The sun., 1918-10-27

Ma bundle of fifteenth century pamphlets
sold recently at Messrs. hodsson
Il rooms. in London, 3 copy was FOUND oh
one of the rarest items relating to the dis-
coverv of America. Its title contains niue
20 show the real interest of the tract, and Is
as follows:
"Carvajal Bern. de) CARDINAL orauo
super obGdientia pressanda-
IT IL without name of printer or place Oh
printing. and has no date Of publication
II was undoubtedly printed by Stephen
Plannek, the printer Of the Latin EDITION Oh
the famous Columbus letter, at Rome, ana
must have been issued very soon after II was
delivered, on June 19, 1893. Cardinal Car
vaial was Ambassador from Spain to the
Noly See. and it fell to his lot to present
the obedience Of the King and Queen,
Ferdinand and Isabella, to the Pope, then
reisning as Alexander VI. In the course OF
his remarks, after dilating on the work OF
tbe mouarchs for the faith, he goes on 70
say:
"And Christ placed under their rule the
Fortunate Islands, the fertility OF when
has been aseertained to be wonderful. ana
he has lately disclosed some other unknown
ones toward the Indies which may be con-
sidered among the most precious things on
earth; and it is believed that they VIII De
gained over to Christ by the eHissarles OF
the King
The translation Just quoted is by Henry
u.rrisse who devoted considerable space TO
this Grafton. But after all his researches he
WIS able to locate only about half dozen
comics. These are safely locked up in such
collections as the British Museum ct. Gren-
vile eoryl. Library of Congress (Peter
Force eopT9. New York Public Library (!J.
Ienox corv1, the Bibliotheque Rationale,
Paris. and the library of the Due 'Aumale.
A copy appeared in German bookseller S
catalogue some fifteen or twenty years ago,
for which he invited offers, but no further
trace of this seems to exist, and apparently
no copy has been sold by auction within re-
cent times.
When il is recolleeted that the famous
letter of Columbus announcing his dlscov'
cries was dated 3 Kal. May, 1893 (really
April go, and that it is certain that
longer time separated the writing and print
ing of that letter than would intervene be-
tween til" delivery and printing Of Car
vajal's Grafton, it becomes doubtful whether
more than a very fe days INTERVIEWED be
tween the publication of the first printed
document relating to America, the letter of
which that discovery was officially an
nGunced.
News of the Trade.
7. F. Madigan is reported as being at
home very i'll with grip.
Manager Houghton of the Franklin Book
Shop. 125 East Fifty ninth street, is rear
ranging the stock of his store. He an
nounces that it is the intention to carry a
stock of rarities.
There is some complaint from dealers
that librarians in public libraries are in the
habit of asking for lots of books on ap-
proyal, the packages being detained an IN
considerable time and then returned with
out orders.
A short time ago 4 librarian declared that
MANY il not most books offered by second
hand dealers are shopworn. soiled, have bind
ings broken or some other defect Where
he examined dealers stocks that presented
the condition he described he did not
specify. As the storks of most dealers are
acquired mainly by the purchase of private
lots in the auctions, often of whole libraries
the inference is that owners of books are
lax in the care of them. That certainly is
not true, and from an intimate knowledge
of the larger part of the stocks in this and
some other cities we assert that in the
main, those stocks are in good condition and
are kept so.
Thackeray once went into n large London
library asking for book that would give
him some information about Gen Wolfe
The librarian sought to discover Just what
part Of the career of the soldier he wanted
10 cover. The novelist said: 81 don t want