THE REASONS WHICH MAKE A BOOK VALUABLE—SCARCITY— SUPPRESSED WORKS—SOME BOOKS WHICH HAVE BEEN BURNED BY THE HANGMAN—WORKS PRIVATELY SUPPRESSED—WORKS OF LIMITED ISSUE—TRANSACTIONS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES—DEFECTS—"UNCUT" WORKS—IMPERFECT COPIES—"MADE-UP" COPIES—FAC-SIMILE LEAVES—LAYING DOWN—BOOKS PUBLISHED IN PARTS—LARGE-PAPER COPIES.
THE reasons which contribute to make up the pecuniary value of a book depend on a variety of circumstances by no means easy of explanation. It is a great mistake to suppose that because a given work is scarce, in the sense of not often being met with, it is necessarily valuable. It may certainly be so, but, on the other hand, plenty of books which are acquired with difficulty are hardly worth the paper they are printed upon, perhaps because there is no demand for them, or possibly because they are imperfect or mutilated.
One of the first lessons I learned when applying myself to the study of old books was never, on any account or under any circumstances, to have anything to do with imperfect copies, and I have not so far had any occasion to regret my decision. It is perfectly true that no perfect copies are known of some works, such, for example, as the first or 1562-3 English edition of Fox's Book of Martyrs; but books of this class will either never be met with during a lifetime, or will form, if met with, an obvious exception to the rule. Fragments of genuine Caxtons, again, sometimes sell by auction for two or three pounds a single leaf, and even a very imperfect copy of any of his productions would be considered a good exchange for a large cheque; but these are exceptions and nothing more— exceptions, moreover, of such rare practical occurrence as to be hardly worth noting. In the vast majority of instances, when a book is mutilated it is ruined; even the loss of a single plate out of many will often detract fifty per cent. or more from the normal value, while if the book is "cut down" the position is worse. This lesson as a rule is only learned by experience, and many young collectors resolutely shut their eyes to the most apparent of truisms, until such time as the consequences are brought fairly home to them. It is exceedingly dangerous to purchase imperfect or mutilated books, or to traffic in them at all. This position will be enlarged upon during the progress of the present chapter.
To return to the reasons which contribute to the value of a book, it may be mentioned that "suppression" is one of the chief. This is a natural reason; others are merely artificial, which may be in full force to-day but non-existent to-morrow, depending as they do upon mere caprice and the vagaries of fashion: with these I have, in this volume at any rate, nothing to do.
De Foe, in his Essay on Projects, observes: "I have heard a bookseller in King James's time say that if he would have a book sell, he would have it burned by the hands of the common hangman," by which he presupposed the existence of some little secret horde which should escape the general destruction, and which would consequently rise to ten times its value directly the persecution was diverted into other channels. This is so, for where an edition has been suppressed, and most of the copies destroyed, the remainder acquire an importance which the whole issue would never have enjoyed had it been left severely alone. The Inquisition has been the direct cause of elevating hundreds of books to a position far above their merit, and the same may be said of Henry VIII., who sent Catholic as well as Protestant books wholesale to the flames; of Mary, who condemned the latter; of Edward VI., who acquiesced in the destruction of the former; and of Elizabeth and the two succeeding sovereigns, who delighted in a holocaust of political pamphlets and libels.
The Inquisition, with that brutal bigotry which characterised most of its proceedings, almost entirely destroyed Grafton's Paris Bible of 1538, with the result that the printing presses, types, and workmen were brought to London, and the few copies saved were completed here, to be sold on rare occasions at the present day for as much as £160 apiece. There is nothing in the Bible more than in any other; it is not particularly well printed, but it has a history, just as the Scotch Bassandyne Bible has, though in that case the persecution was directed against persons who declined to have the book in their houses, ready to be shown to the tax collector whenever he chose to call. One Dr. James Drake, who in the year 1703 had the temerity to publish in London his Historia Anglo-Scotica, which contained, as was alleged, many false and injurious reflections upon the sovereignty and independence of the Scottish nation, had the pleasure of hearing that his work had been publicly burned at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh, a pleasure which was doubtless considerably enhanced when another venture—the Memorial—shared the same fate in London, two years later. Drake had the honour of hearing himself censured from the throne, of being imprisoned, and of having his books burned, distinctions which some people sigh for in vain at the present day. As a consequence, the Historia and the Memorial are both desirable books, and Drake's name has been rescued from oblivion.
William Attwood's Superiority and Direct Dominion of the Imperial Crown of England over the Crown and Kingdom of Scotland (London, 4to, 1705) is another book of good pedigree which would never have been worth the couple of guineas a modern bookseller will ask for it, had it not been burned by jealous Scotchmen immediately on its appearance.
The massacre of St. Bartholomew produced a large crop of treatises, and any contemporary book on the Huguenot side is worth preservation, for a general search was made throughout France, and every work showing the slightest favour to the Protestants was seized and destroyed. Among them was Claude's Défense de la Réformation (1683), which was burned not only abroad, but in England as well, so great an ascendency had the French Ambassador acquired over our Court.
Bishop Burnet's Pastoral letter to the Clergy of his Diocese (1689) was condemned and burned for ascribing the title of William III. to the Crown, to the right of conquest. The Emilie and the Contrat Social of Jean Jacques Rousseau shared the same fate, as did also Les Histoires of d'Aubigné and Augustus de Thou.
Baxter's Holy Commonwealth went the way of all obnoxious books, in 1688; the Boocke of Sportes upon the Lord's Day, in 1643; the Duke of Monmouth's proclamation declaring James to be an usurper, in 1685; Claude's Les Plaintes des Protestans, in 1686.