t multum nostrae quod proderat urbi.

For my part, Lorenzo, I know of no character, either of this or of any
subsequent period, which is more entitled to the esteem and veneration
of Englishmen. Pious, diffident, frank, charitable, learned, and
munificent, Parker was the great episcopal star of his age, which
shone with undiminished lustre to the last moment of its appearance.
In that warm and irritable period, when the Protestant religion was
assailed in proportion to its excellence, and when writers mistook
abuse for argument, it is delightful to think upon the mild and
temperate course which this discreet metropolitan pursued! Even with
such arrant bibliomaniacs as yourselves, Parker's reputation must
stand as high as that attached to any name, when I inform you that of
his celebrated work upon the "_Antiquity of the British Church_"[331]
are only twenty copies supposed to have been printed. He had a
private press, which was worked with types cast at his own expense;
and a more determined book-fancier, and treasurer of ancient lore, did
not at that time exist in Great Britain.

[Footnote 331: This is not the place to enter minutely into
a bibliographical account of the above celebrated work; such
account being with more propriety reserved for the history
of our _Typographical Antiquities_. Yet a word or two may be
here said upon it, in order that the bibliomaniac may not be
wholly disappointed; and especially as Ames and Herbert have
been squeamishly reserved in their comunications
[Transcriber's Note: communications] respecting the same.
The above volume is, without doubt, one of the scarcest
books in existence. It has been intimated by Dr. Drake, in
the preface of his magnificent reprint of it, 1729, fol.,
that only 20 copies were struck off: but, according to Stype
[Transcriber's Note: Strype], Parker tells Cecil, in an
emblazoned copy presented to him by the latter, that he had
not given the book to _four_ men in the whole realm: and
peradventure, added he, "it shall never come to sight
abroad, though some men, smelling of the printing of it,
were very desirous cravers of the same." _Life of Parker_,
p. 415. This certainly does not prove any thing respecting
the number of copies printed; but it is probable that Dr.
Drake's supposition is not far short of the truth. One thing
is remarkable: of all the c