much in these times of slack copyright; and, at all events, the
piratic larcenous publications of the Dutch printers were pretty,
and so far satisfactory. They themselves, in turn, were the victims
of fraudulent and untradesmanlike imitations. It is for this, among
other reasons, that the collector of Elzevirs must make M. Willems's
book ("Les Elzevier," Brussels and Paris, 1880) his constant study.
Differences so minute that they escape the unpractised eye, denote
editions of most various value. In Elzevirs a line's breadth of
margin is often worth a hundred pounds, and a misprint is quoted at
no less a sum. The fantastic caprice of bibliophiles has revelled
in the bibliography of these Dutch editions. They are at present
very scarce in England, where a change in fashion some years ago had
made them common enough. No Elzevir is valuable unless it be clean
and large in the margins. When these conditions are satisfied the
question of rarity comes in, and Remy Belleau's Macaronic poem, or
"Le Pastissier Francais," may rise to the price of four or five
hundred pounds. A Rabelais, Moliere, or Corneille, of a "good"
edition, is now more in request than the once adored "Imitatio
Christi" (dateless), or the "Virgil"' of 1646, which is full of
gross errors of the press, but is esteemed for red characters in the
letter to Augustus, and another passage at page 92. The ordinary
marks of the Elzevirs were the sphere, the old hermit, the Athena,
the eagle, and the burning faggot. But all little old books marked
with spheres are not Elzevirs, as many booksellers suppose. Other
printers also stole the designs for the tops of chapters, the
Aegipan, the Siren, the head of Medusa, the crossed sceptres, and
the rest. In some cases the Elzevirs published their books,
especially when they were piracies, anonymously. When they
published for the Jansenists, they allowed their clients to put
fantastic pseudonyms on the title pages. But, except in four cases,