The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe II
The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe II

Author: Simon Burrows

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-08-09

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1441159134

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This is a rich and path-breaking comparative study of reading tastes in the final years of old regime Europe. Based on extensive research in the account books of the Swiss publishers, the Société Typographique de Neuchâtel (STN), and related archives, it charts the dissemination of literature and reading tastes across Europe in the years leading up to the French revolution. In the process, it recasts our understanding of late 18th-century print culture and the contours of the enlightenment. The fruit of a widely acclaimed five year database project, the STN database, it is also a story of pioneering efforts to apply the latest digital technology and GIS mapping techniques to traditional historical and bibliographic problems. Although written to serve as a standalone study, this book is ideally complemented by its companion volume, Mark Curran's The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe I: Selling Enlightenment, which offers a radical reinterpretation of the structure and practices of the European book trade. The STN database is now recognised as a cutting-edge digital project of global significance. Robert Darnton has called it "a prodigious accomplishment and a joy to use" while Jeremy Popkin adds, "No one working in the field of French Enlightenment studies ... can afford to ignore the rich mine of data that Simon Burrows and his collaborators have made accessible, in an eminently usable form, and the new possibilities it opens up for scholars." The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe I and II offer a roadmap of that data and what it can show us.

The French Booktrade and the "permission Simple" of 1777
The French Booktrade and the

Author: Robert L. Dawson

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 696

ISBN-13:

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In 1777 a series of royal decrees heralded the restructuring of the French booktrade. An important innovation was the creation of a public domain for certain kinds of books whose privil ge (or 'copyright') had expired. In order not to relinquish control over a vast category of books, the government decided to implement a new kind of printing and publishing permit - the 'permission simple'. As historian and bibliologist, the author examines the many issues involved in the implementation of the permit, explaining the circumstances that led to the creation of a public domain, the economic policies of the government with respect to the 'permission simple', and what exactly the procedures entailed. Other issues concerning the permit are also covered: edition runs; a number of illicit activities; the relationship of free trade, the physiocrats and Turgot to booktrade policies; the significance of Diderot's Lettre sur le commerce de la librairie. The study is largely based on hitherto unpublished sources and on books printed by virtue of the permit. Included in the volume is an edition of the 'permission simple' ledgers. This is the first time that the registers of an entire category of French books printed by virtue of a given authorisation have been published. They contain references to nearly two thousand editions - many today lost - of a wide variety of works. The entries are invaluable for the information they provide about the output of many important provincial printers and booksellers. Together the two registers provide a unique picture of French book production during the dozen years or so preceding the Revolution.