CHAPTER IV.
THE BOOK-TRADE IN THE MANUSCRIPT PERIOD.
Italy.
It seems probable that the book-trade which had been introduced into Gaul from Rome still existed during the sixth century. F. J. Mone finds references to such trade in the chronicles of Cæsarius of Arles.[308] In the code of laws of the Visigoths, it is provided that copies of the volume containing the laws shall be sold at not more than six sols.[309]
Wattenbach is of opinion that not only in Rome but in other Italian centres some fragments of the classic book-trade survived the fall of the Empire and the later invasions and changes of rulers, and he finds references to book-dealers in Italy as late as the sixth century.[310] He takes the ground that, notwithstanding the destruction of buildings, library collections, and in fact of whole cities, during the various contests, first with the Barbarian invaders and later between these invaders themselves, there still remained scholarly people who retained their interest in Latin literature; and he points out that, notwithstanding the many changes in the rulers of Italy between the year 476 and the beginning of the eleventh century, Latin never ceased to remain the official language and, as he maintains, the language of literature.
In the Tetralogus of Wipo are the following lines which have a bearing upon this belief in the continuation of some literary interests in Italy:
Hoc servant Itali post prima crepundia cuncti,
Et sudare scholis mandatur tota juventus.
Solis Teutonicis vacuum vel turpe videtur,
Ut doceant aliquem, nisi clericus accipiatur. [311]
(From their cradle up all Italians pay heed to learning, and their children are kept at work in the schools. It is only among the Germans that it is held to be futile and wrong to give instruction to one who is not to become a cleric.)
Giesebrecht, in his treatise De Litterarum Studiis apud Italos, confirms this view. He refers to a manuscript of Orosius which was written in the seventh century and which contains an inscription stating that this copy of the manuscript was prepared by the scribe in the Statione Magistri Viliaric Antiquarii.