The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-31
QUEEN MARY'S GEOGRAPHY
LARGE I49O PToLEMI'S BOUND
 BY NICHOLAS EVE.

British Museum Loses Valuable and
 Rare BOOk--Owing to Meagre Ma
 tionaI Endowment It Was Unable to
 Bug r..
 Museum, few appeal more to the public eye than the rare books in superb bind ings displayed in the Kings Library. Until lately one of the richest and most beautiful exhibits to be seen there was large Ptolemys bound by that prince of the French art of bookbinding, Mich olas Eve, for the ill-starred Mary Queen of Scots. This magnificent ex- ample is no longer at Bloomsbury It i has been sold.
 At once it should be explained that the public has no grievance against the trustees of the British Museum. The | book was a Joan. Yet it had been on view for such long time-over twenty years-that many admirers considered 1t to be a national property, and, In fact many who coveted 1t were not aware that it belonged to a private in- dividual. This gentlemaninheritedtt un- der the will of the late Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, formerly keeper of the Department of British and Mediae- val Antiquities, and one of the most munificent benefactors the British Museum has known. The book was one of the very few treasures which did not pass into the national collection at his death. It was on loan at the time, and remained so by the consent of it's new owner.
 Now it has been apparently lost to the nation altogether, Some time ago, we understand the recent possessor of- fered the work to the British Museum authorities who, in face of the meagre national endowment, could not serious lly contemplate a purchase at the price. Yet this sum was much less than it's presumed market value, and at this much higher valuation the book has be- come the property of MT. Quaritch, whose father by the way, sold it to Sir Augustus Franks in 1883. MT, Franks, as he then was, had long known the work, and about 1863 had drawn the attention of the Duchess of Marlborough to the historic value of the relic, which was at that time hous- ed at Blenheim. Twenty years later it appeared in the famous Sunderland sale, but without any reference in the catalogue to Mary Queen of Scots. MT. Quaritch bought it for e45O, and at the urgent appeal of Mir. Frank sold it to him for G500.
 Beautifully illuminated as this 14SO Ptolemy is-probably by the care of a member of that famous family who befriended Dante, the Frescobaldi- Its new purchaser saw at once that the exquisite binding was of special char actor. The gold tooling of the palm branch and interlaced geometrical or namentation was unmistakably of the craft introduced into French binding by the Eyes. But when the monogram in the centre, with the surrounding words, "Sa vertu matire,' was studied a direct clue was found. The mono gram consists of the Greek letters mu and phi so fashioned as to be read equally upside down. This educet Mary and Francis" and the theory became imminent that the binding wa' executed between July, 1859, and De- cember 1850, when Mary was actually Queen of France, When "Sa vertu ma tire" was investigated certain proof was established The words are to be Hound on silver bell once belonging to Mary, and also on her signet ring in the British Museum They are simply an anagram on her name, Marie Stewart" another being 'Veritas Ar. mata," formed from Maria steyarta. In this connection as interesting letter is extant written by Drummond oi Hawthornden to Ben Jonson, dated July 1, 1619
 "I have been curious to find out fo you the impresas and emblems on { bed of state wrought and embroidereC all with gold and silke by the latt Queen Marie, mother to our Sacred Soverayne, which will embellish greatly