'T is not claimed that the books described in this Catalogue
form a Library. They are only a Collection. Nearly

I

twenty years ago I began a tolerably comprehensive course
of bistorical reading. In selecting the works necessary for this
I got into the way of frequenting booksellers' shops, and thus
became inoculated with the disease which, in its development,
made me a Collector. For many years I found rest after a bard
day's work in Wall Street, by spending an hour or two on my
way bome in one or more places where I could look over recently
purchased books. In those days Mr. Sabin's shop in Nassau
Street was the favorite resort of book-collectors, and one could
meet several of them there nearly every afternoon. The arrival
of a box from London, containing new importations of books,
was always an occasion of interest, and usually gave rise to
keen competition for the privilege of making the first selections.
Mr. Sabin was an enthusiastic student of Americana, and I was
soon instilled with the same feeling. My first efforts were not
directed to the purchase of rarities so much as to early local
bistories of towns, accounts of Indian fights, and other incidents
of special interest. But it is natural to work back to first
principles, and so I found myself striving more and more every
year to secure the original sources of our knowledge of the dis-
covery and early bistory of the country. This made me more
or less familiar with the works issued in the early part of the
sixteenth century and the latter part of the fifteenth. Then I
became impressed with the wonderful beauty of these volumes,
and I began to study and collect Early Printed Books.

The dispersion of several of the finest libraries in England
gave unexpected and most favorable opportunities to secure books

of this description. It is not in the range of probability that collectors will ever again bave such facilities in this direction as were given by the sale of the Sunderland, Hamilton Palace, Beckford, Syston Park, and Wodbull Libraries. They contained volumes of which bibliographers have written enthusiastically for a bundred and fifty years, and which were generally supposed to be out of the reach of modern collectors. I was fortunate enough to secure many of the more notable of these precious volumes, and to crown fittingly my acquisition of them by the purchase of the most remarkable of all printed books, as it is the first—the Gutenberg Bible. In selecting these examples of early typographical work I have always tried to get books which were not only beautiful and in fine condition but which were inherently valuable. Next to the Gutenberg Bible the oldest printed volume in the collection is the Catholicon of Balbus. It is the fourth book printed with a date (1460), and is the first lexicon or dictionary published. The "De Officiis" of Cicero is remarkable as being the first classic printed and as exhibiting the first example of Greek characters in print, all previous passages having been written in. The collection contains three other First Editions of Cicero. There are to be found also the only known copy of the first printed Arithmetic, the First Editions of Apuleius, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Boccaccio, Cæsar, St. Chrysostom, Columbus, Cortes, Euclid, Euripides, Hesiod, Homer, Horace, Lactantius, Lascaris (the first book printed in Greek), Peter Martyr, Nepos, Petrarch, Pindar, Plato, Plautus, Pliny, Plutarch, Ptolemy, Seneca, Tacitus, Theocritus, Vespucius, and Virgil. It must be borne in mind that these volumes were printed directly from manuscripts and that they have, therefore, the same importance, virtually, as the original classical codices. No matter what may be the estimation in which public opinion bolds

a classical education, such books as these will possess an attraction for intelligent men and women for all time. They represent the great leaders in Fiction, Poetry, Mathematics, Philosophy, Theology, History, and Travel, and they are the very foundation-stones of the literature of the cultivated world.

The collection is strong in typographical rarities. It contains, in addition to those already named, the first three and the only books printed by John of Spira, the first printer of Venice; the first book printed in Italy; one by the first printers of Paris; one in which signatures were used for the first time; the first volume issued in octavo form; the first book printed by the stereotype process; and many others of almost equal interest.

Next in importance are the Americana. At the head of the list stands the unique copy of Columbus's Letter in Spanish to Luis de Sant Angel, which I believe to be the earliest printed report of Columbus's first voyage. Then follow the two editions in Latin, one of which Harrisse claims to be the first of all the Latin editions, while Major makes the same claim for the other. With them is to be found also the equally rare edition in German. After these come the Voyages of Vespucius and of Cortes, the Works of Peter Martyr, the Voyages of Nunez Cabeça de Vaca, of Laudonnière, Jacques Cartier, Oviedo, Hakluyt, De Bry, Champlain, Garcilasso de la Vega, Captain John Smith and others. The rarest of the accounts of the settlements made in this country by the English and French during the seventeenth century are also to be found in the collection. The copy of Eliot's Indian Bible, which is usually classed under Americana, is next in interest, perhaps, to Gutenberg's great work.

Of the books printed in England, Caxton's edition of Higden's Polychronicon stands first. It came from a dealer

who described it as the best of the six known perfect copies. Wynkyn de Worde is represented by the Vitas Patrum and The Seven Penitential Psalms. The rare and beautiful first English edition of The Ship of Fools is an example of Richard Pynson's skill, and Arnold's Chronicle of London, printed by Peter Treveris, compares favorably with it. Among the works of Shakespeare are to be found six of the Quarto editions, the four Folios, the Poems, and a copy of the Venus and Adonis of which only one other copy is known, and that, being in the British Museum, is beyond the reach of the collector. There are also First Editions of Shirley, Massinger, Peele, Daniel, Ben Jonson, Milton, Burns, Keats, and Shelley. The last named volume bas a personal feature of the greatest interest, which is not mentioned in the Catalogue. It is a presentation copy from Shelley to Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and contains more than a page of her writing, in which she inscribes ber admiration and love of Shelley.

Among the French books are included the illustrated works which were published in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and which are remarkable for grace of design and perfection of execution. When the drawings of Eisen, Moreau, Monnet, Denon, Lebarbier, and others, were skillfully engraved on copper, then printed on fine paper, and the whole bound with that taste for which the French binders are proverbial, the result was a book which for artistic beauty has never been excelled. It is not improper to say that I have exercised fastidious care in the selection of these volumes, and that they are in the finest possible condition.

The study of Early Printed Books took me naturally to Manuscripts, and while I have not made any efforts to collect a great number, I have tried to secure representative examples of the English, French, and Italian schools. The Pembroke

Book of Hours is not surpassed, probably, by any manuscript of English execution in any private collection in the world. The smaller manuscripts, while less important, are equally interesting as specimens of the skill of mediaval scribes and illuminators. It is instructive to compare the French examples with the Books of Hours printed at Paris about the beginning of the sixteenth century. In some cases, only a careful examination will enable one to detect the differences between the written and the printed volumes.

Mingled with the rarities above described will be found a goodly number of essays, bistories, books of poetry, and works on political economy. Without laying claim to much knowledge I can say truthfully that my acquaintance with my books bas not been confined to their exteriors or to their typographical peculiarities. They have comforted me after many a weary day, and bave stood often in the place of friends. I can bope nothing better for them and for their future owners than that they may receive as watchful care and give as much pleasure as while in my possession:

B. I.

New-York, January, 1891.