Researching the life of an 18th-century bookseller
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| British Library - English Short Title Catalogue | The most reliable and comprehensive global catalogue of English-language publications, with considerable bibliographical details, 1473-1800. |
| Henry Plomer on Archive.Org | Online open access to Plomer’s classic: A Short History of English Printing, and Dictionary of Booksellers and Printers – these are dated but remain among the best introductions. |
| Locating London's Past | Splendid resource for mapping literary London in past centuries. |
| National Library of Scotland - The Spread of Scottish Printing | Offers a basic map of Scotland locating the major centres, 1500-1800. Clicking on a location will take you to a page describing who was printing there and when, with examples of some of the texts that they printed there. |
| Eighteenth-Century British Women in Print: A Checklist of Sources | A good and straightforward webpage with a long list of bibliographical info for many useful books and articles related to women in the 18th century book trade. The sources are merely a list though, with no links, so you would have to enter the info into a database like JSTOR to find them. However, the list is impressive and easy to read, including readings in biographical content, monographs, serials, and library collections. A good starting place for further research. |
| Edinburgh City of Print | “Edinburgh City of Print aims to provide access to the printing and publishing collections of Edinburgh Museums & Galleries. This site gives visitors the opportunity to view previously unseen items from these collections, to understand the history of these key industries that shaped Edinburgh and to discover the working lives behind them.” |
Our thanks to the Bodleian Library for the use of the image in our banner: "William Green Jr. (fl. 1732–1752), Scene at an Oxford Book Auction, oil on canvas, 1747; Bodleian Library. Portrait LP.701, 1F.”