|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: title-page, and had been used to light the fires of the librarians.
This shows how great was the negligence towards our literary treasure
before the Revolution; for the pariah volume, which, 60 years before,
had been placed in the Invalides, and which had certainly formed
part of the original Mazarin collections, turned out to be a fine
and genuine Caxton."
I saw this identical volume in the Mazarin Library in April, 1880.
It is a noble copy of the First Edition of the "Golden Legend,"
1483, but of course very imperfect.
Among the millions of events in this world which cross and re-cross one
another, remarkable coincidences must often occur; and a case exactly similar
|