Collectors of books are continually being asked to lend volumes which happen to take the passing fancy of a friend or even chance acquaintance, and it is frequently a matter of some delicacy to refuse. Not one person in a hundred knows how to treat a book properly, and the borrower is therefore usually regarded as but one degree removed from an enemy. Curiously enough, the famous bibliophile, Grolier, stamped his books with a motto of invitation, "_Jo Grolierii et Amicorum_". So did Charles de Savigny, who went to even greater lengths still with his legend, "_Non mihi sed aliis_". The private history of neither of these enthusiasts states how they fared, or how many choice tomes were returned dog-eared and stained, even if they were returned at all. For my part I possess no books that I should fear to lend, as my whole library consists of "working copies," useful, probably, but not valuable. The amateur who is the proud owner of a single book out of the common should hide it from the borrower even as from a book worm. He may well lay the couplet which graced the library doors of Pixerecourt to his heart:-- "_Tel est le triste sort de tout livre prete Souvent il est perdu, toujours il est gate_". CHAPTER VII. THE ALDINE PRESS. The revival of classical literature in Europe is generally assigned to the middle of the fifteenth century, and is, perhaps, coeval with the invention of printing, when for the first time it became possible to multiply books not only rapidly but without the multitude of mistakes which invariably occurred in ordinary manuscripts. We have seen that in the palmy days of Rome some of the large publishing houses were quite capable of turning out extensive editions at a few hours' notice. No modern type-setter could possibly keep pace with one of the trained slaves of Atticus, and when some hundreds of the latter were assembled in a room transcribing the MS. of some favourite author through the medium of a professional reader, many copies would be completed in an incredibly short space of time. If, however, the reader made a mistake, it would be faithfully and universally reproduced, while in addition each transcriber might fairly be credited with a number of errors of his own. To this extent the printing press was a great improvement. If it did its work more slowly, less workmen were required; and though each movement of the machine would perpetuate the same errors, these might be reduced to a minimum by the very simple expedient of carefully reading and correcting the "proofs".