THOMAS EST (_cir._ 1592), _Whole Booke of Psalmes_, 1592, 8vo, L15 10s. Wilbye's _Second Set of Madrigales_, half morocco, 1609, 4to, L6. Yonge's Musica Transalpina, 1588, 4to, L7. Yonge's _Musica Transalpina_, the seconde booke, half morocco, 1597, 4to, L11. With the advent of the seventeenth century presses became very numerous all over England. Christopher and Robert Barker at London, and John Field at Cambridge, are perhaps the best known printers of that era, but the importance and value of their works depend upon circumstances, and cease to exist as a matter of course. It is indeed from this point that the study of English bibliography becomes more difficult and confusing, and here precisely that the young collector is apt to go astray. The most famous English printer of modern times was undoubtedly John Baskerville; in fact, he seems to have been the only one possessed of exceptional merit. Everyone has heard of Baskerville: he rises the one solitary genius out of the multitude of labourers in the same field, and towers so high above the rest as to eclipse them entirely. Baskerville started as a printer in Birmingham in 1756, having spent hundreds of pounds in the experimental casting of type, which he ultimately brought to the highest state of perfection. Every book printed by him is a masterpiece: his paper is clear and elegant and of a very fine quality, while the uniformity of colour throughout testifies to the care taken in printing every sheet. At one time works from the Birmingham press, presided over by Baskerville, were much sought after, but of late years the fashion has changed and prices have consequently much diminished. The splendid edition of Addison's works, 4 vols., 4to, with portraits and plates, 1761, a beautiful copy bound by Derome in red morocco, brought L10 a short time ago, a depreciation of at least a third in the value, while in some other instances the fall is much more marked. Baskerville appears at one time to have studied the workmanship of the Elzevirs, and on one or two of his books, notably the _Elegantiae Latini Sermonis_ of Meursius, 1757, he has dated the title-page as from _Lugd. Bat. Typis Elzevirianis_. This little volume is a fit tribute to a family of famous printers of the seventeenth century, from a no less excellent workman of the eighteenth, and I feel certain that some day collectors will again vie with each other in collecting choice examples from his press. CHAPTER X. ON BINDINGS OLD AND NEW.