VALUABLE COLLECTION OF HORACE NOW AT WIDENER

A new collection of editions of the poet Horace has been received at the Widener Library and will be put on exhibition after the 105 volumes which constitute the collection have been arranged and catalogued. The collection is of extraordinary sentimental and monetary value, and is the gift of Mr. William Cross Williamson '52. Mr. Williamson was a noted collector and lover of Horace. When he died two years ago, he left the collection upon which he had spent so many years to the College Library. His daughter, Mrs. Edes, sent the books from Boston and they have now been unpacked. The volumes, which are in many cases bound in exceptionally beautiful bindings, range in date of publication from 1501 to 1900. Each is the work of some master printer.

The gem of the whole group is a product of the Aldine Press. It is also the oldest, its date being 1501. Aldus Pius Manutius was a Venetian and did some of the most excellent work of any of the earlier printers. He reached the height of his art in 1501 when he printed editions of Virgil, Horace, Juvenal and Martial. Of the edition of Virgil only a few defective copies remain. It is impossible to find even a nearly perfect volume. Aldus also was the inventor of italics.

Three other editions of the poems are those of Stephani, 1544; Martinus Juvenus, Paris, 1554; and a miniature volume, very prettily made by Pickering at London, 1724. There is also a superb book, in two volumes, printed from engraved copper plates by Pine in 1733. The binding is perhaps superior to any in the collection for craftsmanship and design.

The famous printer family, Elzevir, is represented in the collection by an edition of Horace's works printed at Paris in 1676. The Elzevirs were noted for the cleanness, neatness and practical elegance of the pages struck off from their presses. Louis Elzevir, born in 1592, left a number of sons who carried on his large business. They in turn bequeathed it to two grandsons, Bonaventure and Abraham. Bonaventure was the greatest of the family. His illustrious name is perpetuated in a style of type commonly used in the present day. Later the Elzevir family branched out and their establishments were set up in Amsterdam and other cities.

Caslon was the first to introduce excellent printing in England. Previous to his work, poor, Roman type brought over from Holland had been employed. John Baskerville refined Caslon's work to an almost too ornate extreme. A splendid example of Baskerville's printing is to be seen in a large volume in the collection, dated 1770.

About 1800 old-style type was abandoned in England, owing to the influence of an Italian topographer, Bodoni. Bodoni has two books in the Williamson collection, a large folio volume and a small volume. The date of the former is 1791 and of the latter 1793. Ordinary text-type of today is patterned after Bodoni's original designs.

A product of the Foulis press in Glasgow shows why Foulis was celebrated for his beautiful editions of classical works. Foulis became a popular printer after the deaths of William Caslon and John Baskerville.

The strangest-looking exhibit in the collection is a book by Ambroise Firmin Didot, the most famous of a very illustrious family. It is bound in leather and printed on vellum, illustrated with small vignettes. It was printed in 1855 at Paris.