In tliu following century flourished Bartholomew Granville, a 

 Cornishman, author of a ponderous work on the Properties of 

 Things, divided into nineteen books. As it deals chieHy 

 with natural history it hardly falls within consideration at 

 present, but it gives incidentally technical descriptions. It was 

 first printed in the fifteenth century, the earliest edition being of 

 date 1478, and it was often re-issued, besides being translated into 

 French, Dutch, and Spanish. It was also translated by John 

 Trevisa in 1398 into English, and published by Wynkyn de 

 Worde a century later.* 



In the fifteenth century another book which had a considerable 

 share of poi)ularity was j)rinted. It is entitled " Lucidarius" and 

 was written by a monk called Honorius of Strasburg. It first 

 appeared in 1479, but the edition which I have here and which is 

 worth examination for its uncommon type and curious wood- 

 cuts, was printed at Strasbui-g in 1499, by Mathijs Hupfuff. 

 It is very rare, and though Hain mentions it (Repert. Bihliocjr., 

 No. 8814), he had no actual copy for collation. He consequently 

 says that the book has twenty-nine leaves, whereas this copy has 

 thirty, the last containing a woodcut of the carrying of the cross. 

 This work is a sort of catechism of natural and su])eruatural 

 things. The questions are asked by the scholar, and the answers 

 are given by the master, who thus impai-ts the required instruction 

 in the secrets of creation. 



All these works are of a general character, and, except the first, 

 deal with the physical and natural sciences, as these were under- 

 stood from the twelfth to the fifteenth century — they are examples 

 chieHy of the first class. That some of them were among the 

 books first printed in the fifteenth century and went through 

 several editions and translations, notwithstanding their bulk in 

 certain cases and their frequently absurd contents, shows that 

 even then there were many people anxious to know something 

 about nature and external objects. 



The sixteenth century produced no great encyclopaidia like 

 some of those I have mentioned. Either the breed of encyclo- 

 pu;dists had become extinct, or else knowledge had grown too 



•Johnson's Typoyraphia, London, 1824, I., p. 354. Tlicru is a copy of 

 the Latin edition printed in 1480, in the Euing Collection, Cilasgow I'ni- 

 versity Lil)r;iry. It is in folio, in double eolunnis, printed in line Gothic 



character. 



