Bolton Corney

“ Of the various sections into which the history of English literature is divisible, there is no one in which the absence of collective materials is more seriously felt—no one in which we are more in need of authentic notes, or which is more apt to raise perplexing queries—than that which relates to the authorship of anonymous and pseudonymous works. ”

“ The importance of the inquiry is not inferior to the ardour with which it has sometimes been pursued, or the curiosity which it has excited. On all questions of testimony, whether historical or scientific, it is a consideration of the position and character of the writer which chiefly enables us to decide on the credibility of his statements, to account for the bias of his opinions, and to estimate his entire evidence at its just value. ”

“ Many scholars and reading-men are in the habit of noting down on the fly-leaves of their books memoranda, sometimes critical, sometimes bibliographical, the result of their own knowledge or research. The following are specimens of the kind of Notes to which we allude; and the possessors of volumes enriched by the Notes and memoranda of men of learning to whom they formerly belonged, will render us and our readers a most acceptable service by forwarding to us copies of them for insertion.
Douce on John of Salisbury. MS. Note in a copy of Policraticus, Lug. Bat. ”