older books upon this subject are necessarily scarce: such as
Alberti's 'Libri de Re AEdificatoria Decem,' which appeared first at
Florence in 1485. This work, however, was reprinted at Paris in 1512, and
you may have a copy of it for a couple of pounds, though the first French
translation 'L'Architecture et Art de bien bastir, trad. par deffunct Jan
Martin,' folio, Paris, 1553, with fine large woodcuts, will cost you four
times as much. It is a fine book, and contains a portrait of the author
as well as a three-page epitaph by Ronsard on the deffunct Jan Martin.

[Sidenote: Bibles.]

6. The collection of Bibles is perhaps one of the commonest subjects to
engage the attention of specialists. There is a numerous bibliography,
ranging from Anthony Johnson's little tract 'An Historical Account of the
English Translations of the Bible,' printed in 1730, down to the Rev. J.
L. Mombert's 'English Versions of the Bible,' of which a new edition
appeared in 1907. You will find the volumes of Anderson, Cotton, Eadie,
Loftie, Dore, Darlow and Moule, Stoughton, and Scrivener of assistance to
you here, as well as Westcott's 'General View of the History of the
English Bible,' of which a third and revised edition was published in
1905. It contains a useful list of English editions of the Holy Writ. The
Huth Collection, that portion of it which was sold in 1911-12, was
especially rich in Bibles, as was the Amherst Library, dispersed in
1908-09. This last contained editions from 1455 (the so-called 'Mazarin'
Bible) to King Charles the First's own copy of the 1638 Cambridge
edition. The sale catalogues of these will be of value to you.

7. Bibliography is perhaps the subject nearest to the heart of every
bibliophile. But since the collection of 'books about books' must of
necessity be the stepping-stone by which the book-lover attains his
knowledge of the extrinsic attributes of his hobby, I have dealt with
this subject at some length in the chapter wherein are treated the 'books
of the collector.'

[Sidenote: Biography.]

8. Biography, Memoirs, Diaries: what a flood of names and memories occur
to one under this heading! Not only the immortal Boswell and Pepys, but
Fanny Burney, Alexandre Dumas, Mary Wortley-Montague, Lord Herbert of
Cherbury, _et permulti alii_. Also, this heading will comprise that great
series of mysterious and 'racy' books ycleped 'Court Memoirs,' and the
somewhat less exciting but--to our book-hunter's mind at l