Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/338

BOOKSELLING. 298 BOOKSELLING. Sigillaria. IMartial speaks of the street Argiletum as being chiefly ocoupiod by the booksellers, with whom were associated the fashionable tailors. Both Horace and Jlartial describe the book- sho]is as places of resort when- the more active- minded citizens were in the habit of meeting to look over the literary novelties and to discuss the latest gossip, literary and social. By the close of the First Century the book trade in Rome and in other larger cities of the Empire had developed into large proportions. The packets from Alexandria brought into Rome great cargoes of papyrus from Egypt, which speedily found their way into the work-rooms of the "publishers. Here a hundred skilled slaves followed with swift pens the rapid dictation of the readers, who from time to time relieved each other; others occupied themselves with the work of comparison and revision, while a third group covered the completed manuscripts with proper bindings. In the book-shop, taberiia, collections of the accepted classics and of the latest literary novelties are attractively presented. Here a cheap edition of the .lincid for school use is sold for a few pennies; there, great sums are ex- pended for a veritable 'original' text of some work by Demosthenes, Thucydides, C'ato, or Lucilius, while a third buyer is placing a whole- sale order for a 'proper assortment' of literature to serve as an adornment for a new villa. From the Roman shops large shipments of books were made to other cities, even as far as Gaul. The average editions of works addressed to the gen- eral public are estimated by Birt to have com- prised from .300 to 1000 copies. By the time of the accession of Constantine (a.d. 306) the Roman book trade had very mucti decreased, and with the removal (in .3'28) of the capital to Byzantium the activities of Rome in connection with general literature came very much to an end. Under the rule of Theodoric the Goth there was, mainly owing to the influ- ence of his minister C'assiodorus, some continued interest in literature, which manifested itself in the preservation and extension of libraries and in the maintenance of the schools. There was. however, during the time of the Gothic rule in Italy, no such demand for books as to render practicable the continued existence of booksellers. The next bookselling undertakings were carried on from the scriptoria of the monasteries. For some centuries, however, the books written in these scriptoria were produced for the use only of the monks or of the pupils uider their charge. Later there came into vogue a practice of ex- changing nianuscrii)ts between monasteries, a practice which developed in a measure into ,a trade in books. There would be in one scripto- rium a manuscript of special antiqifity and a>i- thority; from this the scribes would prepare copies which would carry with them a varying value, depending first upon the record (the pedi- gree, so to speak) of the original maniiscript, and secondly upon the repute that had been se- cured by that particular scriptoriinn for accurate and scholarly work. Sec Benedictines. For centuries the knowledge of reading and writingwas so farconfmed to the clerics that; there was no demand for such mamiseripts outside of the monasteries. Later, under the influence of such monarchs as Alfred in England, and through the developed interest of certain other princes who had owed their earlv ediication to monas- tery schools, the fashion arose of collecting in the libraries of kings and nobles manuscripts containing specimens of the world's literature. Such a taste could advantageously be cultivated by the abbots and their scribes. A nobleman desiring, as a matter of scholarly interest or honorable ambition, to possess a certain manu- script, was willing to pay a high price for it. Not a few of the landed estates connected with the literary monasteries, and more particularly with those of England and Burgundy, were large- ly secured in exchange for noteworthy manu- scripts. The next important work in the production, exchange, and sale of books was carried on in the universities. The term statiomirii, which stands for the official bookmakers of the university, first appears in Bologna in 1250 and in Paris some years later, but the work of preparing books for the use of instructors and students had already been carried on for a number of years. In Paris, as in Bologna, the stationarii were university orticials, and, in the majority of cases, graduates. The conditions of their trade, closely controlled by the regulations of the university, were pecu- liar. During the Thirteenth and" part of the Fourteenth Century, the books supplied to the students were not sold, but rented, and the amount of the hire was fixed by university regu- lation. The bidelli of the university published from term to term a list of the authoritative universit_y te.xts which the booksellers were or- dered to prepare, to keep in stock, and to hire out. The statutes of the University of Padua of the year 1283 provided that two stationarii should be employed. The rental for a term of a fortnight of a pecia (a division of from 16 to 32 pages) of the prescribed text was four denarii, of the glossarii (the commentaries on the text) five denarii, and of texts not on the official list six denarii. In the year 1289 the list of texts which must be kept in stock in Bologna com- prised 117 works. In Padua, as in Bologna, the stationarii, in entering upon their business, had to make a deposit of 400 libra; and go through an examination. Toward the close of the Thir- teenth Century the statutes of Bologna per- mitted the sale of manuscripts for a commission of 21,4 per cent. The authorities of the University of Paris exer- cised from the begiiuiing a very complete con- trol over all the details of making, renting, and selling books. Two centuries ami a half before the introduction of the printing-press the book trade of the university had become in great meas- ure the book trade of the city. The scribes and their masters who were manifolding manuscripts in the Latin Quarter were not only supplying text-books to the students of the university, but ])reparing literature for the scholarly readers of I'rance and of Euiope. The book-dealers of Paris constituted for centuries a guild organized within the university. Its members, the libraires jnrc.i, were members of the university, and its operations were under the direct control of the academic autlioritics. It was essential not only to secure for the members of the university, at a fixed and moderate cliarge, a sullicient sup- ply of correct and complete texts of the pre- scribed works, but also to protect these students from the contamination of heretical writings or of heretical connnents on books of accepted orthodoxy. (See Censobsiiip.) In the univer-