Rees’s “Cyclopædia,” which was published between 1802 and 1820 (in forty-five volumes and six volumes of plates), cost in all £85. The “Encyclopædia Britannica,” which has superseded it, is published at the small price of twenty-eight shillings per volume.
In the early part of this century, when it was the fashion to print standard works in quarto, they were very high priced, thus the first edition of “Pepys’s Diary” was published in two volumes for six guineas. Now the quarto is almost as much out of date as the folio, and is confined to illustrated books.
OCTAVOS
The ordinary octavo volume was published at the beginning of the eighteenth century for five or six shillings. Thus Boyer’s translation of “The ingenious and entertaining Memoirs of Count Gramont, who lived in the court of King Charles II., and was afterwards Ambassador from the King of France to King James II.,” 1714, was published at five shillings, and George Psalmanazar’s “Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa” at six shillings. Since then the price for an octavo has gradually increased to seven shillings and sixpence, then to ten shillings and sixpence. In the latter half of the present century there has been a considerable advance to twelve shillings, to sixteen and eighteen shillings, and now fully illustrated books are often priced as high as one guinea a volume. Plays, trials, and pamphlets generally have averaged about one shilling apiece.
DUODECIMOS
Walton’s “Complete Angler,” first published in 1653, was issued at one shilling and sixpence, as appears from the following contemporary