Prices of Books Part 7

_Quidam._ Ye syr so muche? nay, that I shorowe my cote, A peny I trow is ynough on bokes, It is not so soone goten, as this worlde lokes.?

Much information respecting the prices of books is found in the churchwardens? accounts of the various parishes of the kingdom, and extracts from some of these have been printed in the _Gentleman?s Magazine_ and other places. Mr. Thorold Rogers also has given several instances in the various volumes of his great work on ?Agriculture and Prices.?

Archbishop Cranmer, in his ?Articles to be inquired of ... within the Diocese of Canterbury,? A.D. 1548, asks ?whether in every case they have provided one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English, and the Paraphrases of Erasmus, also in English, upon the Gospels, and set up the same in some convenient place in the church.? In 1548 we find that the churchwardens of St. Margaret?s, Westminster, paid five s.h.i.+llings for the half part of the Paraphrases of Erasmus, and in 1549 the churchwardens of Wigtoft, Lincolns.h.i.+re, paid seven s.h.i.+llings for the same book. Archbishop Parker required Jewel?s ?Defence of the Apology?

to be placed in parish churches, and in 1570 the churchwardens of Leverton, Lincolns.h.i.+re, paid four s.h.i.+llings for ?half Mr. Juylle?s booke, called the ?Appologie of Ingland,?? and fourpence for the carriage of the same.

From the churchwardens? accounts of the parish of Stratton, county Cornwall, we learn that in 1565 two s.h.i.+llings were ?paid for newe songes for the church,? and twopence ?for a nother lyttell boke.? In 1570 twelvepence was ?paid to Nicholas Oliver of sent tives for a song of te deum,? fourpence was paid ?for mendyng of John Judes bybell which he lonyd to the churche when the other was to bynd,? and six s.h.i.+llings ?for a newe communion book and a psalter in the same.? On the other side twelvepence was received ?for two peces of old bookes sold.?[30]

The churchwardens of Canterbury parish gave forty-one s.h.i.+llings for a church Bible in 1586, four s.h.i.+llings for a prayer-book in 1598, and three s.h.i.+llings and fourpence for a book of statutes in 1599.

Sir John Evans communicated to the _Arch?ologia_[31] some most interesting extracts from the Private Account Book of Sir William More of Loseley, in Surrey, in the time of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, which contains an inventory of a collection of about one hundred and twenty volumes. This inventory gives us a vivid idea of the contents of a country gentleman?s library in the sixteenth century. There are the best chronicles of the time, as Fabyan, Harding, &c., translations of the cla.s.sics, and some in their original languages, statutes, new books of justices and other legal works, books of physic, dictionaries, &c., and each of the books is marked with a price. The most expensive books:--_Cronica Cronicarum_, xxs; Minister?s _Cosmografye_, xvjs; un byble, xs; a calapyne, xs [Calepino?s Vocabulary of the Latin Tongue]; Fabyan?s _Cronicle_, vs; Statuts of Henry theight, xijs; all the Statuts of Kyng Edward the VI., ijs; all the Statuts of the Quene, ijs; Chausore, vs. There were four New Testaments, ?one in ffrench,? xxd, two ?in Italion,? respectively xxjd and ijs vjd, and one ?in lattyn,? xijd.

The _Legenda Aurea_ was priced iijs iiijd; Tullye?s _Officys_ translated, viijd; ij bokes conteyning Tully?s _Philosophy_, ijs vjd; Cezar?s _Commentary_, xvjd; ij bokes of Machevale?s works in Italion, iijs iiijd; Hardyng?s _Cronycle_, ijs vjd; _Utopea_, viijd. Of low-priced books we find--A lyttle cronicle, id; Lydgates? _Proverbs_, id; Alexander Barkley?s _Eclogs_, id; Skelton?s Work, iiijd; and _Triumph of Petrark_, vjd.

Sir Egerton Brydges also quoted from a Household Book an interesting list of about the same date as the above--

_Anno_ 1564.

Iteme, for booke of the dysease of horses iiijd

Iteme, for printing the xxv orders of honest men xxd

Iteme, pd for a Lytlton in English xijd

Iteme, for a diologge betwine the cap and the heade ijd

Iteme, pd for the booke of the ij Englishe lovers vjd

Iteme, for a French booke called the historye xvjd de noster ternes

Iteme, pd for iij French bookes, the on called xxs[32]

Pawlus Jovius

In the days before copyright acts authors and publishers often tried to safeguard their property by obtaining patents. These were sometimes for a particular book, as, for instance, Richard Field, printer, in February 1592 was granted the sole licence to print ?Orlando Furioso translated into English verse by John Harrington.? More often, however, patents were granted to printers allowing them the sole privilege of printing certain cla.s.ses of books. A licence ?to imprint all manner of books concerning the common laws of this realm? was granted to Richard Tottell; one for primers and books of private prayers to William Seres; one to print all manner of songs of musick to Thomas Tallis and William Bird; one for dictionaries generally to H. Binneman; and one for almanacks and prognostications to James Roberts and Richard Watkins.[33]

Gradually by purchase or inheritance nearly all the monopolies came into the possession of the Stationers? Company. Certain printers, however, made a practice of pirating some of the most popular English privileged books. The Company resisted, and memorialised Lord Burghley in October 1582, with a complaint of the opposition met with in making their search in the printing-house of one ?who printed all kinds of books at his pleasure.?[34]

The chief leader of these invaders of privilege was John Wolf, a freeman of the Fishmongers? Company. In 1583 the Stationers? Company drew up thirteen heads of the ?insolent and contemptuous behaviour of John Wolf, printer, and his confederates,? which they presented to the Privy Council. From this indictment it appears that when Wolf was ?frendly persuaded to live in order and not print men?s privileged copies,? he answered that ?he would print all their bokes if he lacked work,? and added that ?it was lawfull for all men to print all lawfull bookes, what commandement soever her Majestie gave to y^e contrary.? Wolf was no respecter of persons, and his motto was, ?I will live.? Being admonished that he ?being but one so meane a man should not presume to contrarie her Highnesse Governmente,? ?Tush,? said he, ?Luther was but one man, and reformed all the world for religion, and I am that man that must and will reforme the government in this trade!? The Queen appointed a Commission to inquire into the matter, but the Commissioners could make nothing of Wolf and his party. In the end the opposition was bought off; and on 1st July 1583 Wolf was admitted a freeman of the Stationers?

Company by redemption, paying the usual fees of 3s. 4d.[35]

Andrew Maunsell, a bookseller living in Lothbury, was the first to publish (1595) a catalogue of English books, and this book is a very satisfactory bit of bibliographical work. The compiler only published two parts, the first on theological books, and the second on scientific books. Maunsell proposed the publication of others on more popular branches of literature, but unfortunately he left his work incomplete.

In his dedication to Queen Elizabeth he says--

?What great account (most gracious Soueraigne) hath beene made of G.o.dly bookes, may euidently appeare by the value set uppon the bookes of curious actes brought to the Apostles feete to be burnt.

For if those bookes were valued to two thousand markes, of what estimation shall wee account the bookes whose author is G.o.d himselfe ... all the goods upon the earth cannot value them.?

It is remarkable how difficult it must have been in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to obtain information respecting new books. There were no public libraries, and the booksellers, according to Maunsell, were not well acquainted with the t.i.tles of the books published, and he constantly refers to the scarceness of books issued only a few years before. He writes--

?And seeing also many singular Bookes, not only of Diuinitie, but of other excellent Arts, after the first impression, so spent and gone, that they lie euen as it were buried in some few Studies. That men desirous of such kind of Bookes, cannot aske for that they neuer heard of, and the Bookeseller cannot shew that he hath not: I have thought good in my poor estate to undertake this most tiresome business, hoping the Lord will send a blessing on my labours taken in my vocation. Thinking it as necessarie for the Bookeseller (considering the number and nature of them) to haue a Catalogue of our English Bookes as the Apothecaire his Dispensatorium or the Schoolmaster his Dictionarie. By means of which my poore trauailes I will draw to your memories Bookes that you could not remember and shew to the learind such Bookes as they would not thinke were in our owne tongues....?

Besides dedicating his book to Queen Elizabeth, he addresses ?the Companie of Stationers, and all other printers and booksellers,? to whom he says--

?I have in my vocation laboured to do somwhat: my purpose is to shew (in such sort as I can) what we have in print, in our own tongue, a thinge not regarded but of a few. For some soare so hie that they looke not so low, as on their owne countrie writers, and some regard not old Bookes, but aske what newes? or new writers??

To the reverend divines he says--

?The consideration whereof hath moved me (most unworthie and unable of many others) to undertake this trifeling yet most toylesome & troublesome busines, wherby the reader shall haue this help, and he may see at home in his Studie what Bookes are written and how many translated. And though it be imperfect as I know not what first Booke either of Dictionarie or Herball or such like was perfect at the first or second edition, yet he that helpeth me to put in one Booke that I have not seene, I hope I shall shew him ten that he never heard of either new or old.?

The second part of Maunsell?s catalogue was dedicated to Robert, Earl of Ess.e.x, and the scarceness of books not twenty or forty years old is again referred to in it--

?Seeing still many excellent Bookes written and printed in our owne tongue, and that many of them after twenty or fortie yeares Printing are so dispersed out of Bookesellers hands, that they are not onely scarce to be found but almost quite forgotten, I have thought it worth my poore labour, to take some paynes heerin (though that the more learnd sort would not willingly imploy their labour in the same) to gather a Cathalogue in suche sort as I can of the Bookes printed in our tongue which I doe hope will be delightsome to all English men that be learnt or desirous of learning.?

The next bibliography of new English books was William London?s ?Catalogue of the most vendible Books,? 1658, to which two small supplements were published, bringing the list of publications down to 1660.

R. Clavel was the next to publish a catalogue of new books, and the period covered by him was from 1666 to 1695. To none of these books are prices attached, but some of the books in Clavel?s supplement are priced; and in the monthly catalogue commenced by Bernard Lintott in May 1714, all the books are priced.

Bent?s General Catalogue of Books, issued in 1786, contained the t.i.tles of books published since 1700, and this was succeeded by the London Catalogue, which appeared for several years. The British and English catalogues followed, and the latter is published annually.

In order to obtain some idea of the varying prices at which books have been published, it will be well to enumerate a few at different periods, arranged under the different sizes of books.

FOLIOS

Corpus Christi College, Oxford, gave seven s.h.i.+llings in 1621 for Bacon?s work on Henry VII., and in 1624 ?3, 6s. 8d. for four volumes of ?Purchas?s Pilgrims.? The published price of the first edition of Shakespeare?s Plays is said to have been ?1.

John Ogilby, who was one of the first projectors of grand ill.u.s.trated books in large folio, found himself burthened with a heavy stock of expensive books which did not sell, so he hit upon the expedient of getting rid of them by means of a lottery, licensed by the Duke of York and the a.s.sistants of the Corporation of the Royal Fishery. These books were an ill.u.s.trated Bible, printed by John Field at Cambridge in 1660, two volumes folio; the ?Works of Virgil,? translated by Ogilby, 1654; Homer?s ?Iliads,? translated by Ogilby, 1660; Homer?s ?Odysseys,? 1665.

Pope frequently spoke in later life of the great pleasure Ogilby?s ?Homer? gave him when a boy at school. ??sop?s Fables paraphrased by Ogilby,? 1665; and Ogilby?s ?Entertainment of Charles II. in his Pa.s.sage through the City of London to his Coronation,? 1662--a splendid book, which is said to have proved of great service in succeeding coronations.

It is worthy of note that Samuel Pepys was a subscriber to the lottery, and obtained the ??sop? and the ?Coronation,? which cost him ?4 (Feb.

19, 1665-66).

Ogilby issued a Proposal for a second lottery, which was reprinted in the _Gentleman?s Magazine_ (1814, part 1, pp. 646-48).[36] This is valuable as containing the prices at which the books are valued, viz.--

An imperial Bible, with chorographical ?

and an hundred historical sculps 25 ?Virgil,? translated, with sculps and annotations 5 Homer?s ?Iliads,? adorned with sculps 5 Homer?s ?Odysseys,? adorned with sculps 4 ??sop?s Fables,? paraphrased and sculped 3 ?His Majestie?s Entertainment? 2

In 1689 St. John?s College, Cambridge, gave ?10, 15s. for David Loggan?s _Cantabrigia ill.u.s.trata_, 1688, but this probably included a present to the author; for in 1690 Eton College paid ?4 for _Cantabrigia ill.u.s.trata_ and _Oxonia ill.u.s.trata_, 1675, two volumes together, so that we may suppose the published price of each to be ?2.

The Rev. John Flavel?s Works, in two volumes folio, was published in 1700 for forty s.h.i.+llings, which shows that the price of an ill.u.s.trated volume in folio was still about ?1.

Colin Campbell?s _Vitruvius Britannicus_, a handsome work containing a large number of fine architectural plates, was published at a very reasonable price. The first and second volumes, published in 1715 and 1717 respectively, were sold for four guineas on imperial paper, and three guineas on royal paper.

The price of Johnson?s Dictionary of the English Language, two volumes folio, was in 1755 four guineas in sheets, and ?4, 15s. in boards.

Folios are so completely out of fas.h.i.+on now, except for gorgeously ill.u.s.trated books, or for facsimiles of books and doc.u.ments, that it is scarcely worth while to carry the inquiry to a later period.

QUARTOS

The small quarto volumes of the seventeenth century were by no means high priced, and we learn that three s.h.i.+llings bought Milton?s ?Paradise Lost? when first published. The price of the early editions of the separate plays of the Elizabethan dramatists, which now are so much sought after, was sixpence. This we learn from the address prefixed to the early issue of ?Troilus and Cressida,? 1609, published before that play was acted--