Most of the catalogues that one receives from the booksellers are of little use when read, and no useful purpose is served by preserving them. But there are certain dealers who specialise in a definite class of books, and their catalogues are always of value, for they contain only works upon a definite subject or of a definite class. Such catalogues form most useful reference works, and even bibliographies of that particular subject. By all means preserve them; you may have them plainly bound in buckram (when you have collected a sufficient number of them) at the cost of a shilling or two, or you may keep them in a small portfolio on your shelf.
Sotheby's auction-sale catalogues are also valuable. They are nicely produced, and have fine margins for making notes. It is well worth obtaining these regularly, which one may do by paying a small subscription. Most of them contain a miscellaneous assortment of books, and are not worth keeping, but on the other hand most of the famous libraries that are dispersed in this country pass through the Bond Street house, and the catalogues of these are of the greatest value.
The history of booksellers' catalogues is an interesting one, and as yet we have no authoritative work upon this intermediary between publisher and reader. The earliest catalogue so far known was printed at Mainz by Peter Schoeffer in 1469. It was a catalogue of books for sale by himself or his agent, and consisted of a single sheet, probably intended to be used as a poster. It is in abbreviated Latin, and comprises the titles of twenty-one books, being headed—
'Volentes sibi comparare infrascriptos libros magna cum diligentia correctos, ac in huiusmodi littera moguntie impressos, bene continuatos, veniant ad locum habitationis infrascriptum.'
and at the foot is printed in large type—
'HEC EST LITTERA PSALTERII'
—a specimen of the type with which the Psalter mentioned in the list was printed. Beneath this would be written the name of the place where the books could be obtained, this being the case with the only copy of this advertisement that has come down to us, Schoeffer's traveller having written at the foot, 'Venditor librorum repertibilis est in hospicio dicto zum willden mann'—'the bookseller is to be found at the sign of the Wild Man.'
Caxton adopted the same expedient with regard to his Sarum Ordinale. This advertisement, which is in English, is as follows:
'If it plese ony man spirituel or temporal to bye ony pyes of two and thre comemoracions of salisburi use enpryntid after the forme of this present lettre whiche ben wel and truly correct, late hym come to Westmonester in to the almonesrye at the reed pale and he shal haue them good chepe.'