[Feb. 15, The matter having been considered by the Society, on motion, the following-named five gentlemen were unanimously selected as a "Committee of Judges," and the acting Secretary of the Prize Essay Committee was directed to inform them of their appointment by letter to be signed by Mr. Fraley, President of the Society : James C. Carter, of New York, C. Stuart Patterson, of Pennsylvania. A recess was taken, in order to give members an opportunity to cast their ballots. After recess, the proposed amendments to the By-Laws were taken up. Dr. J. Cheston Morris raised the point of order that proper publication of the proposed consideration of the By-Laws had not been made. It having been shown that the Secretary acting at the time hal officially reported such publication had been made, the point of order was overruled. Mr. Prime moved that the Society proceed to the consideration of the amendments to the By-Laws at this time. The motion was recorded, and a division having been called, it was lost. Mr. Prime then moved to indefinitely postpone the consideration of the amendments. Carried. Dr. Greene, inquired whether, by purchase or exchange, he could obtain some odd numbers of the Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society, now in the library of the Society. On motion, the application was referred to the Committee on Library, with power to act. Dr. Minis Hays moved to reconsider the motion by which. the Society had refused to consider, at this time, the proposed amendments to the By-Laws. Carried. Mr. Prime moved that the Committee on the proposed 1895.] amendments be discharged, and that the consideration of the amendments be indefinitely postponed. Seconded and carried. The Tellers having announced that their report on the balloting for candidates was ready, the President instructed them to present it. The report declared the following persons duly elected members: 2231. Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, Cambridge, Mass. 2232. Prof. W. W. Goodwin, Cambridge, Mass. 2233. R. F. Glaizebrook, F.R.S., Cambridge, England. 2234. C. A. M. Fennell, Litt.D., Cambridge, England. 2235. Prince Roland Bonaparte, Paris, France. 2236. A. Wallis Budge, Litt.D., London, England. 2237. Hon: James Bryce, M.P., London, England. 2238. Sir George Grove, D.C.L., London, England. 2239. William Huggins, D.C.L., London, England. 2240. James Glaisher, F.R.S., Edinburgh, Scotland. 2241. Rev. James Legge, LL.D., Oxford, England. 2242. Gabriel de Mortillet, St. Germain-en Laye, France. 2243. Rev. Isaac Taylor, LL.D., York, England. 2244. Prof. William Wundt, Leipzic, Germany. 2245. Dr. Ernst Curtius, Berlin, Prussia. 2246. Charles C. Harrison, Philadelphia. 2247. Richard A. Cleemann, M.D., Philadelphia. 2248. Richard Stockton Hunter, Philadelphia. 2249. Charlemagne Tower, Philadelphia. 2250. Joseph Wilcox, Philadelphia. 2251. Henry C. Mercer, Doylestown, Pa. 2252. Le Marquis Achille de Rochambeau, Rochambeau, France. Reading of the rough minutes was dispensed with, and the Society was adjourned by the President. Rosengarten.] [Jan. 4, The Paris Book Exhibition of 1894. By J. G. Rosengarten. (Read before the American Philosophical Society, January 4, 1895.) The November December number of the Paris Bulletin du Bibliophile contains exhaustive notices of the "Exposition du Livre," opened at the Palais de l'Industrie, in Paris, during the summer of 1894. To those who had the good fortune to see this wealth of illustrations of the whole history of books in France, these notices are most useful, for there was no catalogue to guide the visitor through the vast space filled with the treasures of the collectors of Paris. To those who knew of the exhibition only from brief newspaper notices, it may be of interest to learn something of its extent and importance. It had special significance in its fine examples of typography, illustra tion and bookbinding, but besides these, it had original drawings and engravings, and an almost endless variety of rarities—a whole histcry of the making of paper and its uses, a complete series of assignats, and great numbers of old specimens of mercantile paper, bills, drafts, shares of stock, stamped papers from the time of Louis XIV to our own, playing cards of every country-a whole series from China for instance -fans, invitations to dinners, fêtes and other entertainments, public and private, notices of service in the National Guard, visiting cards, not the commonplace pasteboard of to-day, but rich in vignettes and other ornamental illustration. There was a wealth of theatrical and other posters, in which the French led the way for an artistic development that has since spread all around the world. Autograph letters and documents, dating back for the last three centuries, were displayed in great profusion, under the title of "graphology." A whole series of papers showing the papermakers' marks, for a long series of years, was quite an important contribution. The newspaper collection was very large, from the Gazette de France, founded in 1631, through the whole history of French periodicals. A number of L'Ami du Peuple, much discolored, is said to be the very copy in the hand of Marat, and stained with his blood when he was stabbed in his bath by Charlotte Corday. There were all the illustrated journals and newspapers so characteristic of French taste. There was a large collection of ornamental letters and other typographical ornaments of the printers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, their catalogues, the decrees of Parliament ordering the destruction of condemned books and the punishment of the book peddlers who offered them for sale. There were whole series of printed books and very striking examples of bookbinding, engraving, typography, from the very outset to our own day, the bad and indifferent as characteristic as the good and the best. There was a fragment of the Biblia Pauperum, 1895.] [Rosengarten. xylographic work preceding the discovery of movable types. There were beautiful incunabula, works printed before 1500, and fine examples of printing of the sixteenth century, when all the problems of typography were already solved, black, brilliant, unalterable ink, paper often uneven but strong enough to resist use and wear all these years, type perfectly clear and extremely beautiful, illustrations of great artists, refined in execution, in exquisite taste; wood engravings in harmony with the text, yet all these were done with imperfect mechanical appliances, but much better done than the work of our own day with all the help of machinery carried to the highest perfection. Then came the Elzevirs with their attractive books, and a whole series of printers of irreproachable correctness, charming simplicity and a noble air worthy of the books they issued from their presses. Publishers and printers alike were then men of knowledge, masters of the classical languages, writing Latin and reading Greek. Later on, as books increased in numbers, they lost in their typographical value; a few printers fought for the old standards of excellence, but they were driven from the field, and even when the art of illustration was at its best, the printing and paper were at their worst. The nineteenth century has seen a still greater divorce between the good and the bad. Many books well printed and illustrated are made of wretched paper. That used in the incunabula has stood four centuries of hard usage without harm. That used in some of the books printed in this century of ours has not lasted for forty years. Typography was an art in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; to-day it is an art with and for the few, an industry with and for the many. It is carried on in vast establishments that have little in common with the old printing office, so admirably preserved in the Plantin Museum of Antwerp, and so well reproduced in Flameng's picture of Grolier's visit to the Aldine printing office in Venice, some cases full of type, some forms ready, a press on the model of the old wine presses, from which the name was derived. Nowadays there would be a great manufacturing establishment with machinery driven by steam or electricity, where printing is done with the best mechanical appliances. At the Exposition there was a whole series of such machinery in use to-day. It is only to be regretted that there was not a retrospective exhibition, from the old hand press, the first steam press, that of the Times of 1814, when the announcement was proudly made that that paper was printed by steam-very primitive it was, too-printed on one side at a time. By 1834 there were 160 steam presses in use in France. By 1817 there was in use in Paris a steam press with four cylinders printing both sides at once, for the first time. In 1866, rotary presses were introduced, and in 1873 an endless printing press was first used in Paris. In 1878, there was exhibited a press printing 40,000 copies an hour, and cutting, counting, folding, all done by machinery. Since then printing in colors, photogravure, photolithography, and many other applications of the Rosengarten.] [Jan. 4, sister arts have been added to the daily use of the printing office, and every day sees the announcement of some new handmaid to the old art preservative of all arts. The cheapening of books has gone hand in hand with the improvements in typography and its allied arts, but at the same time books dear to the bibliophile are still being produced, and the last decade of the century, now fast drawing to its end, will leave to posterity a rich heritage of works representing splendidly all the forms of expression of art in books. The renaissance of making fine books is comparatively modern; at one time it was limited to mere reproduction, but now it is marked by progressive originality, sometimes like the impressionists in painting startling by their struggles for novelty, but often charming by the good use made of the latest mechanical inventions. The French publishers have succeeded in making each a specialty, and the great books on architecture and decoration, the Bibles, the classic French authors, on art and on bibliography, will perpetuate their names among the world's master printers. The Exposition du Livre was rich in typography, but it was also rich in illustrations of every epoch and every kind. The oldest illustrators were the miniaturists and illuminators of the Middle Ages. It is in the manuscripts anterior to the discovery of Guttenburg that their art can be best appreciated. One of the rooms on the lower floor of the Palais de l'Industrie was devoted to manuscripts, and many of them were rare marvels of beauty, all of real interest. Printing by the end of the fifteenth century supplanted manuscripts and illumination, an art that has only been revived in our own day. The learned chief of the famous Museum of the Louvre has told the sad story of a miniature painter for manuscripts, who after holding rank at the head of the Guild, saw his talent made useless in competition with the first printers, and he soon lost his occupation and the means of his livelihood. The old art was killed, but it had the honor of compelling its new rivals to imitate the work of their predecessors. In the best incunabula there is a constant effort to make the printed page look like manuscript. The decoration of the printed Livres d' Heures strove to imitate the models which scribes had carried to a rare degree of perfection. They were works of art and luxury, and do honor to the names of Vérard and Pigouchet, Kerver and Simon Vostre. Under the influence of Italian renaissance they worked a great change, visible in the books of the sixteenth century, with their large plates illustrating the text, the borders surrounding, the figures inserted in the pages. The designers and the engravers were artists of the first excellence. The next age, that of the great masters of French literature, was too busy with the text to care for illustration, beyond an allegorical frontispiece or portraits, such as that of Malherbe in the edition of 1630, or of Corneille in that of 1644, excellent examples of engraving and valuable historically. In religious books and in funeral orations there were still illustrations. The funeral sermons of the seventeenth century were not |