Publications of J. N.

Note: The following printer, bookseller, or publisher lists are works in progress. They are generated from title page imprints and may reproduce false and misleading attributions or contain errors.

What does "printed by" mean? How to read the roles ascribed to people in the imprints.

In terms of the book trades, the lists below are sorted into up to four groups where: the person is designated in the imprint as having a single role:

  1. "printed by x"; or
  2. "sold by x"; or
  3. "printed for x" or "published by x";

or as having multiple roles in combination (which suggests a likelihood that the person is a trade publisher):

  1. "printed and sold by x"; "printed for and sold by x"; or "printed by and for x" and so on.

Printers (owners of the type and printing presses, and possibly owners of the copyright) may be identified by the words printed by, but printed by does not universally designate a person who is a printer by trade. Booksellers may be identified by the words sold by, but sold by encompasses a number of roles. Booksellers or individuals who owned the copyright are generally identified by the words printed for, but nothing should be concluded in this regard without further evidence, especially since "printed for" could signify that the named person was a distributor rather than a copyright holder. Trade publishers, who distributed books and pamphlets but did not own the copyright or employ a printer—and were not printers themselves—might be identified by the words printed and sold by. Furthermore, works from this period often display false imprints, whether to evade copyright restrictions, to conceal the name of the copyright holders, or to dupe unwitting customers. Ultimately, one must proceed with caution in using the following lists: designations in the imprints may not reliably reflect the actual trades or roles of the people named, and the formulas used in imprints do not consistently mean the same thing.

David Foxon discussed the "meaning of the imprint" in his Lyell Lecture delivered at Oxford in March 1976, with particular attention to "publishers" in the eighteenth-century context:

The fullest form of an imprint is one which names three people, or groups of people:
     London: printed by X (the printer), for Y (the bookseller who owned the copyright), and sold by Z.
In the eighteenth century the printer's name is rarely given, at least in works printed in London, and the form is more commonly:
     London: printed for Y, and sold by Z.
Very often in this period, and particularly for pamphlets, it is further abbreviated to:
     London: printed and sold by Z.
It is this last form which is my present concern. Z is usually what the eighteenth century called 'a publisher', or one who distributes books and pamphlets without having any other responsibility—he does not own the copyright or employ a printer, or even know the author.

D. F. McKenzie coined the term "trade publisher" for these publishers in his Sandars Lectures, also in 1976, on the grounds that their principal role was to publish on behalf of other members of the book trade (Treadwell 100).

Michael Treadwell cautions that "In this period the imprint 'London: Printed and sold by A.B.' normally means 'Printed at London, and sold by A.B.' and must not be taken to mean that A.B. is a printer in the absence of other evidence." Further, "The imprint 'published by' occurs only rarely in Wing and is almost always associated with the name of a trade publisher" (104). While there are exceptions to the rule, it is "certain," he explains, "that anyone who made a speciality of distributing works for others will show a far higher proportion than normal of imprints in one of the 'sold by' forms" (116), which appear in the imprint as "sold by," "printed and sold by," or "published by" (104). Treadwell gives Walter Kettilby as an example of "a fairly typical copyright-owning bookseller" (106)—his role is almost always designated by the phrase "printed for" on imprints.

A final caution: publisher is a word that should be used with some deliberation. Samuel Johnson defines it simply as "One who puts out a book into the world," but "published by" rarely appears on the imprint until later in the eighteenth century, and then primarily associated with newspapers and pamphlets. Treadwell observes that John Dunton names only five publishers among the 200 binders and booksellers in his autobiographical Life and Errors (1705) wherein he undertakes "to draw the Character of the most Eminent [Stationers] in the Three Kingdoms" (100). Treadwell also remarks, however, that "in law, anyone who offered a work for sale 'published' it. In this sense every work had one or more 'publishers', and every bookseller, mercury, and hawker was a 'publisher'" (114).


See:

  • Terry Belanger, "From Bookseller to Publisher: Changes in the London Book Trade, 1750–1850," in Book Selling and Book Buying. Aspects of the Nineteenth-Century British and North American Book Trade, ed. Richard G. Landon (Chicago: American Library Association, 1978).
  • Bricker, Andrew Benjamin. "Who was 'A. Moore'? The Attribution of Eighteenth-Century Publications with False and Misleading Imprints," in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 110.2 (2016).
  • John Dunton, The Life and Errors of John Dunton (London: Printed for S. Malthus, 1705).
  • John Feather, "The Commerce of Letters: The Study of the Eighteenth-Century Book Trade," Eighteenth-Century Studies 17 (1984).
  • David Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade, ed. James McLaverty (Oxford University Press, 1991).
  • Samuel Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language, (printed for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755).
  • D.F. McKenzie, The London Book Trade in the Later Seventeenth Century (Sandars lectures in bibliography, 1977).
  • Michael Treadwell, "London Trade Publishers 1675–1750," The Library sixth series, vol. 4, no. 2 (1982).

Printed by J. N.

  • The lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq; revised and corrected by the author. Vol. I. London: printed by J. N. and sold by E. Nutt, at the Middle-Temple-Gate, in Fleetstreet, 1716. ESTC No. N11678. Grub Street ID 1682.

Printed for J. N.

  • Lémery, Nicolas. Arcana curiosa: or, modern curiosities of art and nature. In three parts. ... from the last edition in French; ... Illustrated with copper plates, ... London: printed for J. N. and sold at the Ring in Little-Britain, [1711]. ESTC No. N42906. Grub Street ID 28897.

Author

  • N., J.. Proh tempora! Proh mores! or an unfained caveat to all true Protestants, not in any case to touch any of these three serpents; viz. Mr Erbery's Babe of glory. The mad-mans plea, and Mr. Christopher Feakes exhortations. Whose language is infectious, and whose stings are mortiferous, therefore of all Gods people to be shunned, as those which intend nothing more then Christian persecution. Written by J.N. a mechanick. London: printed by T.N., 1654. ESTC No. R206819. Grub Street ID 83292.
  • N., J.. Strange news from Westminster: being a very true relation of a monstrous and deformed man child born on Monday last, being the 9th. of February, anno. 1674. With several very remarkable and strange occurances happening both at and since the birth: as also the exact time an place where it was bore, that the curious may be satisfied, and the indigent mother (the true object of pitty and charity) comforted. London: printed for J. N., 1674. ESTC No. R180819. Grub Street ID 71704.
  • N., J.. The plain mans defence against popery: or, A discourse, shewing the flat opposition of popery to the Scripture. By J.N. chaplain to a person of honour. London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst; and are to be sold at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside, near Mercers-Chappel, 1675. ESTC No. R9788. Grub Street ID 129833.
  • N., J.. Threnos militarius ingeminatus; sive, mnemosynum lapidarium lotharingii ducis & Schombergi, gemini in re militari coryphæi heroûm duo, uno eodemq; anno defuncti, sempiternæ memoriæ, et sepulchrali marmori consecratum. Per J, N. M.D. Londini: excudebat T.M., Anno Domini 1690. ESTC No. R231128. Grub Street ID 103303.
  • N., J.. A sermon preached at sea, the 27th day of June, 1706. Being the day appointed for a general thanksgiving to almighty God for the signal success wherewith he has been pleased to bless Her Majesty's Arms in Flanders and Spain. By J.N. M.A. London: printed for D. Browne at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-Bar, 1706. ESTC No. N72083. Grub Street ID 51936.
  • N., J.. A short compendium of trigonometry, both plain and spherical. By J. N. Together with the construction of the canon of sines and tangents. Cambridge: printed at the University-Press, for Thomas Webster: and are to be sold by Ric. Wilkins. London, 1710. ESTC No. T175712. Grub Street ID 212774.
  • N., J.. Poems on serious subjects. By J. N. London: printed by W. Smith. Sold by Mr. Kent; Mr. Warr; Mr. Dod; Mr. Bissiker; and Mr. Scollick, 1788. ESTC No. N21021. Grub Street ID 10409.