The Didot Sale.

weighed by the authorities of the British Museum , who would never allow a manuscript which had been in the possession of four English Kings of the Tudor race to fall back into French ownership . This remarkable manuscript fetched considerably over £ 3000 . In many respects , to an English connoisseur , the most interesting object in the entire sale—its genuineness is undoubted—was the Prayer Book which

belonged to , ancl was constantl y used by , the great English warrior , Sir John Talbot , Lord Talbot , and first Earl of Shrewsbury , renowned by Shakespeare for his real worth , and celebrated by Voltaire and in French tradition for many fictitious characteristics . The portrait of the veteran antagonist of the Maid of Orleans—who with the Black Prince and Sir John Chandos form the great trino of illustrious Englishmen who fought in the

wars for sovereignty in France—is found more than once in the volume , along with some English prayers and rhymes which may have been written by the hand of Talbot himself . The book has had a strange fate . Left in France after Talbot ' s heroic death , which happened in battle in 1453 , when he was over 80 years of age , it fell into impenetrable obscurity until 24 years ago , when a Breton collector bought it from a peasant ancl transferred it to a dealer from

whom M . Didot obtained the treasure . We are sorry to record that a book of such extraordinary interest was not secured for our national library , nor apparently for the present Lord Shrewsbury ; but it was bought by an English bookseller , Mr . Quaritch , himself an amateur and collector of fine manuscripts . We now proceed to give details of the more important lots , in their numerical orderand of the prices fetched by each . The first 45 were

manu-, scripts , which , at a total of nearl y £ 20 , 000 , fetched an average of £ 445 each , notwithstanding the depression of value prevalent throughout the civilizecl world , so that at the present time , things of great intrinsic worth now seem to bring greater prices than ever before .

No . 1 was a Latin Bible of the 13 th century , a manuscript of ordinary character , but bearing the name of its French scribe , Arnulphus de Camphaing ( Camphin ) , and fetched 2 , 300 f . ( Labitte ); 3 , a French translation of the Bible , written on vellum in the first half of the 15 th century , but supposed to have been copied from a 13 th century codex , valuable like all versions of the Scriptures in vernacular tongues before the Reformation—10 , 000 f . ( Fontaine ) ; 4 a Latin Psalter for liturgical useexecuted in the Abbey of

, , St . Martin , at Tournai , in 1105 ( dated manuscripts are rare)—10 , 200 f . ( Bibliotheque Nationale ) ; 5 , a similar Psalter , with miniatures of French execution , of the 13 th century—9 , 500 f . ( Fontaine ) ; 6 , a similar manuscript of French execution and very small size , also of the 13 th century—2 , 600 f . ( Labitte ) ; 7 , a Latin Evangeliarium , a collection of Gospel lessons , in Carlovingian writing of the 9 th centurywith lates of gilt metal on the

out-, p side , decorated with carved ivory and gems—probably of 10 th or 11 th century work—6 , 000 f . ( Quaritch ); 8 , another Evangeliarium , of the 10 th or 11 th century , with exterior ornaments of metal and Limoges enamel ( 13 th century ) —3 , 800 f . ( Fontaine ) ; 9 , another Evangeliarium , executed about A . D . 1050 , by Gerard , Abbot of the great Benedictine house of Luxeuil—15 , 000 f . ( Bibliotheque Nationale ) ; 10 , a collection of 30 miniatures illustrating the

life of Christ , and executed in France about the year 1200—9 , 000 f . ( Labitte ) ; 11 , " Sancti Beati in Apocalypsin Commentaria , et S . Hieronymi Explanatio Danielis , " a MS . written in the south of France ( Aquitaine ) , or in the north of Spain , about A . D . 1200 ; with 110 miniatures characteristic of the best st yle of the epoch and the region—a monument of singular importance for the history of old French artwhich has been carefulldescribed and eulogised

, y by Count Bastard in his Peintures et Omemens des MSS . It fell , after a splendid competition on the part of the Bibliotheque Nationale , for 30 , 500 f . to Mr . Quaritch . The same English collector bought , for 15 , 3001 , the next lot , 12 , the Visions of the Apocalypse , a MS . of the 14 th century , containing 96