BIBLIA LATINA. Printed by Jenson. 1479.  Folio.  Here, again, are two copies; one upon paper, the other UPON VELLUM.  Of these, the vellum copy is much damaged in the principal illumination, and is also cropt in the binding.  The paper copy can hardly be surpassed, if equalled.

BIBLIA ITALICA.  MALHERBI. Printed in the month of October, 1471.  Folio. 2 vols.  Perhaps one of the finest and largest copies in existence; measuring, sixteen inches five eighths by eleven.  It is bound (if I remember rightly) in blue morocco.

BIBLIA HEBRAICA. Printed at Soncino. 1488.  Folio.  FIRST EDITION OF THE HEBREW BIBLE.  Of all earliest impressions of the sacred text, this is doubtless the MOST RARE.  I am not sure that there are two copies of it in England or in France.  In our own country, the Bodleian library alone possesses it.  This is a beautiful, clean copy, but cropt a little too much in the binding.  It has had a journey to Paris, and gained a coat of blue morocco by the trip.  The binder was Bozerain.  This was the first time that I had seen a copy of the FIRST HEBREW BIBLE.  There was only one other feeling to be gratified:—­that such a copy were safely lodged in St. James’s Place.

BIBLIA POLONICA. 1563.  Folio.  The Abbe Strattman, at Moelk, had apprised me of the beauty and value of this copy—­of one of the scarcest impressions of the sacred text.  This copy was, in fact, a PRESENTATION COPY to the Emperor Maximilian II., from Prince Radzivil the Editor and Patron of the work.  It is rather beautifully white, for the book—­which is usually of a very sombre complexion.  The leaves are rather tender.  It is bound in red velvet; but it is a pity they do not keep it in a case—­as the back is wearing away fast.  Notwithstanding the Abbe Strattman concluded his account of this book with the exclamation of—­“Il n’y en a pas comme celui-la,” I must be allowed to say, that Lord Spencer may yet indulge in a strain of triumph... on the possession of the copy, of this same work, which I secured for him at Augsbourg;[119] and which is, to the full, as large, as sound, and in every respect as genuine a book.

JERONIMI STI.  EPISTOLAE. Printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz. 1468.  Folio. 2 vols.  A magnificent and unique copy, UPON VELLUM.  “There are ONLY SIX VELLUM Sweynheyms and Pannartz in the world,”—­said the Abbe Strattman to me, in the library of the Monastery of Moelk.  “Which be they?” replied I.  “They are these”—­answered he ... “the Caesar, Aulus Gellius, and Apuleius—­ach the edit. prin.—­of the date of 1469:  and the Epistles of St Jerom, of 1468—­all which four books you will see at Vienna:—­the Livy, which Mr. Edwards bought; and the Pliny of 1470, which is in the library of Lord Spencer.  These are the only known vellum Sweynheyms and Pannartz.”  I looked at the volumes under consideration, therefore, with the greater attention.  They are doubtless noble productions; and this copy is, upon the whole, fine and genuine.  It is not, however, so richly ornamented, nor is the vellum quite so white, as Lord Spencer’s Pliny above mentioned.  Yet it is bound in quiet old brown calf, having formerly belonged to Cardinal Bessarion, whose hand writing is on the fly leaf.  It measures fifteen inches three eighths, by eleven one sixteenth.