among us, are the same with the bibliopolists of the ancients, whose office was distinct from that of librarii. Petty dealers, or vendors of small ware, were distinguished by the diminutive appellation libelliones. At Rome, the Argiletum was the mart of books, as Paul's Church-yard, or Fleet-street, and Paternoster-row, have been in London: whence that of Martial.

Argiletanas mavis habilitare tabernas, Cum tibi, parve liber, ferimia nostra vacant.

Booksellers in many places are ranked among the members of universities, and entitled to the privileges of students: as at Tubingen, Salzburg, and Paris, where they have always been distinguished from the vulgar and mechanical traders, and exempted from divers taxes and impositions laid on other companies.

Formerly, the offices of booksellers and printers were united in the same persons. Labbe gives a list of learned booksellers; most of whom were also authors. Of late, booksellers have drawn their business into less compass, and leaving the labour of composing books to one set of persons, and that of printing them to another, content themselves with the gainful part; thus ministering to the republic of letters not with the head or the hand, but the purse only. In this view, they have been very important and useful agents between authors and the public; and have contributed, in no small degree, to the encouragement of genius and literary industry, and the spread of science. There are few authors, who have undertaken the printing and publishing of any work likely to be transmitted to posterity, without being connected with some bookseller, or booksellers, eminent in their profession.

The fairs of Francfort and Leipsic are famous for the resort of booksellers, not only from all parts of the empire, but Holland, Flanders, &c. They have each their shop or warehouse, over which is inscribed the name of some celebrated bookseller of former times; Officina Elzeviriana, Frobeniana, Morelliana, Jansoni ana, &c.

An acquaintance with the booksellers' marks or signs frequently expressed on the title-page of their books, is of some use; because many books, especially in the last century, have no other designation either of printer, bookseller, or even city. The anchor is the mark of Raphelengius at Leyden; and the same with a dolphin twisted round it, of the Manutii at Venice and Rome; the Arion denotes a book printed by Oporinus at Basil; the caduceus, or Pegasus, by the Wecheliuses at Paris and Francfort; the cranes, by Cramoisy; the compass, by Plantin at Antwerp; the fountain, by Vafcofani at Paris; the sphere in a balance, by Janzon or Blaeu, at Amsterdam; the lily, by the Juntas at Venice, Florence, Lyons, and Rome; the mulberry-tree, by Morel at Paris; the olive-tree, by the Stephenses at Paris and Geneva, and the Elzeviers at Amsterdam and Leyden; the bird between two serpents, by the Frobeniuses at Basil; the Truth, by the Commelins at Heidelberg and Paris; the Saturn, by Colinaeus; the printing-prefs, by Badius Aescenius, &c.

The traffic of books was anciently very inconsiderable, inasmuch that the book-merchants of England, France, Spain, and other countries, were distinguished by the appellation of stationers, as having no shops, but only stalls and stands in the streets. During this state, the civil magistrates took little notice of the booksellers, leaving the government of them to the universities, to whom they were supposed more immediate retainers; who accordingly gave them laws and regulations, fixed prices on their books, examined their correctness, and punished them at discretion. But when, by the invention of printing, books and booksellers began to multiply, it became a matter of more consequence; and the sovereigns took the direction of them into their own hands, giving them new statutes, appointing officers to fix prices, and granting licenses, privileges, &c.