Whether Peignot's definition be just or not, I will not stop to determine: but when I have described to you the various symptoms, you will be the better able to judge of its propriety.

Lis. Describe them seriatim, as we observed yesterday.

Lysand. I will; but let me put them in battle array, and select them according to their appearances. There is, first, a passion for Large Paper Copies; secondly for Uncut Copies; thirdly, for Illustrated Copies; fourthly, for Unique Copies; fifthly, for Copies Printed upon Vellum; sixthly for First Editions; seventhly, for True Editions; and eighthly, for Books printed in the Black-Letter:

The preceding extract needs no comment. On the two works (viz. "the Epistle to Richard Heber, Esq.," and "Bibliosophia, or Book-wisdom,") celebrated in the latter part of the passage, we shall say something presently; having given Mr. Dibdin a precedence on account of bulk which he does not claim in point of time. We have now to make our readers more fully acquainted with one of the most dangerous symptoms of the madness in question, to adopt Mr. Dibdin's style of facetiousness. Our limits would not permit a fuller detail of the diagnostics, if our inclination to cite them at length were stronger than it is.

The meaning of the phrase true editions' appears to us more likely than any of the rest to puzzle the uninitiated in the mysteries of book-collecting. Nay, even the roa Biß væμeros may here be araidevroi, (in a more confined sense than that in which they usually are uninstructed,) and a bibliomaniac himself, if not full-grown, may require information.

Tell us, good Lysander, what can you possibly mean by the seventh symptom of the Bibliomania, called TRUE EDITIONS?

Lysand. My definition of this strange symptom will excite your mirth*. Some copies of a work. are struck off with deviations from

the

Accidental variations from the common impressions of a work form what are called TRUE EDITIONS: and as copies, with such variations (upon the same principle as that of Prints; vide p. 672-3, ante). are rare, they are of course sought after with avidity by knowing bibli omaniacs. Thus speaks Ameilhon upon the subject :-' pendant l'impression d'un ouvrage il est arrivé un accident qui, à telle page et à telle ligne, a occasioné un renversement dans les lettres d'un mot, et que ce désordre n'a été rétabli qu'apres le tirage de six ou sept exemplaires; ce qui rend ces exemplaires défectueux presque uniques, et leur donne à les entendre, une valeur inappréciable: car voila un des grands secrets de cet art, qui, au reste, s'acquiert aisément avec de la mémoire.' Mem. de l'Institut; vol. ii. 485. The author of these words then goes on to abuse the purchasers and venders of these strange books; but I will not quote his saucy tirade in defamation of this noble department of bibliomaniacism. I subjoin a few examples in illustration of Lysander's definition :

the usually received ones, and although these deviations have generally neither sense nor beauty to recommend them, (and indeed are

Cesar. Lug. Bat. 1636, 12mo. Printed by Elzevir. In the Bibliotheca Revickzkiana we are informed that the true Elzevir edition is known by having the plate of a buffalo's head at the beginning of the preface and body of the work : also by having the page numbered 153, which ought to have been numbered 149! A further account is given in my Introduction to the Classics, vol. i. 228.

Horace. Londini, 1733, 8vo. 2 vol. Published by Pine. The true edition is distinguished by having at page 108. vol. ii. the incorrect reading Post Est.'-for Potest.'

Virgil. Lug. Bat. 1636, 12mo. Printed by Elzevir. The true edition is known, by having at plate 1., before the Bucolics, the following Latin passage printed in red ink. "Ego vero frequentes a te litteras accepi"-Consult de Bure, n. 2684.

.

Idem. Birmingh. 1763, 4to. Printed by Baskerville. A particular account of the true edition will be found in the second volume of my Introduction to the Classics,' p. 337.- too long to be here inserted.

• Boccacio Il Decamerone, Venet. 1527. 4to. Consult De Bure, no. 3667; Bandini, vol. ii. 105, 211.; (who, however, is extremely laconic upon this edition, but copious upon the anterior one of 1516.) and Haym, vol. iii. p. 8. edit. 1803. Bibl. Paris. n. 408. Clement. (vol. iv. 352.) has abundance of references, as usual, to strengthen his assertion in calling the edition 'fort rare.' The reprint, or spurious edition, has always struck me as the prettier book of the two.

These examples appeared in the first edition of this work. I add to them, what of course I was not enabled to do before. In the present edition of The Bibliomania, there are some variations in the copies of the small paper; and one or two decided ones between the small and large. In the small, at page 13, line 2, we read

beat with perpetual forms :'

in the large, it is properly

beat with perpetual storms.'

• Which of these is indicative of the true edition? Again : in the small paper, p. 275, line 20, we read properly

⚫ Claudite jam rivos pueri, sat prata bibêrunt :'

in the large paper,

Claudite jam rivos pueri, sat parta bibêrunt?' It was in my power to have cancelled the leaf in the large paper as well as in the small; but I thought it might thereby have taken from the former, the air of a true edition! and so the blunder (a mere transposition of the letters ar) will go down to a future generation in the large paper. There is yet another slight variation between the small and large. At p. 111. in the account of the catalogue of Krohn's books, the concluding sentence wholly varies: but I believe there is not an error in either, to entitle one to the rank of Truism more than another.'

principally defects!) yet copies of this description are eagerly sought after by collectors of a certain class. What think you of such a ridiculous passion in the book-way?

'Alman. It seems to me to be downright ideotism. But I suspect you exaggerate?

Lysand. In sober truth, I tell you only what every day's experience in the book-market will corroborate."

We hope that it is scarcely necessary for us to state that we pointedly except the conclusion of the last note from the praise which we have bestowed on the generality of these Bibliographical Collectanea. Indeed, the egotism of the allusions to his own work, in which the author has here indulged, would discredit any bibliomaniac; and we hope that and we hope that it will be one of his first omissions from any future edition of the volume, should such extraordinary fortune attend it. When we speak of this event as unlikely, we are guided only by the improbability of such a passion as that of mere book-collecting being long and generally prevalent among the readers or purchasers of any country. That which is wholly unfounded in reason may, for a time and partially, affect reasonable beings: but some new whim will infallibly expel the old one as soon as chance so ordains. While, however, bibliography is in season, and the sunshine of its honour lasts, Mr. D. is perfectly judicious in "making his bay ;" and we rate him as a workman of as much strength and activity as any one of his contemporaries who labours in the same field. We proceed to give some more general account of the contents of his volume, and of its especial excellencies

-

and defects.

We have made an extract from the concluding chapter of this Romance,' as it is the pleasure of the author to denominate a work which is totally unallied to such a species of composition. The contents of the preceding sections are the following:

• Part 1st.

THE EVENING WALK. On the right uses of Litera. ture. 2d. THE CABINET. Outline of Foreign and Domestic Bibliography. 3d. THE AUCTION ROOM. Character of Orlando. Of ancient Prices of books, and of Book-binding. Book-auction Bibliomaniacs. 4th. THE LIBRARY. Dr. Henry's History of Great Britain. A Game at Chess. Of Monachism and Chivalry. Dinner at Lorenzo's. Some account of Book Collectors in England. 5th. THE DRAWING ROOM. History of Bibliomania, or account of Book Col lectors concluded. 6th. THE ALCOVE. Symptoms of the Disease called the Bibliomania. Probable means of its Cure.'

To this last article we anxiously turned: but "Oh! lame and impotent conclusion!" After 730 pages, many of which are filled with closely printed notes, all tending to encourage Book-Madness' in some shape or another, we have ten pages devoted to the probable means of its cure! Monstrous! It

reminds

reminds us of Falstaffe's tavern-bill, which the Prince and Poins found behind the arras," one halfpenny-worth of bread to all this unconscionable quantity of sack!"-But let us examine the course of corrective medicine which Mr. Dibdin recommends.

In the first place,' says our fashionable physician, who "excites the madness which he seems to cure," the disease of the Bibliomania is materially softened, or rendered mild, by directing our studies to useful and profitable works; whether these be printed upon small or large paper, in the Gothic, Roman, or Italic type.' Mr. D. might here have introduced, as an enlivening accompaniment to his obvious remark, Johnson's proper. answer to an "Aspirant," (as Mr. D. would call him,) who wished to know what edition he should read of Shakespeare: "the first you can find on any stall." A noble author cannot be utterly spoiled by any editor; nay, so little power have these "resurrection-men," the posthumous editors, over the spirit of a writer, much as they may maul his body, and how profitably soever they may sell it to their "surgeons" the booksellers, (or rather the public, who are the dissectors,) that we question whether even a could thoroughly condemn the works of a

In the second place,' says Lysander, the reprinting of scarce and intrinsically valuable works is another means of preventing the propagation of this disorder.' Here we perfectly agree with the author. It is plain, as far as the symptom of "First Editions" is concerned, that the Bibliomania must be cured (in any who are not incurable) by the correct reprint of such editions.

The third recipe is the editing of our best antient authors, whether in prose or poetry.' Here our bibliomaniac allows that we are laudably zealous for the honour of our country: but, in one department of literature, he thinks that we fail to maintain that honour; viz. in antient English history. The Saxon Chroniclers, we suppose, in Mr. D.'s opinion, have not ⚫ been sufficiently sifted: but, sift them as we will, we shall now find little else than chaff. They may have untouched remains sufficient to furnish out a tale, or to embellish a poem : but as to knowlege concerning our early condition, beyond what we have already extracted from them, we are perfectly incredulous. Some prejudices of our popular historians may be corrected,some biasses of private opinion may be set right, but that the main stream of English story does not flow straight through the channel of Saxon writ, we never can believe. We have examined (in our younger days) the references of the standard modern historians: they are, on the whole, accurate; and if some petty intrigues and obscure assassinations, and some feasts and

T3

festivals,

festivals, be left out in the detail of major and minor morals of earlier and latter times, what reader would have so little patriotism or so little taste as to care for the omission?

In the fourth place, the erection of public institutions' is recommended; by which the prescriber means such book-societies (if they may be so called) as the Royal, London, Surrey, and Russel Institutions.' Now that these better libraries may counteract a foolish fondness for dealing at circulating libraries, or may stop some ladies'-maids in their progress towards the destruction of themselves and their mistresses, according to order, is certain but that they are likely to cure the disease of Bookcollecting, or Bibliomania, properly so called, we do not conceive. In short, most of Mr. D.'s recipes are worse than his disease; and his last, namely, the study of bibliography,' is really like administering Bark in the Gout, or large doses of Calomel in a Diarrhoea.

We have now to observe that, in the catalogues (and prices affixed to those catalogues!) of curious collections of books, or at all events in extracts from such records, in accounts of picture-sales, and in chronological, bibliographical, and general indexes, Mr. D. is unrivalled. We enter into no examination of his transcript from the list of Steevens's black-letter rarities,-of Count M'Carthy's books on vellum,-of Rembrandt's prints with the burr*, or without it, of the Marlborough Gems, or of books printed for private distribution at a private press. We pass by the names of famous bibliomaniacs, with an unfeeling want (as Mr. D. expresses himself) of BIBLIOMANIACISM;' and, alarmed by this barbarous phrase, so frequently repeated in the present volume, we come to a severer account with its author.

We had hopes, on looking over the second edition of Dibdin's classics, that the numerous errors there corrected would be a beacon to the writer in any subsequent publication; and when we saw the gross mistake concerning the play of Aristophanes called Εκκλεσιάζεσαι, which disgraced the first edition of that work, banished from the second, we rejoiced in the amendment of that compilation, and were not surprised to perceive various other emendations:--but alas! "crimine ab uno disce omnes” seems too just a motto for a general account of bibliographers, They have nothing to do with classical learning; and the glar

The burr (we adopt Mr. Dibdin's definition) is a sombre tinge attached to the copper before the plate is sufficiently polished by being worked; and gives a smeared effect, like smut upon a lady's face, to the impression!' These imperfections rarely occur, and consequently, make the impression more valuable."