In the year 1303, the stock of books of a certain Antoine Zeno, libraire juré, was scheduled for taxation. Among the titles included in this schedule are the commentaries or lectures of Bruno on S. Matthew (57 pages, price one sol), the same on Mark, Luke, and John, the commentaries of Alexander on Matthew, the Opera Fratris Richardi, the Legenda Sanctorum, various texts of the Decretals, commentaries of S. Bernard on the Decretals, a treatise of a certain Thomas on metaphysics, on physics, on the heavens and the earth, and on the soul, and a series of lectures on ethics, and on politics. The scheduled price ranged from one sol to eight sols, the latter being the price of a manuscript of 136 pages. The books were probably confined exclusively to texts used in the university work.[369]
In 1313, appears in the tax list, assessed for twelve sous, the name of Nicholas L’Anglois, bookseller and tavern-keeper in Rue St. Jacques.
It is to be noted that the booksellers, and for that matter the traders generally of the time, are frequently distinguished by the names of their native countries. It is probable that Nicholas failed to escape taxation as a bookseller because he was also carrying on business (and doubtless a more profitable business) in his tavern. The list of 1313 includes in fact but three booksellers, and each of these is described as having an additional trade.[370]
A document of the year 1332 describes a sale made by a certain Geoffroy de Saint Léger, a clerc libraire, to Gérard de Montagu, avocat du roy au parlement. Geoffroy acknowledges to have sold, ceded, assigned, and delivered to the said Gérard a book entitled Speculum Historiale in Consuetudines Parisienses, comprised in four volumes, and bound in red leather. He guarantees the validity of this sale with his own body, de son corps mesme. Gérard pays for the book the sum of forty Parisian livres, with which sum Geoffroy declares himself to be content, and paid in full.[371] It appears that the sale of a book in the fourteenth century was a solemn transaction, calling for documentary evidence as specific as in the case of the transfer of real estate.
In the year 1376, Jean de Beauvais, a librarius juratus, is recorded as having sold various works, including the Decretals of Gregory IX., illustrated with miniatures, a copy of Summa Hostiensis, 423 parchment leaves, illustrated with miniatures, and a codex of Magister Thomas de Maalaa.[372]
In the year 1337, Guidomarus de Senis, master of arts and librarius juratus, renews his oath as a taxator. He seems to have put into his business as bookseller a certain amount of literary gaiety, if one may judge from the lines added at the end of a parchment codex sold by him, which codex contains the poems of Guillaume de Marchaut.
The lines are as follows:
Explicit au mois d’avril,
Qui est gai, cointe et gentil,
L’an mil trois cent soixante et onze.