum
Salutis_ sive _Humanæ Salvationis_ (one of the rarest
volumes in the class of those printed in the middle of the
fifteenth century) for the small sum of four livres!
_L'Origine de l'Imprimerie_; p. 281. This extraordinary
event soon spread abroad, and was circulated in every
bibliographical journal. Schelhorn noticed it in his
_Amoenitates Literariæ_: vol. iv. 295-6: and so did
Maichelius in his _Introd. ad Hist. Lit. et Præcip. Bibl.
Paris_, p. 122. Nor has it escaped the notice of a more
recent foreign bibliographer. Ameilhon makes mention of
Chevillier's good fortune; adding that the work was 'un de
ces livres rares au premièr degré, qu' un BON BIBLIOMANE ne
peut voir sans trépigner de joie, si j'ose m'exprimer
ainsi.' _Mem. de l'Institut_. vol. ii. 485-6. This very
copy, which was in the Sorbonne, is now in the Imperial,
library at Paris. _Ibid._ A similar, though less important,
anecdote is here laid before the reader from a communication
sent to me by Mr. Wm. Hamper of Birmingham. '"_Tusser's Five
Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, black-letter, sewed_," was
valued at SIXPENCE, in a catalogue of a small Collection of
Books on the sale at the shop of Mr. William Adams,
Loughborough, in the year 1804: and, after in vain suing the
coy collector at this humble price, remained unsold to the
present year, 1809, when (thanks to your _Bibliomania_!) it
brought A GOLDEN GUINEA.'--I have myself been accused of 'an
admiration to excess' of black-letter lore; and of
recommending it in every shape, and by every means, directly
and indirectly. Yet I have surely not said or done any thing
half so decisive in recommendation of it as did our great
moralist, Dr. Johnson: who thus introduces the subject in
one of his periodical papers.--'The eldest and most
venerable of this society, was HIRSUTUS: who, after the
first civilities of my reception, found means to introduce
the mention of his favourite studies, by a severe censure of
those who want the due regard for their native country. He
informed me that he had early withdrawn his attention from
foreign trifles, and that since he begun to addict his mind
to serious and manly studies, he had very carefully amassed
all the _English books_ that were printed in the
=Black-Letter=. This search he had pursued so diligently that
he was able to show the deficiencies of the best catalogues.
He had long since completed his _Caxton_, had three sheets
of _Treveris_, unknown to antiquaries, and wanted to a
perfect [collection of] _Pynson_ but two volumes: of which
one was promised him as a legacy by its present possessor,
and the other he was resolved to buy at whatever price, when
Quisquilius' library should be sold. Hirsutus had no other
reason for the valuing or slighting a book than that it was
printed in the Roman or the Gothick letter, nor any ideas
but such as his favourite volumes had supplied: when he was
serious, he expatiated on the narratives of JOHAN DE
TREVISA, and, when he was merry, regaled us with a quotation
from the _Shippe of Fools_.' RAMBLER, no. 177.--Nor was
the Doctor himself quite easy and happy 'till he had sold,
in the character of a BOOKSELLER, a few volumes--probably of
black-letter celebrity. Mr. Boswell relates that 'During the
last visit which the Doctor made to Litchfield, the friends,
with whom he was staying missed him one morning at the
breakfast table. On inquiring after him of the servants,
they understood that he had set off from Litchfield at a
very early hour, without mentioning to any of the family
whither he was going. The day passed without the return of
the illustrious guest, and the party began to be very uneasy
on his account, when, just before the supper hour, the door
opened, and the Doctor stalked into the room. A solemn
silence of a few minutes ensued; nobody daring to enquire
the cause of his absence, which was at length relieved by
Johnson addressing the lady of the house as follows: "Madam,
I beg your pardon for the abruptness of my departure this
morning, but I was constrained to it by my _conscience_.
Fifty years ago, Madam, on this day, I committed a breach of
filial piety, which has ever since lain heavy on my mind,
and has not until this day been expiated. My father, you
recollect, was a bookseller, and had long been in the habit
of attending _Walsall Market_; and opening a stall for the
sale of his books during that day. Confined to his bed by
indisposition, he requested of me, this time fifty years
ago, to visit the market, and attend the stall in his place.
But, Madam, my pride prevented me from doing my duty, and I
gave my father a refusal. To do away the sin of this
disobedience, I this day went in a post-chaise to Walsall,
and going into the market at the time of high business,
uncovered my head, and stood with it bare an hour before the
stall which my father had formerly used, exposed to the
sneers of the by-standers, and the inclemency of the
weather: a penance, by which I have propitiated Heaven for
this only instance, I believe, of contumacy towards my
father."'--Is it not probable that Dr. Johnson himself might
have sold for SIXPENCE, a _Tusser_, which now would have
brought a 'GOLDEN GUINEA?']
A perusal of these prices may probably not impress the reader with any
lofty notions of the superiority of the black-letter; but this symptom
of the Bibliomania is, nevertheless, not to be considered as
incurable, or wholly unproductive of good. Under a proper spirit of
modification, it has done, and will continue to do, essential service
to the cause of English literature. It guided the taste, and
strengthened the judgment, of Tyrwhitt in his researches after
Chaucerian lore. It stimulated the studies of Farmer and Steevens, and
enabled them to twine many a beauteous flower round the brow of their
beloved Shakspeare.
It has since operated, to the same effect, in the labour of Mr.
Douce,[455] the PORSON of old English and French Literature; and in
the editions of Milton and Spenser, by my amiable and excellent friend
Mr. Todd, the public have had a specimen of what the _Black-Letter_
may perform, when temperately and skilfully exercised.
[Footnote 455: In the criticisms which have passed upon Mr.
DOUCE'S "_Illustrations of Shakspeare and Ancient Manners_,"
it has not, I think, been generally noticed that this work
is distinguished for the singular diffidence and urbanity of
criticism, as well as depth of learning, which it evinces;
and for the happy illustrations of the subjects discussed by
means of fac-simile wood-cuts.]
I could bring to your recollection other instances; but your own
memories will better furnish you with them. Let me not, however, omit
remarking that the beautiful pages of the '_Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border_' and '_Sir Tristrem_' exhibit, in the notes, (now and then
thickly studded with black-letter references) a proof that the author
of '_The Lay_,' '_Marmion_,' and '_The Lady of the Lake_,' has not
disdained to enrich his stores with such intelligence as black-letter
books impart. In short, although this be a strong and general symptom
of the Bibliomania, it is certainly not attended with injurious
effects when regulated by prudence and discretion. An undistinguishable
voracious appetite to swallow _every thing_, because printed in the
black-letter, must necessarily bring on an incurable disease, and,
consequently, premature dissolution.
There is yet one other, and a somewhat generally prevailing, symptom,
indicative of the prevalence of the Bibliomania; and this consists in
a fondness for books which have been printed for PRIVATE
DISTRIBUTION[456] only, or at a PRIVATE PRESS. What is executed for a
few, will be coveted by many; because the edge of curiosity is
whetted, from a supposition that something very extraordinary, or very
curious, or very uncommon, is propagated in this said book, so
partially distributed. As to works printed at a _Private Press_, we
have had a very recent testimony of the avidity with which certain
volumes, executed in this manner, and of which the impression has been
comparatively limited, have been sought after by book _Cognoscenti_.
[Footnote 456: The reader may not object to be made
acquainted with a few distinguished productions, printed for
PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. The reader is indebted to Mr. Bulmer,
at whose elegant press these works were printed, for the
information which follows:--MUSEUM WORSLEYANUM; by Sir
_Richard Worsley_; 1798, 1802, Atlas Folio, 2 vols. The
first volume of this work, of which 200 copies were printed,
was finished in May, 1798, and circulated, with the plates
only of vol. ii., amongst the chosen friends of Sir Richard
Worsley, the author; who was, at that time, the diplomatic
Resident at Venice from our Court. The second volume, with
the letter-press complete, of which only 100 copies were
printed, was finished in 1802. The entire expense attending
this rare and sumptuous publication (of which a copy is in
the library of the Royal Institution) amounted to the
enormous sum of 27,000_l._ and from the irregularity of
delivering the second volume of plates, in the first
instance, without the letter-press, many of the copies are
incomplete.----THE FATHER'S REVENGE; _by the Earl of
Carlisle, K.G._ &c., 1800, 4to. A limited impression of this
very beautiful volume, decorated with engravings from the
pencil of Westall, was circulated by the noble author among
his friends. I saw a copy of it, bound in green morocco,
with the original letter of the donor, in the library of
Earl Spencer at Althorp.----MOUNT ST. GOTHARD: _By the late
Duchess of Devonshire_, folio. Only fifty copies of this
brilliant volume were printed; to a few of which, it is
said, Lady Diana Beauclerc lent the aid of her ornamental
pencil, in some beautiful drawings of the wild and romantic
scenery in the neighbourhood of Mount St.
Gothard.----DISSERTATION ON ETRUSCAN VASES; _by Mr.
Christie_. Imperial 4to. With elegant Engravings. Only 100
copies of this truly classical volume were printed. From the
death of one or two of the parties, who became originally
possessed of it, as a present from the author, it has fallen
to the lot of Mr. Christie to become, professionally, the
vender of a work which he himself never meant to be sold. A
copy was very lately disposed of, in this manner, for
14_l._----BENTLEII EPISTOLÆ; _Edited by_ [the Rev.] _Dr.
Charles Burney_: 1807, 4to. This is one of the most
beautiful productions of the Shakspeare press; nor are the
intrinsic merits of the volume inferior to its external
splendour. The scarcer copies of it are those in medium
quarto; of which only 50 were printed: of the imperial
quarto, there were 150 executed.--I add two more similar
examples, which were not printed at the Shakspeare
press:--LORD BALTIMORE'S _Gaudia Poetica_; Lat. Angl. et
Gall. with plates. (No date). Large quarto. Only ten copies
of this rare volume were printed, and those distributed
among the author's friends: a copy of it was sold for 6_l._
10_s._ at the sale of Mr. Reed's books: see Bibl. Reed,
no. 6682. It was inserted for sale in the catalogue of
Mr. Burnham, bookseller at Northampton, A.D. 1796--with a
note of its rarity subjoined.----VIEWS IN ORKNEY and on the
NORTH-EASTERN COAST OF SCOTLAND. Taken in 1805. Etched 1807.
Folio. _By the Marchioness of Stafford._--The letter-press
consists of twenty-seven pages: the first of which bears
this unassuming designation; "Some Account of the Orkney
Islands, extracted from Dr. Barry's History, and Wallace's
and Brand's Descriptions of Orkney." To this chapter or
division is prefixed a vignette of _Stroma_; and the chapter
ends at p. 5. Then follow four views of the Orkney
Islands.--The next chapter is entitled "The Cathedral of
Kirkwall," which at the beginning exhibits a vignette of the
_Cathedral of St. Magnus_, and at the close, at p. 9, a
vignette of a _Tomb in the Cathedral_. To these succeed two
plates, presenting Views of the _Inside of the Cathedral_,
and an _Arch in the Cathedral_.--The third chapter commences
at p. 11, with "The Earl of Orkney's Palace," to which a
vignette of a _Street in Kirkwall_ is prefixed. It ends at
p. 12, and is followed by a plate exhibiting a view of the
_Door-way of the Earl's Palace_; by another of the _Hall of
the Earl's Palace_; and by a third containing two Views,
namely, the _Inside of the Hall_, and, upon a larger scale,
the _Chimney in the Hall_.--"The Bay of the Frith" is the
subject of the fourth chapter; which exhibits at the
beginning a vignette of the _Hills of Hoy_. It closes at p.
14, with a vignette of _The Dwarfy Stone_. Then follow six
plates, containing a view of the _Bay of Frith_, a _View
from Hoy_, two views of the _Eastern and Western Circles of
the Stones of Stennis_, and two views of _Stromness_.--The
next chapter is entitled "Duncansbay or Dungsby-head," which
bears in front a vignette of _Wick_, and at the end, in p.
16, a vignette of the _Castle of Freswick_. Three plates
follow: the first presenting a view of _Duncansbay-Head_:
the second, Views of the _Stacks of Hemprigs_ and the _Hills
of Schrabiner or Schuraben_; the third, a View of _The
Ord_.--"The Castle of Helmsdale" is the title of the
succeeding chapter, to which is prefixed a vignette of
_Helmsdale Castle_. It ends at p. 19, with a vignette of the
_Bridge of Brora_. Then follow two plates, presenting Views
of _Helmsdale Castle_, and the _Coast of Sutherland_.--The
subject of the next chapter is "Dunrobin Castle," (the
ancient seat of her Ladyship's ancestors, and now a
residence of her Ladyship,) which presents, at the
beginning, a vignette of _Dunrobin Castle_, and after the
close of the chapter, at p. 23, four plates; the first of
which is a View of _Dunrobin Castle_ and the surrounding
scenery; the second, a smaller View of the _Castle_: the
third, a View of _Druid Stones_, with another of _Battle
Stones in Strathflete_: and the fourth, _Dornoch, with the
Thane's Cross_.--The last chapter is entitled "The Chapel of
Rosslyn," to which is prefixed a vignette of _Rosslyn
Chapel_. It is followed by four plates; the first exhibiting
a View of a _Column in Rosslyn Chapel_; the second, a
_Door-way in the Chapel_; the third, the _Tomb of Sir
William St. Clair_; and the fourth, _Hawthornden_, the
residence of the elegant and plaintive Drummond; with whose
beautiful Sonnet, to this his romantic habitation, the
volume closes:
"Dear wood! and you, sweet solitary place,
Where I estranged from the vulgar live," &c.
Of the volume which had been thus described, only 120 copies
were printed. The Views were all drawn and etched by her
Ladyship: and are executed with a spirit and correctness
which would have done credit to the most successful disciple
of Rembrandt. A copy of the work, which had been presented
to the late Right Hon. C.F. Greville, produced, at the sale
of his books, the sum of sixteen guineas.]
LIS. You allude to the STRAWBERRY HILL Press?[457]
[Footnote 457: For the gratification of such
desperately-smitten bibliomaniacs, who leave no stone
unturned for the possession of what are called STRAWBERRY
HILL _Pieces_, I subjoin the following list of books,
printed at the celebrated seat of Sir Horace Walpole
(afterwards Lord Orford) at Strawberry Hill: situated
between Richmond and Twickenham, on the banks of the Thames.
This list, and the occasional bibliographical memoranda
introduced, are taken from the collection of Strawberry Hill
books in the library of the Marquis of Bute, at Luton; all
of them being elegantly bound by Kalthoeber, in red
morocco.----I. _Two Odes by Mr. Gray._ "[Greek: phônanta
synetoisi]," Pindar Olymp. II. Printed for R. and J.
Dodsley, 1757, 4to., 19 pages, 1000 copies. In these copies
there is sometimes (but very rarely) prefixed a short poem
of six stanzas, in alternate rhyme, "To Mr. Gray, on his
Poems." As there were _only six copies_ of these verses
printed, I subjoin them:
Repine not, Gray, that our weak dazzled eyes
Thy daring heights and brightness shun,
How few can track the eagle to the skies,
Or, like him, gaze upon the sun!
The gentle reader loves the gentle muse,
That little dares, and little means,
Who humbly sips her learning from _Reviews_,
Or flutters in the _Magazines_.
No longer now from learning's sacred store,
Our minds their health and vigour draw;
HOMER and PINDAR are revered no more,
No more the _Stagyrite is law_.
Though nurst by these, in vain thy muse appears
To breathe her ardours in our souls;
In vain to sightless eyes, and deaden'd ears,
Thy lightning gleams, and thunder rolls!
Yet droop not GRAY, nor quit thy heav'n-born art:
Again thy wondrous powers reveal,
Wake slumb'ring virtue in the _Briton's_ heart.
And rouse us to _reflect_ and _feel_!
With antient deeds our long-chill'd bosoms fire,
Those deeds which mark'd ELIZA'S reign!
Make _Britons_ Greeks again.--Then strike the lyre,
And Pindar shall not sing in vain.
----II. _A journey into England_, originally written in
Latin, _by Paul Hentzner_. In the year 1598. Printed 1757.
Advertisement of 10 pages in a fine large beautiful type,
printed on paper of great delicacy. The body of the work,
which is printed in a smaller type, occupies 126 double
pages; on account of the Latin and English being on the
opposite pages, each page is marked with the same number.
Only 220 copies of this curious and elegant work were
printed.--III. _Fugitive Pieces in Verse and Prose. Pereunt
et Imputantur._ MDCCLVIII. 8vo. Two pages of dedication "To
the Honourable Major General HENRY SEYMOUR CONWAY:" two
pages of a table of contents, body of the work 219 pages.
Printed with the small type: and only 200 copies struck
off.--IV. _An account of Russia as it was in the year 1710.
By Charles Lord Whitworth._ Printed at S.H. MDCCLVIII, 8vo.
Advertisement 24 pages, body of this work 158--with a page
of errata, 700 copies printed. This is an interesting and
elegantly printed little volume.--V. _A parallel, in the
manner of Plutarch, between a most celebrated man of
Florence, and one scarce ever heard of in England. By the
Reverend Mr. Spence_, 1758, 8vo. This is the beautiful and
curious little volume, of which mention has already been
made at p. 86, ante. Seven hundred copies of it were
printed; and from a copy, originally in the possession of
the late Mr. John Mann, of Durham, I learnt that "the clear
profits arising from the sale of it being about 300_l._,
were applied for the benefit of Mr. Hill and his family."
(Magliabechi was "the man of Florence;" and Hill "the one
scarce ever heard of in England.") A copy of this edition,
with MS. notes by Mr. Cole, was purchased by Mr. Waldron, at
the sale of George Steevens's books, for 3_l._6_s._ It was
reprinted by Dodsley: but the curious seek only the present
edition.----VI. _Lucani Pharsalia_, MDCCLX, 4to. This is the
most beautiful volume, in point of printing, which the
Strawberry Hill press ever produced. A tolerably copious
account of it will be found in my _Introduction to the
Classics_, vol. ii., p. 53. Kirgate the printer (recently
deceased) told me that uncommon pains were taken with its
typographical execution.----VII. _Anecdotes of Painting in
Englaud_ [Transcriber's Note: England]; MDCCLXI. four
volumes; _Catalogue of Engravers_, 4to., one volume. This is
the _first_, and, on account of having the earliest
impressions of the plates, the _best_ edition of this
amusing, and once popular work. It was reprinted in quarto,
in 1765; of which edition I believe 600 copies were struck
off. Again, in 1786, crown 8vo., five volumes, without the
plates.----VIII. _The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of
Cherbury_, written by himself. Printed in the year MDCCLXIX,
4to. Dedication of two pages to Lord Powis. Advertisement
six pages, not numbered. After this, there should be a
"Genealogical Table of the family of Herbert," which is very
scarce, on account of its being suppressed by Mr. Walpole,
for its inaccuracy. The life occupied 171 pages. "Mr.
Walpole," says the late Mr. Cole, "when I was with him in
the autumn of 1763, at which time the book was partly
printed, told me that either one or two hundred copies were
to be printed; half to be sent to the Earl of Powis, and the
other half he was to reserve for himself, as presents to his
friends; so that, except the book is reprinted by some
bookseller, privately, as probably it will, it will be a
curiosity. It was not published till the end of June, 1764,
when the honourable editor sent it to me.----IX. _Poems by
Anna Chambers_, Countess Temple. MDCCLXIV, 4to. This volume,
containing 13 poems on various subjects, is printed in 34
pages, with a large, but not very elegant type. Only 100
copies were struck off.----X. _The Mysterious Mother._ A
Tragedy, by Mr. Horace Walpole. Sit mihi fas audita loqui.
Virg. Printed at S.H., MDCCLXVIII. 8vo. No vignette on the
back. First leaf, errata, and "persons" [of the play.]
Printed with the small type on 120 pages; after which
follows a "postscript" of 10 pages. Only 50 copies printed.
An uncut copy was recently sold for 6_l._ 15_s._----XI.
_Cornélie vestale. Tragédie._ Imprimée à S.H. MDCCLXVIII,
8vo., 200 copies. The title-page is followed by a letter "a
Mons. Horace Walpole." A page of the names of the actors
forms the commencement of the work, which contains 91 pages,
neatly printed. Only 200 copies printed, of which 150 were
sent to Paris.----XII. _Poems by the Reverend Mr. Hoyland_,
MDCCLXIX, 8vo. The advertisement ends at p. iv.; the odes
occupy 19 pages. Although this little volume is not printed
with the usual elegance of the S.H. press, it is valuable
from its scarcity, on account of its never having been
re-printed. Only 300 copies were struck off.----XIII.
_Original Letters from K. Edward VI. to Barnaby
Fitzpatrick_, 1772, 4to. I am not acquainted with any
circumstance, intrinsic or extrinsic, that renders this
small volume sought after.----XIV. _Miscellaneous
Antiquities, or a collection of curious papers_: either
republished from scarce tracts, or now first printed from
original MSS. Two numbers printed by Thomas Kirgate,
MDCCLXXII, 4to. No. I. Advertisement of two pages, ending p.
iv. The number contains besides: CONTENTS. Chap. I. "An
account of some Tournaments and other martial Diversions."
This was reprinted from a work written by Sir William Segar,
Norroy; and is called by the author, Honour, Military and
Ceuill, printed at London in 1602. Chap. II. Of "Justs and
Tournaments," &c., from the same. Chap. III. "A Triumph in
the Reigne of King Richard the Second, 1390," from the same.
Chap. IV. "A Militarie Triumph at Brussels, Anno 1549," from
the same. Chap. V. "Of Justs and Tourneaments," &c., from
the same. Chap. VI. "Triumphes Military, for honour and loue
of Ladies: brought before the Kings of England," from the
same. Chap. VII. "Of the life and actions in Armes since the
reigne of Queene Elizabeth," from the same. Chap. VIII. "The
original occasions of the yeerely Triumph in England." All
these tracts are taken from the above work. No. II. Second
leaf, a plate of a head from the original wood-cut by Hans
Holbein. CONTENTS. This number is almost entirely occupied
by the "Life of Sir Thomas Wyat, the elder," copied by Mr.
Gray from the originals in the Harleian Collection, now in
the British Museum. This extends to p. 54, after which is an
Appendix of eight pages on a few miscellaneous subjects.
Five hundred copies were printed.----XV. _Memoirs du Comte
de Grammont_, par Monsieur le Comte Antoine Hamilton.
Nouvelle edition, Augumentée denotes et eclaircissemens
necessaires. Par M. HORACE WALPOLE. MDCCLXXII, 4to. The
title-page is succeeded by a dedication "à Madame ----," in
six lines and a half, printed in a very large type. Then
follows an "Avis de L'Editour," and "Avertissement,"
occupying three pages. An "Epitre à Monsieur le Comte de
Grammont,' continues to p. xxi: then a "Table des
Chapitres," to p. xxiii., on the back of which are the
errata. The body of the work extends to 290 pages; which are
succeeded by "Table des Personnes," or index, in three
pages. These memoirs are printed with the middle size type;
but neither the type nor paper are so beautiful as are those
of Hentzner's Travels, or the comparison between Magliabechi
and Hill. PORTRAITS. 1. Le Comte Antoine Hamilton, faces the
title page. 2. Philibert, Comte de Grammont, opposite the
"Epitre:" badly executed. 3. A portrait of Miss Warminster,
opposite p. 85, in the style of Worlidge's gems. 4.
Mademoiselle d'Hamilton, Comtesse de Grammont, faces p. 92.
This engraving, by G. Powle, is executed in a style of
beauty and spirit that has seldom been surpassed. 5. Lord
Chesterfield, second Earl, in the style of the preceding;
very beautiful. There were only 100 copies of this edition
printed, of which 30 were sent as presents to Paris.----XVI.
_The Sleep Walker, a Comedy_: in two acts. Translated [by
Lady Craven] from the French, in March. Printed by T.
Kirgate, MDCCLXXVIII, 8vo. It is printed in the small type
on 56 pages, exclusively of viii. introductory ones, of
"prologues" and "persons," &c. Only 75 copies were printed:
and of these, one was sold for 4_l._ in the year 1804, at a
public auction.----XVII. _A Letter to the Editor of the
Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton._ Printed by T. Kirgate.
MDCCLXXIX, 8vo. This title is preceded by what is called a
bastard title: and is followed by 55 pages of the work, not
very elegantly printed. Only 200 copies.----XVIII. _The Muse
Recalled_, an ode occasioned by the nuptials of Lord
Viscount Althorp (the late Earl Spencer) and Miss Lavinia
Bingham, eldest daughter of Charles, Lord Lucan, March vi.,
MDCCLXXXI. By William Jones, Esq. Printed by Thomas Kirgate,
MDCCLXXXI. 4to. Eight pages, exclusively of the title-page.
Printed in the middle size type; but neither the paper nor
typographical execution are in the best style of the S.H.
press. Only 250 copies printed.----XIX. _A Description of
the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole, youngest son of Sir Robert
Walpole, Earl of Orford, at Strawberry Hill, near
Twickenham, Middlesex._ With an inventory of the Furniture,
Pictures, Curiosities, &c. Printed by Thomas Kirgate,
MCCLXXXIV, 4to. This book contains 96 pages in the whole. It
was preceded by a small quarto impression of MDCCLXXIV:
which is scarce; and of which there are large paper copies.
The work entitled _Ædes Walpolianæ_ was printed in
MDCCLXVII.
Plates to the edition of 1784.
1. Frontispiece, Gothic; motto on a scroll, "Fari quæ
sentiat."
2. North Front of Strawberry Hill.
3. Entrance of Strawberry Hill.
4. View of the Prior's Garden, at ditto.
5. Chimney in the Great Parlour.
6. Chimney in the China Room.
7. Chimney in the Yellow Bedchamber.
8. Do. ---- ---- Blue Bedchamber.
9. Staircase at Strawberry Hill.
10. Library at ditto.
11. Chimney Piece of the Holbein Chamber.
12. The Gallery.
13. Chimney in the Round Room.
14. The Cabinet.
15. View from the Great Bedchamber.
16. Garden Gate.
17. View of the Chapel in the Garden at Strawberry Hill.
18. The Shell Bench.
19. View from the Terrace at Strawberry Hill.
20. East View of the Cottage Garden at Strawberry Hill. There
were only 200 copies of this edition printed.
The following may amuse the curious reader:
"Mr. Walpole is very ready to oblige any curious persons with
the sight of his house and collection; but as it is situated
so near to London, and in so populous a neighbourhood, and as
he refuses a ticket to nobody that sends for one, it is but
reasonable that such persons as send should comply with the
rules he has been obliged to lay down for shewing it:--Any
person, sending a day or two before may have a ticket for
four persons for a day certain;--No Ticket will serve but on
the day for which it is given. If more than four persons come
with a ticket, the housekeeper has positive orders to admit
none of them;--Every ticket will admit the company only
between the hours of twelve and three before dinner, and only
one company will be admitted on the same day;--The house will
never be shewn after dinner, nor at all but from the first of
May to the first of October;--As Mr. Walpole has given
offence by sometimes enlarging the number o [Transcriber's
Note: of] four, and refusing that latitude to others, he
flatters himself that for the future nobody will take it ill
that he strictly confines the number; as whoever desires him
to break his rule does in effect expect him to disoblige
others, which is what nobody has a right to desire of
him;--Persons desiring a ticket may apply either to
Strawberry Hill, or to Mr. Walpole's, in Berkeley Square,
London. If any person does not make use of the ticket, Mr.
Walpole hopes he shall have notice: otherwise he is prevented
from obliging others on that day, and thence is put to great
inconvenience;--They who have tickets are desired not to
bring children."----XX. _A copy of all the Works of Mr.
Walpole that were printed by him before his death_, 1784,
4to. This brochure, which has been called "rare" in
book-auction catalogues, has been sold for upwards of two
guineas.----XXI. _Postscript to the Royal and Noble Authors._
MDCCXXXVI, 8vo. There should be, before the title-page, an
outline etching of "Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, appearing
to Christin de Pisan, &c., from an illumination in the
library of the King of France," which is exceedingly well
engraved. The work contains only 18 pages: and there were but
40 copies printed. The _Royal and Noble Authors_ were first
printed in 1759, 8vo. 2 vols.----XXII. _Essai sur l'Art des
Jardins Modernes_, par M. Horace Walpole. Traduit en
François, par M. Le Duc de Nivernois, en MDCCLXXXIV. _Imprimé
à S.H._ par T. Kirgate, MDCCLXXXV. With an opposite title in
English, 4to. It contains 94 double pages, and every page of
French has an opposite one of English. Not printed in the
best manner of S.H. A copy of this book was sold for 3_l._;
at a sale in 1804.----XXIII. _Bishop Banner's Ghost._ Printed
by T.K. MDLCCXXXIX, 4to. On the first leaf is the following
"Argument." "In the gardens of the palace of Fulham is a dark
recess: at the end of this stands a chair, which once
belonged to Bishop Bonner. A certain Bishop of London (the
late Beilby Porteus) more than 200 years after the death of
the aforesaid Bonner, just as the clock of the gothic chapel
had struck six, undertook to cut, with his own hand, a narrow
walk through this thicket, which is since called the _Monk's
walk_. He had no sooner begun to clear the way, than lo!
suddenly up started from the chair, the ghost of Bishop
Bonner, who, in a tone of just and bitter indignation,
uttered the following verses." This curious publication
contains only four pages of stanzas, written in alternate
rhyme, of 8 and 6 feet metre.----XXIV. _The Magpie and her
Brood_; a fable, from the tales of Bonaventure de Periers,
valet de chambre to the Queen of Navarre; addressed to Miss
Hotham. This is a very scarce poetical tract of four pages
only; subscribed H.W.----XXV. _Fourteen different pieces,
printed at Strawberry Hill, of verses, cards, &c._ This title
I borrow from a book-auction catalogue. At a sale in 1804,
these detached pieces were sold for 2_l._ 2_s._; but it is
not in my power to identify them. Whether they be the same
"_parcel of scraps, and loose leaves of poetry, epigrams_,"
_&c._ which, according to a daily newspaper, were sold at the
commencement of this year "for 16 pounds," I am also equally
ignorant. See _Kirgate's Catalogue_, 1810, no. 420.----XXVI.
_Hieroglyphic Tales_, 8vo. Only seven copies printed; _idem_,
no. 380. From newspaper authority, I learn that these tales
formed "a small pamphlet of two sheets, crown 8vo.," which
were sold for 16_l._; and I understand that the late Mr. G.
Baker was the purchaser. N.B. They are incorporated in the
author's printed works; but this is not having the _first_
and _true edition_! There is nothing like the comfort of
bleeding smartly for exhibiting these fourth and fifth
symptoms of the Bibliomania! Vide pp. 521, 525,
ante.----XXVII. _Additions to First Editions of Walpole's
Lives of the Painters, sewed._----XXVIII. _The Press at
Strawberry Hill to his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, a
Poem._----XXIX. _The Master of Otranto in durance._----XXX.
_Air, a Poem._----XXXI. _A Poetical Epistle to Mrs.
Crewe._----XXXII. _A Poetical Epistle to Lady Horatio
Waldegrave, on the Death of the Duke of Ancaster._----XXXIII.
_The Press at Strawberry Hill to Miss Mary and Miss Agnes
Berry, a Poetical Epistle._ [These last seven articles are
taken from Mr. Cuthell's catalogue of 1811.] I should add
that a much more copious and complete list, though not
possessing all the intelligence here communicated, was
prepared by the late Mr. George Baker for press; and printed,
since his decease, for donations to his particular friends.
Only twenty copies of this bibliographical brochure are said
to have been executed. We will now take leave of the PRELUM
WALPOLIANUM by subjoining a copy of the most elegant
title-page vignette which ever issued from it.
[Illustration: FARI QUÆ SENTIAT]
Before the reader's eyes are finally turned from a
contemplation of this elegant device--and as connected with
the subject of PRIVATE PRESSES--let me inform him that the
Marquis of Bute is in possession of a thin folio volume,
exhibiting paintings, upon vellum, of the various devices
used by Pope Sixtus V., in the frontispieces of the several
works which issued from the APOSTOLICAL PRESS, while he
filled the Papal Chair. To a tasteful bibliomaniac, few
volumes would afford so much delight as a contemplation of
the present one. It is quite a _keimelion_ in its way!]
LYSAND. I do; but I have not so ardent an admiration of these
volumes, as the generality of collectors. On the contrary, I think
that the _Hafod Press_ has, by one single production only, outweighed
the whole of the _Walpolian_ lucubrations; at least on the score of
utility.
I might here add, to the foregoing symptoms, a passion to possess
works which have been _suppressed_, _condemned_, or _burnt_; but all
these things rank under the head of _causes of the rarity_ of books;
and as an entire volume might be written upon _this_ symptom _alone_,
I can here only allude to to [Transcriber's Note: second 'to'
erroneous] the subject; hoping some diligent bibliographer will one
day do for _us_ what foreigners have done for other nations.
Thus have I, rather slightly, discussed the _Symptoms of the Disease,
called_ =The Bibliomania=. During this discussion, I see our friend has
been busy, as he was yesterday evening, in making sketches of notes;
and if you examine the finished pictures of which such outlines may be
made productive, you will probably have a better notion of the
accuracy of my classification of these symptoms.
It is much to be wished, whatever may be the whims of desperate
book-collectors, that, in _some_ of those volumes which are constantly
circulating in the bibliomaniacal market, we had a more clear and
satisfactory account of the rise and progress of arts and sciences.
However strong may be my attachment to the profession of the cloth, I
could readily exchange a great number of old volumes of polemical and
hortatory divinity for interesting disquisitions upon the manners,
customs, and general history of the times. Over what a dark and
troublesome ocean must we sail, before we get even a glimpse at the
progressive improvement of our ancestors in civilised life! Oh, that
some judicious and faithful reporter had lived three hundred and odd
years ago!--we might then have had a more satisfactory account of the
_origin of printing with metal types_.
LIS. Pray give us your sentiments upon this latter subject. We have
almost the whole day before us:--the sun has hardly begun to decline
from his highest point.
LYSAND. A very pretty and smooth subject to discuss, truly! The
longest day and the most effectually-renovated powers of body and
mind, are hardly sufficient to come to any satisfactory conclusion,
upon the subject. How can I, therefore, after the fatigues of the
whole of yesterday, and with barely seven hours of daylight yet to
follow, pretend to enter upon it? No: I will here only barely mention
TRITHEMIUS[458]--who might have been numbered among the patriarchal
bibliographers we noticed when discoursing in our friend's CABINET--as
an author from whom considerable assistance has been received
respecting early typographical researches. Indeed, Trithemius merits a
more marked distinction in the annals of Literature than many are
supposed to grant him: at any rate, I wish his labours were better
known to our own countrymen.
[Footnote 458: We are indebted to the Abbé TRITHEMIUS, who
was a diligent chronicler and indefatigable visitor of old
Libraries, for a good deal of curious and interesting
intelligence; and however Scioppius (_De Orig. Domûs
Austriac._), Brower (_Vit. Fortunat. Pictav._, p. 18.), and
Possevinus (_Apparant sacr._ p. 945), may carp at his
simplicity and want of judgment, yet, as Baillet (from whom
I have borrowed the foregoing authorities) has justly
remarked--"since the time of Trithemius there have been many
libraries, particularly in Germany, which have been pillaged
or burnt in the destruction of monasteries; so that the
books which he describes as having seen in many places,
purposely visited by him for inspection, may have been
destroyed in the conflagration of religious houses."
_Jugemens des Savans_; vol. ii., pt. i., p. 71, edit. 12mo.
It is from Trithemius, after all, that we have the only
_direct_ evidence concerning the origin of printing with
metal types: and the bibliographical world is much indebted
to Chevelier (_L'Origine de l'Imprimerie de Paris_, 1691,
4to., pp. 3-6.) for having been the first to adduce the
positive evidence of this writer; who tells us, in his
valuable _Chronicon Hirsaugiens_ (1690, 2 vols. folio), that
he received his testimony from the mouth of Fust's
son-in-law--"ex ore Petri Opilionis audivi,"--that
Guttenburg [Transcriber's Note: Gutenberg] was the author of
the invention. The historical works of Trithemius were
collected and published in 1601, in folio, two parts, and
his other works are minutely detailed in the 9th volume of
the _Dictionnarie [Transcriber's Note: Dictionnaire]
Historique_, published at Caen, in 1789. Of these, one of
the most curious is his _Polygraphia_: being first printed
at Paris, in 1518, in a beautiful folio volume; and
presenting us, in the frontispiece, with a portrait of the
abbé; which is probably the first, if not the only
legitimate, print of him extant. Whether it be copied from a
figure on his tomb--as it has a good deal of the
_monumental_ character--I have no means of ascertaining. For
the gratification of all tasteful bibliomaniacs, an
admirable facsimile is here annexed. The _Polygraphia_ of
Trithemius was translated into French, and published in
1601, folio. His work _De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis_,
Colon, 1546, 4to., with two appendices, contains much
valuable matter. The author died in his 55th year, A.D.
1516: according to the inscription upon his tomb in the
monastery of the Benedictines at Wirtzburg. His life has
been written by Busæus, a Jesuit. See La Monnoye's note in
the _Jugemens des Savans_; _ibid._
[Illustration]]
LIS. I will set his works down among my literary _desiderata_. But
proceed.
LYSAND. With what? Am I to talk for ever?
BELIN. While you discourse so much to the purpose, you may surely not
object to a continuance of this conversation. I wish only to be
informed whether bibliomaniacs are indisputably known by the
prevalence of all, or of any, of the symptoms which you have just
described.
ALMAN. Is there any other passion, or fancy, in the book-way, from
which we may judge of Bibliomaniacism?
LYSAND. Let me consider. Yes; there is one other characteristic of the
book-madman that may as well be noticed. It is an ardent desire to
collect ALL THE EDITIONS of a work which have been published. Not only
the FIRST--whether _uncut, upon large paper_, _in the black-letter_,
_unique_, _tall_, or _illustrated_--but ALL the editions.[459]
[Footnote 459: I frankly confess that I was, myself, once
desperately afflicted with this _eleventh_ symptom of _The
Bibliomania_; having collected not fewer than _seventy-five_
editions of the GREEK TESTAMENT--but time has cooled my
ardour, and mended my judgment. I have discarded seventy,
and retain only five: which are _R. Steevens's_ of 1550,
_The Elzevir_ of 1624, _Mill's_ of 1707, _Westein's_ of
1751, and _Griesbach's_ of 1810--as beautifully and
accurately reprinted at Oxford.]
BELIN. Strange--but true, I warrant!
LYSAND. Most true; but, in my humble opinion, most ridiculous; for
what can a sensible man desire beyond the earliest and best editions
of a work?
Be it also noticed that these works are sometimes very capricious and
extroardinary [Transcriber's Note: extraordinary]. Thus, BAPTISTA is
wretched unless he possess every edition of our early grammarians,
_Holt_, _Stanbridge_, and _Whittinton_: a reimpression, or a new
edition, is a matter of almost equal indifference: for his slumbers
are broken and oppressive unless _all_ the _dear Wynkyns_ and
_Pynsons_ are found within his closet!--Up starts FLORIZEL, and blows
his bugle, at the annunciation of any work, new or old, upon the
diversions of _Hawking_, _Hunting_, or _Fishing_![460] Carry him
through CAMILLO'S cabinet of Dutch pictures, and you will see how
instinctively, as it were, his eyes are fixed upon a sporting piece by
Wouvermans. The hooded hawk, in his estimation, hath more charms than
Guido's Madonna:--how he envies every rider upon his white horse!--how
he burns to bestride the foremost steed, and to mingle in the fair
throng, who turn their blue eyes to the scarcely bluer expanse of
heaven! Here he recognises _Gervase Markham_, spurring his courser;
and there he fancies himself lifting _Dame Juliana_ from her horse!
Happy deception! dear fiction! says Florizel--while he throws his eyes
in an opposite direction, and views every printed book upon the
subject, from _Barnes_ to _Thornton_.
[Footnote 460: Some superficial notes, accompanied by an
interesting wood-cut of a man carrying hawks for sale, in my
edition of Robinson's translation of _More's Utopia_,
kindled, in the breast of Mr. Joseph Haslewood, a prodigious
ardour to pursue the subjects above-mentioned to their
farthest possible limits. Not Eolus himself excited greater
commotion in the Mediterranean waves than did my
bibliomaniacal friend in agitating the black-letter
ocean--'a sedibus imis'--for the discovering of every volume
which had been published upon these delectable pursuits.
Accordingly there appeared in due time--'[post] magni
procedere menses'--some very ingenious and elaborate
disquisitions upon Hunting and Hawking and Fishing, in the
ninth and tenth volumes of _The Censura Literaria_; which,
with such additions as his enlarged experience has
subsequently obtained, might be thought an interesting work
if reprinted in a duodecimo volume. But Mr. Haslewood's
mind, as was to be expected, could not rest satisfied with
what he considered as mere _nuclei_ productions:
accordingly, it became clothed with larger wings, and
meditated a bolder flight; and after soaring in a
_hawk_-like manner, to mark the object of its prey, it
pounced upon the book of _Hawking, Hunting, Fishing, &c._,
which had been reprinted by W. de Worde, from the original
edition published in the abbey of St. Albans. Prefixed to
the republication of this curious volume, the reader will
discover a great deal of laborious and successful research
connected with the book and its author. And yet I question
whether, in the midst of all the wood-cuts with which it
abounds, there be found any thing more suitable to the 'high
and mounting spirit' (see Braithwait's amusing discourse
upon Hawking, in his _English Gentleman_, p. 200-1.) of the
editor's taste, than the ensuing representation of a pilgrim
Hawker?!--taken from one of the frontispieces of _L'Acadamia
Peregrina del Doni_; 1552, 4to., fol. 73.
[Illustration]
We will conclude this _Hawking_ note with the following
excerpt from one of the earliest editions of the abridgment
of our statutes:--'nul home pringe les oves dascu[n]
_faucon_, _goshawke_, _lan_, ou swan hors de le nyst sur
peyn de inprison p[our] vn an et vn iour et de faire fyn all
volunte le roy et que nul home puis le fest de paque
p[ro]chyn auenpart ascun _hawke_ de le brode dengl' appell
vne _nyesse_, _goshawke_, _lan_, ou _laneret_ sur sa mayn,
sur peyn de forfaiture son _hawke_, et que null enchasse
ascun hawke hors de c[ou]uerte sur peyne de forfaiture x li.
lun moyte al roy et lauter a celuy que voet sur.' Anno xi.
H. vij. ca. xvij. _Abbreviamentum Statutorum_; printed by
Pynson, 1499, 8vo., fol. lxxvij.]
There are other tastes of an equally strange, but more sombre,
character. DION will possess every work which has any connexion,
intimate or remote, with _Latimer_ and _Swedenborg_;[461] while
ANTIGONUS is resolved upon securing every lucubration of _Withers_ or
_Warburton_; whether grave or gay, lively or severe.
[Footnote 461: As I could not consistently give EMANUEL
SWEDENBORG a niche among the bibliomaniacal heroes noticed
towards the conclusion of Part V. of this work, I have
reserved, for the present place, a few extracts of the
titles of his works, from a catalogue of the same, published
in 1785; which I strenuously advise the curious to get
possession of--and for two reasons: first, if he be a
_Swedenborgian_, his happiness will be nearly complete, and
he will thank me for having pointed out such a source of
comfort to him: secondly, if he be _not_ a disciple of the
same master, he may be amused by meditating upon the strange
whims and fancies which possess certain individuals, and
which have sufficient attractions yet to make proselytes and
converts!! Written March 10, A.D. 1811. Now for the
extracts. '_A Catalogue of the printed and unprinted Works_
of the HON. EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, in chronological order. To
which are added some observations, recommending the perusal
of his Theological Writings. Together with a compendious
view of the Faith of a new Heaven and a new Church, in its
Universal and Particular Forms. London, printed by Robert
Hindmarsh, No. 32, Clerkenwell Close, MDCCLXXXV. Those
marked thus (*) are translated into English.'
NO. 18. _Regnum Animale_, or the Animal Kingdom in three
parts. The first treats of the Viscera of the Abdomen, or
the lower Region. The second, of the Viscera of the Breast,
or of the Organs of the superior Region. The third, of the
Skin, the Touch, and the Taste, and of organical forms in
general. Part printed at the Hague, and part in London,
1744, 1745, in 4to.
19. _De Cultu et Amore Dei_, or of the Worship and Love of
God. The first part treats of the Origin of the Earth, of
Paradise, of the Birth, Infancy, and Love of the first Man,
or Adam. London, 1744, in 4to. The second part treats of the
Marriage of the first man, of the Soul, of the intellectual
Spirit, of the State of Integrity, and of the Image of God.
London, 1745, 4to.
20. _Arcana Coelestia_, or Heavenly Mysteries contained in
the Sacred Scriptures or Word of the Lord, manifested and
laid open, in an Explanation of the Books of Genesis and
Exodus, interspersed with relations of wonderful things seen
in the World of Spirits, and the Heaven of Angels. London,
from 1747 to 1758, in eight volumes, 4to. "In this work the
reader is taught to regard the letter of the Scriptures as
the Repository of Holy and Divine Things within; as a
Cabinet containing the infinite Treasures and bright Gems of
spiritual and celestial Wisdom; &c."(*)....
21. _De Coelo et Inferno_; or A Treatise concerning Heaven
and Hell, and of the wonderful Things therein heard and
seen. London, 1758, 4to. "By this work the reader may attain
to some conception of the heavenly kingdom, and may learn
therein that all social virtues, and all the tender
affections that give consistence and harmony to society, and
do honour to humanity, find place and exercise in the utmost
purity in those delectable abodes; where every thing that
can delight the eye, or rejoice the heart, entertain the
imagination, or exalt the understanding, conspire with
Innocence, Love, Joy, and Peace, to bless the spirits of
just men made perfect, and to make glad the city of our
God," &c.(*)]
LOREN. I suspect that, like many dashing artists, you are painting for
_effect_?
PHIL. On the part of Lysander, I may safely affirm that the preceding
has been no caricatured description. I know more than one Baptista,
and Florizel, and Dion, and Antigonus.
LIS. I hope I shall shortly add to the number of such an enthusiastic
class of book-collectors--I'm for _Natural History_; and, in this
department, for birds and beasts--_Gesner_ and _Bewick_![462]
[Footnote 462: The works upon Natural History by Gesner, and
especially the large tomes published about the middle of the
sixteenth century, are, some of them, well worth procuring;
on account of the fidelity and execution of the wood-cuts of
birds and animals. Bewick's earliest editions of _Birds_ and
_Beasts_ should be in the cabinet of every choice
collector.]
PHIL. Restrain your wild feelings--listen to the sober satire of
Lysander. Have you nothing else, in closing this symptomatic subject,
to discourse upon?
LYSAND. There is certainly another point not very remotely connected
with the two preceding; and it is this: a passion to possess large and
voluminous works, and to estimate the treasures of our libraries
rather by their extent and splendour than by their intrinsic worth:
forgetting how prettily Ronsard[463] has illustrated this subject by
the utility and beauty of small rivers in comparison with those which
overflow their banks and spread destruction around. "Oh combien (says
Cailleau, in his _Roman Bibliographique_) un petit livre bien pensé,
bein [Transcriber's Note: bien] plein, et bein [Transcriber's Note:
bien] écrit, est plus agréable, plus utile à lire, que ces vastes
compilations à la formation desquelles l'intérêt a présidé plus
souvent que le bon-goût!"
[Footnote 463:
Ie te confesse bien que le fleuve de Seine
A le cours grand et long, mais tousiours il attraine
Avec soy de la fange, et ses plis recourbrez,
Sans estre iamais nets, sont tousiours embourbez:
Vn petit ruisselet a tousiours l'onde nette,
Aussi le papillon et la gentille auette
Y vont puiser de l'eau, et non en ces torrens
Qui tonnent d'vn grand bruit pas les roches courant:
Petit Sonnets bien faits, belles chansons petites,
Petits discourds gentils, sont les fleurs des Charites,
Des Soeurs et d'Apollon, qui ne daignent aymer
Ceux qui chantent une oeuvre aussi grand que la mer,
Sans riue ny sans fond, de tempestes armée
Et qui iamais ne dort tranquille ny calmée.
_Poems de Ronsard_; fol. 171. Paris 1660. 12mo.
These are pretty lines, and have a melodious flow; but
Ronsard, in his 8 and 9 feet metres, is one of the most
fascinating of the old French poets. The subject, above
alluded to by Lysander, may be yet more strongly
illustrated: for thus speaks Spizelius upon it. 'Solent viri
multijugæ lectionis, qui avidè, quos possunt versant libros,
ut in mentis ventrem trajicere eos velle, totosque devorare
videantur, elegantis proverbii salivâ LIBRORUM HELLUONES
nuncupari; ipso quidem Tullio prælucente, qui avidos
lectores librorum, ac propemodum insiatiables Helluones
dixit, siquidem _vastissima volumina_ percurrant, et
quicquid boni succi exprimere possunt, propriis et alienis
impendant emolumentis." Again: "Maxima cum sit eorum
Literarum stoliditas, qui, quod nocte somniarunt, continuo
edunt in lucem, neque ipsa virium imbecillitate suarum, ab
arduo scribendi munere et onere, sese revocari patiuntur,"
&c. _Infelix Literatus_; pp. 295, 447. Morof is worth our
notice upon this subject: "Veniamus ad Bibliothecas ipsas,
quales vel privatæ sunt, vel publicæ. Illæ, quanquam in
molem tantam non excrescant ut publicæ; sunt tamen etiam
inter privatos viri illustres et opulenti qui in libris
omnis generis coemendis nullis parcunt sumptibus. Quorum
[Greek: bibliomanian] reprehendit Seneca _Ep._ 2. 45, _et de
Tranquil. animi_ c. 9, ridet Lucianus in libello [Greek:
pros apaideuton kai polla biblia ônoumenon]; et Auson.
_epigr._ 43. Sunt ita animati nonnulli, ut
_magno de flumine malint
Quam de fonticulo tantundem sumere;_
cum vastioris Bibliothecæ minor interdum usus sit, quam ejus
quæ selectis paucioribus libris constat." _Polyhist.
Literar._ vol. i., p. 21. He goes on in a very amusing
manner; but this note may be thought already too long.]
BELIN. Well; we live in a marvellous book-collecting and book-reading
age--yet a word more:
ALMAN. I crave your pardon, Belinda; but I have a thought which must
be now imparted, or the consequence may be serious.
LYSAND. I wait both your commands.
ALMAN. My thought--or rather the subject which now occupies my
mind--is this: You have told us of the symptoms of the _Disease of
Book-Madness_, now pray inform us, as a tender-hearted physician, what
are the _means of its cure_?
BELIN. The very question I was about to put to our bibliomaniacal
physician. Pray inform us what are the means of cure in this disorder?
LYSAND. You should say PROBABLE MEANS OF CURE, as I verily believe
there are no certain and correct remedies.
BELIN. Well, Sir, _probable_ means--if it must be so. Discourse
largely and distinctly upon these.
LYSAND. Briefly and perspicuously, if you please: and thus we begin.
In the _first place_, the disease of the Bibliomania is materially
softened, or rendered mild, by directing our studies to _useful_ and
_profitable_ works; whether these be printed upon small or large
paper, in the gothic, roman, or italic type. To consider merely the
_intrinsic excellence_, and not the _exterior splendour_, or
adventitious value, of any production will keep us perhaps wholly free
from this disease. Let the midnight lamp be burnt to illuminate the
stores of antiquity--whether they be romances, or chronicles, or
legends, and whether they be printed by ALDUS or CAXTON--if a brighter
lustre can thence be thrown upon the pages of modern learning! To
trace genius to its source, or to see how she has been influenced or
modified by the lore of past times, is both a pleasing and profitable
pursuit. To see how Shakspeare, here and there, has plucked a flower
from some old ballad or popular tale, to enrich his own unperishable
garland;--to follow Spenser and Milton in their delightful labyrinths
'midst the splendour of Italian literature; are studies which stamp a
dignity upon our intellectual characters! But, in such a pursuit, let
us not overlook the wisdom of modern times, nor fancy that what is
only ancient can be excellent. We must remember that Bacon, Boyle,
Locke, Taylor, Chillingworth, Robertson, Hume, Gibbon, and Paley, are
names which always command attention from the wise, and remind us of
the improved state of reason and acquired knowledge during the two
last centuries.
ALMAN. There seems at least sound sense, with the prospect of much
future good, in this _first_ recipe. What is your second.
LYSAND. In the _second place_, the reprinting of scarce and
intrinsically valuable works is another means of preventing the
propagation of this disorder. Amidst all our present sufferings under
the BIBLIOMANIA, it is some consolation to find discerning and
spirited booksellers republishing the ancient Chroniclers; and the
collections known by the names of "_The Harleian Miscellany_" and
"_Lord Somers' Tracts_," and "_The Voyages of Hakluyt_."[464] These
are noble efforts, and richly deserve the public patronage.
[Footnote 464: In the _Quarterly Review_ for August, 1810,
this my second remedy for curing the disease of the
Bibliomania is considered as inefficient. I have a great
respect for this Review, but I understand neither the
premises nor conclusions therein laid down concerning the
subject in discussion. If "those who cannot afford to
purchase original publications must be content with entire
reprints of them" (I give the very words, though not the
entire sentence), it surely tends to lessen the degree of
competition for "the original publication." A sober reader,
or an economical book-buyer, wants a certain tract on the
ground of its utility:--but take my own case--who have very
few hundreds per annum to procure food for the body as well
as the mind. I wish to consult Roy's tract of "Rede me and
be not wroth," (vide p. 226, ante)--or the "Expedition into
Scotland" of 1544 (see Mr. Beloe's _Anecdotes of Literature
and Scarce Books_, vol. ii., p. 345), because these are
really interesting, as well as rare, volumes. There is at
present no reprint of either; and can I afford to bid ten or
twelve guineas for each of them at a public book-sale?
But--let them be faithfully _reprinted_, and even a golden
guinea (if such a coin be now in the pocket of a poor
bibliomaniac like myself) would be considered by me as
_dear_ terms upon which to purchase the _original_ edition!
The reviewer has illustrated his position by a model of the
Pigot diamond; and intimates that this model does not
"lessen the public desire to possess the original." Lord
Mansfield once observed that nothing more frequently tended
to perplex an argument than a simile--(the remark is
somewhere in _Burrows's Reports_); and the judge's dictum
seems here a little verified. If the glass or crystal model
could reflect _all the lustre_ of the original, it would be
of equal utility; but it cannot. Now the reprint _does_
impart _all_ the intelligence and intrinsic worth of the
original (for "the ugliness of the types" cannot be thought
worthy of aiding the argument one way or another) therefore
the reprint of Roy's poetical tract is not illustrated by
the model of the Pigot diamond: which latter cannot impart
the intrinsic value of the original. Let us now say a word
about the _Reprints_ above commended by Lysander. When Mr.
Harding went to press with the first volume of the _Harleian
Miscellany_, his zeal struggled with his prudence about the
number of copies to be printed of so voluminous a work.
Accordingly, he ventured upon only 250 copies. As the work
advanced, (and, I would hope, as the recommendation of it,
in the last edition of the Bibliomania, promoted its sale)
he took courage, and struck off another 250 copies of the
earlier volumes: and thus this magnificent reprint (which
will be followed up by two volumes of additional matter
collected by Mr. Park, its editor) may be pronounced a
profitable, as well as generally serviceable, publication to
the cause of Literature. The original edition of _Lord
Somers' Tracts_ having become exceedingly scarce, and the
arrangement of them being equally confused, three spirited
booksellers, under the editorial inspection of Mr. Walter
Scott, are putting forth a correct, well arranged, and
beautiful reprint of the same invaluable work. Five volumes
are already published. _The Voyages of Hakluyt_ are
republishing by Mr. Evans, of Pall Mall. Four volumes are
already before the public; of which only 250 copies of the
small, and 75 of the large, are printed. The reprint will
contain the whole of Hakluyt, with the addition of several
scarce voyages and travels.]
LOREN. I fully coincide with these sentiments; and, as a proof of it,
regularly order my London bookseller to transmit to me every volume of
the reprint of these excellent works as it is published.
BELIN. Can you find it in your heart, dear brother, to part with your
black-letter Chronicles, and Hakluyt's Voyages, for these new
publications?
LOREN. I keep the best editions of the ancient Chronicles; but the new
Fabian, the Harleian Miscellany, Lord Somers' Tracts, and the Voyages,
are unquestionably to be preferred; since they are more full and
complete. But proceed with your other probable means of cure.
LYSAND. In the _third place_, the editing of our best ancient authors,
whether in prose or poetry,[465] is another means of effectually
counteracting the mischievous effects arising from the bibliomaniacal
disease; and, on this score, I do think this country stands
pre-eminently conspicuous; for we are indefatigable in our attentions
towards restoring the corrupted texts of our poets.
[Footnote 465: The last new editions of our standard
belles-lettres writers are the following: which should be
found in every gentleman's library. _Shakspeare_, 1793, 15
vols., or 1803, 21 vols. (vide p. 427, ante); _Pope_, by
_Jos. Warton_; 1795, 8 vols. 8vo.; or by _Lisle Bowles_,
1806, 9 vols. 8vo.; _Spenser_, by _H.J. Todd_, 1805, 8 vols.
8vo.; _Milton_, by _the Same_, 7 vols., 8vo.; _Massinger_,
by _W. Gifford_, 1806, 4 vols. 8vo.; _Sir David Lyndsay_, by
_George Chalmers_, 1806, 3 vols. 8vo.; _Dryden_, by _Walter
Scott_, 1808, 18 vols. 8vo.; _Churchill_, by ----, 1805, 2
vols. 8vo.; _Hudibras_, by _Dr. Grey_, 1744, or 1809, 2
vols. 8vo.; _Ben. Jonson_, by _W. Gifford_ (_sub prelo_);
and _Bishop Corbett's Poems_, by _Octavius Gilchrist_, 1807,
8vo.]
PHIL. Yet forgive me if I avow that this same country, whose editorial
labours you are thus commending, is shamefully deficient in the
cultivation of _Ancient English History_! I speak my sentiments
roundly upon this subject: because you know, Lysander, how vigilantly
I have cultivated it, and how long and keenly I have expressed my
regret at the almost total apathy which prevails respecting it. There
is no country upon earth which has a more plentiful or faithful stock
of historians than our own; and if it were only to discover how
superficially some of our recent and popular historians have written
upon it, it were surely worth the labour of investigation to examine
the yet existing records of past ages.
LOREN. To effect this completely, you should have a NATIONAL PRESS.
LIS. And why not? Have we here no patriotic spirit similar to that
which influenced the Francises, Richlieus, Colberts, and Louises of
France?
ALMAN. You are getting into bibliographical politics! Proceed, good
Lysander, with your other probable means of cure.
LYSAND. In the _fourth place_, the erection of PUBLIC
INSTITUTIONS[466] is of great service in diffusing a love of books for
their intrinsic utility, and is of very general advantage to scholars
and authors who cannot purchase every book which they find it
necessary to consult.
[Footnote 466: The ROYAL, LONDON, SURREY, AND RUSSEL
INSTITUTIONS, have been the means of concentrating, in
divers parts of the metropolis, large libraries of useful
books; which, it is to be hoped, will eventually bring into
disgrace and contempt what are called _Circulating
Libraries_--vehicles, too often, of insufferable nonsense,
and irremediable mischief!]
PHIL. You are right. These Institutions are of recent growth, but of
general utility. They are a sort of _intellectual Hospitals_--according
to your mode of treating the Bibliomania. Yet I dare venture to affirm
that the _News-Paper Room_ is always better attended than the
_Library_!
LYSAND. Let us have no sarcasms. I will now give you the _fifth_ and
last probable means of cure of the Bibliomania; and that is _the Study
of Bibliography_.[467]
[Footnote 467: "UNNE [Transcriber's Note: UNE] BONNE
BIBLIOGRAPHIE," says Marchand, "soit générale soit
particuliére, soit profane soit écclésiastique, soit
nationale, provinciale, ou locale, soit simplement
personelle, en un mot de quelque autre genre que ce puisse
être, n'est pas un ouvrage aussi facile que beaucoup de gens
se le pourroient imaginer; mais, elles ne doivent néanmoins
nullement prévenir contre celle-ci. Telle qu'elle est, elle
ne laisse pas d'être bonne, utile, et digne d'être
recherchée par les amateurs de l'Histoire Litteraire."
_Diction. Historique_, vol. i. p. 109.
Peignot, in his _Dictionnaire de Bibliologie_, vol. i. 50,
has given a very pompous account of what ought to be the
talents and duties of a bibliographer. It would be difficult
indeed to find such qualifications, as he describes, united
in one person! De Bure, in the eighth volume of his
_Bibliographie Instructive_, has prefixed a "Discourse upon
the Science of Bibliography, and the Duties of a
Bibliographer," which is worth consulting: but I know of
nothing which better describes, in few words, such a
character, than the following: "In eo sit multijuga
materiarum librorumque notitia, ut saltem potiores eligat et
inquirat: fida et sedula apud exteras gentes procuratio, ut
eos arcessat; summa patientia ut rarè venalis expectet;
peculium semper præsens et paratum, ne, si quando occurrunt,
emendi, occasio intercidat: prudens denique auri argentique
contemptus, ut pecuniis sponte careat quæ in bibliothecam
formandam et nutriendam sunt insumendæ. Si forte vir
literatus eo felicitatis pervenit ut talem thesaurum
coacervaverit, nec solus illo invidiose fruatur, sed usam
cum eruditis qui virgilias suas utilitati publicæ
devoverunt, liberaliter communicet;" &c.--_Bibliotheca
Hulsiana_, vol. i. Præfat. p. 3, 4. Morhof abounds with
sagacious reflections upon this important subject: but are
there fifty men in Great Britain who love to read the
_Polyhistor Literarius_? The observations of Ameilhon and
Camus, in the _Memoires de l'Institut_, are also well worth
consultation; as are those of Le Long, and his editor,
prefixed to the last edition of the _Bibliotheca Sacra_.]
LIS. Excellent!--Treat copiously upon this my darling subject.
BELIN. You speak with the enthusiasm of a young convert; but I should
think the study of Bibliography a sure means of increasing the
violence of the book-disease.
LYSAND. The encouragement of _the Study of Bibliography_, in its
legitimate sense, and towards its true object, may be numbered among
the most efficacious cures for this destructive malady. To place
competent Librarians over the several departments of a large public
Library; or to submit a library, on a more confined scale, to one
diligent, enthusiastic, well-informed, and well-bred Bibliographer or
Librarian (of which in this metropolis we have so many examples), is
doing a vast deal towards directing the channels of literature to flow
in their proper courses. And thus I close the account of my recipes
for the cure of the Bibliomania. A few words more and I have done.
It is, my friends, in the erection of Libraries as in literary
compositions, the task is difficult, and will generally meet with
opposition from some fastidious quarter,[468] which is always
betraying a fretful anxiety to bring every thing to its own ideal
standard of perfection. To counteract the unpleasant effect which such
an impression must necessarily produce, be diligent and faithful, to
your utmost ability, in whatsoever you undertake. You need not evince
the fecundity of a German[469] author; but only exert your best
endeavours, and leave the issue to a future generation. Posterity will
weigh, in even scales, your merits and demerits, when all present
animosities and personal prejudices shall have subsided; and when the
utility of our labours, whether in promoting wisdom or virtue, shall
be unreservedly acknowledged. You may sleep in peace before this
decision take place; but YOUR CHILDREN may live to witness it; and
your name, in consequence, become a passport for them into circles of
learning and worth. Let us now retreat; or, rather, walk round
Lorenzo's grounds. We have had _Book-Discussion_ enough to last us to
the end of the year.[470] I begin to be wearied of conversing.
[Footnote 468: My favourite author, Morhof, has spoken
'comme un brave homme' upon the difficulty of literary
enterprizes, and the facility and venom of detraction: I
support his assertion 'totis viribus'; and to beg to speak
in the same person with himself. 'Non ignotum mihi est,
quantæ molis opus humeris meis incumbat. Oceanum enim
ingressus sum, in quo portum invenire difficile est,
naufragii periculum à syrtibus et scopulis imminet. Quis
enim in tanta multitudine rerum et librorum omnia
exhauriret? Quis non alicubi impingeret? Quis salvum ab
invidia caput retraheret, ac malignitatis dentes in
liberiore censura evitaret? Præterea ut palato et gustu
differunt convivæ, ita judiciis dissident lectores, neque
omnium idem de rebus sensus est, hoc præsertim tempore, quo
plures sunt librorum judices, quam lectores, et è lectoribus
in lictores, ubique virgas et secures expedituros, multi
degenerant.' _Præf. Morhof._--Even the great Lambecius (of
whom see p. 41, ante) was compelled to deliver his
sentiments thus:--'laborem hunc meum non periculosum minus
et maglignis liventium _Zoilorum_ dentibus obnoxium, quam
prolixum foro et difficilem.' Prod. Hist. Lit. _Proleg._ One
of the Roman philosophers (I think it was Seneca) said, in
his last moments, 'Whether or not the Gods will be pleased
with what I have done, I cannot take upon me to pronounce:
but, this I know--it has been my invariable object to please
them.' For 'the Gods' read 'the Public'--and then I beg
leave, in a literary point of view, to repeat the words of
Seneca.]
[Footnote 469: 'From the last catalogue of the fair of
Lepisic [Transcriber's Note: Leipsic], it would appear that
there are now in Germany _ten thousand two hundred and forty
three authors_, full of _health_ and _spirit_, and each of
whom publishes at least _once a year_!' _American Review_,
Jan. 1811, p. 172.]
[Footnote 470: Through the favour of Dr. Drury, the Editor
is enabled to present the reader with an original letter,
enclosing a list of books directed to be purchased by
BENJAMIN HEATH, Esq.; also his portrait. This document would
have been better inserted, in point of chronological order,
in part V., but, as the Editor did not receive it till long
after that part was printed, he trusts it will be thought
better late than never.
THE DIRECTION.
[Illustration: [handwritten]
To
Mr John Mann
at the Hand in Hand
Fire Office in Angel Court
on Snow Hill
[illegible]
in
London]
Exeter, 21st March, 1738.
Dear Sir,
I take the liberty presuming upon the Intimacy of our
Acquaintance to employ you in a pretty troublesome Affair.
Fletcher Gyles, Bookseller in Holbourn, with whom I had some
Dealings about two years ago, has lately sent me Down a
Catalogue of a Library which will begin to be sold by
Auction at his house next Monday Evening. As I have scarce
laid out any Money in Books for these two years past, the
great number of Valuable Books contained in this Collection,
together with the tempting prospect of getting them cheaper
in an Auction than they are to be had in a Sale, or in any
other way whatsoever, has induced me to lay out a Sum of
mony this way, at present, which will probably content my
Curiosity in this kind, for several years to come. Mr. Gyles
has offered himself to act for me, but as I think 'tis too
great a Trial of his Honesty to make him at the same time
both Buyer & Seller, & as Books are quite out of my
Brother's Way, I have been able to think of no Friend I
could throw this trouble upon but you. I propose to lay out
about £60 or £70, and have drawn up a List of the Books I am
inclined to, which you have in the First Leaf, with the
Price to each Book, which I would by no means exceed, but as
far as which, with respect to each single Book, I would
venture to go; though I am persuaded upon the whole they are
vastly overvalued. For my Valuation is founded in proportion
upon what I have been charged for Books of this kind, when I
have sent for them on purpose from London, and I have had
too many proofs that the Booksellers make it a Rule to
charge near double for an uncommon Book, when sent for on
purpose, of what they would take for it in their own Shops,
or at a Sale. So that, though the Amount of the Inclosed
List is above £120, yet, when Deductions are made for the
Savings by the Chance of the Auction, & for the full rate of
such Books as I may be over bid in, I am satisfied it will
come within the sum I propose. Now, Sir, the Favour which I
would beg of you is to get some Trusty Person (& if you
should not be able readily to think of a proper Person
yourself, Mr. Hinchcliffe or Mr. Peele may probably be able
to recommend one) to attend this Auction, in my behalf, from
the beginning to the end, & to bid for me agreeably to the
inclosed List & (as the Additional Trouble of it over and
above the Attendance would not be great) to mark in the
Catalogue, which you may have of Mr. Gyles for a shilling,
the price Every Book contained in the Catalogue is sold at,
for my future Direction in these Matters. For this Service I
would willingly allow 3 Guineas, which, the Auction
continuing 24 Days, is 3 shillings over and above half a
Crown a Day; or, if that is not sufficient, whatever more
shall be thought necessary to get my Commission well
Executed. It may be necessary to observe to you that the
Auction requires the Attendance of the whole day, beginning
at Eleven in the Morning, and ending at two and at five in
the Afternoon, and Ending at Eight. It may also be proper to
inform the Person you shall Employ that he is not to govern
his first bidding by the valuation in my list for many of
the Books will very probably be sold for less than half what
I have marked them at; he is therefore, in every Instance,
to bid Low at first, and afterwards to continue advancing
just beyond the other Bidders, till he has either bought the
Book, or the price I have fixed it at is exceeded. There are
many Books in the List which have several numbers before
them; the meaning of which is that the very same Book is in
several places of the Catalogue; and in that Case, I would
have the first of them bought, if it be in very good
condition, otherwise let the person Employed wait till the
other comes up. I would desire him also not to buy any book
at all that is both Dirty & ragged; but, though the Binding
should not be in very good Order, that would be no Objection
with me, provided the Book was clean. I would also desire
him not to bid for any Number in the Catalogue that is not
expressly mentioned in my List, upon a supposition that it
may be the same Book with some that are mentioned in it; nor
to omitt any Book that is actually upon the List, upon an
Imagination, from the Title, that it may be there more than
once; for I have drawn it up upon an Exact consideration of
the Editions of the Books, insomuch that there is no Book
twice upon the List, but where there is a very great
difference in the Editions; nor is any of the Books in my
List oftener in the Catalogue than is expressly specified in
it. By the Conditions of Sale, the Auction is constantly
adjourned from Fryday night to Monday Morning, the Saturday
being appointed for fetching away, at the Expence of the
buyer, the Books bought the week before, & for payment of
the Mony. This part of the trouble I must beg you to charge
yourself with; &, in order to enable you, as to the payment,
I shall send you up, either by the next Post, or, however,
time enough for the Saturday following, Fifty Pounds. I
would beg the Favour of you to let me hear from you, if
possible, by the Return of the Post; & also to give me an
Account by every Saturday night's post what Books are bought
for me, and at what price. As to which you need only mention
the Numbers without the Titles, since I have a Catalogue by
me. When the Auction is Ended, I shall take the Liberty of
giving you farther Directions about Packing up the Books, &
the way I would have them sent down. When I drew up my List,
I had not observed one of the Conditions of Sale, which
imports that no Person is to advance less than a shilling
after twenty shillings is bid for any book. Now you will
find a pretty many Books which I have valued at more than
twenty shillings marked at an Odd Sixpence; in all which
Cases, I would have the Bidder add Sixpence more to the
Price I have fixed, in order to make it Even Money, &
conformable to the Conditions of the Auction. And now, Dear
Sir, another Person would make a thousand Apologies for
giving you all this trouble; all which superfluous
tediousness I shall spare you, being persuaded I shall do
you a great pleasure in giving you an Opportunity of being
serviceable to me, as I am sure it would be a very sensible
one to me, if I ever had it in my power to be of any use to
you. Mine and my Wive's humble respects wait upon Mrs. Mann,
and you will be so good to present my hearty services to all
our Friends.
I am most sincerely,
Dear Sir,
[Illustration: [handwritten] Your Faithful & Affectionate
humble Servt.
Benj Heath]
[Illustration: HIS SEAL.]
£ _s._ _d._
Octavo 5 Pet. Angeli Bargæi Poemata 0 5 6
40 Hieron. Fracastorij Poemata 0 7 6
47 or 455, or 1546, Joan. Leonis
Africæ Desc. 0 3 6
68 Christ. Longolij Orationes et
Epistolæ 0 6 6
78 Pierij Valeriani Hexametri 0 4 6
Quarto 46 Diogenes Laertius 1 12 6
Octavo 164 or 624, Scaligerana 0 2 6
201 or 1280, Car. Ogerij Iter
Danicum 0 3 0
Quarto 66 Plautus Taubmanni 0 11 6
Octavo 282 Hen. Lornenij Itinerarium 0 3 0
Quarto 132 Marcus Antonius de Dominis 0 2 6
143 Hen. Stephani Dialogus 0 4 6
157 Ausonii Opera 0 9 6
178 Anacreon and Sappho 0 8 6
180 Excerpta ex Polybio 0 8 6
181 Sophocles and Eschylus 1 2 6
------------
Carried Forward £6 16 0
£ _s._ _d._
Brought Forward 6 16 0
Octavo 405 or 2413, or 2953, Historia Gothorum 0 6 6
435 or 1488, or 1688, Lucretius Gifanij 0 5 6
436 Is Casaubon de Satyrica Poesi 0 3 6
Quarto 198 or 344, Iamblicus de Vita Pythag. 0 11 6
275 Aulus Gellius Gronovij 0 18 6
280 Statij quæ Extant Barthij 0 18 6
Octavo 700 or 1093, Martial Scriverij 0 6 6
Quarto 302 Juvenal Henninij 0 18 6
314 Manilij Astronomicon 0 11 6
316 Poetriarum Octo 0 6 6
Folio 170 Fam. Strada da Bello Belgico 1 13 6
Octavo 739 Virgilius Illustratus 0 3 6
752 Paulli Manutij Epistolæ 0 3 0
Folio 206 or 235, or 590, Io. Leunclavij
Annales 1 2 6
Octavo 989 Senecæ Tragediæ Scriverij 0 4 6
9191 1088 Pontani Opera 0 8 6
Folio 264 Demosthenis et Æschinis Opera 2 17 6
301 Thucydides Wasse 2 9 6
306 Platonis Opera 4 5 6
308 Herodoti Historia 1 7 6
Quarto 503 Pauli Collomesij Opera 0 9 0
543 566 Bern. Pensini Vita Baronij 0 3 0
Octavo 1239 or 2831, Poesis Philosophica 0 3 6
Folio 270 Philostrati Opera 1 7 6
376 Historiæ Romanæ Scriptores 1 11 6
386 Plutarchi Opera 5 7 6
Octavo 1519 Caninij Hellenismus 0 2 6
1608 or 2705, Virgilius Hiensij 0 3 6
Folio 426 Geo. Buchanani Opera 1 11 6
443 Plautus Lambini 0 13 6
448 Horatius Turnebi et Lambini 0 18 6
Octavo 1650 Dom. Baudij Amores 0 3 0
Folio 476 Æschyli Tragediæ 0 16 6
Octavo 1814 Lud. Kusterus de vero Usu, &c. 0 3 6
Quarto 871 Gab. Faerni Fabulæ Centum 0 6 6
Folio 477 Luciani Opera 1 7 6
-------------
Carried Forward £42 7 0
£ _s._ _d._
Brought Forward 42 7 0
479 Dionis Cassij Historia 1 12 6
485 Diodorus Siculus 2 18 6
490 Appiani Historia 0 11 6
491 Palladius de Gentibus Indiæ 0 5 6
498 Isocratij Orationes 1 3 6
Quarto 908 Papin. Statij Opera 0 9 6
921 Claudian Cum Animad. Barthij 0 11 6
Folio 529 Maffæi Historia Indica 0 8 6
509 546 Saxonis Grammatici Historia 0 17 6
Octavo 2101 Huntingtoni Epistolæ 0 3 6
Quarto 1018 And. Nangerij Opera 0 9 6
1023 Tho. Hyde Historia Relig. Vett.
Pers. 0 18 6
1047 Claud. Salmasij Epistolæ 0 3 6
1088 Theocriti Moschi Bionis 0 16 6
1089 Hesiodus Græce 0 18 6
Folio 627 Rerum Moscoviticarum Coment. 0 11 6
638 Angeli Politiani Opera 0 18 6
Octavo 2354 Ausonius 0 7 6
2362 Mythographi Latini 0 6 6
Quarto 1139 Aristotelis Opera 3 4 6
Octavo 2481 Fabricij Bibliotheca Latina 0 11 6
Quarto 1192 Sannazarij Poemata 0 11 6
Octavo 2526 Meursij Elegantiæ 0 5 6
2559 Statij Opera 0 4 6
2578 Is Casauboni Comment. 0 3 0
2597 Maximi Tyrij Dissertationes 0 4 0
Folio 698 Nic. Antonij Bibliotheca Hispan. 2 4 6
Octavo 2712 Ovidij Opera 0 15 6
Folio 765 Nic. Antonij Bibliotheca Hisp. Vetus 1 7 6
Octavo 2891 Pet. Dan. Huetij Comentarius 0 2 6
3098 Sir John Suckling's Plays, &c. 0 3 6
3099 Dr. Downe's Poems 0 4 0
Quarto 1498 Lord's Discovery of the Banian
Religion 0 5 6
Folio 857 or 896, Burnet's Theory of ye Earth 0 9 6
Octavo 3364 Milton's Poems 0 2 0
3374 King's British Merchant 0 12 6
-------------
Carried Forward £68 11 0
£ _s._ _d._
Brought Forward 68 11 0
3379 Milton's Paradise Regained 0 2 6
Folio 912 Wheeler's Journey into Greece 0 13 0
Octavo 3463 or 3473, Grevil's Life Of Sir
P. Sidney 0 3 0
3466 Jobson Debes's Description of Feroe 0 2 0
3529 Terry's Voyage to the East Indies 0 3 6
Quarto 1672 Description de l'Egypte 0 13 6
1692 Apologie de M. Castar 0 4 0
1694 Replique de M. Girac 0 3 6
Octavo 3538 Geddes's History of the Church, &c. 0 3 0
3600 Songs by the Earl Of Surrey 0 3 6
3741 or 4112, Oeuvres de Sarasin 0 4 0
3854 or 3859, Scaligerana 0 2 6
Quarto 1873 Viaggi di Pietro della Valli 1 5 0
1875 Opera di Annibale Caro 0 8 0
1876 Orlando Inamorato 0 12 6
1879 or 2070, Pastor Fido 0 12 6
1884 or 1977, Morgante Maggiore 0 9 0
1920 or 1965, La Gerusalemme Liberata 1 2 6
1928 Il Verato 0 3 6
1953 Orlando Inamorato 0 9 6
1957 Historia della Guerre Civili 0 17 6
1967 Scritti nella Causa Veniziana 0 4 6
1980 Historia della Sacra Inquisitione 0 5 6
1983 Examinatione sopra la Rhetorica 0 5 6
1990 or 2037, Istoria Diplomatica 0 11 6
1995 Fasti Consolari di Salvini 0 9 6
1998 Satire del Menzini 0 7 6
Folio 1109 Bibliotheca Napolitana di Toppi 1 1 6
1123 Orlando Furioso 1 2 6
Quarto 2005 or 2039, Dialoghi del Speroni 0 7 6
2015 Poetica di Aristotele Volgarizzata 0 6 6
2024 Poetica di Aristotele di Piccolomini 0 4 6
2031 Della Difesa della Comedia di Dante 0 13 0
2033 Squittinio della Liberta Veneta 0 5 6
2049 Il Goffredo col. Comento di Beni 0 9 6
2050 Dante di Daniello 0 9 6
-------------
Carried Forward £84 13 0
£ _s._ _d._
Brought Forward 84 13 0
Folio 1129 Historia del Regno di Napoli 0 14 6
1132 Historia del Consilio Tridentino 2 13 6
1137 Vocabularia della Crusca 8 4 6
Octavo 4268 Voyage de Bachanmont, &c. 0 2 6
4295 or 4330, or 4339, or 4511,
Ragionamenti del Aretino 0 11 6
4305 Prose Fiorentine 0 3 6
4309 Lettre Volgari 0 3 6
4321 Gravina della Ragione Poetica 0 5 6
4322 Battaglie di Mugio 0 3 6
4331 or 4527, La Comedia di Dante 0 11 6
Quarto 2053 Degli Raguagli di Parnaso 0 8 6
2067 Il Decameron di Boccaccio 2 5 6
2076 or 2168, Lezioni di Varchi 0 8 6
2098 L'Amadigi di Tasso 0 8 6
Folio 1154 L'Adone del Marino 0 11 6
1154 Il Libro del Cortegiano 0 13 6
1162 Istoria del Concilio di Trento 2 4 6
1164 La Historia di Italia di
Guicciardini 0 17 6
Octavo 4354 Rime Diverse del Mutio 0 4 6
4363 L'Amorosa Fiametta 0 4 6
4371 Compendio del Historie di Nap. 0 5 6
4379 Opere di Guilio Cammillo 0 4 6
4384 L'Aminta di Tasso 0 6 6
4385 L'Opere Poetiche di Guarin 0 5 6
4387 Comedie di M. Agnolo Firenz. 0 5 6
4415 Notize de Libri Rari 0 4 6
4416 Satire e Rime di Aristo 0 5 6
4417 Delle Eloquenza Italiana 0 6 6
4423 Comedie Varie 0 3 6
4438 Labarinto d'Amore di Boccac. 0 4 6
4443 Opere di Redi 1 1 0
Quarto 2100 Lettere di Vincenzio Martelli 0 8 6
2103 or 2154, Ameto di Boccaccio 0 4 6
2104 or 2161, Le Rime di Petrarca 0 8 6
2114 Ragionamento dell' Academico 0 8 6
--------------
Carried Forward £111 17 0
£ _s._ _d._
Brought Forward 111 17 0
2124 Poesie Liriche del Testi 0 8 6
Octavo 4452 Il Petrarca 0 11 6
4456 or 4550, Lettre di Paolo Sarpi 0 3 6
4460 Opere Burleschi di Berni 0 6 6
4464 or 4485, Prose di M. Agnolo
Firenz. 0 3 6
4471 Commento di Ser Agresto 0 3 6
4475 L'Aminta di Tasso 0 6 6
4483 La Secchia Rapita 0 5 6
4486 or 4627, Comedie di Aretino 0 5 6
4496 Trattato delle Materie Benef. 0 4 6
4531 Il 2do Libro delle Opere
Burlesch. 0 6 6
Quarto 2149 Annotationi e Discorsi 0 16 6
2159 Gyrone il Cortese 0 9 6
2164 Il Decamerone di Boccaccio 0 14 6
2169 Historia della Cose passate 0 5 6
2171 Apologia degli Academia 0 9 6
2176 Della Guerra di Fiandra 2 2 6
2178 Rime e Prose di Maffei 0 13 6
2182 Discorsi Poetichi 0 5 6
Octavo 4561 La Libreria del Doni 0 4 6
4591 La Cassaria 0 2 6
4592 Teatro Italiano 1 1 6
4614 La Divina Comedia di Dante 1 1 6
4615 La Rime di Angelo di Cestanzo 0 7 6
4625 Tutte le Opere di Bernia 0 6 6
--------------
£124 3 6
--------------]
* * * * *
Lysander concluded; when Lorenzo rose from his seat, and begged of us
to walk round his grounds. It was now high noon; and, after a
pleasant stroll, we retreated again to THE ALCOVE, where we found a
cold collation prepared for our reception. The same day we all dined
at Lisardo's; and a discussion upon the pleasures and comparative
excellences of _Music_ and _Painting_ succeeded to the conversation
which the foregoing pages have detailed. A small concert in the
evening recreated the exhausted state of Lysander's mimd
[Transcriber's Note: mind].
The next day, my friends left me for their respective places of
destination. Lorenzo and his sisters were gathered round my outer
gate; and Lisardo leapt into the chaise with Lysander and Philemon;
resolved to equal, if not eclipse, his bibliographical tutor in the
ardour of book researches. "Adieu," said Lysander, putting his hand
out of the chaise--"remember, in defence of my bibliomaniacal
gossipping, that SIMILIS never knew happiness _till he became
acquainted with_ BOOKS."[471] The postillion smacked his whip; and the
chaise, following the direction of the road to the left, quickly
disappeared. The servant of Lysander followed gently after, with his
Master's and Philemon's horses: taking a near direction towards
Lysander's home.
[Footnote 471: 'It is reported that a certain man, of the
name of SIMILIS, who fought under the Emperor Hadrian,
became so wearied and disgusted with the number of
troublesome events which he met with in that mode of life,
that he retired and devoted himself wholly to leisure and
_reading_, and to meditations upon divine and human affairs,
after the manner of Pythagoras. In this retirement, Similis
was wont frequently to exclaim that '_now_ he began to
_live_:' at his death, he desired the following inscription
to be placed upon his tomb.
[Greek: SIMILIS
EN TAUTHA KEITAI
BIOUE MEN ETÊ EBDOMÊKONTA
ZÊSAS DE ETÊ EPTA]
_Here lies Similis;
In the seventieth year of his age
But only the seventh of his Life._
This story is related by Dion Cassius; and from him told by
Spizelius in his _Infelix Literarius_; p. 167.]
Lorenzo and his sisters returned with me to the Cabinet. A gloom was
visible upon all our countenances; and the Ladies confessed that the
company and conversation of my departed guests, especially of
Lysander, were such as to leave a void which could not easily be
supplied. For my part, from some little warmth each sister betrayed in
balancing the solid instruction of Lysander and the humorous vivacity
of Lisardo, against each other, I thought the former had made a
powerful impression upon the mind of Belinda, and the latter upon that
of Almansa: for when the probability of a speedy revisit from both of
them was mentioned the sisters betrayed unusual marks of sensibility;
and upon Lorenzo's frankly confessing, though in a playful mood, that
such brothers-in-law would make him "as happy as the day was
long"--they both turned their faces towards the garden, and appeared
as awkward as it was possible for well-bred ladies to appear.
It was in vain that I turned to my library and opened a large paper,
illustrated, copy of Daulby's _Catalogue of Rembrandt's Prints_, or
Mr. Miller's new edition of the _Memoirs of Count Grammont_, or even
the _Roman de la Rose_, printed by Galliot du Pré, UPON VELLUM....
Nothing produced a kind look or a gracious word from them. Silence,
sorrow, and indifference, succeeded to loquacity, joy, and enthusiasm.
I clearly perceived that some _other_ symptom, wholly different from
any thing connected with the Bibliomania, had taken possession of
their gentle minds.
But what has a BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ROMANCE to do with _Love_ and
_Marriage_? Reader Adieu!--When thou hast nothing better deserving of
perusal before thee, take up these pages; and class the author of
them, if thou wilt, with the BOSTONS, or SMITHS, or NORTHS, of "other
times;" with those who have never wished to disturb the peaceful
haunts of intellectual retirement; and whose estate, moreover, like
Joseph Scaliger's, lies chiefly under his hat.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
p. 57. To the list of useful bibliographical works, published about
the period here designated, I might have added the _Lexicon
Literarium_ of THEOPHILUS GEORGIUS; _cum Suppl. ad an._ 1750. _Leips._
1742-50, folio; two thick and closely printed volumes, with an
excellent chronological arrangement. It is not common in this country.
p. 69. The Abbé Rive was also the author of--1. _Notice d'un Roman
d'Artus Comte de Bretagne_: Paris, 1779, 4to. _pp._ 20. 2. _Etrennes
aux Joueurs de cartes, ou Eclaircissemens historiques et critiques
sur l'invention des cartes à jouer; Paris_, 1780, 12mo. _pp._ 43.
These works are slightly commended in the "Advertissement" to the
Vallière Catalogue, 1783, pp. xxv-vj. They are reviewed by a rival
author.
p. 216. Since writing the first note, concerning the "_Assertio Septem
Sacramentorum_," &c., I have seen a magnificent copy of the same,
printed UPON VELLUM, in the library of Earl Spencer; which redeems the
coldness of my opinion in regard to books printed by Pynson upon
vellum. The painted ornaments, in Lord Spencer's copy, were, in all
probability, executed abroad. The art, in our own country, was then
too rude for such elegance of decoration.
p. 404. I was right in my prediction about these _Garlands_ being
swallowed up by some "hungry book-fish!" I saw them, a few days after,
in the well-furnished library of ATTICUS: who exhibited them to me in
triumph--grasping the whole of them between his finger and thumb! They
are marvellous well-looking little volumes--clean, bright, and
"rejoicing to the eye!"--many of them, moreover, are first editions!
The severest winter cannot tarnish the foliage of such "Garlands!"
p. 328. Among the ILLUSTRATED GRANGERS I forgot to notice the ample
and magnificent copies belonging to the Marquis of Bute and Mr. John
Towneley.
[Illustration: DR. BENJAMIN HEATH.]
SUPPLEMENT.
[Illustration]
THE SUPPLEMENT.
PART I.
THE EVENING WALK.
The scenery and the dialogue of this Part are more especially
_Waltonian_. The characters are few; but LYSANDER must of necessity be
the Author--as he is the principal actor in the scene, and throughout
the entire work the principal intelligence is derived from his lips.
The scene itself is not absolutely ideal. At the little village of
----, upon the upper grounds, near Marlow, and necessarily commanding
a sweep of the Thames in one of its most richly wooded windings, there
lived a Mr. Jacobs, the friend of the adjoining Rector, whose table
was as bounteous as his heart was hospitable; and whose frequent
custom it was, in summer months, to elicit sweet discourse from his
guests, as they sauntered, after an early supper, to inhale the
fragrance of "dewy eve," and to witness the ascendancy of the moon in
a cool and cloudless sky. I have partaken more than once of these
"Tusculan" discussions; and have heard sounds, and witnessed
happiness, such as is not likely to be my lot again. PHILEMON is at
rest in his grave, as well as MENANDER and SICORAX. The two latter, it
is well known, were Tom Warton and Joseph Ritson. "The husband of poor
Lavinia" was a most amiable gentleman, but timid to a morbid excess.
Without strong powers of intellect, he was tenacious of every thing
which he advanced, and yet the farthest possible from dogmatic
rudeness. There are cankers that eat into the _heart_ as well as the
cheek; and because Mr. Shacklewell (the NICAS of my text) happened to
discover a few unimportant errors in that husband's last performance,
the latter not only thought much and often about it, but seemed to
take it seriously to heart, and scarcely survived it a twelvemonth.
GONZALO, mentioned at page 12, was a Mr. Jessop; an exceedingly
lively, inoffensive, but not over wise gentleman; a coxcomb to excess
in every thing; but not without vivacious parts, which occasionally
pleased, from the _manner_ in which they were exhibited. Of handsome
person and fluent speech, he was generally acceptable to the fair sex;
but he made no strong _individual_ impression, as he was known to use
the same current phrases and current compliments to all. Just possible
it was that his personal attractions and ready utterance were
beginning to strike a _root_ or two in some one female bosom; but it
was impossible for these roots to penetrate deeply, and take an
_exclusive_ hold. I believe Mr. Jessop quitted the neighbourhood of
Marlow shortly after the publication of the Bibliomania, to return
thither no more. ALFONSO was a Mr. Morell; a name well known in
Oxfordshire. He was always in the _same_ false position, from the
beginning to the end; but I am not sure whether this be not better
than a perpetually shifting false position. Disguise it as you may, an
obstinate man is preferable to a _trimmer_; be he a common man, or an
uncommon man; a layman or a clergyman; "in crape," or "in lawn."
The compliment paid by Lysander (at pages 18, 19) to Dr. VINCENT, late
Dean of Westminster, and head master of Westminster School, were
acknowledged by that venerable and most worthy, as well as erudite,
character, in a letter to me, which I deemed it but an act of justice
to its author to publish in the _Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. iii.
p. 353. Poor Mr. BARKER (Edmund Henry), who is handsomely mentioned in
the Dean's letter, has very lately taken his departure from us, for
_that_ quiet which he could not find upon earth. "Take him for all in
all" he was a very extraordinary man. Irritable to excess; but ardent
and ambitious in his literary career. His industry, when, as in former
days, it was at its height, would have killed half the scholars of the
time. How he attained his fiftieth year, may be deemed miraculous;
considering upon what a tempestuous sea his vessel of life seemed to
be embarked. Latterly, he took to politics; when--"farewell the
tranquil mind!"
PART II.
THE CABINET.
This portion of the "Bibliomania," embracing about fourscore pages,
contains a _Précis_, or review of the more popular works, then extant,
upon BIBLIOGRAPHY. It forms an immense mass of materials; which, if
expanded in the ordinary form of publication, would alone make a
volume. I have well nigh forgotten the names of some of the more
ancient heroes of bibliographical renown, but still seem to cling with
a natural fondness to those of Gesner, Morhof, Maittaire, and
Fabricius: while Labbe, Lambecius, and Montfauçon, Le Long, and
Baillet, even yet retain all their ancient respect and popularity. As
no _fresh characters_ are introduced in this second part of the
Bibliomania, it may be permitted me to say a word or two upon the
substance of the materials which it contains.
The immense note upon the "_Catalogue of Libraries_," alphabetically
arranged, from page 72 to page 99, is now, necessarily, imperfect;
from the number of libraries which have been subsequently sold or
described. Among the _latter_, I hope I may naturally, and
justifiably, make mention of the BIBLIOTHECA SPENCERIANA; or, A
descriptive Catalogue of the early printed Books of the late George
John Earl Spencer, K.G.; comprising, in the whole, seven volumes; with
the addition of the Cassano Library, or books purchased of the Duke of
Cassano, by the noble Earl, when at Naples, in the year 1819. In the
"_Reminiscences of my Literary Life_," I have given a sort of graphic
description of this extensive work, and of the circumstances attending
its publication. _That_ work now rests upon its own particular, and, I
will fearlessly add, solid, basis. For accuracy, learning, splendour,
and almost interminable embellishment, it may seem at once to command
the attention, and to challenge the commendation, of the most
fastidious: but it is a flower which blooms more kindly in a foreign,
than in its native, soil. It has obtained for me the notice and the
applause of learned _foreigners_; and when I travelled abroad I
received but too substantial proofs that what was slighted _here_ was
appreciated in _foreign_ parts. Our more popular Reviews, which seem
to thrive and fatten best upon lean fare, passed this magnificent work
over in a sort of sly or sullen silence; and there is no record of its
existence in those of our Journals which affect to strike the key-note
only of what is valuable in science, literature, and the fine arts.
Painful as it must ever be to my feelings to contrast the avidity of
former purchasers to become possessed of it with the caprice and
non-chalance which have marked the conduct of those possessors
themselves, I will yet hope that, in the bosom of the SUCCESSOR to
this matchless Library--as well as to the name and fortunes of its
late owner--there will ever remain but _one feeling_, such as no
misconception and no casualty will serve to efface. It is pleasing,
yea, soothing, 'midst the buffetting surges of later life, to be able
to keep the anchor of one's vessel _well bit_ in the interstices of
granite.
Much later than the publication last alluded to, were the sale
catalogues of the Libraries of Sir MARK MASTERMAN SYKES, Bart.,
deceased; the Rev. HENRY DRURY; GEORGE HIBBERT, Esq., deceased; and
Sir FRANCIS FREELING, Bart., deceased. They were all sold by Mr.
Evans, of Pall Mall; as well indeed as was the Library of the late
Duke of Marlborough, when Marquis of Blandford. What books! And what
prices! It should seem that "there were giants," both in purse and
magnitude of metal, "in those days!" But a mighty "man in valour" has
recently sprung up amongst us; who, spurning the acquisition of
solitary _lots_, darts down upon a whole _Library_, and bears it off
"at one fell swoop." Long life to the spirit which possesses him! It
is almost a national redemption.
PART III.
THE AUCTION-ROOM.
We are here introduced into one of the most bustling and
spirit-stirring portions of the whole Work. It is full of
characters--alas! now, with only _two_ exceptions, mouldering in their
coffins! Philemon (who was one of my earliest and steadiest friends)
introduces us to a character, which, under the name of ORLANDO, made
some impression upon the public, as it was thought to represent
MICHAEL WODHULL, Esq., of Thenford Hall, near Banbury; an admirable
Greek scholar (the translator of Euripides), and perhaps the most
learned bibliographer of his age. The conjecture of Orlando being the
representative of Mr. Wodhull was not a vain conjecture; although
there were, necessarily (I will not say _why_), parts that slightly
varied from the original. Mr. Wodhull re-appears, in his natural
person, in the _Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. iii. p. 363-6. Since
the publication of that work, a curious history attaches to his
memory. Within a twelvemonth of the expiration of the statute of
limitation, an action at law, in the shape of an ejectment, was set on
foot by a neighbouring family, to dispossess the present rightful
occupant, S.A. SEVERNE, Esq., of the beautiful domain of Thenford; to
ransack the Library; to scatter abroad pictures and curiosities of
every description; on the alleged ground of insanity, or incompetency
to make a will, on the part of Mr. Wodhull. As I had been very minute
in the account of Mr. Wodhull's person, in the work just alluded to, I
became a _witness_ in the cause; and, as it was brought into Chancery,
my deposition was accordingly taken. I could have neither reluctance
nor disinclination to meet the call of my excellent friend, Mr.
Severne; as I was abundantly confident that the charge of
"incompetency to make a will" could not rest upon the slightest
foundation. It was insinuated, indeed, that the sister-in-law, Miss
Ingram, had forged Mr. Wodhull's name to the will.
Such a conspiracy, to defraud an honourable man and legitimate
descendant of his property, is hardly upon record; for, waiting the
accidents that might occur by death, or otherwise, in the lapse of
twenty years, the cause was brought into the Vice Chancellor's Court
with the most sanguine hope of success. I was present during one of
the days of argument, and heard my own letter read, of which I had
(contrary to my usual habits) taken a copy. The plaintiffs had written
to me (suppressing the fact of the intended action), requesting to
have my opinion as to Mr. Wodhull's capability. I returned such an
answer as truth dictated. The Counsel for the plaintiffs (_ut mos
est_) showered down upon the defendant every epithet connected with
base fraud and low cunning, of which the contents of the brief seemed
to warrant the avowal. In due course, Sir Knight Bruce, now one of the
supernumerary Vice Chancellors, rose to reply. His speech was one
undisturbed stream of unclouded narrative and irresistible reasoning.
The Vice Chancellor (Shadwell) gave judgment; and my amiable and
excellent friend, Mr. Severne, was not only to return in triumph to
the mansion and to the groves which had been built and planted by his
venerable ancestor, Mr. Wodhull, but he was strongly advised, by the
incorruptible judge on the bench, to bring an action against the
plaintiffs for one of the foulest conspiracies that had ever been
developed in a court of justice. The defendant might have transported
the whole kit of them. But the _giving_ advice, and the _following_ it
when given, are two essentially different things. A THOUSAND GUINEAS
had been already expended on the part of Mr. Severne! When does my
Lord Brougham _really_ mean to reform the law? A recent publication
("Cranmer, a Novel") has said, "that he applies _sedatives_, when he
should have recourse to _operations_."
But the reader must now hurry with me into "The Auction Room." Of the
whole group there represented, full of life and of action, TWO ONLY
remain to talk of the conquests achieved![472] And Mr. Hamper,
too--whose note, at p. 117, is beyond all price--has been lately
"gathered to his fathers." "Ibimus, ibimus!" But for our book-heroes
in the Auction Room.
[Footnote 472: Before mention made of the Auction Room,
there is a long and particular account of the "_Lectionum
Memorabilium et Reconditarum Centenarii XVI._" by John Wolf,
in 1600, folio; with a fac simile, by myself, of the
portrait of the Author. It had a great effect, at the time,
in causing copies of this work to be sedulously sought for
and sold at extravagant prices. I have known a fine copy of
this ugly book bring £8 8_s._]
The first in years, as well as in celebrity, is LEPIDUS; the
representative of the late Rev. Dr. GOSSET. In the _Bibliographical
Decameron_, vol. iii. p. 5, ample mention is made of him; and here it
is, to me, an equally grateful and delightful task to record the
worth, as well as the existence, of his two sons, Isaac and Thomas,
each a minister of the Church of England. The former is covered with
_olive branches_ as well as with reputation; while the latter,
declining the "branches" in question, rests upon the stem of his own
inflexible worth, and solid scholastic attainments. Mrs. Gardiner, the
wife of a Major Gardiner, is the only daughter of Dr. Gosset; a wife,
but not a mother. The second in the ranks is MUSTAPHA. Every body
quickly found out the original in Mr. Gardiner, a bookseller in Pall
Mall; who quickly set about repelling the attack here made upon him,
by a long note appended to the article "Bibliomania," in one of his
catalogues. Gardiner never lacked courage; but, poor man! his brains
were under no controul. We _met_ after this reply, and, to the best of
my recollection, we exchanged ... _smiles_. The catalogue in question,
not otherwise worth a stiver, has been sold as high as 15s., in
consequence of the Dibdinian flagellation. Poor Gardiner! his end was
most deplorable.
We approach BERNARDO, who was intended to represent the late Mr.
JOSEPH HASLEWOOD; and of whose book-fame a very particular, and I
would hope impartial, account will be found in the "_Literary
Reminiscences of my Literary Life_." There is no one portion of that
work which affords me more lively satisfaction on a re-perusal. The
cause of the _individual_ was merged in the cause of _truth_. The
strangest compound of the strangest materials that ever haunted a
human brain, poor Bernardo was, in spite of himself, a man of _note_
towards his latter days. Every body wondered what was in him; but
something, certainly worth the perusal; oozed out of him in his
various motley performances; and especially in his edition of Drunken
Barnaby's Tour, which exhibited the rare spectacle of an accurate
Latin (as well as English) text, by an individual who did not know the
dative singular from the dative plural of _hic, hæc, hoc_! Haslewood,
however, "hit the right nail upon the head" when he found out the
_real_ author Barnaby, in Richard Brathwait; from the unvarying
designation of "_On the Errata_," at the end of Brathwait's pieces,
which is observable in that of his "_Drunken Barnaby's Tour_." It was
an [Greek: eurêcha] [Transcriber's Note: [Greek: eurêka]] in its way;
and the late Mr. Heber used to shout aloud, "stick to _that_,
Haslewood, and your fame is fixed!" He was always proud of it; but
lost sight of it sadly, as well as of almost every thing else, when he
composed "_The Roxburghe Revels_." Yet what could justify the cruelty
of dragging this piece of private absurdity before the public
tribunal, on the death of its author? Even in the grave our best
friends may be our worst foes.
At page 196 we are introduced to QUISQUILIUS, the then intended
representative of Mr. George Baker, of St. Paul's Churchyard; whose
prints and graphic curiosities were sold after his death for several
thousand pounds. Mr. Baker did not survive the publication of the
Bibliomania; but it is said he got scent of his delineated character,
which ruffled every feather of his plumage. He was thin-skinned to
excess; and, as far as that went, a _Heautontomorumenos_! Will this
word "re-animate his clay?"
The "short gentleman," called ROSICRUSIUS, at page 127, must
necessarily be the author of the work. He has not grown _taller_ since
its publication, and his coffers continue to retain the same stinted
condition as his person. Yet what has he not _produced_ since that
representation of his person? How has it pleased a gracious Providence
to endow him with mental and bodily health and stamina, to prosecute
labours, and to surmount difficulties, which might have broken the
hearts, as well as the backs, of many a wight "from five to ten inches
taller than himself!" I desire to be grateful for this prolongation of
labour as well as of life; and it will be my heart-felt consolation,
even to my dying hour, that such "labour" will be acceptable to the
latest posterity.
Yet a word or two by way of epilogue. The "Reminiscences" contain a
catalogue raisonné of such works as were published up to the year
1836. Since then the author has not been idle. The "_Tour into the
North of England and Scotland_," in two super-royal octavos, studded
with graphic gems of a variety of description--and dedicated to the
most illustrious female in Europe, for the magnificence of a library,
the fruit chiefly of her own enterprise and liberality--has at least
proved and maintained the spirit by which he has been long actuated.
To re-animate a slumbering taste, to bring back the gay and gallant
feelings of past times, to make men feel as gentlemen in the
substitution of _guineas_ for _shillings_, still to uphold the beauty
of the press, and the splendour of marginal magnitude, were, alone,
objects worthy an experiment to accomplish. But this work had other
and stronger claims to public notice and patronage; and it did not
fail to receive them. Six hundred copies were irrevocably fixed in the
course of the first eighteen months from the day of publication, and
the price of the large paper has attained the sum of £12. 12_s._
Strange circumstances have, however, here and there, thrown dark
shadows across the progress of the sale.
If it were pleasing to the Author, in the course of his Journey, to
receive attentions, and to acknowledge hospitalities, from the gay and
the great, it were yet more pleasing to hope and to believe that such
attentions and hospitalities had been acknowledged with feelings and
expressions becoming the character of a gentleman. They have been so;
as the pages of the work abundantly testify. But English courtesy is
too frequently _located_. It is a coin with a feeble impress, and
seems subject to woful attrition in its circulation. The countenance,
which beams with complacency on receiving a guest to enliven a dull
residence, in a desolate neighbourhood, is oftentimes overcharged with
sadness, or collapses into rigidity, if the same guest should come
under recognizance in a populous city. When I write "Instructions for
an Author on his travels," I will advise a measured civility and a
constrained homage:--to criticise fearlessly, and to praise sparingly.
There are hearts too obtuse for the operations of gratitude. The
Scotch have behaved worthy of the inhabitants of the "land of cakes."
In spirit I am ever present with them, and rambling 'midst their
mountains and passes. If an Author may criticise his own works, I
should say that the preface to the Scotch Tour is the best piece of
composition of which I have been ever guilty.
How little are people aware of the pleasure they sometimes
unconsciously afford! When Mr. James Bohn, the publisher of the Scotch
Tour, placed me, one day, accidentally, opposite a long list of
splendidly bound books, and asked me "if I were acquainted with their
author?" I could not help inwardly exclaiming ... "NON OMNIS
MORIAR!"[473] I am too poor to present them to my "Sovereign Mistress,
the Queen Victoria;" but I _did_ present her Majesty, in person, with
a magnificently bound copy of the _Scotch Tour_; of which the
acceptance was never acknowledged from the royal quarter; simply
because, according to an etiquette which seems to me to be utterly
incomprehensible, books presented _in person_ are not acknowledged by
the Donee. I will not presume to quarrel with what I do not exactly
understand; but I will be free to confess that, had I been _aware_ of
this mystery, I should have told her Majesty, on presenting the
volume, that "I had the greater pleasure in making the offering, as
her illustrious Father had been among the earliest and warmest patrons
of my book-career; and that the work in question contained no
faithless account of one of the most interesting portions of her
dominions." This copy for the Queen had a special vellum page, on
which the Dedication, or Inscription, was printed in letters of gold.
[Footnote 473: This magnificent set of books, not _all_ upon
large paper, was valued at £84. It has been since sold to
Lord Bradford.]
At length we approach the once far-famed ATTICUS: the once illustrious
RICHARD HEBER, Esq., the self-ejected member of the University of
Oxford. Even yet I scarcely know how to handle this subject, or to
expatiate upon a theme so extraordinary, and so provocative of the
most contradictory feelings. But it were better to be brief; as, in
fact, a very long account of Mr. Heber's later life will be found in
my _Reminiscences_, and there is little to add to what those pages
contain. It may be here only necessary to make mention of the sale of
his wonderful library; wonderful in all respects--not less from the
variety and importance of its contents, than from the unparalleled
number of _duplicate volumes_--even of works of the first degree of
rarity. Of the latter, it may suffice to observe that, of the editio
princeps of _Plato_, there were not fewer than _ten_ copies; and of
that of _Aristotle_, five or six copies: each the production of the
Aldine Press. Several of these Platonic copies were, to my knowledge,
beautiful ones; and what more than _one_ such "beautiful copy" need
mortal man desire to possess? I believe the copy of the Plato bought
at the sale of Dr. Heath's library in 1810 was, upon the whole, the
most desirable.[474] Both works are from the press of the elder Aldus.
[Footnote 474: The Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville possesses a
copy of this first edition (from the library of the Rev.
Theodore Williams) in an _uncut_ state. It may defy all
competition. There is, however, in the Spencer library, at
Althorp, described by me in the second volume of the
Bibliotheca _Spenceriana_, a very beautiful copy, delicately
ruled with red lines, which may be pronounced as almost in
its primitive state. The leaves "discourse most eloquently"
as you turn them over: and what sound, to the ears of a
thorough bred bibliomaniac, can be more "musical?"]
It may be observed, as mere preliminary matter, that it was once in
contemplation to publish the literary life of Mr. Heber; and an
impression comes across my mind that I had tendered my services for
the labour in question. The plan was however abandoned--and perhaps
wisely. There was also to have been a portrait prefixed, from the
pencil of Mr. Masquerier, the _only_ portrait of him--in later
life--but the strangest whims and vagaries attended the surrendering,
or rather the _not_ surrendering, of the portrait in question. I am in
possession of a correspondence upon this subject which is perfectly
_sui generis_. The library of Mr. Heber was consigned to the care and
discretion of Messrs. Payne and Foss--booksellers of long established
eminence and respectability. It was merely intended to be an
alphabetical, sale catalogue, with no other bibliographical details
than the scarcity or curiosity of the article warranted. It was also
of importance to press the sale, or sales, with all convenient
dispatch: but the mass of books was so enormous that two years
(1834-6) were consumed in the dispersion of them, at home; to say
nothing of what was sold in Flanders, at Paris, and at Neuremberg. I
have of late been abundantly persuaded that the acquisition of
books--anywhere, and of whatever kind--became an ungovernable passion
with Mr. Heber; and that he was a BIBLIOMANIAC in its strict as well
as enlarged sense. Of his library at Neuremberg he had never seen a
volume; but he thought well of it, as it was the identical collection
referred to by Panzer, among his other authorities, in his
Typographical Annals. Of the amount of its produce, when sold, I am
ignorant.
I have said that the Catalogue, which consisted of XII parts
(exclusively of a portion of foreign books, which were sold by the
late Mr. Wheatley) was intended merely to be a sale catalogue, without
bibliographical remarks; but I must except Parts II, IV, and XI: the
first of these containing the _Drama_, the second the _English
Poetry_, and the third the _Manuscripts_--which, comparatively,
luxuriate in copious and apposite description. "Si sic omnia!" but it
were impracticable. I believe that the Manuscript Department,
comprised in about 1720 articles, produced upwards of £5000. It may
not be amiss to subjoin the following programme.
Part. I. 7486 articles; Sold by Sotheby
II. 6590 ---- Ditto
III. 5056 ---- Ditto
IV. 3067 ---- Sold by Evans
V. 5693 ---- Sold by Wheatley
VI. 4666 ---- Sold by Evans
VII. 6797 ---- Ditto
VIII. 3170 ---- Ditto
IX. 3218 ---- Sold by Sotheby
X. 3490 ---- Ditto
XI. 1717 ---- Sold by Evans
XII. 1690 ---- Sold by Wheatley
From which it should seem, first that the total number of _articles_
was nearly _fifty three thousand_--a number that almost staggers
belief; and places the collections of Tom Rawlinson and the Earl of
Oxford at a very considerable distance behind; although the latter,
for _condition_ (with ONE exception), has never been equalled, and
perhaps will probably never be surpassed. Secondly, if it be a
_legitimate_ mode of computation--taking two books for each article,
one with another, throughout the entire catalogue--it will follow that
the entire library of Mr. Heber, in England, contained not fewer than
_one hundred and five thousand volumes_. The _net_ amount of the SALE
of this unparalleled mass of books is said to have been £55,000: a
large sum, when the deductions from commissionship and the
government-tax be taken into consideration.[475] Dr. Harwood thought
that the sale of Askew Library was a remarkable one, from its bringing
a guinea per article--one with another--of the 4015 articles of which
the library was composed. The _history_ of the Heber Sale might
furnish materials for a little jocund volume, which can have nothing
to do here; although there is more than _one_ party, mixed up with the
tale, who will find anything but cause of _mirth_ in the recital. That
such a MONUMENT, as this library, should have been suffered to crumble
to pieces, without a syllable said of its owner, is, of all the
marvellous occurrences in this marvellous world, one of the most
marvellous: and to be deprecated to the latest hour. Yet, who was
surrounded by a larger troop of friends than the Individual who raised
the Monument?
[Footnote 475: These deductions, united, are about 17 per
cent.: nearly £10,000 to be deducted from the gross
proceeds.]
One anecdote may be worth recording. The present venerable and deeply
learned President of Magdalen College, Oxford, told me that, on
casting up the number of odd--or appendant volumes, (as 2 or 12 more)
to the several articles in the catalogue--he found it to amount to
_four thousand_. Now, primâ facie, it seems hardly credible that
there should have been _such_ a number, in _such_ a library, not
deserving of mention as distinct articles: but it must be taken into
consideration that Mr. Heber bought _many_ lots for the sake of _one_
particular book: and, considering the enormous extent of his library,
it is not a very violent supposition, or inference, that these 4000
volumes were scarcely deserving of a more particular notice.
PONTEVALLO was the late JOHN DENT, Esq., whose library was sold in
1827; and of which library that of the late Robert Heathcote formed
the basis. It contained much that was curious, scarce, and delectable;
but the sale of it exhibited the first grand melancholy symptoms of
the decay of the Bibliomania. The Sweynheym and Pannartz Livy of 1469,
UPON VELLUM, was allowed to be knocked down for £262! Mr. Evans, who
had twice before sold that identical volume--first, in the sale of Mr.
Edwards's library (see _Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. iii. p.--)
and secondly in that of the late Sir M.M. Sykes, Bart, (who had
purchased the book for £782)--did all that human powers could do, to
obtain a higher bidding--but Messrs. Payne and Foss, with little more
than the _breathing_ of competition, became the purchasers at the very
moderate sum first mentioned. From them it seemed to glide naturally,
as well as necessarily, into the matchless collection of the Rt. Hon.
Thomas Grenville. I yet seem to hear the echo of the clapping of Sir
M.M. Sykes's hands, when I was the herald of the intelligence of his
having become the purchaser! These echoes have all died away _now_:
unless indeed they are likely to be revived by a HOLFORD or a
BOTTFIELD.
Hortensius was the late Sir WILLIAM BOLLAND, Knt.: and, a few years
before his death, one of the Barons of his Majesty's Exchequer. He
died in his 68th year. He was an admirable man in all respects. I
leave those who composed the domestic circle of which he was the
delightful focus, to expatiate upon that worth and excellence of which
they were the constant witnesses and participators--
"He best shall _paint_ them who shall _feel_ them most."
To me, the humbler task is assigned of recording what is only more
particularly connected with BOOKS and VIRTU. And yet I may, not very
inappositely, make a previous remark. On obtaining a seat upon the
bench, the first circuit assigned to him was that of "the Oxford." It
proved to be heavy in the criminal Calendar: and Mr. Baron Bolland had
to pass sentence of death upon three criminals. A maiden circuit is
rarely so marked; and I have reason to believe that the humane and
warm-hearted feelings of the Judge were never before, or afterwards,
subjected to so severe a trial. It was a bitter and severe struggle
with all the kindlier feelings of his heart. But our theme is BOOKS.
His library was sold by public auction, under Mr. Evans's hammer, in
the autumn of 1840. One anecdote, connected with his books, is worth
recording. In my Decameron, vol. iii. p. 267, mention will be found of
a bundle of poetical tracts, belonging to the Chapter-library at
Lincoln, round which, on my second visit to that library, I had, in
imitation of Captain Cox (see page -- ante), entwined some whip-cord
around them--setting them apart for the consideration of the Dean and
Chapter, whether a _second_ time, I might not become a purchaser of
some of their book-treasures? I had valued them at fourscore guineas.
The books in question will be found mentioned in a note at page 267 of
the third volume of the Bibliographical Decameron.
I had observed as follows in the work just referred to, "What would
Hortensius say to the gathering of such flowers, to add to the
previously collected _Lincoln Nosegay_?" The reader will judge of my
mingled pleasure and surprise (dashed however with a few grains of
disappointment on not becoming the proprietor of them _myself_) when
the Baron, one day, after dining with him, led me to his book-case,
and pointing to these precious tomes, asked me if I had ever seen them
_before_? For a little moment I felt the "Obstupui" of Æneas. "How is
this?" exclaimed I. "The secret is in the vault of the Capulets"--replied
my Friend--and it never escaped him. "Those ARE the identical books
mentioned in your Decameron." Not many years afterwards I learnt from
the late Benjamin Wheatley that _he_ had procured them on a late visit
to Lincoln; and that _my_ price, affixed, was taken as their just
value. Of these Linclonian [Transcriber's Note: Lincolnian] treasures,
one volume alone--the Rape of Lucrece--brought ONE HUNDRED GUINEAS at
the sale of the Judge's library, beginning on the 18th of November,
1840. See No. 2187; where it should seem that only four other perfect
copies are known.
The library of the late Mr. Baron Bolland, consisting of 2940
articles, brought a trifle _more_ than a guinea per article. It was
choice, curious, and instructively miscellaneous. Its owner was a man
of taste as well as a scholar; and the crabbed niceties of his
profession had neither chilled his heart nor clouded his judgment. He
revelled in his small cabinet of English Coins; which he placed, and
almost worshipped, among his fire-side lares. They were, the greater
part of them, of precious die--in primitive lustre; and he handled
them, and expatiated on them, with the enthusiasm of a Snelling, and
the science of a Foulkes. His walls were covered with modern pictures,
attractive from historical or tasteful associations. There was nothing
but what seemed to
"point a moral, or adorn a tale."
His passion for books was of the largest scale and dimensions, and
marked by every species of almost enviable enthusiasm. His anecdotes,
engrafted on them, were racy and sparkling; and I am not quite sure
whether it was not in contemplation by him to build a small
"_oratoire_" to the memories of Caxton and Wynkyn De Worde. He
considered the folios of the latter, in the fifteenth century, to be
miracles of typographical execution; and, being a poet himself, would
have been in veritable ecstacies had he lived to see the UNIQUE
CHAUCER of 1498, which it was my good luck to obtain for the library
of the Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville. I will add but a few specimens of
his library--
No. £ _s._ _d._
26 Armony of Byrdes, printed by Wyght.
12mo., a poem, in six line stanzas.
Mr. Heber's copy. A little volume of
indescribable rarity 12 15 0
221 Arnold's Chronicle, 4to., printed at Antwerp,
by Doesborch (1502)? 9 2 6
406 Boccus and Sydracke, printed by Godfray,
at the wits and charge of Robert
Saltousde, Monke of Canterbury, 4to. 5 8 6
1092 Cicero de Officiis, Ulric Zel 11 11 0
1156 Chaucer's Troylus and Cresseyde, printed
by Pynson. (1526.) Folio. This volume
had been successively in the
libraries of Hubert, the Duke of Roxburghe,
and Mr. Herbert. It was in
parts imperfect 25 0 0
1255 Marston's Scourge of Villanie. (1598.)
12mo. First edition: of terrific rarity 18 5 0
1624 Glanville, de Proprietatibus Rerum.
Printed by W. de Worde. Folio 17 0 0
1848 Holland's Heroologia Anglica. (1620.)
Folio. So tall a copy that it had the
appearance of large paper 8 2 6
2138 Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis. (1596.)
12mo. Third edition 91 0 0
2187 Shakspeare's Lucrece. First edition.
1594. Quarto 105 0 0
(This was the Lincoln-Chapter copy.)
The entire produce of the sale was £3019.
ULPIAN, the associate of Hortensius, was, and _is_ (I rejoice to add)
a Barrister-at-Law, and one of the six Clerks in Chancery. In the
_Decameron_, vol. iii. p. --, he appears under the more euphonous as
well as genial name of PALMERIN: but the "hermitage" there described
has been long deserted by its master and mistress--who have
transferred their treasures and curiosities to the sea-girt village,
or rather town, of Ryde and its vicinity: where stained-glass windows
and velvet bound tomes are seen to yet greater advantage. LEONTES,
mentioned at page 133, was the late JAMES BINDLEY, Esq.--of whom a few
interesting particulars will be found in the third volume of my
_Bibliographical Decameron_. He died before the publication of this
latter work. Sir TRISTREM was the late Sir WALTER SCOTT--then in the
effulgence of poetical renown! PROSPERO was the late FRANCIS DOUCE,
Esq. My Reminiscences make copious mention of these celebrated
characters.
AURELIUS was intended as the representative of the late GEORGE
CHALMERS, Esq.--the most learned and the most celebrated of all the
Antiquarians and Historians of Scotland. His CALEDONIA is a triumphant
proof of his giant-powers. Never before did an author encounter such
vast and various difficulties: never was such thick darkness so
satisfactorily dispersed. It is a marvellous work, in four large
quarto volumes; but so indifferently printed, and upon such wretched
paper, that within the next century, perhaps, not six copies of it
will be found entire. The less laborious works of Mr. Chalmers were
statistical and philological. Of the latter, his tracts relating to
_Shakspeare_, and his Life of _Mary Queen of Scots_ may be considered
the principal.
On the death of Mr. George Chalmers in 1823, his nephew became
possessed of his library; and on the death of the nephew, in 1841, it
was placed by the executors in the hands of Mr. Evans, who brought
the first part to sale on the 27th of September, 1841. It consisted
of 2292 articles, and produced the sum of £2190. The Second Part was
brought to the same hammer, on February 27, 1842, and produced the sum
of £1918 2_s._ 6_d._ It is on the _latter_ part that I am disposed to
dwell more particularly, because it was so eminently rich in
Shakspearian lore; and because, at this present moment, the name of
our immortal dramatist seems to be invested with a fresh halo of
incomparable lustre. The first edition of his smaller works has
acquired most extraordinary worth in the book-market. The second part
of Mr. Chalmers's collection shews that the _Sonnets_ of 1595 produced
a hundred guineas; while the _Rape of Lucrece_ (which, perhaps, no
human being has ever had the perseverance to read through) produced
£105 in a preceding sale: see page 591. The _Venus and Adonis_ has
kept close pace with its companions.
We may now revel among the rarities of the FIRST PART of this
extraordinary collection--
No. £ _s._ _d._
123 Bale's Comedy concernynge thre Lawes
of Nature, Moses and Christ, corrupted
by the Sodomytes, Pharisees and Papystes
most wicked, wants the title, first
edition, curious portrait of the Author,
excessively rare. Inprented per Nicholaum
Bamburgensem, 1538 10 0 0
488 Wilkins' Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ et
Hiberniæ, 4 vols. 1737. Folio 25 0 0
[Such a price is one among the few _harmless_ fruits of the Puseian
Controversy!]
958 Churchyard's Worthiness of Wales, first
edition, very rare, 1587. Quarto 24 0 0
[In my earlier days of Book-collecting, I obtained a copy of this most
rare volume, in an _uncut state_, from a Mr. Keene, of Hammersmith,
who asked me "if I thought _half-a-guinea_ an extravagant price for
it?" I unhesitatingly replied in the negative. Not long after, the
late Mr. Sancho, who succeeded Mr. Payne, at the Mews Gate, went on
his knees to me, to purchase it for _two guineas_! His attitude was
too humble and the tone of his voice too supplicatory to be resisted.
He disposed of it to his patron-friend, the Hon. S. Elliott, for five
pounds five shillings. Mr. Elliott had a very choice library; and was
himself a most amiable and incomparable man. It is some twenty-five
years since I first saw him at the late Earl Spencer's, at Althorp.]
960 Churchyard. The Firste of Churchyardes
Chippes, containinge Twelue seuerall
Labours, green morocco, gilt
leaves, 1578 0 0 0
The Second Part of Churchyard's Chips was never published.
961 Churchyard's Generall Rehearsall of
Warres, called Churchyardes Choise,
imprinted by White, 1579 7 7 0
The latter part of this Work is in Verse, and some have supposed that
Churchyard intended it to form the Second Part of his Chips.
1146 Gascoyne's Delicate Diet for Daintie
Mouthde Droonkardes, excessively rare;
only one other copy known, namely, that
which was in the Libraries of G. Steevens
and R. Heber.--See Heber's Catalogue,
part iv. no. 771. Imprinted by Johnes,
1576 11 11 0
1182 ---- Wolsey's Grammar. Rudimenta
Grammatices et Docendi Methodus
Scholæ Gypsuichianæ per Thomam Cardinalem
Ebor, institutam, &c., rare,
Antv. 1536 4 19 0
The Preface, containing directions for the Conduct of the School, is
written by Cardinal Wolsey. The Grammar is by Dean Colet and Lilly.
1295 The Complete History of Cornwall, Part
II., being the Parochial History, (by
William Hals,) extremely rare 15 0 0
This is one of the rarest books in the class of British Topography.
The first part was never printed, it has therefore no general title. A
copy is in the library of the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville.
1314 Patrick Hannay's Nightingale, Sheretine,
Happy Husband, Songs, Sonnets,
&c., with the frontispiece, including the
extremely rare Portrait of Patrick Hannay,
an excessively rare volume when
perfect, 1622 13 5 0
We believe only one other perfect copy is known, that which was
successively in the Libraries of Bindley, Perry, Sykes, and Rice. No
poetical volume in the libraries of these celebrated collectors
excited a more lively interest, or a keener competition. This was
obtained by Mr. Chalmers at Pinkerton's sale in 1812. The Portrait of
Hannay is a great desideratum to the Granger Collectors.
1436 Hutton's (Henry Dunelmensis) Follic's
Anatomie, or Satyrs and Satyricall
Epigrams, 1629. 12mo. 11 11 0
1461 De Foe. Review of the Affairs of France
and of all Europe, as influenced by that
Nation, with Historical Observations on
Public Affairs, and an entertaining part
in every sheet (by Defoe), 8 vols., excessively
rare. The most perfect copy
known, 1705 41 0 0
This is the great desideratum of all the collectors of De Foe's works.
It is the most perfect copy known; that which approaches it the
nearest is the copy in the British Museum; but that only extends to 6
vols.
1508 Cronycle of Englonde wyth the Frute of
Tymes, compyled by one somtyme
Mayster of Saynt Albons. Newly enprynted
by Wynkyn de Worde, 1497.
The Descrypcyon of Englonde (in
Prose), also the Descrypcyon of the
Londe of Wales, in verse, emprynted by
me Wynkyn de Worde, 1498, 2 vols. in 1.
The first editions by Wynkyn de Worde,
extremely rare 48 0 0
1738 Fulwell's (Ulpian) Flower of Fame, containing
the bright renowne and most
fortunate raigne of King Henry VIII.,
wherein is mentioned of matters, by the
rest of our Cronographers ouerpassed, in
verse and prose, extremely rare, imprinted
by Hoskins, 1575 9 2 0
See an account of this very curious work in the Censura Literaria,
vol. 5, p. 164 to 168, written by Gilchrist. It was described from the
late Mr. Neunberg's Copy, which was sold for £30. 9_s._
1739 Fulwell (Ulpian). The First Parte of the
Eighth Liberall Science: entituled Ars
Adulandi, the Arte of Flatterie, first edition,
excessively rare, title mended, a
piece wanting in the centre. 4to. Imprinted
by Jones, 1579 17 0 0
1877 (Marlowe) the true Tragedie of
Richarde Duke of Yorke, and the Death
of Good King Henrie the Sixt, with the
whole contention betweene the two
Houses Lancaster and Yorke, as it was
sundrie times acted by the Right Honourable
the Earle of Pembroke, his
servants, first edition, excessively rare,
and believed to be unique, very fine
copy, printed at London by P.S. 1595.
4to. 131 0 0
[I refer with pleasure to Mr. Evans' long, learned, and satisfactory
note upon this most precious volume; which I had the satisfaction of
seeing in the Bodleian Library, for which it was purchased by Mr.
Rodd, the bookseller.]
1965 Greene in Conceipt. New raised from his
grave to write the Tragique History of
Faire Valeria of London, by J. D(ickenson),
very rare. 4to. 1598 15 15 0
1983 Hake, of Gold's Kingdom, described in
sundry poems, 1604, 12mo. 13 0 0
1984 Hakluyt. Divers Voyages touching the
Discoverie of America, and the Islands
adjacent unto the same, made first of all
by our Englishmen, and afterwards by
the Frenchmen and Britons, with both
the maps, excessively rare, only one
other copy known to contain the two
maps. Imprinted by Woodcocke, 1582.
4to. 25 0 0
2209 Hogarde (Myles) 19 5 0
"A Mirrour of Loue,
Which such light doth giue,
That all men may learne,
How to loue and liue."
Imprinted by Caly, 1555.
PART II.
163 Fraunce's (Abraham) Lamentations of
Amintas for the death of Phillis, a Poem;
excessively rare 20 10 0
164 Fyssher's (Jhon, Student of Oxford)
Poems written in Dialogue, wants the
title and part of a leaf, extremely rare.
Imprinted by John Tisdale, 1558 9 9 0
171 Gascoigne's Whole Woorkes, with the
Comedy of Supposes and the Steele
Glasse, best edition, very fine copy, in
Russia. Imprinted by Jesse, 1587 10 15 0
At the end of the Volume there is a Tract by Gascoigne, entitled
"Certain Notes of Instruction concerning the Making of verses, or
Rimes, in English." The Tract is not mentioned in the list of contents
on the title, and the four leaves very rarely occur.
450 Marshall's (George) Compendious Treatise,
in Metre, declaring the Firste Originall
of Sacrifice, and of the buylding of
Aultars and Churches, a Poem, extremely
rare. Cawood, 1534 20 10 0
479 Harvey's (Gabriel) Foure Letters and
certaine Sonnets, especially touching
Robert Greene and other Parties by him
abused. Printed by Wolfe, 1592 10 10 0
Gabriel Harvey was the intimate friend of Spenser. The immediate
occasion of Harvey's writing these letters was to resent Greene's
attack on his Father; but the permanent value of the Volume is the
very interesting notices Harvey gives of his literary contemporaries.
The work concludes with a Sonnet of Spenser, addressed to Harvey.
470 Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie, or
the Walkes of Powles, very scarce, 1604.
12mo. 15 15 0
This scarce and curious little volume is not mentioned by Lowndes. The
work commences with a Poetical Dialogue between Warre, Famine, and
Pestilence. The Tales of my Landlord then follow, "Where the Fatte
Host telles Tales at the upper ende of the Table." Mine host, however,
does not have all the conversation to himself. The guests take a very
fair share. One of the interlocutors, Gingle-Spur, alludes to one of
Shakspeare's Plays. "This was a prettie Comedy of Errors, my round
Host."
[I shall place all the SHAKSPEARIAN ARTICLES consecutively; that the
Reader may observe in what a rapid ratio their pecuniary value has
increased. Of the sonnets, the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville possesses
one copy, and Thomas Jolley, Esq., another. The History of the
acquisition of the _latter_ copy is one of singular interest; almost
sufficient to add _another_ day to a Bibliographical Decameron. This
copy is in pristine condition, and looks as if snatched from the
press. Mr. Jolley also possesses a very fine and perfect copy of the
first edition of Shakspeare's Works, in folio; but a similar copy, in
the library of the Right Honourable Thomas Grenville, will, perhaps,
always continue UNRIVALLED.]
558 Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis; unique.
Edinburgh, by John Writtoun, and are
to bee sold in his shop, a little beneath
the Salt Trone, 1627 37 10 0
We are always extremely cautious in using the designation unique; but
we think we may safely do so upon the present occasion. We have made
very extensive inquiries on the subject, and have recently written to
David Laing, Esq., Keeper of the Library of the Writers to the
Signet, from whom we have received a confirmation of our belief.
Beloe, in describing this copy, says "it must be considered as an
indubitable proof that at a very early period the Scotch knew, and
admired, the genius of Shakspeare." He might have continued, its
proceeding from the press of Writtoun, was an additional proof, as he
only published small Popular Tracts. Beloe has erroneously given the
date 1607, and Lowndes has copied his error. The first books printed
by Writtoun were about 1624. His will is printed in the Bannatyne
Miscellany. The second edition of this precious Poem, printed in 1596,
produced the sum of £91, at the sale of Baron Bolland's library: see
page 591, ante.
974 [Transcriber's Note: 934]
Shakespeare's Comedies, Tragedies, and
Histories, first edition. The title a reprint,
but the Portrait Original. With
the Verses of Ben Jonson, original, but
inlaid, blue morocco, 1623 41 0 0
935 Shake-Speares Sonnets, neuer before imprinted,
extremely rare, most beautiful
copy, in Russia. London, by G. Eld for
T.T. and are to be solde by William
Apsley, 1609 105 0 0
936 Shakspeare's Most Excellent Historie of
the Merchant of Venice, with the Extreame
Crueltie of Shylock the Jew,
first edition, extremely rare, printed by
J. R(oberts) for Thomas Heyes, 1600 10 0 0
937 Another Copy, second edition, very scarce,
printed by J. Roberts, 1600 0 0 0
938 Another Copy, 1637 0 0 0
939 Shakspeare's Midsommer Nights Dreame,
second edition, printed by James Roberts,
1600 105 0 0
940 Shakspeare's Most Lamentable Tragedie
of Titus Andronicus, second edition, very
scarce, 1611 15 0 0
Only one perfect copy of the first edition is known.
941 Shakspeare, his True Chronicle History
of the Life and Death of King Lear and
his Three Daughters, second edition,
printed for N. Butter, 1608 14 14 0
942 Shakspeare's Famous Historie of Troylus
and Cresseid, with the Conceited Wooing
of Pandoras Prince of Licia, first edition,
extremely rare, imprinted by G. Eld, 1609 12 15 0
948 Shakspeare's Richard the Second, with
new additions of the Parliament Scene,
and the deposing of King Richard 5 0 0
[There were many other early editions of the Plays of Shakspeare, but
the preceding were the most prominent.]
688 Ovid. The Flores of Ouide de Arte
Amandi, with their Englysshe afore them
and two Alphabete Tablys, extremely
rare, very fine copy Wynandus de Worde,
1513 10 15 0
[This edition was wholly unknown to me.]
659 Newton's (T.) Atropeion Delion, or the
Death of Delia, (Queen Elizabeth) with
the Teares of her Funerall, very scarce,
1603 10 15 0
565 Hilarie (Hughe) The Resurrection of the
Masse, with the Wonderful Vertues of the
Same, a Poem, excessively rare, imprinted
at Strasburgh in Elsas, 1554 18 0 0
This is a very bitter satire on the Ceremonies, Doctrines, and
Ministers of the Roman Catholic Church.
567 Skelton. Here after foloweth certaine
Bokes complyed by Mayster Skelt[=o], Poet
Laureat, Speake Parot, Ware the Hawke,
Tunnynge of Eleanoure Rummyne, &c.,
Imprinted by Kynge and Marche. Here
after foloweth a little boke called Colyn
Clout, by Master Skelton Poete Laureate,
imprynted by Veale. Here after foloweth
a little boke, Why come ye not to
Courte, by Mayster Skelton, Poet Laureate.
This is Skelton's celebrated Satire
against Cardinal Wolsey, imprinted by
Veale. A little Boke of Philip Sparow,
by Mayster Skelton, Poete Laureate, imprinted
by Walley--a very curious collection
of Poems by Skelton, each very
rare, in Bussia [Transcriber's Note: Russia] 23 10 0
In D'Israeli's recent Work, the Amenities of Literature, there is an
excellent article upon Skelton, which contains many acute and original
observations. Speaking of the Skeltonical Verse, D'Israeli says, "In
the quick-returning rhymes, the playfulness of the diction, and the
pungency of New Words, usually ludicrous, often expressive, and
sometimes felicitous, there is a stirring spirit, which will be best
felt in an audible reading. The velocity of his verse has a carol of
its own. The chimes ring in the ear, and the thoughts are flung about
like wild Coruscations." See vol. 2, p. 69 to 82. Octavo.
845 Pierce Plowman. Newes from the
North, otherwise called the Conference
between Simon Certain and Pierce Plowman,
faithfully collected by T.F. Student,
extremely rare. E. Allde, 1585 13 0 0
916 S. (R.) The Phoenix Nest, built up with
the most rare and refined workes of
noblemen, woorthy knightes, gallant
gentlemen, masters of arts and braue
schollers, full of varietie, excellent
invention and singular delight, never
before this time published, set foorth by
R.S. of the Inner Temple, Gentleman,
excessively rare. Imprinted by John
Jackson, 1593 40 0 0
Mr. Heber had written in his Copy, "Mr. Malone has a copy bought at
Dr. Farmer's Sale, (now in the Bodleian Library,) but I know of no
other." We may add, those two copies, and the present, are the only
perfect copies known.
1086 Sidney's (Sir Phillip) Apologie for
Poetrie, first edition, excessively rare.
Printed for Henry Olney, 1595 15 5 0
"Foure Sonnets written by Henrie Constable to Sir Philip Sidneys
Soule" are prefixed. These have not been reprinted in the subsequent
editions. Only three other copies of the first edition of this elegant
and valuable Treatise are known. One of which is in the British
Museum, and one in the Bridgewater Library.
The Third Part of Mr. Chalmers's library--abundantly rich in Scotch
literature, and containing much valuable illustration of the HISTORY
OF PRINTING IN SCOTLAND, will probably quickly succeed the publication
of this Work. Mr. Chalmers had frequently expressed to me his
intention as well as inclination to give a complete History of the
SCOTISH PRESS; and if the materials collected by him find their way
into his native country, it is to be hoped that some enterprising
spirit, like that which animates the present Librarian of the Signet
Library, will find sufficient encouragement to bring them before the
public. I bargain for a _Quarto_.
MENALCAS (whose fame expands more largely in the _Bibliographical
Decameron_ and _Reminiscences_) was my old and "very singular good
friend" the Rev. HENRY JOSEPH THOMAS DRURY, Rector of Fingest, and
Second Master of Harrow School; second, because he declined to become
the _first_. His library, so rich and rare in classical
lore--manuscript as well as printed--was sold by Mr. Evans in 1827.
The catalogue contained not fewer than 4729 articles. The bindings,
chiefly in Lewisian calf and morocco, were "de toute beauté;" and the
"oblong cabinet" sparkled as the setting sun shot its slanting rays
down the backs of the tomes. Of this catalogue there were 35 copies
only printed upon writing paper, for presents.
This library was strikingly illustrative of the character of its LATE
owner; for it is little more than a twelvemonth since he has been
called away from that numerous and endearing circle, in the midst of
which I saw him sitting, about a twelvemonth before his departure--the
happiest of the happy--on the day of the nuptials of his youngest
daughter but one, with Captain Beavan. His books were in fine
condition throughout--gaily attired in appropriate bindings of calf or
morocco, as the character and condition might be. His love of old
classical _Manuscripts_ was properly and greatly beyond that of
printed books: but each class was so marked and identified by his
calligraphical MS. notes, that you were in a moment convinced his
books were not purchased for the mere sake of gorgeous furniture. So
entirely were his classical feelings mixed up with his Library, that
he prefixed, over the entrance door of his oblong cabinet, in printed
letters of gold, the following lines--of which the version is supplied
from the "_Arundines Cami_," edited by his eldest son, the Rev. Henry
Drury.
IN MUSEI MEI ADITU.
Pontificum videas penetralibus eruta lapsis
Antiquas Monachum vellera passa manus,
Et veteres puncto sine divisore Papyros,
Quæque fremit monstris litera picta suis:
Ætatis decimæ spectes Industria Quintæ:
Quam pulcra Archetypos imprimat arte Duces
ALDINAS ædes ineuns et limina JUNTÆ
Quosque suos Stephanus vellet habere Lares.
H.I.T.D.
OVER THE THRESHOLD OF MY LIBRARY.
From mouldering Abbey's dark Scriptorium brought,
See vellum tomes by Monkish labour wrought;
Nor yet the comma born, Papyri see,
And uncial letters wizard grammary;
View my _fifteeners_ in their rugged line;
What ink! what linen! only known long syne--
Entering where ALDUS might have fixed his throne,
Or Harry Stephens covetted his own.
H.D.
They were part and parcel of the _Owner_ himself. His mind was
traceable in many a fly leaf. His latinity was perspicuity and
accuracy itself. He was, in all respects, a ripe and a good scholar;
and the late Provost of Eton (The Rev. Dr. Goodall) told me, on an
occasion which has been, perhaps, too _emphasised_ in certain
bibliographical pages,[476] that "England could not then produce a
better Greek metrical scholar than his friend Henry Drury." What was
remarkable, he never assumed an _ex Cathedrâ_ position in society. In
bringing forward or pressing quotations, whatever fell from him, came
easily and naturally, but rarely. Accustomed for many years to be the
favourite of the _Harrovians_, he never affected the airs of the
pedagogue. How he _could_ criticise, sufficiently appears in an
article on the _Musæ Edinburgenses_ in an early number of the
Quarterly Review.
[Footnote 476: _Bibliographical Decameron._ Dr. Goodall
always appeared to me to _affect_ irascibility upon the
subject alluded to. The contents might have been published
at Charing Cross.]
Yet this may be considered secondary matter; and I hasten to record
the qualities of his heart and disposition. They were truly
Christian-like; inasmuch as a fond and large spirit of benevolence was
always beating in his bosom, and mantling over a countenance of
singular friendliness of expression. He had the _power_ of saying
sharp and caustic things, but he used his "giant-strength" with the
gentleness of a child. His letters, of which many hundreds have fallen
to my lot, are a perfect reflex of his joyous and elastic mind. There
was not a pupil under his care who looked forward to a _holiday_ with
more unqualified delight than _he_; and when we strayed together
beneath, or upon the heights of, the Dover Cliffs (where I _last_ saw
him, in the summer of 1840) he would expatiate, with equal warmth and
felicity, upon the Abbey of St. Rhadagund, and the Keep of Dover
Castle. Our visit to Barfreston Church, in the neighbourhood, can
never be effaced from my mind. His mental enthusiasm and bodily
activity could not have been exceeded by that of the Captain of Harrow
School. He took up my meditated "History of the Dover" as if it were
his own work; and his success, in cause of subscription, in most
instances, was complete.
And now, after an intimacy (minutely recorded in my _Reminiscences_)
of thirty-three years, it has pleased God to deprive me of his genial
and heart-stirring society. His last moments were of those of a
Christian--"rooted and built up" in THAT belief, which alone sustains
us in the struggle of parting from those whom we cherish as the most
idolised objects upon earth! It was towards sun-set that I first
paused upon his tomb, in the church-yard, near the summit of Harrow
Hill. For a few moments I was breathless--but _not_ from the steepness
of the ascent. The inscription, I would submit, is too much in the
"minor key." It was the production of his eldest son, who preferred
to err from under-rating, rather than over-rating, the good qualities
of his parent. For myself--
"As those we love decay, we die in part;
String after string is severed from the heart!"
&c. &c. &c.
THOMSON.
On the death of Mr. Drury, his small library, the remains of his
former one, was sold by auction; and those classical books,
interleaved, and enriched with his manuscript notes, brought large
prices. One manuscript, of especial celebrity--_Childe Harold_--given
him by the Author, his pupil, Lord Byron--became the property of its
publisher, Mr. Murray; who purchased it upon terms at once marking his
high sense of the talents of the author, and his respect for the
family where it had been placed. It may be doubtful whether the
autograph of any poem, since Paradise Lost, would have obtained a
larger sum--had it been submitted to public sale.
RINALDO.--Rinaldo was the late Mr. EDWARDS; of the sale of whose
library an extended account will be found in my Decameron. It remains,
briefly, but emphatically, to remark, that of all the book heroes,
whose valorous achievements are here recorded, TWO only have survived
the lapse of thirty years. Let _half_ of another similar course of
time roll on, and where will the SURVIVORS be? If not at rest in their
graves, they will in all probability be "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans
everything:"--at least, very far beyond "the lean and slippered
pantaloon." Leaving my surviving friends to fight their own battles, I
think I may here venture to say, in quiet simplicity and singleness of
heart, that books, book-sales, and book-men, will then--if I am
spared--pass before me as the faint reflex of "the light of OTHER
DAYS!" ... when literary enterprise and literary fame found a
proportionate reward; and when the sickly sentimentality of the
novelist had not usurped the post of the instructive philologist. But
enough of ROSICRUSIS.
[Illustration: CONSTANTIA LABORE ET]
PART IV.
THE LIBRARY.
This Part embraces the _History of Literature_, in the formation of
Libraries, from the Conquest to the commencement of the reign of Henry
VIII., and undoubtedly contains much that is curious and instructive.
Two new characters only are introduced: LORENZO and NARCOTTUS. The
former was intended to represent the late Sir Masterman Mark Sykes,
Bart.: the latter, a William Templeman, Esq., of Hare Hatch,
Berkshire. Sir Mark Sykes was not less known than respected for the
suavity of his manners, the kindness of his disposition, and the
liberality of his conduct on all matters connected with _books_ and
_prints_. A long and particular account of his library, and of many of
his book-purchases, will be seen in the third volume of the
_Bibliographical Decameron_; and at pages 321, 373 of my _Literary
Reminiscences_. His library and his prints brought, each, pretty much
the same sum: together, £60,000--an astounding result! Sir Mark is the
last great bibliomaniacal Sun that has shed its golden, as well as
parting, rays, upon a terribly chap-fallen British public! Mr.
Templeman, represented as Narcottus, was a great Chess-player: and
although Caxton's "Game at Chess" is a mere dull morality, having
nothing to do with the game strictly so called, yet he would have
everything in his library where the word "Chess" was introduced. In
the words of the old catch, he would "add the night unto the day" in
the prosecution of his darling recreation, and boasted of having once
given a signal defeat to the Rev. Mr. Bowdler, after having been
defeated himself by Lord Henry Seymour, the renowned chess-champions
of the Isle of Wight. He said he once sat upon Phillidor's knee, who
patted his cheek, and told him "there was nothing like Chess and
English roast beef."
The notice of poor George Faulkner at page 199--one of the more
celebrated book-binders of the day, is amplified at page 524 of the
second volume of the Decameron; where the painful circumstances
attending his death are slightly mentioned. He yet lives, and lives
strongly, in my remembrance. Since then, indeed within a very few
years, the famous CHARLES LEWIS--of whose bibliopegistic renown the
Decameronic pages have expatiated fully--has ceased to be. He was
carried off suddenly by an apoplectic seizure. His eldest son--a sort
of "spes altera Romæ," in his way--very quickly followed the fate of
his father. The name of LEWIS will be always held high in the
estimation of bibliopegistic Virtuosi. But the art of Book-binding is
not deteriorating: and I am not sure whether JOHN CLARKE, of Frith
Street, Soho, be not as "mighty a man" in his way as any of his
predecessors. There is a solidity, strength, and squareness of
workmanship about his books, which seem to convince you that they may
be tossed from the summit of Snowdon to that of Cader Idris without
detriment or serious injury. His gilding is first rate; both for
choice of ornament and splendour of gold. Nor is his coadjutor,
WILLIAM BEDFORD, of less potent renown. He was the great adjunct of
the late Charles Lewis--and imbibes the same taste and the same spirit
of perseverance. Accident brought me one morning in contact with a set
of the New Dugdale's Monasticon, bound in blue morocco, and most
gorgeously bound and gilded, lying upon the table of Mr. James Bohn--a
mountain of bibliopegistic grandeur! A sort of irrepressible awe kept
you back even from turning over the coats or covers! And what a
WORK--deserving of pearls and precious stones in its outward
garniture! "Who was the happy man to accomplish such a piece of
binding?"[477] observed I. "Who BUT John Clarke?"--replied the
Bibliopole.
[Footnote 477: Good binding--even Roger-Payne-binding--is
gadding abroad every where. At Oxford, they have "a spirit"
of this description who loses a night's rest if he haplessly
shave off the sixteenth part of an inch of a rough edge of
an uncut Hearne. My friend, Dr. Bliss, has placed volumes
before me, from the same mintage, which have staggered
belief as an indigenous production of Academic soil. At
Reading, also, some splendid leaves are taken from the same
_Book_. Mr. Snare, the publisher, keeps one of the most
talented bookbinders in the kingdom--from the school of
Clarke; and feeds him upon something more substantial than
rose leaves and jessamine blossoms. He is a great man for a
halequin's jacket: and would have gone crazy at the sight of
some of the specimens at Strawberry Hill. No man can put a
varied-coloured morocco coat upon the back of a book with
greater care, taste, and success, than our Reading
Bibliopegist.]
PART V.
THE DRAWING-ROOM.
This Part is a copious continuation of the History of Book Collectors
and Collections up to the year 1810. There is nothing to add in the
way of CHARACTER; and the subject itself is amply continued in the
tenth day of the _Bibliographical Decameron_. In both works will be
found, it is presumed, a fund of information and amusement, so that
the Reader will scarcely demand an extension of the subject. Indeed, a
little volume would hardly suffice to render it the justice which it
merits; but I am bound to make special mention of the untameable
perseverance, and highly refined taste, of B.G. Windus, Esq., one of
my earliest and steadiest supporters; and yet, doth he not rather take
up a sitting in the ALCOVE--amongst _Illustrators of fine Works_?
[Illustration: THE CAVE OF DESPAIR.
_Drawn by J. Thurston.--Engraved by Robert Branston._]
PART VI.
THE ALCOVE.
A word only:--and that respecting _Illustrated Copies_. Leaving Mr.
Windus in full possession of his Raphael Morghens, William Woollets,
William Sharpes, &c.--and allowing him the undisturbed relish of
gazing upon, and pressing to his heart's core, his _grey_ TURNERS--let
me only introduce to the reader's critical attention and admiration
the opposite subject, executed by the late Mr. Branston, and
exhibiting _The Cave of Despair_ from Spenser's Fairy Queen. The
figures were drawn on the blocks by the late J. Thurston, Esq.
=Illustrated Copies.=
Under the _Illustration_-Symptom of Bibliomania, a fund of amusing
anecdote, as well as of instructive detail, presents itself. We may
travel in a carriage and four--from morn 'till night--and sweep county
after county, in pursuit of all that is exquisite, and rare, and
precious, and unattainable in other quarters: but I doubt if our
horses' heads can be turned in a direction better calculated to answer
all the ends in view than in front of
[Illustration: RAVENSBURY LODGE, LOWER MITCHAM,]
the residence of the late proprietor of this work. There we once
beheld such a copy of the best of all existing _Encyclopædias_--that
of the late Dr. REES--as is no where else to be found. It was upon
_large_ and _fine_ paper--bound in fourscore volumes--with separately
executed title pages, in a style of pure art--and _illustrated_ with
not fewer than TEN THOUSAND EXTRA PLATES. The reader may, and will,
naturally enough, judge of the wide, if not boundless, field for
illustration--comprehending in fact (as the title of the work
denounces) the circle of all knowledge, arts and sciences; but he can
have no idea of the _manner_ in which this fertile and illimitable
field is filled up, till he gazes upon the copy in question. Here then
was not only a _reading_, but a _graphic_, LIBRARY IN ITSELF. Whatever
other works _profusely_ dilate upon was here _concentrated_--and
deeply impressed upon the mind by the charm, as well as the
intelligence, of graphical ornament. You seemed to want nothing, as,
upon the turning over of every leaf, the prodigality of art ennobled,
while it adorned, the solidity of the text. You have kept your horses
already waiting three hours--and they are neighing and snorting for
food: and you must turn them into the stable for suitable
provender--for the owner of this production would tell you that you
had scarcely traversed through one-third of the contents of the
volumes. He orders an additional fowl to be placed on the spit, and an
extra flagon of Combe and Delafield's brightest ale to be
forth-coming: while his orchard supplies the requisite addenda of
mulberries, pears, and apples, to flank the veritable Lafitte. You
drink and are merry. Then comes the Argand Lamp; and down with the
Encyclopedistic volumes. The plates look brighter and more beautiful.
There is no end of them--nor limits to your admiration. Be it summer
or winter, there is food for sustenance, and for the gratification of
the most exquisite palate. To contemplate SUCH a performance, the
thorough-bred book-votary would travel by torch-light through
forty-eight hours of successive darkness!...: But the horses are again
neighing--for their homes. You must rouse the slumbering post-boy: for
"The bell of the church-clock strikes ONE."
* * * * *
P.S.--The late Mr. WALMSLEY--who employed me to print this present
edition--narrowly watched all our movements, and was much gratified by
the appearance of the work, so far as it had gone before his
death--frequently urged me to append a short account of the progress
of our art during the last thirty years--i.e. since the publication of
the former edition of _Bibliomania_.
The subject is too diffuse for a mere note: and during the life-time
of so many able printers as now exercise their calling in the
metropolis, it would be invidious to particularize eminence in our
profession (whereas among our immediate predecessors it is, perhaps
just to say that there were only _two_ printers of great celebrity,
the late _Mr. Bulmer_ and my late father). I shall therefore merely
mention some events which have had such influence on our art as that
the case is now very different to what it was thirty years ago, when
the good execution of printing at once testified to the skill and
industry of the printer--as he could command neither good _presses_,
_types_, nor _ink_, &c.--paper being then almost the only matter to be
had in perfection.
We have _now_ excellent and powerful iron presses--Stanhopes,
Columbians, Imperials, &c. _Then_ the celebrated specimens of
typography were produced by _miserable_ wooden presses. We have _now_
ink of splendid lustre, at a fourth of the cost of fabrication
_then_--for both Mr. Bulmer and my father were perpetually trying
expensive experiments--and not always succeeding: our ink is now to be
depended on for _standing_, it works freely, and can be had at
reasonable prices at the extensive factory of Messrs. SHACKELL and
LYONS, Clerkenwell, who made the ink used for this work.
There are several eminent engineers who make the best of presses. Our
_letter_ may safely be pronounced, if not perfect, as near perfection
as it will ever reach--and while the celebrated type-foundries of
Messrs. CASLON, Chiswell Street, and Messrs. FIGGINS, West Street, are
within the reach of the metropolitan printers, there can be no excuse
for failing to execute good printing on the score of inferior type.
The substitution of the _inking roller_, instead of the cumbrous and
inconvenient old balls, has much eased the labours of the pressman and
facilitated the regularity of colour. The inking roller at the hand
press was adopted, and offered to the printers generally, by my
friend, Mr. APPLEGATH, shortly after _steam-printing_ was introduced
by my father--about which so much has been said in periodical
publications, &c., that it is needless here to enlarge on the
subject--more especially as it is principally applicable to work of
inferior character, newspapers, reviews, magazines, &c.; and, further,
it is not a very tempting subject to the son of him who was led to
devote the energies of the latter years of his active life, and the
well-earned fortune which his great typographical celebrity had
secured, to the adoption of a mode of printing which, how much soever
it may benefit newspaper proprietors and others--certainly has done
any thing but benefit his family; and has thus added another instance
to the many on record of the ill success attending the patronage of
inventors.
B. BENSLEY.
_Woking, Surrey, June_ 18, 1842.
* * * * *
FINIS.
INDEXES.
CHRONOLOGICAL, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL,
AND
GENERAL.
CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX.
Lovers and Collectors of Books in Great Britain.
SEVENTH CENTURY.
THEODORE, Archbishop of Canterbury, 165
BENEDICT, BISHOP, Abbot of Weremouth, 165, 166
VENERABLE BEDE, 166
EIGHTH CENTURY.
INA, King of the West Saxons, 166
ALOUIN, Abbot of Tours, 167
NINTH CENTURY.
SCOTUS ERIGENA, 168
KING ALFRED, 169, 170
KING ATHELSTAN, 170
ST. DUNSTAN, Archbishop of Canterbury, 171
ELEVENTH CENTURY.
KING CANUTE, 172
INGULPH, Abbot of Croyland, 172
LANFRANC, Archbishop of Canterbury, 173
ANSELM, Archbishop of Canterbury, 173, 174
GIRALDUS, Archbishop of York, 174
TWELFTH CENTURY.
HERMAN, Bishop of Salisbury, 175
THOMAS À BECKET, Archbishop of Canterbury, 175-177
THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS, Bishop of St. David's, 178, 179
ROGER BACON, 180-183
FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
KING EDWARD THE FIRST, 183
KING EDWARD THE THIRD, 184
RICHARD DE BURY, Bishop of Durham, 185-187
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
JOHN BOSTON, 189, 190
JOHN PLANTAGENET, First Duke of Bedford, 190, 191
THOMAS COBHAM, Bishop of Worcester, 192
ROBERT REDE, Bishop of Chichester, 192
HUMPHREY PLANTAGENET, First Duke of Gloucester, 193
SIR WALTER SHERINGTON, 194
JOHN TIPTOFT, Earl of Worcester, 198
GEORGE NEVILLE, Archbishop of York, 200
KING HENRY THE SEVENTH, 202, 205, 206
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
THE EARL OF SURREY--SIR THOMAS WYATT, 14
KING HENRY THE EIGHTH, 215-217
JOHN COLET, Dean of St. Paul's, 14, 218-220
SIR THOMAS MORE, 220-222
ERASMUS, 222-224
CARDINAL WOLSEY, 225-228
ROBERT WAKEFIELD, 235
JOHN LELAND, 242-246
JOHN BALE, Bishop of Ossory, 246, 247
THOMAS CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury, 248, 249
QUEEN ELIZABETH, 249-254
ROGER ASCHAM, 254, 255
WILLIAM CECIL, First Earl of Burleigh, 256
MATTHEW PARKER, Archbishop of Canterbury, 257-261
DR. JOHN DEE, 261, 265
CAPTAIN COX, 266
SIR ROBERT COTTON, 267-269
SIR THOMAS BODLEY, 270-278
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
KING JAMES THE FIRST, 281
THOMAS CORYATE, 281
HENRY PEACHAM, 282
ROBERT BURTON, 286
JOHN, LORD LUMLEY, 287
HENRY HASTINGS, 287-288
JOHN CLUNGEON, 288
JOHN WARD, 289
THE FERRAR FAMILY, 289-292
ELIAS ASHMOLE, Windsor Herald, 292-296
WILLIAM LAUD, Archbishop of Canterbury, 297, 298
HENRY DYSON, 302
RICHARD SMITH, 302, 303
DR. SEAMAN, 304
FRANCIS NORTH, Lord-Keeper, 309
HON. AND REV. JOHN NORTH, D.D., 310
ANTHONY À WOOD, 312-315
FRANCIS BERNARD, M.D., 316, 317
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
JOHN FELL, Bishop of Oxford, 317, 318
JOHN MORE, Bishop of Ely, 318
SAMUEL PEPYS, 320
JOHN CHURCHILL, First Duke of Marlborough, 321
PRINCE EUGENE, 322
NARCISSUS LUTTRELL, 323
EDWARD WYNNE, 323
HENRY HERBERT, NINTH EARL OF PEMBROKE, 324, 325
JOHN BAGFORD, 326-331
JOHN MURRAY, 331
THOMAS BRITTON, 331-333
THOMAS HEARNE, 333-336
JOHN ANSTIS, Garter King of Arms, 337
REV. JOHN LEWIS, 338-340
JOSEPH AMES--WILLIAM HERBERT, 340
THOMAS BAKER, 341-343
LEWIS THEOBALD, 343
THOMAS RAWLINSON, 343-346
HUMPHREY WANLEY, 346
ROBERT HARLEY, First Earl of Oxford, 347-354
THOMAS OSBORNE, 354, 355
JOHN BRIDGES, 362
ANTHONY COLLINS, 363
MICHAEL MAITTAIRE, 363
RICHARD MEAD, M.P., 364-367
MARTIN FOLKES, 367-369
RICHARD RAWLINSON, 369-371
JOHN (Orator) HENLEY, 371-373
GENERAL JAMES DORMER, 375
JAMES WEST, 376
THOMAS MARTIN, 384-386
SERJEANT WILLIAM FLEETWOOD, 386
ANTHONY ASKEW, M.D., 387-391
JOHN RATCLIFFE, 392, 393
HON. TOPHAM BEAUCLERK, 394
REV. THOMAS CROFTS, 396-398
MARK CEPHAS TUTET, 399, 400
RICHARD WRIGHT, M.D., 401
JOHN HENDERSON, 402
WILLIAM FILLINGHAM, 403
MAJOR THOMAS PEARSON, 403-406
REV. MICHAEL LORT, D.D., 411-413
RIGHT HON. DENIS DALY, 414, 415
CHARLES CHAUNCY, M.D. }
NATHANIEL CHAUNCY, } 416, 417
JOHN MUNRO, M.D., 417
REV. RICHARD SOUTHGATE, 419
GEORGE MASON, 419-423
REV. RICHARD FARMER, D.D., 423-427
GEORGE STEEVENS, 427-440
JOHN STRANGE, 441
JOHN WOODHOUSE, 441
GEORGE GALWAY MILLS, 447
JOHN WILKES, 447, 448
JOSEPH RITSON, 448
REV. JONATHAN BOUCHER, 450
WILLIAM PETTY, First Marquess of Lansdowne, 450, 451
REV. JOHN BRAND, 452-454
ISAAC REED, 454-456
ALEXANDER DALRYMPLE, 458
RICHARD PORSON, 458, 459
JOHN MADDISON, 459
EMPEROR JOHN ALEXANDER WOODFORD, 459
RICHARD GOUGH, 460
REV. BENJAMIN HEATH, 460, 554-561
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX.
LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED OR REFERRED TO:--CRITICISMS ON THEIR INTRINSIC
VALUE BEING OCCASIONALLY INTRODUCED IN THE FOREGOING PAGES.
AGOSTINI (Lionardo). _Notizie Istorico-Critiche, &c., Scritt. Viniz._,
60
Agrippa (Cornelius). _Vanity of Human Sciences_, 19
_Occult Philosophy_, _ib._
Ames (Joseph). _Typographical Antiquities_, 52
_The same_; by Herbert, 66
_Anonymiana_, 246
_Anthologia Græca._ Dr. Askew's copy upon vellum, 389
Pinelli do. (afterwards Count M'Carthy's), 407
[_De_] _Antiquitate Cantab. Acad._, 170
Antonio (Nicolas). _Biblioth. Hispana Vet. et Nov._, 42
_Archæologia_, 118
Arnold (Richard). _His Chronicle_, 421, 424
_Arthur._ _Robinson's Life, Actes, and Death of_, &c., 374, 403
East's edition of, 422
Copland's do., 422, 450
Ascham (Roger). _Works by Bennet_, 255
Ashmole (Elias). _Theatricum Chemicum_, 125, 135, 167, 184, 200, 234,
262, 295
_Diary_, 293, 294
_Way to Bliss_, 294
_Order of the Garter_, 296, 451
_Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, &c._, 216
_Athenæum_, 280, 301
Audiffredi (Jean Baptiste). _Editiones Romanæ_, 62
_Editiones Italicæ_, _ib._
Baillet (Adrien). _Jugemens des Savans_, 39, 41, 43, 44, 542
_Catalogue des Matières_, 44
_Anti Baillet_, _ib._
Bale (John). _Scriptores Illustres Britanniæ_, 31, 167, 189
_Actes of Englyshe Votaryes_, 174, 176
_Preface to Leland's Laboryouse Journey_, 234, 235
_Ballads._ _Ancient Songs and Ballads._ See Evans, _in the General
Index_.
Barbier (Antoine Alexandre). _Dictionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymés et
Pseudonymes Françoises_, 69
_Cat. des Livres de la Bibliothèque du Conseil d'Etat_, 78
Barclaii (Johannis). _Satyricon_, 12
Barclay (Alexander). _Egloges_, &c., 446
Barnes (Juliana). _On Hawking, Hunting, &c._, 124, 325
West's copy of the St. Albans' edition of, 382
Mason's copy of do., 422
---- ---- of Copland's edition, _ib._
Martin's, of Wynkyn de Worde's, 385
Tutet's, of do., 400
Bartholin (Thomas). _De Libris Legendis_, 43
Bauer (John Jacob). _Bibliotheca Librorum Rariorum Universalis_, 57,
167
Beloe (Rev. Wm.) _Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books_, 52, 444,
468, 549
Beughem (Cornelius De). _Incunabula Typographica_, 45
_Bibliogr. Erudit. Crit.-Curiosa_, _ib._
_Gallia Erudita_, _ib._
Beyer (Augustus). _Memoriæ Hist.-Criticæ Libror. Rarior._, 56
_Arcana Sacra Bibliothecar. Dresdens_, _ib._
_Biblia Polyglot Complut._, 407
_Bibliographia Scotica._ Ritson's MS. of, 448
_Bibliographie Curieuse._ See Peignot.
_Bibliographie des Pays Bas_, 74
_Bibliomania_, 487, 491, 496, 513, 528
_Bibliosophia_, 487, 491, 495, 497, 511, 515, 522, 525, 528
_Bibliotheca Lusitana_, by Machado, 54
_Biographia Britannica._ An extraordinary copy of, 449
Blount (Sir Thomas Pope). _Censura Celebriorum Authorum_, 45
Boccaccio (Giovanni), _Il Teseide_, 389
_Decamerone_, 526
Bolduanus (Paul). _Bibliotheca Historica_, 35
Boucher (De la Richarderie). _Bibliothèque Universelle des Voyages_,
69
Braithwait (Richard). _Arcadian Princesse_, 133, 286, 299-301
_Nursery for Gentry_, 299
_English Gentleman and Gentlewoman_, 299
Braun (Placid). _Notitia Hist.-Crit. de libris ab art. typog. inv._, 64
_Notitia Hist.-Liter. de Cod. MSS. in Bibl. Monast. Ord. St. Bened._,
&c., 64
Bridgman (Richard Whalley). _Legal Bibliography_, 472
_British Bibliographer_, 52, 171, 216, 468
_British Librarian_, by Savage, 52, 468
Broughton (Hugh). _Concent of Scripture_--upon vellum, 399
Brunet (J.C.). _Manuel du Libraire et de l'Amateur de Livres_, 69, 70
Bry (Theodore De). _Perigrationes_, &c., 410
Brydges (Sir Samuel Egerton, K.J.) _Censura Literaria_, 348, 358
Bure (Guillaume François De). _Bibliographie Instructive_, 24, 58, 137,
145, 161, 166
_Musæum Typographicum_, 58
_Cat. des Livres de Gaignat_, _ib._
_Appel aux Savans_, _ib._
_Reponse à une Critique de la Bibl. Instr._, 58, 59
Bure (G.F. De Fils). _Cat. des livres du Duc de la Valliere_, 97
Burnet (George). _Specimens of English Prose Writers_, 159, 255
Burnet (Gilbert). _Hist. of the Reformation_, 151, 228, 229, 232, 236,
238, 318
Burton (Robert). _Anatomy of Melancholy_, 286
Bury (Richard De). _Philobiblion, sine de Amore Librorum_, 29, 185, 186
Byddell (John). _Maner and Forme of Confession_, 224
Bysshop (John). _Beautifull Blossomes_, 453
Caballero (R.D.). _De prima Typog. Hist. Ætat. Specimen_, 48
Cæsar. _De Bell. Gall._, 106, 165
Caille (Jean De La). _Hist. de l'Imprimerie et de la Librarie_, 48
Cailleau. _Dictionnaire Bibliographique_, 42, 62, 67, 68, 97
Caillot (Antoine). _Roman Bibliographique_, 145, 487
Camden (William). _Remaines_, 10, 168
_Annales_, 106, 116
Camus (Amurand Gaston). _Observations sur la distribution, &c., des
livres d'une Bibliothèque_, 65
_Additions aux mêmes_, _ib._
_Memoires sur une livre Allemand (Teurdanckhs)_, 65
_Addition aux mêmes_, _ib._
_Memoire, &c., sur le Polytypage et Stereotype_, _ib._
_Rapport sur la Continuation, &c., des Hist. de France_, _ib._
_Notice d'un Livre imprimé à Bamberg_, _ib._
_Memoire sur la Collection des grands et petits Voyages_, _ib._
_Voyage dans les départmens réunis_, 68
Cardona (J.B.) _De reg. Sanct. Lament. bibliotheca_, 33
_De Bibliothecis, &c._, _ib._
_De expurgandis Hæreticorum propr. nom._, _ib._
_De Dypthicis_, _ib._
Casaubon (Meric). _A Relation concerning Dee and some spirits_, 262
Casiri (Michael). _Biblioth. Arab. Hisp. Escurial._, 42
_Catalogues: Foreign._
Augsbourg, 72, 73
Aurivillius, 73
Badenhaupt, _ib._
Baluze, _ib._
Barberini, _ib._
Barthelemy, 74
Bern, 98
_Bibliog. des Pays Bas._, 74
Bonnier, 75
Boutourlin, _ib._
Boze, _ib._
Bozérian, _ib._
Bulteau, _ib._
Bunau, 75
Bunneman, _ib._
Caillard, _ib._
Cambis, 77
Camus De Limare, _ib._
_Catalogue des Livres Rares_
_par De Bure_, _ib._
_fait sur un plan nouveau_, _ib._
_Catalogus Librorum Rarissimorum_, _ib._
Ceran, 78
Clement-Vatican, _ib._
Colbert, 78, 162
Conseil d'Etat, 78
Cordes, _ib._
Cotte, 79
Couvay, _ib._
Crevenna, 48, 55, 79
Crozat, 80
Damme [Van], _ib._
Dubois, _ib._
Elzevir, _ib._
Fagel, _ib._
Faultrier, _ib._
Favier, _ib._
Fay [Du], _ib._
Fresne [Du], 81
Gaignat, 81, 162
Genève, 81
Goez, _ib._
Golowkin, _ib._
Gouttard, _ib._
Guyon, _ib._
Heinsius (Nic.), 82
Hohendorf, _ib._
Hoym, _ib._
Hulsius, 82, 552
Jena, 82
Jesu-Soc., 83
Just (St.), _ib._
Krohn, _ib._
Lamoignon, 83, 84
Lancelot, 84
Lemarié, _ib._
Lomenie De Brienne, 84, 85
Macarthy (Ct.), 85
Magliabechi, 85, 86
Mark (St.), 87
Medici-Lorenzo, _ib._
Manarsiana, _ib._
Menckenius, _ib._
Meon, _ib._
Mercier, 88
Merigot, _ib._
Michael (St.), _ib._
Mirabeau, _ib._
Miromenil, 89
Montfaucon, _ib._
Morelli, _ib._
Paris, 90
Petau and Mansart, _ib._
Pinelli, 91, 406, 407
Pompadour, 91
Préfond, 91
Randon de Boisset, _ib._
Reimannius, _ib._
Renati, _ib._
Revickzky, 92
Rive, _ib._
Roi (Louis XV.), 92, 93, 186
Röver, 93
Rothelin, 9
Sarraz, _ib._
Sartori, _ib._
Schalbruck, _ib._
Schwartz, _ib._
Scriverius, _ib._
Serna Santander, 94
Solger, 95, 162
Soubise, 96
Tellier, _ib._
Thuanus (De Thou), _ib._
Uffenbach, _ib._
Valliere (Duc de la), 97, 162
Vienna, 97
Volpi, 98
Voyage de deux François, &c. _ib._
Zurich, _ib._
_Catalogues: English._
Ames (of Engl. Heads), 500
Askew, 388
Beauclerk, 394
Bernard (Dr. F.), 316
Boucher, 450
Bodleian, 74, 75
Brand, 452
Bridges, 362
Britton, 333
Chauncy, 416
Collins (Anthony), 363
(Concannon), 446
Corpus Christi (Cambr.), 98
Cotton, 86, 267
Crofts, 396
Dalrymple, 458
Daly, 414
Dodd, 403
Dormer, 375
Farmer, 423
Fillingham, 403
Fletewode, 386
Folkes, 367
Gough, 460
Harley (Earl of Oxford), 160, 347
Hearne, 336
(Heath), 460
Henderson, 402
Henley, 372
Hoblyn, 374
Hutton, _ib._
Institution (Royal), 99
Lansdowne, 450
Lort, 411
Maddison, 459
Manton, 306
Maittaire, 364
Martin, 384, 385
Mason, 419
Mills, 447
Mores (Rowe), 501
Munro, 417
Museum (British), 89, 90
Osborne, 355
Paterson, 400
Pearson, 404
Pepys, 320
Porson, 458
Ratcliffe, 392
Rawlinson (Richard), 369
Rawlinson (Thomas), 344
Reed, 455
Ritson, 448
Seaman (Dr.), 304
Sion College, 95
Smith (Consul), 95
Smith (Richard), 302
Smyth, 403
Southgate, 419
Stace, 458
Steevens, 428
Swedenborg, 545
(Thurlo), 448
Tutet (M.C.), 399
West, 376
Wilkes, 447
Wood (Anthony), 99
Woodford, 459
Woodhouse, _Prints_, 441
---- _Books_, 444
Worsley (Dr.), 306
Wright, 401
Wynne, 324
_Catalogue of Books_, 1658, 4to., 301
Caxton (William). Books printed by him in West's collection, 380, 381
in the Fletewode do., 387
in Dr. Askew's do., 389
in John Ratcliffe's do., 392, 393
in Tutet's do., 400
in Macartney's do., 407
in Mason's do., 422, 423
in Brand's do., 454
Chalmers (Mr. Alexander). _History of the University_ of Oxford, 193
_Collection of the English Poets_, 240
Chalmers (Mr. George). _Apology for the Believers in Shakespeare, &c._,
281
_Edition of Sir David Lynday's Poem_, 550
Chartier (Alain). _Livres des quartre Dames_, 23
_Les faicts, dictes, et ballades_, 410
Chaucer (Geoffrey). _Canterbury Tales_, 115, 118, 422
_Troylus and Creyseyde_, 426
Chesne (Andrew Du). _Biblioth. Hist. Galliæ_, 35
_Chess._ Works relating thereto, 155, 156
Chevillier (Andrew). _L'Origine de l'Imprimerie à Paris_, 48, 529, 541
_Series Auctor. de Franc. Hist._, _ib._
_Choice of Change_, 465
_Churchyard's Pieces_, 401, 455
Cinelli (John). _Bibliotheca Volante_, 40
Clarke (Rev. Dr. Adam), 459
_Bibliographical Dictionary_, 109
Clarke (Dr. Edward Daniel). _Travels in Russia_, 81
_Classical Journal_, 459, 460
Clement (Claude). _Extract. Bibl. tam privatæ quam publicæ_, 39
---- (David). _Bibliothèque Curieuse_, 55
_Les cinq Années Literaires_, _ib._
Coke (Sir Edward). _Institutes_, 104, 234
Collier (Rev. Jeremy). _Ecclesiastical History_, 172, 232-234
Conringius (Herman). _Bibliotheca Augusta_, 40
Coryat (Thomas). _Crudities_, 123, 127, 281
Coxe (Francis). _Detestible wickedness of magical sciences_, 180
Cowper (William). _The Task_, 9, 196
Croix du Maine (François Grude De la) et Du Verdier. _Bibliothèque
Françoise_, 32
_Cynthia; with certain Sonnets_, 455
Dante (Alighieri). _La Divina Comedia_ (1472), 407
di Landini (1481), 418
Darwin (John), M.D. _Zoonomia_, 7
_Debates between the_ [French and English] _Heralds_, 11
Dekker (Thomas). _Works_, 402, 404
Denis (Michael). _Supplementum Maittairii Annal._, 65
_Codices Manuscripti Theol. Bibl. Palat. Vindob._, 65, 70, 97
_Dictionnaire Bibliographique._ See Cailleau.
_Historique._ Caen, 46, 53, 542
_de Bibliologie._ See Peignot.
_Director_, The, 183
D'Israeli (Isaac). _Curiosities of Literature_, 468, 486
_Dives et Pauper._ Pynson's edition of (1493), 421, 452
Martin's vellum MS. of, 385
Dodd (Charles). _Church History_, 232
Dolman (Robert). See _Treatise of Treasons_, post.
Doni (Anthony Francis). _La Libraria_, 60
Draudius (George). _Bibliotheca Classica_, 25, 35
_Drolleries_, 404
Dugdale (Sir William). His _Works_, complete, 449
Du Pin (Louis Ellies). _Ecclesiastical History_, 152, 173, 222
Dunstan (St.) _De Occulta Philosophia_, 135
Durandi (Gulielmus). _Rationale_, upon vellum, 390
Ellis (Mr. George). _Specimens of the Early English Poets_, 171, 226,
241, 299
Engel (Samuel). _Bibliotheca Selectissima, &c._, 56
_England's Helicon_, 404, 430
Englefield (Sir H.C.) _Walk through Southampton_, 288
_Example of Sertu_, 403
Fabricius (John Albert). _Bibliotheca Græca_, 49
_Bibliotheca Latina_, _ib._
_Bibliographia Antiquaria_, _ib._
_Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica_, _ib._
_Bibl. Lat. Mediæ et Inf. Ætatis_, 49, 174
_Sylloge Opusc. Hist. Cat. Lit. J.A. Fabricii_, 222
_Hist. Bibliothecæ Fabricianæ_, 49, 222
Ferriar (John), M.D. _Comments upon Sterne_, 487
_The Bibliomania_, 487, 491, 496, 513, 528
_Festiuall, The Boke that is called_, 177
Fischer (Gotthelf). _Essai sur les Monum. de Typog. de Gutenberg_, 68
_Descriptions de Raretés Typographique, &c._, 68
_Fishing._ Books upon, 305, 452, 454
Fontaine (John De la), _Contes de la_--Manuscript de Mons. Paris, 410
Fontanini (Giusto). _Biblioteca del Eloquenza Italiana_, 60
Fossius (Ferdin). _Cat. Biblioth. Magliabechi_, 85, 86, 121
Fournier (François J.) _Dict. Portatif de Bibliographie_, 38, 57, 69,
167
Fournier (Pierre Simon). _Dissertation sur l'origine, &c., de graver
en bois_, 57
_De l'Origine et Productions de l'Imp., &c., en bois_, _ib._
_Traité sur l'Origine, &c., de l'Imprimerie_, _ib._
_Observations, &c., sur les Vindicæ Typographicæ_, _ib._
_Epreuves de caractères nouvellement gravés_, _ib._
_Manuel Typographique_, _ib._
Fox (John). _Book of Martyrs_, 197, 228, 239
Fresnoy (N.C. Du). _Methode pour etudier l'Histoire_, 53
Freytag (F.G.). _Analecta Literaria_, 56
_Adparatus Literarius_, _ib._
Froissart (Sir John). _Chronicles_, 421, 493
Fuller (Rev. Thomas), D.D. _Church History_, 182, 232, 236, 260
Gaddius (James). _De Scriptoribus non Ecclesiastices_, 39
Gale (Thomas), D.D. _Rerum Anglicar. Script. Vet._, 173, 245, 269
Gallois (John). _Traité des plus belles Bibliothèques_, 40
Gascoigne (George). _Works_, in Steevens's Collection, 428
in Reed's Collection, 455
_Gentleman's Magazine_, 249, 334, 413, 423, 427, 460, 471
Georgius. _Lexicon Literarium_, 566
Gerdes (Daniel). _Florilegium Hist.-Crit. Libror. Rarior., &c._, 56
Gesner (Conrad). _Bibliotheca, seu Catalogus Universalis_, 30
_Pandectæ_, 31, 130
Geyler (John). _Navicula sive Speculum Fatuorum_, 486, 514
Gibbon (Edward). _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, 28
_Posthumous Works_, 334
Gildas's _Epistle_, 11
Girald Barri. _Sir Richard Colt Hoare's edition of_, 178
Goddard (William). _Satyrical Dialogue, betweene Alexander, &c., and
Diogenes_, 13
Godwyn (Francis). _Catalogue of the Bishops of England_, 174, 187, 200
_Annales of England_, 245
Gomez, or Gomecius (Alvarez). _De rebus gestis Cardinalis Ximines_, 160
Googe (Barnabe). His works in Steevens's Collection, 428
Gough (Richard). _British Topography_, 118, 334
Goujet (Claude Peter). _Bibliothèque François_, &c., 52
Gower (John). _Confessio Amantis_, 181
Grafton (Richard). _Chronicles_, 256
Gunton (Simon). _Hist. of Peterborough Abbey_, 178
Gutch (Rev. John). _Collectanea Curiosa_, 150, 225, 254
Hallevordius. _Bibliotheca Curiosa_, 30
Hardyng (John). _Chronicle_, 421
Harpsfield (Nicholas). _Hist. Eccles. Anglicana_, 205
Harrison. _Seven Triumphal Arches_, 445
Harwood (Rev. Edward), D.D. _View of the various editions of the Greek
and Roman Classics_, 67
Haym (Nicolas Francis). _Biblioteca Italiana_, 60
Hearne (Thomas). _Johan. Ros. Hist. Angl. Regum_, 170
_Thom. Caii Vindic. Antiq. Acad. Oxon._, 170, 244, 289, 331
_Antiquities of Glastonbury_, 172, 194, 195, 326, 335, 341, 382
_John. Confrat. Mon. de Rebus Glastoniens._, 178, 251, 262
_Adam de Domerham de rebus Gest. Glaston._, 118, 239, 382
_Guil. Neubrig. Hist._, 178
_Curious Discourses by Eminent Antiquaries_, 183, 201, 251
_Benedictus Abbas_, 189, 269, 280, 335
_Robert de Avesbury_, 216
_Guliel. Roperi vita D.T. Mori_, 221, 327, 331, 335, 341
_Robert of Glocester_, 248, 333, 335
_Peter Langtoft's Chronicle_, 10, 302
_Tit. Liv. Foro-Juliensis_, 250, 344, 371
_Annals of Dunstaple Priory_, 289
_Liber Niger Scaccarii_, 304
_Hist. Vit. et Regni Ricardi II._, 317, 318
_Walt. Hemingford Hist._, 328, 341, 343, 344, 366, 383
_Heming. Wigorens. Chartular._, 328, 329, 333
_Thomas de Elmham_, 335, 341
_Alured de Beverley_, 335, 344
Heinecken (Baron). _Nachrichten von Kunstlern_, &c., 63
_Idée Generale d'une Collection d'Estampes_, 63, 205
_Dictionnaire des Artistes_, 63
Henry (Rev. Robert), D.D. _History of Great Britain_, 146, 165, 166,
167, 173, 179, 199
Herbert (William). _Typographical Antiquities_, 67, 239, 248, 438, 439
_Heures de Notre Dame_, 90
Heylin (Rev. Peter), D.D. _Life and Death of Archbishop Laud_, 297
Hirschius (C.C.). _Librorum ab Anno I. usque ad Annum L. Sec. xvi._,
48
Horatius. _Carmen_, lib. i., &c., 106
Jacob (Louis). _Traicté des plus belles Bibliothèques_, 39, 113
_Bibliothèque Universelle_, 39
_Bibliotheca Parisina_, 39
Jansen. _De l'Invention de l'Imprimerie_, 58
_John Bon and Mast. Person_, 240
Johnson. _Upon English Bibles_, 248
_Kalender of Shepherds_, 204
Kennet (White, D.D., Bishop of Peterborough). _Parochial Antiquities_,
493
Knight (Rev. Samuel), D.D. _Life of Colet_, 218, 445
_Life of Erasmus_, 223, 445
Koenigius (George Matthias). _Biblioth. Vet. et Nov._, 43
Kollarius (Adam Francis). His edition of Lambecius's _Commentarii_,
&c., 41, 42
Labbe (Philip). _Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum_, 40
_Bibliotheca Nummaria_, 41
_Mantissa Suppellectilis_, _ib._
_Specimen Nov. Bibl. Manuscript_, _ib._
_Collectio maxima Conciliorum_, _ib._
Lackman (Adam Herne). _Annal. Typog. selecta quædam capita_, 48
Laire (Franciscus Xavier). _Specimen Hist. Typog. Rom._, 62
_Dissertation sur l'Imprimerie en Franche Comté_, 62
_Index Libror. ab invent, typog. ad ann. 1500_, 62, 84
Lambecius (Pierre). _Commentarii de Bibl. Cæsar Vindobon._, 41
Lambinet (P.). _Recherches, &c., sur l'Origine de l'Imprimerie_, &c.,
24, 68
Laneham (Robert). _Letter of the Entertainment given to Q. Elizabeth
at Killingworth Castle_, 266, 267
Latimer (Hugh), Archbishop of Canterbury. _Sermons_, 230, 231
Leibnitz (Godfrey William De). _Idea Bibliothecæ Publiæ_, &c., 50
_Scriptores Rerum Brunsvicensium_, _ib._
Leland (John). _Collectanea_, 150, 200, 244
_De Scriptoribus Britannicis_, 175
_Itinerarium_, 193
Le Long (Jacques). _Bibliotheca Sacra_, 49
_Bibliothèque Historique de la France_, 49
Lewin. _Birds of Great Britain_, 445
Lewis (Rev. John). _Upon English Bibles_, 248
_Life off the 70 Archbishop of Canterbury_, &c., 258
Lipenius (Martin). _Biblioth. Theol. Med. Philos. Jurid._, 43
Lipsius (Justus). _Syntagma de Bibliothecis_, 34
Lloyd (David). _Memoirs of the Sufferers_, 297
Lomeier (John). _De Bibliothecis liber singularis_, 40, 113, 167
Lupset (Thomas). _Exhortacion to yonge men_, 227
Macdiarmid (John). _Lives of British Statesmen_, 222, 256
Mackenzie (George), M.D. _Scottish Writers_, 196
Maichelius (Daniel). _De Præcip. Bibl. Paris_, 38, 529
Maittaire (Michael). _Annales Typographici_, 47, 325, 362
_Historia Stephanorum_, &c., 47
_Historia Typographor. aliquot. Parisiens_, 47
Marchand (Prosper). _Dict. Historique, ou Mémoires Critiques_, &c.,
45, 55, 223, 551
_Histoire de l'Imprimerie_, 55, 56
_Marie Magdalene._ Life and Repentance of, 448
Marville. _Melanges d'Histoire et de Literature_, 490
Masters (Robert). _Life of Thomas Baker_, 341, 347
Maunsell (Andrew). _Catalogue of English Books_, 280
Mazzuchelli (Giovanni Maria). _Gli Scrittori d'Italia_, &c., 60
Meerman (Gerard). _Origines Typographicæ_, 57
_Memoires de l'Institut National_, 25, 32, 42, 50, 526
_Memoirs (Old and New) of Literature_, 16
Mercier de St. Leger. _Supplement á l'Histoire de l'Imprimerie par
Marchand_, 61
_His bibliographical character_, _ib._
_Catalogue of his books_, 88
Middleton (Rev. Conyer), D.D. _Dissertation upon the Origin of the Art
of Printing_, 52
Momoro (Antoine François). _Traité Elementaire de l'Imprimerie_, 529
Monstrelet (Enguerand De). _Chronicles of, translated by Mr. Johnes_,
154
_Monthly Mirror_, 17
_Monthly Review_, 16
More (Sir Thomas). _Utopia_, 220, 228, 301
Mores (Edward Rowe). _Of English Founders and Founderies_, 501, 528
Morhof (Daniel George). _Polyhistor. Literarius_, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34,
35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 81, 187, 547, 553
_Princeps Medicus_, 46
_Epistola de Scypho vitreo per somn. human. voc. rupto_, 46
Murr (C.T. De). _Memorabilia Biblioth. Public. Norimb._, 64
Nash (Thomas). Wright's collection of his _Works_, 401
Naudé or Naudæus (Gabriel). _Avis pour dresser une Bibliothèque_, 38
_Mascurat_, _ib._
_Considerations politiques_, _ib._
_Additions à l'Histoire de Louis XI._, _ib._
_Avis à Nos seigneurs de Parlement_, _ib._
_Remise de la Bibliothèque, &c._, _ib._
_Catalog. Biblioth. Cordes._, 78
_Apologie, &c., faussement soupçonnez de magie_, 18
Neander (Michael). _Erotemata Græcæ Linguæ_, 32
Niceron (Jean Pierre). _Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Hommes
Illustres_, 53
Nichols (John). _Manners and Expenses of ancient times in England_,
115-117
_History of Leicestershire_, 119
_Anecdotes of Bowyer_, 355, 366, 369, 383
Nicolson (William, D.D., Bishop). _English, Scottish, and Irish Hist.
Libraries_, 51
_Epistolary Correspondence_, _ib._
Noble (Rev. Mark). _Continuation of Granger_, 325
North (Roger). _Life of Lord Keeper Guildford_, 309
_Life of the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North_, 310-312
_Examen_, 309
Oberlin (Jeremiah James). _Essai d'Annales de la vie de Jean
Gutenberg_, 68
Ogilby (William). _His Works_, 449
Oldys (William). _British Librarian_, 51, 52, 468
_Life of Raleigh_, 500
_Harleian Miscellany_, _ib._
_Interleaved Langbaine_, 499
_Oliver of Castille. Romance of_, 153, 154, 381
_Ordynary of Christian Men_, 203
Orlandi (Pellegrino Antonio). _Origine e Progressi della stampa, &c._,
47
Osmont. _Dictionnaire Typographique_, 162
Otho and Octhobone. _Constitutions Provinciales_, 151
Painter (William). _Palace of Pleasure_, Hutton's copy of, 374
Paitoni (Giacomo Maria). _Biblioteca degli Autori Antichi, &c._, 60
Palmer (Samuel). _History of Printing_, 52, 528
Pansa (Mutius). _Biblioteca Vaticana_, 33
Panzer (George Wolfgang Francis). _Annales Typographici_, 64
_Annalen der altern Deutschen Literatur, &c._, _ib._
_Paradise of Dainty Devises_, 404, 425, 429
Park (Mr. Thomas). _Royal and Noble Authors_, 193, 199, 241
_Edition of the Harleian Miscellany_, 549
_Passe temps de tout hommes, &c._, 203
Peacham (Henry). _Compleat Gentleman_, 283-285
Peignot (Gabriel). _Dictionnaire de Bibliologie_, 24, 38, 59, 64, 65,
68, 69, 486, 552
_Essai de Curiosités Bibliographiques_, 68, 69, 496
_Dictionnaire, &c., des Livres condamnés, &c., ou censurés_, 69
_Bibliographie Curieuse_, 59, 69
Petrarca (Francisco) [Transcriber's Note: Francesco]. _Le Rime_ (1475),
407
_Opere de_ (1514), 410
Pitseus (Johannes). _De Rebus Anglicis_, 38, 189
_Plaister for a galled horse_, 239, 240
Plato. _Opera Omnia_--upon vellum, 390
Plinii. _Hist. Naturalis_ (1470), upon vellum, 519
(1472), upon vellum, 417
_Pole. Life of Reginald_, 229, 234
_Polychronicon._ _Caxton's edit._, 174, 175
_Pope (Sir Thomas). Life of_, 150, 241
Possevinus (Antonius). _Bibliotheca Selecta, &c._, 34
_Apparatus Sacer_, _ib._
Praet (Joseph Van). _Cat. des MSS. du Duc de la Valliere_, 60, 68
_Cat. des Livres imprimés sur Velin_, 60
Prince (John). _Worthies of Devon_, 270
Priscianus. _De Art. Gram._ (1470), 407
_Promptuarium Parvulorum_, 1499. Martin's Copy of, 385
Prynne (William). _Records_, 415
Puhtherb (Gabriel). _De tollendis et expurgandis malis libris_, 43
Puteanus (Ericus). _De Usu Bibliothecæ_, &c., 34
_Auspicia Bibliothecæ Lovaniensis_, _ib._
Puttenham (George). _Art of English Poesie_, 404
_Pype or Tonne of Perfection_, 234, 370
Quirini (Angelo Maria, Cardinal). _Specimen variæ Literaturæ Brixiens_,
54
_Catalogo delle Opere, &c._, _ib._
_De Optimorum Scriptorum Editionibus_, _ib._
Rastell (John). _Chronicle, or Pastyme of People_, 281
Martin's copy of, 385
Ratcliffe's copy of, 392
Chauncy's copy of, 417
Mason's copy of, 421
Raynaud (Theophilus). _Erotemata de malis ac bonis libris, &c._, 43
_Recueil des Historiens des Gaules_, 173, 659 [Transcriber's Note: 492]
Reimannus. _Bibliotheca Acroamatica_, 29, 41
Renouard (Antoine Auguste). _L'Imprimerie des Alde_, 34, 68, 488
_Revelacions of a Monk of Euisham_, 202
_Revelationes scancte [Transcriber's Note: sancte] Birgitte_, 204
_Reviews._ _American_, 520, 553
_Edinburgh_, 133, 220
_Monthly_, 16
_Quarterly_, 282, 289, 320, 549
Ridley (Nicholas, Bishop of London). _Life of Ridley_, 201
Ritson (Joseph). _Ancient English Metrical Romances_, 199
Rive (Abbé Jean Joseph). _Chasse aux Bibliographes_, 59
_Notices Calligraphiques, &c._, _ib._
_Anecdotes of_, _ib._
_Catalogue of his library_, 92
_L'Art de connoitre les Miniatures des MSS. anciens_, 409
_Notice d'un Roman d'Artus_, 566
_Etrennes aux Joueurs des Cartes_, _ib._
_Robin Hood. A merry jest of_, 425
Roccha (Angelus). _Bibliotheca Vaticana_, 33
_Romances_ in Croft's Library, 396-398
in Farmer's ditto, 425
Ronsard (Peter De). _Poemes de_, 546
Rossi (John Bernard De). _Annales Hebræo-Typographici_, 64
Roy (William). _Rede me and be not wroth_, 226, 400, 422, 429, 549
Rymeri (Thomas). _Foedera_, 15, 190
Sandford (Francis). _Genealogical History_, 492
Savile (Sir Henry). _Scriptores post Bedam_, 244
Saxius (Christopher). _Onomasticon Literarium_, 43, 62
Schelhorn (J.G.) _Amoenitates Literariæ_, &c., 48, 528, 529
_Amoenitates Hist. Ecclesiast. et Lit._, 48
Schoepflin (John Daniel). _Vindicæ Typographicæ_, 58
Scholtzius. _Icones Bibliopolorum et Typographorum_, 48
_Thesaurus Symbolorum et ac Emblematum_, _ib._
Schottus (Andreas). _De Bibl. et claris. Hisp. Viris_, 35
Scott (Reginald). _Discovery of Witchcraft_, 492
Scott (Walter). _Hunting Song_, 130
_Marmion_, 461
_Lady of the Lake_, 157
_Edition of Dryden's Works_, 181, 323
_Edition of the Somers Tracts_, 549
Seemiller (Sebastian). _Bibl. Ingolstad. Incunab. Typog._, 63
Seiz (John Christopher). _Annus Tertius Sæcular. Inv. Hist. Typog._,
47, 48
Senebier (Jean). _Catalogue des MSS. de Genève_, 36, 81
Serna Santander. _Catalogue des Livres de_, 42, 45, 94
_Diction. Bibliogr. Choisi du XV. Siecle_, 67, 161
_Sevin Seages, The_, 448
Shakspeare. Edit. 1803, 225, 523
Early editions of in Wright's collection, 402
in Smyth's ditto, 403
in Farmer's ditto, 425
in Steevens's ditto, 430-436
Steevens's own edition of, 427
The edition of 1803, _ib._
Portrait of, 428
Ritson's manuscript notes relating to, 448
Reed's collection of tracts relating to, 455
_Ship of Fools_, 206, 424, 486
Skelton (John). _Works of_, Martin's set of, 386
Wright's ditto, 401
Pearson's ditto, 405
Steevens's ditto, 429
Woodhouse's ditto, 445
Smith (John). _Printer's Grammar_, 529
Snelling (Thomas). _Works upon the Coinage_, 399
_Speculum Christiani_, 169
Chauncy's copy of, 416
Mason's copy of, 420
Speed (John). _Hist. of Great Britain_, 233
Spizelius (Theophilus). _Infelix Literatus_, 26, 122, 547
Stapleton (Thomas). _Translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History_,
168
_Counterblast to Horne's Vayne Blaste_, 215
Stowe (John). _Chronicle, or Annals_, 166, 167, 200, 217, 305
Struvius (Gottlieb). _Bibliotheca Librorum Rariorum_, 50
_Bibliotheca Historica_, _ib._
_cura Meusel_, _ib._
_Bibliotheca Hist. Selecta_, 51
_Bibliotheca Saxonica_, _ib._
Strype (Rev. John). _Life of Cranmer_, 222, 229, 232, 248, 249, 304
_Ecclesiastical Memorials_, 229, 230, 232
_Annals of the Reformation_, 238
_Life of Parker_, 246, 256, 259
Stubbes (Philip). _Anatomy of Abuses_, 279, 654 [Transcriber's
Note: 454]
_Supplicacion of Beggars_, 228
Tanner (Thomas, Bishop of St. Asaph). _Edition of Wood's Athenæ
Oxonienses_, 46
_Bibliotheca Britan. Hibernica_, 52, 181, 190, 192
Teisser (Anthony). _Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum_, 41
Terentianus (Maurus). Dr. Askew's copy of, 391
_Tewrdanckhs._ A book so called, 65, 390
Dr. Askew's copy of--upon vellum, 390
Tutet's copy of, 400
Thomson (James). _Winter_, 105;
_Autumn_, 481
Tiraboschi (Girolamo). _Letteratura Italiana_, 61
Toderini (Giambatista). _Letteratura Turchesca_, 60
Todd (Rev. Henry John). _Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_, 15, 242,
246, 320
_Treatise of Treasons_, 236
Trefler (Florian). _Disposition des Livres dans une Bibliothéque_, 32
_Troie, Recueil of the Histories of_, 446
Turner (Mr. Sharon). _History of the Anglo Saxons_, 170
Tusser (Thomas). _Five Hundred Points of good Husbandry_, 529
Twyne (Bryan). _Antiquit. Acad. Oxon._, 179, 181
Tyndale (William). _The Practice of Popishe Prelates_, 176, 226
Tyrrel (Sir James). _Hist. of England._ Daly's copy of, 414
_Universal Historical Bibliothéque_, 16
Vallans. _Tale of Two Swannes_, 256
Valois. _Discours sur les Bibliothéques Publiques_, 54
Van Praet (Joseph), 68
Virgilii _Opera_ (1470), upon vellum; do. (1472); do., 417
_Vita et Processus, &c., Thomæ à Becket_, 177
Vives (Ludovicus). _Instruction of a Christian Woman_, 152, 283
Vogler. _Universalis in notit. cuj. generis bonor. Scriptor. introd._,
43
Vogt (John). _Catalogus Librorum Rariorum_, 31, 32, 33, 35, 56, 161,
522
_Walks in Powles_, 278
Walton (Izaak). _Complete Angler_, 9, 125, 126, 500
Warton (Joseph). _Hist. Engl. Poetry_, 118, 175, 178, 179, 186, 187,
194, 204, 226, 241, 425
Wasse. _Bibliotheca Literaria_, 51
Watson. _History of the Art of Printing_, 52
Webbe (William). _Discourse of English Poetrie_, 404, 430
_Weekly Memorials for the Ingenious_, 16
Wendler (John Christian). _Dissertatio de var. raritat. libror.
impress. causis_, 55
Werburge (St.). _Life of._ Martin's copy of, 385
Pearson's do., 405
Woodhouse's do., 446
Wharton (Henry). _Anglia Sacra_, 171
Withers (George). _Emblems_, 305
Wolfius (John Christian). _Monumenta Typographica_, 48
_Bibl. Aprosiana_, 123
Wolfius (John). _Lectiones Memorabiles, &c._, 110, 125
Wordsworth (Rev. Christopher, D.D.). _Ecclesiastical Biography_, 221,
227, 239, 290
_Works of the Learned_, 16
Wood (Anthony). _Athenæ Oxonienses_, 46, 51
_Hist. and Antiq. of the Colleges and Halls of Oxford_, 192, 235
_Annals of the University of Oxford_, 46, 179, 181, 187, 192, 193,
278, 315
Wurdtwein (Stephen Alexander). _Bibliotheca Moguntina_, 64
Ximenes (Cardinal Francis). _Bibl. Polyglot. Complut._, 160, 407
_Missale Mozarabicum_, 160
_Breviarum Mozarabicum_, _ib._
Zapf (George William). _Annales Typog. Augustan._, 48
GENERAL INDEX.
_Agrippa_ (_Cornelius_). Account of some of his works, 19
_D'Aguesseau_ (_Chancellor_). Account of his Library, 72
_Alcove, the._ Description of Lorenzo's, 481, 482
_Alcuin_, 167
_Alfred_, 169
_Alphonso._ An obstinate literary character, 14
_Ames_ (_Joseph_), 340
_Ancillon._ Pillage of his library, 522
_Anne Boleyn._ Her coronation dinner described by Stow, 216, 217
_Anselm_, 174
_Anstis_ (_John_). Original letter of, 239
Literary character of, 337, 338
_Antiphoners_, 115
_Antonio_ (_Nicolas_). _See Bibliographical Index._
_Arch_ (_Messrs. John and Arthur_). Their purchase of Sandford's
Genealogical History, L.P., 492
_Aristotle's Works_--printed upon vellum, 519
_D'Artois_ (_Count_). Catalogue of his library, 72
Purchase of the Vallière Collection, 97
_Ascham_, (_Roger_). His 'Schoolmaster' commended, 283
_Ashmole_ (_Elias_). Some account of, 293-296
_Askew_ (_Dr. Anthony_). Some account of, with specimens of his
library, 388-391
_Atticus._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 128-132, 137
_Auctions of Books._ Their origin in this country, 304-308
Warmth of bidders at, 307
_Audiffredi_ (_Jean Baptiste_). _See Bibliographical Index._
_Autumnal Morning_, 480, 481
_Baber_ (_Rev. Henry Hervey_). Preparation of the Catalogue of the
Museum printed books, 90
His edition of Wickliffe's translation of the New Testament, 339
_Bacon_ (_Roger, or Friar_), 180-183
_Bacon_ (_Sir Nathaniel_). Libellous character of, 237
_Bagford_ (_John_). Some account of, 326-331
Wood-cut of his rebus, or device, 331
_Baillet_ (_Adrien_). Some account of, 43-45--_See Bibliographical
Index._
_Baker_ (_Thomas_). Some account of, 341-343
Extract from his will, 342
_Baker_ (_late Mr. George_). Copy of Reed's catalogue of books, 457
Catalogue of Strawberry-Hill Pieces, 539
_Bale_ (_John, Bishop of Ossory_). Some account of, 246-248
His portrait, 247
_Baltimore_ (_Lord_). His 'Gaudia Poetica,' 532
_Barnes_ (_Juliana_). Her Work on Hunting, &c., 124, 325, 381, 384,
519
_Barthélémy_ (_Abbé_). Catalogue of his library, 74
_Bartholin._ _See Bibliographical Index._
_Beauclerk_ (_Hon. Topham_). Account of his library, 394, 395
_Becket_ (_Thomas à_), 176
Account of his murder, 177
_Bede_, 166
_Bedford_ (_John, Duke of_). His beautiful Missal, 190, 191
_Beloe_ (_Rev. Mr._). _See Bibliographical Index._
_Benedict_ (_Biscop_), 165
_Benet_ (_Sir John_). Assists Sir T. Bodley in erecting the Bodl.
Library, 275
_Bernard_ (_Dr. Francis_). Some account of his library, 316, 317
Engraving of his portrait, 503
_Bernardo._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 124
His copy of an Illustrated Chatterton, 500
of Walton's Complete Angler, _ib._
_Berryer_ (_Mons._). His care and skill in having his books bound, 513
_Beughem._ _See Bibliographical Index._
_Bibles._ Ancient English, 238
_Bibliographers._ Character of aspersed, 483
_Bibliography._ Cabinet of, 21
Opinions of foreign critics thereupon, 24, 25
Outline of its rise and progress, 29-99
Utility and importance of the study so called, 552
_Bibliomania._ History of the Bibliomania, or of English
Book-Collectors, 165-461
See _Chronological Index_.
Definition of, and works upon, 485-487
{ 1. Large Paper Copies, 487, 488, 491-494
{ Tall and Fine paper do., 494
{ 2. Uncut Copies, 494-496
{ 3. Illustrated Copies, 496-511
{ 4. Unique Copies, 511-514
Symptoms of the { 5. Copies printed upon Vellum, 515-521
Disease so called; { 6. First Editions, 521-525
being a passion { 7. True Editions, 525-527
for { 8. Books printed in the black letter, 527-531
{ 9. for private distribution, 532-534
{ 10. at a Private Press, 533-539
{ 11. suppressed, condemned, &c., 537
{ 12. All the editions of a work, 542-546
{ 13. Large and Voluminous Works, 546
{ 1. Studying of Useful & Profitable Works, 548
Probable Means of { 2. Reprints of scarce and valuable Works, 549
the Cure of { 3. Editing of the best Authors, 550
{ 4. Erection of Literary Institutions, 551
{ 5. Study of Bibliography, 551, 552
_Bibliomaniacs._ Character of, 4
Book-auction bibliomaniacs, 307
_Black Letter._ Passion for books printed in the, 527-531
_Blandford_ (_Marquis of_). His zeal in collecting books printed by
Caxton, 322
_Blenheim._ Account of the library there, 321
_Blount_ (_Thomas_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Bodleian Library._ Catalogue of, 74
History of its erection, 270-278
List of some of the contributors to, 272, 273
_Bodley_ (_Sir Thomas_). Some account of, 270-278
Wood-cut portrait of, 277
_Bodoni._ Beauty of his books printed upon vellum, 520
_Books._ Ancient prices of, 114-119
Illuminated, 150
of terror. Their effects upon young minds, 202-204
Skill of the Ferrar family in binding, 289-292
Account of ancient binding of, 117-119
Skill in modern book-binding, 513, 514
Importation of in barrels, 190
Sales of by public auction, 304-308, 457
Printed upon vellum, 321, 322, 352, 515-519
upon satin, 512
in the black letter, 527-531
for private distribution, 532-534
at private presses, 533-539
_Book-rooms, or Libraries._ Simplicity of ancient, 195, 196
_Booksellers._ Of respectability in London, 308, 470
in Scotland, 415
in Provincial Towns, 470
_Book-Story._ A romantic one, 358-361
_Boston_ (_John_), 189, 190
_Boucher_ (_Rev. Jonathan_). His Supplement to Johnson's Dictionary,
448, 449
Account of his library, 450
_Braithwait_ (_Richard_). His poetry commended, 299-301
_Brand_ (_Rev. John_). Account of his library, 452-454
_Bridges_ (_John_). Sale of his library, 362
_Britain, Little._ Famous for the bookselling trade, 300, 310, 311
_Britton_ (_Thomas_). Some account of, 331-333
Sale of his library, 333
_Bulmer_ (_Mr. William_). His sumptuous edition of Shakspeare, 427
The same, a unique copy of, 512
His edition of the Deserted Village upon satin, 512
_Bure_ (_Guillaume François De, and Guill. le Jeune De_). See
_Bibliographical Index_.
_Burney_ (_Rev. Charles, LL.D._). His fortunate purchase of a Manilius,
522
His edition of Bentley's Epistles, 532
_Burton_ (_Robert_), 286
_Bury_ (_Richard De_). Editions of his Philobiblion, 29
Extract from, 109
Account of, 185-187
_Bute_ (_Marquis of_). His copy of Hogarth's Prints, 509
His collection of the devices of Pope Sixtus V., 540
His valuable Granger, 565
_Butler_ (_Mr. Charles_). His literary character, 34
_Caillard_ (_M._). His uncut first Homer, 79, 496
His nicety in having his books bound, 513
_Caille_ (_Jean de La_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Cambridge._ Catalogue of the books contained in the University wanted,
319
_Canute_, 172
_Carlisle_ (_Earl of_). His "Father's Revenge," 532
_Casiri._ See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Catalogues._ Importance of making good ones, 383
Foreign and English. See "Catalogue," _Bibliographical Index_.
_Caxton_ (_William_). Reviled by Bale, 174
_His various printed books_, 197, _&c._ See _Bibliographical Index_.
_His portrait_, 382
_Cecil._ Libellous character of, 237, 238
_Charles the Fifth of France._ Founder of the Royal Library, 185, 186
Description of do., 186
_Chauncey_ (_Dr. Charles and Nathaniel_). Account of their libraries,
416, 417
_Cheering._ Explanation of this word, 20, 37
_Chess._ Game of, described, 155-163
_Chevillier_ (_Andrew_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Chi Ho-am-ti._ An incendiary of libraries, 27
_Chivalry and Romances._ Books relating thereto, 152-154
_Christie_ (_John_). His "Dissertation on Etruscan Vases," 532
_Chronicles, Ancient._ Reprints of, 337
_Cinelli_ (_John_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Clavel_ (_Robert_). His book-catalogues, 306
_Clerk, or Clergyman._ Regulations concerning, 151
_Clungeon_ (_John_), 288
_Cobham_ (_Thomas, Bishop of Worcester_), 192
_Colbert_ (_J.B._). Catalogue of his library, 78
_Colet_ (_John, Dean_). Some account of, 218-220
Print of his supposed study, 219
_Collins_ (_Anthony_). Sale of his library, 363
_Conringius_ (_Herman_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Conybeare_ (_Rev. Mr._). His Copy of Lord Surrey's Translation of
part of the Æneid, 241
_Coryate_ (_Thomas_), 281
_Cotton_ (_Sir Robert_). Some account of, 267-269
_Covent Garden Theatre._ Quarrels relating thereto, 17
_Cox_ (_Captain_). Some account of, 266, 267
His library, 267
_Cranmer_ (_Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury_). Some account of, 248,
249
His Bible upon vellum, 248
Expense of his execution, 249
_Crevenna Library._ Catalogues of, 79
_Critics and Criticism._ True spirit and character of, 15
Superficialness and severity of, 553
_Crofts_ (_Rev. Thomas_). Account of his library, 396-398
_Cromwell_ (_Thomas_). His conduct in respect to the Reformation, 229
_Crowles._ His copy of an illustrated Pennant, 499
_Dalrymple_ (_Alexander_). Sale of his library, 458
_Daly_ (_Denis, Rt. Hon._). Account of his library, 414, 415
_Dee_ (_Dr. John_). Some account of, 261-265
His library, 264
_Denis_ (_Michael_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Devonshire_ (_late Duchess of_). Her "Mount St. Gothard," 532
_Didot._ Skill of his printing upon vellum, 521
_Dodd_ (_James William_). Account of his library, 403
_Dormer_ (_General_). Catalogue of his library, 375
_Douce_ (_Francis_). His partiality for a foreign bibliographical work,
55
Preparation of the Lansdowne collection of MSS., 90
Account of Wolsey's property, 225
Skill in Old English and French literature, 531
Criticisms on his "Illustrations of Shakspeare," &c., _ib._
_Dramatic Libraries_, 402, 403
_Dramatica Notitia_, 456
_Dream._ Lysander's, 473-480
_Dunstan_ (_St._). His work "De occulta philosophia," 134
Some account of, 171
_Dyson_ (_Henry_), 302
_Education of Youth_, 282-285
_Edward the First_, 183
_Edward the Third_, 119, 184
_Edwards_ (_Mr._). His copy of the Catalogue of the Crevenna Library,
79
zeal in the importation of foreign books of rarity and value, 90
copy of the first edition of Livy--upon vellum, 519
Catalogues commended, 123
In possession of the Bedford Missal, 191
His painting of Erasmus and Froben by Fuseli, 223
communication respecting Count M'Carthy's books, 518
_Elizabeth_ (_Queen_). Her book of devotions, 119
Plate of the golden cover of, 250
Account of her love of books, 249, 254
Engravings from her Prayer-book, 252, 253
_Ellis_ (_Sir Henry_). Preparation of Catalogue of the Museum printed
books, 90
His bibliographical communications, 118, 227, 297
Edition of Fabian's Chronicles, 523
_English._ Want of curiosity respecting their own literary history, 36
Importance of a national press to, 551
_Episode._ What is meant thereby, 105
_Erasmus._ Some account of, 222-224
Painting of him and Froben, 223
Print of his study, 224
Rude wood-cut portrait of him, _ib._
A copy of his first edition of the Gr. Test.--upon vellum, 225
Editions of his words, 222
_Eugene_ (_Prince_). His magnificent library, 322
_Evans_ (_Mr. R.H._). His edition of Old English Ballads, 267, 320
A respectable vender of classical books, 308
His copy of his Recueil des Historiens des Gaules, 492
His reprint of Hakluyt's Voyages, 550
_Fabricius_ (_John Albert_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Fabricius_ (_John_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Falconer_ (_William_). Poem of the Shipwreck printed upon satin, 512
_Farmer_ (_Rev. Richard, D.D._). Account of his library, 423-426
_Faulkener_ (_Henry_). A skilful and honest book-binder, 199
_Ferdinand._ A romantic book-story concerning, 358-361
_Ferrar Family._ Their attachment to books, and skill in book-binding,
289-292
_Fillingham_ (_late Mr. William_). His library and character of, 403
_First Editions._ Passion for collecting, 521-525
_Fishing._ Whether a merry or contemplative art, 126
_Fitzwilliam_ (_Lord Viscount_). His collection of Rembrandt's Prints,
509
_Fletewode_ (_Serjeant William_). Account of his monastic library, 386
_Florizel._ His attachment to hawking, &c., 543
_Folkes_ (_Martin_). Some account of, 367-369
Sale and analysis of his library, 367
Wood-cut of his portrait, 369
_Fopling_ (_Sir_). His periwig, 122
_Ford_ (_Mr._), _bookseller._ His catalogues commended, 123, 470
_Froissart_ (_Sir John_). A presentation copy of his Chronicles, 184.
See _Johnes_ (_Colonel Thomas_).
_Gaddius._ His bibliographical work, 39
_Gaignat_ (_Louis Jean_). Catalogue of library, 81, 162
_Gesner_ (_Conrad_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
His works on Natural History, 546
_Gifford_ (_Mr. William_). His edition of Massinger, 550
forthcoming edition of Ben Jonson, _ib._
_Gilbie_ (_Anthony_). His character of Henry the Eighth, 215
_Gilchrist_ (_Octavius_). His edition of Bp. Corbett's Poems, 550
_Girald Barri_, 174, 178, 179
_Glastonbury Monastery Library_, 178
_Godstow Nunnery Library_, _ib._
_Golden Legend_, by Caxton, 198
_Goldsmyd_ (_Mr. John Lewis_). His vellum copy of "Le Passe Temps,"
&c., 203
_Gonzalo._ A vain literary character, 12
_Gossett_ (_Rev. Dr. Isaac_), 363, 407
_Gough_ (_Richard_). Sale of his library, 460
_Goujet_ (_Claude Peter_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Grailes._ Definition of, 150
_Granger_ (_Rev. James_). His Biographical History of England, 500
_Grangerite spirit_, 112, 497, 507
_Grenville_ (_Right Hon. Thomas_). His large-paper copy of Hist.
Steph. & Vit. Typ. Paris, 47
His large-paper copy of Renouard, 69
A similar copy of the Vallière Catalogue, 97
A similar copy of Sandford's Genealogical History, 492
A similar copy of Strype's Annals, 492
_Grenville Homer._ Published by the Grenville Family, 491
_Grollier_ (_John_). Some account of, 488-490
Pattern of the binding of his books, 489
_Gutch_, (_Mr._), bookseller, 404, 470
_Hamper_ (_Mr. William_). His bibliographical communications, 117, 529
_Harley_ (_Robert, Earl of Oxford_). Some account of, 347-354
Analysis of his library, 349-353
Pope's eulogy upon, 353, 354
_Harris_ (_Mr. William_). His catalogue of the Royal Institution
Library commended, 99
His correction of the press for Reed's edition of Shakspeare, 427
In possession of Mr. Boydell's copy of the original head of
Shakspeare, 428
His copy of the Lamoignon catalogue, 84
_Haslewood_ (_Mr. Joseph_). In possession of a curious volume, 88
His attachment to books upon Hawking, &c., 302, 543
His communication in the British Bibliographer, 374
_Hastings_ (_Henry_). Some account of, 287
_Hawker-Pilgrim._ Wood-cut of, 544
_Hear! Hear!_ Explanation of this phrase, 37
_Hearne_ (_Thomas_). Some account of, 333-336
Wood-cut of his portrait, 337
Sale of his library, 336
List of most of his works. See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Heath_ (_Dr. Benjamin_). His fine library, 460
Original bibliographical letter of, 554-562
Fac-simile of his writing, 554
_Heber_ (_Mr. Richard_). His copy of "The Debate between the Heraldes,"
11
of Oliver of Castille, 154
of Froissart by Eustace, 202
manuscript of Skelton's "Image of Ypocrisy," 226
copy of Maunsell's Catalogue, 280
of the first Aldine Aristophanes, 297
of the catalogue of Britton's books, 333
of the catalogues of T. Rawlinson's books, 344
_Heinecken._ See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Heinsius_ (_Nicholas_). Catalogue of his library, 82
_Hell._ Descriptions of the torments of, 203, 204
_Henderson_ (_John_). Account of his library, 402, 403
_Henley_ (_John, or Orator_). Account of his library, 371, 372
Anecdotes of, 372, 373
_Henry_ (_Rev. Robert, D.D._). Character of his History of Great
Britain, 145-147
_Henry the Second._ Trevisa's character of, 175
_Henry the Fifth._ Warlike character of, 193
_Henry the Sixth_, 194
_Henry the Seventh_, 202-206
_Henry the Eighth_, 215-217
_Herbert_ (_William_). Author of the Typographical Antiquities, 66
Particulars relating to, 66, 340
His correspondence with Steevens, 438, 439
_Herman_ (_Bishop of Salisbury_), 175
_History, Ancient English._ Neglect of the study of, 550
_Hoare_ (_Sir Richard Colt_). His edition of Giraldus Cambrensis, 178
His large paper copy of Kennet's Paroch. Antiq., 493
_Hoblyn_ (_Robert_). Catalogue of his books commended, 374
_Hortensius._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 132
_Humphrey_ (_Duke of Gloucester_), 193
_Hutton_ (_John_). His curious collection of books, 374
_Illustrated copies_, 496-511
_Illustration._ Recipe for, 497
_Ina_ (_King of the West Saxons_), 166
_Inscription over a library door_, 108, 112, 113
_Institutions._ Public, Literary, and Scientific, 551
_Jacob_ (_Louis_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Jamieson_ (_Dr. John_). His Scottish Dictionary commended, 499
_Jesuits._ Their bibliographical labours commended, 83
_Johnes_ (_Col. Thomas_). His edition of Monstrelet, 154
copy of "Heures de Notre Dame," 409
pleasure-grounds, 483
View of his library, 484
_Johnson_ (_Dr. Samuel_). Anecdote of his selling books, 530, 531
Quotation from the Rambler about the black-letter, 530
_Kay_ (_John_). His siege of Rhodes, 243
_Kennet_ (_White, Bishop of Peterborough_). Original letters of, 339
Opinion of Wicliffe, _ib._
_Kenrick_ (_William, LL.D._). His review of Dr. Johnson's Tour to the
Hebrides, 17
_Kollarius._ See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Labbe_ (_Philip_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Laire_ (_Abbé Francis Xavier_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Lambecius_ (_Pierre_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury_, 173
_Lansdowne_ (_William Fitzmaurice Petty, First Marquis of_). Account of
his library, 90, 450, 451
_Large paper copies._ Account of valuable works of this character,
491-493
The author's publications of this kind, 493
_Latimer_ (_Hugh, Bishop of Worcester_). His conduct with respect to
the Reformation, 230
His sermons quoted, 283
His death, 248, 249
_Laud_ (_William, Archbishop of Canterbury_). Account of his execution,
297
Patronage of the Ferrar Family, 290
_Leibnitz_ (_Godfrey William De_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Leland_ (_John_). Some account of, 242-246
_Leontes._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 133
_Lepidus._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 121
_Lewis_ (_Rev. John_). His literary character, 338-340
severe opinion of Hearne, 338
_Liberality_ of religious sentiment, 109
_Libraries._ Devastation of, at the Reformation, 233-235
Dramatic, 402, 403
_Lisardo._ His general character, 211-213
His bibliomaniacal enthusiasm, 348-352, 468, 470
_Literary characters._ Quixotic, 6, 7
Careless, 7
Acrimonious, 8
Vain, 12, 13
Obstinate, 14
Critical, 14, 15
Useful, 553
_Lomeier_ (_John_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Lomenie_ (_Cardinal de Brienne_). Account of, and catalogue of his
library, 84, 85
_Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Co._ Their extensive trade as
booksellers, 308
_Lorenzo._ A neighbour of the author, 4
His house and grounds, 4
library, 164
drawing-room, 213
alcove, 480-482
_Lort_ (_Dr. Michael_). Account of his library, 411-413
_Lotichius_ (_Peter_). His Latin verses concerning his library, 113
_Lumley_ (_John, Lord_), 281, 287
_Luttrel_ (_Narcissus_). His extraordinary collection of books, 323
_Lysons_ (_Mr. Samuel_). His large paper copy of Weever's Funeral
Monuments, 492
_Macartney_ (_Mr._). Account of his library, 407
_Maddison_ (_John_). Sale of his library, 459
_Magliabechi_ (_Antonio_). Some account of, 85-87
_Maittaire_ (_Michael_). Some account of, 47. See _Bibliographical
Index_.
Sale of his library, 364
_Malvolio._ Sale of his busts and statues, 26, 472
_Manton_ (_Dr._) Sale of his books, 306
_Marcellus._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 135
_Marchand_ (_Prosper_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Marlborough Gems._ In Woodhouse's collection, 441-444
_Martin_ (_Thomas, of Palgrave_). Account of his library, 384-386
_Mary_ (_Queen of Philip II._). Commended by a Roman Catholic writer,
236
_Mary_ (_Queen of Scots_). Her portrait, 254
_Mason_ (_George_). Account of his library, 419-423
_Maunsell_ (_Andrew_). His catalogue of English books, 280
_Mazzuchelli_ (_Giovanni Maria_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_M'Carthy_ (_Count_). Catalogue of a former library of, 85
His present fine collection of books, 518, 519
_Mead_ (_Richard, M.D._). Some account of, 364-366
Sale of his library, pictures, and coins, &c., 365
Account of his family, 366
_Medici_ (_Lorenzo De_). Catalogue of the Oriental MSS. in the library
of, 87
_Meerman_ (_Gerard_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Menalcas._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 136
_Menander._ A literary character, 7
_Mercier_ (_De St. Leger_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Mercurii._ Attending book-sales, 134
_Middleton_ (_Rev. Conyers, D.D._). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Miller_ (_Thomas_). Account of, 471
_Miller_ (_William_). His illustrated copy of Scott's Dryden, 497
edition of the Shipwreck, 512
of the Memoirs of Grammont, 564
_Mills_ (_George Galway_). His fine library, 447
_Mirabeau_ (_Victor Riquetti, Marquis De_). Catalogue of his library,
88
His passion for beautiful books, 514
_Missals._ Beauty of their execution, 150, 520
The Toletan and Mazarabic, 160, 161
_Monasteries._ Books contained in, 177
Visitors of, 231
Ancient hospitality of, 234
Alleged abandoned lives of the keepers, 232
Depositories and promoters of literature, 234
Devastation of, 231-235
_Monastic Life._ Comparison between the monastic and chivalrous age,
as most favourable to the Bibliomania, 149
_Monro_ (_Dr. John_). Account of his library, 417, 418
_Montfaucon_ (_Bernard De_). His bibliographical labours, 89
_Moonlight night._ Influence of, 5, 368
_More_ (_John, Bishop of Ely_). Some account of, 318, 319
_More_ (_Sir Thomas_), 220-222
_Morhof_ (_Daniel George_). Some account of, 46
_Murray_ (_John_). Some account of, 331
_Museum, The British._ The librarians of commended, 36
Catalogue of its Printed Books and Manuscripts, 89, 90
_Mustapha._ A book-auction bibliomaniac and book vender, 122, 138
_Naude, or Naudæus_ (_Gabriel_). His works commended, 38. See
_Bibliographical Index_.
_Nelson, Life of._ Printed upon vellum, 521
_Neville_ (_George, Archbishop of York_). Feast at his inthronization,
200
Fond of astrology, _ib._
_Niceron._ See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Nicholls_ (_Mr. John_). His communications respecting Dr. Mead's
family, 366
_Nicol_ (_Mr. George_). His anecdotes concerning some volumes printed
by Caxton, 382
_North_ (_Francis, Lord-Keeper_), 309
---- (_Dr. John_), 310, 311
Their passion for books, 312
_Oldys_ (_William_). His literary labours appreciated, 500. See
_Bibliographical Index_.
_Omar._ Supposed destroyer of the Alexandrian library, 28
_Orlando._ Character of, 105-113
_Osborne_ (_Thomas_). The bookseller, 345, 348, 355
_Painted Glass._ Hearne's commendation of, 107
_Panzer_ (_George Wolfgang Francis_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Papillon_ (_Mr. David_). Book-anecdote concerning him and Osborne, 355
_Paris de Meyzieux._ Account, and catalogues, of his fine library, 90,
408-411
_Parker_ (_Matthew, Archbishop_). Some Account of, 257-261
Catalogue of his MSS., 98
Antiquity of the British Church, 257-259, 400
Libellous life of, 258
His consecration, 260
Woodcut portrait of, 261
_Paterson_ (_Samuel_). His Bibliotheca Universalis, 400
_Payne_ (_Mr._). His purchase of the Lamoignon library, 84
_Peacham_ (_Henry_), 282
His "Compleat Gentleman" quoted, 283
_Pearson_ (_Thomas, or Major_). Account of his library, 403-406
_Pembroke_ (_Earl of_). His passion for books, 119, 324, 325
_Pepys_ (_Samuel_). Account of his professional and book ardour, 319,
320
_Peterborough Abbey Library_, 178
(_White, Kennet, Bishop of_). His opinion of Wickliffe, 339
(_Earl of_). His passion for books, 119
_Peters_ (_Hugh_). In possession of a part of Laud's library, 298
_Pinelli._ Catalogues of the Pinelli library, 91
An account of the library so called, 406, 407
_Pitts, or Pitseus_ (_Johannes_). His work commended, 38
_Porson_ (_Richard_). Sale of his library, 458
His erudition, and skilful penmanship, 459
_Portraits._ _Sales of Engravings of rare and curious_, 502-506, 510,
511
Algernon, Earl of Northumberland, by Hollar, 503
Anne, Queen of James I., by Visscher, 505
Banfi-Hunniades (John), by Hollar, 502
The same, with variations, _ib._
Berkeley (George, Earl of), by Hollar, 503
Bernard (Dr. Francis), _ib._
Bethell (Slingsby), by W. Sherwin, 506
Bohemia, King and Queen of, and family, 505
Buckingham (George, Duke of), sold by Stent, 503
Cæsar (Sir Julius) by Elstracke, 506
Catharine, Queen of Charles II., by Faithorne, 502
Cecyll (Edward), General, by Passe, 510
Chaloner (Sir Thomas), by Hollar, 502
Charles I., by Lombard, _ib._
The same, with Cromwell's head, _ib._
Princess Augusta Maria, daughter of, by Danckers, 505
Cole (Thomas), 506
Cromwell (Richard, Lord Protector), by Hollar, 504
Cumberland (George, Earl of), by R. White, 503
Darnley (Henry, Lord), by Passe, 505
Devereux, Earl of Essex, on horseback, by Hollar, 502, 504
The same, standing on foot, by do., 503, 504
Digby (Lord), in armour, after Vander Borcht, 604
Elizabeth (Queen), in superb court dress, by Passe, 502
superbly dressed, between pillars, 505
Frederic (Prince), &c., with Princess Elizabeth, by Elstracke, 505
Hay (Lord James), by Passe, 506
Henry the Eighth, by C. M[atsis], 505
Henry (Prince Frederic), by Delaram, 506
Hollar, his own portrait, 504
Hotham (Sir John), Governor of Hull, 506
Howard (Thomas, Earl of Suffolk), by Elstracke, 505
(Thomas, Earl of Arundel), 506
Isham (Sir Thomas), by Loggan, 602
Killegrew (Thomas), by Faithorne, 506
Lister (Sir Matthew, M.D.), by P.V. Somer, 504
Lloyd (Humphrey, of Denbigh), by Faber, _ib._
Lortie (Andrew), by Van Somer, 506
Lyon (Sir Patrick, of Carse), by White, _ib._
Malines (Samuel), by Lombart, _ib._
Marsham (Sir John), by R. White, 504
Mary, Queen of Scots, by Mynginus, 505
The same, veiled, &c., _ib._
Mascall (Edward), by Gammon, 506
Master Martin, by R. Gaywood, 504
Mountaine (George), Bishop of London, G.Y. sculpsit, 506
Newcastle Family, by Clowet, 503
O'Toole (Arthurus Severus Nonesuch), by Delaram, 506
Paston (Lady), wife of Sir W. Paston, by Faithorne, 504
(Sir William), by Faithorne, _ib._
Pembroke (Herbert, Earl of), by Hollar, 502
(Mary, Countess of), by Passe, 504
(Penelope, Countess of), by Hollar, _ib._
(Ann Clifford, Countess of), by R. White, _ib._
Portman (Sir William), 506
Rawdon (Marmaduke), by White, 506
Reynell (Carew), 504
Rupert (Prince), by Faithorne, 506
sold by R. Peake, 504
Sack (Mull'd), sold by Compton Holland, 511
Sackville (Richard, Earl of Dorset), by Passe, 506
Shaftesbury (Anthony, Earl of), by Blooteling, _ib._
Sheffield (Baron Edmond), by Elstracke, _ib._
Shirley (Lady Elizabeth), by Hollar, 503
The same, by do., _ib._
Sidney (Sir Philip), by Elstracke, 505
Sidney (Robert, Viscount Lisle), by Passe, 506
Smith (Richard), by W. Sherwin, 503
Somerset (Edward, Earl of Worcester), by Passe, 505
Stone-Eater (The), by Hollar, 502
Vere (Henry, Earl of Oxford), sold by Compton Holland, 505
The same, by Payne, Passe, &c., 510
Verney (Sir Greville), by Loggan, 506
Wetenhall (Edward, Bishop of Corke and Ross), by Becket, _ib._
Whitington (Richard, Lord Mayor of London), by Elstracke, 510
Willoughby (Sir Francis), by T. Man, 503
Windebank (Sir F.) and Lord Finch, 505
Wortley (Sir Francis), by Hertocks, 503
Wriothesley (Henry, Earl of Southampton), by Passe, 506
Wynn (Sir John, De Gwedir), by Vaughan, 506
York (James, Duke of), 505
_Press, National._ Want of, 551
_Printers, English._ Protected by the statute of Richard III., 114
_Printing._ Benefit of, 197
_Print-sales._ Barnard, 502, 503
Sir W. Musgrave, 503, 504
Miscellaneous, 604-506
_Prints._ Account of rare and curious ones, 502-511
_Prospero._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 135
_Psalters._ The Author's Essay upon the ancient Psalters printed at
Mentz, 42
_Pynson_ (_Richard_), His books upon vellum, 216
_Quin_ (_Mr._). His passion for books printed upon vellum, 518
_Quisquilius._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 126
_Ranzau_ (_Henry De_). Inscription over his library door, 113
_Ratcliffe_ (_John_). Account of his library, 392, 393
Comparison between the collections of West and Ratcliffe, 393
_Rawlinson_ (_Thomas_). His passion for book-collecting, 343-346
Catalogues of his several book-sales, 344, 345
_Rawlinson_ (_Richard_). Sale, and specimens, of his library, 369, 370
_Rede, or Read_ (_William, Bishop of Chichester_), 192
_Reed_ (_Isaac_). Some account of him and his library, 455, 456
_Reformation._ History of the, as connected with the Bibliomania,
228-238
_Rembrandt._ Account of the scarcest engravings by him, 507-509
_Reprints_ of voluminous and useful works applauded, 549, 550
_Revickzky_ (_Count_). Catalogue, and disposal, of his library, 92
_Reviews._ Their advantages and disadvantages, rise and progress, 16,
17
_Richard De Bury_, 185-188
_Rinaldo._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 136
_Ritson_ (_Joseph_). His character, under that of Sycorax, 7-9
Sale of his books, 448
_Rive_ (_Abbé Jean Joseph_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Roche_ (_Mr._). His communication respecting Count M'Carthy, 518
_Roscoe_ (_Mr. William_). Proposed to write a life of Erasmus, 222
His commendation of handsome book-binding, 514
_Rosicrusius._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 127, 128
_Roveray_ (_Du_). His publications commended, 481
_Rowe Mores_ (_Edward_). Sale of his library, 501
_Roxburgh_ (_John, Duke of_). Anecdote of, 523
_Royal Institution._ Catalogue of the library of, 99
_Sales, Book._ Account of their establishment, 304-308
Number of, in the years 1806-7, 456, 457
_Satin._ Books printed upon, 512
_Saxius_ (_Christopher_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Scaliger_ (_Joseph_). The author's estate compared with that of, 564
_Scott_ (_Robert_). A celebrated bookseller, 310
_Scott_ (_Sir Walter_). Beauty of his poetry, 410. See _Bibliographical
Index_.
_Scotus Erigena_ (_Johannes_). Account of his writings, 168
_Scribes, or Scriveners._ Ignorance of the ancient, 184
_Seaman_ (_Dr._) Catalogue of his books, 304-306
_Sharp and Hailes._ Their publications commended, 431
_Sherington_ (_Sir Walter_). Regulations concerning his library, 194,
195
_Similis._ Inscription upon his tomb, 562
_Smith_ (_Consul_). Catalogue of his library, 95, 376
_Smith_ (_Richard_). Account and sale of his library, 302-304
Engraving of his portrait, 503
_Smyth_ (_George_). Account of his library, 403
_Snuff-box_ of Mr. L., 122
_Soubise_ (_Prince De_). Catalogue of his library, 96
_Southgate_ (_Richard_). Account of his collections, 419
_Spencer_ (_George John, Earl_). His purchase of Count Revickzky's
library, 92
His copies of the Mozarabic Missal & Breviary, 162
Copy of the Siege of Rhodes, printed by Caxton, 407
Copy of Pynson's edition of Chaucer's works, 417
Copies of illustrated Shakspeares, 498
Copy of Pliny, printed by Sweynhem and Pannartz, upon vellum, 519
Eulogy upon his character, 524
Armorial ensigns of, 525
Copy of the "Assertio Septem," upon vellum, 565
_Stafford_ (_Marchioness of_). Description of a private publication by,
533
Her skill in etching, 534
_Stanley_ (_Colonel_). His fine copy of De Bry, 512
_Steevens_ (_George_). Some account of, 427-440
Analysis of his library, 428-436
His verses on Eleanour Rummin, 437
His letters to Herbert, 438-440
_Strange_ (_John_). His library commended, 441
_Strawberry-Hill Press._ Account of books printed there, 534, 540
Vignette device of the house, 540
_Struvius._ See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Stubbes._ See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Surrey_ (_Henry Howard, Earl of_). His whistle, 241
An intended edition of his works by the Rev. Dr. Nott, _ib._
_Sutherland_ (_Col. Alexander Hendras_). His extraordinary copy of an
illustrated Clarendon, 499
_Sycorax._ A literary character, 7-9
_Sykes_ (_Sir Mark Masterman_). His copy of the Revickzky Catalogue, 92
of Rapin's History of England, 494
_Tanner_ (_Thomas, Bishop of St. Asaph_). Account of his editorship of
Wood's Athen. Oxon., 46
His Bibl. Brit. Hibernica, 52
_Testament, Greek._ Number of editions of, 542
_Tewrdanckhs._ A book so called, 65, 390
_Theobald_ (_Lewis_). His love of old books, 343
_Theodore_ (_Archbishop of Canterbury_), 165
_Theological volumes._ Great number of, in the Imperial Library at
Paris, 109
_Thuanas_ [_De Thou, Jaques Auguste_]. Account, and catalogue, of his
library, 96
_Thynne_ (_William_). A distinguished bibliomaniac, 242
_Tiptoft_ (_John, Earl of Worcester_), 198, 199
_Tiraboschi_ (_Girolamo_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
_Titles of Books._ Strangely lettered upon the binding, 88
_Todd_ (_Rev. Henry John_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
His editions of Milton and Spenser commended, 550
_Triphook_ (_Mr. Robert_)--bookseller, 308
His projected work on, 'The History of Playing Cards,' 399
_Tristrem_ (_Sir_). A book-auction bibliomaniac, 134
_Trithemius_ (_John_). Some account of, 541, 542
Wood-cut portrait of, 542
_True Editions._ Account of, 525-527
_Tutet_ (_Mark Cephas_). Account of his library, 399, 400
_Ulpian._ A book-auction bibliomaniac, 132
_Uncut Copies._ Passion for the possession of, 494-496
_Unique Copies._ Illustration of, 511-514
_Utterson_ (_Mr. Edward Vernon_). His copy of Stubbes's Anatomy of
Abuses, 279
of Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 492
_Vallière_ (_Duc De La_). Anecdote of him and the Abbé Rive, 59
Catalogues of his library, 97
_Vellum, books printed upon_, 68, 97, 321, 322--but see particularly
515-521
_Visitors of ancient Monasteries_, 231
_Wakefield_ (_Robert_), 235, 413
_Walpole_ (_Francis_). Heraldic quarterings of, 100
_Walpole_ (_Horace_). See 'Strawberry Hill Press.'
_Wanley_ (_Humphrey_). Some account of, 346, 347
_Warton_ (_Thomas_). Celebrated under the character of Menander, 7
_West_ (_James_). Account of, and analysis of his library, 376-383
Prices of some of his books sold by auction, 377, 380, 381
Comparison of his library with J. Ratcliffe's, 393
_Wicliffe_ (_John_). Bishop Fell's character of, 318
Mr. Baber's edition of his New Testament, 339
Life of, by Lewis, 340
_Wilbraham_ (_Mr. Roger_). His copy of the 'Manner and Forme of
Confession,' 224
_Wilkes_ (_John_). Account of his Library, 447
_Wilson_ (_Thomas, Bishop of Sodor and Man_). His edition of the Bible,
109
_Witches._ Tracts relating to, at Brand's sale, 454
_Wolfius_ (_John_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
Wood-cut portrait of, 112
_Wolsey_ (_Thomas, Cardinal_), 225-228
His character by Skelton, Roy, and Tyndale, 225, 226, 227
Fine books presented to him, 227
_Wood_ (_Anthony_). Some account of, 312-316. _See Bibliographical
Index._
Woodcut portrait of, 315
_Woodford_ (_Emperor John Alexander_). Sale of his library, 459
_Woodhouse_ (_Mr. John_). His collection of prints, 441-444
His collection of books, 444-446
_Worsley_ (_Dr._). Sale of his books by auction, 306
_Worsley_ (_Sir Richard_). His 'Museum Worsleyanum,' 532
_Wright_ (_Richard, M.D._). Account of his library, 401, 402
_Wynne_ (_Edward_). Account of his library, 323, 324
_Ximenes_ (_Cardinal Francis_). See _Bibliographical Index_.
Life of him by Lord Holland, or Mr. Southey, a literary desideratum,
160
_Youth._ Character and History of the Education of the ancient English
Youth, 282-285
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