second part, unbound. £79. BYRON, Lord. Autograph letter, signed, to John Hunt, 1823, referring to "Don Juan," unpublished. £30. COLUMNA. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Venice, printed by Aldus. 1499. Ed. princeps, with wood engravings. French morocco. S, N 26. £77. CERVANTES. Don Quichote. Skelton's translation, 1612-20. First ed. of both parts, old Russia. £59. S, D 5. DIE Deutsche Bibel. Augsberg, printed by Zainer, 1473-75. Fifth edition, original oak boards. £51. S, N 26. DIALOGUS Creaturarum. Lyons, printed by Claude Nourry, 1509. 122 woodcuts. Bound in red morocco by Trautz-Bazuonnet. £62. S, N 26. DAS Buch der Schatzbehalter. Nürnberg, printed by Koburger, 1491. Pigskin. £66. S, N 26. DAT Boek van der Navolghinge Jhesu Christi. Lubeck, 1496, original oak boards, covered with stamped calf. £102. S, N 26. SOME NOTES ON BATTLEDores. To the Editor of The Literary Collector: Battledores apparently have survived in greater number than I thought when writing my article on the subject which appeared in your last issue. I find among my papers, and notes on the subject that at the sale in July 1900 of Childrens Books, Horn-Books, etc. Collected by the late A. W. Tuer, in Iul over 700 assorted copies were offered in seven lots. These however were all productions of the early years of the nineteenth century, and I should judge were in most cases "remainder" lots found in the warehouses of the publishers and booksellers. When Mr. Tuer, in collecting materials for his book, was advertising for examples, his advertisements naturally set them to rummaging among their old stock and thus led to their being unearthed. They bore the imprints of Toller of Kettering, Richardson of Derby, Moore of Castle Cary, Rucher of Banbury, Barker of Eastwood, etc., all of a much later date than Collins of Salisbury, whose invention was, as I have said and as this fact shows, pirated all over England. The same catalogues contains a list of over 30 Horn Books, of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-including examples in Hebrew, Danish, German and Latin. Not the least curious items were two matrices for making gingerbread horn books-if you may so call them. They consisted of the alphabet only and recall the lines of Prior: To master John the English maid A horn-book gives of gingerbread, And that the child may learn the better As he can name, he eats the letter. These are still made and sold in Belgium, Holland, and other parts of Europe. The very commonest kind of dough is employed for the children of the poor and for the superior classes they are made of Marzipan and such rich confections. The pate d'Italie which so often figures in the bills of fare of foreign resturants is probably a survival of the Italian variant of the same custom. Of Horn Books in America, I have in my notes the record of one only. It was bought at the Probasco Sale in March, 1899, by Bangs for Mr. J. W. Ellsworth of New York for $147, and cost its former owner $275. CHAS. WELSH. T H & BOOK OF THE GENERAL LAWS For the People within the JURISDICTION of Collected out of the RECORDS of be Lately Revifed, and with fame Emendations and Additions Eftablifhed and Publied by the Authority of the GENERAL COURT of Cenik, Holden at Harford in Osber, 1672. IT is usual, I believe, in writing a biography to begin with a sketch of the ancestry of the subject. In like manner I will begin with a short account of the forerunners of the "Connecticut Law Book of 1673." In January, 1639, less than six years after the first white settlement was established on the banks of the Connecticut, the three towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield united under a formal compact then called the "Fundamental Orders," and now spoken of as the first written constitution of the new world. These orders were not at once printed, nor were they printed at all, so far as I am aware, until almost one hundred and seventy-five years after their adoption. In October of the same year the general court appointed a committee to "review all former orders and lawes and record such of them as they conceave to be necessary for publique concernment, and deliver them into the Secretaryes hands to be published to the severall Townes." At the same session the court also passed the following order: "Within 20 dayes after the end of this Court, the Secretary shall provide a copy of all the penall lawes or orders standing in force, and all other that are of general concernment for the government of the Comonwealth, and shall give directions to the Constables of every Towne to publish the same within 4 dayes more, att some publique meeting in their several Townes, and kept for the use of the Towne, and soe for future tyme for all lawes or orders that are made as aforsayd, each session of the General Courts; and once every yeare the Constables, in their severall Townes, shall read or cause to be read in some publique meeting all such lawes as then stand in force and are not repealed." This order, I suppose, continued in force for seventy years, or at least so much of it as related to the acts passed at each session. In 1646 the General Copyright, 1903, by THE LITERARY COLLECTOR CO. All rights reserved. 199725 A Court requested "Mr. Ludlowe," Roger Ludlow of Windsor, "to take some paynes in drawing forth a body of Lawes for the government of this Commonwealth." After a long delay this body of laws was "concluded and established" in May, 1650; and hence is usually designated as the "Code of 1650." It was not printed at that time nor till more than a century and a half later. This code was, however, written into the town's law book of the different towns. One of these books, the one used by the town of Windsor, still exists and is now among the treasures belong to this Society. It contains the code of 1650, to which are added the acts passed at the sessions following that date until October, 1708, after which the acts of each session were printed. The volume is not quite complete, wanting the first five leaves and a few leaves in other sections. The society also possesses several of the certified copies of laws which were sent to the town of Windsor after the close of a session of the general court, and which after being read in a public meeting were recorded in this book. By 1671 so many laws had been enacted that in May of that year the court ordered Secretary Allyn to "prepare a draught of the Lawes of this Jurisdiction now in use" with the amendments and additions, "to be farther revised and prepared" for the court's approval. And a committee was appointed consisting of the governor, deputy governor and the assistants, among whom were Secretary Allyn and Samuel Wyllys "to consider the lawes and prepare and dispose them soe that they may be fitt-to be published and printed." The following year, 1672, the laws were ordered "to be printed as soone as may be conveniently." And in October, 1673, the court appointed "Mr. Samuel Wyllys and Mr. James Richards to compare one of the Law bookes with the originall, and see that the printer rectify the errataes according to his covenant." At the same time "our lawes as they are now printed," were ordered to be published in each town. before "the last of December next, and from that day" they were to be in full force. The full title of the volume is: "The Book of the General Laws For the People within the Jurisdiction of Connecticut; Collected out of the Records of the General Court, Lately Revised, and with some Emendations and Additions Established and Published by the Authority of the General Court of Connecticut, holden at Hartford in October, 1672. Cambridge: Printed by Samuel Green, 1673." This was the first printed edition of the colony's laws and the first work issued by the colony; its printing having been undertaken "notwithstanding the exceeding great difficulties of the Work." Samuel Green's press was at that time the only one in the colonies. Green himself was a famous printer and the progenitor of a famous family of printers whose name may be seen in the imprints of two centuries of American printing. |