THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
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by Gregory of Huntingdon, prior of the abbey of Ramsey, who bequeathed them to his monas- terv. At Oxford great multitudes of books, which had belonged to the Jews, fell into the hands of Roger Bacon, or were bought by the Franciscan frius, of that university.
In this year a statute was enacted against libel*, under the title, " Against slanderous reports, or tales to cause discord betwixt king and people."
1274. Stow, informs us, that the abbot W. de Howton, bequeathed to the abbey of Croxton, a bible, fairly written, with a gloss or comment, sold for fifty marks, £33 6i. 8d. : and Madox, in his History of the Exchequer, says, that in 1274, the building of two arches of London bridge cost only £25. About this time, the price of wheat areraged about 3». Ai. a quarter ; a labourer's wages were lirf. a day ; a man-servant, with meat and clothing, were from three to five shillings per annum ; a harvest-man was paid twopence a day; a sheep sold for a shilling ; and thirty quarters of fosal-coal, for \7t. 6J.
1275, Dec. 8. The booksellers of this period verecdled Stationarii, from their stations, or shops, a term still in use in the English word stationer.* They not only sold books, but numy of them acquired considerable property by lending out books to be read, at exorbitant prices, not in volumes, hut in detatched parts, according to the estimation in which the author was held. In Paris, the limited trade of these book- sellers, consisted principally in selling books for those who wished to dispose of them, and fur- mshing a depository for them, whilst on sale. To prevent frauds being practised by these sta- tionaries, as they were called, the university baned a law, or regulation of the above date, hy which the booksellers were obliged to take an oiUi every year, or at the farthest, every two veais, or oftener if required, that they woiild act iovally, and with fidelity in their employment. Bv t^e same statute, which was the first ever passed in the university respecting booksellers, they were forbidden to purcnase, on their own accoant, the books placed in their hands, until Ihej had been offered to sale for a month ; and were enjoined to expose them publicly, imme- ^ately on being lodged in their hands, with a Uhel affixed, containing the title and price of the h«4; it was also further ordered, that this price •hould be received on behalf of the owner of the hooks, who should allow a certain commission to the vender, which was fixed by the university »l Ixir deniers per livre, according to the price •fflie book: and if any bookseller committed btai, he was dismissed from his office, and the iii*steis and scholars were prohibited trading with such persons, under pain of being deprived of an the nghts and privileges of the community. The sorbonne or university of Paris, possessed by rarionsrdyal "diplomata an extensive jurisdic- tion and controul over every thing connected
- ith the profession ; as also scribes, booksellers.
- The Latin term Malio, aometlinea meuu a place of
pDUlcremt ; sometimes also adeiioaitoiy.
binders, and illuminators. It claimed, and on many occasions, seems to have made a tenacious and frequently a severe and inquisitorial use of this right of censure. The university also exer- cised the right of visiting , and of' inspecting books sent from other countries. Their stalls, or portable shops, were erected only near the public schools and churches, and other places of general resort. Hence Chevillier takes occasion to notice the great antiquity of book-stalls. Matthew Paris informs us, that book-stalls were sometimes placed in the Parvis, or church porch, were schools were also occasionally kept ; and that in the year 1250 a poor clerk of France, was forced to dragon " a starving life in the Parvis, keeping a school, and selling petty books;" and the portal at the north end of the croas aisle, in Rouen cathedral, is to this day called Le Portail da Librairet, or the porch of the booksellers.
1276, July 27. Died at Xativa, James I. King of Arragon. In 1274, he attended the fourteenth general council and the second of Lyons ; there were present five hundred bishops, seventy abbots, and divers ambassadors. St. Thomas Aquino expired on the way. King James passed a law, in his dominions, that whoever possessed any of the books of the Old and New Testament, in the Romance* or vulgar tongue, and did not bring them to thebishop of the place to be burned, should be considered as suspected of heresy, whether of the clergy or the laity, and suffer accordingly.
1280, March 30. Hugh Balsam, bishop of Ely, endows his foundation of Peterhouse, the first college in the university of Cambridge.
1283. In the annals of the priory of Dunstable, for this year, we find the following short entry, " This year, in the month of July, we sold our slave William Pyke, and received one mark, (13». 4<f.) from the buyer." — Henry.
1284. The Harleian manuscript. No. 647, in the British Museum, gives precise information concerning the weekly as well as annual expen- diture of the abbey of St. Edmondbury, in the I4th year of Edward I. It presents an account of the necessaries required to support eighty monks, eleven hundred and one serving-men, eleven chaplains, the nuns of Thetford, and visitors to the monastery. It opens with an account of the weekly charges of the bakehouse and brewery: — sixteen and a half seams (that is, quarters) and two bushels of wheat, at 6s. the seam, £4 3s. 9d.; twelve and a half seams of barley malt, at 4s. per seam, JC2. 10s. ; thirty-two seams of oaten malt, at 3s. the seam, £4. 'l6s. ; wages of the sen'ants in the brewery and bake-
- The modern tenn Romance, is derived from the name
g:iven to the corrupted Latin spoken, chiefly, by the Franks after their settlement in Gaul or France. This new lan- gxage varied in different provinces, for want of a regular standard of pronunciation and in^mmar ; ko that the dlf. fereot dialects are at this day often not intelligible to those »ho speak pure French. As fictitioas nanatlves of imagi- nary adventures were the first compositioDS committed to writing in the vernacular dialect of France, whilst other writings still continued to be published in Latin, this species of historic fiction became distinguished by the term Romance.— Du Cange, aiottarium. All the Eaatem tales may 1m propably stiled Romances.
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