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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XL MAY 23, 1903
BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.
THE catalogues of Messrs. Ellis & Elvey are always studded with rarities. No. 101 is no ex- ception to the rule. On the first page is a ' Catena Aurea' of Thomas Aquinas, 1482, the illuminated initial letters comprehending a miniature of the author. Baret's 'Alvearie,' 1573, which follows, is a volume of great rarity. A 1725 reprint of the Giunta Boccaccio is on large paper, in which shape it is uncommon. A Chaucer (c. 1545) is priced 60 guineas. Coryat's 'Crudities'; a MS. Hours on vellum ; a Flemish ' Herbal ' of 1547 ; a 1561 ' Pierce Plowman ' ; a volume of plates by Mantegna; a 'Catalogue of Saints' by Peter de Natalibus, 1506; an interesting reproduction of the plates to ' Le Songe de Poliphile' ; and a handsome copy of ' Les Grandes Proesses ' of Tristan de Leonnoys, Paris, 1533, with vellum MSS., &c., are included in a fine collection.
The latest catalogue of Messrs. Maggs deals with books of natural history and travel. Under 'Africa,' 'Alpine,' 'America,' 'Australia,' &c., are innumerable oooks of a kind now in most active demand. Amidst works which the reader must glance over for himself in search of rarities, we detect Hakluyt, ' The Principal Navigations,' 1599- 1600, three volumes in two, a work that adds to the attraction of any library ; Lord Kingsborough's 'Antiquities of Mexico, 9 yols., 1831-48, pub- lished at 140Z. ; Lescarbot's ' Histoire de la Nouvelle France'; a Ptolemy of 1511; a ' Vera Historia Schmidei,' 1599 ; Angas's 'South Australia'; Prin- sep's ' Indian Antiquities '; a collection of Max Muller's "Sacred Books of the East"; Pohl's ' Brazil Plants,' large paper ; Harvie-Brown and Buckley's ' Fauna of Scotland ' ; and Latham's ' Faulconry,' 1658.
Mr. Russell Smith, whose taste in old books is inherited, calls his last catalogue ' Books of Five Centuries.' His incunabula and sixteenth-century works include a rare A'Kempis (Ulm, J. Zainer, 1487), with some curious features worth noting by the bibliographer; and ' Actes of Parliament,' Berthelet, c. 1530. He offers also a report of the famous Annesley case of kidnapping, which forms the basis of more than one play once popular, including, if we remember rightly, Charles Reade's 'Wandering Heir'; a ' Con tea Drolatiques,' first edition, with Dora's illustrations, much superior to the later impressions ; Benlowe's 'Theophila'; a priced catalogue of the books of Madame de Pom- padour: some black-letter broadside ballads; Bulwer a ' Anthropometamorphosis ' ; Civil War and Commonwealth tracts ; Capt. Covert's ' True Report'; Crashaw's 'News from Italy,' quarto, HiOH; quarto plays by D'Avenant, Otway, Shad- well, Dilke, &c. ; Drayton's ' Poems,' 1627, large paper ; some French facetiae and songs, the latter MS. ; Hollar's ' Theatrum Mulierum ' ; a ' Contes ct Nouvelles' of La Fontaine, 1685, with Romeyn de Hooge's plates ; and fourteen volumes of the Tyburn Chronicle. Under 'Heraldry,' 'Mili- tary,' ' Song-Books,' ' Trials,' &c., are many curious items.
The latest catalogue of Mr. Francis Edwards con- sists principally of recent remainders, a class of
works on which the intelligent purchaser keeps his eye, since such have a habit of developing into rarities when once the edition is ex- hausted. Smollett's works (ed. Henley), Walpole's
' George III.' (ed. Russell Barker), Knowles's ' Folk
Tales of Kashmir,' and Madden's 'Coins of the
Jews' are items the book-lover will do well to
note.
Mr. Charles Higham offers a number of works, principally theological, among which Solomon Mandel Keen's ' Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance to the Old Testament,' a set of the Calvin Trans- lalion Society, a complete set from the commence- ment of the Journal of Sacred Literature, a Parker's ' Pulpit Bible,' and a Smith and W ace's ' Dictionary )f Christian biography' are conspicuous. But his catalogue! are always rich in theology.
No. 1 of Mr. Voynich's short catalogues is, like his large catalogue, wholly made up of rarities, printed and MS. Karly Alduses are still sought after, and he has several, including an editio princepx of liol- zanius, 1497 ; a ' Hymns of Homer,' 1517 ; a Valerius Maximus, 1502. Some fine specimens of the Augs- burg press, chiefly incunabula, are offered at very low prices. Specimens of binding, armorial, Eng- lish, French, German, Italian, Scottish, and Spanish, abound. There are many early classics, and some English chap-books. Under Boccaccio and Dante are interesting entries. There is also a very rare ' Life and Death of Mr. Badman,' by Bunyan, and a still rarer copy of ' A Hermeticall Banquet,' 1652, for which see Hazlitt. Spanish presses before 1500, the rarities of the productions from which are known, are represented. There is a life of ^Esop, 1493, with woodcuts, and a remarkable Venetian Anti- phonarium of Francesco do Bruges, 1504.
Mr. T. Thorp, of Reading, advertises thirty-four volumes of Bcntlev's Magazine, including first issues of 'Oliver Twist,' 'Ingoldsby,' &c., and many plates by Cruikshank ; Brongniart et Rio- creux's description of the Sevres manufactures ; ' Sir Francis Drake Revived,' 1652-3; 'Foreign Field Sports' ; Gruner's ' Specimens of Ornamental Art,' 1850; 'Tractatus de Testamentis,' &c., Venice, 1488-1499 ; Knight's ' Remains of the Worship of Priapus,' 1706 ; a copy in morocco of the famous 6dition des Fermiers G6n6raux of the ' Contes et Nouvelles' of La Fontaine, 1762. priced only IS/. ; the 1741 Rabelais, with plates by Picartand others ; a set of the Waverley Novels in first and early editions, and many of the Tudor Translations.
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