t examples might be traced among the Arundel MSS. in the British
Museum. Thomas, Earl of Arundel, it is known, went on a book-hunting
expedition to Heidelberg, where he bought some of the remnants of the
Palatine collection. Passing on to Nuremberg he obtained about a hundred
MSS. that had belonged to Pirckheimer, the first great German
bibliophile; and these, according to some authorities, came out of the
treasure-house at Buda. The Duke of Norfolk was persuaded by John Evelyn
to place them in the Gresham Library, under the care of the Royal
Society, and they afterwards became the property of the nation. Oldys
the antiquary distinctly stated that these 'were the remnants of the King
of Hungary'; 'they afterwards fell into the hands of Bilibald
Pirckheimer.' The Senator of Nuremberg made the books his own in a very
emphatic way: 'there is to be seen his head graved by Albert Duerer, one
of the first examples of sticking or pasting of heads, arms, or cyphers
into volumes.' Pirckheimer died in 1530, three years after the sack of
Buda, and had the opportunity of getting some of the books. We cannot
tell to what extent he succeeded, or whether William Oldys was right on
the facts before him; but we know from Pirckheimer's own letters that he
was the actual owner of at least some MSS. that 'came to him out of the
spoils of Hungary.'

CHAPTER VIII.

GERMANY--FLANDERS--BURGUNDY--ENGLAND.

Almost immediately after the invention of printing in Germany there arose
a vast public demand for all useful kinds of knowledge. The study of
Greek was essential to those who would compete with the Italians in any
of the higher departments of science, and great schools were established
for the purpose by Dringeberg in a town of Alsace, and by Rudolf Lange at
Muenster. The Alsatian Academy had the credit of educating Rhenanus and
Bilibald Pirckheimer. Lange filled his shelves with a quantity of
excellent classics that he had purchased during a tour in Italy. Hermann
Busch, the great critic, was taught in this school, and he used to say in
after life that he often dreamed of Lange's house, and saw an altar of
the Muses surrounded by the shadowy figures of ancient poets and orators.
Busch was sent afterwards to Deventer, where he was the class-mate of
Erasmus. Here one day, while the boys were at their themes, came Rudolf
Agricola, the sturdy doctor from Friesland, who wanted to see a Germany
'more Latin than Latium,' and had vowed to