Evening star., 1936-11-22
Rare Books
CONTINUED From Fourth Page.)


they seem to reach the stars, the
people are of a very timid disposition,
and uncommonly simple, honest peo-
gle, liberal in bestowing what they
possess"
OTHER notable items of the incu-
nabula collection are the Letters
and Tractates of st. Jerome" printed
IN 1853 and the first book to be printed
in Rome: "Breydenbach's Peregrina-
tions," printed in Venice; the first edi-
ton of "Aesop's Fables" printed in
i486; numerous editions of st. Angus
tines "City of Cod; the Imitation
of Christ" of st. Thomas a Kempis,
and the works of Aristotle. Most of
these ancient books were bound in
oak boards, covered in leather, fas-
tened together with tough rope. One
rather gruesome member of the coll
lection Is an "Anti-Semitic Scrutiny
of the Scriptures" by Paulus Sancta
Maria, a Jew converted to Christian
ity. The volume is bound in human
skin and the marks of the vertebrae
are clearly visible on its polished
surface.
OF great interest to the general
public has been the collection of
books from the Winter Palace of the
murdered Gear of Russia. These were
acquired in 1881 and contain 1852
volumes from the library of Nicholas
IL They were brought to America
and acquired from New York book
seller. Most of the volumes bear the
book plates of the Gar. but one volume
dates back to Peter the Great and
several to Alexander III, his mother,
and other relatives.
1nasmuch as nearly all the books
3 we're presentation copies intended for
the Cars library and as such were
printed in special editions on very fine
paper, the collection is unique. They
are, too, veritable treasury for the
. student Of fine bindings. In subject
matter they cover Russian military, ad-
ministrative and social history; biol
ogy. ethnography, religion, music and
sport. There is copy, too, of French
novel the unhappy Empress is said to
have been reading when the revolution
began in March, 1917. The pages
have been cut with hairpin or nail
file and are jagged and irregular.
There is also a copy of Hawthorne's
"Tanglewood Tales" in English that
was the property Of the little Tsare-
witch.
In the rare book room collection
there Is also the first book ever printed
in Russia, the "Acts Of the Apostles" !"
The dealer from whom it was pur-
chased made q special pilgrimage to
Russia, reviewed there its history Of
printing and found its first book. It
was printed in Moscow by Ivan Fed
orov and Peter Timofeev in 1864, more
than q century after the Gutenberg
Bible.
A decree Of Ivan the Terrible in 1888
established in Moscow the printing
court" which was the center Of Rus
sian culture for 800 years, and which
produced the "Acts of the Apostles" :"
Authenticity Of the book was fully es-
tablished and certificates Of its identity
were brought from p. Shibanov, an
eminent Russian scholar serving as
consultant to the commissary Of ex-
port of the Soviet government. The
book is in its original binding OF
stamped leather over oak boards, with
metal clasps. It contains beautiful
wood cuts, notably one Of Mark.
A MONG the private collections that
have been turned over to the rare
book room of the Congressional Lii
brary are the Peter Force and Toner
collections Of American history, the
John Boyd Thacher collection Of fif-
teenth century books and books on
the French Revolution, early Amer
icana and autographs Of European
notables, the Schin n-Deinard collection
Of Hebrew literature and the. Harry
Houdini collection Of books dealing