man stanzas, sung by
birds, each bird being represented, in outline, before the stanza
appropriated to it. In the whole, only three leaves.

The "last and not least" of the MSS. which I deem it worthy to mention, is
an highly illuminated one of _St. Austin upon the Psalms_. This was the
_first_ book which I remembered to have seen, upon the continent, from the
library of the famous _Corvinus King of Hungary,_ about which certain pages
have discoursed largely. It was also an absolutely beautiful book:
exhibiting one of the finest specimens of art of the latter end of the XVth
century. The commentary of the Saint begins on the recto of the second
leaf, within such a rich, lovely, and exquisitely executed border--as
almost made me forget the embellishments in the _Sforziada_ in the Royal
Library of France.[15] The border in question is a union of pearls and
arabesque ornaments quite standing out of the background ... which latter
has the effect of velvet. The arms, below, are within a double border of
pearls, each pair of pearls being within a gold circle upon an ultramarine
ground. The heads and figures have not escaped injury, but other portions
of this magical illumination have been rubbed or partly obliterated.

A ms. note, prefixed by M. Le Bret, informs us, in the opinion of its
writer, that this illumination was the work of one "_Actavantes de
Actavantibus of Florence_,--who lived towards the end of the XVth century,"
and who really seems to have done a great deal for Corvinus. The initial
letters, throughout this volume, delicately cross-barred in gold, with
little flowers and arabesques, &c. precisely resemble those in the MS. of
Mr. Hibbert.[16] Such a white, snowy page, as the one just in part
described, can scarcely be imagined by the uninitiated in ancient
illuminated MSS. The binding, in boards covered with leather, has the
original ornaments, of the time of Corvinus, which are now much faded. The
fore-edges of the leaves preserve their former gilt-stamped ornaments. Upon
the whole--an ALMOST MATCHLESS book!

Such, my good friend, are the treasures, both in MS. and in print, which a
couple of morning's application, in the Public Library of Stuttgart, have
enabled me to bring forward for your notice. A word or two, now, for the
treasures of the ROYAL LIBRARY, and then for a little respite. The Library
of his Majesty is in one of the side wings, or rather appurtenances, of the
Palace: to the right, on looking