following miscellaneous extracts:

A.D. 1553. L _s._ _d._
(Two) Meserse of bloyene in bordis }
One Prymare latane & englis } 0 ii 0
Balethis (ballads) nova of sortis 0 0 ii
Boke of paper 1 quire in forrell 0 0 vi
Morse workes in forrell 0 9 viij
Castell of Love in forrelle wi: a sarmo nova 0 0 x

A.D. 1554.
Balethis nova arbull in 8vo. 1 catechis 0 0 viiij
Prymare for a chyllde in 8vo. englis 0 iv
Halles Croneckelle nova englis 0 xii 0

From a Household Book kept in London, A.D. 1561
(in the possession of the same Gent.)

Item, p-d for a Lyttellton in English xij_d._
---- for the booke of ij englishe lovers vj_d._
---- for the booke of Songes and Sonnettes }
and the booke of dyse, and a frenche booke } ij_s._ viij_d._
(viz. the frenche booke xvj_d._ the ij other bookes at
viij_d._ the pece.)
---- ---- for printing the xxv orders of honest men xx_d._]

LIS. All this is very just. You are now creeping towards the
seventeenth century. Go on with your prices of books 'till nearly the
present day; when the BIBLIOMANIA has been supposed to have attained
its highest pitch.

"Don't expect," resumed I, "any antiquarian exactness in my
chronological detail of what our ancestors used to give for their
curiously-covered volumes. I presume that the ancient method of
_Book-Binding_[183] added much to the expense of the purchase. But be
this as it may, we know that Sir Ralph Sadler, at the close of the
sixteenth century, had a pretty fair library, with a _Bible_ in the
chapel to boot, for L10.[184] Towards the close of the seventeenth
century, we find the Earl of Peterborough enlisting among the book
champions; and giving, at the sale of Richard Smith's books in 1682,
not less than eighteen shillings and two pence for the first English
edition of his beloved _Godfrey of Boulogne_.[185] In Queen Ann's
time, Earl Pembroke and Lord Oxford spared no expense for books; and
Dr. Mead, who trod closely upon their heels, cared not at what price
he purchased his _Editiones Principes_, and all the grand books which
stamped such a value upon his collection. And ye