the
verses. Folio, London, 1623.

The notation of differences in copies of the same book, even if it is
not one of supreme value, is always apt to be useful. Of literary
comment the supply is discretionary, so long as it is new, pertinent,
and interesting. The transfer to the catalogue of any inedited
manuscript matter on the fly-leaves or margins, or of any proprietary
marks, is eminently desirable.

For French literature, which is so largely collected in England, the
_Manuel du Libraire_, &c., of Brunet, 7 vols. 8vo, 1860-78, with the
works of Cohen and Gay, is the standard authority. The two latter, so
far as they go, are more exhaustive than the _Manuel_, which is nearly
as incomplete as our Lowndes, and not much more accurate. A new
edition has been mooted; it is a clear _desideratum_. For value Brunet
is scarcely more serviceable than its English analogue, and the book
is, curiously enough, particularly unsafe in such a field as the
French books of former times, where so much depends on factitious
conditions barely intelligible to an ordinary English or American
consulter.

Two books which perhaps equally appeal to the English and Continental
collectors are those just mentioned: Cohen, _Guide de l'Amateur de
Livres a Gravures du XVIII^th siecle_, 5^me ed. 8^o, 1886-90, and
Gay, _Bibliographie des Ouvrages relatifs a l'Amour, aux Femmes, au
Mariage, et des Livres Facetieux_, 3^me ed. 12^o, 1871, 6 vols.
Both, but especially the first, are essential for guidance in the
choice of a class of publication of which the innumerable variations
and the artificial prices necessitate the utmost caution on the part
of an intending buyer.

There are, in fact, no topics to which an amateur or student can
direct his notice or limit himself where he will not have been
preceded, so to speak, by a path-finder; nor does the narrowness of
the range always ensure brevity or compactness of treatment, since the
Schreiber _Playing Cards of all Countries and Periods_, which to a
certain extent enter into the literary category, occupy in the Account
by Sir A. W. Franks three folio volumes; but a satisfactory view of
the subject is to be gained from the works by Singer and Chatto,
1816-48. As a rule, editors of this class of publication are more
modest and compressed. There are the bibliographies on Angling by J.
R. Smith and Westwood; on Tobacco, by Bragge (1880); on Dialect books,
by J. R. Smith (at present capable of great exp