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Henry B. Wheatley examines the historical fluctuations in the prices of books as an indicator of broader economic and intellectual development. The text analyzes how factors such as scarcity, mechanical innovation, and changing social values influence the market value of printed works over time.

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER IV PUBLISHED PRICES

gentleman’s library in the sixteenth century. There are the best chronicles of the time, as Fabyan, Harding, &c., translations of the classics, and some in their original languages, statutes, new books of justices and other legal works, books of physic, dictionaries, &c., and each of the books is marked with a price. The most expensive books:— Cronica Cronicarum , xxs; Minister’s Cosmografye , xvjs; un byble, xs; a calapyne, xs [Calepino’s Vocabulary of the Latin Tongue]; Fabyan’s Cronicle , vs; Statuts of Henry theight, xijs; all the Statuts of Kyng Edward the VI., ijs; all the Statuts of the Quene, ijs; Chausore, vs. There were four New Testaments, “one in ffrench,” xxd, two “in Italion,” respectively xxjd and ijs vjd, and one “in lattyn,” xijd. The Legenda Aurea was priced iijs iiijd; Tullye’s Officys translated, viijd; ij bokes conteyning Tully’s Philosophy , ijs vjd; Cezar’s Commentary , xvjd; ij bokes of Machevale’s works in Italion, iijs iiijd; Hardyng’s Cronycle , ijs vjd; Utopea , viijd. Of low-priced books we find—A lyttle cronicle, id; Lydgates’ Proverbs , id; Alexander Barkley’s Eclogs , id; Skelton’s Work, iiijd; and Triumph of Petrark , vjd.

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