Did Anne Maxwell print John Wilkins’s An essay towards a real character and a philosophical language (1668)?
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Fredric T. Dolezal
Abstract
In order to answer the question posed in the title, we will explore the careers of a group of authors, booksellers and printers active in 17th century England. In doing so, we question previous work on the printing history of one of the Royal Society’s earliest commissioned books, An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, by Bishop John Wilkins. The argument of this article focuses on (1) the authors John Wilkins and William Lloyd, both clerics (and both eventually Bishops) as well as being leading intellectuals of their day; (2) booksellers Samuel Gellibrand, John Martyn, and James Allestry, all of whom owned and operated their own bookshops and undertook the expense of paying for and overseeing the publications of books; and (3) the printers whom we have identified as the most likely candidates for printing this book. We hope by treating each bookseller and printer in turn that we can show that the preponderance of evidence points to Anne Maxwell as the most likely printer of Wilkins’s Essay. As we shall see, Maxwell had the means of production, a long-term association as printer for Wilkins and the bookseller Samuel Gellibrand, and the reputation for quality work that makes her a mostly overlooked, but important, woman working in the book trade of 17th century London.
Abstract
In order to answer the question posed in the title, we will explore the careers of a group of authors, booksellers and printers active in 17th century England. In doing so, we question previous work on the printing history of one of the Royal Society’s earliest commissioned books, An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, by Bishop John Wilkins. The argument of this article focuses on (1) the authors John Wilkins and William Lloyd, both clerics (and both eventually Bishops) as well as being leading intellectuals of their day; (2) booksellers Samuel Gellibrand, John Martyn, and James Allestry, all of whom owned and operated their own bookshops and undertook the expense of paying for and overseeing the publications of books; and (3) the printers whom we have identified as the most likely candidates for printing this book. We hope by treating each bookseller and printer in turn that we can show that the preponderance of evidence points to Anne Maxwell as the most likely printer of Wilkins’s Essay. As we shall see, Maxwell had the means of production, a long-term association as printer for Wilkins and the bookseller Samuel Gellibrand, and the reputation for quality work that makes her a mostly overlooked, but important, woman working in the book trade of 17th century London.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction VII
- Reading Trench reading Richardson 1
- Did Anne Maxwell print John Wilkins’s An essay towards a real character and a philosophical language (1668)? 23
- “As well for the entertainment of the curious, as the information of the ignorant” 57
- Printed English dictionaries in the National Library of Russia to the mid-seventeenth century 95
- “A hundred visions and revisions”: Malone’s annotations to Johnson’s Dictionary 115
- The use of “mechanical reasoning”: John Quincy and his Lexicon physico-medicum (1719) 149
- Paratexts and the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘content marketing’ in the nineteenth century? 165
- The “wants” of women: Lexicography and pedagogy in seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury dictionaries* 187
- Claudius Hollyband: A lexicographer speaks his mind 211
- Subscribers and Patrons: Jacob Serenius and his Dictionarium Anglo-Svethico-Latinum 1734 237
- “Weak Shrube or Underwood”: The unlikely medical glossator John Woodall and his glossary 261
- A “florid” preface about “a language that is very short, concise and sententious” 285
- List of contributors 307
- Index 311
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction VII
- Reading Trench reading Richardson 1
- Did Anne Maxwell print John Wilkins’s An essay towards a real character and a philosophical language (1668)? 23
- “As well for the entertainment of the curious, as the information of the ignorant” 57
- Printed English dictionaries in the National Library of Russia to the mid-seventeenth century 95
- “A hundred visions and revisions”: Malone’s annotations to Johnson’s Dictionary 115
- The use of “mechanical reasoning”: John Quincy and his Lexicon physico-medicum (1719) 149
- Paratexts and the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘content marketing’ in the nineteenth century? 165
- The “wants” of women: Lexicography and pedagogy in seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury dictionaries* 187
- Claudius Hollyband: A lexicographer speaks his mind 211
- Subscribers and Patrons: Jacob Serenius and his Dictionarium Anglo-Svethico-Latinum 1734 237
- “Weak Shrube or Underwood”: The unlikely medical glossator John Woodall and his glossary 261
- A “florid” preface about “a language that is very short, concise and sententious” 285
- List of contributors 307
- Index 311
