_Quintiliani Institutiones_, fine copy in russia, gilt edges, _Venetiis_, Aldus, 1521, on title 1522, 14s. Former price about L4. _Aristophanis Comoediae_, first edition, fine copy in russia, gilt edges, _Venetiis_, Aldus, 1498, a rare book, L4. Former price about L15. _Thucydidis Historia_, first edition, and one of the few copies printed on fine paper, old russia, gilt, _Venetiis_, Aldus, 1502, a very scarce book in this condition, L2 14s. Former price from L12 to L15. The above examples are taken from a single catalogue, and, if occasion demanded, the list could be indefinitely increased. They will, however, be sufficient to show that if the good old days when Eliot's _Indian Bible_ of 1661, now worth considerably more than L500, could have been got for thirty shillings or less, are not likely to return, there is yet plenty of opportunity for picking up rare books at a moderate price, and for much less than would at one time have had to be paid for them. Who knows that the fashion will not change again some day, and that the most coveted of all volumes will not be choice examples from the Aldine press? [Illustration: _The Elzevir Buffalo's Head, from the "Caesar" of Leyden, 1635._] FOOTNOTES: [7] M. Firmin-Didot inclines to the year 1449 for the date of Aldus' birth--_vide_ his _Alde Manuce et l'Hellenisme a Venise_, p. 1, Paris, 1875. [8] In addition to this number there are about sixty "Doubtful Editions". The number of recognised Forgeries is about forty-five. CHAPTER VIII. THE ELZEVIR PRESS. If Aldine collectors were at one time numerous and enthusiastic, amateurs who affected the Elzevir press, and were never tired of extolling the excellence of the little books which issued therefrom, were more so. Long before the death of the last member of the great printing family, a whole mass of rules, some of them arbitrary, others founded on subtle distinctions, were already regarded as binding on the community of bibliomaniacs which looked upon _L'Aimable Mere de Jesus_ as their pole-star, and _Le Pastissier Francois_ as something to be seen only on rare occasions, and to be touched, if touched at all, with bated breath. There is something harsh, comparatively speaking, about Aldus and his works. He was the taciturn, frugal-living man of letters, who for five years, as he himself confesses, never spent a single peaceful hour save when he was asleep. His very doors were barred with the inscription-- "Whoever you are, Aldus entreats you to be brief. When you have spoken, leave him."