Books and Their Makers During the Middle Ages, Vol. 1 — George Haven Putnam
Books and their makers during the Middle Ages, Vol. I by Geo. Haven Putnam | Project Gutenberg You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Books and their makers during the Middle Ages A study of the conditions of the production and distribution of literature from the fall of the Roman Empire to the close of the seventeenth century, Vol. I Author : George Haven Putnam Release date : September 1, 2023 [eBook #71536] Language : English Original publication : New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896 Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71536 Credits : Charlene Taylor, Eleni Christofaki and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) *** START OF Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently repaired. The index appears in the second volume. A list of the changes made can be found a t the end of the book . BOOKS AND THEIR MAKERS DURING THE MIDDLE AGES, Vol. I BOOKS AND THEIR MAKERS DURING THE MIDDLE AGES SUMMARY OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. The First Printer-Publishers of France.—The Later Estiennes and Casaubon.—Caxton and the Introduction of Printing into England.—The Kobergers of Nuremberg.—Froben of Basel.—Erasmus and his Books.—Luther as an Author.—Plantin of Antwerp.—The Elzevirs of Leyden and Amsterdam.—Italy: Privileges and Censorship.—Germany: Privileges, and Book-Trade Regulations.—France: Privileges, Censorship, and Legislation.—England: Privileges, Monopolies, Censorship, and Legislation.—Conclusion. The Development of the Conception of Literary Property.—Index to the Work. Books and their makers during the Middle Ages, Vol. I by Geo. Haven Putnam | Project Gutenberg BOOKS AND THEIR MAKERS DURING THE MIDDLE AGES A STUDY OF THE CONDITIONS OF THE PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURE FROM THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE CLOSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BY Geo. Haven Putnam , A.M. AUTHOR OF “AUTHORS AND THEIR PUBLIC IN ANCIENT TIMES” “THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT,” ETC. VOLUME I. 476-1600 G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK LONDON 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND The Knickerbocker Press 1896 Books and their makers during the Middle Ages, Vol. I by Geo. Haven Putnam | Project Gutenberg Copyright , 1896 BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London The Knickerbocker Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. to The Memory of My Wife who served me for years both as eyesight and as writing-arm and by whose hand the following pages were in large part transcribed this work is dedicated Books and their makers during the Middle Ages, Vol. I by Geo. Haven Putnam | Project Gutenberg PREFACE. I n a previous volume I undertook to describe, or rather to indicate, the methods of the production and distribution of the earlier literature of the world and to sketch out the relations which existed between the author and his public during the ages known, rather vaguely, as classic, that is, in the periods of literary activity in Greece and ancient Rome. The materials for such a record were at best but fragmentary, and it was doubtless the case that, in a first attempt of the kind, I failed to get before me not a few of the references which are scattered through the works of classic writers, and which in any fairly complete presentation of the subject ought to have been utilised. Imperfect as my study was, I felt, however, that I was justified in basing upon it certain general conclusions. It seems evident that in Greece, even during the period of the highest literary development, there did not exist anything that could be described as a system for the production and distribution of books. The number of copies of any work of Greek literature available for the use of the general public must at any time have been exceedingly limited, and it would probably be safe to say that, before the development of Alexandria as a centre of book-production, no such thing as a reading public existed. The few manuscripts that had been produced, and that possessed any measure of authenticity, were contained in royal archives or in such a State collection as that of Athens, or in the studies of the small group of scholarly teachers whose fame was sometimes in part due to the fact that they were owners of books. The contemporary writers, including the authors of works treasured as masterpieces through all later ages, were not only content to do their work without any thought of material compensation, but appear to have been strangely oblivious of what would seem to us to be the ordinary practical measures for the preservation and circulation of their productions. The only reward for which they could look was fame with their own generation, and even for this it would seem that some effective distribution of their compositions was essential. The thought of preserving their work for the appreciation of future generations seems to have weighed with them but little. The ambition or ideal of the author appears to have been satisfied when his composition received in his own immediate community the honour of dramatic presentation or of public recitation. If his fellow citizens had accorded the approbation of the laurel crown, the approval of the outer world or of future generations was a matter of trifling importance. The fact that, notwithstanding this lack of ambition or incentive on the part of the authors, the non-existence of a reading public, and the consequent absence of any adequate machinery for the production and distribution of books, the knowledge of the “laurel-crowned” works, both of the earlier poets and of contemporary writers, should have been so widely diffused throughout the Greek community, is evidence t