In this book, printed at the very end of the century in Paris, where the book trade had for centuries been highly organized, it is natural to find printer and publisher clearly separated, both being tradesmen working for gain. The lines for such a distinction already existed in the days of manuscripts, the scribes and the stationers belonging to quite separate classes, though they might assume each other’s functions. In the earliest days of printing the craftsmen were, as a rule, their own publishers; but the system of patronage and the desire of well-to-do persons in various ranks of society to get special books printed led to divers bargains and agreements. We find the Earl of Arundel encouraging Caxton to proceed with his translation of the “Golden Legend,” not only by the promise of a buck in summer and a doe in winter by way of yearly fee, but by agreeing to take “a reasonable quantity” of copies when the work was finished. The “Mirrour of the World” was paid for by Hugh Brice, afterward Lord Mayor of London. Whether William Pratt, who on his death-bed bade Caxton publish the “Book of Good Manners,” or William Daubeney, Treasurer of the King’s Jewels, who urged him to issue the “Charles the Great,” offered any money help, we are not told. Caxton was probably a man of some wealth when he began printing, and could doubtless afford to take his own risks; but other printers were less fortunate, and references in colophons to patrons, and to men of various ranks who gave commissions for books, are sufficiently numerous. Thus at Pescia we find two brothers, Sebastian and Raphael dei Orlandi, who subsidized works printed at two, if not three or even four, different presses. Most of the books they helped to finance were legal treatises, as for instance the Commentaries of Accoltus on Acquiring Possession, printed by Franciscus and Laurentius de Cennis, 1486. Finiunt Commentaria singularia et admiranda super titulo de acquirenda possessione, quem titulum mirabiliter prefatus dominus Franciscus novissime commentatus est in studio Pisano, Anno Redentionis domini nostri Iesu cristi, M.cccc Lxxx. ultima Iulii. Impressa vero Piscie et ex proprio auctoris exemplari sumpta Anno M.cccc Lxxxvi. die Iovis. IIII. ianuarii. Impensis nobilium iuvenum Bastiani et Raphaelis fratres [_sic_] filiorum Ser Iacobi Gerardi de Orlandis de Piscia. Opera venerabilis religiosi Presbiteri Laurentii et Francisci Fratrum et filiorum Cennis Florentinorum ad gloriam omnipotentis Dei.