XLVI. The Chapbooks

The so-called Volksbücher of the 16th century were published in cheap and careless form, and designed to meet the popular demand for entertaining and edifying literature—a demand which increased rapidly with the cheapening of paper and the invention of printing. They vary greatly in content and have no common character except a certain artlessness, which is sometimes pleasing but often runs into extreme vulgarity. Special favor was enjoyed by certain collections of anecdotes, specimens of which are given in the first three numbers. The text of Nos. 1, 4, and 5 follows Braune’s Neudrucke (Nos. 55-6. 34-5, 7-8); that of Nos. 2 and 3 the Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart (Vols. 85 and 229).

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