Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/49

Rh considerably cropped by the binder s plough, and a 12mo and IGmo have the water-mark on the fore-edge.&quot; For further information regarding MS. books see, and for printed books.

Bookselling.

The trade in books is of a very ancient date. The early poets and orators recited their effusions in public to induce their hearers to possess written copies of their poems or orations. Frequently they were taken down viva voce, and transcripts sold to such as were wealthy enough to pur chase. In the book of Jeremiah the prophet is repre sented as dictating to Baruch the scribe, who, when ques tioned, described the mode in which his book was written. These scribes were, in fact, the earliest booksellers, and supplied copies as they were demanded. Aristotle, we are told, possessed a somewhat extensive library ; and Plato is recorded to have paid the large sum of one hundred minte for three small treatises of Philolaus the Pythagorean. When the Alexandrian library was founded about 300 n.c., various expedients were resorted to for the purpose of procuring books, and this appears to have stimulated the energies of the Athenian booksellers, who were termed /2/./?A.iW Ktrrr^Aoi. In Home, towards the end of the Republic, it became the fashion to have a library as part of the household furniture ; and the booksellers, librarii (Gic., De Leg., in. 20) or bibliopoles (Martial, iv. 71, xiii. 3), carried on a flourishing trade. Their shops (taberna librarii, Cicero, Phil., ii. 9) were chiefly in the Argiletum, and in the Vicus Sandalarius. On the door, or on the side posts, was a list of the books on sale ; and Martial (i. 118), who mentions this also, says that a copy of his First Book of Epigrams might be purchased for five denarii. In the time of Augustus the great booksellers were the Sosii. According to Justinian (ii. 1, 33), a law was passed securing to the scribes the property in the materials used; and in this may, perhaps, be traced the first germ of the modern law of copyright. The spread of Christianity naturally created a great demand for copies of the Gospels and other sacred books, and later on for Missals and other devotional volumes for church and private use. Benedict Biscop, the founder of the abbey at Wearmouth in England, brought home with him from France (671) a whole cargo of books, part of which he had &quot; bought,&quot; but from whom is not mentioned. Passing by the intermediate ages we find that, previous to the Reformation, the text writers or stationers (stacyoneres), who sold copies of the books then in use, the A B C, the Paternoster, Creed, Ave Maria, and otlier MS. copies of prayers, in the neighbourhood of St Paul s, London, were, in 1403, formed into a guild. Some of these &quot; stacyoneres &quot; had stalls or stations built against the very walls of the cathedral itself, in the same manner as they are still to be found in some of the older Continental cities. In Mr Anstey s Munimenta Academica, published under the direc tion of the Master of the Rolls, we catch a glimpse of the &quot; sworn &quot; university bookseller or stationer, John Mora of Oxford, who apparently first supplied pupils, with their books, and then acted the part of a pawnbroker. Mr Anstey says (p. 77), &quot; The fact is that they (the students) mostly could not atford to buy books, and had they been able, would not have found the advantage so considerable as might be supposed, the instruction given being almost wholly oral. The chief source of supplying books was by purchase from the university sworn stationers, who had to a great extent a monopoly Of such books there were plainly very largs numbers constantly changing hands.&quot; Besides the sworn stationers.there were many booksellers in Oxford who were not sworn ; for one of the statutes, passed in the year 1373, expressly recites that, in consequence of their pres ence, &quot; books of great value are sold and carried away from Oxford, the owners of them are cheated, and the sworn stationers are deprived of their lawful business.&quot; It was therefore enacted that no bookseller except two sworn stationers, or their deputies, should sell any book bein&amp;lt;* either his own property or that of another, exceeding half a mark in value, under pain of imprisonment, or, if the offence was repeated, of abjuring his trade within the university. &quot;The trade in bookselling seems,&quot; says Hallam, &quot;to have been established at Paris and Bologna in the 12th century ; the lawyers and universities called it into life. It is very improbable that it existed in what we properly call the Dark Ages. Peter of Blois mentions a book which he had bought of a public dealer (a quodam publico manyone librorum) ; but we do not find many distinct accounts of them till the next age. These dealers were denominated stationarii, perhaps from the open stalls at which they carried on their business, though statio is a general word for a shop in low Latin. They appear, by the old statutes of the University of Paris, and by those of Bologna, to have sold books upon commission, and are sometimes, though not uniformly, distinguished from the librarii, a word which, having originally been confined to the copyists of books, was afterwards applied to .those who traded in them. They sold parchment and other materials of writing, which have retained the name of stationery, and they naturally exer cised the kindred occupations of binding and decorating. They probably employed transcribers ; we find at least that there was a profession of copyists in the universities and in large cities.&quot; The modern system of bookselling dates from soon after the introduction of printing. The earliest printers were also editors and booksellers ; but being unable to sell every copy of the works they printed, they had agents at most of the seats of learning. Antony Koburger, who introduced the art of printing into Nuremberg in 1470, although a printer, was more of a bookseller ; for, besides his own sixteen shops, we are informed by his biographers that he had agents for the sale of his books in every city of Chris tendom. Wynkin de Worde, who succeeded to Caxton s press in Westminster, had a shop in Fleet Street. The religious dissensions of the Continent, and the Reformation in England under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., created a great demand for books ; but in England neither Tudor nor Stuart could tolerate a free press, and various efforts were made to curb it. The first patent for the office of king s printer was granted to Thomas Berthelet by Henry VIII. in 1529, but only such books as were first licensed were to be printed. At that time even the pur chase or possession of an unlicensed book was a punishable offence. In 1556 (3 and 4 Philip and Mary) the London Company of Stationers was incorporated, and very extensive powers were granted in order that obnoxious books might be repressed. In the following reigns the Star Chamber exercised a pretty effectual censorship ; but in spite of all precaution, such was the demand for books of a polemical nature, that many were printed abroad and surreptitiously introduced into England. Queen Elizabeth interfered but little with books except when they emanated from Roman Catholics, or touched upon her royal prerogatives ; and towards the end of her reign, and during that of her pedantic successor, James, bookselling flourished. Arch bishop Laud, who was no friend to booksellers, introduced many arbitrary restrictions ; but they were all, or nearly all, removed during the time of the Commonwealth. So much had bookselling increased during the Protectorate that, in 1658, was published A Catalogue of the most Vendible Boolcs in England, digested under the lieads of Divinity, History, Physic, &amp;lt;L~c., ivith School Books, Ncbreu 1 , Greek, and Latin, and an Introduction, for the use of 