24 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Medicinae of Matthaeus Silvaticus, printed by Johann Viirster 

 de Campidona at Modena or Mantua, 1474. Nicolas Jenson's 

 Virgil, Venice, 1475. 



Perhaps the most important among miscellaneous accessions, 

 and one of the most interesting of the year, is the list of 

 prohibited books issued by the University of Louvain in 

 1546, the first book which fully answers to the definition of 

 an Index Librorum Prohibitorum. At the same time were 

 purchased " Copie van sommighe ende de principaelste arti- 

 culen," Ghent, 1566, the original edition of the manifesto of 

 the Protestant leaders in the revolt of the Netherlands ; a 

 collection of the patriotic songs of the Geusen in the same 

 revolt, Amsterdam, 1625 ; and what is believed to be an 

 unique copy of Joannes a Lasco's Confession of Faith in 

 Flemish, probably printed at Embden about 1570. Other 

 miscellaneous acquisitions of high interest are : The Statutes 

 of the Order of the Golden Fleece, in Latin, printed on vellum 

 by Plantin about 1620. TyrofF, Neues adeliches Wappenwerk, 

 Nuremberg, 1781-1867, a work containing 3,600 plates of 

 heraldic bearings of noble German families, very beautifully 

 executed, of which only a limited number were published by 

 subscription. Martinez Siliceus, Arithmctica, Paris, 1514, on 

 vellum : the extremely rare work of a teacher of mathematics 

 who subsequently rose to be Cardinal and Archbishop of 

 Toledo. Splendor della virtuosa donna, Venice, 1555, a rare 

 and beautiful lace book. The romance of Floriselle di Nichea, 

 Venice, 1551. Six editions of the poems of Notturno 

 Napolitano, Bologna and Ferrara, 1520-1530, bound in one 

 volume. The first editions of three celebrated books, none of 

 which have hitherto been in the Museum — Dante, de Vulgari 

 Eloquio, Lugduni, 1577; Salmasius' Answer to Milton, Divione, 

 1660 ; Barrow's Lectures on Optics, London, 1669. The 

 French Constitutions of 1791 and 1793, both on vellum. 

 Ragueneau, Vie de la Mere Catherine de St. Augustin, Paris, 

 1671, one of the earliest books relating to Canada, and 

 exceedingly rare ; and Orme's Historic and Military Anec- 

 dotes, 1819, a fine and very scarce book. 



The acquisitions in early English literature have been 

 choice though not numerous, and have included several 

 works of Taylor, the Water Poet, not previously known to be 

 extant in separate editions.. The most remarkable of these is 

 the Verbum Sempiternum, commonly called the Thumb Bible, 

 several editions of which, all of extreme rarity, were printed 

 in the latter part of the seventeenth century, but which now 

 occurs for the first time in an edition dated 1614. " Urania," 

 "A Cast over the Water," " Odcombe's Complaint," "The 

 Muses' Mourning," and " The Eighth Wonder of the World," 

 have also been acquired. All these poems appear in the 

 folio edition of Taylor's works, but no separate edition 

 of "A Cast over the Water," " Odcombe's Complaint," or 



"The 



