BOOK OF NONSENSE, A, a nursery classic by Edward Lear. It is made up from four minor collections published at intervals during a long life. The author began as an artist; colored drawings for serious purposes were supplemented by others for the amuse ment of the groups of little ones he loved to gather around him; and the text added to them has proved able to endure the test of time with out the aid of drawing, and much of it has become part of the recognized humorous lit erature of the language.
or PION, an arachnid animal of the family Chernetida; known by its large maxillary palpi, like the scorpion's claw. The abdomen is 11-jointed, flattened, without any appendage, and the living forms are minute; they breathe by trachea. They are found running about dusty books and in dark places and feed on mites and Psoci. They are often found at tached to the leg of some fly or other insect by which they are transported about. The female chelifer bears the eggs, 17 in number, in a little bunch under her abdomen. Meuge has observed a pseudo-scorpion cast its skin in a light web made for that purpose, where it re mained five days in the web after its metamor phosis, and did not assume its dark colors for four weeks; three months after it returned to the same web for hibernation. Meuge describes eight species from the Prussian amber, belong ing to genera still living, and Corda one (Micro labris sternbergi) from the coal formation in Bohemia, an inch long. Schiodte has found a curious blind species in the caves-of Adelsburg, and several kinds occur in American caves. In chelifer there are no eyes. C. cancroides is dark brown, with many short spines on the thorax.
The earliest history of book-selling is extremely obscure. The tablets and cylinders of Assyria and Babylonia will be found treated under Boox, and the article Boox OF THE DEAD should also be con sulted. About the middle of the 6th century B.c. is found in ancient Athens an approxima tion to a systematized book-trade as it has been understood in modern times. Pisistratus with funds from the municipal treasury, paid scholars for preparing a standard text of Ho mer and Hesiod for copyists' use. The books then made were very costly. Diogenes Laer tius states that for three books of Philolaus , (q.v.) Plato paid three Attic talents ($3,240), money being then, of course, worth far more than it now is. The first book-sellers prepared
by their personal labor the scrolls they sold; then capitalists came to employ and organize staffs of copyists. About 250 Lc. Alexandria became one of the great book-centres of the world. In this it was favored by having at its disposal the scholars of the university and the facilities for distribution which the commerce of Alexandria afforded. Skilled scribes were also carefully trained there. The book-trade of Rome commenced about the 2d century B.C. Slaves who could write Greek were rated high ly. The great publisher of Cicero's time, At ticus, is well known. His editions were famed for their accuracy. In addition to his central publishing house he had distributed in various portions of Rome and in provincial centres tabernarii, or retail dealers. Horace's publish ers were the Sosii in the Vicus Tuscus. Argile tutn, Martial says, was the street of the book sellers, as it was, likewise, of the tailoring shops of fashion. By the close of the 1st cen tury A.D., the Roman book-trade was extensive and well organized. Papyrus was imported in great quantities from Egypt, and large staffs of copyists were kept busy preparing editions of various works, the average edition for the gen eral public running from 300 to 1,000 copies. Very considerable shipments were made to the provinces. During the Middle Ages book-mak ing and selling belonged to the monasteries. The different monasteries transcribed the par ticular manuscripts treasured in their libraries, and their editions came to have a peculiar value, depending upon the character of the original text and the accuracy of the copy. At the be ginning of the new learning, the manufacture and sale of books passed to the universities, within which the manifolding of manuscripts was done by an organized guild. Outside the universities, however, there was a considerable trade in manuscripts, beginning with the end of the 14th century. The invention of printing naturally revolutionized the book-trade. The publications of Gutenberg, Fust, Froben of Basel, Aldus Manutius of Venice, Estiennes (Stephani) of Paris, Caxton of Westminster, Plantin of Antwerp and the Elzevirs of Leyden and Amsterdam are well known. For further information, see the article Boox, above re ferred to; and PUBLISHING, AMERICAN.