ROYAL BIOGRAPHY OF FRANCE.  Fol.  This exquisite volume may be justly designated as the nonpareil of its kind.  It is rather a book of PORTRAITS, than a MS. with intermixed illuminations.  The scription, in a sort of cursive, secretary gothic character, merits not a moment’s attention:  the pencil of the artist having wholly eclipsed the efforts of the scribe.  Such a series of exquisitely finished portraits, of all the Kings of France (with the unaccountable omission, unless it has been taken out, of that of Louis XII.) is perhaps no where else to be seen.  M. Coeure, the French artist employed by me, stood in ecstasies before it!  These portraits are taken from old monuments, missals, and other ancient and supposed authentic documents.  They are here touched and finished in a manner the most surprisingly perfect.  The book appears to have been executed expressly for CHARLES IX.—­to whom it was in fact presented by Dutilliet, (the artist or the superintendant of the volume) in his proper person.  The gilt stamp of the two reversed C’s are on the sides of the binding.  I should add, that the portraits are surrounded by borders of gold, shaded in brown, in the arabesque manner.  All the portraits are whole lengths; and if my time and pursuits had permitted it, I should, ere this, have caused M. Coeure to have transfused a little of his enthusiasm into faithful facsimiles of those of Francis I.—­my avowed favourite—­of which one represents him in youth, and the other in old age.  Why do not the Noblesse of France devote some portion of that wealth, which may be applied to worse purposes, in obtaining a series of engravings executed from this matchless volume?!

ROMANCES, BOOKS OF TOURNAMENT, &c.

LANCELOT DU LAC shall lead the way.  He was always considered among the finest fellows who ever encircled the Table Ronde—­and such a copy of his exploits, as is at this moment before me, it is probably not very easy for even Yourself to conceive.  If the height and bulk of the knight were in proportion to this written record of achievements, the plume of his helmet must have brushed the clouds.  This enormous volume (No. 6783) is divided into three books or parts:  of which the first part is illuminated in the usual coarse style of the latter end of the XIVth century.  The title to this first part, in red ink, is the most perfect resemblance of the earliest type used by Caxton, which I remember to have seen in an ancient manuscript.  The other titles do not exhibit that similarity.  The first part has ccxlviij. leaves.  The second part has no illuminations:  if we except a tenderly touched outline, in a brownish black, upon the third leaf—­which is much superior to any specimen of art in the volume.  This second part has cccj. leaves.  At the end:—­

  Sensuit le liure du saint graal.