12 AUGUST 1899, Page 24

The Sources of Archbishop Parker's Collection of MSS. By Montague

Rhodes James, Litt.D. (Deighton, Bell, and Co.)— Dr. James has set himself to solve a difficult problem. He has to repair, so to speak, the injuries inflicted by the neglect, or worse, of the past. It is quite harrowing to read of what has been lost. Of more than seven hundred books enumerated in pre-Reformation catalogues, just twenty-three are now to be found. Of six hundred which Oxford possessed in Duke Humphrey's collection, just three remain. As to the Corpus MSS., the general result is that out of four hundred and eighty-two, two hundred may be traced in a way. Book-lovers will welcome this very interesting mono- graph.—We may mention at the same time A Catalogue of Books from the library of the Late Gleeson White (A. L. Isaacs). A notice of Mr. White has been contributed by Professor York. Powell.