transport. "The more I look at these two volumes (replied I, very leisurely
and gravely,) the more I am persuaded that they will become the property of
Earl Spencer." M. Le Bret laughed aloud at the strangeness of this reply. I
proceeded to take a particular account of them.[9]

Here is an imperfect copy of an edition of _Terence_, by _Reisinger_, in
folio; having only 130 leaves, and twenty-two lines in a full page.[10] It
is the first copy of this edition which I ever saw; and I am much deceived
if it be exceeded by any edition of the same author in rarity: and when I
say this, I am not unmindful of the Editio Princeps of it by
_Mentelin_--which happens _not_ to be here. There is, however, a
beautifully white copy of this latter printer's Editio Princeps of
_Valerius Maximus_; but not so tall as the largest of the two copies of
this same edition which I saw at Strasbourg. Of the _Offices of Cicero_, of
1466, there is rather a fine tall copy (within a quarter of an inch of ten
inches high) UPON VELLUM; in the original wooden binding. The first two or
three leaves have undergone a little martyrdom, by being scribbled upon. Of
J. de Spira's edition of the _Epistles of Cicero_, of 1469--having the
colophon on the recto of the last leaf--here is a fine, broad-margined
copy, which however ought to be cleansed from the stains which disfigure
it. I was grieved to see so indifferent a copy of the Edit. Prin. of
_Tacitus_: but rejoiced at beholding so large and beautiful a one (in its
original wooden binding) of the _Lucan_ of 1475, with the Commentary of
Omnibonus; printed as I conceive, by _I. de Colonia and M. de
Gherretzem_.[11]

But I had nearly forgotten to acquaint you with a remarkably fine,
thick-leaved, crackling copy--yet perhaps somewhat cropt--of Cardinal
_Bessarion's Epistles_, printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz at Rome in 1469.
It is in old gilt edges, in a sort of binding of wood.