Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-30

PITTSBURG DISPATCH.
Danes and other savage invaders, lost them
at last in the great Reformation.
After the establishment of printing the
forms of books changed in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, and even into this
century books were published either folio
or quarto, and strong was the arm of the
man that could handle many of them In
day. In the old times books were pub
llshed or copied for the ecciesiastics or the
mobiles; but when printing succeeded the
masses were catered to, and as literature
became cheaper and cheaper intelligence
and education illumined the hitherto dark
ened minds, and the Reformation was the
result.
STATION ERS ARE BOOKSELLERS.
In the early stages OF book publishing,
book sellers were obliged to cart their books
from city to city and to the fairs, and were
called stationers from their occupying stalls
in the streets. Book sellers and not paper
sellers were and are stationers. Book sellers
and publishers in the old times had far more
trouble and petty annoyances than they
have now. They had all sorts of restric-
tions, royal patents and proclamations, de-
crees and ordinances and licenses of univer-
stiles, and charters for monopoly in the sale
of certain kinds of works.
In the sixteenth century, under The reign
of Queen Mary, aroyal charter was procured
for the Stationers' Company, of London,
for the purpose of the removal of great and
detestable heresies." The members were al
lowed to search any place for, and seize all
books, while no man could exercise the
mystery of printing unless he was of the
tat he nhar af-
terward confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, CIV
ing the additional power of controlling the
printing and sale of books, and censorship
over the press, which license expired in 1904.
Parliament was finally compelled to inter
fere In the interests of the publishers and
authors, as against the Stationers' Company,
but commission was found to inquire into
and regulate the prices of books, ard to fine
those who charged exorbitantly. This
last was abolished in 1913, from
which time on the book trade
In England has been free.
LONDON THE BOOK CENTER.
London has been ever since the center of
the world of books. 1t is the locus toward
which all authors turn their anxious eyes.
and from it books are shipped all over the
world, in all languages, and any rare book
that may be wanted may always be found
there. Stationers' Hall is situated there, in
which rights to literary property may be in
scrbed, and through its channels are the
most ample means of making literary intel
ligence known.
AS the price of books decreased the form
Of Libraries developed in the minds of men,
and gradually vast numbers accumulated,
in the cities and colleges principally.
Rome. in the Vatican, holds the first collec-
.r,f ftax tha prif fi.l
Library probably contains the next. There
are scattered throughout all monkish
countries in monasteries and converts many
of the very best books and rolls written in
all languages, principally Greek, which are
really Greek to most monks, which would
cause many a students heart to throb if he
could only get to them. He could find in
them histories of things dead to the world
for many centuries. He could find con-
frmation of many now uncertain things
which have become mysterious in the dusty
shadows of time.
SEARCHING FOR THE SCRIPTURES.
Titiandorf, when young man, becoming
dissatisfied at not finding among books con-
frmation of the life and death of the Saviorl
decided that it was his duty to spend his life
in searching among Libraries and monaster-
les until he found some of the writings of
Christ's Apostles. With very little money
he started on his long journey, and after
many years of toll, suffering, privation and
want, found himself one night near the citv
of Erzroum on the Black Sea. He was sick
with malarial fever and obtained permission
to enter a monastery. lie was SO chilly that
he asked for fire, and an old monk brought
great armul of aged manuscripts and
tried to make the fire burn with them.
r. Al, l. If +L -. z-f
jumped out of bed and examined the fire.
To his amazement and great joy he found
that the manuscript which would not burn
was a copy of st. Matthew in the Greek
language, copied in the year A. D. 30S by
order OF Constantine. He had to get an
order from the Emperor of Russia before he
was allowed to take that document away,
because the monks thought it must be vau-
able, and that is the earliest authentic docu-
ment bearing on the writings of the Apos-
ties. And it was written 275 years after the
death OF Christ.
A BOOK YET TO BE FOUND.
In one great library Titiandorf found a
valuable piece of vellum (fner than parch
ment) which contained reiutation of the
divinity of Christ. Upon closer inspection
he discovered that there had been something
written on it before and erased, as was often
done in early times because of the high
price of good parchment. After putting it
through a chemical process and using a fine
glass he was enabled to make out docu-
ment exactly the reverse of what was written
on its face, document OF the earliest ages
asserting the truth OF Christ lie and death.
Titiandorf was of the belief (and vainly
hoped that it might occur before his death)
that the documents will some day be found
m some out-oi-the-way library or nerhaDs in
yond doubt the whole history of Christ's
sorrowful life and death. He considered
himself we'll repaid Tor his sufferings and
search by the finding of those documents,
but the book vet to be found which contains
the history of that chasm in time will be the
grandest book or roll of papyrus that has
ever yet been found. 1t will be the book of
books to u.s. BUMBALO,