imitated from those of the great French binder Le Gascon,
were the daintiest England had yet produced. For trade bindings rough
calf and sheepskin were most used, and the practice of lettering books
on the back, instead of on the sides or fore-edges or not at all, came
gradually into favour. Owing to the increase of money, and in some cases
to the action of monopolists, in others to the increased payments made
to authors, book-prices rather rose than fell. Thus church Bibles, which
had been sold at 10s. in 1541, rose successively to 25s., 30s. and (in
1641) to 40s. Single plays in quarto cost 6d. each in Shakespeare's
time, 1s. after the Restoration. The Shakespeare folio of 1623 is said
to have been published at L1. Bishop Walton's polyglot Bible in six
large volumes was sold for L10 to subscribers, but resulted in a heavy
loss. Izaak Walton's _Compleat Angler_ was priced at 1s. 6d. in
sheepskin, _Paradise Lost_ at 3s., _The Pilgrim's Progress_ at 1s. 6d.;
Dryden's _Virgil_ was published by subscription at L5:5s. It was a
handsome book, ornamented with plates; but in the case of this and other
subscription books a desire to honour or befriend the author was mainly
responsible for the high price.

_18th Century._--During this century there was a notable improvement
alike in paper, type and presswork in both France and England, and
towards the end of the century in Germany and Italy also. Books became
generally neat and sometimes elegant. Book-illustration revived with the
French _livres-a-vignettes_, and English books were illustrated by
Gravelot and other French artists. In the last quarter of the century
the work of Bewick heralded a great revival in woodcut illustrations, or
as the use of the graver now entitled them to be called, wood
engravings. The best 18th-century binders, until the advent of Roger
Payne, were inferior to those of the 17th century, but the technique of
the average work was better. In trade bindings the use of sheepskin and
calf became much less common, and books were mostly cased in paper
boards. The practice of publishing poetry by subscription at a very high
price, which Dryden had found lucrative, was followed by Prior and Pope.
Single poems by Pope, however, were sold at 1s. and 1s. 6d. Novels were
mostly in several volumes. The price at the beginning of the century was
mostly 1s. 6d. each. It then remained fairly steady for many years, and
at the close of the century rose again. Thus Miss Bu