EUSTATHIUS IN HOMERUM. 1542.  Folio. 4 vols.  Printed UPON VELLUM—­and probably unique.  A set of matchless volumes—­yet has the binder done them great injustice, by the manner in which the backs are cramped or choked.  The exteriors, in blazing red morocco, are not in the very best taste.  A good deal of the vellum is also of too yellow a tint, but it is of a most delicate quality.

ARISTOTELIS ETHICA NICHOMACHEA.  Gr.  This volume forms a part only of the first Aldine edition of the Nichomachean ethics of Aristotle.  The margins are plentifully charged with the Scholia of Basil the Great, as we learn from an original letter of “Constantinus Palaeocappa, grecus” to Henry the Second—­whose book it was, and who shewed the high sense he entertained of the Scholia, by having the volume bound in a style of luxury and splendour beyond any thing which I remember to have seen—­as coming from his library.  The reverse of the first leaf exhibits a beautiful frame work, of silver ornaments upon a black ground—­now faded; with the initials and devices of Henry and Diane de Poictiers.  Their arms and supporters are at top.  Within this frame work is the original and beautifully written letter of Constantine Palaeocappa.  On the opposite page the text begins—­surrounded by the same brilliant kind of ornament; having an initial H of extraordinary beauty.  The words, designating the Scholia, are thus: 

  [Greek:  META SCHOLION BASILEIOU TOU MEGALOU.]

These Scholia are written in a small, close, and yet free Greek character, with frequent contractions.  Several other pages exhibit the peculiar devices of Henry and Diana—­having silver crescents and arrow-stocked quivers.  This book is bound in boards, and covered with dark green velvet, now almost torn to threads.  In its original condition, it must have been an equally precious and resplendent tome.  It measures twelve inches and a quarter, by eight inches and three eighths.

EUCLIDES. Printed by Ratdolt. 1482.  Folio.  A copy UPON VELLUM.  The address of Ratdolt, as it sometimes occurs, is printed in golden letters; but I was disappointed in the view of this book.  Unluckily the first leaf of the text is ms. but of the time.  At the bottom, in an ancient hand, we read “Monasterii S. Saluatoris bonon. signatus In Inuentario numero 524.” It is a large copy, but the vellum is rather tawny.

PRISCIANUS. Printed by V. de Spira. 1470.  Folio.  First edition, UPON VELLUM.  This is a book, of which, as you may remember, some mention has been previously made;[79] and I own I was glad to turn over the membranaceous leaves of a volume which had given rise, at the period of its acquisition, to a good deal of festive mirth.  At the first glance of it, I recognised the cropping system.  The very first page of the text has lost, if I may so speak, its head and shoulders:  nor is such amputation to be wondered at, when we read, to the left, “Relie par DEROME dit le Jeune.”