But the Collectors of Libraries cannot be numerous, and, therefore, Catalogues could not very properly be recommended to the Public, if they had not a more general and frequent Ufe, an Ufe which every Student has experienced, or neglected to his Lofs. By the Means of Catalogues only can it be known, what has been written on every Part of Learning, and the Hazard avoided of encountering Difficulties which have already been cleared, difcuffing Questions which have already been decided and digging in Mines of Literature which former Ages have exhaufted.

How often this has been the Fate of Students, every Man of Letters can declare, and, perhaps, there are very few who have not fometimes valued as new Difcoveries, made by themselves, those Observations, which have long fince been published, and of which the World therefore will refuse them the Praife; nor can the Refufal be cenfured as any enormous Violation of Juftice s for, why fhould they not forfeit by their Ignorance, what they might claim by their Sagacity?

To illuftrate this Remark, by the Mention of obfcure Names, would not much confirm it; and to vilify for this Purpofe the Memory of Men truly great, would be to deny them the Reverence which they may juftly claim from thofe whom their Writings have inftructed. May the Shade at leaft of one great English Critic reft without Disturbance, and may no Man prefume to infult his Memory, who wants his Learning, his Reafon, or his Wit.

FROM the vexatious Disappointment of meeting Reproach, where Praife is expected, every Man will certainly defire to be fecured; and therefore that Book will have fome Claim to his Regard, from which he may receive Informations of the Labours of his Predeceffors, fuch as a Catalogue of the Harleian Library will copioufly afford him.

NOR is the Ufe of Catalogues of lefs Importance to thofe whom Curiofity has engaged in the Study of Literary History, and who think the intellectual Revolutions of the World more worthy of their Attention, than the Ravages of Tyrants, the Defolation of Kingdoms, the Rout of Armies, and the Fall of Empires. Thofe who are pleafed with obferving the first Birth of new Opinions, their Struggles against Oppofition, their filent Progrefs under Perfecution, their general Reception, and their gradual Decline, or fudden Extinction; thofe that amufe themfelves with remarking the different Periods of human Knowledge, and obferve how Darknefs and Light fucceed each other, by what Accident the most gloomy Nights of Ignorance have given Way to the Dawn of Science, and how Learning has languished and decayed, for Want of Patronage and Regard, or been overborne

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borne by the Prevalence of fashionable Ignorance, or loft amidft the Tumults of Invafion, and the Storms of Violence. All thofe, who defire any Knowledge of the Literary Tranfactions of paft Ages, may find in Catalogues, like this at leaft, fuch an Account as is given by Annalifts and Chronologers of Civil Hiftory.

How the Knowledge of the Sacred Writings has been diffused, will be obferved from the Catalogue of the various Editions of the Bible, from the firft Impreffion by Fuft, in 1462, to the present Time, in which will be contained the Polyglot Editions of Spain, France, and England, thofe of the Original Hebrew, the Greek Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate, with the Verfions which are now used in the remotest Parts of Europe, in the Country of the Grifons, in Lithuania, Bohemia, Finland, and Iceland.

WITH regard to the Attempts of the fame Kind made in our own Country, there are few whofe Expectations will not be exceeded by the Number of English Bibles, of which not one is forgotten, whether valuable for the Pomp and Beauty of the Impreffion, or for the Notes with which the Text is accompanied, or for any Controverfy or Perfecution that it produced, or for the Peculiarity of any fingle Paffage. With the fame Care have the various Editions of the Book of Common Prayer been felected, from which all the Alterations which have been made in it may be easily remarked.

AMONGST a great Number of Roman Miffals and Breviaries, remarkable for the Beauty of their Cuts and Illuminations, will be found the Mofarabic Miffal and Breviary, that raised fuch Commotions in the Kingdom of Spain.

THE Controverfial Treatifes written in England, about the Time of the Reformation, have been diligently collected, with a Multitude of remarkable Tracts, fingle Sermons, and small Treatifes, which, however worthy to be preferved, are perhaps to be found in no other Place.

THE Regard which was always paid, by the Collectors of this Library, to that remarkable Period of Time, in which the Art of Printing was invented, determined them to accumulate the ancient Impreffions of the Fathers of the Church, to which the later Additions are added, left Antiquity fhould have feemed more worthy of Efteer than Accuracy.

HISTORY has been confidered with the Regard due to that Study by which the Manners are most easily formed, and from which the most efficacious Instruction is received; nor will the moft extenfive Curiofity fail of Gratification in this Library, from which no writers have been excluded that relate either the Religious or Civil Affairs of any Nation.

NOT only thofe Authors of Ecclefiaftical Hiftory have been procured, that treat of the State of Religion in general, or deli

ver

ver Accounts of Sects or Nations, but thofe likewife who have confined themselves to particular Orders of Men in every Church, who have related the Original, and the Rules of every Society," or recounted the Lives of its Founder and its Members; thofe who have deduced in every Country the Succeffion of Bishops, and those who have employed their Abilities in celebrating the Piety of particular Saints, or Martyrs, or Monks, or Nuns.

THE Civil Hiftory of all Nations has been amaffed together, nor is it eafy to determine, which has been thought most worthy of Curiosity.

OF France, not only the general Histories and ancient Chro nicles, the Accounts of celebrated Reigns, and Narratives of re markable Events, but even the Memorials of fingle Families, the Lives of private Men, the Antiquities of particular Cities, Churches, and Monafteries, the Topography of Provinces, and the Accounts of Laws, Cuftoms, and Prefcriptions, are here to be found.

THE feveral States of Italy have, in this Treafury, their particular Hiftorians, whofe Accounts are, perhaps, generally more exact, by being lefs extenfive, and more interesting, by being more particular.

NOR has lefs Regard been paid to the different Nations of the Germanic Empire, of which, neither the Bohemians, nor Hungarians, nor Auftrians, nor Bavarians, have been neglected; nor have their Antiquities, however generally difregarded, been lefs ftudioufly fearched, than their present State.

THE Northern Nations have fupplied this Collection, not only with Hiftory, but Poetry, with Gothic Antiquities, and Runic Infcriptions; which at leaft have this Claim to Veneration, above the Remains of the Roman Magnificence, that they are the Works of thofe Heroes, by whom the Roman Empire was deftroyed, and which may plead, at least in this Nation, that they ought not to be neglected by thofe that owe to the whofe Memories they preferve, their Conftitution, their perties, and their Liberties.

THE Curiofity of thefe Collectors extended equally to Parts of the World; nor did they forget to add to the Northern the Southern Writers, or to adorn their Collection with Chronicles of Spain, and the Conquest of Mexico.

EVEN of thofe Nations with which we have lefs Intercourse, whofe Cuftoms are lefs accurately known, and whofe Hiftory is lefs diftinctly recounted, there are in this Library repofited fuch Accounts, as the Europeans have been hitherto able to obtain ; nor are the Mogul, the Tartar, the Turk, and the Saracen, without their Hiftorians.

THAT

THAT Perfons fo inquifitive, with regard to the Tranfac tions of other Nations, thould enquire yet more ardently after the Hiftory of their own, may be naturally expected; and, indeed, this Part of the Library is no common Inftance of Diligence and Accuracy. Here are to be found, with the ancient Chronicles, and larger Hiftories of Britain, the Narratives of fingle Reigns, and the Accounts of remarkable Revolutions, the topographical Hiftories of Counties, the Pedigrees of Families, the Antiquities of Churches and Cities, the Proccedings of Par liaments, the Records of Monafleries, and the Lives of particular Men, whether eminent in the Church or the State, or remarkain private Life; whether exemplary for their Virtues, or deteftable for their Crimes; whether perfecuted for Religion, or executed for Rebellion.

THAT memorable Period of the English Hiftory, which begins with the Reign of King Charles the First, and ends with the Reftoration, will almost furnish a Library alone, fuch is the Number of Volumes, Pamphlets, and Papers, which were publifhed by either Party, and fuch is the Care with which they have been preferved.

NOR is Hiftory without the neceffary Preparatives and Attendants, Geography and Chronology; of Geography the best Writers and Delineators have been procured, and Pomp and Accuracy have both been regarded. The Student of Chronology may here find likewife thofe Authors who fearched the Records of Time, and fixed the Periods of Hiftory.

WITH the Hiftorians and Geographers, may be ranked the Writers of Voyages and Travels, which may be read here in the Latin, English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, and Spanish Languages.

THE Laws of different Countries, as they are in themselves equally worthy of Curiofity with their Hiftory, have, in this Collection, been juftly regarded; and the Rules, by which the various Communities of the World are governed, may be here examined and compared. Here are the ancient Editions of the Papal Decretals, and the Commentators on the Civil Law, the Edicts of Spain, and the Statutes of Venice.

BUT, with particular Industry, have the various Writers on. the Laws of our own Country been collected, from the most ancient to the present Time, from the Bodies of the Statutes to the minuteft Treatife; not only the Reports, Precedents, and Readings of our own Courts, but even the Laws of our WeftIndian Colonies will be exhibited in our Catalogue.

BUT neither Hiftory nor Law have been fo far able to engrofs this Library, as to exclude Phyfic, Philofophy, or Criticism. Thefe

Thefe have been thought, with Juftice, worthy of a Place, who have examined the different Species of Animals, delineated their Forms, or defcribed their Properties and Inftincts, or who have penetrated the Bowels of the Earth, treated on its different Strata, and analyfed its Metals; or who have amufed themfelves with lefs laborious Speculations, and planted Trees, or cultivated Flowers.

THOSE that have exalted their Thoughts above the minuter Parts of the Creation, who have obferved the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies, and attempted Syftems of the Universe, have not been denied the Honour which they deferved by fo great an Attempt, whatever has been their Succefs. Nor have thofe Mathematicians been rejected, who have applied their Science to the common Purposes of Life, or thofe that have deviated into the kindred Arts, of Tactics, Architecture, and Fortification.

EVEN Arts of far lefs Importance have found their Authors, nor have these Authors been defpifed by the boundless Curiofity of the Proprietors of the Harleian Library. The Writers on Horfemanship and Fencing are more numerous, and more bulky, than could be expected, by thofe who reflect how feldom thofe excel in either, whom their Education has qualified to compofe Books.

THE Admirer of Greek and Roman Literature will meet, in this Collection, with Editions little known to the moft inquifitive Critics, and which have efcaped the Obfervation of those whofe great Employment has been the Collation of Copies; nor will he find only the most ancient Editions of Fauftus, Jenson, Spira, Sweynheim, and Pannartz, but the most accurate likewife and beautiful of Colinaus, the Junta, Plantin, Aldus, the Stephens, and Elzevir, with the Commentaries and Obfervations of the moft learned Editors.

NOR are they accompanied only with the Illuftrations of those who have confined their Attempts to particular Writers, but of thofe likewife who have treated on any Part of the Greek or Roman Antiquities, their Laws, their Cuftoms, their Drefs, their Buildings, their Wars, their Revenues, or the Rites and Ceremonies of their Worthip, and thofe that have endeavoured to explain any of their Authors from their Statues or their Coins.

NEXT to the Ancients, thofe Writers deferve to be mentioned, who, at the Reftoration of Literature, imitated their Lan-. guage and their Stile with fo great Succefs, or who laboured with fo much Induftry to make them understood: Such were Philelphus and Politian, Scaliger and Buchanan, and the Poets of the Age of Leo the Tenth; thefe are likewife to be found in this Library, together with the Delicia, or Collections of all Nations.

PAINTING