sures at Althorp and at Spencer House have been submitted to my free inspection with the usual liberality and kindness of their Noble Owner: while the richly furnished libraries of my intimate friends George Hibbert, Esq. Richard Heber, Esq. Francis Freeling, Esq. Francis Douce, Esq. and Robert Lang, Esq. have supplied me with materials of which the value will be evident from a perusal of the ensuing pages. On all sides, and in the most unqualified manner, the kindest aids were offered me: and if the fruits of such friendly assistance are not seen in the work before the reader, the fault is in him to whom they were tendered. In the last place, something like an acknowledgment remains due to those respectable BOOKSELLERS, by means of whose copious catalogues something like a fixed or rational price has been attached to the numerous works contained in these pages. The present is peculiarly the age of bibliopolistic adventure and enterprise. There is no nation in Europe which can boast of such an extensive diffusion of knowledge by means of well executed Catalogues: and it is without any invidious distinction that I notice those of Messrs. Payne and Foss, Longman and Co. J. and A. Arch, Rivington and Cochran, Ogle, Duncan and Ogle, Triphook, Thorpe, and Bohn. But, with every atten * Since the commencement of this work, Messrs. Payne and Foss have published a catalogue of 10051 articles. I have smiled, in common with many friends, to observe rare and curious volumes selling for large sums at auctions, when sometimes better copies of them may be obtained in that incomparable repository in Pall-Mall at two-thirds of the price. Whoever wants a classical fitting out must betake him tion to fix a fair and authorized price upon such works of intrinsic merit, of which the marketable value was self to this repository. The various catalogues or portions of them, according to the sizes of the volumes, which have issued from the house of Messrs. LONGMAN, HURST, REES, and Co. for the last three years, contain scarcely fewer than 17000 articles; while, of modern articles, the same House has, of each, from one to ten thousand copies. This latter necessarily includes the wonderful stock of Elementary works alluded to at p. xii. ante. To the Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica, or A Descriptive Catalogue of a rare and rich Collection of Early English Poetry, published by the same House in 1815, under the care of the late Mr. Griffiths, the ensuing pages, in the department of "English Poetry," contain frequent and apposite references. The rarest article in this catalogue (Chester's Loves Martyr, or Rosalin's Complaint, 1601, 4to.) marked at 50l. and purchased by the late Sir M. M. Sykes Bart. was sold at the sale of that Baronet's library for 641. The catalogue of Messrs. J. and A. ARCH is on a smaller scale ; but it exhibits both valuable and rare works, and my references to it have not been unsparing. Indeed I consider the situation of these respectable booksellers, in the very heart of the metropolis, as most fortunate on many accounts :-for the periodical circulation of their Catalogues may have a salutary effect in counteracting manias of a different description. I do not indeed quite despair of seeing groups of philologists and critics collected in the Royal Exchange, beneath the statue of Edward IV, when (Printing and the Bibliomania were first conjointly introduced into this country) and counteracting, by their book-speculations, the direful ravages of the Scrip and Consols manias. The catalogue of Messrs. RIVINGTON and COCHRAN, which is chiefly theological, contains not fewer than 17,328 articles. The arrangement is good: the works submitted to sale are rich in all classes, especially in theology and Oriental literature, while the printing and paper are alike inviting. There is a sort of episcopalian air about this volume... within and without. But here it behoves me to make honourable mention of that curious catalogue (now become a rare book) of Theology and Oriental Literature, published by Messrs. OGLE, DUNCAN and Co., and containing upwards of 12000 ascertainable, I fear that, in some few instances, the collector may be disappointed in his calculations. It articles of Divinity. I am not compelled to subscribe to the critical canons occasionally attached to these articles; but I can never be backward in acknowledging the obligation which the CLERICAL WORLD is under (from this desirable volume) to its respectable publishers. The catalogues of Mr. TRIPHOOK are, many of them, of absolute necessity to the Collector; since the titles and colophons are printed at length with great accuracy; and I may fairly say, that, in few places of sale have I seen SUCH copies of Old English Philology as in Mr. Triphook's repository. The collection of Mr. Triphook is now merged in that of his partners, whose names appear in the TITLE PAGE of this work; and it may be triumphantly affirmed, that the catalogue of Messrs. HARDING, TRIPHOOK, and LEPARD, takes precedence of ALL on the score of numbers: for not fewer than twentyseven thousand and fifty-seven articles form the grand total of works, in the course of sale, at the TEMPLE OF THE MUSES! Apollo and the Nine were never kept in such a constant state of activity as these spirited Bibliopolists keep them-equally to the surprise and advantage of the lettered world. Mr. THORPE is indeed a man of might. His achievements at Booksales are occasionally described in the ensuing pages. It is his Catalogues of which I am here to treat. They are of never ceasing production thronged with the treasures which he has gallantly borne off, at the point of his lance, in many a hard day's fight, in the Pall-Mall and Waterloo-Place arenas. But these conquests are no sooner obtained, than the public receives an account of them; and during the last year only, his Catalogues, in three parts, now before me, comprise not fewer than SEVENTEEN THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE articles. What a scale of buying and selling does this fact alone evince! But in this present year, two Parts have already appeared, containing upwards of 12,000 articles. Nor is this all. On the 24th day of September, in the year of our Lord 1823, there appeared the most marvellous phenomenon ever witnessed in the annals of BIBLIOPOLISM. The Times Newspaper had four of the five columns of its last page occupied by an ADVERTISEMENT of Mr. Thorpe, containing should however be always borne in mind that the condition of a book will materially regulate its price. It remains therefore, only to indulge a rational but an ardent hope, that the work now before the reader, and intended as a Guide to the Young and a Comfort to the Old, may be crowned with that success, which has been sought for in a most anxious and unceasing examination of materials for the last two years; and of which nearly as much has been kept back as brought forward. For a toil of this nature, I can most unfeignedly avow that no pecuniary reward is likely to be commensurate. Every thing that a liberal spirit could devise, on the part of my Publishers, has been promptly conceded; but I look for eventual and substantial remuneration only in the generous the IIId Part of his Catalogue for that year. On a moderate computation, this Advertisement comprised eleven hundred and twenty lines. The effect was extraordinary. Many wondered, and some remonstrated: but Mr. Thorpe was Master of his own mint, and he never mentions the circumstance but with perfect confidence, and even gaiety of heart, at its success ! If Mr. Boнn be the last, he is not the least, of enterprising and successful Bibliopolists. His Catalogue, in two parts, contains not fewer than 14,614 articles. These articles are chiefly books in foreign languages: and Mr. Bohn's knowledge of the German language has enabled him to translate Fuhrmann's work on the Greek and Latin Classics with considerable advantage. But bibliographers and critics have been liberally consulted; and in the department of Philology and Miscellanies, there are some volumes worth the cunning investigation of lovers of literary rarities. The whole catalogue is a proof of unwearied diligence in description, and commendable taste in collection. [ He has just published another Catalogue, containing 16716 articles.] sympathies of the "YOUNG," and the well-weighed approbation of the "OLD." Wyndham Place, I just learn that the Diary of SAMUEL PEPYS (see the Index of this Work) is nearly completed at press. It will contain about ten or a dozen well executed portraits; and the work, in two quarto volumes, will be doubtless a popular companion to Evelyn's Memoirs, |