NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
Little as public attention has of late years been devoted to commentating upon Pope, his writings and literary history, there are no doubt many able and zealous illustrators of them among lovers of literature for its own sake: and many a curious note upon the Bard of Twickenham and his works will probably be evoked by the announcement, that now is the moment when they may be produced with most advantage, when Mr. Murray is about to bring forth a new edition of Pope, under the able and experienced editorship of Mr. Croker. Besides numerous original inedited letters, Mr. Croker's edition will have the advantage of some curious books bought at the Brockley Hall sale, including four volumes of Libels upon Pope, and a copy of Ruffhead's Life of him, with Warburton's manuscript notes.
No one has rendered better service to the study of Gothic architecture in this country than Mr. J.H. Parker, of Oxford. The value of his admirable Glossary of Terms used in Architecture, is attested by the fact, that it has already reached a fourth edition, and that another will soon be called for. But we doubt whether he has done any thing better calculated to promote this interesting branch of Archæology than by the production of his Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture, which—originally written as part of a series of elementary lectures recommended by the Committee of the Oxford Architectural Society to be delivered to the junior members, and considered useful and interesting by those who heard them— is now published at the request of the Society. A more interesting volume on the subject, or one better calculated to give such a knowledge of it, as is essential to any thing like a just appreciation of the peculiar characteristics of our church architecture, could scarcely have been produced, while its compact size and numerous illustrations fit it to become a tourist's travelling companion.
We have great pleasure in directing attention to the advertisement inserted in another column respecting some improvements about to be introduced into the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. This venerable periodical has maintained its station uninterruptedly in our literature from the year 1731. From the times of Johnson and Cowper it has been the medium by which many men of the greatest eminence have communicated with the public. At all times it has been the sole depository of much valuable information of a great variety of kinds. We are confident that under the new management it will put forth fresh claims to the favour of the public. Many writers of high reputation in historical and antiquarian literature are henceforth to be enlisted in its service. We shall look for the forthcoming number with great interest.
Scheible, of Stuttgart, who is doubtless known to our readers as the publisher of some very curious works illustrative of the popular literature of Germany of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, has just commenced a new Library of Magic, &c., or Bibliothek der Zanber-Geheimnisse-und Offenbarungs-Bucher. The first volume of it is devoted to a work ascribed to that prince of magicians, our old familiar, Dr. Faustus, and bears the imposing title Doktor Johannes Faust's Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis, oder Dreifacher Höllenzwang, leiztes Testament und Siegelkunst. It is taken from a MS. of the last century, filled with magical drawings and devices enough to summon back again from the Red Sea all the spirits that ever were laid in it. It is certainly a curious book to publish in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Messrs. Sotheby and Co. will sell the extensive and valuable Collection of MSS. in all languages formed by the late Mr. Rodd, on Monday the 4th of February, and five following days. The catalogue deserves the attention of all collectors of manuscripts, as it is, as far as circumstances will admit, a classified one. There are upwards of one thousand lots in the sale—many of a very curious and interesting character. There are Greek and Latin versions of the Scriptures, manuscripts of the 13th century, Ruding's original collections for his History of the Coinage of Great Britain; which work, it is stated, contains only a very small portion of the materials he had brought together. One lot consists of a mass of documents and papers contained in eight large packing cases, and weighing from ten to fifteen hundred weight, of the families of Eyre, of Derbyshire and Berkshire, and their intermarriages from the reign of Henry II. to the present time. Well may Mr. Sotheby talk of their proving a source of amusement to any person having room to sort them, and time to devote to their arrangement.
Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, of Piccadilly, commence their sales on Monday next, with a four days' miscellaneous sale of works on theology, history, classics, voyages and travels, and standard works in foreign and English general literature. They have some important sales coming on, of which our readers shall have due notice.
We have received the following new Catalogues:—
"Catalogue of valuable second-hand Books in Divinity, the Classics, Law, and Miscellaneous, on sale by William Heath, 29 1/2. Lincoln's Inn Fields."