Prices of Books Part 4

We may judge from the immense number of ma.n.u.scripts still existing, in spite of the wholesale destruction that occurred at various times, how large was the output in the Middle Ages. It is therefore preposterous to suppose that when books were being produced in large numbers in hundreds of monasteries in Europe they were only bought by kings or great n.o.bles.

During the troubled times of the Barons? Wars there must have been great destruction of literary treasures, and at the Reformation, when whole libraries were destroyed and made waste-paper of, the ignorant waste was appalling. ?The splendid and magnificent abbey of Malmesbury, which possessed some of the finest ma.n.u.scripts in the kingdom, was ransacked, and its treasures either sold, or burnt to serve the commonest purposes of life. An antiquary who travelled through that town many years after the dissolution, relates that he saw broken windows patched up with remnants of the most valuable MSS. on vellum, and that the bakers hadn?t even then consumed the stores they had acc.u.mulated in heating their ovens.?[14] That so much is left after the wholesale raid on the monasteries is largely due to the sound antiquarian taste of John Leland, to whom we of later ages are supremely indebted.

In all times of political convulsions the learning of the world stands a bad chance of escaping great loss, and we are told that twenty-five thousand ma.n.u.scripts were burnt during the horrors of the French Revolution.

Carelessness and the contempt felt for old books are still the great destructive forces in the East, and the Hon. Robert Curzon, who travelled in search of ma.n.u.scripts, gives in his ?Visits to the Monasteries in the Levant? (1849) a lively account of the irreparable losses that are constantly occurring. (See also Archdeacon Tattam?s and M. Pacho?s narratives of their negotiations with the monks of the Nitrian Desert for Syrian MSS., and the subsequent experiences of Tischendorf and Mrs. Lewis.) One of the most recent literary events is the recovery of a number of Jewish ma.n.u.scripts from a _Genizah_ or storehouse of old papers and parchments at Cairo, where they were preserved indeed, but entirely neglected.

The late Mr. Thorold Rogers paid considerable attention to the prices of books, and recorded many valuable facts respecting them in his important work, ?History of Agriculture and Prices in England.? After commenting on some prices in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, he adds, ?such prices indicate that written literature was not wholly inaccessible to the general public? (vol. i. p. 646).

The particulars of the cost of church books give perhaps the best idea of prices, because these were needed by a large number of the population. Some of them were of small price, while others of a more elaborate character were of great price. In the year 1278 the bailiff of Farley spent six shillings and eightpence for books for the church, and in 1300 the monks of Ely paid six shillings for a _Decretal_, and two shillings for _Speculum Gregorianum_. In 1329 the precentor received six shillings and sevenpence, with an instruction to go to Balsham to purchase books.[15] In 1344 a Bible cost three pounds, and in 1357 a book was bought for Farley church for four shillings.

Mr. Blades printed in his Life of Caxton an inventory of the library of Jean, Duc de Berri, at the ch?teau of Mohun sur Yevre, 1416. At the death of the duke the library contained one hundred and sixty-two volumes, valued at 14,909 livres.

In 1443 twenty-seven volumes were purchased by the authorities of King?s Hall, Cambridge, from the executors of John Paston (who had been their steward), at a cost of ?8, 17s. 4d. In 1447 the same college bought a Psalter for three shillings and eightpence, and a Donatus for one shilling.

In 1449 twenty new Processionals cost All Souls College one hundred and thirteen shillings and fourpence, and in 1453 a book of Wycliffe?s was bought for seven shillings and sixpence, and one written against him for three shillings and sixpence.[16] A ma.n.u.script of 157 leaves, containing some of the works of St. Gregory, was bought in 1455 for ?3, 6s. 8d.

In 1459 Fastolfe?s books were highly priced; thus a fair Ma.s.s book was fixed at ten pounds, and a Holy Legend at the same sum, while two new great Antiphons were together ?13, 6s. 8d.

One of St. Augustine?s Epistles, containing 179 leaves, sold sometime after 1468 for ?1, 13s. 4d., and about the same time one of St.

Bernard?s Treatises, written on 211 leaves, was bought by Richard Hopton from the executors of a former possessor for twenty shillings.

Perhaps a rather more accurate idea of the cost of ma.n.u.script books can be obtained from a consideration of the cost of materials and the pay of the scribes, and, fortunately, particulars have come down to us which allow of a comparison of the various expenses.

A pocket lectionary was made in 1265 for the use of Eleanor de Montfort, Countess of Leicester, and sister of Henry III. Twenty dozen of fine vellum were purchased for the work at the price of ten shillings, and the writing, which was executed at Oxford, cost fourteen shillings.

Richard du Marche, an illuminator, was paid forty shillings for illuminating a Psalter and a pair of tablets for Queen Eleanor, consort of Edward I.

In the same accounts of this queen an entry is made of ?6, 13s. 4d. to Adam the royal goldsmith for work done upon certain books.[17]

Professor Middleton printed in his ?Illuminated Ma.n.u.scripts? (pp.

220-23) extracts from the Ma.n.u.script Records of the Collegiate Church of St. George at Windsor, from which it appears that John Prust (Canon of Windsor from 1379 to 1385) was paid ?14, 9s. 3d. for six ma.n.u.scripts written, illuminated, and bound, one of them with gold or silver clasps or bosses. The six books were an _Evangeliarium_, a _Martyrologium_, an _Antiphonale_, and three _Processionals_. The items of each are as follows:--

_Evangeliarium._ ? _s._ _d._ 19 quaternions (quires) of vellum at 8d. each 0 12 8 Black ink 0 1 2 Bottle to hold the ink 0 0 10 Vermilion 0 0 9 The scribe?s ?commons? (food) for eighteen weeks 0 15 0 Payment to the scribe 0 13 4 Corrections and adding coloured initials 0 3 0 Illumination 0 3 4 Binding 0 3 4 Goldsmith?s work (on the binding) 1 0 0 --------------- ?3 13 5

Two journeys to London and some smaller items made a total of ?3, 15s. 8d.

_Martyrologium._

? _s._ _d._ 7 quaternions of vellum at 8d. 0 4 8 Payment to the scribe 0 15 0 Illumination 0 5 10 Binding 0 2 2 Coloured initials 0 0 8 --------------- ?1 8 4

_Antiphonale._

34 quaternions of larger and more expensive sheets of vellum at 15d 2 2 6 Payments to the scribe 3 3 0 Adding to the musical notation 1 0 6 Coloured initials 0 1 0 Illumination 0 15 11 Binding 0 5 0 --------------- ?7 7 11

(Twelve quires of vellum which were in stock were also used for this _Antiphonale_.)

The three _Processionals_ only cost ?1, 17s. 4d., being written on forty-six quaternions of cheap parchment made of sheepskin, which cost only 2-1/2d. the quaternion.

Mr. Falconer Madan tells us that ?in 1453 John Reynbold agreed at Oxford to write out the last three books of Duns Scotus?s _Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard_, in quarto, for 2s. 2d. each book,? and that ?a transcript in folio by this Reynbold of part of Duns Scotus on the _Sentences_ is in both Merton and Balliol College Libraries at Oxford, one dated 1451.?[18]

Sir John Fenn quotes in ill.u.s.tration of one of the _Paston Letters_ the account of Thomas, a limner or illuminator of ma.n.u.scripts residing at Bury St. Edmunds, against Sir John Howard of Stoke by Neyland in Suffolk (afterwards Duke of Norfolk), dated July 1467.

For viij hole vynets [miniatures], prise the vynett, xijd viijs

Item, for xxj demi vynets, prise the demi vynett, iiijd vijs

Item, for Psalmes lettres xv^c and di?, the prise of C. iiijd vs ijd

Item, for p?ms letters lxiij^c, prise of a C. jd. vs iijd

Item, for wrytynge of a quare and demi, prise the quayr, xxd ijs vjd

Item, for wrytenge of a calendar xijd

Item, for iij quayres of velym, prise the quayr, xxd vs

Item, for notynge of v quayres and ij leves, prise of the quayr, viijd iijs vijd

Item, for capital drawynge iij^c and di?, the prise iijd

Item, for floryshynge of capytallis, v^c vd

Item, for byndynge of the boke xijs --------------- cs ijd[19]

This list of charges is of great interest and of much value in ill.u.s.trating the cost of illumination in the fifteenth century. The price of the binding seems to be very considerable as compared with the work of the illuminator, unless it included the cost of gold or other expensive decoration. Mr. Middleton gives also particulars of the cost of writing, illuminating, and binding a ma.n.u.script _Lectionary_, 1469-71, the total expense of which was ?3, 4s. 1d. These are taken from the Parish Accounts of the Church of St. Ewen, in Bristol--

1468-69.

Item, for j dossen and v quayers of vellom to perform the legend [_i.e._ to write the lectionary on] xs vjd

Item, for wrytyng of the same xxvs

Item, for ix skynnys and j quayer of velom to the same legend vs vjd

Item, for wrytyng of the forseyd legend iiijs ijd

1470-71.

Item, for a red Skynne to kever the legent vd

Also for the binding and correcting vs of the seid Boke

Also for the lumining of the seid legent xiijs vjd[20]

Among the _Paston Letters_ is a letter from William Ebesham to his ?moost worshupfull maister, Sir John Paston,? 1469 (?), asking for payment for his labours in writing, the charge for which was a penny per leaf for verse, and twopence a leaf for prose. Appended to this letter is the following interesting account:--

Folowyng apperith, parcelly, dyvers and soondry maner of writynge, which I, William Ebesham, have wreetyn for my G.o.de and woorshupfull maistir, Sir John Paston, and what money I have resceyvid and what is unpaide.