Luther's own copy of the first edition of his translation of the Bible after his final revision. This volume, which is now in the British Museum, contains his autograph, and also the autographs of Bugenhagen, Melanchthon, and G. Major, two hundred and sixty-seven pounds.

The first and second editions of Cicero's _Officia_, printed by Fust and Schoeffer at Mentz in 1465 and 1466, eighty-two pounds, ten shillings; and fifty-nine pounds.

Cicero's _Epistolae ad Familiares_, printed by Joannes de Spira at Venice in 1469, eighty pounds.

Petrarch's _Sonetti, Canzoni e Trionfi_, printed by Jenson at Venice in 1473; the only copy known on vellum, eighty pounds, seventeen shillings.

A presentation copy to Cardinal Sforza of the _Sforziada_, printed at Milan in 1490; in the original velvet binding, with silver knops, one hundred and sixty-eight pounds. The last two volumes are now preserved in the Grenville Library in the British Museum.

_Poliphili Hypnerotomachia_, printed by Aldus at Venice in 1499, eighty-two pounds, nineteen shillings.

_Missale Vallisumbrose_, printed by Lucantonio di Giunta at Venice in 1503, sixty-four pounds, one shilling.

All the above books are printed on vellum. The library also contained several fine block-books: the first edition of the _Speculum Humanae Salvationis_, the _Apocalypsis_, and the first edition of _Ars Memorandi_, which sold respectively for eighty pounds; thirty-one pounds, ten shillings; and twenty-six pounds, ten shillings. The _Catholicon_ of Joannes Balbus de Janua, printed at Mentz in 1460, and five Caxtons: the first edition of the _Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers, Fayts of Arms_, the second edition of the _Mirrour of the World_, the _Recuyell of the Histories of Troye_, and the _Royal Book_, were to be found in the collection. Thirty-six pounds, four shillings and sixpence was obtained for the _Catholicon_, and three hundred and thirty-nine pounds, thirteen shillings and sixpence for the Caxtons. Of these the _Recuyell_ fetched the highest price--one hundred and fifty-seven pounds, ten shillings. Some other notable books in this marvellous library were the Dante, printed at Florence in 1481, which realised forty pounds, nineteen shillings; the first edition of the _Teseide_ of Boccaccio, which was disposed of for one hundred and sixty pounds; a very fine copy of Smith's _Historie of Virginia_, which sold for thirteen guineas; and the first four folio Shakespeares. The prices obtained for these were eighty-five pounds, one shilling; thirteen pounds; twenty-four pounds; and three pounds, nine shillings.

The more important ma.n.u.scripts were _Praeparatio ad Missam_, written and illuminated for Pope Leo X., which fetched ninety-nine pounds, fifteen shillings; _Droits d'Armes et de n.o.blesse_, ninety-four pounds, ten shillings; _Roman de la Rose_, eighty-four pounds; _Missale Romanum_, sixty-one pounds, nineteen shillings; and _Romant des Trois Pelerinages_, thirty-one pounds, ten shillings. These were all written on vellum.

In 1819 Mr. Hibbert printed for the Roxburghe Club, from a ma.n.u.script preserved in the Pepysian Library at Magdalen College, Cambridge, _Six Bookes of Metamorphoseos by Ovyde_, translated from the French by Caxton, together with some prefatory remarks by himself.

REV. CHARLES BURNEY, D.D., 1757-1817

Charles Burney, the second son of Charles Burney, the author of _The History of Music_, was born at Lynn, Norfolk, in the early part of December (the exact date is uncertain) 1757. He was educated at the Charterhouse, and Caius College, Cambridge, but left the University without taking a degree. He afterwards became a student of King's College, Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A. in 1781. After leaving the College he devoted himself to educational work, and for a short time was an a.s.sistant master at Highgate School, which he left to join Dr.

William Rose, the translator of Sall.u.s.t, in his school at Chiswick. In 1786, having married Rose's second daughter in 1783, he opened a school of his own at Hammersmith, which he carried on until 1793, when he removed to Greenwich, and there established a very flourishing academy, which in 1813 he made over to his son, the Rev. Charles Parr Burney.

Late in life (1807) Burney took orders, and was appointed to the Rectory of St. Paul's, Deptford, Kent, and in a short time after to the Rectory of Cliffe in the same county. In 1811 he was made Chaplain to the King, and in 1817, a few months before his death, he was collated to a prebendal stall in Lincoln Cathedral. He received the degree of LL.D.

from the Universities of Aberdeen and Glasgow in 1792, the degree of M.A. was conferred on him by Cambridge University in 1808, and that of D.D. by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1812. Burney, who was the friend and companion of Dr. Parr and Professor Porson, wrote several works on the Greek and Latin Cla.s.sics, as well as one or two of a theological nature. He died of apoplexy at Deptford on the 28th of December 1817, and a monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey by a number of his old scholars.

Dr. Burney realised a considerable fortune by his scholastic work, and the money which he thus acquired enabled him to form a library of nearly thirteen thousand five hundred volumes of printed books, and five hundred and twenty ma.n.u.scripts. Among the latter was the Towneley Homer, believed to be of the thirteenth century, and valued at six hundred guineas. The library was particularly rich in the Greek Cla.s.sics, especially the dramatists; comprising as many as one hundred and sixty-six editions of Euripides, one hundred and two of Sophocles, and forty-seven of aeschylus, the margins of a large proportion of the cla.s.sical books being covered with notes in Burney's hand, in addition to those by the Stephens, Bentley, Markland, and others. Another very interesting feature of the library was the large number of English newspapers it contained. These papers, which reached from the reign of James I. until nearly the end of that of George III., were bound in about seven hundred volumes, and now form the basis of the splendid collection in the British Museum. Dr. Burney also ama.s.sed from three to four hundred volumes containing materials for a history of the British Stage, and several thousand portraits of literary and theatrical personages. On the death of the Doctor his library was purchased for the British Museum for the sum of thirteen thousand five hundred pounds.

GEORGE JOHN, SECOND EARL SPENCER, 1758-1834

George John, second Earl Spencer, was born on the 1st of September 1758.

He was the only son of John Spencer, who was created Viscount Spencer of Althorp in 1761, and Earl Spencer in 1765, and grandson of John, the youngest son of Charles Spencer, third Earl of Sunderland. At seven years of age he was placed under the tutorship of William Jones, the famous Orientalist, who was afterwards knighted, with whom he made two Continental tours. Jones resigned his charge in 1770, when Lord Althorp was sent to Harrow, and, on leaving school, to Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1780 he entered Parliament as member for Northampton, and on the formation of the second Rockingham Ministry in March 1782 he became a Commissioner of the new Treasury Board. On the death of his father in 1783, Lord Althorp (who had married in 1781 Lavinia, eldest daughter of Charles, first Lord Lucan) succeeded to the t.i.tle, and in 1784 was sent with Mr. Thomas Grenville on a special mission to the Court of Vienna. During his absence from England, on the 19th of July in that year, he was made Lord Privy Seal in Mr. Pitt's Ministry, which office he resigned in the following December for that of First Lord of the Admiralty, a post which he held with great credit for upwards of six years. After his retirement from the Admiralty in February 1801, Lord Spencer remained out of office until February 1806, when he accepted the Secretaryship of State for the Home Department in the Grenville-Fox Ministry. On the dissolution of that ministry in March 1807, he finally retired from office, but continued to take part in the debates in the House of Lords. He died on the 10th of November 1834, and was succeeded by his eldest son John Charles.

Lord Spencer was a most energetic and enlightened collector of books, and the magnificent library which, until the year 1892, was one of the glories of Althorp, testifies to the skill and liberality with which he collected them. A taste for literature and a love of books were developed in Lord Spencer at an early age, and he was but thirty-two when he acquired the choice collection of Count Reviczky, a Hungarian n.o.bleman, which at once placed his library among the more important private collections of the time. He also bought largely at the Mason, Herbert, Roxburghe, Alchorne, and other sales, and after the dispersion of the famous library at White Knights in 1819 he was able to acquire, at a cost of seven hundred and fifty pounds, the copy of the Valdarfer Boccaccio for which he had vainly bid two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds seven years before at the Roxburghe sale. In the years 1819 and 1820 he made a bibliographical tour on the Continent, during which, among other purchases, he acquired the library of the Duke of Ca.s.sano-Serra, which contained some very rare fifteenth century books.

Lord Spencer was considerably a.s.sisted in the formation of his famous collection by his librarian, the well-known Dr. Thomas Frognall Dibdin, the author of _Bibliomania, The Bibliographical Decameron_, and other pleasant and gossiping, but somewhat verbose and not particularly accurate, works on books, their printers and owners. Dibdin's services were liberally rewarded; and Edwards, in his work _Libraries and Founders of Libraries_, states that in addition to his stipend as librarian, 'Lord Spencer insured his librarian's life for the advantage of his family. Lord Spencer also gave him the vicarage of Exning, in Suffolk, in 1823, and obtained for him, on Episcopal recommendation, the rectory of St. Mary, Bryanstone Square, at the end of the same year.'

Dibdin was the first to suggest the establishment of the Roxburghe Club, of which he became vice-president. He died in 1847.

The collection at Althorp, which Renouard described as 'the most beautiful and richest private library in Europe,' amounted in 1892 to about forty-one thousand five hundred volumes. Other private libraries have possessed more books, but none could boast of choicer ones. It contained the earliest dated example of wood-engraving--the figure of St. Christopher, with the date 1423; and no less than fourteen block-books, comprising three editions of the _Ars Moriendi_, three of the _Speculum Humanae Salvationis_, two of the _Apocalypsis S. Johannis_, together with copies of the _Biblia Pauperum_, _Ars Memorandi_, _Historia Virginis ex Cantico Canticorum_, _Wie die funfzehen zaichen kimen vor dem hingsten tag_, the _Enndchrist_, and _Mirabilia Romae_. It was particularly rich in Bibles, among which were the Gutenberg and Bamberg Bibles, the Coverdale Bible of 1535, and a magnificent copy of the Antwerp Polyglot, once the property of De Thou. It also contained the first and second Mentz Psalters. The Cla.s.sics, too, were splendidly represented. The editions of works by Cicero numbered upwards of seventy, about fifty of which were printed before 1473; while fifteen of those of Virgil were prior to the year 1476. Among these were the second edition by Sweynheym and Pannartz, most probably printed in 1471, which is not less rare than the first, and the famous 'Adam' edition, which issued from the press in that year. These two volumes were obtained from the library of the King of Wirtemberg, Dibdin making a special journey to Stuttgart to purchase them. The library also possessed a large number of the early editions of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and other Italian Cla.s.sics; and no less than fifty-two Caxtons, three of them unique, were to be found on its shelves. A splendid descriptive catalogue of the library, ent.i.tled 'Bibliotheca Spenceriana,' was compiled by Dibdin in the years 1814-23.

Lord Spencer maintained his interest in his books to the end of his life, and in the year before that of his death he wrote to Dibdin, 'I am trying my hand at a Cla.s.sed Catalogue.'

In August 1892 this n.o.ble collection was purchased by Mrs. Rylands, widow of the late Mr. John Rylands, of Longford Hall, near Manchester, for a sum which was said to be little less than a quarter of a million sterling; and on the 6th of October 1899 she presented it, together with a handsome building for its reception, to the city of Manchester, in memory of her husband. An excellent catalogue, both of the printed books and the ma.n.u.scripts, in three handsome quarto volumes, compiled by Mr. Gordon Duff, the librarian, accompanied this munificent gift.

SIR RICHARD COLT h.o.a.rE, BART., 1758-1838

Sir Richard Colt h.o.a.re, Bart., the historian of Wiltshire, was born on the 9th of December 1758. He was the son of Richard h.o.a.re, Esq., of Barn Elms, Surrey (who was created a baronet in 1786), by Anne, second daughter of Henry h.o.a.re, Esq., of Stourhead, Wiltshire, and of Susanna, daughter and heiress of Stephen Colt, Esq. He was privately educated, and at an early age entered the family bank (Messrs. h.o.a.re's Bank, Fleet Street, London). In his work, _Pedigrees and Memoirs of the Families of h.o.r.e_, etc., he writes:--'Blessed by my parents with the advantages of a good education, I thereby acquired a love of literature and of drawing; of which, in my more advanced years, I feel the inestimable advantage.

Destined, as I imagined, for an active and commercial life, I was unexpectedly and agreeably surprised to hear, shortly after my marriage, that my generous grandfather had intentions to remove me from the banking business, and to settle me on his estate in Wiltshire; which he put into execution during his lifetime, by making over to me all his landed property, with their appendages, at Stourhead and in the adjoining counties.' In 1783 h.o.a.re married Hester, only daughter of Lord Westcote, afterwards created Lord Lyttelton, who died in 1785, leaving a son Henry Richard. In 1787, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the baronetcy. After the decease of his wife he made an extensive tour on the Continent, visiting France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. In 1787 he returned home, but in the following year he paid a second visit to the Continent, and did not return to England until August 1791. During these tours he made a large number of drawings of interesting objects, and 'for the gratification of his family and friends' printed an account of his travels in four volumes. When he was no longer able to travel on the Continent in consequence of the French revolutionary war, Sir R.C.

h.o.a.re made a tour through Wales, taking Giraldus Cambrensis as a guide, and in 1806 he published a translation of the _Itinerarium Cambriae_ of Giraldus in two handsome volumes. He also contributed sixty-three drawings to Archdeacon c.o.xe's _Historical Tour in Monmouthshire_, which appeared in 1801. In 1807 he paid a visit to Ireland, and printed a short account of his excursion. In 1812 h.o.a.re published in London the first part of his great work, the _Ancient History of Wiltshire_, which he completed in two volumes in 1821. This was followed by the _Modern History of Wiltshire_ in fourteen parts, London, 1822-24, which was left unfinished at the time of his death. h.o.a.re was the author of many works in addition to those already mentioned, some of which were intended only for private circulation. A list of them will be found in the Catalogue of the h.o.a.re Library at Stourhead, compiled by John Bowyer Nichols in 1840. h.o.a.re, who was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, died at Stourhead on the 19th of May 1838. His only son predeceased him, and the baronetcy and estates devolved on his eldest half-brother, Henry Hugh h.o.a.re of Wavendon, Buckinghamshire.

Sir R.C. h.o.a.re possessed a n.o.ble library at Stourhead. The foundation of it no doubt was laid by his grandfather, Henry h.o.a.re, whose bookplate occurs on many of the volumes, but it was Sir R.C. h.o.a.re who brought together the magnificent collection of books on British topography, which was probably the finest private one ever formed. The water-colour drawings, the books of prints, and the engravings in the library were remarkable for their beauty, and had been selected with great judgment and taste. During his travels on the Continent between the years 1785 and 1791 h.o.a.re acquired a large number of books relative to the history and topography of Italy. Of these he printed in 1812 a separate catalogue, the impression of which was limited to twelve copies. In 1825 he presented this collection to the British Museum, together with a copy of the catalogue, upon the fly-leaf of which he has written:--'Anxious to follow the liberal example of our gracious monarch George the Fourth, of Sir George Beaumont, Bart., of Richd. Payne Knight, Esq. (tho' in a very humble degree) I do give unto the British Museum, this my Collection of Topography, made during a residence of five years abroad--and hoping that the more modern publications may be added to it hereafter. Rich. Colt h.o.a.re, A.D. 1825.' The Stourhead library was sold by auction on Monday, the 30th of July 1883 and seven following days, by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge. The books, engravings and drawings, of which there were one thousand nine hundred and seventy-one lots, realised ten thousand and twenty-eight pounds, six shillings and sixpence. On the 9th of December 1887, and three following days, some more books belonging to the library were sold for one thousand three hundred and ninety-two pounds, eleven shillings and sixpence. The prices obtained for many of the books were exceptionally high.

WILLIAM BECKFORD, 1759-1844

William Beckford, the author of _Vathek_, was born at Fonthill, Wiltshire on the 29th of September 1759. He was the only legitimate child of Alderman William Beckford, who was twice Lord Mayor of London, and who died in 1770, leaving his son property worth upwards of one hundred thousand pounds a year. Beckford ama.s.sed at his residence at Fonthill a magnificent collection of books, pictures, furniture and curiosities of all kinds, but his extravagance and the depreciation of his West India property compelled him in 1823 to sell Fonthill and the greater part of its contents. He, however, retained a portion of his library and the best of his pictures, and removed them to Lansdown Tower, Bath, which he built on leaving Fonthill, and where he continued to add to his collections. Beckford married in 1783 Margaret, daughter of Charles, fourth Earl of Aboyne, by whom he had two daughters--Margaret and Susan Euphemia--the elder of whom married Colonel Orde, and the younger the Marquis of Douglas, who afterwards became Duke of Hamilton.

The elder daughter having offended her father by her marriage with Colonel Orde, he left all his property to the d.u.c.h.ess of Hamilton.

After Beckford's death on May the 2nd, 1844, the Duke of Hamilton wished to sell the library to Mr. Henry Bohn, who was willing to give thirty thousand pounds for it, but the d.u.c.h.ess objected to part with her father's books, and they were removed to Hamilton Palace, but kept separate from the n.o.ble library which already existed there.

In the years 1882, 1883 and 1884 both these splendid collections were sold. The sale, or rather sales, of the Beckford books, for the collection was divided into four portions, took place at the auction rooms of Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, and lasted altogether forty days; the first sale commencing on the 30th of June 1882 and lasting twelve days, and the last on the 27th of November 1883, and continuing for four days. The total number of lots in the four sales was nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, and the amount realised seventy-three thousand five hundred and fifty-one pounds, eighteen shillings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM BECKFORD. From a Medallion by Singleton.]

Beckford's library was rich in fine early printed books, rare voyages and travels, and choice French, Spanish and Italian works, but it was chiefly remarkable for its superb collection of beautiful and historical bindings. It contained a large number of volumes from the libraries of Grolier, Maioli, Lauwrin, Canevari, De Thou, Peiresc, and other distinguished collectors, and also examples of bindings bearing the arms and devices of Francis I. of France, Henry II. and Diana of Poitiers, Charles IX., Henry III., Henry IV., Louis XIII., Anne of Austria, etc.; many of the volumes being bound by Nicolas and Clovis Eve, Le Gascon, Padeloup, Derome, Monnier and other famous French binders. Very high prices were obtained for many of these splendid books--_Lactantii Opera_, printed in the Monastery of Subiaco by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1465, sold for two hundred and eighty-five pounds; _Biblia Latina_, printed on vellum by N. Jenson at Venice in 1476, three hundred and thirty pounds; _Livre de Bien Vivre_, on vellum, finely illuminated, Paris, A. Verard, 1492, three hundred and thirty pounds; _Philostrati Vita Apollonii Tyanei_, printed by Aldus at Venice in 1502, Grolier's copy, bound in red morocco, three hundred pounds; _Luca.n.u.s_, printed by Aldus in 1515, Grolier's copy, bound in marbled calf, two hundred and ninety pounds; _Tirante il Bianco_, Vinegia, 1538, red morocco, from the library of Demetrio Canevari, one hundred and eleven pounds; _Entree de Henry II. en Paris 6 Juing_ 1549, etc., with the arms and cypher of de Thou on the binding, four hundred and seventy pounds; _Psalmorum Paraphrasis Poetica_, by G. Buchanan, beautifully bound in olive morocco, with the arms and cypher of De Thou, three hundred and ten pounds; _Livre de la Conqueste de la Toison d'Or par le Prince Jason_, par J. Gohory, Paris, 1563, in a beautiful binding by Nicolas Eve, with the arms of the Duke of Guise painted on the covers, four hundred and five pounds; _Poliphile Hypnerotomachie_, Paris, 1561, bound in blue morocco by Nicolas Eve for Louise de Lorraine, two hundred and twenty pounds; _Portraits des Rois, Hommes et Dames Ill.u.s.tres_, etc., a series of the engraved works of Sir Anthony Vandyck, including his own etchings, in three large folio volumes, two thousand eight hundred and fifty pounds; _Decor Puellarum_, printed by N. Jenson at Venice in 1471, in a splendid binding by Monnier--blue morocco, with flowers in various leathers, and with silk linings, five hundred and thirty pounds; and _Longi Pastoralia_, printed on vellum by P. Didot at Paris for Junot, Duke of Abrantes, with drawings by Prud'hon and F. Gerard, nine hundred pounds.

Beckford wrote other works besides _Vathek_, several of which he left in ma.n.u.script, and a large number of his books contained notes in his handwriting.

FREDERICK NORTH, FIFTH EARL OF GUILFORD, 1766-1827

Frederick North, fifth Earl of Guilford, was born on the 7th of February 1766. He was the third and youngest son of Frederick, second Earl, Prime Minister from January 1770 to March 1782. When his health, which was very delicate, permitted, he went to Eton, and afterwards became a student of Christ Church, Oxford. He was created D.C.L. in 1793, and received the same degree by diploma in 1819. In 1779, through his father's interest, he obtained the sinecure of one of the Chamberlains of the Tally Court of the Exchequer, and in 1794 he was appointed to the Comptrollership of the Customs of the Port of London, when he resigned the representation of the family borough of Banbury, to which he had succeeded when his eldest brother, George Augustus, came to the Earldom in 1792. North was Secretary of State to the Viceroy of the Ionian Islands during 1795 and 1796, and in 1798 he was made Governor of Ceylon, a post he held until July 1805. On the death of his brother Francis, the fourth Earl, in 1817, he succeeded to the Earldom of Guilford, and in 1819 he was created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the Eumelean Club. Lord Guilford, who had been received into the Eastern Church at Corfu in 1791, died unmarried in London on the 14th of October 1827, and was succeeded by his cousin, the Rev. Francis North, Prebendary of Winchester and Master of the Hospital of St. Cross.

Lord Guilford was a distinguished scholar, and a most accomplished linguist. He took the greatest interest in everything relating to Greek literature and art, and it was princ.i.p.ally through his exertions, and with his money, that a University was founded in 1824 at Corfu, of which he was the first chancellor, and in which he resided until 1827, when he was obliged to return to England on account of his health. He left his collections of printed books, ma.n.u.scripts, etc., at Corfu to the University, but in consequence of its failure to comply with certain conditions which accompanied the bequest, it was not carried out. Lord Guilford's fine library was sold by Evans, in seven parts, in the years 1828, 1829, 1830, and 1835. The first sale took place on December 15th, 1828, and eight following days; and the others on January 12th, 1829, and five following days; February 28th, 1829, and two following days; December 8th, 1830, and four following days; December 20th, 1830, and four following days; January 5th, 1831, and three following days; and November 9th, 1835, and seven following days. The last three sales were of the ma.n.u.scripts and books removed from Corfu. There were eight thousand five hundred and eleven lots in the seven sales, which realised twelve thousand one hundred and seventy-eight pounds, ten shillings and sixpence.

Lord Guilford's collection was an excellent one, and, as might be expected, the Greek ma.n.u.scripts in it were particularly numerous and choice. The printed books were good, but they were not equal to the ma.n.u.scripts either in interest or value. Among the latter was the original ma.n.u.script of Ta.s.so's _Gerusalemme Liberata_, with some alterations of verses in the margin, likewise in the handwriting of Ta.s.so. This sold for two hundred and four pounds, fifteen shillings.

Four Greek ma.n.u.scripts of the eleventh century: a copy of the Four Gospels; the Greek Offices, with Intonations or Musical Directions for Chanting; an Evangelistarium and Menologium of the Greek Church; and Josephus's _Historia de Bello Judaico_, deserve special notice on account of their beauty and rarity. These fetched at the sale respectively one hundred and two pounds, eighteen shillings; one hundred and seventy-three pounds, five shillings; seventy-three pounds, ten shillings; and two hundred and seventy-three pounds. Another interesting ma.n.u.script was a copy of the New Testament in Glagolitic characters, which realised one hundred and sixty-eight pounds. Among the printed books may be mentioned a large paper copy of the first edition of the Sixtine Bible, printed at Rome in 1590, and suppressed by order of Gregory XIV., on account of the numerous inaccuracies in it, which realised sixty-three pounds; and the Duke of Northumberland's _Concio ad Populum Londinensem_, printed at Rome in 1570, of which the only other known copy is in the library of the Vatican, for which forty-two pounds was obtained.

GEORGE SPENCER CHURCHILL, FIFTH DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, 1766-1840