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No. 1670. Legenda Aurea, or the Gold

en Legende*. 1483

No. 1674. Mr. Ratcliffe's MS. Cata

logues of the rare old black

lettert, and other curious
and uncommon books, 4
vol:

£. s. d.

9 15 0

7 15 0

I BEG pardon of the manes of 'John Ratcliffe, Esq.' for the very inadequate manner in which I have brought forward his collection to public notice. The memory of such a man ought to be dear to the black lettered-dogs' of the present day;

* In Dr. Hunter's Museum there is one of the finest copies in the world of this ponderous but magnificent folio volume. The wood cuts in it were erroneously supposed by HEINEKIN to have been the first ever executed in this country.

+ This would have been the most delicious article to my palate. If the present owner of it were disposed to part with it, I could not find it in my heart to refuse him compound interest for his money. As is the wooden frame-work to the bricklayer, in the construction of his arch, so might Mr. Ratcliffe's MS. Catalogues be to me in the compilation of a certain magnum opus!

for he had [mirabile dictu !] upwards of THIRTY CAXTONS*!

IF I might hazard a comparison between Mr. James West's and Mr. John Ratcliffe's collections, I should say that the former was more extensive, the lat

* In the present Carton-loving age, with whatavidity would such a number of this printer's books be sought after! They will rarely ever again appear in one collection so numerous or so perfect. I am well acquainted with the skill and liberality of Messrs. Payne, White, Egerton and Evans-that these gentlemen know and love Caxton as well as ALDUS, FROBEN, and the STEPHENSES-but I question if in the ocean of English black letter, they have taken quite so deep a plunge as Mr. Manson, of Gerard Street, Soho. It is due to the spirit and perseverance of this latter bookseller, to notice his love of the Imprints, Colophons, and Devices of our venerable ENGLISH TYPOGRAPHERS. Professor Heyne could not have exhibited greater signs of joy at the sight of the Townley MS. of Homer, than did Mr. Manson on the discovery of Rastell's Pastyme of the People,' among the books of Mr. Brand. If I wished for a collection of Rembrandt's or Nanteuil's prints, or of old portraits and black-lettered books, catalogued, I would, with the utmost confidence, resign the whole to the integrity and discrimination of Mr. Manson.

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ter more curious: Mr. West's, like a magnificent champagne, executed by the hand of Claude or Both, and enclosing mountains, meadows, and streams, presented to the eye of the beholder a scene at once luxuriant and fruitful: Mr. Ratcliffe's, like one of those delicious pieces of scenery, touched by the pencil of Rysdael or Hobbima, exhibited to the beholder's eye a spot equally interesting, but less varied and extensive: the judgment displayed in both was the same. The sweeping foliage and rich pasture of the former, could not, perhaps, afford greater gratification than the thatched cottage, abrupt declivities, and gushing streams of the latter. To change the metaphorMr. West's was a magnificent repository, Mr. Ratcliffe's a choice cabinet of

gems.

Or some particulars of Mr. Ratcliffe's life, I had hoped to have found gleanings in Mr. Nichols's Anecdotes of Bowyer; but his name does not even appear in the index; being probably reserved for the second forth-coming enlarged

edition. Meanwile it may not be uninteresting to remark, that, like another MAGLIABECHI*, he imbibed his love of reading and collecting from the accidental possession of scraps and leaves of books. The fact is, Mr. Ratcliffe once kept a chandler's shop in the Borough; and, as is the case with all retail traders,

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* Magliabechi's parents were of so low and mean a rank, that they were very well satisfied when they had got him into the service of a man who sold herbs and fruit. He had never learned to read; and yet he was perpetually poring over the leaves of old books, that were used as waste paper in his master's shop. A bookseller, who lived in the neighbourhood, and who had often observed this, and knew the boy could not read, asked him one day, "What he meant by staring so much on printed paper?" He said, "that he did not know how it was, but that he loved it of all things-that he was very uneasy in the business he was in, and should be the happiest creature in the world, if he could live with him, who had always so many books about him." See the life of this extraordinary man, printed at Strawberry Hill, in 1758, 8vo. A curious, and rather scarce, little volume. MAGLIABECHI lived to become librarian to the Grand Duke of FLORENCE, and had his fame extolled by such men as Crescembeni, Moreri, Lavocat, and Salvini. He was called The Universal Library. A Prodigy of Learning,' &c. &c.

had great quantities of old books brought to him to be purchased at so much per pound! Hence arose his passion for collecting the black letter, as well as Stilton cheeses; and hence, by unwearied assiduity and attention to business, he amassed a sufficiency to retire within the precincts of his library, instead of his shop; and to live, for the remainder of his days, on the luxury of old English literature.

Published by LONGMAN, HURST, REES, and ORME Paternoster Row; J. HATCHARD, Bookseller to Her Majesty, 190, Piccadilly; and WILLIAM MILLER, Albemarle Street.

Printed by William Savage, Bedford Bury.

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