The block-books are a striking example of the difficulty of gleaning where the earlier collectors have reaped, a difficulty to which we shall often have to call attention. They vary greatly in positive rarity. Of the _Biblia Pauperum_ and _Ars Moriendi_, which in their different issues and editions enjoyed the longest life and early attracted attention, Dr. Schreiber (if I have counted rightly) was able to enumerate in the one case as many as eighty-three copies--many of them, it is true, mere fragments--in the other sixty-one. Of the _Apocalypse_ fifty-seven copies were known to him, of the _Speculum_ twenty-nine, of the _Antichrist_ thirteen, of the _Defensorium_ twelve, and of the _Mirabilia Romae_ six. But of these 261 copies and fragments no fewer than 223 are recorded as being locked up in public libraries and museums, the ownership of thirteen was doubtful, and only twenty-five are definitely registered as being in the hands of private collectors, viz. of the _Apocalypse_, eight copies or fragments; of the _Biblia Pauperum_, six; of the _Speculum_ and _Ars Moriendi_, four each; of the _Defensorium_, two; and of the _Cantica Canticorum_, one. The chief owners known to Dr. Schreiber were the Earl of Pembroke, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and Major Holford, to whom must now be added Mr. Pierpont Morgan and Mr. Perrins. No doubt the copies in public institutions are much more easily enumerated than those in private hands, and probably most of the untraced copies are owned by collectors. But when allowance has been made for this, it remains obvious that this is no field where an easy harvest can be reaped, and that the average collector may think himself lucky if he obtains one or two single leaves. The last great opportunity of acquiring such treasures was at the sale in 1872 of the wonderful collection formed by T. O. Weigel,[11] at which the British Museum bought a very fine copy of the first edition of the _Ars Moriendi_, the first edition, dated 1470, of the _Biblia Pauperum_, in German, a block-book illustrating the virtues of the hymn _Salve Regina_, and the compassion of the Blessed Virgin, printed at Regensburg about 1470, besides fragments and woodcut single sheets. The foundation of the Museum collection of block-books had been laid by George III, added to by Mr. Grenville, and completed by a series of purchases from 1838 to this final haul of 1872, since when there have been few opportunities for new acquisitions. It is now quite adequate for purposes of study, though not so rich as that of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. FOOTNOTES: [3] The authenticity of a still earlier date, 1418, on a cut of the Blessed Virgin at Brussels is disputed. [4] The _Libro di M. Giovanbattista Palatino_, printed at Rome in 1548, is spoken of by Mr. Campbell Dodgson as a "belated specimen" of a block-book. But this was a writing-book, and hardly counts.