138 American Auliquariun Socidij. 



The library, consisting of about seven thousand volumes, occupies 

 three rooms ; two below, and a spacious one above. At one end 

 of the larger room is a likeness of Columbus, at the other, of Pro- 

 fessor Ebeling. In works relating to the early history of America, it 

 is comparatively rich, containing many, that are rare and curious. In 

 magazines and other periodical works, the collection is copious and di- 

 versified. Of newspapers it contains about a thousand volumes neat- 

 ly bound. 



The collection of bibles is large and valuable. The most cu- 

 rious is a Latin bible, " printed at Venice in 1476, only seventeen 

 years after the invention of cast metal types by SchaefFer in Mentz, 

 which was in 1459, and but thirty two years after the first use of 

 metal types with engraved faces by Gienofleiche and his brother Gut- 

 temburg, in company Avith Faust or Faustus, at Mentz, in 1444." 

 It is a copy of the ancient Vulgate, and the paper is an imitation of 

 fine clear vellum, the types semi Gothic, differing from either an- 

 cient or modern blocks. This edition is mentioned by Le Long in 

 his Bibliotheca Sacra, and by Clarke in his Bibliographical Diction- 

 ary, in these terms. " This is a beautiful ancient edition ; it has a 

 copious index at the end, which enhances the value of it. As it is 

 not described by Clement, or mentioned in the Harleian Catalogue, 

 it is undoubtedly rare in Europe. De Bure mentions it as ' une 

 edition rare, fort recherche des curieux.' " It is very particularly 

 described in the first volume of Thomas's History of printing. Be- 

 sides a Polyglott Bible in eight large folios, the library contains a Fol- 

 yglott New Testament in twelve languages, a Hebrew Bible of 1587, 

 Luther's German Bible, Archbishop Cranmer's Bible, Elliot's Indian 

 Bible, the Serampore translations, (the last present by the lamented 

 Ward,) the Spanish Bible of father Scio, published and presented by 

 the American Bible Society, with various others too numerous to be 

 mentioned in this sketch. 



Among the ancient books, are the remains of the libraries formerly 

 belonging to the venerable Increase and Cotton Mather, the most 

 ancient in Massachusetts, if not in the United States. To the anti- 

 quary these are the more interesting, from being kept in the very book 

 cases of tlie original owners. 



Two of the alcoves are devoted to a collection of German books, 

 received as a legacy from the late Dr. Bentley of Salem, an officer 

 and ardent friend of the society. 



