Gr. & Lat. Adnotationibus variorum suisque illustravit Johannes Schweighauser, 8vo. Lipsiæ, 1785. Voll. 3.

ÆLIAN.

Varia Historia cum notis variorum curante Carolo Gottlob Krehn, Gr. 8vo. 2 Vol. Lipsiæ, 1780.

De Animalibus, Gr. et Lat. cum notis Jo. Gottleb Schreider, 8vo. Lipsiæ, 1784.

STOBEÆUS.

Gr. 4to. edente Victore Trincarello, typis Bart. Zanetti. Venet. 1536.

APULEIUS.

Metamorphoseon Libri XI. cum notis variorum et Franc. Oudendorpii et præfatione David. Ruhnkenii, 4to. Lugd. Bat. 1786.

PAULUS OROSIUS.

Augusta, per Johannem Schuzzler, Anno Do mini, 1471.

The reader will not be displeased to know that the Cracherode Collection possesses all the above editions.

CANTICA CANTICORUM. ·

Cantica Canticorum, sive Historia, vel Provi dentia Beatæ Virginis Mariæ ex Cantico Canticorum. Sine anno, loco et typog. in

Folio. Catalogue des Livres de M. Crevenna, No. 177.

THIS is one of four very curious and rare publications, which have occasioned some controversy concerning the invention of the Art of Printing; and a doubt has been entertained by many, whether they should be called Books, or Books of Prints.

The three others, as described by Heineken, in his Idee Generale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes, are these which follow:

1. Historiæ Veteris et Novi Testamenti, usually called the Biblia Pauperum.

This is certainly a very great typographical curiosity, and consists of forty leaves, which represent the principal historical subjects in the Bible, coarsely cut in wood. It is, with the others which I shall describe, attributed to Laurence Coster, of Haarlem, between the years 1440 and 1450. Sentences are interspersed in scrolls, sometimes above and sometimes below, as com▾ ing from the mouths of the speakers.

This

This was certainly executed before the invention of moveable types. For more particular descriptions of this rare performance, the reader may consult

De Bure, No. 115.

Gaignat, No. 113.

Heineken, p. 292.

Valliere, No. 121.

Panzer, V. 4. p. 97.

Meerman's Origines Typograph.

The Royal Library possesses the copy which was Gaignat's. It was purchased at his sale for about 830 livres.

The Valliere copy sold for 780 livres, and was purchased for the late unfortunate Sovereign of France. This however was imperfect.

The copy in the Bibliotheca Parisiana, which was sold in 1791, was purchased by Mr. Willer for 511.

The above publication is often confounded with the Speculum humanæ Salvationis, but they are perfectly distinct. See Heineken, p. 292, and De Bure, No. 117. p. 127. Mr. Rogers, in his letter to Mr. Astle, has been guilty of this error. His expression is Speculum Salutis or La Bible des Pauvres. I may here be allowed to correct an error, into which Mr. Astle himself has fallen. In p. 196 of his first edition he says, That the Romans deposited their most valuable works in cases or chests made of cedar. But

this no where appears. They rubbed them with oil of cedar; and the very quotations, which he introduces to prove his position, mean this and

no more:

Speramus carmina fingi

Posse linenda cedro.

HORACE.

Cedro nunc licet ambules perunctus.

A specimen of the sort of Scrinium, in which they actually deposited these things, may be seen in Maffei, No. 131. The statue there represented, is undoubtedly that of Trajan.

2. Historia Sancta Johannis Evangelistæ ejusque Visiones Apocalypticæ.

There is also a copy of this in the Royal Library, but it is the fifth edition, and wants the 36th and 37th plates.

One of the blocks, from which this typographical specimen was printed, was in the possession of the late Mr. Astle. It was given by him to Lord Spencer. See his Book on the Origin and Progress of Writing, first edition, p.

215.

în

The reader will find it particularly described

De Bure, No. 116.

Gaignat, No. 115.

Maittaire, V. 1. p. 17 and 18.

Heineken, p. 334.

Crevenna, P. 1. p. 31.

Meerman,

Meerman, V. 1. p. 234.

Panzer, V. 4. p. 141.

Gaignat's copy was purchased for 400 livres. There was a copy in the Valliere Library, which also was purchased for the King of France, for 799 livres.

3. Historia seu Providentia Virginis Mariæ ex Cantico Canticorum.

This is the work announced in the commencement of this article, and is preserved in the Cracherode Collection.

It consists of sixteen plates, printed only on one side, but each plate represents two distinct subjects. Scrolls, consisting of passages from Solomon's Song, are interspersed in all.

This performance has more of the Gothic character, than the two which precede. The figures, as Heineken observes, very much resemble the sculptures in churches.

This is perhaps the scarcest of them all. I know of no other than the Cracherode copy, and that which is in the Bodleian at Oxford.

4. Historia Beatæ Mariæ Virginis, ex Evangelistis et Patribus excerpta, et per figuras de

monstrata.

There is no copy of this work, that I know of, in this country. Heineken mentions one in the cabinet of Mr. Girardot de Prefond, at Paris.

It is described by Gaignat, in his first volume, No. 119, p. 36, 37. It sold for 352 livres.

This