Admiration of the works of Holbein in Germany, as in this country, seems to
increase with increasing years. We have received from Messrs. Williams and
Norgate a copy of a new edition of his Bible Cuts lately published at
Leipsic, under the title _Hans Holbein's Altes Testament in funfzig
Holzschnitten getreu nach den Originalen copirt. Herausgegeben von Hugo
Burkner, mit einer Einleitung von D.F. Sotymann_, to which we direct the
attention of our readers, no less on account of the beauty and fidelity
with which these admirable specimens of Holbein's genius have been copied,
than of the interesting account of them prefixed by their new editor.
We beg to call the attention of such of our antiquaries as are interested
in the history of the Orkneys to a valuable contribution to our knowledge
of them, lately published by our accomplished friend, Professor Munch, of
the Christiana, under the title of _Symbolæ ad Historiam Antiquiorem Rerum
Norwegicarum_, which contains, I. A short Chronicle of Norway; II.
Genealogy of the Earls of Orkney; III. Catalogue of the Kings of
Norway--from a MS., for the most part hitherto inedited, and which appears
to have been written in Orkney about the middle of the fifteenth century.
While on the subject of foreign works of interest to English readers, we
may mention two or three others which we have been for some time intending
to bring under the notice of those who know how much light may be thrown
upon our early language and literature by a study of the contemporary
literature of the Low Countries. The first is, _Denkmaeler Niederdeutscher
Sprache und Literatur von Dr. Albert Hoefer, Erstes Banchen_, which
contains the highly curious Low German Whitson play called _Claws Bur_. The
next is a larger, more elaborately edited, and from its introduction and
extensive notes and various illustrations, a yet more interesting work to
English philologists. It is entitled _Leven van Sinte Christina de
Wonderbare_, an old Dutch poem, now first edited from a MS. of the
fourteenth or fifteenth century, by Professor Bormans.
We have received the following Catalogues:--Thomas Kerslake's (3. Park
Street, Bristol) Books, including valuable late Purchases; John Wheldon's
{431} (4. Paternoster Row) Catalogue of valuable Collection of Scentific
Books; W.H. McKeay's (11. Vinegar Yard, Covent Garden) Catalogue of a
Portion of Stock.
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