Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/86

 80

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ns.vm. JULY 26,1913.

on his letters which have not yet been done into English. These, at least as we have them here, neither throw much light on Nietzsche's intimate character, nor illustrate the philosopher. Mr. Walter de la Mare's running commentary on ' Current Literature,' always pleasant to read, struck us as more to the point than it often is. In particular he praises very judiciously the excellent translation, by an anonymous author, of the ' Ad- venturous Simplicissimus,' published by Heine- mann, and reviewed by us at 11 S. vi. 500, and delivers some neat thrusts at Mr. A. C. Benson's latest lucubrations. One of the most attractive papers in the number is decidedly Mr. R. E. Prothero's ' Greek Prose Romances,' a welcome contribution to that study of sub-classical litera- ture, if we may so term it, in which we are glad to observe of late some increase of interest. ' The Short Story in France, 1800-1900,' is rather a large handful to compress into an article ; and, perhaps by reason of that difficulty, the writer, Miss Una Taylor, shows some tendency to over-definition in her criticism ; nevertheless, her essay is a good piece of work, appreciative and suggestive. Mr. Roscoe's discussion of Prior as a diplomatist and poet is intended to illustrate the opinion that Prior's importance as a man of affairs has been underrated, whilst his claims as a poet have been exaggerated ; and it certainly succeeds in so far that it should send readers afresh to the Prior Papers, published in Vols. III. and V. of the Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, and to the ' Dialogues of the Dead ' in the Cambridge edition of Prior's * Works,' issued a few years ago.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. JULY.

MESSRS. JOSEPH BAER & Co. of Frankfurt am Main, in their Catalogue No. 610, describe nearly 3,000 items of literary, historical, and topographical interest connected with Switzerland. Perhaps the most attractive is a copy, from the press of Leonh. Eisenhut of Basle, about 1489, of the ' Defensorium inviolate perpetuaaque virginitatis dei genetricis Mariae,' by Franciscus de Retza, Dominican and Professor of Theology at Vienna. The text fur- nishes one of the most curious examples of mediaeval reasoning, and this printed edition is illustrated by 53 naive and charming woodcuts, the work of the printer himself. Only four books are known as coming from Eisenhut's press I,200m. Another good book is the edition printed by an unknown man at Geneva of Rolevinck's 'Fasciculus Tem- porum.' No other book from this press seems to be extant ; but this example is said to be superior, both in taste and in the realistic treatment of the portraits of historical personages, to the other editions of the ' Fasciculus Temporum ' published in the fifteenth century 900m. Gesner's magni- ficent edition (1559) of Strada's ' Imperatorum Romanorum omnium Orientalium et Occident- alium verissimae Imagines ex antiquis Numismatis quam fidelissime delineates,' with Wyssenbach's woodcuts of portraits and elaborate borders after the designs of Deutseh, and with Flotner's 152 designs of Moorish ornaments, is a fine example of Renaissance work in more than one line, and is offered for 1,250m.

We have not space to do more than mention briefly a copy of the Zurich Bible, Froschauer,

1527-9, 900m. ; Petermann Etterlin's 'Kronica von der | loblichen | Eydt | genoschaft,' a first edition of the work in which the Tell legend makes its earliest appearance, with 29 woodcuts and other illus- trations, 1507, " von Michael Furtter Getruckt," 650m. ; and the * Passio S. Meynradi martyris et heremitse,' 1496, also Furter's work, 400m.

MESSRS. ELLIS'S Catalogue 147 presents a collec- tion of works of interest above the average. The best groups are the specimens of Greek printing and the collection of early London and provincial newspapers. The best item under ' London ' is a collection of about 30 numbers of three of L'Estrange's newspapers, The Kingdom'* Intelli- gencer, The Intelligencer, and The Neices, 28 April, 1662, to 22 June, 1665, 61. 10s. ; the best under ' Pro- vincial ' are three volumes of numbers and parts of numbers of The Norwich Mercury, 1733-86, 151. 15*. ; a collection of issues of AriSs Birmingham Gazette between 1778 and 1826 in ten volumes, 121. 12s. ; and 52 numbers of The Gloucester Journal, 1725-36, 7/. 10s. We have space to mention only two or three of the examples of Greek printing. There is the first edition of the LXX., from the Aldine Press, a good copy in a seventeenth-century English binding of red morocco, 1518, 551. There is Foulis's Epictebus, printed on linen, and bearing on the fly-leaf " Robert Browning, 5th Mar., 1830, the gift of his uncle Reuben Browning," 1748, 11. 15s. There is Suidas's 'Lexicon ' "Impressum Mediolani impensa & dexteritate D. Demetrii Chalcondyli Joannis Bissoli Benedicti Mangii Carpensium "a first edition, 1499, 12Z. 12s. What will interest, perhaps, a larger circle of readers is Mrs. Browning's Plato, Bekker's text in 11 vols., with numerous MS. notes in Mrs. Browning's hand, 1*26, 25/. There are one or two good MSS. : a fourteenth-cen- tury ' Apocalypse,' written in gothic character on 51 leaves of vellum, 10Z. 10s., and an interesting transcription of] the ' Meditationes ' of St. Bona- ventura, likewise of the fourteenth century, 9Z. 9s., and, better still, a fifteenth-century MS. of the Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis, 21Z. A good piece of sixteenth-century English binding is to be had in a copy of Boccaccio's 'De Genealogia Deorum, libri quindecim,' 1532, 18Z. 18s. A first edition of Crashaw's 'Steps to the Temple,' 1656, deserves notice Andrew Lang's copy, 181. 18s. as does a first edition of Goethe's 'Egmont,' 1788, 157. 15s., which, again, comes from the Browning library and has pencil notes in Robert Browning's hand. One other item for which we must find space is " The Psalrnes of David in 4 Languages and in 4 Parts Set to ye Tunes of our Church. London, Printed by P. Stent at the white horse in Guiltspur strate without Newgat." It is thought to date from about 1643, and the price asked is 211,

[Notices of other Catalogues held over.]

t0

MR. S. WHEELER. Forwarded.

MR. M. H. PEACOCK. See 11 S. v. 188, 337.

R. B. P. (" St. Katharino's-by-the-Tower "). MR. ALECK ABRAHAMS suggests an inquiry for Skirrow's report at the B.M. or Guildhall Libraries. He states that extracts from this are printed as addenda to Mr. F. S. Lea's work on St. Katha- rine's, 1878.