Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/219

 io" s. V.MARCH 3, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

death and Passion of Christ. Such a blending of subjects does not in average minds tend to edification. The book has, however, a certain antiquarian interest. With its religious significance we shall not attempt to deal. We may quote the sentence, " Father Canisius, of the Society of Jesus, says in his book ' De Beata Virgine,' cap. 1, that the Gentiles learnt the name of Our Lady from the Sibyls."

Tuscan Folk-lore and Sketches. By Isabella M.

Anderton. (Arnold Fairbairns.) READERS of 'N. & Q.' will delight in this little volume, and note "the curiously altered versions of childhood acquaintances or of old legends which have found their way into these remote regions." The stories were told to the author by various peasants during a summer stay amidst the Tuscan Apennines. The volume comprises descriptions of a Tuscan Bluebeard, demon-steeds, a phantom bride, a wedding feast with its quaint customs, and the manufacture of olive oil at a villa where the proprietor has a love of Latin inscriptions. One of these, unearthed during the excavation of a Roman villa, reads :

Jovi hospitali sacrum

O quisquis es dummodo honestus si forte

pessimps fugis propinquos inimicorum

solitaria succedens domo

quiesce.

The charm of the volume causes us a feeling of sadness, for we shall have no more from the same pen. The author passed most of her short life among the Italian people, and, like another great friend of Italy, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, died at Florence, and now rests in the cemetery of the Allori.

The little volume contains a short biographical note by her two brothers, and some translations from the poet Pascoli. The illustrations include Florence from the Piazzale, Michel Angelo, and a most interesting portrait of the author, who had married an Italian, Rodolfo Debarbieri.

Ordo Romanics Primus. Edited by E. G. C. Atchley.

L.R.C.P. (Moring.)

THE latest addition to " The Library of Liturgiology and Ecclesiology" emanating from the De La More Press is the 'Ordo Romanus Primus,' efficiently edited, with introduction and notes, by Mr. Atchley. This document is the order of service at a public mass as it used to be performed at Rome in the eighth century, and will be found to furnish matter of extreme interest to those who wish to follow the historical development of Christian worship. It is, in fact, a directory of the approved rites and ceremonies which were observed on solemn occa- sions in the metropolis of Latin Christianity. In the judgment of the editor the evidence points to the date of about 770 for the present recension of the work by Pope Stephen III., but this was probably foundedjon a text of the sixth century. Originally published by Mabillon in his ' Museum Italicum,' 1689, it is here translated into English, collated with other versions, and annotated. One of the points brought out is that in the matter of lights and incense, and the arrangements of the chancel and altar, the old pagan customs of the Roman basilicas

were largely incorporated into the services of the- early Church. Even the " Kyrie Eleison," which seems so distinctively Christian, was originally in> popular use among the heathen ; it is mentioned in- Epictetus, and appears to have found its way into- the Church in the fourth century.

Mr. Atchley prints as appendixes a translation of the Ordo Romanus of St. Amand (about 800), a typical Roman Liturgy of the same date, and the- Liturgy of the Diocese of Africa in the time of St. Augustine (about 400), all of which will be wel- come to the intelligent student of church antiqui- ties. Fifteen plates of early ecclesiastical exemplars, such as ambons, chalices, and mosaics, serve to illustrate the matters discussed, and add much to the completeness of the book.

The Gentleman's Magazine for February, the first number under Mr. Bullen's control, has an excellent new cover, and, what is of more importance, ex- cellent contents. Mr. Bullen revives the corre- spondence and the obituaries which were a valued* feature of the magazine, and he leads off with an. interesting abstract of its previous career. But while scholarship and antiquarianism are well 1 represented (the former by a translation of Pro- pertius inter alia), we are pleased to see some personal notes on so modern a figure as George- Gissing, and 'The Day's Doings of a Nobody' of this present year of grace. The motto-heading of the paper is excellent, but Mr. Bullen will go further than it implies. His feast of old and new suggests to us the sentiment in which the cleverest of the Latin poets expressed his pre- dilections :

Laudamus veteres, sed nostris utimur annis. We shall look forward to The Gentleman's each- month with a new interest, and notice with pleasure another accession to the honourable minority of fugitive publications worth reading.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. MARCH.

MESSRS. BAILEY BROTHERS issue two catalogues. One is a selection of purchases made within the past six months. We find in this a complete set of The Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1840-1904, 61. 10-9. ; Ormerod's ' Chester,' 31. 12s. Gd. ; and Boys'* 'Kent,' 6*. 6s. The second catalogue is a selection, from Messrs. Bailey's general stock, including a number of biographical works on artists, drama- tists, engineers, men of letters, &c. Under Collected Historians we find Buckle, 7 vols., 31. 3-9. ;: the best large-type edition of Coxe's Works, J6 vols., 4to, tree calf, 4/. 4-9.; Macaulay, 13 vols., 6/. 109. ; Motley, 11 yols., 10/. 10,9.; and Strickland, 26 yols., 12/. The historical portion contains much of interest.

Messrs. Bull & Auvache have a number of inter- esting items under Botany and Gardening. Under Cheshire is a copy of Ormerod, 81. 15-9. A fine copy of Dugdale's * Monasticon Anglicanum' is priced 20/. Dibdin and Herbert's 'Typographical Anti- quities,' very scarce, 11. 7-9. ; Grose's Antiquarian Works, 14 vols., 4. 10,9. ; Edmondson's 'Complete Bodv of Heraldry.' 1780, 21.; Milles's 'Catalogue of Honor,' 1610, 3*. 3-9. (described as one of th* scarcest of heraldic works) ; Walsh's 'Vindication of the Loyal Formulary, or Irish Remonstrance,' 1674, 71. ; and a second copy, 81. 8*. This work