Chapter IV: The Book-Trade in the Manuscript Period (4)

There is record, as early as 1359, of a manuscript-dealer in the town of Lincoln who called himself Johannes _Librarius_, and who sold, in 1360, several books to the French King John. It is a little difficult to understand how in a quiet country town like Lincoln with no university connections, there should have been enough business in the fourteenth century to support a _librarius_.

The earliest name on record in London is that of Thomas Vycey, who was a _stationarius_ in 1433. A few years later we find on a parchment manuscript containing the wise sayings of a certain Lombardus, the inscription of Thomas Masoun, “_librarius of gilde hall_.”

Between the years 1461 and 1475, a certain Piers Bauduyn, dealer in manuscripts, and also a bookbinder, purchased a number of books for Edward IV. In the household accounts of Edward appears the following entry: “Paid to Piers Bauduyn, bookseller, for binding, gilding and dressing a copy of Titus Livius, 20 shillings; for binding, gilding and dressing a copy of the Holy Trinity, 16 shillings; for binding, gilding and dressing a work entitled ‘The Bible’ 16 shillings.”

William Praat, who was a mercer of London, between the years 1470 and 1480 busied himself also with the trade in manuscripts, and purchased, for William Caxton, various manuscripts from France and from Belgium.

Kirchhoff finds record of manuscript-dealers in Spain as early as the first decade of the fifteenth century. He prints the name, however, of but one, a certain Antonius Raymundi, a _librarius_ of Barcelona, whose inscription, dated 1413, appears in a manuscript of Cassiodorus.

PART II.

THE EARLIER PRINTED BOOKS.

PART II.

THE EARLIER PRINTED BOOKS.