But let us retrograde another step, and look at the authority to which the authors of the "Histoire Literaire" refer. Mabillon, having occasion, in his "Benedictine Annals," to mention the Countess Grecia as a subscribing witness to a charter of about the year 1056, by which Geoffry Montel, Count of Anjou, granted certain privileges to the monks of St. Nicholas at Angers, adds, that she was the second wife of that Count, and married to him after his divorce from his first Countess, Agnes of Burgundy. He farther says, that the divorce is mentioned in a letter from a monk to the Abbot Oderic, who had asked him about a certain homilary of Haymo; and remarks, that though not very important in itself, the monk's letter is worth transcribing, because it shews both the high price of books, and the estimation in which these homilies were held at that period. He then gives the letter, which is as follows:

"To his Lord the Abbot O. brother R. offers his prayers in Christ. Most dear father, I would have you to know that the Countess bought the book of which you have heard, for a great price, of Martin, who is now a bishop. On one occasion she gave him a hundred sheep on account of that book; at another time, on account of that same book, a modius of wheat, another of rye, and a third of millet. Again, on the same account, a hundred sheep; at another time, some marten skins. And when she separated herself from the Count he received from her four pounds to buy sheep. But afterwards, when she asked him for the change, he began to complain about the book. She immediately gave up to him what he owed her."*

On this letter I would observe

1. If there is really any reference to the divorce, it seems obvious that it must have been Agnes (who separated herself), and not Grecia (her successor), who purchased the book. I cannot help doubting, however, whether there is any such reference; though I have so far deferred to Mabillon as to translate separavit

* Mabillon's words are-" De hoc divortio fit mentio in quadam epistola cujusdam mcnachi ad Odericum Abbatem qui monachum illum de homiliario Haimonis percontatus fuerat. Hæc epistola, tametsi in speciem non magni momenti, hic referenda videtur, ex qua nimirum intelligitur, quanti tunc temporis constarent libri, quantique hoc homiliarium haberetur. Sic autem habet illa Epistola. Domno suo Abbati O., frater R. oratioues in Christo. Pater carissime, scire vos volumus, quod codicem de quo audivisti pretio magno a Martino, qui est modo præsul, Comitissa emit. Una vice libri causa centum oves illi dedit; altera vice causa ipsius libri unum modium frumenti, et alterum sigalis, et tertium de milio. Iterum hac eadem causa centum oves; Altera vice quasdam pelles martirinas. Cumque separavit se a Comite quatuor libratas, ovium emendi causa, ab illa accepit. Postquam autem requisivit denarios, ille conqueri cœpit de libro. Illa statim dimisit illi quod sibi debebut." Mabillon proceeds to say-" Martinus ille præsul, capellanus fuerat Gaufridi Comitis et Agnetis, postmodum Episcopus Trecorensis, ut superius vidimus ex quadam charta eorundem quam scripsit Martinus tunc Capellanus, postea Treguerensis Episcopus." For this extract from a work to which I have not at present access, I am indebted to the learned friend whose kindness I have before had occasion to acknowledge. I learn from him that Mabillon gives no authority for the letter, and may therefore be presumed to quote from the original. I am sorry that it did not strike me, until I was copying it for the press, that the letter itself mentions neither homilary nor Haymo. Mabillon says both; and the authors of the Hist. Lit., add Halberstadt. I should like to know (if it did not involve my giving unreasonable trouble, and waiting for a reply from so distant a place as Trinity College, Dublin, before I could send this to the press) what reason Mabillon gives-or whether he gives any-for saying that the codex contained the homilies of Haymon; for I may as well tell the reader what I am driving at. I cannot help thinking that the CODEX might be that service-book which was then more properly and strictly, and commonly too, (if not exclusively) called a Homilary; and, if so, the price was less remarkable, for a reason which I hope to state presently, and to explain more fully another time.

se, by "she separated," and accepit, by "he received." We learn, from the subscription to another charter, that Martin had been the count's chaplain; and, from this letter, that he had ceased to be so; and I cannot but think that the "separavit se" may mean when he quitted the count's service.

2. It is more to the purpose to observe, that this book of homilies was a peculiar volume, which was the subject of particular inquiry. The abbot was asking about it, and the monk, who knew its history, describes it as the volume which the countess bought at "a great price." So that what she gave was then considered extraordinary.

3. The price was paid at different times, and in so strange a manner, that it looks rather as if the chaplain was some skilful artist who was honoured on account of his talents, and took advantage of them to work on the liberality of his patroness.

4. As to the quantity of grain-I suffer modius to stand, because, if I were to translate it, I should be inclined to say "one bushel" instead of "five quarters," which would, of course, divide Robertson's quantity by forty. I do not mean to say that the English bushel is the exact representative of the modius here spoken of, for what that was precisely I really do not know; and whoever looks into the subject of weights and measures will perceive that it is not very easy to determine; but I am inclined to think that I should be giving very good measure.

Now let me appeal to every rational and reflecting person, whether it is from such cases that we can judge of the price of books in general, or of the comparative ease or difficulty of procuring them? Are we to form our ideas from the sums paid or given by royal and noble patrons and patronesses to artists, whose skill in writing, illuminating, and embellishing manuscripts, enabled them to ask what they pleased, and get whatever they asked? "The art of printing," says Morier," is unknown in Persia, and beautiful writing, therefore, is considered a high accomplishment. It is carefully taught in the schools, and those who excel in it are almost classed with literary men. They are employed to copy books, and some have attained to such eminence in this art, that a few lines written by one of these celebrated penmen are often sold for a considerable sum."* He adds in a note, "I have known seven pounds given for four lines written by Dervish Musjeed, a celebrated penman, who has been dead some time, and whose beautiful specimens of writing are now scarce." Suppose, however, that there was no fine writing in the case, it is still very possible that, on other grounds, the book might have been worth twice, or twenty times, as much as the countess gave for it, without proving that books in general were so outrageously scarce and

*History of Persia, vol. ii., p. 582.

dear. From such cases, indeed, we cannot, as I have already said, prove anything. Will it not be quite as fair for some writer a few centuries hence to bring forward the enormous and absurd prices which have been paid by some modern collectors for single volumes, as an evidence of the price of books in our age? May he not tell his gaping readers, (at a time, too, when the march of intellect has got past the age of cumbersome and expensive penny magazines, and is revelling in farthing cyclopædias,) that in the year 1812, one of our nobility gave 22601., and another, 10607. 10s. for a single volume? and that the next year, a Johnson's Dictionary was sold by public auction, to a plebeian purchaser, for 2007.? A few such facts would quite set up some future Robertson, whose readers would never dream that we could get better reading, and plenty of it, much cheaper at that very time. The simple fact is, that there has always been such a thing as bibliomania since there have been books in the world; and no member of the Roxburgh Club has yet equalled the Elector of Bavaria, who gave a town for a single manuscript-unless, indeed, it be argued that it was a more pure, disinterested, and brilliant display of the ruling passion, a more devoted and heroic sacrifice of property and respect, to give 20007. for an unique specimen of obscene trash, than to part with a German town for a copy of the New Testament.

Intrinsic value of this description, however, does not enter into the question, though another species of it does, and it is necessary to say a few words about it, which I hope to do presently. In the meantime let me ask, does not Robertson proceed to state in his very next sentence what might, by itself, shew his readers that the transaction which he had just recorded was not peculiarly characteristic of the age in which it occurred? He goes on to say:

"Even so late as the year 1471, when Louis XI. borrowed the works of Rasis, the Arabian physician, from the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, he not only deposited as a pledge a considerable quantity of plate, but was obliged to procure a nobleman to join with him as surety in a deed, binding himself under a great forfeiture to restore it.-Gabr. Naudè Addit. à l'histoire de Louys XI. par Comines, edit. de Fresnoy, tom. iv. p. 281. Many curious circumstances with respect to the extravagant price of books in the middle ages are collected by that industrious compiler, to whom I refer such of my readers as deem this small branch of literary history an object of curiosity."

Might I not add, that " even so late as" two centuries after this, when Selden wished to borrow a MS. from the Bodleian Library, he was required to give a bond for a thousand pounds? but are we to infer that in that dark age he could not have got as much good reading on easier terms? I have said, however, that there was frequently an intrinsic value in books independent of that which might arise from their subject; and I mean that which was inseparable from the nature of the costly materials of which they were

composed, as well as from the art and labour bestowed in making them. This value was often, I apprehend, much greater than many of Robertson's readers would imagine; and if they think of a book as nothing but a thing to read, and looking back to the dark ages as only a cramp illegible scrawl on dirty parchment, they will form a very erroneous opinion on the whole matter. Books, and especially those used in the church service, (of which, by the way, general readers are most likely to hear, and to which class, I suspect, this homilary to have belonged,) were frequently written with great care and pains, illuminated and gilded with almost incredible industry, bound in, or covered with, plates of gold, silver, or carved ivory, adorned with gems, and even enriched with relics. Missals of a later date than the period with which we are at present concerned were, some years ago, the objects of eager competition among collectors, and some of them must always be admired for the exquisite beauty of their embellishments. I am not going to compare the graphic ornaments of the ninth and tenth centuries with those of the thirteenth and fourteenth; in this point of view it may suffice to say, that they were the finest specimens of art which those who purchased them had ever seen, and in all matters of taste and fancy this is saying a good deal. As to the value of books, however, which arose from the costly materials of which they were made, or the labour, industry, and taste, with which they were embellished, I hope I shall find a more proper place to speak; and I feel that for our present purpose it is quite sufficient to make this general reference to it; but there was another species of value attaching to some books in those ages which does not present itself so obviously or forcibly. The multiplication of books, by printing, has not only rendered them much cheaper by reducing the labour required for the production of a large number of copies, but it has provided that each one of that large number should be a fac-simile of all the rest. He who sees one sees all: the edition is dispersed among those who can best judge of its value; it receives from their suffrages a certain character; and from that time forth, if we see the title page, we know what are the contents or the errors of every other page in the book. Among those who are likely to want it, it is sufficient to mention the time and place of its publication, and if we admire the correctness and readableness of our own edition of a father or a classic, we recommend our friend to get it, well knowing that as there is one there are many; or that, at least, our own copy is not likely to be unique, or we should infallibly have heard of it from our bookseller. Now, in those days every copy was unique-every one, if I may so speak, stood upon its own individual character; and the correctness of a particular manuscript was no pledge for even those which were copied immediately from it. In fact, the correctness of every

single copy could only be ascertained by minute and laborious collation, and by the same tedious and wearisome labour which is now required from the editor who, with infinitely more ease and better helps, revises the text of an ancient writer. We may, therefore, naturally suppose that if a manuscript was known to be the work of a good and careful scribe, if it came out of the Scriptorium of some well respected monastery, if it had passed through learned hands, and had been found, by the scrutiny which it was then necessary to give to each individual copy, to be an accurate work which might be safely trusted as a copy for future transcripts; if all this was known and attested, it would form another and a very good reason why a book should fetch an extraordinary price.

But to return to Robertson

"When any person made a present of a book to a church or a monastery, in which were the only libraries during these ages, it was deemed a donative of such value, that he offered it on the altar pro remedio animæ suæ, in order to obtain the forgiveness of his sins."-Murat., vol. iii. p. 836. Hist. Liter. de France, t. vi. p. 6. Nouv. Traité du Diplomat. par deux Benedictins, 4to. tom. i. p. 481.

Now really if a book was to cost two hundred sheep and fifteen quarters of grain, (to say nothing of furs and money,) I do not see anything very absurd in its being considered a donative of value; at least, I wish that people would make gifts of the same value to churches now-a-days, and I believe they would find that they were not considered quite contemptible. I think I have seen in a parish church a board, (whether gilt or not, I do not remember,) informing the world that Esquire somebody had given "forty shillings a year for ever to the poor of the parishviz., to the vicar, five shillings," &c., for preaching an annual sermon to commemorate his bounty. But let me say a few words, first, as to the authorities, and then as to the fact.

First, then, as to the authorities, which it will be most convenient to notice in an inverted order. In the part of the Nouv. Traité du Diplom. referred to, I cannot find anything to the purpose, and I can only suppose that there is some mistake in the reference. To the Histoire Literaire de France, I have not at present access; but the passage of Muratori referred to is as follows:-"Rari ergo quum olim forent, multoque ære redimerentur codices MSti., hinc intelligimus cur tanti fieret eorum donatio, ut siquando vel ipsi Romani Pontifices ejusmodi munera sacris templis offerebant, ad eorum gloriam de iis mentio in historia haberetur. Stephanus V. Papa, ut est in ejus vita, tom. iii. p. 272, Rerum Italicar, circiter annum Christi DCCC LXXXVI., præter alios libros ibi commemoratos pro animæ suæ remedio, contulit ecclesiæ Sancti Pauli cantharum exauratam unam (fortasse, cantharum) Lib. Comment. I.; Prophetarum, VOL. VIII.-July, 1835.

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