Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/426

 4 i2 THE HISTORY OF A A further step was taken when Mr. Sayle, in the catalogue of early English books in the Cam- bridge University Library, stated in his notes that the body of this work is identical with that of William Alabaster's undated 'SpiraculumTubarum.' I have lately been fortunate enough to trace the work two stages further, and thereby to get near to a solution of the problem which Mr. Haddan and Mr. Sayle only raised. The relation between Thorndike's 'Epitome' and Alabaster's ' Spiraculum ' being once pointed out, the next step was to compare the latter with the same author's 'Lexicon Pentaglotton,' 1637, and, as was to be expedled, the body of the work was again found to be the same. My next move was to look up both Alabaster and Thorndike in London's Catalogue, with a view to seeing which, if any, of the issues finally estab- lished itself in the bookselling trade. I found neither name, but on the page opposite that on which I hoped to find Thorndike's, the following caught my eye : ' Shinlderi [sic'] lexicon. Penta- glotton/ etc. On turning to the work in question, 'Schindleri Lexicon pentaglotton. ... In Epitomen redaftum a G. A.,' 1635, I was not surprised to find the body of the work to be again the same. We are thus confronted with three issues dated 1635, one dated 1637, and one undated, but which from a reference in the preface can be assigned to the year 1633; that is to say with five issues within as many years, giving four different titles and three different authors. One point only is