34                     Notable Purchases, ip)8-i^^p

ters, by Professor A. Arthur Schiller, appeared in the May, 1959,
issue of Library Columns.

The ostraca represent by no means the only manuscripts that
were purchased during the year. Two fifteenth-century texts of
vernacular translations of classical writings were added to the
Gonzalez Lodge collection: an Italian version of Sallust's De con-
juratione Catilinae; and an unpublished Spanish text of Facta et
dicta memorabilia by X'alerius Maximus. Both of these manuscripts
are on paper. On the recommendation of Professor Kristeller, two
other early manuscripts were obtained. One of these is a single
leaf of an important text on the composition of letters, Sirnrnnda
artis dictanrinis by Matthaeus (Notarius Bononiensis), ca. 1300.
The other is a fifteenth-century manuscript of Domenico Braga-
din's Expositio sive declaratio super probatione terminorum.

Most of the later manuscripts recently purchased are letters or
documents. Two Alexander Hamilton letters were acquired, one
to "Fitsimmons, Esq." of i Sept. 1790, the other to A\'illiam Seton,
24 Jan. 1792. Four autograph letters of John Jay were also pur¬
chased: to Egbert Benson, 19 March 1781 (from Madrid); to
Peter Van Schaack, 14 May 1784 (from Paris); another to Peter
Van Schaack, 8 Sept. 1784 (from London); and to Benjamin
Eranldin, 13 Dec. 1784 (from Trenton, N. J.).

Other autographs of special interest to Columbia history are:
a letter from James Kent, July 1805; three receipts signed by
Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1830-31; and a letter from David Hosack, 17
March 1826, relating, among other matters, to the adoption of the
name "College of Physicians and Surgeons."

A number of letters from and to important figures in literature
and art include one from Hector Berlioz, 11 May 1838; four from
Richard Grant White, 19 May to 12 Dec. 1855; alotof 82 between
Sarah Orne Jewett, William Dean Ho wells, Annie Fields, etc.;
five letters and notes from Elizabeth Akers Allen, 1884-1908; one
from Stephen Crane (but written by Cora Crane), 7 Dec. 1899;
four from Laura Riding; a group of 29 from Ella"\VheelerA\'ilcox,