ce. It is noteworthy--as Mr. Lawler has pointed out--that 'the
first libraries which were sold by auction were those of Puritan divines
who had lived and worked under the Commonwealth Government; these
libraries were consequently composed of books suited to their calling,
consisting almost entirely of theological and historical books.' Life
was too awful a thing with them to indulge in a 'roguish' French novel,
a Shakespearian play, or one of the many dramatic works which seemed for
a time to kill all religious activity. A few of the items dispersed in
the first sales will not be without interest. Dr. Seaman's copy of the
_editio princeps_ Homer in Greek, 1488, sold for 9s.; the Crawford copy
realized L135--true, the latter was bound by Trautz-Bauzonnet. In the
former sale a copy of Dr. Eliot's Indian Bible sold for 19s.; if it
occurred at auction now it might realize anything from L100 to L600. At
the Restoration everything in the way of books of prayers was discarded,
and sold for a few pence; they would now readily sell almost for their
weight in gold. There is a startling uniformity about the prices
realized for books at the early book-sales, and one feels almost
inclined to suppose that our forbears were influenced chiefly by the
size of the volumes. It is interesting to note that the great folio
editions of the Fathers realized in the end of the seventeenth century
pretty much the same prices as at the end of the nineteenth, and these,
it need hardly be said, are very small indeed.

From the sale of the library of Sir Kenelm Digby at the Golden Lion, in
Paternoster Row, in April, 1680, we get a few highly interesting facts.
This sale comprised 3,878 lots, and realized the total of L908 4s. Here
are a few of the items:

L s. d.
AEschylus, Stanley, London, 1664 1 0 0
Ascham's 'Toxophilus,' 1545 0 1 4
Barclay's 'Ship of Fools,' 1570 0 4 4
Bible of the Douay Translation, with the Rhenish Testament,
3 vols., 4to., 1633 1 5 0
Chaucer's Works, folio, 1597 0 12 8
Dugdale's 'Monasticon Anglicanum,' 3 vols., 1655, etc. 6 6 0
Fabyan's 'Chronicle,' London, 1559 0 7 4
Hollinshed's 'Chronicle,' London, 1577 0 8