A copy _on vellum_, with illuminated initials, &c., of vol. i. (reaching
to the Psalms) of the Vulgate Bible, printed by Fust and Schoeffer in
1462, was bought for £2 10_s._! The volume was imperfect at the end,
ceasing at Job xxxii. 5, and seven leaves followed in contemporary and
beautiful MS., which also ended imperfectly at Ps. xxxvi. 9, with one
leaf wanting at the end of Job. But when the Canonici Collection of MSS.
was received from Venice, in 1818, among some fragments which were found
in one of the boxes were fourteen leaves of a MS. Bible, which were at
once recognised as being part of those wanted to complete this book, and
which left only four still deficient. The volume came to the Library
from the collection of Nic. Jos. Foucault, 'Comes Consistorianus,' many
other of whose MSS. and printed books came by Rawlinson's bequest; but
through how many hands the missing leaves had passed in the seventy
subsequent years ere they were thus marvellously restored to their
place, it is impossible to tell[212].
[212] The story of this recovery has been already related by Archd.
Cotton in his _Typographical Gazetteer_, p. 339, where by mistake he
refers the original purchase to the year 1752.