[211] I think this volume is of the date of 1580. CONRAD DASYPODIUS was both the author of the work, and the chief mechanic or artisan employed in making the clock--about which he appears to have taken several journeys to employ, and to consult with, the most clever workmen in Germany. The wheels and movements were made by the two HABRECHTS, natives of Schaffhausen.
[212] [The Reader may form some notion of its beauty and elaboration of ornament, from the OPPOSITE PLATE: taken from a print published about a century and a half ago.]
[213] See Grandidier, p. 177: where the Latin inscription is given. The Ephémérides de l'Académie des Curieux de la Nature, vol. ii. p. 400, &c. are quoted by this author--as a contemporaneous authority in support of the event above mentioned.
[214] My French translator will have it, that, "this composition, though not without its faults, is considered, in the estimation of all connoisseurs, as one of the finest funereal monuments which the modern chisel has produced." It may be, in the estimation of some--but certainly of a very small portion of- -Connoisseurs of first rate merit. Our Chantry would sicken or faint at the sight of such allegorical absurdity.
[215] [This avowal has subjected me to the gentle remonstrance of the Librarian in question, and to the tart censure of M. Crapelet in particular. "Voilà le Reverend M. Dibdin (exclaims the latter) qui se croit obligé de déclarer qu'il n'a rien derobé!" And he then quotes, apparently with infinite delight, a passage from the Quarterly Review, (No. LXIII. June 1825) in which I am designated as having "extraordinary talents for ridicule!" But how my talents "for ridicule" (of which I very honestly declare my unconsciousness) can be supposed to bear upon the above "prick of conscience," is a matter which I have yet to learn. My amiable friend might have perhaps somewhat exceeded the prescribed line of his duty in letting me have the key of the Library in question--but, can a declaration of such confidence not having been MISPLACED, justify the flippant remarks of my Annotator?]
[216] [It is now published in an entire state by the above competent Editor.]
[217] See the authorities quoted, and the subject itself handled, in the Bibliographical Decameron, vol. i. p. 316, &c.
[218] [Here again my sensitive Annotator breaks out into something little short of personal abuse, for my DARING to doubt what all the world before had held in solemn belief! Still, I will continue to doubt; without wishing this doubt to be considered as "paroles d'Evangile"--as M. Crapelet expresses it.]
[219] Fully described in the Bibl. Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 39, with a fac-simile of the type.
[220] A fac-simile of this device appears in a Latin Bible, without name of printer, particularly described in the Ædes Althorpianæ; vol. ii. p. 41. Hence we learn that the Bible in question, about the printer of which there appears to be some uncertainty among bibliographers, was absolutely printed by Gotz.