24 JUNE 1893, Page 12

Books in Chains. By the late William Blades. (Elliot Stock.)

—In this volume, one of the "Book-Lovers' Library," Mr. H.

Wheatley, editor of the series, prefixes a bibliographical introduc- tion on the work of Mr. Blades, one of the ablest and most learned students who have over contributed to the knowledge of printing and books. After this follow various papers written and pub- lished by Mr. Blades (most of them in the Bookworm). The principal subjects treated in these are "Books in Chains," an account, as complete as Mr. Blades could make it, of the chained books existing in England, and various papers in which the invention of printing is discussed, an obscure question about which Mr. Blades knew as much as any man. His conclusion is : "So far as it [the evidence] goes at present, it is strongly in favour of a first rude invention of movable types in Holland by some one whose name may have been Coster. The claim of Gutenberg upon the respect of posterity rests on his great improvements—so great as to entitle him, in a sense, to be deemed the inventor—foremost in excellence if not in time."— With this may be mentioned Some Notes on Books on Printing, by Charles T. Jacobi (Whittingham and Co.), substantially a reprint, as the author tells us, of the book entitled "On the Making and Issuing of Books."