The Sunderland And Hamilton-Beckford Libraries.

( Sarah ) of Marlborough ' s autograph ; Coryate ' s ' Crudities , ' Daniel ' s ' Works , ' Drake ' s ' Voyages , ' Drayton ' s ' Works , ' Dugdale ' s ' Monasticon , ' large paper copy of the original edition , and other works of the same author . " The sale of the third portion is also announced for July next , and the realities of the sale will be long remembered by book collectors and bibliomaniacs .

The Hamilton-Beckford library , which is also announced for sale b y Messrs . Sotheby , will be also a most interesting fact to the literary world . " Mr . Henry G . Bohn says , in a most interesting letter to the Times , that Beckford was the most enthusiastic book collector he ever knew . He was a great pnrchaser of 'Aldines and other earl y books bearing the insignia of celebrities , such as Francis I ., Henri et Diane , and De Thou , and especially of

choice old morocco bindings by Desseuil , Pasdeloup , and De Rome . ' " Mr . Bohn also tells " that after Beckford ' s death , and while the books were still at Bath , the Duke of Hamilton wished to sell the whole library . Mr . Bohn offered £ 30 , 000 , payable within a week ; but although the Duke would willingly have accepted the offer , the Duchess would not agree to the sale of her father ' s books . Mr . Bohn considers the library to be worth , at present , about £ 50 , 000 . " He also informs us that "the Duke of Hamilton ( then Marquis of Douglas ) collected his own magnificent library at the same time that Beckford was adding to his , and this will be sold when the sale of the

Beckford library is completed . A large portion of it was collected in Italy and various parts of the Continent . The Greek and Latin manuscri pts obtained by the Marquis of Douglas when on his diplomatic mission to Russia are unrivalled specimens of early art . Probably the gem of the whole collection is the manuscript on vellum of Dante ' s " Divina Commedia , " written about the year 1450 . It is ornamented with eighty-eight original designs ,

supposed to be the work of Sandro Botticelli . Dr . Waagen has pronounced these drawings to be the finest and most original illustrations of the kind ever produced . Of other choice MSS . we may mention Alain Chartier , Poesies , fifteenth century ; 'Histoire du Roi Alexandre , ' fourteenth century ; the first translation of the Bible in French ( by Guyard des Moulins ) , 1291 , on vellum , with illuminations ( this was printed in 1490 by order of Charles VIII . ) ; a

superb MS . of the Koran , with brilliant illuminations ; a Missal executed for Cardinal Julius de Medicis , afterwards Pope Clement VII . ; another Missal which formerly belonged to Charles of Lorraine , Duke of Guise ; a MS . of Horace , executed for Ferdinand I ., King of Naples ; and a very beautiful MS . on vellum , in two folio volumes , of S . Augustin , " De la Cite de Dieu , " with miniatures and illuminated initials . There are first editions of the classics , such as Apuleius , 1469 , Sallustius , 1470 , etc . " For this summary we are indebted to the Bibliographer .

If Mr . Bohn ' s anticipations are correct , that the commercial value of the Hamilton-Beckford books will be found to be greater than that of the Sunderland collection , these two sales will certainly become famous landmarks in the dispersion of libraries . A good deal of regret has been expressed at such a dispersion of such remarkable collections , but then lamentations are purely sentimental ; and these treasures of the printer ' s , the illuminator ' s , and the binder ' s skill , are certainly more likely to be useful to art , and study , and science if in the hands of the public than hid up in inaccessible libraries and mildewing closets .