Bibliographic Treasures.

The other treasures thus buried at the extremity of a continent, likewise away from the scholars who could use them, are not unica, but they could have been far more profitably placed elsewhere. They consist of 53 MSS., in the Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Hebrew languages. Twenty-four works belong to the fifteenth century—such a collection as probably no other library south of the Line can boast of; and 60 are of the sixteenth century. One hundred were published within fifty years of the invention of printing, and these include an English translation of the Polychronicon, printed by Caxton in 1482. I said just now that the Library contained no unicum, but Grey claimed that the copy of the first folio of Shakspere there is the only complete copy. The MSS. are remarkable. There are no fewer than 120 ranging from the tenth to the fifteenth century, on vellum and illuminated, and in eight languages. Two of them are Dantean (what would not Signor del Balco or Signor D'Ovidio give to examine these?), several of Petrarch, one the earliest edition of the Roman de la Rose, and a Flemish translation of Mandeville's Travels. There are 50 chap-books, so precious to historians, and there are 42 works published by or attributed to Defoe. One great division of literature which he never forgot is splendidly represented. There are 374 Bibles or parts of the Bible in 160 languages, and there was no portion of the collection, perhaps, of which he was more proud. Two or three thousand manuscript letters—a passion with him to the page 135end of his days—adorn it. Among them are some letters of Cromwell, which Grey offered to Carlyle, but the wearied editor sorrowfully admitted his unwillingness to unhoop his cask. As we write, every line increases our regret that for so many years such rarities and such treasures have been or will yet be lost to the world.