Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/132

I2O The Library. it was kept with the printed books, and the result was that, without being catalogued at all, it was put away in a cupboard, and lay there undis- turbed for more than a century. With keener eyes or better fortune than his predecessors, Mr. Garnett, the present Keeper of Printed Books, has at length brought it to light, and as an interesting memorial of the early years of James VI., its publication by the Scottish History Society has an obvious fitness. The MS. is a small quarto of twenty paper leaves, bound in limp vellum. Both within and without it is much soiled and worn, so as to render the writing in some places almost illegible, and it was evidently treated from the first as a rough note-book, without any particular care. In the centre, however, of each cover is stamped a small gilt crown between the initials I. R., and this evidence of royal ownership is fully borne out by the contents." Against the different entries in his hand-list Peter Young, one of the king's tutors, of whom Mr. Warner gives an interesting sketch, has appended the source from which they were obtained, and it appears from these notes that about seventy of his books had been recovered from his mother's library. Probably in no other way could he have become possessed of such works as Amadis of Gaul, Flores and Blanchefleur, Dom Flores of Greece, and other romances. It would be satisfactory, indeed, to know that the much be-tutored monarch ("they gar me speik Latin as I could speik Scottis," is one of the " Apophthegmata Regis," noted down by Young in this volume) was allowed the free run of his own library. But like most of the princesses of the time, Mary had, or affected to have, classical tastes, and her editions of Herodotus and Sophocles, of Virgil and Livy were doubtless dutifully thumbed by her son. Altogether the royal library, some of which was kept at Edinburgh, and the rest, probably, at Stirling, seems to have possessed about six hundred volumes, those acquired by purchase, we are told, being generally more serious in character than the donations, in which lighter literature occasionally appears, as in the books on hunting and falconry, given him by Argyll. Bishops, however, were among the most prominent of the book-givers, notably the King's great-uncle, Robert Stewart, Bishop of Caithness, and their donations were mainly classical or theological. Light books and heavy books are all duly entered by Peter Young, and the entries reprinted by Mr. Warner, whose zeal has added to the difficult task of deciphering the faded manuscript, that of ascertaining as far as possible the exact edition to which the King's copy of each work probably belonged. The editor's best repayment for his labour was doubtless the discovery of the entry relating to the two " golf cloubbis," given by the Lord of Rossyth, and one or two of the Apophthegmata Regis, in which the young scholar's wit took a livelier turn. Manuel de 1' Amateur de Livres du XIX siecle, 1801-1893. Editions originales. Ouvrages et periodiques illustres. Romantiques. Reimpressions critiques de textes anciens ou classiques. Bibliotheques et collections diverses. Publica- tions des Societes de Bibliophiles de Paris et des departe- ments. Curiosities bibliographiques, etc., etc. Par Georges Vicaire, preface de Maurice Tourneux. Paris : Librairie A. Rouquette, 1894, 8vo. Fasc. I., pp. xix., coll. 352. This is the beginning of a most admirable work, the only possible objection to which is that it presents the bibliography of French belles- letters in the present century in so systematic a fashion that the book-