Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/195

 ii s. v. F EB. 24, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Valadon. As a publication, it was issued weekly, consisted of 16 pp., and its price per copy was 1 franc 25 centimes.

W. SCOTT.

0n Itooks.

The Thunder weapon in Religion and Folk-lore : a Study in Comparative Archaeology. By Chr. Blinkenberg, Ph.D. (Cambridge University Press.)

THIS monograph is a member of the " Cambridge Archaeological and Ethnological Series," and well worthy of its place. It brings together the ideas of Scandinavia and ancient Greece, the former being largely supplied by the Danish Folk- lore Collection, in answer to an appeal in the papers. Another notable part of the evidence conies from Southern India. The present book is an enlarged edition of a Danish original, with a number of new illustrations, and is of per- manent value on account of the material it collects. Such concise, scientific monographs are worth a world of theory. Here we find only 122 pages, but all are close packed with pertinent material. Conclusions are uncertain on the subject, as on many other archaeological inquiries ; we want data, and we hope to have more of the sort, as well gathered and arranged as Dr. Blinkenberg's.

WE welcome a new and enlarged edition of Wit, Character, Folk-lore, and Customs of the

' North Riding of Yorkshire, by Richard Blake- borough (Salt-burn, W. Rapp & Sons). In 1898 we found the book useful, well written, and entertaining, and it was read with all the gusto of a Yorkshireman and a scholar by Joseph Knight. The present reviewer, though not a native of the county, has a special interest alike

in it and the folk-speech which it contimies in spite of fashion to preserve, and he has found the volume well worthy of the praise awarded to it. This edition is the answer to a constant and increasing demand. Among the new matter is a chapter on ' Yorkshire Sporting Folk-lore,' by the author's son, Mr. J. Fairfax Blakeborough. It gives many excellent phrases, some of which the present writer has heard recently, and more than one trace of those legends concerning the fox which are so early and so persistent in folk-lore.

Every volume" of this kind has more than a local interest, for, as folk-lorists well know, dialect has wide boundaries. We find, for instance, some phrases set down here which we have heard in the Midlands, and others known to us only in East Anglia. On the other hand, in Yorkshire itself there are, as Mr. Blakeborough points out, wide differences between the dialects of the North and West Ridings, not only in vocabulary, but also in intonation. He adds that, while many of the best families in the North and East Ridings can speak their dialect fluently, in the West Riding such ability is felt to be infra dig. The existence of the ' English Dialect Dic- tionary ' alone should be sufficient to show the serious worth of folk-speech. It is, however, a large and expensive work. Should not its contents be reduced to one concise volume, as has already been done in the case of the great ' N.E.D.' ? The resultant volume would, we feel sure, win a" hearty reception.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. FEBRUARY.

MR. P. M. BARNARD of Tunbridge Wells sends us an Illustrated Catalogue (No. 50) of Early Woodcuts and Engravings. This contains examples of the work of some of the most famous early engravers. Of the anonymous early wood- cuts, the most notable are ' Four Martyrs,' a woodcut by a Suabian artist of about 1470, 147. ; ' The Virgin and Child and St. Bridget,' a beautiful late fifteenth -century woodcut, 14/. ; and a very curious coloured woodcut (with text below), showing a monstrous hare found at Cassel in 1532, 31. 10s. There are numerous works by fifteenth-century copperplate engravers, includ'- ing a good impression of Schongauer's famous print of ' Christ bearing the Cross,' 307. ; a ' Flight into Egypt,' by Israhel van Meckenem, Wl. 10s. ; and a very rare 'Passion sequence ' by the Master A. G. ( Albrecht Glockenton ? ) a set said to be considerably better than that in the Britisli Museum, which is incomplete 687. (for 12 prints). Albrecht Diirer is represented by a large number of his copperplates and woodcuts, at prices ranging from 5s. to 81. 10s. Of the copperplates, the more notable are the ' St. Eustace,' the ' St.. Jerome in the Desert,' the ' Rape of Amymone,' the ' Effect of Jealousy,' and the rare print of the- Monstrous Hog, engraved about 1496 ; the wood- cuts include some from the ' Apocalypse,' as well as some of the single woodcuts. The Little Masters are represented by a large number of prints by Altdorfer, Aldegraver, Barthel, H. S. Beham, and Pencz. There are also a con- siderable number of prints by Lucas van Leyden,. many of which are at quite low prices. The Italian section includes several fine impressions of the plates of Marc Antonio Raimondi ; and the Early English School is represented by some leaves from Wynkyn de Worde's edition of ' The Golden Legend,' printed at Westminster in 1498, with woodcuts formerly used by Caxton. We may also mention some early woodcut and copperplate ex-libris, and some fifteenth-century printers' devices, including a leaf with that of N. Jenson (15s. Qd.) and the fine device of Erhard Reuwick (II. 2s.).

WE have also Mr. P. M. Barnard's Catalogue (No. 51) of Autographs, Manuscripts, and Docu- ments. Many of the autographs (items 1-179) are of considerable interest and importance, among which may be mentioned a holograph memorandum of the statesman and biblio- phile J. B. Colbert (47.), a letter of Francis I. of France (57.), miscellaneous papers and notes of J. F. Gronovius (47. 4s.), a letter of Gustavus Adolphus (37. 15s.), a document bearing the signature of Richard Taverner (107.), and a letter of John Whitgift (27. 2s.)- A presentation copy from Richard Baxter of his book ' The Unreason- ableness of Infidelity' (27. 10s.), and a copy of Selden's ' Historic of Tithes,' given to Christopher Wren by Archbishop Laud (37. 3s.), may be added. The second section (items 180-274), ' Manuscripts, Charters, Deeds, and Miscellaneous Papers,' includes four Babylonian clay tablets in cuneiform (between 523 B.C. and 527 B.C.) ; fragments of Egyptian MSS. on linen in hieratic characters' with portions of the text of ' The Book of the Dead ; a contemporary transcript of a truce between Edward III. of England and Philip VI,