Book, by the law of England, is "construed to mean and include every volume, part or division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of letterpress, sheet of music, map, chart, or plan separately published." The word comes to us from the Saxon boc, "beech," because the Saxons usually wrote upon beechen boards; just as the Latin liber denoted originally the inner bark of a tree, which was employed for the same purpose. It has, however, received an application anterior to its own origin, and is also used with reference to written tablets of stone and metal. In its widest sense it dates from the most remote antiquity. The ten commandments were written on slabs of stone; the Babylonians and Egyptians traced inscriptions on bricks and rocks. Sheets of wood, ivory, and various metals, and subsequently a great variety of pliable substances, animal and vegetable, crude and prepared, have been used for the purpose. The bark of the birch forms a very good writing material; and the leaves of the talipot palm are to this day used by the Cingalese for large books; the writing is performed with a sharp metallic point, and a black pigment is rubbed into the lines. In the library of the university of Gottingen is a Bible of this kind containing 5,373 leaves. Among the Greeks and Romans books of wood were common.

For the more important purposes they also employed ivory, as well as bronze and other metals; and for common business, such as the recording of contracts and the making of wills, and for the courtesies of social life, the letters of love or friendship, they had sheets of wood, covered with wax, to be written upon with a stylus and protected from contact by a raised margin, or opposite projections in the centres. Many specimens of ancient books still exist, which prove, without historical evidence, how various are the materials which suffice for the wants of man in an unlettered age. The most ancient books extant, with the possible exception of a few Egyptian papyri, are probably those brought from the ruins of the palace of Ko-yunjik, at Nineveh, dating from about 667 B. C. They consist of tablets of burned clay, some 9 inches by 6 1/2, others much smaller, covered with cuneiform characters, sometimes so minute as to be almost illegible without a magnifying glass.; they had been impressed upon the moist clay, which was afterward baked. So numerous were they that the floors of two rooms were covered a foot deep with them. They had been originally paged and placed in cases.

In the destruction of the palace they were broken; but there were four copies of each, so that what is wanting in one is often supplied by another. This library is now in the British museum. The antiquary Montfaucon in 1699 purchased at Rome a leaden book of six thin leaves, about 4 inches long by 3 wide, with hinges and clasps of the same material; it contained Egyptian Gnostic figures, and other unintelligible writing. Among the Calmuck Tartars was found a collection of books that were long and narrow, the leaves very thick and made of bark covered with varnish, the ink being white on a black ground. M. Santander possessed a beautiful Hebrew Pentateuch, written on 57 skins of leather, sewed together with threads or strips of the same material; it formed a roll 113 French feet in length. - The shape of wooden and metal books was square, but when more convenient material, such as parchment and papyrus, was introduced, the cylindrical form was adopted. The sheets, fastened together at the edges, were attached to a staff, round which they were rolled; whence our word volume, from volvere, to roll. At each end of the staff was a boss by which it could be turned, and the volume was read by unrolling the scroll so as to expose successively its several sheets.

The title was written generally in red, on fine .vellum, and pasted on the outside. Scrolls were again superseded by square books. Modifications in form accompanied the various changes made in material, until the shape and general proportions which now prevail were adopted. - The value of books, depending not only upon beauty of chirography, accuracy of transcription, and elaborateness of ornamentation, but upon the favor in which particular authors happened to be held, seems to have gone to each extreme; instances of extraordinary cheapness standing side by side with others of almost incredible dearness. According to Bockh, in Athens, " a small book ( ) for the purpose of recording a contract, that is, a small, commonly wooden diptychon, consisting of two wax tablets, was estimated by Demosthenes at two chalci (one quarter of an obolus, less than one cent). Wooden tablets ( ), on which accounts were written, cost, Olymp. 93, 2 (B. C. 407), a drachma (about 18 cents) apiece. These must have been pretty large and well made. Two pieces of papyrus for copying an account cost at the same time two dr. four ob. (45.6 cents). Paper appears from this to have been very dear, although written books were cheap since the books of Anaxagoras, even when dear, were to be had for a drachma; or else the paper upon which public accounts were written was uncommonly good." It is also stated that Plato, who was not rich, bought three books of Philolaus the Pythagorean for 10,000 denarii (about $1,600); and it is further said that Aristotle paid three Attic talents (nearly $3,000) for a few books which had belonged to the philosopher Speusippus. But these apparent contradictions may be easily reconciled by a consideration of the probable conditions that occasionally existed; the number of certain works reducing them to the value of the transcriber's labor, or less, when supply exceeded demand, while the rarity of others gave a practical monopoly to their possessors. - At Rome the manufacture of books, which under the early emperors had been constantly increasing, diminished during the troubles of the empire, and upon its fall was for a long time entirely extinguished; to revive again after many years, but under greatly altered circumstances.

In the dark ages the material for writing became scarce. The supply of papyrus from Egypt failed, and paper had not been introduced from the East. Parchment was almost the only accessible material, and for this the demand far exceeded the supply. Hence arose the practice of erasing the original writing from the parchment so that it could be used again. The erasure was usually made by rubbing with pumice stone; but as the coloring matter of the ink penetrated a little into the texture of the parchment, the erasure was seldom complete, and the original writing can often be made out. Several valuable works have thus been recovered. A manuscript of this kind is termed a palimpsest (Or. , from , again, and , to rub off). Plad not paper, properly so called, been already common in Europe, the invention of printing, superseding the labor of the copyist, would have been of little value for the multiplication of books. - In the earliest times books had been ornamented; but in the middle ages they reached the acme, if not of beauty and convenience, at least of cost. In the process of preparation books then received the most careful attention. In the monasteries the monks were not only transcribers, illuminators, and binders, but the same individual frequently combined the triple function in his own person. From the hands of the scribe the book passed to the illuminator, and from him to the binder, by whom its ponderous proportions were encased in massive covers of wood and leather, studded with knobs and bands, often of gold and silver, and closed with broad clasps. When publicly exposed, they were frequently secured by chains; nearly every great library contains books, often printed ones, with the chains still attached. Books were protected by special statutes; were subjects of grave negotiations; were solemnly bequeathed by will; and were lent only to the higher orders, who were compelled to deposit ample pledges for their return.

Even so late as 1471 Louis XI. was compelled by the faculty of medicine at Paris to deposit a valuable security, and give a responsible indorser, in order to obtain the loan of the works of the Arabian physician Rhazes. Among the illustrations of cost which the industry of bibliographers has collected, we find that St. Jerome, to procure the works of Origen, impoverished his estate; that King Alfred gave for one book eight hides of land (480 to 960 acres); that the countess of Anjou paid for a copy of the homilies of Bishop Huiman, besides other articles of barter, 200 sheep. Stowe says that in 1274 a Bible finely written sold for 50 marks (about £34), at a time when wheat was 5d. a bushel, and labor Id. a day; in 1400 a copy of Jean de Mehun's " Romance of the Rose " was publicly sold at Paris for 40 crowns (more than $150). But, according to a document in the monastery of St. Stephen at Caen, the works of Peter Lombard were bought in 1431 for 7 francs. It is thus difficult to ascertain the prices of books as determined by the value of material and labor at remote periods; for the peculiar instances which have been placed on record are more likely to refer to exceptional and accidental conditions than to the ordinary and usual rates affixed by the understood laws of trade.

Something of the same kind occurs in our own time; a book whose intrinsic value is but a few shillings, has often been sold for scores or even hundreds of pounds. (See Bibliomania.) - Printing made no immediate or violent innovation upon the then existing order of things. Types were made to imitate the products of the slower process of writing, and the general appearanco of MS. volumes was carefully imitated, so that for some time books still continued inaccessible to the people. But the desire for books was almost imperceptibly growing, the gradually widening demand keeping pace with and encouraging the development of mechanical skill. Copies were multiplied with increasing rapidity and diminishing cost, and their sale becoming larger, while it reduced the proportionate expense, enlarged the aggregate profits of the maker. Nevertheless, in Europe, even long after the invention of printing, books were beyond the reach of the people, even had they been able to read. In China, and probably in Japan, printed books have been common and cheap from time immemorial. Their method of printing, which has undergone no important change for generations, enables them to produce a book much more cheaply than it could have been done with us half a century ago.

Twenty-five or thirty pages for a cent is, and appears to have long been, a common price for an ordinary book; a cent, however, representing a much greater value there than here. - With us the manufacture of a book demands a large outlay of capital and the aid of various branches of mechanical skill. Strictly speaking, the making of a book begins with the author who writes it, or, as in the case of a collective work like a cyclopaedia or a gazetteer, the corps of editors, writers, and revisers. Then follow, in regular sequence, the compositor, proof-reader, pressman, and binder; and if the work is one of which a considerable number is to be printed, and is illustrated, the stereotyper or electrotyper, and the engraver on wood, copper, steel, or stone (lithographer), or perhaps two or more of them, will also be called into requisition. (See Bookbinding, Correction of the Press, Electro-Magnetism, Engraving, Lithography, and Printing.) In respect to the size of their pages' books receive several designations. Originally these denoted the number of leaves into which each sheet was folded.

In a folio, the sheet was folded once, making two leaves; in a quarto (4to), twice; in an octavo (8vo), three times, making 8 leaves; in a duodecimo (12mo) the sheet made 12 leaves, but four leaves had to be cut off from one end of the sheet, folded separately, and placed in the centre of the other part, when folded. These terms are now used only in a general way, to indicate the size of a book. The introduction of power presses permitting the use of larger sheets, it is very rarely that a 'work is now printed in folio, or even in quarto, although a volume of very large size is still styled a quarto. This Cyclopedia is a large octavo; a volume somewhat smaller is simply an octavo; the next smaller size is crown octavo; then come duodecimo, 18mo, 36mo, and so on. - All printers are not publishers or booksellers; and all booksellers are not printers. The distinction is this: A printer is one who prints a book, either for himself or for another; a bookseller is one who vends books, either at retail or by wholesale, whether printed by himself or another; a publisher is one who prepares a book for the market, and issues it to the public.

A few publishers confine themselves exclusively to the sale of the books issued by themselves, but most of them also buy and sell the books of others; so that while all booksellers are not publishers, all publishers are booksellers. Few authors have the facilities requisite for getting up their works and placing them before the public. For this they must avail themselves of the agency of the publisher, who usually undertakes all the expense, and so demands a share in the profits. The author's pecuniary right in his book is termed a copyright, that is, the exclusive right to produce a copy of it, for a certain period, and under certain conditions prescribed by the law, which creates this exclusive right. (See Copyright.) Usually the author disposes of his copyright to a publisher; sometimes he sells it outright for a stipulated sum; generally he prefers to receive a certain portion of the profits. This varies greatly, but the most common rate is 10 per cent, on the retail price of each copy sold. Some authors obtain much more; and in the case of school books, which are usually sold at a small advance upon the cost of production, the author's percentage is often smaller.

In Great Britain a frequent arrangement is that the author and publisher shall divide the net profits equally; but this is liable to the objection that it is not easy to fix the expenses belonging to each separate book, and there is always a contingent risk that a part of the copies may remain unsold, or that bad debts may be incurred. By the American method the publisher usually assumes all risks, and the amount due the author can be at any moment ascertained. - The first regular bookseller in the United States appears to have been Hezekiah Usher, who was in business in Boston as early as 1652. He was succeeded by his son, John Usher, who in 1686 was described as a "trader who makes the best figure in Boston; he's very rich, adventures at sea, but has got his estate by bookselling." Books were mainly imported, and were kept in shops with other wares; thus Benedict Arnold sold drugs and books; usually, however, the occupations of printer, bookbinder, and bookseller were combined. In 1732 Richard Fry, a Boston bookseller, advertised that he had printed u the most beautiful poems of Mr. Stephen Duck, the famous Wiltshire poet," and considered the fact that he had sold 1,200 of these poems " a full demonstration that the people of New England have a fine taste for good sense and polite learning." Toward the close of the last century bookselling began to assume a prominent place among commercial pursuits.

About 1820 it began to increase rapidly, and it has since more than kept pace with the increase of population. In the 12 years from 1830 to 1842, the entire number of books printed in the United States was about 1,300, an average of over 100 a year, about equally divided between original works and reprints. The number of publications steadily increased from year to year. In 1853 there were 879 new books and new editions, of which 298 were reprints of English works, and 37 translations from other languages. In 1855 the new books and new editions were 1,092, of which 250 were reprints of English books, and 38 translations. During the years 1859-'60 the number of books averaged about 1,350 a year. The civil war somewhat checked the book trade, but it revived after its close. In 1871 the number of books published in the United States was about 3,000; of which 50 may be designated as works of reference, 350 theology, 30 mental and moral philosophy, 200 political and social science, 200 education, 300 history, geography, and travels, 450 sciences and arts, 200 fine arts and recreation, 350 general literature, 570 juvenile, and 300 fiction.

Many of these works comprise several volumes, so that the number of volumes is about 3,500. The value of the books manufactured in the United States in 1820 is estimated at $2,500,000; in 1830, $3,500,000; in 1840, $5,500,000; in 1850, $12,500,000; in 1856, $16,000,000; in 1871 it can hardly be less than $40,000,000. - The cost of producing each copy of a book depends greatly upon the number printed, for there is a certain expense for setting the type, etc, which must be incurred, no matter whether the number be great or small. This in the case of an ordinary 12mo may be set down at $750. If 1,000 copies be printed, it will be 75 cents a copy; if 5,000 copies, 15 cents a copy; if 10,000 copies, 7 1/2 cents a copy. The paper, printing, and binding of each copy of such a work cost about 40 cents, or somewhat less for very large numbers. If, now, 1,000 copies are printed, the cost of the mere manufacture of each will be $1 15; if 5,000 are printed, 55 cents; if 10,000, 47 1/2 cents. The usual retail price of such a book is $1 50; and deducting the discount to the trade, and certain inevitable minor expenses, the publisher receives $1 a copy.

His account would stand thus: For 1,000 copies - cost $1,150, receipts $1,000, loss $150; for 5,000 copies - cost $2,750, receipts $5,000, profits $2,250; for 10,000 copies - cost $4,750, receipts $10,000, profits $5,250. From these must be deducted, in the case of an original work, the author's copyright of 15 cents a volume. This on 5,000 copies is $750; on 10,000, $1,500. The apparent profits of the publisher are twice those of the author on 5,000 copies, and two and a half times on 10,000;.but out of this must come the expenses of conducting business, cost of advertising, losses by bad debts, and the cost of unsold copies. In a fairly successful book, the net profits of the publisher are about equal to those of the author; in the exceptional cases of a very large sale, they are usually considerably greater; but the authors of such works command more than the usual copyright, so large occasionally as to absorb the greater part of the profits, in which case the publisher is in effect merely the business agent of the author. Still it is true that every purchaser of a book, as a rule, pays more to the paper maker, the printer, and the binder, respectively, than to the author.

A successful publisher, indeed, usually receives more than a successful author; for the reason that the former derives his income from scores, hundreds, or thousands of different works, while the latter derives his from only the few which he has himself written. - The great majority of individual volumes have only a brief life. Of those printed more than 20 years ago probably not one in five now exists. The others, by steps more or less rapid, have found their way to the flames or the waste basket, and thence to the paper mill, whence their material substance reappears in the shape of paper or bookbinders' boards.

Booby (Sula fusca).

Ancient Books and Writing Implements.