ur deniers to
student, and six deniers to a common purchaser. The librarii were still
further restricted in the economy of their trade, by a rule which forbade
any one of them to dispose of his entire stock of books without the
consent of the university; but this, I suspect, implied the disposal of
the stock and trade together, and was intended to intimate that the
introduction of the purchaser would not be allowed, without the
cognizance and sanction of the university.[72] Nor was the bookseller
able to purchase books without her consent, lest they should be of an
immoral or heretical tendency; and they were absolutely forbidden to buy
any of the students, without the permission of the rector.

But restricted as they thus were, the book merchants nevertheless grew
opulent, and transacted an important and extensive trade; sometimes they
purchased parts and sometimes they had whole libraries to sell.[73] Their
dealings were conducted with unusual care, and when a volume of peculiar
rarity or interest was to be sold, a deed of conveyance was drawn up with
legal precision, in the presence of authorized witnesses.

In those days of high prices and book scarcity, the poor student was
sorely impeded in his progress; to provide against these disadvantages,
they framed a law in 1342, at Paris, compelling all public booksellers to
keep books to lend out on hire. The reader will be surprised at the idea
of a circulating library in the middle ages! but there can be no doubt
of the fact, they were established at Paris, Toulouse, Vienna, and
Bologne. These public librarians, too, were obliged to write out regular
catalogues of their books and hang them up in their shops, with the
prices affixed, so that the student might know beforehand what he had to
pay for reading them. I am tempted to give a few extracts from these
lists:

St. Gregory's Commentaries upon Job, for reading 100 pages, 8 sous.
St. Gregory's Book of Homilies, 28 pages for 12 deniers.
Isidore's De Summa bona, 24 pages, 12 deniers.
Anselm's De Veritate de Libertate Arbitrii, 40 pages, 2 sous.
Peter Lombard's Book of Sentences, 3 sous.
Scholastic History, 3 sous.
Augustine's Confessions, 21 pages, 4 deniers.
Gloss on Matthew, by brother Thomas Aquinas, 57 pages, 3 sous.
Bible Concordance, 9 sous.
Bible, 10 sous.[74]

This rate of charge was also fixed by the university, and the students
borrowing these books were privileged