THE HE generous and genial nature of our lamented friend, Mr. Barlow, has already been the theme of just encomiums and eulogies. It behooves us now to recall his character and merits as an enlightened, liberal and public-spirited bibliophile. From his boyhood he loved books, and soon endeavored to form a collection. Never in those early days did he return home from his modest law office, however tired by hard work, without canvassing the book stores and book-stalls on the way, and more than once it was not in vain. The beautiful copy of the Antwerp edition of Thevet's Singularitez de la France antarcticque, vellum bound, and stamped with the entwined crescents of Diane de Poitiers,* has no other origin, and was found in Nassau Street. At no time had it been the object of Mr. Barlow to accumulate a large library in every branch of science and literature. This he properly left to public institutions. Nor did he care to collect books which had no other merit than their extreme rarity. His aim was higher and more in accordance with common sense. From the start, he determined to embrace exclusively the history of America. The subject was already of sufficient scope to absorb his efforts and means; but with a just appreciation of its importance, he brought it within his reach by keeping chiefly in view original authorities and editions. To form regular series, comprehending separate epochs and distinct sections of the New World; to connect all the links, and to illustrate with parallel accounts events but little known, were always the primary motives of his endeavors and purchases. It is thus that we come to find in his collection the invaluable first printed letters of Columbus, Vespuccius and Cortez; the rich series of colonial pamphlets, English, French and Dutch, and the largest set of Jesuit Relations ever offered for sale. Under the circumstances, his library could never be very extensive, both on account of the high prices which that class of books already commanded, and of their increasing rarity and importance, at home and abroad. But when fortune commenced to smile on him in various ways, and he was informed that the precious library which * Infra, No. 2444. Col. Thomas Aspinwall had collected during the thirty years of his residence as United States Consul at London could be purchased, he at once determined to acquire it at any cost. The books and manuscripts were in Boston, and the agent sent to bring them over, knowing the impatience of Mr. Barlow to behold as his own the desiderata which he had so long sought to possess, had the forethought to select two hundred or more of the choicest works, which he packed in a large trunk, and brought himself to New York. The rest, comprising about 3,700 volumes, were boxed up and sent to a store-house, until the room appropriated for the library in Mr. Barlow's new residence on Madison Avenue was ready to receive the entire collection, and they were destroyed in the conflagration which consumed the establishment of Messrs. Bangs Brothers during the night of the 18th of September, 1864. The sorrow of our friend was intense. We repaired together to Broadway, and vainly endeavored to save from the burning ruins a few scorched volumes. But, true to his patriotic instincts, he was half comforted with the thought that the rarest New England pamphlets, and particularly the manuscript records of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the XVIIth century (No. 2765), so important for the history of his native State, had escaped destruction, and were safely lodged away from the fire. Far from being discouraged by such a calamity, Mr. Barlow renewed his efforts, and at last succeeded in forming the remarkable collection of works relating to America, which, on account of the death of its founder, is now offered for sale. The difficulty of replacing those books was greater than ever, and it became even doubtful whether certain series could be completed. The Jesuit Relations, the New England, New Netherlands and Virginia colonial tracts, together with the matchless copies of Smith's History of Virginia, presented a well-connected chain of historical and descriptive works embracing the North American continent. To continue it further South in the same style first required the original Spanish editions of the Letters of Ferdinand Cortez describing his conquest of Mexico. Latin and Italian translations figured at times in important booksellers' catalogues; but where to find the Cartas de relacion printed at Seville, Saragossa, Valencia and Toledo? Mr. James Carter Brown had been so fortunate thirty years before, in securing a full set. Mr. Lenox, however, notwithstanding printed appeals* distributed every where, and the most liberal offers, never could possess more than two out of four, whilst none whatever were known to exist in any other private libraries, either in Europe or America. During one of our exploring expeditions, in search of early documents to copy and publish, we chanced to discover in Spain three of those priceless original Cartas, comprising in fact the entire text of the four, as the one which was printed at Saragossa in 1523, and of which only one specimen was known to exist, is simply a reprint of the Seville edition of 1522. They soon found their way into the Bibliotheca Barlowiana. No others have been discovered since, and only five of the public libraries of Europe can boast of possessing either three of those great books, or even one. For the history of the discovery of America, Barlow possessed the celebrated Aspinwall copy of the Epistle of Columbus, printed by Stephanus Plannck at Romet (in 1493). This is unquestionably the first Latin edition of that memorable account, and the prototype of the reprints made in the same year at Paris, Antwerp and Basle,§ as well as of nearly all the reimpressions of the text published in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, as is shown by the omission in every title of the name of Queen Isabelle. It was necessary for the tenor of De Cosco's translation to find Plannck's corrected edition, which, * Livres curieux. Garrigue et Christern Libraires étrangers. New York, 1854, 8vo; Nos. 125-129. In the library of Mr. John Carter Brown. The Montdidier catalogue, p. 37, No. 671, mentions another. Compare its typography with that of the Memorabilia urbis Roma; impress. Rome per magistrum Stephan. Plannck de Patauia, anno mccccxcj. (Paris National Library, Réserve. Invent., K., 1022.) We refer to the illustrated edition in ten leaves with the printed cover, of which there is not a single genuine complete copy anywhere, and which we supposed to have been printed at Rome (B. A. V., No. 2). In reality, it was printed and published at Basle by Bergmann de Olpe, like the Verardus of 1494. Compare the characters, initial letters and abbreviations with those in Brandt's poem De fulgetra anni 92, bearing in the colophon the initials and device (in German) of Bergmann. Christophe Colomb, Vol. II., pp. 22–30. although not quite so rare as the first, attained such high prices when brought under the hammer. A very fine copy was secured by Mr. Barlow at private sale. The library contained three original Latin editions, and one German version of the separate account of the third voyage of Vespuccius; but there was a Venetian issue which then existed only in two libraries, viz.: the Trivulziana at Milan, and Marciana at Venice.* The beauty and peculiar style of its typography, as well as its origin, showing that the version in the Pasi Nouamente retrouati had been borrowed from it for the text, and translated into the Venetian dialect before 1506, since this translation already figures in the Ferrara manuscript, rendered Mr. Barlow extremely desirous to find that edition. Happening to discover a duplicate in one of the bound collections of tracts made by Morelli for the Marciana, we obtained from the Italian Government the cession of that rare book to our friend. It is No. 14 of our Additamenta, and No. 2554 of the present catalogue. There was still wanting a work of the utmost importance for that already remarkable series of Americana. It was the first decade of Peter Martyr, printed at Seville in 1511, but with the supplementary leaves containing the table of errata and the map. We found at Madrid a splendid copy, which, when duly examined, presented differences theretofore unnoticed, in the title and address to Count Tendilla. Mr. Barlow purchased that important desideratum, and caused it to be bound in perfect Grolier style by Marius.‡ The works relating to the early history of Canada were among the chief objects of his solicitude, and he spared neither efforts nor exThe Barlowiana contained pense to gather as many as he could. the Champlains of 1613, 1620 and 1632 in extremely fine condition, and all with the original maps, but it preserved no Lescarbot. The editions of 1609, 1611 and 1612 could easily be obtained; a single *Mr. Picot, Catalogue des livres de m. le baron James de Rothschild, Vol. II., p. 424, says that it is a different edition from B. A. V., No. 30, which we described from the Serapeum. + Additamenta, No. 54, p. 55, where, in line 27, after mihi, should be added : significasti vt ea ceteris tue bi bliotece voluminibus. No. 1573. bookseller of Paris, Mr. Porquet, had at the same time, a couple of years ago, so many as seven copies of the latter; but Mr. Barlow wanted the valuable edition of 1617* or 1618, the only one which is complete. It was not believed to be in any of the private or public libraries of France; and Tross, after vainly seeking for that edition had been compelled to make his reprint from that of 1612, which lacks a chapter. It was found, but in New York. Mr. Barlow had given a standing and unlimited order for the Canadian book, which is unquestionably the most important for the religious history of Canada, and the origin of Montreal--not excepting the Sagard or the LeClerc--besides being, perhaps, next to the Cartier of 1545, the rarest of that class of works. Neither the Browniana, Lexoniana nor any other American library, whether public or private, possessed it, although a copy had once been sold in the United States twenty years ago for $160; but no one could tell what had become of the volume. It was the Véritables Motifs de Messieurs et Dames de la Société de Nostre Dame de Montreal, published at Paris in 1643, but printed only for the use of Mr. Olier's friends, and so rare that even St. Sulpice did not possess it, and the Abbé Faillon was preparing, when he died, to have a manuscript copy taken from the copy in the Paris National Library, the only one known to exist in France. A large paper copy was exhumed from among the scattered archives of a suppressed convent, and bought for Mr. Barlow just in time to save it from the waste basket. The devotion of the religious orders for the missionaries sent to la Nouvelle-France in the XVIIth century was extremely great, and shared by certain pious and wealthy laymen affiliated to them in a still higher degree, if possible. The Relations never failed to give a separate account of the death of these courageous apostles. The nuns, especially, who fell the victims of their zeal, were remem * There are copies differing from No. 31 of the Notes, Troisiesme edition enrichie de plusiers choses singulieres, outre la sinte de l'Histoire, M.DC. XVII.” † We have discovered since a copy in the Mazarine Library (No. 2488). It is the only specimen of the edition of 1618 in Paris. No. 1464. |
