Book I
. for _end of the sixteenth_, read _commencement of the sixteenth century_.
43, l. 4 from the top, for _Don Juan de Manuel_, read _Don Juan Manuel_.
51, l. 14 from the top, for _beaux tenebreux_ read _beau tenebreux_.
100, l. 1 of the second note, for _Diez_ read _Dieze_.
102, l. 11 from the top, for _Bachellor_ read _Bachelor_.
128, last line, for _Count of Arragon_ read _Court of Arragon_.
131, l. 12 from the top, for _applies_ read _applied_.
161, last line but one of the note, for _called_ read _calls_.
165, l. 1 of the second note, for _Gottengen_ read _Göttingen_.
168, l. 1, for _changed_ read _charged_.
180, l. 5 from the top, for _ecologues_ read _eclogues_.
193, l. 18 from the top, for _Diego Mendoza_ read _Diego de Mendoza_.
215, l. 2 from top, for _depths_ read _depth_.
218, l. 6 from the top, for _formed_ read _found_.
253, l. 7 from the bottom, for _though it even constantly_ read _though it constantly_.
254, l. 7 from the bottom, for _Acuna_ read _Acuña_.
272, l. 13 from the top, for _belong_ read _belongs_.
303, l. 12 from the top, for _Lusiade_ read _Lusiad_.
309, l. 14 from the top, for _mankind_ read _man_.
312, l. 2 of the note, for _edition_ read _addition_.
364, 7 from the bottom, for _Span_ read _Spain_.
435, l. 7 from the top, for _title of a work_ read _title for a work_.
448, l. 8 from the bottom of the note, for _to Marshal_ read _to the Marshal_.
469, l. 6 from the top, for _voluntary_ read _voluntarily_.
524, l. 12 from the top, for _analize_ read _analyze_.
551, l. 8 from the top, for _Nothing poetical was at this period produced_, read _Nothing poetical produced at this period_.
FOREIGN LITERATURE.
PROSPECTUS OF A
CIRCULATING LIBRARY,
EXCLUSIVELY DEVOTED TO
FOREIGN LITERATURE,
_By BOOSEY and SONS_,
FOREIGN AND ENGLISH BOOKSELLERS,
4, BROAD STREET, EXCHANGE.
It has long been a subject of surprise and regret with Foreigners, and with those of our own countrymen acquainted with their Literature, that no establishment for the circulation of Books in the FOREIGN LANGUAGES, should have been formed in this country.
If this opinion was prevalent during the late war, how must it have gained ground latterly, owing to the gradual increase which, since that period, Foreign Literature has been making in the number of its votaries in this country.
With the view of supplying this _desideratum_ in Literature, BOOSEY and SONS, (_after an experience of thirty years as Foreign and English Booksellers_,) have been induced, at the particular request of many of their Friends, who have promised them their support and patronage, to undertake the establishment of a CIRCULATING LIBRARY _for_ FOREIGN BOOKS ONLY, upon an extensive scale.
As it is their intention to spare neither pains nor expence in rendering it as complete as possible, they confidently hope that it will meet with the approbation of the Public.
The Catalogue (which is in active preparation) will contain an extensive Collection of _French_, _German_, _Italian_, _Spanish_, and _Portuguese_ books, including the works of the authors in those languages who are considered as Classic Writers; also an extensive selection of _Modern Publications_.
In order to be supplied with all New Works of interest on their _first appearance_, BOOSEY and SONS have made arrangements with their Correspondents to forward them, together with the best Periodical Publications, _once every month_.
The Library will be opened to the Public as soon as the Catalogue, which is in a great state of forwardness, can be got ready for delivery: in the mean time a list of the Terms of Subscription is subjoined, in order that those who feel disposed may have an opportunity of encouraging the undertaking with their early support and patronage.
* * * * *
CLASS I.
Subscribers paying £5 : 5s. the Year; £3 : 3s. the Half-year; or £1 : 16s. per Quarter, are allowed 10 volumes in town, or 20 in the country.
CLASS II.
Subscribers paying £4 : 4s. the year; £2 : 12s. : 6d. the Half-year; or £1 : 11s. : 6d. per Quarter, are entitled to 8 volumes in town, or 16 in the country.
CLASS III.
Subscribers paying £3 : 3s. the year; £2 : 2s. the Half-year; or £1 : 5s. per Quarter, are entitled to 6 volumes in town, or 12 in the country.
⁂ _Full particulars of the Terms and Regulations will be delivered with the Catalogue._
To facilitate the circulation of Books at the West End of the Town, it is intended to appoint a house in a central situation for their receipt and delivery.
* * * * *
BOOSEY and SONS are desirous it should be generally understood, that they do not intend, in consequence of establishing the Library, to relinquish any branch of their FOREIGN and ENGLISH BOOKSELLING business; on the contrary, they trust that the impulse which Foreign Literature will receive in this country through its medium, added to the more frequent opportunities it will afford them of obtaining books from the Continent, will enable them to keep on sale a much more extensive stock of modern publications.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This, in its turn, is only a small part of a very extensive work, the general title of which is, _Geschichte der Künst und Wissenschaften seit der Wiederherstellung derselben bis an das Ende des achtzenten Jahrhunderts, von einer Gesellschaft gelehrter männer ausgearbeitet_. (History of Arts and Learning from their restoration to the end of the eighteenth century, by a society of learned men.) Different authors have each taken a part in this great literary enterprize, which may be said to form an Encyclopedia, though not on the usual plan of a dictionary.
[2] There is also a French translation of Bouterwek’s volume on Spanish literature, which, as far as it goes, is correct and well executed in point of style; but notwithstanding that the translator appears to have been capable of doing justice to the work, it is greatly mutilated. The Portuguese volume, which is in some respects the more valuable of the two, is not touched by the French translator.
[3] _Letters from an English Traveller in Spain, in 1778, on the Origin and Progress of Poetry in that kingdom, London 1781._--This book was written by _Mr. Dillon_, author of “Travels through Spain,” “History of Peter the Cruel,” &c.
[4] Fought in the year 712.
[5] This remark, from the _Indiculo luminoso_ of Bishop Alvaro of Cordova, is noticed in the preface to Du Cange’s Glossary, and is repeated by Velasquez in his History of Spanish Poetry, Dieze’s edition, page 33.--See also Eichhorn’s _Allgemeine Geschichte der Cultur und Litteratur_, vol. i. p. 121. The details of the history of Arabic poetry in Spain cannot be comprehended in a history of Spanish and Portuguese poetry. The bibliographic erudition on the subject of Arabic poetry, which Dieze has displayed in his remarks on Velasquez, does not belong to the subject of this work.
[6] Velasquez, Dieze, and other authors, furnish information on the history of the Biscayan language and poetry. This language, with the poetry to which it may have given birth, has had no influence on literature beyond its own territory, and appears to have had very little even there.
[7] How sensibly the neglect of the Catalonian or Valencian tongue, after the union of the kingdoms of Arragon and Castile, was felt in the provinces which belonged to the former, may be seen from the passage quoted by Eichhorn, in his _Allg. Gesch. der Cul. u. Litt._ vol. i. page 129, from Scuolano’s History of Valencia. But the pleasing language of the Troubadours was doubtless very defective. It would otherwise have been difficult to have made the Catalonian poets so soon proselytes to the Castilian dialect, especially as, besides the difference of language, the natural jealousy between the Arragonian and Castilian provinces was strong enough to manifest itself by political effects even in the eighteenth century. The imperfection of the Troubadour phraseology may have been partly owing to its fluctuations, and the various forms it assumed, in the several dialects. The difference of the dialects appears particularly evident on comparing the real PROVENÇAL of the French Troubadours with the Valencian, called LENGUA VALLENCIANA. The dialect of the Provençal Troubadours may, without much difficulty, be translated by conjecture, if the reader be acquainted with French and Italian; but the meaning of the Valencian cannot be so easily guessed at, even with the additional knowledge of Castilian. As a proof of this, it will be sufficient to peruse a passage of the _Libre de los Dones_, of _Mosen_, [that is, Monsieur, instead of the Castilian Don] _Jaume_ [James] _Roig_, reprinted in Valencia, 1735, in 4to. The author is one of the last poets who wrote in the Valencian dialect, and the whole didactic poem, if so it may be called, is composed in short verses of the following description:
Yo com absent Del mon vivint, Aquell linquint Aconortat, Del apartat Dant hi del peu, Vell jubileu Mort civilment, Ja per la gent Desconegut, Per tots tengut Con hom selvatge Tenint ostatge, &c. &c.
Owing to the difference of the dialects, a foreigner might, by a short residence in Madrid, learn to express himself in Castilian with more fluency than it is spoken by a great part of the inhabitants of the Arragonian provinces.
[8] At least such is the opinion of Gregorio Mayans y Ziscar, given in his work, known under the title of _Origenes de la Lengua Española_,
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