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PREFACE.

THE works on the subject of Classical
Bibliography which have attained the greatest
repute have either from the barrenness of their
Contents been little better than Catalogues,
or from their bulk and expensiveness without
the reach of a number of readers willing to
throw away neither time in consulting nor
money in purchasing Works, which after all
do not contain the desired information. To
remedy the defect complained of these volumes
have been compiled, in which will be found
an ample Account of the Contents, peculiari-
ties and merits of the different Editions of each
Author respectively, and what has hitherto
been deemed a desideratum in Works of this
kind, a Notice of the Critical publications
connected with the illustration or correction
of the texts of each Author, together with the
literary History of the translations made into

the English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and occasionally Dutch, Polish, Russian, and other languages. And the better to enable the Tyro in Bibliography to form some idea of the market value of different Editions, the prices they have obtained at the Sales of celebrated Collectors have been carefully noticed, and in many instances the present prices. From the alteration of the plan intended to have been pursued at the commencement of the Work, which alteration has been influenced solely by the wish to increase its utility, the account of the first five Authors will be found to be less complete than it would otherwise have been; while from the length of time* during which the book

* This Work was put to press early in 1823, within which year the first volume was printed and the whole of my MS. completed, which has since that period, with the exception of a few alterations and additions, remained untouched :—had the Work been published in 1824, as I desired, I might as a MINOR have had some claim on the indulgence of the Public.—I take this opportunity of returning my thanks to my (London) Printer for his anxious solicitude in expediting the completion of this Work.

has been creeping through the press, it is feared that a few of the more recent Editions printed abroad may have been omitted. Among the works which are considered by some as forming a part of a Classical Library the Writers on the Sciences and Authors of Works of Romance are generally found; but of these no notice has been taken, as they scarcely seem to belong to that Class of elegant Literature to which these Volumes are especially devoted.

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