recto of the last leaf--here is a fine, broad-margined
copy, which however ought to be cleansed from the stains which disfigure
it. I was grieved to see so indifferent a copy of the Edit. Prin. of
_Tacitus_: but rejoiced at beholding so large and beautiful a one (in its
original wooden binding) of the _Lucan_ of 1475, with the Commentary of
Omnibonus; printed as I conceive, by _I. de Colonia and M. de
Gherretzem_.[11]

But I had nearly forgotten to acquaint you with a remarkably fine,
thick-leaved, crackling copy--yet perhaps somewhat cropt--of Cardinal
_Bessarion's Epistles_, printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome in 1469.
It is in old gilt edges, in a sort of binding of wood.

I now come to the notice of a few choice and rare _Italian books_: and
first, for _Dante_. Here is probably the rarest of all the earlier editions
of this poet: that is to say, the edition printed at Naples by Tuppo, in
two columns, having forty-two lines in a full column. At the end of the
_Inferno_, we read "Gloria in excelsis Deo," in the gothic letter; the text
being uniformly roman. At the end of the _Purgatorio_:

SOLI DEO GLORIA.
Erubescat Judeus Infelir.

At the end of the _Paradiso_: DEO GRATIAS--followed by Tuppo's address to
Honofrius Carazolus of Naples. A register is on the recto of the following
and last leaf. This copy is large, but in a dreadfully loose, shattered,
and dingy state--in the original wooden binding. So precious an edition
should be instantly rebound. Here is the Dante of 1478, with the
_Commentary of Guido Terzago, printed at Milan in_ 1478, folio. The text of
the poet is in a fine, round, and legible roman type--that of the
commentator, in a small and disagreeable gothic character.

_Petrarch_ shall follow. The rarest edition of him, which I have been able
to put my hand upon, is that printed at Bologna in 1476 with the commentary
of Franciscus Philelphus. Each sonnet is followed by its particular
comment. The type is a small roman, not very unlike the smallest of Ulric
Han, or Reisinger's usual type, and a full page-contains forty-one lines.

Of _Boccaccio_, here is nothing which I could observe particularly worthy
of description, save the very rare edition of the _Nimphale_ of 1477,
printed by _Bruno Valla of Piedmont_, and _Thomaso of Alexandria._ A full
page has thirty-two lines.

I shall conclude the account of the rarer books, which it was my chance to
examine in the Public L