PSALTERIUM LATINE, 8vo.  If I were called upon to select any one volume, of given octavo dimensions, I do not know whether I should not put my hand upon the present—­for you are hereby to know that this was the religious manual of ST. LOUIS:—­his own choice copy—­selected, I warrant, from half a score of performances of rival scribes, rubricators, and illuminators.  Its condition is absolutely wonderful—­nor is the history of its locomotiveness less surprising.  First, for an account of its contents.  On the reverse of the first fly-leaf, we read the following memorandum—­in red:  “Cest psaultier fu saint loys.  Et le dona la royne Iehanne deureux au roy Charles filz du roy Iehan, lan de nres’ mil troys cens soissante et neuf.  Et le roy charles pnt filz du dit Roy charles le donna a madame Marie de frace sa fille religieuse a poissi. le iour saint michel lan mil iiij^c.” This hand writing is undoubtedly of the time.

A word now about the history of this volume.  As this extract indicates, it was deposited in a monastery at Poissy.  When that establishment was dissolved, the book was brought to M. Chardin, a bookseller and a bibliomaniac.  He sold it, some twenty-five years ago, to a Russian gentleman, from whom it was obtained, at Moscow, by the Grand Duke Nicholas.[33] The late King of France, through his ambassador, the Count de Noailles, obtained it from the Grand Duke—­who received, in return, from his Majesty, a handsome present of two Sevre vases.  It is now therefore safely and judiciously lodged in the Royal Library of France.  It is in wooden covers, wrapped in red velvet.  The vellum is singularly soft, and of its original pure tint.

HISTORICAL PARAPHRASE OF THE BIBLE.  Lat. and Fr. Folio.  If any MS. of the sacred text were to be estimated according to the number of the illuminations which it contained, the present would unquestionably claim precedence over every other.  In short, this is the MS. of which Camus, in the Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliotheque Nationale, vol. vi. p. 106, has given not only a pretty copious account, but has embellished that account with fac-similes—­one large plate, and two others—­each containing four subjects of the illuminations.  After an attentive survey of the various styles of art observable in these decorations, I am not disposed to allow the antiquity of the MS. to go beyond the commencement of the XVth century.  A sight of the frontispiece causes a re-action of the blood in a lover of genuine large margins.  The book is cropt—­not quite to the quick!... but then this frontispiece displays a most delicate and interesting specimen of graphic art.  It is executed in a sort of gray tone:—­totally destitute of other colour.  According to Camus, there are upwards of five thousand illuminations; and a similar work, in his estimation, could not now be executed under 100,000 francs.