Such a work could never attain any very wide popularity, and this from the nature of its subject.  To the general reader books about books are never so attractive as histories and biographies, which deal with the doings of men, and glow with the warmth of human interests.  But every man of literary taste, though but superficially acquainted with Spanish literature, could recognize the merits of Mr. Ticknor’s work, its philosophical spirit, its lucid arrangement, its elegant and judicious criticisms, and its neat, correct, and accurate style.  He could not fail to see that the works of Bouterwek and Sismondi were, by comparison, merely a series of graceful sketches, with no claim to be called a complete and thorough history.  It took its place at once as the highest authority in any language upon the subject of which it treated, as the very first book which everybody would consult who wanted any information upon that subject.

The present edition of the “History of Spanish Literature” is by no means identical with those which have preceded it.  It omits nearly the whole of the inedited, primitive Castilian poems which have heretofore filled about seventy pages at the end of the last volume; and in other parts of the work a corresponding, and even more than a corresponding, amount of new matter has been introduced, which will, it is believed, be accounted of greater interest than the early poetry it displaces.  These additions and changes have been derived from very various sources.  In the first place, Mr. Ticknor was in Europe himself in 1856 and 1857, and visited the principal libraries, public and private, in England, France, Germany, and Italy, in which any considerable collection of Spanish books was to be found, and by examination of these supplied any wants there might be in his own very ample stores.  In the second place, his History has been translated into German and Spanish, the former version being illustrated with notes by Dr. Ferdinand Wolf, perhaps the best Spanish scholar in Germany, and the latter by Don Pascual de Gayangos, one of the best scholars in Spain.  From the results of the labors of these distinguished annotators Mr. Ticknor has taken—­with generous acknowledgment—­everything which, in his judgment, could add value, interest, or completeness to the present revised edition.  And lastly, in the period between the publication of the first edition and the present time much has been done for the illustration of Spanish literature, both in the Peninsula and out of it.  This is due in part to the interest in the subject which Mr. Ticknor himself awakened; and in Spain it is one of the consequences of the rapid progress in material development and vital energy which that country has been making during the last fifteen years.  New lives of some of its principal writers have been published, and new editions of their works have been prepared.  From all these sources a very ample supply of new materials has been derived, so that, while the work remains substantially the same in plan, outline, and spirit, there are hardly three consecutive pages in it which do not contain additions and improvements.  We will briefly mention a few of the more prominent of these.