respective impressions; and the latter has really no very remote
resemblance to what is given in the _Bibl. Spenceriana_[58] of one of the
Queens of Hungary. If so, perhaps the period of its execution may not be
quite so remote as is generally imagined: for the Hungarian Chronicle, from
which that regal figure was taken, is of the date of 1485.

HISTORIA BEATÆ VIRGINIS. _Without date_. This is doubtless rather an
extraordinary volume. The text is printed only on one side of the leaf: so
as to leave, alternately, the reverses and rectos blank--facing each other.
But this _alone_ is no proof of its antiquity; for, from the character both
of the wood cuts and the type, I am quite persuaded that this volume could
not have been executed much before the year 1480. It is not improbable that
this book might have been printed at _Ulm_. It is a very beautiful copy,
and bound in blue morocco.

VIRGILIUS. _Printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz_. 1469. Folio. EDITIO
PRINCEPS. The enormous worth and rarity of this exceedingly precious volume
may be estimated from this very copy having been purchased, at the sale of
the Duke de la Valliere's library, in 1783, for four thousand one hundred
and one livres. The first leaf of the _Bucolics_, of which the margin of
the page is surrounded by an ancient illumination, gives unfortunate
evidence of the binding of Chamot.[59] In other words, this copy, although
in other respects white and sound, has been too much cropt. It measures
eleven inches and six eighths, by nearly seven inches and five eighths.

VIRGILIUS. _Printed by Vindelin de Spira_. 1470. Here are not fewer than
_two_ delicious copies of this exceedingly rare impression--and the most
delicious happens to be UPON VELLUM. "O rare felicity!... (you exclaim) to
spend so many hours within scarcely more than an arm's length of such
cherished and long-sought after treasures!" But it is true nevertheless.