Publications of Iohn Smethwicke

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 the seller and printer roles in combination, or an absence of the printer's name following "London: printed:" or "London: printed,":

  1. "printed and sold by x"; or "printed for and sold by x"; or "printed by and for x"; or "printed: and sold by x"; or "printed, and sold by x";  and so on.

On this last point, trade publishers may seem to have "printed" or "published" the work, though they did not own the copyright. The lists below reflect only the information on the imprint, except where ESTC provides extra information.

See also "The Meaning of the Imprint."

Printed for Iohn Smethwicke

  • Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. Newly imprinted and inlarged, according to the true and perfect copy last printed. By William Shakespeare. London: pPrinted by R. Young for Iohn Smethwicke, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstans Church-yard in Fleet-stteet [sic], under the Diall, 1637. ESTC No. S111099. Grub Street ID 131019.