Note 382 — The Drawing Room. (continued 3)

"A Catalogue of the entire and valuable library of Martin Folkes, Esq., President of the Royal Society, and Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, lately deceased; which will be sold by auction, by Samuel Baker, at his house in York Street, Covent-Garden. To begin on Monday, February 2, 1756, and to continue for forty days successively (Sundays excepted). Catalogues to be had at most of the considerable places in Europe, and all the booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland. Price sixpence." This collection was an exceedingly fine one; enriched with many books of the choicest description, which Mr. Folkes had acquired in his travels in Italy and Germany. The works on natural history, coins, medals, inscriptions, and on the fine arts in general, formed the most valuable department—those on the Greek, Latin, and English classics were comparatively of inferior importance. It is a great pity the catalogue was not better digested; or the books classed according to the nature of their contents. The following prices, for some of the more rare and interesting articles, will amuse a bibliographer of the present day. The chronicles of Fabian, Hall, and Grafton, did not, altogether, bring quite 2l., though the copies are described as perfect and fair. There seems to have been a fine set of Sir Wm. Dugdale's Works (Nos. 3074-81) in 13 vols., which, collectively, produced about 30 guineas! At the present day, they are worth about 250l.—In Spanish literature, the history of South America, by John Duan and Ant. di Ulloa, Madr., fol., in 5 vols., was sold for 5l.: a fine large paper copy of the description of the monastery of St. Lorenzo, and the Escorial, Madr., 1657, brought 1l. 2s.; de Lastanosa's Spanish medals, Huesca, fol., 1645, 2l. 2s.—In English, the first edition of Shakspeare, 1623, which is now what a French bibliographer would say, "presque introuvable," produced the sum of 3l. 3s.; and Fuller's Worthies, 18s.!——Fine Arts, Antiquities, and Voyages. Sandrart's works, in 9 folio volumes (of which a fine perfect copy is now rarely to be met with, and of very great value) were sold for 13l. 13s. only: Desgodetz Roman edifices, Paris, 1682, 4l. 10s. Galleria Giustiniano, 2 vols., fol., 13l. 13s. Le Brun's Voyages in Muscovy, &c., in large paper, 4l. 4s. De Rossi's Raccolta de Statue, &c., Rom., 1704, 6l. 10s. Medailles du Regne de Louis le Grand: de l'Imp. Roy. 1. p. fol., 1702, 5l. 15s. 6d.——The works on Natural History brought still higher prices: but the whole, from the present depreciation of money, and increased rarity of the articles, would now bring thrice the sums then given.—Of the Greek and Latin Classics, the Pliny of 1469 and 1472 were sold to Dr. Askew, for 11l. 11s. and 7l. 17s. 6d. At the Doctor's sale they brought 43l. and 23l., although the first was lately sold (A.D. 1805) among some duplicates of books belonging to the British Museum, at a much lower price: the copy was, in fact, neither large nor beautiful. Those in Lord Spencer's, and the Hunter and Cracherode collections, are greatly superior, and would each bring more than double the price. From a priced copy of the sale catalogue, upon large paper, and uncut, in my possession, I find that the amount of the sale, consisting of 5126 articles, was 3091l. 6s. The Prints, and Drawings of Mr. Folkes occupied a sale of 8 days: and his pictures, gems, coins, and mathematical instruments, of five days. Mr. Martin Folkes may justly be ranked among the most useful, as well as splendid, literary characters, of which this country can boast. He appears to have imbibed, at a very early age, an extreme passion for science and literature; and to have distinguished himself so much at the University of Cambridge, under the able tuition of Dr. Laughton, that, in his 23rd year, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society. About two years afterwards he was chosen one of the council; and rose in succession to the chair of the presidentship, which, as Lysander above truly says, he filled with a credit and celebrity that has since never been surpassed. On this occasion he was told by Dr. Jurin, the Secretary, who dedicated to him the 34th vol. of the Transactions, that "the greatest man that ever lived (Sir Isaac Newton) singled him out to fill the chair, and to preside in the society, when he himself was so frequently prevented by indisposition; and that it was sufficient to say of him that he was Sir Isaac's friend." Within a few years afterwards, he was elected President of the Society of Antiquaries. Two situations, the filling of which may be considered as the ne plus ultra of literary distinction. Mr. Folkes travelled abroad, with his family, about two years and a half, visiting the cities of Rome, Florence, and Venice—where he was noticed by almost every person of rank and reputation, and whence he brought away many a valuable article to enrich his own collection. He was born in the year 1690, and died of a second stroke of the palsy, under which he languished for three years, in 1754. He seems to have left behind him a considerable fortune. Among his numerous bequests was one to the Royal Society of 200l., along with a fine portrait of Lord Bacon, and a large cornelian ring, with the arms of the society engraved upon it, for the perpetual use of the president and his successors in office. The MSS. of his own composition, not being quite perfect, were, to the great loss of the learned world, ordered by him to be destroyed. The following wood-cut portrait is taken from a copper-plate in the Portraits des Hommes Illustres de Denmark, 4to., 7 parts, 1746: part 4th, a volume which abounds with a number of copper-plate engravings, worked off in a style of uncommon clearness and brilliancy. Some of the portraits themselves are rather stiff and unexpressive; but the vignettes are uniformly tasteful and agreeable. The seven parts are rarely found in an equal state of perfection.