492 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 60. 



author's labours is not to be found in the records 

 of literature. Iota may take it as a fact — and that 

 a remarkable one — that since 1740 there had 

 appeared no edition of Rollin having any claim to 

 intearity, until the (me edited by Bell, and pub- 

 lished by Blackie, in 1826, and reissued in 1837. 



Veritas. 

 Glasgow, Dec. 7. 1850. 



3ISS. of Locke.— 'E. A. Sandford, E.sq., of 

 Nynehead, near Taunton, has a number of valuable 

 letters, and other papers, of Locke, and also an 

 original MS. of his Treatise on Education. Locke 

 was much at Chipley in that neighbourhooil, for 

 the possessor ol' which this treatise was, I believe, 

 composed. W. C. Treveltan. 



The Letter S. — Dr. Todd, in his Apology for the 

 Lollards, published by the Camden Society, alludes 

 to the pronunciation of the old letter 5 in various 

 words, and remarks that " it has been altogether 

 dropped in the modern spelling of Serh. 'earth,' 

 frust, ' fruit,' Serle, ' earl,' abisd, ' abide.' " The 

 Doctor is, however, mistaken ; for I have heard 

 the words " earl " and " earth " repeatedly pro- 

 nounced, in Warwickshire, yarl ancl yarth. J. R. 



A Hint to Publishers (Vol. ii., p. 439.) re- 

 minds me of a particular grievance in Alison's 

 History of Europe. I have the first edition, but 

 delay binding it, there being no index. Two other 

 editions have since been published, possessing each 

 an index. Surely the patrons and possessors of 

 the first have a claim upon the jNIessrs. Black- 

 wood, independent of the probability of its re- 

 paying them as a business transaction. T. S. 



cauert'CiS. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES. 



(Continued from p. 441.) 



(2.5.) Has there been but a single effort made 

 to immortalise among printers Valentine Tag ? 

 Mercier, Abbe de Saint-Leger, in his Supplement 

 d THist de rimprimerie, by Marchand, p. 111., 

 accuses Baron Heinecken of having stated that tliis 

 fictitious typographer set forth the Fables Alle- 

 mandes in 1461. Heinecken, however, had merely 

 quoted six German lines, the penultimate of 

 which is 



""Zfn ©ant SSalantinug Sag/' 

 intimating only that the work had been concluded 

 on St. Valentine's day. 



(26.) Can there be any more fruitful source of 

 error with respect to the age of early printed books 

 than the convenient system of esteeming as the 

 primary edition that in which the date is for the 

 first time visible ? It might be thought that ex- 

 perienced bibliographers would invariably avoid 

 such a palpable mistake ; but the reverse of this 



hypothesis is unfortunately true. Let us select 

 for an example the case of the Vita Jesu Christi, 

 by the Carthusian Liulolphus de Saxonia, a woik 

 not unlikely to have been piouiulgyted in the in- 

 fancy of the typographic art. Panzer, Santander, 

 and Dr. Kloss (1 89.) commence with an impression 

 at Strasburg, which was followed by one at Cologne, 

 in 1474. Of these the former is mentioned by 

 Denis, and by B;iuer also (ii. 31.5.). Laire notes 

 itlikewise {Ind Par., i. 543.: cf. 278.), but eirs in 

 making Eggestein the piinter, as no account of 

 him is discernible after 1472. (Meerman, i. 215.) 

 Glancing at the misconceptions of Maittaire and 

 Wharton, who go no farther back than the years 

 1478 and 1483 respectively, let us return to the sup- 

 pressed editio princeps of 1474. De Bure (TheoL, 

 ]ip. 121-2.) records a copy, and gives the colophon. 

 He says, " Cette edition, cjui est Toriginale de cet 

 ouvi'age, est fort rare;" and his opinion iuis been 

 adopted by Seemiller (i. 61.), who adds, " Litteris 

 impressum est hoc opus scul|)tis." In opposition 

 to all these eminent authorities, I will venture to 

 express my belief that the earliest edition is one 

 which is undated. A volume in the Lambeth col- 

 lection, without a date, and entered in Dr. Mait- 

 lanii's List, p. 42., is thus desciibed therein : 

 "Folio, eights, Gothic type, col. 57 lines;" and 

 possibly the ])rinter's device (List, p. 348.) might 

 be appro])riaied by I. Mentelin, of Strnsburg. To 

 this book, neveitiieless, we must allot a j)lace in- 

 ferior to what I would bestow upon another folio, 

 in which the type is ))articularly Gothic and un- 

 even, and in which each of the double columns 

 contains but forty-seven lines, and the antique 

 initial letters sometimes used are plainly of the 

 same xylographic race as that one with which the 

 oiliest Viola Sanctoi-um is introduced. It may be 

 delineated, in technical terms, as being sine loco, 

 anno, et nomine typngraphi. Car. sigg., pagiimrum 

 num. et custodd. Vocum character majuscuhis est, 

 ater, crassus, et I'udis. V(\\y should not Mentz 

 have been the birth])lace of this book ? for there 

 it appears that the author's I\1S. was " veneratione 

 non parva " preserved, and there he most probably 

 died. I woidd say that it was printed between 

 1465 and 1470. It is bound uj) with a Fasciculus 

 Temporum, Colon. 1479, which looks quite modern 

 when compared with it, and its beginning is : 

 "DeVita liiesu a venerabili viro fratro (sic) Lu- 

 dolpho Cartusiensi edita incipit feliciter." The 

 leaves are in number forty-eight. At the end of 

 the book itself is, " Explicit vita ihesu." Then 

 succeeds a leaf, on the recto of which is a table of 

 contents for the entire work; and after its termi- 

 nation we find : " Explicit vita cristi de quatuor 

 ewagelistis et expositone doctorum sanctorum 

 sumpta." 



(27.) Upon what grounds should Mr. Bliss 

 (Vol. ii., p. 463.) refuse to be contented with the 



