the general name of almost every literary composition; but, in a more limited sense, is applied only to such compositions as are large enough to make a volume. As to the origin of books or writing, those of Moses are undoubtedly the most ancient that are extant: But Moses himself cites many books which it behoved to be written before his time.

Of profane books, the oldest extant are Homer's poems, which were so even in the time of Sextus Empiricus; though we find mention in Greek writers of several others prior to Homer; as Hermes, Orpheus, Daphne, Horus, Linus, Mufeus, Palamedes, Zoroaster, &c.: but of the greater part of these there is not the least fragment remaining; and of others, the pieces which go under their names are generally held, by the learned, to be supposititious.

Several sorts of materials were used formerly in making books: Plates of lead and copper, the bark of trees, bricks, stone, and wood, were the first materials employed to engrave such things upon as men were willing to have transmitted to posterity. Josephus speaks of two columns, the one of stone, the other of brick, on which the children of Seth wrote their inventions and astronomical discoveries: Porphyry makes mention of some pillars, preserved in Crete, on which the ceremonies observed by the Corybantes in their sacrifices were recorded. Hesiod's works were originally written upon tables of lead, and deposited in the temple of the Muses, in Boeotia: The ten commandments, delivered to Moses, were written upon stone; and Solomon's laws upon wooden planks. Tables of wood, box, and ivory, were common among the ancients: When of wood, they were frequently covered with wax, that people might write upon them with more ease, or blot out what they had written. The leaves of the palm-tree were afterwards used instead of wooden planks, and the finest and thinnest part of the bark of such trees, as the lime, the ash, the maple, and the elm; from hence comes the word liber, which signifies the inner bark of the trees: and as these barks are rolled up, in order to be removed with greater ease, these rolls were called volumen, a volume; a name afterwards given to the like rolls of paper or parchment.

Thus we find books were first written on stones, witnesses the Decalogue given to Moses: Then on the parts of plants; as leaves, chiefly of the palm-tree, the rind and barks, especially of the tilia, or phillyrea, and the Egyptian papyrus. By degrees wax, then leather, were introduced, especially the skins of goats and sheep, of which at length parchment was prepared; then lead came into use; also linen, silk, horn, and lastly paper itself.

The first books were in the form of blocks and tables; but as flexible matter came to be wrote on, they found it more convenient to make their books in the form of rolls: These were composed of several sheets fastened to each other, and rolled upon a stick, or umbilicus; the whole making a kind of column, or cylinder, which was to be managed by the umbilicus as a handle, it being reputed a crime to take hold of the roll itself: The outside of the volume was called frons; the ends of the umbilicus, cornua, which were usually carved, and adorned with silver, ivory, or even gold and precious stones: The title, συλλαβης, was struck on the outside; the whole volume, when extended, might make a yard and a half wide, and fifty long. The form which obtains among us is the square, composed of separate leaves; which was also known, though little used, by the ancients.

To the form of books belongs also the internal economy, as the order and arrangement of points and letters into lines and pages, with margins and other appurtenances. This has undergone many varieties. At first the letters were only divided into lines; then into separate words; which, by degrees, were noted with accents, and distributed, by points and stops, into periods, paragraphs, chapters, and other divisions. In some countries, as among the orientals, the lines began from the right and ran leftward; in others, as the northern and western nations, from left to right; others, as the Greeks, followed both directions, alternately going in the one, and returning in the other, called boustrophedon: In most countries, the lines run from one side to the other; in some, particularly the Chinese, from top to bottom.

Multitude of Books has been long complained of: the complaint is as old as Solomon, who lived three thousand years ago: they are grown too numerous not only to procure and read, but to see, to learn the names of, or even to number. England has more to fear on this score than other countries; since, besides our own produce, we have for some years past drained our neighbours. However, as Bishop Caramuel's scheme miscarried, which was to write about an hundred volumes in folio, and then prevail on the civil and military powers to oblige all their subjects to read them, we need not much regret the multitude of books.

As knowledge, however, is naturally advantageous, and as every man ought to be in the way of information, even a superfluity of books is not without its use, since hereby they are brought to obtrude themselves on us, and engage us when we had least design. This advantage, an ancient father observes, we owe to the multiplicity of books on the same subject, that one falls in the way of one man, and another best suits the level or the apprehension of another. "Every thing that is written (says he) does not come into the hands of all persons: perhaps some may meet with my books, who may hear nothing of others which have treated better of the same subject. It is of service, therefore, that the same questions be handled by several persons, and after different methods, though all on the same principles, that the explication of difficulties and arguments for the truth may come to the knowledge of every one by one way or other." Add, that the multitude is the only security against the total loss or destruction of books: it is this that has preserved them against the injuries of time, the rage of tyrants, the zeal of persecutors, and the ravages of barbarians; and handed them down, through long intervals of darkness and ignorance, safe to our days. Soluque non norunt haec monumenta morti.

Scarcity of Books. Of the scarcity and value of books during the seventh and many subsequent centuries, the following curious account is given by Mr Warton in his history of English Poetry, vol. i.

"Towards the close of the seventh century (says he), even in the papal library at Rome, the number of books was so inconsiderable, that Pope Saint Martin requested Sanctamund bishop of Maefricht, if possible, to supply this defect from the remotest parts of Germany. In the year 855, Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres in France, sent two of his monks to Pope Benedict III. to beg a copy of Cicero de Oratore, and Quintilian's Institutes, and some other books: 'for (says the abbot) although we have part of these books, yet there is no whole or complete copy of them in all France.' Albert, abbot of Gemblours, who with incredible labour and immense expense had collected a hundred volumes on theological, and fifty on profane subjects, imagined he had formed a splendid library. About the year 790, Charlemagne granted an unlimited right of hunting to the abbot and monks of Sithin, for making their gloves and girdles of the skins of the deer they killed, and covers for their books. We may imagine that these religious were more fond of hunting than reading. It is certain that they were obliged to hunt before they could read: and at least it is probable, that under these circumstances, and of such materials, they did not manufacture many volumes. At the beginning of the tenth century books were so scarce in Spain, that one and the same copy of the Bible, Saint Jerome's epistles, and four volumes of ecclesiastical offices and martyrologies, often served several different monasteries. Among the constitutions given to the monks of England by Archbishop Lanfranc, in the year 1072, the following injunction occurs. At the beginning of Lent, the librarian is ordered to deliver a book to each of the religious: a whole year was allowed for the perusal of this book; and at the returning Lent, those monks who had neglected to read the books they had respectively received, are commanded to prostrate themselves before the abbot, and to supplicate his indulgence. This regulation was partly occasioned by the low state of literature which Lanfranc found in the English monasteries. But at the same time it was a matter of necessity, and is in a great measure to be referred to the scarcity of copies of useful and suitable authors. In an inventory of the goods of John de Pontifiria, bishop of Winchester, contained in his capital palace of Wulvesey, all the books which appear are nothing more than Septendecem species librorum de diversis scientiis. This was in the year 1294. The same prelate, in the year 1299, borrows of his cathedral convent of St Swithin at Winchester, Bibliam bene glossatam; that is, the Bible with marginal annotations, in two large folio volumes; but gives a bond for due return of the loan, drawn up with great solemnity. This Bible had been bequeathed to the convent the same year by Pontifiria's predecessor, Bishop Nicholas de Ely: and in consideration of so important a bequest, that is, pro bona Biblia dicti episcopi bene glossata, and one hundred marks in money, the monks founded a daily mass for the soul of the donor. When a single book was bequeathed to a friend or relation, it was seldom without many restrictions and stipulations. If any person gave a book to a religious house, he believed that so valuable a donation merited eternal salvation; and he offered it on the altar with great ceremony. The most formidable anathemas were peremptorily denounced against those who should dare to alienate a book presented to the cloister or library of a religious house. The prior and convent of Rochester declare, that they will every year pronounce the irrevocable sentence of damnation on him who shall purloin or conceal a Latin translation of Aristotle's Physics, or even obliterate the title. Sometimes a book was given to a monastery on condition that the donor should have the use of it during his life; and sometimes to a private person, with the reservation that he who receives it should pray for the soul of his benefactor. The gift of a book to Lincoln cathedral, by Bishop Repingdon, in the year 1422, occurs in this form, and under these curious circumstances. The memorial is written in Latin with the bishop's own hand, which I will give in English, at the beginning of Peter's Breviary of the Bible. 'I Philip of Repyndon, late bishop of Lincoln, give this book, called Peter de Aureolis, to the new library to be built within the church of Lincoln: referring the use and possession of it to Richard Tryfely, clerk, canon, and prebendary, of Milltown, in fee, and to the term of his life; and afterwards to be given up and restored to the said library, or the keepers of the same, for the time being, faithfully, and without delay. Written with my own hand, A.D. 1422." When a book was bought, the affair was of so much importance, that it was customary to assemble persons of consequence and character, and to make a formal record that they were present on this occasion. Among the royal manuscripts, in the book of the Sentences of Peter Lombard, an archdeacon of Lincoln has left this entry. "This book of the Sentences belongs to master Robert archdeacon of Lincoln, which he bought of Geoffrey the chaplain, brother of Henry vicar of Northelkington, in the presence of master Robert de Lee, master John of Lirling, Richard of Luda clerk, Richard the almoner, the said Henry the vicar, and his clerk, and others: and the said archdeacon gave the said book to God and St Oswald, and to Peter abbot of Barton, and the convent of Barden." The disputed property of a book often occasioned the most violent altercations. Many claims appear to have been made to a manuscript of Matthew Paris, belonging to the last-mentioned library; in which John Ruffel, bishop of Lincoln, thus conditionally defends or explains his right of possession. "If this book can be proved to be or to have been the property of the exempt monastery of St Alban in the diocese of Lincoln, I declare this to be my mind, that in that case I use it at present as a loan under favour of those monks who belong to the said monastery. Otherwise, according to the condition under which this book came into my possession, I will that it shall belong to the college of the blessed Winchester Mary at Oxford, of the foundation of William Wykham. Written with my own hand at Buckdane, 1st Jan. A.D. 1488. Jo. Lincoln. Whoever shall obliterate or destroy this writing, let him be anathema." About the year 1225, Roger de Insula, dean of York, gave several Latin Bibles to the university of Oxford, with a condition that the students who perused them should deposit a cautionary pledge. The library of that university, before the year 1300, consisted only of a few tracts, chained or kept in chests in the choir of St Mary's church. In the year 1327, the scholars and citizens of Oxford assaulted and entirely pillaged the opulent Benedictine abbey of the neighbouring town of Abingdon. Among the books they found there, were one hundred palters, as many grayles, and 40 missals, which undoubtedly belonged to the choir of the church; but besides these, there were only twenty-two codices, which I interpret books on common subjects. And although the invention of paper, at the close of the eleventh century, contributed to multiply manuscripts, and consequently to facilitate knowledge, yet, even so late as the reign of our Henry VI, I have discovered the following remarkable instance of the inconveniences and impediments to study, which must have been produced by a scarcity of books. It is in the statutes of St Mary's college at Oxford, founded as a seminary to Ofeney abbey in the year 1446: "Let no scholar occupy a book in the library above one hour, or two hours at most, so that others be hindered from the use of the same." The famous library established in the university of Oxford by that munificent patron of literature Humphrey duke of Gloucester contained only 600 volumes. About the commencement of the 14th century there were only four classics in the royal library of Paris. These were one copy of Cicero, Ovid, Lucan, and Boethius. The rest were chiefly books of devotion, which included but few of the fathers: many treatises of astrology, geomancy, chiromancy, and medicine, originally written in Arabic, and translated into Latin or French: paejects, chronicles, and romances. This collection was principally made by Charles V. who began his reign in 1365. This monarch was passionately fond of reading; and it was the fashion to send him presents of books from every part of the kingdom of France. These he ordered to be elegantly transcribed and richly illuminated; and he placed them in a tower of the Louvre, from thence called La Tour de la Libraire. The whole consisted of 900 volumes. They were deposited in three chambers; which, on this occasion were wainscotted with Irish oak, and cieled with cyprès curiously carved. The windows were of painted glass, fenced with iron bars and copper wire. The English became masters of Paris in the year 1425; on which event the duke of Bedford, regent of France, sent the whole library, then consisting of only 853 volumes, and valued at 2223 livres, into England; where perhaps they became the ground-work of Duke Humphrey's library, just mentioned. Even so late as the year 1471, when Louis XI. of France borrowed the works of the Arabian physician Rhass from the faculty of medicine at Paris, he not only deposited, by way of pledge, a quantity of valuable plate, but was obliged to procure a nobleman to join with him as surety in a deed, by which he bound himself to return it under a considerable forfeiture. The excessive prices of books in the middle ages afford numerous and curious proofs. I will mention a few only. In the year 1174, Walter, prior of St Swithin's at Winchester, afterwards elected abbot of Westminster, a writer in Latin of the lives of the bishops who were his patrons, purchased of the monks of Dorchester in Oxfordshire, Bede's Homilies and St Austin's Psalter, for twelve measures of barley, and a pall on which was embroidered in silver the history of St Birinus converting a Saxon king. Among the royal manuscripts in the British museum their is Comestor's Scholastic History in French; which as it is recorded in a blank page at the beginning, was taken from the king of France at the battle of Poitiers; and being purchased by William Montague earl of Salisbury for 100 marcs, was ordered to be sold by the last will of his countess Elizabeth for 40 livres. About the year 1400, a copy of John of Meun's Roman de la Roze, was sold before the palace gate at Paris for 40 crowns, or 33l. 6s. 6d.

Books, Burning of, was a kind of punishment much in use among the Romans, by legal sentence: sometimes the care of the execution was committed to triumviri appointed on purpose; sometimes to the pretors, and sometimes to the aediles. Labienus, whom from his satirical spirit some have called Rabienus, is said to have been the first who underwent the severity of it. His enemies procured a senatusconsultum, whereby all his books published during seven years were ordered to be collected and burnt. "The thing (says Seneca) then appeared new and strange, to take revenge on learning!" Res novas et infictas! supplicium de studiis sumit. Caecilius Servius, a friend of Labienus, hearing the sentence pronounced, cried aloud, "That they must burn him too, since he had got all the books by heart:" Book. Nunc me vivum uri oportet, quia illos didici. Labienus could not survive his books, but (hutting himself up in the tomb of his ancestors, pined away, and was buried alive. Divers other ancient testimonies concerning the burning of books are given in Reimm. Idea Syst. Antiq. Liter. p. 389.

Book is also used for a part or division of a volume or large work. In this sense we say, the book of Genesis, the first book of Kings, the five books of Moses, &c. The Digest is contained in fifty books, the Code in twelve books.

Books are usually subdivided into chapters, sometimes into sections or paragraphs: accurate writers quote chapter and book.

Everlasting Book.—We find in Signior Castagno's account of the asbeslus, a scheme for the making of a book, which, from its imperishable nature, he is for calling the book of eternity. The leaves of this book were to be of the asbeslus paper, the covers of a thicker sort of work of the same matter, and the whole sewed with thread spun from the same substance. The things to be commemorated in this book were to be written in letters of gold; so that the whole matter of the book being incombustible, and everlastingly permanent against the force of all the elements, and subject to no changes from fire, water, or air, must remain for ever, and always preserve the writing committed to it. He carried this project so far towards execution, as to find a way of making a sort of paper from the asbeslus, which was so tractable and soft, that it very well resembled a thin parchment; this, by the same process, was capable of being thickened or thinned at pleasure, and in either state equally resisted the fire. The covering of the thinness kind of this paper with fire, only makes it red hot and very clear, the fire seeming to pass through it without wasting or altering any part of it. Copper, iron, or any other metal except gold or silver, exposed to the same degree of fire in the same thin plates, would be found not to bear it in this manner, but to scale and burn into scorias at the surface, which this stone does not.