It was the practice of the manuscript copyists to place at the close of the text information In regard to the date and place of production, and occasionally, although by DO means uniformly, the more of the writer. Such a record at the close of the work is known as a 'colophon.' Even after the introduction of printing, we find in a number of books of the last half of the Fifteenth Century such records presented at the end of the volume in a colophon. It is an inconvenient peculiarity, however, of a large number of the earlier printed books that they fail to present either the name of the printer or the date of their production.
An instance of the price of a manuscript work of the Ninth Century is given in the life of King Alfred, who bought in SSO from Ceolfried, Bishop of Wearmouth, a work on cosmography, for which lie paid in land sufficient to support eight families. it is not safe, however, to deduce an average market value for written books front this or from similar instances of exceptional prices paid for manuscripts. It happened not in frequently that the manuscript contained, in ad dition to the work of the scribe, designs and illu minations contributed by artists who may have given to this additional labor years of time; and certain manuscripts were inclosed in very elab orate and costly covers. Finally, in case the manuscript happened to be the only copy of that particular text that was within reach, it would possess what might be called a competition value, irrespective of the actual cost of the labor of its production. If the owner forbade any copying, its unique value would remain. We have, there fore, instances through the manuscript period of single works being purchased at exceptional prices, while other works, which called for no less labor on the part of the scribes, could be secured at moderate cost. For additional infor mation in regard to books produced in the manu script period, see PALEOGRAPHY.
With the invention of printing we come to what may be called the modern period of the making of books. The press of Gutenberg was brought to completion in Alainz by the year 1450. For a century prior to this date, books of a special character, made up mainly of pictures with an inconsiderable interpolation of text, had been printed from blocks of solid wood, and later of zinc. These books were •hietly devotional in character. The printing of these block books is termed xylography, as contrasted with the rrint ing from movable type, which is classed as typography. It is certain that the more im
portant part of Gutenberg's invention was not the mechanism of his press, which differed in detail rather than in principle from the presses previously in use. but the use of movable type.
It may he recalled here that movable wooden type had been utilized by the Chinese as early as the beginning of the Eleventh Century. The first work produced by the movable metal type of Gutenberg was a Latin Bible. Prior to the invention of the printing-press. the book had been something with xvhich the scholarly class (chiefly the clerical or ecclesiastical class) alone was concerned. With the distribution of printed copies, first of religious works, then editions of the classics, later writings addressed directly to the understanding of the general public, the book becomes an influence for directing public opinion. It. is through the printed sheet that the thought of a Luther or a Calvin becomes a means of revolutionizing the opinions of a large pro portion of his generation.
The chief difference in the external appearance of books since the Sixteenth Century is the gen eral abandonment of the large sizes which were common in the days when books were not sup posed to appeal to such a large and varied class as at present. The folio and quarto have almost entirely gone out of use, except for very elaborate and costly books. The technical names of the various sizes are based upon the number of times the old-fashioned large sheet of paper was folded for the binding. The sheet folded once, to make two leaves or four pages. constitutes a folio; folded into four leaves, a quarto; into eight, an octavo: into twelve, a duodecimo, and so on through the smaller sizes. It is usual to write the Arabic numeral with the Latin termination, as 4to, Svo, 16mo. etc. The old sizes are not so strictly followed nowadays, though the names are retained for convenience.
Consult: flirt, Das antikc Buchmesot iII seinent Verhiatnis zur Littcratur (Berlin. 1882) ; Arnett, An Inquiry into the Nature and Form of the Books of the Ancients (London, 1837) ; Put nam. Authors and Their' Public in Ancient Times (New York, 1893) Putnam, Books and Their Makers in. the Middle Ages (New York, 1896) ; Madan, Books in Manuscript (London. 1893) Duff, Early Printed Books (London, 1893) ; Pol lard, Early Illustrated Books (London, 1893) ; and the authorities referred to under the titles given below. See also PRINTING; BOOKSELLING; BIBLIOGRAPHY; BOOKBINDING; LITERARY PROP ERTY.