injucunda:

Pro quibus officiis, haeres abeuntis amici,
Accipe fortunae munera parva meae.
Non mihi sunt Baccho colles, oleisque virentes,
Praediave Aemiliis conspicienda jugis.
Tu veterum dulces scriptorum sume libellos,
Attritos manibus quos juvat esse meis.
Invenies etiam viridi quae lusimus aevo,
Dum studiis aetas mollibus apta fuit.
Illa velim rapidis sic uras carmina flammis
Ut vatem ipse suis ignibus jussit Amor."

LOMEIER: _de Bibliothecis_, p. 288.]

"So spake Orlando," said Philemon, with tears in his eyes, who, upon
looking at Lisardo and myself, found our faces covered with our
handkerchiefs, and unable to utter a word.

The deliberate manner in which this recital was made--the broken
periods, and frequent pauses--filled up a great measure of our
journey; and we found that St. Paul's dome was increasing upon us in
size and distinctness, and that we had not more than three miles to
travel, when Lisardo, wishing to give a different turn to the
discourse, asked Philemon what was the cause of such extravagant sums
being now given at book-sales for certain curious and uncommon--but
certainly not highly intrinsically-valuable--publications; and whether
our ancestors, in the time of Hen. VIII. and Elizabeth, paid in
proportion for the volumes of _their_ Libraries?

Upon Philemon's declaring himself unable to gratify his friend's
curiosity, but intimating that some assistance might probably be
derived from myself, I took up the discourse by observing that--

"In the infancy of printing in this country (owing to the competition
of foreigners) it would seem that our own printers (who were both
booksellers and book-binders) had suffered considerably in their
trade, by being obliged to carry their goods to a market where the
generality of purchasers were pleased with more elegantly executed
works at an inferior price. The legislature felt, as every patriotic
legislature would feel, for their injured countrymen; and,
accordingly, the statute of Richard III. was enacted,[176] whereby
English printers and book-binders were protected from the mischiefs,
which would otherwise have overtaken them. Thus our old friend Caxton
went to work with greater glee, and mustered up all his energies to
bring a good stock of British manufacture to the market. What he
usually sold his books for, in his life time,