seeing (also) many singular bookes, not only of diuinitie, but of other excellent arts, after the first impression, so spent and gone, that they lie euen as it were buried in some few studies;-I haue thought good in my poor estate to vndertake this most tiresome businesse, hoping the Lord will send a blessing vpon my labours taken in my vocation; thinking it as necessarie for the bookeseller (considering the number and nature of them) to haue a catalogue of our English bookes, as the apothecarie his Dispensatorium, or the schoolemaster his Dictionarie.

By meanes of which my poore trauails, I shall draw to your memories bookes that you could not remember; and shew to the learned such bookes as they would not thinke were in our owne tongue; which I haue not sleighted vp the next way, but haue to my great paines drawn the writers of any special argument together, not following the order of the learned men that haue written Latine catalogues, Gesner, Simler, and our countriman, John Bale. They make their alphabet by the christian name, I by the sirname: they mingle diuinitie, law, phisicke, &c. together; I set diuinitie by itselfe: they set downe printed and not printed, I onely printed. Concerning the bookes which are without authors' names, called Anonymi, I haue placed them either vpon the titles they bee entituled by, or else vpon the matter they entreate of, and sometimes vpon both, for the easier finding of them.

"Concerning the bookes that be translated, I haue observed, (if the translator doe set his name) the author, the matter, the translator, the printer, (or for whome it is printed) the yeere and the volume. For example, Lambert Danæus, his treatise of Antichrist, translated by John Swan, printed for John Potter and Thomas Gubbin, 1589, in 4. The author's sirname, which is Danaus; the matter of the booke, which is Antichrist; the translator's sirname, which is Swan; are, or should be, in Italica letters, and none other, because they are the alphabetical names obserued in this booke: turne to which of these three names you will, and they will direct you to the booke.

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I shall not neede to make the like examplesthey are plaine inough by one example.

"A. MAUNSELL."

In the same year in which this catalogue was printed, Maunsell published a second part, "which concerneth the sciences mathematicall, as arithmetick, geometrie, astronomie, astrologie, musick, the art of warre and navigation; and also of physicks and surgerie." To this part, as to the first, he has prefixed three dedications. The first was to the memorable

Earl of Essex, whose arms, beautifully cut in wood, ornament the back of the title He is styled, as he truly was, "a most honourable patrone of learned men and theyr works." The second dedication is to "The Professors of the Sciences Mathematicall, and of Physicke and Surgery;" and the third is, as before, to the "Companie of Stationers, Printers, &c." In this last dedication, he says:

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Hauing shewed you in my former part of the use of my tables, I will onely in thys shew you and the curteous readers, that I haue set the writers of arithmetick, musick, navigation, and warre together, vsing the playnest way I could deuise.

"Now it resteth, that I should proceede to the thirde and last part, which is of humanity, wherein I shall haue occasion to shew, what we haue in our owne tongue, of gramer, logick, rethoricke, lawe, historie, poetrie, policie, etc. which will, for the most part, conceiue matters of delight and pleasure, wherein I haue already laboured as in the rest; but finding it so troublesome to get sight of bookes, and so tedious to digest into any good methode, I haue thought good first to publish the two more necessarie parts, which, if I perceave to be well liked of, will whet me on to proceed in the rest (as God shall make me able) with better courage."

Although we can scarcely doubt that Maunsell's Catalogue was "well liked of," yet it seems that he did not meet with sufficient encouragement; for certain it is, that the third part, which would doubtless have been the most interesting, never made its appearance.

EARLIEST ENGLISH MEDICAL WORK.

THE earliest Medical work written in English, is supposed by Fuller to have been Andrew Borde's "Breviarie of Health," which was published in 1547. It must yield, however, in its pretensions to antiquity, to a much older work, the Breviary of Practice, by Bartholomew Glanville, a manuscript of which is preserved in the Harleian collection. The one title, indeed, appears to have been an imitation of the other. The "Breviarie of Health" has a prologue addressed to physicians, which begins thus: Egregious doctors, and masters of the eximious and arcane science of physick, of your urbanity exaspeperate not yourselves against me for making this little volume."

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Andrew does not confine his attention to diseases of the body, but treats also of those of the mind; as in the following instance, which may serve for a specimen of his manner:

The 174 Chapiter doth shewe of an infirmitie named Hereos.

"Hereos is the Greke worde. In Latin it is named Amor. In English it is named Love-sick, and women may haue this fickleness as well as men. Young persons be much troubled with this impediment."

After stating "the cause of this infirmitie," he prescribes the following remedy:

"First I do advertize every person not to set to the hart what another doth set to the hele; let no man set his love so far, but that he may withdraw it betime; and muse not, but use mirth and mery company, and be wyse, and not foolish."

tus.

Andrew Borde called himself in Latin, Andreas PerforaThis translation of a proper name was according to the fashion of the time; and, in the instance before us, appears to include a pun: perforatus, bored or pierced.

PENNYLESS PARLIAMENT OF THREAD-BARE POETS.

‘The Pennilesse Parliament of Threadbare Poets; or, the Merry FortuneTeller, wherein all persons of the four severall complexions may find their Fortunes: composed by Doctor Merryman; not only to purge melancholy, but also to procure tittering and laughing. Full of witty mirth, and delightfull recreation for the content of the Reader. London, printed for John Wright, at the King's Head in the Old Bayley-1649.”

THIS curious black letter tract, which is somewhat rare, is a very happy satire on the vices and follies of mankind, not only during the period in which it was written, but in all ages and countries. The author appears to have deeply studied man to know all his faults. The following are a few detached passages from the work:

"First of all, for the increase of every foole in his humour, we thinke it necessary and convenient that all such as doe buy this booke, and laugh not at it before they have read it over, shall be condemned of melancholy, and be adjudged to walk over Moorefields twice a weeke in a foule shirt, but no stockings at all on.

It is also ordered and agreed upon, that such as are cholericke, shall never want woe and sorrow; and they that lacke money, may fast upon Fridayes by the statute; and it shall be lawful for them that want shoes, to weare boots all the yeare; and he that hath never a cloak, may, without offence, put on his best gowne at Midsummer.

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Likewise, we mark all brokers to be knaves by letters patent; and usurers, for five marks a-piece, shall lawfully be buried in the chancell, though they have bequeathed their soules and bodies to the devil.

"Furthermore, it shall bee lawfull for footstooles (by the helpe of women's hands) to flye about without wings, and poore men shall be accounted knaues without occasions; and those that flatter least shall speed worst.

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It shall be lawful for some to haue the palsie in their teeth, in such sort, as they shall eate more than ever they will be able to pay for.

"Some shall haue such a megram in their eyes, as they shall hardly know another man's wife from their own.

"Some shall haue such a stopping in their hearts, as they shall be utterly obstinate to receive grace.

"Some sort of people shall haue such a buzzing in their eares, as they shall be enemies to good counsel.

Some such there be that haue a sent or smell in their noses, as no feast shall escape without their companies; and some shall be so needy, as neither young heires shall get their oune nor poore orphans their patrimony.

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Also, it is enacted and decreed, that some shall be so humourous in their walks, as they cannot step one foot from a foole.

"Some so disguised in purse, as they count it fatall to haue one penny to buy their dinners on Sundays; some so burdened in conscience, as they count wrong dealing the best badge of their occupation.

Sycophants by the statute shall haue great gifts, and good and goodly labours shall scarce be worth thanks; it is also thought necessary that maides about midnight shall see wondrous visions, to the great heartgrief of their mothers.

"And it is furthermore established and agreed upon, that they that drinke too much Spanish sacke, shall, about July, be served with a fierie facies.

* The author probably alluded here to the well-known incident of Janet Geddes, the Scottish Reformer, throwing her stool at the head of a clergyman who made a vain attempt to restore, in the high church of Edinburgh, the proscribed liturgy of the episcopal church.

"But now, touching the benefit of private houses, by our rare and exquisite judgment, we think it very commodious, that those mamed men, which are of the weakest wit and worse courage, should provide themselves of good weapons to defend themselves from assaults which shall assaile them about midnight."

The tract thus concludes:

"And to conclude, since there are ten precepts to be observed in the art of scowlding, we humbly take our leave of Duke Humphries' ordinary, and he take us to the chapel of ill counsell; when a quart or two of fine Trinidado shall arme us against the gunshott of tongue-mettle, and keepe us from the assaults of Sir John Findfault. Vale! my dear friends, till my next returne."

"THE CHOICE OF CHANGE."

ONE of the most curious and entertaining black letter tracts extant is entitled

The Choice of Change: containing the Triplicitie of Diuinitie, Philosophie, and Poetrie; Short for Memorie, Profitable for Knowledge, and Necessarie for Maners: whereby the Learned may be confirmed, the Ignorant instructed, and all Men generally recreated. Newly set foorth by S. R. Gent. and Student in the Vniversitie of Cambridge. TRIA SUNT OMNIA. At London, printed by Roger Warde, dwelling neere Holburne Conduite, at the figure of the Talbot. An. Dom. 1585."

Although it is not known with any degree of certainty who was the author of this volume, yet there is strong reason to believe that it was written by Dr. Simon Robson, who was made dean of Bristol in the year 1598, and died in 1617. The work is dedicated to Sir Henry Herbert, Sir Philip Sidney, and Robert Sidney, to whom "S. R. wisheth increase of vertuous qualities in the mind, of the gifts of the body, and goodes of fortune." This is followed by a short and very

curious address

"To the Reader.

"1. He that knoweth not that he ought to know, is a brute beast among men.

"2. He that knoweth no more than he hath need of, is a man among brute beasts.

"3. He that knoweth all that may bee knowen, is a god amongst men.