5 WILLIAM DOWNING DEALER IN RARE AND BEAUTIFUL BOOKS. THE CHAUCER'S HEAD LIBRARY Temple Row, Birmingham. GEORGE T. JUCKES & CO., The Ruskin Book Stores 85 ASTON STREET, CORPORATION ST., BIRMINGHAM. THE ROMAN EMPRESSES, 2 vols. 1899. Please report any copies that come your way. ARUNDEL CHROMOS LARGE STOCK. MANY RARE ONES. Send stamp for this month's list, which gives size Complete Catalogue of ALL the publications of the Arundel SAINT JUDE'S DEPOT, BIRMINGHAM. Report your THEOLOGY to W. D. WOODHOUSE 35, JOHN BRIGHT STREET BIRMINGHAM HE'S A BUYER! MIDDLETON & CO. 319, Broad Street, Birmingham. ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, SPANISH, ITALIAN DUTCH, LATIN, or GREEK books, and all books on the ARTS, and curious out-of-the-waysubjects, fully CATALOGUED, accurately DESCRIBED, and the INTEREST and VALUE well brought out. References to leading booksellers. NEGOTIATIONS for sales of special books made if desired. CORRESPONDENCE undertaken between English and foreign booksellers and bookbuyers. The following is an example of Messrs. Middleton's work, from a catalogue issued by Messrs. Wm. Brough & Son, 313, Broad Street, Birmingham: Justinian's Digesta or Pandects.-A Colossal Work, published in Paris just after the Sack of Rome, and bearing the title, QUINQUAGINTA LIBRORUM DIGESTORUM SEU PANDECTARUM; 5 fine large thick folio volumes, cum glossis, beautifuly printed with Gothic Type, in red and black ink, with woodcut initials, in heavy oak boards, covered with old calf, bind tooled. EX INCLYTA PARRHISIORUM LUTETIA APUD CLAUDIUM CHEVALLONIUM, SUB SOLE AUREO IN VIA JACOBEA. IN A FINE STATE OF PRESERVATION. £15 155. (Paris), 1528-30 THE FIRST COMMERCIAL PRINTING OFFICE IN FRANCE was opened about the year 1473, at the sign of the "Golden Sun," in James' Street, Paris. To this house the FIRST THREE FRINTERS, who had been brought from GERMANY, went and set up business when their University patrons were about to leave France. How long the three pioneers stayed depended, of course, on the demand for the skill of the first craftsmen of their kind; but we find the "Golden Sun," nearly sixty years later, of such great importance as to be able to turn out under its master-CLAUDE CHEVALLONIUS-an enormous work of this sort, in a style such as the ordinary compositor of the present day would be incapable of approaching. Looking at the whole book-consisting, as it does, of nearly 4,000 BEAUTIFUL FOLIOS-it seems difficult to believe that it was the work of the men of the first half-century of the era of Printing. The EUROPE OF THAT TIME must have been a wild-man's land. ROME itself had, after a thousand years, again been sacked, and was lying much in the state that SAN FRANCISCO now is. CHARLES V., the ruler of Spain and her vast Colonies and FRANCIS I., swayed the destiny of the "civilised" world. When this book was printed in his capital, FRANCIS had already earned the reputation of " PATRON OF LETTERS"; and whatever else flourished, it is plain from a volume of this sort that first-class printers were in demand. WHY this enormous work was actually required at this particular time, and how the MANUSCRIPT OF IT HAD BEEN PRESERVED so well since the famous EMPEROR OF THE WEST had WRITTEN it all a THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE, are questions which others must solve. We need only note the very great BEAUTY of the old GOTHIC LETTERPRESS, page after page, in its red and black-most picturesque in aspect. Every paragraph has its initial in red; EVERY PAGE its HEADING, likewise in RED TYPE. Constantly we see charming little wooDCUTS for initials; and one remarkably HANDSOME WOODCUT, about 7 by 6, of the Imperial Author of the book in Council; the borders of the title-page showing wonderful skill with birds, grotesque animals, and "mermen," with remarkably expressive faces. The day of beautiful MANUSCRIPTS had by no means faded out of memory, and their beauty had to be rivalled, but we still see here that men preferred to retain even the CONTRACTIONS. The fine old work is for the most part in a magnificent state of PRESERVATION, and is one of THE FIRST COLOSSAL BOOKS EVER PRINTED IN THE WORLD. & CO. MIDDLETON & 319, Broad Street, Birmingham. Book-Auction Records This publication is now complete from the commencement in 1892 to the present date. Volume contains 19,594 Records for the Season 1902-3, and four Illustrations, including Portraits of the late Mr. J. W. Bouton, of New York, and Mr. W. D. Reeves, of Reeves & Turner, London. It is out of print, but is about to be reprinted in one alphabet (thus avoiding the necessity for an Index), and it will contain a view of John Keats' house at Hampstead, where he wrote the 'Ode to a Nightingale.' Volume 1, Part 2, contains 14.611 Records for the Season 1903-4, and an Unpublished Portrait of Thackeray, drawn by the late Sir Henry Thompson in 1857. It is believed to be the only portrait of Thackeray in profile, and was made without his knowledge. Sir Henry Thompson was Thackeray's surgeon, and was also a skilled portrait-painter. Volume 2 contains 15,751 Records for the season 1904-5, and four Volume 3 contains 15,200 Records for the Season 1905-6, and four Volume 4 is in course of publication. The First Part contains a Plate of the great Reference Library, Birmingham. Each Volume is published at £1 1S. ($5), and any volume or the whole will be sent on inspection, carriage free, on application. 'Book-Auction Records' has been received with great appreciation, and is subscribed for by booksellers and public libraries throughout the world. KARSLAKE & CO. 35, POND STREET, HAMPSTEAD, LONDON, |