The Library - recent issues

The Scribal Publication of a Printed Book: Francis Bacon's Certaine Considerations Touching ... the Church of England (1604)

Serjeantson, R., Woolford, T. — 2009-06-25

This article answers a number of questions about the first printed edition of Francis Bacon's Certaine Considerations Touching the Better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England (1604). We show that the press of its printer, Thomas Purfoot Jr, was stayed in the course of printing and that the partly-printed book was called in by order of the Bishop of London, Richard Bancroft. We further demonstrate, however, that a significant proportion of the printed sheets escaped this order, and that the half-printed book was made available to early readers in the form of copies completed in manuscript by professional scribes, a phenomenon we call ‘the scribal publication of a printed book’. The article also provides an analysis of the political and ecclesiological circumstances in which the book was first written and subsequently printed; it also addresses the question of Bacon's own role in the printing and suppression of his book.

The Market for Music in the Late Eighteenth Century and the Entry Books of the Stationers' Company

Mace, N. A. — 2009-06-25

In the last half of the eighteenth century, the demand for printed music rose dramatically, in part fueled by the lively musical environment in England and by the growth of the middle class, who purchased printed music suitable for amateur musicians, which they could play at home and in small groups. No one, however, has examined the market for music: what types of compositions were printed, what composers were most marketable, and what music sellers were most influential in determining what did and did not get printed and sold. One way of gauging a work's popularity is registration with the Company of Stationers because members of the print trade only registered a work if they believed in its commercial viability and were concerned that their competitors might attempt to pirate it. Therefore, an examination of music entries is one way we can discover which compositions music sellers and composers considered marketable enough to justify the expense of registration. Such an analysis reveals that the public preferred the works of British theatrical composers over their prestigious European counterparts, upon whom scholars studying this period up until now have almost exclusively focused their attention. In addition, they were interested in buying music adapted for instruments like the pianoforte and harpsichord, which they could play in their homes. As the Stationers' Company records suggest, then, scholars should examine more fully the entire range of archival evidence relating to the music trade in the late eighteenth century to gain a more complete picture of musical England during the late eighteenth century.

Lost Books Printed in French before 1601

Wilkinson, A. S. — 2009-06-25

Research into the history of the book before 1601 has reached an important moment. Within a few years, scholars will have at their disposal short title catalogues covering almost all of the major print domains of Europe. Such significant advances in research infrastructure will fundamentally transform our understanding of the first great age of print. It is therefore timely that we begin to address one of the most inconvenient of truths — the issue of lost books. This article focuses on publishing in French as a case study. This is a particularly fertile avenue of investigation because of the existence of two exceptional sources — short title catalogues of French books published in the 1580s. By mapping the entries in these sources to the most recent short title catalogue of French print published in 2007, we can begin to explore the extent and character of the survival and loss of vernacular print in this period.

Ecclesiastical London. Ed. by MARY C. ERLER. (Records of Early English Drama.)

Davison, P. — 2009-06-25

The Earliest Books of Canterbury Cathedral: Manuscripts and Fragments to c. 1200. By RICHARD GAMESON.

Andree, A. — 2009-06-25

Thomas Gascoigne, Libraries and Scholarship. By R. M. BALL. (Cambridge Bibliographical Society Monographs, 14.)

Thomson, R. M. — 2009-06-25

A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology, 1450-2000. By PETER BEAL.

Hunt, A. — 2009-06-25

Archaologie des gedruckten Buches. By MARTIN BOGHARDT. Ed. by PAUL NEEDHAM in collaboration with JULIE BOGHARDT. (Wolfenbutteler Schriften zur Geschichte des Buchwesens, 42.)

Flood, J. L. — 2009-06-25

The Cosmographia of Sebastian Munster: Describing the World in the Reformation. By MATTHEW MCLEAN. (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History.)

Bendall, S. — 2009-06-25

Christopher Plantin and Engraved Book Illustrations in Sixteenth-Century Europe. By KAREN L. BOWEN and DICK IMHOF.

Griffiths, A. — 2009-06-25

La Censure negociee: le controle du livre a Geneve, 1560-1625. By INGEBORG JOSTOCK. (Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 180.)

Pettegree, A. — 2009-06-25

Die kaiserlichen Druckprivilegien im Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv Wien. Verzeichnis der Akten vom Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts bis zum Ende des Deutschen Reichs (1806). Ed. by HANS-JOACHIM KOPPITZ. (Buchwissenschaftliche Beitrage aus dem Deutschen Bucharchiv Munchen, 75.)

Flood, J. L. — 2009-06-25

Boston Parish Library Catalogue.

Harris, N. — 2009-06-25

Popular Children's Literature in Britain. Ed. by JULIA BRIGGS, DENNIS BUTTS, and M. O. GRENBY.

McGrath, L. — 2009-06-25

The Commonwealth of Books: Essays and Studies in Honour of Ian Willison. Ed. by WALLACE KIRSOP, with the assistance of MEREDITH SHERLOCK.

Roberts, J. — 2009-06-25

Recent Books

2009-06-25

Books Received

2009-06-25

Notes on Contributors

2009-06-25

Information

2009-06-25

The Bibliographical Society: The Annual General Meeting

2009-06-25

Coffee-House Libraries in Mid-Eighteenth-Century London

Ellis, M. — 2009-04-09

This article explores the culture of reading in the coffee-house, drawing on provenance records in order to reconstruct the libraries of some of the most prominent coffee-houses in mid-eighteenth-century London. As well as examining their geographical locations, it provides an account of the books found in these collections, considering the ways in which they were accessed and used, arguing that these libraries provide an insight into the way in which information was ordered in this period.

The Spurious Tales of My Landlord

Ragaz, S. — 2009-04-09

This article provides an account of the complicated publication history of two titles that appeared in 1819 and 1820 respectively, purporting to be additions to Walter Scott's Tales of my Landlord, of which three series had already appeared. As well as shedding light on the publishing activities of the time, the incident reveals much about Scott's relationship with the market at this stage in his career.

Early 'Secular' Press Figures

McMullin, B. J. — 2009-04-09

While the introduction of press figures into secular printing is generally thought to begin around 1680, this article suggests the phenomenon can be found in an earlier handful of volumes printed by John Streater in the late 1660s. It concludes by speculating on whether various typographical symbols and punctuation marks in these volumes can in the light of the evidence be regarded as press figures.

Scandinavian Books in the British Library

Skovgaard-Petersen, K. — 2009-04-09

The Woman who Discovered Printing. By T. H. BARRETT.

Smith, M. M. — 2009-04-09

The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of his Lost Library. By MARCUS TANNER.

Rees, V. — 2009-04-09

La fabbrica dei divieti: gli indici dei libri proibiti da Clemente VIII a Benedetto XIV. By ELISA REBELLATO.

Cavagna, A. G. — 2009-04-09

A History of the Book in America, Vol. III: The Industrial Book, 1840-1880. Ed. by SCOTT E. CASPER, JEFFREY D. GROVES, STEPHEN W. NISSENBAUM, and MICHAEL WINSHIP.

Bell, B. — 2009-04-09

Recent Books

2009-04-09

Recent Periodicals

2009-04-09

Books Received

2009-04-09

Notes on Contributors

2009-04-09

Information

2009-04-09

Evidence for the Construction of Quires in a Fifteenth-Century English Manuscript

Wakelin, D., Burlinson, C. — 2009-01-15

Recent conservation work on St John’s College, Cambridge, MS S.54, a late-fifteenth-century collection of Middle English carols and lyrics, uncovered connecting ‘bolts’ showing that what had seemed to be separate bifolia were in fact quadrifolia, with further evidence suggesting that the quadrifolia derived from octofolia, or pages created by folding sheets three times and only then cutting them apart. These are the only recorded surviving ‘bolts’ in a manuscript in English, and they offer further evidence for the importance of folding in the construction of quires. The use of folded sheets, cut open at a late stage, also tells us much about the transmission and circulation of the Middle English carols and lyrics in this manuscript.

Everyman and Others, Part II: The Bandinel Fragments

Freeman, A. — 2009-01-15

This is the second part of a two-part essay on the collection and identification of early English printed fragments, and their use toward printing history and the establishment of literary texts. Part I treated the chronology of their preservation, as artefacts, from John Bagford in the late seventeenth century to the ‘new bibliographers’ of the early twentieth century. Part II discusses a newly recovered group of twenty-five such fragments originally assembled by Bodley’s librarian Bulkeley Bandinel (1781-1861), eight of them from books unrecorded in STC. Amongst them (and here wholly or partly transcribed and/or reproduced in facsimile) are two hitherto unknown leaves of the first edition of the morality play Everyman (Pynson, 1518-19); a leaf of the lost Rastell printing of Skelton’s Ware the Hawk (1528?); and two leaves, with unrecorded woodcuts, of Wynkyn de Worde’s illustrated folio of Melusine (1510), known up to now only from two other leaves at Bodley.

A Renaissance Library Rediscovered: The 'Repertorium librorum Mathematica' of Jean I du Temps

Marr, A. — 2009-01-15

This article transcribes in full the handwritten list of mathematical books owned by the sixteenth-century French lawyer Jean I du Temps of Blois. Du Temps, a noted expert on chronology and cartography, assembled a substantial collection of works on the mathematical arts, details of which were recorded by one of his pupils towards the end of the century. Du Temps's biography provides a starting point for an analysis of the contents of his library, which is then placed in the context of the renaissance of mathematics in France and of the international book trade.

Two Pynson Editions of the Life of St Katherine of Alexandria

Pickering, O. — 2009-01-15

This note begins by discussing the make-up of a known fragmentary Life of St Katherine printed by Richard Pynson probably c. 1505 (STC 4813.6), showing by comparison with a recently edited manuscript version of the text that mistakes were very likely made during the production process, leading to the surviving leaves being discarded as printer’s waste. Discussion then turns to a newly discovered printing of the same saint’s life, again by Pynson, preserved fragmentarily in the binding of a book in Ripon Cathedral Library. The structure of this version is deduced by comparison with the same manuscript text, while an analysis of its type-ornaments (compared with those in other books printed by Pynson at this time) demonstrates that it was almost certainly printed later than the known fragment, perhaps c. 1509-11.

The Illustrated Old English Hexateuch, Cotton Claudius B.iv: The Frontier of Seeing and Reading in Anglo-Saxon England. BY BENJAMIN C. WITHERS.

Lewis, M. J. — 2009-01-15

Malory's Library: The Sources of the Morte Darthur. By RALPH NORRIS

Nakao, Y. — 2009-01-15

Literature and Politics in Cromwellian England: John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Marchamont Nedham. BY BLAIR WORDEN.

Norbrook, D. — 2009-01-15

Alexander Anderson (1775-1870), Wood Engraver and Illustrator: An Annotated Bibliography. BY JANE R. POMEROY.

Bain, I. — 2009-01-15

Los viajes literarios de Pascual de Gayangos (1850-1857) y el origen de la archivistica espanola moderna. BY MIGUEL ANGEL ALVAREZ RAMOS and CRISTINA ALVAREZ MILLAN.

Hitchcock, R. — 2009-01-15

The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, vol. iv: Professionalism and Diversity, 1880-2000. Ed. by DAVID FINKELSTEIN and ALISTAIR MCCLEERY.

Bell, A. — 2009-01-15

Little Magazines and Modernism: New Approaches. Ed. by SUZANNE W. CHURCHILL and ADAM MCKIBLE

Bury, S. — 2009-01-15

Recent Books

2009-01-15

Recent Periodicals

2009-01-15

Books Received

2009-01-15

Notes on Contributors

2009-01-15

Information

2009-01-15