viii PREFACE 



to the librarians of Durham University, Trinity College, Dublin, 

 the Royal Irish Academy, and the National Library of Wales ; 

 to the Honble. Lady Cecil for information respecting MSS. in 

 the library of the late Lord Amherst of Hackney ; and to the 

 following owners of private libraries the Marquis of Bath, 

 Lord Leconfield, Lord Clifden, Mr. T. Fitzroy Fenwick of 

 Cheltenham, and Mr. Wynne of Peniarth, Merioneth. For in- 

 formation respecting incunabula herbals in American libraries 

 I am indebted to Dr. Arnold Klebs and to Mr. Green of the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis. 



No pains have been spared to make the bibliographies as 

 complete as possible, but I should be glad to be told of any 

 errors or omissions. There are certain editions of Banckes's 

 Herbal and The Crete Herball mentioned by authorities such 

 as Ames, Hazlitt, etc., of which no copies can now be found 

 in the chief British libraries (see p. 204 et seq.). If any copies of 

 these editions are in private libraries I should be grateful to hear 

 of them. The rarest printed herbal is " Arbolayre contenat la 

 qualitey et vertus proprietiez des herbes gomes et simeces extraite 

 de plusiers traders de medicine content davicene de rasis de con- 

 statin de ysaac et plateaire selon le conu usaige bien correct." 

 (Supposed to have been printed by M. Husz at Lyons.) It 

 is believed that there are only two copies of this book now 

 extant. One is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; the 

 other was sold in London, March 23, 1898, but I have been 

 unable to discover who is the present owner. For this or any 

 other information I should be most grateful. 



ELEANOUR SINCLAIR ROHDE. 



