CHAPTER III.

THE MAKING OF BOOKS IN THE EARLY UNIVERSITIES.

THE first revival of the long slumbering trade in manuscripts took

place in Italy, the cradle of the universities. Although after the

breaking down of the old civilisation of the Western Empire, Italy had

suffered more through invasions and devastations than any other country

of Europe, it had nevertheless succeeded in preserving a certain

continuity of cultivation and some remnants of learning or germs of

intellectual life, from which germs there came again into growth an

intellectual development for Europe. For the purposes of this study,

I am concerned with the history of the early universities of Europe

only in connection with their relations to the production of books. I

propose, therefore, to give a brief description of the organisation

and the character of the book-trade that came into existence in one or

two of the representative university towns, with some reference to the

general influence of the first universities upon the development and

the distribution of literature.

As has been indicated in the introductory chapter, it is my

understanding that, with the beginning of the thirteenth century,

the responsibility for the preservation and the development of the

intellectual life of Europe, for the mental training of the increasing

proportion of the community which was conscious of intellectual

existence, and for the transmission to the existing generations of

what had been preserved of the thought and learning of the past, was

transferred from the monasteries and the ecclesiastical schools to the

newly organised universities.

This change meant among other things that the control and direction

of education no longer rested with the ecclesiastics, that the class

of scholars was no longer limited to the clerics, and that there were

other directions in which scholarly achievement was to be sought

than those heretofore marked out by the Church. I do not mean to say

that after the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the schools

of Bologna and Paris had developed into universities, the Church

consciously abandoned the control of education, a control which had

rested in its hands for eight centuries. The representatives of the

Church authority themselves took an important part in bringing into

existence not a few of the universities, and in connection with the

organisation of the theological Faculties and in other ways, the popes

and the bishops retained for a long series of years an important

and abiding influence over much of the university work. Heretical

doctrines, or what Rome believed to be heretical doctrines, were taught

not infrequently in university lecture-rooms, but the authority on the

part of the Church to interfere with such teaching, and to secure the

withdrawal of the license from the lecturer, was continually claimed

and was frequently enforced. The fact remained, however, that the

general direction and control of the work of higher education rested no

longer with ecclesiastics but with laymen. Of the four great divisions

of university instruction, Theology, Philosophy (or Art), Law, and

Medicine, the first remained of necessity under the direction of the

Church, while in the supervision of the second the Church undertook to

exercise an influence which of necessity varied greatly from time to

time according to the institution and according also to the character

of the particular popes and bishops. The third and fourth Faculties

were, however, entirely independent of ecclesiastical influence, and

the mere fact of the existence outside of the Church of an important

division of learning and of a great body of scholars must have had a

powerful effect on the imagination of communities which had for so many

generations been accustomed to look to the Church as the source or as

the interpreter of all knowledge.

The principal authorities on the rise and the general history of the

earlier universities are Denifle, Laurie, Mullinger, and Compayré. The

titles of their several works, on which have in the main been based

such statements or conclusions as are expressed in the following pages,

are given in full in the bibliography. The details concerning the

work of the university scribes and the manuscript dealers are chiefly

derived from the works of Wattenbach and Kirchhoff.[258]

It is to be noted that several centuries before the institution in

Christian Europe of the first of the universities, and at a time when,

outside of a few monastic _scriptoria_, the interest in literature in

Christian states was almost non-existent, in the countries which had

accepted the faith of Mahomet a system of higher education had been

effectively organised, and in connection with the intellectual activity

of the universities and libraries of Bagdad, Alexandria, Cairo, and

Cordova, there had been a very considerable production of literature

in the departments of jurisprudence, philosophy, and science. In

fact, the first knowledge that came to the Europe of the Middle Ages

concerning Greek thought and Greek literature was brought to it through

Arabian scholars, and it was by means of the lecturers of Cordova that

the doctrines of Aristotle were made known to the philosophers of

Paris. The list of the scholarly writers who were associated during

the eleventh and twelfth centuries with the great Arabian schools is a

long one, and the books produced by them included not a few works which

had an abiding influence on the thought of Europe. I have, however,

no information concerning the methods employed for the manifolding

and distribution of the books, and a consideration of them does not

properly find place in this study. The names of Avicenna (d. 1027)

and Averrhoes (d. 1198) will be recognised as representative of the

class of authors referred to, the men who, by their translations of

Hippocrates, Galen, Aristotle, and other Greek classics, recalled what

Laurie calls the university life of the Greeks.[259]

In explaining how the universities are to be distinguished from

the cathedral schools or the Benedictine schools out of which they

were developed, Laurie gives the following definition of the first

universities: “They were _specialised_ schools, as opposed to the

schools of Arts, and they were _open to all_, without restriction, as

_studia publica_ or _generalia_, as opposed to the more restricted

ecclesiastical schools, which were under a Rule.”[260]

For the older institutions, it is not practicable to fix with any

precision the date of their beginning, and no year can be named in

which they first exercised the functions of a university. The first

university that was formally founded was that of Prague, which dates

from April, 1348. Bologna, Paris, Padua, Oxford, and Cambridge were

not founded but grew, that is, were developed under special influences

out of pre-existing schools. The first European school which, while

never developing into a university, did do specialised university

work, was that of Salerno, which may be said to have initiated for

Europe systematised and scientific instruction in medicine. _Fons

Medicinæ_ was the name given to it by Petrarch. The school of Salerno

has one special claim to commemoration in any general sketch of the

intellectual life of Europe. Its foundation and early development

were due to the famous Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, the

monastery which had been established by S. Benedict (in 529), and the

_scriptorium_ in which was the creation of Cassiodorus. Salerno, which

was later affiliated with the University of Naples, fills, therefore,

the place of a connecting link between the educational work of the

old-time Benedictine _scriptorium_ and the scientific activities and

intellectual life of the new university system of Europe. Indeed,

through that wonderful old man, Cassiodorus, at once Greek, Roman, and

Goth, statesman, author, and monk, the chain of continuity is borne

directly back to the classic world of imperial Rome.

The study of letters in Monte Cassino had come to include medicine,

and the writings of Galen and Hippocrates were transcribed in the

_scriptorium_, and were later made the first text-books in the medical

school established by the monks at Salerno. Charlemagne is said to

have interested himself in the school and in 802 to have ordered

certain Greek medical treatises to be translated for its use from

the Arabic into Latin.[261] The man who finally developed the monks’

medical school (then known as the _civitas Hippocratica_) into a

great and specialised _studium publicum_ was, however, Constantine, a

Carthaginian Christian. His work was done between the years of 1065

and 1087, under the special favour and patronage of Robert Guiscard,

who was at that time ruler of Apulia. In the time of Robert the school

contained some women students, probably the earliest in Europe.

There are references also at this period to several female writers

on medical subjects. Salerno dates as a privileged school from 1100.

The University of Naples, with which the medical college of Salerno

was later affiliated, was instituted by Frederick II. (the “Wonder of

the World”) in 1224. Notwithstanding the brilliancy of the Court of

Frederick and the feverish energy of the monarch himself, the literary

work done in his university was not of abiding importance, and it is

Bologna which serves as the type of the earlier universities of Europe,

and which divides with the University of Paris the honour of having

served as a general model for later foundations.

The University of Bologna lays claim to be the oldest in Europe.

According to one tradition it was founded by Charlemagne about 800,

but the celebration in 1890 of its thousandth anniversary indicates

that its modern historians have contented themselves with a somewhat

later date. The jurist Irnerius, who gave instruction in civil law

in Bologna between 1100 and 1135, was able to do for the school of

law a very similar work to that done by Constantine a century earlier

for the school of medicine at Salerno, and under his direction the

school became a _studium publicum_ or _generale_. Bologna dates as a

privileged _studium_ from 1158, when the _Universitas_ secured a formal

recognition from Frederick I. Tiraboschi speaks of the university

as having been in a flourishing condition as early as the twelfth

century, and in 1224, when the Emperor Frederick II., in his zeal on

behalf of his newly founded university at Naples, undertook to suppress

that of Bologna, the latter is reported to have had no less than

10,000 students. Its great jurist of that time was Azo or Azolinus.

The edict was revoked in 1227, and the schools of the university

were, in fact, never closed. The University of Padua dates from about

1215, and that of Vercelli (in Piedmont) from 1228. In 1248, Innocent

IV. established the University of Piacenza, with privileges similar

to those enjoyed by Paris and Bologna. Pisa dates from about 1340,

Florence from 1321, and Pavia from 1362. Galeazzo Visconti secured

for Pavia from Charles IV. a charter with the privileges of Paris,

Bologna, and Oxford. Notwithstanding the competition of so many rival

institutions, and the special favour shown from time to time to certain

of these by one prince or another (as in the case of the Emperor

Frederick to Naples), Bologna not only retained its pre-eminence among

the universities of Italy, but secured for itself a great reputation

throughout Europe, attracting students of every nationality. In

Bologna, Padua, and Pavia special attention was given to jurisprudence,

while the school of Florence was noted for the liberal remuneration

granted to its instructors in rhetoric and in belles-lettres. In this

respect, however, Florence stood almost alone. The instructors in

literature, classed as Humanists, were obliged for the most part to

seek appreciation and remuneration not in the universities, but at

the Courts of the cultivated princes and in the palaces of the more

intellectual of the noblemen, and, fortunately for the literary life of

Italy, literature had, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,

a popularity and acceptance among princes and nobles to an extent not

known elsewhere in Europe.

While the university life of Italy dates from the close of the twelfth

century, it is not until the beginning of the thirteenth century

that we find any trace of regulations concerning the production and

distribution of manuscripts. It appears that for a term of perhaps a

quarter of a century there had been in Bologna and in the other older

university towns a certain amount of interest in the production,

hiring, and selling of manuscripts, a trade which had been carried on

without any supervision or restriction on the part of the university

authorities, and the same was the case with the work of the earlier

manuscript dealers in Paris.

The term _stationarii_, which first appears in Bologna in 1259 and in

Paris some years later, indicates at once a change in the method of

work of these university scribes as compared with previous writers

who had been ready to do work in one place or another as opportunity

offered. For a number of years there was, in connection with this

university work, practically no selling of books. The special

responsibility of the _stationarii_ was to keep in stock a sufficient

number of authorised and verified transcripts or copies of the books

ordered or recommended in the educational courses of the university,

and to rent these to the students or to the instructors at rates which

were prescribed by university regulations. The _stationarii_ also

took over the books of the students who died while in the university,

or of departing students, as in most of the universities it was a

misdemeanour to carry any books at all out of the university town.

In Bologna, Padua, and probably other Italian universities, the Jews

were forbidden to carry on any trade in books. If, therefore, Jews

coming into a town had manuscripts which they wished to dispose of,

it was necessary for them to place these manuscripts in the hands of

the _stationarii_, and they would make sale of them on commission. As

before specified, however, the buyers of books in a university town

could purchase only the use of the books during their sojourn in such

town. On leaving the town, it was necessary that the books should be

placed again with the _stationarii_ for sale to others connected with

the university. It is probable, however, that this regulation applied

only to the special list of text-books or reference books authorised

and prescribed by the university. A certain Heinrichs of Kirchberg

relates that on leaving Padua in 1256, he had managed to bring away

with him a considerable package of books. He had accomplished this

by hiding the books in a load of hay which he took with him through

the town gates without being discovered.[262] In 1334, the university

regulation was modified so that after having secured the special

permission of the authorities, a student could take with him from the

university books which he had purchased.

Until the time when the manuscript traders were replaced by the dealers

in printed books, the most important function of the university dealers

was not in the sale, but in the hiring out of manuscripts, and the

term _stationarius_ came from a very early date to be limited to the

functionary who, under the regulations of the university, provided,

for hire, the students, and in some cases the instructors, with the

material required for their work.

In order to facilitate the manifolding and prompt distribution of the

texts needed, and in order also to lessen for the students the cost

of securing these texts, the practice obtained from the beginning

of dividing the manuscripts into portions, to which portions were

given the name _peciæ_ or _petiæ_--or in the Italian form, _pezze_.

At first, the extent of these divisions must have been more or less

arbitrary, but later, the number of pages or sheets to be contained in

them was made a matter of specific university regulation. According

to the regulation, the _pecia_ was to contain sixteen columns, each

with sixty-two lines, and each line with thirty-two letters, and the

material was to be written on sheets comprising together a form,

_quaterne_.

The _pecia_ served as the unit of the calculation for the charge for

the rental. The older manuscripts had been written in a much larger

_format_ than that found convenient for university work, and the above

specified form was now arrived at as, on the whole, best meeting the

requirements of the students and the convenience of the scribes.

For some years after the formal recognition by the university statutes

of the _stationarii_, the number of these was naturally limited, a

limitation which had a service for the university authorities in

facilitating the supervision considered important, and which was, of

course, of business value for the _stationarii_ themselves. A certain

amount not only of scholarly knowledge but also of capital must have

been requisite on the part of the _stationarii_ in order to bring

together for manifolding authentic codices or texts, and also to keep

themselves supplied with writing materials, which during the thirteenth

century continued to be costly. There is evidence that in certain

cases, particularly in Padua, a salary was paid from the university

chest to the _stationarii_, which was an admission on the part of the

university authorities that the prices prescribed for the rent of the

_peciæ_ were not in themselves adequate to secure a living income for

the scribes.

The _stationarii_ were occasionally known in the Italian universities

by the name of _bedelli_, or _bidelli_. The _bedelli_ were originally

university officials, whose functions probably covered some such

disciplinary work as that which is to-day in the hands of the Oxford

proctors. The name suggests also the English term _beadle_, applied to

the English parish official who was charged with the duty of keeping

the peace, and I find that the lexicographers derive the word _beadle_

directly from the earlier term _bedel_, the name given to the English

university functionary who had to do with matters of discipline and

particularly with the direction of public functions, processions,

etc. The name is derived from _pedum_, a stick, the allusion being

probably to the baton or staff of office. The use in Italy of the term

_bidellus_ for the scribes hiring out manuscripts, was evidently due

to the fact that the privileges of this business were in certain cases

given to the university officials, in addition, probably, to their

other duties.

The name of _peciarii_ was sometimes applied to the officials whose

duty it was to supervise the work of the _stationarii_. In 1300, there

is reference to six _peciarii_ in Bologna.

The earliest Italian reference to university scribes dates from

1228, and concerns not the University of Bologna, but the smaller

institution of Vercelli in Piedmont. The Vercelli regulations order

the employment of two _exemplatores_, who were to be charged with the

duty of providing the texts required for the use of the instructors and

students in the Faculties of jurisprudence and theology. The prices to

be paid for these manuscripts were to be fixed by the rector of the

university. As this is the earliest regulation of which there is record

concerning bookselling in the universities, I think it worth while to

cite the text itself:

_Item habebit Commune Vercellarum duos exemplatores, quibus taliter

providebit, quod eos scholares habere possint, qui habeant exemplantia

in utroque jure et in Theologia competentia et correcta tam in textu

quam in glossa; ita quod solutio fiat a scholaribus pro exemplis

secundum quod convenit, ad taxationem Rectoris._[263]

[The University of Vercelli shall also employ two _exemplatores_, for

whom suitable provision shall be made, so that they may be at the

service of the scholars who require manuscripts authoritative and

correct both as to the text and in the commentaries, either in the

department of law or in that of theology, and in return for the copies

(or for the use of the copies) received from the _exemplatores_, the

students shall pay a fitting price (or rental) to be fixed by the

Rector of the university.]

In similar fashion, the statutes of the University of Padua of the year

1283 provide that two _stationarii_ or _bidelli_ should be employed,

one of whom should be at the service of the Faculty of jurisprudence,

and the other should serve those of arts and of medicine. The

theological Faculty was not instituted in Padua until much later. The

two _bidelli_ drew salaries, the first of eight ducats per year, and

the second of two ducats, forty sols. They were charged with the duty

of keeping a supply of _peciæ_ of the texts prescribed in the lists and

of placing these supplies at the disposal of the students and scholars

calling for the same. In the year 1420, the statutes of the High School

of Modena prescribed that the _stationarius_ (there appears to have

been question of but one official for the entire institution) must

keep a supply of the texts of the Roman and Canonical law, the _summa

notaria_, the _speculum_, the Lectures of Cinus and of Innocentius.

The _stationarius_ was to charge for the rent of a _pecia_ of the

prescribed texts four denarii, of the _glossarii_ five denarii, and

of other texts six denarii. I do not find in the regulations any

specification of the term covered by this rental. The city was to

assure the _stationarius_ of freedom from military service, and was to

give him “the yearly compensation of ten lire.”[264]

A reference by the Italian scholar Filelfo indicates that from this

university arrangement the term _bidellus_ came to be applied to

scribes outside of university towns. Filelfo speaks of a _librarius

publicus_, “who, in the ordinary speech, is called _bidellus_.”

With the increase in the larger universities, such as Bologna and

Padua, of the number of students and instructors requiring literary

material, the practice gradually took shape of purchasing instead

of hiring the texts required, and the _stationarii_ developed into

_librarii_. In its original signification, the term _librarius_ stood

for librarian; and as late as the fourteenth century the French word

_librairie_ was used for a library or a collection of books. It seems

to have been only after the introduction of printing that the use of

the term _librairie_ finally came to be restricted in France to a

collection of books held for sale, that is to say, to a book-shop.

The book-dealers, who in the earlier years of the manuscript period

devoted themselves to keeping collections of manuscripts, filled, in

fact, rather the rôle of librarians than of booksellers. They were

ready to rent out their manuscripts for a consideration, or to permit

customers to consult the texts without taking them from the shop. The

practice of making from their original stock of texts authenticated

copies for general sale, was a matter of comparatively slow development.

Bologna had become the most important school in Europe for the study of

Roman and Canonical law, and it was in Bologna that the undertakings of

the university bookseller first became important. The booksellers were

not only subject to the supervision of the university, but were also

brought under the regulations of the town, and the town authorities

undertook to prescribe prices as well for the renting as for the

selling of the manuscripts, and also to prescribe penalties for the

renting or selling of incorrect or incomplete texts.

The university regulations specified that there must be on the part of

the booksellers no modification of the text under which new readings or

glosses should be inserted to replace those accepted as authoritative,

and a penalty was attached to the selling or renting of the texts

in any other form than that in which they were prescribed by the

instructors of the Faculty to which the study belonged. In 1289, the

penalty for the contravention of this regulation, previously fixed at

ten lire, was raised to one hundred lire.[265]

A few years later, a university regulation specified that the

_stationarii peciarum_ who undertook to rent out the authoritative

texts, must keep in stock sufficient supplies of 117 specified

works. In the year 1300, there were in the university six official

_stationarii_, of whom three were Italians and three, foreigners. They

had to be appointed each year, but it seems probable that when their

work proved satisfactory they were re-appointed from year to year.

The responsibility for the general supervision of the texts and

for their correctness and completeness rested with the _bidellus

generalis_. Any reader who should discover blemishes or omissions in

the _peciæ_ was under obligation to report the same to the _bidellus

generalis_, and the _stationarius_ who was responsible for the

preparation of the defective text was fined five solidos, one half of

the fine going to the university chest, one quarter to the _bidellus_,

and one quarter to the informant.

The _stationarii_ were ordered to post up in a conspicuous place in

their shops all the regulations having to do with their trade, in

order that all buyers could know what they were entitled to receive.

They were not at liberty to decline to rent to university members any

_peciæ_ on the official list. On the other hand, if they rented out

_peciæ_ to students who had been expelled or who were under suspension,

they were themselves liable to fine. The usual rental at this time,

that is to say, the beginning of the thirteenth century, was four

_denarii_ for a _quaterne_ (four sheets) and two _denarii_ for a

_pecia_. The _denarius_ was the equivalent of about ten cents.

The rental for works not on the official list was somewhat higher, as

these would not be called for so continuously and as the preparation

of supplies of the same must, therefore, be more of a speculation. In

renting manuscripts outside of Bologna (which could be done only under

special permission of the university authorities and which occurred

as a rule only with members of other universities) an additional two

_denarii_ for a _quaterne_ could be demanded. Students renting the

_peciæ_ were obliged to deposit a pledge of sufficient value to secure

the _stationarii_ against loss. Between the regulations applying

to the _stationarii peciarum_, and those controlling the general

_stationarii_, who had authority to sell as well as to rent and whose

business lay outside of the university, there were various differences.

The general _stationarius_ appeared to have undertaken from time

to time the sale of books on commission, which to the university

_stationarius_ was forbidden.

One of the earlier university regulations prohibited students from

purchasing manuscripts with a view of selling them again for a profit,

but this, according to Savigny, fell into disuse in the course of

the fourteenth century. As late as 1334, the regulations of Bologna

strictly prohibited students from taking with them, on leaving the

universities, any books whatsoever, without a special authorisation

on the part of the heads of their respective Faculties. Regulations

of this kind naturally interfered with the normal development of the

book trade in a city so largely dependent upon its university as was

Bologna, and formed one cause for the greater activity of the general

book trade in cities like Venice, where the regulations of the commune

were not supplemented by those of university authorities.

The city statutes of Bologna of 1259, prohibited the _stationarii

librarii_ from taking a higher commission on the sale of manuscripts

than two and a half per cent. It was also specified that no sale of a

work left on commission should be made without the direct knowledge

of the owner. The _stationarius peciarum_ belonged at the outset to

the membership of the university, and, in accepting the authority

of its supervision and its regulations, enjoyed also the university

privileges, which included freedom from certain municipal obligations.

Many of the university _stationarii_ belonged, as mentioned, to the

class of _bidelli_.

It was forbidden for any member of the university to promise or to

engage, either directly or indirectly, to pay to the _stationarius_

a higher commission or compensation than that prescribed in the

regulations. The penalty for an infraction of this rule, a penalty

imposed upon both the parties concerned, was a fine of five livres.

The student was also under obligations to denounce to the rector

any attempt on the part of the dealer to secure an additional

compensation.[266] The very severity of these prohibitions gives

indication of difficulty in securing enforcement of the system.

The statutes of Padua and of the other Italian universities of the

manuscript trade, were similar to, and were probably in the main based

upon, those of Bologna. In Padua, the earliest regulations which have

been preserved bear date as late as 1465, which is one year later than

the introduction into Italy of the printing-press. The regulations of

1465 prescribed the size of the _peciæ_ and confirmed the rental prices

to the schedule of those of Bologna. The renting of manuscripts could,

however, have continued but for a short period after the issue of these

regulations. In Padua, as in Bologna, the _stationarii peciarum_ had to

make a deposit, in entering upon their business, of four hundred lire.

They had also to go through with an examination at the hands of the

university authorities, and they then had to take an oath of loyalty to

the university. This entitled them to their formal appointment, which

needed, however, as stated, to be confirmed from year to year.

In Padua, as in Bologna, there were fixed commissions for the sale

of manuscripts, and these commissions, in themselves quite moderate,

were to be paid half by the buyer and half by the seller. It appears,

however, that the prices were probably not fully controlled by these

regulations, as there are examples of so-called “presents” being

given by buyers to the sellers after the sale of manuscripts on the

commission basis specified in the regulations had been duly recorded.

In Padua, as in Bologna, it was strictly forbidden for Jews to take

any part in the buying and selling of manuscripts. The only way in

which a Jew could secure a manuscript desired by him was through the

intervention of the university authorities, who might make purchase

of the same on his behalf. The _bidellus_ was the official usually

employed for the purpose. It may be assumed that some additional

commission was here required, and that the Jews had to pay more dearly

for their university texts than the Christians.

There does not appear to be record of the loaning of manuscripts to

students for their own transcribing, although in Paris this evidently

formed an important portion of the manuscript business. In Bologna, as

in Padua, the trade in bookbinding was directly associated with that of

manuscript selling, and the _ligatori librorum_ carried on their work

in the shops of the _librarii_. In Bologna, the manuscripts were in the

main devoted to the subjects of the law and scholastic theology, while

in Padua the more important division was medicine.

The literary requirements, however, for doctors of law as for doctors

of medicine, must have been at best but moderate. Savigny states that

in the thirteenth century the collection of books belonging to a

doctor of the law in Bologna rarely comprised more than from four to

six volumes, and the medical collections were hardly as large. It is

with the beginning of the fifteenth century that there comes to be a

larger understanding of the relations of literature to education and a

material increase in the demand in the university towns for supplies of

books outside of the texts actually in use in the lecture room.

Compayré gives the following list of the books required in the ordinary

and in the extraordinary courses of law in Bologna, a list which was,

he says, practically the same at Montpellier: The several works of the

_Corpus Juris_ of Justinian, comprising the _Codex_ (which dates from

529), the _Digestum Vetus_, the _Infortiatum_, the _Digestum Novum_.

These were identical with the three parts which the pupils of Irnerius

distinguished as the _Pandects_ or _Digest_, the _Institutes_, the

_Authenticum_. To these sources of the Roman law were later added the

_Constitutiones_ of Frederick I. and Frederick II., and in Montpellier

the _Usus Feudorum_, a collection of feudal laws.

The statutes of the universities fixed the time within which the

reading of the prescribed books must be completed. Professors were

obliged, in entering upon their duties, to take the following oath:

“I swear to read and to finish reading within the time fixed by the

statutes, the books or parts of books which have been assigned for

my lectures.” Severe penalties were inflicted on those whose courses

had not been completed within the required time.[267] There ought, as

a rule, to have been no difficulty in completing the task assigned,

for each Faculty had, as a rule, only a single work or at most a

single author assigned for its consideration. The Faculty of Arts had

Aristotle, that of Civil Law the _Corpus Juris_ of Justinian, that

of Common Law the _Decretals_ of Gratian. Compayré suggests that,

according to the maxim of Seneca, _timeo hominem unius libri_, the

Faculties of the Middle Ages might well have been awe-inspiring.

The list of the texts of the medical Faculties was, however, somewhat

more considerable. The course in Montpellier, where medicine became

still more important than law, followed in the main that of Salerno.

The first place was given to Hippocrates and Galen. It is somewhat

surprising that as late as 1250 the teachings of these old-time

practitioners (whose work was done respectively in the fourth century

B.C. and the second century A.D.) should still have remained the

chief authorities in medical science. Compayré refers to them as the

Aristotles of Medicine. In the program of the Faculty of Paris of 1270,

however, the names of Hippocrates and Galen do not appear.

With the two Greeks were associated the original works of Constantine

and his translations from Rhazes Hali-Abbas, Ysaac, Avicenna,

Johannicus, and other Arabic and Persian writers, and finally the

treatise of John of St. Amand, and of Nicholas of Salerno. The

_Antidotarium_, or _Book of Antidotes_, known also as the _Book of

Medicaments_, was for some centuries a work of standard reference

and of popular sale. The influence of the Arabs in the instructional

literature of medicine seems to have been almost as controlling as that

of the Greeks in philosophy and of the Romans in law.

Rabelais, who studied medicine in Montpellier between 1520 and 1530, is

said to have been the first among the students who was able to read his

Greek authors in the original instead of in Latin translations.[268]

Rabelais found time while in college not only for Greek and medicine,

but for literature. The first part of the _Pantagruel_ was written

before he had secured his final diploma.

By the middle of the thirteenth century, the number of the books

required for use in the university courses had increased to such an

extent that four catalogues were issued, one for each of the four

Faculties--Law, Medicine, Theology, and Arts. The lectures and the

instruction were given entirely in Latin, which was the only language

that could have been understood by all of the various nationalities

represented, or even by the representatives of the different Italian

dialects.

In Spain, the earliest university was that of Palencia, which was

founded in 1212. Salamanca, founded a few years later, soon exceeded

Palencia in importance, and, particularly in connection with the work

of its medical Faculty, secured for itself, before the close of the

thirteenth century, a repute throughout Europe. Compayré is of opinion

that the instruction given in Salamanca, not only in medicine but in

science generally and in philosophy, was very largely influenced by

the presence in the peninsula of Moorish scholars. “The philosophy of

Averrhoes and the medicine of Avicenna exerted a manifest influence

on the development of studies at Salamanca.”[269] It seems probable,

if this belief is well founded, that the Arabian literature, produced

and manifolded in Cordova, found its way to Salamanca, and through

Salamanca to Salerno, Bologna, and Paris.

The formal constitution of the University of Paris dates from 1202.

Certain of its historians, however, claim for its first work as an

educational institution a much earlier date. Crévier, for instance,

says: “The University of Paris as a school goes back to Alcuin ...

Charlemagne was its founder.”[270] Charlemagne’s practical interest

in education has caused his name to be associated with the schools of

Tours, Aachen, Milan, Salerno, Bologna, and Paris. The most recent

writer on the subject, Compayré, is of opinion that this is an

exaggerated statement. He finds evidence of an unbroken succession of

Benedictine schools, such as those of Rheims, Tours, Angers, Laon,

Bec, and others, which had preserved a continuity of educational work

from the time of Charlemagne to that of Louis VIII., and which, under

such leaders as Lanfranc (1005-1089), and S. Anselm (1033-1109), had

developed and maintained a high degree of intellectual activity. He

considers these to have constituted the direct succession to the

schools of the palace of Charlemagne, but he fails to find in them the

prototype of the university system. For Compayré, the actual founder

of the University of Paris was Abelard, who died sixty years before

the university secured its organisation. It is his contention that it

was Abelard who, by his learning, his independence of thought, his

eloquence, and his mastery over the minds of men, is to be credited

with the initiation of the great movement from which was to proceed

not only the University of Paris, but the long series of universities

for which Paris served as an incentive and the type. It was Abelard,

says Compayré, who, if not first, at least with the most direct and

far-reaching influence, introduced dialectics into theology and reason

into authority, breaking away from the mere passive transmission of

the beliefs and timid dialectics accepted by the schools of theology,

and thus making possible the development of a true university spirit.

“The method of Abelard is the soul of scholastic philosophy,”[271]

the philosophy which, until the Renaissance, reigned supreme in the

University of Paris. Abelard’s method, says Père Denifle, is presented

in the book which during several centuries served as the text for

theological instruction, the _Sentences_ of Peter Lombard, and its

influence is also to be noted in that other noteworthy work which

became the authority for the schools of common law, the _Decretals_ of

Gratian.

Abelard may be called the first professor of superior instruction. His

work was certainly begun with _éclat_, for his classes are said to have

numbered at times no less than five thousand pupils. “First of the

French philosophers ... he may justly be considered as the precursor

of Ramus and Descartes, in other words, of the Renaissance and of the

modern spirit.”[272] Apart from this more far-reaching influence, he

was able to do for the school of Paris what the jurist Irnerius was,

during nearly the same years, accomplishing for the school of Bologna,

making possible, namely, its development into the university. It was

through the work done by Abelard that “the theological school of Paris

became the seminary of Christian Europe.”[273] This influence continued

through the succeeding centuries in which Paris still remained the

centre of theological instruction, a result which necessarily had later

an important effect in shaping the character of the earlier issues of

the Paris Press.

The term _University_ is not a synonym of the university of science,

but simply of the university of teachers and students who composed a

group and who instituted association of studies. “In the language

of the Civil Law,” says Malden, “all corporations were called

_Universitates_, as forming one whole out of many individuals.”[274]

The organisation of the University of Paris, while differing in certain

important details from that of Bologna, was substantially identical

with the Italian institutions in respect to the privileges conceded to

instructors and students. In successive enactments or crown edicts,

the members of the universities of Paris, Montpellier, and Poitiers

were exempted, not only from the regular national taxes and from

the town dues (_octroi_), but also from special war taxes. In 1295,

Philip the Fair decreed that under no pretext could the goods of the

members of the universities be taken or their revenues attached.[275]

The following statute of the University of Padua represented fairly

enough the status of students in all the universities of France and of

Italy: “Students must be considered as citizens in what concerns the

advantages, but not in that which constitutes the burdens of citizens.”

Under this same principle, members of the universities were also exempt

from military service.

The authorities of the University of Paris exercised a very direct

control from the outset over all the details of the business of making,

renting, and selling books. This authority became in Paris a matter of

much more immediate importance and abiding influence than in Bologna.

In the latter, as we have seen, the business of the book-dealers

was very closely limited to the production of the texts immediately

required for the work of the class-room. In Paris, however, in the

manuscript period, two and a half centuries before the introduction

of the printing-press, the book-trade of the university had become

in great measure the book-trade of the city. During a large part of

this time, moreover, Paris shared with Florence the position of the

centre of the intellectual activities of Europe. The scribes and

their masters who were manifolding manuscripts in the Latin quarter,

were not only supplying text-books to the students of the university,

but were preparing literature for the scholarly readers of Paris, of

France, and of Europe. The book-dealers of Paris constituted, however,

for several centuries, with a few exceptions, a guild organised within

the university. The members of this guild, the _libraires jurés_, were

members of the university, and the operations of the guild were under

the direct control of the university authorities. This arrangement

gave to the book-dealers material advantages in the possession of

university privileges and in the control of a practical monopoly

of the business of producing books. It involved, however, certain

corresponding disadvantages. University control meant supervision,

censorship, restriction, regulation of prices, interference with

trade facilities, and various hampering conditions which delayed very

seriously, both before and after the introduction of printing, the

development of the business of making and of circulating books, and, as

a result of this, placed not a few obstacles in the way of the literary

and the intellectual development of the community. Chevillier says:

“The book-trade of Paris owes its origin to the university, by which,

under the approval of the king, it was organised into an association of

masters. This association was, from the outset, controlled directly by

the university, from the authorities of which it received its statutes

and regulations, and by which the master _libraires_ were licensed,

_jurés_.”[276]

“The reproduction of a work of scholarship (to which class belonged of

necessity the text-books prescribed for the work of the university,)”

remarks Delalain, “called for on the part of the scribe a considerable

measure of scholarly knowledge and also for a detailed and careful

supervision. It was held, therefore, by the university authorities

that the responsibility properly belonged to them to supervise the

series of operations by means of which these university texts were

prepared and were circulated. It was essential that the completeness

and the correctness of each copy should be verified, and that these

copies should be confided to trustworthy persons for their sale or

their hire, in order that there should be no risk of inaccuracies in

the texts themselves or of any unnecessary enhancement of the cost to

instructors or to students of their purchase or their hire. On this

ground, the university of Paris asserted from the beginning of its

history the right to control the book-trade of the city, a contention

which was confirmed and maintained by all the kings of France after

Philip Augustus.”[277]

The “book-trade” was held to include all the dealers and artisans who

were concerned with the production and distribution of manuscripts;

that is, the copyists and their employers, the binders, the

illuminators, the sellers of parchment, and, later, the manufacturers

of paper. While the control of the university was exercised over the

entire book-trade, the interest of the authorities was naturally much

keener in regard to the divisions having to do with the production

of books than in the work of the booksellers. The matter of chief

importance, in fact, according to the accepted theory, the sole purpose

for the existence of the book-trade, was to secure for the members of

the university a sufficient supply, at a fixed and moderate charge, of

correct and complete texts of the prescribed works; while it was also

essential to protect those members from the contamination of heretical

writings or of heretical comments on books of accepted orthodoxy.

A regulation of December, 1316, prescribes that no _stationarius_ shall

employ a copyist until such employee shall have been duly sworn before

the university, or before the Rector and four _procureurs_, to execute

his functions faithfully, and, having been accepted as a trustworthy

scribe, shall have had his name inscribed on the official register.

As a partial offset to the series of restrictions and limitations under

which was carried on the work of these early publishers, it is in order

to specify certain privileges and exemptions enjoyed by them as members

of the university. These included exemption from taxes; exemption

from service on the watch or on the city guard; and the privilege

of jurisdiction, commonly known as _committimus_. Under this last,

they were empowered in suits or cases, civil or personal, and whether

engaged as plaintiffs or defendants, to bring witnesses or other

principals before the _Juges Conservateurs_, functionaries charged with

the maintenance or protection of privileges.[278]

Issues concerning personal rights arising between the members of

the university were decided before the tribunal or court of the

Rector. Cases affecting realty, and all cases between the members

and outsiders, were tried before the _Conservateurs des Priviléges_,

an authority of necessity favourably disposed to the members of the

university. The ground assigned for this privilege was that instructors

and pupils, and those engaged in aiding their work (_i. e._ the makers

of books), should not be exposed to loss of valuable time by being

called away from their work to distant parts.[279] An edict of Philip

Augustus, in 1200, confirmed by S. Louis in 1229, and by Philip the

Fair in 1302, directed that the cases of university members be brought

before the Bishop of Paris. The university found disadvantages in being

under the jurisdiction of the Bishop (whose censorship later proved

particularly troublesome for the publishers), and applications were

made to replace the authority of the ecclesiastical courts with that of

the royal courts. In 1334, letters-patent of Philip of Valois directed

the provost of Paris, who was at that time _conservateur_ of the royal

privileges, to take the university under his special protection, and in

1341 the members of the university were forbidden to enter proceedings

before any other authority. In 1361, under an edict of King John, the

members of the university were again declared exempt from taxes and

assessments of all kinds (_portes, gabelles, impositions, aides, et

subsides_). The repetition from reign to reign of certain edicts and

regulations such as the above does not imply that the earlier ones had

been recalled, but that they had to some extent fallen into desuetude,

or that attempts had been made to override them.

By letters-patent issued in 1369, Charles V. declared that all dealers

in books and makers of books required for the use of “our scholars”

should be exempt from all taxes, etc. The exemption included binders,

illuminators, parchment-makers, etc. It appears that some abuses had

crept in under this exemption, as in 1384 it was ordered that no

book-dealers should be freed from taxes if they carried on for gain any

other occupation.[280]

The policy of favouring the production and sale of books by freeing the

publishers and dealers from taxes and other burdens was continued and

even developed after the introduction of printing. The kings, impressed

with the possibilities of this great discovery, recognised that it was

for the interest of the realm to free books, printed or written, not

only from _octroi_ or city duties, but from customs or importation

charges. Letters-patent of Henry II., dated 1553, read as follows:

_Avons ordonné et ordonnons lesdits livres, escrits ou imprimez, reliez

ou non reliez, estre et demeurer exempts desdits droits de traicte

foraine, Domaine forain et haut passage_.[281] This was a more liberal

policy than at that time prevailed in Italy or in England, or, in

fact, than has as yet been accepted in the nineteenth century by the

United States. In order to obtain the advantage of such exemption, the

publishers had to secure from the Rector of the university a passport

or certificate for their packages.

One of the earlier regulations of the university affecting the

book-trade was that under which the supervision of the sale of

parchment was left in the hands of the Rector. This sale was usually

authorised only at the annual Lendit fair. The dealers, bringing their

parchment, exposed this for inspection. Before any other purchases

were permitted, the Rector selected the quantity needed for the

university, for which payment was made at a price fixed in advance.

He then received from the parchment-dealers, for the treasury of the

university, or for the special fund of the book guild, a gratuity which

amounted to from two thousand to three thousand francs.

In Paris, as in Bologna, during the whole of the thirteenth century

and the first portion of the fourteenth, the principal work of the

university book-dealers was not the selling but the renting of books.

The regulations concerning the division of manuscripts into chapters or

_peciæ_ were, however, not carried out with the same precision in Paris

as in the Italian universities, nor was it practicable to exercise in

the larger city, or even within the confines of the Latin Quarter, as

close a supervision as in Bologna or Padua over the rates for renting

and over the stock of copies kept by the _stationarii_. The general

purpose of the regulations was, however, the same, and the routine of

renting prices and the general rate of commission on the books sold

were, as said, matters of university regulation. With a community of

students ranging in number from ten thousand to (in the most prosperous

days of the university) as high as thirty thousand, the monopoly of

supplying text-books, whether through sale or through renting, must

have constituted an important business. It was not until some time

after the introduction of printing that the importance and prospect of

profit of publishing done outside of the university limits, and freed

from a portion of the university restrictions, came to be sufficient

to make it worth while for certain of the more enterprising of the

printers to give up the trade in text-books and their privileges as

_libraires jurés_ and to establish themselves as independent dealers.

In the University of Paris we find in use in the twelfth century, in

addition to the terms _librarii_, _stationarii_, and _petiarii_, the

term _mangones_. The word _mango_ originally designated a merchant or

dealer, but appears to have carried an implication of untrustworthiness

or slipperiness. It is satisfactory, therefore, to understand that

_mangones_ very speedily went out of use as a name for dealers in

books.[282] The _petiarii_ are not mentioned in the statutes of the

university, where they appear to be replaced by the _parcheminii_.[283]

Guérard interprets the term _stationarius_ as standing first for a

scribe with a fixed location (_un écrivain sédentaire_), as opposed

to a copyist who was prepared to accept work in any place where it

could be secured. Later, the term was understood to designate a master

scribe who directed the work of a bureau of copyists; and still later,

the _stationarius_, sometimes then called _stationarius librorum_,

possessed a complete book-making establishment, where were employed,

in addition to the copyists, the illuminators, binders, and other

artisans. At this stage of his development, the _stationarius_ has

become the equivalent of the printer-publisher of a later generation.

Guérard is inclined to limit the earlier use in Paris of the term

_librarius_ to the keeper of a shop in which books were kept for sale,

but in which no book-production was carried on.[284] It is evident,

however, that in France, as in Italy, there was no very definite or

consistent use of the several terms, and that before the introduction

of printing, _librarius_ and _stationarius_ were applied almost

indifferently to dealers having to do either with the production or

with the sale of books. Chassant is authority for the statement that

at the time of the introduction of printing into France there were in

the two cities of Paris and Orleans more than ten thousand individual

scribes or copyists who gained their living with their pens.[285] It is

not surprising that the first printers, whose diabolical invention took

the bread away from these workers, had their lives threatened and their

work interrupted.

The letters-patent of Charles V., dated November 5, 1368, specify

fourteen _libraires_ and eleven _écrivains_ (employing _stationarii_)

as at that time registered in Paris. No one was admitted to the

profession of _librarius_ or _stationarius_ who was not a man of

approved standing and character, and who had not also given evidence

of an adequate and scholarly knowledge of manuscript interpretation

and of the subject to which he proposed to give attention. The

examination was made before the four chief publishers (_les quatre

grands libraires_). Having secured the approval of the board of

publishers, the applicant was obliged to secure also acceptance from

the representatives of the Rector, and to submit certain guarantees for

the satisfactory performance of his responsibilities. He was called

upon to submit, for himself and heirs, all his property as well as

his person to the control of the court of Paris as a pledge for the

execution of his trust. As late as 1618, in the reign of Charles IX.,

the master printers (_i. e._, printer-publishers) were obliged to hold

certificates from the Rector and the university, to the effect that

they were skilled in the art of printing, and that they possessed full

knowledge of Latin and of Greek.

The _libraires jurés_ comprised two classes, the _libraires grands_

(_officium magni librariatus_), and the _libraires petits_ (_officium

parvi librariatus_).[286] The immediate responsibility for the

government of the body rested with the four chief _libraires_ (_les

quatre grands libraires_). It was they who fixed the prices for the

sale or hire of manuscripts, and who supervised the examination of

manuscripts with reference, first, as to their admission into the

official list of the university texts, and, secondly, as to the

completeness and accuracy of the particular parchment submitted. They

also inspected the book-shops and the workrooms of the copyists, and

verified from time to time the accuracy and the quality of the copies

prepared from these accepted texts; they passed upon the qualifications

of applicants for the position of _libraire juré_; and, finally,

they exercised a general supervision over the enforcement of all the

university regulations affecting the book-trade, and gave special

attention to those prohibiting any interference with this trade by an

outside dealer, one who was not a _libraire juré_. These four chief

_libraires_ were each under a bond or “caution” for the amount of 200

livres. In addition to the exemption from general taxes and guard duty

conceded to all the _libraires jurés_, these four enjoyed from time

to time certain special privileges. In October, 1418, by a regulation

of Charles VI., the four chief _libraires_ are exempted by name from

certain special duties on wine, etc., which had been imposed for the

purpose of securing funds _pour la recouvrance de nos Villes et Chastel

de Monstreau ou Faut-Yonne_.[287] It was also necessary for him to find

two responsible bondsmen for an amount of not less than 100 livres

each.[288][289] In Bologna in 1400 the bond was also fixed at 200

livres, the equivalent of 5065 francs.[290]

The special obligations imposed upon and accepted by the _librarii_ and

_stationarii_, as specified in documents between the years 1250 and

1350, can be summarised as follows:

I. To accept faithfully and loyally all the regulations of the

university concerning the production and the sale of books.

II. Not to make within the term of one month any agreement, real or

nominal, transferring to themselves the ownership of books which had

been placed in their hands for sale.

III. Not to permit the loss or disappearance of any book so consigned

for the purpose later of acquiring ownership of the same.

IV. To declare conscientiously and exactly the just and proper price of

each book offered for sale, and to specify such price, together with

the name of the owner, in some conspicuous place in the work itself.

V. To make no disposition of a consigned book without having in the

first place informed the owner or his representative of the price to be

secured for the same, and to make immediate report and accounting of

such price when received.

VI. To charge as commission for the service of selling such book not

more than four deniers to a member of the university and not more than

six deniers to an outsider. This commission was to be paid by the

purchaser, who seems to have been considered the obliged party in the

transaction.[291]

VII. To place conspicuously in the windows of their shops a price list

of all works kept on sale.

The _stationarii_ on their part were also held:

I. To employ no scribes for the production of manuscripts other than

those who had been accepted and certified before the Rector.

II. To offer for sale or for hire no manuscripts that had not been

passed upon and “taxed” by the appointed authority.

III. To refuse to no applicant who was a member of the university the

loan for hire of a manuscript, even though the applicant should require

the same for the purpose of producing copies.

It is evident that a regulation of this character would, in the case of

an original work by a contemporary author, have operated as a denial of

any author’s rights. Such original work constituted, however, at this

time the very rare exception, and their authors were evidently obliged

to content themselves with the prestige of securing circulation. The

case of a manuscript representing outlay and skilled labour on the

part of the dealer, who might have had to make a toilsome journey

to secure it, and who had later paid for the service of one or more

editors for its collation and revision, was, of course, of much more

frequent occurrence. It is difficult to understand why this class of

effort and enterprise should not have been encouraged by the university

authorities instead of being so largely nullified by regulations which

made of such a manuscript common property. This regulation is, however,

identical with that of Bologna. The penalty there for refusing to place

a manuscript at the service of a member of the university was five

livres.[292]

IV. To offer for rent no texts that were not complete and correct.

V. In the event of a work being brought to Paris by a stranger, to give

immediate information to the authorities in order that before such

work could be copied for hire or for sale it should be passed upon by

the authorities as orthodox and as suitable for the use of the members

of the university, and as being complete and correct in its own text.

Any _libraire_ who, having been duly sworn, should be convicted of

violation of these regulations, forfeited his office, and all the

rights and privileges thereto appertaining; and all members of the

university, instructors or students, were strictly prohibited (under

penalty of forfeiture of their own membership) from having further

dealings with such a delinquent.[293]

These various regulations, while possibly required in connection with

the general interests of the university, were certainly exacting and

must have interfered not a little with any natural development of

the book-trade. It is nevertheless the case that the makers of books

and the book-dealers in Paris occupied a more independent and a more

dignified position than had been accorded to their brethren in Bologna.

The latter appear to have risen hardly above the grade of clerks or

lower-class functionaries, while these earlier Parisian publishers

secured from the outset recognition as belonging to the higher

educational work of the university, work in the shaping of which they

themselves took an important part.

In 1316 (the year of the accession of Philip V.) the association of

_libraires jurés_ (authorised or certified book-dealers) comprised

but thirteen members.[294] A year earlier there had been twenty-two,

and I can only assume that the war troubles had had their natural

influence in depressing and breaking up the book business. In 1323,

the list comprises twenty-nine names, including the widow of De

Peronne. In 1368, the number had again fallen to twenty-five. In 1488,

the university list gives the names of twenty-four _libraires_, in

addition to whom were registered two illuminators, two binders, and two

_écrivains_.[295] The _écrivains_ specified were undoubtedly master

scribes, the register here quoted apparently not including the names of

the copyists employed. At this date, however, the work of the printers

had been going on in Paris for fourteen years, and the business of

those concerned with the production of books in manuscript form

must have been very largely reduced. The work of the master scribes

continued, however, in the sixteenth century, but by the close of the

fifteenth had become limited to the production, for collectors, of

manuscripts as works of art.

While the majority of _libraires jurés_ were naturally Frenchmen,

there was no regulation to prevent the holding of such a post by a

foreigner, and the list always, as a matter of fact, included several

foreign names. The presence in the university of large groups of

foreign students made it quite in order, and probably necessary, that

they should find among the book-dealers some who could speak their home

language and who could make clear to them the requirements concerning

the university texts. The presence of these foreign book-dealers

also facilitated the arrangements for the exchange of manuscripts

between Paris and foreign universities. These foreign book-dealers,

while obliged in ordinary routine to take an oath of fealty to the

university, were not called upon to become citizens of France.

The list includes from time to time the names of women _libraires_,

these women being usually widows of _libraires_ who had duly qualified

themselves. The women must themselves, however, in order to secure

such appointments, have been able to pass the examination in Latin, in

palæography, and in the technicalities of manuscript book-making. In

respect as well to the admission of foreigners as to that of women, the

Paris guild of the university book-dealers practised a more liberal

policy than that followed by the university authorities of Bologna

or the Stationers’ Hall of London. Later, this liberal policy was

restricted, and in 1686 it was ordered that no foreigners should be

admitted to the lists of the master _libraires_ of the university.

The purchase of a manuscript during the fourteenth century was

attended with almost as many formalities and precautions as are to-day

considered necessary for the transfer of a piece of real estate. The

dealer making the sale was obliged to give to the purchaser guarantees

to the effect, first, that he was himself the owner or the duly

authorised representative of the owner of the work; and, secondly, that

the text of this was complete and correct, and as security for these

guarantees he pledged his goods, and sometimes even his person. As a

single example of a transaction illustrating this practice, I quote a

contract cited by Du Breuil. This bears date November, 1332, and sets

forth that a certain Geoffrey de Saint Léger, a duly qualified _clerc

libraire_, acknowledges and confesses that he has sold, ceded, and

transferred to the noble gentleman Messire Gérard de Montagu, _Avocat

du Roi au Parlement_ (counsellor at the royal court), all right, title,

and interest in a work entitled _Speculum Historiale in consuetudines

Parisienses_, contained in four volumes bound in red leather. The

consideration named is forty livres Parisian, the equivalent, according

to the tables of de Wailly, of 1013 francs. The vendor pledges as

security for the obligation under the contract all his worldly goods,

together with his own person (_tous et chacun de ses biens, et

guarantie de son corps même_), and the contract is attested before two

notaries.[296]

While the university assumed the strictest kind of control and

supervision over the work of the book-dealers, it conceded, as an

offset, to the association of these dealers a very substantial

monopoly of the trade of making and selling books. It was prohibited,

under severe penalties, for a person not a _libraire juré_ to do

business in a book-shop or at any fixed stand; that is to say, he

could not sell as a _stationnaire_, but had to carry on his trade as a

pedlar or chap-man, from a pack or a cart. The value of the manuscript

that such pedlar was permitted to offer for sale was restricted to

ten _sous_, the equivalent of half a franc. At the price at which

manuscripts were held during the fourteenth century, this limitation

restricted the trade of the peripatetic vendors to single sheets, or

broadsides, containing usually a _Pater_, an _Ave_, or a _Credo_, or

a brief calendar or astrological table. Successive edicts were issued

from reign to reign, renewing the prohibition upon the selling of

books, whether in French or Latin (excepting only of such maximum

value), by any drapers, grocers, pedlars, or dealers of any kind.[297]

In all the official references of the thirteenth and fourteenth

centuries to the book-dealers, the ground is taken that they formed a

class apart from mechanics or from traders in ordinary merchandise.

They were considered to be engaged in an intellectual pursuit, and were

treated as members of a profession upon whose service the work of the

university and that of the Church were largely dependent. Thus in 1649

the _Recueil_ makes use of these words:

_Les Marchands-Libraires, Imprimeurs et Relieurs seront toujours

censés du corps de nostre bien aymée fille aisnée l’Université; du

tout séparés des arts méchaniques, et autres Corps de Mestiers ou

marchandises; et come tels, conservés en la jouissance de tous les

droicts; priviléges, franchises, libertez, préséances et prérogatives

attribuées à ladite université et à eux par les Royes nos prédécesseux

et par nous._[298]

It was, therefore, not permitted to the _libraire_ to bring discredit

upon his profession by also engaging in any “sordid pursuits” (_viles

occupations_), and in so doing he rendered himself liable to being

deposed from his high post (_declaré déchu de son noble office_). He

could, however, unite with his work as _libraire_ that of a notary, or

that of a royal counsellor or practitioner in the higher court (_avocat

du roi au Parlement_).

Notwithstanding the personal prestige and the substantial advantages

which were thus enjoyed by the book-dealers of the university, there

were from time to time instances of protest, amounting occasionally to

insubordination, on the part of the _libraires_, who, as their business

aims and possibilities developed, became restive under the long series

of trammels and restrictions, and particularly in connection with those

imposed by the ecclesiastical division of the university authorities.

The dread, however, of losing any portion of their privileges, and

particularly the risk of any impairment of their monopoly of the

book-trade of the university and of Paris, operated always as a

sufficient consideration to prevent the insubordination from going to

extremes. Throughout the entire period of the Middle Ages the control

of the university continued, therefore, practically absolute over the

book-trade of Paris, the influence of the Church and the (more or less

spasmodic) authority of the Crown being exercised by means of the

university machinery.

This state of affairs continued for some period of years after the

introduction of printing. The university still insisted upon its

responsibility for the correctness and the completeness of the texts

issued from the Paris press, although it gave up of necessity the

routine of examining individual copies of the printed editions. On

the other hand, the censorship control on the part of the theological

Faculty over the moral character and orthodoxy of the works printed

was insisted upon more strenuously than ever as the Church began

to recognise the enormous importance of the influence upon public

opinion of the widely distributed printed volumes. The effect of this

ecclesiastical control upon the business of printing books is set

forth with some detail in the chapter on the early printers of Paris.

It is sufficient to say here that the contention on the part of the

university to control, as a portion of the work of higher education,

the business of the makers and sellers of books, while sharply attacked

and materially undermined after the middle of the seventeenth century,

was not formally abandoned until the beginning of the eighteenth. At

this time the Crown took over to itself all authority to regulate the

press, an authority which disappeared only with the revolution of 1789.

For six centuries the book-trade of Paris and of France, whether it

consisted in the production of manuscripts for the exclusive use of

members of the university, or of printed books for the enlightenment of

the general public, had been obliged to do its work under the hampering

and burdensome regulations and restrictions of a varying series of

authorities. The rectors of the university, the theologians of the

Sorbonne, the lawyers of the Parliament of Paris, the chancellors of

the Crown, the kings themselves, had all taken a hand, sometimes in

turn, not infrequently in conflict with each other, in the task of

“regulating” the trade in books. The burden of the restrictions was,

in pretence at least, offset by various privileges and exemptions,

but they remained burdens notwithstanding. It may well be a cause

of surprise that in the face of such a long series of hampering

difficulties, difficulties more serious than those with which any

publishers in the world, outside of Rome, had to contend, the

manuscript publishers and the later printer-publishers of Paris should

have been able to do so much to make Paris a literary and a publishing

centre. As has been already indicated, it was certainly the case

that during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Paris shared with

Florence the position of being the centre of the manuscript trade of

Europe. It was also the case, as will be set forth in a later chapter,

that the first printer-publishers of Paris did most noteworthy work in

furthering the development of scholarly publishing and the production

of scholarly books. It required, however, the revolution of 1789 to

establish the principle that the business of producing and distributing

books could secure its legitimate development only when freed from

censorship restrictions and regulations, and that it was a business the

control of which belonged properly not to the university, the Courts of

Parliament, or the Crown, but to the people themselves.

Considering the scarcity and the costliness of books in the Middle

Ages, it is somewhat surprising that the work of instruction rested

so directly upon books, that is, depended upon the mastery of a text.

Thurot says: “It is the distinctive character of instruction in the

Middle Ages that the science was not taught directly and in itself, but

by the explanation of books which derived their authority solely from

their writers.”[299] Roger Bacon formulates it: “When one knows the

text, one knows all that concerns the science which is the object of

the text.”[300] Instead of taking a course of logic or of ethics, says

Compayré, the phrase was reading a book on logic or ethics, _legere_ or

_audire librum_. This close adherence to the text secured, of course,

an assured demand in the university towns first for the hired _pecias_

and later for the purchased manuscripts.

The foundation of the College of the Sorbonne dates from 1257. It was

organised by Robert de Sorbon, chaplain to Louis IX. The college was

at once affiliated with the University of Paris, of which it became

the theological Faculty, and in the general direction of which it

exercised at times a controlling influence. The college is connected

with my subject on the ground of its assumption of the theological

censorship of the Paris book-trade and of its frequent attempts to

exercise a general censorship over all the productions of the Paris

printing-press.

As we shall note later in the history of the Paris book-trade, various

complications arose between the publishers and booksellers possessing

a university license (the _libraires jurés_) and certain unlicensed

dealers who undertook to come into competition with them. The locality

occupied by these unlicensed booksellers was on the Island of the Cité,

immediately by the precincts of Notre Dame. In fact it was the case

with the book-trade generally north of the Alps that its business was

very largely carried on in the portals of a church if not under the

immediate shadow of the cathedral.

While in Italy the Church furthered but slightly the early production

of books and, later, did not a little to hamper the undertakings of the

publishers, it was the case in France and quite largely also in South

Germany, that the publishers found themselves very largely dependent

upon the scholarly interests and the scholarly co-operation of the

clerics, and the association of the Church with the book-trade was, for

a large proportion at least of the fifteenth century, an important one.

In Paris, the booksellers licensed by the university were all in the

Latin Quarter, and in the same region were to be found the sellers

of parchment, the illuminators, the scribes, binders, etc., who also

carried university licenses and were under university supervision. It

is probable that the specification in the Tax Roll of 1292 of eight

_librarii_ in Paris refers only to the booksellers licensed by the

university and carrying on their business in the Latin Quarter.

In Bayeux, in 1250, certain clerics were exempted from taxation if

they dealt in parchment or if they were engaged in the copying of

manuscripts, and the book-shops along the walls of the cathedral were

also exempt from taxation. It is not clear to me in looking up this

record, whether the tax mentioned was a town tax or a general tax, or

whether it was one of the ecclesiastical levies.[301]

Roger Bacon’s reference to the scribes of Paris has already been

mentioned. He could not secure from the Brothers of his Order a

transcript of his work which he desired to present to Pope Clement,

because they were too ignorant to write the same out intelligently,

while he was afraid to confide the work to the public scribes of

France lest they might make improper use of the material.[302] It is

Wattenbach’s opinion that the wrongful use of his production dreaded by

Bacon was the sale of unauthorised copies of it by the scribes to whom

the preparation of the authorised copies should be confided.

In 1292, Wenzel, King of Bohemia, presented to the monastery of

Königsaal, 200 marks in silver for the purchase of books, and the

purchases were made from the book-sellers in Paris. Richard de Bury

extols Paris as the great centre of the book-trade. Of the value of

the book collections in Rome and the possibility there of securing

literary treasures, he had already spoken, but the treasures of Paris

appear to have impressed him still more keenly. There he found occasion

to open his purse freely and took in exchange for base gold, books of

inestimable value. Joh. Gerson, in his treatise _De Laude Scriptorum_

expresses the dread lest the persistent carrying away from Florence

of his books by wealthy visitors may not too seriously diminish its

literary treasures.

The Paris publishers appear to have sent out travelling salesmen or

representatives to take orders for their wares. As early as 1480, a

publisher named Guillaume Tousé, of Paris, made complaint to the

chancellor of Brittany to the effect that he had entrusted a commission

to a certain Guillaume de l’Espine to carry books into Lower Brittany

and to make sale of the same during a period of six months. He had

taken with him books to the value of five hundred livres and was to

have a salary of ten crowns for the six months’ work. He had, however,

failed to return or to make report of his commission. Tousé secured a

judgment against his delinquent traveller, but the record does not show

whether he ever succeeded in getting hold of him again.[303]

In the universities of Oxford and of Cambridge, the _stationarii_

began their work some years later than in Paris or Bologna. They had

the advantage, however, of freedom from the greater portion of the

restrictions and special supervision which hampered the work of the

scribes in the Italian and French universities, and as a result their

business developed more promptly and more actively, and in the course

of a few years, they became the booksellers of the university towns.

It was, of course, from this university term _stationarii_ that the

name of stationers came at the outset to be applied to the organised

book-dealers of Great Britain. The Guild of the British book-dealers

completed its organisation in 1403, nearly sixty years before the

introduction into England of the printing-press.[304]

The art work put into the manuscripts produced in the Low Countries,

particularly in Belgium, was more highly developed and was a more

important part of the industry than was the case in any other portion

of the world.

In the earlier German universities, the _stationarii_ also found place

and found work, but this work seems to have been of less importance

and the scribes appear to have secured for themselves a less definite

university recognition than in Italy or in France. The explanation

given by Wattenbach is that the German students, being better informed

and more industrious, did for themselves a larger portion of the

transcribing required and were, therefore, freed from the necessity of

hiring their hefts.

The statutes of the universities of Prague and of Vienna permitted the

masters and the baccalaureates to secure from the university archives,

under certain pledges, the loan of the books authorised as text-books

or of works of reference, for the purpose of making trustworthy copies

of the same. The copyists were enjoined as follows:

_Fideliter et correcte, tractim et distincte, assignando paragraphos,

capitales literas, virgulas et puncta, prout sententia requirit._[305]

The practice also obtained in these universities of having texts

dictated to the students by the _magisters_ or the Bachelors of Arts.

This was described as _librum pronuntiare_, and also as _ad pennam

dare_.

In this phrase, Karoch sent word to Erfurt that _ad pennam dabit_ his

treatise _Arenga_.[306]

The text-books utilised in the German universities in the thirteenth

and fourteenth centuries were as limited in range and in number

as those of Bologna and of Padua. The instruction in the medical

departments of Prague and Vienna was based in the main on the works of

Hippocrates and Galen, with some of the later commentaries, principally

from Arabian writers. In philosophy the chief authority was Aristotle,

in mathematics Euclid, and in astronomy Ptolemy. A few works of later

date were utilised, such as the _Summula_ of Petrus Hispanus and the

_De Sphæra Mundi_ of Johannes de Sacro Bosco. Bosco is otherwise known

as John Holywood or Halifax. He held the chair of mathematics in the

University of Paris about the middle of the thirteenth century. The

use of his treatise for classes in Prague is evidence of a certain

interchange between the universities of books in manuscript.

An important reason for the very large membership of the universities

of the Middle Ages as compared with their successors of to-day, is

to be found in the fact that they undertook to supply not only the

higher education which belongs to the present university curriculum,

but also the training now furnished by the _gymnasia_ or High Schools,

which were at that time not in existence. We find, therefore, in their

membership, thousands of students who were little more than boys either

in their years or in their mental development.

The universities also, on the other hand, attracted to their

membership very many students of mature age, who came sometimes for

special purposes, but more frequently because it was only in the

university towns that circles of scholars could be found, that books

were available, and that any large measure of intellectual activity

was to be experienced. As Savigny puts it: “The universities were,

during the Middle Ages, practically the only places where men could

study or could exercise their minds with any degree of freedom.” It

was inevitable therefore, that, with the generations succeeding the

discovery of printing, there should be a decrease in the influence

and in the relative importance for the community of the universities.

With the establishment of secondary schools, the training of the boys

was cared for to better purpose elsewhere; and with the increasing

circulation of printed books, it became possible for men to come into

relations with literature in other places than in the lecture room.

The universities were no longer the sole depositories of learning

or the sole sources of intellectual activity. This lessening of the

influence of the universities represented, or was at least coincident

with, a wider development of intellectual activity and of interest in

literature on the part of the masses of the people. The universities

alone would never have been in a position so to direct the thought

of the community as to render the masses of citizens competent to

arrive at conclusions for themselves and sufficiently assured in such

conclusions to be prepared to make them the basis of action. This was,

of course, partly because, notwithstanding the large membership and the

fact that this membership represented nearly all the classes in the

community, the universities could at best come into direct relations

but with a small proportion of the people. A more important cause

for such lack of intellectual leadership is to be found in the fact

that the standard of thought and of instruction in the universities

concerned itself very little with the intellectual life or issues of

the immediate time. As Biot puts it (speaking, to be sure, of a later

century): “The universities were several centuries in arrears with all

that concerned the sciences and the arts. Peripatetics, when all the

world had renounced with Descartes the philosophy of Aristotle, they

became Cartesians when the rest were Newtonians. That is the way with

learned bodies which do not make discoveries.”

It was the dissemination of literature through the new art of printing

rather than the diffusion of education through the university lecture

rooms, which brought to the masses of the people the consciousness

of mental existence and of individual responsibility for arriving at

sound conclusions. Prior to the printing-press, this responsibility

had been left by the people with their “spiritual advisers,” who were

charged with the duty of doing the thinking for their flocks. It was

this change in the mental status of the people which was the precursor

(although at a considerable space of years) of the Reformation.

With the beginning in Germany of the movement known as Humanism, the

representatives of the new thought of the time were not to be found in

the university circles, and had not received their inspiration from

the lecture rooms. Says Paulsen: “The entire traditional conduct of

the universities, and in particular of the instruction in arts and

theology, was rejected with the utmost scorn by the new culture through

its representatives, the poets and orators, to whom form and substance

alike of this teaching seemed the most outrageous barbarism, which they

never wearied of denouncing.” In the _Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum_,

which were issued about 1516 from the band of youthful poets gathered

about Mutianus at Erfurt, the hatred and detestation felt by the

Humanists for the ancient university system raised to itself a lasting

monument.

Within a few years from the publication of the _Epistolæ_, the

influence of the Humanists had so far extended itself as to have

effected a large modification in the systems of study in all the larger

universities. “The old ecclesiastical Latin was replaced by classical

Latin; Roman authors, particularly the poets, were made the subject of

lectures, and the old translations of Aristotelian texts were driven

out by new translations on principles advocated by the Humanists. Greek

was taken up in the Faculty of arts and courses in the language and

literature were established in all universities.”[307]

An immediate result of these changes and extensions was an active

demand for printed texts. The Humanistic movement, itself in a

measure the result of the printing-press, was a most important fact

in providing business for the German printers during the earlier

years of the sixteenth century. The strifes and contentions of the

Reformation checked the development in the universities of the

studies connected with the intellectual movement of the Renaissance

and lessened the demand for the literature of these studies. The

active-minded were absorbed in theological controversies, and those

who could not understand the questions at issue could still shout

the shibboleths of the leaders. As Erasmus put it, rather bitterly,

_ubi regnat Lutheranismus, ibi interitus litterarum_. The literature

of the Reformation, however, itself did much to make good for the

printing-presses the lessened demand for the classics, while a

few years later, the organisation of the Protestant schools and

universities aroused intellectual activities in new regions, and

created fresh requirements for printed books. Within half a century,

in fact, of the Diet of Worms, the centre of the book-absorbing

population of Germany had been transferred from the Catholic states of

the south to the Protestant territories of the north, and the literary

preponderance of the latter has continued to increase during the

succeeding generations.

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