DEPARTMENT OF PRINTED BOOKS. 21 



Scripture already mentioned, the Museum has obtained : a 

 collection of year-books of Edward IV. and Edward V., chiefly 

 printed by Pynson, one of which is unique; Tyndale, Obedience 

 of a Christen Man, Hans Luft, 1535 ; Turner, Comparison 

 betweene the Olde Learninge and the Newe, 1538 ; Lupsete, 

 Way of Dyenge Well, 1534 ; Calvin's Catechism, 1563 ; 

 Naogeorgus, The Popish Kingdome or reigne of Anti-Christ, 

 Englyshed by Barnabe Gouge, 1570 ; Thomas a Kempis, Of 

 the Imitation of Jesus Christ, 1580; Apuleius, The XI 

 Bookes of the Golden Asse, 1582 ; The CL. Psalms of David 

 in Prose and Meeter, Edinburgh, 1622. Later in date, but of 

 more literary and bibliographical interest, is one of the only 

 two known copies of Bunyan's metrical " Discourse of the 

 Building of the House of God," 1688. This copy was believed 

 to have been destroyed at the burning of Mr. Offor's library, 

 more than twenty years ago, and has only recently been 

 discovered comparatively uninjured on an examination of the 

 salvage. At the same time was purchased a Belfast edition of 

 another of Bunyan's works, " Sighs from Hell," 1700, so far as 

 known unique in this edition, which is also the first book 

 actually ascertained to have been printed at Belfast. 



Several special collections of works on various subjects 

 have been added to the Library. Of these the most impor- 

 tant is three large volumes of collections of all descriptions 

 for the history of Rochester, formed by W. B. Rye, Esq., late 

 Keeper of the Printed Books, a native of that city, comprising 

 many original drawings by him. Further are to be men- 

 tioned a collection of Japanese artistic, topographical, and 

 other works of interest, which formerly belonged to a 

 Japanese public library ; Dutch Psalters and editions of 

 Thomas a Kempis, bought in Holland ; a considerable collec- 

 tion of religious books in the Romansch language, and 

 another of modern Icelandic books ; a rich one of publica- 

 tions connected with Methodism, ranging over a long period ; 

 Quaker tracts and broadsides ; Scotch parliamentary reports 

 and pamphlets near the time of the Union ; a number of 

 contemporary tracts, chiefly sermons, referring to the events 

 of the Seven Years War ; translations of the Waverley 

 novels into Italian, Spanish and Portuguese ; South American 

 and Cuban books ; and pamphlets relating to the Carlist and 

 Miguelite civil wars. 



Among numerous curiosities, the most remarkable is a 

 Chinese bank-note of the Ming Dynasty, about 1368, a compara- 

 tively modern specimen for China, but three hundred years 

 older than the first bank-note issued in Europe. No example of 

 any other early issue is known to exist. With this may be men- 

 tioned Dutch treaties with Malay sovereigns, printed at 

 Batavia in 1668 ; and Dutch and English newspapers printed 

 at the Cape of Good Hope in 1804 and 1805, nearly the first 

 examples of printing in these colonies ; a Benevolence or 

 letter requiring a loan, addressed to a subject of James I., 

 0.81. B 3 1604, 



