"the very button of the cap," but good only to be put into learned hands, habitually conversant with rare books. Those only may hold it with the pious and interested lightness in the grasp, that will not crush it, as too stern a hand might do. It is not to be discussed, nor even used; it is only a very curious and particular memorial, and the memorials of long deceased persons, which are in appearance trifling, are often the more dear and characteristic.

66

This little book has remained long undisturbed, and the more effectually was it hidden, from the circumstance of its being wrongly described in the very well known catalogue of one of the most important libraries in the world. For, in the printed catalogue of Latin manuscripts in the Royal, now Imperial, Library of Paris, it was thus entered: VIII MDCLX. Codex chartaceus, olim Joannis Balesdens. Ibi continentur Mariæ Stuartæ, Scotorum reginæ et Galliæ delphinæ, epistolæ variæ, Latine et Gallice. Is codex decimo. sexto sæculo exaratus videtur.", Not only is the last appreciation unnecessarily indefinite,-for the precise year is, as it will be said, written in

the manuscript,-but the whole article is a blunder. The book has consequently been asked for many times, as seeming to contain real letters, that is to say, historical documents; but, as this was not the case, it was laid aside as useless.

Recently, however, a French scholar, M. Ludovic Lalanne, well known by his historical publications, happening to see this manuscript, examined it more closely, and came to the curious conclusion that it was neither a correspondence, nor a collection or transcripts of real letters, but that it was what French schoolboys call a cahier de corrigés, the autograph transcript by Mary Stuart of the Latin, into which she had translated French letters given to her as themes. Under these circumstances the interest of the manuscript was very different from that which it had been supposed to possess, not so great perhaps, but still so curious, that M. Lalanne inserted a description of it, with some well selected extracts naturally taken from the French part, in the weekly Parisian paper, called 'Atheneum Français, of which he is the director, and to the

* 1853, 33rd number, Samedi 13th August, pp. 775-7.

readers of which the notice of this little discovery was particularly acceptable. Thus M. Lalanne, who ascertained first the true character of the volume, may be said to have discovered it. I owe to him the knowledge of the book, and I am pleased to have the opportunity of fully expressing all my obligation to his clever article on the subject, without which the present publication would never have seen the light.

The manuscript, written on strong paper, is an 18mo., rather square, measuring 0.095 millimeters in width, by 0.139 in height, and consists of 86 folios, numbered by a later hand.

Its present binding, dating only from the end of the seventeenth century, is plain red morocco; the back is ornamented with fleurs-de-lys, and the sides with the arms of France. The edges are gilt, and we will remark that, in gilding the edges, the binder has been careful with them; for it is usual to see the letters closely written at the end of lines to get in an entire word, and the last letters are in no instance cut. It is thus certain that the volume has retained its original shape. On its garde is the present number 8660, and, on the

first leaf numbered, the older number 66412. Underneath the latter are these contemporaneous lines: "Maria D. G. Scotor. Reg. Galliæ vero Delphina," thus evidently written after Mary's wedding with Francis, the first son of Henry II, which took place on the 24th of April, 1558, when she was sixteen years of age, and before the accession of her husband to the French throne, which occurred on the 10th of July, 1559; for it was only during that time she could be called dauphine of France. Under it is the signature of Ballesdens, which may be seen in the fac-simile, and concerning whom it is here necessary to say a few words, in order to show by whose worthy hands the manuscript was preserved.

Jean Ballesdens was born in Paris at the end of the sixteenth century; he was advocate at the Parliament and Council, and private secretary to the chancellor Pierre Séguier, who was much attached to him, and presented him for election to the Académie Française, of which he was the protector. At a first candidature, Ballesdens, being in competition with the great dramatist, Pierre Corneille, was so just and respectful to the genius

of his rival as to decline all pretensions against him. This becoming and honourable modesty served Ballesdens; for he was the next elected in 1648, in the place of the poet Claude de Malleville, one of the first founders of this literary society. Although Ballesdens held frequent intercourse with all the learned men and authors in his country, he wrote little himself, but, as a true collector of books and manuscripts-for so he was, and many are known signed by him-was rather an editor of the works of others, among which we may quote the Elogia Clarorum Virorum by Papyrius Masson; the theological works of Gregorius Turonensis; the deeds relating to the acquisition of the Dauphiné by the crown of France; many works by Savonarola; and the Epistles of St. Catharine of Sienna. He died on the 27th of October, 1675.

As already stated, the manuscript contains the French theme and the Latin translation. The Latin, of which the titles are written in capitals with abbreviations reproduced in this edition,* is all by

* It is almost unnecessary to say that the letters S. P. D., frequently used in these directions, are for the words salutem plurimam dicit.