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come anything else. Therefore it is good, that some individual should step forth as a model for the improvement of the realities of life. True, in the beginning they rate him as a crazy man, and abuse and mock him; but gradually the eyes of his contemporaries are accustomed to the strange appearance. Bye and bye, it is said: "but the man is not so far out of the way." And at last, the boldest begin shyly to follow after him in particular things. Ah! Norbert, whoever can bring back humanity, or a small part of humanity, one single step toward nature, has done as much as the fleetness of life permits. And so, dear friend, let me admonish you, that many are accustomed to decry one who does right, because he has, and they have not, the courage to do right. Because I eat and drink, without luxury, banishing all foreign mixtures; because I dress myself in a way at once comfortable and pleasing to the eye; because I suffer the manly beard to regain its honor; because I withstand the privileges and prejudices of my class, and would pass for no more than I am

worth; because I believe that I have not stained myself by marriage with a maiden of lower and unhonorable descent; because I will not establish my honor by a duel, or bear about the insignia of real or feigned services, as a show upon my breast; because I make my slaves my free companions and friends; because I forswear deceit, and assert the truth without fear; therefore am I treated in the NINETEenth CenTURY as a FOOL. Here, Norbert, thou hast my answer to thy question. Now let us cease this parley."

He broke off; I embraced the noble but strange man, and laughingly said, We have had an old-fashioned talk—' but the sharp makes notches."

After some days I left him; the remembrance of Flyeln came to belong to the most agreeable of my life. Nor will I conceal, that if the whole world should fall into the phrenzy of my Olivier, I should be the first among the frantic. We have since then resumed our correspondence, and I have vowed, from time to time, to go on a pilgrimage to happy Flyeln.

AUTHOR-BOOKSELLERS.

AN OMITTED CHAPTER OF D'ISRAELI.

BY ONE OF THE CRAFT.

Ir is not a little remarkable that the great literary chronicler, D'Israeli, in his numerous anecdotical records of authorcraft, should have been so silent respecting that peculiar class referred to by the title of the present Article. However much it may be regretted that a subject so interesting has not been treated by such a pen, still it is undoubtedly deserving of investigation. It has not unfrequently been alleged against Booksellers as a class, that they have ever been characterized no less by their deficiency of critical acumen, than by their mercenary spirit, and want of sympathy with literary men and literary pursuits. But this charge, however widely it may have obtained, partakes more of the character of aspersion than of truth; and moved by an honest zeal for rescuing the reputaon of the Craft from such reproach, we

subjoin the result of our investigations on the subject, which it is hoped may furnish a chapter in the general history of literature, not altogether uninteresting to the reader. If to the Author be assigned the more arduous process of mental incubation, it must be admitted that the Publisher has at least a somewhat onerous task to perform in ushering forth the new creation into tangible and visible existence. Both, then, enact their part conjointly in the literary arena, and each prefers his respective claims to notice and approbation.

Booksellers being, in a certain sense, the public purveyors of literature, it would be perfectly natural to expect to find among them the indications of a literary taste. An affinity in this respect would become the almost necessary consequence of their constant

commerce with books, even if in many cases some instinctive partiality for books may not have been their unconscious incentive to such pursuits.

A living evidence of the truth of our assertion may be cited in the instance of one Hughes, a patten-maker of St. Martin's-le-Grand, London. This singular individual, after quietly following for several years the worthy pursuit which contemplates as its object the elevation of the female understanding, as well as the conservation of the health of the fair sex, from his sedentary and retired avocations at length imbibed a love of literary and scientific pursuits, and the result has proved him to have ultimately become eminently proficient in several of the departments of literature, and particularly in mathematics. His establishment used to present a curious combination of pattens and books; and although in later times he has become more absorbed in these abstruse matters, yet he may be seen, nevertheless, laboriously occupied in the manipulation of those favorite objects of his first love, with all the energy and ardor of an undivided heart; while at the same moment, perchance, he is mentally solving a subtle problem of Euclid. We cannot say on which side his patronage predominates, his books or his pattens; but it is certain that he has proved himself, at any rate, a bookseller con amore.

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The remark, we believe, of Lackington on this point, though without much pretension to elegance, is certainly true. He says, among all the schools where a knowledge of mankind is to be acquired, I know of none equal to that of a bookseller's shop, where, if he have any taste for literature, he may be said to feed his mind, as cooks' and butchers' wives get fat by the smell of meat."

Numerous instances attest that a natural and intimate connexion subsists between printing and knowledge, and that printers have themselves contributed by their acknowledged abilities to adorn the literary annals of their age; rising from the servile labors of the press to the most eminent distinction, and diffusing, by these means, the light of science even in the darkest times of superstition and ignorance. Bayle speaks of one who actually composed and printed a work simultaneously, setting up the types by his

hands as fast as his brain indited his sentences, without the intervention of manuscript corrections. Sir William Blackstone, the eminent jurist and commentator on English law, was originally a printer; as well as many others scarcely less distinguished in the world of letters, whom it does not fall within the scope of our present design to enumerate.

As it is our purpose, primarily, to regard the development of character among the bibliographic fraternity, simply as we find it, we shall have mainly to do with recorded facts, reserving to the close of our desultory sketches whatever may suggest itself on the subject, of a more discursive character.

Perhaps the most curious instance that ever occurred of an author-publisher, if we may venture so to style him, was that of an individual well known some years since in the streets of London, who was no less remarkable for the novel method he adopted for displaying his productions before the world, even without the aid of the press, than as presenting the singular anomaly of writer and publisher combined, giving to the public his labors anonymously. How often have we seen him in our boyish peregrinations, and lingered to gaze on his ingenious performances, so profusely spread out before us. The "mammoth sheets" of our own day, stupendous as they are, shrink into a paltry insignificance as we trace out in mental vision the broad superficies of the former. Nor was the literary department the only feature that exhibited the skill of this luminous writer; he united within himself the combined abilities of the artist also, equally excelling in design, engraving, and chirography. A black's head, with a ring through his nose, and a group of fish, were portrayed upon the pavement with inimitable fidelity. This singular genius, who used to establish his location wherever the pavement was remarkably smooth and even, was a cripple, and it was amusing to observe if among the admiring crowd any inquisitive little urchin happened to encroach too closely on his prescribed limits, the implement which supplied to him the lack of limbs, was made the summary instrument to visit upon the shins of the offender the penalty of his trespass. His writing was

exceedingly well executed, and his poetic lucubrations were generally no less admirably pointed; we regret that our recollection at the present moment supplies us with no more than the following specimen :

Let no rude footsteps on this pavement tread,

For know these very flags to me are bread!

Oh, spare a penny, or indeed 'tis plain, The very stones themselves cry out in vain !"

This hapless votary of the muse has passed away; and though unchronicled in any "Curiosities of Literature," we trust we have said enough to rescue his memory-non omnis moriar!—from utter annihilation.

Craving indulgence for the digression into which the recurrence of an early association has beguiled us, we retrace our steps while we solicit the reader to accompany us adown the stream of time a few centuries back. In the olden time, prior to the era of printing, the MSS. of authors were obliged to be subjected to the ordeal of critical censorship, previous to their being allowed public perusal; their works being required to be read over before the Universities for three successive days, or by appointed judges; when, if approved, copies were allowed to be executed by the monks, scribes, and illuminators.

Even in the classic days of Greece and Rome, we find a trade carried on in books; those works most in demand being multiplied by the scribes and copyists. An exclusive traffic in the MSS. of those days seems to have been carried on along the shores of the Mediterranean, and the Greek Colonies of the Euxine.

During the middle ages the booksellers were styled Stationarii at the Universities of Paris and Bologna; they used to sell and loan MSS. This was the commencement of the bookselling business. A species of literary censorship, it appears, was first established at Paris in 1342, when a license from the University was requisite previously to engaging in such business. The booksellers were, in fact, regularly matriculated by entry on its roll, and considered as its officers; the prices of all books were also fixed according to the tariff of four

sworn booksellers, by the institution; a fine was imposed for selling an imperfect copy of a work, and a catalogue, with the prices annexed, was further required to be always kept in the shops. This censorship was afterwards invested in the person of Berthold, Archbishop of Mentz, in 1486, and again renewed with greater vigor, with respect to books, by the Council of Trent in 1546, being subsequently enforced by the popes down to 1563, by whom several Indices Librorum Prohibitorum, were issued. In France the censorship was vested in the Chancellor; in England it was exercised by the well known Star-Chamber; and, after the abolition of that Court, by Parliament itself. It was abolished in England about 1694, although it still continues in force, we believe, in several of the Continental States.

The first bookseller, so called, on record was Faustus. He is said to have carried his books for sale to the monasteries in France and elsewhere; and the first bookseller who purchased MSS. for publication, without possessing a press of his own, was John Otto, of Nuremberg, (1516).

In 1472 Anthony Koburger was a person eminent for his learning as well as for his elegance and correctness in printing. He was styled the prince of printers, and was likewise a very extensive bookseller. Besides a spacious printing house at Lyons, he had agents in every considerable city in Christendom, and kept sixteen open shops, with a vast number of warehouses. He printed thirteen editions of the Bible in folio, which are esteemed as extremely beautiful specimens of the art; but his chef-d'œuvre was the German Bible, printed in 1483, folio, the most splendid of all the ancient German Bibles, being embellished with many curious wood cuts, &c.

Were we to commence our sketch with the illustrious name of Caxton, who died at the age of 81, in 1491, and who, in addition to having had the honor of introducing into England the "divine art," we should not need a more eminent instance of the successful cultivation of letters, combined with mechanical pursuits. Amidst the onerous charge of an extensive printing-office in one of the chapelries of Westminster Abbey, containing twenty-four presses, with about a hun

dred workmen, this indefatigable man actually gave to the world no fewer than five thousand closely printed folio pages from his own pen, consisting chiefly of translations from the French, or the stock of his own vernacular lite rature. Several of his works have subsequently passed through successive editions, and one or two have even reached our own day. His just estimate of Chaucer, which he first printed, evinces his uncommon critical acumen. On more accounts than one, therefore, may Caxton be fitly styled the father of the English press. The well known names of Pynson, who died 1529, Wynkin de Worde, 1534, and R. Wyer, 1542, although justly celebrated for the improvements they effected in the typographic art, the former having first constructed and introduced into use the Roman letter, scarcely claim a further notice. Among the productions of the latter we find a curious satire upon the gentler sex, with the following title, "Here begynneth a lyttle boke, named the scole house, wherein every man may rede a goodly prayer of the condycyons of women;" in which the following rather severe lines

occur:

Trewly some men there be

That lyue alwayes in great horroure,
And say it goth by destenye;
To hang or wed, both hath one houre,
And whether it be, I am well sure,
Hangynge is better of the twayne,
Sooner done, and shorter payne.

We should doubtless weary the patience of the reader were we to attempt a detailed enumeration of all the worthy names of those who have sustained the two-fold character described by our title; but as authors during the first two centuries from the discovery of the art of printing were generally obliged to become printers of their own works, we shall necessarily

have to content ourselves with merely a passing allusion to the more conspicuous of the class.

About the year 1547 we find honorable mention made of the name of Robert Copland, formerly engaged in Caxton's office; he was a stationer, printer, author, and translator. The Rose-garland, in Fleet-street, was his well-known residence. Anthony Scoloker was another, who translated several works which he printed, one of which, affording no unequivocal proof, however, of his prophetic skill, was intituled, "A Juste Reckenynge, or Accompte of the Whole Number of the Yeares, from the Begynnynge of the World unto the Present Yeare of 1547; a Certayne and Sure Declaracion that the Worlde is at an Ende." We commend it to the notice of the Millerites of our own day. Robert Stephens, the renowned Parisian printer and scholar, was a contemporary of these; his transcendant erudition in classical studies, no less than as a critic and etymologist, is sufficiently evinced by his great work, "Dictionarium seu Latine Lingue Thesaurus." De Thou, the historian, passed the following merited eulogium upon this distinguished scholar," Not only France, but the whole Christian world, owes more to him than to the greatest warrior that ever extended the possessions of his country; and greater glory has redounded to Francis I. by the industry alone of Robert Stephens than from all the illustrious, warlike, and pacific undertakings in which he was engaged. His son and successor was also of great classical attainments, and wrote many learned works." We next come in the order of date to the name of John Day, the equally prolific printer and parent,

having introduced into the world two hundred and forty-five books, and twenty-seven children! He lived in the neighborhood of Holborn Conduit.*

A singular instance of infatuated loyalty on the one part, and unfeeling cruelty on the other, is related as having occurred about this time (1579), which we shall be excused for here introducing. Shortly after the incognito visit to England of the Duke of Anjou, a tract, considered seditious, appeared under the title of "The Discovery of the gaping Gulph, wherein England is like to be swallowed by a French Marriage, if the Lorde forbid not the Bands, by letting her Majestye (Queen Elizabeth,) see the Sin and Punishment thereof," &c. The author of which, John Stubbes, together with his publisher, William Page, and Hugh Singleton, the printer, were each apprehended, tried, and sentenced to have their right hands cut off by a butcher's knife and mallet: VOL. XI.-NO. LII. 51

Although, we believe, not ostensibly an author, yet so eminent a printer was Christopher Plantin, of Antwerp, who lived in the latter part of the sixteenth century, that we cannot refrain from alluding briefly to him in this place. "I am well aware," says his biographer, "that many illustrious men have flourished as printers, such as the Alduses of Italy, the Frobens from Germany, and the Stephenses from France; but these were all eclipsed in the single name of Plantin: if these," he continues, "were the stars of their own hemispheres, he was the Sun, not of Antwerp merely, nor Belgium, but the world!" His offices at Antwerp, Germany, and France seem to have been established upon the most magnificent scale, and like one of his great predecessors, Stephens, he indulged himself in the luxury of silver types. At one time he is reported to have paid to his proof-readers and compositors no less than one hundred golden crowns per diem, no equivocal evidence of the extent of his operations. He also retained, not only in his friendship but in his employ, a host of the literary men of his day, among the number the renowned De Thou. His chef-d'œuvre, and which has been styled the eighth wonder of the world, was his Biblia Polyglotta, in eight folio volumes, a copy of which is still in existence, and produced at its last sale the enormous sum of one thousand pounds!

Then we have the no less illustrious names of Francis Raphelengius, the celebrated scholar, and printer to the University of Leyden, and Louis Elzevir, of the same place (temp. 15951616), the founder of the most learned family of printers that ever adorned the republic of letters; who is said to have been the first who observed the distinction between the use of the consonant v,

and the vowel u (which had been recommended by Ramus and other writers long before, but never regarded), as also the vowel i from the consonant j. Aldus Manutius, with whom terminated a family of printers scarcely less distinguished in the literary history of their times, extending to upwards of a century, was grandson to the celebrated Aldus; his extraordinary precocity was displayed by the successful publication of a production from his own pen in his eleventh year; and his great work, De Veterum Notarum Explanatione, has not only immortalized his name, but has been long since acknowledged as a standard for reference by the learned. In the reign of the second Charles we find the name of John Ogilby, geogra phical printer to the Court, and noted as having written some books, including a pompous account of the coronation of that monarch, which he was appointed to conduct, in 1661. He also published a magnificent Bible, with illustrations; for which he was remunerated by the British Parliament. Toward the close of the seventeenth century, Palliot, the historiographer, printer, and bookseller to the King of France, was also highly distinguished as a genealogist; as a proof of his untiring perseverance and industry, it is recorded that he left at his decease thirteen volumes of MSS., in addition to the five folios which he had already published, the plates of which were likewise executed by his own hands. Contemporary with him, lived Rothscholtz, the bookseller, of Nuremberg, whose name is distinguished in the world of letters by his great work, in two volumes quarto, intituled "A Short Essay towards an Ancient and Modern History of Booksellers ;" and also the renowned Swedish bookseller, Olaus Rudbeck, the author of " Allantica," &c.

the last, however, was reprieved. On being brought to the scaffold, the former, after delivering himself in a dolorous address to the people, suffered the painful execution of his sentence, immediately after which, waiving his hat with his left hand, he exclaimed," God save the Queen," when he fell down and swooned. Page next ascended the scaffold, and also spoke to the crowd, entreating their commiseration and pity, and laying his hand upon the block, besought the executioner to perform his office as quickly as possible, who at two blows severed his hand from his arm; whereat, lifting up the stump, he cried out, "I have left there a true Englishman's hand!" and so went forth from the disgraceful spot stoutly, and with great courage. He was the man for us! This abomination was perpetrated, be it remembered, in the "glorious days of good Queen Bess!"

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