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The article centers on a handwritten account of the stillbirth of conjoined twins in eighteenth-century Mexico stitched into a book about natural history. Finding things in books as part of an accidental process of discovery in the present does not equal random acts by users in the past. Inserting documents and prints of various kinds into books represented for historical actors a distinct kind of archival practice that combined careful observation, deliberation, and a certain measure of dexterity to manipulate the physicality of a book. Examples of records and objects found in other titles from the same time period and region help to contextualize the way people used books and how they stored memories, as well as what we as researchers can learn when critically analyzing the materiality of print. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the career of John Nutt, trade publisher ‘near Stationers-Hall’ from 1698 to 1706, and, from then until his death in 1716, printer ‘in the Savoy’ of The Tatler and of law books as assignee of the royal law printing patent. The particular emphasis of the article is on the three multi-volume serial publications printed in monthly parts by John Nutt, beginning in 1708 and continued for fifteen years after his death by his successor and widow, Elizabeth, ultimately in partnership with their son, Richard. An examination of the rare surviving copies of the monthly parts as issued, with their original titlepages and trade dress intact, reveals the proprietors’ promotional efforts for this emerging form of publication and permits the actual timing of their appearance in print to be precisely established. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

David Pearson's discussion of the formation of a directory of seventeenth-century book owners is taken up and extended in this article. Pearson's ’landscape of book ownership‘ has material dimensions which could usefully be included in such a directory. Housing books in a room, on shelves, surrounded by additional collections, are all contributions to this landscape. Pearson's call for a reference framework is answered by the proposal of a typology of early English library rooms, based on their attributes of scale, fittings and location with the plan of the country house. Case studies are drawn from an intensive study of the county of Norfolk. Archival evidence supports a re-evaluation of the problem of the name of the book room: study, library or closet? Personal collections housed in closets are linked to single owners, but the study or library can be seen as the open resource for the household, rather than assuming that it is primarily for the male owner of each generation. The reappraisal of the different roles of these spaces within the house allows notions of shared use to break down some existing boundaries in the scholarly literature, particularly over the gendered nature of the closet. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1709 a Latin translation of Andrea Palladio's guide to Rome, L’Antichità di Roma (Rome, 1554), was published in Oxford. The publication was sponsored by the famous Dean of Christ Church, Henry Aldrich (1648-1710). This article examines a previously unrecorded copy of the book and throws new light on the circumstances surrounding the publication of this 1709 translation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses British non-conformist preacher and educator Philip Doddridge, his publication "The Family Expositor," his widow Mercy Doddridge, and the history of 18th century booksellers and their practices. It focuses on the process of the editing, negotiations, marketing, and distribution practices of publishing by using the correspondence of the Doddridges to provide a history of books during the period. It provides an overview and description of "The Family Expositor," details the publishing of the final three volumes of the six volume-work under the guidance of Mercy after her husbands death in 1751, and the assistance of scholars Job Orton, Caleb Ashworth, and Samuel Clark in preparing the final volumes for publication.

The article discusses the early modern practice by book publishers and printers of post-dating works published at the end of a year. Several works detailing the purchase of post-dated pamphlets and books are considered including "Catlogue of the Pamphlets, Books, Newspapers, and Manuscripts Relating to the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and Restoration, Collected by George Thomason, 1640-1661," and "The Luttrell File: Narcissus Luttrell’s Dates on Contemporary Pamphlets 1678-1730," by Stephen Parks.

The article discusses the authorship of the anonymously published 1760 biography entitled "The Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel, Esq." Two letters written to the London, England printer Dodsley, one of either brothers Robert or James, dated June 13, 1776 and September 2, 1787, establish that the Reverend John Mainwaring (1724-1807) was the author of Handel's biography. Both of the letters are reprinted and discuss Dodsley's payments to the author for the agreed upon percentage of the book's profits. Based upon the letters, the author discusses the probable print run of the book.