* * * * *

To the collector all catalogues are interesting, and although one may not readily come across publishers' catalogues of the sixteenth century, yet seventeenth-century ones are not so rare, and those of the eighteenth century comparatively common. What interesting reading these old catalogues provide! Often it is worth while purchasing the flotsam of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries from the penny tub merely for the sake of the catalogues which one frequently comes across bound at the end of such volumes. The desecration of a book is anathema to the bibliophile; but provided always that when you have paid your penny the volume proves to be but common trash and of no value whatever, you need not hesitate to remove the desired leaves and consign the wreckage to the waste-paper basket.

Perhaps nothing shows so clearly the change in manners and sentiments of each age as do these ancient catalogues. Doubtless many of the works therein described are to be found among the pages of any modern bookseller's list. But there they are scattered among works of all times, and strike the imagination as being merely the curiosities of a bygone age. Here, gathered together in one list, they are exhibited in company with their fellows, and there is little diversity of sentiment to distract one's attention. Though they treat of the most diverse subjects under the sun, yet there is a strange similitude about them which is characteristic of their age. And this impression is not due to the language in which their titles are couched; they are just the sort of books which we should expect our forefathers of that period to read. Whatever their subjects, whatever their titles, they are clearly all birds of a feather.

Take the following, all of which occur in 'A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Henry Brome, since the Dreadful Fire of London.'

The History of the Life of the Duke Espernon, the great Favourite of France. . . . Scarronides or Virgil Travesty . . by Charles Cotton, Esq. Elvira, a Comedy, or The worst not alwaies true, by the Earl of Bristol. Mr. Simpson's Division Viol, in folio, price 8s. A Treatise wherein is demonstrated, that the Church and State of England are in equal danger with the Trade, in quarto, by Roger Cook, Esq. Erasmus Colloquies, in English. The Fair One of Tuis, a new Piece of Gallantry. Elton's Art Military, in folio. Sir Kenelm Digby's two excellent Books of Receipts; one of Physick and Chirurgery; the other of Cookery and Drinks, with other Curiosities. The Exact Constable, price 8d., useful for all Gentlemen. Toleration Discussed, by Mr. L'Estrange. The Lord Coke's Institutes, in four parts. Dr. Heylin on the Creed, in folio, price 15s.

Who could hesitate to assign a period to these? Is not 'The Civil War and Restoration' writ big about them all? Plainer, indeed, would it be were we to analyse each separate item; for the tastes of the age and trend of men's thoughts as depicted in the pages of Master Pepys are amply reflected here.

Beware, however, lest you come across a catalogue of some such rogue as Edmund Curll, that shameless rascal who gloried in the obscene productions of his minions, hesitating not to assign them to the greatest writers of the day. Though fined and pilloried for his scandalous publications, he regarded such 'accidents' merely as a medium of advertisement, and had no hesitation in calling attention to the fact that he had suffered corporal punishment on account of a book that he wished to sell.

In the course of his crooked career he fell foul of Pope by publishing a book entitled 'Court Poems,' which he ascribed to 'the laudable translator of Homer.' Pope promptly retorted by putting forth an essay with the delightful title 'A Full and True Account of a Horrid and Barbarous Revenge by Poison on the Body of Mr. Edmund Curll, Bookseller; with a faithful copy of his Last Will and Testament.' Neither words nor deeds, however, could repress a man so destitute of moral worth; and, later, he came once more under the poet's lash in the 'Dunciad,' where we read—

'Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewray'd.'

Yet even the devil must have his due, and Curll certainly was concerned in the production of a number of works of general and abiding interest. Here is a curious example of his wares, from one of his catalogues dated 1726. It is a version of Sallengre's 'L'Elogie de l'Ivresse,' a humorous (and scarce) little volume first published in 1714.

Ebrietatis Encomium—or, The Praise of Drunkenness. Wherein is authentically and most evidently proved the Necessity of frequently getting drunk; and that the practice of getting drunk is most Ancient, Primitive, and Catholic. Confirm'd by the example of Heathens, Turks, Infidels, Primitive Christians, Saints, Popes, Bishops, Doctors, Philosophers, Poets, Free-Masons, and other Men of Learning in All Ages. By a Person of Honour, price 2s. 6d.[67]

How it intrigues one to know who were the Saints, Popes, and Bishops thus addicted to tippling! Truly a chronique scandaleuse, and one which would surely have appealed to Louis Maimbourg, that ingenious Jesuit historian, had it but appeared in his day. We are told that he never took up his pen till he had heated his imagination by wine, nor ever attempted to describe a battle till he had drunk two bottles—lest, as he said jestingly, the horrors of the combat should enfeeble his style! Perhaps this trait in his character also explains how it was that 'he signalised himself by strange descriptions and burlesque sallies of humour in the pulpit,' and that his works exhibit 'great fire and rapidity in their style.'[68] At all events he lived to be seventy-six, which is some consolation to those who seek to impart originality to their work by this means.

Here is another volume that I should like to possess, from the same catalogue.

The Court Gamester: Or, Full and Easy Instructions for playing the Games now in vogue, after the best Method, as they are Played at Court, and in the Assemblies, viz. Ombre, Picquet, and the Royal Game of Chess. Wherein the Frauds in Play are detected, and the Laws of each Game annex'd, to prevent Disputes. Written for the Use of the young Princesses.[69] By Richard Seymour, Esq. price 2s.

Evidently Richard Seymour, Esq., had some experience of the young princesses' play. One wonders whether the disputes were frequent and heated, and whether Richard was the detector or detected with regard to the 'Frauds in Play'!

Enough, however, of examples: you will find abundance in these old catalogues to keep you interested and amused for many an hour. Moreover, your natural inquisitiveness will enable you to discover a great deal about books and authors which you would otherwise never, perhaps, come across. For certain titles will excite your interest and curiosity, so that you will 'look up' the volume in your bibliography. Then you will turn to your biographical dictionary and find out all that you can about the author. So it is that your knowledge of books and their writers will grow. It is a pleasant pastime, this fireside book-hunting, and of the greatest value to the collector. Let me add, as a note, that you will find the 'Cambridge History of English Literature' valuable for acquiring a contemporary knowledge of books.

With regard to book-auctions (which seem to have been introduced into Europe by the Elzeviers) and sale-catalogues, you will find all the information that you may require upon this subject in so far as Great Britain is concerned, in Mr. John Lawler's excellent little volume 'Book Auctions in England in the Seventeenth Century,' of which a new edition was published in 1906. The fashion of selling books to the highest bidder is, in this country, of comparatively recent date; for the first auction of books held in London was presided over in 1676 by one William Cooper, an enterprising bookseller, who disposed in this manner of the library belonging to the Rev. Dr. Lazarus Seaman. With regard to the book-auctions held by the Elzeviers, you must consult that great authority, M. Alphonse Willems.

Before leaving this subject of catalogues I cannot forbear quoting from one to whom I am already indebted:

'In perusing these old catalogues one cannot help being astonished at the sudden and great increase of books; and when one reflects that a great, perhaps the greater, part of them no longer exists, this perishableness of human labours will excite the same sensations as those which arise in the mind when one reads in a church-yard the names and titles of persons long since mouldered into dust. In the sixteenth century there were few libraries, and these, which did not contain many books, were in monasteries, and consisted principally of theological, philosophical, and historical works, with a few, however, on jurisprudence and medicine: while those which treated of agriculture, manufactures, and trade, were thought unworthy of the notice of the learned and of being preserved in large collections. The number of these works was, nevertheless, far from being inconsiderable; and at any rate many of them would have been of great use, as they would have served to illustrate the instructive history of the arts. Catalogues, which might have given occasion to inquiries after books that may be still somewhere preserved, have suffered the fate of tomb-stones, which, being wasted and crumbled to pieces by the destroying hand of time, become no longer legible. A complete series of them, perhaps, is now nowhere to be found.'[70]

* * * * *

There is yet another side of book-collecting with which it is essential that the bibliophile become acquainted, and that is a knowledge of the scarce and valuable editions of the more modern classic writers. By 'modern' I intend those authors who flourished during the nineteenth and latter part of the eighteenth centuries, and include such writers as Arnold, the Brontes, the Brownings, Burns, Byron, Carlyle, Coleridge, Dickens, Keats, Lamb, Shelley, Stevenson, Swinburne, Tennyson, Thackeray, and other famous contemporaries. You may meet with their works continually, and many a prize may slip through your hands unless you are acquainted with the collector's desiderata regarding each of these authors. Many of them, perhaps the majority, published their earliest works anonymously or under a nom de plume, and when once you have become aware of the titles of such books or their writers' pseudonyms, you are not likely to forget them.

A few years ago (1911) Messrs. Hodgson the auctioneers discovered a thin folio consisting of an illustrated title-page and eight lithographed plates depicting scenes in the life of a ballet-girl, among a portfolio of engravings which had been sent to them for disposal. There was no letterpress, but the title ran 'Flore et Zephyr, Ballet Mythologique par Theophile Wagstaffe,' and it was published in London and Paris, 1836. The owner thought it unworthy of notice in a lengthy catalogue of his books, but in spite of its Gallic title its author was none other than Thackeray, and it was one of his first publications. On being offered for sale, it was knocked down at L226.

'Poems by Two Brothers,' a small octavo published at London in 1827, will bring you twenty pounds if you are so fortunate as to come across it. The brothers were Alfred and Charles Tennyson. Then there is a slim octavo of some 150 pages which appeared at Newark in 1807, entitled 'Poems on Various Occasions.' It is by Lord Byron, and is worth fifty pounds at least; if in the original boards, more than double that amount. 'King Glumpus: an Interlude in one Act,' a pamphlet consisting of some twenty pages, was probably by John Barrow; but it was illustrated by Thackeray, and is usually to be found under the heading 'Thackerayana.' It was printed in 1837, on blue writing paper, and issued privately in buff wrappers. Recently it has fetched L153, but you may have a hundred for it any day.[71]

Shelley's 'Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats' was first published at Pisa in 1821, a large quarto in blue wrappers. It has recently fetched 2,050 dollars in America, and you may have even more for a perfect copy, in the original state, of his 'Queen Mab,' printed by the author at 23, Chapel Street, Grosvenor Square, in 1813. Both are exceedingly scarce. Another rare book of Shelley's is 'Original Poetry,' by Victor and Cazire, which was put forth at Worthing in 1810. The poet wrote it in his youth, and although it was known that such a volume had been printed and that it had been suppressed by its author immediately before publication, it was considered a lost work until its rediscovery in 1897.

Byron's 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' one can purchase in the second, third, or fourth editions (all in octavo) in the original boards, for as many pence; though the first edition, in duodecimo, undated, is scarce. It was published in 1809, and has but fifty-four pages of verse. The fourth edition appeared in 1811, though some copies are dated 1810, and has one thousand and fifty-two lines of verse in eighty-five pages. But the next year another edition was put forth containing eighteen additional lines. For this (fifth) edition the title-page of the fourth edition was used. It was not merely rigidly suppressed by the author, but immediately prior to publication it was destroyed by him, and, so far as I am aware, only one copy has, till now, been recovered.[72]

For Burns' 'Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect,' published at Kilmarnock in 1786, you may have two hundred pounds at least; if in the original boards, and perfect, considerably more. A copy has changed hands at a thousand. Of Shelley's 'Alastor: or the Spirit of Solitude, and other Poems,' octavo 1816, Keats' 'Endymion,' 1818, Fitzgerald's 'Omar Khayyam,' published by Quaritch in 1859, and a large number of others, you will learn from time to time. Mr. J. H. Slater's 'Early Editions . . . of Modern Authors,' which appeared in 1894, will be of value to you, though like all works which deal with current prices it now needs revision. From the bibliographical standpoint it is excellent, but the safest guides to mere market values are the quarterly records of auction-sale prices entitled 'Book-Auction Records,' and the bi-monthly publication known as 'Book-Prices Current' issued by Mr. Elliot Stock. In addition there are bibliographies of almost all the greatest Victorian writers.

There is no doubt that the early editions of the English classics will get more and more valuable as time goes on. In the case of many it may be years before any decided rise in their sale-room price takes place; but as the number of book-collectors increases with the population, while the number of copies of these desiderata tends to become less owing to the absorption of certain of them in the public libraries, so it is only natural that increased competition should result in a corresponding increase in their value.

The early editions of Massinger, Beaumont and Fletcher, and of the later Elizabethan and Stuart dramatists, which command but a few pounds to-day, will run, in all probability, well into three figures during the next half-century. A good copy of the first issue of Milton's 'Comus,' printed in 1637, could be had for L36 in 1864. In 1898 one with the title-page mended brought L150. Ten years later L317 was not thought excessive for it, whilst in 1916 a fine and perfect copy made L800. $14,250 was the ransom of a copy at New York in 1919.

Other books there are which have had similar meteoric rises in value. The first edition of Walton and Cotton's 'Compleat Angler' was published in 1653 at one and sixpence. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the average price for a fine copy seems to have been between three and four pounds. In 1850 so much as fifteen pounds was paid for a copy in a similar state. Thirty years later it had risen to eighty-five pounds, and during the few years following, the demand for it seems to have increased its value considerably, for in 1887 a copy realised no less than L200. But eight years later even this sum was easily doubled. Then came the Van Antwerp sale at Sotheby's. A perfect copy, in the original sheepskin binding, was offered; the hammer fell at the enormous figure of L1,290. This sum has not yet (1921) been eclipsed; but that it was not a fancy price[73] is shown by the fact that in 1909 a copy not in the original binding realised no less than L1,085.

In the collection of these early impressions of the great writers, however, you must exercise considerable caution and judgment. The examples which I have quoted will show you that it is not always immediately, nor even within a lifetime from their death, that the works of our greatest authors become valuable. 'Fame is a revenue payable only to our ghosts,' wrote Sir George Mackenzie, and for literary fame Time is indeed the ordeal by fire. We may look upon the auction-room as a Court of Claims to Literary Fame, but it is public opinion, backing the authorities who sit round the table, that determines each claimant's case. It is the book that makes the price, not the price that makes the book. Doubtless those who, relying upon their own judgment alone, gave fifty pounds for Tennyson's 'Helen's Tower' (1861) some twenty years ago, thought they were safe in their investment. Yet twelve years later it could be had for thirty shillings. Fitzgerald's 'Polonius,' 1852, was once thought cheap at five guineas. To-day you may buy it for little more than a sovereign.

It is a risky business, this collecting of the early editions of authors dead but a generation ago; and he would be a bold man who ventured to assert that the present prices of the first editions of the Victorian authors may be considered as stable. Bargains are bargains, and the temptation to buy is often great. But what constitutes a bargain from the collector's point of view? You cannot define it without reference to price, worth, or value; and if these be unstable it cannot constitute a bargain. 'An advantageous purchase' say the dictionaries; but if the price drop subsequently is it advantageous to you? You may think to play the wise man by collecting early editions of your own or your father's contemporaries, but it is odds on that you will burn your fingers. Yet the works of those great writers, those immortals

'On Fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled'

are stable in our affections as is the sun in the firmament. Whatever fortune may overtake the works of those ephemerals whom by mere fashion we applaud to-day and neglect to-morrow, the works of those great writers who have been accorded a niche in the hall of Fame will ever command our purses no less than our respect.

FOOTNOTES:

[52] Of this book, published in octavo in 1893, it is impossible to speak too highly. Both as a text-book for the student and a reference book for the collector it is invaluable. The other two volumes by Mr. Duff are also of the greatest assistance. 'The Printers, Stationers, and Bookbinders of Westminster and London from 1476 to 1535' was published in 1906, and 'The English Provincial Printers, Stationers, and Bookbinders to 1557' in 1912—both by the Cambridge University Press. They are still (1921) in print, and cost six and five shillings respectively.

[53] A stereotyped reprint of the revised edition published between 1857 and 1864. Each of the first five volumes is in two parts, often bound separately. Vol. 6 is an appendix.

[54] Brockhaus of Leipzig has also (1921) published a facsimile reprint of this work—price L12.

[55] The term Incunabula is now applied to all books printed before the year 1500. It is a vast study in itself, this bibliography of fifteenth-century books; and thanks to the labours of a small group of men who have devoted their lives to the subject, it is now upon a definite scientific basis. Carefully prepared monographs are issued from time to time, dealing with the different founts used by the early printers; but as this subject is unlikely to engage the attentions of those for whom this work is written (who, like the writer, are of modest means), I forbear to enter upon it in detail.

[56] It is a tedious game, but a very necessary one, and is a service due to an author. In entering a long list of errata in a folio book which has many lines to the page (Cotton's 'Monluc' has 62 lines, and the 1707 edition of Sandford's 'Genealogical History of the Kings and Queens of England' has nearly 150 errata!) the following method saves a lot of time. Take a strip of paper about an inch wide, place it on a page, and make a dash on the strip at every fifth line of text, numbering the dashes 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. This measurer saves one counting the lines every time.

[57] Dr. John North.

[58] For Schoeffer's list, see Mr. E. G. Duff's 'Early Printed Books,' 1893, p. 31, where there is also an illustration of it. For Caxton's advertisement, see an excellent article upon these early catalogues, by Mr. A. W. Pollard, in 'The Bibliophile' for March 1908 (vol. 1. No. i, p. 22).

[59] Mr. E. G. Duff, op. cit., p. 513.

[60] A collection of thirty-two facsimiles of these fifteenth-century book advertisements was published by Herr Konrad Burger in 1908.

[61] This is not strictly accurate, for there were agents or booksellers (call them what you will) who bought and sold manuscripts at Rome in very early times. A document dated 1349 (quoted by Laborde, 'Les Ducs de Bourgogne,' tom. 1, p. 459) mentions one Thomas de Maubeuge, 'bookseller at Paris,' who sold a volume to the Duke of Normandy for fourteen florins of gold.

[62] Beckmann, op. cit.

[63] Mr. E. G. Duff, op. cit. Beckmann has 12,475, quoting Fabricius' 'Bibliotheca Latina,' ed. 1772, vol. iii. p. 898, where the document is printed in full.

[64] See p. 155.

[65] For more upon this subject, with regard to this country, see The Camb. Hist. Eng. Lit. vol. iv. chap, xviii., 'The English Book-trade,' by Mr. H. G. Aldis.

[66] Curwen's 'History of Booksellers,' 8vo, 1873, deals chiefly with the later English houses; while Mr. E. Marston's 'Sketches of Booksellers of Other Days,' 12mo, 1901, is concerned only with eight London booksellers, from Tonson to Lackington. Mr. F. A. Mumby's 'The Romance of Bookselling,' 8vo, 1910, contains a bibliography of the subject, but says little about the early continental book-marts. Mr. W. Roberts' 'Earlier History of English Bookselling,' 8vo, 1892, deals with London alone, and does not help us. There is a short article on the Frankfort Fairs, by Mr. G. Smith, in 'The Library,' 1900, pp. 167-179.

[67] This was one of the five publications on account of which Curll was set in the pillory in 1725.

[68] L'Advocat: Dict. Histor.

[69] The italics are NOT mine.

[70] Beckmann, op. cit.

[71] Like many of these rarissima it has been reprinted in facsimile—crown 8vo, 100 copies only, 1898.

[72] The various editions and impressions of this book have given rise to confused accounts respecting them. The British Museum Catalogue gives five distinct impressions of the third edition and five of the fourth edition. Of the fourth edition, some large-paper copies were issued; they are scarce and worth thirty shillings or more. The first edition is undated, but the paper is water-marked '1805'. A copy of this last, in the original boards uncut, realised 205 dollars in New York in March, 1920. It usually fetches about L5 in England.

[73] The three copies which were sold between Dec. 1919 and June 1920, however, fetched 2,200 dollars, L410, and L600. The last was in the original sheepskin.



CHAPTER VIII

A PLEA FOR SPECIALISM

'The road lies plain before me; 'tis a theme Single and of determined bounds.'—WORDSWORTH.

MOST book-collectors embark upon their life-long hobby without any clearly defined scheme of collecting, buying just those books which take their fancy, and in many cases not realising that they have caught the dread contagion of bibliomania until they suddenly find that more shelf-room is required for their books, and that the expenditure upon their hobby is growing out of all proportion to their means. It is then generally too late to stop, and although they may avoid the book-stalls for some days, nay even weeks, the passion of collecting is only dormant, and will break out with renewed vigour either upon a sudden (though perhaps only temporary) condition of affluence, or upon the receipt of that most insidious of all temptations, a bookseller's catalogue—especially if it be a 'clearance' one.

This passion for collecting books resolves itself at length into two categories. Either the patient grows rapidly worse and plunges headlong into the vortex of auctions, catalogues, and bibliographies, amassing during the process a vast nondescript collection of books; or else he improves slowly but surely, growing daily shrewder in his purchases. So that at length, having completely recovered his composure, he finds himself the possessor of a collection of books valuable alike from commercial and utilitarian standpoints.

The former of these collectors is generally said to suffer from acute bibliomania. His knowledge of books is vast but of a general kind, and for practical purposes it cannot compare with that acquired by his fellow-collector who had seen the folly of a headlong course. His complaint is well known; indeed it was recognised in the first century of our era, when Seneca condemned the rage for mere book-collecting, and rallied those who were more pleased with the outsides than the insides of their volumes. Lucian, too, in the next century, employed his prolific pen in exposing this then common folly.

Even the wise collector, however, runs some risk of being engulfed by his hobby and swept away by the flood of books. There is but one remedy, or rather alleviation, for book-collecting is quite incurable and follows a man to his grave (unless, of course, he be cast upon a desert island), and that is specialism.

Every collector should become a specialist. It will give him a definite ambition, something to look for among other books, something to complete; and there is a thousand times more satisfaction in possessing a select collection of works of a definite class or upon a definite subject, than in the accumulation of a vast heterogeneous mass of books. He will get to know the greater part of the works upon his own subject, become an authority upon it in time, and perhaps will even attempt a bibliography if it be an out-of-the-way subject. He will know precisely what he wants, what to search for, and what price to pay. In short, he will be lifted out of the fog of miscellaneous books into the clear atmosphere of a definite and known class of works.

It is such an easy step, and such an immensely important one, this determination to confine one's collecting activities to a certain class of books. 'What a blessing it is,' said a book-loving friend not long ago, 'not to have to worry about all sorts of books. I have never ceased congratulating myself that I took the resolution to confine myself entirely to Herbals. Before, I had a vast but untrustworthy knowledge of titles and editions which a bad memory did not assist. Now, thank goodness, I have forgotten all that, but I flatter myself that I really do know something about Herbals.'

And what a profitless occupation is the aimless collecting of heterogeneous books. If bibliographical knowledge be our aim, their very diversity tends to confuse us. If recreation be our object, better far to join a circulating library than garner volumes which, once read, are never to be opened again. Learning and study cannot be intended, for the formation of a library of nondescript books collected upon no system or plan can, at best, endow us with but a smattering of knowledge.

There was once a certain bishop who used continually to collect useless luxuries. The Emperor Charlemagne, perceiving this, ordered a merchant who traded in rare and costly objects to paint a common mouse with different colours and to offer it to the bishop, as being a rare and curious animal which he had just brought from Palestine. The bishop is transported with delight at the sight of it, and immediately offers the merchant three silver pounds for such a treasure. But the merchant, acting on his instructions, bargains with the bishop, saying that he would rather throw it into the sea than sell it for so little. Finally the bishop offers twenty pounds for it. The merchant, wrapping up the 'ridiculus mus' in precious silk, is going away when the collector, unable to bear the thought of losing so great a curio, calls him back and says that he will give him a bushel of silver for it. This the merchant accepts: the money is paid; and the merchant returns to the Emperor to give him an account of the transaction.

Then Charlemagne convokes the bishops and priests of all the province, and placing before them the money which the mouse has fetched, reads them a homely lesson on the foolishness of collecting profitless trifles. Sternly he enjoins them in future to use their money in administering to the wants of the poor rather than to throw it away on such unprofitable baubles as a painted mouse. The guilty bishop, now become the laughing-stock of the province, is permitted to depart without punishment.

Doubtless the great majority of book-collectors are not specialists. They may set greater store by a certain class of works which appeals to them from some whimsical reason, but until they have grown middle-aged in their pursuit most of them are but dilettanti.

'Yes,' I can hear you exclaim, 'but if your collecting propensities are to be curbed and countless books passed by, books which your very instinct urges you to acquire, surely you will lose most of the charm of collecting? How dull to be obliged to purchase only those works to which you have vowed to confine yourself.'

Dull! No. I can assure you from my own experience that this restraint will but serve to redouble your eagerness, to sharpen an appetite in danger of becoming blunted by a plethora of desiderata and a shrinkage of your purse. So that whereas before, a short stroll about the book-shops would discover to you abundance, or at least plenty, of books that you would like casually to possess, now that you have become a specialist you must go further afield. Often you will return empty-handed from your rambles, and your sanctum (to the delight of the housemaid) will not be invaded quite so often by stacks of 'dirty old books.' Order will come out of chaos; many works bought upon impulse because they appealed to you at the moment will be weeded out and discarded. Moreover the shillings which this process yields will enable you to send that priceless gem, the chef d'oeuvre of your collection, to the binder's, that its extrinsic appearance may be fashioned in keeping with its intrinsic worth.

More important still, you will become a known man. The booksellers will remember you, and one day when you reach home from a long and barren ramble, you will find a postcard awaiting you, announcing the discovery of some book for which you have long sought.

'SIR,—I have found a copy of the Vitruvius fo. Venice, 1535, that you asked me for some time ago. You can have it for 10s. (vellum, clean copy). Shall I send it?—Yours respectfully, JOHN BROWN.'

Your ramble may have been on a cold winter's afternoon, it may have been raining and muddy underfoot, but will not this cheer you up and warm you better than any cup of tea? And what will be your sensations as you undo the parcel, take out the treasure (which you once saw in Johnson's catalogue for L3), turn eagerly to its title-page, and collate it as gently as though you were handling some priceless work of art? Don't tell me! The specialist gets a thousand times more pleasure out of his hobby than ever did casual buyer. Besides, what rapture will be his whenever he chance upon some book for which he has long been searching, or upon some work on his very subject and yet unknown to him; for book-collecting is full of surprises.

Some of the booksellers will ask you for a list of your wants. You may safely supply them with one, and it is not necessary to state the maximum price which you are prepared to pay for each. Should you do so, probably it will be taken to indicate that you are prepared to pay the price named, and the book when found will be offered to you at that price (or a few shillings less to give the idea of a bargain) when you might have had it at a considerably lower figure. Remember also that the very fact of a book being sought for enhances its price. Suppose that a country bookseller sees an advertisement in the trade journal asking for a copy of a certain obscure sixteenth-century work, and that he recollects he has a copy somewhere in stock. He finds it among his shelves marked, possibly, five shillings. When he answers the advertisement it is more than likely that he will ask a pound or even two for it. At the same time, however, you must consider whether or not the book is worth as much to you. It may be a little known and, to the world at large, a valueless book, and you may have to wait some years before you are able to secure a copy; whereas by advertising for it you may procure a copy almost immediately. Do you prefer to take the chance of having to wait years for a book which you urgently want, or to pay a longish price and possess it at once?

There is another point to be considered. Should you ever part with your collection en bloc, or should your executors dispose of it, this volume will be an item of the collection of works in which you specialise. As such it will be much more likely to realise the larger than the smaller price, especially as the disposal of a collection of books upon a definite subject attracts to the rostrum other collectors of a like class of works.

Surely every book-collector is in his heart of hearts a specialist. Have you ever taken into your hands some choice gem of your collection without wishing that there were others in your library of the same genus? Is there not some one volume among your books that demands your first consideration when new shelving is put up, when your books are re-arranged; the volume to which you would fly first of all if a fire broke out in your sanctum? Brother bookman, I can almost hear you turn in your chair at the awful prospect of having to make choice between your beloved tomes! Indeed I am with you whole-heartedly, for there are two books, two priceless gems, rescued (the one from Austria, the other France) after years of patient search, two books which ever strive for the ascendancy in my bibliophilic affections. Far from me be it to make distinction between them. Granted, however, that you have made up your mind as to the identity of the treasure, do you not wish to possess other equally choice works of the same class, on the same subject? Suppose some distant relative of yours with great propriety should die, bequeathing you all unexpectedly far more worldly goods than you had ever hoped to possess; supposing also that you were 'without encumbrances' or ties of any description, and that your sole aim and ambition in this world was the collecting unto yourself of the choicest fruits of master minds: what would be your first act, in so far as your hobby is concerned?

I know what our book-hunter would do under such conditions. He would take the next train to Paris, proceed to a certain shop not a great distance from the Rue St. Honore, mount the step-ladder and hand down to the delighted Henri just precisely what he fancied in his own particular line. This process he would continue elsewhere until he had formed a goodly nucleus round which to amass still scarcer volumes as they came to hand. And I venture to think that you would do the same, though not necessarily in Paris.

What is it that makes a man a specialist? Is it a particular knowledge of a certain subject? Do all book-collecting doctors garner only herbals and early medical works? Does the poet-collector specialise in poetry, the freemason in masonic books, the angler in works dealing only with his pastime?

Not always, perhaps; but doubtless this is the case with the great majority of collectors. Sometimes a chance purchase may shape the entire course of a man's collecting, sometimes he is led to the subject to which he devotes his collecting energies by devious byways. Our book-hunter has a friend who began to collect old French books on Chivalry through a touch of influenza. When convalescent his doctor ordered him a sea-voyage. An hour after the advice was given he met a shipping friend, who offered him a cabin in a ship just about to start on a trading voyage in the Mediterranean. At Crete the ship was detained for some repairs, so he took the opportunity to visit Rhodes in a coasting vessel. He was much struck with the famous Street of the Knights and ancient buildings of the great military Order that once owned the island, and regretted that he knew so little about it. Nor did his scanty knowledge of these things enable him to appreciate to the full the buildings of the Order at Malta.

On his return to this country he spent some time at the British Museum, delving into these knightly records of the past, but was unable even then to discover all that he wished to know. So for a time he took up his abode in Paris, working daily at the Archives, the Arsenal Library, and Bibliotheque Nationale. Then came the Library of the Vatican. To-day his collection of ancient works on La Chevalerie, in most of the languages of Europe, is a thing to be proud of, and his sub-collection on the Hospitallers and their commanderies is especially rich. Probably there are few works upon this subject with which he is unacquainted, and the bibliography upon which he is at work bids fair to become the standard volume.

What an immense part Chance plays in all our lives. Some of the most momentous events in the world's history have turned upon the most trivial happenings. Had not a wild boar run in a certain direction, probably there would have been no Norman Conquest of England! Robert of Normandy, out hunting with his friends, roused a boar which, running a certain course, necessitated the duke's return through the village street where he saw and fell in love with the burgess's daughter who became the mother of William the Conqueror. Had the boar run north instead of south, probably Robert would never have seen Arlette, and William would never have been born. Olaf of Norway, the great sea-king whose name was feared from Brittany to the Orkneys, was converted to Christianity by a chance landing at the Scilly Isles, where haply he visited the cell of a holy man that dwelt there.

Let us now draw up a list of those subjects which generally engage the attention of specialists. The list is a lengthy one and offers an infinite variety. Each heading will comprise various sub-headings, and of these I shall speak more in detail.

1. Arctic, Antarctic, Whaling. 2. Africa. 3. Americana. 4. Architecture, Building Construction. 5. Australasia. 6. Bibles. 7. Bibliography, Bookbinding, Printing. 8. Biography, Memoirs, Diaries. 9. Celebrated Authors and Books. 10. Celebrated Presses. 11. Chapbooks, Ballads, Broadsides. 12. Civil War and Commonwealth. 13. Classics. 14. Cookery Books. 15. Costume. 16. Crime and Prisons. 17. Dictionaries, Etymology. 18. Drama, the Stage. 19. Early-printed books. 20. Early Romances. 21. Economics. 22. Facetiae, Curiosa, Books on Gallantry. 23. Fine Arts, including Technique, Theory, Criticism, History of the Arts, Furniture, Tapestries, Decorations, Gems, Ceramics, Plate. 24. First Editions of Esteemed Authors. 25. Folk-lore, Fables, Mysteries. 26. Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, and Secret Societies. 27. French Revolution. 28. Gardening. 29. Heraldry, Chivalry, Crusades, Genealogy, Peerages, Ceremonies, and books on Seals and Brasses. 30. History and Chronicles. 31. Husbandry, Agriculture. 32. Illustrated Books, Books of Engravings. 33. Legal. 34. Liturgies, Mass and Prayer Books. 35. Locally-printed books. 36. Mathematical and Early Scientific. 37. Medical (Early), including Herbals and Early Botanical. 38. Military, including Archery, Arms, Armour, Fencing, and Duelling. 39. Music. 40. Napoleon. 41. Natural History. 42. Nautical and Naval. 43. Numismatics, Medals. 44. Occult, Astrology, Astronomy, Alchemy, Witchcraft, Magic. 45. Pamphlets and Tracts. 46. Philosophy. 47. Poetry. 48. Privately-printed books. 49. School books. 50. Sport, Games, Pastimes. 51. Theology, Lives and Works of the Early Fathers, History of the Church, Inquisition, works on the Religious Sects. 52. Tobacco. 53. Topography, including Atlases, Geography, and County Histories. 54. Trades. 55. Travels and Exploration. 56. Voyages, Shipwrecks.

From this list are purposely omitted books printed upon vellum, Books of Hours of the Virgin Mary, and illuminated books; for these are rarities within reach of the wealthy only. Nor is 'bindings' included, for the man who collects these is no book-lover in the truest sense of the word, and his hobby does not fall properly within the category of book-collecting, being classed rather under the heading Art and Vertu, Bric-a-Brac, or what you will. Naturally all book-collectors (save perhaps the 'original-boards-uncut' man) are sensible to the charm of a choicely bound copy, provided always that the binding be appropriate and that it is impossible to obtain the book in its original covers; but it is for something more than the mere outsides of his treasures that the real book-lover cares.

Needless to say, there are other subjects which have their devotees. Some collectors specialise in large-paper copies, some prefer certain editions which contain matter suppressed later. Others collect early children's books, gipsy literature, Egyptology, books on inventions, ballooning, etc. But most of these are more in the nature of sub-headings to the subjects in our list, and offer a more restricted field of collecting. Indeed I am in some doubt as to whether the large-paper collector should be included here, for his penchant is as far removed from true book-collecting as is that of the specialist in bindings. His hobby can have nothing to do with literature, since it is only the external characteristics of a book which appeal to him. He may be 'wise in his generation,' but his pursuit approaches closely to bibliomania. This objection may perhaps also be urged against one other subject in our list, namely, privately-printed books. But here there is an ulterior interest beyond the mere singularity of their production; for there are very many books of great merit, chiefly memoirs and family histories, which their authors have designed, from personal and contemporary reasons, to come only into the hands of their own families and acquaintances.

So here is your list, reader, take your choice. But perchance you are already numbered among the elect, one of those magi among bibliophiles who are at once the despair of the booksellers and the wise men of their generation? Is it not to the specialists that we owe the bulk of our knowledge of old books—for who else is it that produce the bibliographies, numerous but not nearly numerous enough, that delight the heart of the collector? All praise to them, and, brother bibliophile, if you are not yet of their number in heart at least, read through the foregoing list once more and put a mark with your pencil against the heading which is most to your taste. If you do not see your chosen subject at once, a scrutiny will probably discover it for you included in another and wider subject.[74] For example, Astronomy and Astrology, inseparably bound up in the ancient works, are included in the heading 'Occult.' Herbals, which deal with the medicinal qualities of plants, you will find under 'Medical.'

Is your purse a long one? Would you not like to garner folios and quartos with weird and heavy types that speak of a craft yet in its infancy; books that perchance have seen or even been handled by the actual combatants of Barnet or of Bosworth Field; books with monstrous crude yet wholly delightful woodcuts that bring before us the actual appearance of our forebears under the King-maker, Richard Crouchback, and Harry Richmond? Or would you like to gather to yourself as many examples as you may, in the finest possible condition, of the exquisite art of Aldo Manuccio the elder? But perhaps the following, from a recent catalogue, represents a class (20) more to your palate.

L'Histoire du tres fameux et tres redoute Palmerin d'Olive . . . . traduite de Castillan en Francoys reueue et derechef mise en son entier, selon nostre vulgaire moderne et usite, par Jean Maugin, dit l'Angeuin. With 45 large spirited woodcuts (some being nearly full-page) representing duels, battles, etc., and 132 large ornamental initial letters. Folio, Paris, 1553.

Is your purse a light one? Then fifteenth-century books are denied you, as are all other esteemed works of the Middle Ages such as romances and classics. But there is hardly another heading in our list, save perhaps the first editions of the great authors, which you may not make your own. Almost every subject has its bibliography, and many fresh volumes are added yearly to the ever-increasing list of 'books about books.' You will find what bibliographies have appeared upon your particular subject, up to 1912, by referring to Mr. W. P. Courtney's 'Register of National Bibliography,' which should be (if indeed it is not) in every public library throughout the kingdom.

Some day an enterprising public body will purchase a building with fifty-five rooms (or thereabouts), each of which will contain a small and carefully selected collection of books on each one of these subjects. Each room will have its own catalogue and its own librarian, who will be an expert in the subject over which he presides. The rooms, of course, will vary in size according to the magnitude of the subject and the number of sub-headings which it comprises. Readers will have access to the shelves in almost every case, books of great value alone being kept under lock and key.

How invaluable such a library would be, and what a vast amount of time would all readers be saved! We should know instantly to whom to turn for expert advice upon any subject—for the sub-librarians would naturally be acquainted with more than the mere outsides of the volumes in their charge. We should be able to handle the latest works upon our subject immediately; and we should have, ready to our hand, a history of its literature from the earliest times to the present day.

As to whether the acquisition of knowledge by this method would not turn us all into journalists, however, is another matter.

With the first heading in our list shall be included several others, namely (2) Africa; (5) Australasia; (55) Travels and Explorations (which heading includes every land under the sun not specially mentioned in our list), and (56) Voyages and Shipwrecks; in short, all those subjects which concern 'foreign parts.' They are subjects which are most likely to engage the attentions of collectors who have been seafaring in their time, though, as has been shown in Chapter II., it is not every traveller who has been far afield.

Books on Arctic and Antarctic exploration, as well as whaling voyages, comprise much reading that is as interesting to the landsman as to the sailor. Most of its literature is within easy reach of the collector of modest means, though the earlier volumes are naturally increasing gradually in price. One of the hardest to obtain is William Scoresby's 'Account of the Arctic Regions,' which was published in two octavo volumes at Edinburgh in 1820. You will be lucky if you find a clean sound copy of it with the plates unspotted. It is now getting very scarce, as is Weddell's 'Voyage towards the South Pole in 1822-24' (octavo, London, 1825).

Each of these headings can be subdivided according to your requirements. Africa you may divide conveniently into West, South, East, and Central; North Africa being best classified under the various countries which it contains, namely, Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, and Tunis. Egypt, of course, has a vast literature of its own. Similarly books on Australasia may be divided into those which deal with Polynesia, New Guinea, Australia (again divided into its states), Tasmania, and New Zealand; though, properly speaking, the first of these should be classified under the heading 'Voyages.'

There is little doubt that those collectors who have devoted their energies during the past twenty-five years to the collecting of books on Africa, especially the South, will prove at no very distant date to have been wise in their purchases. Just as early Americana are so eagerly bought by our neighbours across the Atlantic at immense prices, far and away out of all proportion to their intrinsic worth as literature or history, so will the day come when those of our kin whose fathers sought a home in the 'great dark continent' will go to any length to procure works which deal with the early history of that newer world; and this will be the case, perhaps even sooner, with our Australasian friends.

The early books on Australia are most interesting. Besides Governor Phillip's 'Voyage to Botany Bay' (1789) and his Letters therefrom (1791) there are such compilations as John Callander's version of the Comte de Tournay's 'Terra Australis Cognita,' or Voyages to the Southern Hemisphere during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries, three octavo volumes published at Edinburgh between 1766 and 1768. Then there is Admiral Hunter's 'Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island' (1793).[75] Hunter sailed with the first fleet in 1787 under Arthur Phillip, the first governor of Botany Bay, as second in command of H.M.S. Sirius, and afterwards became governor-general of New South Wales in succession to Phillip. His journal gives a very valuable account of the early days of the Colony. Barrington's, Mitchell's, and Sturt's handsome volumes, all with fine plates, are still to be had for shillings. They seem a very good investment.

Books on the South Seas have a peculiar interest, for the subject at once conjures up the name of the immortal Captain Cook; and the accounts of his remarkable voyages between 1768 and 1779 are perhaps the most eagerly sought for of all books on Polynesia. The first voyage of discovery in which the great explorer took part was in the years 1768 to 1771. His ship, the Endeavour, was accompanied in the first part of the voyage by the Dolphin and Swallow; and an account of the Endeavour's voyage was published surreptitiously in 1771 by, it is said, certain of the petty officers of Cook's vessel.[76] But the compilation of an authentic account of the voyage, from the rough notes and diaries, was entrusted to Dr. Hawkesworth, and was published in 1773 in three quarto volumes. From this task Hawkesworth gleaned L6000, and although we are told that the book 'was read with an avidity proportioned to the novelty of the adventures which it recorded,' yet the compiler so far offended against the canons of good taste as to cause considerable offence. Cook gained such credit for his intrepidity that he was promptly promoted from lieutenant to commander.

A second expedition was soon planned, and in 1772 the Resolution and the Adventure set sail, the former returning to England in 1775. The results of this voyage were drawn up by Captain Cook himself, and published in 1777 in two quarto volumes. In 1776 he sailed once more in the Resolution, but was destined never to return, for on St. Valentine's Day, 1779, he met his death at the hands of the natives of Hawaii. The expedition returned the next year, and the official account of it was published in 1784, in three quarto volumes, of which the first two were from the pen of Cook, the third volume being written by James King. The following year a second edition appeared, also in three quarto volumes. All these works have maps, charts, and folding plates, which are sometimes bound up separately into folio volumes. A few of these somewhat crude plates were engraved by Bartolozzi. Admiral James Burney's 'Chronological History of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea,' was published in five quarto volumes between 1803 and 1817. The author was one of Cook's officers, and the diary of the last voyage which he sailed in company with the great navigator is still (1921) in manuscript. His account of the death of Captain Cook, however, was published in the 'Cornhill Magazine' so lately as November 1914.

During the first half of the nineteenth century many handsome works upon these subjects issued from the press. For the most part they are sumptuous books, many of them having coloured plates and sometimes folding ones. They were published chiefly for subscribers at prices ranging from two guineas to fifteen; and during the last few years they have risen considerably in price. Until the decline of the coloured engraving in the 'fifties of last century they were legion in number, both quartos and octavos, and many are still to be had for a few shillings. But a study of booksellers' catalogues alone will give you an idea of their prices and values. Needless to say, works upon voyages, travels, and explorations issued in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are becoming increasingly scarce and valuable.

Here a word of warning. Before you purchase any of these illustrated volumes, make sure (by referring to a bibliography or standard collation if possible) that it is intact. Frequently a plate or a map is missing, and sometimes an unscrupulous seller will go so far as to remove the 'list of plates' in order that the blemish may remain undetected. With such defects, books of travel are generally of little worth.

Some of the byways included in these headings of Travel and Foreign Countries are of considerable interest for the bibliographer no less than for the traveller. Who has confined his attentions to the early Saracenic literature of North Africa? There is a number of works dealing with it, chiefly sixteenth-century Spanish books, and all are of considerable value. Luis del Marmol's 'Descripcion general del Affrica' is in three folio volumes, of which the first two were printed at Granada in 1573, the third volume being dated at Malaga, 1599. But though Marmol affixed his own name to it, the work is little more than a translation of the 'Description of Africa,' by Leo Africanus, a fellow-countryman of Marmol, who composed his work in Arabic. Marmol was certainly well qualified for his task, for he was taken prisoner by the Moors in 1546, and was eight years in captivity in Africa. Curio's 'Sarracenicae Historiae' was first published in folio at Basel in 1567; but it was English'd by T. Newton in 1575, quarto, black letter, London—if you are so lucky as to come across it. It is called 'A Notable Historie of the Saracens.' Dan's 'Histoire de la Barbarie,' folio, Paris, 1649, appears in the sale-room from time to time.

[Sidenote: Americana.]

3. Americana—what a vast subject in itself! Its very definition signifies the inclusion of everything upon any subject whatsoever that has ever been written upon the Americas! But in the bibliographer's reading this term is generally taken to imply those early works relating to the discovery and settlement of the United States and Canada, though not necessarily in the English language. For the purposes of our list, however, we will confine its meaning solely to the United States; classifying books upon Canada, Alaska, and Mexico under the heading Travels and Exploration. Under the latter heading also, of course, will come the various countries of Central and South America.

Many have been the collections upon the early history of New England, and you will do well to obtain the catalogues of the Huth, Church, Auchinleck, Winsor, Livingston, Grenville, and Hoe collections. The famous collection of Americana from the library at Britwell Court was to have been sold by auction at Sotheby's in August 1916; but it was purchased en bloc to go to New York, where it was dispersed by public auction the following January. The sale catalogue (Sotheby's) is an extremely good one, and contains a large number of works previously undescribed. The well-known library of Americana amassed by Dr. White Kennet, bishop of Peterborough during the latter part of the seventeenth century, and entrusted by him in 1712 to the keeping of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 'for their perpetual use,' was sold by order of that Society at Sotheby's in August 1917 and realised very high prices, though most of the items were in poor condition. The gem of the collection, 'New England Canaan,' 1632, and most of the other important volumes (seventy-nine in all) had been presented previously by the Society to the British Museum. The highest price realised was L650, which was paid for 'A True Relation of the late Battell fought in New England between the English and the Salvages,' 1637, a small quarto of sixteen leaves, said to be by the Rev. Philip Vincent.[77]

There are two valuable bibliographies upon this subject, both necessarily large and important works. They are Sabin's 'Dictionary of Books relating to America,' in nineteen octavo volumes published at New York from 1868 to 1891, which, however, comprises only the headings from A to Simms: and Evans' 'American Bibliography,' privately printed in eight quarto volumes at Chicago, 1903 to 1914. Harrisse's 'Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima' (New York, 1866) with its supplement (Paris, 1872) is a bibliography of the rarest books concerning America that appeared between 1492 and 1551. Mr. W. H. Miner's 'The American Indians, North of Mexico,' published by the Cambridge University Press in 1917, contains a bibliography of works on the aboriginals.

[Sidenote: Architecture.]

4. Works upon Architecture are, de natura, for the greater part 'art books,' and comprise not only such large works as Furttenbach's massive tomes and the works of Britton and Billing, but the many beautifully illustrated books published by Ackermann at the beginning of last century. Most of them, English and foreign, are books of considerable value, for the plates were often produced by the great masters of engraving, and they readily command high prices whenever they appear in the market. But there is a large and increasing number of smaller works which deal with buildings and designs, as well as those books concerning buildings of an historical interest. There does not seem to be any monumental bibliography of architectural books, but you will find useful lists in Mr. W. P. Courtney's volumes.

The older books upon this subject are necessarily scarce: such as Alberti's 'Libri de Re AEdificatoria Decem,' which appeared first at Florence in 1485. This work, however, was reprinted at Paris in 1512, and you may have a copy of it for a couple of pounds, though the first French translation 'L'Architecture et Art de bien bastir, trad. par deffunct Jan Martin,' folio, Paris, 1553, with fine large woodcuts, will cost you four times as much. It is a fine book, and contains a portrait of the author as well as a three-page epitaph by Ronsard on the deffunct Jan Martin.

[Sidenote: Bibles.]

6. The collection of Bibles is perhaps one of the commonest subjects to engage the attention of specialists. There is a numerous bibliography, ranging from Anthony Johnson's little tract 'An Historical Account of the English Translations of the Bible,' printed in 1730, down to the Rev. J. L. Mombert's 'English Versions of the Bible,' of which a new edition appeared in 1907. You will find the volumes of Anderson, Cotton, Eadie, Loftie, Dore, Darlow and Moule, Stoughton, and Scrivener of assistance to you here, as well as Westcott's 'General View of the History of the English Bible,' of which a third and revised edition was published in 1905. It contains a useful list of English editions of the Holy Writ. The Huth Collection, that portion of it which was sold in 1911-12, was especially rich in Bibles, as was the Amherst Library, dispersed in 1908-09. This last contained editions from 1455 (the so-called 'Mazarin' Bible) to King Charles the First's own copy of the 1638 Cambridge edition. The sale catalogues of these will be of value to you.

7. Bibliography is perhaps the subject nearest to the heart of every bibliophile. But since the collection of 'books about books' must of necessity be the stepping-stone by which the book-lover attains his knowledge of the extrinsic attributes of his hobby, I have dealt with this subject at some length in the chapter wherein are treated the 'books of the collector.'

[Sidenote: Biography.]

8. Biography, Memoirs, Diaries: what a flood of names and memories occur to one under this heading! Not only the immortal Boswell and Pepys, but Fanny Burney, Alexandre Dumas, Mary Wortley-Montague, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, et permulti alii. Also, this heading will comprise that great series of mysterious and 'racy' books ycleped 'Court Memoirs,' and the somewhat less exciting but—to our book-hunter's mind at least—more interesting works which border on the domain of history, such as the Memoirs of Blaise de Montluc and Saint-Simon: works which bring home to us the everyday life of those far-off days more clearly than anything that has ever been written about them since.

How meagre is the stock of valuable historical memoirs with which we may furnish our libraries to-day! There is abundance to be had—after long searching, but the great Memoirs which we may have to hand, such as Froissart and Monstrelet, Waurin and La Marche, must number scarce a couple of dozen. Perhaps some day a philanthropic publisher will give us good editions (unabridged) of Sir James Melvil, Sir Philip Warwick, Edmund Ludlow, Bulstrode Whitlock, Sir Thomas Herbert, Robert Cary, Denzil Lord Holles, and many other valuable contemporary evidences now scarcely to be had, and when found usually in ancient tattered calf. Why is it, too, that the great mass of French chroniclers who bear witness to English doings in the wars of Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, Anjou and Touraine remain still untranslated and almost unprocurable?

There are so many delightful Memoirs to which one would like to have access at will. Jean de Boucicault, Marshal of France, stands out as one of the most interesting figures in mediaeval France and, indeed, Europe. Nicknamed 'le meingre,' he was Vicomte de Turenne, and bore arms at the age of ten. His father[78] also was a Marshal of France. Few men have lived such a stirring life as this paragon of knightly prowess. At Rosebeque in 1382 (where Philip van Artevelde and 20,000 Flemings were slain), being then a page of honour to Charles VI., he fought at the King's side and acquitted himself so well that he received knighthood at the King's hands. Thenceforward he was fighting continually in Flanders, Normandy, Brittany, Languedoc—in short wherever there was fighting to be done. In 1396, marching with the flower of the French chivalry through Bulgaria against the Turks, he was one of the three thousand knights taken prisoner at the disastrous battle of Nicopoli; but was among the twenty-five whose lives were spared by the savage victor. Four years later he was defending Constantinople for the Emperor against his late captor, and here again he distinguished himself greatly by his bravery.

Not long after this he was appointed Governor of Genoa. In command of the Genoese fleet he undertook to chastise the Cypriots for an outrage on some Genoese gentlemen. But calling at Rhodes on the way, the Grand Master of the Hospitallers persuaded him to try the effect of mediation first of all, and proceeded to Cyprus himself for that purpose. Whereupon the Marshal, 'to beguile the time, and give employment to the fiery spirits on board his squadron' (says a later chronicler) 'ran down at a venture to the Syrian city of Scanderoon, which place he carried by assault and plundered.' Encouraged by this success, on the Grand Master's return he persuaded that great personage to accompany him on a further expedition, and together they harried the whole coast of Syria, the Hospitaller confining his attention to the Infidels whilst the Marshal razed the factories which the Venetians (enemies to the Genoese) had established at Baruth and other places. Thus passing a very pleasant summer.

In Italy he took an active part in the turmoil betwixt Guelphs and Ghibellines, and seized Milan for the former (1409). At Agincourt in 1415 he commanded the vanguard of the French army, and was taken prisoner. Being sent to England, he remained there until his death six years later. This great soldier was a man of many accomplishments, an ardent musician as well as a poet; and his leisure was passed chiefly in composing ballads, rondeaux, and virelays. Yet his 'Livre des Faicts' remains unenglish'd.

Another truly great man of a later period was that great warrior of saintly life and death, Henri, Duc de Montmorency. After a long and noble career of arms in the service of his king no less than of his countrymen, he fell a victim to the jealousy of Cardinal de Richelieu. 'Dieu vouloit que sa mort fust aussi admirable que sa vie,' writes his biographer; 'que ses dernieres actions couronnassent toutes les autres; et que ses vertus Chrestiennes jettassent encor plus d'eclat que n'avoient fait les Heroiques.' Brought to the scaffold he refused to avail himself of the indulgence of having his hands at liberty. 'So great a sinner as I,' he said, 'cannot die with too much ignominy.' Of his own accord he took off his splendid dress. 'How can I,' said he, 'being so great a sinner go to my death in such attire when my guiltless Saviour died naked upon the Cross.' Yet save we are contented to turn to a poorly printed seventeenth-century edition of his Life, there is no place (to my knowledge at least) where we can read of this truly great man, and, of course, no version other than that in the French tongue.

Then there is that great and vivacious chronicle of the house of Burgundy during the fifteenth century, the Memoirs of Messire Olivier, Sieur de la Marche. No historian would write of the Flemish wars, from the Peace of Arras in 1435 to the taking of Ghent by the Archduke Maximilian in 1491, without constant reference to this invaluable work, for la Marche was often an eye-witness of the events which he records. Yet so far it has not been rendered in English, and I know of no complete edition in modern French. It is the same with the memorials of Bouchet, Chartier, de Coussy, Crillon, Olivier de Clisson, and many other great soldiers, all of whom have much to say of the wars 'contre les Anglois.' The famous history of Bertrand du Guesclin[79] contained in 'Le Triomphe des Neuf Preux' does not seem to have been reprinted after its second appearance in Spanish at Barcelona in 1586, and there is no English version.

Why is it that biography has such a peculiar fascination for most men? Is it but curiosity to know how others have passed their lives, mere idle inquisitiveness? Or is it that we may store up in our minds what these great ones said and did upon occasions that may occur to us some day? This is, perhaps the more likely; for women dislike biographies, and women, we are told, care not a fig for examples, but act upon their native intuition. Be the reason what it may, the fact remains that for one man who looks to the future there are fifty who look to the past. Moreover the sages of all times encourage us to seek examples in the lives of other men, and examples are certainly of more value than idle speculations. 'With what discourses should we feed our souls?' asked one of that pleasant philosopher Maximus of Tyre. 'With those that lead the mind [Greek: epi ton prosthen chronon]—towards former times,' replied the sage—those that exhibit the deeds of past ages.

Possibly it would be better to include biographical dictionaries under this heading than under 'Dictionaries.' Oettinger's 'Bibliographie Biographique Universelle,' published first in quarto at Leipzig, 1850, describes some 26,000 biographies, under their subjects' names. A second edition appeared in two octavo volumes at Brussels four years later. There is a useful catalogue of 174 biographical dictionaries in all languages at the end of the third volume of John Gorton's 'General Biographical Dictionary,' the 1833 edition.

[Sidenote: Famous Authors and Books.]

9. Celebrated Authors and Books. How interesting it would be to know which individual work, after the Bible, has passed through the greatest number of editions. 'The Pilgrim's Progress,' 'Robinson Crusoe,' 'The Decameron,' 'The Compleat Angler,' 'Paradise Lost,' all these must have been reprinted an immense number of times; while others such as 'Gil Blas' and 'Don Quixote' would not be so very far behind. Then there are the ancients, such as Homer, Horace, Virgil, with the great host of classics of the old world. Perhaps, however, the palm would be awarded to the 'Imitatio Christi' of the saintly Thomas a Kempis. The editions of it, from the presses of almost every country in the old and the new worlds, run well into four figures. An English collector, Edmund Waterton, succeeded in amassing no less than thirteen hundred, and at his death the British Museum acquired all those of his treasures which were not already upon its shelves.

There is another name to couple with this, though (I hasten to add) from a purely bibliographical standpoint—that of the great Dominican Giacomo di Voraggio, or Jacobus de Voragine. Except to the student of Early Fathers, the hagiologist, and the bibliophile, his very name has almost sunk into oblivion; but to these savants he stands forth as the compiler of that marvellous collection of the Lives of the Saints, known as The Golden Legend. The first Latin edition of his great work was printed in folio at Cologne in 1470, and six years later it appeared in French at Lyons and in Italian at Venice. Caxton translated and published an English version, and from that time to the middle of the sixteenth century it is said to have undergone more impressions than any other contemporary work.[80]

It is not only editions of individual works, however, that this heading comprises. Upon reading a book which pleases us greatly it is but natural to seek other works by the same author; and with the book-collector this tendency often becomes the basis of a definite plan of campaign. Who has yet formed a complete collection of the works and editions of Defoe, of Alexandre Dumas, or even of that indefatigable Jesuit antiquary Claude Francois Menestrier? There are bibliographies of all three, but I do not know of any library that possesses a complete collection of either. Every year sees the addition of bibliographies upon this subject, and we have now excellent accounts of the publications of Bunyan, Cervantes, Defoe, Milton, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Isaac Newton, Isaac Walton, and many other famous men.

Under this heading also is included the collection of books dealing with a particular author or book, such, for example, as the many published works upon the authorship of the 'Imitatio Christi,' the 'Eikon Basilike,' or the Letters of Junius, and—commonest sub-heading of all—'Shakespeareana.' The British Museum authorities have issued a bibliography (large quarto, 1897), of books in that library relating to Shakespeare, which you may have for a few shillings. If this be your hobby, however, perhaps the first book which you will acquire, at the very outset of your career, will be Sir Sidney Lee's monumental 'Life of William Shakespeare,' which has become a classic in itself. Of this, the first edition appeared in 1898, but a new edition (the seventh) rewritten and greatly enlarged, was published in 1915. It is, at the time of writing, the fullest and best, so is much to be preferred. It contains a full account of the earliest and subsequent editions and editors of the immortal writer. Mr. A. W. Pollard published in 1909 a bibliographical account of 'Shakespeare Folios and Quartos,' and you will find a lengthy list of books upon this subject in Appendix I of Sir Sidney Lee's work (1915). Mr. William Jaggard's 'Shakespeare Bibliography' purports to be 'a dictionary of every known issue of the writings of our national poet and of recorded opinion thereon in the English language.' It was published at Stratford-on-Avon in 1911, a thick octavo volume of more than 700 pages. The fifth volume of the 'Cambridge History of English Literature' contains some 47 pages of Shakespeareana in the bibliographies to Chapters VIII. to XII.

[Sidenote: Famous Presses.]

10. Celebrated Presses. Of all the famous printers this world has seen, there are two in particular whose productions have engaged the attentions of collectors continually, namely, the Manuccios ('Aldines') and the Elzeviers. The reason for this is not far to seek. Unlike the productions of Caxton or de Worde (whose works, mostly in the vernacular, have usually engaged the attentions of English collectors only), the volumes issued by these two great foreign houses stand out for their conspicuous merit both as specimens of book-production and as examples of scholarly editing. Should you decide, however, to confine your attention to some other of the great printers, then a delightful hobby will be yours; for the field is narrow, and your collecting must take the form of a personal inspection of each volume purchased. It will be book-hunting with a vengeance; the booksellers' catalogues (which rarely give the printers) will be of little use to you except as regards certain specimens with which you are acquainted, and each volume that you acquire will have been unearthed by your own hands. It is a subject which has been chosen so frequently by specialists that there are bibliographies of almost all the well-known printers, most of them, it were needless to add, in French. For a list of them, you must consult the work of Bigmore and Wyman, as well as that of Mr. W. P. Courtney.

There is a chance here, also, for the public librarian. How many of the public libraries in this country possess a collection of books illustrating the history and progress of printing in their particular towns? Most provincial public libraries now possess collections of books relating to the history and topography of their localities; and it should not be difficult to form similar collections of locally-printed books. It would be an interesting hobby for the private collector too, and such a collection would be of the greatest interest and value from the bibliographical standpoint. Similarly it would not be difficult to form a small collection of books printed by, say, the French or German or Italian printers before 1500, or the Paris or Venetian printers up to 1600. There is a considerable field for the collector here.

[Sidenote: Ballads and Broadsides.]

11. Chapbooks, Broadsides, and Ballads: a curious byway of book-collecting this, for the knowledge to be gleaned from these curiosa is not probably of great value. Nor can a great deal be said in favour of their utility. Perhaps, however, the first two would be classed more properly with No. 22—Facetiae and Curiosa, leaving Ballads only under this heading. The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres' 'Bibliotheca Lindesiana: a Catalogue of a Collection of English Ballads of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, printed for the most part in Black Letter' was printed privately in small quarto in 1890. It is undoubtedly the finest collection of this kind in the world. Ritson's 'Ancient Songs and Ballads' was revised by Hazlitt in 1877. Then there are such volumes as Payne Collier's 'Illustrations of English Popular Literature,' published in 1863-66, Huth's 'Ancient Ballads and Broadsides published in England in the Sixteenth Century' (1867), and others which will be mentioned when discussing Facetiae (22) and Pamphlets and Tracts (45). Lemon's 'Catalogue of a Collection of Printed Broadsides in the Possession of the Society of Antiquaries of London' (1866) and Lilly's 'Black Letter Ballads and Broadsides,' (1867) will also be of use to you here, as will the publications of the Percy, Ballad, and Philobiblon Societies. In 1856 J. Russell Smith, the antiquarian publisher of Soho Square, issued a 'Catalogue of a Unique Collection of Four Hundred Ancient English Broadside Ballads, Printed Entirely in the Black Letter' which he had for sale—a small octavo volume with notes and facsimiles. It is a valuable little book and somewhat hard to obtain. For other reference-books upon this subject, you must turn to the headings 'Ballads' and 'Broadsides' in Mr. W. P. Courtney's valuable 'Register of National Bibliography.'

This heading also includes the collection of proclamations and single sheet posters of all kinds. There is a fine collection of Royal Proclamations in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries, probably the most perfect in existence. 'Bookes' of Proclamations were issued by R. Grafton in 1550 (8vo), R. Barker in 1609 (folio), Norton and Bill in 1618 (folio)—all in black letter—and by several other the king's printers during the seventeenth century. For the purposes of the historian they are simply invaluable. The (26th) Earl of Crawford and Balcarres has printed a bibliography of proclamations, vols. v. and vi. of his 'Bibliotheca Lindesiana.'

[Sidenote: Civil War and Commonwealth.]

12. Civil War and Commonwealth is properly speaking a sub-heading of No. 30—History; but it is a favourite subject with book-collectors, and the volumes issued during this period are sui generis and mostly of considerable interest. With the abolition of the Star Chamber in 1641 the drastic repression of the printers disappeared, and, freed from all control, the presses now poured forth political tracts and volumes of every description. Needless to say a great number of the books thus issued were anonymous publications. But two years later an Order for the Regulating of Printing came into force, and Cromwell's censorship was reinforced by a further Act in 1649. Nevertheless a large mass of political matter continued, throughout the interregnum, to make its appearance on the stalls and in the shops. What would not Cromwell have given to suppress 'Killing no Murder'! Edwards' 'Catalogue of the Great Rebellion Tracts in the British Museum' was included in his 'Memoirs of Libraries,' which appeared in 1859. George Thomason's famous collection of Royalist tracts will be dealt with under the heading 'Pamphlets.'

[Sidenote: Classics.]

13. Of all the subjects in our list perhaps none comprises volumes of greater beauty and printed with greater distinction than this—the Classics of the Old World. It is a rare field for the scholar to-day, for the time when no library could be considered complete without editions of most of the old masters of Greece and Italy is long past; and there is nothing like the competition nowadays to secure the well-known editions which formerly adorned the shelves of our grandfathers. Not long ago our book-hunter witnessed the sale of a sixteenth-century folio Isocrates, bound in ancient green morocco, for seven and sixpence; and similar volumes are described continually in the modern booksellers' catalogues. There is more scope here for the collection of masterpieces of typography than in any other heading in our list. Aldines, Estiennes, Elzeviers, Plantins, Baskervilles, Barbous—all are within the reach of the most modest purse. You need not trouble to study Dibdin's 'Introduction to the Knowledge of Rare and Valuable Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics': if you are sufficiently fond of immortal books and beautiful printing to make this subject your hobby, your own eyes and hands will guide you in the choice of editions—from the bibliographical standpoint.

[Sidenote: Cookery Books.]

14. The Collection of Cookery Books offers a wider field for the book-collector's activities than would appear at first sight. Besides the considerable number of works of a purely culinary nature, there are many sources whence we can learn much concerning the dietary and table customs of our ancestors. Caxton's (or rather de Worde's) 'Book of Curtesye' is a primer of good manners for a small boy at table and elsewhere, and it may well find a place, in modern shape, on the shelf beside other volumes on household economy. 'Don't dip your meat in the salt-cellar,' the wise man tells Master Jackie, 'lest folk apoynte you of unconnyngnesse.' He must be careful, also, not to expectorate across the table,

'ne at the borde ye shall no naylis pare ne pyke your teth with knyf.'

Injunctions that are, perhaps, unnecessary nowadays; but all must agree with the great printer that

'it is a tedyous thynge For to here a chylde multeplye talkyng.'

Are books on table-manners published nowadays? The latest I remember to have seen is Trusler's 'The Honours of the Table, or Rules for Behaviour during Meals, with the Whole Art of Carving,' which appeared in 1788. It has woodcuts by Bewick, and is a curious and scarce little volume.

Even such unlikely volumes as Dugdale's 'Origines Juridiciales' (folio, London 1680), the Egerton and Rutland Papers, and other volumes of household accounts issued by the learned societies contain menus and long lists of foodstuffs and drinks consumed at various feasts. W. C. Hazlitt's account of some 'Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine' appeared in 12mo in 1886. It has a list of some of the older works. There is also a bibliography of books upon this subject in Dr. A. W. Oxford's 'Notes from a Collector's Catalogue' which appeared in 1909. His 'English Cookery Books to the Year 1850' was published in 1913. You will find a useful paper upon old English cookery in the 'Quarterly Review' for January 1894. M. Georges Vicaire's 'Bibliographie Gastronomique,' a handsome octavo volume with facsimiles, appeared at Paris in 1890.

Then there are such books on dieting as Cornaro's 'Discorsi della Vita Sobria' and Lessius on the Right Course of Preserving Health, both english'd in 1634 and printed at Cambridge in a tiny volume entitled 'Hygiasticon'; also Tryon's 'Way to Health,' Sir Thomas Elyot's 'Castel of Helth,' and other works of this nature. 'The Forme of Cury,' compiled about 1390 by the master cook of Richard II., was published by Samuel Pegge in 1780; and the 'Libre Cure Cocorum,' about 1440, was issued by the Philological Society in 1862. The 'Boke of Cookery' printed by Pynson in 1500, and Buttes' 'Dyets Dry Dinner,' 1599, you will probably have to go without unless your purse be a deep one; indeed so far as I am aware no duplicate is known of the first-mentioned!

[Sidenote: Costume.]

15. Books on Costume, like works on Architecture and the Fine Arts, are de natura 'art books.' During the first few decades of the nineteenth century there were published a number of folio volumes containing fine coloured plates, depicting the costumes of various foreign countries. Numerous books of travels issued during the same period also were embellished with similar plates; whilst of late years monographs have appeared on the history of various articles of attire, such as shoes, gloves, hats, etc. It is not a large field for the specialist, and at present I am unaware of any modern bibliography upon this subject. There are lists of costume books in Fairholt's 'Costume in England' (1896 edition), 'The Heritage of Dress' by Mr. W. M. Webb (1907), and a paper on them by Mr. F. W. B. Haworth in the Quarterly Record of the Manchester Public Library for 1903 (vol. vii. pp. 69-72).

Some of the older works on costume are extremely interesting for their curious engravings. For the most part they are valuable works. 'Le Recueil de la diversite des Habits, qui sont de present en usage, tant es pays d'Europe, Asie, Afrique et Isles Sauvages, le tout fait apres le naturel' was put forth by Richard Breton, a Paris printer, in 1564, octavo. It contains 121 full-page wood-engravings of costume; it is a little difficult, however, to see why the 'sauvages' should be included in a book of costume. But perhaps they are covered by the phrase 'apres le naturel.' Beneath each engraving is a rhyming and punning quatrain. Here is the one beneath the portrait of a young lady of demure appearance, entitled 'L'Espousee de France':

'L'espousee est coiffee, aussi vestue Comme voyez, quant elle prent mary, A demonstrer sa beaute s'esuertue, En ce iour la, n'ayant le cueur marry.'

There are other interesting sixteenth-century works by Abraham de Bruyn, Nicolas de Nicolay, Cesare Vecellio, Pietro Bertelli, Ferdinand Bertelli, and others, all with copper and wood engravings.

[Sidenote: Crime.]

16. Books dealing with Crimes and Prisons are classed generally under the heading Curiosa (22); but accounts of murders, rogueries, piracies, etc., are so common and so frequently engage the attentions of specialists that I have thought fit to place this subject in a class by itself. Needless to say the majority of works on this subject are in the shape of pamphlets or tracts, though some (such as the 'Trial of Queen Caroline') run to more than one thick volume. You must not expect to come across many of Samuel Rowlands' tracts on roguery, (1600-1620), for they are worth literally their weight in gold, and more. Many of them, however, have been reprinted by the Hunterian Club (1872-86). Nor will you find readily 'The Blacke Dogge of Newgate' by Luke Hutton, which appeared first about 1600, though 'The Life and Death of Gamaliel Ratsey, a Famous Thief of England,' was reprinted by Payne Collier. Mr. F. W. Chandler's two volumes on 'The Literature of Roguery,' published in 1907, will be of great assistance to you here; whilst Payne Collier's 'Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature' contains several murder pamphlets. The Newgate Calendar is well known and may be had, in varying states of completeness, of the booksellers from time to time, together with the many accounts of famous murders and trials.

[Sidenote: Dictionaries.]

17. Dictionaries and Etymologies are subjects which generally engross the attentions of 'curious antiquaries.' Some of the older dictionaries are of great interest. A few years ago our book-hunter purchased in London for half a crown a copy of Cooper's 'Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britanniae,' a thick folio printed at London by Henry Bynneman in 1584. It is bound in the original sheepskin, a portion of a vellum psalter having been used to strengthen the joints. The worthy bishop's text is delightful (Cooper died bishop of Winchester in 1594), the interpretations being in black letter, and it is full of quaint conceits. At the end is a biographical dictionary which certainly contains some startling statements. Baret's 'Alvearie or Triple Dictionarie,' 1573, and Rider's 'Bibliotheca Scholastica,' 1589, you may still come across, but do not set your heart upon acquiring a copy of Huloet's 'Abcedarium Anglico-Latinum' put forth at London in 1552. Perhaps the finest collection of dictionaries amassed by any one collector in this country was that of the reverend Dr. Skeat of Cambridge; but alas! at his death it was partly dispersed.

[Sidenote: Drama.]

18. Shakespeareana has already been dealt with under heading No. 9, and the bibliography of the Drama is a voluminous one. You will find the following works of value to you at the outset, if this be the subject of your choice. Hazlitt's 'Manual for the Collector and Amateur of Old English Plays' was issued in 1892, whilst Mr. F. E. Schelling's 'Elizabethan Drama, 1558-1642,' appeared in two volumes, New York, in 1908. The second volume contains a useful bibliography. Mr. W. W. Greg's 'List of English Plays written before 1643 and printed before 1770' was published by the Bibliographical Society in 1900. There is a supplementary volume which deals with Masques, Pageants, and some additional plays; it appeared in 1902. The bibliography to Chapter IV. in the tenth volume of the 'Cambridge History of English Literature' contains useful lists of works on the drama. The office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, 1623 to 1673, was edited by Professor Quincy Adams and published by the Yale University Press ('Cornell Studies in English,' vol. iii.) in 1917. It is the chief source of information about English plays and playwrights from 1623 until the Civil War, and the documents of the period 1660-73 are important to students of the Restoration Drama.

[Sidenote: Early-Printed Books.]

19. By the term 'early-printed books' the bookseller generally means fifteenth-century works, or incunabula as they are now called. You must needs be a rich man if this be your hobby, for every volume issued prior to the year 1500—however worthless as literature or useless from a bibliographical standpoint—is now worth at least a couple of pounds, provided it is complete and in good condition. You may pick up an example or two of early printing for a few shillings on your rambles, but every day the chance of a bargain in this direction is smaller. There is not a bookseller throughout the kingdom who is not aware of the minimum value of any volume printed in the fifteenth century, and a private purchase and treasure trove are the only sources available to the 'incunabulist' to-day. As regards works of reference on this subject, such books have already been dealt with in the chapter on the Books of the Collector.

[Sidenote: Early Romances.]

20. Early Romances, too, will tax your exchequer somewhat heavily, for these glorious folio and quarto examples of early woodcut engraving are eagerly snapped up whenever they appear in the market. One of the finest collections of these fascinating volumes in recent times was that amassed by Baron Achille Seilliere. A portion of it was sold at Sotheby's in February 1887. Most of these treasures were exquisitely bound by the great French masters of book-binding, and the sale of 1147 lots realised L14,944, an average of about L13 a volume. Yet it is safe to assert that the same collection to-day would fetch more than double that amount.[81] The first folio edition (Lyon, 1477) of Honore Bonnor's 'L'Arbre des Batailles' realised only L30. At the Fairfax Murray sale in 1918 the quarto Lyons edition (1510) made L130. The Lisbon edition of 'Le Triomphe des Neuf Preux' (1530) brought L83. The same copy at the Fairfax Murray sale realised L135. A second portion of this fine collection afterwards came under the hammer in Paris, and realised similar prices.

There is a numerous bibliography. Mr. A. Esdaile's 'List of English Tales and Prose Romances' was published by the Bibliographical Society in 1912, as was Mr. F. W. Bourdillon's 'Early Editions of the Roman de la Rose.' The second edition of W. J. Thom's 'Early English Prose Romances' appeared in three small octavo volumes in 1858, whilst Quaritch's 'Catalogue of Mediaeval Literature, especially the Romances of Chivalry' was issued—large octavo—in 1890. Mr. H. L. D. Ward's 'Catalogue of Mediaeval Romances in the British Museum,' in three volumes, was completed in 1910. For foreign Romances Lenglet du Fresnoy's 'Bibliotheque des Romans,' is useful. The Comte de Tressan's 'Corps d'Extraits des Romans de Chevalerie,' published in twelve volumes in 1787, has exquisite plates by Marillier. It is an interesting compendium of all the most famous romances of chivalry. The Early English Text Society has published a large number of old English romances both in verse and prose.

[Sidenote: Facetiae, Curiosa.]

22. Facetiae, Curiosa—a somewhat broad subject which would include Chapbooks, Broadsides, Jest Books, as well as those works which treat of 'Gallantry' and subjects generally not alluded to in polite society! The literature upon all these topics is so large that it is impossible to attempt a resume of it here, but you will find a very useful bibliography in the fourth volume of the 'Cambridge History of English Literature,' pages 514 to 536. Carew Hazlitt's 'Fugitive Tracts' (1875) and 'Studies in Jocular Literature' (1890) are both useful; and Mr. G. F. Black has recently (1909) printed a bibliography of Gipsies. Witchcraft, sometimes classed under this heading, shall be dealt with when we consider the Occult.

[Sidenote: Fine Arts.]

23. Works upon the Fine Arts are, like books on Architecture, chiefly illustrated. Doubtless such books are collected generally by students and craftsmen, but under this heading must be included books on gems, ancient statuary, and ceramics, cameos, rings, and the like. There is a large number of works which treat of these from the sixteenth century onwards, and many are to be had for a few shillings.

FOOTNOTES:

[74] Or turn to the index.

[75] Quarto. It was abridged in octavo the same year.

[76] Similarly, a quarto volume containing an account of the second voyage, 'Drawn up from Authentic Papers,' appeared anonymously in 1776; an octavo 'Journal' having appeared, also anonymously, the previous year.

[77] It was a cropped copy. The one in the Wilton Park library, sold at Sotheby's in March, 1920, lacked two blank leaves and was unbound; but it was a fine large copy and fetched L660.

[78] He was a contemporary of Geoffroi de La Tour Landry, who relates a pleasing story of his amours in Chapter xxiii. of the book which he wrote for the delectation of his three daughters.

[79] Du Guesclin gave striking proofs of courage in his childhood, and at 16 won a prize at a tournament (where he was unknown and against his father's will). He spent most of his life fighting the English, gained several victories over them, and recovered Poitou, Limousin, and many towns in Normandy and Brittany. Charles V. created him Constable of France in 1370, and he died in 1380 in harness, at the ripe age of 66, while besieging a town in Languedoc. He was buried in the Abbey of St. Denis, at the feet of the royal master whom he had served so well. It is said that he could neither read nor write (which is probably incorrect), but his life and deeds were recorded shortly after his death (as in the case of Bayard) by a 'loyal serviteur'—folio, Gothic letter, printed by Guillaume Le Roy at Lyons about 1480. Of this there does not appear to be any English version. (See also footnote on page 92.)

[80] Melchior Cano, a later Provincial of his Order, is reported to have said concerning this book, 'The author of this Legend had surely a mouth of iron, a heart of lead, and but little wisdom or soundness of judgment'; for it abounds with the most puerile and ridiculous fables and absurdities. But of course 'Voragine' wrote in accordance with the fashion and beliefs of his time.

[81] The portion of the Sudbury Hall Library sold at Sotheby's in June 1918 realised L20,201, 10s. There were 526 lots, an average of more than L38 a volume. The prices realised at the sale of that part of the Britwell Court Library dispersed at Sotheby's in December 1919, however, far exceeded any hitherto obtained. 108 lots brought L110,356—an average of nearly L1,022 a volume. But in this case every book was rarissimus. A small volume containing the only known copy of the fourth edition of Shakespeare's 'Venus and Adonis' (1599), the first edition of 'The Passionate Pilgrim' (1599—one other copy known), and 'Epigrammes and Elegies' by Davies and Marlow (circa 1598), realised L15,100—and departed forthwith to the United States.