[Illustration]

This cut is taken from a fac-simile drawing, made by me of the head of Wolfius as it appears at the back of the title-page to the preceding work. The original impression is but an indifferent one; but it presents in addition, the body of Wolfius as far as the waist; with his right hand clasping a book, and his left the handle of a sword. His ponderous chain has a medallion suspended at the end. This print, which evidently belongs to the English series, has escaped Granger. And yet I know not whether such intelligence should be imparted!--as the scissars may hence go to work to deprive many a copy of these "_Lectiones_," of their elaborately-ornamented title-pages. Forbid it, good sense!]

"In a short time," continued the venerable Orlando, after a pause of fifteen seconds, "in a short time I must bid adieu to this scene; to my choice copies; beautiful bindings: and all the classical furniture which you behold around you. Yes!--as Reimannus[173] has well observed,--'there is no end to accumulating books, whilst the boundaries of human existence are limited, indeed!' But I have made every necessary, and, I hope, appropriate, regulation; the greater part of my library is bequeathed to one of the colleges in the University of Oxford; with an injunction to put an inscription over the collection very different from what the famous Ranzau[174]

directed to be inscribed over his own.--About three hundred volumes you will find bequeathed to you, dear Philemon--accompanied with a few remarks not very different from what Lotichius[175] indited, with his dying breath, in his book-legacy to the learned Sambucus. I will, at present, say no more. Come and see me whenever you have an opportunity. I exact nothing extraordinary of you; and shall therefore expect nothing beyond what one man of sense and of virtue, in our relative situations, would pay to the other."

[Footnote 173: "Vita brevis est, et series librorum longa."

He adds: "aes magnum tempus, quo id dispungere conatus est, parvum." _Bibl. Acroamat._, p. 51, sign. d [dagger symbol]

2.]

[Footnote 174: "Henry de Ranzau--avoit dresse une excellente bibliotheque au chateau de Bredemberg, dans laquelle estoient conservez plusieurs manuscrits Grecs et Latins, et autres raretez, &c.--Ce scavant personnage a fait un decret pour sa bibliotheque, qui merite d'estre icy insere, pour faire voir a la posterite l'affection qu'il auoit pour sa conservation."

... Libros partem ne aliquam abstulerit, Extraxerit, clepserit, rapserit, Concerpserit, coruperit, Dolo malo: Illico maledictus, Perpetuo execrabilis, Semper detestabilis Esto maneto.

JACOB: _Traicte des Bibliotheques_, pp. 237, 240.

I have inserted only the fulminatory clause of this inscription, as being that part of it against which Orlando's indignation seems to be directed.]

[Footnote 175: "Petrus Lotichius Johanni Sambuco Pannonio gravissimo morbo laborans Bononiae, bibliothecam suam legaverit, _lib._ 3, _eleg._ 9, verba ejus lectu non injucunda:

Pro quibus officiis, haeres abeuntis amici, Accipe fortunae munera parva meae.

Non mihi sunt Baccho colles, oleisque virentes, Praediave aemiliis conspicienda jugis.

Tu veterum dulces scriptorum sume libellos, Attritos manibus quos juvat esse meis.

Invenies etiam viridi quae lusimus aevo, Dum studiis aetas mollibus apta fuit.

Illa velim rapidis sic uras carmina flammis Ut vatem ipse suis ignibus jussit Amor."

LOMEIER: _de Bibliothecis_, p. 288.]

"So spake Orlando," said Philemon, with tears in his eyes, who, upon looking at Lisardo and myself, found our faces covered with our handkerchiefs, and unable to utter a word.

The deliberate manner in which this recital was made--the broken periods, and frequent pauses--filled up a great measure of our journey; and we found that St. Paul's dome was increasing upon us in size and distinctness, and that we had not more than three miles to travel, when Lisardo, wishing to give a different turn to the discourse, asked Philemon what was the cause of such extravagant sums being now given at book-sales for certain curious and uncommon--but certainly not highly intrinsically-valuable--publications; and whether our ancestors, in the time of Hen. VIII. and Elizabeth, paid in proportion for the volumes of _their_ Libraries?

Upon Philemon's declaring himself unable to gratify his friend's curiosity, but intimating that some assistance might probably be derived from myself, I took up the discourse by observing that--

"In the infancy of printing in this country (owing to the competition of foreigners) it would seem that our own printers (who were both booksellers and book-binders) had suffered considerably in their trade, by being obliged to carry their goods to a market where the generality of purchasers were pleased with more elegantly executed works at an inferior price. The legislature felt, as every patriotic legislature would feel, for their injured countrymen; and, accordingly, the statute of Richard III. was enacted,[176] whereby English printers and book-binders were protected from the mischiefs, which would otherwise have overtaken them. Thus our old friend Caxton went to work with greater glee, and mustered up all his energies to bring a good stock of British manufacture to the market. What he usually sold his books for, in his life time, I have not been able to ascertain; but, on his decease, one of his _Golden Legends_ was valued, in the churchwardens' books, at six shillings and eight pence.[177] Whether this was a great or small sum I know not; but, from the same authority we find that twenty-two pounds were given, twelve years before, for eleven huge folios, called '_Antiphoners_.'[178]

In the reign of Henry VIII. it would seem, from a memorandum in the catalogue of the Fletewode library (if I can trust my memory with such minutiae) that Law-Books were sold for about ten sheets to the groat.[179] Now, in the present day, Law-Books--considering the wretched style in which they are published, with broken types upon milk-and-water-tinted paper--are the dearest of all modern publications. Whether they were anciently sold for so comparatively extravagant a sum may remain to be proved. Certain it is that, before the middle of the sixteenth century, you might have purchased Grafton's abridgment of Polydore Virgil's superficial work about _The Invention of Things_ for fourteen pence;[180] and the same printer's book of _Common Prayer_ for four shillings. Yet if you wanted a superbly bound _Prymer_, it would have cost you (even five and twenty years before) nearly half a guinea.[181] Nor could you have purchased a decent _Ballad_ much under sixpence; and _Hall's Chronicle_ would have drawn from your purse twelve shillings;[182] so that, considering the then value of specie, there is not much ground of complaint against the present prices of books."

[Footnote 176: By the 1st of Richard III. (1433, ch. ix.

sec. xii.) it appeared that, Whereas, a great number of the king's subjeets [Transcriber's Note: subjects] within this realm having "given themselves diligently to learn and exercise THE CRAFT OF PRINTING, and that at this day there being within this realm a great number cunning and expert in the said science or craft of printing, as able to exercise the said craft in all points as any stranger, in any other realm or country, and a great number of the king's subjects living by the craft and mystery of BINDING OF BOOKS, and well expert in the same;"--yet "all this notwithstanding, there are divers persons that bring from beyond the sea great plenty of printed books--not only in the Latin tongue, but also in our maternal English tongue--some bound in boards, some in leather, and some in parchment, and them sell by retail, whereby many of the king's subjects, being binders of books, and having no other faculty therewith to get their living, be destitute of work, and like to be undone, except some reformation herein be had,--Be it therefore enacted, &c." By the 4th clause or provision, if any of these printers or sellers of printed books vend them "at too high and unreasonable prices," then the Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, or any of the Chief Justices of the one bench or the other--"by the oaths of twelve honest and discreet persons," were to regulate their prices. This remarkable act was confirmed by the 25th Hen. VIII., ch. 15, which was not repealed till the 12th Geo. II., ch. 36, -- 3.

A judge would have enough to do to regulate the prices of books, by the oaths of twelve men, in the present times!]

[Footnote 177: The reader will be pleased to refer to p. cx.

of the first volume of my recent edition of the _Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain_.]

[Footnote 178: The following is from 'the churchwardens'

accompts of St. Margaret's, Westminster. "A.D. 1475. Item, for 11 great books, called Antiphoners, 22_l._ 0_s._ 0_d._"

_Manners and Expenses of Ancient Times in England_, &c., collected by John Nichols, 1797, 4to., p. 2. _Antiphonere_ is a book of anthems to be sung with responses: and, from the following passage in Chaucer, it would appear to have been a common school-book used in the times of papacy:

This litel childe his litel book lerning, As he sate in the scole at his primere He _Alma Redemptoris_ herde sing, As children lered hir _Antiphonere_:

_Cant. Tales_, v. 13,446, &c.

"A legend, an _Antiphonarye_, a grayle, a psalter," &c., were the books appointed to be kept in every parish church "of the province of Canterbury" by Robert Winchelsen.

_Const. Provin. and of Otho and Octhobone_, fol. 67, rect., edit. 1534.]

[Footnote 179: "The year books, 9 v. parcels, as published, impr. in different years by Pynson, Berthelet, Redman, Myddylton, Powell, Smythe, Rastell, and Tottyl, 1517 to 1531." Some of them have the prices printed at the end; as "The Prisce of thys Boke ys xiid. unbounde--The Price of thys Boke is xvid. un bownde;" and upon counting the sheets, it appears that the stated price of Law-Books, in the reign of Hen. 8, was ten sheets for one groat. _Bibl.

Monast-Fletewodiana_, no. 3156.]

[Footnote 180: In a copy of this book, printed by Grafton in 1546, which was in the library of that celebrated bibliomaniac, Tom Rawlinson, was the following singular MS.

note: "At Oxforde the yeare 1546, browt down to Seynbury by John Darbye _pryce_ 14_d._ When I kepe Mr. Letymers shype I bout thys boke when the testament was obberagatyd that shepe herdys myght not red hit I pray god amende that blyndnes wryt by Robert Wyllyams keppynge shepe uppon Seynbury hill.

1546." _Camdeni Annales: Edit. Hearne_, vol. i., p. xxx.]

[Footnote 181: From Mr. Nichol's curious work, I make the following further extracts:

_s._ _d._ A.D.

1539. Item, paid for the half part of the Bybell, } accordingly after the King's injunction } 0 9 9 1544. Item, also paid for six books of the Litany } in English } 0 1 6 1549. Paid for iv books of the service of the church 0 16 0 [This was probably Grafton's Prayer book of 1549, fol.]

1559. Paid for a Bybyl and Parafrawse 0 16 0

[From the Ch. Wardens Accts. of St. Margaret's Westminster]

The Inventory of John Port, 1524.

In the shop.

Item, a premmer lymmed with gold, and with imagery } written honds } 0 8 4 (From the do. of St. Mary Hill, London.)

To William Pekerynge, a ballet, called a Ryse and } Wake } 0 0 4 (From the books of the Stationers' Company).

See pp. 13, 15, 126, and 133, of Mr. Nichols's work.]

[Footnote 182: By the kindness of Mr. William Hamper, of Birmingham (a gentleman with whom my intercourse has as yet been only epistolary, but whom I must be allowed to rank among our present worthy bibliomaniacs), I am in possession of some original entries, which seem to have served as part of a day-book of a printer of the same name: "it having been pasted at the end of '_The Poor Man's Librarie_' printed by John Day in 1565." From this sable-looking document the reader has the following miscellaneous extracts:

A.D. 1553. _s._ _d._ (Two) Meserse of bloyene in bordis } One Prymare latane & englis } 0 ii 0 Balethis (ballads) nova of sortis 0 0 ii Boke of paper 1 quire in forrell 0 0 vi Morse workes in forrell 0 9 viij Castell of Love in forrelle wi: a sarmo nova 0 0 x

A.D. 1554.

Balethis nova arbull in 8vo. 1 catechis 0 0 viiij Prymare for a chyllde in 8vo. englis 0 iv Halles Croneckelle nova englis 0 xii 0

From a Household Book kept in London, A.D. 1561 (in the possession of the same Gent.)

Item, p-d for a Lyttellton in English xij_d._ ---- for the booke of ij englishe lovers vj_d._ ---- for the booke of Songes and Sonnettes } and the booke of dyse, and a frenche booke } ij_s._ viij_d._ (viz. the frenche booke xvj_d._ the ij other bookes at viij_d._ the pece.) ---- ---- for printing the xxv orders of honest men xx_d._]

LIS. All this is very just. You are now creeping towards the seventeenth century. Go on with your prices of books 'till nearly the present day; when the BIBLIOMANIA has been supposed to have attained its highest pitch.

"Don't expect," resumed I, "any antiquarian exactness in my chronological detail of what our ancestors used to give for their curiously-covered volumes. I presume that the ancient method of _Book-Binding_[183] added much to the expense of the purchase. But be this as it may, we know that Sir Ralph Sadler, at the close of the sixteenth century, had a pretty fair library, with a _Bible_ in the chapel to boot, for 10.[184] Towards the close of the seventeenth century, we find the Earl of Peterborough enlisting among the book champions; and giving, at the sale of Richard Smith's books in 1682, not less than eighteen shillings and two pence for the first English edition of his beloved _Godfrey of Boulogne_.[185] In Queen Ann's time, Earl Pembroke and Lord Oxford spared no expense for books; and Dr. Mead, who trod closely upon their heels, cared not at what price he purchased his _Editiones Principes_, and all the grand books which stamped such a value upon his collection. And yet, let us look at the priced catalogue of his library, or at that of his successor Dr.

Askew, and compare the sums _then_ given for those _now_ offered for similar works!"

[Footnote 183: As a little essay, and a very curious one too, might be written upon the history of BOOK-BINDING, I shall not attempt in the present note satisfactorily to supply such a desideratum; but merely communicate to the reader a few particulars which have come across me in my desultory researches upon the subject. Mr. Astle tells us that the famous _Textus Sancti Cuthberti_, which was written in the 7th century, and was formerly kept at Durham, and is now preserved in the Cottonian library, (Nero, D. IV.) was adorned in the Saxon times by Bilfrith, a monk of Durham, with a silver cover gilt, and precious stones. Simeon Dunelmensis, or Turgot, as he is frequently called, tells us that the cover of this fine MS. was ornamented "forensecis Gemmis et Auro." "A booke of Gospelles garnished and wrought with antique worke of silver and gilte with an image of the crucifix with Mary and John, poiz together cccxxij oz." In the secret Jewel House in the Tower. "A booke of gold enameled, clasped with a rubie, having on th' one side, a crosse of dyamounts, and vj other dyamounts, and th' other syde a flower de luce of dyamounts, and iiij rubies with a pendaunte of white saphires and the arms of Englande. Which booke is garnished with small emerades and rubies hanging to a cheyne pillar fashion set with xv knottes, everie one conteyning iij rubies (one lacking)." _Archaeologia_, vol.

xiii., 220. Although Mr. Astle has not specified the time in which these two latter books were bound, it is probable that they were thus gorgeously attired before the discovery of the art of printing. What the ancient Vicars of Chalk (in Kent) used to pay for binding their missals, according to the original endowment settled by Haymo de Hethe in 1327 (which compelled the vicars to be at the expense of the same--_Reg. Roff._, p. 205), Mr. Denne has not informed us.

_Archaeologia_, vol. xi., 362. But it would seem, from Warton, that "students and monks were anciently the binders of books;" and from their Latin entries respecting the same, the word "conjunctio" appears to have been used for "ligatura." _Hist. of Engl. Poetry_, vol. ii., p. 244.

Hearne, in No. III. of the appendix to _Adam de Domerham de reb. gest. Glast._, has "published a grant from Rich. de Paston to Bromholm abbey, of twelve pence a year rent charge on his estates to _keep their books in repair_." This I gather from Gough's _Brit. Topog._, vol. ii., p. 20: while from the _Liber Stat. Eccl. Paulinae_, Lond. MSS., f. 6, 396 (furnished me by my friend Mr. H. Ellis,[D] of the British Museum), it appears to have been anciently considered as a part of the Sacrist's duty to bind and clasp the books: "Sacrista curet quod _Libri bene ligentur et haspentur_," &c.