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THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS. 
 
WILLIAM BLADES’ BOOK-PLATE. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 with funding from 
 Getty Research Institute 
 
 https://archive.org/details/enemiesofbooksOOblad_0 
 
“THEY DECIDED IN THEIR WISDOM TO GIVE THE WHOLE 
 REFUSE TO THE GARDENER.” 
 
 P- S3- 
 
THE 
 
 ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BLADES, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 “the life and typography of caxton,” “books in chains,” etc., etc. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY RICHARD GARNETT, C.B., LL.D 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY LOUIS GUNN IS AND H. E. BUTLER. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 
 
 T896. 
 
 i'- J- 
 
 I 0 1 
 
PREFACE 
 
 HE precept “ Love your enemies” was never 
 intended for the enemies of books, because 
 the enemy of books is not an individual foe, 
 but hostis humani generis. The value of books, as of 
 other things, may be superstitiously overrated. We 
 are accustomed to speak of them as if they were in 
 themselves the wisdom, or the knowledge, or the genius, 
 of which they are, in fact, only the receptacles. They 
 are not the honey of the human hive, but only the 
 treasure-cells in which it is stored, and the analogue 
 of the bee is the author. But even in this restricted 
 point of view, their function is so important that to 
 destroy them is a crime of lese-humanitd ; and it is not 
 known that anyone ever enunciated their destruction 
 
PREFACE 
 
 viii 
 
 as a sound principle, unless it be the Caliph Omar. 
 Even he, if the famous bon-77iot attributed to him is 
 genuine, was willing to spare one book ; and could his 
 life have been prolonged for a century or two, he 
 would have discovered that in reprieving the Koran 
 he had authorized the creation of a very considerable 
 literature. The number of commentaries upon the 
 Koran actually existing is not small ; what would it 
 have been had it been necessary to prove that all 
 history, and geography, and astronomy, and every- 
 thing else that man needed to know, was implicitly 
 taught therein ? 
 
 No such gigantic figure as the destroyer of the 
 Alexandrian Library, brandishing, like the spectre of 
 Fawdon, a blazing rafter, whose light streams down the 
 centuries, occupies a post of honour in Mr. Blades’ 
 volume. In comparison, he may almost be likened to 
 that poet who adjured, “ Now, Muse, let’s sing of rats,” 
 having previously struck out mice as below the dignity 
 of the subject. The foes he enumerates are Fire, Water, 
 Gas and Heat, Dust and Neglect, Ignorance, Book- 
 worms, Other Vermin, Bookbinders, and Collectors. 
 To these another might be added — Sinister Interests, 
 which cannot be classified under the head of Ignorance, 
 for they know well that the existence of books is in- 
 compatible with their own. It would be a curious 
 subject of inquiry whether these interests, whose 
 potency in mutilating valuable books and hindering 
 their dissemination, sometimes until it has become too 
 late for the world to profit by them, is unfortunately 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IX 
 
 quite unquestionable, have ever succeeded in actually 
 destroying any work of real importance to mankind. 
 The number that have on this account never been 
 written at all is no doubt enormous, but from the 
 nature of the case cannot be ascertained, and the loss 
 from this cause must be in every sense of the word 
 inestimable. It would, however, probably be found 
 that the book which once got written also managed to 
 get printed, though sometimes with such secrecy that 
 it might almost as well have remained in manuscript. 
 Far more mischievous was the effect of pressure upon 
 the books which did appear under the authority of a 
 licenser, either emasculated by him or by the author. 
 Whether the censors ever succeeded in suppressing 
 a worthy book or not, it is pretty certain that they 
 never succeeded in suppressing a pernicious one. 
 
 Such speculations would have been alien to the 
 pacific and debonair spirit of Mr. Blades — a man 
 devoid of gall, and ill equipped for thornier paths of 
 controversy than the definition of a folio or the date 
 of a Caxton. In these he was formidable, not merely 
 from his natural ability, but from his practical acquaint- 
 ance with the mysteries of printing, an accomplishment 
 rarely possessed by bibliographers. He was able to 
 deal and willing to receive hard blows ; but his gentle 
 spirit doubtless rejoiced to find in the “ Enemies of 
 Books,” as he conceived and treated the theme, a 
 subject on which all the world thought as he did. 
 No one even in this age of rehabilitations is likely to 
 constitute himself the apologist of mice and bookworms. 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 If a criticism were ventured on Mr. Blades’ method, 
 it might be whether, with the exception of these 
 zoological enmities, the various forms of hostility of 
 which he treats should not be grouped under a single 
 head — that of Ignorance. Ignorance misleads the 
 peccant bookbinder, so sternly rebuked by Mr. 
 Blades ; ignorance (when it is not hard necessity) 
 exposes books to the decomposing effects of gas ; 
 ignorance overlooks the need for ventilation ; ignorance 
 appraises a book by its exterior, and sacrifices, it may 
 be the “ o’er-dusted gold ” of a Caxton, or it may be 
 a work of true genius in a cheap and ordinary edition. 
 Mr. Blades, on the one hand, has rescued Pynsons on 
 their way to the butter-shop ; and we, on our part, 
 have redeemed Emily Bronte’s last verses — almost the 
 noblest poem ever written by a woman in the English 
 language — from a volume half torn up, because, for- 
 sooth, it had little to boast in the way of external 
 appearance. There is another kind of ignorance, 
 which perhaps operates towards the preservation of 
 books — that fond conceit which leads a man to ascribe 
 incredible rarity to a book of which none of his 
 neighbours have heard, or vast antiquity to one no older 
 than his grandfather. Numbers of books, especially 
 in the United States, have owed their preservation to 
 such amiable delusions ; but unfortunately their pre- 
 servation is in most cases a very small benefit. 
 
 Whether or no Mr. Blades’ treatise might have 
 been more comprehensive and philosophical, it is un- 
 doubtedly very practical, and all its precepts deserve 
 
PREFACE 
 
 XI 
 
 respectful attention, especially those which have any 
 reference to heat or ventilation. Bookworms in this 
 favoured country are now nearly as extinct as wolves 
 (we have seen some imported from Candia) ; and 
 against book-thieves there is no remedy but lock and 
 key. The spiritual enemies of literature in this age 
 accomplish their purpose less by the destruction of 
 good books than by the multiplication of bad ones, 
 and the present is hardly a suitable occasion to deal 
 with them. To part, as Mr. Blades would have 
 desired, so far as may be in charity with all men, we 
 will conclude with the observation that this much may- 
 be said even for the enemies of books — that they have 
 unintentionally highly encouraged the race of biblio- 
 philists, whether bookhunters or booksellers. If 
 books had always received the care and attention 
 which they ought to receive, the occupation of this 
 interesting class would be as gone as Othello’s. The 
 Gutenberg Bible would exist in two hundred and fifty 
 copies, more or less. The Caxtons would be numerous, 
 perfect, and in excellent condition. To find a unique, 
 one would have to resort to such curiosities as a single 
 impression on vellum, or a special copy prepared for 
 presentation upon some extraordinary occasion. 
 
 R. GARNETT. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FIRE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Libraries destroyed by fire — Alexandrian — St. Paul’s destruction 
 of MSS., value of — Christian books destroyed by heathens 
 — Heathen books destroyed by Christians — Hebrew books 
 burnt at Cremona — Arabic books at Granada — Monastic 
 libraries — Cotton library — Birmingham riots — Dr. Priest- 
 ley’s library- — Lord Mansfield’s books — Cowper — Stras- 
 bourg library bombarded — Offor Collection burnt — Dutch 
 Church library damaged — Library of Corporation of 
 London - - - - - - - 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WATER. 
 
 Heer Hudde’s library lost at sea — Pinelli’s library captured by 
 Corsairs — MSS. destroyed by Mohammed II. — Books 
 damaged by rain — Wolfenhuttel — Vapour and Mould — 
 Brown stains — Dr. Dibdin — Hot-water pipes — Asbestos 
 fire — Glass doors to bookcases 
 
 19 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GAS A ND HE A T. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Effects of gas on leather — Necessitates rebinding — Bookbinders 
 ■ — Electric light — British Museum — Treatment of books — 
 Legend of friars and their books - - - - 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DUST AND NEGLECT. 
 
 Books should have gilt tops — Old libraries were neglected — 
 Instance of a college library — Clothes brushed in it — 
 Abuses in French libraries — Derome’s account of them — 
 Boccaccio’s story of the library at the Convent of Mount 
 Cassin - - - - - - - 37 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY. 
 
 Destruction of books at the Reformation — Mazarin Library — 
 
 A Caxton used to light the fire — Library at French Pro- 
 testant Church, St. Martin’s-le-Grand — Books stolen — 
 Story of books from Thonock Hall — “ Boke of St. Albans ” 
 
 — Recollet Monks of Antwerp — Shakespearian “find” — 
 Black-letter books used in w.c. — “ Gesta Romanorum ” — 
 Lansdowne Collection — Warburton — Tradesman and rare 
 book — Parish registers — Story of bigotry by M. Muller — 
 Clergymen destroy books — Patent Office sell books for 
 waste - - - - - - - 47 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE BOOKWORM. 
 
 Doraston — Not so destructive as of yore — Worm won’t eat 
 parchment — Pierre Petit’s poem — Hooke’s account and 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 XV 
 
 image — Its natural history neglected — Various sorts — 
 Attempts to breed bookworms — Greek worm — Havoc 
 made by worms — Bodleian and Dr. Bandinel — “ Der- 
 mestes ” — Worm won’t eat modern paper — America com- 
 paratively free — Worm-hole at Philadelphia - "63 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OTHER VERMIN. 
 
 Black-beetle in American libraries — Blatta germanica — “Bug” 
 Bible- — Lepisma — Codfish — Skeletons of rats in Abbey 
 library, Westminster — Niptus hololeucos — Tomicus typo- 
 graphicus — House-flies injure books - - - 83 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BOOKBINDERS. 
 
 A good binding gives pleasure — Deadly effects of the “ plough ” 
 as used by binders — Not confined to bygone times — In- 
 stances of injury — De Rome, a good binder, but a great 
 cropper — Books “hacked” — Bad lettering — Treasures in 
 book-covers — Books washed, sized, and mended — “ Cases” 
 often preferable to rebinding - - - - 9t 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COLLECTORS. 
 
 Bagford the biblioclast — Illustrations torn from MSS. — Title- 
 pages torn from books — Rubens, his engraved titles — 
 Colophons torn out of books — Lincoln Cathedral — Dr. 
 Dibdin’s nosegay — Theurdanck — Fragments of MSS. — 
 Some libraries almost useless — Pepysian — Teylerian — Sir 
 Thomas Phillipps ------ 105 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SERVANTS AND CHILDREN. 
 
 I'AGF, 
 
 Library invaded for the purpose of dusting — Spring clean — 
 
 Dust to be got rid of — Ways of doing so — Carefulness 
 praised — Bad nature of certain books — Metal clasps and 
 rivets — How to dust — Children often injure books — 
 Examples — Story of boys in a country library - - 117 
 
 POSTSCRIPTUM. 
 
 Anecdote of book-sale in Derbyshire - - - - 129 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The care that should be taken of books — Enjoyment derived 
 
 from them - - - - - - - 137 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 “ THEY DECIDED IN THEIR WISDOM TO GIVE THE WHOLE 
 
 REFUSE TO THE GARDENER ” - - Frontispiece 
 
 “ ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CROWD ARE NUMEROUS BONFIRES, 
 
 UPON WHICH JEW AND GENTILE ARE THROWING INTO THE 
 FLAMES BUNDLE UPON BUNDLE OF SCROLLS ” - To face 6 
 
 “ IN THE GORDON RIOTS WERE BURNT THE LITERARY AND 
 
 OTHER COLLECTIONS OF LORD MANSFIELD ” - - 7 
 
 “ A CREATE NOMBRE OF THEM WHYCHE PURCHASED THOSE 
 
 SUPERSTYCYOUSE MANSYONS (MONASTERIES) RESERVED OF 
 THOSE LIBRARYE BOOKES SOME TO . . . SCOURE THEYR 
 CANDLESTYCKES, AND SOME TO RUBBE THEYR BOOTS ” - 9 
 
 “how the IMAGINATION RECOILS AT THE IDEA OF CAXTON’S 
 TRANSLATION OF THE ‘ METAMORPHOSES ’ OF OVID . . . 
 
 BEING USED FOR BAKING ‘ PYES ’ !” - - - lO 
 
 “ IN A HIRED ATTIC, HE HUNG UP THE VOLUMES THAT WOULD 
 
 BEAR IT OVER STRINGS, LIKE CLOTHES, TO DRY ” - I4 
 
 HEER HUDDE DISGUISED AS A MANDARIN - - To face 2 0 
 
 THE GREAT LIBRARY OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE, CON- 
 TAINING 120,000 MANUSCRIPTS, THROWN INTO THE 
 SEA - - - - - -To face 2 2 
 
 “at heaven’s gate”- - - - . To face 32 
 
 “ COULD NOT take UP A BOOK WITHOUT SNEEZING ”- - 38 
 
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 “ BOCCACCIO - - - - - -To face 
 
 “ AND A ‘ GYP ’ WAS BRUSHING AWAY AT THEM ” - 
 
 “WE CUT AWAY THE BLANK MARGINS . . . FOR WRITING 
 UPON ” - - - - - -To face 
 
 “ TO LIGHT THE VESTRY FIRE ” - - - - 
 
 “a COLLECTOR OF BOOKS WENT IN AND OFFERED HALF A 
 CROWN FOR it” - 
 
 “ THE BOKE OF ST. ALBANS ” - - - - To face 
 
 “ THEY HAD SERVED FOR VARIOUS HOUSEHOLD PURPOSES ” 
 
 To face 
 
 THE BOOKWORM ------ 
 
 ANOBIUM, NATURAL SIZE - - - - - 
 
 ANOBIUM, MAGNIFIED ------ 
 
 “found in the belly OF A cod-fish” 
 
 “PARCHMENT BACKS THEY ENTIRELY DESTROYED” - 
 “to SEPARATE IT FROM THE COVER UPON WHICH IT WAS 
 PASTED ” - 
 
 “ ONE ROUGHLY CUT THE MARGIN OFF HIS BOOKS ” - 
 “ MANY A BIBLIOGRAPHER, WHILE EXAMINING OLD BOOKS ” - 
 “carefully PACKED ALL THE BOOKS BETWEEN THE JOISTS ” 
 “your FEMALE ‘HELp’” - - - - - 
 
 “ HAVING TORN A DOZEN LEAVES OR SO ” - 
 
 “ BATTLE OF THE BOOKS ” - 
 
 “ KNOCKED DOWN IN RAPID SUCCESSION ” - 
 
 40 
 
 41 
 
 42 
 
 49 
 
 50 
 50 
 
 54 
 
 69 
 
 69 
 
 69 
 
 85 
 
 86 
 
 95 
 
 97 
 
 98 
 
 120 
 
 122 
 
 125 
 
 131 
 
FIRE. 
 
 V -<r 
 
 % 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FIRE. 
 
 HERE are many of the forces of Nature 
 which tend to injure books ; but among 
 them all not one has been half so destruc- 
 tive as Fire. It would be tedious to write out a 
 bare list only of the numerous libraries and biblio- 
 graphical treasures which, in one way or another, have 
 been seized by the Fire-king as his own. Chance 
 conflagrations, fanatic incendiarism, Judicial bonfires, 
 and even household stoves, have, time after time, 
 thinned the treasures as well as the rubbish of past 
 ages, until, probably, not one thousandth part of the 
 books that have been are still extant. This destruc- 
 tion cannot, however, be reckoned as all loss ; for had 
 not the “ cleansing fires ” removed mountains of rubbish 
 
4 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 from our midst, strong destructive measures would 
 have become a necessity from sheer want of space in 
 which to store so many volumes. 
 
 Before the invention of Printing, books were com- 
 paratively scarce ; and knowing as we do how very 
 difficult it is, even after the steam-press has been 
 working for half a century, to make a collection of 
 half a million books, we are forced to receive with 
 great incredulity the accounts in old writers of the 
 wonderful extent of ancient libraries. 
 
 The historian Gibbon, very incredulous in many 
 things, accepts without questioning the fables told 
 upon this subject. No doubt the libraries of MSS. 
 collected generation after generation by the Egyptian 
 Ptolemies became, in the course of time, the most 
 extensive ever then known, and were famous through- 
 out the world for the costliness of their ornamentation 
 and importance of their untold contents. Two of 
 these were at Alexandria, the larger of which was in 
 the quarter called Bruchium. These volumes, like all 
 manuscripts of those early ages, were written on sheets 
 of parchment, having a wooden roller at each end, so 
 that the reader needed only to unroll a portion at a 
 time. During Caesar’s Alexandrian War, b.c. 48, the 
 larger collection was consumed by fire, and again 
 burnt by the Saracens in a.d. 640. An immense loss 
 was inflicted upon mankind thereby ; but when we are 
 told of 700,000, or even 500,000, of such volumes 
 being destroyed, we instinctively feel that such 
 numbers must be a great exaggeration. Equally 
 
FIRE 
 
 5 
 
 incredulous must we be when we read of half a million 
 volumes being burnt at Carthage some centuries later, 
 and other similar accounts. 
 
 Among the earliest records of the wholesale destruc- 
 tion of books is that narrated by St. Luke, when, after 
 the preaching of Paul, many of the Ephesians “ which 
 used curious arts brought their books together, and 
 burned them before all men ; and they counted the 
 price of them, and found it 50,000 pieces of silver ” 
 (Acts xix. 19). Doubtless these books of idolatrous 
 divination and alchemy, of enchantments and witch- 
 craft, were righteously destroyed by those to whom 
 they had been, and might again be, spiritually injurious ; 
 and doubtless had they escaped the fire then, not one 
 of them would have survived to the present time, no 
 MS. of that age being now extant. Nevertheless, 
 I must confess to a certain amount of mental dis- 
 quietude and uneasiness when I think of books worth 
 50,000 denarii — or, speaking roughly, say ^18,750^ of 
 our modern money- — being made into bonfires. What 
 curious illustrations of early heathenism, of Devil 
 worship, of Serpent worship, of Sun worship, and 
 
 ^ The received opinion is that the “ pieces of silver ” here men- 
 tioned were Roman denarii, which were the silver pieces then 
 commonly used in Ephesus. If now we weigh a denarius against 
 modern silver, it is exactly equal to ninepence, and fifty thousand 
 times ninepence gives ;^i,875. I*- always a difficult matter to 
 
 arrive at a just estimate of the relative value of the same coin in 
 different ages ; but reckoning that money then had at least ten times 
 the purchasing value of money now, we arrive at what was probably 
 about the value of the magical books burnt, viz. : ^18,750. 
 
6 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 other archaic forms of religion ; of early astrological 
 and chemical lore, derived from the Egyptians, the 
 Persians, the Greeks ; what abundance of superstitious 
 observances, and what is now termed “Folk-lore”; 
 what riches, too, for the philological student, did those 
 many books contain, and how famous would the library 
 now be that could boast of possessing but a few of 
 them ! 
 
 The ruins of Ephesus bears unimpeachable evidence 
 that the city was very extensive, and had magnificent 
 buildings. It was one of the free cities, governing 
 itself. Its trade in shrines and idols was very ex- 
 tensive, being spread through all known lands. There 
 the magical arts were remarkably prevalent, and, not- 
 withstanding the numerous converts made by the early 
 Christians, the ’E^foia ypd^j^ara, or little scrolls upon 
 which magic sentences were written, formed an ex- 
 tensive trade up to the fourth century. These 
 “ writings ” were used for divination, as a protection 
 against the “ evil eye,” and generally as charms against 
 all evil. They were carried about the person, so that 
 probably thousands of them were thrown into the 
 flames by St. Paul’s hearers, when his glowing words 
 convinced them of their superstition. 
 
 Imagine an open space near the grand Temple of 
 Diana, with fine buildings around. Slightly raised 
 above the crowd, the Apostle, preaching with great 
 power and persuasion concerning superstition, holds in 
 thrall the assembled multitude. On the outskirts of 
 the crowd are numerous bonfires, upon which Jew and 
 
FIRE 
 
 7 
 
 Gentile are throw- 
 ing into the flames 
 
 ' , bundle upon bundle 
 
 of scrolls, while an 
 , Asiarch with his 
 peace-officers looks 
 on with the conven- 
 tional stolidity of 
 policemen in all 
 ages and all nations. 
 It must have been 
 an impressivescene, 
 and many a worse 
 subject has been 
 chosen for the walls 
 of the Royal Aca- 
 demy. 
 
 Books in those 
 early times, whether 
 orthodox or hetero- 
 dox, appear to have 
 had a precarious 
 existence. The 
 heathens, at each 
 fresh outbreak 
 of persecution, 
 burnt all the 
 Christian writ- 
 ings they could 
 _ find, and the 
 
 'IN THE GORDON RIOTS WERE BURNT THE LITERARV AND PK D c; wllPn 
 
 OTHER COLLECTIONS OF LORD MANSFIELD.” ^ I i i 
 
8 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 they got the upper hand, retaliated with interest upon 
 the pagan literature. The Mohammedan reason for 
 destroying books — “ If they contain what is in the 
 Koran they are superfluous, and if they contain any- 
 thing opposed to it they are immoral ” — seems, indeed, 
 mutatis mutandis, to have been the general rule for 
 all such devastators. 
 
 The invention of Printing made the entire destruc- 
 tion of any author’s works much more difficult, so 
 quickly and so extensively did books spread through 
 all lands. On the other hand, as books multiplied, so 
 did destruction go hand-in-hand with production, and 
 soon were printed books doomed to suffer in the same 
 penal fires that up to then had been fed on MSS. 
 only. 
 
 At Cremona, in 1 569, 12,000 books printed in 
 Hebrew were publicly burnt as heretical, simply on 
 account of their language ; and Cardinal Ximenes, 
 at the capture of Granada, treated 5,000 copies of the 
 Koran in the same way. 
 
 At the time of the Reformation in England a great 
 destruction of books took place. The antiquary 
 Bale, writing in 1587, thus speaks of the shameful fate 
 of the Monastic libraries : 
 
 “ A greate nombre of them whyche purchased those 
 superstycyouse mansyons (Monasteries) reserved of those 
 librarye bookes some to serve their Jakes, some to scoure 
 theyr candelstyckes, and some to rubbe theyr bootes. Some 
 they solde to the grossers and sope sellers, and some they 
 sent over see to y® booke bynders, not in small nombre, but 
 at tymes whole shyppes full, to y® wonderyng of foren 
 
FIRE 
 
 9 
 
 nacyons. Yea y® Universytees of thys realme are not alle 
 clere in thys detestable fact. But cursed is that bellye 
 whyche seketh to be fedde with suche ungodlye gaynes, and 
 so depelye shameth hys natural conterye. I knowe a 
 merchant manne, whych shall at thys tyme be namelesse, 
 that boughte ye contentes of two noble lybrar}^es for forty 
 shyllynges pryce : a shame it is to be spoken. Thys stuffe 
 hathe he occupyed in ye stede of greye paper, by ye space of 
 
 “ A CREATE NOMBRE OF THEM WHYCHE PURCHASED THOSE SUPER- 
 STYCYOUSE MANSYONS (MONASTERIES) RESF.KVED OF THOSE LIBRAKYE 
 BOOKES SOME TO . . . SCOURE THEYR CANDELSTYCKES, AND SOME TO 
 RUBBE THEYR BOOTES." 
 
 more than these ten yeares, and yet he hathe store ynoughe 
 for as many years to come. A prodygyous example is thys, 
 and to be abhorred of all men whyche love theyr nacyon as 
 they shoulde do. The monkes kepte them undre dust, ye 
 ydle- headed prestes regarded them not, theyr latter owners 
 have most shamefully abused them, and y® covetouse mer- 
 chantes have solde them away into foren nacyons for 
 moneye.” 
 
TO 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 How the imagination recoils at the idea of Caxton’s 
 translation of the “Metamorphoses” of Ovid, or perhaps 
 his “ Lyf of therle of Oxenforde,” together with many 
 another book from our first presses, not a fragment of 
 which do we now possess, being used for baking 
 “ pyes.” 
 
 At the Great Fire of London in 1666, the number of 
 books burnt was enormous. 
 
 Not only in private houses 
 and Corporate and Church 
 libraries were priceless collec- 
 tions reduced to cinders, but 
 an immense stock of books 
 removed from Paternoster Row 
 by the Sta- 
 tioners for 
 safety was 
 burnt to 
 ashes in the 
 vaults of 
 St. P aul’s 
 
 Cathedral. "how the imagination recoils at the idea 
 
 C - of CAXTON'S translation of the ‘ METAMOR- 
 
 omi n g PHOSES ’ OF OVID . . . BEING USED FOR BAKING 
 ' PYES.’ " 
 
 nearer to 
 
 our own day, how thankful we ought to be for the 
 preservation of the Cotton Library ! Great was the 
 consternation in the literary world of 1731 when 
 they heard of the fire at Ashburnham House, 
 Westminster, where at that time the Cotton MSS. 
 were deposited. By great exertions the fire was 
 
FIRE 
 
 1 1 
 
 conquered, but not before many MSS. had been 
 quite destroyed, and many others injured. Much skill 
 was shown in the partial restoration of these books, 
 charred almost beyond recognition ; they were carefully 
 separated leaf by leaf, soaked in a chemical solution, 
 and then pressed flat between sheets of transparent 
 paper. A curious heap of scorched leaves, previous to 
 any treatment, and looking like a monster wasps’ nest, 
 may be seen in a glass case in the MS. department of 
 the British Museum, showing the condition to which 
 many other volumes had been reduced. 
 
 Just a hundred years ago the mob, in the “ Birming- 
 ham Riots,” burnt the valuable library of Dr. Priestley, 
 and in the “ Gordon Riots ” were burnt the literary 
 and other collections of Lord Mansfield, the celebrated 
 judge, he who had the courage first to decide that the 
 Slave who reached the English shore was thence- 
 forward a free man. The loss of the latter library 
 drew from the poet Cowper two short and weak poems. 
 The poet first deplores the destruction of the valuable 
 printed books, and then the irretrievable loss to history 
 by the burning of his lordship’s many personal manu- 
 scripts and contemporary documents. 
 
 “ Their pages mangled, burnt and torn, 
 
 The loss was his alone ; 
 
 But ages yet to come shall mourn 
 The burning of his own.” 
 
 The second poem commences with the following 
 doggerel : 
 
12 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 “ When Wit and Genius meet their doom 
 In all-devouring Flame, 
 
 They tell us of the Fate of Rome 
 And bid us fear the same.” 
 
 The much finer and more extensive library of Dr. 
 Priestley was left unnoticed and unlamented by the 
 orthodox poet, who .probably felt a complacent satisfac- 
 tion at the destruction of heterodox books, the owner 
 being a Unitarian Minister. 
 
 The magnificent library of Strasbourg was burnt by 
 the shells of the German Army in 1870. Then 
 disappeared for ever, together with other unique 
 documents, the original records of the famous lawsuits 
 between Gutenberg, one of the first Printers, and his 
 partners, upon the right understanding of which depends 
 the claim of Gutenberg to the invention of the Art. 
 The flames raged between high brick walls, roaring 
 louder than a blast furnace. Seldom indeed have 
 Mars and Pluto had so dainty a sacrifice offered at 
 their shrines ; for over all the din of battle and the 
 reverberation of monster artillery, the burning leaves 
 of the first printed Bible and many another priceless 
 volume were wafted into the sky, the ashes floating for 
 miles on the heated air, and carrying to the astonished 
 countryman the first news of the devastation of his 
 Capital. 
 
 When the Offor Collection was put to the hammer 
 by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, the well-known 
 auctioneers of Wellington Street, and when about 
 three days of the sale had been gone through, a fire 
 
FIRE 
 
 13 
 
 occurred in the adjoining house, and, gaining possession 
 of the Sale-Rooms, made a speedy end of the unique 
 Bunyan and many other rarities then on show. I was 
 allowed to see the ruins on the following day, and by 
 means of a ladder and some scrambling managed to 
 enter the Sale-Room, where parts of the floor still 
 remained. It was a fearful sight, those scorched rows 
 of volumes still on the shelves, and curious was it to 
 notice how the flames, burning off the backs of the 
 books first, had then run up behind the shelves, and so 
 attacked the fore-edge of the volumes standing upon 
 them, leaving the majority with a perfectly untouched 
 oval centre of white paper and plain print, while the 
 whole surrounding parts were but a mass of black 
 cinders. The salvage was sold in one lot for a small 
 sum, and the purchaser, after a good deal of sorting 
 and mending and binding, placed about 1,000 volumes 
 for sale at Messrs. Puttick and Simpson’s in the 
 following year. 
 
 So, too, when the curious old Library, which was in 
 a gallery of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, was 
 nearly destroyed in the fire which devastated the 
 Church in 1862, the books which escaped were sadly 
 injured. Not long before I had spent some hours 
 there hunting for English Fifteenth-century Books, and 
 shall never forget the state of dirt in which I came 
 away. Without anyone to care for them, the books 
 had remained untouched for many a decade — damp 
 dust, half an inch thick, having settled upon them ! 
 Then came the fire, and while the roof was all ablaze 
 
14 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 streams of hot water, like a boiling deluge, washed 
 down upon them. The wonder was they were not 
 turned into a muddy pulp. After all was over, the 
 whole of the library, no portion of which could legally 
 be given away, was lent for ever to the Corporation of 
 
 
 “IN A HIRED ATTIC, HE HUNG UP THE VOLUMES THAT WOULD BEAR IT 
 OVER STRINGS, LIKE CLOTHES, TO DRY." 
 
 London. Scorched and sodden, the salvage came into 
 the hands of Mr, Overall, their indefatigable librarian. 
 In a hired attic, he hung up the volumes that would 
 bear it over strings, like clothes, to dry, and there for 
 weeks and weeks were the stained, distorted volumes, 
 
1 
 
 FIRE 15 
 
 often without covers, often in single leaves, carefully 
 tended and dry-nursed. Washing, sizing, pressing, 
 and binding effected wonders, and no one who to-day 
 looks upon the attractive little alcove in the Guildhall 
 Library, labelled iijibliotheca |Coitl)ino- 
 
 iGelgiCit,” and sees the rows of handsomely-lettered 
 backs, could imagine that not long ago this, the most 
 curious portion of the City’s literary collections, was in 
 a state when a five-pound note would have seemed 
 more than full value for the lot. 
 
WA TER. 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 f: 
 
 j 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WATER. 
 
 EXT to Fire we must rank Water in its two 
 forms, liquid and vapour, as the greatest 
 destroyer of books. Thousands of volumes 
 have been actually drowned at Sea, and no more 
 heard of them than of the Sailors to whose charge 
 they were committed. D’Israeli narrates that, about 
 the year 1700, Heer Hudde, an opulent burgo- 
 master of Middleburgh, travelled for 30 years disguised 
 as a mandarin, throughout the length and breadth of 
 the Celestial Empire. Everywhere he collected books, 
 and his extensive literary treasures were at length 
 safely shipped for transmission to Europe, but, to the 
 irreparable loss of his native country, they never 
 reached their destination, the vessel having foundered 
 in a storm. 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
20 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 In 1785 died the famous Maffei Pinelli, whose 
 library was celebrated throughout the world. It had 
 been collected by the Pinelli family for many genera- 
 tions and comprised an extraordinary number of 
 Greek, Latin, and Italian works, many of them 
 first editions, beautifully illuminated, together with 
 numerous MSS. dating from the nth to the i6th 
 century. The whole library was sold by the executors 
 to Mr. Edwards, bookseller, of Pall Mall, who placed 
 the volumes in three vessels for transport from Venice 
 to London. Pursued by Corsairs, one of the vessels 
 was captured, but the pirate, disgusted at not finding 
 any treasure, threw all the books into the sea. The 
 other two vessels escaped and delivered their freight 
 safely, and in 1789-90 the books which had been so 
 near destruction were sold at the great room in 
 Conduit Street, for more than ^9,000. 
 
 These pirates were more excusable than Moham- 
 med II. who, upon the capture of Constantinople in 
 the 15th century, after giving up the devoted city to 
 be sacked by his licentious soldiers, ordered the books 
 in all the churches as well as the great library of the 
 Emperor Constantine, containing 120,000 Manuscripts, 
 to be thrown into the sea. 
 
 In the shape of rain, water has frequently caused 
 irreparable injury. Positive wet is fortunately of rare 
 occurrence in a library, but is very destructive when it 
 does come, and, if long continued, the substance of the 
 paper succumbs to the unhealthy influence and rots 
 and rots until all fibre disappears, and the paper is 
 
“ HEER HUDDE DISGUISED AS A MANDARIN.” 
 
 P , 19. 
 
i 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 
WATER 
 
 2 I 
 
 reduced to a white decay which crumbles into powder 
 when handled. 
 
 Few old libraries in England are now so thoroughly 
 neglected as they were thirty years ago. The state of 
 many of our Collegiate and Cathedral libraries was at 
 that time simply appalling. I could mention many 
 instances, one especially, where a window having been 
 left broken for a long time, the ivy had pushed through 
 and crept over a row of books, each of which was 
 
 worth hundreds of pounds. In rainy weather the 
 water was conducted, as by a pipe, along the tops of 
 the books and soaked through the whole. 
 
 In another and smaller collection, the rain came 
 straight on to a book - case through a sky - light, 
 saturating continually the top shelf containing Caxtons 
 and other early English books, one of which, although 
 rotten, was sold soon after by permission of the Charity 
 Commissioners for ^200. 
 
 Germany, too, the very birth-place of Printing, 
 
22 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 allows similar destruction to go on unchecked, if the 
 following letter, which appeared about a year ago 
 (1879) in the Academy has any truth in it ; 
 
 “ For some time past the condition of the librar}^ at 
 Wolfenbuttel has been most disgraceful. The building is 
 in so unsafe a condition that portions of the walls and 
 ceilings have fallen in, and the many treasures in Books and 
 MSS. contained in it are exposed to damp and decay. An 
 appeal has been issued that this valuable collection may not 
 be allowed to perish for want of funds, and that it may 
 also be now at length removed to Brunswick, since Wolfen- 
 buttel is entirely deserted as an intellectual centre. No 
 false sentimentality regarding the memory of its former 
 custodians, Leibnitz and Lessing, should hinder this 
 project. Lessing himself would have been the first to 
 urge that the library and its utility should be considered 
 above all things.” 
 
 The collection of books at Wolfenbuttel is simply 
 magnificent, and I cannot but hope the above report 
 was exaggerated. Were these books to be injured for 
 the want of a small sum spent on the roof, it would be 
 a lasting disgrace to the nation. There are so many 
 genuine book-lovers in Fatherland that the commission 
 of such a crime would seem incredible, did not biblio- 
 graphical history teem with similar desecrations.^ 
 
 Water in the form of vapour is a great enemy of 
 books, the damp attacking both outside and inside. 
 Outside it fosters the growth of a white mould or 
 fungus which vegetates upon the edges of the leaves, 
 upon the sides and in the joints of the binding. It is 
 
 This was written in 1879, since which time a new building has 
 been erected. 
 
“ THE GREAT LIBRARY OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE, CONTAINING 120,000 
 MANUSCRIPTS, THROWN INTO THE SEA." 
 
 P. 20 . 
 
 
WATER 
 
 23 
 
 easily wiped off, but not without leaving a plain mark, 
 where the mould-spots have been. Under the micro- 
 scope a mould-spot is seen to be a miniature forest of 
 lovely trees, covered with a beautiful white foliage, 
 upas trees whose roots are embedded in the leather 
 and destroy its texture. 
 
 Inside the book, damp encourages the growth of 
 those ugly brown spots which so often disfigure prints 
 and “ livres de luxe.” Especially it attacks books 
 printed in the early part of this century, when paper- 
 makers had just discovered that they could bleach 
 their rags, and perfectly white paper, well pressed 
 after printing, had become the fashion. This paper, 
 from the inefficient means used to neutralise the 
 bleach, carried the seeds of decay in itself, and when 
 exposed to any damp soon became discoloured with 
 brown stains. Dr. Dibdin’s extravagant biblio- 
 graphical works are mostly so injured ; and although 
 the Doctor’s bibliography is very incorrect, and his 
 spun-out inanities and wearisome affectations often 
 annoy one, yet his books are so beautifully illustrated, 
 and he is so full of personal anecdote and chit chat, 
 that it grieves the heart to see “foxey” stains common 
 in his most superb works. 
 
 In a perfectly dry and w'arm library these spots 
 would probably remain undeveloped, but many 
 endowed as well as private libraries are not in daily 
 use, and are often injured from a false idea that a hard 
 frost and prolonged cold do no injury to a library so 
 long as the weather is dry. The fact is that books 
 
24 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 should never be allowed to get really cold, for when a 
 thaw comes and the weather sets in warm, the air, 
 laden with damp, penetrates the inmost recesses, and 
 working its way between the volumes and even 
 between the leaves, deposits upon their cold surface 
 its moisture. The best preventative of this is a warm 
 atmosphere during the frost, sudden heating when the 
 frost has gone being useless. 
 
 Our worst enemies are sometimes our real friends, 
 and perhaps the best way of keeping libraries entirely 
 free from damp is to circulate our enemy in the shape 
 of hot water through pipes laid under the floor. The 
 facilities now offered for heating such pipes from the 
 outside are so great, the expense comparatively so 
 small, and the direct gain in the expulsion of damp so 
 decided, that where it can be accomplished without 
 much trouble it is well worth the doing. 
 
 At the same time, no system of heating should be 
 allowed to supersede the open grate, which supplies a 
 ventilation to the room as useful to the health of the 
 books as to the health of the occupier. A coal fire is 
 objectionable on many grounds. It is dangerous, 
 dirty, and dusty. On the other hand, an asbestos fire, 
 where the lumps are judiciously laid, gives all the 
 warmth and ventilation of a common fire without any 
 of its annoyances ; and to anyone who loves to be 
 independent of servants, and to know that, however 
 deeply he may sleep over his “ copy,” his fire will not 
 fail to keep awake, an asbestos stove is invaluable. 
 
 It is a mistake also to imagine that keeping the best 
 
WATEH 
 
 25 
 
 bound volumes in a glass-doored book-case is a pre- 
 servative. The damp air will certainly penetrate, and, 
 as the absence of ventilation will assist the formation 
 of mould, the books will be worse off than if they had 
 been placed in open shelves. If security be desirable, 
 by all means abolish the glass, and place ornamental 
 brass wire-work in its stead. Like the writers of old 
 Cookery Books who stamped special receipts with the 
 testimony of personal experience, I can say “probatum 
 est. 
 
GAS AND HEAT. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 GAS AND HEAT. 
 
 HAT a valuable servant is Gas, and how 
 dreadfully we should cry out were it to be 
 banished from our homes ; and yet no one 
 who loves his books should allow a single jet in his 
 library, unless, indeed, he can afford a “ sun light,” 
 which is the form in which it is used in some public 
 libraries, where the whole of the fumes are carried 
 at once into the open air. 
 
 Unfortunately, I can speak from experience of the 
 dire effect of gas in a confined space. Some years 
 ago, when placing the shelves round the small room 
 which, by a euphemism, is called my library, I took 
 the precaution of making two self-acting ventilators 
 which communicated directly with the outer air just 
 under the ceiling. For economy of space as well as of 
 
3 ° 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 temper (for lamps of all kinds are sore trials), I had a 
 gasalier of three lights over the table. The effect was 
 to cause great heat in the upper regions, and in the 
 course of a year or two the leather valance which hung 
 from the window, as well as the fringe which dropped 
 half an inch from each shelf to keep out the dust, was 
 just like tinder, and in some parts actually fell to the 
 ground by its own weight, while the backs of the 
 books upon the top shelves were perished, and 
 crumbled away when touched, being reduced to the 
 consistency of Scotch snuff. This was, of course, due 
 to the sulphur in the gas fumes, which attacks russia 
 quickest, while calf and morocco suffer not quite so 
 much. I remember having a book some years ago 
 from the top shelf in the library of the London Institu- 
 tion, where gas is used, and the whole of the back fell 
 off in my hands, although the volume in other respects 
 seemed quite uninjured. Thousands more were in a 
 similar plight. 
 
 As the paper of the volumes is uninjured, it might 
 be objected that, after all, gas is not so much the 
 enemy of the book itself as of its covering ; but then, 
 re-binding always leaves a book smaller, and often 
 deprives it of leaves at the beginning or end, which 
 the binder’s wisdom has thought useless. Oh, the 
 havoc I have seen committed by binders ! You may 
 assume your most impressive aspect — you may write 
 down your instructions as if you were making your 
 last will and testament — you may swear you will not 
 pay if your books are ploughed — ’tis all in vain ; the 
 
GAS AND HEAT 
 
 31 
 
 creed of a binder is very short, and comprised in a 
 single article, and that article is the one vile word 
 “ Shavings.” But not now will I follow this depressing 
 subject ; binders, as enemies of books, deserve, and 
 shall have, a whole chapter to themselves. 
 
 It is much easier to decry gas than to find a remedy. 
 Sun lights require especial arrangements, and are very 
 expensive, on account of the quantity of gas consumed. 
 The library illumination of the future promises to be 
 the electric light. If only steady and moderate in 
 price, it would be a great boon to public libraries, and 
 perhaps the day is not far distant when it will replace 
 gas, even in private houses. That will, indeed, be a 
 day of jubilee to the literary labourer. The injury 
 done by gas is so generally acknowledged by the 
 heads of our national libraries that it is strictly ex- 
 cluded from their domains, although the danger from 
 explosion and fire, even if the results of combustion 
 were innocuous, would be sufficient cause for its 
 banishment. 
 
 The electric light has been in use for some months 
 in the Reading Room of the British Museum, and is a 
 great boon to the readers. The light is not quite 
 equally diffused, and you must choose particular 
 positions if you want to work happily. There is a 
 great objection, too, in the humming fizz which accom- 
 panies the action of the electricity. There is a still 
 greater objection when small pieces of hot chalk fall 
 on your bald head, an annoyance which has been 
 lately (1880) entirely removed by placing a receptacle 
 
32 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 beneath each burner. You require also to become 
 accustomed to the whiteness of the light before you 
 can altogether forget it. But with all its faults, it 
 confers a great boon upon students, enabling them not 
 only to work three hours longer in the winter-time, 
 but restoring to them the use of foggy and dark days, 
 in which formerly no book-work at all could be 
 pursued.^ 
 
 Heat alone, without any noxious fumes, is, if con- 
 tinuous, very injurious to books, and, without gas, 
 bindings may be utterly destroyed by desiccation, the 
 leather losing all its natural oils by long exposure to 
 much heat. It is, therefore, a great pity to place 
 books high up in a room where heat of any kind is 
 used, for it must rise to the top, and, if sufficient to be 
 of comfort to the readers below, is certain to be hot 
 enough above to injure the bindings. 
 
 The surest way to preserve your books in health is 
 to treat them as you would your own children, who 
 are sure to sicken if confined in an atmosphere which 
 is impure, too hot, too cold, too damp, or too dry. 
 It is just the same with the progeny of literature. 
 
 If any credence may be given to Monkish legends, 
 books have sometimes been preserved in this world 
 only to meet a desiccating fate in the world to come. 
 The story is probably an invention of the enemy, to 
 throw discredit on the learning and ability of the 
 
 ^ 1887. The system in use is still “ Siemens,” but, owing to 
 long experience and improvements, is not now open to the above 
 objections. 
 
GAS AND HEAT 
 
 33 
 
 preaching Friars, an Order which was at constant war 
 with the illiterate secular Clergy. It runs thus : “ In 
 the year 1439 two Minorite friars, who had all their 
 lives collected books, died. In accordance with 
 popular belief, they were at once conducted before 
 the heavenly tribunal to hear their doom, taking with 
 them two asses laden with books. At Heaven’s gate 
 the porter demanded, ‘ Whence came ye ?’ The 
 Minorites replied, ‘ From a monastery of St. Francis.’ 
 
 ‘ Oh !’ said the porter, ‘ then St. Francis shall be your 
 judge. ’ So that saint was summoned, and at sight of 
 the friars and their burden demanded who they were, 
 and why they had brought so many books with them. 
 
 ‘ We are Minorites,’ they humbly replied, ‘ and we 
 have brought these few books with us as a solatium 
 in the new Jerusalem.’ ‘ And you, when on earth, 
 practised the good they teach ?’ sternly demanded the 
 saint, who read their characters at a glance. Their 
 faltering reply was sufficient, and the blessed saint at 
 once passed judgment as follows : ‘ Insomuch as. 
 
 seduced by a foolish vanity, and against your vows of 
 poverty, you have amassed this multitude of books, 
 and thereby and therefor have neglected the duties 
 and broken the rules of your Order, you are now 
 sentenced to read your books for ever and ever in the 
 fires of Hell.’ Immediately, a roaring noise filled the , 
 air, and a flaming chasm opened, in which friars and 
 asses and books were suddenly engulphed.” 
 
DUST AND NEGLECT. 
 
% 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 ■ ¥ 
 
 r' 
 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DUST AND NEGLECT. 
 
 UST upon Books to any extent points to 
 neglect, and neglect means more or less 
 slow Decay. 
 
 A well-gilt top to a book is a great preventive 
 against damage by dust, while to leave books with 
 rough tops and unprotected is sure to produce stains 
 and dirty margins. 
 
 In olden times, when few persons had private 
 collections of books, the collegiate and corporate 
 libraries were of great use to students. The librarians’ 
 duties were then no sinecure, and there was little 
 opportunity for dust to find a resting-place. The 
 Nineteenth Century and the Steam Press ushered 
 in a new era. By degrees the libraries which were 
 
38 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 unendowed fell behind the age, and were consequently 
 neglected. No new works found their way in, and the 
 obsolete old books were left uncared for and unvisited. 
 I have seen many old libraries, the doors of which 
 
 remained unopened 
 
 from week’s end to 
 week’s end ; where 
 you inhaled the dust 
 of paper-decay with 
 every breath, and 
 could not take up a 
 book without sneez- 
 ing ; where old boxes, 
 full of older literature, 
 served as preserves 
 for the book-worm, 
 without even an 
 autumn “ battue ” to 
 thin the breed. Occa- 
 sionally these libraries 
 were (I speak of 
 thirty years ago) put 
 even to vile uses, 
 such as would have 
 
 “COULD NOT TAKE UP A BOOK WITHOUT 
 SNEEZING.” 
 
 shocked all ideas of 
 propriety could our 
 ancestors have foreseen their fate. 
 
 I recall vividly a bright summer morning many years 
 ago, when, in search of Caxtons, I entered the inner 
 quadrangle of a certain wealthy College in one of our 
 
DUST AND NEGLECT 
 
 39 
 
 learned Universities. The buildings around were 
 charming in their grey tones and shady nooks. They 
 had a noble history, too, and their scholarly sons were 
 (and are) not unworthy successors of their ancestral 
 renown. The sun shone warmly, and most of the 
 casements were open. From one came curling a whiff 
 of tobacco ; from another the hum of conversation ; 
 from a third the tones of a piano. A couple of under- 
 graduates sauntered on the shady side, arm in arm, 
 with broken caps and torn gowns — proud insignia of 
 their last term. The grey stone walls were covered 
 with ivy, except where an old dial with its antiquated 
 Latin inscription kept count of the sun’s ascent. The 
 chapel on one side, only distinguishable from the 
 “ rooms ” by the shape of its windows, seemed to keep 
 watch over the morality of the foundation, just as the 
 dining-hall opposite, from whence issued a white-aproned 
 cook, did of its worldly prosperity. As you trod the 
 level pavement, you passed comfortable — nay, dainty — 
 apartments, where lace curtains at the windows, 
 antimacassars on the chairs, the silver biscuit-box and 
 the thin-stemmed wine-glass moderated academic toils. 
 Gilt-backed books on gilded shelf or table caught 
 the eye, and as you turned your glance from the 
 luxurious interiors to the well-shorn lawn in the Quad., 
 with its classic fountain also gilded by sunbeams, the 
 mental vision saw plainly written over the whole “ The 
 L^nion of Luxury and Learning.” 
 
 Surely here, thought I, if anywhere, the old-world 
 literature will be valued and nursed with gracious care ; 
 
40 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 so with a pleasing sense of the general congruity of all 
 around me, I enquired for the rooms of the librarian. 
 Nobody seemed to be quite sure of his name, or upon 
 whom the bibliographical mantle had descended. His 
 post, it seemed, was honorary and a sinecure, being 
 imposed, as a rule, upon the youngest “Fellow.” No 
 one cared for the appointment, and as a matter of course 
 the keys of office had but distant acquaintance with the 
 lock. At last I was rewarded with success, and politely, 
 but mutely, conducted by the librarian into his kingdom 
 of dust and silence. The dark portraits of past 
 benefactors looked after us from their dusty old frames 
 in dim astonishment as we passed, evidently wondering 
 whether we meant “work”; book-decay — that peculiar 
 flavour which haunts certain libraries — was heavy in 
 the air, the floor was dusty, making the sunbeams as 
 we passed bright with atoms ; the shelves were dusty, 
 the “ stands ” in the middle were thick with dust, the 
 old leather table in the bow window, and the chairs on 
 either side, were very dusty. Replying to a question, 
 my conductor thought there was a manuscript catalogue 
 of the Library somewhere, but thought, also, that it 
 was not easy to find any books by it, and he knew not 
 at the minute where to put his hand upon it. The 
 Library, he said, was of little use now, as the Fellows 
 had their own books and very seldom required 17th 
 and 1 8th century editions, and no new books had been 
 added to the collection for a long time. 
 
 We passed down a few steps into an inner library 
 where piles of early folios were wasting away on the 
 

 
 1 \ 
 ,'■1 L 
 
 
 
 r'’ 
 
 W s^ ^nWM 
 f i\ '=^^'‘1^ 
 
 Hr^ 'I9jn 
 
 t:i 
 
 8^ 
 
 ' pBS^B 
 
 1 
 
 “ BOCCACCIO.” 
 
 4 
 
DUST AND NEGLECT 
 
 41 
 
 ground. Beneath an old ebony table were two long 
 carved oak chests. I lifted the lid of one, and at the 
 top was a once white surplice covered with dust, and 
 beneath was a mass of tracts — Commonwealth quartos, 
 unbound — a prey to worms and decay. All was 
 neglect. The outer 
 door of this room, 
 which was open, was 
 nearly on a level with 
 the Quadrangle ; 
 some coats and 
 trousers and boots 
 were upon the ebony 
 table, and a “ gyp ” 
 was brushing away at 
 them just within the 
 door — in wet weather 
 he performed these 
 functions entirely 
 within the librarv — 
 as innocent of the in- 
 congruity of his posi- 
 tion as my guide 
 himself. Oh ! Richard 
 of Bury, I sighed, for a sharp stone from your sling to 
 pierce with indignant sarcasm the mental armour of 
 these College dullards. 
 
 Happily, things are altered now, and the disgrace of 
 such neglect no longer hangs on the College. Let us 
 
 ‘AND A ‘gyp’ was BRUSHING 
 AWAY AT THEM.” 
 
42 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 hope, in these days of revived respect for antiquity, no 
 other College library is in a similar plight. 
 
 Not Englishmen alone are guilty, however, of such 
 unloving treatment of their bibliographical treasures. 
 The following is translated from an interesting work 
 just published in Paris,^ and shows how, even at this 
 very time, and in the centre of the literary activity of 
 France, books meet their fate. 
 
 M. Derome loquitur : — 
 
 “ Let us now enter the communal library of some large 
 provincial town. The interior has a lamentable appear- 
 ance ; dust and disorder have made it their home. It has 
 a librarian, but he has the consideration of a porter only, 
 and goes but once a week to see the state of the books 
 committed to his care ; they are in a bad state, piled in 
 heaps and perishing in corners for want of attention and 
 binding. At this present time (1879) more than one public 
 library in Paris could be mentioned in which thousands of 
 books are received annually, all of which will have dis- 
 appeared in the course of 50 years or so for want of binding ; 
 there are rare books, impossible to replace, falling to pieces 
 because no care is given to them, that is to say, they are 
 left unbound, a prey to dust and the worm, and cannot be 
 touched without dismemberment.” 
 
 All history shows that this neglect belongs not to 
 any particular age or nation. I extract the following 
 story from Edmond Werdet’s “ Histoire du Livre.”^ 
 
 “ The Poet Boccaccio, when travelling in Apulia, was 
 anxious to visit the celebrated Convent of Mount Cassin, 
 
 ^ “Le luxe des Livres,” par L. Derome. 8vo, Paris, 1879. 
 
 “Histoire du Livre en France,” par E. Werdet. 8vo, Paris, 
 1851. 
 
i 
 
DUST AND NEGLECT 
 
 43 
 
 especially to see its library, of which he had heard much. 
 He accosted, with great courtesy, one of the monks 
 whose countenance attracted him, and begged him to have 
 the kindness to show him the library. ‘ See for yourself,’ 
 said the monk brusquely, pointing at the same time to an 
 old stone staircase, broken with age. Boccaccio hastily 
 mounted in great joy at the prospect of a grand biblio- 
 graphical treat. Soon he reached the room, which was 
 without key or even door as protection to its treasures. 
 What was his astonishment to see that the grass growing 
 in the window-sills actually darkened the room, and that all 
 the books and seats were an inch thick in dust. In utter 
 astonishment he lifted one book after another. All were 
 manuscripts of extreme antiquity, but all were dreadfully 
 dilapidated. Many had lost whole sections which had 
 been violently extracted, and in many all the blank margins 
 of the vellum had been cut away. In fact, the mutilation 
 was thorough. 
 
 “ Grieved at seeing the work and the wisdom of so many 
 illustrious men fallen into the hands of custodians so 
 unworthy, Boccaccio descended with tears in his eyes. In 
 the cloisters he met another monk, and enquired of him 
 how the MSS. had become so mutilated. ‘ Oh !’ he replied, 
 
 ‘ we are obliged, you know, to earn a few sous for our needs, 
 so we cut away the blank margins of the manuscripts for 
 writing upon, and make of them small books of devotion, 
 which we sell to women and children.” 
 
 As a postscript to this story, Mr. Timmins, of 
 Birmingham, informs me that the treasures of the 
 Monte Cassino Library are better cared for now than 
 in Boccaccio’s days, the worthy prior being proud of his 
 valuable MSS. and very willing to show them. It will 
 interest many readers to know that there is now a 
 complete printing office, lithographic as well as typo- 
 
44 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 graphic, at full work in one large room of the Monastery, 
 where their wonderful MS. of Dante has been already 
 reprinted, and where other fac-simile works are now in 
 progress. 
 
IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY. 
 

 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY. 
 
 GNO RANGE, though not in the same cate- 
 gory as fire and water, is a great destroyer 
 of books. At the Reformation so strong 
 was the antagonism of the people generally to any- 
 thing like the old idolatry of the Romish Church, that 
 they destroyed by thousands books, secular as well 
 as sacred, if they contained but illuminated letters 
 Unable to read, they saw no difference between a 
 romance and a psalter, between King Arthur and 
 King David ; and so the paper books with all their 
 artistic ornaments went to the bakers to heat their 
 ovens, and the parchment manuscripts, however beau- 
 tifully illuminated, to the binders and boot makers. 
 
 There is another kind of ignorance which has often 
 
THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 48 
 
 worked destruction, as shown by the following anecdote, 
 which is extracted from a letter written in 1862 by 
 M. Philarete Chasles to Mr. B. Beedham, of 
 Kimbolton : — 
 
 “ Ten years ago, when turning out an old closet in the 
 Mazarin Library, of which I am librarian, I discovered at 
 the bottom, under a lot of old rags and rubbish, a large 
 volume. It had no cover nor title-page, and had been used 
 to light the fires of the librarians. This shows how great 
 was the negligence towards our literary treasure before the 
 Revolution ; for the pariah volume, which, 60 years before, 
 had been placed in the Invalides, and which had certainly 
 formed part of the original Mazarin collections, turned out 
 to be a fine and genuine Caxton.” 
 
 I saw this identical volume in the Mazarin Library 
 in April, 1880. It is a noble copy of the First Edition 
 of the “ Golden Legend,” 1483, but of course very 
 imperfect. 
 
 Among the millions of events in this world which 
 cross and re-cross one another, remarkable coincidences 
 must often occur ; and a case exactly similar to that at 
 the Mazarin Library happened about the same time 
 in London, at the French Protestant Church, St. 
 Martin’s-le-Grand. Many years ago I discovered 
 there, in a dirty pigeon-hole close to the grate in the 
 vestry, a fearfully mutilated copy of Caxton’s edition of 
 the Canterbury Tales, with woodcuts. Like the book 
 at Paris, it had long been used, leaf by leaf, in utter 
 ignorance of its value, to light the vestry fire. 
 Originally worth at least ^800, it was then worth 
 half, and, of course, I energetically drew the attention 
 
IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY 
 
 49 
 
 of the minister in charge to it, as well as to another 
 grand folio by Rood and Hunte, 1480. Some years 
 elapsed, and then the Ecclesiastical Commissioners 
 took the foundation in hand, but when at last Trustees 
 were appointed, and the valuable library was re-arranged 
 and catalogued, this “ Caxton,” together with the fine 
 copy of “ Latterbury ” from the first Oxford Press, had 
 disappeared entirely. Whatever ignorance may have 
 
 been displayed in the mutilation, quite another word 
 should be applied to the disappearance. 
 
 The following anecdote is so apropos, that although 
 it has lately appeared in No. i of The Antiquary, I 
 cannot resist the temptation of re-printing it, as a 
 warning to inheritors of old libraries. The account 
 was copied by me years ago from a letter written 
 in 1847, by the Rev. C. F. Newmarsh, Rector of 
 
50 
 
 THE ENEMIES OE BOOKS 
 
 Pelham, to the Rev. S. R. Maitland, Librarian to the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and is as follows : — 
 
 “In June, 1844, a pedlar called at a cottage in Blyton 
 and asked an old widow, named Naylor, whether she had 
 
 “A COLLECTOR OF BOOKS WENT IN AND OFFERED HALF A CROWN FOR IT." 
 
 any rags to sell. She answered. No! but offered him 
 some old paper, and took from a shelf the ‘ Boke of St. ^ 
 Albans’ and others, weighing g lbs., for which she received 
 gd. The pedlar carried them through Gainsborough tied 
 

 k '!' 1 
 
 
 MB (i 
 
 
 
 : 
 
 1 ^^ 
 
 BIr i 
 
 ■ li 
 
 THE " BOKE OF ST. ALBANS.” 
 
 P . 50. 
 
y ; 
 
 
 
 ' ’ . ' r,; 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 ■ / 
 ; 
 
 •## 
 
 y>^. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY 
 
 51 
 
 up in string, past a chemist’s shop, who, being used to buy 
 old paper to wrap his drugs in, called the man in, and, 
 struck by the appearance of the ‘ Boke,’ gave him 3s. for 
 the lot. Not being able to read the Colophon, he took it 
 to an equally ignorant stationer, and offered it to him for a 
 guinea, at which price he declined it, but proposed that it 
 should be exposed in his window as a means of eliciting 
 some information about it. It was accordingly placed there 
 with this label, ‘Very old curious work.’ A collector of 
 books went in and offered half a crown for it, which excited 
 the suspicion of the vendor. Soon after Mr. Bird, Vicar of 
 Gainsborough, went in and asked the price, wishing to 
 possess a very early specimen of printing, but not knowing 
 the value of the book. While he was examining it. Stark, 
 a very intelligent bookseller, came in, to whom Mr. Bird at 
 once ceded the right of pre-emption. Stark betrayed such 
 visible anxiety that the vendor. Smith, declined setting a 
 price. Soon after Sir C. Anderson, of Lea (author of 
 ‘ Ancient Models ’), came in and took away the book to collate, 
 but brought it back in the morning, having found it im- 
 perfect in the middle, and offered £1, for it. Sir Charles 
 had no book of reference to guide him to its value. But in 
 the meantime Stark had employed a friend to obtain for 
 him the refusal of it, and had undertaken to give for it a 
 little more than any sum Sir Charles might offer. On find- 
 ing that at least £^ could be got for it, Smith went to the 
 chemist and gave him two guineas, and then sold it to 
 Stark’s agent for seven guineas. Stark took it to London, 
 and sold it at once to the Rt. Hon. Thos. Grenville for 
 seventy pounds or guineas. 
 
 “ I have now shortly to state how it came that a book 
 without covers of such extreme age was preserved. About 
 fifty years since, the library of Thonock Hall, in the parish 
 of Gainsborough, the seat of the Hickman family, under- 
 went great repairs, the books being sorted over by a most 
 ignorant person, whose selection seems to have been 
 determined by the coat. All books without covers were 
 
 5 
 
52 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 thrown into a great heap, and condemned to all the pur- 
 poses which Leland laments in the sack of the conventual 
 libraries by the visitors. But they found favour in the eyes 
 of a literate gardener, who begged leave to take what he 
 liked home. He selected a large quantity of Sermons 
 preached before the House of Commons, local pamphlets, 
 tracts from 1680 to 1710, opera books, etc. He made a list 
 of them, which I found afterwards in the cottage. In the 
 list. No. 43 was ‘ Cotarmouris,’ or the ‘ Boke of St. Albans.’ 
 The old fellow was something of a herald, and drew in his 
 books what he held to be his coat. After his death, all that 
 could be stuffed into a large chest were put away in a 
 garret ; but a few favourites, and the ‘ Boke ’ among them, 
 remained on the kitchen shelves for years, till his son’s 
 widow grew so ‘ stalled ’ of dusting them that she determined 
 to sell them. 
 
 “ Had she been in poverty, I should have urged on the 
 buyer, Stark, the duty of giving her a small sum out of 
 his great gains.” 
 
 Such chances as this do not fall to a man’s lot twice ; 
 but Edmond Werdet relates a story very similar indeed, 
 and where also the “ plums ” fell into the lap of a 
 London dealer. 
 
 In 1775, the Recollet Monks of Antwerp, wishing 
 to make a reform, examined their library, and deter- 
 mined to get rid of about 1,500 volumes — some 
 manuscript and some printed, but all of which they 
 considered as old rubbish of no value. 
 
 At first they were thrown into the gardener’s rooms ; 
 but after some months they decided in their wisdom 
 to give the whole refuse to the gardener as a recognition 
 of his long services. 
 
 This man, wiser in his generation than these simple 
 
IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY 
 
 S3 
 
 fathers, took the lot to M. Vanderberg, an amateur and 
 man of education. M. Vanderberg took a cursory view, 
 and then offered to buy them by weight at sixpence 
 per pound. The bargain was at once concluded, and 
 M. Vanderbergf had the books. 
 
 Shortly after, Mr. Stark, a welbknown London book- 
 seller, being in Antwerp, called on M. Vanderberg, 
 and was shown the books. He at once offered 14,000 
 francs for them, which was accepted. Imagine the 
 surprise and chagrin of the poor monks when they heard 
 of it ! They knew they had no remedy, and so 
 dumfounded were they by their own ignorance, that 
 they humbly requested M. Vanderberg to relieve their 
 minds by returning some portion of his large gains. 
 He gave them 1,200 francs. 
 
 The great Shakespearian and other discoveries, 
 which were found in a garret at Lamport Hall in 
 1867 by Mr. Edmonds, are too well-known and too 
 recent to need description. In this case mere chance 
 seems to have led to the preservation of works the 
 very existence of which set the ears of all lovers of 
 Shakespeare a-tingling. 
 
 In the summer of 1877 a gentleman with whom I 
 was well acquainted took lodgings in Preston Street, 
 Brighton. The morning after his arrival, he found in 
 the w.c. some leaves of an old black-letter book. He 
 asked permission to retain them, and inquired if there 
 were any more where they came from. Two or three 
 other fragments were found, and the landlady stated 
 that her father, who was fond of antiquities, had at one 
 
54 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 time a chest full of old black-letter books ; that, upon 
 his death, they were preserved till she was tired of 
 seeing them, and then, supposing them of no value, 
 she had used them for waste ; that for two years and a 
 half they had served for various household purposes, 
 but she had just come to the end of them. The 
 fragments preserved, and now in my possession, are a 
 goodly portion of one of the. most rare books from the 
 press of Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton’s successor. The 
 title is a curious woodcut, with the words “ Gesta 
 Romanorum ” engraved in an odd-shaped black letter. 
 It has also numerous rude woodcuts throughout. It 
 was from this very work that Shakespeare in all 
 probability derived the story of the three caskets 
 which in “ The Merchant of Venice ” forms so integral 
 a portion of the plot. Only think of that cloaca 
 being supplied daily with such dainty bibliographical 
 treasures ! 
 
 In the Lansdowne Collection at the British Museum 
 is a volume containing three manuscript dramas of 
 Queen Elizabeth’s time, and on a fly-leaf is a list of 
 fifty-eight plays, with this note at the foot, in the 
 handwriting of the well-known antiquary. War burton : 
 
 “ After I had been many years collecting these Manuscript 
 Playes, through my own carelessness and the ignorance of 
 my servant, they was unluckely burned or put under pye 
 bottoms.” 
 
 Some of these “ Playes ” are preserved in print, but 
 others are quite unknown, and perished for ever when 
 used as ‘‘ pye-bottoms.” 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 ( 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 “THEY HAD SERVED FOR 
 
 VARIOUS HOUSEHOLD PURPOSES.” 
 
 P- 54 - 
 
 [ 
 
 I 
 
 !i 
 
IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY 
 
 55 
 
 Mr. W. B. Rye, late Keeper of the Printed Books 
 at our great National Library, thus writes : 
 
 “ On the subject of ignorance you should some day, when 
 at the British Museum, look at Lydgate’s translation of 
 Boccaccio’s ‘ Fall of Princes,’ printed by Pynson in 1494. 
 It is ‘liber rarissimus.’ This copy when perfect had been 
 very fine and quite uncut. On one fine summer afternoon 
 in 1874 it was brought to me by a tradesman living at 
 Lamberhurst. Many of the leaves had been cut into 
 squares, and the whole had been rescued from a tobacconist’s 
 shop, where the pieces were being used to wrap up tobacco 
 and snuff. The owner wanted to buy a new silk gown for 
 his wife, and was delighted with three guineas for this 
 purpose. You will notice how cleverly the British Museum 
 binder has joined the leaves, making it, although still 
 imperfect, a fine book.” 
 
 Referring to the carelessness exhibited by some 
 custodians of parish registers, Mr. Noble, who has 
 had great experience in such matters, writes : 
 
 “ A few months ago I wanted a search made of the time 
 of Charles I. in one of the most interesting registers in a 
 large town (which shall be nameless) in England. I wrote 
 to the custodian of it, and asked him kindly to do the 
 search for me, and, if he was unable to read the names, to 
 get someone who understood the writing of that date to 
 decipher the entries for me. I did not have a reply for a 
 fortnight, but one morning the postman brought me a very 
 large unregistered book-packet, which I found to be the 
 original parish registers ! He, however, addressed a note 
 with it stating that he thought it best to send me the 
 document itself to look at, and begged me to be good 
 enough to return the register to him as soon as done with. 
 He evidently wished to serve me — his ignorance of responsi- 
 
56 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 bility without doubt proving his kindly disposition, and on 
 that account alone I forbear to name him ; but I can 
 assure you I was heartily glad to have a letter from him 
 in due time announcing that the precious documents 
 were once more locked up in the parish chest. Certainly, 
 I think such as he to be ‘ enemies of books.’ Don’t 
 you ?” 
 
 Bigotry has also many sins to answer for. The 
 late M. Muller, of Amsterdam, a bookseller of Euro- 
 pean fame, wrote to me as follows a few weeks before 
 his death : 
 
 “ Of course, we also, in Holland, have many enemies of 
 books, and if I were happy enough to have your spirit and 
 style, I would try and write a companion volume to yours. 
 Now, I think the best thing I can do is to give you some- 
 what of my experience. You say that the discovery of 
 printing has made the destruction of anybody’s books 
 difficult. At this I am bound to say that the Inquisition 
 did succeed most successfully, by burning heretical books, 
 in destroying numerous volumes invaluable for their whole- 
 some contents. Indeed, I beg to state to you the amazing 
 fact that here in Holland exists an Ultramontane Society 
 called ‘ Old Paper,’ which is under the sanction of the six 
 Catholic Bishops of the Netherlands, and is spread over 
 the whole kingdom. The openly-avowed object of this 
 society is to buy up and to destroy as waste paper all the 
 Protestant and Liberal Catholic newspapers, pamphlets and 
 books, the price of which is offered to the Pope as ‘ Deniers 
 de St. Pierre.’ Of course, this society is very little known 
 among Protestants, and many have denied even its existence ; 
 but I have been fortunate enough to obtain a printed 
 circular issued by one of the Bishops containing statistics 
 of the astounding mass of paper thus collected, producing 
 in one district alone the sum of £1,200 in three months. I 
 
IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY 
 
 57 
 
 need not tell you that this work is strongly promoted by the 
 Catholic clergy. You can have no idea of the difficulty we 
 now have in procuring certain books published but 30, 40, 
 or 50 years ago of an ephemeral character. Historical and 
 theological books are very rare ; novels and poetry of that 
 period are absolutely not to be found ; medical and law 
 books are more common. I am bound to say that in no 
 country have more books been printed and more destroyed 
 than in Holland. 
 
 W. Muller.” 
 
 The policy of buying up all objectionable literature 
 seems to me, I confess, very shortsighted, and in most 
 cases would lead to a greatly increased reprint ; it 
 certainly would in these latitudes. 
 
 From the Church of Rome to the Church of England 
 is no great leap, and Mr. Smith, the Brighton book- 
 seller, gives evidence thus : 
 
 “ It may be worth your while to note that the clergy of 
 the last two centuries ought to be included in your list (of 
 biblioclasts). I have had painful experience of the fact in 
 the following manner. Numbers of volumes in their 
 libraries have had a few leaves removed, and in many 
 others whole sections torn out. I suppose it served their 
 purpose thus to use the wisdom of greater men, and that 
 they thus economized their own time by tearing out portions 
 to suit their purpose. The hardship to the trade is this : 
 their books are purchased in good faith as perfect, and 
 when resold the buyer is quick to claim damage if found 
 defective, while the seller has no redress.” 
 
 Among the careless destroyers of books still at work 
 should be classed Government officials. Cart-loads of 
 interesting documents, bound and unbound, have been 
 
THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 S8 
 
 sold at various times as waste-paper/ when modern 
 red-tape thought them but rubbish. Some of them 
 have been rescued and resold at high prices, but some 
 have been lost for ever. 
 
 In 1854 a very interesting series of blue-books was 
 commenced by the authorities of the Patent Office, of 
 course paid for out of the national purse. Beginning 
 with the year 1617, the particulars of every important 
 patent were printed from the original specifications, 
 and facsimile drawings made, where necessary, for the 
 elucidation of the text. A very moderate price was 
 charged for each, only, indeed, the prime cost of pro- 
 duction. The general public, of course, cared little for 
 such literature, but those interested in the origin and 
 progress of any particular art cared much, and many 
 sets of patents were purchased by those engaged in 
 research. But the great bulk of the stock was, to 
 some extent, inconvenient, and so, when a removal to 
 other offices, in 1879, became necessary, the question 
 arose as to what could be done with them. These 
 blue-books, which had cost the nation many thousands 
 of pounds, were positively sold to the paper-mills as 
 waste-paper, and nearly 100 tons weight were carted 
 away at about per ton. It is difficult to believe, 
 although positively true, that so great an act of 
 vandalism could have been perpetrated, even in a 
 
 1 Nell Gwyn’s private Housekeeping Book was among them, con- 
 taining most curious particulars of what was necessary in the time of 
 Charles I. for a princely household. Fortunately it was among the 
 rescued, and is now in a private library. 
 
IGNORANCE AND BIGOTRY 
 
 59 
 
 
 Government office. It is true that no demand existed 
 for some of them, but it is equally true that in numerous 
 cases, especially in the early specifications of the steam- 
 engine and printing-machine, the want of them has 
 caused great disappointment. To add a climax to the 
 story, many of the “pulped” specifications have had 
 to be reprinted more than once since their destruction. 
 
THE BOOKWORM. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BOOKWORM. 
 
 HERE is a sort of busy worm 
 That will the fairest books deform, 
 
 By gnawing holes throughout them ; 
 Alike, through every leaf they go. 
 
 Yet of its merits naught they know. 
 
 Nor care they aught about them. 
 
 Their tasteless tooth will tear and taint 
 The Poet, Patriot, Sage or Saint, 
 
 Not sparing wit nor learning. 
 
 Now, if you’d know the reason why. 
 
 The best of reasons I’ll supply : 
 
 ’Tis bread to the poor vermin. 
 
 Of pepper, snuff, or ’bacca smoke, 
 
 And Russia calf, they make a joke. 
 
 Yet why should sons of science 
 These puny rankling reptiles dread ? 
 
 ’Tis but to let their books be read. 
 
 And bid the worms defiance. 
 
 J. Doraston. 
 
64 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 A most destructive enemy of books has been the 
 bookworm. I say “has been,” because, fortunately, 
 his ravages in all civilized countries have been greatly 
 restricted during the last fifty years. This is due 
 partly to the increased reverence for antiquity which 
 has been universally developed — more still to the 
 feeling of cupidity, which has caused all owners to 
 take care of volumes which year by year have become 
 more valuable — and, to some considerable extent, to 
 the falling off in the production of edible books. 
 
 The monks, who were the chief makers as well as 
 the custodians of books, through the long ages we call 
 “ dark,” because so little is known of them, had no 
 fear of the bookworm before their eyes, for, ravenous 
 as he is and was, he loves not parchment, and at that 
 time paper was not. Whether at a still earlier period 
 he attacked the papyrus, the paper of the Egyptians, 
 I know not — probably he did, as it was a purely 
 vegetable substance ; and if so, it is quite possible that 
 the worm of to-day, in such evil repute with us, is the 
 lineal descendant of ravenous ancestors who plagued 
 the sacred priests of On in the time of Joseph’s 
 Pharaoh, by destroying their title deeds and their 
 books of science. 
 
 Rare things and precious, as manuscripts were 
 before the invention of typography, are well preserved, 
 but when the printing-press was invented, and paper 
 books were multiplied in the earth ; when libraries 
 increased and readers were many, then familiarity bred 
 contempt ; books were packed in out-of-the-way places 
 
THE BOOKWORM 
 
 65 
 
 and neglected, and the oft-quoted, though seldom seen, 
 bookworm became an acknowledged tenant of the 
 library, and the mortal enemy of the bibliophile. 
 
 Anathemas have been hurled against this pest in 
 nearly every European language, old and new, and 
 classical scholars of bygone centuries have thrown 
 their spondees and dactyls at him. Pierre Petit, 
 in 1683, devoted a long Latin poem to his dispraise, 
 and Parnell’s charming ode is well known. Hear the 
 poet lament : 
 
 “ Pene tu mihi passerem Catulli, 
 
 Pene tu mihi Lesbiam abstulisti 
 
 and then : 
 
 “ Quid dicam innumeros bene eruditos 
 Quorum tu monumenta tu labores 
 Isti pessimo ventre devorasti ?” 
 
 while Petit, who was evidently moved by strong 
 personal feelings against the “ invisum pecus,” as he 
 calls him, addresses his little enemy as “ bestia 
 audax ” and “ pestis chartarum.” 
 
 But, as a portrait commonly precedes a biography, 
 the curious reader may wish to be told what this 
 “bestia audax,” who so greatly ruffles the tempers of 
 our eclectics, is like. Here, at starting, is a serious 
 chameleon-like difficulty, for the bookworm offers to 
 us, if we are guided by their words, as many varieties 
 of size and shape as there are beholders, 
 
 Sylvester, in his “ Laws of Verse,” with more words 
 than wit, described him as “a microscopic creature 
 
 6 
 
66 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 wriggling on the learned page, which, when discovered, 
 stiffens out into the resemblance of a streak of dirt.” 
 
 The earliest notice is in “ Micrographia,” by R. 
 Hooke, folio, London, 1665. This work, which was 
 printed at the expense of the Royal Society of London, 
 is an account of innumerable things examined by the 
 author under the microscope, and is most interesting 
 for the frequent accuracy of the author’s observations, 
 and most amusing for his equally frequent blunders. 
 
 In his account of the bookworm, his remarks, which 
 are rather long and very minute, are absurdly 
 blundering. He calls it “ a small white silver-shining 
 Worm or Moth, which I found much conversant 
 among books and papers, and is supposed to be that 
 which corrodes and eats holes thro’ the leaves and 
 covers. Its head appears bigg and blunt, and its body 
 tapers from it towards the tail, smaller and smaller, 
 being shap’d almost like a carret. . . . It has two long 
 horns before, which are streight, and tapering towards 
 the top, curiously ring’d or knobb’d and brisled much 
 like the marsh weed called horses tail. . . . The hinder 
 part is terminated with three tails, in every particular 
 resembling the two longer horns that grow out of the 
 head. The legs are scal’d and hair’d. This animal 
 probably feeds upon the paper and covers of books, 
 and perforates in them several small round holes, 
 finding, perhaps, a convenient nourishment in those 
 husks of hemp and flax, which have passed through so 
 many scourings, washings, dressings, and dryings as 
 the parts of old paper necessarily have suffer’d. And, 
 
THE BOOKWORM 
 
 67 
 
 indeed, when I consider what a heap of sawdust or 
 chips this little creature (which is one of the teeth of 
 Time) conveys into its intrals, I cannot chuse but 
 remember and admire the excellent contrivance of 
 Nature in placing in animals such a fire, as is con- 
 tinually nourished and supply ’d by the materials 
 convey’d into the stomach and fomented by the 
 bellows of the lungs.” The picture or “ image,” 
 which accompanies this description, is wonderful to 
 behold. Certainly R. Hooke, Fellow of the Royal 
 Society, drew somewhat upon his imagination here, 
 having apparently evolved both engraving and descrip- 
 tion from his inner consciousness.* 
 
 Entomologists even do not appear to have paid much 
 attention to the natural history of the “ worm.” 
 Kirby, speaking of it, says, “ the larvae of Crambus 
 pinguinalis spins a robe which it covers with its own 
 excrement, and does no little injury.” Again, “ I have 
 often observed the caterpillar of a little moth that takes 
 its station in damp old books, and there commits great 
 ravages, and many a black-letter rarity, which in these 
 days of bibliomania would have been valued at its 
 weight in gold, has been snatched by these devas- 
 tators,” etc. 
 
 As already quoted, Doraston’s description is very 
 vague. To him he is in one verse “a sort of busy 
 
 ^ Not so ! Several correspondents have drawn my attention to the 
 fact that Hooke is evidently describing the “ Lepisma,” which, if not 
 positively injurious, is often found in the warm places of old houses, 
 especially if a little damp. He mistook this for the bookworm. 
 
68 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 worm,” and in another “ a puny rankling reptile.” 
 Hannett, in his work on bookbinding, gives “ Aglossa 
 pinguinalis ” as the real name, and Mrs. Gatty, in her 
 “ Parables,” christens it “ Hypothenemus eruditus.” 
 
 The Rev. F. T. Havergal, who many years ago had 
 much trouble with bookworms in the Cathedral Library 
 of Hereford, says they are a kind of death-watch, with 
 a “ hard outer skin, and are dark brown,” another sort 
 “having white bodies with brown spots on their heads.’ 
 Mr. Holme, in Notes and Queries for 1870, states 
 that the Anobium paniceum has done considerable 
 injury to the Arabic manuscripts brought from Cairo 
 by Burckhardt, and now in the University Library, 
 Cambridge. Other writers say “ Acarus eruditus ” or 
 “Anobium pertinax ” are the correct scientific names. 
 
 Personally, I have come across but few specimens ; 
 nevertheless, from what I have been told by librarians, 
 and judging from analogy, I imagine the following to 
 be about the truth : 
 
 There are several kinds of caterpillar and grub which 
 eat into books; those with legs are the larvae of moths ; 
 those without legs, or, rather, with rudimentary legs, 
 are grubs, and turn to beetles. 
 
 It is not known whether any species of caterpillar or 
 grub can live generation after generation upon books 
 alone, but several sorts of wood-borers, and others 
 which live upon vegetable refuse, will attack paper, 
 especially if attracted in the first place by the real 
 wooden boards in which it was the custom of the old 
 bookbinders to clothe their volumes. In this belief. 
 
THE BOOKWORM 
 
 69 
 
 some country librarians object to opening the library 
 windows, lest the enemy should fly in from the neigh- 
 bouring woods, and rear a brood of worms. Anyone, 
 indeed, who has seen a hole in a filbert, or a piece of 
 
 ^ No. I — THE IMAGE OF 
 THE BOOKWORM AS IT IS 
 GIVEN IN " MTCROGRAPHIA," 
 BY R. HOOKE, FELLOW OF 
 THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Fo. London, 1665. 
 
 No. 2.— ANOBIUM, NATURAL 
 SIZE. 
 
 No. 3. — ANOBIUM, MAGNI- 
 FIED. 
 
 wood riddled by dry rot, will recognise a similarity of 
 appearance in the channels made by these insect 
 enemies. 
 
 Among the paper-eating species are : 
 
70 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 1. The Anobium . — Of this beetle there are 
 
 varieties, viz. : A. pertinax, A. erudites, and 
 
 A. paniceum. In the lava state they are grubs, just 
 like those found in nuts ; in this stage they are too 
 much alike to be distinguished from one another. 
 They feed on old dry wood, and often infest bookcases 
 and shelves. They eat the wooden boards of old 
 books, and so pass into the paper, where they make 
 long holes quite round, except when they work in a 
 slanting direction, when the holes appear to be oblong. 
 They will thus pierce through several volumes in suc- 
 cession, Peignot, the well-known bibliographer, having 
 found 27 volumes so pierced in a straight line by one 
 worm, a miracle of gluttony, the story of which, for 
 myself, I receive mm gram salis. After a certain 
 time the larva changes into a pupa, and then emerges 
 as a small brown beetle. 
 
 2. CEcopAora.— This larva is similar in size to 
 that of Anobium, but can be distinguished at once by 
 having legs. It is a caterpillar, with six legs upon its 
 thorax and eight sucker-like protuberances on its body, 
 like a silk- worm. It changes into a chrysalis, and 
 then assumes its perfect shape as a small brown moth. 
 The species that attacks books is the CEcophora 
 pseudospretella. It loves damp and w'armth, and eats 
 any fibrous material. This caterpillar is quite unlike 
 any garden species, and, excepting the legs, is very 
 similar in appearance and size to the Anobium. It is 
 about half an inch long, with a horny head and strong 
 jaws. To printers’ ink or writing ink he appears to 
 
THE BOOKWORM 
 
 71 
 
 have no great dislike, though I imagine that the 
 former often disagrees with his health, unless he is 
 very robust, as in books where the print is pierced a 
 majority of the wormholes I have seen are too short 
 in extent to have provided food enough for the 
 development of the grub. But, although the ink 
 may be unwholesome, many grubs survive, and, 
 eating day and night in silence and darkness, work 
 out their destiny, leaving, according to the strength 
 of their constitutions, a longer or shorter tunnel in 
 the volume. 
 
 In December, 1879, Mr. Birdsall, a well-known 
 bookbinder of Northampton, kindly sent me by post 
 a fat little worm, which had been found by one of his 
 workmen in an old book while being bound. He bore 
 his journey extremely well, being very lively when 
 turned out. I placed him in a box in warmth and 
 quiet, with some small fragments of paper from a 
 Boethius, printed by Caxton, and a leaf of a seven- 
 teenth-century book. He ate a small piece of the leaf, 
 but, either from too much fresh air, from unaccustomed 
 liberty, or from change of food, he gradually weakened, 
 and died in about three weeks. I was sorry to lose 
 him, as I wished to verify his name in his perfect 
 state. Mr. Waterhouse, of the Entomological Depart- 
 ment of the British Museum, very kindly examined 
 him before death, and was of opinion he was QEcophora 
 pseudospretella. 
 
 In July, 1885, Dr. Garnett, of the British Museum, 
 gave me two worms which had been found in an old 
 
72 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 Hebrew commentary just received from Athens. 
 They had doubtless had a good shaking on the 
 journey, and one was moribund when I took charge, 
 and joined his defunct kindred in a few days. The 
 other seemed hearty, and lived with me for nearly 
 eighteen months. I treated him as well as I knew 
 how ; placed him in a small box with the choice of 
 three sorts of old paper to eat, and very seldom 
 disturbed him. He evidently resented his confine- 
 ment — ate very little, moved very little, and changed 
 in appearance very little, even when dead. This 
 Greek worm, filled with Hebrew lore, differed in many 
 respects from any other I have seen. He was longer, 
 thinner, and more delicate-looking than any of his 
 English congeners. He was transparent, like thin 
 ivory, and had a dark line through his body, which I 
 took to be the intestinal canal. He resigned his life 
 with extreme procrastination, and died “ deeply 
 lamented ” by his keeper, who had long looked 
 forward to his final development. 
 
 The difficulty of breeding these worms is probably 
 due to their formation. When in a state of nature 
 they can, by expansion and contraction of the body, 
 working upon the sides of their holes, push their horny 
 jaws against the opposing mass of paper. But when 
 freed from the restraint, which, indeed, to them is life, 
 they cannot eat, although surrounded with food, for 
 they have no legs to keep them steady, and their 
 natural leverage is wanting. 
 
 Considering the numerous old books contained in 
 
THE BOOKWORM 
 
 73 
 
 the British Museum, the library there is wonderfully 
 free from the worm. Mr. Rye, lately the Keeper of 
 the Printed Books there, writes me : “ Two or three 
 were discovered in my time, but they were weakly 
 creatures. One, I remember, was conveyed into the 
 Natural History Department, and was taken into 
 custody by Mr. Adam White, who pronounced it to be 
 Anobium pertinax. I never heard of it after.” 
 
 The reader who has not had an opportunity of 
 examining old libraries can have no idea of the 
 dreadful havoc which these pests are capable of 
 making. 
 
 I have now before me a fine folio volume, printed 
 on very good unbleached paper, as thick as stout 
 cartridge, in the year 1477, by Peter Schoeffer, of 
 Mentz. Unfortunately, after a period of neglect, in 
 which it suffered severely from the “ worm,” it was 
 about fifty years ago considered worth a new cover, 
 and so again suffered severely, this time at the hands 
 of the binder. Thus, the original state of the boards 
 is unknown, but the damage done to the leaves can be 
 accurately described. 
 
 The “ worms ” have attacked each end. On the 
 first leaf are 212 distinct holes, varying in size from a 
 common pinhole to that which a stout knitting-needle 
 would make — say, xV to W inch. These holes run 
 mostly in lines more or less at right angles with the 
 covers, a very few being channels along the paper, 
 affecting three or four sheets only. The varied energy 
 of these little pests is thus represented : 
 
74 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 On folio I 
 
 are 
 
 212 
 
 holes. 
 
 On folio 61 are 4 holes. 
 
 „ II 
 
 
 57 
 
 if 
 
 if 
 
 71 M 2 » 
 
 „ 21 
 
 if 
 
 48 
 
 if 
 
 if 
 
 81 ,, 2 ,, 
 
 » 31 
 
 if 
 
 31 
 
 if 
 
 if 
 
 H 
 
 00 
 
 „ 41 
 
 if 
 
 18 
 
 if 
 
 if 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 » 51 
 
 if 
 
 6 
 
 if 
 
 
 
 These 90 leaves, being stout, are about the thickness 
 of one inch. The volume has 250 leaves, and, turning 
 to the end, we find on the last leaf 81 holes, made by 
 a breed of worms not so ravenous. Thus : 
 
 From end. 
 
 On folio I are 81 holes, 
 ,, II ,, 40 j, 
 
 From, end. 
 
 On folio 66 is i hole. 
 )> 69 ,, o ,, 
 
 It is curious to notice how the holes, rapidly at first, 
 and then slowly and more slowly, disappear. You 
 trace the same hole leaf after leaf, until suddenly the 
 size becomes in one leaf reduced to half its normal 
 diameter, and a close examination will show a small 
 abrasion of the paper in the next leaf exactly where 
 the hole would have come if continued. In the book 
 quoted it is just as if there had been a race. In the 
 first ten leaves the weak v/orms are left behind ; in 
 the second ten there are still forty-eight eaters ; these 
 are reduced to thirty-one in the third ten, and to only 
 eighteen in the fourth ten. On folio 5 1 only six 
 worms hold on, and before folio 61 two of them have 
 given in. Before reaching folio 71, it is a neck and 
 neck race between two sturdy gourmands, each making 
 a fine large hole, one of them being oval in shape. 
 At folio 7 1 they are still neck and neck, and at folio 8 1 
 
THE BOOKWORM 
 
 75 
 
 the same. At folio 87 the oval worm gives in, the 
 round one eating three more leaves and part way 
 through the fourth. The leaves of the book are then 
 untouched until we reach the sixty-ninth from the end, 
 upon which is one wormhole. After this they go on 
 multiplying to the end of the book. 
 
 I have quoted this instance because I have it handy, 
 but many worms eat much longer holes than any in 
 this volume ; some I have seen running quite through 
 a couple of thick volumes, covers and all. In the 
 Schoeffer book the holes are probably the work of 
 Anobium pertinax, because the centre is spared and 
 both ends attacked. Originally, real wooden boards 
 were the covers of the volume, and here, doubtless, the 
 attack was commenced, which was carried through 
 each board into the paper of the book. 
 
 I remember well my first visit to the Bodleian 
 Library, in the year 1858, Dr. Bandinel being then the 
 librarian. He was very kind, and afforded me every 
 facility for examining the fine collection of “ Caxtons,” 
 which was the object of my journey. In looking over 
 a parcel of black-letter fragments, which had been in a 
 drawer for a long time, I came across a small grub, 
 which, without a thought, I threw on the floor, and 
 trod under foot. Soon after I found another, a fat, 
 
 glossy fellow, so long , which I carefully preserved 
 
 in a little paper box, intending to observe his habits 
 and development. Seeing Dr. Bandinel near, I asked 
 him to look at my curiosity. Hardly, however, had I 
 turned the wriggling little victim out upon the leather- 
 
?6 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 covered table, when down came the doctor’s great 
 thumb-nail upon him, and an inch-long smear proved 
 the tomb of all my hopes, while the great bibliographer, 
 wiping his thumb on his coat-sleeve, passed on with 
 the remark, “Oh yes! they have black heads some- 
 times.” That was something to know — another fact 
 for the entomologist ; for my little gentleman had a 
 hard, shiny, white head, and I never heard of a black- 
 headed bookworm before or since. Perhaps the great 
 abundance of black-letter books in the Bodleian may 
 account for the variety. At any rate he was an 
 Anobium. 
 
 I have been unmercifully “chaffed” for the absurd 
 idea that d, paper-Qzx\ng worm could be kept a prisoner 
 in a paper box. Oh, these critics ! Your bookworm 
 is a shy, lazy beast, and takes a day or two to recover 
 his appetite after being “evicted.” Moreover, he 
 knew his own dignity better than to eat the “loaded ” 
 glazed shoddy note-paper in which he was incar- 
 cerated. 
 
 In the case of Caxton’s “ Lyf of oure ladye,” already 
 referred to, not only are there numerous small holes, 
 but some very large channels at the bottom of the 
 pages. This is a most unusual occurrence, and is 
 probably the work of the larva of Dermestes vulpinus, 
 a garden beetle, which is very voracious, and eats any 
 kind of dry ligneous rubbish. 
 
 The scarcity of edible books of the present century 
 has been mentioned. One result of the extensive 
 adulteration of modern paper is that the worm will not 
 
THE BOOKWORM 
 
 77 
 
 touch it. His instinct forbids him to eat the china 
 clay, the bleaches, the plaster of Paris, the sulphate of 
 barytes, the scores of adulterants now used to mix with 
 the fibre, and, so far, the wise pages of the old literature 
 are, in the race against Time with the modern rubbish, 
 heavily handicapped. Thanks to the general interest 
 taken in old books nowadays, the worm has hard 
 times of it, and but slight chance of that quiet neglect 
 which is necessary to his existence. So much greater 
 is the reason why some patient entomologist should, 
 while there is the chance, take upon himself to study 
 the habits of the creature, as Sir John Lubbock has 
 those of the ant. 
 
 I have now before me some leaves of a book which, 
 being waste, were used by our economical first printer, 
 Caxton, to make boards, by pasting them together. 
 Whether the old paste was an attraction, or whatever 
 the reason may have been, the worm, when he got in 
 there, did not, as usual, eat straight through everything 
 into the middle of the book, but worked his way 
 longitudinally, eating great furrows along the leaves 
 without passing out of the binding ; and so furrowed 
 are these few leaves by long channels that it is 
 difficult to raise one of them without its falling to pieces. 
 
 This is bad enough, but we may be very thankful 
 that in these temperate climes we have no such 
 enemies as are found in very hot countries, where a 
 whole library, books, bookshelves, table, chairs, and 
 all, may be destroyed in one night by a countless army 
 of ants. 
 
78 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 Our cousins in the United States, so fortunate in 
 many things, seem very fortunate in this : their 
 books are not attacked by the “ worm ” — at any rate, 
 American writers say so. True it is that all their 
 black-letter comes from Europe, and, having cost many 
 dollars, is well looked after ; but there they have 
 thousands of seventeenth and eighteenth century books, 
 in Roman type, printed in the States on genuine and 
 wholesome paper, and the worm is not particular, at 
 least in this country, about the type he eats through, if 
 the paper is good. , 
 
 Probably, therefore, the custodians of their old 
 libraries could tell a different tale, which makes it all 
 the more amusing to find in the excellent “Encyclopaedia 
 of Printing,”^ edited and printed by Ringwalt, at 
 Philadelphia, not only that the bookworm is a stranger 
 there, for personally he is unknown to most of us, 
 but that his slightest ravages are looked upon as 
 both curious and rare. After quoting Dibdin, with 
 the addition of a few flights of imagination of his own, 
 Ringwalt states that this “paper-eating moth is supposed 
 to have been introduced into England in hogsleather 
 binding from Holland.” He then ends with what, to 
 anyone who has seen the ravages of the worm in 
 hundreds of books, must be charming in its native 
 simplicity. “ There is now,” he states, evidently 
 quoting it as a great curiosity, “ there is now, in a 
 private library in Philadelphia, a book perforated by 
 
 1 “ American Encyclopaedia of Printing,” by J. Luther Ringwalt. 
 8vo. Philadelphia, 1871. 
 
THE BOOKWORM 
 
 79 
 
 this insect.” Oh, lucky Philadelphians ! who can boast 
 of possessing the oldest library in the States, but must 
 ask leave of a private collector if they wish to see the 
 one wormhole in the whole city ! 
 
OTHER VERMIN. 
 
'■ 5 ». 
 
 j 
 
 I 
 
 A 
 
 A 
 
 .4 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OTHER VERMIN. 
 
 ESIDES the worm, I do not think there is 
 any insect enemy of books worth descrip- 
 tion. The domestic black-beetle, or cock- 
 roach, is far too modern an introduction to our country 
 to have done much harm, though he will sometimes 
 nibble the binding of books, especially if they rest 
 upon the floor. 
 
 Not so fortunate, however, are our American cousins, 
 for in the Library Journal for September, 1879, 
 Mr. Weston Flint gives an account of a dreadful little 
 pest which commits great havoc upon the cloth 
 bindings of the New York libraries. It is a small 
 black-beetle or cockroach, called by scientists “ Blatta 
 germanica,” and by others the “Croton Bug.” Unlike 
 
84 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 our household pest, whose home is the kitchen, and 
 whose bashfulness loves secrecy and the dark hours> 
 this misgrown flat species, of which it would take two 
 to make a medium-sized English specimen, has gained 
 in impudence what it has lost in size, fearing neither 
 light nor noise, neither man nor beast. In the old 
 English Bible of 1551, we read in Psalm xci. 5, “Thou 
 shalt not nede to be afraied for eny Bugges by night.” 
 This verse falls unheeded on the ear of the Western 
 librarian, who fears his “ bugs ” both night and day, for 
 they crawl over everything in broad sunlight, infesting 
 and infecting each corner and cranny of the bookshelves 
 they choose as their home. There is a remedy in the 
 powder known as insecticide, which, however, is very 
 disagreeable upon books and shelves. It is, neverthe- 
 less, very fatal to these pests, and affords some 
 consolation in the fact that, so soon as a “bug ” shows 
 any signs of illness, he is devoured at once by his 
 voracious brethren with the same relish as if he were 
 made of fresh paste. 
 
 There is, too, a small silvery insect (Lepisma), 
 which I have often seen in the backs of neglected 
 books, but his ravages are not of much importance. 
 
 Nor can we reckon the codfish as very dangerous 
 to literature, unless, indeed, he be of the Roman 
 obedience, like that wonderful Ichthyobibliophage 
 (pardon me. Professor Owen) who, in the year 1626, 
 swallowed three Puritanical treatises of John Frith, 
 the Protestant martyr. No wonder, after such a meal, 
 he was soon caught, and became famous in the annals 
 
OTHER VERMIN 
 
 8S 
 
 of literature. The following is the title of a little book 
 issued upon the occasion : “ Vox Piscis, or the Book- 
 Fish containing Three Treatises, which were found in 
 the belly of a Cod-Fish in Cambridge Market on Mid- 
 summer Eve, 1626.” Lowndes says (see under 
 “ Tracey ”) “ great was the consternation at Cambridge 
 upon the publication of this work.” 
 
 “FOUND IN THE BELLY OF A COD-FISH.” 
 
 Rats and mice, however, are occasionally very 
 destructive, as the following anecdote will show : Two 
 centuries ago the library of the Dean and Chapter 
 of Westminster was kept in the Chapter House, and 
 repairs having become necessary in that building, a 
 scaffolding was erected inside, the books being left on 
 their shelves. One of the holes made in the wall for 
 
86 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 a scaffold-pole was selected by a pair of rats for their 
 family residence. Here they formed a nest for their 
 young ones, by descending to the library shelves and 
 biting away the leaves of various books. Snug and 
 comfortable was the little household, until one day, 
 the builder’s men having finished, the poles were 
 removed, and — alas for the rats ! — the hole was closed 
 
 up with bricks and cement. Buried alive, the father 
 and mother, with five or six of their offspring, met 
 with a speedy death, and not until a few years ago, 
 when a restoration of the Chapter House was effected, 
 was the rat grave opened again for a scaffold-pole, and 
 all their skeletons and their nest discovered. Their 
 bones and paper fragments of the nest may now be 
 seen in a glass case in the Chapter House, some of 
 the fragments being attributed to books from the press 
 
OTHER VERMIN 
 
 «7 
 
 of Caxton. This is not the case, although there are 
 pieces of very early black-letter books not now to be 
 found in the Abbey library, including little bits of the 
 famous Queen Elizabeth’s Prayer-Book, with wood- 
 cuts, 1568. 
 
 A friend sends me the following incident : “A few 
 years since some rats made nests in the trees sur- 
 rounding my house ; from thence they jumped on to 
 some flat roofing, and so made their way down a 
 chimney into a room where I kept books. A number 
 of these, with parchment backs, they entirely de- 
 stroyed, as well as some half-dozen books whole bound 
 in parchment.” 
 
 Another friend informs me that in the Natural 
 History Museum of the Devon and Exeter Institution 
 is a specimen of “another little pest, which has a great 
 affection for bindings in calf and roan. Its scientific 
 name is Niptus Hololeucos.” He adds; “Are you 
 aware that there was a terrible creature allied to these, 
 rejoicing in the name of Tomicus Typographus, which 
 committed sad ravages in Germany in the seventeenth 
 century, and in the old liturgies of that country is 
 formally mentioned under its vulgar name, ‘ The 
 Turk’?” (See Kirby and Spence, seventh edition, 
 1858, p. 123.) This is curious, and I did not know it, 
 although I know well that Typographus tomicus, or 
 the “ cutting printer,” is a sad enemy of (good) books. 
 Upon this part of our subject, however, I am debarred 
 entering. 
 
 The following is from W. J. Westbrook, Mus. Doc., 
 
88 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 I 
 
 Cantab., and represents ravages with which I am per- 
 sonally unacquainted : 
 
 “ Dear Blades, 
 
 “ I send you an example of the 
 ‘ enemy ’-mosity of an ordinary house-fly. 
 It hid behind the paper, emitted some 
 caustic fluid, and then departed this life. 
 I have often caught them in such ‘ holes.’ 
 30/12/83.” 
 
 The damage is an oblong hole, 
 surrounded by a white, fluffy glaze 
 (fungoid ?), difficult to represent in a woodcut. The 
 size here given is exact. 
 
BOOKBINDERS. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BOOKBINDERS. 
 
 N the first chapter I mentioned bookbinders 
 among the enemies of books, and I 
 tremble to think what a stinQ-ing- retort 
 
 might be made if some irate bibliopegist were to 
 
 turn the scales on the printer, and place him in the 
 same category. On the sins of printers, and the 
 unnatural neglect which has often shortened the lives 
 of their typographical progeny, it is not for me to 
 dilate. There is an old proverb, “ ’Tis an ill bird that 
 befouls its own nest ” ; a curious chapter thereupon, 
 with many modern examples, might nevertheless be 
 written. This I will leave, and will now only place on 
 record some of the cruelties perpetrated upon books by 
 the ignorance or carelessness of binders. 
 
 
92 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 Like men, books have a soul and body. With the 
 soul, or literary portion, we have nothing to do at 
 present ; the body, which is the outer frame or 
 covering, and without which the inner would be 
 unusable, is the special work of the binder. He, so to 
 speak, begets it ; he determines its form and adorn- 
 ment ; he doctors it in disease and decay, and, not 
 unseldom, dissects it after death. Here, too, as 
 through all Nature, we find the good and bad running 
 side by side. What a treat it is to handle a well- 
 bound volume ; the leaves lie open fully and freely, as 
 if tempting you to read on, and you handle them 
 without fear of their parting from the back. To look 
 at the “ tooling,” too, is a pleasure, for careful thought, 
 combined with artistic skill, is everywhere apparent. 
 You open the cover, and find the same loving attention 
 inside that has been given to the outside, all the work- 
 manship being true and thorough. Indeed, so con- 
 servative is a good binding that many a worthless 
 book has had an honoured old age simply out of 
 respect to its outward aspect, and many a real treasure 
 has come to a degraded end and premature death 
 through the unsightliness of its outward case, and the 
 irreparable damage done to it in binding. 
 
 The weapon with which the binder deals the most 
 deadly blows to books is the “ plough,” the effect of 
 which is to cut away the margins, placing the print in 
 a false position relatively to the back and head, and 
 often denuding the work of portions of the very text. 
 This reduction in size not seldom brings down a 
 
BOOKBINDERS 
 
 93 
 
 handsome folio to the size of a quarto, and a quarto to 
 an octavo. 
 
 With the old hand-plough a binder required more 
 care and caution to produce an even edge throughout 
 than with the new cutting machine. If a careless 
 workman found that he had not ploughed the margin 
 quite square with the text, he would put it in his press 
 and take off “ another shaving,” and sometimes even a 
 third. 
 
 Dante, in his “ Inferno,” deals out to the lost souls 
 various tortures suited with dramatic fitness to the past 
 crimes of the victims, and had I to execute judgment 
 on the criminal binders of certain precious volumes I 
 have seen, where the untouched maiden sheets en- 
 trusted to their care have, by barbarous treatment, 
 lost dignity, beauty, and value, I would collect the 
 paper shavings so ruthlessly shorn off, and roast the 
 perpetrator of the outrage over their slow combustion. 
 In olden times, before men had learned to value the 
 relics of our printers, there was some excuse for the 
 sins of a binder who erred from ignorance which was 
 general ; but in these times, when the historical and 
 antiquarian value of old books is freely acknowledged, 
 no quarter should be granted to a careless culprit. 
 
 It may be supposed that, from the spread of infor- 
 mation, all real danger from ignorance is past. Not 
 so, good reader ; that is a consummation as yet 
 “ devoutly to be wished.” Let me relate to you a true 
 bibliographical anecdote : In 1877 ^ certain lord, who 
 had succeeded to a fine collection of old books, 
 
94 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 promised to send some of the most valuable (among 
 which were several Caxtons) to the Exhibition at 
 South Kensington. Thinking their outward appear- 
 ance too shabby, and not knowing the danger of his 
 conduct, he decided to have them rebound in the 
 neighbouring county town. The volumes were soon 
 returned in a resplendent state, and, it is said, quite to 
 the satisfaction of his lordship, whose pleasure, how- 
 ever, was sadly damped when a friend pointed out to 
 him that, although the discoloured edges had all been 
 ploughed off, and the time-stained blanks, with their 
 fifteenth-century autographs, had been replaced by 
 nice clean fly-leaves, yet, looking at the result in its 
 lowest aspect only— that of market value — the books 
 had been damaged to at least the amount of .;^500 ; 
 and, moreover, that caustic remarks would most 
 certainly follow upon their public exhibition. Those 
 poor injured volumes were never sent. 
 
 Some years ago one of the most rare books printed 
 by Machlinia — a thin folio — was discovered bound in 
 sheep by a country bookbinder, and cut down to suit 
 the size of some quarto tracts. But do not let us 
 suppose that country binders are the only culprits. 
 It is not very long since the discovery of a unique 
 Caxton in one of our largest London libraries. It was 
 in boards, as originally issued by the fifteenth-century 
 binder, and a great fuss (very properly) was made 
 over the treasure trove. Of course, cries the reader, 
 it was kept in its original covers, with all the interest- 
 ing associations of its early state untouched } No 
 
BOOKBINDERS 
 
 95 
 
 such thing^ ! InstCcicl of rn3.king 3. suit3.bl6 c3sg, in 
 which it could be preserved just as it was, it was 
 placed in the hands of a well-known London binder, 
 with the order, “Whole bind in velvet.” He did his 
 best, and the volume 
 now glows luxuriously 
 in its gilt edges and its 
 inappropriate covering, 
 and, alas ! with half an 
 inch of its uncut margin 
 taken off all round. 
 
 How do I know that ? 
 
 Because the clever 
 binder, seeing some 
 MS. remarks on one of 
 the margins, turned the 
 leaf down to avoid 
 cutting them off, and 
 that stern witness will 
 always testify, to the 
 observant reader, the 
 original size of the ( 
 
 book. This same "to separate it from the cover upon 
 
 WHICH IT WAS PASTED.” 
 
 binder, on another oc- 
 
 casion, placed a unique fifteenth-century Indulgence in 
 warm water, to separate it from the cover upon which 
 it was pasted, the result being that, when dry, it was 
 so distorted as to be useless. That man soon after 
 passed to another world, where, we may hope, his 
 works have not followed him, and that his merits as 
 
96 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 a good citizen and an honest man counterbalanced his 
 demerits as a binder. 
 
 Other similar instances will occur to the memory of 
 many a reader, and doubtless the same sin will be 
 committed from time to time by certain binders, who 
 seem to have an ingrained antipathy to rough edges 
 and large margins, which, of course, are, in their view, 
 made by Nature as food for the shaving tub. 
 
 De Rome, a celebrated bookbinder of the eighteenth 
 century, who was nicknamed by Dibdin “ the Great 
 Cropper,” was, although in private life an estimable 
 man, much addicted to the vice of reducing the margins 
 of all books sent to him to bind. So far did he go 
 that he even spared not a fine copy of Froissart’s 
 “Chronicles,” on vellum, in which was the autograph 
 of the well-known book-lover, De Thou, but cropped 
 it most cruelly. 
 
 Owners, too, have occasionally diseased minds with 
 regard to margins. A friend writes : “ Your amusing 
 anecdotes have brought to my memory several biblio- 
 clasts whom I have known. One roughly cut the 
 margins off his books with a knife, hacking away very 
 much like a hedger and ditcher. Large-paper volumes 
 were his especial delight, as they gave more paper. 
 The slips thus obtained were used for index-making ! 
 Another, with the bump of order unnaturally developed, 
 had his folios and quartos all reduced, in binding, to 
 one size, so that they might look even on his book- 
 shelves.” 
 
 This latter was, doubtless, cousin to him who 
 
BOOKBINDERS 
 
 97 
 
 deliberately cut down all his books close to the text, 
 because he had been several times annoyed by readers 
 who made marginal notes. 
 
 The indignities, too, suffered by some books in their 
 lettering! Fancy an early black-letter fifteenth-century 
 quarto on Knighthood, labelled “ Tracts,” or a transla- 
 tion of Virgil, “ Sermons ”! The “ Histories of Troye,” 
 
 “ONE ROUGHLY CUT THE MARGIN OFF HIS BOOKS." — P. 96. 
 
 printed by Caxton, still exists with “ Eracles ” on the 
 back, as its title, because that name occurs several 
 times in the early chapters, and the binder was too 
 proud to seek advice. The words “ Miscellaneous ” or 
 “ Old Pieces ” were sometimes used when binders were 
 at a loss for lettering, and many other instances might 
 be mentioned. 
 
98 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 The rapid spread of printing throughout Europe in 
 the latter part of the fifteenth century caused a great 
 fall in the value of plain un-illuminated MSS., and the 
 immediate consequence of this was the destruction of 
 numerous volumes written upon parchment, which were 
 used by the binders to strengthen the backs of their 
 
 newly-printed rivals. 
 These slips of vellum 
 or parchment are 
 quite common in old 
 books. Sometimes 
 whole sheets are used 
 as fly “ leaves, and 
 often reveal the exis- 
 tence of most valu- 
 able works, unknown 
 before — proving, at 
 the same time, the 
 small value formerly 
 attached to them. 
 
 Many a biblio- 
 grapher, while ex- 
 amining old books, 
 has, to his great 
 
 “MANY A BIBLIOGRAPHER, WHILE EXAMINING nUZzlement COme 
 OLD BOOKS." ’ 
 
 across short slips of 
 parchment, nearly always from some old manuscript, 
 sticking out like “ guards ” from the midst of the 
 leaves. These suggest, at first, imperfections or 
 
BOOKBINDERS 
 
 99 
 
 damage done to the volume ; but if examined closely 
 it will be found that they are always in the middle of a 
 paper section, and the real reason of their existence is 
 just the same as when two leaves of parchment occur 
 here and there in a paper volume, viz. : strength — - 
 strength to resist the lug which the strong thread 
 makes against the middle of each section. These slips 
 represent old books destroyed, and, like the slips 
 already noticed, should always be carefully ex- 
 amined. 
 
 When valuable books have been evil-entreated, 
 when they have become soiled by dirty hands, or 
 spoiled by water-stains, or injured by grease-spots, 
 nothing is more astonishing to the uninitiated than the 
 transformation they undergo in the hands of a skilful 
 restorer. The covers are first carefully dissected, the 
 eye of the operator keeping a careful outlook for any 
 fragments of old MSS. or early printed books which 
 may have been used by the original binder. No force 
 should be applied to separate parts which adhere to- 
 gether ; a little warm water and care is sure to over- 
 come that difficulty. When all the sections are loose, 
 the separate sheets are placed singly in a bath of cold 
 water, and allowed to remain there until all the dirt has 
 soaked out. If not sufficiently purified, a little hydro- 
 chloric or oxalic acid, or caustic potash, may be put in 
 the water, according as the stains are from grease or 
 from ink. 
 
 Here is where an unpractised binder will probably 
 
lOO 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 injure a book for life. If the chemicals are too 
 strong, or the sheets remain too long in the bath, 
 or are not thoroughly cleansed from the bleach before 
 they are re-sized, the certain seeds of decay are planted 
 in the paper, and although for a time the leaves may 
 look bright to the eye, and even crackle under the hand 
 like the soundest ]3aper, yet in the course of a few 
 years the enemy will appear, the fibre will decay, and 
 the existence of the books will terminate in a state of 
 white tinder. 
 
 Everything which diminishes the interest of a book 
 is inimical to its preservation, and in fact is its enemy. 
 Therefore, a few words upon the destruction of old 
 bindings. 
 
 I remember purchasing many years ago, at a sub- 
 urban bookstall, a perfect copy of Moxon’s “ Mechanic 
 Exercises,” now a scarce work. The volumes were 
 uncut, and had the original marble covers. They 
 looked so attractive in their old-fashioned dress, that I 
 at once determined to preserve it. My binder soon 
 made for them a neat wooden box in the shape of a 
 book, with morocco back properly lettered, where I 
 trust the originals will be preserved from dust and 
 injury for many a long year. 
 
 Old covers, whether boards or paper, should always 
 be retained if in any state approaching decency. A 
 case, which can be embellished to any extent, looks 
 every whit as well upon the shelf, and gives even 
 greater protection than binding. It has also this great 
 
BOOKBINDERS 
 
 lOI 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 I advantage : it does not deprive your descendants of 
 
 j. the opportunity of seeing for themselves exactly in 
 
 j what dress the book - buyers of four centuries ago 
 
 I received their volumes. 
 
COLLECTORS. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COLLECTORS, 
 
 FTER all, two-legged depredators, who 
 ought to have known better, have perhaps 
 done as much real damage in libraries as 
 any other enemy. I do not refer to thieves, who, 
 if they injure the owners, do no harm to the books 
 themselves by merely transferring them from one 
 set of bookshelves to another. Nor do I refer to 
 certain readers who frequent our public libraries, and, 
 to save themselves the trouble of copying, will cut out 
 whole articles from magazines or encyclopaedias. Such 
 depredations are not frequent, and only occur with 
 books easily replaced, and do not therefore call for 
 more than a passing mention; but it is a serious matter 
 when Nature produces such a wicked old biblioclast as 
 
io6 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 John Bagford, one of the founders of the Society of 
 Antiquaries, who, in the beginning of the last century, 
 went about the country, from library to library, tearing 
 away title-pages from rare books of all sizes. These 
 he sorted out into nationalities and towns, and so, with 
 a lot of hand-bills, manuscript notes, and miscellaneous 
 collections of all kinds, formed over a hundred folio 
 volumes, now preserved in the British Museum. That 
 they are of service as materials in compiling a general 
 history of printing cannot be denied, but the destruction 
 of many rare books was the result, and more than 
 counter-balanced any benefit bibliographers will ever 
 receive from them. When here and there throughout 
 those volumes you meet with titles of books now either 
 unknown entirely, or of the greatest rarity ; when you 
 find the colophon from the end, or the “ insigne 
 typographi ” from the first leaf of a rare “ fifteener,” 
 pasted down with dozens of others, varying in value, 
 you cannot bless the memory of the antiquary-shoe- 
 maker, John Bagford. His portrait, a half-length, 
 painted by Howard, was engraved by Vertue, and 
 re-engraved for the “ Bibliographical Decameron.” 
 
 A bad example often finds imitators, and every 
 season there crop up for public sale one or two such 
 collections, formed by bibliomaniacs, who, although 
 calling themselves bibliophiles, ought really to be 
 ranked among the worst enemies of books. 
 
 The following is copied from a trade catalogue, dated 
 April, 1880, and affords a fair idea of the extent to 
 which these heartless destroyers will go : 
 
COLLECTORS 
 
 107 
 
 “Missal IlluminationSc 
 
 Fifty different Capital Letters 07t Vellum ; all 
 in rich Gold and Colotcj's. Many 3 inches sqtiare : the 
 floral decorations are of great beauty, rangmg from the 
 Xllth to X Vth century. Mounted on stout cardboa^'d. 
 In nice preservation, £C 6s. 
 
 These beautiful letters have been cut from precious MSS., 
 and as specimens of early art are extremely valuable, 
 many of them being worth 15s. each.” 
 
 Mr. Proeme is a man well known to the London 
 dealers in old books. He is wealthy, and cares not 
 what he spends to carry out his bibliographical 
 craze, which is the collection of title-pages. These he 
 ruthlessly extracts, frequently leaving the decapitated 
 carcases of the books, for which he cares not, behind 
 him. Unlike the destroyer Bagford, he has no useful 
 object in view, but simply follows a senseless kind of 
 classification. For instance : One set of volumes 
 contains nothing but copper-plate engraved titles, and 
 woe betide the grand old Dutch folios of the seventeenth 
 century if they cross his path. Another is a volume of 
 coarse or quaint titles, which certainly answer the end 
 of showing how idiotic and conceited some authors 
 have been. Here you find Dr. Sib’s “Bowels opened 
 in Divers Sermons,” 1650, cheek by jowl with the 
 discourse attributed falsely to Huntington, the Calvinist, 
 “ Die and be damned,” with many others too coarse to 
 be quoted. The odd titles adopted for his poems by 
 Taylor, the water-poet, enliven several pages, and 
 
io8 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 make one’s mouth water for the books themselves. 
 A third volume includes only such titles as have the 
 printer’s device. If you shut your eyes to the injury 
 done by such collectors, you may, to a certain extent, 
 enjoy the collection, for there is great beauty in some 
 titles ; but such a pursuit is neither useful nor 
 meritorious. By-and-by the end comes, and then 
 dispersion follows collection, and the volumes, which 
 probably cost .1^200 each in their formation, will be 
 knocked down to a dealer for £10, finally gravitating 
 into the South Kensington Library, or some public 
 museum, as a bibliographical curiosity. The following 
 has just been sold (July, 1880) by Messrs. Sotheby, 
 Wilkinson and Hodge, in the Dunn-Gardinier collection, 
 lot 1592 : 
 
 “ Title-pages and Frontispieces. 
 
 A Collection of ttpwards of 800 Engraved Titles 
 AND Frontispieces, English and Foreign fome very 
 fine and curiotLs) taken from old books and neatly 
 moimted on cartridge paper in 3 vol. half morocco gilt, 
 imp. folio P 
 
 The only collection of title-pages which has afforded 
 me unalloyed pleasure is a handsome folio, published 
 by the directors of the Plantin Museum, Antwerp, in 
 1877, just after the purchase of that wonderful 
 typographical storehouse. It is called “ Titels en 
 Portretten gesneden naar P. P. Rubens voor de 
 Plantijnsche Drukkerij,” and it contains thirty-five 
 grand title-pages, reprinted from the original seventeenth 
 
COLLECTORS 
 
 109 
 
 century plates, designed by Rubens himself between 
 the years 1612 and 1640, for various publications 
 which issued from the celebrated Plantin Printino-- 
 
 o 
 
 office. In the same museum are preserved in 
 Rubens’ own handwriting his chargee for each design, 
 duly receipted at foot. 
 
 I have now before me a fine copy of “ Coclusiones 
 siue decisiones antique dhor’ de Rota,” printed by 
 Gutenberg’s partner, Schoeffer, in the year 1477. It 
 is perfect, except in a most vital part, the colophon, 
 which has been cut out by some barbaric “collector,” 
 and which should read thus : “ Pridie nonis Januarii 
 Mcccclxxvij, in Civitate Moguntina, impressorie Petrus 
 Schoyffer de Gernsheym,” followed by his well-known 
 mark, two shields. 
 
 A similar mania arose at the beginning of this 
 century for collections of illuminated initials, which 
 were taken from MSS., and arranged on the pages of 
 a blank book in alphabetical order. Some of our 
 cathedral libraries suffered severely from depredations of 
 this kind. At Lincoln, in the early part of this century, 
 the boys put on their robes in the library, a room close 
 to the choir. Here were numerous old MSS., and 
 eight or ten rare Caxtons. The choir boys used often 
 to amuse themselves, while waiting for the signal to 
 “ fall in,” by cutting out with their penknives the 
 illuminated initials and vignettes, which they would 
 take into the choir with them and pass round from one 
 to another. The Dean and Chapter of those days were 
 not much better, for they let Dr. Dibdin have all their 
 
110 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 Caxtons for a “ consideration.” He made a little 
 catalogue of them, which he called “A Lincolne 
 Nosegaye.” Eventually they were absorbed into the 
 collection at Althorp. 
 
 The late Mr. Caspar! was a “destroyer” of books. 
 His rare collection of early woodcuts, exhibited in 1877 
 at the Caxton Celebration, had been frequently 
 augmented by the purchase of illustrated books, the 
 plates of which were taken out, and mounted on Bristol 
 boards, to enrich his collection. He once showed me 
 the remains of a fine copy of “ Theurdanck,” which he 
 had served so, and I have now before me several of 
 the leaves which he then gave me, and which, for 
 beauty of engraving and cleverness of typography, 
 surpass any typographical work known to me. It 
 was printed for the Emperor Maximilian, by Hans 
 Schonsperger, of Nuremberg, and, to make it unique, 
 all the punches were cut on purpose, and as many as 
 seven or eight varieties of each letter, which, together 
 with the clever way in which the ornamental flourishes 
 are carried above and below the line, has led even 
 experienced printers to deny its being typography. It 
 is, nevertheless, entirely from cast types. A copy in 
 good condition costs about £^o. 
 
 Many years since I purchased, at Messrs. Sotheby’s, 
 a large lot of MS. leaves on vellum, some being whole 
 sections of a book, but mostly single leaves. Many 
 were so mutilated by the excision of initials as to be 
 worthless, but those with poor initials, or with none, 
 were quite good, and when sorted out I found I had 
 
COLLECTORS 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 got large portions of nearly twenty different MSS., 
 mostly Horae, showing twelve varieties of fifteenth- 
 century handwriting in Latin, French, Dutch, and 
 German. I had each sort bound separately, and they 
 now form an interesting collection. 
 
 Portrait-collectors have destroyed many books by 
 abstracting the frontispiece to add to their treasures, 
 and when once a book is made imperfect, its march to 
 destruction is rapid. This is why books like Atkyns’ 
 “ Origin and Growth of Printing,” 4to., 1664, have 
 become impossible to get. When issued, Atkyns’ 
 pamphlet had a fine frontispiece, by Logan, containing 
 portraits of King Charles II., attended by Archbishop 
 Sheldon, the Duke of Albemarle, and the Earl of 
 Clarendon. As portraits of these celebrities (excepting, 
 of course, the King) are extremely rare, collectors 
 have bought up this quarto tract of Atkyns’ when- 
 ever it has been offered, and torn away the frontis- 
 piece to adorn their collection. This is why, if you 
 take up any sale catalogue of old books, you are 
 certain to find here and there appended to the de- 
 scription, “ Wanting the title,” “ Wanting two plates,” 
 or “Wanting the last page.” 
 
 It is quite common to find in old MSS., especially 
 fifteenth-century, both vellum and paper, the blank 
 margins of leaves cut away. This will be from the 
 side edge or from the foot, and the recurrence of this 
 mutilation puzzled me for many years. It arose from 
 the scarcity of paper in former times, so that when a 
 message had to be sent which required more exactitude 
 
1 12 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 than could be entrusted to the stupid mem,ory of a 
 household messenger, the master or chaplain went to 
 the library, and, not having paper to use, took down 
 an old book, and cut from its broad margins one or 
 more slips to serve his present need. 
 
 I feel quite inclined to reckon among “enemies” 
 those bibliomaniacs and over-careful possessors who, 
 being unable to carry their treasures into the next 
 world, do all they can to hinder their usefulness in 
 this. What a difficulty there is to obtain admission to 
 the curious library of old Samuel Pepys, the well- 
 known diarist! There it is at Magdalene College, 
 Cambridge, in the identical bookcases provided for 
 the books by Pepys himself ; but no one can gain 
 admission, except in company of two F'ellows of the 
 college, as, if a single book be lost, the whole library 
 goes away to a neighbouring college. However 
 willing and anxious to oblige, it is evident that no 
 one can use the library at the expense of the time, if 
 not temper, of two Fellows. Some similar restric- 
 tions are in force at the Teylerian Museum, Haarlem, 
 where a lifelong imprisonment is inflicted upon its 
 many treasures. 
 
 Some centuries ago a valuable collection of books 
 was left to the Guildford Endowed Grammar School. 
 The schoolmaster was to be held personally re- 
 sponsible for the safety of every volume, which, if 
 lost, he was bound to replace. I am told that one 
 master, to minimize his risk as much as possible, took 
 the following barbarous course : As soon as he was in 
 
COLLECTORS 
 
 113 
 
 possession, he raised the boards of the schoolroom 
 door, and, havdng carefully packed all the books 
 between the joists, had the boards nailed down again. 
 Little recked he how many rats and mice made their 
 nests there ; he was bound to account some day for 
 every single volume, and he saw no way so safe as 
 rigid imprisonment. 
 
 The late Sir Thomas Phillipps, of Middle Hill, was 
 
 “ CAREI'ULLY PACKED ALL THE BOOKS BETWEEN THE JOISTS.” 
 
 a remarkable instance of a bibliotaph. He bought 
 bibliographical treasures simply to bury them. His 
 mansion was crammed with books ; he purchased 
 whole libraries, and never even saw what he had 
 bought. Among some of his purchases was the first 
 book printed in the English language, “The Recuyell 
 of the Histories of Troye,” translated and printed by 
 William Caxton for the Duchess of Burgundy, sister 
 to our Edward IV. It is true, though almost in- 
 
THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 114 
 
 credible, that Sir Thomas could never find this 
 volume, although it is doubtless still in the collection, 
 and no wonder, when cases of books bought twenty 
 years before his death were never opened, and the 
 only knowledge of their contents which he possessed 
 was the sale catalogue or the bookseller s invoice. 
 
 M 
 
SERVANTS AND CHILDREN. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SERVANTS AND CHILDREN. 
 
 EADER, are you married? Have you off- 
 spring, boys especially I mean, say between 
 six and twelve years of age ? Have you 
 also a literary workshop, supplied with choice tools, 
 some for use, some for ornament, where you pass 
 pleasant hours ? And is — ah, there’s the rub ! — is 
 there a special handmaid, whose special duty it is to 
 keep your den daily dusted and in order ? Plead you 
 guilty to these indictments ? Then am I sure of a 
 sympathetic co-sufferer. 
 
 Dust! it is all a delusion. It is not the dust that 
 makes women anxious to invade the inmost recesses 
 of your sanctum ; it is an ingrained curiosity. And 
 this feminine weakness, which dates from Eve, is a 
 
ii8 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 common motive in the stories of our oldest literature 
 and folklore. What made Fatima so anxious to know 
 the contents of the room forbidden her by Blue- 
 beard.^ It was positively nothing to her, and its 
 contents caused not the slightest annoyance to 
 anybody. That story has a bad moral, and it would, 
 in many ways, have been more satisfactory had 
 the heroine been left to take her place in the 
 blood-stained chamber, side by side with her peccant 
 predecessors. 
 
 Why need the women-folk (God forgive me !) bother 
 themselves about the inside of a man’s library, and 
 whether it wants dusting or not ? My boys’ playroom, 
 in which is a carpenter’s bench, a lathe, and no end of 
 litter, is never tidied — perhaps it can’t be, or perhaps 
 their youthful vigour won’t stand it — but my work- 
 room must needs be dusted daily, with the delusive 
 promise that each book and paper shall be replaced 
 exactly where it was. The damage done by such 
 continued treatment is incalculable. At certain times 
 these observances are kept more religiously than 
 others ; but especially should the book-lover, married 
 or single, beware of the Ides of March. So soon as 
 February is dead and gone, a feeling of unrest seizes 
 the housewife’s mind. This increases day by day, 
 and becomes dominant towards the middle of the 
 month, about which period sundry hints are thrown 
 out as to whether you are likely to be absent for a 
 day or two. Beware ! the fever called “ spring 
 clean ” is on, and unless you stand firm you will rue 
 
SERVANTS AND CHILDREN 
 
 119 
 
 it. Go away, if the Fates so will, but take the key of 
 your own domain with you. 
 
 Do not misunderstand. Not for a moment would I 
 advocate dust and dirt ; they are enemies, and should 
 be routed ; but let the necessary routing be done 
 under your own eye. Explain where caution must be 
 used, and in what cases tenderness is a virtue ; and if 
 one Eve in the family can be indoctrinated with book- 
 reverence you are a happy man ; her price is above 
 that of rubies ; she will prolong your life. Books 
 must now and then be taken clean out of their shelves, 
 but they should be tended lovingly and with judgment. 
 If the dusting can be done just outside the room, so 
 much the better. The books removed, the shelf should 
 be lifted quite out of its bearings, cleansed and wiped, 
 and then each volume should be taken separately, and 
 gently rubbed on back and sides with a soft cloth. In 
 returning the volumes to their places, notice should be 
 taken of the binding, and especially when the books 
 are in whole calf or morocco care should be taken not 
 to let them rub togfether. The best bound books are 
 soonest injured, and quickly deteriorate in bad com- 
 pany. Certain volumes, indeed, have evil tempers, 
 and will scratch the faces of all their neighbours who 
 are too familiar with them. Such are books with 
 metal clasps and rivets on their edges ; and such, 
 again, are those abominable old rascals, chiefly born in 
 the fifteenth century, who are proud of being dressed 
 in real boards with brass corners, and pass their lives 
 with fearful knobs and metal bosses, mostly five in 
 
120 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 number, firmly fixed on one of their sides. If the 
 tendencies of such ruffians are not curbed, they will do 
 as much mischief to their gentle neighbours as when a 
 “ collie ” worries the sheep. These evil results may 
 
 K always be mini- 
 mized by placing a 
 piece of millboard 
 between the culprit 
 and his victim. I 
 have seen lovely 
 bindings sadly 
 marked by such un- 
 canny neighbours. 
 
 When your books 
 are being “ dusted,” 
 don’t impute too 
 much common- 
 sense to your assis- 
 tants ; take their 
 ignorance for 
 granted, and tell 
 them at once never 
 to lift any book by 
 one of its covers ; 
 that treatment is 
 sure to strain the back, and ten to one the weight will 
 be at the same time miscalculated, and the volume will 
 fall. Your female “ help,” too, dearly loves a good 
 tall pile to work at, and, as a rule, her notions of the 
 centre of gravity are not accurate, leading often to a 
 
 “YOUR FEMALE ‘HELP." 
 
SERVANTS AND CHILDREN 
 
 I 21 
 
 general downfall, and the damage of many a corner. 
 Again, if not supervised and instructed, she is very apt 
 to rub the dust into instead of off the edges. Each 
 volume should be held tightly, so as to prevent the 
 leaves from gaping, and then wiped from the back to 
 the fore-edge. A soft brush will be found useful if 
 there is much dust. The whole exterior should also 
 be rubbed with a soft cloth, and then the covers should 
 be opened and the hinges of the binding examined ; 
 for mildew will assert itself both inside and outside 
 certain books, and that most pertinaciously. It has 
 unaccountable likes and dislikes. Some bindings seem 
 positively to invite damp, and mildew will attack these 
 when no other books on the same shelf show any signs 
 of it. When discovered, carefully wipe it away, and 
 then let the book remain a few days standing open in 
 the driest and airiest spot you can select. Great care 
 should be taken not to let grit, such as blows in at the 
 open window from many a dusty road, be upon your 
 duster, or you will probably find fine scratches, like an 
 outline map of Europe, all over your smooth calf, by 
 which your heart and eye, as well as your book, will 
 be wounded. 
 
 “ Helps ” are very apt to fill the shelves too tightly, 
 so that to extract a book you have to use force, often 
 to the injury of the top-bands. Beware of this mis- 
 take. It frequently occurs through not noticing that 
 one small book is purposely placed at each end of the 
 shelf, beneath the movable shelf-supports, thus not only 
 saving space, but preventing the injury which a book 
 
122 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 shelf- high would be sure to receive from uneven 
 pressure. 
 
 After all, the best guide in these, as in many other 
 matters, is “ common-sense,” a quality which in olden 
 times must have been much more “ common ” than in 
 
 these days, else the phrase 
 would never have become 
 rooted in our common 
 tongue. 
 
 Children, with all their 
 innocence, are often guilty 
 of book-murder. I must 
 confess to having once 
 taken down Humphrey’s 
 “ History of Writing,” 
 which contains many 
 brightly- coloured plates, 
 to amuse a sick daughter. 
 The object was certainly 
 ofained, but the conse- 
 
 ‘HAVING TORN A DOZEN LEAVES OR SO.” queuces of SO bad a 
 
 precedent were disastrous. 
 That copy (which, I am glad to say, was easily re- 
 placed), notwithstanding great care on my part, became 
 soiled and torn, and at last was given up to nursery 
 martyrdom. Can I regret it ? Surely not, for, 
 although bibliographically sinful, who can weigh the 
 amount of real pleasure received, and actual pain 
 ignored, by the patient in the contemplation of those 
 beautifully-blended colours ? 
 
SERVANTS AND CHILDREN 
 
 123 
 
 A neighbour of mine some few years ago suffered 
 severely from a propensity, apparently irresistible, in 
 one of his daughters to tear his library books. She 
 was six years old, and would go quietly to a shelf and 
 take down a book or two, and, having torn a dozen 
 leaves or so down the middle, would replace the 
 volumes, fragments and all, in their places, the damage 
 being undiscovered until the books were wanted for 
 use. Reprimand, expostulation, and even punishment, 
 were of no avail ; but a single “ whipping ” effected a 
 cure. 
 
 Boys, however, are by far more destructive than 
 girls, and have, naturally, no reverence for age, 
 whether in man or books. Who does not fear a 
 schoolboy with his first pocket-knife? As Words- 
 worth did not say : 
 
 “ You may trace him oft 
 By scars which his activity has left 
 Upon our shelves and volumes. . . . 
 
 He who with pocket-knife will cut the edge 
 Of luckless panel or of prominent book. 
 
 Detaching with a stroke a label here, a back-band 
 there.” 
 
 Excursion, III. 83. 
 
 Pleased, too, are they if, with mouths full of candy 
 and sticky fingers, they can pull in and out the books 
 on your bottom shelves, little knowing the damage 
 and pain they will cause. One would fain cry out, 
 calling on the Shade of Horace to pardon the false 
 quantity : 
 
THE ENEMIES OE BOOKS 
 
 1 24 
 
 “ Magna movet stomacho fastidia, si puer unctis 
 Tractavit volumen manibus.” 
 
 Sat. II. iv. 
 
 What boys can do may be gathered from the 
 following true story, sent me by a correspondent who 
 was the immediate sufferer : 
 
 One summer day he met in town an acquaintance 
 who for many years had been abroad, and, finding his 
 appetite for old books as keen as ever, invited him 
 home to have a mental feed upon “ fifteeners ” and 
 other bibliographical dainties, preliminary to the 
 coarser pleasures enjoyed at the dinner-table. The 
 “home” was an old mansion in the outskirts of 
 London, whose very architecture was suggestive of 
 black-letter and sheepskin. The weather, alas ! was 
 rainy, and, as they approached the house, loud peals of 
 laughter reached their ears. The children were keep- 
 ing a birthday with a few young friends. The damp 
 forbade all outdoor play, and, having been left too 
 much to their own devices, they had invaded the 
 library. It was just after the Battle of Balaclava, and 
 the heroism of the combatants on that hard-fought 
 field was in everybody’s mouth. So the mischievous 
 young imps divided themselves into two opposing 
 canips — Britons and Russians. The Russian division 
 was just inside the door, behind ramparts formed 
 of old folios and quartos taken from the bottom 
 shelves, and piled to the height of about four feet. 
 It was a wall of old Fathers, fifteenth-century chronicles, 
 county histories, Chaucer, Lydgate, and such-like. 
 
SERVANTS AND CHILDREN 
 
 125 
 
 Some few yards off were the Britishers, provided with 
 heaps of small books as missiles, with which they kept 
 up a skirmishing cannonade against the foe. Imagine 
 the tableau! Two elderly gentlemen enter hurriedly, 
 paterfamilias receiving, quite unintentionally, the first 
 
 ■‘BATTLE OF THE BOOKS." 
 
 edition of “ Paradise Lost ” in the pit of his stomach, 
 his friend narrowly escaping a closer personal ac- 
 quaintance with a quarto “ Hamlet” than he had ever 
 had before. Finale ; Great outburst of wrath, and 
 rapid retreat of the combatants, many wounded 
 (volumes) being left on the field. 
 

 
 J 
 
POSTSCRIPTUM. 
 
M'iL 
 
POSTSCRIPTUM. 
 
 LTHOUGH, strictly speaking, the following 
 anecdote does not illustrate any form of 
 real injury to books, it is so racy, and in 
 these days of extravagant biddings so tantalizing, that 
 I must step just outside the strict line of pertinence in 
 order to place it on record. It was sent to me, as a 
 personal experience, by my friend Mr. George Clulow, 
 a well-known bibliophile, and “ Xylographer ” to “Ye 
 Sette of ye Odde Volumes.” The date is i88i. He 
 writes : 
 
 ''Apropos of the Gainsborough ‘find,’ of which you 
 tell in ‘ The Enemies of Books,’ I should like to 
 narrate an experience of my own, of some twenty 
 years ago : 
 
 “ Late one evening, at my father’s house, I saw a 
 
 lO 
 
130 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS . 
 
 catalogue of a sale of furniture, farm implements, and 
 books, which was announced to take place on the 
 following morning at a country rectory in Derbyshire, 
 some four miles from the nearest railway-station. 
 
 “It was summer time — the country at its best — and, 
 with the attraction of an old book, I decided on a day’s 
 holiday, and eight o’clock the next morning found me 
 
 in the train for C , and after a variation in my 
 
 programme, caused by my having walked three miles 
 west before I discovered that my destination was three 
 miles east of the railway-station, I arrived at the 
 rectory at noon, and found assembled some thirty or 
 forty of the neighbouring farmers, their wives, men- 
 servants and maid-servants, all seemingly bent on a 
 day’s idling rather than business. The sale was 
 announced for noon, but it was an hour later before 
 the auctioneer put in an appearance, and the first 
 operation in which he took part, and in which he 
 invited my assistance, was to make a hearty meal of 
 bread and cheese, and beer in the rectory kitchen. 
 This over, the business of the day began by a sundry 
 collection of pots, pans, and kettles being brought to 
 the competition of the public, followed by some lots of 
 bedding, etc. The catalogue gave books as the first 
 part of the sale, and, as three o’clock was reached, my 
 patience was gone, and I protested to the auctioneer 
 against his not selling in accordance with his catalogue. 
 To this he replied that there was not time enough, 
 and that he would sell the books to-morrow! This 
 was too much for me, and I suggested that he had 
 
POSTSCRIPTUM 
 
 acting as porter, and to tell him to give the gentleman 
 the key of the ‘ booak room,’ and to bring down any 
 of the books he might pick out, and he ‘ would sell 
 ’em.’ I followed ‘ Bill,’ and soon found myself in a 
 
 broken faith with the buyers, and had brought me to 
 
 C on a false pretence. This, however, did not 
 
 seem to disturb his good humour, or to make him 
 unhappy, and his answer was to call ‘ Bill,’ who was 
 
 “KNOCKED DOWN IN RAPID SUCCESSION.” 
 
132 
 
 THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS 
 
 charming nook of a library, full of books, mostly old 
 divinity, but with a large number of the best mis- 
 cellaneous literature of the sixteenth century, English 
 and foreign. A very short look over the shelves 
 produced some thirty black-letter books, three or 
 four illuminated missals, and some book rarities of a 
 more recent date. ‘ Bill ’ took them downstairs, and 
 I wondered what would happen. I was not long in 
 doubt, for book by book, and in lots of two and three, 
 my selection was knocked down in rapid succession, at 
 prices varying from is. 6d. to 3s. 6d., this latter sum 
 seeming to be the utmost limit to the speculative turn 
 of my competitors. The bonne-bouche of the lot was, 
 however, kept back by the auctioneer, because, as he 
 said, it was ‘ a pretty book,’ and I began to respect his 
 critical judgment, for ‘ a pretty book ’ it was, being a 
 large-paper copy of Dibdin’s ‘ Bibliographical De- 
 cameron,’ three volumes, in the original binding. 
 Suffice it to say that, including this charming book, 
 my purchases did not amount to .1^13, and I had pretty 
 well a cartload of books for my money — more than I 
 wanted, much ! Having brought them home, I 
 ‘weeded them out,’ and the ‘weeding’ realized four 
 times what I gave for the whole, leaving me with 
 some real book treasures. 
 
 “ Some weeks afterwards I heard that the remainder 
 of the books were literally treated as waste lumber, 
 and carted off to the neighbouring town, and were to 
 be had, any one of them, for sixpence, from a cobbler 
 who had allowed his shop to be used as a storehouse 
 
POSTSCRIPTUM 
 
 133 
 
 ' for them. The news of their being there reached the 
 
 ears of an old bookseller in one of the large towns, 
 and he, I think, cleared out the lot. So curious an 
 instance of the most total ignorance on the part of the 
 sellers, and I may add on the part of the possible 
 buyers also, I think is worth noting.” 
 
 How would the reader, in this year of grace 1887, 
 like such an experience as that } 
 
 S 
 
 a 
 
CON CL USION. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 T is a great pity that there should be so many 
 distinct enemies at work for the destruction 
 of literature, and that they should so often 
 be allowed to work out their sad end. Looked at 
 rightly, the possession of any old book is a sacred 
 trust, which a conscientious owner or guardian would 
 as soon think of ignoring as a parent would of neglect- 
 ing his child. An old book, whatever its subject or 
 internal merits, is truly a portion of the national 
 history ; we may imitate it and print it in facsimile, 
 but we can never exactly reproduce it, and as a 
 historical document it should be carefully preserved. 
 
 I do not envy any man that absence of sentiment 
 which makes some people careless of the memorials of 
 their ancestors, and whose blood can be warmed up 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 138 
 
 only by talking of horses or the price of hops. To 
 them solitude means ennui, and anybody’s company is 
 preferable to their own. What an immense amount of 
 calm enjoyment and mental renovation do such men 
 miss ! Even a millionaire will ease his toils, lengthen 
 his life, and add a hundred per cent, to his daily 
 pleasures, if he becomes a bibliophile ; while to the 
 man of business with a taste for books, who through 
 the day has struggled in the battle of life, with all its 
 irritating rebuffs and anxieties, what a blessed season 
 of pleasurable repose opens upon him as he enters his 
 sanctum, where every article wafts to him a welcome, 
 and every book is a personal friend ! 
 

 
 
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INDEX. 
 
 Academy, The, 22 
 
 Acarus eruditus, 68, 70 
 
 Acts of the Apostles quoted, 5 
 
 Aglossa pinguinalis, 68 
 
 Albemarle (Duke of), portrait by Logan, 1 1 1 
 
 Althorp library, no 
 
 Anderson (Sir C.), 5J 
 
 Anobium paniceum, 68, 70 
 
 Anobium pertinax, 68, 70, 75 
 
 Antiquary, The, 49 
 
 Antwerp, Monks at, 52, 53 
 
 Asbestos fire, 24 
 
 Ashburnham House, Westminster, 10 
 
 Asiarch, An, 7 
 
 Athens, Bookworm from, 71 
 
 Atkyns’ “ Origin and Growth of Printing,” 1 1 1 
 
 Auctioneer, Story of, 129 
 
 Austin Friars, 13 
 
 Bagford (John), the biblioclast, 106 
 Balaclava, Battle of, 124 
 
142 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bale, the antiquary, 8 
 Bandinel (Dr.), 75 
 Beedham (B.), 48 
 
 Bible, The first printed, burnt at Strasbourg, 1 2 
 
 , the “ Bug ” edition, 84 
 
 Bibliophile, Pleasures of a, 138 
 Bibliotaph, A, 113 
 
 “Bibliotheca Ecclesiae Londino-Belgicse,” 15 
 Binder’s creed, 31 
 plough, 92 
 
 Binding, Care to be taken of, 119 
 
 , quality of good, 92 
 
 Bird (Rev., Vicar of Gainsborough), 51 
 Birdsall (Mr.), bookbinder, 71 
 “Birmingham Riots,” ii 
 Blackbeetles enemies of books, 83 
 Black-letter books in United States, 78 
 Blatta germanica, 83 
 Boccaccio, 42, 43 
 Bodleian, Bookworms at, 75 
 Bookbinders as enemies of books, 9 1 
 Books, absurd lettering, 97 
 
 burnt at Carthage ; at Ephesus, 4 
 
 burnt in Fire of London, 10 
 
 burnt by Saracens, 4 
 
 captured by corsairs, 20 
 
 , cleaning of, 99 
 
 deprived of title-pages, 106, 107 
 
 destroyed at the Reformation, 47 
 
 dried in an attic, 14 
 
 , examination of old covers, 100 
 
 , how to dust them, 119 
 
 injured by hacking, 96 
 
 lost at sea, 19 
 
 , margin reduced to size, 96 
 
 , mildew in, 121 
 
 from monasteries destroyed, 8 
 
 , restoration when injured, 99 
 
 restored after a fire, 13 
 
INDEX 
 
 143 
 
 Books scarce before printing, 4 
 
 sold to a cobbler, 47, 132 
 
 too tight on shelves, 121 
 
 , their claims to be preserved, 137 
 
 • used to bake “ pyes,” 10 
 
 which scratch one another, 119 
 
 Book-sale in Derbyshire, 130 
 Bookworm, The, 63-79 
 
 , Attempt to breed, 71, 72 
 
 from Greece, 72 
 
 in paper box, 76 
 
 in United States, 78 
 
 Bookworms’ progress through books, 73 
 
 , Race by, 74 
 
 Bosses on books, 119 
 Boys injuring books, 123 
 
 in library. Story of, 124 
 
 Brighton, black-letter fragments, 53 
 
 British Museum, Boccaccio’s “Fall of Princes,” 55 
 
 British Museum free from the “worm,” 72 
 
 , Burnt book exhibited at, ii 
 
 Brown spots in books, 23 
 Bruchium, 4 
 “ Bug ” Bible, 84 
 Burckhardt’s Arabic MSS., 68 
 Burgundy (Duchess of), 1 1 3 
 
 Cambridge Market, 85 
 Caskets, The three (Shakespeare), 54 
 Caspari (Mr.), a collector, no 
 Cassin, Convent of Mount, 42 
 Caxton, William, 113 
 
 , his use of waste leaves, 77 
 
 , “ Canterbury Tales ” used to light a fire, 48 
 
 , “ Golden Legend” ditto, 48 
 
 , “Lyf of oure ladye,” 76 
 
 Caxtons saturated by rain, 21 
 
 spoilt in binding, 94 
 
 discovered in British Museum, 94 
 
144 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Charles II., portrait by Logan, 1 1 1 
 Chasles (Philarete), 48 
 Child tearing books, 123 
 Children as enemies of books, 122 
 Choir boys injuring MSS., 109 
 Christians burnt heathen MSS., 7 
 , Early, 6 
 
 Clarendon (Earl of), portrait by Logan, in 
 
 Clasps on books, Injury from, 119 
 
 Clergymen as biblioclasts, 57 
 
 Clulow (Mr. George), 129 
 
 Coal fires objectionable in libraries, 24 
 
 Codfish, Book eaten by a, 85 
 
 Cold injures books, 24 
 
 Collectors as enemies of books, 105 
 
 College quadrangle, 38 
 
 Colophon in Schoeffer’s book, 109 
 
 Colophons, Collections of, 106 
 
 Commonwealth quartos, 41 
 
 Communal libraries in France, 42 
 
 Cotton Library partially burnt, 10 
 
 Cowper, the poet, on burnt libraries, 1 1 
 
 Crambus pinguinalis, 67 
 
 Cremona, Books destroyed at, 8 
 
 Croton bug, 83 
 
 Damp an enemy of books, 22 
 Dante, 44 
 
 , “ The Inferno,” 93 
 
 Derbyshire, Book sale in, 130 
 Dermestes vulpinus, 76 
 De Rome, the binder, 42, 96 
 De Thou, 96 
 Devil-worship, 5 
 Devon and Exeter Museum, 87 
 Diana, Temple of, 6 
 Dibdin (Dr.), 96 
 
 , sale of his “Decameron,” 132 
 
 , his books, 23 
 
INDEX 
 
 145 
 
 D’Israeli (B.), 19 
 
 Doraston (J.), poem on bookworm, 63, 67 
 Dust an enemy of books, 37 
 
 and neglect in a library, 37-44, 119 
 
 Dusting books, how to do it, 121 
 Dutch Church burnt, 13 
 library at Guildhall, 15 
 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 49 
 Edmonds (Mr.), bookseller, 53 
 Edward IV., 113 
 Edwards (Mr.), bookseller, 20 
 Electric light in British Museum, 31 
 Ephesus, 5 
 “ Eracles,” 97 
 “ Evil eye,” The, 6 
 “ Excursion, The,” 123 
 
 Fire an enemy of books, 3-15 
 of London, 10 
 
 Flint (Weston), account of black-beetles in New York 
 libraries, 83 
 Folklore, Ancient, 6 
 “ Foxey ” books, 23 
 Francis (St.) and the friars, 33 
 French Protestant Church, 48 
 Frith (John), 84 
 Froissart’s “ Chronicles,” 96 
 Frost in a library, 24 
 
 Garnett (Dr.), yt 
 Gas injurious, 29-33 
 Gatty’s (Mrs.) “ Parables,” 68 
 German Army at Strasbourg, 1 2 
 “ Gesta Rornanorum,” 54 
 Gibbon, the historian, 4 
 Glass cases preservative of books, 25 
 “ Golden Legend,” by Caxton, 48 
 “ Gordon Riots,” 1 1 
 
146 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Government officials as biblioclasts, 57 
 Grenville (Rt. Hon. Thos.), 51 
 Guildford, Library at school, 1 1 2 
 Guildhall, London, Library at, 15 
 Gutenberg, 109 
 
 , Documents concerning, burnt, 12 
 
 Gwyn, Nell, Housekeeping book of, 58 
 “ Gyp ” brushing clothes in a library, 41 
 
 Hannett, on bookbinding, 68 
 Havergal (Rev. F. T.), 68 
 Heathens burnt Christian MSS., 7 
 Heating libraries, 24 
 Hebrew books burnt, 8 
 Hereford Cathedral library, 68 
 Hickman family, 51 
 “ Histories of Troy,” 97 
 Holme (Mr.), 68 
 
 Hooke (R.), his “ Micrographia,” 66, 67 
 Horace’s “Satires,” 124 
 Hot-water pipes for libraries, 24 
 House-fly, an enemy of books, 88 
 Hudde, Heer, A story of, 19 
 Humphrey’s “ History of Writing,” 122 
 Hypothenemus eruditus, 68 
 
 Ignorance and Bigotry, 47-59 
 Illuminated letters fatal to books, 47 
 
 initials, Collections of, 109 
 
 Indulgence of 15th century spoilt by a binder, 95 
 Inquisition in Holland, 56 
 
 Kirby and Spence on entomologists, 67, 87 
 Knobs of metal on bindings, 119 
 Koran, The, 8 
 
 Lamberhurst, 55 
 Lamport Hall, 53 
 Lansdowne Collection of MSS., 54 
 “ Latterbury,” Copy of, at St. Martin’s, 49 
 
INDEX 
 
 147 
 
 Leather destroyed by gas, 30 
 Lepisma, 84 
 
 mistaken for bookworm, 67 
 
 Libraries burnt : by Csesar, 4 
 
 at Dutch Church, 13 
 
 at Strasbourg, 12 
 
 neglected in England, 13, 21, 38 
 
 at Alexandria, 4 
 
 of the Ptolemies, 4 
 
 Library Journal, The, 83 
 Lincoln Cathedral MSS., 109 
 “ Lincolne Nosegaye,” no 
 London Institution, 30 
 Lubbock (Sir J.), 77 
 
 Luke’s (St.), account of destruction of books, 5 
 “ Luxe des Livres,” 42 
 Luxury and learning, 39 
 
 Machlinia, Book printed by, 94 
 
 Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1 1 2 
 
 Maitland (Rev. S. R.), 50 
 
 Mansfield (Lord), 1 1 
 
 MS. plays burnt, 54 
 
 Manuscripts, Fragments of, no 
 
 Margins of books cut away, 43, 1 1 1 
 
 Maximilian (The Emperor), no 
 
 Mazarin Library, Caxton in, 48 
 
 “ Metamorphosis ” of Ovid, by Caxton, 10 
 
 “ Micrographia,” by R. Hooke, 66 
 
 Middleburgh, 19 
 
 Mildew in books, 121 
 
 Minorite friars, 33 
 
 Missal illuminations. Sale of, 107 
 
 Mohammedan reason for destroying books, 8 
 
 Mohammed II. throws books into the sea, 20 
 
 Monks at Monte Cassino, 43 
 
 Mould in books, 22 
 
 Mount Cassin, Library at, 42 
 
148 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Moxon's “ Mechanic Exercises,” 100 
 Muller (M.), of Amsterdam, 56 
 
 Newmarsh (Rev. C. F.), 49 
 Niptus Hololeucus, 87 
 Noble (Mr.), on parish registers, 55 
 Notes and Queries, 68 
 
 Oak chest, 41 
 
 CEcophora pseudospretella, 70 
 Offor Collection of Bunyans, 1 2 
 On, Priests of, 64 
 
 Overall (Mr.), librarian at Guildhall, 14 
 Ovid, “ Metamorphoses,” by Ca.xton, lo 
 “ Oxenforde, Lyf of therle,” 10 
 
 Paper improperly bleached, 23 
 Papyrus, 64 
 “Paradise Lost,” 125 
 Parchment, Slips of, in old books, 98 
 Parish registers, carelessness, 55 
 Parnell’s ode, 65 
 
 Patent Office, Destruction of literature at, 58 
 Paternoster Row, 10 
 Paul (St.), 6 
 
 Pedlar buying old books, 50, 51 
 Peignot and bookworms, 70 
 Pepys (Samuel), his library, 112 
 Petit (Pierre), poem on bookworm, 65 
 Philadelphia, Wormhole at, 78 
 Phillipps (Sir Thomas), 113 
 Pieces of silver, or denarii, 5 
 Pinelli (Matfei), Library of, 20 
 Plantin Museum, 109 
 Policemen in Ephesus, 7 
 Portrait-collectors, in 
 Priestley (Dr.), library burnt, n, 12 
 Printers, The first, 12 
 Printers’ marks. Collection of, 106 
 
INDEX 
 
 149 
 
 Printers’ ink and bookworms, 70 
 Proeme (Mr.), 107 ' 
 
 Ptolemies, The Egyptian, 4 
 Puttick and Simpson, 13 
 Pynson’s “ Fall of Princes,” 55 
 
 Quadrangle of an old college described, 38 
 Quaint titles. Collections of, 107 
 Queen Elizabeth’s Prayer-Book, 87 
 
 Rain an enemy to books, 20 
 
 Rats eat books, 85 
 
 Recollet Monks of Antwerp, 52 
 
 “ Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,” 113 
 
 Reformation, Destruction of books at, 8 
 
 Restoration of burnt books, 1 1 
 
 Richard of Bury, 41 
 
 Ringwalt’s “ Encyclopaedia,” 78 
 
 Rivets on books, 119 
 
 Rood and Hunte, 49 
 
 Rot caused by rain, 20 
 
 Royal Society, London, 66 
 
 Rubens’ engraved titles in Plantin Museum, 108 
 
 autograph receipts, 108 
 
 Ruins of fire at Sotheby and Wilkinson’s, 13 
 Rye (W. B.), 55, 73 
 
 “ St. Albans, Boke of,” 50 
 
 St. Martin’s-le-Grand, French church, 48 
 
 St. Paul’s Cathedral, Books burnt in vaults of, 10 
 
 Sale catalogue. Extract from, 107 
 
 Schoeffer (P.), 109 
 
 Schonsperger (Hans), no 
 
 Schoolmaster and endowed library, 112 
 
 Scorched book at British Museum, 1 1 
 
 Scrolls of magic, 6 
 
 Serpent-worship, 5 
 
 Servants and children as enemies of books, 118-125 
 Shakespearian discoveries, 53 
 
INDEX 
 
 150 
 
 “ Shavings ” of binders, 31 
 
 Sheldon (Archbishop), portrait by Logan, 111 
 
 Sib’s “• Bowels opened,” 107 
 
 Smith (Mr.), Brighton bookseller, 57 
 
 Sotheby and Wilkinson, no 
 
 , fire at their rooms, 12 
 
 Spring clean, Horrors of, 118 
 Stark (Mr.), bookseller, 51-53 
 Stealing a Caxton, 49 
 Steam press, 37 
 Strasbourg, Siege of, 12 
 “Sun light” of gas, 30, 31 
 Sun-worship, 5 
 
 Sylvester’s “Laws of Verse,” 65 
 
 Taylor, the water- poet, 107 
 Teylerian Museum, Haarlem, 112 
 “ Theurdanck,” Prints in, no 
 Thonock Hall, Library of, 51 
 Timmins (Mr. ), 43 
 Title-pages, collections sold, 108 
 
 , Volumes of, 106 
 
 , Old Dutch, 107 
 
 Tomicus Typographus, 87 
 
 Ultramontane Society called “ Old Paper,” 56 
 Unitarian library, 12 
 Universities destroy books, 9 
 
 Value of books burnt by St. Paul, 5 
 Vanderberg (M.), 53 
 Vermin book-enemies, 83-88 
 “ Vox Piscis,” 85 
 
 Washing old books, 1 5 
 Water an enemy of books, 19-25 
 Waterhouse (Mr.), 71 
 Werdet (Edmond), 42, 52 
 Westbrook (W. J.), 87 
 
INDEX 
 
 Westminster Chapter House, 85 
 
 , skeletons of rats, 86 
 
 White (Adam), 73 
 Wolfenbuttel, Library at, 22 
 Woodcuts, a Caxton Celebration, no 
 Wynken de AVorde, fragment, 54 
 
 Xinienes (Cardinal) destroys copies of the Koran, 8 
 
 
Elliot Stock, Paternoster Reno, London. 
 
GEHY CENTER LIBRARY 
 
 Z 701 B63 1896 
 
 BKS 
 
 Blades. William. 182 
 
 me enemies ot books / 
 
 3 3125 00273 6441