6

Roger Ascham's prophecy abundantly fulfilled-by the dispersion of BIBLES for the admission of RoMANCES. These are mischievous results, and should be avoided.

Without further preface, therefore, I proceed to the recommendation of those books in which the WORD of GOD, or the Sacred Text, is contained with every possible advantage bestowed upon it from the piety learning, and research of man. Of course, I speak of Editions of the BIBLE. And first of

POLYGLOT BIBLES.

These have been always considered as the foundation stones of a theological collection; but the ordinary Collector will do well to rest satisfied with the possession of two out of the four, of such publications of Holy Writ: namely, with the first Polyglot Bible,

Britannica. Several very uncommon pieces of Dekker will be found in the "Catalogue of the singular and curious Library of Sir Robert Gordon, of Gordonstoun," sold by auction by Mr. Cochrane in 1816: see nos. 771-777. Mr. Heber possesses, I believe, the most complete collection of the works of this coarse, but clever, writer.

* Ascham's words are these:-"I know when God's Bible was banished the court, and La Morte d'Arthure received into the Prince's chamber." The worthy Ascham is most vehement against this Romance, which has lately been twice reprinted in a duodecimo form, with cuts. Of this reprint, all the exceptionable passages are omitted in one edition; in the other they are retained:- — and, shame to say! this latter is the more saleable impression. A little before, Ascham says, "Ten Sermons at Paule's Crosse do not so much good for moving men to true doctrine, as one of those books do harm, with enticing men to ill living." Schoolmaster; by Bennett, 4to. p. 253-4.

published at Alcala, in 1514-22; 6 vols. folio; and with the fourth, published at London in 1657, in the same number of volumes, of which the famous BRIAN WALTON was the principal editor.* The Lexicon of

* Of the Polyglot of CARDINAL XIMENES, there are three copies printed UPON VELLUM: one is in the Vatican, and one was formerly in the library of the Capuchins of Montefiascone: the third, formerly belonging to the Cardinal himself, and which was more recently in the collections of Pinelli and Count Macarthy, is now in the library of George Hibbert, Esq. of Portland Place. Mr. Hibbert has dispossessed it of the comparatively inappropriate binding in which it was clothed by De Rome, when in possession of the Count, and has clad it in a magnificent vestment of dark blue morocco, under the skilful hands of C. Lewis. It is barely possible to view these volumes without feeling a justifiable pride that they are the property of an Englishman. I should apprehend that the finest paper copy in the world, is that in the Royal Library at Paris; it had belonged to Henri II. and Diane de Poictiers: but a copy of remarkable beauty was sold at the sale of Meerman's books for 651. Its ordinary price is 361.

Of the Polyglot of WALTON, the LARGE PAPER copies are so rare, that I have no recollection of the sale of one within the last twenty or even thirty years. But yet scarcer than these, is the large paper of the Lexicon of Castell. Indeed, at this moment, my recollection furnishes me only with four such copies: one in St. John's Coll. Library at Cambridge; a second, in the Library of St. Paul's Cathedral; a third, (of extraordinary condition) in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth; and a fourth, in the British Museum. The history of the rise and progress of this matchless work is ably given by my friend the Rev. Mr. Todd, in his Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Rev. Brian Walton, 1821. 8vo. 2 vols. It is scarcely a twelvemonth ago, since I saw, at Mr. Lawford's, in Squibb's Passage, a copy of the ordinary paper of Walton's Polyglot, with two or three extra heads, containing an original, circular Letter, prefixed, exhorting the public to an encouragement of the work, (see Todd's Mem, of Walton, vol. i. p. 49.) and signed by Walton, and other learned men. I think five guineas were demanded for this particular, and not incurious document; and thirty guineas for the copy of the work exclu

Castell is an indispensable accompaniment of the latter work.

And let him, if this cannot be obtained in its original

sively.t Mr. Payne, in his last catalogue, marks a fine copy at the same price. So does Mr. Bohn. Messrs. Longman and Co. mark a copy at 211.: Cat. 1822. no. 5777. Messrs. Rivington and Cochran, at the moment of penning this, justly boast of possessing not fewer than eight copies of this Polyglot of Walton, a thing perhaps unparalleled in the annals of bibliopolism. Mr. Thorpe, in a recent catalogue, marks a copy, containing BOTH THE PREFACES‡ (the royal and the republican), at 451.: "a remarkably fine copy, very strong, and neatly bound in russia." But such a copy is not unique. Mr. Hibbert has a similar one, with the Original Dedication, and the rare edition of the "original Advertisement;" as copied by Mr. Todd, vol. i. p. 68. The rage for republican copies has a good deal, if not entirely, subsided; and I suspect that copies of this description are as common as those called royal copies. Even in the solitude of Worlingham, (the seat of the late Robert Sparrow, Esq. in Suffolk) I discovered a republican copy, bound in blue morocco, and ruled with red lines; which had once belonged to " P. de Cardonnel." The DEDICATION to King Charles II. is the really rare thing to possess: and yet, what will be the surprise of the reader to learn, that this bibliographical keimelion, wanting in most of the large paper copies, is to be found in a copy, on small paper, in the library of Bamburgh Castle in Nor thumberland?§ I am indebted to my young and ardent book-loving

+ If I mistake not, this copy was purchased by a common journeyman shoemaker; who had contrived to snatch intervals, from his arduous and almost incessant occupation, to make himself acquainted with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages.

↑ A copy, more than perfect, necessarily supposes another copy less than perfect. Nor is it probable that the imperfect copy should be also the property of the Owner of the perfect copy-for who, in the possession of his senses, would inflict such punishment upon so valuable a work as that of the Polyglot of Walton, for the mere capricious purpose of having another copy more than perfect? Be this as it may, it is certain that, in the library of Salisbury Cathedral, there is a copy of this very Polyglot, with the portrait, frontispiece, preface, and prolegomena, CLEAN CUT AWAY. Such a frightful act of book-spoliation is, fortunately, rarely to be witnessed. It seems, however, not to have been of recent perpetration.

§ This library, a most curious and valuable one, and of which there is a printed

and entire form, content himself with Michaelis's improved edition of the Syriac and Hebrew portions of it, put forth in 1788, in 2 folio volumes, which may be procured for somewhere about 21. Yet if, from motives of economy, or a want of opportunity, or of curiosity, neither of the foregoing Polyglot Bibles be attainable, I esteem him neither an incurious nor an

friend Mr. W. C. Trevelyan (of University College, Oxford) for this, and many other curious pieces of bibliographical intelligence. I discovered, abroad, two copies with this original Dedication: one at Stuttgart, and the other in the library of the Arsenal at Paris: and it may be seen in the large paper copies at St. Paul's, Lambeth, and in the British Museum. It is evidently an after production: printed in a very different type from what is seen in other parts of the volume. Colbert's copy on large paper, in his Majesty's library, does not possess it. Nor does the extraordinary similar copy in Earl Spencer's Library at Althorp.

*Of course I pass by the Polyglot Bibles of PLANTIN, HUTTER, LE JAY, &c., as these are now considered to be purely secondary, if not almost entirely useless. But it may not be unacceptable to learn, that there did exist, and yet does exist, a copy of Plantin's exquisitely printed Polyglot, UPON VELLUM, in the library of the King of Sardinia, at Turin. This copy was described by the Marquis Scipio Maffei, in his account of that library, in a letter to Apostolo Zeno. He described it as in eleven volumes, with the 12th and 13th upon paper; with the following inscription, in letters of gold, upon the cover of the first volume: "Emanueli Sabaud. Duci. Biblior. exemplar purum xi. tom. in Membr. Philippus II. Hispan. Rex Cognato ac Fratri chariss. sacrum munus. MDLXXIII." Mem. of Literature, vol. v. p. 393. Another vellum copy is mentioned in the Bibliog. Decameron, vol. ii. 154; but Mr. V. Praet, in his charming Catalogue of vellum books in the Royal Library at Paris, has mentioned several. The Polyglot of Hutter, published in 1599, in six folio volumes, demands a more particular detail. I have already (Introd. to the Classics, vol. i. p. 31-3)

catalogue in 4to. was bequeathed to the Castle by the late Dr. John Sharp, a prebendary of Durham, Archdeacon of Northumberland, &c. &c. He died in 1792. He was a magnificent character in every thing he did. But of him, hereafter.

unhappy Collector who shall have possessed himself of the four-tongued Bible* of Reineccius, published at Leipsic in 1750, in 3 folio volumes. But it is due to the enterprising spirit of Mr. Bagster, the bookseller, as well as to that of his learned coadjutors, to notice

noticed the contents, and the rarity, of a perfect copy of this singular work; and Mr. Bohn the bookseller, availing himself of the authorities I before referred to, naturally and pardonably, exults in the possession of "an uncommonly beautiful copy, elegantly bound in vellum, complete in every particular"-which, in his last catalogue of 1820, no. 4397, he marks at 351. As an apparent justification, Mr. Bohn adds, that "there does not appear to exist a single complete copy in any of the foreign public libraries; and in England, the one now submitted is decidedly UNIQUE." These are rather bold words to make public. No one, nor one score of men, can know what is, or is not, in all the foreign public libraries; and I make little doubt that Passau, Bamberg, Wurtzburg, and Nuremberg each contains a perfect copy of old Elias Hutter's many-tongued labours. In one of the places (I think it was at Bamberg or Wurtzburg) I was told, on quitting Nuremberg, that there was a church (of course not applied to purposes of divine worship) WHOLLY FILLED WITH BOOKS— even to within a few feet of the roof; and was not Hutter's Polyglot in all probability among them?

Nor can it with safety be said what is, or is not, in the numerous and richly stored libraries of England. When Hutter put forth his Polygot, it was the dawn of biblical criticism in our country; and would have been eager to possess his work. many We had mighty men, in every way, even at that time, engaged in the study and dissemination of the SACRED TEXT. The mid-day effulgence of such labours appeared in the Polyglot of Brian Walton. Mr. Bohn marks a copy of the Paris Polyglot of 1649, at 211. Let "the young" and "the old" beware how they purchase a copy at Paris, either on the Boulevards or Quai des Augustins, for one half of that sum-if it be imported into England.

* Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and German: the Hebrew has Schmid's Latin version-the Greek is from Grabe's edition of the Alexandrine MS. and the German is from the last revision of Luther's text by Luther himself in 1544-5.