posteritati Sig. lib. B. in Herberstain actiones suas reliquit,” etc.; where he says: “MDXLIX. Historiam Moscoviæ stilo simplici congessi eandemque typis excudi curavi.” On the reverse of the title-page are the arms of Herberstein. The dedication is followed on fol. iii and iv by some Latin panegyric verses addressed to the author by various writers; the text commencing on fol. v. The work is divided into three sections: I. Itinera in Moscoviam; fol. v-xii, reg. B-C. II. Moscovia; fol. i-ix, reg. A-E. III. Chorographia; fol. i-xxxvii, reg. A-G. The rarity of this book is such, that Denis, who wrote on the early history of printing at Vienna, was not able to see a copy, and describes it only from Gesner’s “Bibliotheca”, whose description, in fact, applied to the second edition of 1551.
Two years later an improved edition appeared at Basle, at the instance of Wolfgang Lazius. The title is the same as that of the first, except that we find this addition to it: “Accessit etiam locuples rerum et verborum in his memorabilium Index. Basileæ, per Joannem Oporinum”: s. a. (1551), fol., 175 pages, and 3 leaves of index; and also the work of Paulus Jovius, “De Legatione Moscoviticarum.”
In a letter addressed to the publisher, printed on the reverse of the title-page, Lazius says of the first edition: “Fuere quidem obiter hi (commentarii) apud nos excusi—sed adeo corrupte, adeoque absurdis typis, uti vides, ut ni tua industria accedat, opus mehercule memorabile iniuriam patiatur”; and, in a postscript, he says: “De prærogativa uti tu statues
