22 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



already given produces a total of 127,441 articles received in 

 the Department in the course of the year. 



Acquisitions of Special Interest. — A signal opportunity 

 of enriching the Library has been afforded by the sale at 

 Paris in May last of the second and most important portion 

 of the Heredia Library, consisting principally of Spanish 

 poems, dramas and romances. This great collection was 

 originally formed by the celebrated Spanish bookseller and 

 bibliographer Salva, and the majority of the books comprised 

 in it are fully described in his catalogue. Its richness is 

 sufficiently indicated by the fact that the mere register of its 

 contents is the standard authority on early Spanish biblio- 

 graphy. Seventy-five books were purchased on this occasion, 

 nearly all of which deserve to be reckoned among the rarest 

 treasures of Spanish literature. Among them may be par- 

 ticularly named what are in all probability the two earliest 

 printed Spanish Cancione*os, those of Ramon de Llabia and 

 liiigo de Mendoza, both probably printed at Zamora about 

 1481 or 1482. Two other Cancioneros of great rarity and 

 interest were also acquired, the Cancionero de Nuestra Senora, 

 1591 ; and Mercader, El Prado de Valencia, 1601. In 

 miscellaneous poetical literature, the most remarkable acquisi- 

 tions are the Spanish poems of Prince Pedro of Portugal, 

 probably printed at Lisbon about 1499, and an unique 

 specimen of the works of Moner, an excellent Catalan poet 

 v^w was thought worthy of a handsome posthumous edition 

 ar Barcelona in 1528, and now apparently survives only in 

 this single copy. Other acquisitions of great interest in this 

 department of literature are Guillen de Avila's panegyric 

 upon Queen Isabella the Catholic, 1509; Hernandez, Historia 

 Partenopea, Rome, 1516, an epic on the achievements of 

 Gonzalo de Cordova, extremely rare, and said by Salva 

 to be the most inaccurately printed of all Spanish 

 books ; Mendez, Regimiento de Salud, Salamanca, 1541 

 Seraphin, Dos libres de poesia vulgar, Barcelona, 1565 

 early translations of portions of Juvenal and Prudentius 

 and a collection of twenty sets of poetical pieces in honour of 

 the Immaculate Conception, all printed between 1615 and 

 1617. Six Spanish dramas of the sixteenth century, and 

 seven Portuguese of the seventeenth, were also acquired ; the 

 Portuguese theatre, as respects early contemporary editions, 

 having hitherto been almost unrepresented in the Museum. 

 The acquisitions of romances of chivalry and cognate works 

 were also of great importance, including the celebrated 

 Doctrinal de los Caballeros, Burgos, 1487, and three of the 

 rarest romances of chivalry, Polindo, Toledo, 1526; Felix 

 Magno, Barcelona, 1549; and Memorial de las proezas da 

 segunda Tavola Redonda, a Portuguese romance of the 

 Arthurian cycle ; besides the Tragedia de Mirra, 1536, a very 



