There are many points in the history of books and of book-collecting
which are still tantalisingly obscure. How little we know about the
prices of early books, the cost of printing, the relations of printer
and publisher or of publisher and author! With the exception of a few
royal personages and a few men and women of great wealth and rank, the
book-collectors of the two centuries which succeeded the invention of
printing are hardly known to us, even by name. A few have gained
immortality among book-lovers by clothing their books in priceless
bindings; others, like Sir Thomas Bodley, have won a nobler renown by
founding libraries in which students should have free access to their
treasures. But of the rank and file of the early collectors, the men who
bought books not by the cartload, but with individual thought and care,
according to the length of purses easily exhaustible--of these for two
centuries we know little or nothing. If it had not been for an
indiscreet pamphlet published by an English theologian in Holland, our
ignorance about English book-collectors might have lasted indefinitely
longer. But during his brief stay in his native land the pamphleteer
introduced into this country the custom of selling by auction the books
of dead collectors, and from the year 1676, when this practice was
first adopted, our knowledge about English libraries becomes abundant.
[18] From 'Longman's Magazine,' by leave of the publishers.
It is not a little curious in itself that we should be able to say with
precision that at nine o'clock of the morning, on October 31, 1676, at
the house of Dr. Lazarus Seaman, in Warwick Court, Warwick Lane, began
the first book auction that ever took place in England. But we can do
much more than this. The little world of book-collectors was immensely
taken with this new method of book-buying. The catalogues of the first
auctions soon came to be regarded as curiosities, and the price fetched
by each lot was carefully recorded. The auctioneers were no less
interested. They wrote prefaces to the catalogue of each sale, giving us
their reasons for the various auction rules, which soon came to assume a
form closely similar to those now in use at Sotheby's or Puttick and
Simpson's. Moreover, at the end of ten years Thomas Cooper, the leading
auctioneer of the time, printed an exact list of the seventy-three sales
which had taken place since the introduction of the practice into
England, and eleven years later another famous member of the fraternity
wrote the following letter, which has recently been acquired by the
British Museum, and supplies us with the one link which was needed to
complete our chain of information on the subject.
The letter forms part of the 'Dering Correspondence,' which stretches
from the reign of James the First to that of George the Second (Stowe
ms. 709). It has the double endorsement: (i) 'Mr. Millington, the noted
auctioneer, to Mr. Jos. Hill,' and (ii) 'Millington's letter
acknowledginge the usefulnesse of sellinge Libraryes by Auction.' Here
is the text of the part which now concerns us:--
'Lond. June 25, 1697.
'Reverend S^r,
'I have designd severall Times to wait of _sic_ you when in England
to present my service and tender my thanks for your great _Service
done to Learning & Learned men in your first advising & effectually
setting on foot that admirable & universally approved of way of
selling Librarys by Auction amongst us_. A son of a worthy ffreind
of mine, being now in Rotterdam in order to get some Employment
there, offering me the Conveyance of mine to your hand, I presume
of your Candour to receive my acknowledgements and gratefull
Resentments for the knowledge I have got and the benefit I have
received by their management, having for severall yeares
strenuously Pursued what you, sire, happily _Introduced the
Practice of into England_. I Design you some Catalogues of the
Library of D^r Edward Bernard, late Astronomy Professor in Oxford,
in which you will find Curious Manuscripts, Libri Impressi collati
cum Codicibus MSS., etc'
The letter proceeds to enlarge at some length on Dr. Bernard's books,
the best part of which, by the way, had been presented to the Bodleian,
and then, with an apology for the writer's presumption in addressing Dr.
Hill, is duly signed, 'Your obliged humble servant, D. Millington.' It
tells us, it will be observed, with the aid of the emphatic underscoring
here represented by italics, that it was Dr. Hill who had 'first advised
and effectually set on foot that admirable and universally approved of
way of selling libraries by auction amongst us,' and we can see exactly
how he came to start the practice.
Joseph Hill was one of the most earnest and the most moderate of the
seventeenth-century Presbyterians. His father, Joshua, is said to have
died a few minutes before the archbishop's apparitor arrived to cite him
for not wearing a surplice; but though the objection to Church
discipline was thus hereditary, it does not seem to have been
intensified in Joseph. A distinguished career at Cambridge was closed
by his refusal to take the oath enjoined by the Act of Uniformity in
1662, and the University authorities 'cut his name out of the books in
kindness to him,' to prevent his being formally ejected from his
offices. Hill took refuge at Leyden, and was soon appointed to the
charge of the Scottish Church at Middleburg in Zeeland. But though a
refugee, he remained English at heart, and in 1672 wrote a pamphlet,
entitled 'The Interest of these United Provinces, being a Defence of the
Zeelander's Choice.' It will be remembered that by the secret Treaty of
Dover, concluded between Charles II. and the French king in 1670,
Charles was to aid Louis against the Dutch, and receive as part of his
reward the province of Zeeland. The French invasion took place in 1672,
and it was at this crisis that Hill wrote his pamphlet, which contains a
defence of the English king. Though completed on November 30, 1672, it
did not appear till April of the next year, when the author at last
obtained a publisher, though at the cost of no less a sum than one
hundred pounds. In the following August he was ordered to leave Zeeland
till the war was over, and on returning to England was rewarded by
Charles with a pension of £80, and the offer of a bishopric as the price
of his conformity. The offer was declined, and in 1678 Hill returned to
Holland, accepting a post at Rotterdam, where we find him when the
grateful Millington wrote his letter of acknowledgment in 1695, and
where he died in 1707.
When Hill came over to receive the reward of his patriotism in England,
he would naturally have revived his acquaintance with an old Cambridge
don, Dr. Lazarus Seaman, with whom he had many tastes in common. Seaman
had been Master of Peterhouse and Vice-Chancellor of the University. He
had written pamphlets endeavouring to keep the Presbyterians in the
Church by minimising the importance of episcopal orders, and was just on
the right side of the line which shut Hill out from the proffered
bishopric. Both were book collectors, both were classical scholars, and
when Seaman died during Hill's stay in London, we may be quite sure that
Hill was among his mourners.
Seaman's funeral was no small affair. Two broadsides of not wholly
despicable verse are still extant to attest his popularity. One is
entitled 'An Elegie to the endeared Memory of that Learned and Reverend
Minister of the Gospel, Dr. Lazarus Seaman, who died on Friday, the 3rd
of September, 1675, and was carried from Drapers' Hall to be interred,
with a numerous train of Christian friends bewailing his Death.' The
other broadside, which contains the better verse, is more simply
inscribed 'An Elegy on the Reverend and Learned Divine, Dr. Lazarus
Seaman, sometime Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Master of Peterhouse, and
late Minister of the Gospel in All Hallows, Bread Street.' Even of this,
however, the first six lines may suffice as a specimen:
'What! Seaman dead! and did no blazing star,
No comet béforehand his Death declare?
What, Merlin, not a word of this in thee?
Lilly's but half a prophet now I see:
For had he known it, he'd have quickly said,
This year Presbýtery shall lose its head.'
In no less conceited a vein, but more successful, is the proposed
epitaph, the last line of which is really an inspiration:
'Reader, if that thou learned art
O do not urge me to impart
What 'tis I cover; for I fear
Thou'lt be so eager to lie here,
And wish thy life might straight expire.
Then ask no more, but away go
And send th' unlearned, they may know.
I'll tell none else, for here does lie
Entomb'd a University.'
Thus was the worthy doctor bewailed and buried, and soon his executors
were busy realising his effects. What was to be done with his five or
six thousand books? He had bequeathed them to no library, and to sell
them to the booksellers was to give them away. It was here, then, that
Dr. Hill stepped in and 'advised and effectually set on foot that
admirable and universally approved of way of selling libraries by
auction,' which had long been the practice in Holland, but as yet was
quite unknown in this country. The arrangements were soon made, and a
catalogue duly printed, for whose title-page no less learned a language
than Latin would serve, though we regret to have to note that the worthy
William Cooper who compiled it was a sufficiently poor scholar to head
one of his sections 'Bibliae Variae,' as if 'Biblia' were a feminine
singular of the first declension. The Latin of the title-page is of a
kind which every one can read, so that for the sake of completeness we
quote it as it stands:--
'Catalogus variorum & insignium librorum instructissimæ bibliothecæ
clarissimi doctissimiq; viri Lazari Seaman, S.T.D., quorum Auctio
habebitur Londoni in ædibus Defuncti in Area & Viculo Warwicensi,
Octobris ultimo. Cura Gulielmi Cooper Bibliopolæ.'
Probably under Dr. Hill's guidance Cooper also drew up the following
preface, the rules given in which, as we have already noted, are the
progenitors of those still in use in the present day, in which, indeed,
some of their actual phrases may be found enshrined.
'To the Reader.
'Reader,
'It hath not been usual here in _England_ to make sales of Books
by way of _Auction_, or _who will give most for them_: But it
having been practised in other Countreys to the Advantage both of
Buyers and Sellers; It was therefore conceived (for the
encouragement of Learning) to publish the Sale of these Books, this
manner of way; and it is hoped that this will not be unacceptable
to Schollers; and therefore we thought it convenient to give an
Advertisement concerning the manner of proceeding therein.
'_First_, That having this Catalogue of the Books, and their
Editions under their several Heads and Numbers, it will be more
easie for any Person of Quality, Gentlemen, or others, to Depute
any one to Buy such Books for them as they shall desire, if their
occasions will not permit them to be present at the Auction
themselves.
'_Secondly_, That those which bid most are the Buyers; and if any
manifest differences should arise, that then the same book or books
shall be forthwith exposed again to Sale, and the highest bidder to
have the same.
'_Thirdly_, That all the Books according to the Catalogue are (for
so much as we know) perfect, and sold as such; But if any of them
appear to be otherwise before they be taken away, the Buyer shall
have his choice of taking or leaving the same.
'_Fourthly_, That the money for the Books bought, be paid at the
delivery of them, within one Month's time after the Auction is
ended.
'_Fifthly_, That the Auction will begin the 31st of October at the
Deceased Dr.'s House in Warwick Court in Warwick lane, punctually
at Nine of the Clock in the Morning, and Two in the Afternoon, and
this to continue daily until all the Books be sold; Wherefore it is
desired that the Gentlemen, or those Deputed by them, may be there
precisely at the Hours appointed, lest they should miss the
opportunity of Buying these Books, which either themselves or their
Friends desire.'
In subsequent auctions these rules were repeated, with but slight
alterations and the addition of a 'Lastly' to the effect that
'If any Gentleman have a desire to view or see any or all of these
Books in this Catalogue, or to satisfie themselves in the
Conditions and Editions of any of them, they shall be very Welcome
to the place aforenamed at any time before the day that the Sale
begins.'
To facilitate this inspection subsequent sales were held, not at the
deceased collector's house, but at some more convenient place, that from
which this rule is quoted, Kidner's sale (February 6, 1677), taking
place 'at the sign of the King's head in Little Britain,' possibly a
tavern, but more probably the name of the bookseller's shop. It is to
Dr. Seaman's house, however, in Warwick Court, that we must take our way
at nine o'clock on the morning of October 31, 1676, if we wish to be
present at the first English book sale. We shall have Cooper's catalogue
in our hands, and note that he has inaugurated the practice, which still
makes auction catalogues as difficult to consult as a Bradshaw, of
dividing according to their sizes books in folio, in quarto, in octavo,
and in duodecimo. He further divides each size of books according to
their subjects: 'Patres Graeci,' 'Patres Latini,' 'Biblia,' 'Libri
Theologici,' 'Theologi Scholastici,' 'Scriptores in Scripturam,' etc.,
so that we have no little difficulty in finding out if the particular
books of which we are in want are included in the good Doctor's library.
As we enter the house we probably find it very full. There are friends
of Dr. Seaman's anxious for his books to sell well; poor Divinity
students hopeful of picking up a few volumes cheaply; professed
book-collectors, who care little for theology, but have an eye on some
of the classics, and are curious to see how this new departure will
succeed; and a little knot of booksellers, also curious, but on the
whole unfriendly. Will. Cooper ascends an impromptu rostrum, an
assistant hands up a long set of the works of S. Chrysostom, in Greek
and Latin (Paris, 1636), and the bidding begins. If any invocation would
persuade the Muse of Learning to tell us 'who first, who last upraised
his voice to bid,' that invocation should duly be made. But in the
absence of documents the Muse usually abandons us severely to our own
imagination, and we are left to wonder whether it was friend, or poor
student, or rich collector who made the first bid at the first English
book auction. Probably it was one of the last class who secured the
prize, for the great Chrysostom fetched no less than £8, 5s., nearly a
quarter's income for some of the poorer clergy of those days. This was
the highest price fetched by any book in the sale, but its immediate
successors were all respectable. A set of the records of General and
Provincial Councils (Paris, 1636) fetched £5, 3s.; the works of S. Cyril
(Paris, 1638), £5, 1s.; of Theodoret (1642), £4, 8s., and of Epiphanius
(1622), £3, 2s. 6d. Thus the first five lots produced twenty-six pounds
all but sixpence, and it may greatly be doubted whether, despite the
smaller purchasing power of money in these days, they would fetch as
much as this if put up to auction at any of our modern sales.
The next twenty books averaged something over a pound apiece, and the
prices languished till this division of the sale was over, and the
'Patres Graeci' were succeeded by the 'Patres Latini,' the works of S.
Augustine (Froben's edition, 1569) heading the list at £5, 15s. Among
the editions of the Bible, 'Bibliae variae,' as the auctioneer called
them, the London Polyglot of 1657 was _facile princeps_, fetching no
less than £8, 2s., or within three shillings of the top price of the
sale. Rabbinical literature was the next division taken, and here it is
curious to note that no single work fetched as much as a sovereign. Then
came long rows of classics and theology, with nothing to call for remark
till we come to the books of English divinity, among which Fox's
'Martyrs' (London, 1641) fetched as much as £3, 5s. Among the English
philologists, a very miscellaneous section, Raleigh's 'History of the
World' went for £1, 6s., and Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy' (Oxford,
1638) for 6s. Even the latter was not much of a bargain, for it is the
first edition (1621), the one in quarto, which is now so highly prized.
When the folios were all sold, the smaller sizes were taken in their
order, but either the collectors of the seventeenth century (very unlike
in this to their modern successors) valued a book in proportion to its
bulk, or else the novelty of the bidding was exhausted. Certainly we
have no more high prices to record, and the auctioneer, after a time,
had recourse to selling books in bundles or batches. The Oriental works
went badly, probably because few could read them; the English divinity,
which were sold ten and twenty together, at from a florin to fifteen
shillings the lot, even worse, because Dr. Seaman's theology was now
discountenanced by Churchmen, and the pockets of the Dissenters were ill
furnished. We note a few pearls among these dusty tomes. Fletcher's
'Purple Island' (1633) was sold with six dull tracts for 5s., and
Bacon's 'Advancement of Learning' (1605) for 1s. The pamphlets of the
Civil War went fairly well, but a collection, which would now be held
priceless, of thirty-two tracts on the relation of England and Spain
from 1585 to 1591 realised no more than 8s.
The total sum gained by the sale is stated as about £700, a result which
I have not had the industry to check by adding together the prices of
all the different lots. My impression is that it is rather an
under-estimate. Taking it as correct, we may guess the average sum
realised by each book as about 3s., for there are 137 pages in the
Catalogue, and from 35 to 40 books catalogued on each page, or a total
of somewhere about 5,000. A scholar's library, especially a theological
scholar's, always sells badly--unless I am mistaken, Bishop Thirwall's
books only averaged about 2s. each--and Dr. Seaman's executors probably
congratulated themselves on the result of this new method of disposing
of old books. They had realised more than could possibly have been
obtained on an enforced sale to a single bookseller, and on the other
hand, after the ardour of competition for the first few lots had
subsided, buyers were able to make bargains which the booksellers would
never have allowed them. Every one, save the booksellers, was pleased,
and both the general satisfaction and the one discordant note which
marred it, are reflected in the preface which the auctioneer wrote for
the second book sale, which took place some four months after the first.
Here he says:
'The first Attempt in this kind (by the Sale of Dr. _Seaman's_
Library) having given great Content and Satisfaction to the
Gentlemen who were the Buyers, and no great Discouragement to the
Sellers, hath Encouraged the making this second Trial, by the
exposing (to _Auction_ or _Sale_) the Library of Mr. _Tho. Kidner_,
in hopes of receiving such Encouragement from the Learned as may
prevent the Stifling of this manner of Sale, the Benefit (if
rightly considered) being equally Balanced between Buyer and
Seller.'
There was a danger, we see, of this manner of sale being 'stifled,' and
subsequent prefaces show us that the danger came from reports spread by
the retail booksellers that the bidding was not always genuine. To meet
these reports the auctioneers for a long time refused to accept
commissions to bid themselves, lest they should be accused of bidding
when there was no commission behind them, merely to run up prices
against genuine purchasers. A new rule was also passed, obliging
strangers from the country either to pay for and remove books as soon as
they were knocked down to them, or else to bid through citizens of
reputation, 'and this is the rather desired that all suspicions may be
removed of any Strangers appearing there to bid and enhance the Price to
others without ever intending to send for what they so buy themselves.'
Fenced round with these regulations, the institution of selling books by
auction grew and flourished, so that, as we have said, at the end of the
first ten years of its existence no fewer than seventy-three such
auctions had taken place. It has certainly made book-collecting a more
exciting and more picturesque practice than it could otherwise have
been, and enables us not only to reconstruct the library of any famous
collector, but often to trace the history of a particular book in a very
pleasant and interesting manner. Thus the copy of Dr. Seaman's Catalogue
and the two Elegies on his death, at which we have been looking, all
once belonged to Narcissus Luttrell, the author of 'Brief Historical
Relation of State Affairs,' 1678-1714. According to the crabbed notes of
the antiquary Hearne, whom he had offended by refusing to lend him
books, Luttrell was not only a book-collector but a miser, who would not
have given the judges and other dignitaries who attended his funeral (in
1732) 'a meal's meat' while he was alive. But he was 'well-known for his
curious library, especially for the number and scarcity of [books on]
English history and antiquities, which he collected in a lucky hour at
very reasonable rates.' After Luttrell's death, his copy of Seaman's
Catalogue passed into the collection of the antiquary Gough, and then
into that of the celebrated Richard Heber, perhaps the greatest of all
English book-collectors. At Heber's sale it was acquired by the British
Museum, and its literary pedigree thereby closed. But the possession of
such a pedigree adds very greatly to the interest of a book in the eyes
of book-lovers, and so far as the institution of sales by auction has
increased our knowledge of the book-collectors of the past, we have
every reason to be grateful to Dr. Joseph Hill who, to return to our
text, 'first advised and effectually set on foot that admirable and
universally approved of way of selling libraries.'