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Today it is not unusual for popular authors to have their works published not only in hardcover and paperback trade editions but also in limited editions, numbered and signed by the author. This practice, as such, does not seem to have been normal—if it happened at all—in eighteenth-century England. In some instances all copies of an edition were numbered and signed by the author—e.g., John Angell's Stenography: or, Short-hand improved of 1758. In other cases all copies of an edition were signed by the author—e.g., John Payne's New Tables of Interest of 1758, or Christopher Smart's A Song to David of 1763. But what purchasers of books usually had to pay extra

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money for were those copies printed on large (or fine, or Royal) paper, whether these were normal trade or subscription editions. Pope's Iliad, of course, was issued simultaneously in two formats and four different grades and quality of paper, each at a considerably different price. At a time in the booktrade when the cost of paper normally represented two-thirds of the cost of producing a book, the public paid—and paid extra—for those fewer copies of an edition printed on higher quality paper. It was not uncommon, however, for an author to have a small number of Royal paper copies printed for his personal use.

Like many academics before and since his time, Richard Hurd tried to advance his career by having his writings published and then distributing copies to everyone who might be helpful to him. An excellent example of this practice is a small pamphlet which Hurd paid Bowyer to print for him in 1751 at exactly the same time Bowyer was printing Hurd's edition of the Epistola ad Augustum. Entitled The Opinion of an eminent Lawyer, concerning the Right of Appeal from the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, to the Senate . . ., its imprint states accurately that it was "London, Printed, and Sold by M. Cooper . . ." thus reflecting the lack of any named publisher. Astonishingly, Hurd paid for printing three editions of this little piece in the months of May, June, and July of 1751—£4:10:0 for each edition—but apparently it was worth his while to distribute the pamphlet widely. Of the 250 copies of the first edition, 100 copies, stitched, were sent to Thurlbourne in Cambridge; Cooper took 80 copies, "not stitched," for London; six copies were sent "to the Author"; and Hurd had the remaining 64 copies "Stitched in Marble paper" at the cost of 2d. each and sent "To the Judges & other presents" (see Bowyer Ledgers B487, B564, and P1074). All the copies of this pamphlet were printed on ordinary paper; but with his early editions of Horace, Hurd had 20 or 26 copies of each edition printed on Royal paper and distributed to friends and persons of potential influence.

Of the Ars Poetica of 1749, Hurd paid £1:11:6 to have the twenty Royal paper copies printed and another 2s. 6d. to have them "sew'd in Marble paper" (Bowyer Ledgers B487, P1067). Of the 1751 Epistola ad Augustum, Bowyer printed 26 copies on "Large [paper] with marg[ins] opened"—that is, the type was reimposed with wider margins in order to accomodate better the large paper—and of these, twelve copies were sent to Thurlbourne, presumably for Hurd's use. Of the remaining fourteen, three were "bound & gilt" at 2s. each and sent to the Bishop of Norwich, Mr. [Ralph] Allen, and to the Honble. Charles Yorke; the other eleven were "sewed in Marble" for the total cost of 3s. 8d. and sent to the "Ld. Bishop of London, Mr. Tho. Villers, Honble. George Littleton, Dr. Tunstal, Dr. Heberden, Mr. Warburton, Mr. Whitehead, Dr. Askew, Mr. Mason, Mr. Morris, and the Revd. Mr. Barnard" (Bowyer Ledgers B544, P1084).

Of the 1753 edition of Horace in two volumes, twenty copies were printed on Royal paper (Bowyer Ledgers B544, P1094). The ledgers do not record any distribution list for this edition, but we do know that Hurd presented one large paper copy in sheets to Henry Hubbard of Emmanuel College (see

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above). Of the 1757 edition we have no statistics of printing, since this was printed, at least in part, by Joseph Bentham in Cambridge instead of William Bowyer. We know, however, that Hurd continued his custom of having some copies printed on Royal paper; for he had one such copy handsomely bound and presented to the dedicatee, Sir Edward Littleton, and another (in marbled paper?) was sent to William Warburton (see above).

Thus, of the editions of 1749 through 1757, apparently all large paper copies were reserved for Hurd's personal use and none were offered for sale. All editions later than 1757 were printed uniformly without any large or fine paper copies.