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BOOKSELLING

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 235 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOOKSELLING . The See also:

trade in books is of a very See also:ancient date. The See also:early poets and orators recited their effusions in public to induce their hearers to possess written copies of their poems or orations. Frequently they were taken down viva voce, and transcripts sold to such as were wealthy enough to See also:purchase. In the See also:book of See also:Jeremiah the See also:prophet is represented as dictating to See also:Baruch the See also:scribe, who, when questioned, described the mode in which his book was written. These See also:scribes were, in fact, the earliest booksellers, and supplied copies as they were demanded. See also:Aristotle, we are told, possessed a somewhat extensive library; and See also:Plato is recorded to have paid the large sum of one See also:hundred minae for three small See also:treatises of See also:Philolaus the See also:Pythagorean. When the Alexandrian library was founded about 300 B.C., various expedients were resorted to for the purpose of procuring books, and this appears to have stimulated the energies of the Athenian booksellers, who were termed /303Aiwv K6.7rfXot. In See also:Rome, towards the end of the See also:republic, it became the See also:fashion to have a library as See also:part of the See also:household See also:furniture; and the booksellers, librarii (Cic. D. See also:Leg. iii. 20) or bibliopolae (See also:Martial iv.

71, xiii. 3), carried on a flourishing trade. Their shops (taberna librarii, See also:

Cicero, Phil. ii. g) were chiefly in the Argiletum, and in the Vicus Sandalarius. On the See also:door, or on the See also:side posts, was a See also:list of the books on See also:sale; and Martial (i. 118), who mentions this also, says that a copy of his First Book of Epigrams might be See also:purchased for five denarii. In the See also:time of See also:Augustus the See also:great booksellers were the Sosii. According to Justinian (ii. 1. 33), a See also:law was passed securing to the scribes the See also:property in the materials used; and in this may, perhaps, be traced the first germ of the See also:modern law of See also:copyright. The spread of See also:Christianity naturally created a great demand for copies of the Gospels and other sacred books, and later on for missals and other devotional volumes for See also:church and private use. See also:Benedict Biscop, the founder of the See also:abbey at Wearmouth in See also:England, brought See also:home with him from See also:France (671) a whole See also:cargo of books, part of which he had " bought," but from whom is not mentioned. Passing by the intermediate ages we find that previous to the See also:Reformation, the See also:text writers or stationers (stacyoneres), who sold copies of the books then in use—the A B C, the Paternoster, Creed, See also:Ave Maria and other MS. copies of prayers, in the neighbourhood of St See also:Paul's, See also:London,—were, in 1403, formed into a gild.

Some of these " stacyoneres " had stalls or stations built against the very walls of the See also:

cathedral itself, in the same manner as they are still to be found in some of the older See also:continental cities. In See also:Henry See also:Anstey's Munimenta Academica, published under the direction of the See also:master of the rolls, we catch a glimpse of the " sworn " university bookseller or stationer, See also:John More of See also:Oxford, who apparently first supplied pupils with their books, and then acted the part of a pawnbroker. Anstey says (p. 77), " The fact is that they (the students) mostly could not afford to buy books, and had they been able, would not have found the See also:advantage so considerable as might be sup-posed, the instruction given being almost wholly oral. The See also:chief source of supplying books was by purchase from the university sworn stationers, who had to a great extent a mono-poly. Of such books there were plainly very large See also:numbers constantly changing hands." Besides the sworn stationers there were many booksellers in Oxford who were not sworn; for one of the statutes, passed in the See also:year 1373, expressly recites that, in consequence of their presence, " books of great value are sold and carried away from Oxford, the owners of them are cheated, and the sworn stationers are deprived of their lawful business." It was, therefore, enacted that no bookseller except two sworn stationers or their deputies, should sell any book being either his own property or that of another, exceeding See also:half a See also:mark in value, under a See also:pain of imprisonment, or, if the offence was repeated, of abjuring his trade within the university. " The trade in bookselling seems," says See also:Hallam, " to have been established at See also:Paris and See also:Bologna in the 12th See also:century; the lawyers and See also:universities called it into See also:life. It is very improbable that it existed in what we properly See also:call the dark ages. See also:Peter of 234 See also:Blois mentions a book which he had bought of a public dealer (a quodam publico mangone librorum); but we do not find many distinct accounts of them till the next See also:age. These dealers were denominated stationarii, perhaps from the open stalls at which they carried on their business, though statio is a See also:general word for a See also:shop in See also:low Latin. They appear, by the old statutes of the university of Paris, and by those of Bologna, to have sold books upon See also:commission, and are sometimes, though not uniformly, distinguished from the librarii, a word which, having originally been confined to the copyists of books, was afterwards applied to those who traded in them. They sold See also:parchment and other materials of See also:writing, which have retained the name of See also:stationery, and they naturally exercised the kindred occupations of binding and decorating.

They probably employed transcribers; we find at least that there was a profession of copyists in the universities and in large cities." The modern See also:

system of bookselling See also:dates from soon after the introduction of See also:printing. The earliest printers were also editors and booksellers; but being unable to sell every copy of the See also:works they printed, they had agents at most of the seats of learning. Antony Koburger, who introduced the See also:art of printing into See also:Nuremberg in 1470, although a printer, was more of a bookseller; for, besides his own sixteen shops, we are informed by his biographers that he had agents for the sale of his books in every See also:city of Christendom. Wynkyn de Worde, who succeeded to See also:Caxton's See also:press in See also:Westminster, had a shop in See also:Fleet See also:Street. The religious dissensions of the See also:continent, and the Reformation in England under Henry VIII. and See also:Edward VI., created a great demand for books; but in England neither Tudor nor See also:Stuart could tolerate a See also:free press, and various efforts were made to curb it. The first patent for the See also:office of See also:king's printer was granted to See also:Thomas Berthelet by Henry VIII. in 1529, but only such books as were first licensed were to be printed. At that time even the purchase or See also:possession of an unlicensed book was a punishable offence. In 1556 the See also:Company of Stationers was incorporated, and very extensive See also:powers were granted in See also:order that See also:obnoxious books might be repressed. In the following reigns the See also:Star Chamber exercised a See also:pretty effectual censorship; but, in spite of all precaution, such was the demand for books of a polemical nature, that many were printed abroad and surreptitiously introduced into England. See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth interfered but little with books except when they emanated from See also:Roman Catholics, or touched upon her royal prerogatives; and towards the end of her reign, and during that of her pedantic successor, See also:James, bookselling flourished. See also:Archbishop See also:Laud, who was no friend to booksellers, introduced many arbitrary restrictions; but they were all, or nearly all, removed during the time of the See also:Commonwealth. So much had bookselling increased during the See also:Protectorate that, in 1658, was published A See also:Catalogue of the most Vendible Books in England,digested under the heads of Divinity, See also:History, Physic, £&'c., with School Books, See also:Hebrew, See also:Greek and Latin, and an Introduction, for the use of See also:Schools, by W.

Phoenix-squares

London. A See also:

bad time immediately followed. The Restoration also restored the office of Licenser of the Press, which continued till 1694. In the first See also:English Copyright See also:Act (1709), which specially relates to booksellers, it is enacted that, if any See also:person shall think the published See also:price of a book unreasonably high, he may thereupon make complaint to the archbishop of See also:Canterbury, and to certain other persons named, who shall thereupon examine into his complaint, and if well founded reduce the price; and any bookseller charging more than the price so fixed shall be fined 5 for every copy sold. Apparently this enactment remained a dead See also:letter. For later times it is necessary to make a See also:gradual distinction between booksellers, whose trade consists in selling books, either by See also:retail or wholesale, and publishers, whose business involves the See also:production of the books from the author's See also:manuscripts, and who are the intermediaries between author and bookseller, just as the booksellers (in the restricted sense) are intermediaries between the author and publisher and the public. The See also:article on See also:PUBLISHING (q.v.) deals more particularly with this second class, who, though originally booksellers, gradually took a higherrank in the book-trade, and whose See also:influence upon the history of literature has often been very great. The convenience of this distinction is not impaired by the fact either that a publisher is also a wholesale bookseller, or that a still more See also:recent development in publishing (as in the instance of the See also:direct sale in 1902, by the London Times, of the supplementary volumes to the 9th edition of the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica, which were also " published " by The Times) started a reaction to some extent in the way of amalgamating the two functions. The See also:scheme of The Times Book See also:Club (started in 1905) was, again, a See also:combination of a subscription library with the business of bookselling (see See also:NEWSPAPERS); and it brought the organization of a newspaper, with all its means of achieving publicity, into the See also:work of pushing the sale of books, in a way which practically introduced a new See also:factor into the bookselling business. During the 19th century it remains the fact that the distinction between publisher and bookseller—literary See also:promoter and shopkeeper—became fundamental. The booksellers, as such, were engaged either in wholesale bookselling, or in the retail, the old or second-See also:hand, and the periodical trades. Coming between the publisher and the retail bookseller is the important distributing agency of the wholesale bookseller.

It is to him that the retailer looks for his See also:

miscellaneous supplies, as it is simply impossible for him to stock one-half of the books published. In Paternoster See also:Row, London, which has for over a hundred years been the centre of this See also:industry, may be seen the collectors from the shops of the retail booksellers, busily engaged in obtaining the books ordered by the book-buying public. It is also through these agencies that the See also:country bookseller obtains his miscellaneous supplies. At the leading See also:house in this See also:department of bookselling almost any book can be found, or See also:information obtained concerning it. At one of these establishments over 1,00o,000 books are constantly kept in stock. It is here that the publisher calls first on showing or " subscribing " a new book, a See also:critical See also:process, for by the number thus subscribed the See also:fate of a book is sometimes determined. What may be termed the third partner in publishing and its ramification is the retail bookseller; and to protect his interests there was established in 1890 a London booksellers' society, which had for its See also:object the restriction of discounts to 25 (/c, and also to arrange prices generally and See also:control all details connected with the trade. The society a few years afterwards widened its See also:field of operations so as to include the whole of the See also:United See also:Kingdom, and its designation then became " The Associated Booksellers of Great See also:Britain and See also:Ireland." The trade in old or (as they are sometimes called) second-hand books is in a sense, no doubt, a higher class of business, requiring a know-ledge of bibliography, while the transactions are with individual books rather than with numbers of copies. Occasionally dealers in this class of books replenish their See also:stocks by purchasing remainders of books, which, having ceased from one cause or another to sell with the publisher, they offer to the public as bargains. The periodical trade See also:grew up during the 19th century, and was in its See also:infancy when the See also:Penny See also:Magazine, See also:Chambers's See also:Journal, and similar publications first appeared. The growth of this important part of the business was greatly promoted by the abolition of the newspaper See also:stamp and of the See also:duty upon See also:paper, the introduction of attractive illustrations, and the facilities offered for purchasing books by instalments. The history of bookselling in See also:America has a See also:special See also:interest.

The See also:

Spanish settlements See also:drew away from the old country much of its enterprise and best See also:talent, and the presses of See also:Mexico and other cities teemed with publications mostly of a religious See also:character, but many others, especially linguistic and See also:historical, were also published. Bookselling in the United States was of a somewhat later growth, although printing was introduced into See also:Boston as early as 1676, See also:Philadelphia in 1685, and New See also:York in 1693. See also:Franklin had served to make the trade illustrious, yet few persons were engaged in it at the commencement of the 19th century. Books chiefly for scholars and See also:libraries were imported from See also:Europe; but after the second See also:war printing-presses multiplied rapidly, and with the spread of newspapers and See also:education there also arose a demand for books, and publishers set to work to secure the advantages offered by the wide field of English literature, the whole of which they had the See also:liberty of See also:reaping free of all cost beyond that of production. The works of See also:Scott, See also:Byron, See also:Moore, See also:Southey, See also:Wordsworth, and indeed of every author of See also:note, were reprinted without the smallest See also:payment to author or proprietor. Half the names of the authors in the so-called " See also:American " catalogue of books printed between 182o and 1852 are See also:British. By this means the works of the best authors were brought to the doors of all classes in the cheapest variety of forms. In consequence of the See also:Civil War, the high price of labour, and the restrictive duties laid on in order to protect native industry, coupled with the frequent intercourse with England, a great See also:change took See also:place, and American publishers and booksellers, while there was still no See also:international copyright, made liberal offers for early sheets of new publications. Boston, New York and Philadelphia still retained their old supremacy as bookselling centres. Meanwhile, the distinct publishing business also grew, till gradually the conditions of business became assimilated to those of Europe. In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries the Low Countries for a time became the chief centre of the bookselling See also:world, and many of the finest folios and quartos in our libraries See also:bear the names of See also:Jansen, Blauw or See also:Plantin, with the imprint of Amster-See also:dam, See also:Utrecht, See also:Leiden or See also:Antwerp, while the Elzevirs besides other works produced their charming little See also:pocket See also:classics. The See also:southern towns of See also:Douai and St Omer at the same time furnished polemical works in English.

Under PUBLISHING are noticed various further developments of this subject. Much interesting information on the history of the book trade will be found in See also:

Charles See also:Knight's See also:Biography of See also:William Caxton, and in the same author's Shadows of the Old Booksellers (1865). See also Henry See also:Curwen, History of Booksellers (1873) ; and Heinrich Lempertz, Bilder-Hefte zur Geschichte See also:des Biicherhandels (See also:Cologne, 1854).

End of Article: BOOKSELLING

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