30 KEPOET OF THE SECKETAKY. 



were printed at places where he resided. They present specimens 

 of paper and printing which are very creditable to the artisans of 

 that day. ranging as they do from 1518, the year after the Reforma- 

 tion began, to 1546, the year of Luther's death. These writings have 

 come to us in the same type and'paper in which they were distributed 

 by thousands over the land at the dawn of the Reformation. While 

 the language in which they are written, both German and Latin, is 

 not as refined as that employed by scholars of the present day, and 

 while the pictorial illustrations are coarse, yet these productions show 

 the extraordinary progress which the typographic art had already 

 made in the earby part of the 16th century. Many of them have the 

 title pages ornamented with a broad margin of wood-cut figures, most 

 of them mythological and grotesque, and all curious. They are speci- 

 mens of the engraving of that day, exceedingly interesting to the 

 student of the history of art, for these are undoubted originals, which 

 collectors of ancient prints prize so highly. A few of them are un- 

 skilfully illuminated, probably executed by some incipient artist, who 

 tried his hand on these coarse and cheap wood-cuts. The subjects of 

 the pamphlets are diverse and curious, and the titles of many of those 

 which are controversial, as was the general custom of that day, are 

 expressed in language more forcible than refined." 



Under the act of Congress mentioned in the last report, previously 

 alluded to, the Smithsonian books have been transferred to one of the 

 fire-proofrooms in the extension of the library of Congress, where they 

 will be catalogued under the direction of Mr. Spofford, the librarian ; and 

 the large number of volumes in sheets will be bound at the government 

 bindery. The continued new accessions to the library from foreign 

 exchanges and otherwise are received and recorded at the Institution 

 as formerly. The accessions from abroad do not alone consist of 

 transactions of societies, but also, as has been shown in this and pre- 

 vious reports, of some of the most costly publications of foreign gov- 

 ernments, and rare duplicates in the older libraries of Europe. 



Correspondence. — A large amount of labor connected with the ope- 

 rations of the Institution is devoted to correspondence. Besides 

 those relating to official business, hundreds of letters are received in 

 the course of a year, containing inquiries relative to the various sub- 

 jects on which the writers desire information. If these cannot be 

 forthwith answered, without much research in the Smithsonian library, 

 they are referred to our collaborators, who are experts in the differ- 

 ent branches of knowledge, and who can readily supply trustworthy 

 information in regard to the subjects within the range of their special 

 studies. 



