Additions are added, left Antiquity fhould have feemed more worthy of Efteem than Accuracy.

History has been confidered with the Regard due to that Study by which the Manners are moft eafily formed, and from which the moft efficacious Inftruction is received; nor will the most extenfive Curiofity fail of Gratification in this Library; from which no writers have been excluded, that relate either to the religious or civil Affairs of any Nation,

Not only thofe Authors of Ecclefiaftical History have been procured, that treat of the State of Religion in general, or deliver Accounts of Sects or Nations, but thofe likewife who have confined themfelves to particular Orders of Men in every Church; who have related the Original, and the Rules of every Society, or recounted the Lives of its Founder and its Members; thofe who have deduced in every Country the Succeffion of Bishops, and those who have employed their Abilities in celebrating the Piety of particular Saints, or Martyrs, or Monks, or Nuns.

The Civil Hiftory of all Nations has been amaffed together; nor is it eafy to determine which has been thought most worthy of Curiofity.

Of France, not only the general Histories and ancient Chronicles, the Accounts of celebrated Reigns, and Narratives of remarkable Events, but even the Memorials of fingle Families, the Lives of private Men, the Antiquities of particular Cities, Churches, and Monafteries, the Topography of Provinces, and the Accounts of Laws, Customs, and Prefcriptions, are here to be found.

The feveral States of Italy have, in this Treasury, their particular Hiftorians, whofe Accouns are, perhaps, generally more exact, by being less extenfive; and more interefting, by being more particular.

Nor has lefs Regard been paid to the different Nations of the Germanic Empire, of which neither the Bohemians, nor Hungarians, nor Auftrians, nor Ba

varians,

varians, have been neglected; nor have their Anti quities, however generally difregarded, been lefs ftu dioufly fearched, that their prefent State.

The Northern Nations have fupplied this Collec tion, not only with Hiftory, but Poetry, with Gothic Antiquities, and Runic Inscriptions; which at least have this Claim to Veneration, above the Remains of the Roman Magnificence, that they are the Works of thofe Heroes, by whom the Roman Empire was destroyed; and which may plead, at leaft in this Nation, that they ought not to be neglected by those that owe to the Men whofe Memories they preferve, their Conftitution, their Properties, and their Liberties.

The Curiofity of thefe Collectors extend equally to all Parts of the World; nor did they forget to add to the Northern the Southern Writers, or to adorn their Collection with Chronicles of Spain, and the Conqueft of Mexico.

Even of thofe Nations with which we have lefs In tercourse, whofe Customs are lefs accurately known, and whofe History is lefs diftinctly recounted, there are in this Library repofited fuch Accounts as the Europeans have been hitherto able to obtain ; nor are the Mogul, the Tartar, the Turk, and the Saracen, without their Hiftorians.

That Perfons fo inquifitive, with Regard to the Tranfactions of other Nations, fhould enquire yet more ardently after the Hiftory of their own, may be naturally expected; and, indeed, this Part of the Library is no common Inftance of Diligence and Accuracy. Here are to be found, with the ancient Chronicles, and larger Hiftories of Britain, the Narratives of fingle Reigns, and the Accounts of remarkable Revolutions, the topographical Hiftories of Counties, the Pedigrees of Families, the Antiquities of Churches and Cities, the Proceedings of Parliaments, the Records of Monafteries, and the

Lives of particular Men, whether eminent in the Church or the State, or remarkable in private Life; whether exemplary for their Virtues, or deteftable for their Crimes; whether perfecuted for Religion, or executed for Rebellion.

That memorable Period of the English Hiftory, which begins with the Reign of King Charles the First, and ends with the Reftoration, will almost furnish a Library alone, fuch is the Number of Volumes, Pamphlets, and Papers, which were pub lifhed by either Party; and fuch is the Care with which they have been preserved.

Nor is Hiftory without the neceffary Preparatives and Attendants, Geography and Chronology: Of Geography, the beft Writers and Delineators have been procured, and Pomp and Accuracy have both been regarded: The Student of Chronology may here find likewise those Authors who fearched the Records of Time, and fixed the Periods of History.

With the Hiftorians and Geographers may be ranked the Writers of Voyages and Travels, which may be read here in the Latin, English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, and Spanish Languages.

The Laws of different Countries, as they are in themselves equally worthy of Curiofity with their History, have, in this Collection, been justly regarded; and the Rules by which the various Communities of the World are governed, may be here examined and compared. Here are the ancient Editions of the Papal Decretals, and the Commentators on the Civil Law, the Edicts of Spain, and the Statutes of Venice.

But with particular Industry have the various Writers on the Laws of our own Country been collected, from the moft ancient to the prefent Time, from the Bodies of the Statutes to the minuteft Treatife; not only the Reports, Precedents, and Readings of our own Courts, but even the Laws of our VOL. II.

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Weft

Weft-Indian Colonies, will be exhibited in our Ca talogue.

But neither History nor Law have been fo far able to engross this Library, as to exclude Phyfic, Philofophy, or Criticifm. Thofe have been thought, with Juftice, worthy of a Place, who have examined the different Species of Animals, delineated their Forms, or defcribed their Properties and Inftincts, or who have penetrated the Bowels of the Earth, treated on its different Strata, and analysed its Metals; or who have amused themselves with lefs laborious Speculations, and planted Trees, or cultivated Flowers.

Thofe that have exalted their Thoughts above the minuter Parts of the Creation, who have obferved the Motions of the heavenly Bodies, and attempted Systems of the Univerfe, have not been denied the Honour which they deserved by fo great an Attempt, whatever has been their Succefs. Nor have thofe Mathematicians been rejected, who have applied their Science to the common Purposes of Life; or thofe that have deviated into the kindred Arts, of Tactics, Architecture, and Fortification.

Even Arts of far lefs Importance have found their Authors, nor have these Authors been despised by the boundless Curiofity of the Proprietors of the Harleian Library. The Writers on Horfemanship and Fencing are more numerous, and more bulky, than could be expected by thofe who reflect how feldom thofe excel in either, whom their Education has qualified to compofe Books.

The Admirer of Greek and Roman Literature will meet, in this Collection, with Editions little known. to the most inquifitive Critics, and which have efcaped the Obfervation of thofe whofe great Employment has been the Collation of Copies; nor will he find only the most ancient Editions of FauAus, fenfon, Spira, Sweynheim, and Pannartz, but

the

the most accurate likewife and beautiful of Colinæus, the Junta, Plantin, Aldus, the Stephens, and Elvir, with the Commentaries and Obfervations of the most learned Editors.

Nor are they accompanied only with the Illuftrations of those who have confined their Attempts to particular Writers, but of thofe likewife who have treated on any Part of the Greek, or Roman Antiquities, their Laws, their Cuftoms, their Drefs, their Buildings, their Wars, their Revenues, or the Rites and Ceremonies of their Worship, and those that have endeavoured to explain any of their Authors from their Statues or their Coins.

Next to the Ancients, thofe Writers deserve to be mentioned, who, at the Restoration of Literature, imitated their Language and their Stile with fo great Succefs, or who laboured with fo much Industry to make them underftood: Such were Philelphus and Politian, Scaliger and Buchanan, and the Poets of the Age of Leo the Tenth; thefe are likewife to be found in this Library, together with the Delicia, or Collections of all Nations.

Painting is fo nearly allied to Poetry, that it cannot be wondered that thofe who have fo much esteemed the one, have paid an equal Regard to the other; and therefore it may be easily imagined, that the Collection of Prints is numerous in an uncommon Degree; but furely, the Expectation of every Man will be exceeded, when he his informed that there are more than forty thousand engraven from Raphael,Titian, Guido, the Carraches, and a thoufand others by Nauteuil, Hollar, Callet, Edelinck, and Dorigny, and other Engravers of equal Reputation.

There is also a great Collection of original Drawings, of which three feem to deserve a particular Mention; the firft exhibits a Representation of the Infide of St. Peter's Church at Rome; the fecond, of that of St. John Lateran; and the third, of the high Altar.

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