England was the specialty of the famous antiquary, Sir Robert Cotton; and a host of American collectors diligently gather together whatever illustrates the history of their country. Xylography and typography have a long train of admirers, and so has nearly every subject upon which books have been issued.

The specialties of collections are more various than the hues of the rainbow. Mr. Francis Fry of Bristol, England, is an indefatigable collector of Bibles, and he has succeeded in bringing together more than one thousand editions of

and most costly books have been added to the stock, and nowhere in this country is there so large an assortment of engravings to be found.

Probably no one on this side of the Atlantic has made so many catalogues of libraries as Mr. Sabin, and but for most laborious habits, he never could have accomplished so much. This is the testimony of the late William Gowans quoted from his catalogue for 1869, when speaking of a valuable library then recently sold, the catalogue of which had been inade. quately prepared by an inexperienced hand:-" Mr. Joseph Sabin should have been the compiler. His wonderful knowledge of books, their various editions, whether rare or plentiful, here or else where, their market value, and divers other peculiarities, render him eminently fitted for such an undertaking." Mr. Sabin's latest work, a Bibliography of Bibliography, being a catalogue of books

relating to books, has but recently been issued in book form.

Mr. Sabin's Reprints of rare American works has made him known as a pub. lisher. As an author, besides the works already referred to, he has contributed to various periodicals. The book-lover, however, will hold him in especially grateful remembrance as a co-publisher of "The American Bibliopolist, a Literary Register and Monthly Catalogue of Old and New Books, and Repository of Notes and Queries." Mr. Sabin has a vast fund of humor and literary anecdote at com. mand, with which he enlivens the book auctions conducted by him. Many a book buyer associates with some of his choicest treasures that Nassau Street basement and the genial countenance of Joseph Sabin. Long may he remain in the flesh to dispense his prints and volumes to appreciative purchasers!

the English Bible, Testaments, Psalms, etc., most of them prior to 1700. The collection of Bibles in the Lenox Library of New York is probably unsurpassed, save by the British Museum, in rare and valuable editions, especially in the English language. The famous collection of Bibles in the Royal Library of Stuttgart is said to exceed seven thousand editions; and in the library of Wolfenbüttel there are some five thousand. The Library of the British Museum undoubtedly contains by far the richest collection of Bibles in the world, numbering, at present, above sixteen thousand titles.*

On the other hand the Baron Seymour Kirkup, an English artist long resident in Florence, who was ennobled by the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, and whose library was sold in London in December, 1871, made a large collection of works on Demonology, Witchcraft, Alchemy, Astrology, Table Turning, and other occult sciences. The Baron was by no means alone in his tastes, as, for the gratification of such as he, a well known publishing house of New York issued, in 1874, a catalogue with the following cheerful title:-" Bibliotheca Diabolica; Being a Choice Selection of the most valuable books relating to The Devil; His Origin, Greatness, and Influence, Comprising the most important works on the Devil, Satan,

Catalogue of the Caxton Exhibition. 1877. Class C. Holy Scriptures.

Demons, Hell, Hell-Torments, Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, Divination, Superstitions, Angels, Ghosts, etc., etc. With some curious volumes on Dreams and Astrology. In Two Parts, Pro and Con-Serious and Humorous. Serious and Humorous Chronologically arranged with Notes, Quotations, and Proverbs, and a Copious Index. Illustrated with Twelve Curious Designs. On sale by Scribner, Welford & Armstrong."

If one desires gentler themes for his collection there is a French Bibliography, in six finely printed duodecimo volumes, filled with the titles of works relating solely to "Love, Woman, and Marriage."

Privately printed books and large paper copies have each their devotees, though Richard Heber hated large paper copies, because they required so much room.

Marshal Junot possessed a small but very elegant library of books printed on vellum, two or three volumes in it, however, being printed entirely on silk.

Illustrated books, or those enriched with original drawings, autographs, and plates, not issued with the work, form a very attractive branch of book collecting. Dibdin describes an extraordinary copy of Shakespeare illustrated by the Dowager Lady Lucan. "For sixteen years," says he, "did this accomplished Lady pursue the pleasurable toil of illustration; having commenced it in her fiftieth, and finished it in her sixty-sixth year. Whatever of taste,

beauty, and judgment in decoration-by means of portraits, landscapes, houses, and tombs-flowers, birds, insects, heraldic ornaments, and devices,—could dress our immortal bard in a yet more fascinating form, has been accomplished by the noble hand which undertook so Herculean a task and with a truth, delicacy and finish of execution, which have been rarely equalled! These magnificent volumes (being the folio edition printed by Bulmer) are at once beautiful and secured by green velvet binding, with embossed clasps and corners of solid silver, washed with gold."

The late William E. Burton, the eminent comedian, devoted some of his leisure hours to illustrating a folio Shakespeare, which he extended to forty-two volumes by the insertion of vast wealth of elegant plates. An illustrated Shakespeare was lately to be seen at the book-store of Mr. J. W. Bouton, of New York, which, though still unbound, was said to have cost its maker the sum of fifteen thousand dollars.

A single further example must suffice for this interesting feature of book-love, and that shall be the illustrated copy of Blomefield's History of Norfolk, which the taste. and industry of Dawson Turner expanded into nearly sixty volumes by the insertion of thousands of original drawings, engravings, and other additions, the catalogue of which alone made a respectable octavo volume.

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The bindings of books, as well as their contents, are likewise made a marked feature of collections, particularly among the French, and immense sums are sometimes lavished upon them. Paul Lacroix, in "The Arts in the Middle Ages," says," Nearly all the French Kings, especially the Valois, were passionately fond of splendid bindings. Catharine de Medicis was such a connoisseur of finely-bound books, that authors and booksellers, who eagerly presented her with copies of their works, tried to distinguish themselves in the choice and beauty of the bindings which they had made expressly for her. Henry III., who appreciated handsomely-bound books no less than his mother, invented a very singular binding, when he had instituted the Order of Penitents;' this consisted of death's heads and cross bones, tears, crosses, and other instruments of the Passion, gilt or stamped on black morocco leather, and having the following device, Spes mea Deus' ('God is my hope'), with or without the arms of France."

The Count de Montbrison, in 1873, paid Duru, a famous French binder, twenty-four hundred francs for binding a single volume, and fourteen hundred francs for binding another. M. Libri, as we have seen, had gathered together no less than fifteen hundred books whose covers illustrated the advance of the book-binder's art since the fifteenth century. The magnificent library of M. Lucien