f the byways included in these headings of Travel and Foreign
Countries are of considerable interest for the bibliographer no less than
for the traveller. Who has confined his attentions to the early Saracenic
literature of North Africa? There is a number of works dealing with it,
chiefly sixteenth-century Spanish books, and all are of considerable
value. Luis del Marmol's 'Descripcion general del Affrica' is in three
folio volumes, of which the first two were printed at Granada in 1573,
the third volume being dated at Malaga, 1599. But though Marmol affixed
his own name to it, the work is little more than a translation of the
'Description of Africa,' by Leo Africanus, a fellow-countryman of Marmol,
who composed his work in Arabic. Marmol was certainly well qualified for
his task, for he was taken prisoner by the Moors in 1546, and was eight
years in captivity in Africa. Curio's 'Sarracenicae Historiae' was first
published in folio at Basel in 1567; but it was English'd by T. Newton in
1575, quarto, black letter, London--if you are so lucky as to come across
it. It is called 'A Notable Historie of the Saracens.' Dan's 'Histoire de
la Barbarie,' folio, Paris, 1649, appears in the sale-room from time to
time.

[Sidenote: Americana.]

3. Americana--what a vast subject in itself! Its very definition
signifies the inclusion of everything upon any subject whatsoever that
has ever been written upon the Americas! But in the bibliographer's
reading this term is generally taken to imply those early works relating
to the discovery and settlement of the United States and Canada, though
not necessarily in the English language. For the purposes of our list,
however, we will confine its meaning solely to the United States;
classifying books upon Canada, Alaska, and Mexico under the heading
Travels and Exploration. Under the latter heading also, of course, will
come the various countries of Central and South America.

Many have been the collections upon the early history of New England, and
you will do well to obtain the catalogues of the Huth, Church,
Auchinleck, Winsor, Livingston, Grenville, and Hoe collections. The
famous collection of Americana from the library at Britwell Court was to
have been sold by auction at Sotheby's in August 1916; but it was
purchased _en bloc_ to go to New York, where it was dispersed by public
auction the following January. The sale catalogue (Sotheby's) is an
extremely good one, and contains a large