last article of Bibliographiana. Pursuing this species of narrative, I shall commence the present article with an account of the sale of books belonging to Mr. JOHN BRIDGES; whose collection was, I believe, the first of any importance disposed of in the 18th century. The sale catalogue has the following title: Bibliotheca Bridgesiana Catalogus: or a catalogue of the entire library of JOHN BRIDGES, late of Lincoln's Inn, Esq. consisting of above 4000* books and manuscripts in all languages and faculties; particularly in classics and history; and especially the history and antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland: which will begin to be sold by auction, on Monday the seventh day of February 172, at his Chambers in Lincoln's Inn, No. 6. At the end of the sale of books there will be a small number of curious prints to be disposed of.

FROM a priced copy of this sale cata

* This must be an error-there were 4813 articles, and, in consequence, at least 4500 volumes.

logue in my possession, once belonging to NOURSE the bookseller in the Strand, I find that the following was the produce of the sale.

The amount of the books

Prints and books of prints

£.

s. d.

3730 0 0

394 17 6

Total amount of the sale £.4124 17 6

THERE were two different catalogues printed of this valuable collection of books. The one was analysed, or a catalogue raisonnée, to which was prefixed a print of a Grecian portico, &c. with ornamental statues; the other (expressly for the sale) was an indigested and extremely confused one-to which was prefixed a print, designed and engraved by A. MOTTE, of an oak felled, with a number of men cutting down and carrying away its branches; illustrative of the following Greek motto inscribed on a scroll above- Δρυός πεσέσης πᾶς ἀνὴρ ξυλεύεται: 'An affecting memento (says Mr. Nichols, very justly, in his Anecdotes of Bowyer,

p. 557) to the collectors of great libraries, who cannot, or do not, leave them to some public accessible repository.'

AT the first glance of this curious collection, a bibliographer will smile to find the following books valued so differently to what they would now be, if consigned to the hammer of the courteous and discerning Mr. Leigh.

IN Greek and Roman literature, an illuminated copy of Turnebus's edition of the Iliad, 1554, was sold for £6. 6s. The Junta Cicero of 1534-37, edited by Victorius, produced £.16. 5s. 6d. The Aldine Septuagint of 1518, large paper, £9. 19s. 6d. The Euripides of Barnes, large paper, £.3. 3s. The Parisian edition of the Byzantine Historians, with A. Bandurus's Roman Coins, and the Bibl. Nummaria, in all 34 volumes, large paper, morocco binding, emphatically called Opus absolutissimum,' brought the sum of .87. 3s.

6

IN Spanish literature there appear to have been many valuable works-Garibay's History of the whole Spanish Dominions, printed by Plantin, in 4 volumes folio, 1571, sold for £.4. 2s. 6d. Asiatic, European, and African Portugal, by Sousa, in 6 volumes folio, printed at Lisbon, 1666, &c. £.6. 5s. Cronica de Espana, por Florian O Campo, y Ambros Morales, 4 volumes folio, printed at Alcala, 1574, 75, &c. con las Antiguedad. de Espana, 3 volumes, Corduva, 1686— £.8. 1s.

English literature and English history seem to have been highly prized, if we are to judge from the following sums given for the following articles. Du Chesne's Normanni Scriptores, large paper, £.12. 15s. Twisden's Decem Scriptores, large paper, £.9. 3s. Leland's Itinerary and Collectanea, large paper, £.10 and £.12. The Acts of Scotland, commonly called the black acts, with MS. observations, produced £.8 10s. Halsted's Genealogies of the noble and

antient houses of Alno, Broc, &c. large paper, with cuts, .15. Aubrey's Nat. Hist. and Antiq. of Surrey, large paper, with cuts, 5 vols. £.3. 13s. 6d.

On the other hand, Fuller's Worthies*, for a fine copy of which booksellers now ask 7 and 8 guineas, produced only the sum of £.1. 14s. ; and Sir Henry Chauncy's History of Hertfordshire, for a perfect and fair copy of which I know not whe

* Perhaps the most valuable copy of this work ever known, was sold at Mr. Steevens's sale in 1800. It is thus described in the catalogue, No. 1799. 'A very fine copy in russia, with the portrait by Loggan, and index; a most extraordinary and matchless book; the late Mr. Steevens having bestowed uncommon pains in transcribing every addition to render it valuable, written in his peculiarly neat manner. This bijoux brought £.43!

* Some account of this work may be found in Gough's British Topography, vol. i. 419: but the lover of topographical antiquities is still in want of a catalogue raisonneé of the most rare and valuable books relating to this study. Mr. Gough's work is ample, accurate, and inestimable: but it is not exclusively bibliographical. It is a union of history and bibliography,