scribe who gave a sort of fashion to this MS. in France.

PTOLEMÆUS, _Latinè_. A magnificent MS.--if size and condition be alone
considered. It is however precious in the estimation of Collectors of
portraits, as it contains one of Louis XII;[40]--This portrait is nearly in
the centre of the frontispiece to the book. Behind the monarch stand two
men; one leaning upon his staff. A large gothic window is above. A crucifix
and altar are beneath it. There is but one other similar illumination in
the volume; and each nearly occupies the whole of the page--which is almost
twenty-three inches long by fourteen wide. The other illumination is hardly
worth describing. This noble volume, which almost made the bearer stoop
beneath its weight, is bound in wood:--covered with blue velvet, with a
running yellow pattern, of the time of Louis--but now almost worn away.

TITE-LIVE. Fol. A noble and magnificent MS. apparently of the beginning of
the XVth. century. It seems to point out the precise period when the
artists introduced those soft, full-coloured, circular borders--just after
the abandonment of the sharp outline, and thin coat of colour--discoverable
in the illuminations of the XIIIth and XIVth centuries. The first grand
illumination, with a circular border, is an interesting illustration of
this remark. The backgrounds to the pictures are the well-known small
bright squares of blue and gold. The text is in a firm square and short
gothic character.

L'HISTOIRE ROMAINE: No. 6984: Folio, 3 vols. written in the French
language. These are among the _shew books_ of the library. The exterior
pattern of the binding is beautiful in the extreme. Such a play of lines,
in all directions, but chiefly circular, I never before saw. The date, on
the outside, is 1556. The writing and the illuminations are of the latter
part of the XVth century; and although they are gorgeous, and in a fine