DEPAKTMENT OF PRINTED BOOKS. 25 



A Manuscript Volume containing forty-six odes, songs and 

 other secular compositions and fourteen anthems, almost all of 

 which are in the handwriting of Henry Purcell. The book 

 forms Purceirs own record of his work in chronological order 

 from about 1682, when he was appointed Organist and Composer 

 to the Chapel Royal, to about 1690 when he definitely entered 

 upon his final career as a writer for the stage. 



IT. The Huth Bequest— The late Mr. Alfred Henry Huth in 

 his Will directed his Executors, in case the sale of the Huth 

 Library should be decided upon, to "deliver to the Trustees of the 

 British Museum before such sale actually takes place such fifty 

 volumes as the Trustees shall in their uncontrolled discretion 

 select from the Huth Library, provided that such Trustees 

 shall not select any duplicate or more perfect copy of any 

 volume which may be already in the British Museum Library, 

 except by way of exchange of such duplicate wdth the Huth 

 Library, and every copy so exchanged is to count as one volume 

 out of the said fifty." 



This legacy, which accrued to the Trustees in the course of 

 the year, is the most valuable gift which has been bestowed 

 upon the Library since the bequest of the Grenville Library in 

 1847. Fifty manuscripts and printed books have been selected 

 in accordance with the terms of Mr. Huth's Will. A full 

 description of these, with illustrations and facsimiles, will be 

 found in the " Ca.talogue of the fifty Manuscripts and Printed 

 Books bequeathed to the British Museum by Alfred H. Huth," 

 published by the Trustees of the British Museum, 1912. 



The following is a list of the Printed Books selected : — 

 " Ars Memorandi per figuras Evangelistarum." A German 

 block-book c. 1470 consisting of thirty leaves printed in brown 

 ink on one side only, in such a manner that of each pair of 

 printed pages one is occupied by text, the other by an illustra- 

 tion. 



Boccaccio, Giovanni: "Decamerone." A German translation. 

 Printed by Johann Zainer, Ulm, c. 1473. 



Jacobus de Voragine : " La Legende doree." Printed by 

 Cruillaume Le Roy for Barthelemy Buyer, Lyons, 1476. 



"Le Viel Testament de la Bible." Printed by Guillaume Le 

 Roy, Lyons, c. 1477. 



" Diets or Sayings of the Philosophers." Printed by William 

 Caxton, Westminster, 1477. A tall and beautiful copy of the 

 first dated book printed in England, exchanged for a very 

 inferior copy formerly in the British Museum. 



'' Spiegel menschlicher Behaltnis." Printed by Anton Sorg, 

 Augsburg, c. 1478. With 192 woodcuts. 



" Geschiedenis van het heylighe Cruys." Printed by Jan 

 Veldener, Kuilenburg, 1483. With 64 woodcuts. 



" Le Livre des Eneydes compile par Virgile." Printed by 

 Guillaume Le Roy, Lyons, 1483. With 61 woodcuts. 



