Vol. VI.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

London Letter.

NEW IMPORTATIONS.

CONTENTS.

Scribner, Welford & Armstrong's Importations.

EDITORIAL.

Triumph of Guyot at Vienna.

EDITORIAL.

Scribner, Armstrong & Co.'s Fall List.

St. Nicholas.

Guyot's Geographies.

Arthur Bonnicastle.

Guyot's Physical Geography

EDUCATIONAL ADVERTISEM'TS.

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

LONDON, September 1, 1873.

THE deadest of all dull seasons is now prevailing; publishing for the moment has almost ceased, and even announcements of future movements are withheld, until there shall once more be a public ready to look out for and appreciate them. Book and Fine Art Auction Sales are also suspended, and will not be resumed with any effect until towards November. Nothing has occurred to rival the famous Perkins Library Sale in importance in London. At Leipsic a collection of books, well known on the Continent, was disposed of in the latter part of July. The late proprietor, M. Serge Sobolewski was a Russian gentleman, who had devoted himself to the study of "The World of Books" until he had become probably the most learned Bibliographer in Europe. He was a patron of that laborious and ill-requited martyr to Bibliography, J. M. Quérard, and it was through M. Sobolewski's assistance that Quérard was enabled to publish many of his multifarious works. Early voyages and travels, especially in the Western Hemisphere, were a principal object of M. Sobolewski's researches, and in all that related to the famous collection of voyages published by the Brothers De Bry, of Frankfort, at the end of the Sixteenth Century, and generally known after them as De Bry's Voyages, he was the first living authority. As such he contributed to the last edition of Brunet's Manual du Libraire, the very minute account and collation of what (if such a thing is possible) may be called a perfect copy of the collection. As it is

No. 12

often stated that a gentleman of New York has expended over twenty thousand dollars in completing and perfecting his copy, the extent and complexity of the study may be conceived. M. Sobolewski's copy had been (according to his catalogues) more than forty years in formation, and was the fruit of laborious researches in every country in Europe. It contained almost every known variety of plate, engraving, impression, &c.; and was bound in fifty-five volumes by the great Paris binder, Niedrée, in full morocco. It was emphatically the "great gun of the collection; yet, somehow or other, it "hung fire," and was knocked down for a sum equivalent to about four thousand five hundred dollars. Though the United States was represented at the Sale, there was no English buyer present. The reason for this was, that the Library had been purchased entire, as a speculation, by two or three wealthy German booksellers, and the impression is general that in such cases no bargains are likely to be found, because the value of each article is thoroughly understood by the owners. The De Bry itself is understood to be still in the market, and, sooner or later is absolutely sure of finding its way to the United States, as it is essential to a firstrate collection, and an opportunity for securing another copy equally distinguished is very unlikely to occur. The same enterprising young country is said by the English literary papers to be the ultimate destination of another literary curiosity, recently sold in London among the last portion of the books of Sir Frederic Madden, well known as the joint editor of what George Marsh calls "The Golden Book of English Philology," the Oxford edition of Wycliffe's Translation of the Bible, in four volumes, quarto, and for many years Keeper of the Manuscripts of the British Museum. Sir Frederic was of course a collector, and his passion was for songs and popular ballads. He rarely saw

an itenerant street minstrel without relievi