his be not the largest and finest copy in existence. It may
possibly be even _large paper_--but certainly, if otherwise, it is among
the most ample and beautiful. The colour, throughout, is white and uniform;
which is not the usual characteristic of copies of this work. It measures
fourteen inches and three quarters in height, and belonged originally to
Henry II. and Diane de Poictiers. It wanted only _this_ to render it
unrivalled; and it now undoubtedly _is_ so.

TESTAMENTUM NOVUM. Gr. _Printed by R. Stephen_. 1550. Folio. Another
treasure from the same richly-fraught collection. It is quite a perfect
copy; but some of the silver ornaments of the sides have been taken off.
Let me now place before you a few more testimonies of the splendour of that
library, which was originally the chief ornament of the _Chateau
d'Anet_,[85] and not of the Louvre.

HERODOTUS. Gr. _Printed by Aldus_, 1502. Folio. I had long supposed Lord
Spencer's copy--like this, upon LARGE PAPER--to be the finest first Aldine
Herodotus in existence: but the first glimpse only of the present served to
dissipate that belief. What must repeated glimpses have produced?

LUCIANUS. Gr. _Printed by the Same_. 1503. Folio. Equally beautiful--large,
white, and crackling--with the preceding.

SUIDAS. Gr. _Printed by the Same_. 1503. Folio. The same praise belongs to
this copy; which, like its precursors, is clothed in the first mellow and
picturesque binding.

EUSTATHIUS IN HOMERUM. 1542. Folio. 3 vols. A noble copy--eclipsed perhaps,
in amplitude only, by that in the collection of Mr. Grenville.

DION CASSIUS. Gr. 1548. Folio. APPIANUS. Gr. 1551. Folio. DIONYSIUS
HALICARNASSENSIS. 1546. Folio. These exquisitely well printed volumes are
from the press of the Stephens. The present copies, clothed in their
peculiar bindings, are perhaps the most beautiful that exist. They are from
the library of the Chateau d'Anet. Let it not be henceforth said that the
taste of Henri II. was not _well_ directed by the influence of Diane de
Poictiers, in the choice of BOOKS.

CICERONIS OPERA OMNIA. _Printed by the Giunti_, 1534. Folio. 4 vols. I
introduce this copy to your notice, because there are four leaves of
_Various Readings_, at the end of the fourth volume, which M. Van Praet
said he had never observed, nor heard of, in any other copy.[86] I think
also that there are two volumes of the same edition upon LARGE PAPER:--the
rest being deficient. Does any perfect copy,