BOOK-TRADE, the business of dealing in books, in which are comprehended two classes of persons—publishers, who prepare and dispose of books wholesale; and hook sellers, to whom the retailing of books more properly belongs. Although ordinarily distinct, the two professions may conveniently be treated together. While publishing. apart from bookselling, is of modern date, the selling of books is as old as the origin of literature. Copies of the works of authors in manuscript were sold in the cities of ancient Greece and Rome. Horace celebrates "the brothers Sosii " as eminent book sellers (bibliopokr). • With the foundation of several universities in the 12th c., the prepar ation and sale of books increased; but the trade of bookselling attained to importance only after the invention of printing. • The first printers acted also as booksellers, and being mostly learned men, they were generally the editors, and, in some instances, the authors of the works which they produced. See PRINTING. Faust and Sclueffer, the partners of Gutenberg (q.v.), carried the productions of the Mainz press to the fair of Frankfurt-on the-Maine and to Paris. Some instances of division of the two branches, printing and bookselling, occurred in the 15th century. John Rynmann of Augsburg (1497-1522) styled himself, at the conclusion of his publications. " Archibibliopola of Germany." In consequence of the Reformation, the seats of learning were gradually removed from the southern to the northern states of Germany, and, of course, the book sellers followed their customers.
Migrating from place to place, and also resorting to the great continental fairs for customers, the early booksellers became known as stationarii, or stationers, from the practice of stationing themselves at stalls or booths in the streets. as is still customary with dealers in olebooks. The term stationer was long held to be synonymous with bookseller, but in modern times it is more commonly applied to dealers in paper and other writing materials.
Whether settled or migratory, the early publishers and sellers of books were subject to a number of restrictions, as is still the case in France and Russia. In England, the book-trade was trammeled by royal patents and proclamations, decrees and ordinances of the star chamber, licenses of universities, and charters granting monopolies in the sale of particular classes of works. In 1556, in the reign of Mary, the stationers' com
pany of London was constituted by royal charter, the professed aim being the "removal of great and detestable heresies." The members of the company were made literary Constables to search for books, etc., and it was ordered "that no man should exercise the mystery of printing, unless he was of the stationers' company, or had a license." The charter, which was confirmed by Elizabeth in 1559-60, in effect empowered the company to make ordinances as to the printing and sale of books, and to exercise au arbitrary censorship of the press. The Crown, by an act 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 23, com monly called the " licensing act," assumed this species of control over the issue of books. The licensing act, and its renewals, ultimately expired in 1694. By the first copyright act, 8 Anne, c. 19, the legislature interposed to protect the rights of authors, and to relieve them, as well as publishers, from the thraldom of the stationers' com pany. But, by the same act, the archbishop of Canterbury, the lord chancellor, and certain judges iu England, and the judges of the court of session in Scotland, were empowered, on the complaint of any person, to regulate the prices of books, and to fine those who sought higher prices than they enjoined. This provision was in force till 1738, when it was abolished by the act 12 Geo, II. c. 36. From this time the book-trade was free. How it spread and flourished may be best learned from the history of the literature with which it is identified. Subsequent to the reigns of Anne and George I., there was a succession of men of literary repute connected with the metropolitan book trade; among whom may be mentioned Cave, the conductor and publisher of the Genre man's Magazine, and early patron of Samuel Johnson; Dodsley, a poet and dramatist, who reached the" head of the bookselling profession; and three generations of the lircholses. We might also include Richardson the novelist, a printer, who, in 1754, became master of 11m stationers' company. The names of Baldwin, Ilivington, Long man, TORSO41, Miller, Cadell, Dilley, Lackington, and others, will also be as familiar as arc the Knights, Bohm, and Murrays of later times.