Homeri Opera, 2 vols. 8vo, red morocco extra, gilt edges, Venetiis, Aldus, 1524, £3 15s. Would have sold for £9 or £10.
Silius Italicus de Bello Punico, old Venetian binding, gold tooling, lettered in gold, gilt edges, Venetiis, Aldus, 1523, £1 18s. Would have sold for about £5.
Virgilius, cura Aldi Pii Manulii, red morocco, gilt edges, by Roger Payne, Venetiis, Aldus, 1514, £4 5s. Sold in 1825 at from £10 to £12 in equally good binding.
Psalterium Græce, a fine copy, in blue morocco, with gilt edges, Venetiis, Aldus, no date, but about 1498, £12. Notwithstanding the fact that this is one of the few fifteenth century books from the Aldine press, its value has declined about 25 per cent.
Quintiliani Institutiones, fine copy in russia, gilt edges, Venetiis, Aldus, 1521, on title 1522, 14s. Former price about £4.
Aristophanis Comœdiæ, first edition, fine copy in russia, gilt edges, Venetiis, Aldus, 1498, a rare book, £4. Former price about £15.
Thucydidis Historia, first edition, and one of the few copies printed on fine paper, old russia, gilt, Venetiis, Aldus, 1502, a very scarce book in this condition, £2 14s. Former price from £12 to £15.
The above examples are taken from a single catalogue, and, if occasion demanded, the list could be indefinitely increased. They will, however, be sufficient to show that if the good old days when Eliot's Indian Bible of 1661, now worth considerably more than £500, could have been got for thirty shillings or less, are not likely to return, there is yet plenty of opportunity for picking up rare books at a moderate price, and for much less than would at one time have had to be paid for them.
Who knows that the fashion will not change again some day, and that the most coveted of all volumes will not be choice examples from the Aldine press?
FOOTNOTES:
[7] M. Firmin-Didot inclines to the year 1449 for the date of Aldus' birth—vide his Alde Manuce et l'Hellenisme à Venise, p. 1, Paris, 1875.
[8] In addition to this number there are about sixty "Doubtful Editions". The number of recognised Forgeries is about forty-five.
