OFFICE OF THE VIRGIN.  An exquisite little octavo or rather duodecimo; bound in silver, with coloured ornaments inlaid.  The writing, in small roman, shews an Italian calligraphist.  The vellum is white, and of the most beautiful quality.  The text is surrounded by flowers, fruits, insects, animals, &c.  The initial letters are sparkling, and ornamented in the arabesque manner.  But the compositions, or scriptural subjects, are the most striking.  Among the more beautiful specimens of high finishing, is the figure of Joseph—­with the Virgin and Child—­after the subject of the Circumcision.  Upon the whole, the colours are probably too vivid.  The subjects seem to be copies of larger paintings; and there is a good deal of French feeling and French taste in their composition.  The rogue of a binder has shewn his love of cropping in this exquisite little volume.  The date of 1574 is upon the binding.

MISSAL:  beginning with the Oratio devota ad faciem dni nostri ihu xpi—­A most exquisite volume in 8vo.:  bound in black fish skin, with silver clasps of an exceedingly graceful form, washed with gold, and studded with rubies, emeralds, and other coloured stones.  The head of Christ, with a globe in his hand, faces the beginning of the text.  This figure has a short chin, like many similar heads which I have seen:  but the colours are radiant, and the border, in which our Saviour is bearing his cross, below, is admirably executed.  The beginning of St. John’s Gospel follows.  The principal subjects have borders, upon a gray or gold ground, on which flowers are most beautifully painted:  and some of the subjects themselves, although evidently of Flemish composition, are most brilliantly executed.  There is great nature, and vigour of touch, in the priests chanting, while others are performing the offices of religion.  The Annunciation is full of tenderness and richness; and, in the Christ in the manger—­from whose countenance, while lying upon the straw, the light emanates and shines with such beauty upon the face of the Virgin—­we see the origin perhaps of that effect which has conferred such celebrity upon the NOTTE of CORREGIO.  What gives such a thorough charm to this book, is, the grace, airiness, and truth of the flowers—­scattered, as it were, upon the margins by the hand of a faery.  They have perhaps suffered somewhat by time:  but they are truth and tenderness itself.  The writing is a large handsome square gothic.

OFFICE OF THE VIRGIN:  bound in massive silver—­highly ornamented, in the arabesque manner, and washed with gold.  The back is most ingeniously contrived.  But if the exterior be so attractive, the interior is not less so—­for such a sweetly, and minutely ornamented, book, is hardly to be seen.  The margins are very large and the text is very small:  only about fifteen lines, by about one inch and three quarters wide.  Upon seeing the margins, M. Scherer, the head-librarian, exclaimed, “I hope that satisfies