ACQUISITIONS ADD TO VALUE OF MILTONIANA

Two anonymous donors through notable gifts to the Widener collection of books upon Milton have made Harvard's already good collection of Miltoniana the second best in the world. The only one superior to it is in the British Museum.

Chief of the gifts announced at this time is one of the great rarities of Milton bibliography, a copy of the first edition of Comus," dated 1637. The copy was brought to this country after the sale of the Bridgewater collection by the well-known, New York bookseller, Gabriel Wells. This edition, which was published by Henry Lawes, musician and friend of the poet, appeared anonymously.

Gift in Memory of Lionel Harvard

Through the interest and cooperation of Gabriel Wells, the firm of Edgar 11. Wells and Co, secured it for the University library. It was presented by an anonymous benefactor, a graduate of the University, in memory of Lionel de Jersey Harvard '15, who died in the World War.

The other gifts, from a member of the Library Visiting Committee, are important and exceedingly valuable items, which go far towards completing the University's Miltoniana. There are three items.

The first of these. In chronological order, is a royal broadside proclamation of 1660 for the suppression of two of Milton's prose works. "Pro Populo Augliscano Defensio," and the "Eikonociastes." These are associated with that part of Milton's life, from 1642 to 1660, where he was engaged in political pamphleteering.

A treatise on Latin Grammar. "Accedence Commene't," dated 1669, is the second item, a manual recalling Milton's school-mastering days and his interests in education.

Four differing impressions of the first edition of "Paradise Lost," issued between 1667 and 1669, complete the gift. By this gift the University now possesses a complete set of major variants of this first edition, of which there were six issues.

Recently a first edition of the "Cosmus" was sold for over $11,000, and the intrinsic value together with its unusual associations make the new Harvard "Comus" one of the great treasures of its Library.