ere was sold, in a quiet corner of the
metropolis, the copious and scholar-like collection of MICHAEL LORT,
D.D. The owner of this latter library was a learned and amiable
character, and a bibliographer of no mean repute.[401] His books were
frequently enriched with apposite MS. remarks; and the variety and
extent of his collection, suited to all tastes, and sufficiently
abundant for every appetite, forms, I think, a useful model after
which future bibliomaniacs may build their libraries.

[Footnote 399: Mention has already been made of the
different _Catalogues of the_ PINELLI _Collection_: see p.
21, ante. Here, as Lysander has thought proper again to
notice the name of the collector, I am tempted to add a few
specimens of the extraordinary books contained in his
extraordinary library: adding thereto the prices for which
they were sold. But--again and again I observe, _in
limine_--these sums form no criterion of the _present_ worth
of the books; be the same more or less! It is a document
only of bibliographical curiosity.

NO. 703. La Biblia Sacra in Lingua Vulgare tradotta; 1471.
folio. 2 vols. L6 15_s._ 0_d._

2555. Bandello, Canti xi delle lodi della Signora Lucrezia
Gonzaga di Gazuolo, &c., 1545, 8vo. 15 15 0

2605. Dante, La Divina Comedia; 1472, folio. _Ediz. Prin._
25 14 6

3348. Petrarca, Le Rime. Venez. 1470, 4to. _Prin. Ediz._ 27
6 0

3458. Sannazzaro, L'Arcadia. Ven. Ald. 1514, 8vo. _Esemp.
stampata in Cartapecora._ 16 16 0

4909. Biblia Polyglotta; Complut. 1514, &c., folio. 6 vols.
_Exemplar integerrimum splendidissimum._ IMPRESSUM IN
MEMBRANIS. 483 0 0

All the world (perhaps I should have said the
_bibliographical_ world) has heard of this pre-eminently
wonderful set of books; now in Count Macarty's library at
Thoulouse. My friend, Dr. Gosset--who will not (I trust)
petition for excommunicating me from the orthodox church to
which I have the honour of belonging, if I number him in the
upper class of bibliomaniacs--was unable to attend the sale
of the Pinelli collection, from severe illness: but he _did
petition_ for a sight of one of these volumes of old
Ximenes's polyglott--which, much more effectually than the
spiders round Ashmole's neck (vide p. 293, ante), upon an
embrace thereof, effected his cure. Shakspeare, su