From Chambers' Journal. BOOKSELLING BEFORE THE INVENTION OF THE PRESS. present day have any notion of. The scroll, when rolled up, was often a yard and a half long, and the lines of manuscript consequently very little short of that, across. When extended, each Ir has long been acknowledged that the book-volume was sometimes fifty yards long. A roll of selling business, from its very nature, requires a calico, such as is seen standing at linen drapers' greater amount of intelligence to be successfully shop windows, will give the reader some idea of carried on than any other branch of trade. Au- the external form of an ancient book, without its thors-who must be considered good judges of the umbilicus or roller. Each scroll was usually matter-have, as a body, testified in favor of this washed in cedar-oil, or strewn between each wrap view of bookselling; and although disappointed with cedar or citron-chips, to prevent it from rotwriters occasionally show an aptitude to decry ting or being eaten by insects. Ancient books did "the trade" and its professors, yet the most emi- not exclusively consist of scrolls. The Romans nent authors have seldom joined in such a condem- had also books of papyrus, or vellum, folded in nation. Dr. Johnson speaks of them only too square leaves like ours. These they called codices. highly, for he designates them "the patrons of literature," whilst in truth they are only the agents of its real patrons, the public. D'Israeli the elder remarks, that "eminent booksellers, in their constant intercourse with the most enlightened class of the community-that is, the best authors and the best readers-partake of the intelligence around them." Booksellers are inseparably identified with literary history. Whoever, therefore, takes an interest in that progress of civilization which has been helped on so materially by letters, will find much to instruct and entertain him in tracing back, through the records of past time, the rise and vicissitudes of the book-trade, and by finally looking round on the present condition of things, and following its progress up to the state in which it now exists. With this view we have busied ourselves in collecting various historical notices and anecdotes concerning booksellers and their craft, from the earliest down to the present time. Before the invention of printing, the articles in which the booksellers dealt were manuscripts. These were inscribed on some flexible material, manufactured either from the inner bark of trees, (hence the Latin word liber, and the German buche or book,) from the leaves of the papyrus plant, or from leather or parchment. In one of the earliest forms of books, only one side of the material was written on, and one sheet was joined to the end of another till the work, or one section of it, was finished, when it was rolled up on a cylinder, or staff. The leaves composing such books were designated paginæ, from which we derive our term 66 page; the sticks upon which they were rolled were cylindri, at each end of which was a knob for evolving the scroll. These balls were called umbilici, or cornua, "horns," of which they were often made, though sometimes composed of bone, wood, or metal, either elaborately carved, or richly inlaid with gold, silver, or precious stones; the edges of the scroll were called frontes. On the outside of each scroll was written its title.* In the earlier manuscripts, the writing was not divided into words, but joined in continuous lines. The Greeks read from right to left, and from left to right alternately, the reader commencing the one line immediately under the termination of the line above. This was a highly necessary arrangement for the guidance of the reader, who, by adopting the modern plan, would have been very apt to "lose his place" on account of the extreme length of the lines: for those ancient volumes were much larger than we at the Such were the articles which formed the stock in trade of a Grecian bookseller. The trader was also the manufacturer, keeping a number of transcribers to make copies of the works he sold. Diogenes Laertius mentions that there were at Athens public bookshops called Bibliopoleia; nor were these libraries solely devoted to the copying and selling manuscript books, for it was the custom among the learned to meet in the shops to discuss the literary gossip of the day, to criticise, possibly, a new comedy by Aristophanes, the tragedy of the last feast of Bacchus, or to dispute on the latest philosophic theory. In those times when, from the extreme labor of producing them, books were both dear and scarce, the shopkeeper sometimes hired a qualified person to read a new manuscript to his learned customers, and to give an exposition or lecture concerning it. This must have been an important branch of his business; for, from the high price of books, the sale of copies must have been upon a very limited scale. The works of Plato appear to have had an unusually large circulation, for concerning them history records one of the earliest instances of literary piracy: Hermodorus the Sicilian, a disciple of that philosopher, having turned his attention to bookselling, extended the sale of his master's works not only throughout Greece, but as far as Sicily. This was done, however, without the consent of the author. When literature, in its onward course, left the shores of Greece and fixed itself for a time at Alexandria, under the fostering encouragement of the Ptolemies, the bookselling business had become of so important a character, that a regular market was established for the sale of manuscripts. "The trade" was chiefly composed of emigrant Greeks, who had by that period acquired a character all over the civilized world for cunning and knavery. Hence we find Strabo bitterly complaining that most of the volumes at the Alexandrian market were "copied only for sale;" in other words, hastily, and without revision or comparison with the originals. He also laments that the impertinence of the transcribers introduced matter which the author never penned. This scanty information is all which exists concerning the book were as follow:-"A reed cut like our pens; inks of dif*The implements used by a Grecian or Roman scribe ferent colors, but chiefly black; a sponge to cleanse the reed, and to rub out such letters as were written by mislar purpose, or to smooth the parchment; compasses for take; a knife for mending the reed; pumice for a simimeasuring the distances of the lines; scissors for cutting the paper; a puncher to point out the beginning and end of each line; a rule to draw lines and divide the sheets *The ancients seldom numbered the divisions of their into columns; a glass containing sand, and another glass works as we do, but named them after some deity or pat-filled with water, probably to mix with the ink."-Manron. Thus the books of Herodotus respectively bear the ual of Classical Literature: from the German of J. J. names of the muses. Eschenburg. 20 LIII. LIVING AGE. VOL. V. : sellers of the old world. When, however, litera- | of several classic authors. Occasionally, in old ture forsook the east, and, travelling westward, collections of manuscript books, a missal or copy set up a long rest in Rome, more ample details of the Gospels is to be seen inscribed on vellum, concerning their mode of doing business are at on which shines faintly the not-altogether obliterour disposal. ated work of an ancient writer. We lately saw, The first mention of Latin books, as forming in the Bibliothèque Royale, or great public library regular articles of commerce, is made by several in Paris, a copy of the Gospels as old as the ninth writers who existed during the time of the Roman century, which had thus been written on the emperors. It is to be inferred that, previous to cleaned pages of a classic author. Whether on new that time, people of distinction borrowed works or old vellum, a great number of books were copied from their authors, and caused copies to be made and collected in England during the eighth century; either by professed scribes, (librarii,) or by their the monks of that period having been exceedown slaves. Gradually, however, the demand for ingly emulous of attaining skill in writing and illubooks made it worth while for certain individuals minating; and at a later period, this was enumerto devote time and capital to their purchase, and ated as one of the accomplishments even of so these tradesmen were designated, after their Gre- great a man as St. Dunstan. They abandoned the cian brethren, bibliopola. Their shops were in system of writing on scrolls, adopting the form in public places: in, for instance, the well-frequented which books are now printed. Yet posterity had streets near the Forum, the Palladium, the Sigilarii, little benefit from these great assemblages of the Argilletum, and the temple of peace; but prin- books; for, during the numerous inroads of the cipally, according to Gellius, in the Via Sandalina- Danes from the ninth to the eleventh century, ria. These shops being, as at Athens, much re- many of the richest libraries were committed to the sorted to by men of letters, were the chief sources of flames, along with the monasteries which conliterary information; they formed what modern tained them.* In the thirteenth century, books newspapers call an "excellent advertising me- were, from these destructions, extremely scarce, dium" announcements of new works were con- and the few that existed were exclusively in the stantly exhibited not only outside the shops, but hands of the monks; for they were almost the only upon the pillars of the interior. Depôts for the persons who could read them. "Great authors,' sale of manuscripts were also to be met with in says D'Israeli, "occasionally composed a book the provincial towns. A mongst the Roman book-in Latin, which none but other great authors cared sellers originated the practice of purchasing copy- for, and which the people could not read." For rights, and it has been clearly ascertained that these reasons, the small amount of bookselling several of the most celebrated Latin works were the which took place in the middle ages was solely oxclusive property of certain bibliopola. The conducted by monks; and works, being scarce, names of several of these booksellers have been fetched prices which would astonish the modern handed down to posterity, chiefly on account of bibliomaniac. It is well authenticated that the their excellent mode of doing business, and for homilies of Bede, and St. Austin's psalter, were the care which they took in insuring the correct- sold in 1174 by the monks of Dorchester (Oxfordness of the manuscripts they sold; frequently go-shire) to Walter, prior of St. Swithin's, (Winchesing to the additional expense of employing the ter,) for twelve measures of barley and a splendid authors themselves to examine and compare the pall, embroidered in silver with historical reprecopies made from their works. The Tonsons, sentations of St. Birinus converting a Saxon king. Longmans, Cadells, and Murrays of the times of At a later period, a copy of John of Meun's "RoHorace, Cicero, Martial, and Catullus, (who men-mance of the Rose" was sold before the palace tion them,) were the "speculative" Tryphon, gate at Paris for 40 crowns, or 331. 6s. 8d. A the "prudent" Atreetus, Tul. Lucensis "the learned lady, the Countess of Anjou, gave for the freed man, ," the brothers Sosius, Q. P. Valerianus homilies of Haimon, bishop of Halberstadt, the Dicius, and Ulpius. We are informed by Galenus unheard-of exchange of two hundred sheep, five that less respectable bookdealers took dishonest quarters of wheat, and the same quantity of rye advantage of the fair fame of these magnates in and millet. Among these instances of the high the "trade," by forging the imprints of those prices sometimes set on unprinted books, we can.celebrated publishers upon imperfect and ill-not exclude mention of an extraordinary work, written copies.* which was executed in a singular manner. It con With the fall of the Roman empire the book-sists of the finest vellum, the text cut out of, inselling business not only declined, but was for a stead of inscribed on each leaf, and being intertime swept away from the list of trades. Litera-leaved with blue paper, it is as easily read as print. :ture and science, ingulfed in the monastic system, The title involves one of the paradoxes in which were hidden in the cloister. The monks became · the transcribers of books, and in this laborious occupation the learned Benedictines are known to have particularly excelled. The works produced by these religious men where almost exclusively missals, or books of devotion; copies of the Scriptures were also produced by them, though to a less extent. There was, however, at this period, a great difficulty in procuring material on which to write books, and the device, more ingenious than .. commendable, was resorted to of deterging the writing of old classics, and then using the cleaned parchment for the works required. This practice is understood to have caused the loss to the world *History of the Book-Trade and the art of Book-Printing. By Frederic Metz. Darmstadt: 1834. authors of that age so much delighted: it is "Liber passionis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, cum figuris et characteribus nulla materia compositis"(The book of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, with figures and characters composed of nothing.) For this singular curiosity the Emperor Rodolph II. of Germany offered 11,000 ducats. As the book bears the royal arms of this country, it is thought to have been executed by some ingenious and patient English monk. We mention the work to account in some measure for the high prices adverted to, which Robertson, in his history of Charles V., adduces as a proof of the scarcity of manuscripts. The truth is, that some copies were intrinsically valuable for the beauty and rich* Biographia Britannica Literaria, pp. 35 and 107. ness of the binding; and a few others were ren- men. The learned were incredulous; but a few dered almost beyond price, from having the relics years afterwards their doubts were silenced by the of saints inserted in them. At a visitation of the appearance of a Bible in Latin-printed from metal treasury of St. Paul's cathedral, in the year 1295, types. This wonder was effected by a machine by Ralph de Baldock, (afterwards bishop of Lon- which has since done more for the advance of don,) there were found twelve copies of the Gos- civilization than all the other expedients of ingepels, all adorned with silver, some with gilding, nious man to save his labor, or to promote his welpearls and gems, and one with eleven relics, which fare-THE PRESS. were ingeniously let in to the plates of precious metal that surrounded each page.* We cannot find that bookselling awoke from its monastic torpor till the establishment of universities in various parts of the continent. But in 1259, sellers of manuscripts, chiefly on theological subjects, became so numerous in Paris, that special regulations were instituted regarding them. Pierre de Blois mentions that they were called librarii or stationarii. The former were brokers or agents for the sale and loan of manuscripts. By stationarii (so called from having stations in various parts of cities and at markets) were meant sellers and copiers of manuscripts, like their Roman prototypes. It appears that at the time the above laws were made, there were in Paris twenty-nine booksellers and book-brokers, two of whom were females. The enormous prices they demanded for their books became a public scandal, and one object of the new law was to regulate their charges. Taxatores Librorum, or book-taxers, were employed to determine the price which every manuscript should be charged, that, on the one hand, the stationarii should have a reasonable profit, and that, on the other, the purchaser should not pay too dear. But the most profitable branch of the trade appears to have been lending books, which were generally so valuable, that for their safe return security was taken. When Louis XI. borrowed the works of Rhases, the Arabian physician, he not only deposited, by way of pledge, a large quantity of plate, but was obliged to find a nobleman to join him as surety in a deed binding him under a great penalty to restore the book unharmed. Some books were so highly prized, that they were conveyed or pledged as security for loans, as estates are mortgaged. It is recorded that one Geoffrey de St. Lieges deposited the Speculum Historiale in Consuetudines Parisienses (Historical Mirror of the Customs of the Parisians) with Gerrard de Montagu, king's advocate, as security for a sum equal to about 107. From these facts, it would appear that bookselling was in Paris-then the chief seat of learning-a profitable calling between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. They were not, however, the only members of the trade existing in Europe. Wherever universities were established, booksellers also resided, especially in Vienna, Palermo, Padua, and Salamanca. Gradually, "the trade" spread itself over less learned places; and by the time printing was invented, both librarii and stationarii exercised their vocations in most of the larger European towns. Such was the condition of the trade up to the year 1440, when it felt the effects of a revolution which shook far more important professions and institutions to their base. About the year 1430 it was whispered in Mayence that one John Guttenberg had invented a process by which he and an assistant could produce more copies in one day than two hundred and fifty of the most expert pen *Dugdale's Monasticon, iii., p. 309-324. + Annals of Parisian Typography. By the Rev. Parr stepfather was then residing; and at fourteen | at the same time; it cannot be that I should be years of age Mademoiselle Lenormand started for the metropolis, with no other worldly possessions than the clothes on her back, and a piece of six francs in her pocket, given to her by her maternal guardian. Arrived in the great city, her father-in-law obtained for the young adventuress a place in a shop, where she soon gained the good-will of her employers, and la grosse Normande became a universal favorite. One of the clerks undertook to instruct her in arithmetic and book-keeping, and gave her some knowledge also of mathematics. | Pursuing her studies with great industry, she soon surpassed her instructor, and resolved, after a time, to gain the means of subsistence by her own exertions, and in a manner congenial to her habits and inclinations. To this end she established in the Rue de Tournon a bureau d'ecriture, which succeeded well, and where she continued to exercise her vocation as a prophetess till the time of her death in 1813. Her success enabled her, after a time, to get her sister married as she desired, and to promote her brother in his military career. It was towards the end of the reign of Louis XVI. that Mademoiselle Lenormand commenced practice. She found the troubles of the times, which unhinged the minds of all around her, and filled them with alarm and anxiety, very propitious to her views. The unfortunate Princess de Lamballe, whose untimely fate she predicted, was one of her frequent visitors; and she possessed a letter from Mirabeau, written from his prison at Vincennes, in which he intreated her to tell him when his captivity would cease. The revolution followed, and applicants for the benefit of her oracular powers increased. Alarmed at the rapid progress of events, and rendered superstitious by their fears, crowds of anxious inquirers flocked to the Rue de Tournon under various disguises, which it required no great shrewdness or talent to discover. It was at this time that two French guards who had joined the crowd in the attack on the Bastile visited the celebrated reader of futurity; to one she predicted a short but glorious military career, and an early death by poison; to the other the baton of a marechal of France. The former was afterwards General Hoche, whose untimely fate fulfilled the augury; the other the celebrated Lefebvre. The Comte de Provence, (afterwards Louis XVIII.,) on the night of his flight from Paris, sent to consult the sybil of the Rue de Tournon, "en qualité de voisine," previous to his departure. During the reign of terror, Mademoiselle Lenormand continued for some time undisturbed in the exercise of her divination, and was visited one evening by three men, who demanded with smiles of evident incredulity to learn their future destiny. On examining their hands attentively, she became greatly agitated, probably knowing the parties she had to deal with; they encouraged her, however, to speak without fear, as they were ready, they said, to hear whatever doom she should pronounce. For some time she remained silent, and continued to examine the cards apparently with great attention, but evidently under considerable excitement; yielding at length to their encouragement, she foretold their destiny, and, tragic as it was, her visitors received the prophecy with shouts of incredulous laughter. "The oracle has failed for once," observed one of them; "if we ure destined to destruction, we shall at least fall The the first victim, and receive such splendid honors After the reign of terror, the celebrity of the prophetess continued to increase. Barrère was one of her constant visitors. Madame Tallien seldom allowed a week to pass without availing herself of her supernatural powers. Barras frequently sent for her to the Luxembourg. From the access she had to the leaders of all parties, it required no great skill in divination to predict many of the events which took place at that time. The empire was, however, the season of her richest harvest. Josephine, as is generally known, was a firm believer in auguries and prophetic intimations. The early prediction of her future greatness, and its termination, has been so frequently repeated, without receiving any contradiction, that it is become a fact which no one questions, and would easily account for the firm faith she reposed in the oracles of Mademoiselle Lenormand, to whom she constantly sent to ask, amidst other questions, explanations respecting the dreams of Napoleon; and when the latter projected any new enterprise, the empress never failed to consult the reader of futurity as to its results. The disasters of the Russian campaign, it is said, were clearly predicted by Mademoiselle Lenormand; and it was from her also that Josephine received the first intimations of the divorce which was in contemplation, which premature revelation, unfortunately for the authoress, procured for her an interview with Fouché, who, on her being introduced, inquired, in a tone of raillery, if the cards had informed her of the arrest which awaited her? "No," she replied; "I thought I was summoned here for a consultation, and have brought them with me;" at the same time dealing them out upon the table of the minister of police without any apparent embarrassment. Without mentioning the divorce, Fouché began to reproach her with many of the prophecies she had lately uttered; and which, notwithstanding the kindness she had received from the empress, had been employed to flatter the hopes of the royalists in the Faubourg St. Germain. Mademoiselle Lenormand continued to deal the cards, repeating to herself in an under tone, "The knave of clubs! again the knave of clubs!" Fouché continued his reprimands, and informed her that, however lightly she might be disposed to regard the matter, he was about to send her to prison, where she would probably remain for a considerable time. "How do you know that?" asked the prophetess. "Here is the knave of clubs again, who will set me free sooner than you expect.' 66 'Ah, the knave of clubs will have the credit of it, will he?" "Yes, the knave of clubs represents your successor in office-the Duc de Rovigo." The fall of Napoleon brought fresh credit and honor to Mademoiselle Lenormand. She had foretold the restoration of the Bourbons, and received the rewards of divination. The Emperor Alexander visited and consulted her; and her old patron, Louis XVIII., again availed himself of her science and advice. But it was not the monarchs of Europe alone that gave their support to this singular woman. Prince Talleyrand, with all his incredulity, and with all his knowledge of man, and Madame de Staël, with all her boasted talents and wisdom, both were carried away in the general delusion. her visitors and exercise her vocation, without giving offence to the prefect de police or his agents; and, under the title of librarian, her name is inscribed in the royal and national almanac. On ringing at the door of the oracular abode, a servant appeared, and you were introduced into an apartment in which there was nothing extraordinary. So well was the character of Mademoiselle established, that no additional means of imposture were requisite to support it. Some thirty or forty volumes were arranged on shelves against the wall, chiefly consisting of the works of the lady herself "Les Souvenirs Prophétiques." Réponse à Mon. Hoffman, journaliste,' Memoires Historiques," and five or six other works chiefly on cabalistic subjects. Mademoiselle soon made her appearance-a short fat little woman, with a ruddy face, overshadowed by the abundant curls of a flaxen wig, and surmounted by a semi-oriental turban, the rest of her attire being much in the style of a butter woman. "La "Les "What is your pleasure?" she demanded of her visitor. 66 Mademoiselle, I come to consult you." "Well, sit down; what course of inquiries do you wish to make? I have them at all prices; from six, to ten, twenty, or four hundred francs." "I wish for information to the amount of a louis-d'or." 66 Very well; come to this table; sit down, and It was during the consulate, when Madame de give me your left hand." Then followed several Staël returned to Paris, after a lengthened ab- queries "What is your age? What is your sence, that she allowed herself to be persuaded to favorite flower? To what animal have you the make a visit to the Rue de Tournon. In the greatest repugnance?" During the course of her course of conversation, Mademoiselle Lenormand questions she continued shuffling the cards; and observed, "You are anxious about some event at length presenting them, desired you to cut them which will probably take place to-morrow, but with your left hand. She then dealt them out from which you will receive very little satisfac- upon the table one by one, at the same time protion." On the succeeding day, Madame de Staël claiming your future fate with a volubility that was to have an audience of the first consul, who rendered it very difficult to follow up all she said, well knew her pretensions, and was but little dis- and as if she were reading with great rapidity posed to yield to them. Madame, however, flat- from a printed book. In this torrent of words, tered herself that the power of her genius, and the sometimes quite unintelligible, occasionally occurcharms of her conversation, would overcome the red something which particularly struck the inprejudice she was aware he had conceived against quirer, whose character, tastes, and habits, she her. The lady was received in the midst of a sometimes described very accurately, probably in numerous circle, and fully expected to produce a part from phrenological observation. Very often brilliant effect upon Bonaparte, and all who sur- she mentioned remarkable circumstances in their rounded him. On her being introduced, the con- past life with great correctness, at the same time sul abruptly asked, "Have you seen la pie voleuse, predicting future events, which many of her visiwhich is so much in fashion?"* Surprised at the tors found to be afterwards realized. Of the failunexpected question, Madame de Staël hesitated a ures, probably innumerable, nothing was heard. moment for a reply. "On dit," he added, 66 we In justice to the lady, it must however be are soon to have la pie seditieuse also." The observed, that her natural shrewdness and obsersecond observation completed the lady's confu- vation frequently enabled her to give advice which sion; and the first consul, not wishing to increase was of considerable advantage to the inquirer. it, turned and entered into conversation with some more favored visitor. After this memorable audience, Madame de Staël called to mind the observation of Mademoiselle Lenormand, and from that time had great confidence in her skill, paying her many subsequent visits. The residence of the prophetess for forty years was at the extremity of a court, (No. 5, Rue de Tournon,) and over the door was inscribed, "Mademoiselle Lenormand, Libraire." The profession of a prophetess not being recognized by the code, she took a patente de libraire," to receive *The Thieving Magpie, a play so called; the same, we presume, as that called in English the Maid and the Magpie. 66 Mademoiselle Lenormand, notwithstanding the favors she received from the emperor and Josephine, was a steady and devoted adherent to the elder branch of the Bourbons; and, after the revolution of July, retired very much from her usual business, both in consequence of her age, and from the diminution of her visitors; passing much of her time at Alençon, where she purchased lands and houses, and built herself a residence which she called "La petite maison de Socrate." Remembering the little honor a prophet receives in his own country, she refused to exercise her vocation in her native town, saying that she came to Alençon to forget that she was a "devineresse," and only calculated horoscopes at Paris. |