lso purchased by the same great bookseller for six hundred and
twenty pounds.[80]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 79: These plays were printed for the Surtees Society in 1836,
and re-edited by George England, with side-notes and introduction by
Alfred W. Pollard, M.A., in 1897, for the Early English Text Society.]

[Footnote 80: This collection was re-purchased for the Towneley library
at the sale of Mr. North's books in May 1819 for ninety-four pounds, ten
shillings.]

SIR JOHN THOROLD, BART., 1734-1815

Sir John Thorold, Bart., of Syston Park, Grantham, Lincolnshire, who was
born in 1734, and succeeded his father, Sir John Thorold, eighth
baronet, in 1775, was one of the most ardent collectors of his time. The
magnificent library which he and his son Sir John Hayford Thorold formed
at Syston Park contained some of the rarest incunabula in existence.
Among them were copies of the Gutenberg Bible; the Second Mentz Psalter
on vellum; the _Catholicon_ of 1460; the Latin Bible of 1462, with the
arms and cypher of Prince Eugene on the binding; and the _Mirrour of the
World_, printed by Caxton in 1481. It also possessed one of the earliest
of the block-books, the _Apocalypse_. The library was extremely rich in
first editions of the Greek and Latin classics, some of them on vellum.
Other choice and rare books in the collection were a copy of the Greek
Bible, printed 'in aedibus Aldi' in 1518, described by Dibdin as 'the
largest and finest copy I ever saw'; the Polyglot Bible of Cardinal
Ximenez; the first edition of the _Tewrdannck_; the four Shakespeare
folios; _Purchas his Pilgrimmes_; and the _Pastissier Francois_, printed
by L. and D. Elzevier at Amsterdam in 1655. There were also many
editions of _Horae_ and _Officia_ of the Virgin Mary, mostly printed on
vellum. Several of the Syston Park books once formed part of the famous
libraries of Grolier, Maioli, Diana of Poitiers, Katharine de' Medicis,
Count von Hoym, Prince Eugene, and Sir Kenelm Digby. The collection also
possessed a number of the beautiful little volumes bound by Clovis Eve,
which were once thought to have formed part of the library of Marguerite
de Valois, but are now believed to have belonged to that of Marie
Marguerite de Valois de Saint-Remy, daughter of a natural son of Henry
III., King of France. After the death of Sir John Thorold on the 25th of
February 1815, his son and successor Sir John Hayford Thorold, having
first sold the duplicates in the