the inspection of Mr Stevens, and all reasonable facilities and assistance be afforded him in his work. (2) That the name of each subscriber be indicated under the title of every book which he contributes, so that when the work is completed, it will show not only the treasures, but also the deficiencies in this department of the library of each subscriber, and enable him by marginal marks against the titles of books which he may subsequently procure, to preserve a perpetual record of his collection and of its deficiencies. (3) That each subscriber be entitled to contribute not only the title of every book of this class which he may possess at the time of subscribing, but also of all other books of this class, which he may procure for his own library previously to January, 1850, or before the work shall go to the press. (4) That the sum subscribed by each be in proportion to the number of titles contributed, or be such as Mr. Stevens may accept. (5) That this sum be paid to Mr. Stevens on the acceptance of the manuscript for publication by the Smithsonian Institution. (6) That each subscriber be entitled to receive from the Smithsonian Institution, ten copies of the work, for every 500 dollars (or £100) subscribed, and in the same proportion for a larger or smaller subscription. 4. Inasmuch as the library of the British Museum contains a larger number of this class of books than any other library in the world, and at the same time affords extraordinary facilities for bibliographical research, it is proposed to commence the work there. All the titles which this library can furnish will be written out upon cards, made for the purpose, measuring about eight inches by six. When these have been carefully revised and copied, they will, if it be desired, be sent in small parcels to each of the subscribers for their inspection and remarks. When the work is completed, so far as the library of the British Museum can furnish the materials, Mr. Stevens will himself visit each of the other libraries for which he shall have received subscriptions, comparing and revising the titles, and adding such other books as he may find, which had not been previously described. 5. It is hoped that sufficient force can be advantageously employed upon the work, to prepare it for the press in eighteen months. PUBLICATION OF THE WORK. When the manuscript of the work shall have been completed, according to the plan detailed above, it is to be delivered to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, who will, in accordance with the Rules of the Institution as published in the Programme of Organization, of Dec. 8, 1847, submit it to a commission of competent judges. If this commission report favourably as to the faithful execution of the work, it is to be published and distributed at the sole expense of the Smithsonian Institution, constituting one or more volumes of the quarto series of SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE, similar in form and style of execution to the first volume, about to be published. It will be uniform with the quarto edition of the UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION. Gentlemen,-I beg leave to offer for your consideration the enclosed plan of a BIBLIOGRAPHIA AMERICANA, and to solicit for the enterprise the patronage and encouragement of the Smithsonian Institution. I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your obedient and humble Servant, Prof. Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Prof. Charles C. Jewett, Librarian of the Smithsonian Institution. (Copy.) We highly approve of the foregoing plan of the BIBLIOGRAPHIA AMERICANA, submitted to us by Henry Stevens, Esq., accompanying his note of July 7, 1848, and certify that the work will be accepted for publication in the SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE, provided the execution is found satisfactory to a commission of competent judges, appointed by the Institution for its examination. (Signed,) Smithsonian Institution, Washington, July 17, 1848. JOSEPH HENRY, Address, Henry Stevens, care, of N. D. Hubbard, Esq., No. 4, Court Street, If Mr. Stevens would add to his alphabetical arrangement of the title-pages, always the most facile mode of reference, a chronological table at the end of the volume, it would be a great advantage, owing to the number of books on America, published either anonymously, or under assumed names, the true authors of which cannot now be ascertained. Take for example, notwithstanding the great pains bestowed upon the catalogue of the British Museum to obviate all the defects of a mere alphabetical arrangement, by references and cross-references almost innumerable, the copy of the original Dutch edition of the Hudson, of 1612, by Hassel Gerritsz, as it appears in that catalogue, where it is placed under Samoyëden, correctly according to M. Barbier's bibliographical canon regarding anonymous publications; but where scarcely any one but a bibliographer would think of looking for it. A mere scholar unacquainted with bibliography and its rules, would probably search for it under one of the following heads: Gerritsz (Hassel), Hassel-Gerritsz, Hudson, Quir, or, as the Museum Catalogue also places books under the patrician prefix to a name, under De Quir, or Massa; but the cataloguer was evidently not acquainted with the book, and entered it as if the author were unknown. Had Mr. Stevens' object been simply to prepare a book for the student of literary history, he would probably have suggested, himself, a chronological arrangement of his materials, with an alphabetical index; but being intended for more general use, and the alphabetical plan adopted, every objection to that would be met by the addition of a chronological table, with references to the full titles as given in the alphabetical body of the work. Both M. Ternaux and Mr. Rich adopted a chronological arrangement in preference to an alphabetical catalogue. Both plans have their advocates, according to the uses to which each wishes to apply the work; but the double facility of reference, alphabetical and chronological, would be a boon to literature, which would repay any extra amount of labour and expense it would entail. I have been tempted to make this suggestion from having seen the complete MS. of Dr. G. Asher's Essay on the Dutch Books relating to the New Netherlands, in which, out of 320 title-pages, only about forty contain the authors' names, and from the "Bibliotheque Americaine" of Henri Ternaux, exhibiting entire pages of anonymous publications. Mr. Stevens' work, according to the above plan, was long since to have appeared. It is therefore clear that, to complete it in a satisfactory manner, even the nine years which have elapsed since the prospectus was issued, have been found inadequate for its production. In the mean time, others have entered the field in legitimate competition. Amongst these, Dr. G. Asher has furnished us with part of his Essay on the Dutch Books, relating to the New Netherlands, which will be found in its place at page xx. No doubt the labour of collecting the materials, collating and comparing the texts of various editions of early voyages and travels, of separating that which appertains to American History from more general matter, and of sifting the archives and muniments of Spain and Portugal, of England and Holland, and of Italy and France, which, for the most part, are still all but untrodden ground to the American antiquary, is considerably beyond the physical powers of a single individual. To be well and efficiently done, Mr. Stevens' Bibliographia Americana requires a competent staff, and if he would only confine himself to its superintendence, by a proper subdivision of labour, a great portion of which is all but mechanical, we might hope to see it accomplished within a reasonable time. MDCXXIX. EPITOME DE LA BIBLIOTECA ORIENTAL I OCCIDENTAL, Nautica i Geografica. Al excelentiss. Señor D. Ramiro Nuñez Perez Felipe de Guzman, Señor de la casa de Guzman, Duque de Medina, etc., etc., por el Licenciado ANTONIO DE LEON. Con Privilegio. En Madrid, por Juan Gonzalez, año de 1629. 4to, 47 and 186 pp. and then xii. pp. Antonio de Leon, afterwards de Leon-Pinelo, was a member of the Council of the Indies. His duties led him to investigate the state of literature in the Spanish possessions, in the tropical regions of both hemispheres, and he prepared an elaborate work on the subject. During its progress, by desire of his superiors, he drew up this abstract of the materials he had collected, which he divided into four sections, as indicated on the title-page. The second of these, the "Biblioteca Occidental," pp. 61-136, contains the titles of books relating to America. In the Appendix, at the end of the volume, at pp. vi. vii,, he added a further list from the "Bibliotheca Historica," of Bolduanus, which did not reach him in time to enable him to insert these additions in their proper places. Prefixed, as was usual at the period, are a number of commendatory poems, addressed to the author, and also a Discorso apologetico,' consisting of eight pages, by his brother, Juan Rodriguez de Leon. The work itself consists of a useful catalogue of authors, arranged alphabetically, in 33 pages, followed by an alphabetical list of books published anonymously, and by a table of 18 pages. The latter is entitled: "Tabla Declaratoria de las lenguas en que escrivieron los autores que se hallan en este Epitome, i Provincias donde se hablan," and is chiefly valuable as regards the languages of South and Central America. The preface gives the outline of the author's plan, and the history of his labours, and in it he also advocates that, instead of America, the New World should be called Iberica. This edition of the Epitome is a book of great rarity, and the above account of it is by Dr. H. E. Ludewig, who had access to the copy in Congress Library at Washington. MDCCXIV. BIBLIOTHECA AMERICANÆ PRIMORDIA: An Attempt towards laying the Foundations of an American Library, in several Books, Papers, and Writings, humbly given to the Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, For the Perpetual Use and Benefit of their Members, their Missionaries, Friends, Correspondents, and Others concerned in the Good Design of Planting and Promoting Christianity within Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in the West Indies. By a member of the said Society. London: printed for S. Churchill, at the Black Swan in Pater Noster Row, 1713. 4to, 3 leav. xvi. and 275 pp. 112 leav. of Table. (By BISHOP WHITE KENNET, enlarged by the REV. THOMAS WATTS.) The title appears to have been printed off before the completion of the book, which contains, at p. 274, the titles of books published in 1714, and the Advertisement at the commencement of the volume bears the date 1 Nov., 1714, which fixes the period of its publication. Bishop White Kennet, when Dean of Peterborough, was an active member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and wrote its history, published in quarto, in 1706. In 1713 he presented his collection of books, relating to America and Her Majesty's other Colonial Possessions, to the Society, and the letter of donation, bearing date the 1st of Oct. in that year, is given by way of introduction to the catalogue, which was printed by order of the Society, under the editorial care of the Rev. Thomas Watts. At the donor's suggestion, Mr. Watts added an accurate and elaborate table, consisting of 112 leaves, and it was the compilation of this table that retarded the publication of the work till 1714. The whole is arranged in chronological order; the discoveries under their proper dates, and the books and editions under their respective periods of publication. The titles are given at length in most cases, the places of publication always mentioned, and the names of the publishers sometimes indicated. The number of pages and sheets, and the size, are all carefully noted. Mr. Watts's index enhances the great utility of this valuable work, which, according to Dr. Dibdin, was reprinted in 1791. M. Raffinesque states that similar publications appeared in 1701 and in 1709. Dr. Ludewig, however, doubts the accuracy of either of these statements. MDCCXXXVII. EPITOME DE LA BIBLIOTECA ORIENTAL Y OCCIDENTAL, nautica y geografica de DON ANTONIO de LEON-PINELO, del Consejo de S. M. en la casa de la contratacion de Sevilla y Coronista mayor de las Indias. Añadido y enmendado nuevamente, en que se contienen los Escritores de las Indias orientales y occi. dentales y Reinos convecinos, China, Tartaria, Japon, Persia, Armenia, Etiopia y otras partes. Al Rey, nuestro Señor. Por mano del Marques de Torrenueva, su Secretario de despacho universal de Hacienda, Indias, i Marina. Con privilegio. En Madrid en la oficina de Francisco Martinez Abad, en la calle del olivo baxo. Año de 1737, 1738, 3 vols. folio. This second and greatly enlarged edition of Leon's Epitome was intended by Barcia to accompany his edition of Herrera, commenced in 1726; but the materials having greatly accumulated under his hand, he issued it as a separate book. The pages, columns, or sheets, as the case may be, are numbered, and the numerals, either Roman or Arabic, run through all three volumes consecutively. The editor has added two dedications, one to Philip V., and the other to the Marques de Torrenueva, both bearing date 19 Dec., 1737; a "proemio de esta segunda edicion," well worthy of attention; separate titlepages to each volume; several tables, one of anonymous writings, and two of authors, both under Christian and Surnames; and lists of errata to each volume. Besides these, each volume is accompanied by an appendix containing BIBLIOTECA ORIENTAL, OCCIDENTAL, Nautica y Geografica de DON ANTONIO The "Biblioteca Occidental" occupies columns 516-912, and is divided into Barcia, as we learn from the Bibliotheca Nova Americana of Mr. Rich, p. 55, MDCCLXXXIX. BIBLIOTHECA AMERICANA, or, a Chronological Catalogue of the most curious |