Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/341

* BOOKSELLING. 301 BOOKSELLING. all classes, edupated and unediieated, and sp- eiirpd a wider circulation than had heretofore been achieved by any reliijious works — or. for that matter, by any writings wliatevcr. Lutlier made no profit from these sales. Every guhlen that was paid for the books, every pfennig that came in for the fly-leaves or pamphlets, was at onee expended in fiirtlier printings and in insti- tuting further distributing machinery. One of the most noteworthy of the printing houses of the Sixteenth Century was that, estab- lished in 1555 by Christopher Plantin. in Ant- Averp. His publications were distinguished not only for the perfection of their typography, but lor the beauty of the illustrations, chiefly pro- duced by engraving on copper plates. The hooks produced in the Low Countries, even during the manuscript period, had always been distin- guished by their artistic effectiveness. The illu- minations in the manuscripts prepared in Bruges and in Li&ge were the finest that the world had as j-et seen. The same interest in the ornamentation of literature persisted in the Low Countries after the printing-press had replaced the work of the smptoritim. For a quarter of a century after 15.55. Plantin's publishing house was the most considerable in Europe. In 1557 his consignment to the Frankfort Fair comprised no less than 1200 volumes, together with a large assortment of prints from copper plates. The jiublishing business founded by him continued in the hands of his descendants until 186", and had thus a continuous existence of nearly three centuries. In 1867 the 'plant' was purchased by the city of Antwerp, and the Plantin ^luseum was instituted. The Elzevirs of Leyden and Amsterdam, whose work continued during the century between 1587 and 1688, were the most noteworthy pub- lishers of Holland, and the repute of the books issued from the Elzevir Press has continued to the present day. While the fame of Plantin had rested chiefly on his illustrated volumes, the reputation of the Elzevirs was connected more ])articularly with the classical publications ]>roduced by their press. They had the ad- vantage of a comnuinity of scholars whose services could be secured at moderate cost for the editing of the long series of classical texts which bear the Elzevir imprint. Their cata- logues presented also the names of a number of contemporary writers whose works have achieved an abiding fame, among them Descartes, Galileo, Grotius. Salmasius, Heinsius, Hobbes, Spinoza, and MoliJ>re. The book trade of Germany was first or- ganized by the institution, in 1480, of a division of the Frankfort Fair for the sale of printed books. For many years before this date, this fair had been the centre of an active trade in many classes of goods, including not only manu- scripts produced in Germany, but also those from the Low Countries, France, and Italy. After 1480 the printer-publishers secured an apportionment of s[)ace in the buildings assigned for the fair, which was utilized for semi-annual gatherings. It was not only the German book- sellers who made use of this machinery. The Etiennes and the other leading publishers of Frame. Plantin and his associates of .Vntwerp, the Elzevirs of Holland, and the leading dealers from Italy, all found it to their advantage to be represented there at least once, and frequent- ly twice, a year. From the beginning of the Sixteenth Century Leipzig came into impor- tance as a book-pniducing and bookselling cen- tre, and the rulers of Saxony took an early in- terest, through the encouragement of the book trade, and through liberal regulations concern- ing censorship of the press and a recognition of property rights in the books produced, to further the undertakings of the printer - pub- lishers of Saxony. In the beginning of the bookmaking industry, it was understood without further specification that the printer was also the publisher of the works coming from his press. Soon, however, we find associated with his undertakings the names of partners, who had nothing directly to do with the book-manufacturing, but who con- tributed their aid, either for the sake of literary development or for some other motives apart from that of business profit: and in the list of such associates occurred the names of nobles, ecclesiastics, and wealthy scholars. The period of 16.50-1764 witnessed the growth of the system of book exchange under Mhich publishers, in disposing of their productions, were obliged to accept in payment the stock of other publishers, so that the market value of books came to be measured in other books. This method, if it did not add very promptly to the receipts of the dealers, had at least the advantage of facilitat- ing the distribution of books and of furthering the organization of the book trade. The first general catalogue of the books offered at the Frankfort Fair was printed in 1564; of the Leipzig Fair, in 1595. Catalogues of individual dealers, however, were published soon after the invention of printing, and more than a score from the Fifteenth Century are still extant, the oldest of which is that of Johann Mentelin (Strassburg. 1469). The operations and results of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) had much to do with the transfer of the "centre of the book trade from Frankfort to Leipzig, but a large factor in the matter was the increasing intellectual activity of the Protestant States of north Germany, as compared with the southern, which remained under the restrictions imposed by the Catholic autliorities. The German pub- lishers and booksellers have all along had the advantage of a more effective organization than that of any other country, under which there has been, with the smallest possible tax (m read- ers, a larger return than elsewhere for the work of writers, and more stable and less speculative conditions for both sellers and purchasers of books. The Leipzig 'fairs' are still held annu- ally: after they ceased to be actual occasions for exposing the books for sale, they were long the scene of the settlement of the year's business, and are still important reunions of all the pub- lishing interests. Every bookseller in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland has a representative in Leipzig, as the centre of the trade for those countries, and an ollicial organ has been pub- lislicd there since 1834; daily since 1867. Other smaller gatherings similar to the Leipzig Fair occur in Stuttgart, for south Germany, and in Vienna, for Austria-Hungary. While the mod- ern trade is nowhere so elaborately organized as in Germany, all the principal European countries have their associations. In England there are