The Committee of the Vasari Society have decided to resume the publication of their annual Portfolio in 1920 if enough subscribers are forthcoming. The Society's aim is to reproduce in facsimile fine drawings by the Old Masters from both public and private collections. While attempting in the first place to publish less-known drawings from private collections, it will not forget that the essential aim is to reproduce masterly drawings rather than secondary pieces of historical interest, and on that account will draw, as in the past, to a considerable degree on the better-known works in public collections.
In the first ten years of the Society's work an annual Portfolio was published with an average of thirty reproductions, covering the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The new series may be somewhat broader in scope in admitting the nineteenth century, and allowing "Old Masters" to include any deceased master of acknowledged excellence in draughtsmanship. Moreover, it is desired to give ampler representation to draughtsmen of the British School than has been done in the past.
To continue the annual publication at the same subscription of one guinea, it has been decided to reduce the size of the Portfolio from 18 by 15 to 16 by 11½ inches, and it is thought that this will be welcomed by members who have little space for the larger folios. It will not imply reduction in size of the reproductions, which will continue to be as far as possible facsimile in size and colour, and every effort will be made to keep up the standard of quality. Intending subscribers should communicate with the Hon. Secretary, Mr. A. M. Hind, at the British Museum, London, W.C.1. Subscriptions for 1920 will not be due until May 1st, and those who have intimated their willingness to become members will be informed before that date if the number of subscribers promised does not justify the committee in issuing the publication.
THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
The Annual Report of the Bibliographical Society announces that the Society's Transactions will henceforth be published in quarterly parts, and that with a view to lessening the cost it is proposed to allow copies to be purchased by non-members and to accept advertisements. It is hoped also that The Library, founded by Sir John MacAlister in 1888 and edited during recent years by Mr. A. W. Pollard, the Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum, and the Honorary Secretary of the Bibliographical Society, may be brought into the scheme, and that the quarterly numbers may be gradually worked up into a full bibliographical magazine.
At the December meeting of the Society a point of great bibliographical interest was raised by a paper read by Mr. F. W. Bourdillon on "Some French Romances." He showed how many of the woodcuts used in illustration were reproduced by one printer after another with a marked fall in quality by a method of transfer on to wood-blocks called by the technical name of pocher, which, he submitted, may be an ancestor of the modern English verb "to poach." Mr. Bourdillon urged the importance of the comparative study of such woodcuts, and suggested that a Society should be formed for reproducing early book illustrations in facsimile.
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DISCOVERY
A Conference was called last January by the joint invitation of the President of the Royal Society, the President of the British Academy, and a large number of others, interested both in the production and distribution of knowledge, to frame, if possible, a scheme for a journal which should present in popular form the most recent results of research in all the chief subjects of knowledge. This Conference appointed a committee to frame a scheme, and their report was presented and adopted at the adjourned meeting of the Conference held recently in the rooms of the Royal Society, Burlington House. Professor R. S. Conway, of Manchester, has acted throughout as Secretary of the movement. The meeting approved the name Discovery for the new journal, and established a trust for its maintenance, the first trustees being Sir Joseph J. Thomson, O.M., P.R.S., Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, D.Litt., K.C.B., P.B.A., Professor A. C. Seward, Sc.D., F.R.S., Professor R. S. Conway, Litt.D., P.B.A.
The meeting further approved of the agreement made provisionally by the Executive Committee, with Mr. John Murray as Publisher, and of his and the committee's joint recommendation of Captain A. S. Russell, M.C., D.Sc., recently of the R.G.A., now of the University, Sheffield, and Reader-elect in Chemistry at Christ Church, Oxford, as Editor. The first number will be issued on January 15th, 1920, at the price of sixpence.