University of Virginia Library

The Great Illustrated-Book Publisher: Merigot's Rome (1796-98)

The first ambitious and illustrated work on which Richard Edwards's name as publisher appeared was A Select Collection of Views and Ruins in Rome and Its Vicinity Executed from Drawings Made Upon the Spot in the Year 1791.[13] The work was probably issued in fifteen parts each containing four plates and a sheet of letterpress. The drawings appear to be by Vien, but most of the commercial enterprise and labour were J. Merigot's who aquatinted and published the plates. The first twelve engravings, dated 1 March 1796, bear only Merigot's name as publisher, but after this brave start, enough for three numbers, there was a seven-month pause. Probably Merigot, like other ambitious engravers such as William Blake, had discovered that his time, talent, and modest financial resources did not permit him to act effectively as publisher at the same time that he was actively producing his books for sale. To make the work commercially successful, he had to bring in someone with capital and publishing experience, and Richard Edwards, who apparently expected to publish the first part of Young's Night Thoughts in June 1796 (the date on half the plates), may have been eager to participate in such an ambitious undertaking. The risk to himself must have been comparatively slight, since Merigot was providing designs and engravings, the raison d'être of the book, and the chief additional expenses for a single part were for setting a sheet of text and buying paper on which to print plates and text. Probably after the Spring of 1796, Merigot provided the engraved copperplates for his Views and Ruins in Rome and Richard Edwards (and later others) paid for paper, setting the text, printing, paper covers, sewing, labels, warehousing, advertising, and selling the work in parts—a total probably considerably less than Merigot's fair wages as an engraver.

Four more numbers, bearing the imprint on the plates of J. Merigot & R. Edwards, were issued in October (No. 4-5), December 1796 (No. 6), and February 1797 (No. 7-9). Perhaps the titlepage to the first Part of the work, dated 1797, appeared with No. 7.[14]

There was then a long hiatus of just over a year, during which Edwards must have been busy with the Night Thoughts again. His integral Advertisement to the Night Thoughts is dated 22 December 1796, and the rest of its plates with imprints after June 1796 are dated in January, March, and June 1797. It was only after the first part of the Night Thoughts was published in November 1797 that work seems to have begun again on Merigot's Rome.

There was a renewed burst of activity with Merigot's book in the Winter and Spring of 1798; No. 8-10 were published in February, No. 11-13 in March, No. 14 in April, and No. 15, the last for Part I and probably with its half-title, in June 1798.

On the completion of Part I of Merigot's Rome, with its sixty-two large, handsome plates, Richard Edwards's connection with the work apparently terminated. Indeed, it may have finished a little before then, for the undated engraved half-title, probably issued with No. 15, bears the imprint only of J. Hearne, who has no other known connection with Part I. By then Robinsons

and White, who with Richard and James Edwards had published the Part I title-page dated 1797, were probably in control, perhaps having bought Merigot's share in the work (on condition that Merigot continue to make the aquatints at piece-rates). Richard Edwards may have divided his share with his brother James, who also appears on the 1797 Part I titlepage. When James Edwards went out of business about 1799, his share of Merigot's book went to his successor R. H. Evans of Pall Mall, and that of Richard went to James Edwards's old friend Faulder. The Part II titlepage of [?June] 1799 thus bears the imprint of Robinsons and White (as in the Part I 1797 title-page) and of Faulder and Evans (in place of Richard and James Edwards). The new consortium obviously found the work profitable, for it was repeatedly reprinted on paper watermarked 1806, 1815, 1818, and 1821-24 with various misleading undated titlepages, one of which carried the name of Richard Edwards long after he had gone out of business. Merigot's Rome was regarded as a vendible asset also in the Edwards family, for Thomas Edwards offered three copies in his 1815 catalogue, four in that of 1818, and four (including "the Original Drawings") in that of 1826.

Richard Edwards's recorded connection with Merigot's book was entirely creditable, and it is likely to have been profitable as well—at least it must have been profitable to his successors, who reprinted it repeatedly. It seems likely, therefore, that Richard Edwards's termination of his part in the enterprise came about simply because he was leaving business. His motives probably did not include dissatisfaction with his share in Merigot's book. It may have been that Earl Spencer owed James Edwards a favour for his part in the acquisition for Lord Spencer of County Reviezki's library, and Richard Edwards profited from it.