Books and their makers during the Middle Ages

by George Haven Putnam

The labour of the scribes of the fifteenth century was, however, by no means exclusively devoted to works of magnificence (prachtwerke). From the shops of the ordinary writers, were produced considerable masses of text-books, books of worship, cookery books, astrological treatises, almanacs, and even political tracts. Before the middle of the century, there are records of licensed scribes carrying on a general business for the public in Cologne, Frankfort, Augsburg, Vienna, and even in smaller towns, such as Nordlingen.

The scribes of the universities, who were included among the university officials, and who, in securing certain university privileges, subjected themselves also to a rather elaborate series of restrictions, were naturally not in a position to leave their university towns to do work in other centres. In fact, it was for a long time not permitted for them to take up any work outside of providing the copies required of the authorised university texts. The scribes who were not associated with any official bodies were, however, free to carry their work from place to place according as the varying demand of the seasons of the year, a demand dependent upon the markets, the fairs, and other special business conditions, might give opportunity for a profitable use of their labours. The shops of these town scribes were, as a rule, in the open places, more particularly in the market, in the neighbourhood of the town hall, or under the shadow of the cathedral or principal church. Frequently, where the business was not quite important enough to warrant a shop, it was carried on under the steps or in the porches of the church or the cathedral, and sometimes even within the church building, in one of the chapels.

It seems probable that the old-time ecclesiastical associations of the art (which was still known as “clerical”) may have caused the authorities having charge of the church buildings to look with special favour upon these later scribes, so that they were able to secure for their trade facilities and accommodations which would not have been afforded to workers or dealers in other occupations.

There is a reference, in 1408, in one of the Strasburg chronicles to a scribe named Peter von Haselo, who sells books on the steps of the cathedral of Our Lady.[394] In Cologne the manuscript-dealers took possession of various corners or angles of the cathedral for their shops or booths. In Münster the space immediately in front of the cathedral was allotted to them. In a number of the larger cities the scribes dealt not only in the productions of their own pens, but in such ancient manuscripts as they had been able to collect, these coming for the most part from Italy. It was from this branch of their business that the booksellers came to be known quite frequently as antiquarii.

While there gradually grew up throughout Germany an active trade in manuscripts, the record shows an earlier development of this trade in Italy and France, and even in England. Reference has already been made to the activity as a book collector of Richard de Bury, who in the first half of the fourteenth century secured through travelling dealers manuscripts which had been brought from France and from Italy. De Bury speaks of these dealers as taking commissions for the delivery of the manuscripts at such interval of months as would be required for the long journeys from Oxford to Paris and back, or from Oxford to Florence or Venice.

It appears, however, that towards the middle of the fifteenth century, when the work of town scribes in Germany had once begun and the character of their productions came to be known to the common people, the circulation of books among the people was more extensive in amount and more wide-reaching in the territory and the classes of buyers concerned than was the case in any other state of Europe.

In 1439, some dealers from the Siebengebirge brought from Basel to Hermannstadt certain political controversies and tracts. Some of the latter treated of the work of the Council of Basel, and came, therefore, under the censorship of the Church, and their circulation in Hermannstadt was forbidden.[395]

Between 1440 and 1450, the records of the annual fairs of Nordlingen include repeated references to dealings in manuscripts.

After 1460, it is not always easy to determine whether the specifications of the prices paid for books refer to manuscripts or to printed copies. On the 27th of March, 1485, Rudolph Agricola, the librarian of the Elector of the Palatinate, writes to his friend Adolph Rusch, a bookseller from Strasburg who was at that time in Frankfort, ordering for his library copies of the following books: Columella, De Re Rustica; Celsus, De Medicina; Macrobii Saturnalia, Statii, Opera, and Silius Italicus. It is certain, says Kirchhoff, that these books had not yet been printed in Germany, and he is, therefore, of opinion that Agricola was expecting to secure manuscripts. Kapp points out, however, that certain of them had already been printed in Italy; Columella, for instance, had been published in a volume with Cato and Varro, in Venice in 1472, and in Reggio in 1482.

Celsus appeared in Florence in 1478, and in Milan in 1481; Macrobius, in Venice in 1472 and 1483; Statius in Rome in 1476, in Milan in 1483; Silius in Rome, in 1471, in Milan in 1480, and in Parma in 1481.