Bookkeeper

The bookkeeper Hainrich Kepner, Nuremberg 1543 (illustration from the Nuremberg house books )

Accountant is an obsolete word for someone who books on offer leads , someone who books speak only sold without they produce themselves.

During the time of the incunabula , the widespread book trade was mainly organized by printer publishers. They were responsible for both the distribution and the sale of the books. It was not until 1480 that the evidence for a new profession increased, in which a bookstore was operated on its own account and the detailed supply was taken over: the bookkeeper. The actual retail book trade (see book trade ) only emerged with the profession of bookkeeper.

literature

• Ursula Rautenberg (Hrsg.): Reclams Sachlexikon des Buches . 2., verb. Edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010542-0 .
• Heinrich Grimm: The bookkeepers of the German cultural area and their branches 1490 to 1550. In: Archive for the history of the book industry. Volume 7, 1966, No. 411 and Col. 1477.