, and a Machlinia. A vellum copy--the only one known--of the
_Fructus Temporum_, printed at St. Albans about 1483; and the _Exposicio
Sancti Jeronimi in Symbolum Apostolorum_, printed at Oxford, and bearing
the date 1468 (a typographical error for 1478), are also found on its
shelves.

Among the books printed by Caxton are the first editions of _The Dictes
or Sayings of the Philosophers_, Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, _Tully
of Old Age_, Gower's _Confessio Amantis_, and Christine de Pisan's
_Fayts of Arms_.

The books from the presses of foreign printers are both numerous and
fine. Some of the most notable examples are the Dantes of Foligno and
Mantua, both printed in the year 1472; the first edition of Homer,
printed at Venice in 1488; a magnificent copy on thick paper, with the
original binding, of the _Poliphili Hypnerotomachia_, printed by Aldus
at Venice in 1499; the Aldine Virgil of 1501, with the book-plate of
Bilibald Pirkheimer; and two copies of the _Tewrdannck_, one on vellum,
printed at Nuremberg in 1517. There is also a copy of the first edition
of _Don Quixote_, with the Privilege only for Madrid.

Few collections are richer than the Huth Library in old English poetry
and dramatic literature. It contains the first four folio Shakespeares,
and a goodly gathering of quarto plays, many of which were acquired at
the Daniel sale in 1864. Among them are the first editions of _Richard
II._ and _Richard III._, printed in 1597; _Henry V._, _Much Ado about
Nothing_, _Midsummer Night's Dream_, and the _Merchant of Venice_, all
printed in 1600; the first sketch of _The Merry Wives of Windsor_,
printed in 1602; the second edition of _Hamlet_, printed in 1604; and
the first editions of _Pericles_, printed in 1609, and _Othello_,
printed in 1622. Other rare Shakespeareana are the first editions of
_Lucrece_, the _Sonnets_, and the _Poems_, printed respectively in 1594,
1609, and 1640. It is only possible to mention a few of the rare English
books in this grand library; but the _Hundred Merry Tales_, published by
Rastell about 1525; the unique copy of Munday's _Banquet of Daintie
Conceits_, printed in 1588; a first folio of Ben Jonson's _Works_ on
large paper, of which only one other copy is known in that state, and a
perfect set of the editions of Walton's _Compleat Angler_ from 1653 to
1760, cannot be passed over without notice. The unique collection of
Elizabethan ballads, to which reference has already been made, wo