13 ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Clamades and Claramonda, Burgos, 1521, and of Canamor, Seville, 1528 ; and the first 

 ediiion of Villon's Testament, with a date, Paris, 1489. Upwards of 70 books were 

 purchased at this sale, every one of which possessed some special interest or value. 



After the books so acquired, the fir^t place belongs to the second edition of the 

 Bohemian Bible, printed at Kuttenberg by Martin von Tissnowa in 1489, a monument 

 of early Bohemian literature even more rare than the first edition already in the Museum. 

 It is of an entirely different type from the latter, and is copiously illustrated with curious 

 woodcuts. Of scarcely inferior interest is a unique copy, purchased from the 

 Eev. Mr. Eeichard, of the first three books of the Mishneh Thorah of Maimonldes, 

 printed in Italy by Moses ben Shealthiel, whose name does not occur elsewhere, and 

 which is certainly one of the first Hebrew books printed, if not the very first. With these 

 may be enumerated : Two extremely rare Low German translations of the " Imitatio 

 Christ!," printed at Lubeck in 1492 and 1496, and constituting together a com- 

 plete version; the Low German translation of Guido de Colonna's romance of the 

 destruction of Troy, printed at Lubeck about 1475, and of great philological as 

 well as bibliogra])hical interest ; the Slavonian translation of Chrysostom's com- 

 mentary on the Epistles of Saint Paul, printed at the [Monastery at KieiF in 1623, 

 one of the largest, raiest, and most important of the works there executed ; a copy of 

 the Aldine edition of Herodotus, 1502, with MS. notes by Erasmus; the editio princeps 

 of Politian's translation of Herodian, Rome, 1493 ; the excessively rare fourth edition 

 of the second part of "Don Quixote," printed at Lisbon by JorgeRodriguezin 1617, never 

 seen by ^"alva ; Petraicli's " Trionfi e Souetti," Venice, 1497, with woodcuts resembling 

 those of the Polifilo published two years later; Olai's Swedish translation of the so-called 

 Speculum Morale of Petrarch, Linkopiuii, 1641, of which oidy one other copy is known, 

 in the Libr-ary of the University of Upsal ; thii'teen early editions or translations of 

 Petrarch, " De Remediis utriusque Fortunae," purchased from Messrs. Asher; an 

 extensive collection of tracts relating to Dante, pui chased from Messrs, Dulau ; 28 

 incunabula bought from M. Leon Olschki of Verona, and 12 bought from Mr. B. F. 

 Stevens; " La Mort de la Royne d'Escosse" [Paris] 1588, a contemporary narrative of 

 the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, drawn u]) from the accounts of her attend- 

 ants ; Jean Bouchet, " La deploration de I'eglise militante sur ses persecutions " (Paris ? 

 1520?), unique, but wanting three leaves, as described by Brunet ; " Positiones Juris," 

 the original edition of the thesis sustained by Goethe for his academical degree, 1770; 

 George Eliot's sonnets to her bi other, privately printed, and with the name of Marian 

 Lewes on the title-page; "Corona delle nobili et virtuose donne," Venice, 1617, a very 

 beautiful lace-book; Tozzi, "Ghirlanda di sei vaghi fiori, &c.," Padova [1604] ; several 

 broadsides of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, among them a hymn to the Virgin in 

 German, about 1500 ; and an invitation from the Burgomaster', councillors, and archers of 

 Bamberg to an archery meeting, 1478. 



The most interesting of the many acquisitions made in early English literature is the 

 only kncwn copy of Bunyan's " Book for Boys and Girls, or Country Rhimes for 

 Children," London, 1686 : this is the first edition of the work republished under the title 

 of " Divine Emblems," and has until now been considered to be lost. Another very 

 important purchase is "John Heywoode's Workes; a dialogue conteyning the number of 

 the effectual proverbs in the English tounge, Thomas Powell, Londini, 1562," one of the 

 only five copies known, and the first edition containing the 600 epigrams appended 

 to the Proverbs. Most valuable memorials of foreign Pi-otestaut congregations in 

 London have been obtained in a unique copy of the first edition of A Lasco's German 

 Catechism, Londen (*zc), by Steuen Hyerdman, 1551 ; and in a Spanish version of 

 Calvin's Catechism, Richard Field, 1596. Equally interesting is one of the first Welsh 

 books ever printed, "Ban wedy i dynny air yngair alia o hen gyfreith Howel da, etc., a 

 certaine case extracte out of the auncient Law of Hoel da . . . whereby it may be 

 gathered that priestes had lawfully maried wyues at that time," Robert Crowley, London, 

 1550. To these may be added : Mosellanus, " Paedologia," AVynkyn de Worde, 

 London, 1532, probably the first book printed in England in Italic type ; Martin Bucer's 

 " Gratulation unto the Church of English for the Restitution of Christes Religion," 

 translated by Thomas Hobye ; R. Jugge, London [1550] ; Becon, " The Jewel of Joye, 

 London, 1553,"' probably unique ; Becon, " The newe pollecye of warre," London, 1542; 

 Becon, "A New Yeares Gifte more precious than gold," London, 1543 ; The Herball of 

 Anthony Ascham, brother of Roger Ascham, London, 1550 ; "The Anathomie of Sinne," 

 London, 1603, with which is bound "The Genealogie of Vertue," unfortunately wanting 

 title-pngo; "The Prophane Schisme of the Brownists or Separatists," 1612 : all these 

 three last-mentioned books are unknown to bibliographers ; Fitzherbert's " Apology in 

 deience of himself and other Catholyks falsely charged with a fayned conspiracie against 

 her Maiesties person" [St. Omer], 1602 ; John Harpsfield's " Sermon or Homilie made 

 upon Samt Andrewes daye, 1556, in the cathedral churche of St. Paul : " an interesting 

 record of the Roman Catholic reaction under Mary. 



• i^ Library has received during the past year several important additions 

 in the department of liturgies and service books. The York Manual, printed 

 by \A)-nkyn de Worde in 1509, was purchased at the sale of the library of the late 

 Right Lion. A. J. B. Beresford Hope, m.p. It is one of the only six conies known 



of 



