Several old priced lists of books have come down to us, and the most interesting of these are the two printed and edited by Mr. F. Madan in the first series of the _Collectanea_ of the Oxford Historical Society, and further annotated by the late Mr. Henry Bradshaw. The first of these is an inventory, with prices of books received in 1483 for sale by John Hunt, stationer of the University of Oxford, from Magister Peter Actor and Johannes de Aquisgrano, to whom he promises to restore the books or pay the price affixed in the list; and the second is the Day-Book of John Dorne, bookseller in Oxford A.D. 1520. Mr. Bradshaw’s valuable annotations (“A Half-Century of Notes”) were printed in fac-simile of his handwriting in 1886, and afterwards included in his “Collected Papers” (1889). Dorne’s list is of great value, as showing what was the literature sold at a great university city at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and with the much-needed explanations of Messrs. Madan and Bradshaw, it forms an important addition to our knowledge, but there is not much in it that can be quoted here with advantage. Latin theology forms the bulk of the more important books sold, and next to that Latin classics. English books are few; among the cheapest items, service-books and ballads, Christmas carols, and almanacs are common. A large proportion of the entries are marked in pence from one penny upwards, but some are in shillings, and the largest amount for one sale of several books was forty-eight shillings. _Bibliographica_ (vol. i. p. 252) contains “Two References to the English Book-Trade _circa_ 1525.” The first, which is from the “Interlude of the Four Elements,” suggests that a large amount of the output of the English presses at the beginning of the sixteenth century was made up of ephemeral publications-- “Now so it is in our Englyshe tonge, Many one there is that can but rede and wryte, For his pleasure wyll oft presume amonge New bokys to compyle and balades to indyte, Some of lore or other matter, not worth a myte.” The next is from the prologue to Robert Copland’s “Seven Sorrows that Women have when theyr husbandes be deade,” which consists of a conversation between Copland and a customer, “Quidam”-- “_Quidam._ Hast thou a boke of the wydowe Edith, That hath begyled so many with her wordes, Or els suche a geest that is ful of bourdes? Let me se, I wyll yet waste a peny Upon suche thynges and if thou have eny. _Copland._ How say ye by these, wyll ye bestowe a grote? _Quidam._ Ye syr so muche? nay, that I shorowe my cote, A peny I trow is ynough on bokes, It is not so soone goten, as this worlde lokes.”