Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/387

 s. in. APRIL 2-2,1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

319

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. lini Dacti Libellm. (Cambridge, University Press. )

THE appearance of this volume furnishes proof how much spirit and energy are being thrown by the Cambridge University Press into the task of render- ing accessible the treasures of the University Library, and supplying generally finely printed works, in which the bibliophile will delight. The work now reissued the first lines of which, constituting the title, are, filling out a contraction, " Augustini Dacti Scribe super Tullianis elogancijs et yerbis exoticis in sua facundissima Rethorica incipit perornate libellus "forms the last of eleven tracts, constitut- ing a curious volume, which was once in the collec- tion of John Moore, Bishop of Ely 1707-14, the munificent patron of Clare College. With the remainder of his fine library, it was purchased by George I., and presented in 1715 to the University. It is one of three works in the same volume of which no other copy is known to exist. Concern- ing Dactus himself nothing seems discoverable. His work, which was printed near 1479 by " the Schoolmaster Printer at Saint Albans," is one of a class of productions with which, during the period of Cicero worship, the early Renais- sance overflowed. It is a beautiful specimen of typography, abounding, of course, in contractions, but clear and legible. Two hundred and fifty copies only have been printed in facsimile, and the impressions have been rubbed ofi'and the plates and the negatives destroyed. Twelve works in all are to form the series, the next three to appear con- sisting of the 'Anelida and Arcite' of Chaucer, from the unique copy of Caxton's Westminster edition of 1477-8 ; Lydgate's ' Temple of Glas,' from a copy, also unique, of Caxton's Westminster edition of the same date ; and Thomas Betson's ' Ryght Profytable Treatyse'(from St. Jerome, St. Bernard, Geraon, &c.), from the copy printed by Wynkyn de Worde in Caxton's house. The Caxtons are among the first printed works of Chaucer and Lydgate respectively. The missale type used in the ' Dactus' is only encountered again in the signatures of the Laurentius de Saona of 1480 and of the Joannes Canonicus. M. Dujardin, of Paris, is responsible for the facsimiles, the photographs for which were made in the Cambridge University Library. The four volumes named will be executed during the present spring, four more being to be anti- cipated in 1906, and four in 1907. Of the two hundred and fifty copies two hundred only are for sale. All are issued on hand-made paper and in an admirably artistic get-up.

The Viiion of Piers the Plowman. By William Langland. Done into Modern English by the Rev. Prof. Skeat. (De La More Press.) WE have here another of those popularizations or, as the French might say, vulgarizations of an ancient poem which are owing to Prof. Skeat. As in the case of Chaucer, many of whose works in modernized language are in " The King's Classics,' the best and most authoritative edition of William Langland is edited by Prof. Skeat. An interesting and valuable preface brings forward many facts little known to the majority of readers. It is the vision "concerning" Piers Plowman, and not Piers

Plowman's vision. The part now reproduced in- a modernized version is but a portion of the entire work. Over fifty MSS. of the work exist. Geunine-

listorical value attaches to the poem, as showing 'he every-day life of the fourteenth century, but Jie most significant aspect seems to be the satirical. The confessions of the Seven Deadly Sins form a wonderful piece of character-drawing. A few serviceable notes are appended, and the whole constitutes an attractive volume of one of the most attractive and readable of series. A pleasing illus- ' ration, rubricated from a MS. in Trinity College,

Cambridge, forms an attractive frontispiece.

The Poems of Lord Tennyson. (Heinemann.) UNIFORM with the edition of Shakspeare in forty- volumes, of which we have spoken as a miracle- of cheapness, Mr. Heinemann has issued an edition of Tennyson's poems, comprising ' Idyls of the King,' two volumes, 'In Memoriam and other Poems,' 'Maud,' and ' English Idyls. ; Each volume has an introduction by Mr. Arthur Waugh, and a, portrait or other illustration. The edition is bound to have a large circulation.

The English Catalogue of Books for 190$. (Sampson

Low & Co.)

THE sixty-eighth yearly issue of this most useful 1 of books of reference contains over 300 pp., and fulfils once more every requisite of the collector and the dealer. The title and the index of the works mentioned are once more in one alphabet, and are so arranged as to facilitate in every sense the task of reference. An appendix includes the Transactions of learned societies and the series issued by certain publishers. After these come the names and addresses of the publishers of Great- Britain and Ireland, with the chief among American and Canadian publishers. We have nothing but praise for a publication the utility of which we have constantly and successfully tested.

Illuminated Manuscripts. By John W. Bradley..

(Methuen & Co.)

To the valuable and interesting series of " Little Books on Art," edited for Messrs. Methuen by Mr. Cyril Davenport, has been added a volume by Mr. Bradley on 'Illuminated Manuscripts.' This, which is illustrated with twenty-one repro- ductions in black and white or in gold and colours,, shows the growth of the art from Greek and Roman to Renascence times in fact, from the sixth century to the sixteenth. It will strongly recommend itself to the student and to the col- lector of Books of Hours.

THE opening volumes of "The Cameo Classics" reach us from the Library Press, and comprise Dickens's Tale of Two Cities and The Beauties of Sterne. This is one of the most attractive of those cheap series which are a feature of the day.

To "The York Library" of Messrs. George Bell & Sons has been added The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal, translated by C. Kegan Paul from the text of M. Auguste Molinier. The rendering is exem- plary in all respects, and the prefatory matter i- drawn from the best French authorities. The book may be dipped into or studied with the certainty of delight or gain. Another addition to the same goodly series consists_ of The Thoughts of the Em- peror Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, translated by the late George Long. During the last few years.