This website makes available information on the London and provincial book trades which has been gathered intermittently since the 1970s. One major aim is to digitise information previously issued in the publications in the Exeter Working Papers series. Where information is issued in digital format, it is made available on the understanding that, while individuals may take copies, print-outs and extracts for private study, the publication or reproduction by any means of anything more than a reasonable amount is covered by the copyright legislation in the same way as printed material. Libraries and similar institutions may supply to users copies of a reasonable proportion for private study and research under the fair dealing clause of the copyright legislation. In the list that follows the description is of the printed versions; not all parts of these have always been digitised. Please contact the editor of the series for details.

Ian Maxted
February 2005

LIST OF WORKING PAPERS

"0" The London book trades 1775-1800: a preliminary checklist of members. 1977. xxxv,257p ; 28cm. ISBN 0-7129-0696-7. Lists about 4,000 individuals and firms. Originally published by Wm. Dawson, copies now available from Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History. It should be pointed out that an important pervasive error was caused by a fault in the computer typesetting program. The plus sign after certain dates was omitted throughout the book. This sign was used to indicate that a firm continued in business for an indefinite period after the last date checked, normally 1830. These errors are being corrected in the digitised version.

1. The London book trades 1775-1800: a topographical guide. 1980. 16p: maps; 23cm + 5 microfiches (299 frames). ISBN 0-9507306-0-2. An address index to the previous work and to trade directories published between 1767 and 1774. Nine frames of corrections to the original work are included on the final fiche.

2. The British book trades 1710-1777 : an index of masters and apprentices recorded in the Inland Revenue registers at the Public Record Office, Kew. 1983. xii,141p; 30cm. ISBN 0-9507306-1-0. Lists 3150 apprentices bound to 1800 members of the book trades in London and the provinces. Arranged by master with indexes of apprentices and places.

3. The London book trades 1735-1775: a checklist of members in trade directories and in Musgrave's Obituary. 1984. iii,37p; 22cm. ISBN 0-9507306-2-9. Lists about 900 individuals and firms.

4. The British book trades 1731-1806 : a checklist of bankrupts. 1985. viii,36p ; 22cm. ISBN 0-9507306-3-7. Lists 631 individuals and fims that went bankrupt during this period with and index of places in the provinces and streets in London.

5. Exeter Cathedral Library : a concordance of the medieval catalogues and surviving manuscripts. 1987. xvii,28p ; 30cm. ISBN 0-9507306-5-3. Parallel columns attempt to correlate the more than 600 titles listed in Bishop Leofric's donation list of 1080, inventories of 1327 and 1506 and surviving manucripts. Arranged in subject groupings with indexes of authors and donors.

6. Books with Devon imprints : a handlist to 1800. 1989. ix,219p ; 30cm. Notebook format. ISBN 0-9507306-7-X. Gives details of more than 1,200 items printed in Devon or with Devon distributors in the imprint including many ephemeral items. Arranged by date of publication with indexes by author, subject, place and proper name of subject.

7. The Devon book trades : a biographical dictionary. 1991. viii,286p ; 30cm. Notebook format. ISBN 0-9507306-6-1. Lists some 2,800 members of the book trades in Devon from earliest times to the mid nineteenth century. Arrangement is by place with name indexes.

8. The British book trades 1775-1787: an index to insurance policies. xiii,152p ; 30cm. Notebook format. ISBN 0-9512752-2-4. Lists 2250 Sun and Royal Exchange policies by personal name with indexes by place.

9. Newspaper readership in south west England: an analysis of the Flindell's Western Luminary subscription list of 1815. 1996. xii,92p : maps ; 30cm. ISBN 0-9512752-3-2. Reprints the 1695 names on the subscription list and attempts their identification. With indexes by place and trade and analysis on tables and in maps. Introduction, main listing by surnames and transcript of correspondence digitised, place and trade indexes, tables and maps still to be digitised.

10. The London book trades of the later eighteenth century: biographical extracts from newspapers and other sources 2001. Based on material collected by Victor Berch of Brandeis University Library, this presents information on marriages, deaths, bankruptcies, partnerships, publications arranged alphabetically by family name.

11. Book trade references in the Lapthorne-Coffin correspondence 1683-1697, edited by Michael Treadwell and Ian Maxted. 2000- in progress. Transcripts of sections of the letters written by Richard Lapthorne, a bookseller in London, to Richard Coffin, book collector at Portledge in north Devon. With indexes of books mentioned, book trade personnel, book sales and concordances with the 1801 sale catalogue of the library at Portledge.

12. A history of the book in Devon. Covering two millennia of books, readers, libraries, newspapers and related topics in Exeter and Devon.

13. The inventory of Michael Harte, bookseller of Exeter, 1615. A facsimile and transcript of the document followed by an essay analysing the contents.

14. Andrew Brice, printer of Exeter: an agreeable biographical gallimaufry. References to the printer's life from his own writings and those of his contemporaries. An extended version of a paper given at the conference "Lives in print", London December 2001.

Special series:

1. Fifth seminar on the British book trade: report, Thomas Hall, University of Exeter 9 and 10 July, 1987. 1987. 61p : ill,map ; 30cm. ISBN 0-9512752-0-8. Not digitised.

2. British national directories 1781-1819: an index to places in the British Isles included in trade directories with general provincial coverage. 1989. viii,34p : map ; 30cm. ISBN 0-9512752-1-6. Indexes more than 1,000 localities covered by national directories like Bailey's or Holden's before the county series was published by Pigot in the 1820s.