_third_ (if there be a second) is known to have perished in the flames
at Moscow.
THE PENTATEUCH: _in Hebrew_. _Printed in 1491_. _Folio_. A very fine copy,
printed UPON VELLUM. The press work has a rich and black appearance; but
the vellum is rather soiled. One leaf presents us with the recto covered by
ms. of a brown tint--and the reverse covered by printed text. The last page
is certainly ms. This however is a rare and costly tome.
TRACTS PRINTED BY PFISTER, _at Bamberg_; Folio. This is really a matchless
volume, on the score of rarity and curiosity. It begins with a tract, or
moral treatise, upon death. The wood cuts, five in number, are very large,
filling nearly the whole page. One of them presents us with death upon a
white horse; and the other was immediately recognised by me, as being the
identical subject of which a fac-simile of a portion is given to the public
in Lord Spencer's Catalogue[55]--but which, at that time, I was unable to
appropriate. This tract contains twenty-four leaves, having twenty-eight
lines in a full page. In all probability it was the _first_ of the tracts
printed by Pfister in the present volume. The FOUR HISTORIES, so fully
detailed in the work just referred to, immediately follow. This is of the
date of 1462. Then the BIBLIA PAUPERUM, also fully described in the same
work. This treatise is without date, and contains seventeen leaves; with a
profusion of wood cuts, of which fac-similes have been given by me to the
public. These three copies are in remarkably fine preservation; and this
volume will be always highly treasured in the estimation of the
typographical antiquary. The Latin Bible, by Pfister, has been just
described to you. There was a yet MORE PRECIOUS typographical gem ... in
this very library; by the same printer--with very curious wood cuts,--of
one of which Heineken has indulged us with a fac-simile. I mean the
FABLES ... with the express date of 1461. But recent events have caused it
to be restored to its original quarters.[56]
LACTANTII INSTITUTIONES, &C. _Printed in the Soubiaco Monastery_. 1465.
Folio. This was Lord Oxford's copy, and may be called almost uncut. You are
to learn, that copies of this beautifully printed book are by no means very
uncommon--although formerly, if I remember rightly, De Bure knew but of one
copy in France--but copies in a fine state, and of such dimensions as are
Mr. Grenville's and the one now before me, must be considered as of
extre
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