yet the prefaces are usually printed in running hand, which forms an increase of difficulty for those who are unaccustomed to Chinese manuscript. The grammatical system of the language is not very complex: but its effect on the ear has been compared with the twanging of a Jew's harp. The multiplicity of characters constitutes the great difficulty: but the dictionaries are regular and methodical, and the arts of analysis soon become a routine. The best Chinese and Latin Dictionary is that which is compiled by Father Basil of Glemona, and republished with a supplement by Klaproth. The Chinese language has some analogies with the English: particles frequently supply the place of inflections: the position of a word in the sentence often decides its part of speech; and both have an elliptical tendency. A book of phrases and dialogues was published at Macao in 1816, which is useful to learners.

M. RÉMUSAT'S Grammar appears to us as concise and compendious as so new a topic would allow, and yet to contain every necessary information. It is a key, he observes, to about five thousand volumes of Chinese books preserved in the Royal Library of Paris. To the Prolegomena, which consist of fifty-nine sections, succeed ten on general grammar; and then a dissertation on the antique or historic style, in two hundred and fourteen sections, as if allusive to the number of primary characters. A second part refers to the modern or mandarinic style, in one hundred and thirty sections; and an appendix is allotted to punctuation and prosody. Various in#dexes close the book.

ART. III. Essai Bibliographique sur les Editions des Elzevirs, &c.; i. e. A Bibliographical Essay on the most curious and rare of the Editions of the Elzevirs, preceded by some Account of those eminent Printers. 8vo. Paris. 1822. Imported by Treuttel and Co. Price 9s.

EVERAL bibliographical works of the French have been noticed with approbation in our pages; such as those of Delandine, vol. lxxiii. p. 463.; of Peignot, vol. lxxiii. p. 526.; and of Brunet, vol. lxxvii. p. 513.; and the essay before us also displays that command of library which is the privilege of the resident in Paris, and that neatness of compilation which knows how to comprize the appropriate, and to reject the superfluous. The Elzevirs have well deserved a separate illustration. This dynasty of printers flourished in the seventeenth century, at Leyden, between the years 1600 and 1680, and were principally occupied in printing Greek and Latin: a circumstance that has given a classical character to the proHh 4

vincial

8.

vincial press which they superintended, and renders interes esting the history of its triumphs over manuscript. The contiguity of a learned University enabled them to obtain good editors and correctors, and contributed to preserve the reputation of their numerous publications, which are still in great request for the libraries of scholars.

The utility of bibliography cannot be contested, and even a degree of bibliomania may, in many respects, be justified. We are not speaking of that book-gluttony (helluo librorum) which lays its hands without method or selection on every thing that has the reputation of rarity: but of that enlightened taste which directs its possessor to aim at uniting in a book the fair and the good, and to collect fine copies of standard works. Bibliomania is in this point of view an honourable passion, which to explain is to justify.

-

The merit of a book depends chiefly on its matter; that is, on the importance or interest of its subject, and on the talent or learning with which it is executed; and partly on its form, that is, on the elegance or correctness of the edition, on the beauty of the paper, or the luxury of the binding. Im general, a good book is to be prized even when its form is dis agreeable; sometimes the form causes an insignificant or middling book to be valued, but all such attachments are suspicious and precarious. Perfection in this pursuit consists in/. appreciating aright both these qualities; and then the merit of a book is great in proportion as the subject is well treated, and the edition well chosen. To these qualities may bett added rarity; which, though founded on a less positive sort of merit, has a certain piquancy among the rich and the idle, and frequently gives occasion to an extravagant rage. for exclusively possessing that which is uncommon. A good copy of a good book, however, ought to derive additional value. from its scarcity.

Although we contend for proscribing mostly the taste for those books which are only beautiful, and for those which are only rare, occasional exceptions to this rule must be conceded. In forming a collection, some works must be admitted from motives of connection and completeness, which in their singles ness would be despised. Thus, in assembling the Delphin classics, the Statius should be included; although that book, on account of the imperfection of its execution, was speedily expelled from the libraries of the original purchasers, became in consequence cheap, was extensively destroyed by vulgar use, and is now of high price, though not highly prized. T "He possesses the famous edition, that which has the blunder at such a page," is one of the ironical compliments

T

1

which witlings fling at the book-fancier. Yet still this indication.. may serve to point out and to engrave in the memory the most convenient designation of the very volume to be sought. Large paper and large margins have offered themes for ridicule: but such copies have often been preferred by the learned, for the sake of making written annotations; and and cer tain large-paper-copies have thus acquired, in consequence, the value of manuscripts. Uncut copies have the merit of neatness, and of laying no restraint on the binder. Copies// ruled round the margin with red ink cost more from an idea, that the old printers conferred this distinction on such as: were the completest, in order to vend them at a higher price; and if our printers now would employ an inspector of sheets,.. whose office were to rule with red ink those which are free from blurs and flaws, such bordered copies would resume an extra value. The Elzevirs appear to have followed this practice, and to have sold warranted copies at a separate charge.

The genealogy of the Elzevirs is thus given. (See p. 56.) Louis, 1st Elzevir, appears first on the Eutropius of 1592, and last on the Satyre due of 1617, printed at Leyden. He., married in 1564, and had two sons; viz.

Matthias, who appears on the Stevin of 1618, at Leyden, and Giles, who appears on the Linschot of 1599, at the Hague, Matthias married in 1591, and had five sons; viz..

1. Isaac, who printed from 1617 to 1626, at Leyden....... 2. Arnold, who probably assisted him, but his name does not appear.

13. Abraham, born 1592, married 1621, died 1652, at Leyden: this we take to have been the elder son, though otherwise arranged by the present author.

4. Bonaventure, who became a partner of his father in 1618, or of Abraham in 1626.

5. Jacob, who married in 1620, and settled in 1626, at the Hague, in the office,then probably vacant by the decease of his uncle Giles.

Isaac left a son,

1

Louis, 2d Elzevir, who married in 1639, and then settled in Amsterdam, where he died in 1662. This founding of a new establishment is not characteristic of the elder branch of the family.

-Peter ist, a son of Arnold, was probably of some learned. profession.

a

Peter 2d, a grandson of Arnold, became counsellor at Utrecht, but began to print in 1669.

John, a son of Abraham, (and therefore, as we think, the lineal representative or chief of the family,), was born in 1662,

married

€

B

married in 1647, took his younger brother (Daniel the first) into partnership in 1652, but removed him in 1655 to Amsterdam, where he joined Louis 2d, and died in 1680.

Daniel 2d, a son of John, was a vice-admiral of Holland. His mother, Eva van Alphen, on the death of her husband in 1661, became mistress of the original printing-office at Leyden, which she superintended until 1674, and then consigned to Anna Bacrning, the widow of Daniel 1st, under whom the concern seems to have expired in 1681. She left two sons, Daniel and Louis, who did not print.

To the biographical notices succeeds a critical catalogue of the various books which have been issued from the Elzevir presses. The articles are chronologically arranged, and accompanied by curious particulars of the works named; such as the editor's designation, the number of faults, the value obtained at sales, the size of the edition, and similar particulars. We translate one of these pieces of information as a specimen.

C. CORNELIUS TACITUS, ex J. Lipsii accuratissima editione, Lugduni Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana. 1634. 12mo. C. CORNELIUS TACITUS, ex J. Lipsii editione, cum notis et emend. H. Grotii. Lugduni Batavorum, ex off. Elzeviriana. 1640. 2 Vols. 12mo.

As early as 1621, the Elzevirs had printed a Tacitus: but at that time their work was but moderately executed, however skilful and celebrated they afterward became; and the edition is not worthy of being dragged out of the obscurity into which it has fallen. The edition of 1634, however, is very beautiful, and in great request; yet that of 1640 is to be preferred, being equally correct, and enriched at the end of the second volume with the notes of Grotius. It is important to examine whether the first volume contains a table intitled Stemma Augustæ domus, which is often wanting. The edition of 1640 is somewhat larger than that of 1634; the first measuring 43 inches, and the second 5 inches. A copy of the 1640 edition was lately sold at Didot's auction for 80 francs but this is an excessive price: the edition of 1634 is worth but half of that sum.' (P. 65.)

-

Five sections class separately the editions in small duodecimo, collections of the entire productions of a given author, or of various works on a given subject, works relative to politics, history, or religion, editions in large octavo, -and editions in oriental languages. An alphabetical index of the names of the authors mentioned in this volume refers to the page in which they are enumerated; and a list of the titles of books inserted in the volume refers also to the page in which they occur. A supplement is announced, which will contain any particulars that may hereafter come to the

editor's

editor's knowlege, concerning the bibliographical history of the several Elzevir presses.

On the whole, this essay is executed with meritorious care and learned skill; and, though not absolutely complete, it well deserves to be considered as a plan and model for continuing the history of printing from the annals of Maittaire, and others, down to modern times, by separating the several leading offices and printing establishments from the confused mass, and detailing and specifying their respective services to the commonwealth of letters. A great difficulty arises from certain books which have fictitious localities: thus Boccalini's Pietra del Paragone is dated Cosmopoli, but is supposed, from resemblance of type, to have been printed by the Elzevirs. So, again, the life of Cæsar Borgia, which is dated Montechiaro, and announced as sold by Giambattista Veri, is probably another work of which the Elzevirs wished to shun the responsibility. They have also dated at Cologne a Bible edited by a Catholic, but which seems to have been printed at Leyden.

ART. IV. Voyage en Sicile, &c.; i. e. Travels in Sicily. By Au

W

GUSTUS DE SAYVE.

[Article concluded from the last Appendix.]

E have now shortly to advert to the general topics which supply the materials of the remaining half of this work. From the antient records of the island, it appears that the form of its government has been subjected to various changes and modifications: it was originally patriarchal; subsequently, the authority was parcelled out among petty chiefs, who presided over small districts; and the sway exercised by the Greek republics was occasionally despotical, monarchical, or democratical. The domination of the Vandals and of the Arabs was that of absolute masters: but the Normans revived the monarchy, which assumed, though more tardily than in some of the other states of Europe, the features that had been impressed on the feodal system. The political arrangements of Count Roger, who flourished about the middle of the eleventh century, are distinctly detailed in this work; and it is properly remarked that the parliament was virtually permanent, because, during the intervals of its functions, a committee of its members was invested with the full powers of the parliament itself. This body, in 1812, was divided into two houses, or chambers; that of the peers, or seigneurs, and that of the commons. The articles of the constitution adopted at the same period are of too recent a date, and too much assi

milated