

CONVERSATIONS 



NATURE AND ART. 



CHAPTER I. 



PRINTING AND LIBRARIES. 



INTRODUCTION. ALDINI. ITALICS. OCTAVOS. INK. TYPO- 

 GRAPHICAL ACADEMY. INSCRIPTION OVER THE LIBRARY OP 



ALDUS. DOLPHIN. PRICE OF BOOKS. COSMOGRAPHY. 



HIDE. COUNTESS OF ANJOU. BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. LOUIS 



XI. LIBRARIES OF JOHN AND CHARLES V. IGNORANCE OF THE 

 EARLY AGES. COUNCIL OF NARBONNE. LIBRARY OF PTOLEMY 



PHILADELPHUS. DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS. CROMWELL. 



CONSTABLE BOURBON. TAKING OF BUDA. ALEXANDRIAN LI- 

 BRARY. DISCOVERY OF MSS. CALLIGRAPHES. SIR ROBERT 



COTTON. MAIO. PALIMPSESTS. BOOKS THE TRIBUTE OF THE 



CONQUERED. THE PANDECTS OF JUSTINIAN. TREATY OF TO- 



LENTINO. HAROUN AL RASCHID. CLEPSYDRA. AL MAMOUN. 

 SIR WILLIAM JONES. 



" Yet still the arts now dawning gleam'd 



With hope of brightest day: 

 Printing the key to science seem'd, 



A new and ready way." 



FREDERICK and Henrietta Wilmot were the children of an 



officer in the army, whose wife had been ordered to pass a 



year at Madeira, as the only means of restoring her declining 



health. Being unwilling to interrupt the education of their 



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