Publications of Alice Norton

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 Alice Norton

  • Ovatio Carolina. The triumph of King Charles, or the triumphant manner and order, of receiving His Maiesty into his city of London, on Thursday the 25th. day of November, anno Dom. 1641, upon his safe and happy return from Scotland. With Master Recorder's speech to His Majestie. And His Majesties most gracious answer. London: printed by A[lice]. N[orton]., 1641. ESTC No. R212578. Grub Street ID 88156.
  • Iuly, the thirteenth 1642. A true and exact relation of divers principall actions of a late expedition, undertaken in the north of Ireland, by the English and Scottish forces; Anno Domini, 1642. London: printed by A. Norton, for Francis Constable, and Edward Blackmore, 1642. ESTC No. R2024. Grub Street ID 79639.
  • His Majesties speech, to the gentlemen of Yorkshire, on Thursday, the fourth of August. 1642. [London]: Printed at York, and re-printed at London, by A Norton, 1642. ESTC No. R24818. Grub Street ID 108569.
  • Instructions for deputy lievtenants which are members of the House of Commons, and other lievtenants of severall counties concerning the last propositions: together with the names of the commissaries, who are to inroll and value the horses and armes according to the propositons. Ordered that this be forthwith printed. H. Elsyng Cler. Par. D. Com. London: printed by A. Norton for Edw. Husbands and Iohn Franke, June 17, 1642. ESTC No. R15619. Grub Street ID 63536.
  • Fenwick, William. Zions rights and Babels ruine; or, The Church restored to her primitive lustre. A treatise concerning the essence and subsistence of the Christian church defecated, and purged from the dregges of erroneous humane invention, and erected by the vnerrable patterne of the Word of God. By William Fenwick. London: printed by A. N[orton]. for Lawrence Blacklocke and Edw. Husbands, and are to be sold at their shops in Fleet-street neere Temple-Barre, and Vine Court in the middle Temple, 1642. ESTC No. R22447. Grub Street ID 98109.
  • His Majesties speech to the gentry of the county of Yorke, attending his Majestie at the city of Yorke, on Thursday the 12th of May, 1642. [London]: Printed at Yorke, and now reprinted at London by Alice Norton, for Humphrey Tuckey, at the Blacke spread Eagle in Fleet-street, 1642. ESTC No. R210532. Grub Street ID 86678.
  • Abbot, George. Cheap-side Crosse censured and condemned by a letter sent from the vicechancellour and other learned men of the famous Vniversitie of Oxford, in answer to a question propounded by the citizens of London, concerning the said crosse, in the yeere 1600, in which yeer it was beautified, as also a remarkable passage to the same purpose, in a sermon preached to an eminent and very great auditory in this City of London: by a very reverend, holy, and learned divine, a while after the crosse was last repaired, which was anno 1606. London: printed by A[lice]. N[orton]. for I.R. and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard, 1641. [i.e. 1642]. ESTC No. R1013. Grub Street ID 58526.
  • Swallow, John. Swallovv. An almanacke for the yeare of our Lord God, 1642, Being the second after bissextile or leape-yeare, and from the worlds creation. 5573. Calculated properly for the famous university, and towne of Cambrideg [sic], but may indifferently serve for any other place within this kingdome. London: printed by A[lice]. Norton for the Company of Stationers, 1642. ESTC No. R38429. Grub Street ID 120534.
  • Die Martis, 26. Iulii. 1642. A declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, with additions to a former declaration, dated. Iuly 12. 1642. for the protecting of those who are imployed by the authority of both or either house of Parliament, in the execution of the ordinance for the militia: or in advancing the propositions far [sic] raising of horse, monyes, or plate according to the instructions of both houses of Parliament. London: printed by A[lice] N[orton] for E[dward] Husbands and I[ohn] Franck and are to be sold at his shop at the Kings head in Fleetstreet, [1642]. ESTC No. R171982. Grub Street ID 66014.

Printed for Alice Norton

  • His Majesties declaration to the ministers, free-holders, farmers, and substantiall copy-holders of the county of York. Assembled by His Majesties speciall summons, at Heworth Moore, neer the city of York, on Friday the third of June 1642. [London]: Printed at York, by Robert Barker, and now re printed at London, for Alice Norton, 1642. ESTC No. R1461. Grub Street ID 62622.
  • The Kings Majesties instructions unto the Earle of Northampton, the Lord Dunsmore, the high sheriff of the county of Warwick, and the rest of the commissioners. For putting the Commission of Array in execution, in the said county of Warwick. London: printed for A. Norton, 1642. ESTC No. R20164. Grub Street ID 79012.