The Philobiblon
by Richard de Bury
Chapter III
What we are to think of the price in the buying
of books
From what has been said we draw this corollary welcome to
us, but (as we believe) acceptable to few: namely, that no
dearness of price ought to hinder a man from the buying of
books, if he has the money that is demanded for them, unless
it be to withstand the malice of the seller or to await a
more favourable opportunity of buying. For if it is wisdom
only that makes the price of books, which is an infinite
treasure to mankind, and if the value of books is
unspeakable, as the premises show, how shall the bargain be
shown to be dear where an infinite good is being bought?
Wherefore, that books are to be gladly bought and
unwillingly sold, Solomon, the sun of men, exhorts us in the
Proverbs: Buy the truth, he says, and sell not
wisdom. But what we are trying to show by rhetoric or
logic, let us prove by examples from history. The
arch-philosopher Aristotle, whom Averroes regards as the law
of Nature, bought a few books of Speusippus straightway
after his death for 72,000 sesterces. Plato, before him in
time, but after him in learning, bought the book of
Philolaus the Pythagorean, from which he is said to have
taken the Timaeus, for 10,000 denaries, as Aulus
Gellius relates in the Noctes Atticae. Now Aulus
Gellius relates this that the foolish may consider how wise
men despise money in comparison with books. And on the other
hand, that we may know that folly and pride go together, let
us here relate the folly of Tarquin the Proud in despising
books, as also related by Aulus Gellius. An old woman,
utterly unknown, is said to have come to Tarquin the Proud,
the seventh king of Rome, offering to sell nine books, in
which (as she declared) sacred oracles were contained, but
she asked an immense sum for them, insomuch that the king
said she was mad. In anger she flung three books into the
fire, and still asked the same sum for the rest. When the
king refused it, again she flung three others into the fire
and still asked the same price for the three that were left.
At last, astonished beyond measure, Tarquin was glad to pay
for three books the same price for which he might have
bought nine. The old woman straightway disappeared, and was
never seen before or after. These were the Sibylline books,
which the Romans consulted as a divine oracle by some one of
the Quindecemvirs, and this is believed to have been the
origin of the Quindecemvirate. What did this Sibyl teach the
proud king by this bold deed, except that the vessels of
wisdom, holy books, exceed all human estimation; and, as
Gregory says of the kingdom of Heaven: They are worth all
that thou hast?
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- The Philobiblon
by Richard de Bury
Chapter II
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