Chapter IV: The Book-Trade in the Manuscript Period (2)

Al-hakem also collected and employed in his own palace the most skilful men of his time in the arts of transcribing, binding and illuminating books. The great library that he brought together remained in the palace of Cordova, until, during a siege of the city by the Berbers, Hájib Wadheh, a freedman of Al-mansúr, ordered portions of the books to be sold, the remainder being shortly afterwards plundered and destroyed on the taking of the city. The extent of the collection is indicated by the description of the catalogue. In the Tekmílah, Ibun-l-abbáns is quoted by Al-Makkari as saying that the catalogue comprised forty-four volumes, each volume containing twenty sheets. Makkari estimates that the library contained no less that four hundred thousand volumes. It is possible that this number was over-estimated, at least, if we are to believe the statement of Ibun-l-abbar that the Khalif Al-hakem had himself read every book in the collection, writing on the fly-leaf the dates of his perusal and details concerning the author.

Makkari gives a long list of famous authors who flourished in Andalusia during the reign of Al-hakem, their productions including works in law, medicine, history, topography, language, and poetry. One of the historians, Al-tári-khí, was a paper merchant, and was accordingly known by the name of Al-Warrak. I do not find record of the names of any dealers in books or any account of the means employed for their distribution.[356]

=The Manuscript Trade in France.=--While, in Italy, the more important part of the trade in manuscripts was carried on outside of the university circles, in France the university retained in the hands of its own authorities the control and supervision of the work of the manuscript-dealers; and the book-trade of the country, not only during the manuscript period, but for many years after the introduction of printing, was very directly associated with the university organisation. The record of the production and of the trade in books carried on by the _stationarii_, _librarii_, and the printer-publishers of the university is presented in the chapter on the Making of Books in the Universities.

During its earlier years, the trade in manuscripts was limited practically to the city of Paris. The work of the official university scribes in Paris was very similar to that which has already been referred to for Bologna. It appears, however, that, in accordance with the Parisian methods, there was less insistence upon the practice of hiring manuscripts, either complete or in divisions, and there was an earlier development of the practice of making an absolute sale of the texts required.

Kirchhoff traces the beginning of the manuscript-trade back to the second half of the eleventh century. He says that it is not clear whether the earlier dealers were able to devote themselves exclusively to the business of selling books, or whether, as he thinks it more probable, they associated this business with some other occupation. Jean de Garland, who compiled a kind of technological directory or list of industries carried on in Paris in 1060, says: _Paravisus est locus ubi libri scholarium vendentur_.[357] He is apparently referring to the Place near the Cathedral Church, which later became the centre of the Parisian book-trade. Peter of Blois, writing, in the middle of the twelfth century, to an instructor in jurisprudence in Paris, makes a more definite reference to the Parisian manuscript-dealers. He speaks of the great collections of valuable books which the Parisian dealers have for sale, and laments the narrowness of his purse which prevents him from purchasing many things which have tempted him.[358]

Bulæus, in his _History of the University of Paris_, published in 1665, maintains that as early as 1174, the manuscript-dealers of Paris formed a part of the organisation of the university, and that their work had been brought fully under the regulation of the university authorities. The university statistics, before the thirteenth century, do not, however, appear fully to bear out this contention. The first statutes which give detailed regulations concerning the book-trade bear date as late as 1275. These statutes specify what texts and what number of copies of each text the licensed booksellers should keep in stock, and give a schedule, as was done in Bologna and Padua, of the prices at which the loans and sales should be made.

Kirchhoff is of opinion that, prior to the middle of the thirteenth century, the book-trade connected with the university, while it had already assumed considerable proportions, had not been brought thoroughly under university control. With this control came also as an effect, the privileges which attached to the dealers as members of the university body, and there is no evidence that the booksellers enjoyed these privileges before 1250. Depping takes the ground, that during the fifteenth century the sale of books in Paris was not sufficient to constitute a business in itself, and that all dealers in books had some other occupation or means of support, and interested themselves in the sale of manuscripts only as an additional occupation.[359]

It appears hardly likely, however, that manuscript-dealers should be able to secure immunity from the general tax, which fell upon nearly all other classes of dealers, on the ground of the importance of their trade for education, unless they were able to show that they were actively engaged in such trade. The regulation quoted by Depping specifies among the free citizens of the city of Paris who were not liable to the King’s tax,--_libraires parcheminiers_, _enlumineurs_, _escriipveins_. It was evidently the intention of the framers of the law to include under the exemption all dealers upon whose trade the preparation and sale of manuscripts was directly dependent. Under this heading were included, of necessity, the scribes, the illuminators (who added to the text of the scribes the artistic decorations and initial letters), and (most important of the three) the dealers in parchment.

The fact that the booksellers are named in this schedule separately from the scribes is an indication of the existence of a bookselling trade of sufficient importance to call for the work of capitalists employing in the preparation of their manuscripts the services of the scribes and of the other workmen required. Work of this kind can properly be classified as publishing.

The dealer was himself prohibited from making purchase of a manuscript left in his hands until this had been offered for sale during the term of not less than one month. Record was to be kept of the name of the purchaser and of the price received.

The requirement that the price obtained for a manuscript should be recorded, has secured the preservation, on a number of manuscripts of the time, of a convenient record of their market value.

In a collection of sermons dating from the latter part of the fifteenth century, for instance, is the record, “This book was sold for 20 Parisian sols.” In a text of _Ovid_ of about the same time is noted simply the price,--6 sols, Parisian.[360]

Newly prepared transcripts could not be licensed for renting until they had been examined and passed as correct by the officials, and until their renting prices had been placed on record. No new work could be included in the lists of the _stationarii_ until license for the same had been secured. At this date, the usual term of rental of a manuscript was one week, and an additional charge could be made if the manuscript was held in excess of that time. In case a member of the university had transcribed an incorrect or incomplete manuscript, the _stationarius_ was liable to him for damages to cover his wasted labour. According to the general practice, the hirer of a manuscript was obliged to deposit a pledge for the same, which pledge could be disposed of by the _stationarius_ after the term of one year.

In the schedule presented by Chevillier of manuscripts licensed in the early part of the thirteenth century, the prices specified cover only the rates for renting. Chevillier points out that there is in this schedule no indication of the division of the manuscripts into _pecias_, the practice which was, as we have seen, the usual routine in the Italian universities.[361]

An appraisal of the books contained in the library of the Sorbonne in the year 1292 gives a value of 3812 livres, 10 sous, 8 deniers.[362]

The regulations concerning the sale of works on commission were renewed in 1300, with provisions which must have rendered this class of business not only unremunerative but peculiarly troublesome. Such a sale could be made only in the presence of two witnesses. No other bookseller was at liberty to purchase the book, excepting with the permission and in the presence of the original owner. Before a sale was made to a bookseller, the manuscript must be allowed to remain exposed for sale not less than four days in the library of the Dominican monastery.

Exceptions to the above regulations were permitted under the express authority of the Rector of the university in case the original possessor of the manuscript might be in immediate need of money, a condition which probably obtained in a large number of cases.

The general purpose of these regulations appears to have been the prevention of any undue increase in the market price or selling value of manuscripts, or the “cornering of the market” on the part of the manuscript-dealers in connection with texts which might be in demand. Existing regulations of this kind tended, however, naturally to fall into desuetude.

In 1411, an ordinance of Charles VI. made fresh reference to the necessity of such supervision, mainly on the ground of the convenience of tracing stolen manuscripts or unlicensed manuscripts.

In 1342, the _librarii_ were permitted to increase their selling commission from four deniers to six deniers in the case of manuscripts sold by them for clients who were not themselves members of the university. Kirchhoff points out, however, that this commission could by no means have represented the actual charges made. The University of Paris claimed the authority to license its _librarii_, and to carry on business not only in Paris but throughout France. _Librarii_ from without were, however, strictly prohibited from carrying on business in Paris.

There were in Paris, in addition to the _stationarii_ and _librarii_, a certain number of unlicensed dealers who were not members of the university, and who might be classed as book pedlars. While these book pedlars enjoyed no university privileges, their business was subjected to the supervision of the university authorities. It was the purpose of the regulations to prevent dealers of this kind from taking part in any higher grade book business. They were, for instance, forbidden to sell any volume for a higher price than ten sous, which, of necessity, limited their trade practically to chap-books, broadsides, etc. They were also forbidden to trade in any covered shops, their business being carried on in open booths. In case they were at any time found to be trenching upon the business of the licensed or certified book-dealers (_libraires jurés_), they forfeited promptly their permits as book pedlars.

In 1323, the Paris School was the most important in Europe for theological studies, as that of Bologna was the authority on jurisprudence, and that of Padua for medicine; and the trade of the Paris booksellers was, therefore, largely devoted to theological writings. It is partly on this ground that the records of the monasteries in which there was scholarly and literary activity make more frequent reference during this century to Paris as a book centre than to any one of the Italian cities. When, for instance, King Wenzell II. of Bohemia, at the time of the founding of the Cistercian abbey of Königsaal, presented two hundred marks of silver for the organisation of its library, the Abbot Conrad had, he reports, no other course to take than to travel to Paris in order to purchase the books. This was in the year 1327.[363] Johann Gerson, writing in 1395 to Petrus de Alliaco, speaks of the wealth of the literary stores available at this time in Paris. The list that he gives as an example of these treasures is devoted exclusively to theological works.

While it is difficult to understand from the evidence available what machinery may have been in existence during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for the distribution of the books, there are various references to indicate that such distribution took place promptly over a very considerable territory. The anonymous author of a polemical tract, written in order to point out the errors of some heretical production, says:

_Is autem erroneus liber positus fuit publice ad exemplandum Parisius anno domini 1254. Unde certum est, quod jam publice predicaretur, nisi boni prelati et predicatores impedirent._[364]

(In Paris in the year of our Lord 1254, this heretical book was openly given to the scribes to be copied. Whence it is evident what manner of doctrine would now be set forth to the public had not good priests and preachers interfered.)

Kirchhoff is of the opinion that there began to be at this time in connection with the work of the contemporary authors a kind of publishing arrangement under which the author handed over to the _stationarii_ or to the _librarii_ his literary production for multiplication and for publication, either through renting, through sale, or in both methods. He finds in the manuscript of a tract by Gerson, which was given to the public in the year 1417, a notice to the effect that this was published in Paris under the instructions of the author and under the license of Magister Johannus, Cancellarius.[365]

The work of the manuscript-dealers was carried on in booths or shops in various open places, but as a rule in the immediate neighbourhood of the churches. Certain booths were to be found, however, on the bridges and by the courts of justice; and a neighbourhood particularly resorted to by the booksellers was the Rue Neuve Notre Dame, where, in the year 1292, out of eight licensed book-sellers, no less than three had their work-shops. On the bridge Neuf Notre Dame, there were at the time of its falling, in 1499, a number of booksellers, three of whom are recorded as having lost their stock through the accident. The places selected by the earlier dealers in manuscripts became later the centre of the Parisian trade in printed books.

As a result of their membership in the university, the dealers in manuscripts shared in the exemption from the taxation enjoyed by the university body. The royal tax collectors persisted, however, from time to time in ignoring this right of exemption, and it was therefore necessary at different periods to secure fresh enactments from the royal ordinances in order to confirm the privilege. An example of such an ordinance is that issued by Philip the Fair, in 1307. In the cases in which the university placed an impost upon its members for any special purpose, the manuscript dealers were, of course, obliged to assume their share of such impost. At the time of their acceptance as official or licensed dealers, they had to pay a fee, in the first place of four sous, but after 1467 of eight sous. For the privilege of keeping an open shop, the fee was twenty-four sous. A further fee of eight sous was payable for each apprentice, and a weekly payment of twelve deniers payable for each workman. These fees went into the treasury of the booksellers’ corporation.

After 1456, under the enactment of the congregation of the university, each manuscript dealer and paper dealer was called upon to pay to the Rector of the university at the time of his acceptance and license a _scutum_ of gold.

The four _taxatores_, the officials charged with the supervision of the fees for the booksellers’ guild (usually the four senior or most important members of the guild), were also charged with the selection or approval of new members and with the supervision of the proper carrying out of the various regulations controlling the organisations of the guild. In the earlier period of the work, such censorship as was found necessary concerning the books to be published was exercised through these four taxators. They were also the official representative body of the university guild.

In case any member of the guild suffered injury from unauthorised competition, the guild had the power to suspend the business operation with the person charged with committing the injury, until the complaint could be passed upon. In case the rules of the corporation had been broken, the corporation appears to have had the power, at least up to the beginning of the fifteenth century, of withdrawing the trade privilege or license.

The taxators or _principales jurati_, as they were sometimes called, had power to proceed not only to supervise the business undertaking of the members of the guild, but were also authorised to take measures against the outside or unlicensed booksellers and to proceed, if necessary, even to the point of seizure and confiscation of their goods. In carrying out such measures, they were empowered to call upon the university bedels for co-operation.

These unlicensed dealers or book pedlars, as they increased in numbers, naturally attempted to withdraw themselves from the jurisdiction and supervision of the university authorities. An ordinance of Charles VI., dated June 20, 1411, confirms specifically the right of control over the entire book-trade, and prohibits pedlars, dealers, hucksters, etc., from taking part in the selling of manuscripts, “of which business they could have no understanding.” The edict went on to specify that the carrying on of the book business by ignorant and irresponsible dealers not only caused injury to the licensed book-dealers, but was a wrong upon the public, in that it furthered the circulation of incorrect, incomplete, and fraudulent manuscripts. This ordinance was doubtless issued at the instance of the book-dealers’ guild, but it is evident that it was not strictly carried out, as from year to year there are renewed complaints of the competition of these ignorant and irresponsible book pedlars.

It was considered important, in order to insure the proper control by the university over the book-trade and the interests of the scholars who depended upon the book-dealers for their text-books, that the trade in the materials used in the manifolding of books should also be strictly supervised. The special purpose of the university authorities was to prevent any “cornering of the market” in parchment, and to insure that the supply of this should be regular and uniform in price.

Under the ordinance of 1291, the dealers in parchment were forbidden to keep any secret stores of the same, but were obliged to keep on file with the managers of the book guild the record of the stock carried by them from month to month. The parchment-dealers licensed to do business in Paris were forbidden to sell parchment to dealers from outside of Paris. On the first day of the Trade Fair, when foreign dealers brought parchment to Paris for sale, the Parisian dealers were forbidden themselves to make purchases, this day being reserved for such purchases as the university officials might desire to make. In case, after the first day of the Fair, a foreign dealer in parchment had before him more applications for his stock than could be supplied, and among the applicants there should be one representing the university, the latter was to be served first. Outside of the time of the official Fair, the Paris dealers in parchment were allowed to make purchases of their material only in the monastery of S. Mathurin.

In case between the times of the Fair a foreign dealer or manufacturer of parchment came to Paris, he was obliged to place his stock in this same monastery and to give information concerning this deposit to the Rector of the university. The Rector sent a representative to examine and to schedule the parchment, and the stock was priced by four of the licensed parchment-dealers associated with the university. The university authorities had then for twenty-four hours the first privilege of purchase. This regulation was applied also to the parchment-trade carried on at the Fair of St. Germain.

It is evident from the many renewed edicts and ordinances referring to this trade that it was not easy to carry out such regulations effectively, and that much friction and dissatisfaction was produced by them. It seems probable also that, with the trade in parchment as in other trades, the attempt to secure uniformity of price, irrespective of the conditions of manufacture or of the market, had the effect not infrequently of lessening the supply and of causing sales to be made surreptitiously at increased prices.

After the use of parchment had in large part been replaced by paper made of linen, the supplies of Paris came principally from Lombardy. Later, however, paper-mills were erected in France, the first being at Troyes and Esson. These earlier paper manufacturers were, like the book-dealers in Paris, made free from tax. This exemption was contested from time to time by the farmers of the taxes and had to be renewed by successive ordinances. Later, the university associated with its body, in the same manner as had been done with the parchment-dealers, the manufacturers and dealers in paper, and confirmed them in the possession of the privileges previously enjoyed by the _librarii_ and _stationarii_. The privileges of the paper manufacturers extended, however, outside of Paris, which was, of course, not the case with the _librarii_.

While, in connection with the requirements of the university and the special privileges secured through university membership, the book-trade of Paris and the trades associated with it secured a larger measure of importance as compared with the trade of the provinces than was the case in either Italy or Germany, there came into existence as early as the middle of the fourteenth century a considerable trade in manuscripts in various provincial centres.

In Montpellier, the university was, as in Paris, a centre for publishing undertakings, but in Angers, Rouen, Orleans, and Toulouse, in which there are various references to book-dealers as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, the trade must have been supported by a public largely outside of the university organisation. The statutes of Orleans and of Toulouse, dating from 1341, regulate the supervision of the trade in manuscripts.

In Montpellier, there appears to have been, during the beginning of the fourteenth century, a business in the loaning of the manuscripts and of manuscript _hefts_--_pecias_, similar to that already described in Bologna. The university authorities, usually the bedels, supervised the correctness of the _pecias_ and prescribed the prices at which they should be rented. The _stationarii_ who carried on this business and also the _venditores librorum_ were members of the university body. The sale of books on commission was also supervised under regulations similar to those obtaining in Bologna.

No _stationarius_ was at liberty to dispose of a work placed in his hands for sale (unless it belonged to a foreigner) until it had been exposed in his shop for at least six days, and had at least been three times offered for sale publicly in the auditorium. This offering for sale was cared for by the _banquerii_, who were the assistants or tenants of the rectors. These _banquerii_ were also authorised to carry on the business of the loaning of _pecias_ under the same conditions as those that controlled the _stationarii_. They were also at liberty, after the close of the term lectures, to sell their own supplies of manuscripts (usually of course the copies of the official texts) at public auction in the auditorium.

It is difficult to understand how, with a trade, of necessity, limited in extent, and the possible profits of which were so closely restricted by regulations, there could have been a living profit sufficient to tempt educated dealers to take up the work of the _stationarii_ or _librarii_.

It is probably the case, as Kirchhoff, Savigny, and others point out, that the actual results of the trade cannot be ascertained with certainty from the texts of the regulations, and that there were various ways in which, in spite of these regulations, larger returns could be secured for the work of the scholarly and enterprising _librarii_.

An ordinance issued in 1411 makes reference to booksellers buying and selling books both in French or in Latin and gives privilege to licensed booksellers to do such buying and selling at their pleasure. This seems to have been an attempt to widen the range of the book-trade, while reference to books in the vernacular indicates an increasing demand for literature outside of the circles of instructors and students.

In the beginning of the fifteenth century, there was, among a number of the nobles of families in France, a certain increase in the interest of literature and in the taste for collecting elaborate, ornamented, and costly manuscripts.

The princely Houses of Burgundy and of Orleans are to be noted in this connection, and particularly in Burgundy, the influence of the ducal family was of wide importance in furthering the development of the trade in manuscripts and the production of literature.

A large number of the manuscripts placed in these ducal family libraries were evidently originally prepared by scribes having knowledge only of plain script, and the addition of the initial letters and of the illuminated head and tail pieces was made later by illuminators and designers attached to the ducal families. It was to these latter that fell the responsibility of placing upon the manuscripts the arms of the owners of the libraries. In case manuscripts which had been inscribed with family arms came to change hands, it became necessary to replace these arms with those of the later purchaser, and many of the illuminated manuscripts of the period give evidence of such changing of the decorations, decorations which took the place of the book-plate of to-day.

The taste for these elaborate illuminated manuscripts, each one of which, through the insertion of individual designs and of the family arms, became identified with the personality and taste of its owner, could not easily be set aside, after the middle of the fifteenth century, by the new art of printing. As a matter of fact, therefore, it not infrequently happened, towards the latter part of the fifteenth century, that these noble collectors caused elaborate transcripts to be made, by hand, of works which were already in print, rather than to place in their own collection books in the form in which ordinary buyers could secure them.

By the year 1448, the number of certified _librarii_ in Paris had increased to twenty-four.[366] Kirchhoff is of opinion that a certain portion at least of these _librarii_ carried on also other trades, but it is evident that there had come to be in these years, immediately preceding the introduction of the printing-press, a very considerable development in the demand for literature and in the book-trade of the capital.

In 1489, the list of book-dealers and of those connected with the manufacture of books who were exempt from taxation included twenty-four _librarii_, four dealers in parchment, four dealers in paper, seven paper manufacturers (having mills outside of Paris), two illuminators, two binders, and two licensed scribes.

In the following year, the list of _librarii_ free from taxation was reduced to seventeen. It is probable that those _librarii_ whose names had been taken off the exemption list undertook a general book business carried on outside of the university regulations, and were probably able to secure returns more than sufficient to offset the loss caused by the curtailing of their freedom from taxation and of their university privileges.

This reduction in the number of manuscript-dealers who remained members of the corporation was, however, very promptly made up by including in the corporation the newly introduced printers. As early as 1476, one of the four officials of the guild was the printer Pasquier Bonhomme.

The cessation of the work of the scribes and the transfer of the book-trade from their hands to those of the printers took place gradually after the year 1470, the printers being, as said, promptly included in the organisation of the guild. There must, however, have been, during the earlier years at least, not a little rivalry and bitterness between the two groups of dealers.

An instance of this rivalry is given in 1474, in which year a _librarius juratus_, named Herman von Stathoen (by birth a German), died. According to the university regulation, his estate, valued at 800 crowns of gold, (there being no heirs in the country) should have fallen to the university treasury. In addition to this property in Paris, Stathoen was part owner of a book establishment in Mayence, carried on by Schöffer & Henckis, and was unpopular with the Paris dealers generally on the ground of his foreign trade connections.

Contention was made on behalf of the Crown that the property in Paris should be confiscated to the royal treasury, and as Schöffer & Henckis were subjects of the Duke of Burgundy, whose relations with Louis XI. might be called strained, the influence of the Court was decidedly in favour of the appropriation of any business interest that they might have in their partner’s property in Paris. In the contention between the university and the Crown, the latter proved the stronger, and the bookseller’s 800 crowns were confiscated for the royal treasury, and at least got so far towards the treasury as the hands of the chancellor.

As a further result of the issue which had been raised, it was ordered on the part of the Crown that thereafter no foreigner should have a post as an official of the university or should be in a position to lay claim to the exemption and the privileges attaching to such post.

While in Paris the manuscript-dealers had been promptly driven from the field through the competition of the printers, in Rouen they held their own for a considerable term of years. The space which had been assigned to the _librarii_ for their shops at the chief doorway of the cathedral, continued to be reserved for them as late as 1483, and the booksellers keeping on sale the printed books, were forbidden to have any shops at this end of the cathedral, but were permitted to put up, at their own cost, stalls at the north doorway.

The oldest Paris bookseller whose name has been placed on record is described as Herneis le Romanceur. He had his shop at the entrance to Notre Dame. His inscription appeared in a beautiful manuscript presenting a French translation of the Code of Justinian, a manuscript dating from the early part of the thirteenth century. It is possible that Guillaume Herneis, whose name appeared in the tax list of 1292 with a rate of ten livres, was the scribe and the publisher of the above manuscript, but if this were the case he must have been at the time of this tax rating well advanced in years.[367] In 1274, the name of Hugichio le Lombard appears recorded on several manuscripts which have been preserved in existing collections. In the taxes of 1292, appears the name of Agnien, _Libraire_, in the Rue de la Boucherie, assessed for thirty-six sous. The tax is too large to make it probable that Agnien was a mere pedlar or did business from an open stall, and it is Géraud’s opinion that he was charged probably as a university bookseller to whom the tax collector had refused the exemption belonging to university members.[368]

In the year 1303, the stock of books of a certain Antoine Zeno, _libraire juré_, was scheduled for taxation. Among the titles included in this schedule are the commentaries or lectures of Bruno on S. Matthew (57 pages, price one sol), the same on Mark, Luke, and John, the commentaries of Alexander on Matthew, the _Opera Fratris Richardi_, the _Legenda Sanctorum_, various texts of the Decretals, commentaries of S. Bernard on the Decretals, a treatise of a certain Thomas on metaphysics, on physics, on the heavens and the earth, and on the soul, and a series of lectures on ethics, and on politics. The scheduled price ranged from one sol to eight sols, the latter being the price of a manuscript of 136 pages. The books were probably confined exclusively to texts used in the university work.[369]

In 1313, appears in the tax list, assessed for twelve sous, the name of Nicholas L’Anglois, bookseller and tavern-keeper in Rue St. Jacques.

It is to be noted that the booksellers, and for that matter the traders generally of the time, are frequently distinguished by the names of their native countries. It is probable that Nicholas failed to escape taxation as a bookseller because he was also carrying on business (and doubtless a more profitable business) in his tavern. The list of 1313 includes in fact but three booksellers, and each of these is described as having an additional trade.[370]

A document of the year 1332 describes a sale made by a certain Geoffroy de Saint Léger, a _clerc libraire_, to Gérard de Montagu, _avocat du roy au parlement_. Geoffroy acknowledges to have sold, ceded, assigned, and delivered to the said Gérard a book entitled _Speculum Historiale in Consuetudines Parisienses_, comprised in four volumes, and bound in red leather. He guarantees the validity of this sale with his own body, _de son corps mesme_. Gérard pays for the book the sum of forty Parisian livres, with which sum Geoffroy declares himself to be content, and paid in full.[371] It appears that the sale of a book in the fourteenth century was a solemn transaction, calling for documentary evidence as specific as in the case of the transfer of real estate.

In the year 1376, Jean de Beauvais, a _librarius juratus_, is recorded as having sold various works, including the Decretals of Gregory IX., illustrated with miniatures, a copy of _Summa Hostiensis_, 423 parchment leaves, illustrated with miniatures, and a codex of Magister Thomas de Maalaa.[372]

In the year 1337, Guidomarus de Senis, master of arts and _librarius juratus_, renews his oath as a taxator. He seems to have put into his business as bookseller a certain amount of literary gaiety, if one may judge from the lines added at the end of a parchment codex sold by him, which codex contains the poems of Guillaume de Marchaut.

The lines are as follows:

_Explicit au mois d’avril,
Qui est gai, cointe et gentil,
L’an mil trois cent soixante et onze.
D’Avril la semaine seconde,
Acheva à un vendredi,
Guiot de Sens c’est livre si,
Et le comansa de sa main,
Et ne fina ne soir ne matin,
Tant qu’il eut l’euvre accomplie,
Louée soit la vierge Marie._[373]

Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was one of the more important book collectors of his time. In 1386, the Duke paid to Martin L’Huillier, dealer in manuscripts and bookbinder, sixteen francs for binding eight books, six of which were bound in grain leather.[374] The Duke of Orleans also appears as a buyer of books, and in 1394, he paid to Jehan de Marsan, master of arts and dealer in manuscripts, twenty francs in gold for the _Letters of S. Pol_, bound in figured silk, and illuminated with the arms of the Duke.

Four years later, the Duke makes another purchase, paying to Jehan one hundred _livres tournois_ for a Concordance to the Bible in Latin, an illuminated manuscript bound in red leather, stamped.

The same Duke, in 1394, paid forty gold crowns to Olivier, one of the four principal _librarii_, for a Latin text of the Bible, bound in red leather, and in 1396, this persistent ducal collector pays sixty livres to a certain Jacques Jehan, who is recorded as a grocer, but who apparently included books in his stock, for the _Book of the Treasury_, a book of Julius Cæsar, a book of the King, _The Secret of Secrets_, and a book of Estrille Fauveau, bound in one volume, illuminated, and bearing the arms of the Duke of Lancaster. Another volume included in this purchase was the _Romance of the Rose_, and the _Livres des Eschez_, “moralised,” and bound together in one volume, illuminated in gold and azure.[375]

In 1399, appears on the records the name of Dyne, or Digne Rapond, a Lombard. Kirchhoff speaks of Rapond’s book business as being with him a side issue. Like Atticus, the publisher of Cicero, Rapond’s principal business interest was that of banking, in which the Lombards were at that time pre-eminent throughout Europe. In connection with his banking, however, he accepted orders from noble clients and particularly from the Duke of Burgundy, for all classes of articles of luxury, among which were included books.

In 1399, Rapond delivered to Philip of Burgundy, for the price of five hundred livres, a _Livy_ illuminated with letters of gold and with images, and for six thousand francs a work entitled _La Propriété de Choses_. A document, bearing date 1397, states that Charles, King of France, is bound to Dyne Rapond, merchant of Paris, for the sum of 190 francs of gold, for certain pieces of tapestry, for certain shirts, and for four great volumes containing the chronicles of France. He is further bound in the sum of ninety-two francs for some more shirts, for a manuscript of Seneca, for the Chronicles of Charlemagne, for the Chronicles of Pepin, for the Chronicles of Godefroy de Bouillon, the latter for his dear elder son Charles, Dauphin. The King further purchases certain hats, handkerchiefs, and some more books, for which he instructs his treasurer in Paris to pay over to said Rapond the sum of ninety francs in full settlement of his account; the document is signed on behalf of the King by his secretary at his château of Vincennes.[376]

Jacques Rapond, merchant and citizen of Paris, probably a brother of Dyne, also seems to have done a profitable business with Philip of Burgundy, as he received from Philip, for a Bible in French, 9000 francs, and in the same year (1400), for a copy of _The Golden Legend_, 7500 francs.

Nicholas Flamel, scribe and _librarius juratus_, flourished at the beginning of the thirteenth century. He was shrewd enough, having made some little money at work as a bookseller and as a school manager, to carry on some successful speculations in house building, from which speculations he made money so rapidly that he was accused of dealings with the Evil One. One of the houses built by him in Rue Montmorency was still standing in 1853, an evidence of what a clever publisher might accomplish even in the infancy of the book business.

The list of booksellers between the years 1486-1490 includes the name of Jean Bonhomme, the name which has for many years been accepted as typical of the French bourgeois. This particular Bonhomme seems, however, to have been rather a distinctive man of his class. He calls himself “bookseller to the university,” and was a dealer both in manuscripts and in printed books. On a codex of a French translation of _The City of God_, by S. Augustine, is inscribed the record of the sale of the manuscript by Jean Bonhomme, bookseller to the University of Paris, who acknowledges having sold to the honoured and wise citizen, Jehan Cueillette, treasurer of M. de Beaujeu, this book containing _The City of God_, in two volumes, and Bonhomme guarantees to Cueillette the possession of said work against all. His imprint as a bookseller appears upon various printed books, including the _Constitutiones Clementinæ_, the _Decreta Basiliensia_, and the _Manuale Confessorum_ of Joh. Nider.

Among the cities of France outside of Paris in which there is record of early manuscript-dealers, are Tours, Angers, Lille, Troyes, Rouen, Toulouse, and Montpellier. In Lille, in 1435, the principal bookseller was Jaquemart Puls, who was also a goldsmith, the latter being probably his principal business. In Toulouse, a bookseller of the name of S. Julien was in business as early as 1340. In Troyes, in the year 1500, Macé Panthoul was carrying on business as a bookseller and as a manufacturer of paper. In connection with his paper-trade, he came into relations with the book-dealers of Paris.

=Manuscript Dealers in Germany.=--The information concerning the early book-dealers in Germany is more scanty, and on the whole less interesting, than that which is available for the history of bookselling in Italy or in France. There was less wealth among the German nobles during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and fewer among the nobles who had means were interested in literary luxuries than was the case in either France, Burgundy, or Italy.

As has been noted in the preceding division of this chapter, the references to the more noteworthy of the manuscript-dealers in France occur almost entirely in connection with sales made by them to the members of the Royal Family, to the Dukes of Burgundy, or to other of the great nobles. The beautifully illuminated manuscript which carried the coat-of-arms or the crest of the noble for whom it was made, included also, as a rule, the inscription of the manuscript-dealer by whom the work of its preparation had been carried on or supervised, and through whom it had been sold to the noble purchaser. Of the manuscripts of this class, the record in Germany is very much smaller. Germany also did not share the advantages possessed by Italy, of close relations with the literature and the manuscript stores of the East, relations which proved such an important and continued source of inspiration for the intellectual life of the Italian scholars.

The influence of the revival of the knowledge of Greek literature came to Germany slowly through its relations with Italy, but in the knowledge of Greek learning and literature the German scholars were many years behind their Italian contemporaries, while the possession of Greek manuscripts in Germany was, before the middle of the fifteenth century, very exceptional indeed. The scholarship of the earlier German universities appears also to have been narrower in its range and more restricted in its cultivation than that which had been developed in Paris, in Bologna, or in Padua. The membership of the Universities of Prague and of Vienna, the two oldest in the German list, was evidently restricted almost entirely to Germans, Bohemians, Hungarians, etc., that is to say, to the races immediately controlled by the German Empire.

If a scholar of England were seeking, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, special instruction or special literary and scholarly advantages, his steps were naturally directed towards Paris for theology, Bologna for jurisprudence, and Padua for medicine, and but few of these travelling English scholars appear to have taken themselves to Prague, Vienna, or Heidelberg.

In like manner, if English book collectors were seeking manuscripts, they betook themselves to the dealers in Paris, in Florence, or in Venice, and it was not until after the manuscript-trade had been replaced by the trade in the productions of the printing-press that the German cities can be said to have become centres for the distribution of literature.

Such literary interests as obtained in Germany during the fourteenth century, outside of those of the monasteries already referred to, centred nevertheless about the universities. The oldest of these universities was that of Prague, which was founded in 1347, more than a century later than the foundations of Paris and Bologna. The regulations of the University recognised the existence of scribes, illuminators, correctors, binders, dealers in parchment, etc., all of which trades were placed under the direct control of the university authorities.

Hauslik speaks of the book-trade in the fourteenth century as being associated with the work of the library of the university, and refers to licensed scribes and illuminators, who were authorised to make transcripts, for the use of the members of the university, of the texts contained in the library.[377]

If we may understand from this reference that the university authorities had had prepared for the library authenticated copies of the texts of the works required in the university courses, and that the transcribing of these texts was carried on under the direct supervision of the librarians, Prague appears to have possessed a better system for the preparation of its official texts than we have record of in either Bologna or Paris. Hauslik goes on to say that the entire book-trade of the city was placed under the supervision of the library authorities, which authorities undertook to guarantee the completeness and the correctness of all transcripts made from the texts in the library. Kirchhoff presents in support of this theory examples of one or two manuscripts, which contain, in addition to the inscription of the name of the scribe or dealer by whom it had been prepared, the record of the corrector appointed by the library to certify to the correctness of the text.[378]

The second German university in point of date was that of Vienna, founded in 1365, and, in connection with the work of this university the manuscript-trade in Germany took its most important development. There is record in Vienna of the existence of _stationarii_ who carried on, under the usual university supervision, the trade of hiring out _pecias_, but this was evidently a much less important function than in Bologna.

The buying and selling of books in Vienna was kept under very close university supervision, and without the authority of the rector or of the bedels appointed by him for the purpose, no book could be purchased from either a _magister_ or a student, or could be accepted on pledge.

The books which had been left by deceased members of the university were considered to be the property of the university authorities, and could be sold only under their express directions. The commission allowed by the authorities for the sale of books was limited to 2½ per cent., and before any books could be transferred at private sale, they must be offered at public sale in the auditorium. The purpose of this regulation was apparently here as in Paris not only to insure securing for the books sold the highest market prices, but also to give some protection against the possibility of books being sold by those to whom they did not belong.

The regulation of the details of the book business appears to have fallen gradually into the hands of the bedels of the Faculty, and the details of the supervision exercised approach more nearly to the Italian than to the Parisian model.

The third German university was that of Heidelberg, founded in 1386. Here the regulations concerning the book-trade were substantially modelled upon those of Paris. The scribes and the dealers in manuscripts belonged to the privileged members of the university. The provisions in the foundation or charter of the university, which provided for the manuscript-trade, make express reference to the precedents of the University of Paris.

By the middle of the fifteenth century, there appears to have been a considerable trade in manuscripts in Heidelberg and in places dependent upon Heidelberg. In the library of the University of Erlangen, there exists to-day a considerable collection of manuscripts formerly belonging to the monastery of Heilsbronn, which manuscripts were prepared in Heidelberg between 1450 and 1460. The series includes a long list of classics, indicating a larger classical interest in Heidelberg than was to be noted at the time in either Prague or Vienna.[379]

The University of Cologne, founded a few years later, became the centre of theological scholarship in Germany, and the German manuscripts of the early part of the fifteenth century which have remained in existence and which have to do with theological subjects were very largely produced in Cologne. A number of examples of these have been preserved in the library of Erfurt.

One reason for the smaller importance in Germany of the _stationarius_ was the practice that obtained on the part of the instructors of lecturing or of reading from texts for dictation, the transcripts being made by the students themselves. The authority or permission to read for dictation was made a matter of special university regulation. The regulation provided what works could be so utilised, and the guarantee as to the correctness of the texts to be used could either be given by a member of the faculty of the university itself or was accepted with the certified signature of an instructor of a well known foreign university, such as Paris, Bologna, or Oxford.

By means of this system of dictation, the production of manuscripts was made much less costly than through the work of the _stationarii_, and the dictation system was probably an important reason why the manuscript-trade in the German university cities never became so important as in Paris or London.

It is contended by the German writers that, notwithstanding the inconsiderable trade in manuscripts, there was a general knowledge of the subject-matter of the literature pursued in the university, no less well founded or extended among the German cities than among those of France or Italy. This familiarity with the university literature is explained by the fact that the students had, through writing at dictation, so largely possessed themselves of the substance of the university lectures.

In the Faculty of Arts at Ingolstadt, it was ordered, in 1420, that there should be not less than one text-book (that is to say, one copy of the text-book) for every three scholars in baccalaureate. This regulation is an indication of the scarcity of text-books.

The fact that the industry in loaning manuscripts to students was not well developed in the German universities delayed somewhat the organisation of the book-trade in the university towns. Nevertheless, Richard de Bury names Germany among the countries where books could be purchased, and Gerhard Groote speaks of purchasing books in Frankfort. This city became, in fact, important in the trade of manuscripts for nearly a century before the beginning of German printing.[380]

Æneas Silvius says in the preface of his _Europa_, written in 1458, that a _librarius teutonicus_ had written to him shortly before, asking him to prepare a continuation of the book “_Augustalis_.”[381] This publishing suggestion was made eight years after the perfection of Gutenberg’s printing-press, but probably without any knowledge on the part of the _librarius_ of the new method for the production of books.

In Germany there was, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, outside of the ecclesiastics, very little demand for reading matter. The women had their psalters, which had, as a rule, been written out in the monasteries. As there came to be a wider demand for books of worship, this was provided for, at least in the regions of the lower Rhine, by the scribes among the Brothers of Common Life. The Brothers took care also of the production of a large proportion of the school-books required.

During the fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth, the Brothers took an active part in the production and distribution of manuscripts. Their work was distinct in various respects from that which was carried on in monastery or in university towns, but particularly in this that their books were, for the most part, produced in the tongue of the common folk, and their service as instructors and booksellers was probably one of the most important influences in helping to educate the lower classes of North Germany to read and to think for themselves. They thus prepared the way for the work of Luther and Melanchthon.

As has been noted in another chapter, the activity of the Brothers in the distribution of literature did not cease when books in manuscripts were replaced by the productions of the printing-press. They made immediate use of the invention of Gutenberg, and in many parts of Germany, the first printed books that were brought before the people came from the printing-presses of the Brothers.

Some general system of public schools seems to have taken shape in the larger cities at least of North Germany as early as the first half of the thirteenth century. The teachers in these schools themselves added to their work and to their earnings by transcribing text-books and sometimes works of worship. Later, there came to be some extended interest in certain classes of literature among a few of the princes and noblemen, but this appears to have been much less the case in Germany than in Italy or even than in France. In the castles or palaces where there was a chaplain, the chaplain took upon himself the work of a scribe, caring not only for the correspondence of his patron, but occasionally also preparing manuscripts for the library, so called, of the castle. There is also record of certain _stadtschreiber_, or public scribes, licensed as such in the cities of North Germany, and in some cases the post was held by the instructors of the schools.

Ulrich Friese, a citizen of Augsburg, writing in the latter half of the fourteenth century, speaks of attending the Nordlingen Fair with parchment and books. Nordlingen Church was, it appears, used for the purpose of this fair, and in Lübeck, in the Church of S. Mary, booths were opened in which, together with devotional books, school-books and writing materials were offered for sale.

In Hamburg also, the courts in the immediate neighbourhood of the churches were the places selected by the earlier booksellers and manuscript-dealers for their trade. In Metz, a book-shop stood immediately in front of the cathedral, and in Vienna, the first book-shop was placed in the court adjoining the cathedral of S. Stephen. Nicolaus, who was possibly the earliest bookseller in Erfurt, had his shop, in 1460, in the court of the Church of the Blessed Virgin.