utter perishing, as from coming into Popish hands ; and therefore he desireth your Honour to exert your usual diligence and dexterity, in procuring the same. "That family offered Dr. Grabe's brother (who is Secretary to the King of Prussia) to lend it, upon a pledge of about sixty pounds value. They therefore thought such a sum to be worth more than their Book. You may, perhaps, come the sooner to it by means of Dr. Eckhart, History Professor of Helmstad, if he be now at Hanover, as he often is. An occasion of talking to him about it may be had by asking him, whether he received the last somer a letter and a book from me? and so, pian piano, enquiring about the Professors of that University, their learning, libraries, &c. as you very well know how, until you are told the place where, and the person with whom, the Book is to be found. "When you have got into the House, be pleased to look over all the collection of Manuscripts, as if it were only to satisfy your curiosity in the generall, without professed enquiry after this particular Book, unless it doth not occurr unto you in your inspection. I am humbly of opinion that you will find it written on parchment, in no big volume, and in the Estrangel or Nestorian character (but rather in the former); of both which I have given you the alphabets in the former leaf*. But that you may be certainly sure, that what you may see and the people may warrant for the Book wanted (in case Masius nor none else hath written an account of it in the beginning nor end), be pleased to look nicely up and down in the text for the before-mentioned marks,' and (which last denotes the end or conclusion of a distinguished reading). If you meet them pretty frequent, and the hand not unconformable * The Alphabet, with the several marks alluded to, are accurately delineated in Mr. Wanley's original MS. from the alphabet above, you have the Book which my Lord wanteth, and which must be procured although at a great price, and not be left behind you. "If the whole Collection of Manuscripts shall seem to amount to no extraordinary sum, I think it would be better to buy them all at a lump, than to treat singly upon this Book. But, if the whole shall be too great a purchase, it will do well to get a Catalogue of what is therein contained, the price they demand; and to bring away this Book, being borrowed upon caution given; for they may be far ther treated with, from hence, for the remainder, as opportunities may give leave; the main matter being to secure this individual Book, which will not only adorn my Lord Treasurer my master's Library (which is already very richly furnished), but prove a public and lasting advantage to Christendome in general, and to this Nation in particular. "Thus, with my most hearty respects, and sincere wishes for your safe return from so long a journey, I remain, honourable Sir, "Your most humble and obedient servant, EXTRACTS FROM MR. H. WANLEY'S POCKET-BOOK. P. 1. "Notes of things proper for the Library in the hands of particular persons; as, 3. "Mr. Sam. Palmer, in Cyprus, has collected some Greek MSS. for my Lord; and did promise to give him two αλάβαςρα. 9. "Mr. Strype's Papers, Letters, &c. (to be concerted with Mr. Wyat). 19. "Sir Richard Blackmore has Janssonius's Latin Camden's Britannia printed upon vellum. *MS. Lansdowne, 715. 23. "Evan 23. "Evangeliorum Codices AVREI, are said to be in the Churches of Tours, Bourdeaux, St. Denis, and the Benedictins de Mares at Paris; as also at Aix-la-Chapelle. 30. "Mr. Elstob and Mrs. Elstob's Copies of Saxon MSS. 33. "Sir Hans Sloane's Charters, Rolls, and MSS. 41. "At the Monastery of Grotto Ferrato, about twelve miles from Rome, are (as it is said) a great number of Greek MSS. likely to be bought cheap. 44." Register of the several Trials in the Court of Inquisition at Tholouse. Dr. Bray. 49. "Dr. Kennett, bishop of Peterborough, has some MSS. of his own." It is singular that Mr. Wanley's Diaries should afterwards find a place in a public Repository with several of the Collections mentioned above. "1721, Jan. 8. Mr. Anstis said, That, during the Civil War time, an Officer of the King's got into the Library, and into the Jewel-house, and divers offices, and carried away many of the Officebooks, and other fine books from the Library: That these books do yet remain in Yorkshire, under six locks That Mr. Thoresby of Leeds has seen them; and that they will be sold. I think Mr. Anstis should be employed to buy them for my Lord; and likewise to sell his fine Books (MSS.) to my Lord. 42. "Notes relating to my Lord's business, mo mentaneous. for "Borrow the Textus S. Ceddæ of Dr. Bentley my Lord to see. I think the instances there of our Saxon Ancestors writing with a style without ink, are about fol. 109, and 113 b. I have seen divers others, in other books." No. VI. No. VI. Two LETTERS FROM DR. TAYLOR, ON THE PARIS BIBLE AT CAMBRIDGE. 1. To the Earl of OXFORD. << MY LORD, Cambridge, Dec. 20, 1740. "The following account, relating to the Paris Bible* of 1464, will not, I presume, be disagreeable to your Lordship, as it serves to clear up a very great difficulty in the History of Printing; and as the fame of this rare and very curious edition, I very well remember to have heard, excited your Lordship's curiosity. It will be no longer a subject of wonder, that your Lordship's commissions over all Europe, for a copy of this Book, were returned without success; as your Lordship will be convinced, from the perusal of these papers, that it could not have happened otherwise. "When the Library of the late Bp. Moore came to be better known; nothing, in that very valuable Collection, was more likely to astonish the curious, than a Book of the three first Paris Printers, with a date, which not only contradicted the best and most authentic accounts of the Settlement of the Press in that City, but, what is still more amazing, the express testimony of those very Printers themselves upon another occasion. For, my Lord, not only * See the Origin of Printing, pp. 107. 171.-See also Dr. Mill's Prolegomena to his edition of the Greek Testament, where the MS. in question is described. + Mr. Maittaire, who had seen a copy of this letter, thus speaks of it in his latest publication on the subject: "Biblia Latina, per Gering, Crantz, et Friburger, fol. 1464. [Palmer's History of Printing, p. 100. 102. Annal. I. 5. & 273. & 1. 41.J At vero constat illos Typographos artem ante annum 1470 non exercuisse (Annal. I. 25. & * I. 77.] Rectè igitur (uti mihi compertum est ex epistolâ ad virum nobilem, 1740, Dec. 20 datâ, cujus exemplar ab amico ad me missum fuit) fraudem detexit vir in re antiquariâ apprime versatus, et sagaci oculo locum contemplatus facilè animadvertit duas voces (semi-lustrum) fuisse repositas pro veris (tribus-lustris)." Annal. Topogr. Tomi Quinti Pars posterior, p. 565. Naldé, Naudé, in his Addition to the History of Lewis XI. and Chevillier, Library-keeper of the Sorbonne, in his Dissertation upon the Origin of Printing, have uncontestably fixed the date of the Paris press at 1470; but the Edition of the Epistles of Gasparinus Pergamensis, which was set out at Paris the same year, is a convincing proof that this art had not been exercised in that part of Europe before this date; as will appear from the colophon : 'Ut Sol lumen, sic doctrinam fundis in orbem, Hinc propè divinam tu, quam Germania novit, "Thus stood the History of Printing, when the late Bishop of Ely [Dr. Moore] procured a Vulgate Bible in folio, with a colophon that spoke, and that in the name of Michael [Friburger], Ulric [Gering], and Martin [Crank], the printers, as expressly for 1464, as any other testimony could do for 1470. Your Lordship very well remembers, I transcribed it for your Lordship's use a few years ago, at Mr. Morgan's instance; and that it stands thus: 'Jam semi undecimus lustrum Francos Ludovicus Rexerat, Ulricus, Martinus, itemque Michaël Orti Teutoniâ hanc mihi composuere figuram.' "The Owner of the Book, misled by a false chronology (perhaps that of Chevillier, who dates * "John Morgan, B. D. rector of Medburne in Leicestershire, from St. John's, formerly fellow of the same College, I was well acquainted with when, many years ago, I was at Lisbon for my health, where he was Chaplain to the English Factory there established. He is now dignified by the Bishop of St. Asaph in his diocese, though he lives in London. He was Chaplain to Minorca by purchase, which he parted with in 1772 or 1773. Beneficed in one of the Welsh Cathedrals, Commissary to the - Mr. Morgan Bishop of Chester." Cole's MSS. 49, p. 107, &c. took the degree of B. A. 1722; M. A. 1726; B. D. 1734; and held the rectory of Medburne from 1748 to 1773. He was intimate at Wimple, but never got any preferment from that connexion. the |