The Old Testament in Latin, written by a German scribe in the eleventh century. The upper cover consists of a carved ivory panel of the thirteenth century, with a border of silver gilt, decorated with filigree work and figures in repoussé, and enriched with crystals en cabochon.
St. Beatus, Commentarius in Apocalypsim, written in Spain about 1150; with one hundred and ten very large miniatures and a circular map of the world.
Bible Historiée, executed in the south of France about 1250; a series of full-page paintings on a background of burnished gold, representing scenes from the Book of Genesis.
Psalterium, written in Paris about 1260. This volume belonged at one time to Joan of Navarre, Queen Consort of Henry IV., King of England, whose autograph is on one of the blank leaves.
Roman de la Rose, written for, and presented to, Christina de Lindesay, Dame de Coucy, 1323.
Rime di Petrarca et Cançoni di Dante. One of the most important manuscripts of the two poets, written during the lifetime of Petrarch, or immediately after his death, by Paul the Scribe for Lorenzo, the son of Carlo degli Strozzi, a member of one of the noblest families of Florence.
Lydgate's Siege of Troy, probably written for William Carent, of Carent's Court, in the Isle of Purbeck, about 1420. The volume has illuminated borders and seventy miniatures, and bears the arms of Carent at the end.
Missale Romanum, six volumes folio, written on vellum in 1510-17 for Cardinal Pompeo Colonna. The tradition handed down by the family was that the large full-page illuminations with which the manuscript is adorned were executed by Raphael about the year 1517, when the owner was made a cardinal; and there is no doubt that, if not actually by his hand, the work was done by his followers under his supervision. In all probability, we may say that the large miniatures are painted by Timoteo Viti, and the illuminations and arabesques by Litti di Filippo de' Corbizi.[103]
Some of the more notable of the incunabula are two block-books—the first Dutch edition of the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, and a copy of the Ars Memorativa printed before 1474-75. Cicero, Officiorum libri tres, printed at Mentz by Fust and Schoeffer in 1465. Lactantius, Opera, printed in the Monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1465. Higden's Polychronicon and the Boke of Eneydos, printed by Caxton in 1482 and 1490. The Chronicles of England and the Speculum Christiani, printed by Machlinia. Lyndewode, Constitutiones provinciales ecclesiæ anglicanæ, printed at Oxford by Rood and Hunte in 1483-85. The Croniclis of Englōde with the frute of timis, from the St. Albans press.
Among other books of later dates deserving of special notice may be mentioned—Vespucci, Paesi novamente retrovati, Vicenza, 1507. The first and very rare edition of the celebrated Thesis of Luther against the system of indulgences, which he affixed to the gate of the University of Wittemberg, 1517. Huon of Bordeaux, printed by Wynkyn de Worde about 1534—believed to be unique. Archbishop Parker's De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ, London, 1572. A magnificent set of De Bry's Grands et Petits Voyages, in one hundred and eighty-two volumes, 1590-1644. A Booke containing all such Proclamations as were published during the Raigne of Elizabeth (and James I.); collected by Humphrey Dyson, London, 1618. The first and second Shakespeare folios. Three copies of the first edition of Milton's Paradise Lost, with the first, third and fourth title-pages.