The vast number of students who, by the foundation of universities, were
congregated together, generated of course a proportionate demand for
books, which necessity or luxury prompted them eagerly to purchase: but
there were poor as well as rich students educated in these great
seminaries of learning, whose pecuniary means debarred them from the
acquisition of such costly luxuries; and for this and other cogent
reasons the universities deemed it advantageous, and perhaps expedient,
to frame a code of laws and regulations to provide alike for the literary
wants of all classes and degrees. To effect this they obtained royal
sanction to take the trade entirely under their protection, and
eventually monopolized a sole legislative power over the _Librarii_.

In the college of Navarre a great quantity of ancient documents are
preserved, many of which relate to this curious subject. They were
deposited there by M. Jean Aubert in 1623, accompanied by an inventory of
them, divided into four parts by the first four letters of the alphabet.
In the fourth, under D. 18, there is a chapter entitled "Des Libraires
Appretiateurs, Jurez et Enlumineurs," which contains much interesting
matter relating to the early history of bookselling.[65] These ancient
statutes, collected and printed by the University in the year 1652,[66]
made at various times, and ranging between the years 1275 and 1403, give
us a clear insight into the matter.

The nature of a bookseller's business in those days required no ordinary
capacity, and no shallow store of critical acumen; the purchasing of
manuscripts, the work of transcription, the careful revisal, the
preparation of materials, the tasteful illuminations, and the process of
binding, were each employments requiring some talent and discrimination,
and we are not surprised, therefore, that the avocation of a dealer and
fabricator of these treasures should be highly regarded, and dignified
into a profession, whose followers were invested with all the privileges,
freedoms and exemptions, which the masters and students of the university
enjoyed.[67] But it required these conciliations to render the
restrictive and somewhat severe measures, which she imposed on the
bookselling trade, to be received with any degree of favor or submission.
For whilst the University of Paris, by whom these statutes were framed,
encouraged and elevated the profession of the librarii, she required, on
the other hand, a guarantee o