tter acquainted with them after a slight
introduction, and so rid you of such an uncomfortable diffidence. Let
us begin with LABBE,[122] who died in the year 1667, and in the
sixtieth of his own age; a man of wonderful memory and of as wonderful
application--whose whole life, according to his biographers, was
consumed in gathering flowers from his predecessors, and thence
weaving such a chaplet for his own brows as was never to know decay.
His _Nova Bibliotheca_, and _Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum
Manuscriptorum_, are the principal works which endear his memory to
bibliographers. More learned than Labbe was LAMBECIUS;[123] whose
_Commentarii de Bibliotheca Caesarea-Vindobonensis_, with Nesselius's
supplement to the same, [1696, 2 vols. fol.] and Kollarius's new
edition of both, form one of the most curious and important, as well
as elaborate, productions in the annals of literature and
bibliography. Less extensive, but more select, valuable, and accurate,
in its choice and execution of objects, is the _Bibliotheca Hispana
Vetus et Nova_ of Nicholas ANTONIO;[124] the first, and the best,
bibliographical work which Spain, notwithstanding her fine palaces and
libraries, has ever produced. If neither Philemon nor yourself,
Lisardo, possess this latter work [and I do not see it upon the
shelves of this cabinet], seek for it with avidity; and do not fear
the pistoles which the purchase of it may cost you. LIPENIUS[125] now
claims a moment's notice; of whose _Bibliotheca Realis_ Morhof is
inclined to speak more favourably than other critics. 'Tis in six
volumes; and it appeared from the years 1679 to 1685 inclusive. Not
inferior to either of the preceding authors in taste, erudition, and
the number and importance of his works, was ADRIEN BAILLET;[126] the
simple pastor of Lardieres, and latterly the learned and
indefatigable librarian of Lamoignon. His _Jugemens des Savans_,
edited by De la Monnoye, is one of those works with which no man, fond
of typographical and bibliographical pursuits, can comfortably
dispense. I had nearly forgotten to warn you against the capricious
works of BEUGHEM; a man, nevertheless, of wonderful mental elasticity;
but for ever planning schemes too vast and too visionary for the
human powers to execute.[127]

[Footnote 122: "Vir, qui in texendis catalogis totam pene
vitam consumpsit." "Homo ad Lexica et Catalogos conficiendos
a natura factus." Such is Morhof's account of LABBE; who, in