Note 152 — The Cabinet.

The Onomasticon Literarium of Christopher Saxius, Traject. ad Rhenum, 1775-90, seven vols. 8vo., with a supplement, or eighth volume, published in 1803, is considered as a work of the very first reputation in its way. The notices of eminent men are compendious, but accurate; and the arrangement is at once lucid and new. An elegantly bound copy of this scarce work cannot be obtained for less than six and seven guineas. The first bibliographical production of the Abbé Laire was, I believe, the Specimen Historicum Typographiæ Romanæ, xv. seculi, Romæ, 1778, large 8vo.; of which work, a copy printed upon vellum (perhaps unique) was sold at the sale of M. d'Hangard, in 1789, for 300 livres. Dictionn. Bibliogr., vol. iv., p. 250. In my Introduction, &c., to the Greek and Latin Classics, some account of its intrinsic merit will be found: vol. i., p. xviii. In the year 1784 Laire published a "Dissertation sur l'origine et Progrès de l'Imprimerie en Franche-Comté," 8vo.; and, in the year 1791, came forth his Catalogue Raisonné of the early printed books in the library of Cardinal de Lomenie de Brienne; under the title of "Index Librorum ab Inventa Typographia, ad annum 1500," in two octavo volumes. See the article "Lomenie," in the list of foreign catalogues, post. Laire was also the author of a few other minor bibliographical productions. All the books in his library, relating to this subject, were covered with marginal notes; some of them very curious. See Peignot's Dict. de Bibliologie, vol. i., p. 330: and Les Siecles Littéraires, (1801, 8vo.) vol. iv., p. 75.