The Sexagenarian had also collected many curious particulars concerning the celebrated Florentine library, the foundation of which was laid by the learned Greeks above alluded to, who were sent back to their country, by the magnificent Lorenzo, to rescue from barbarian hands, the literary treasures, which they had been compelled to forsake. One anecdote occurs among the memoranda, relating to this library, which seems to merit insertion, and is detailed in the following words in the Recollections, but without reference to the authority from whence it was taken. On the expulsion of the house of Medici from Florence, that city was occupied by the troops of Charles the VIIIth. and the library, with the possessions of the illustrious owners, fell into the hands of the French. The King of England at that time, Henry VIII., employed emissaries to purchase of the French officers and soldiers, as many books and manuscripts as they could possibly obtain. Whether before or after their arrival in this country, has not been ascertained, but Catherine of Medicis had the artifice and address to procure their restoration, on the pretence of their being the property of her family; this portion, therefore, whatever it might have been, now forms part of the royal library at Paris. The residue of this splendid library remained at Florence, till the popularity of Cardinal John de Medicis, afterwards Pope Leo X. seemed to open to him a reasonable prospect of succeeding to the papal throne. At this juncture, Soderini was Dictator of Florence, who, anxious to remove from the Cardinal every remaining temptation to revisit Florence, collected what was yet left of the library, and dispatched the whole to him at Rome, as a present, conceiving himself thus to have performed an act of great political sagacity. Thus, therefore, the contents of this magnificent repository of literary treasure was divided, and such a proportion of them will be found in the Vatican, as the French, in their different predatory excursions, suffered to remain. Another of the Sexagenarian’s meditated works, was one or more Dissertations upon Emblems, a species of literature which at one period greatly occupied the attention of the curious, upon which the exalted talents of the first poets and artists were formerly exercised, and of which there are many specimens of extraordinary rarity and beauty. He had evidently revolved the subject much in his mind, to which he was induced by the consideration, that nothing of the kind had ever appeared in the English language. Such a work certainly might be made a vehicle of great and various entertainment, by a judicious introduction of literary anecdotes, and by well-chosen specimens from the different performances.