Part 38

Among the book-buyers of the reign of George III., John Ratcliffe, an ex-coal-merchant, and James West had devoted themselves specially to Caxtons (of which the former possessed 48 and the latter 34) and the products of other early English presses. The collections of Capell and Garrick were also small and homogeneous. Each section, moreover, of some of the great libraries that have just been enumerated might fairly be considered a collection in itself, the union of several collections in the same library being made possible by the wealth of their purchaser and the small prices fetched by most classes of books in comparison with those which are now paid. But perhaps the modern cabinet theory of book-collecting was first carried out with conspicuous skill by Henry Perkins (d. 1855), whose 865 fine manuscripts and specimens of early printing, when sold in 1870, realized nearly L26,000. If surrounded by a sufficient quantity of general literature the collection might not have seemed noticeably different from some of those already mentioned, but the growing cost of books, together with difficulties as to house-room, combined to discourage miscellaneous buying on a large scale, and what has been called the "cabinet" theory of collecting, so well carried out by Henry Perkins, became increasingly popular among book buyers, alike in France, England and the United States of America. Henri Beraldi, in his catalogue of his own collection (printed 1892), has described how in France a little band of book-loving amateurs grew up who laughed at the _bibliophile de la vieille roche_ as they disrespectfully called their predecessors, and prided themselves on the unity and compactness of their own treasures. In place of the miscellaneous library in which every class of book claimed to be represented, and which needed a special room or gallery to house it, they aimed at small collections which should epitomize the owner's tastes and require nothing bulkier than a neat bookcase or cabinet to hold them. The French bibliophiles whom M. Beraldi celebrated applied this theory with great success to collecting the dainty French illustrated books of the 18th century which were their especial favourites. In England Richard Fisher treated his fine examples of early book-illustration as part of his collection of engravings, etchings and woodcuts (illustrated catalogue printed 1879), and Frederick Locker (Locker-Lampson) formed in two small bookcases such a gathering of first editions of English imaginative literature that the mere catalogue of it (printed in 1886) produced the effect of a stately and picturesque procession. Some of the book-hoards of previous generations could have spared the equivalent of the Locker collection without seeming noticeably the poorer, but the compactness and unity of this small collection, in which every book appears to have been bought for a special reason and to form an integral part of the whole, gave it an artistic individuality which was a pleasant triumph for its owner, and excited so much interest among American admirers of Mr Locker's poetry that it may be said to have set a fashion. As another example of the value of a small collection, both for delight and for historical and artistic study, mention may be made of the little roomful of manuscripts and incunabula which William Morris brought together to illustrate the history of the bookish arts in the middle ages before the Renaissance introduced new ideals. Many living collectors are working in a similar spirit, and as this spirit spreads the monotony of the old libraries, in which the same editions of the same books recurred with wearisome frequency, should be replaced by much greater individuality and variety. Moreover, if they can be grouped round some central idea cheap books may yield just as good sport to the collector as expensive ones, and the collector of quite modern works may render admirable service to posterity. The only limitation is against books specially manufactured to attract him, or artificially made rare. A quite wholesome interest in contemporary first editions was brought to nought about 1889 by the booksellers beginning to hoard copies of Browning's _Asolando_ and Mr Lang's _Blue Fairy Book_ on the day of publication, while a graceful but quite minor poet was made ridiculous by L100 being asked for a set of his privately printed _opuscula_. The petty gambling in books printed at the Kelmscott and Doves' presses, and in the fine paper copies of a certain _Life of Queen Victoria_, for which a premium of 250% was asked before publication, is another proof that until the manufacturing stage is over collecting cannot safely begin. But with this exception the field is open, and the 19th century offers as good a hunting ground as any of its predecessors.

Objects and methods.

While book-collecting may thus take an endless variety of forms the heads under which these may be grouped are few and fairly easily defined. They may be here briefly indicated together with some notes as to the literature which has grown up round them. The development which bibliographical literature has taken is indeed very significant of the changed ideals of collectors. Brunet's _Manuel du libraire_, first published in 1810, attained its fifth edition in 1860-1864, and has never since been re-edited (supplement, 1878-1880). The _Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature_ by W.T. Lowndes, first published in 1834, was revised by H.G. Bohn in 1857-1864, and of this also no further edition has been printed. These two works between them gave all the information the old-fashioned collectors required, the _Tresor de livres rares et precieux_ by J.G.T. Graesse (Dresden, 1859-1867, supplementary volume in 1869) adding little to the information given by Brunet. The day of the omnivorous collector being past, the place of these general manuals has been taken by more detailed bibliographies and handbooks on special books, and though new editions of both Lowndes and Brunet would be useful to librarians and booksellers no publisher has had the courage to produce them.

To attract a collector a book must appeal to his eye, his mind or his imagination, and many famous books appeal to all three. A book may be beautiful by virtue of its binding, its illustrations or the simple perfection and harmony of its print and paper. The attraction of a fine binding has always been felt in France, the high prices quoted for Elzevirs and French first editions being often due much more to their 17th and 18th century jackets than to the books themselves. The appreciation of old bindings has greatly increased in England since the exhibition of them at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1891 (illustrated catalogue printed the same year), English blind stamped bindings, embroidered bindings, and bindings attributable to Samuel Mearne (_temp._ Charles II.) being much more sought after than formerly. (See BOOKBINDING.)

Illustrated books of certain periods are also much in request, and with the exception of a few which early celebrity has prevented becoming rare have increased inordinately in price. The primitive woodcuts in incunabula are now almost too highly appreciated, and while the _Nuremburg Chronicle_ (1493) seldom fetches more than L30 or the _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_ (Venice, 1499) more than L120, rarer books are priced in hundreds. The best books on the subject are: for Italy, Lippmann's _Wood Engraving in Italy in the 15th Century_ (1888), Kristeller's _Early Florentine Woodcuts_ (1897), the duc de Rivoli's (Prince d'Essling's) _Bibliographie des livres a figures venitiens 1469-1525_ (1892, new edition 1906); for Germany, Muther's _Die deutsche Bucherillustration der Gothik und Fruhrenaissance_ (1884); for Holland and Belgium, Sir W.M. Conway's _The Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the 15th Century_ (1884); for France the material will all be found in Claudin's _Histoire de l'imprimerie en France_ (1900, &c.). Some information on the illustrated books of the early 16th century is given in Butsch's _Die Bucherornamentik der Renaissance_ (1878), but the pretty French books of the middle of the century and the later Dutch and English copper-engraved book illustrations (for the latter see Colvin's _Early Engraving and Engravers in England_, 1905) have been imperfectly appreciated. This cannot be said of the French books of the 18th century chronicled by H. Cohen, _Guide de l'amateur de livre a gravures du XVIII^e siecle_ (5th ed., 1886), much of the same information, with a little more about English books, being given in Lewine's _Bibliography of Eighteenth Century Art and Illustrated Books_ (1898). English books with coloured illustrations, for which there has arisen a sudden fashion, are well described in Martin Hardie's _English Colour Books_ (1906). Bewick's work has been described by Mr Austin Dobson.

Appreciation of finely printed books has seldom extended much beyond the 15th century. In addition to the works mentioned in the article on incunabula(q.v.), note may be made of Humphrey's _Masterpieces of the Early Printers and Engravers_ (1870), while Lippmann's _Druckschriften des XV. bis XVIII Jahrhunderts_ (1884-1887) covers, though not very fully, the later period.

Among books which make an intellectual appeal to the collectors may be classed all works of historical value which have not been reprinted, or of which the original editions are more authentic, or convincing, than modern reprints. It is evident that these cover a vast field, and that the collector in taking possession of any corner of it is at once the servant and rival of historical students. Lord Crawford's vast collections of English, Scottish and Irish proclamations and of papal bulls may be cited as capital instances of the work which a collector may do for the promotion of historical research, and the philological library brought together by Prince Lucien Bonaparte (_An Attempt at a Catalogue_ by V. Collins, published 1894) and the Foxwell collection of early books on political economy (presented to the university of London by the Goldsmiths' Company) are two other instances of recent date. Much collecting of this kind is now being carried on by the libraries of institutes and societies connected with special professions and studies, but there is ample room also for private collectors to work on these lines.

Of books which appeal to a collector's imagination the most obvious examples are those which can be associated with some famous person or event. A book which has belonged to a king or queen (more especially one who, like Mary queen of Scots, has appealed to popular sympathies), or to a great statesman, soldier or poet, which bears any mark of having been valued by him, or of being connected with any striking incident in his life, has an interest which defies analysis. Collectors themselves have a natural tenderness for their predecessors, and a copy of a famous work is all the more regarded if its pedigree can be traced through a long series of book-loving owners. Hence the production of such works as _Great Book-Collectors_ by Charles and Mary Elton (1893), _English Book-Collectors_ by W.Y. Fletcher (1902) and Guigard's _Nouvel armorial du bibliophile_ (1890). Books condemned to be burnt, or which have caused the persecution of their authors, have an imaginative interest of another kind, though one which seems to have appealed more to writers of books than to collectors. As has already been noted, most of the books specially valued by collectors make a double or triple appeal to the collecting instinct, and the desire to possess first editions may be accounted for partly by their positive superiority over reprints for purposes of study, partly by the associations which they can be proved to possess or which imagination creates for them. The value set on them is at least to some extent fanciful. It would be difficult, for instance, to justify the high prices paid by collectors of the days of George III. for the first printed editions of the Greek and Latin classics. With few exceptions these are of no value as texts, and there are no possible associations by which they can be linked with the personality of their authors. It may be doubted whether any one now collects them save as specimens of printing, though no class of books which has once been prized ever sinks back into absolute obscurity. On the other hand the prestige of the first editions of English and French literary masterpieces has immensely increased. A first folio Shakespeare (1623) was in 1906 sold separately for L3000, and the MacGeorge copies of the first four folios (1623, 1632, 1663-1664 and 1685) fetched collectively the high price of L10,000. The quarto editions of Shakespeare plays have appreciated even more, several of these little books, once sold at 6d. apiece, having fetched over L1000, while the unknown and unique copy of the 1594 edition of _Titus Andronicus_, discovered in Sweden, speedily passed to an American collector for L2000. Information as to early editions of famous English books will be found in Lowndes' _Bibliographer's Manual_, in Hazlitt's _Handbook to the Popular Poetical and Dramatic Literature of Great Britain from the Invention of Printing to the Restoration_ (1867) and his subsequent _Collections and Notes_ (1876-1903), and as to more recent books in Slater's _Early Editions, a bibliographical survey of the works of some popular modern authors_ (1894), while French classics have found an excellent chronicler in Jules Le Petit (_Bibliographie des principales editions originales d'ecrivains francais du XV^e au XVIII^e siecle_, 1888).

In most cases there is a marked falling off in the interest with which early editions other than the first are regarded, and consequently in the prices paid for them, though important changes in the text give to the edition in which they first occur some shadow of the prestige attaching to an original issue. One of the recognized byways of book-collecting, however, used to be the collection of as many editions as possible of the same work. When this result in the acquisition of numerous late editions of no value for the text its only usefulness would appear to be the index it may offer to the author's popularity. But in translations of the Bible, in liturgical works, and in editions published during the author's life the aid offered to the study of the development of the final text by a long row of intermediate editions may be very great.

Another instance in which imagination reinforces the more positive interest a book may possess is in the case of editions which can be connected with the origin, diffusion or development of printing. Piety suggests that book-lovers should take a special interest in the history of the art which has done so much for their happiness, and in this respect they have mostly shown themselves religious. The first book printed in any town is reasonably coveted by local antiquaries, and the desire to measure the amount and quality of the work of every early printer has caused the preservation of thousands of books which would otherwise have perished. (See INCUNABULA.)

The financial side of book-collecting may be studied in Slater's _Book-Prices Current_, published annually since 1887, and in Livingston's _American Book Prices Current_, and in the same author's _Auction Prices of Books_ (1905). While largely influenced by fashion the prices given for books are never wholly unreasonable. They are determined, firstly by the positive or associative interest which can be found in the book itself, secondly by the infrequency with which copies come into the market compared with the number and wealth of their would-be possessors, and thirdly, except in the case of books of the greatest interest and rarity, by the condition of the copy offered in respect to completeness, size, freshness and absence of stains. (A. W. Po.)

BOOK-KEEPING, a systematic record of business transactions, in a form conveniently available for reference, made by individuals or corporations engaged in commercial or financial operations with a view to enabling them with the minimum amount of trouble and of dislocation to the business itself to ascertain at any time (1) the detailed

## particulars of the transactions undertaken, and (2) the cumulative

effect upon the business and its financial relations to others. Book-keeping, sometimes described as a science and sometimes as an art, partakes of the nature of both. It is not so much a discovery as a growth, the crude methods of former days having been gradually improved to meet the changing requirements of business, and this process of evolution is still going on. The ideal of any system of book-keeping is the maximum of record combined with the minimum of labour, but as dishonesty has to be guarded against, no system of book-keeping can be regarded as adequate which does not enable the record to be readily verified as a true and complete statement of the transactions involved. Such a verification is called an audit, and in the case of public and other large concerns is ordinarily undertaken by professional accountants (q.v.). Where the book-keeping staff is large it is usually organized so that its members, to some extent at least, check each other's work, and to that extent an audit, known as a "staff audit" or "internal check," is frequently performed by the book-keeping staff itself.

Formerly, when credit was a considerably less important factor than now in commercial transactions, book-keeping was frequently limited to an account of receipts and payments of money; and in early times, before money was in use, to an account of the receipt and issue of goods of different kinds. Even now what may be called the "cash system" of accounts is almost exclusively used by governments, local authorities, and charitable and other institutions; but in business it is equally necessary to record movements of credit, as a mere statement of receipts and payments of money would show only a part of the total number of transactions undertaken. As for practical purposes some limit must be placed upon the daily record of transactions, certain classes show only a record of cash receipts and payments, which must, when it is desired to ascertain the actual position of affairs, be adjusted by bringing into account those transactions which have not yet been completed by the receipt or payment of money. For instance, it is usual to charge customers with goods sold to them at the date when the sale takes place, and to give them credit for the amount received in payment upon the date of receipt (thus completely recording every phase of the transaction as and when it occurs); but in connexion (say) with wages it is not usual to give each workman credit for the services rendered by him from day to day, but merely to charge up the amounts, when paid, to a wages account, which thus at any date only shows the amounts which have actually been paid, and takes no cognisance of the sums accruing due. When, therefore, it is desired to ascertain the actual expenditure upon wages for any given period, it is necessary to allow for the payments made during that period in respect of work previously performed, and to add the value of work performed during the current period which remains unpaid. In the majority of businesses those accounts which deal with various forms of standing expenses are thus dealt with, and in consequence the record, as it appears from day to day, is _pro tanto_ incomplete. Another very important series of transactions which is not included in the ordinary day-to-day record is that representing the loss gradually accruing by reason of waste, or depreciation, of assets or general equipment of the business; proper allowance for these losses must of course be made whenever it is desired to ascertain the true position of affairs.

History.

The origin of book-keeping is lost in obscurity, but recent researches would appear to show that some method of keeping accounts has existed from the remotest times. Babylonian records have been found dating back as far as 2600 B.C., written with a stylus on small slabs of clay, and it is of interest to note (_Records of the Past_, xi. 89) that these slabs or tablets "usually contain impressions from cylinder seals, and nail marks, which were considered to be a man's natural seal," thus showing that the modern method of identifying criminals by finger prints had its counterpart in Babylonia some 4500 years ago. Egyptian records were commonly written on papyrus, and contemporary pictures show a scribe keeping account of the quantities of grain brought into and removed from the government store-houses. It will thus be seen that some form of book-keeping existed long before bound books were known, and therefore the more general term _accounting_ would seem to be preferable--the more so as the most modern developments are in the direction of again abandoning the bound book in favour of loose or easily detached sheets of paper or card, thus capable of being rearranged as circumstances or convenience may dictate. Most of the earlier accounting records are in the nature of a mere narrative of events, which--however complete in itself--failed to fulfil the second requirement of an adequate system of book-keeping already referred to. Prior to the use of money nothing in this direction could of course well be attempted; but for a long time after its employment became general money values were recorded in Roman figures, which naturally did not lend themselves to ready calculation.

At the present-time it may be generally stated that all book-keeping records are kept in three distinct columns, dealing respectively with the date of the transaction, its nature, and its money value. The earliest extant example of accounts so kept is probably a ledger in the Advocates' library at Edinburgh, dated 1697, which, it is of interest to note, is ruled by hand. Prior to that time, however, double-entry book-keeping had been in general use. The exact date of its introduction is unknown; but it was certainly not, as has been frequently stated, the invention of Lucas de Bergo, in or about 1494. This, however, is the date of the first issue (at Venice) of a printed book entitled _Everything about Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion_, by Luca Paciolo, which contains _inter alia_ an explanation of book-keeping by double-entry as then understood; but in all probability, the system had then been in use for something like 200 years. It is perhaps unfortunate that from 1494 until comparatively recent times the literature of accounting has been provided by theorists and students, rather than by practical business men, and it may well be doubted, therefore, whether it accurately describes contemporary procedure. Another illusion which it is necessary to expose in the interests of truth is the value attached to _Jones's English System of Book-keeping by Single or Double Entry_, published at Bristol in 1796. Before publishing this book, E.T. Jones issued a prospectus, stating that he had patented an entirely new and greatly improved system, and that subscribers (at a guinea a copy) would be entitled to a special licence empowering them to put the new invention into practice in their own book-keeping. With this bait he secured thousands of subscribers, but so far as can be gathered his system was entirely without merit, and it is chiefly of interest as indicating the value, even then, of advertising.

Modern methods.

It is impossible here to describe fully all the improvements that have been made in methods of accounting during recent years, but it is proposed to deal with the more important of these improvements, after the general principles upon which all systems of book-keeping are based have been briefly described.