664 



BOOK. 



Book. 



la Rose, was sold before the palace gate at Paris for 

 40 crowns, or S3 : 6 : 6 sterling. For a copy of 

 the Homilies of Haimon, bishop of Halberstadt, the 

 countess of Anjou gave 200 sheep, five quarters of 

 wheat, and the same quantity of rye and millet. 

 When Louis XI. of France borrowed the works of 

 Rhases, the Arabian physician, from the medical fa- 

 culty at Paris, (so late as the year 1471,) he not 

 only deposited by way of pledge a considerable quan- 

 tity of plate, but was obligedto find a nobleman to 

 join with him as surety in a deed, binding himself, 

 under a great forfeiture, to restore it. 



The manufacture of paper from linen, afforded 

 such facilities for the multiplication of manuscripts, 

 as produced a very great reduction in their price, 

 and, of course, contributed essentially to the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge. Learning had already begun to 

 revive, and to be cultivated with considerable ardour, 

 when the invention of printing, about the middle of 

 the fifteenth century, gave a new stimulus to the 

 human mind, and formed the most important aera to 

 the history of literature and civilization. The power 

 of increasing indefinitely the number of books, now 

 placed them within the reach of persons of the most 

 moderate fortunes ; the avenues of science were thus 

 thrown open to any one who had the curiosity to 

 enter them ; and its mysteries became accessible to 

 all who had the perseverance to proceed. For some 

 time after this happy invention, it was allowed to 

 produce its natural effects ; and the reading part of 

 the community, delighted with the advantage of per- 

 using their favourite authors at an easy rate, never 

 thought of undervaluing a book on account of the fa- 

 cility of procuring it, as if learning could become less 

 precious by being generally diffused. By degrees, 

 however, the -fastidiousness induced by plenty began 

 to manifest itself, even in the appreciation of works 

 of literature ; the natural ambition of possessing what 

 few could obtain, inspired the wealthy and the cu- 

 rious with a kind of contempt for books, however ex- 

 cellent in themselves, which were rendered common 

 by their cheapness, and gave to others, which neglect 

 or other causes had now rendered scarce, an adventi- 

 tious value, often in inverse proportion to their intrin- 

 sic worth. Were the passion for rare books confined 

 to those alone whose merit makes them desirable, it 

 would be equally useful and respectable. But when 

 it delights in raking up from just oblivion, at any 

 trouble or expense, works which no man of taste 

 or judgment would wish to open, it surely deserves 

 no gentler appellation than drivelling and folly. That 

 the majority of rare books are rare, only because they 

 are destitute of merit, is obvious from this considera- 

 tion, that new impressions of them would certainly 

 have been printed, it there had been any hopes of 

 their being sold ; yet there are others, not so despi- 

 cable, which particular circumstances have prevented 

 from finding general circulation, and which, there- 

 fore, have become the objects of a very allowable, and 

 even laudable curiosity. It may not be improper 

 here to mention some of the causes of the scarcity 

 of particular books ; in enumerating which, we shall 

 be led to relate some very curious facts in the history 

 of modern literature. 



1 



Bibliographers have classed rare books under two Book, 



general heads, those whose scarcity is absolute, and ~~ "~ v 



those of Which the scarcity is only relative. Under Causes of 



the first head are comprehended, ,he present 



1. Books of which only a very small impression 6carclt y of 



.... , .' c ..'. . .- * particular 



was originally printed, and or which the impression, booka. 



from particular circumstances, could not be renewed. 

 One of the Earls of Bute .published a botanical 

 work in eight volumes, with coloured plates, the 

 impression of which he is said to have limited to 

 twelve copies. Some additional copies, however, 

 seem to have been surreptitiously printed ; for one 

 with uncoloured plates was lately offered to sale ; for 

 which, though imperfect, forty guineas were demand- 

 ed. The twelve original copies were distributed ai 

 presents. In the year 1807, a work entitled Views 

 in Orkney, by the Marchioness of Stafford, was print- 

 ed for private distribution only. The large paper 

 copies of the Grenville Homer were likewise intended 

 solely as presents ; and when they come accidentally 

 to sale, are valued at one hundred guineas. The An- 

 tichita a" Ercolano, a splendid work in nine folio vo- 

 lumes, was printed at the expence of the King of 

 Naples, and presented to illustrious individuals, or to 

 distinguished literary bodies ; and a translation of 

 Sallust by Don Gabriel, one of the princes of Spain, 

 and, we think, of the same family, was printed in a 

 beautiful Italian character, and distributed in a si- 

 milar manner. But none of these works can be com- 

 pared with the Museum Worsleyanum, which consists 

 of two large folio volumes full of engravings. It was 

 printed in 1794, and the prime cost of each copy was 

 estimated at a300 sterling. It was wholly disposed 

 of in presents by its munificent author, Sir Richard 

 Worsley. A small work entitled Musceum Typogra- 

 phium, was published by Debure, who is said to have 

 limited the impression to twelve copies ; and Four- 

 nier, a French bibliographer, printed only twenty-five 

 copies of his Essai Portatif de Bibliographic 



2. The second cause of the absolute scarcity of 

 books is, when they have been very rigorously sup- 

 pressed. However we may regret any restrictions on 

 the liberty of the press as unfavourable to the evolu- 

 tion of the human powers, and the progress of liberal 

 knowledge, we must at least allow it to be natural 

 for every government, to oppose the promulgation of 

 any doctrines or principles which appear to have even 

 the remotest tendency to undermine its civil or reli- 



fious institutions. In our own country, works so 

 irectly subversive of every thing sound in policy, 

 and sacred in religion, are published under the shel- 

 ter of the freedom of the press, that we are sometimes 

 tempted to wish for the interposition of the civil go- 

 vernment to repress this licentiousness, till we are re- 

 minded, by the example of other nations, how fatally 

 6uch interposition might tend to repress at the same 

 time all free inquiry, and, instead of promoting the 

 influence of morality or of genuine philosophy, to be 

 perverted into the instrument of public oppression, 

 or of private revenge. In the Indices Expurgatorii 

 of Roman Catholic countries we see many books con- 

 demned, which contain such treasures of learning, 

 and exhibit so enlightened and liberal views of every 

 subject which they discuss, as command the admira- 



