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The Distribution of Almanacks in the Second Half of the Seventeenth
Century
by
Cyprian Blagden
NATURE HAS ARRANGED THAT, WHERE THE odds against survival are heavy, the seeds or the eggs through which survival is achieved are proliferated; in the world of the printed word, human activity achieves a corresponding balance by destroying a very high proportion of the books which are produced in the greatest quantities. This must surely be a cause for rejoicing in the twentieth century—so far at least as contemporary production is concerned; but it can be a cause of difficulty, and even of error, when we move back 250 years or more and are forced to rely, for instance, on a single mutilated copy of a school book or even on hearsay for our knowledge of a once widely distributed and frequently handled publication. The study of Literature is probably unaffected by this; but our understanding of what people were reading is made more difficult. Moreover, with the destruction of popular literature went (though for somewhat different reasons) the almost total destruction of the records of its manufacture and distribution; and the survival of quantitative evidence dating back into the seventeenth century is rare enough to be exciting.
It happened that, in 1603, the Stationers' Company received from James I the sole right of printing—amongst other popular books—Almanacks and Prognostications; and there has survived one of the ledgers[1]—a Stock Book dating from sixty years later—in which were maintained the basic records of the trading company within the Company. For the first twenty-four years of the Stock Book's use a detailed account was kept of the almanacks delivered to the Treasurer, the 'manager' of the English Stock of the Stationers' Company; from these details, and from such other contemporary evidence as I have been able
A certain amount of information about the Company's policy in the production and sale of almanacks from 1603 can be found in the Court Books,[2] and there are useful items of information in the Treasurer's Journal which covers the years from 1653 to 1698. Mr Bosanquet has written, in general terms and out of his great experience of handling surviving examples, an account[3] of almanacks during the seventeenth century. I will therefore concentrate upon the quantitative detail which survives in the Stock Book and try to answer as many as possible of the following questions: How many copies of each almanack were printed in London and how many almanacks sold well enough to be reprinted? What proportions remained unsold? Which were printed at Cambridge and in what quantities? What evidence is there for other printing of almanacks—either in London or elsewhere, either surreptitious or legitimate? What were the costs of setting and printing the texts and of printing the plates, and what was the price of paper? How much were the authors paid? At what prices did the Treasurer sell to London booksellers and what prices did country booksellers and the public normally pay? Finally, what profit did the almanack monopoly earn for the partners in the English Stock?
The answers to some of these questions are simple and can be given most easily in tabular form. But, since it would be fatiguing to supply all the figures in all the years for which they are available, I have, in Table I, shown the details of first printings, reprints and unsold copies for nine years only—for the first three years, for the next three (which are also the first three after the Fire) and for the last three. The year at the head of each column is, of course, that for which and not in which the almanacks were printed.
In order to provide a complete picture for one almanack and an indication of the steadiness of the almanack business (the evidence being available for a much longer period), I have, in Table II given the numbers printed of Andrews for all but two of the twenty-four years; and in Table III the value, at wholesale prices, of all the almanacks delivered to the Treasurer from the winter of 1663/4 to the winter of 1713/4, the last of the Stuart era. Table IV lists those almanacks which appeared after 1669 and disappeared before 1685, and which therefore do not find places in Table I.
1664 | 12,500 | 1672 | 15,000 | 1680 | 27,000 |
1665 | 12,500 | 1673 | 21,000 | 1681 | not known [4] |
1666 | 10,000 | 1674 | 17,500 | 1682 | not known |
1667 | 10,000 | 1675 | 17,500 | 1683 | 30,000 |
1668 | 14,500 | 1676 | 30,000 | 1684 | 25,000 |
1669 | 15,000 | 1677 | 25,000 | 1685 | 25,000 |
1670 | 15,000 | 1678 | 30,000 | 1686 | 25,000 |
1671 | 16,000 | 1679 | 30,000 | 1687 | 20,000 |
£ | £ | £ | |||
1663/4 | 2,506 | 1680/1 | 3,062 | 1697/8 | 2,728 |
1664/5 | 2,651 | 1681/2 | 2,903 | 1698/9 | 2,816 |
1665/6 | 2,418 | 1682/3 | 3,418 | 1699/1700 | 3,024 |
1666/7 | 2,650[5] | 1683/4 | 3,212 | 1700/1 | 3,199 |
1667/8 | 2,688 | 1684/5 | 3,189 | 1701/2 | 3,200 |
1668/9 | 2,333 | 1685/6 | 2,993 | 1702/3 | 3,225 |
1669/70 | 2,241 | 1686/7 | 3,081 | 1703/4 | 3,202 |
1670/1 | 2,487 | 1687/8 | 3,107 | 1704/5 | 3,214 |
1671/2 | 2,537 | 1688/9 | 2,877 | 1705/6 | 3,069 |
1672/3 | 2,582 | 1689/90 | 3,281 | 1706/7 | 2,960 |
1673/4 | 2,455 | 1690/1 | 3,248 | 1707/8 | 2,904 |
1674/5 | 2,521 | 1691/2 | 2,990 | 1708/9 | 3,067 |
1675/6 | 2,519 | 1692/3 | 3,170 | 1709/10 | 2,763 |
1676/7 | 2,685 | 1693/4 | 3,112 | 1710/1 | 2,767 |
1677/8 | 2,645 | 1694/5 | 3,064 | 1711/2 | 3,694[6] |
1678/9 | 2,605 | 1695/6 | 3,017 | 1712/3 | 4,150 |
1679/80 | 3,015 | 1696/7 | 2,910 | 1713/4 | 4,397 |
Rate per | ||||||
Name | Wing no. A | Began | Ended | 1,000 | ||
Atkinson | 1305 | 1670 | 1677 | £8 | not printed 1675 | |
Smith | 2395 | 1673 | 1675 | 6 | ||
Oxford | 2676 | 1673 | only | 10 | also 8 reams of Sheet almanacks | |
London | 1925 | 1673 | 1674 | 8 | ||
Episcopal | 2633 | 1674 | 1678 | 8 | ||
Country | 1928 | 1675 | 1677 | 8 | ||
Shepherd | 1381 | 1675 | 1678 | 8 | ||
Seaman | 2371 | 1675 | 1677 | 6 | Author recd. £2 2s. | |
Royal | -- | 1675 | 1678 | 10 | ||
Crawford | 1497 | 1676 | 1677 | 8 | ||
Lord | 1927 | 1678 | only | 8 | ||
Peter | 2102 | 1678 | only | 8 | ||
Yea & Nay | 1947A | 1678 | 1680 | 8 | Author recd. £6 4s. | |
Readman | 2242 | 1680 | only | 8 | Supplied from Cambridge, 1684, &c.mmat; £10 | |
Kirby | 1856 | 1681 | 1682 | 8 | 1,797 unsold copies | |
Johnson | 1851 | 1683 | only[7] | 8 | ||
Hill | 1822A | 1684 | only | 8 | ||
Salmon | 2314 | 1684 | only | 8 |
In Table I, I have added, for each three-year period, a column for the rate per 1,000 at which the almanacks were sold by the Treasurer, and I have marked with asterisks those quantities printed, under a series of agreements, by the Printer to the University of Cambridge. (I have also done this in Table IV.) It will be noticed that most of the almanacks fall into one or other of two main categories: 'blanks' and 'sorts'; the former were half a sheet (eight pages) longer than the latter and had the first two sheets rubricated, as compared with the first only; they also gave a whole opening, rather than a single page, to each month. The resulting blank spaces were used for private entries and provided the name for this category;[8] it is possible that variety in 'sorts' developed while there was still only one 'blank', but it can be seen in Table IV that new almanacks tried out during the reign of Charles II were almost all 'blanks'.
In Table I, I have also given a column for the amounts (taken from the Journal) paid annually to authors, at the beginning and at the end of the period: a few copies of each almanack were also bound up for presentation to authors, who usually received, in addition, a number of stitched 'offprints'. The normal rate for authors of 'sorts' was £2 throughout the century; as early as 1631 Braithwaite[9] was grumbling at the payment, but sixty years later Mr (?William) Leybourn was content to compile half a dozen or more at forty shillings a piece. For others, however, the rate varied—perhaps with the success of the product the previous year; the 1658 arrangement with William Lilly, for instance, was that he should receive £60 if the sales of his almanack reached 20,000. John Tipper, writing to Humphrey Wanley in November 1703,[10] told him that the Company never paid the author for the first year of a new almanack (though he had been given 100 copies as a present) but that 'if it comes to be printed another year, then they will give me proportionate to what they give others'.
The first of the questions to which answers cannot be given in the Tables concerns surreptitious printing, and only the vaguest answer is possible. In the Journal there are scores of references to the buying in of counterfeit almanacks, to the payment of informers and to legal action against pirates. It is obvious that, when 20,000 copies of a book are being distributed within a few weeks, it cannot have been difficult for a pirate, with the connivance of a wholesaler, to feed another 5,000 to the market; since, as I shall show, there was also good profit to be earned by almanack publishing, both opportunity for and temptation to piracy existed; but the extent cannot even be guessed at. The most flagrant case I have found was the printing of almanacks at York in the early part of the period; this was the chief subject discussed, as a result of journeys to the north, at the last meeting of the Court before the Fire; it was the only subject minuted after the first—but informal—post-Fire meeting. In the end the two York stationers, Francis Mawburn (who admitted to distributing 4,000 almanacks, with twenty different titles,[11] and some sheet almanacks) and Richard Lambert paid the English Stock respectively £65 and £24, early in 1667. The heaviness of the fines reflects either the enormous quantities unlawfully produced or the Company's determination to give a sharp lesson to
In addition to the surreptitious printing of the Company's copies, there was the legitimate production of other almanacks—in Dublin; in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow; in Oxford and Cambridge; and even in London, where Raven's and a Welsh almanack were printed under licence. Moreover, the Seymour family laid claim to certain almanacks,[12] as part (I suppose) of the School Book Patent; and there was a trickle of near-almanack publishing,[13] which hoped to cash in on the demand without quite infringing the Company's monopoly.
Unfortunately, the vouchers from which the Journal was posted have been destroyed and there are seldom sufficient details, against the payments to printers, to tell what work was being paid for. The most one is told—and this very seldom—is that, in 1668 for instance, Milbourn was paid at the rate of 3s. 4d. each for twenty reams of Booker and forty-five of Trigge, and that Bruges was paid £9 13s. 4d. for twenty-nine reams of Saunders; or that in 1673 Lilliecrap received £7 10s. for twenty reams of Dade and, two years later, Bruges £12 for thirty-two reams of Andrews.[14] These are all post-Fire prices and the rates per ream, which work out at 3s. 4d., 6s. 8d. and 7s. 6d., are obviously inadequate figures upon which to base any general estimate of cost. Luckily Dr Thomas Yate, Principal of Brazenose College, Oxford, and Bishop Fell's efficient lieutenant,[15] has left some estimates he made about 1671 for printing at Oxford a three-sheet book almanack in octavo. He took paper at 4s. a ream (allowing 10% for wastage), composing and printing at 2s. 6d. a ream and rolling-press work at 4d. per 1,000. If we accept Yate's figure for paper (which is occasionally confirmed in the Journal), drop the charge for the rolling-press (since the crude illustrations in the London almanacks must have been printed with the text) and bear in mind the facts that the Company rubricated two of the three sheets and often employed more than one printer for the same almanack, the Journal figures make more, if not
£ | s. | d. | |
66 reams of paper &c.mmat; 4s. | 13 | 4 | 0 |
composing and printing | |||
&c.mmat; 3s. 4d. for 2 rubricated sheets | 7 | 6 | 8 |
&c.mmat; 2s. 6d. for remaining sheet | 2 | 15 | 0 |
copy money, say | 7 | 10 | 0 |
-------- | |||
total | 30 | 15 | 8 |
wholesale price &c.mmat; £8 per 1,000 | 80 | 0 | 0 |
I have worked out that, over the ten-year period 1673/4—1682/3, the total expenditure by the English Stock on paper, printing and authorship was 38.2% of the total value, at wholesale rates, of all books and almanacks delivered to the Treasurer; 38.2% of £80 is £30 11s. 2½d. My figure for the printing of 10,000 'blanks' could be varied considerably by altering the sum paid to the author or the ratio of that sum to the number printed; and it is only put forward tentatively.[17] I am inclined to think that I have underestimated the rates for printing, which would mean that the profit on books, which took months to accumulate, was (quite understandably) greater than that on almanacks which was earned in a few weeks—assuming that the length of credit on each kind of business was the same. The possibility that I have overestimated the profit on almanacks is, to some extent, supported by Richard Head who, in The English Rogue,[18] estimates that the Company cleared, in the early 1660s, over £1,000 a year from the sale of almanacks. 'But a knavish printer,' he goes on, 'lately outwitted them, for he printed a great number of almanacks, and though he printed but two sorts, yet they served for all the other sorts [an ingenious
The last questions to which I would like to find complete answers concern the rates at which country booksellers normally bought from the London wholesalers and the prices which members of the public paid. The evidence for transactions of this kind is extremely difficult to find, but some light is thrown on trade prices by a dispute between a Chester bookseller, Richard Thropp, and his London correspondent, Edward Dod; this led to a lawsuit in 1653.[19] From the evidence (and assuming that the English Stock rates were the same ten years before as they were in 1663) the following comparative figures can be given:
'sorts' | 'blanks' | Gallen | Lilly | |
s. | s. | s. | s. | |
rate per 100 to wholesalers | 10 | 12 | 14 | 37 |
rate per 100 to retailers | 10/8d. | 13 | 17 | 46 |
Competition for the country market must have been severe in the standard lines—'blanks' and 'sorts'—for the wholesaler to have been
The alternatives in the method and cost of binding, as always in the seventeenth century, make it almost impossible to arrive at what we know as the published prices. Before the Fire, Anthony Wood normally bought 'sorts' at 3d. and 'blanks' at 4d. each and for Wharton (1658) he paid 6d.; these were probably interleaved and stitched; in December 1667 he paid 7½d. for Gadbury. Another Oxford customer, Dr Stringer, bought an almanack in 1651 for 2d. from Henry Cripps,[20] who, a year later, sold another almanack for 6d.! The post-Fire prices would be at least 25% higher; but this does not get us very far. If any reader of this article can direct me to booksellers' advertisements or private accounts which will throw any light on the mark-up, with or without the addition of binding, between wholesale and retail prices during the seventeenth century, I shall be grateful.
'Of necessity,' writes Mr Bosanquet at the beginning of the article to which I have already referred, 'an old Almanack, merely as an Almanack, must be a very dull book;' and he gives some splendid reasons in support of this statement. But he devotes the rest of the article to showing what interest and information lie hidden in almanacks. Moreover, he speculates about the numbers of copies printed. 'If the average edition,' he says, 'only consisted of from 1,500 to 2,000 copies, we have a total of from three to four millions for the century, and this must be well under the mark. Figures such as these, even though they do not pretend to be correct, show that no book in the English language had such a large circulation as the annual Almanack.'
This is as true as it is important, both for the effect of these little books on a population which was quite small and still far from literate, and for the sheer volume of business with which the book trade was able to deal in the few weeks before Christmas. But the really remarkable point is that Mr Bosanquet's estimate of quantity is true not for the whole century but for the ten years from November 1663. We cannot however multiply his estimate by ten and arrive thereby at a new figure for the century; although the almanack business was a profitable
In conclusion, I should like to mention again a factor which affected both the total number of almanacks in circulation and the decisions which the Stock-keepers made about the numbers to print for their stock each year; this factor is the quantity of almanacks surreptitiously printed. The figures in the 'unsold' columns for 1665 and 1666 in Table I, compared with those for the previous year, show clearly how well the size of the market was normally estimated[21] and how vulnerable the Company was to competition; Mawburn and Lambert were not discovering a wholly new public from York but, to an uncomfortable extent, biting into the existing market. The value of unsold almanacks tended to increase as the century grew older; in 1684 it was nearly £250 and by 1696 it was over £300. It therefore seems as if the evenness of the Company's production in a generally expanding market might be explained by the ever-present fear—and fact—of infringement. The attack might come at any point: in 1666 and 1667 it seems to have been aimed at Pond and Dove; and by the time the culprits have been discovered the damage has been done; piracy may only delay the sale of a book; it destroys the sale of an annual. In spite of its caution, the English Stock found itself landed each year with a few more reams of unsold[22] almanacks; but, aided by its caution, the Company clung to most of the profits to be made in this market under the changing conditions of the eighteenth century, and it was not until 1775 that Thomas Carnan succeeded in breaking the almanack monopoly.
Paid for Copy | Wholesale price per 1,000 | 1664 | 1665 | 1666 | Post-Fire price per 1,000 | 1667 | 1668 | 1669 | 1670-1684 | 1685 | 1686 | 1687 | Wholesale price per 1,000 | Paid for Copy | |||||||||||||||
Name of Almanack | 1664 ref. in Wing A | £ | £ | first impression | second impression | number unsold | first impression | second impression | number unsold | number printed | number unsold | £ | number printed | number unsold | number printed | number unsold | number printed | number unsold | See Table IV | first impression | second impression | first impression | second impression | first impression | second impression | £ | £ | 1687 ref. in Wing A | Name of Almanack |
Rider 12° | 2248A | 10 | 7 | 10,000 | 9,000 | 15,000 | 7,500 | 18,000} | 2,000 | 10 | 20,000 | 22,500 | 25,950 | 350 | 30,000 | 7,000 | 30,000 | 3,000 | 30,000 | 5,000 | 10 | 10 | -- | Rider 12° | |||||
Gallen 12° | -- | 2 | 7 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 12,000} | 10 | 8,000 | 8,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10 | 2 | -- | Gallen 12° | ||||||||||||
Goldsmith 24° | -- | 5 | 4 | 16,000 | 300 | 10,000 | 200 | 10,000 | 2,800 | 5 | 12,000 | 13,000 | 15,000 | 200 | 20,000 | 4,000 | 20,000 | 3,000 | 20,000 | 2,000 | 5 | -- | 1796 | Goldsmith 24° | |||||
Lilly 8° | 1896 | 48 | 18.5 | 8,000 | 275 | 7,965 | 12,000 | 850 | 18.5 | 14,500 | 10,974 | 9,475 | 75 | 5,150 | 3,000 | 3,500 | 18.5 | 20 | 1438 | Lilly 8° | |||||||||
Wharton 8° | 2655 | 2 | 18.5 | 8,000 | 1,300 | 7,000 | 1,080 | 7,000 | 2,000 | -- | |||||||||||||||||||
Smith 24° | -- | -- | 4 | 3,000 | 400 | 5,000 | 3,300 | -- | |||||||||||||||||||||
Gadbury 8° | -- | -- | -- | 18 | 6,000 | 2,538 | 3,000 | 50 | last 1675 | 4,000 | 18 | -- | 1942 | Gadbury's Plot | |||||||||||||||
'Blanks' 8° | 675 | 108 | 'Blanks' 8° | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wing (Vincent) | 2813 | 7 | 6 | 25,000 | 16,500 | 30,000 | 15,000 | 43,000 | 34 | 8 | 40,000 | 50,000 | 52,500 | 750 | not 1673-9 | 6,000[*] | 9,000[*] | 8,300[*] | 8 | -- | 2778 | Wing (John) | |||||||
Poor Robin | 2183 | 2 | 6 | 18,000 | 8,000 | 25,000 | 4,000 | 75 | 20,000 | 100 | 8 | 20,000 | 22,500 | 25,000 | 18,000 | 18,000 | 18,000 | 1,500 | 8 | 6 | 2206 | Poor Robin | |||||||
Saunders | 2334 | 10 | 6 | 15,000 | 20,000 | 300 | 15,000 | 700 | 8 | 14,000 | 560 | 14,500 | 450 | 14,000 | 50 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 18,000 | 8 | 4 | 2357 | Saunders | |||||||
Andrews | -- | 4 | 6 | 10,000 | 2,500 | 12,500 | 10,000 | 33 | 8 | 10,000 | 14,500 | 15,000 | 175 | 20,000 | 5,000 | 20,000 | 5,000 | 20,000 | 8 | 12 | 1283 | Andrews | |||||||
Gadbury | 1743 | 6 | 6 | 7,000 | 7,000 | 125 | 6,925 | 150 | 8 | 12,000 | 525 | first 1677 | 20,000 | 5,000 | 20,000 | 3,000 | 20,000 | 3,000 | 8 | 40 | 1766 | Gadbury | |||||||
Tanner | 2501 | -- | 6 | 12,000 | 12,000 | 100 | 12,000 | 100 | 8 | 12,500 | 14,500 | 15,000 | 2,300 | 14,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 | 8 | 10 | 2524 | Tanner | |||||||||
Pond | 2145 | -- | 6 | 24,800[*] | 2,100 | 24,900[*] | 4,075 | 22,850[*] | 5,000 | 8 | 19,750[*]} | 14,725 | 14,000[*] | 400 | 8,000[*] | 6,000[*] | 7,150[*] | 8 | -- | 2167 | Pond | ||||||||
Dove | 1610 | -- | 6 | 24,850[*] | 2,900 | 24,900[*] | 3,900 | 22,825[*] | 6,000 | 8 | 22,500[*]} | 14,250[*] | 11,000[*] | 9,000[*] | 7,000[*] | 8 | -- | 1632 | Dove | ||||||||||
Booker | 1350 | 12 | 6 | 10,000 | 5,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 33 | 8 | 7,500 | 10,000 | 11,900 | 1,875 | last 1684 | |||||||||||||||
Nunns | 1993 | -- | 6.6 | 4,000 | 700 | 5,000 | 200 | 5,000 | 1,000 | -- | |||||||||||||||||||
Conyers | -- | -- | 6.6 | 4,000 | 250 | -- | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Swan | 2472 | -- | 5.6 | 7,900[*] | 500 | 8,000[*] | 150 | 7,950[*] | 300 | 7.6 | 7,850[*] | 1,150 | 4,700[*] | last 1684 | |||||||||||||||
Heatly | -- | -- | 5.6 | 5,000 | 250 | -- | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Blagrave | -- | -- | 5.6 | 5,000 | 1,100 | -- | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Westly | -- | -- | -- | 7.6 | 5,000 | 1,900 | only 1669 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Hooker | -- | -- | -- | 7.5 | 4,450[*] | 2,325 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
first 1671 | 6,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 | 8 | 3 | 1434 | Coelson | ||||||||||||||||||||||
first 1672 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 18,000 | 8 | 8 | 1464 | Coley | ||||||||||||||||||||||
first 1677 | 5,000 | 8 | 5 | -- | Protestant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
first 1678 | 15,000 | 5,000 | 20,000 | 3,000 | 20,000 | 8 | 10 | 2047 | Partridge | ||||||||||||||||||||
first 1683 | 3,000 | 8 | 3 | -- | Streete | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
first 1683 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 8 | -- | -- | Woodward | ||||||||||||||||||||||
5,000 | 4,000 | 3,000 | 1,500 | 8 | -- | 1405 | Chapman | ||||||||||||||||||||||
4,000 | 8 | -- | -- | Crabtree | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
'Sorts' 8° | 600 | 'Sorts' 8° | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dade | 1554 | 2 | 5 | 10,000 | 4,000 | 12,000 | 4,000 | 900 | 10,000 | 300 | 6 | 11,000 | 1,175 | 8,000 | 8,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 | 6 | 2 | 1530 | Dade | |||||||
Woodhouse | 2843 | 2 | 5 | 10,000 | 4,000 | 12,000 | 4,000 | 1,450 | 10,000 | 500 | 6 | 11,000 | 1,550 | 8,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 6 | -- | 2866 | Woodhouse | |||||||
White | 2749 | 2 | 5 | 10,000 | 4,000 | 12,000 | 3,950 | 800 | 10,000 | 400 | 6 | 8,000 | 25 | 7,900 | 9,900 | 8,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 | 6 | 5.75 | 2726 | White | |||||||
Fly | 1666 | 2 | 5 | 15,000 | 7,000 | 21,000 | 3,975 | 1,950 | 19,000 | 250 | 6 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 18,000 | 6,000} | 6,000} | 6,000} | 6 | 2 | 1689 | Fly | ||||||||
16,000[*]} | 16,000[*]} | 16,400[*] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rose | 2271 | 2 | 5 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 3,000 | 700 | 10,000 | 250 | 6 | 7,950 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 | 6 | -- | 2294 | Rose | |||||||||
Trigge | 2546 | 2 | 5 | 7,000 | 7,000 | 100 | 7,000 | 6 | 14,000 | 15,000 | 50 | 15,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 6 | - | 2569 | Trigge | ||||||||||
Perkins | 2077 | 2 | 5 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 1,400 | 6 | 8,000 | 100 | 8,000 | 9,950 | 12,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 | 6 | 2 | 2091 | Perkins | ||||||||||
Swallow | 2428 | -- | 5 | 24,850[*] | 24,900[*] | 24,900[*] | 3,500 | 6 | 24,850 | 7,325 | 18,500[*] | 50 | 18,000[*] | 16,000[*] | 16,350[*] | 6 | -- | 2451 | Swallow | ||||||||||
Neve | 1973 | 2 | 5 | 8,000 | 10,000 | 200 | 10,000 | 2,900 | 6 | 7,000 | 50 | 7,000 | 375 | 6,000 | 850 | last 1672 | |||||||||||||
Vaux | 2622 | 2 | 5 | 6,000 | 6,000 | 200 | 5,950 | 1,200 | -- | ||||||||||||||||||||
Jinner | 1847 | -- | 4.6 | 8,000 | -- | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Prince | -- | -- | 4.6 | 4,000 | -- | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Clarke | -- | -- | -- | 6 | 4,400[*] | 100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
first 1680 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 6 | 1.5 | 1721 | Fowle | |||||||||||||||||||||||
first 1683 | 6,000[*] | 9,000[*] | 8,200[*] | 6 | -- | 1508 | Culpeper | ||||||||||||||||||||||
3,000 | 6 | -- | 1584/5 | Davis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
3,000 | 6 | 2 | 2597 | Turner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total | -- | -- | -- | 337,400 | 60,000 | 9,600 | 376,165 | 45,425 | 18,255 | 361,400 | 35,100 | -- | 327,400 | 27,185 | 325,674 | 6,396 | 288,675 | 8,575 | 360,150 | 26,000 | 345,000 | 17,000 | 351,900 | 13,000 | -- | -- | -- | Total | |
'Sheet' | 'Sheet' | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
London | -- | -- | 2.5 | 11,500 | 2,000 | 14,750 | } | 150 | 12,500} | 750 | 3 | 14,450 | 15,500} | 475 | 14,000 | 25,000 | 23,000 | 30,000 | 25,000 | 30,000 | 33,750 | 3 | -- | London | |||||
Cambridge | -- | -- | 2.5 | 14,900[*] | 14,900[*] | } | 150 | 14,950[*] | 750 | 3 | 10,500[*] | 15,500[*] | 475 | 34,000[*] | 35,500[*] | 40,000[*] | 3 | -- | Cambridge |
Notes
I am grateful to the Master and Wardens of the Stationers' Company for permission to use and quote from the Company's records.
Court Book C, up to 1640, has been edited by Professor Jackson, and published earlier this year by the Bibliographical Society.
The policy of not detailing the almanacks delivered, which was adopted permanently from November 1687, was in operation for the years 1681 and 1682.
Owing to the increase of prices as a result of the Fire, this figure represents a sharp drop in numbers printed, compared with the previous year. What is remarkable is that the drop was not much greater.
Almanacks were often interleaved before binding, as were Dr More's copies of Rider and Goldsmith which are in the University Library at Cambridge; and some, like Anthony Wood's copies of 'blanks' and 'sorts' (in the Bodleian), were bound with blank leaves at either end.
Eustace F. Bosanquet, English Printed Almanacks and Prognostications . . . to 1600 (1917), p. 10, n2.
Northern Merlyn, English, Farmer, Rivers, Lagg, Sparrow, Pigeon, Friend, Fligg, Little John, Atkeson, Ranger, Robyns, Poor Tom, Maudlyn, Eagle, Pheasant, Brown, Prettyman and Beatrice. Mawburn's fine had been fixed at £95.
See Wing nos A2219A and A2706; and C. S. P. Dom. Add. 1660-85, p. 445 mentions the Company's case, ?1674, against Seymour and Larkin for printing almanacks.
At this time a printer's name usually appears on the title-page and (I should guess) denotes the printer of the first two sheets; the third sheet—and, in 'sorts', the half sheet—was very often printed by another, whose name seldom appears. From 1670 Lilliecrap's name appears on the title-pages of Dade; Milbourn's name is intermittently associated with almanacks, but never with either Booker or Trigge; I have found no mention of Bruges.
For an account of him see Print and Privilege at Oxford, by J. Johnson and S. Gibson (1946); and for his estimates see Oxford University Archives, S.E.P. 11*, 7.
The calculation for 10,000 'sorts', in which only the first sheet was
rubricated, would be:
£ | s. | d. | ||
55 reams of paper &c.mmat; 4s. | 11 | 0 | 0 | |
composing & printing | &c.mmat; 3s. 4d. for 1 sheet | 3 | 13 | 4 |
&c.mmat; 2s. 6d. for 1½ sheets | 4 | 2 | 6 | |
copy money | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
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total | 20 | 15 | 10 |
Similar calculations could be made for Lilly and Wharton, and, with modifications, for those in 120 and 240.
Some confirmation of my estimate is provided by a statement (in the Waste Court Book for 7 Jan. 1668) that Robert White had printed 6,650 copies of the Protestant Almanack for Mr Ponder at a cost of £19 17s. 6d. This works out at almost exactly £30 for 10,000. No charge for authorship would be included in this figure; but to offset this there was about one third more paper and printing, since the Protestant Almanack, 1668, was, as Mr Neil Ker has kindly verified for me from the Magdalen College copy, of four sheets and not of three.
But not completely worthless; a ream of waste often fetched as much as 2s. 6d., and more in times of shortage.
denotes "printed at Cambridge"; the evidence for this differentiation comes, in some cases, from sources other than the Treasurer's Stock Book. The drop in the 1669 total was due to the Treasurer's habit (only discovered ten years later) of selling on his own account almanacks printed at Cambridge! This habit accounts for the lack of reference to Whiting; Ephemeris (Wing A 2762). The odd quantities of many of the Cambridge figures are caused by the keeping back of some almanacks for sale at and near Cambridge. The Vincent Wing series ended in 1672; the John Wing series, printed at Cambridge, began in 1680.
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