in a secretary gothic hand, upon paper. The heads of the Polypheme tribe
are ludicrously horrible. Third:--_Herren Duke of Brunswick_, or the
_Chevalier au Lion_,--a MS. relating to this hero, of the date of 1470. A
lion accompanies him every where. Among the embellishments, there is a good
one of this animal leaping upon a tomb and licking it--as containing the
mortal remains of his master. Fourth: a series of German stanzas, sung by
birds, each bird being represented, in outline, before the stanza
appropriated to it. In the whole, only three leaves.

The "last and not least" of the MSS. which I deem it worthy to mention, is
an highly illuminated one of _St. Austin upon the Psalms_. This was the
_first_ book which I remembered to have seen, upon the continent, from the
library of the famous _Corvinus King of Hungary,_ about which certain pages
have discoursed largely. It was also an absolutely beautiful book:
exhibiting one of the finest specimens of art of the latter end of the XVth
century. The commentary of the Saint begins on the recto of the second
leaf, within such a rich, lovely, and exquisitely executed border--as
almost made me forget the embellishments in the _Sforziada_ in the Royal
Library of France.[15] The border in question is a union of pearls and
arabesque ornaments quite standing out of the background ... which latter
has the effect of velvet. The arms, below, are within a double border of
pearls, each pair of pearls being within a gold circle upon an ultramarine
ground. The heads and figures have not escaped injury, but other portions
of this magical illumination have been rubbed or partly obliterated.

A ms. note, prefixed by M. Le Bret, informs us, in the opinion of its
writer, that this illumination was the work of one "_Actavantes de
Actavantibus of Florence_,--who lived towards the end of the XVth century,"
and who really seems to have done a great deal for Corvinus. The initial
letters, throughout this volume, delicately cross-barred in gold, with