He takes the affirmative part, and gives us an engraving of the fa mous chair (fee tab. vii. p. 119) on which every pope, after the cruel deception, is obliged to fit. It has in the middle a hole like that of a felle-percée, on which the new pope is obliged to fit fans culottes, and the youngest deacon to make a report that his holiness has not imposed on the catholic world.

THE horrors of the various and barbarous modes of execution. exhibited in most of the pages,. take away the pleasure of examining minutely this fine MS..

Comedia di Dante, fol. vell. illum. A moft infernal MS. in gothic letters; the illuminations coarfe, numerous as horrid; on every page devils are reprefented in all forms. Fancy feems exhausted. Done by the Fufeli of the time. Mr. Addifon fomewhere obferves that the devils of Dante and Taffo are made hor rible by their horns, claws, and tails; Milton's by their evil pasfions. 1 wifh the reader could compare the deformity of the dæmons in this MS. with the greater deformities occafioned by the evil paffions which render deteftable even the beauteous features. of the fallen angels, painted by the admirable Weftall for Mr. Boydel's Milton. It fhould feem as if the ideas of our great poet had tranfmigrated into our young painter, to give the present times the fulness of his conceptions.

Chroniques de Jean Fraiffart, en deux livres, avec figures. Folio, vell. illum.-A very fair and antient manuscript, with the history of every chapter curiously painted in gold and water-colors. It was written in Froiffart's ow time,, or near it, and belonged to a Holland. The first lord Buckhurst made a prefent of it to Sir William Cecil. The arms of the Hollands are often painted

in the initial letters, and in others the arms of the nobility mentioned in the hiftory.

The

THE frontefpiece to this volume is a battle, with a town at a diftance. The French appear victorious; their cavalry driving before them that of the fugitive English. I compared the text of this valuable MS. with the French edition, printed at Lyons in 1559, and the famous tranflation by Sir John Berniers, lord Bourchier, done in 1525, and find both vary in language, but not in fenfe, from this manufcript. Another volume of the first and second books, equally beautiful, is to be found in the Gloddaeth library; which I thus defcribe in my Tour in Wales, ii. p. 327. frontefpiece reprefents the author on his knees, in a blue mantle, prefenting his book to Edward III. A king of France, diftinguished by the fleurs-de-lis on his robes, holds a queen by the hand, who, from the arms of England, and the lions on her robe, 'feems to be queen Philippa, to whom Frciffart was clerk of the clofet. She holds by the hand a little boy, whofe robe is also 'marked with the lions. This must have been Richard of Bour Ideaux, her grandfon, afterwards Richard 11. A lady and feveral other figures appear in the piece,'-Mr. Simeo, bookfeller, in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, had a copy of this manufcript. It was dated on the back d'environ 1470.'

Decreta fac. Congregationis Concilii, tom. 7, quarto, in Italien, a common hand, ill-written.

De Arte Amandi, Ovid, vell. quarto,

Eufebii Gloffarum Liber, vell, fol. gothic letters.

Evang. de Matthæ, cum Ixpos. vell. fol. most curious gothic letter, fight but elegant illumination.

4

Ellegia

Ellegia di Madonna Fiametta, fol.

Hiftoire des Roys de France, fol. vell. illuminated.

Hiftoire des quatre Roys de France, Charles V, VI, VII, & Lewis XI. Fol. vell. illum. only one large illumination, a battle: King Charles VII. mounted, driving an English body of cavalry before him: a town at a distance.

Herodiani Hiftoria, &c. Fol. fuperb vell. with beautiful enamelled coins-a MS. matchlefs for elegance of the ornamental part of illumination, and equally fo for the medals in rich gold, seemingly real, and as if lying on the paper. To the first letter of each chapter is prefixed one, with the reverfe.

Il Nimfale in Verfi, di Giov. Bocaccio, 8vo.

Imperatoris Cafaris Maximiliani, de Vita fua, Comm. Quarto, fuperb illum, with a portrait of the emperor, and a view of his study.

Maximiliam I. was born in 1459. He first married, in 1477, Mary of Burgundy. After her death he married by proxy Ann of Bretagne but Charles VIII. of France actually married her in perfon, and in confequence added her dominion to that of his fucceffors. The illuminations are very beautiful. His own portrait is the firft, fitting in a rich chair, at a table, with his pen in his hand. That of his chriftening is the next. In another he is instructed in the art of beleaguering. A fourth places him in his study, drawing figures aftrological, calculating fome great event. From the king to the cobler, every one was in those ages an aftrologer.-Confult Sully, 4to edit. i. 78. 81. 382.530.

ONE

ONE fide of the ftudy is filled with books, moftly clafped, with their faces outwards, the leaves gaily painted. Above Maximilian are his cross-bows, his bows and arrows, the inftruments of the chace; and by them his art in mufic is expreffed by the lute. On the floor is fhewn the objects of his various ftudies. That of artillery, by two golden cannon. Of painting, by the grindingftone for colors, and the pallet. Of husbandry, by a hoe. Of his fkill in the arts of the carpenter and joiner, by the ax, plane, &c. &c. &c. Of the fmith, by the iron anvil.-A more curious illumination is not to be found!

In one or other of them are depicted the deeds of his bufy, life. His amusements in the chace are given in various drawings; fuch as that of the bear, the boar, the ftag, the chamois, and ibex. The scenery of vaft rocks and precipices, and the manner of the chaffeurs overcoming all difficulties, make this a moft curious delineation. There is one fhewing him employed in falconry. Tilts ending moft fatally, and as cruelly as shows of gladiators, next are exhibited. His marriage, and his being instructed in virtuous gallantry with the ladies of the court, and the maids of honor, all true Platonic lovers. Maximilian was alfo great in the field. Voltaire tells us that prince introduced the arms of the Macedonian phalanx; and in all the military illuminations, the long pike (eighteen feet in length) is introduced. In the midst of war he preserved his gallantry. A lady is represented at the entrance of his tent, like another Syfigambis, kneeling to this fecond Alexander, imploring his pity.-This was the virago fifter of Egmond, duke of Gueldres, who, after his death, entered

Venlo, and defended it valiantly against Maximilian, who foon reduced her to fubmit to his mercy.-Let this clofe his glorious life. I fhall add no more than the conclusion: for in 1519, at the age of fixty, he quitted the mortal stage, the common fate of emperors and their meaneft fubjects.

La Vie de Monf. Sevin, fol.-Francis Sevin, a learned Frenchman, one of the Academy Royal of Infcriptions, &c. at Paris, appointed (in conjunction with l'Abbé Fourmont) to travel into Greece in search of antient MSS. He returned in 1730, and with fuch fuccefs, that he was rewarded with the place of keeper of the royal MSS. He was born in 1699, died in 1741, leaving be hind numbers of learned memoirs, printed among thofe of the academy.

Lactantius Firmianus, 1663. fol. vell. the writing most elegant, like the fineft type, in the manner of Aldus. One fide of the margin is prettily illuminated with a fancy feroll, birds, &c. Miffale Vetus, 12mo. with curious mufical notes.

Naldinaldii Florentini, Oratio de Laudib. Urbis, 4to, vell. moft elegant writing, a thin octavo.

Officium beatæ Mar. Virg. 4to. vell, with fuperb illum.

Seneca, fol. vell. From the library of Samuel Petit, of which are many others. This S. Petit was a celebrated minifter of the Calvinist perfuafion, and of French defcent, whofe parents had fled to Geneva from Paris, after the infamous maffacre.

Sozomeni Hiftoria, tom 2. fol. vell. moft beautifully written, one border finely fancied.

Suetonius Mftus in Pergameno, per Caffium Parmenfem, ad Fidem optimorum Codicum, 1469.

S. Thomas