For almost every class of book of a learned character the English purchaser was dependent on the foreign printer, and English scholars as a rule sent their own works to the Continent to be printed on account of the greater facilities and probably also for the lesser cost.
The two classes of tradesmen who dealt in books were well described by Fuller in the seventeenth century. The one he calls “stationarii, publickly avouching the sale of staple books in standing shops, whence they have their names,” the other he designates “circumforanean pedlers, ancestors to our modern Mercuries and hawkers.” No doubt, as on the Continent, the stationer was accustomed to send round periodically a van laden with books from town to town, and village to village, and, putting up at the village inn, advertise and show his wares there.
The chief opportunity for selling books was at the various fairs, and to these the agents of the London booksellers would journey, not only to sell books to the public, but to do wholesale business with the local stationers. It is quite clear that a large number of important foreign printers and publishers kept premises in London, and their representatives would also be present at the fairs. These fairs were very important centres of trade. They continued for a week, sometimes two, and while they continued, the ordinary shops of the town were compelled to close. There is evidence to show that to the principal fairs many of the London booksellers went themselves, leaving their shops in charge of an assistant. In 1487 an attempt was made by the Corporation of London to prevent London freemen attending local fairs, but a general outcry was made that many goods, amongst them books, would not be obtainable, and the ordinance was repealed. The subject of the book trade at fairs is too large to be considered here, but it must be remembered that by far the largest fair in England, a not unworthy rival to Frankfurt, was held at Sturbridge by Cambridge, and it retained its reputation for bookselling for some centuries.
After the first quarter of the sixteenth century the freedom of the foreign book trade was menaced by many ominous acts culminating in the act of 1534, which seriously interfered with the sale of foreign books and the trade of the foreign stationer, and about the same time the disuse and suppression of the various service books destroyed another branch of the trade.
The book trade received a further severe blow from the literary side by the advent in England of what was contemptuously styled by many of the old scholars with distrust and dislike, the “New Learning,” the teachings of Luther, Melanchthon, and the reformers. The revival of learning and classical study which had given so great an impetus to the book trade was superseded by religious and doctrinal quarrelling, which, though for a time encouraging the importation of controversial pamphlets, soon brought down upon all concerned the heavy hand of authority, with the result that, while the literature of the “New Learning” was prohibited, the demand for books of other classes had ceased.
The last twenty years of Henry VIII.’s reign was an anxious time for printers and booksellers; it seemed impossible to foretell what might safely be printed. Books which one year were condemned to be burnt appeared a couple of years afterwards, “cum privilegio regali.” During these years, therefore, we find the provincial press almost entirely unrepresented: between 1538 and 1548 not a single book was printed, at any rate overtly, and in the ten years before that, hardly half a dozen. As we have seen, the short reign of Edward VI. saw more books printed in the provincial towns than had been produced since the invention of printing, but this fruitful time was short.
The accession of Mary was marked by an outpouring of seditious books which naturally did not please the ruling powers. Several enactments were issued against them, seemingly with little effect. Finally, in 1557, Philip and Mary, “considering and manifestly perceiving that several seditious and heretical books, both in verse and prose, are daily published, stamped and printed by divers scandalous, schismatical, and heretical persons, not only exciting our subjects and liegemen to sedition and disobedience against us, our crown and dignity, but also to the renewal and propagating very great and detestable heresies against the faith and sound catholic doctrine of holy mother the church,” determined upon a decisive step. The weapon they forged was ingenious. They granted a Charter to the Stationers’ Company forbidding anyone to print who did not belong to it. The stationers were naturally active in putting down anything which competed with themselves, while the King and Queen could in their turn keep a firm grasp on the stationers. The various enactments of the Stationers’ Charter practically put an end to the provincial book trade.
In my brief survey of the subject I hope I have at any rate shown some of the many points of interest with which it abounds. It is one moreover eminently associated with the name of Mr Sandars. The provincial presses always had a great attraction for him, and to his liberality the University Library is indebted for many of the specimens it possesses.
Perhaps what may have struck you most is how much we have yet to learn on the subject, how little we really know. A good deal of what has been said has been, not about books which we now possess, but about books which we have lost. A cloud of obscurity still hangs over the subject, but the cloud has a silver lining. Think how much there still remains for us to discover.