bbs's choice library has been
printed, to which the reader is referred for further particulars.

[Illustration: _Mr. R. Copley Christie, Book-collector._]

Just as the minds of no two men run in precisely similar grooves, so no
two libraries are found to be identical. Many bear a very striking
resemblance to one another, but in more than one respect they will be
found to differ. The splendid library formed by Mr. R. Copley Christie,
the president or past-president of quite a number of learned societies,
is altogether unique, so far as this country is concerned, and his
library in a garden--truly the _summum bonum_ of human desires!--at
Ribsden, near Bagshot, is certainly one of the most remarkable which it
has been our privilege to examine. Mr. Christie has not endeavoured to
collect everything, but he has no rival in the specialities to which he
has devoted his particular attention. He is the author of the only
complete monograph on Etienne Dolet, which has been translated into
French, and of which M. Goblet, when Minister of Public Instruction,
caused 250 copies to be purchased for distribution among the public
libraries of France. Of the eighty-four books (many of which are now
lost) printed by Dolet, there are three collections worthy of the name,
and the relative value of these will be seen when we state that Mr.
Christie possesses copies of forty-four, the Bibliotheque Nationale
thirty, and the British Museum twenty-five. Mr. Christie's collection of
the editions of Horace is probably the finest in existence outside one
or two public libraries; he has about 800 volumes, and among these are
translations into nearly every European language. He has upwards of 300
Aldines, nearly forty of which are _editiones principes_. The works of
the early French printers generally are objects of special interest; he
has, for example, about 400 volumes printed by Sebastian Gryphius, at
Lyons, from 1528 to 1556. Mr. Christie's library is also very rich in
works of or relating to Pomponatius, Hortensio Landi, Postel, Ramus, J.
Sturm, Scioppius, Giulio Camillo, and particularly Giordano Bruno.

A considerable number of the members of the Roxburghe Club come in the
category of book-lovers rather than book-collectors. The Earl of
Rosebery is understood to possess many valuable books and manuscripts
relating to Scottish literature, particularly in reference to Robert
Burns; but beyond this he has no fixed rule regarding additions to hi