This ancient custom of having
bookstalls in the streets (particularly about the church or cathedral)
upon fair-days still survives in more than one old-world town upon the
Continent. Indeed it is this very custom that gave rise to the term
'stationer.' The early booksellers were wont to erect their stalls or
'stations' against the very walls of the cathedrals, whence they were
known as 'stacyoneres.'

Beckmann mentions two other of these early booksellers at
Augsburg--Joseph Burglin and George Diemar. 'Sometimes,' he continues,
'they were rich people of all conditions, particularly eminent merchants,
who caused books which they sold to be printed at their own expense.'
George Willer, a bookseller who kept a large shop at Augsburg, was the
first, says, Beckmann, who hit upon the plan of causing a catalogue of
all the new books to be printed, in which the size and printers' names
were marked. His catalogues from 1564 to 1592 were printed by Nicholas
Basse at Frankfort. Beckmann relates that a collection of these
sixteenth-century German book-catalogues was in the library of Professor
Baldinger of Goettingen; possibly it still reposes in the fine library of
that university.

'In all these catalogues, which are in quarto and not paged,' continues
Beckmann, 'the following order is observed. The Latin books occupy the
first place . . . and after these, books of jurisprudence, medicine,
philosophy, poetry and music. The second place is assigned to German
works, which are arranged in the same manner.'

Basse's collection is entitled 'Collectio in unum corpus omnium librorum
Hebraeorum, Graecorum, Latinorum necnon Germanice, Italice, Gallice, et
Hispanice scriptorum, qui in nundinis Francofurtensibus ab anno 1564
usque ad nundinas Autumnales anni 1592 . . . . desumpta ex omnibus
Catalogis Willerianis singularum nundinarum, & in tres Tomos distincta .
. . . Plerique in aedibus Georgij Willeri ciuis & Bibliopole Augustani,
venales habentur.' It was printed in quarto at Frankfort 'ex officina
Typographica Nicolai Bassaei, MDXCII.' Part 2 (which has a separate
pagination and title) is in German, and contains German books only. Part
3, also a distinct work, has a title-page in both Latin and French, and
contains books in Italian, Spanish, and French. This title reads:
'Recueil en un corps des livres Italiens, Espagnols, et Francois, qui ont
este exposez en vente en la boutique des Imprimeurs frequentans les
foires de Francfort de