and precision of his
knowledge excited wonder, and, being anomalous in the male sex even
among collectors, gave occasion to a rumour that its possessor must
veritably be an aged maiden in disguise.

[Footnote 26: Of the copy of the celebrated 1635 Elzevir Caesar, in the
Imperial Library at Paris, Brunet triumphantly informs us that it is
four inches and ten-twelfths in height, and occupies the high position
of being the tallest copy of that volume in the world, since other
illustrious copies put in competition with it have been found not to
exceed four inches and eight, or, at the utmost, nine, twelfths.

"Ces details," he subjoins, "paroitront sans doute puerils a bien des
gens: mais puisque c'est la grandeur des marges de ces sorts de livres
qu'en determine la valeur, il faut bien fixer le _maximum_ de cette
grandeur, afin que les amateurs puissent apprecier les exemplaires qui
approchent plus ou moins de la mesure donnee."]

His experience, aided by a heaven-born genius tending in that direction,
rendered him the most merciless detector of sophisticated books.
Nothing, it might be supposed on first thought, can be a simpler or more
easily recognised thing than a book genuine as printed. But in the
old-book trade there are opportunities for the exercise of ingenuity
inferior only to those which render the picture-dealer's and the
horse-dealer's functions so mysteriously interesting. Sometimes entire
facsimiles are made of eminent volumes. More commonly, however, the
problem is to complete an imperfect copy. This will be most
satisfactorily accomplished, of course, if another copy can be procured
imperfect also, but not in the same parts. Great ingenuity is sometimes
shown in completing a highly esteemed edition with fragments from one
lightly esteemed. Sometimes a colophon or a decorated capital has to be
imitated, and bold operators will reprint a page or two in facsimile;
these operations, of course, involve the inlaying of paper, judiciously
staining it, and other mysteries. Paris is the great centre of this kind
of work, but it has been pretty extensively pursued in Britain; and the
manufacture of first folio Shakespeares has been nearly as staple a
trade as the getting up of genuine portraits of Mary Queen of Scots. It
will establish a broad distinction to note the fact, that whereas our
friend the Archdeacon would collect several imperfect copies of the
same book, in the hope of finding materials for one perfe