Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/14

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. I. .JAN. 1, 1910.

dole, John. Bookselling Spiritualised, Books and Articles of Stationery rendered Monitors of Religion (only 40 copies printed). Scar- borough, 1826.

Oonstable, Archibald, and his Literary Corre- spondents. By bis Son Thomas Constable. 3 vols., 8vo, Edinburgh, 1873. See appendix to vol. i. for " what may be called a catalogue

raisnnnt? by my father of the chief booksellers in Edinburgh

at the end of the last [eighteenth] century."

Ouden, Alexander, 1701-70. Life, by Alexander

Chalmers.

This is prefixed to many of the editions of the Bible Con- cordance. Cruden opened a bookseller's shop under the Royal Exchange in 1732, and it was there that he composed his great work.

Dobson, Austin. Eighteenth Century Vignettes (Fine -Paper Edition), Series I. contains, ' An Old London Bookseller ' (Francis New- bery) ; Series II. ' At Tully's Head ' (Robert Dodsley), ' Richardson at Home,' ' The Two Paynes ' ; Series III. ' Thos. Gent, Printer,' fcap. 8vo, London, 1906-7.

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-64. See Mr. W. P. Court- ney's articles at 10 S. vi. 361, 402 ; vii 3 82, 284, 404, 442 ; viii. 124, 183, 384, 442 ; ix. 3, 184, 323, 463 ; x. 103, 243, 305, 403 ; xi 62, 143, 323 ; xii. 63. See also Northern Notes and Queries, vol. i. Nos. 7 and 8, pp. 200, 234. Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Mr. R. Straus is preparing for publication a work on

Robert Dodsley (See 10 S. xi. 428).

Duff (E. Gordon). The Printers, Stationers, and Bookbinders of Westminster and London from 1476 to 1535. The Sandars Lectures at Cambridge, 1899 and 1904. Crown 8vo, Cambridge, 1906.

A Century of the English Book-Trade. Short Notices of all Printers, Stationers, Booksellers and Others connected with it from the Issue of the First Dated Book in 1457 to the Incorporation of the Company of Stationers in 1557. Bibliographical Society, 1906. Has an Index of London booksellers' signs before 1558.

Early Chancery Proceedings concerning Members of the Book-Trade. Article in The Library, October, 1907.

WM. H. PEET. ( To be concluded. )

4 THE BOOK TRADE, 1557-1625.' The Syndics of the Cambridge Press have conferred a boon on those interested in the history of bookselling by reprinting for private circulation from Vol. IV. of ' The Cambridge History of English Literature' .the chapter contributed by Mr. Aldis, the Secretary of the University Librarv on ' The Book Trade, 1557-1625.'

The chapter opens with an account of the immense powers of the Stationers' Company. As a direct consequence of their charter, no one could print anything for sale within

the kingdom unless he were a member of the Company, or held some privilege or patent entitling him to print some specified work or particular class of work. The Stationers were empowered to search the premises of any printer or stationer

' ' to see that nothing was printed contrary to regulations, and, accordingly, searchers were appointed to make weekly visits to printing- houses, their instructions being to ascertain how many presses every printer possessed ; what every printer printed, the number of each im- pression, and for whom they were printed ; how many workmen and apprentices every printer employed, and whether he had on his premises any unauthorized person."

A young man, starting as a bookseller, if possessed of means might purchase a stock of saleable books, and at once open a shop in some busy thoroughfare, or take up a point of vantage in one of the stalls or booths which crowded round the walls of St. Paul's.

" London Bridge did not attain its fame as a resort of booksellers until the second half of the seventeenth century ; but as early as 1557 William Pickering, a bookseller, whose publica- tions consisted chiefly of ballads and other trivial things, had a shop there."

"If a bookseller could procure the copy of some book or pamphlet, or maybe even a ballad, which he could enter in the register as his property, and then get printed by some friendly printer, he would have made a modest beginning ; and, if this first essay happened to promise a fair sale, he might, by exchanging copies of it with other publishers for their books, at once obtain a stock- in-trade."

In 1598 the Stationers' Company, with a view to prevent the excessive prices of books, made a general order

" that no new copies without pictures should be sold at more than a penny for two sheets if in pica, roman and italic, or in english with romaii and italic ; and at a penny for one sheet and a half if in brevier or long primer letter. A quarto volume of 360 pages in small type might thus cost, in sheets, two shillings and sixpence, equal to about one pound at the present day. At this rate the first folio Shakespeare, which contains nearly one thousand pages, should have cost about fourteen shillings, but the actual selling price was one pound."

Correctors for the press occupied a high position in those days. The work afforded occupation for a few scholars in the more important printing houses :

" Christopher Barker in 1582 mentions the payment of ' learned correctours ' as one of the expenses which printers had to bear ; and about 1630 the King's printing house was employing four correctors, all of whom were Masters of Arts."

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.