LATIN PSALTER.  Probably of the latter part of the twelfth century.  The text is executed in a lower-case gothic.  In the Calendar of Saints are found the names of Edward the Martyr, Cuthbert, Guthlac, Etheldrith, and Thomas a Becket.  I think I am fully justified in calling this one of the richest, freshest, and most highly ornamented PSALTERS in existence.  The illuminations are endless, and seem to comprise the whole history of the Bible.  In the representations of armour, we observe the semicircular and slightly depressed helmet, and no nasels.  I must now lay before you a MS. of a very different description—­called

The ROMANCE OF SIR TRISTRANT;[48] in verse.  This ms. is wholly in the German language; written in the XIIIth century, and containing fifteen illuminations.  M. Scherer, the Head Librarian, was so obliging as to furnish me with an account of it; having himself translated, as literally as possible, the original text into our own language.

I shall now put together a few miscellaneous notices, taken, like all the preceding, from the articles themselves—­and which you will find to relate chiefly to books of Missals and Offices, &c.  I shall begin, however, with a highly illuminated MS. called

The TWELVE SIBYLS.  This beautiful book is doubtless of the XVth century.  It begins with a representation of the “Sibila Persica.”  The principal merit of these illuminations may, by some, be thought to consist in their freshness; but others will not fail to remark, that the accompaniments of these figures, such as the chairs on which they sit, and the pillars which form the frame work of the pieces, are designed and executed in a style of art worthy of the Florentine School of this period.  Every Sibyl is succeeded by a scriptural subject.  If the faces of these figures were a little more animated and intelligent, this book would be a charming specimen of art of the XVth century.  The Erythraean Sibyl holds a white rose very prettily in her left hand.  The Agrippinian Sibyl holds a whip in her left hand, and is said “to have prophesied XXX years concerning the flagellation of Christ.”  This volume is a thin quarto, in delightful condition; bound in yellow morocco, but a sufferer by the binding.

A CALENDAR.  This is a pretty little duodecimo volume, containing also short prayers to Christ; and embellished by a representation of the several months in the calendar.  Each illumination has a border, and its apposite characteristic subject attached to the month.  Among the latter, those of October and November are vigorously touched and warmly finished.  A picture of the Deluge follows December.  The scription is in a neat roman character.  This book is bound in lilac velvet, with silver clasps, and preserved in a yellow morocco case.