These two publications are much to be commended as affording a large amount of information at a very moderate price. The Costüm-Buch is issued in numbers, each containing four plates in outline, which may be obtained in this country for one shilling. The subjects are, in both works, selected from tombs, illuminations in MSS., or other authentic authorities, but the plates in the Costüm-Buch are very inferior in execution to those given by M. de Hefner; they are in many instances etched with a degree of freedom incompatible with accuracy of detail, and not a few subjects have been borrowed, without acknowledgment, from the faithful representations given by Stothard, from Willemin, and other recent publications. It is manifestly advantageous that the valuable information which in costly publications is too frequently stored away beyond the reach of the student, should be diffused and rendered more generally available in a less expensive form, but the source whence it has been derived should in every case be acknowledged, as well for facilities of further research, which many may desire, as because the concealment is not compatible with good faith or good feeling. No text, however, has hitherto been given with the Costüm-Buch, beyond a concise statement of the date of the original subject, or the place where it exists, with indications, in some cases, of the colouring; and it may be hoped, that the authority which has supplied each plate may ultimately be recorded.
M. de Hefner, with the assistance of a number of artists and antiquaries in different parts of Europe, has commenced a work superior in interest and artistic character to any which have hitherto appeared on the subject of costume. The representations of the ancient monuments of art, the stately monumental effigies of Germany, and many other memorials, wholly unknown to the English antiquary, are given in carefully detailed outlines, which bear the stamp of conscientious accuracy; and, as far as our acquaintance with the originals enables us to judge, are designed with a degree of fidelity rarely shewn in similar publications. They have been almost exclusively selected from examples hitherto unpublished; the series is accompanied by an able introductory essay on the chief peculiarities of secular and sacred costume at different periods, and detailed descriptions of the plates; it is divided into three portions, the first of which comprises costume from the earliest times to the thirteenth century; the second exhibits the peculiarities of the fourteenth and fifteenth; and the third division is devoted to the sixteenth century. The text may be procured either in French or German, and copies carefully and splendidly coloured are on sale, but the price of each number, containing four plates, (about 20 francs, or one pound, if procured in London,) places the illuminated copies beyond the reach of most purchasers; the uncoloured plates, however, accompanied by a careful description of the colouring of every portion, may amply suffice, and are attainable at the price of two francs, or in England shillings, for each number.
It would not be easy to convey a notion of the variety of examples of ancient art which have supplied materials for this collection. In the rich
