answer, and will be found to be equally kind and characteristic. It is dated, it will be observed, from Sheffield Place, the seat of his friend Lord Sheffield, with whom he had just returned from Lausanne to condole on the loss of his wife. Gibbon himself died on the 16th January following.

The aversion of the historian to Christianity and the Christian Church did not in any degree predispose him to tolerate the excesses of French sans-cullotism. His kindness and gentlemanly taste, as well as the bent and genius of his historical studies, alike revolted against the tyrannous barbarities of a wild democracy which seemed deluging the world with blood.

"DEAR SIR,It would give me great pleasure to contribute my assistance towards removing any of the obstacles that may impede your fair and legitimate claim to the title or office of historiographer of your native country. But, except the present chancellor, I have scarcely any acquaintance with any of the ministers, and since Mr. Dundas is well disposed in your favour you cannot stand in need of any other patronage.

"Were I called upon to testify my sense of your literary merit the testimony would be as agreable to myself as it would be superfluous to you. But my absence from England ever since the beginning of the French Revolution has deprived me of all means of knowing the political opinions

on that subject which you really entertain, or those which may have been falsely imputed to you. My own contempt for the wild and mischievous system of democracy will not suffer me to believe, without positive proof, that it can be adopted by any man of a sound understanding and historical experience. I acquiesce with implicit confidence in your disavowal of those sentiments, and I am persuaded that the same disavowal will produce a similar effect on all those persons who are acquainted with your character.-I am, with true regard, dear Sir, most faithfully yours, "E. GIBBON. "Sheffield Place, June 24th, 1793." The address of the letter has been torn off.

Gillies obtained the desired office, and held it for the long period of forty-three years. His subsequent publications gave no indication of any desire to prove himself a worthy successor to Robertson; but he was an amiable man who lived much respected, and was never, we believe, again suspected of Jacobinism. He died at Clapham at the age of 93, on the 15th February, 1836. See a memoir of him in our Obituary for April 1836, p. 436.

Gibbon's letter, as well as that of Stockdale, are now both among the autograph collections of Robert Cole, esq. F.S.A. to whose kindness we are indebted for copies.

touch upon a chapter of bibliography which is not devoid of interest.

Breydenbach is the leader of our modern race of travellers who make their observations with a view to paper and print. There had been many during former ages who wrote the narratives of their long and painful travels, and whose narratives have from time to time-some at an early and some at a recent date-found their way to the press; but Breydenbach undertook his pilgrimage with that object in view, and he accomplished his undertaking

in a style highly creditable to his perseverance and his liberality. He took with him a clever artist, who made views of the most remarkable places visited, and portraits of the various inhabitants of Palestine, which, transferred to wooden blocks, are printed in the book. They have considerable artistic merit and apparent accuracy, and form highly interesting memorials of the aspect presented by various important places nearly four centuries ago.*

These cuts are vastly superior to the monstrosities which contribute to render the pages of Mandeville merely amusing or absurd. Sir John Mandeville composed his travels about the year 1355; they were not printed until 1480, a few years before the first appearance of Breydenbach.

Breydenbach's book was printed at Mentz under the care of the artist Erhard Rewich; who as it seems engraved the wood-blocks from his own drawings. Editions both in Latin and German were in progress at the same time. The former was finished on the 15th Feb. 1486, and the latter on the 20th June in the same year-unless we ought to reckon for the year commencing in March, in which case the Latin would be the later edition, in 1486-7. Its title is

"Bernhardi de Breydenbach opus transmarinæ peregrinationis ad venerandum et gloriosum sepulchrum dominicum in Jhe

rusalem."

There is a copy of the German in the British Museum which belonged to King Henry VII. but it wants all the folding plates.

Of the Latin some copies were printed on vellum. Three such copies have become known to bibliographers; one of them is in the national library at Paris and two are now in the British Museum, one in the King's Library,

and the other in the Grenville collection. The former belonged to James West, esq. Pres. R. S. and was purchased at his sale by Mr. Nicol for the library of King George the Third for 157. 15s. It contains the following memorandum in Mr. West's writing:

"J. WEST.

"This most rare book of the Travels of the Religious to the Holy Land printed on vellum contains the oldest views en

graved that I have ever seen; they seem to have been taken upon the spot. The book was printed at Mentz 1486, which is seven years before the printing of the Nuremberg Chronicle, which has always been supposed to have been the oldest printed book with Charts or Maps. I bought this book at Osborn's sale of the Harleian printed books."

Also the following references :-
V. Freytag, Adparatus, vol. i. p. 48.
Henning's Bibl. p. 396.
Debure, art. 4272.
Clement, vol. i. p. 223.
Pinellii, vol. i. no. 2217.
Panzer, 2, p. 131.
Maittaire, p. 472.
Wurdwein, p. 123.
Zapf, p. 94.

Seemiller, 3, p. 66.
Braun, 2, p. 134.

Bolong-Crev. 4, p. 20."

Mr. Grenville's vellum copy was from the MacCarthy library, at the dispersion of which it was sold for 756 francs. In the Grenville Catalogue, p. 96, it is stated to have been the same which was formerly in the Harleian Library; but this is contradicted by Mr. West's statement above given.

Mons. Brunet, in his Manuel du Libraire, edit. 1842, notices several paper copies; and there is one in the British Museum (now marked C.20 e.)

"Maister Gerhaert Rewich van Utrecht" finished a Flemish edition at Mentz, on the 24th May, 1488.† A

6.

copy of this is bound up with the paper copy of the original Latin edition just mentioned.

In the same year the work was printed in French at Lyons, having been translated by Nicole le Huen, professor of theology in the house of Carmelites at Puteaux de Mer. This Frenchman had not the honesty to acknowledge it to be a translation, but in his colophon calls it a godsend (ainsi que Dieu a voulu le donner à cognoistre). One of the "honnestes hommes the printers was Jacques Heremberck of Germany, who probably was the originator of the piracy. The copy in Mr. Grenville's library (7203) formerly belonged to the historian Jac. August. Thuanus, whose arms and monogram are impressed on the cover. It contains this MS. note in Mr. Grenville's writing :

"Breydenbach, traduit par N. Huen, fol. Lyon, 1488. La Croix du Maine, ii. p. 190, together with Du Verdier, iii. 143, and Pinelo, Bib. Geog. p. 1462, and Richarderie, iv. 402, have all considered N. Huen as an original traveller; but Panzer, i. 528, together with La Vallière, iii. 30, and Crevenna, iv. 20, very truly concur in describing Huen as giving only a translation of Breydenbach, though not a literal one. This edition is most extremely rare, and sold at the Roxburgh sale, No. 7259, for 847. It is the first French book with copper plates."

Notwithstanding this enormous price Mr. Hibbert's sold for only 117. and Chaillou's in 1818 for 107 francs.

In this book all the folding plates of Breydenbach were copied on copper, and the smaller woodcuts on wood. The latter are not so correct as those of Drach hereafter mentioned.

The Lyons piracy was met in the following year (1489) by another French version, fairly acknowledging the author's name, and "translate de Latin en Francois par frere Jean Hersin." There is no copy of this in the British Museum; but Mons. Brunet

states that the engravings are from wood, and appear to be the same as those of the edition of Mentz. It may therefore be presumed that this was the authorized French edition, put forth to contend with the pirated one of the preceding year.

It was in reference to Huen's edition that a difference arose between Mons. Brunet and Dr. Dibdin.* The latter, having only seen the woodcut editions, in his Bibliotheca Spenceriana, and again in the Bibliographical Decameron, charged Mons. Brunet with having incorrectly stated that the larger views were engraved on copper. Mons. Brunet replied in the 1842 edition of his Manuel, and Dibdin apologised in the Ædes Althorpianæ, ii. 88. Huen was reprinted at Paris by Francoys Regnault in 1517, and again in 1522.

He

In 1490 the second Latin edition was printed at Spires by Peter Drach, who had not the use of the original blocks, but copied them. The great popularity of the book is strongly shewn by these repeated piracies. Brunet states that this edition is more complete than the first: but he does not explain in what the greater completeness consists, and it is scarcely likely to have been the case. mentions copies as occurring at the sales of the Soubise, Brienne, and Hanrott libraries; but there is none in the British Museum. But of another edition by Drach, printed at Spires in 1502, there is a copy in our national library, of which the ownership in English hands is to be traced for a long period. It belonged to Joh. Meredyth in the 16th or 17th century; afterwards to Ed. Alexander (price 28. 8d.); in 1730 to Dr. Stukeley at Stamford; then to W. Baynton, Gray's Inn; and lastly to Dr. Farmer, at whose sale, in 1798, it was bought for 11s. It does not possess the great print of the Holy Land, and only half the view of Rhodes. Mr. Hanrott's copy sold for 4l. 16s.

In 1498 there was another Flemish edition printed at Delft; and in the same year the "Viege de la Tierra Santa was printed at Saragossa, translated into Spanish by Martin Martinez d'Ampies. This Spanish edition is even rarer, says Mons. Brunet, than the Latin, German, and French; and he does not describe its plates.

The last edition we shall now mention, of which there is a copy in the Grenville collection, is a small abridgment in octavo, printed in Latin at Wittenberg in 1536.

We proceed to give a brief account of Breydenbach's voyage.

Bernhard de Breydenbach was chamberlain of the cathedral church of Mentz at the time when he made his pilgrimage to the Holy Land; when he published he was also its dean. His principal companions were John count of Solms, lord of Mintzenberg, the youngest of the party, but highest in rank, and a knight named Sir Philip de Bicken. The party met at Oppenheim, in the diocese of Mentz, on the feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist (25th April), in the year 1483, and after fifteen days' journey arrived at Venice. They there found many honourable counts and barons, valiant knights and other noble men, including some ecclesiatics; from among whom two barons and three knights, with their servants, joined their party, the others forming themselves into another company. The barons who sailed in the same galley with them were Maximin von Roppensteyn and Vernand von Mernawe, and the knights Caspar von Bulach, George Marx, and Nicolas von Kurt the elder. By the advice of Peter Vgelheymer of Frankfort, their host at Venice, they hired their galley, and this was the form of the contract which they made with master Augustino contareni (that is, says Breydenbach, comite reni), the patron (padrone) of their galley.

The patron was to carry arms for

eighty men; he was to supply them with meat and drink twice a day; for which purpose he was to provide good wine, fresh flesh, eggs, &c.; further, to those pilgrims who asked it, a refection in the morning and a collation in the evening, with malmesey and other things. Whenever the pilgrims, be they many or few, wished to go on shore to procure fresh water and other necessaries, the patron was to furnish his boat and servants to take and bring them back. The goods of any one dying on the voyage were to be restored intact to his friends; and if any died before he reached the Holy Land one half of his passage money was to be returned. The pilgrims might take an interpreter with them, who was to have free passage on board. Each pilgrim was to pay 42 ducats.

The patron was to provide fit stowage in his galley for fowls, wood, water, salt, and other necessaries.

After staying 22 days at Venice, the party embarked, on the 1st of June, singing, according to custom, Salve regina, and other anthems and collects, and on the 3rd they arrived at Parenza. They touched at several places on their way, and one of the cuts we have copied (Plate I.) represents their galley when lying off Rhodes.

Having left Cyprus on the 27th June, a favourable wind carried them in three days within sight of the Holy Land, whereupon, breaking forth into great joy and exultation, they saluted it from afar, singing Te Deum laudamus, with the anthem Salve regina, and other suitable collects and prayers. On the same day the galley cast anchor before Jaffa or Joppa (as represented in Plate II.) The patron, according to custom, immediately sent to Jerusalem for safe conduct, and for the warden of the friars minors of Mount Syon, and the conductor of the pil grims called the trutzchelman, or drogoman. They remained expecting them for six days, during which the other galley which sailed with them