THE LIBRI SALE.
The admirable spirit in which Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson have prepared for the most important sale of the manuscripts, some as early as the seventh century, collected by that indefatigable and conscientious bibliopolist, M. Libn, will be not only recorded in the results of the sale, but in the catalogue decorated with thirty-six excellent fac-similes of some of the rarest items in the collection. The book is no longer a cata- logue, it is really an archive of art, by the worth of its contents. The preface furnishes the clearest testimony as to the richness of this treasury of ancient manuscripts, and we gladly agree with the extract sum- ming-up the distinctive value of the collection now in course of dis- tribution by a sale which has continued since last Monday, and will last up to Tuesday neat.
"In any library a collection of more than seventy Latin manuscripts older than the twelfth century would be remarkable. The printed catalogues of many celebrated libraries, such as for instance that of St. Mark at Venice of the Malatestiana at Ravenna, and the Royal Library of Turin, are fa; from containing so large a number. Manuscripts like these, which consti- tute the base of all paleographic science, and of which the savants who occupy themselves with these studies have always sought to give us as many fee-similes as possible, are becoming every day more rare and more difficult to find. They represent the first authentic monuments of modern know- ledge. They are the links of the chain which connects us with antiquity, and amateurs will find in our collection some of those primitive monuments of the seventh and eighth centuries in which may still be perceived traces of the efforts which at every step of the social ladder, men of' elevated minds " never ceased making to unite the barbarian with the Roman and Christian worlds, and to open the road on which Charlemagne was soon to enter, forcing all Europe to follow him."
The prices have run high accordingly. An " Evangelia" of the eleventh century, of the finest character, brought 1741.; St. Mark's Gos- pel, with a Commentary by Bede, of the eighth century, commanded 1241.; Mr. Boone secured a superb specimen of caligraphy, eight hun- dred years old, of the Bible, in Latin, for 1101.; and the British Museum paid 1011, for an autograph astronomical work by,Galileo himself, 1600- 24. The priced catalogue of this event will be a treasure in itself.
Two good portraits have this week been added to the National Por- trait Gallery, that of the Queen of Bohemia, the mother of Prince Ru- .pert and Prince Maurice, price fifty guineas, and that of Sir Robert Wal- pole, the Minister and father of Horace Walpole, price two hundred guineas ; both are decided acquisitions.
A sum of 14,0001. will be required for the restoration of Hereford Cathedral : the North and South aisles and the several greater and lesser transepts have undergone minute examination, and substantial repairs have been, and are to be, carefully carried out. A fine porch of -the fifteenth century has been completely rebuilt under the conscientious skill of Mr. Scott.
The French exhibition, opened for the private view (today), is a choice and varied collection, malgrfi the demands of the great Paris " Ex- position."
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