they are
quietly composed, softly executed, and are, at this present moment, in a
state of preservation perfectly beautiful and entire.

BOCCACE; DES CAS DES NOBLES HOMMES ET FEMMES: No. 6878. The present seems
to be the fit place to notice this very beautiful folio volume of one of
the most popular works of Boccaccio. Copies of it, both in ms. and early
print--are indeed common in foreign libraries. There is a date of 1409 at
the very commencement of the volume: but I take the liberty to question
whether that be the date of its actual execution. The illuminations in this
manuscript exhibit a fine specimen of the commencement of that soft, and as
some may think woolly, style of art, which appears to so much advantage in
the _Bedford Missal and Bedford Breviary_; and of which, indeed, a choice
specimen of circular ornaments is seen round the first large illumination
of the creation and expulsion of Adam and Eve. These illuminations are not
of first rate merit, nor are they all by the same hand.

THE SAME WORK: with the same date--but the hand-writing is evidently more
modern. Of the illuminations, it will be only necessary to mention the
large one at fol. iij.c. (ccc.) in which the gray tints and the gold are
very cleverly managed. At the end is seen, in a large sprawling character,
the following inscription: "_Ce Livre est A Le Harne. Fille Et Seur de Roys
de France, Duchesse de Bourbonnois et dauuergne. Contesse de Clermont et de
Tourez. Dame de Beaujeu."_ This inscription bears the date of 1468; not
very long before which I suspect the MS. to have been executed.

THE SAME: of the same date--which date I am persuaded was copied by each
succeeding scribe. The illuminations are here generally of a very inferior
character: but the first has much merit, and is by a superior hand. The
text is executed in a running secretary Gothic. There are two other MSS. of
the same work which I examined; and in one of which the well known subject
of the _wheel of fortune_ is perhaps represented for the first time. It
usually accompanied the printed editions, and may be seen in that of our
Pynson, in 1494,[39] folio. I suspect, from one of the introductory
prefaces, that the celebrated _Laurent le Premier Fait_ was the principal
scribe who gave a sort of fashion to this MS. in France.

PTOLEMAEUS, _Latine_. A magnificent MS.--if size and condition be alone
considered. It is however precious in the estimation of Collectors of
portraits,