NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
In the belief that the time has arrived when the history of our national architecture must be reconsidered, with a view to a revision of the classes or periods into which it has hitherto been divided, Mr. Sharpe has just put forth a handsomely illustrated volume, under the title of The Seven Periods of English Architecture defined and illustrated. Mr. Sharpe's proposal is, that these seven periods should be thus formed:—three belonging to the division Romanesque, under the titles of Saxon, Norman, and Transitional Periods; and the remaining four to the Gothic, viz. the Lancet, Geometrical, Curvilinear, and Rectangular Periods. We must, of course, refer our readers who desire to know the principles upon which Mr. Sharpe proposes this great change to the work itself, which is plain and to the purpose.
Mr. Bohn some time since became the purchaser of a large number of the copper-plates of Gillray's Caricatures. Having had impressions taken, and arranged them in one large volume, he sought the assistance of Mr. Wright, who had just then published his History of the House of Hanover, illustrated by Caricatures, and Mr. R. H. Evans, the well-known bibliopole, towards an anecdotical catalogue of the works of this clever satirist: and the result of the labours of these gentlemen has just been published under the title of Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray, comprising a Political and Humorous History of the latter Part of the Reign of George III. The volume will be found not only an interesting key to Mr. Bohn's edition of Gillray, and a guide to those who may be making a separate collection of his works, but a pleasant illustration of the wit and satire which lashed the politicians and amused the public
"In the old time when George the Third was king."
Those who know the value of those historical researches which Sir F. Palgrave has already given to the world, will be glad to hear that the first volume of his History of Normandy and of England will probably be published before the close of the present month. In this first volume, which is described in the advertisement as containing the general relations of Mediæval Europe, the Carlovingian Empire, and the Danish Expeditions into Gaul, we understand the learned author has treated those expeditions at considerable length, and enters very fully into that of the decline of the Carlovingian Empire,—a portion of the work as important, as it is in a great measure new, to the English reader. Not the least valuable part of the book will be Sir Francis Palgrave's account of the nature and character of the Continental Chronicles, which form the substratum of his work, but which, existing only in the great collections of Duchesne, Bouquet, Pertz, &c., are generally very imperfectly known to English students.
Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell, on Monday next, a collection of very rare and interesting Autograph Letters, more particularly illustrative of the period of the Civil Wars. On the same day they will also commence a Four-days' Sale of valuable Books, and Books of Engravings, chiefly from the library of a gentleman deceased, including the original edition of Stuart and Revett's Athens, a copy of Merian's Topographia Germaniæ containing nearly one thousand engravings, and many other works of high character.
Books Received.—Boswell's Life of Johnson, Illustrated, vol. i. This is the first volume of the National Illustrated Library, which the projectors describe "as an endeavour to bestow upon half-crown volumes for the many the same typographical accuracy, and the same artistic ability, hitherto almost exclusively devoted to high-priced books for the few." In choosing Boswell's Johnson for their first work, the projectors have shown excellent judgment; and we are bound to add that the book is not only well selected, but neatly printed, and illustrated with a number of excellent woodcuts.—Illustrations of Medieval Costume in England, &c., Part II. This second part deserves the same praise for cheapness as its predecessor.—The Cape and the Kafirs, the new volume of Bohn's cheap series, is a well-timed reprint of Mrs. Ward's Five Years in Kafirland, with some little alteration and abridgment, and the addition of some information for intending emigrants, from information supplied by published official reports.
Catalogues Received.—J. Miller's (43. Chandos Street) Catalogue No. XX. of Books Old and New; T. Kerslake's (3. Park Street, Bristol) Catalogue of Books lately bought; W. S. Lincoln's (Cheltenham House, Westminster Road) Sixty-seventh Catalogue of Low-priced books, mostly Second-hand; Williams and Norgate's (14. Henrietta Street, Covent Garden) Catalogue No. III. of Foreign Second-hand Books, and Books at reduced prices.