In the foregoing example the customary method has been followed of deducting withdrawals of capital from the capital account and of adding profits thereto. Sometimes, however, the balance of the capital account remains constant, and the drawings and net profits are transferred to a separate account calledcurrent account. This plan is but rarely observed in the case of undertakings owned by individuals, or private firms, but is invariably adopted in connexion with joint-stock companies, although in such cases the nameappropriation of profit accountis generally employed.
Although it is now usual to employ several books of first-entry, in the case of comparatively small businesses one such book is sufficient for all purposes, in that it is practicable for one person to record all the transactions that takeJournal.place as and when they occur. A book of this description is called thejournal, and for many years represented the only book of first-entry employed in book-keeping. An example of the journal is given below. The entries appearing therein are such as would be necessary to prepare the trading and profit and loss accounts from the trial balance shown above, and to bring the capital account up to date.
In modern times, however, with the growth of business, it was soon found impracticable to keep one book of first-entry for all transactions, and accordingly it became necessary either to treat the journal as an intermediate book, in which the transactions might be brought together and focused as a preliminary to being recorded in the ledger, or else to split up the journal into numerous books of first-entry, each of which might in that case be employed for the record of a particular class of transaction. The first method has been generally adopted in the continental countries of Europe, as will be shown later on, whereas in Great Britain and in North America the latter method more generally obtains; that is, instead of having one journal in which all classes of transactions are recorded in the first instance, it is usual to employ several journals, as follows:—asales journal, sales bookorday book, to record particulars of goods sold; abought journal, invoice bookorpurchases book, to record particulars of goods purchased; areturns inwards book, to record particulars of goods sold but subsequently returned by customers; areturns outwards book, to record the like particulars with regard to goods purchased and subsequently returned; abills receivable book, to record particulars of bills of exchange received from debtors; and abills payable book, to record particulars of bills of exchange given to creditors.
Journal 1906
Day Book 1906
With a view still further to split up the work, thus enabling a large staff to be simultaneously engaged, the ledger itself is now generally kept in sections. Thus the cash account and the bank account are frequently bound together in one separate book called thecash book, showing in parallel columns the movements of office cash and of cash at the bank, and by the addition of a third column for discounts the necessity of keeping an additional book of first entry as adiscount journalmay also be avoided. Of late years, however, most businesses pay all moneys received into their bankers without deduction, and pay all accounts by cheque; the necessity of an account for office cash thus no longer exists, save in connexion with petty payments, which are recorded in a separate book called thepetty cash book. With regard to the remaining ledger accounts, personal accounts—which are the most numerous—are frequently separated from the real and nominal accounts, and are further subdivided so that customers’ accounts are kept separate from the accounts of trade creditors. The customers’ accounts are kept in a ledger (or, if need be, in several ledgers) calledsales ledgers, orsold ledgers; while the accounts of trade creditors are similarly kept inpurchases ledgersorbought ledgers. The nominal and real accounts, if together, are kept in what is called thegeneral ledger; but this may be further subdivided into anominal ledgerand aprivate ledger. This last subdivision is, however, rarely made upon a scientific basis, for such accounts as the profit and loss account and trading account are generally kept in the private ledger although strictly speaking nominal accounts; while the bills receivable account and the bills payable account are generally kept in the nominal ledger, so as to reduce to a minimum the amount of clerical work in connexion with the private ledger, which is kept either by the principal himself or by his confidential employee. By the employment ofadjustment accounts, which complete the double-entry record in each ledger, these various ledgers may readily be made self-balancing, thus enabling clerical errors to be localized and responsibility enforced.
Of recent years considerable attention has been devoted to further modifications of book-keeping methods with a view to reducing clerical work, increasing the speed with which results are available, and enabling them to be handled more quicklyTabular book-keeping.and with greater certainty.Tabular book-keepingis a device to achieve one or more of these ends by the substitution of books ruled with numerous columns for the more usual form. The system may be applied either to books of first entry or to ledgers. As applied to books of first-entry it enables the same book to deal conveniently with more than one class of transaction; thus if the trading of a business is divided into several departments, by providing a separate column for the sales of each department it is possible readily to arrive at separate totals for the aggregate sales of each, thus simplifying the preparation of departmental trading accounts. As applied to ledgers, the application of the system may be best described by the aid of the above example (the proceedings of the columns being given only), which shows how a very large number of personal accounts may be recorded upon a single opening of a ledger provided the number of entries to be made against each individual be few.
Another important application of modern methods consists of what may be described as theslip system, which is in many respects a reversion to the method of keeping records upon movable slabs or tablets, as in the Babylonian accountsSlip system.referred to at the beginning of this article. This system may be applied to books of first-entry, or to ledgers, or to both. As applied to books of first-entry it aims at so modifying the original record of the transaction—whether it represents an invoice for goods sold or an acknowledgment given for money received—that a facsimile duplicate may be taken of the original entry by the aid of a carbon sheet, which instead of being immovably bound up in a book is capable of being handled separately and placed in any desired order or position, and thus more readily recorded in the ledger. Postings are thus made direct from the original slips, which have been first sorted out into an order convenient for that purpose, and afterwards resorted so that the total sales of each department may be readily computed; after which they are filed away in a form convenient for reference. Sometimes the process is carried a step further, and the original slips, filed away with suitable guide-cards indicating the nature of the account, themselves constitute the ledger record—which in such cases is to be found scattered over a number of sheets, one for each transaction, instead of, as in the case of the ordinary book ledger, a considerable number of transactions being recorded upon a single page. This adaptation of the slip system is impracticable except in cases where the transactions with each individual are few in number, and is not worth adoption unless the exceedingly large number of personal accounts makes it important as far as possible to avoid all duplication of clerical work. The more usual adaptation of the slip system to ledgers is to be found in the employment ofcard ledgersorloose-leaf ledgers. With card ledgers (fig. 1) each ledger account is upon an independent sheet of cardboard suitably arranged in drawers or cabinets. The system is advantageous as allowing all dead matter to be eliminated from the record continuously in use, and as permitting the order in which the accounts stand to be varied from time to time as convenience dictates, thus (if necessary) enabling the accounts to be always kept in alphabetical order in spite of the addition of new accounts and the dropping out of old ones. An especial convenience of the card system is that in times of pressure any desired number of book-keepers may be simultaneously employed, whereas the maximum number that can be usefully employed upon any bound book is two. The loose-leaf ledger (fig. 2) may be described as midway between card and bound ledgers. It consists of a number of sheets in book form, so bound as to be capable of being readily separated when desired. The loose-leaf ledger thus embraces most of the advantages of the card ledger, while remaining sufficiently like the more old-fashioned book ledger as to enable it to be readily handled by those whose previous experience has been confined to the latter. Both the card and loose-leaf systems will be frequently found of value for records in connexion with cost and stores accounts, quite irrespective of their advantages in connexion with the book-keeping records pure and simple of certain businesses.
All book-keeping methods rest upon the same fundamental principles, but their development in practice in different countries is to some extent influenced by the manner in which business is there conducted, and by the legislativeLegislative Requirements.requirements imposed by the several states. In France traders are required by the Code of Commerce to keep three books—a journal, an inventory and a letter book, somewhat elaborate provisions being made to identify these books, and to prevent substitution. The compulsory journal makes the employment of numerous books of first-entry impossible without an undesirable amount of duplication, and whereverthis provision obtains the book-keeping methods are in an accordingly comparatively backward state. The inventory book comprises periodical lists of ledger balances and the balance sheet, records which are invariably kept under every adequate system, although not always in a book specially set aside for that purpose. In Germany the statutory requirements are similar to those in France, save that the journal is not compulsory; but there is an additional provision that the accounts are to be kept inboundbooks with the pages numbered consecutively—a requirement which makes the introduction of card or loose-leaf ledgers of doubtful legality. A balance sheet must be drawn up every year; but where a stock-in-trade is from its nature or its size difficult to take, it is sufficient for an inventory to be taken every two years. In Belgium the law requires every merchant to keep a journal recording his transactions from day to day, which (with the balance book) must be initialled by a prescribed officer. All letters and telegrams received, and copies of all such sent, must be preserved for ten years. The Commercial Code of Spain requires an inventory, journal, ledger, letter book and invoice book to be kept; while that of Portugal prescribes the use of a balance book, journal, ledger and copy-letter book. The law of Holland requires business men to keep books in which are correctly recorded their commercial transactions, letters received and copies of letters sent. It also provides for the preparation of an annual balance sheet. The law of Rumania makes the employment of journal, inventory book and ledger compulsory, a small tax per page being charged on the two first named. There are no special provisions as to book-keeping contained in the Russian law, nor in the United States law, but in Russia public companies have to supply the government with copies of their annual accounts, which are published in a state newspaper, and in the United States certain classes of companies have to submit their accounts to an official audit. In general terms it may be stated that at the present time the employment of card and loose-leaf ledger systems is more general in the United States than in Great Britain.
Apart from the organizations of professional accountants, there is none of note devoted to the scientific study of book-keeping other than purely educational institutions. Among the universities those in the United States wereEducation.the first to include accounting as part of their curriculum; while in Great Britain the London School of Economics (university of London), the university of Birmingham, and the Victoria University of Manchester have, so far, alone treated the subject seriously and upon adequate lines. Quite recently Japan has been making a movement in the same direction, and other countries will doubtless follow suit. In England there have for a number of years past been various bodies—such for instance as the Society of Arts, the London Chamber of Commerce and Owens College, Manchester—which hold examinations in book-keeping and grant diplomas to successful candidates, while most of the polytechnics and technical schools give instruction in book-keeping; these latter, however, for the most part regard it as a “craft” merely.
Authorities.—Those interested in the bibliography of book-keeping are referred to the catalogue of the library of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, which probably contains the most complete collection in existence of ancient and modern works on accounting, both British and foreign. The following short list comprises those most likely to be found of general interest: G. van de Linde,Book-keeping(1898); L.R. Dicksee,Book-keeping(5th ed., 1906) andAdvanced Accounting(2nd ed., 1905);Encyclopaedia of Accounting, ed. by G. Lisle (1903);Accountants’ Library, ed. by the editor ofThe Accountant(1901); J.W. Heaps,The Antiquity of Book-keeping(1898);History of Accounting and Accountants, ed. by R. Brown (1905).
Authorities.—Those interested in the bibliography of book-keeping are referred to the catalogue of the library of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, which probably contains the most complete collection in existence of ancient and modern works on accounting, both British and foreign. The following short list comprises those most likely to be found of general interest: G. van de Linde,Book-keeping(1898); L.R. Dicksee,Book-keeping(5th ed., 1906) andAdvanced Accounting(2nd ed., 1905);Encyclopaedia of Accounting, ed. by G. Lisle (1903);Accountants’ Library, ed. by the editor ofThe Accountant(1901); J.W. Heaps,The Antiquity of Book-keeping(1898);History of Accounting and Accountants, ed. by R. Brown (1905).
(L. R. D.)
BOOK-PLATES.The book-plate, orex-libris, a printed label intended to indicate ownership in individual volumes, is nearly as old as the printed book itself. It bears very much the same relation to the hand-painted armorial or otherwise symbolical personal device found in medieval manuscripts that the printed page does to the scribe’s work. The earliest known examples of book-plates are German. According to Friedrich Warnecke, of Berlin (one of the best authorities on the subject), the oldest movableex-librisare certain woodcuts representing a shield of arms supported by an angel (fig. 1), which were pasted in books presented to the Carthusian monastery of Buxheim by Brother Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach, about the year 1480—the date being fixed by that of the recorded gift. The woodcut, in imitation of similar devices in old MSS., is hand-painted. In France the most ancientex-librisas yet discovered is that of one Jean Bertaud de la Tour-Blanche, the date of which is 1529; and in England that of Sir Nicholas Bacon, a gift-plate for the books he presented to the university of Cambridge (fig. 2).Holland comes next with the plate of a certain Anna van der Aa, in 1597; then Italy with one attributed to the year 1622. The earliest known American example is the plain printed label of one John Williams, 1679.
A sketch of the history of the book-plate, either as a minor work of symbolical and decorative art, or as an accessory to the binding of books, must obviously begin in Germany, not only because the earliest examples known are German, but also because they are found in great numbers long before the fashion spread to other countries, and are often of the highest artistic interest. Albrecht Dürer is known to have actually engraved at least six plates (some of very important size) between 1503 and 1516 (fig. 3), and to have supplied designs for many others. Several notable plates are ascribed to Lucas Cranach and to Hans Holbein, and to that bevy of so-called Little Masters, the Behams, Virgil Solis, Matthias Zundt, Jost Amman, Saldörfer, Georg Hüpschmann and others. The influence of these draughtsmen over the decorative styles of Germany has been felt through subsequent centuries down to the present day, notwithstanding the invasion of successive Italian and French fashions during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the marked effort at originality of composition observable among modern designers. The heavy, over-elaborated German style never seems to have affected neighbouring countries; but since it was undoubtedly from Germany that was spread the fashion of ornamental book-plates as marks of possession, the history of Germanex-librisremains on that account one of high interest to all those who are curious in the matter.
It was not before the 17th century that themovable ex-librisbecame tolerably common in France. Up to that time the more luxurious habit of stamping the cover with a personal device had been in such general favour with book-owners as to render the use of labels superfluous. From the middle of the century, however, theex-librisproper became quite naturalized; examples of that period are very numerous, and, as a rule, are very handsome. It may be here pointed out that the expressionex-libris, used as a substantive, which is now the recognized term for book-plate everywhere on the continent, found its origin in France. The words only occur in the personal tokens of other nationalities long after they had become a recognized inscription on French labels.
In many ways the consideration of the English book-plate, in its numerous styles, from the late Elizabethan to the late Victorian period, is peculiarly interesting. In all its varieties it reflects with great fidelity the prevailing taste in decorative art at different epochs. Of English examples, none thus far seems to have been discovered of older date than the gift-plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon; for the celebrated, gorgeous, hand-painted armorial device attached to a folio that once belonged to Henry VIII., and now reposes in the King’s library, British Museum, does not come under the head of book-plate in its modern sense. The next is that of Sir Thomas Tresham, dated 1585. Until the last quarter of the 17th century the number of authentic English plates is very limited. Their composition is always remarkably simple, and displays nothing of the German elaborateness. They are as a rule very plainly armorial, and the decoration is usually limited to a symmetrical arrangement of mantling, with an occasional display of palms or wreaths. Soon after the Restoration, however, a book-plate seems to have suddenly become an established accessory to most well-ordered libraries. Book-plates of that period offer very distinctive characteristics. In the simplicity of their heraldic arrangements they recall those of the previous age; but their physiognomy is totally different. In the first place, they invariably display the tincture lines and dots, after the method originally devised in the middle of the century by Petra Sancta, the author ofTesserae Gentilitiae, which by this time had become adopted throughout Europe. In the second, the mantling assumes a much more elaborate appearance—one that irresistibly recalls that of the periwig of the period—surrounding the face of the shield. This style was undoubtedly imported from France, but it assumed a character of its own in England. As a matter of fact, thenceforth until the dawn of the French Revolution, English modes of decoration in book-plates, as in most other chattels, follow at some years’ distance the ruling French taste. The main characteristics of the style which prevailed during the Queen Anne and early Georgian periods are:—ornamental frames suggestive of carved oak, a frequent use of fish-scales, trellis or diapered patterns, for the decoration of plain surfaces; and, in the armorial display, a marked reduction in the importance of the mantling. The introduction of the scallop-shell as an almost constant element of ornamentation gives already a foretaste of theRocaille-Coquille, the so-called Chippendale fashions of the next reign. As a matter of fact, during the middle third of the century this rococo style (of which the Convers plate [fig. 4] gives a tolerably typical sample) affects the book-plate as universally as all other decorative objects. Its chief element is a fanciful arrangement of scroll and shell work with curveting acanthus-like sprays—an arrangement which in the examples of the best period is generally made asymmetrical in order to give freer scope for a variety of countercurves. Straight or concentric lines and all appearances of flat surface are studiously avoided; the helmet and its symmetrical mantling tends to disappear, and is replaced by the plain crest on a fillet. The earlier examples of this manner are tolerably ponderous and simple. Later, however, the composition becomes exceedingly light and complicated; every conceivable and often incongruous element of decoration is introduced, from cupids to dragons, from flowerets to Chinese pagodas. During the early part of George III.’s reign there is a return to greater sobriety of ornamentation, and a style more truly national, which may be calledthe urn style, makes its appearance. Book-plates of this period have invariably a physiognomy which at once recalls the decorative manner made popular by architects and designers such as Chambers, the Adams, Josiah Wedgwood, Hepplewhite and Sheraton. The shield shows a plain spade-like outline, manifestly based upon that of the pseudo-classic urn then so much to the fore. Theornamental accessories are symmetrical palms and sprays, wreaths and ribands. The architectural boss is also an important factor. In many plates, indeed, the shield of arms takes quite a subsidiary position by the side of the predominantly architectural urn. From the beginning of the 19th century, until comparatively recent days, no special style of decoration seems to have established itself. The immense majority of examples display a plain shield of arms with motto on a scroll below, and crest on a fillet above. Of late years, however, a rapid impetus appears to have been given to the designing ofex-libris; a new era, in fact, has begun for the book-plate, one of great interest.
The main styles of decoration (and these, other data being absent, must always in the case of old examples remain the criteria of date) have already been noticed. It is, however, necessary to point out that certain styles of composition were also prevalent at certain periods. Many of the older plates (like the majority of the most modern ones) were essentially pictorial. Of this kind the best-defined English genus may be recalled:the library interior—a term which explains itself—andbook-piles, exemplified by theex-libris(fig. 6) of W. Hewer, Samuel Pepys’s secretary. We have also manyportrait-plates, of which, perhaps, the most notable are those of Samuel Pepys himself and of John Gibbs, the architect;allegories, such as were engraved by Hogarth, Bartolozzi, John Pine and George Vertue;landscape-plates, by wood engravers of the Bewick school (see Plate), &c. In most of these the armorial element plays but a secondary part.
The value attached to book-plates, otherwise than as an object of purely personal interest, is comparatively modern. The study of and the taste for collecting these private tokens of book-ownership hardly date farther back than the year 1875. The first real impetus was given by the appearance of theGuide to the Study of Book-Plates, by Lord de Tabley (then the Hon. Leicester Warren) in 1880. This work, highly interesting from many points of view, established what is now accepted as the general classification of styles:early armorial(i.e. previous to Restoration, exemplified by the Nicholas Bacon plate);Jacobean, a somewhat misleading term, but distinctly understood to include the heavy decorative manner of the Restoration, Queen Anne and early Georgian days (the Lansanor plate, fig. 5, is typically Jacobean);Chippendale(the style above described asrococo, tolerably well represented by the French plate of Convers);wreath and ribbon, belonging to the period described as that of the urn, &c. Since then the literature on the subject has grown considerably. Societies of collectors have been founded, first in England, then in Germany and France, and in the United States, most of them issuing a journal or archives:The Journal of the Ex-libris Society(London), theArchives de la société française de collectionneurs d’ex-libris(Paris), both of these monthlies; theEx-libris Zeitschrift(Berlin), a quarterly.
Much has been written for and against book-plate collecting. If, on the one hand, the more enthusiastic ex-librists (for such a word has actually been coined) have made the somewhat ridiculous claim of science for “ex-librisme,” the bitter animadversion, on the other, of a certain class of intolerant bibliophiles upon the vandalism of removing book-plates from old books has at times been rather extravagant. Book-plates are undoubtedly very often of high interest (and of a value often far greater than the odd volume in which they are found affixed), either as specimens of bygone decorative fashion or as personal relics of well-known personages. There can be noquestion, for instance, that engravings or designs by artists such as Holbein and Dürer and the Little Masters of Germany, by Charles Eisen, Hubert François Bourguignon,ditGravelot, D.N. Chodowiecki or Simon Gribelin; by W. Marshall, W. Faithorne, David Loggan, Sir Robert Strange, Francesco Piranesi; by Hogarth, Cipriani, Bartolozzi, John Keyse Sherwin, William Henshaw, Hewitt or Bewick and his imitators; or, to come to modern times, that the occasional examples traced to the handicraft of Thomas Stothard, Thackeray, Millais, Maclise, Bell Scott, T.G. Jackson, Walter Crane, Caldecott, Stacy Marks, Edwin Abbey, Kate Greenaway, Gordon Browne, Herbert Railton, Aubrey Beardsley, Alfred Parsons, D.Y. Cameron, Paul Avril—are worth collecting.
Plate.
Until the advent of the new taste the devising of book-plates was almost invariably left to the routine skill of the heraldic stationer. Of late years the composition of personal book-tokens has become recognized as a minor branch of a higher art, and there has come into fashion an entirely new class of designs which, for all their wonderful variety, bear as unmistakable a character as that of the most definite styles of bygone days. Broadly speaking, it may be said that the purely heraldic element tends to become subsidiary and the allegorical or symbolic to assert itself more strongly. Among modern English artists who have more specially paid attention to the devising of book-plates, and have produced admirable designs, may be mentioned C.W. Sherborn, G.W. Eve, Robert Anning Bell, J.D. Batten, Erat Harrison, J. Forbes Nixon, Charles Ricketts, John Vinycomb, John Leighton and Warrington Hogg. The development in various directions of process work, by facilitating and cheapening the reproduction of beautiful and elaborate designs, has no doubt helped much to popularize the book-plate—a thing which in older days was almost invariably restricted to ancestral libraries or to collections otherwise important. Thus the great majority of modern plates are reproduced by process. There are, however, a few artists left who devote to book-plates their skill with the graver. Some of the work they produce challenges comparison with the finest productions of bygone engravers. Of these the best-known are C.W. Sherborn (see Plate) and G.W. Eve in England, and in America J.W. Spenceley of Boston, Mass., K.W.F. Hopson of New Haven, Conn., and E.D. French of New York City (see Plate).
Authorities.—The curious in the matter of book-plate composition will find it treated in the various volumes of the Ex-libris Series (London). See also A. Poulet-Malassis,Les Ex-libris français(1875); Hon. J. Leicester Warren (Lord de Tabley),A Guide to the Study of Book-plates(1880); Sir A.W. Franks,Notes on Book-plates, 1574-1800 (private, 1887); Friedrich Warnecke,Die deutschen Bücherzeichen(1890); Henri Bouchot,Les Ex-libris et les marques de possession du livre(1891); Egerton Castle,English Book-plates(1892); Walter Hamilton,French Book-plates(1892),Dated Book-plates(1895); H.W. Fincham,Artists and Engravers of British and American Book-plates(1897);German Book-plates, by Count K.E. zu Leiningen-Westerburg, translated by G.R. Denis (1901).
Authorities.—The curious in the matter of book-plate composition will find it treated in the various volumes of the Ex-libris Series (London). See also A. Poulet-Malassis,Les Ex-libris français(1875); Hon. J. Leicester Warren (Lord de Tabley),A Guide to the Study of Book-plates(1880); Sir A.W. Franks,Notes on Book-plates, 1574-1800 (private, 1887); Friedrich Warnecke,Die deutschen Bücherzeichen(1890); Henri Bouchot,Les Ex-libris et les marques de possession du livre(1891); Egerton Castle,English Book-plates(1892); Walter Hamilton,French Book-plates(1892),Dated Book-plates(1895); H.W. Fincham,Artists and Engravers of British and American Book-plates(1897);German Book-plates, by Count K.E. zu Leiningen-Westerburg, translated by G.R. Denis (1901).
(E. Ca.)
BOOK-SCORPION,orFalse Scorpion, minute arachnids superficially resembling tailless scorpions and belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones of the class Arachnida. Occurring in all temperate and tropical countries, book-scorpions live for the most part under stones, beneath the bark of trees or in vegetable detritus. A few species, however, like the common British formsChelifer cancroidesandChiridium museorum, frequent human dwellings and are found in books, old chests, furniture, &c; others likeGanypus littoralisand allied species may be found under stones or pieces of coral between tide-marks; while others, which are for the most part blind, live permanently in dark caves. Their food consists of minute insects or mites. It is possibly for the purpose of feeding on parasitic mites that book-scorpions lodge themselves beneath the wing-cases of large tropical beetles; and the same explanation, in default of a better, may be extended to their well-known and oft-recorded habit of seizing hold of the legs of horse-flies or other two-winged insects. For safety during hibernation and moulting, book-scorpions spin a small spherical cocoon. They are oviparous; and the eggs after being laid are carried about by the mother, attached to the lower surface of her body, the young remaining with their parent until they have acquired their definite form and are able to shift for themselves.
(R. I. P.)
BOOKSELLING.The trade in books is of a very ancient date. The 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 downviva voce, and transcripts sold to such as were wealthy enough to purchase. In the book of Jeremiah the prophet is represented as dictating to Baruch the scribe, who, when questioned, described the mode in which his book was written. These scribes were, in fact, the earliest booksellers, and supplied copies as they were demanded. Aristotle, we are told, possessed a somewhat extensive library; and Plato is recorded to have paid the large sum of one hundred minae for three small treatises of Philolaus the Pythagorean. When the Alexandrian library was founded about 300B.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 termedβιβλὶων κάπηλοι. In Rome, towards the end of the republic, it became the fashion to have a library as part of the household furniture; and the booksellers,librarii(Cic.D. Leg.iii. 20) orbibliopolae(Martial iv. 71, xiii. 3), carried on a flourishing trade. Their shops (taberna librarii, Cicero,Phil.ii. 9) were chiefly in the Argiletum, and in the Vicus Sandalarius. On the door, or on the side posts, was a list of the books on sale; and Martial (i. 118), who mentions this also, says that a copy of his First Book of Epigrams might be purchased for five denarii. In the time of Augustus the great booksellers were the Sosii. According to Justinian (ii. I. 33), a law was passed securing to the scribes the property in the materials used; and in this may, perhaps, be traced the first germ of the modern law of copyright.
The spread of 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 church and private use. Benedict Biscop, the founder of the abbey at Wearmouth in England, brought home with him from France (671) a whole 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 Reformation, the text writers or stationers (stacyoneres), who sold copies of the books then in use—the ABC, the Paternoster, Creed, Ave Maria and other MS. copies of prayers, in the neighbourhood of St Paul’s, London,—were, in 1403, formed into a gild. Some of these “stacyoneres” had stalls or stations built against the very walls of the cathedral itself, in the same manner as they are still to be found in some of the older continental cities. In Henry Anstey’sMunimenta Academica, published under the direction of the master of the rolls, we catch a glimpse of the “sworn” university bookseller or stationer, John More of 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 advantage so considerable as might be supposed, the instruction given being almost wholly oral. The chief source of supplying books was by purchase from the university sworn stationers, who had to a great extent a monopoly. Of such books there were plainly very large 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 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 half a mark in value, under a pain of imprisonment, or, if the offence was repeated, of abjuring his trade within the university.
“The trade in bookselling seems,” says Hallam, “to have been established at Paris and Bologna in the 12th century; the lawyers and universities called it into life. It is very improbable that it existed in what we properly call the dark ages. Peter ofBlois 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 age. These dealers were denominatedstationarii, perhaps from the open stalls at which they carried on their business, thoughstatiois a general word for a shop in low Latin. They appear, by the old statutes of the university of Paris, and by those of Bologna, to have sold books upon commission, and are sometimes, though not uniformly, distinguished from thelibrarii, a word which, having originally been confined to the copyists of books, was afterwards applied to those who traded in them. They sold parchment and other materials of writing, which have retained the name of 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 system of bookselling dates from soon after the introduction of printing. The earliest printers were also editors and booksellers; but being unable to sell every copy of the works they printed, they had agents at most of the seats of learning. Antony Koburger, who introduced the art of printing into 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 city of Christendom. Wynkyn de Worde, who succeeded to Caxton’s press in Westminster, had a shop in Fleet Street.
The religious dissensions of the continent, and the Reformation in England under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., created a great demand for books; but in England neither Tudor nor Stuart could tolerate a free press, and various efforts were made to curb it. The first patent for the office of king’s printer was granted to 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 possession of an unlicensed book was a punishable offence. In 1556 the Company of Stationers was incorporated, and very extensive powers were granted in order that obnoxious books might be repressed. In the following reigns the Star Chamber exercised a 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. Queen Elizabeth interfered but little with books except when they emanated from Roman Catholics, or touched upon her royal prerogatives; and towards the end of her reign, and during that of her pedantic successor, James, bookselling flourished. Archbishop Laud, who was no friend to booksellers, introduced many arbitrary restrictions; but they were all, or nearly all, removed during the time of the Commonwealth. So much had bookselling increased during the Protectorate that, in 1658, was publishedA Catalogue of the most Vendible Books in England, digested under the heads of Divinity, History, Physic, &c., with School Books, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and an Introduction, for the use of Schools, by W. London. A bad time immediately followed. The Restoration also restored the office of Licenser of the Press, which continued till 1694.
In the first English Copyright Act (1709), which specially relates to booksellers, it is enacted that, if any person shall think the published price of a book unreasonably high, he may thereupon make complaint to the archbishop of 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 letter.
For later times it is necessary to make a gradual distinction betweenbooksellers, whose trade consists in selling books, either by retail or wholesale, andpublishers, whose business involves the production of the books from the author’s 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 article onPublishing(q.v.) deals more particularly with this second class, who, though originally booksellers, gradually took a higher rank in the book-trade, and whose 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 recent development in publishing (as in the instance of the direct sale in 1902, by the LondonTimes, of the supplementary volumes to the 9th edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica, which were also “published” byThe Times) started a reaction to some extent in the way of amalgamating the two functions. The scheme ofThe TimesBook Club (started in 1905) was, again, a combination of a subscription library with the business of bookselling (see NEWSPAPERS); and it brought the organization of a newspaper, with all its means of achieving publicity, into the work of pushing the sale of books, in a way which practically introduced a new factor into the bookselling business.
During the 19th century it remains the fact that the distinction between publisher and bookseller—literary promoter and shopkeeper—became fundamental. The booksellers, as such, were engaged either in wholesale bookselling, or in the retail, the old or second-hand, and the periodical trades.