Item 8 - Letter from Cyprian Blagden to Sir Walter Greg

1 single sheet

Longmans, Green, & Co. Ltd, 6-7 Clifford Street, London, W.1.—Continues his discussion of Some Aspects and Problems of London Publishing.

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Transcript

Longmans, Green, & Co. Limited
6 & 7 Clifford Street, London, W. 1
Ref. CCB/JP 11th July 1956

Sir Walter W. Greg,
Tanners Knap,
Petworth, Sussex.

Dear Sir Walter,

Please forgive the long delay in replying to your kind letter of the 7th of June which arrived just as I was going on holiday. I have only now had time to give it the attention it deserved, and here at last are my answers to the points you raised:—

1) You say that the Company dealt with its own copyrights in two different ways, but is there any evidence before 1603 of its paying for the publication of any book except perhaps Withal’s SHORT DICTIONARY in 1586/7 (Arber 1 520)? {1}

2) On page 6 of your book you say “This still provides for provincial printing”—but only, according to the Charter, by members of the London Stationers’ Company. A few provincial booksellers (but I am sure no provincial printers) took advantage of this nearer the end of the century, e.g. George Penn of Ipswich 1584 (STC 11720), Nicholas Colman of Norwich 1586 (STC 6564 and 23259) and Christopher Hunt of Exeter 1594 (STC 23697). {2}

3) The statement you quote from is the final report of the Privy Council Commission.

4) I do feel that there is a real distinction between “Trustee” and “Proprietor”.

5) The Roberts reference is from a succession of entries in Liber computi pro pauperibus listed in the Transactions of the Bibliographical Society NS Volume VI, 1926, page 355.

Yours sincerely,
Cyprian Blagden.

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Typed, except the signature and Greg’s marginal notes (see below).

{1} Greg has added in the margin, ‘Probably not.’

{2} Greg has added in the margin, ‘I should have said ‘contemplates’. It seems to ignore the limitation in the Ch.’

Formerly inserted in Greg's copy of Some Aspects and Problems of London Publishing between 1550 and 1650 (1956) (V. 15. 84).

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2020.