quam sanguinis
proximitas apud suos, A.D. 1731."

CLERICUS (D.)

Dublin.

_Pilgrimages to the Holy Land_ (Vol. v., p. 289.).--There is still
another book to be added to the curious list of old pilgrimages to the
Holy Land, furnished by your correspondent PEREGRINE A. I derive my
knowledge of it from Brunet's _Manuel_, sub voce CAPODILISTA (GABRIELE),
where it is described as follows:

"Itinerario di Terra Santa, e del Monte Sinai." (Without date
or printer) 4to.

It is a journal of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, made in the year 1458
by a Padua nobleman, accompanied by a relative, Antonio Capodilista, a
canon of the same place, and several other noble personages. It is one
of the earliest productions of the press at Perugia, and the date
assigned to it by M. Brunet is 1472, but by Vermiglioli 1473 or 1474.
The latter authority, in his _Principi della Stampa in Perugia_, calls
it "Veramente un prezioso cimelio di tipografia e bibliografia." I am
anxious to know where a copy of this very rare work is deposited, as I
have been told that there is none at the British Museum.

W. M. R. E.

_Album_ (Vol. vii., p. 235.).--The origin and the earliest notice of
this kind of friendly memorial book is to be traced to the registers of
the deceased that were formerly kept in every church and monastery. Such
a book was called the _album_, _i. e._ the blank book, in which the
names of the friends and benefactors to the church or monastery were
recorded, that they might be prayed for at their decease, and on their
anniversaries. The earliest writer belonging to this country who uses
the word is the Venerable Beda, who in his {342} preface to his prose
life of St. Cuthbert, written previous to the year 721, reminds Bishop
Eadfrith that his name was registered in the album at Lindisfarne, "in
albo vestrae sanctae congregationis." (_Bedae Opera Minora_, p. 47., ed.
Stevenson.) Elsewhere Beda calls this book "the annal" (_Hist. Eccles._,
lib. iv. c. 14.). At a later period it was called, both in England and
abroad, the _Liber Vitae, or Book of Life_, a name borrowed from St. Paul
(Philippians, iv. 3.).

The earliest specimen of an English album, and perhaps the most elegant
one that this or any other country ever produced, may be seen in the
British Museum (_Cotton MSS._, Domitian VII.). It is the Album, or Book
of Life, of the monastery of Durham. Nor need we add that this album
affords a relief to the eye we