New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-08

which nave not READ ana DO not inteba 10
read, you may observe cap VI" in three
or four hue letter. The chapter itself is
| upon the other side. The title is put in that
| ignoble place to save paper. which WAS dearer
| then than it is now. But we have had
enough Of these little looks. No. we have
| not for see here are the "ADnotatloas OF
| Erasmus" of Rotterdam, upon all the Enisiies
of Paul. and printed by John SchGf1er, at
Mentz, in 1922. 1t is in the Aldine letter.
with the Quaintest specimens OF wood-engray-
| for n great deal, but what a book 1t Is
to look at IL would be worth some
thing 10 have seen this binding of
velum, so pretty impressed. as it came fresh
misunderstanding This SchUtier was only
the grandson of the great original SchTfier,
included as an inventor OF printing with GU
ttenberg and Faust. Somebody read tins book
once for there are annotatlons IN red INK
upon the margin. Ii belonged TO Il.
Fmsius" ss | learn from cramped auto
graph upon the cover. l wonder who E" IL.
Fmsius vast Whoever he was, he was
Latinist, for though he did not add Z" Liber,"'
he wrote himself in the gentive " b. Frsu,"
and left Liber" to be understood.
| linger doubtjngly over these somewhat
ancient volumes. for have horrible suspicion
that most of my kind readers who have Tor
given my gairullty so long, 90 not care ior
them very much. | have had melancholy eX-
periences in my day. People came TO see me.
and. full of the spirit of hospitality, was
anxious TO entertain them. l unlocked the
eases and showed them the treasures. | had
no fine pictures TO which Their attention nlsht
be called; / thought that they might
like to see the old books; wondered
at their lack OF enthusiasm, Dut 1
was told 10y the domestic monitors
that they had been exceedingly bored linen |
remembered that they only said "Ncs" and
"Oh !" and " How queer |" They went home,
| suppose, to read. if they read at all, Miss
WateImilks novels, something else bot
from our persistent press. 20 | hardly care
to sly a word Of bigger books than the httic
Elzeyir, of which the aforesaid visitors only
said 80 dear how liule" But, as II was
particularly large, they sometimes deigne!di
to look at my copy of the Historic Mundl
of Pliny, which was picked up, / think,
in DesbrOsseS-si., and WAS printed Ivy
Frobcn, at Basic in 1928. All they
said of it was, however, "GOd bless U.S. how
oldn' Then | was reduced 20 the notifying
necessity of explaining that II was not par
iicuarly old, but a specially good piece OF
printing. aud that it Was IN the original vel
lum Then had to explain that ii WIS not
SO well printed as the lacitus also by frc-
ben, and printed IN 1888. AZ which they
said "Ah!" But / am not discouraged from
saving that | consider the Iacitus one of the
handS0mest books which ever came from the
press. | glance ut Its beautiful PAGES as
wllte COuld anything be more uniform
than the comp0sitiOnR The words are only
divided by shalp accent instead OF the
abominable hyphen which cisfEures our mod
em pages. The spacing throughout Is abs0-
lutcly uniform, with none of those white spots
which mar many fair page OF to-day as
with lrpr0sy AiduS uses the hyphcn con-
stantly, ana makes no ado Of putting three IN
succession but FTobcn'S mark Tor division Il
so much more elegant thai | am surprised
that 1t has DOt been adopted lii modern print-
inc | suppose thai ! shall lose all CasiP as q
connOisSeur If | say that | consider Frozen
to have been 4 much better printer than
Aldus ManItUs. OF course. the question Is
n0t of the least human interest; but aS / am
writing this paper TO please myself, having
written thirty odd 10 please other people, |
may be pard0ned If draw a comparison. |
am not fortunate enough To faiSSess any OF
the great ana rl. >; works from tie Aldine press
but comparing this hide copy OF Ivy printed
by Aldus in 1919, SO far as small page can
be compared win large one, l give
icy hand and heart TO Flohen. The
paper OF Aluus IS little more elegant.
u Is Land, and to-day is winter. But am
SIRE that the Roman letter winch FROZEN
uses IS much nObicr than tie ltaic Of AgUS,
winch strikes me, on the Whcic, IA fccpie.
am not III the least surprised that II has recn
discarded. Modern scholars who like 10 read
the classics in the old editions, which are, of
course the most accurate, VIII get along
much more easily with the Roman. So we
will put the Aldus Liyy upon the very top
shelf, where the little books belong, ana VIII
keep the Froben Tacru> ana, ab1ye all. The
tall EiObcn pliHiuS ScCuudUs IA the lower
place Oh honor, to winch hc H. entitled. And
50 enough Tor to-day OF the ola prmte.s aHd
the old classics.
The hypcIcrltics may aver that my rcmi-
nisctnces nave gone back with vengeance. |
make haste 30 say that many OF the aIc~t
books are OF comparatively modern date.
/ could mention several printed Qnl'c recently
WhIch are harder TO get LOW than EizcViIs OF
even Abuses. There is something curious
about this tendency of book JUST printed
To become scarce. One morning when
| was walking up NdssaU-st., casting
q Sleeps eye at the dIngy and dirty stalls. a
wcli-Anown bookseller called me across the
way, aud PIT INTO my hand the American cdl-
non of =" The Book Hunter edited 10y that
excellent scholar, Mr. Richard Grant While,
and published III Tins city IN lSO}-a bcaul-
tai piece Of printing, from the OH Mrcade
Press. My bookseller wanted fOr Il cOnsd-
cradle advance upon the former retail pIicc,
and, 10y the most astonishing accident, having
the money for II III my pocket. bought Il.
Seventeen years only have gone by, and al
ready 1t Is scarce book, as | am sure II Is a
delightful one
Perhaps if l had foreseen how this topic
would have been so full Cf suggestions |
saould not have undertaken It's discussion in
this limited place. There are n hundred ancc-
dOtCs which Introduce themselves TO the
memory, ana though | have written thus far
| seem to have written nothing. The acct !
dents which are the events OF life into |
which books lave entered, are as romantic as
the Chronicles Of FrOissaIt, One morning |
was lis.lessly looking over lot of books |
which Mr.. Durham had received from Lon
don, and | took up rather shabby copy Of |
the pathological TREATISE called &" Iermes" |
written by Harris, and one OF the com:nonest |
books III the world 1t was priced at 80 |
cents. i was struck by the fact that 1t was |
ful of marglnalla in ink, and looking little |
further, read family pencilled, This was
Horne 'roolIes copy, and the annotations are
by HIM" | went with great CELEBRITY to
"Lowndes's Manual" and there read, under the
title OF Harris, "HeImes, Horne IoOkes sale,
3IG, with Ms. notes by Ii. Tooke, 916h
Ny unfortunate friend the bookseller, had
marked this volume, as | have said, at 80 |
spot, when | tenderly opened the matter to