CAMBRIDGE FACSIMILE REPRINTS.
The Abbaye of the Holy Ghost. Printed at Westminster by Wynkyn de Worde about the year 1496.—The Frere and the Boys. Printed at London in Fleet Street by Wynkyn de Words about the year 1512. (Cambridge University Press. 12s. 6d. and 7s. 6d. net.)—We have received two further volumes of the interesting series of facsimiles of early English printing from the University Library at Cambridge. The earlier of the two, an interesting example of the allegorical religious manual, describes "a place that is namid the abbaye of the holy ghost, that shall be founded or grounded in a clews conscience," where "Charyte shall be Abbesse, Wysdomo Pryouresso, Mekenes sub-pryouresse," and the rest of the virtues sisters. A MS. is preserved in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. De Worde's edition is a fine piece of printing in double columns, and contains in a perfect state the curious crucifixion woodcut also found in Thomas Betson's "Right Profitable Treatise" of e. 1500. The other is a Rabelaisian ballad or fabliau, of which several early editions. are extant, besides manuscripts, one at least of which is in the Cambridge University Library. The present
volumes seem to us to show a slight falling off alike in the technical excellence of the reproduction and in general get-up from the standard attained by their predecessors.
Previous page
