[chap-boo
k] 
| 1. | a small book or pamphlet of popular tales, ballads, etc., formerly hawked about by chapmen. |
| 2. | a small book or pamphlet, often of poetry. |
| chap·book (chāp'bŏŏk') n. A small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts. [chap(man) + book (so called because it was originally sold by chapmen).] |
chapbook
small, inexpensive stitched tract formerly sold by itinerant dealers, or chapmen, in western Europe and in North America. Most chapbooks were 5 12 by 4 14 inches (14 by 11 cm) in size and were made up of four pages (or multiples of four), illustrated with woodcuts. They contained tales of popular heroes, legend and folklore, jests, reports of notorious crimes, ballads, almanacs, nursery rhymes, school lessons, farces, biblical tales, dream lore, and other popular matter. The texts were mostly crude and anonymous, but they formed the major part of secular reading and now serve as a guide to the manners and morals of their times.
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