IV

INTRODUCTION,

was as commendable as the success of it was complete :and I can conceive fewer works in the sixteenth centurylikely to do more good—either by awakening the virtuouscuriosity of youth, or by gratifying the religious principlesof the aged. My recollection does not furnish me withany volume since the days of Pfister, to the present, sowell calculated to accomplish these laudable objects. 7

Before I say a few words upon the comparative meritsof some of the compositions, it may be as well to reprint,in the order in which they appear in the earlier impressions,the commendatory prefixes of Vandoperanus and Corrozet:the latter being among the most fluent popular Frenchwriters of his day. 8

NICOLAI BORBONII VANDOPERANI

POET.E LINGONENSIS AD LECTOREM CARMEN.

Nvper in Elysio cum forte erraret Apelles,

Vna aderat Zeusis, Parrhasiusque comes.Hi duo multa satis fundebant verba : sed ille

Interea mcerens, et taciturnus erat.Mirantur comites, farique hortantur, et vrgent:

Suspirans imo pectore Cous, ait :O famae ignari, superis quae nuper ab oris

(Vana vtinam) Stygias venit ad vsq; domos :Scilicet, esse hodie quendam ex mortalibus vnum,

Ostendat qui me vosque fuisse nihil;Qui nos declaret pictores nomine tantum,

Picturseque omneis ante fuisse rudes.Holbius est homini nomen, qui nomina nostra

Obscura ex claris ac prope nulla facit.

7 In regard to Pfister, I allude to what may be called the firstpicture book of any portion of the Bible, with a dale (1462), in hishighly curious and extraordinarily rare "Histories of Joseph, Daniel,yudith, and Esther,'''' printed by him in 1462 : of which work a prettyiair notion may be formed by consulting the Bibl. Spenceriana, vol. i.pp. 94— too. Lord Spencer's is the only known copy of it in the kingdom.

8 Some copious and amusing extracts of the poetry of this bard, re-lating to the early history of Paris, may be seen in the BibliographicalTour, vol. ii. p. 123, &c. Edit. 1821.