ng, gilding and dressing a booke called the "Bible Historial,"
xx_s._'

The only incident which calls for special mention in the two next short
reigns is a law, 1 Richard III., 1483, by which it was enacted that if
any of the printers or sellers of printed books--the 'great plenty' of
which came from 'beyond the sea'--'vend them at too high and
unreasonable prices,' then the Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, or any
of the chief justices of the one bench or the other, were to regulate
the prices.

[Illustration: _Roman Books and Writing Materials._]

[Illustration]

BOOK-HUNTING AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING.

I.

THE introduction of printing into this country by Caxton during the
latter half of the fifteenth century had very little immediate effect on
book-collecting. The operations of the press were slow, its patrons few,
and its work controlled by one man. The reproduction of MSS. was
essentially a slow process, but when these transcriptions were finished,
they rarely failed to find a purchaser. Caxton, like Sweynheim and
Pannartz at Subiaco, soon learned the seriousness of over-printing an
edition. Collectors were few, and the introduction of printing did not
very materially add to their number. London, however, soon became a
recognised centre of the trade in books, and Henry VII. patronized, in
his curious fashion, the collecting of them. He read, according to
Bacon, 'most books that were of any worth in the French tongue,' and one
of the most commendable actions of this King was the purchase of the
noble series of vellum copies of the works printed at Paris by Antoine
Verard, now in the British Museum--an act by which he may be said to
have laid the foundation of our great national library. The value of
books at this period is not without interest; but we must confine
ourselves to one or two facts relating to Caxton's books. At his death
in 1492, a copy of the 'Golden Legend' was valued at 6s. 8d. in the
books of the Westminster churchwarden. From a note by Dibdin, it would
seem that the price of Caxtons towards the end of the reign of Henry
VII. was as follows:

'Godfray of Boulogne' (imperfect), ii_s._
Virgil's 'AEneid' (perfect), xij_d._
'Fait of Arms and Chivalry' (perfect), ij_s._ viij_d._
'Chastising of God's Children,' viij_d._

Henry VIII. was undoubtedly a book-lover as well as a book-collector. He
established a library at St. James's. But perhaps it is rather as a
book-disp