10. CHAPTER X: THE BOOK TRADE
1. §I
SECULAR makers of books have plied their trade in Europe since
classic times, but during the early age of monachism their numbers were
very small and they must have come nigh extinction altogether. In and
after the eleventh century they increased in numbers and importance;
their ranks being recruited not only by seculars trained in the monastic
schools, but by monks who for various reasons had been ejected from
their order. These traders were divided into several classes:
parchment-makers, scribes, rubrishers or illuminators, bookbinders, and
stationers or booksellers. The stationer usually controlled the
operations of the other craftsmen; he was the middleman. Scribes were
either ordinary scriveners called librarii, or writers who drew
up legal documents, known as notarii. But the
librarius and notarius often trenched upon each
other's work, and consequently a good deal of ill-feeling usually
existed between them.
Bookbinders, and booksellers or stationarii, probably
first plied their trade most prosperously in England at Oxford and
Cambridge. By about 1180 quite a number of such tradesmen were living in
Oxford; a single document transferring property in Cat Street bears the
names of three illuminators, a bookbinder, a scribe, and two
parchmenters.[10.1] Half a century later a
bookbinder is mentioned
in a deed as a former owner of property in the parish of St. Peter's in
the East; another bookbinder is witness to the deed (
c.
1232-40).
[10.2] After this bookbinders and
others of the craft are frequently mentioned. Towards the end of the
thirteenth century Schydyerd Street and Cat Street, the centre of
University life, were the homes of many people engaged in bookmaking and
selling; the former street especially was frequented by parchment makers
and sellers. In this street, too, "a tenement called Bokbynder's is
mentioned in a charter of 1363-4; and although bookbinding may not have
been carried on there at that date, the fact of the name having been
attached to the place seems sufficient to justify the assumption that a
binder or guild of binders had formerly been established there. In Cat
Street a Tenementum Bokbyndere, owned by Osney Abbey, was rented in 1402
by Henry the lymner, at a somewhat later date by Richard the
parchment-seller, and in 1453 by All Souls' College."
[10.3]
Stationers had transcripts made, bought, sold and hired out books
and received them in pawn. They acted as agents when books and other
goods were sold; in 1389, for example, a stationer received twenty pence
for his services in buying two books, one costing £4 and the other
five marks.[10.4] They attended the fair at
St. Giles near Oxford to sell books. This was not their only interest,
for they dealt in goods of many kinds. They were in fact general
tradesmen: sellers, valuers, and agents; liable to be called upon to
have a book copied, to buy or sell a book, to set a value upon a pledge,
to make an inventory and valuation of a scholar's goods and chattels
after his death. Their office was such an important one for the
well-being of
the scholars that it was found convenient to extend to them the
privileges and protection of the University, and in return to exact an
oath of fairdealing from them.
[10.5]
Before the end of the thirteenth century the University's
privileges had been extended to servientes known as
parchment-makers, scribes, and illuminators; in 1290 the privileges were
confirmed.[10.6] Certain stationers were
then undoubtedly within the University as servientes, but in
1356 they are recorded positively as being so with parchmenters,
illuminators, and writers: and again in 1459 "alle stacioners" and "alle
bokebynders" enjoyed the privileges of the University, with "lympners,
wryters, and pergemeners."[10.7] These
privileges took them out of the jurisdiction of the city, although they
still had to pay taxes, which were collected by the University and paid
over to the city treasurer.
Stationers regarded as the University's servants were sworn, as
we have already indicated. The document giving the form of their oath is
undated, but most likely the rules laid down were observed from the time
the stationers were first attached to the University. The oath was
strict. A part of their duties was the valuation of books and other
articles which were pledged by scholars in return for money from the
University chests. These chests or hutches were expressly founded by
wealthy men for the assistance of poor scholars. By the end of the
fifteenth century there were at Oxford twenty-four such chests, valued
at two thousand marks; a large pawnbroking fund, but probably by no
means too large.[10.8] Mr. Anstey, the
editor of Munimenta Academica, has drawn a vivid picture of the
inspection of one of these chests and of the business;
conducted round them, and we cannot do better than reproduce it. Master
T. Parys, principal of St. Mary Hall, and Master Lowson are visiting the
chest of W. de Seltone. We enter St. Mary's Church with them, "and
there we see ranged on either side several ponderous iron chests, eight
or ten feet in length and about half that width, for they have to
contain perhaps as many as a hundred or more large volumes, besides
other valuables deposited as pledges by those who have borrowed from the
chest. Each draws from beneath his cape a huge key, which one after the
other are applied to the two locks; a system of bolts, which radiate
from the centre of the lid and shoot into the iron sides in a dozen
different places, slide back, and the lid is opened. At the top lies the
register of the contents, containing the particulars;—dates, names, and
amounts—of the loans granted. This they remove and begin to compare its
statements with the contents of the chest. There are a large number of
manuscript volumes, many of great value, beautifully illuminated and
carefully kept, for each is almost the sole valuable possession perhaps
of its owner! Then the money remaining in one corner of the chest is
carefully counted and compared with the account in the register. If we
look in we can see also here and there among the books other valuables
of less peaceful character. There lie two or three daggers of more than
ordinary workmanship, and by them a silver cup or two, and again more
than one hood lined with minever. By this time a number of persons has
collected around the chest, and the business begins. That man in an
ordinary civilian's dress who stands beside Master Parys is John More,
the University stationer, and it is his office to fix the value of the
pledges offered, and to take care that none are sold at less than their
real value. It is a motley group that stands around; there are several
masters and bachelors,. . . but the larger proportion is of boys or
quite young men in every variety of coloured dress, blue and red,
medley, and the like, but without any academical dress. Many of them are
very scantily clothed, and all have their attention rivetted on the
chest, each with curious eye watching for his pledge, his book or his
cup, brought from some country village, perhaps an old treasure of his
family, and now pledged in his extremity, for last term he could not pay
the principal of his hall the rent of his miserable garret, nor the
manciple for his battels, but now he is in funds again, and pulls from
his leathern money-pouch at his girdle the coin which is to repossess
him of his property."
[10.9] Naturally their
duty as valuers of much-prized property invested the stationers with
some importance. Their work was thought to be so laborious and anxious
that about 1400 every new graduate was expected to give clothes to one
of them; such method of rewarding services with livery or clothing being
common in the middle ages.
[10.10] The form
of their oath was especially designed to make them protect the chests
from loss. All monies received by them for the sale of pledges were to
be paid into the chests within eight days. The sale of a pledge was not
to be deferred longer than three weeks. Without special leave they could
not themselves buy the pledges, directly or indirectly: a wholesome and
no doubt very necessary provision. Pledges were not to be lent for more
than ten days. All pledges were to be honestly appraised. When a pledge
was sold, the buyer's name was to be written in the stationer's
indenture. No stationer could refuse to sell a pledge; nor could he take
it away from Oxford and sell it elsewhere. He was bound to mark all
books exposed for sale, as pledges, in the usual way, by quoting the
beginning of the second folio. All persons
lending books, whether stationers or other people, were bound to lend
perfect copies. This oath was sworn afresh every year.
[10.11]
Many stationers were not sworn. They speedily became serious
competitors with the privileged traders. By 1373 their number had
increased largely, and restrictions were imposed upon them. Books of
great value were sold through their agency, and carried away from
Oxford. Owners were cheated. All unsworn booksellers living within the
jurisdiction of the University were forbidden, therefore, to sell any
book, either their own property, or belonging to others, exceeding half
a mark in value. If disobedient they were liable to suffer pain of
imprisonment for the first offence, a fine of half a mark for the
second—a curious example of graduated punishment—and a prohibition to
ply their trade within the precincts of the University for the
third.[10.12]
At this time bookselling was a thriving trade. De Bury tells us:
"We secured the acquaintance of stationers and scribes, not only within
our own country, but of those spread over the realms of France, Germany
and Italy, money flying forth in abundance to anticipate their demands:
nor were they hindered by any distance, or by the fury of the seas, or
by the lack of means for their expenses, from sending or bringing to us
the books that we required."[10.13]
Records of various transactions are extant, of which the
following may serve as examples. In 1445, a stationer and a lymner in
his employ had a dispute, and as the two arbiters to whom the matter was
referred failed to reach a settlement in due time, the Chancellor of the
University stepped in and determined the quarrel. The judgment was as
follows: the lymner, or illuminator, was to serve the stationer, in
liminando bene et fideliter libros suos, for one
year, and meantime was to work for nobody else. His wage was to be four
marks ten shillings of good English money. The lymner in person was to
fetch the materials from his master's house, and to bring back the work
when finished. He was to take care not to use the colours wastefully.
The work was to be done well and faithfully, without fraud or deception.
For the purpose of superintending the work the stationer could visit the
place where the lymner wrought, at any convenient time.
[10.14] The yearly wage for this lymner was
nearly fifty pounds of our money.
An inscription in one codex tells us it was pawned to a
bookseller in 1480 for thirty-eight shillings. Pawnbroking was an
important part of a bookseller's business. Lending books on hire was
usual among both booksellers and tutors, for it was the exception,
rather than the rule, for university students to own books, while in the
college libraries there were sometimes not enough books to go round. For
example, the statutes of St. Mary's College, founded in 1446, forbade a
scholar to occupy a book in the library above an hour, or at most two
hours, so that others should not be hindered from the use of them.
[10.15]
At Cambridge the trade was not less flourishing. From time to
time it was found necessary to determine whether the booksellers and the
allied craftsmen were within the University's jurisdiction or not. In
1276 it was desired to settle their position as between the regents and
scholars of the University and the Archdeacon of Ely. Hugh de Balsham,
Bishop of Ely, when called in as arbiter, decided that writers,
illuminators, and stationers, who exercise offices peculiarly for the
behoof of the scholars, were answerable to
the Chancellor; but their wives to the Archdeacon. Nearly a century
later, in 1353-54, we find Edward III issuing a writ commanding justices
of the peace of the county of Cambridge to allow the Chancellor of the
University the conusance and punishment of all trespasses and excesses,
except mayheim and felony, committed by stationers, writers,
bookbinders, and illuminators, as had been the custom. But the question
was again in debate in 1393-94, when the Chancellor and scholars
petitioned Parliament to declare and adjudge stationers and bookbinders
scholars' servants, as had been done in the case of Oxford. This
petition does not seem to have been answered. But by the Barnwell
Process of 1430, it was decided that "transcribers, illuminators,
bookbinders, and stationers have been, and are wont and ought to be—as
well by ancient usage from time immemorial undisturbedly exercised, as
by concession of the Apostolic See—the persons belong and are subject
to the ecclesiastical and spiritual jurisdiction of the Chancellor of
the University for the time being." Again in 1503 was it agreed, this
time between the University and the Mayor and burgesses of Cambridge,
that "stacioners, lymners, schryveners, parchment-makers,
boke-bynders," were common ministers and servants of the University and
were to enjoy its privileges.
[10.16]
Fairs were so important a means of bringing together buyers and
sellers that we should expect books to be sold at them. And in fact they
were. The preamble of an Act of Parliament reads as follows: "Ther be
meny feyers for the comen welle of your seid lege people as at
Salusbury, Brystowe, Oxenforth, Cambrigge, Notyugham, Ely, Coventre, and
at many other places, where lordes spirituall and temporall, abbotes,
Prioures, Knyghtes, Squerys, Gentilmen, and your seid Comens of every
Countrey,
hath their comen resorte to by and purvey many thinges that be gode and
profytable, as ornaments of holy church chalets, bokes, vestmentes
[etc.] . . . also for howsold, as vytell for the tyme of Lent, and other
Stuff, as Lynen Cloth, wolen Cloth, brasse, pewter, beddyng, osmonde,
Iren, Flax and Wax and many other necessary thinges."
[10.17] The chief fairs for the sale of books
were those of St. Giles at Oxford, at Stourbridge, Cambridge, and St.
Bartholomew's Fair in London.
London, however, speedily asserted its right to be regarded as
England's publishing centre. The booksellers with illuminators and other
allied craftsmen established themselves in a small colony in
"Paternoster Rewe," and they attended St. Bartholomew's Fair to sell
books. By 1403 the Stationers' Company, which had long been in
existence, was chartered; its headquarters were in London, at a hall in
Milk Street. This guild did not confine its attention to the book-trade;
nor did the booksellers sell only books. Often, indeed, this was but a
small part of general mercantile operations. For example. William
Praat, a London mercer, obtained manuscripts for Caxton. Grocers also
sold manuscripts, parchment, paper and ink. King John of France, while a
prisoner in England in 1360, bought from three grocers of Lincoln four
"quaires" of paper, a main of paper and a skin of parchment, and three
"quaires" of paper. From a scribe of Lincoln named John he also bought
books, some of which are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris.[10.18]
We have a record of an interesting transaction which took place
at the end of the manuscript period (1469). One William Ebesham wrote
to his most worshipful and
special master, Sir John Paston, asking, in a hesitating, cringing sort
of way, for the payment of his little bill, which seems to have been a
good deal overdue, as is the way with bills. All this service most lowly
he recommends unto his good mastership, beseeching him most tenderly to
see the writer somewhat rewarded for his labour in the "Grete Boke"
which he wrote unto his said good mastership. And he winds up his
letter with a request for alms in the shape of one of Sir John's own
gowns; and beseeches God to preserve his patron from all adversity, with
which the writer declares himself to be somewhat acquainted. He heads
his bill: Following appeareth, parcelly, divers and sundry manner of
writings, which I William Ebesham have written for my good and
worshipful master, Sir John Paston, and what money I have received, and
what is unpaid. For writing a "litill booke of Pheesyk" he was paid
twenty pence. Other writing he did for twopence a leaf. Hoccleve's
de
Regimine Principum he wrote for one penny a leaf, "which is right
wele worth." Evidently Ebesham did not find scrivening a too
profitable occupation.
[10.19]
[[10.1]]
Rashdall, ii. 343.
[[10.2]]
Biblio. Soc. Monogr. x. (S. Gibson),
43-6.
[[10.3]]
Ibid, p. I; O H.S, 29; Madan, 267,
contains long list of references.
[[10.4]]
O. H. S., 27, Boase, xxxvi.
[[10.5]]
Cf. Grace B. Δ ix, xiii, xliii.;
O. H. S., 29, Madan, Early Oxf. Press, 266; Mun.
Acad., 532, 544, 579.
[[10.7]]
Ibid., 174, 346.
[[10.9]]
Mun, Acad., xl.-xlii.
[[10.11]]
Mun. Acad., 383-7.
[[10.14]]
Mun. Acad., 550.
[[10.15]]
Bodl. MS. Rawlinson, 34, fo. 21, Stat.
Coll. 5. Mariae pro Oseney: De Libraria.
[[10.16]]
Cooper, i. 57, 104, 141, 262; cf. Biblio.
Soc. Monogr. 13, p. 1-6.
[[10.17]]
3 H. vii., Cap. 9, 10, Stat. of the
Realm, ii. 518.
[[10.18]]
Donnée des comptes des Roys de
France, au 14e siècle
(1852), 227; Putnam, i. 312; Library, v. 3-4.
[[10.19]]
Gairdner, Paston letters, v. 1-4,
where the whole bill is transcribed.