Bookstore

In the U. States and Canada, a place where books are kept for sale. (In Great Britain, a book seller's shop.) Book-trade, n . The busine of wholesale dealing in books is of a comparatively recent date. In early times, when books were scarce and had all to be transcribed, those who copied them usually also disposed of them. In the later period of Roman history, however, there arose a cla of persons termed bibliopole , who acted as a kind of middle-men, employing or purchasing books from the transcribers and disposing of them to the public. In the reign of August us, the brothers Socii were celebrated in this way. With the establishment of several universities in the 12th century, the trade in books was much increased, particularly in such towns as Paris and Bologna. In 1323, a statute of the University of Paris distinguishes between stationarii , or booksellers proper, those who buy from one party and sell or lend to another; and librarii , those who merely buy and sell books on commi ion. After 1346, no one could deal in books in Paris without the permi ion of the university, who had special officers to examine the manuscripts and fix the price. It was not, however, till after the invention of printing that the B. T. attained any importance. At first, the printers were likewise booksellers; and John Faust and Peter Schöffer disposed of the productions of their pre in Paris and Frankfort-on-the-Main. Some instances of the division of the two branches occur in the 15th century. The first booksellers were usually termed stationers, either from the Latin word stationarius, or from having only stalls or stations in the streets and market-places of the towns, as is still to be seen in the case of dealers in old books. Now, the term stationer usually denotes a dealer in paper and other writing-materials. At first, the civil magistrates took little concern with the book-sellers, leaving them to the control of the universities, of which they were supposed to be the immediate retainers, and which, accordingly, gave them laws and regulations, examining the correctne of their books and fixing the prices of them. This, however, was soon changed, and the trade of bookselling was put under various restrictions. In 1556, the Stationers' Company of London was incorporated. It was composed of printers and book-sellers, who exercised a kind of censorship over the pre . In 1662 the famous Licensing Act was pa ed, which prohibited the publication of any book unle entered in the register of the Company of Stationers, or licensed by the Lord Chancellor. There are two generally distinct cla es engaged in the B. T. -the publishers, who prepare and i ue the books, and the booksellers, who distribute the product to wholesale or retail purchasers. A peculiar feature of the B. T. in America, for many years, was the holding of annual or semi-annual "trade sales" in the principal eastern cities, especially in New York. At these sales the books were sold by auction, the ostensible purpose being to introduce new publications into the retail channels without spending the time or money required to accomplish the same result by advertising or through traveling salesmen. The principal annual trade sale occurred in the summer or early autumn, and the second, generally termed a "parcel sale," took place about the end of November. Both sales were often attended by buyers from all over the country, and books to the value of from $600,000 to $1,000,000 were disposed of annually. In time, however, the trade sale gradually degenerated, and become little better than a more or le satisfactory outlet for unsucce ful publications - was Hezekiah Button, of Boston, 1652. The first book sellers' convention was held in the same city in 1724. There are now more than 600 publishing concerns in the U. S., about 200 being located in New York, 60 in Philadelphia, 50 in Boston, 50 in Chicago, and 12 in San Francisco, the remainder being well distributed throughout the smaller places. The number of new books and new editions pub. in U. S. was about 3,000 in 1880, 4,000 in 1885, and 5,500 in 1896. The people of the U. S. spend not le than $25,000,000 annually for books. Book-worm, n. (Zool.) A name given to various spe cies of insects in the larva state, in which they destroy books and papers, by boring into them; such as the Ptinida , Anobium , . -A student absorbed in, or closely attached to, books; an unappreciative reader, or one without judgment. "I wanted but a black gown, and a salary to be as mere a bookworm as any there." Pope. Boo'lak, or Boulac, a town of Egypt, on the right bank of the Nile, 3 m. N. of Cairo, of which it forms the port. After being destroyed by the French in 1799, it was rebuilt by Mehemet Ali. Manf . Cotton, silk, . Pop . 14,175.