——­, EPISTOLAE et FASTI.  I know nothing of the printer of this edition, nor can I safely guess where it was printed.  The Epistles begin on the recto of aa ii to gg v; the Fasti on A i to VV ix, including some few other opuscula; of which my memorandum is misplaced.  At the end, we read the word FINIS.

PLINIUS SENIOR. Printed by I. de Spira. 1469.  Folio.  Editio Princeps.  We have here the identical copy—­printed UPON VELLUM—­of which I remember to have heard it said, that the Abbe Strattman, when he was at the head of this library, declared, that whenever the French should approach Vienna, he would march off with this book under one arm, and with the FIRST Psalter under the other!  This was heroically said; but whether such declaration was ever acted upon, is a point upon which the bibliographical annals of that period are profoundly silent.  To revert to this membranaceous treasure.  It is in one volume, beautifully white and clean; but ("horresco referens;”) it has been cruelly deprived of its legitimate dimensions.  In other words, it is a palpably cropt copy.  The very first glance of the illumination at the first page confirms this.  In other respects, also, it can bear no comparison with the VELLUM copy in the Royal Library at Paris.[123] Yet is it a book ... for which I know more than one Roxburgher who would promptly put pen to paper and draw a check for 300 guineas—­to become its possessor.

PLINIUS SENIOR. Printed by Jenson. 1472.  Folio.  Another early Pliny—­UPON VELLUM:  very fine, undoubtedly; but somewhat cropt, as the encroachment upon the arms, at the bottom of the first illuminated page, evidently proves.  The initial letters are coloured in that sober style of decoration, which we frequently observe in the illuminated volumes of Sweynheym and Pannartz; but they generally appear to have received some injury.  Upon the whole, I doubt if this copy be so fine as the similar copies, upon vellum, in the libraries of the Duke of Devonshire and the late Sir M. M. Sykes.  This book is bound in the highly ornamented style of French binding of the XVIIth century; and it measures almost sixteen inches one eighth, by ten inches five eighths.

PLINIUS.  Italice. Printed by Jenson. 1476.  Folio.  A fine, large, pure, crackling copy; in yellow morocco binding.  It was Prince Eugene’s copy; but is yet inferior, in magnitude, to the copy at Paris.[124]

SILIUS ITALICUS. Printed by Laver. 1471.  Folio.  The largest, soundest, and cleanest copy of this very rare impression, which I remember to have seen:—­with the exception, perhaps, of that in the Bodleian Library.

SUETONIUS. Printed by S. and Pannartz. 1470.  Folio.  Second Edition.  A fine, sound copy, yet somewhat cropt.  The first page of the text has the usual border printed ornament of the time of printing the book.  This was Prince Eugene’s copy.