“I have perused your list of books to be consulted on this occasion; and after transcribing it have delivered it to Mr. Millar; and shall now make some additions to it.

“The new ‘Histoire d’Allemagne’ by Father Barre, chancellor of the University of Paris, published a few years ago in several volumes in 4^to., is a work of very good credit, and to be perused by you; as is likewise the second edition of ’Abrege chronologique de l’Histoire & du Droit public d’Allemagne,’ just printed at Paris, and formed upon the plan of President Henault’s ‘Nouvel Abrege chronologique de l’Histoire de France,’ in which the reigns of Francis I. and Henry II. will be proper to be seen by you.

“The ‘Memoires pour servir a l’Histoire du Cardinal Granvelle,’ by Father Rosper Levesque, a Benedictin monk, which were printed at Paris in two vol’s. 12^o. in 1753, contain some particulars relating to Charles V. But this performance is much less curious than it might have been, considering that the author had the advantage of a vast collection, above an hundred volumes of the Cardinal’s original papers, at Besancon.  Among these are the papers of his eminence’s father, who was chancellor and minister to the Emperor Charles V.

“Bishop Burnet, in the ‘Summary of Affairs before the Restoration,’ prefixed to his ‘History of his Own Time,’ mentions a life of Frederick Elector Palatine, who first reformed the Palatinate, as curiously written by Hubert Thomas Leodius.  This book, though a very rare one, is in my study and shall be sent to you.  You will find in it many facts relating to your Emperor.  The manuscript was luckily saved when the library of Heydelberg was plundered and conveyed to the Vatican after the taking of that city in 1622, and it was printed in 1624, at Francfort, in 4^to.  The writer had been secretary and councillor to the elector.

“Another book which I shall transmit to you is a valuable collection of state papers, made by Mons’r.  Rivier, and printed at Blois, in 1665, in two vols. f^o.  They relate to the reigns of Francis I., Henry II., and Francis II. of France.  The indexes will direct you to such passages as concern the Emperor.

“As Mons’r.  Amelot de la Houssaic, who was extremely conversant in modern history, has, in the 1st. tome of his ’Memoires Historiques Politiques et Litteraires,’ from p. 156 to 193, treated of Charles V., I shall add that book to my parcel.

“Varillas’s ‘Life of Henry II. of France’ should be looked into, though that historian has not at present much reputation for exactness and veracity.

“Dr. Fiddes, in his ‘Life of Cardinal Wolsey,’ has frequent occasion to introduce the Emperor, his contemporary, of which Bayle in his Dictionary gives us an express article and not a short one, for it consists of eight of his pages.

“Roger Ascham, Queen Elizabeth’s preceptor, when he was secretary to S’r.  Richard Morysin amb. from K. Edward VI. to the imperial court, wrote to a friend of his ’a report and discourse of the affairs and state of Germany and the Emperor Charles’s court.’  This was printed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; but the copies of that edition are now very rare.  However this will be soon made public, being reprinted in an edition of all the author’s English works now in the press.