The Book Trade
In the Early Modern Period
Book History in Practice
Stacey Redick, 28 February 2011
Table of Contents
Histoire du Livre
The Coming of the Book
The Book Trade: Challenges
The Book Trade: Commercial Network
The Book Trade: International Fairs
International Fairs: The Frankfurt Fair
The Frankfurt Fair: Book Catalogs
Questions
Histoire du Livre
“The new strain [of book history] developed during the
1960s in France... spread through publications like
L’Apparition du livre (1958), by Lucien Febvre and HenriJean Martin..” - Robert Darnton, “What is the History of
Books?”
“Annales school” of socioeconomic history - a style of
historiography developed by French historians in the 20th
century.
Studied the general pattern of book production,
transmission and consumption over time.
Materials studied: statistics from requests for privilèges,
contents of private libraries, ordinary types of books.
The Coming of the Book
“The printed book played its part in a whole range of basic
changes which were taking place at the time ... We hope to
establish how and why the printed book was something more than
a triumph of technical ingenuity, but was also one of the most
potent agents at the disposal of western civilization in bringing
together the scattered ideas of representative thinkers” (10).
The story of the printed book is one which deals with the “effect on
European culture of a new means of communicating ideas within a
society that was essentially aristocratic, ... that accepted and was
long to accept a culture and a tradition of learning which was
restricted to certain social groups” (12).
Sources: statistics, inventories, professional records
The Coming of the Book statistics
Basic data: sizes of editions
Economic balance: printing enough, but not too much
General pattern:
16th: editions of 1,000-1,500 copies (218)
17th: similar numbers, with slightly higher numbers
(2,000) for religious texts and textbooks (219)
What can this tell us about reading practices in the 16th
and 17th centuries?
The Coming of the Book history
Focus:
15th to 18th Centuries (11)
Europe - mainly France, Germany, Italy
Development of printing increased the production of books
and the audience for popular literature.
Majority of texts produced were of interest to a much
smaller population of readers (216).
Problem: finding enough retail outlets
Many of the international printing centers (Pettegree 76)
Challenges in the Early Modern Book
Trade
Transportation
Risks: Weather, robbery, war, accident, delay, misdirection
(223).
Piracy v. Regulation
No medieval guild existed for printed books.
Privileges granted not valid outside granting authority’s
jurisdiction
Censorship - religious and political
How closely are these problems related to the ones that exist in
book publishing, marketing and selling today?
The Importance of Commercial
Networks
To sell enough merchandise as rapidly as possible,
booksellers, printers and publishers needed strong
commercial networks (216).
Success depended on such networks.
Example: Correspondence of Johann Amerbach
Koberger
Rusch
The Importance of Commercial
Networks
People: Printers, publishers, booksellers but also
scholars, editors, authors, collectors.
Scholars corresponded to procure books, offer gossip,
advice and news.
Example: Willem Vorsterman, printer.
International Fairs
“The selling of books at fairs was an established custom
from the earliest times, and persisted for centuries...”
(226).
The great fairs were held at Leipzig, Lyons, Frankfurt and
Medina del Campo (226).
Geography: Fairs generally occurred in cities built on
commercial crossroads.
International Fairs - advantages
Advantages
Regularity (226)
Forum for networking
Transportation of merchandise
Market prediction
Encouraged technical innovation
Sales
Accounts
International Fairs - scheduling
Printers and authors organized their schedules around the
fairs.
Example: Calvin
“I will leave this topic to the next fair.”
How would this type of statement affect readers and
buyers of books?
“The Fair” - Frankfurt
“The most important book fair was originally at Lyons”
(226).
Yet: “Another book fair developed during the 16th century
and became even more important than those of Lyons:
The Frankfurt Fair” (228).
Home of a major book fair from 1475, remained at the
center of the international book trade for 200 years.
Also played a significant role in the German book trade.
Not an international center for printing or publishing.
The Frankfurt Fair - schedule
Two Frankfurt Fairs: One during Lent, one at Michaelmas.
The Lenten Fair:
dates, durations varied over time
1366-1383: two weeks
1384-1394: almost four weeks
1400: just under three weeks
The Frankfurt Fair - schedule
The Michaelmas Fair:
Originally held around the feast of Assumption on 15
August
Later: 24 August - 8 September
1349: 15 August - 8 September
1394: ended on 15 September
late 16th century: began on a Monday between 6-12
September
Highlight: Buchgasse, the main book trade thoroughfare (Flood
3).
The Frankfurt Fair - people
Booksellers, printers, publishers, paper merchants, typefounders, bookbinders, dye-casters, type engravers
Scholars - to trade complimentary copies for other works.
Authors - to promote manuscripts.
Printers such as Johann Amerbach (from Basel) and
Michael Wessler (in 1478), agents from bookseller Anton
Koberger (from Nuremburg), and from printer Christophe
Plantin (from Antwerp).
The Frankfurt Fair - why so
important?
Accustomed to seasonal commerce
Began as a major medieval fair in the eighth century.
Was confirmed by charters in 1240 and 1330.
Geographical location
Was equidistant from major cities in Europe.
Was situated at the center of major trade routes.
Heart of Europe. The geographical disposition of Europe’s
major printing centers (Pettegree 269).
The Frankfurt Fair - catalogs
“Among the most original features of the Frankfurt Fair were
the catalogues which were produced of the books available at
the fair ... catalogues of books for sale and in print were a
very early feature of the trade and from at least 1470, if not
earlier, agents employed by the big publishers drew up lists...”
(230).
In 1564 Augsburg bookseller Georg Willer produced the first
general fair catalog.
“In 1598 the Town Council decided to publish an official
catalogue which came out without interruption until the 18th
century and served as a source for the first bibliographic
studies which were published in Germany in the 17th century”
(231).
Works Cited
Darnton, Robert. “What is the History of the Book?”
Daedalus 111.3. 1982. 65-83. Print.
Febvre, Lucien and Henri-Jean Martin. “The Book Trade.”
The Coming of the Book. 1958. Print.
Febvre, Lucien. “Preface.” The Coming of the Book. 1958.
Print.
Flood, John L. “‘Omnium totius orbis emporiorum
compendium’: the Frankfurt Fair in the Early Modern
Period.” Fairs, Markets & the Itinerant Book Trade. Oak
Knoll Press, DE. 2007. 1-42. Print.
Pettegree, Andrew. The Book in the Renaissance. Yale
University Press, New Haven. 2010. Print.
Questions
What can the study of numbers of edition sizes tell us about reading practices
in the 16th and 17th centuries?
How closely are these problems of the book trade (i.e. transportation, piracy,
regulation and censorship) related to the ones that exist in book publishing,
marketing and selling today?
How would Calvin’s statement, “I will leave this topic to the next fair,” affect
readers and buyers of books in the early modern period?
How did book fairs like those of Frankfurt affect the (perception of the)
fixedness of the book?
What do you think of the approach of the histoire du livre scholars, and that of
Febvre and Martin in particular?
Others?
The End.