edition. It commences on the reverse of the first leaf, with a title of ARS MORIENDI, between two lines. Below this title, are 30 lines. Each page, whether a picture or text, is surrounded by a frame of two lines; which frame, in the first two pages of text, is very little more than 8 inches in height, by about 63 in width. In the whole, 14 leaves; printed on each side of the leaf. The reverse of the 13th leaf presents us, as Heinecken rightly observes, with the Almighty seated, and the Saviour upon his knees before him. Beneath our Saviour, are the cross, scourge, and crown of thorns. It is supposed that the redemption of the world is proposed to him by his Father. The recto of the opposite leaf presents us with the creation of Eve, at top, and the eating of the forbidden fruit at bottom. Both of these cuts are nearly 8 inches in height. The copy of this impression, in the Electoral Library at Dresden, had the creation of Eve on the reverse of the 13th leaf, and the proposed redemption of Mankind on the recto of the 14th, and last leaf. The present is a remarkably fair copy, bound in old red morocco. I incline to think this impression to be of a date not earlier than 1480.

5. HISTORIA VETERIS ET NOVI TESTAMENTI: seu BIBLIA PAUPERUM. Latinè. Folio.

This work is placed by Heinecken as the first in the order of those books, which are executed with wooden blocks: but whether it be absolutely the earliest impression of the BIBLIA PAUPERUM, is a point upon which he is not disposed to determine. As far as I am enabled to judge, it appears to be the first impression of the work just mentioned; but executed at a period rather later than the ARS Moriendi.

Schelhorn is the first bibliographer who has noticed this impression. He gives a tolerably well-executed fac-simile of the first leaf of a copy of it which was in the library of Raym. de Krafft; and Heinecken presents us, as well with a detailed account of the contents of each leaf, or cut, as with a fac-simile of the last entire page. Amanitat. Literar. vol. iv. p. 293-300: Idée Générale, &c. p. 292-306. It is not necessary to describe the contents of each leaf, as these have been done most satisfactorily by Heinecken; whose work, here last referred to, is in the hands of every curious bibliographer and collector. It will only be material to observe, that there are 40 leaves or cuts,

pasted together; and that it is in every respect a different work from the 'SPECULUM SALUTIS;' of which latter, Chevillier has told a pleasant story, * that has been repeated by Maichelius+ and Schelhorn: Ibid. The cuts follow each other according to two sets of alphabets: both alphabets extending from a to v only. These letters, in alphabetical order, are placed in the centre of the upper compartment of the page, or cut; and whatever may be the opinion of bibliographers to the contrary, they form the ORIGIN OF SIGNATURES.

If we assign to this production the date of 1450, the composition and execution of the cuts contained in it will not be considered so ' lourd et gothiques' as Heinecken is pleased to call them. I shall select, indifferently, a few specimens, elegant and grotesque, from this extraordinary production, which cannot fail of gratifying the curious, and upon which they will pass their own opinions.

Hist. de l'Imprim. p. 281: mentioned also in the Bibliomania, p. 709.

Introd. ad Hist. Literar. De Precip. Biblioth. Paris. 1721, 8vo. p. 122-3. Maichelius

is jocular upon those, who imagine such works to be of no value, from the rudeness of their aspect. The Abbé Rive has also noticed the singular good fortune of Chevillier in buying this book for 4 livres, which was worth 1500. His note is worth consulting; although his account of the BLOCK BOOKS is exceedingly desultory and confused. He supposes, on the authority of his Master,' that Julian Macho and Peter Farget, friars of the order of St. Austin, were the authors of the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis La Chasse aux Bibliographes; p. 309, 315.

To these, I subjoin a fac-simile of the centre compartment in the last leaf but one. It will remind the connoisseur in ancient typography of several similar cuts; which appear to have regularly descended as low as nearly the middle of the 16th century.

It remains to add, that the present is a fair and sound copy; having the singular good fortune of being uncoloured. It is bound in ancient red morocco; and is one of the books recently purchased by his Lordship, from Sir Arthur Paget, from Vienna.