as just the man to write such a
book.'--_Bookman._

'The work is always learned, and (what is not so easy) always light.
Everybody who is the least of a book-hunter ought to read it at once, or
rather, ought to hunt for it first; and then, to show that it is a
better sort of book than many that are hunted, read it.'--_Scotsman._

[Illustration]

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:

Characters superscripted in the original are inclosed in {} brackets.

Variations in spelling have been left as in the original. Examples
include the following:

Crede Creede
Creside Cressida
Faerie Faerie
Magliabecchi Magliabechi
Polychronicon Policronicon
Schoeffer's Schoeffer Schoeffer with an oe ligature
Sweynheim Sweynheym
Troilus Troylus
Zarothum Zarothus

The following words used an oe ligature in the original:

d'oeuvre
Foedera
Oeconomiques
oeuvre Oeuvres
Phoebum
Phoenix
Schoeffer
Tragoedie

The following words appear with and without hyphens. They have been left
as in the original.

book-buyer bookbuyer
book-buying bookbuying
book-case bookcase
book-plate bookplate
book-selling bookselling
Coffee-house Coffeehouse
sale-room saleroom
waste-paper wastepaper

The following corrections have been made to the text:

page xiv: Purcell (p. 165)[original has 164]

page xv: necessarily a learned man.[original is missing
period]

page 24: 1 Peers pennylesse supplication[original has
supplicati[=o] to indicate there wasn't room for the final n]

[=o] is equivalent to o with a macron over it

page 33: the '[opening quote is missing in original]Godfrey of
Bulloigne' selling for 18s.

page 40: early age of forty-four[original has fourty-four]

page 74: duplicate of my wooden leg."[original has extraneous
single quote]

page 81: the MSS. of Gray, in their perfect
calligraphy[original has caligraphy]

page 142: Rowfant[original has Rowfont] Library

page 146: where a sale of books was in progress[original has
progess]

page 147: on the Banks of Lake Liman, near Geneva,"[ending
quotation mark missing in original]

page 194: For Bill