illustrated work. This, however, would depend on the number of copies considered necessary for an edition, which probably varied according to the nature of the work.... Some foreign printers issued as many as 275 or 300 copies of editions of the Classics, but it is not probable that Caxton ventured upon so large an impression, as the demand for his publications must have been much more restricted.”25
It will be noticed that Mr. Blades is wrong in saying that the copies of the “Golden Legend” were sold at an average price of 6s. 8d., and it would probably be more correct to give the equivalent amount in modern money as £4, rather than £2, 13s. 4d., but this is perhaps more a matter of opinion.
Several old priced lists of books have come down to us, and the most interesting of these are the two printed and edited by Mr. F. Madan in the first series of the Collectanea of the Oxford Historical Society, and further annotated by the late Mr. Henry Bradshaw. The first of these is an inventory, with prices of books received in 1483 for sale by John Hunt,