Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/36

 24 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE contained 1,000 copies, as also those of Pfefferkorn's ' Handspiegel ' ('Hand-mirror') and Jacob Locher's ' Fulgehtius,' which appeared at the same time. 1 Thus we may conclude that 1,000 was the usual number at that time, while the measure of reproduction was twenty, thirty, or even sixty editions. Devotional books and religious writings generally, as well as the works of distinguished men with large circles of readers, were issued in still larger editions ; as for instance ' The Praise of Folly,' by Erasmus, of which 1,800 copies were printed in 1515. An immense number of the books printed in the fifteenth century have entirely disappeared, having been either destroyed in the religious and civil wars later on or lost through neglect in the present century. The number preserved, however, may be reckoned at over o 0,000 — many of them works of three, four, or even more thick folio volumes. This will give a good idea of the intellectual work and activity of that period. 1 Hehle, pp. 2-40. The publishers in Italy considered that three hundred copies constituted a folio edition ; see Van der Linde, p. 50. The smallest edition of the publications of Schweynheim and Pannartz in Pome contained 275 copies, the largest counted 1,100. Koberger and the large publishers in Venice often counted 1,800 in an edition.