BIBLIOMANCY

divination performed by means 1782-; of the Bible, also called sortes biUica, or sortes junrvols.); torum. It consisted in taking pa ages at hazard, and drawing indications thence concerning things future. It was much used at the consecration uf Hallvols. bishops. It was a practice adopted from the hea* 4to); thens, who drew the same kind of prognostications Med i from the works of Homer and Vii'giL In 465 the 4to), Council of Yannes condeifmed all who practised this art to be cast out of the communion of the diurch; der Berlin, as did the Councils of Agde and Auxerre. But in the twelfth century we find it employed as a mode of detecting heretics. In the Gallican Church it wa^ in long practised in the election of bishops; children cenbeing employed, on behalf of each candidate, to draw; W. slips of paper with texts on them, and that which was thought most favourable decided the choioe. A and similar mode was pursued at the installation of writer abbots and the reception of canons; and this cuatian is said to have continued in the cathedrals of Ypr^Jk geo- St. Omer, and Boulogne, as late as the year 1744. In the Greek Church we read of the prevalence «if this custom as early as the consecration of Athazuisins, on whose behalf the presiding prelate, Gar a call a, as archbishop of Nicomedia, opened the Gospels at the tall value words, ^For the devil and lus angels' (Mat. xxv. 41). The Bishop of Nice first saw them, and adroitly highly turned over the leaf to another verse, which was printed instantly read aloud: 'The birds of the air came and lodged in the branches thereof (Mat iriii. 32). But 1804, this pa age appearing irrelevant to the ceremony, letters; the first became gradually known, and the Church of folio), Constantinople was violently agitated by the most golden fatal divisions during the patriarchate. Catalogues and BIBLIOMANIA ('book-madne '), a word formed from the Greek, and signifying a pa ion for po e ing curious books. The true bibliomanist is extends determined in the purchase of books, le by the value Derome of their contents, than by certain accidental cir cum those stances attending them. To be valuable in his eyes, specimens they must belong to particular cla es, be made of of singular materials, or have something remarkable in of their history. Some books acquire the character of sterling. belonging to particular cla es, from treating of a par from ticular subject of interest to the bibliomanist; o^ers volume, from something peculiar in their mechanical execuheight tion, or from the circumstance of having i ued from a (four pre of uncommon eminence, or because they once befor longed to the library of an eminent man. Some of of these collections are of much intrinsic value. Among £182 them are various editions of the Bible (the most com adorned plete is at Stuttgart); collections of editions of single been cla ics (for example, those of Horace and Cicero in Jeffery, the city library at Leipzig); the editions in usum King Ddphini and cum not is mriorum; the editions of the Italian cla ics printed by the Academy ddla Crtuca; bibliomanist works printed by the Elzevirs, by Aldus, Comino in Padua, and Bodoni (the most complete collection of berg called Bodoni's editions is in the library of the Duche with d'Abrantes); the cla ics edited by Maittairo, Foulis, the Barbou, Brindley, and others; and the celebrated Bipont editions, with others. It was more customary decorations in former times than at present to make collections pages of books which have something remarkable in their pen history, for example, books which have become very custom scarce, and such as have been prohibited. Of the printing, first sort, the collections of Engel and Salthon were custom formerly among the most considerable. The one at except Dresden is among the largest now existing. Books distinguished for remarkable mutilations have also or been eagerly sought for. Those which appeared in colours the infancy of typography, called tncunabvla, from this the Latin cuna, a cradle, principally the first editions are coloured. (edUiones principes) of the ancient cla ics, are still in general request. Much of the value of a book, in the eyes of a bibliomanist, depends upon the mate all rial of which it is composed. An enormous price is frequently given for splendid proof impre ions of copperplate engravings, and for coloured imprest he sions, for works adorned with miniatures and illuminated initial letters; likewise for such as are London printed upon vellum. Works printed upon paper common of uncommon materials, or various substitutes for paper (for example, £. Bruckmann's Natural History 4to), of Asbestos, upon paper made of asbestos, Brunslarge wick, 1727, 4to), have been much sought after; like sterling. wise those printed upon coloured paper. In Italy of the colour of books of this sort is conmionly blue; in France, rose colour; in some ancient Grerman books with the colour is yellow; sometimes, though rarely, the ^een. A list of books of this cla is to be found work The in Peignot's Kepertoire des Bibliographies speciales (Paris, 1810). darfer Other books in high esteem among bibliomanists the are those whid i are printed on large paper, with very founded wide margins. IVue bibliomanists often measure was the margin by inches and lines. In English advert he tisements of rare books some one is often mentioned Alban's particularly valuable on account of its being 'a copy.' If the leaves happen to be uncut, the of the copy is much enhanced. Other works valued by bibliomanists, are those which are with letters of gold or silver, or ink of singular colour; for example, (1) Fasti Napoleonei (Paris, 4to), a copy on blue vellum paper, with golden (2) Magna Charta (London, Whitaker, 1816, three copies upon purple-coloured vellum, with letters; also books printed from copperplates. of these have been made by Peignot others. In France and England the bibliomania often to the binding. In France the bindings of and Bozerian are most valued; in England of Charles Lewis and Koger Payne, several of whose skill are to be seen in the library Lord Spencer; among others the Glasgow edition.^Ischylus, 1795, the binding of which cost £16, Is. Payne is said to have sometimes received twenty to thirty guineas for binding a single lliis species of luxury is carried to such a in London, that a copy of Macklin's Bible vols, folio), in red or blue morocco leather, sold seventy-five guineas, and Boydell's large edition Shakspeare (nine vols, with large engravings) sterling. Even the edges of books are often with fine paintings. Many devices have adopted to give a factitious value to bindings. a London bookseller, had Fox's History of James II. bound in fox-skin, in allusion to name of the author; and the famous English Askew even had a book bound in human skin. In the library of the castle of Konigsare twenty books bound in silver (conmiooiy the nlver library). These are richly adorned large and beautifully engraved gold plates, in middle and on the comers. To the exterior of books belongs the bordering of the with single or double lines, drawn with the (exempla ire rigU)^ commonly of red colour — a which we find adopted in the early age of in the works printed by Stephens. The of colouring engravings has been dropped, in cases where the subject particularly requires it (for instance, in works on natural history, the costumes of different nations), because the conceal the delicacy of the engraving. On account the coloured copies of Durer's woodcuts esteemed le than those which are left un- The other means of idle competition being almost exhausted, a new method of gratifying the bibliomanist taste is that of enriching works by the addition of engravings — ^illustrative indeed of the text of book, but not particularly called for — ^and of preparing only single copies. Thus, a bookseller in offers an illustrated copy of the otherwise Biographical Dictionary of all the Engravers, by John Strutt (London, 1785-86, two vols. which is increased in this way to thirty-seven vols, in folio, and costs not le than £2000 The library of Dresden has a similar copy Budfleus's Historical Lexicon, of an earlier date. Among the auctions, where the biblionumia raged the greatest fury, was that of the library of Duke of Boxburgh in London, 1812. Every was bought at an almost incredible price. first edition of Boccaccio, published by Valin 1471, was sold for £2260 sterling. To memory of this auction the Roxburgh Club was in the following year, of which Lord Spencer president. It met yearly on the 13th of July, anniversary of the sale of Boccaccio, in the St. Tavern. The fortunate purchaser of the Decameron at tlus sale was the Marquis of ford; at his death, in 1819, it was sold for 15«., and ultimately came into the po e ion Spencer, who had bid £2250 for it at the great No further evidence is nece ary to show that mania, which flourished first in Holland (the likewise of the tidipomania)f towards the end seventeenth oentiu^, has prevailed in England much greater extent than in France, Italy, many. Thomas F. Dibdin's Bibliomania or madne (London, 1811), and his Bibliographical Decameron (London, 1817, three vols.), contain useful directions for the a istance of collectors books. The modem bibliomania is vciy different from spirit which led to the purchase of books middle ages at prices which appear to us enormous. External decorations, it is true, were then high esteem; but the main reason of the great then paid for books was their scarcity, and the culty of procuring perfect copies before the invention of tiie art of printing. There is sometimes raffe for po e ing books without reference value of their contents, or the other circumstances which have been mentioned as influencing the manist. A priest in Saxony is said to have murdered three persons with a view of getting po e ion libraries. These, however, he did not read BICAKERE, a principality, Hindooetan, Ajmeer. Its limits are variable, and not easily fined, as it merges on the great desert of Ajmeer, supposed to be about 18,000 square miles, between 27*" and 29** K. Soil light brown Indian pulse almost its only produce. Admitted British protection in 1818. Pop. 539,250. 195