William Caxton' which is practically a reprint in a cheaper form issued in one octavo volume in 1877. A second edition of this last appeared in 1882. In the Preface to the 1877 reprint, Blades states that only one additional fact of any importance has been added, viz. that Caxton was married . . . ' and that 'the bibliography has been curtailed.'

Of

Proctor's 'Index to the Early Printed Books in the British Museum from the Invention of Printing to the Year MD.,' begun in 1898, was cut short by his untimely death. The Museum authorities have now in course of publication an important work entitled 'A Catalogue of Books printed in the Fifteenth Century now in the British Museum,' which is being compiled by Mr. A. W. Pollard and his assistants; it will be completed in six folio (really super-quarto) volumes. these the first part, dealing with block-books and the productions of German presses, appeared in 1908; Part II., also German-printed books, in 1912; Part III., Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary, in 1913: while Part IV., the productions of Italy, appeared in 1916. Parts V. and VI. will contain the works of England, France, and other countries, Part VI. also containing a general index to the entire work. The Introduction to Part I. gives a valuable résumé of the study of scientific bibliography from Panzer in 1793.

Mr. Gordon Duff's great work on the

English incunabula, Fifteenth Century Books,' was issued by the Bibliographical Society in 1917. It contains fifty-three facsimiles, and records the existence of 439 books or fragments issued in English, or by the printers in this country, before the end of the year 1500.

In France much valuable work has been done on the early presses of that country. M. Anatole Claudin has put forth some extremely useful books on the early printers of Poitiers, Limoges, Rheims, and of many other towns; whilst for the Exposition Universelle of 1900 he prepared a monumental work upon the early printers of Paris. This sumptuous book, entitled 'Histoire de l'Imprimerie en France au XVe et au XVIe Siècle,' was printed in two large quarto (superquarto) volumes, copiously adorned with illuminated and other illustrations. The chapter on Antoine Verard is delightful.

There is a large number of books, too, on the incunabula of various European towns and districts, such as Augsburg, Bavaria, Belgium, Bohemia, Ferrara, Mainz, Lyons, Mantua, Nürnberg, Rome, Rouen, Toulouse, to mention only a few. For the incunabula printed with Greek characters Legrand's 'Bibliographie hellénique,' which appeared in two octavo volumes in 1885, is useful.

For a description of the early 'block-books,' the prototype of printing, the collector must have recourse to Sotheby's beautiful work entitled

'Principia Typographica,' published in three large quarto volumes in 1858. It contains no less than a hundred and twenty full-page facsimiles, some in colour, of block-books, early types, paper-marks, etc., and is one of the most important works on the history of printing that has ever been produced. He will do well also to acquire Bigmore and Wyman's 'Bibliography of Printing,' a valuable work which appeared in three quarto volumes, 1880-86; and there is an immense amount of information concerning individual printers and stationers with their productions in 'The Library' (in progress), the three large volumes of Bibliographica' published in twelve parts between 1895 and 1897, and the transactions of the Bibliographical Society.

If early wood-engravings interest you, there are several works to which you may turn for guidance. Lippmann's 'Wood Engraving in Italy in the Fifteenth Century,' of which an English edition was published in 1888, and Kristeller's Early Florentine Wood

Engravings.

1 The term Incunabula is now applied to all books printed before the year 1500. It is a vast study in itself, this bibliography of fifteenth-century books; and thanks to the labours of a small group of men who have devoted their lives to the subject, it is now upon a definite scientific basis. Carefully prepared monographs are issued from time to time, dealing with the different founts used by the early printers; but as this subject is unlikely to engage the attentions of those for whom this work is written (who, like the writer, are of modest means), we forbear to enter upon it in detail.

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cuts' which appeared in 1897, treat of illustrated Italian books. Venetian books of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are dealt with by Prince d'Essling in his Bibliographie des Livres à Figures Vénitiens 1469-1525,' of which a new edition appeared in 1906. The works of Dutch and Belgian artists are dealt with by Sir W. M. Conway in 'The Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century.' This was published in 1884. M. Claudin's 'Histoire de l'Imprimerie en France' contains many illustrations of early Parisian woodcuts and illuminations, while Muther's 'Die Deutsche Bücherillustration der Gothik und Frührenaissance,' published in 1884, is also useful. For English engravers you will find Sir Sidney Colvin's Early Engraving and Engravers in England' (1905) useful, as well as Lewine's Bibliography of Eighteenth Century Art and Illustrated Books,' which appeared in 1898. A very delightful work on the eighteenthcentury French engravers is M. H. Cohen's 'Guide de l'Amateur de Livres à Gravures du XVIIIe Siècle,' of which the fifth edition was published in 1886. Bewick's work has been dealt with by Mr. Austin Dobson in his 'Thomas Bewick and his Pupils,' octavo, 1884; and A Descriptive and Critical Catalogue of Works Illustrated by Thomas and John Bewick' was published by E. J. Selwyn in 1851. Mr. A. W. Pollard's 'Early Illustrated Books,' of which a new edition

appeared in 1917, is of value from the historical point of view.

Cotton's 'Typographical Gazetteer,' of which the second (and better) edition was printed at Oxford in 1831, is valuable for the Place-Names identification of ancient Latin place- and Dates. names. A second series was published in 1866. J. Hilton's 'Chronograms' (1882) and 'Chronograms Continued' (1885) are often of great assistance with regard to dates. In 1895 this indefatigable collector published a third volume, quarto, containing more than four thousand additional examples. For mere lists of works upon definite subjects one may consult Sargant and Whishaw's 'Guide-Book to Books' (1891) and 'The Best Books,' by W. S. Sonnenschein.

For the identification of authors who wrote under a pseudonym you will find 'A Handbook

of Fictitious Names,' by 'Olphar Pseudonyms. Hamst' (which was the pseudonym

of Ralph Thomas) useful. It was published in 1868. But this has been partly superseded by Cushing's 'Initials and Pseudonyms,' large octavo, London, 1886; and the valuable work of Emil Weller, entitled 'Lexicon Pseudonymorum,' of which the second edition was published at Regensburg the same year, in octavo. This contains thousands of pseudonyms of all nations and all ages. Cushing also published A Dictionary of Revealed Authorship,' in two volumes,