22 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



as a guide book to the city on occasion of the Jubilee held in 

 that year. Hieronymus Paulus, De fluminibus et montibus 

 Hispaniarum, dedicated to Pope Alexander VI. when Cardinal 

 Borgia ; printed at Rome before 1485, as Ronda is mentioned 

 as being still in the hands of the Moors. 



At the Seilliere sale at Paris the following remarkable 

 books were acquired : 



LeChasteau de Virginite, Paris, 1506, a beautiful book, not 

 known to have occurred elsewhere, by George d'Esclavonie, a 

 writer of whom nothing is known except that he was a canon 

 of Tours. Calvenzano, Bref apologetica, Milan, 1612, the 

 translation from Italian into Romansch of the author's apology 

 for embracing the Roman Catholic religion. Evia, Tesoro de 

 Angeles, Astorga, 1547, thirty years earlier than the first 

 example of printing at Astorga known to Cotton. 



Many other valuable acquisitions have been made in early 

 French and Spanish literature ; the most important of all 

 being a beautiful copy of the first collected edition of Moliere, 

 Paris, 1674-75. Further may be mentioned among French 

 books, Jacques le Grand, Livre de bonnes Moeurs, Lyons, 

 1490, of the greatest rarity ; Le roman de la belle Helaine de 

 Constantinople ; Guillaume Alexis, Le grant blason de faulses 

 amours, Paris, 1493 : and two other old French poems of 

 great rarity ; Coplainte de lame danee, and La Voye de 

 Paradis, about 1500. In early Spanish literature, besides 

 those previously mentioned, the chief acquisitions have been : 

 A translation of the Electra of Sophocles, under the title of 

 La Venganga de Agamemnon, by Fernan Perez de Oliva, 

 Burgos, 1531 : Eighteen Spanish and Portuguese separate 

 plays ; Las Sergas de Esplandian, Burgos, 1587. 



One purchase in Italian literature is of extraordinary 

 interest. Rarely indeed is it possible to announce the 

 recovery of a book of merit which has been given up for lost. 

 Such, however, is the case in the instance of the " Essortatione 

 al Timor di Dio," by the Italian reformer Acontius, engineer 

 to Queen Elizabeth, seen in modern times, if seen at all, only 

 by Chauffepie, the continuator of Bayle, and deplored as 

 hopelessly lost by M. Gaston Bonet-Maury, Des origines du 

 christianisme unitaire chez les Anglais. The Museum has, 

 nevertheless, had the great good fortune to obtain a copy of 

 this tract, interesting on the author's account and its own, 

 and especially so to Englishmen from being printed in 

 London about 1580 by " Giovanni Wolfio, Servitore de 

 rillustrissimo Signor Filippo Sidnei," and as containing two 

 Italian canzoni and a sonnet addressed to Queen Elizabeth. 



The acquisitions in early South American literature have 

 been especially remarkable. They include : 



A translation into Aymara, with the Spanish text, of 



Estevan 



