Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/120

 io8 The Library. itself, sufficiently crushing " Get ouvrage est plus rempli de declamation que methodique. L'auteur se repete et se contredit quelquefois. On dira que c'est Vimpiete devoilee" Turning now to the books printed in England, we find that the most important of these is also enriched by an autograph, that of Charles I. The eight-leaved pamphlet on which this is written, is a copy of Instructions which his Maiestie's Commissioners for the Loan of Money to his Maiestie throughout the Kingdome are exactly and effectually to observe and follow. According to the colophon this was suffered to be printed for the sake of expedi- tion, but great care was to be taken that copies should be given to no one but the Commissioners themselves, and until the present one turned up, the fact of the Instructions having been printed was quite unknown. The king's signature is appended to the head-title on the second leaf, where the blank is filled up to show that the copy was intended for the use of one of the Commissioners for the town of Nottingham. The Instructions themselves show that the Government was fully alive to the discontent which this forced loan was likely to occasion, and was anxious that the Commissioners should use every means to avoid friction. Two English-printed books earlier than these Instructions are both of them interesting. The first is a copy of an Essortatione al Timor di Dio, by Jacobus Acontius, a foreign refugee in England. This was printed posthumously, and was for long thought to have perished entirely. It was published with the imprint, In Londra appresso Giovanni Wolfio, who adds to his name the interesting epithet, Servitore de I Tllustrissimo Signor Filippo Sidnei. We know that Henri Estienne was proud to call himself on his title-pages, " Printer to the Fuggers," but Sidney, unlike the Augsberg merchants, was throughout his life miserably poor, and it could only have been esteem or affection which prompted Wolf to assume the title of Sidney's servant. The book is not dated, but the word Signor, instead of Cavaliere, makes it probable that it was printed during Sidney's life. The other English book is the Verlum Sempiternum and Salvator Mundi of John Taylor, the water-poet, printed in 1616, the earliest of the numerous Thumb-Bibles, or epitomes in verse of the Old and New Testaments, measuring little more than an inch square. It is also an example of back-to-back binding, the two parts opening from different sides. The little book was reprinted in the folio edition of Taylor's works, but this is the only copy known of the original edition.