Publications of Christopher Wilkinson

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 multiple roles in combination (which suggests a likelihood that the person is a trade publisher), or an obfuscation of the actual printer's name (e.g., "London: printed, and sold by x"):

  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 (see, e.g. Mary Cooper). The lists below reflect only the information on the imprint, except where ESTC provides extra information.

Printers (owners of the type and printing presses, and possibly owners of the copyright) may be identified by the words printed by, but printed by does not universally designate a person who is a printer by trade. Booksellers may be identified by the words sold by. Booksellers may also be identified by the words printed for, but nothing should be concluded in this regard without further evidence, especially since "printed for" could signify that the named person was a distributor (or what we might call a wholesaler) rather than a copyright holder. Copyright owners may also be identified by the words printed for. Trade publishers, who distributed books and pamphlets but did not own the copyright or employ a printer—and were not printers themselves—might be identified by the words printed and sold by. Furthermore, works from this period often display false imprints, whether to evade copyright restrictions, to conceal the name of the copyright holders, or to dupe unwitting customers. Ultimately, one must proceed with caution in using the following lists: designations in the imprints may not reliably reflect the actual trades or roles of the people named, and the formulas used in imprints do not consistently mean the same thing.

David Foxon discussed the "meaning of the imprint" in his Lyell Lecture delivered at Oxford in March 1976, with particular attention to "publishers" in the eighteenth-century context:

The fullest form of an imprint is one which names three people, or groups of people:
     London: printed by X (the printer), for Y (the bookseller who owned the copyright), and sold by Z.
In the eighteenth century the printer's name is rarely given, at least in works printed in London, and the form is more commonly:
     London: printed for Y, and sold by Z.
Very often in this period, and particularly for pamphlets, it is further abbreviated to:
     London: printed and sold by Z.
It is this last form which is my present concern. Z is usually what the eighteenth century called 'a publisher', or one who distributes books and pamphlets without having any other responsibility—he does not own the copyright or employ a printer, or even know the author.

He cautions, "The only way to avoid being misled is to regard any imprint which says a book is printed for a publisher as meaning it is sold by him" (5).

D. F. McKenzie coined the term "trade publisher" for these publishers in his Sandars Lectures, also in 1976, on the grounds that their principal role was to publish on behalf of other members of the book trade (Treadwell 100).

Michael Treadwell cautions that "In this period the imprint 'London: Printed and sold by A.B.' normally means 'Printed at London, and sold by A.B.' and must not be taken to mean that A.B. is a printer in the absence of other evidence." Further, "The imprint 'published by' occurs only rarely in Wing and is almost always associated with the name of a trade publisher" (104). While there are exceptions to the rule, it is "certain," he explains, "that anyone who made a speciality of distributing works for others will show a far higher proportion than normal of imprints in one of the 'sold by' forms" (116), which appear in the imprint as "sold by," "printed and sold by," or "published by" (104). Treadwell gives Walter Kettilby as an example of "a fairly typical copyright-owning bookseller" (106)—his role is almost always designated by the phrase "printed for" on imprints.

A final caution: publisher is a word that should be used with some deliberation. Samuel Johnson defines it simply as "One who puts out a book into the world," but "published by" rarely appears on the imprint until later in the eighteenth century, and then primarily associated with newspapers and pamphlets. Treadwell observes that John Dunton names only five publishers among the 200 binders and booksellers in his autobiographical Life and Errors (1705) wherein he undertakes "to draw the Character of the most Eminent [Stationers] in the Three Kingdoms" (100). Treadwell also remarks, however, that "in law, anyone who offered a work for sale 'published' it. In this sense every work had one or more 'publishers', and every bookseller, mercury, and hawker was a 'publisher'" (114).

See:

  • Terry Belanger, "From Bookseller to Publisher: Changes in the London Book Trade, 1750–1850," in Book Selling and Book Buying. Aspects of the Nineteenth-Century British and North American Book Trade, ed. Richard G. Landon (Chicago: American Library Association, 1978).
  • Bricker, Andrew Benjamin. "Who was 'A. Moore'? The Attribution of Eighteenth-Century Publications with False and Misleading Imprints," in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 110.2 (2016).
  • John Dunton, The Life and Errors of John Dunton (London: Printed for S. Malthus, 1705).
  • John Feather, "The Commerce of Letters: The Study of the Eighteenth-Century Book Trade," Eighteenth-Century Studies 17 (1984).
  • David Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade, ed. James McLaverty (Oxford University Press, 1991).
  • Samuel Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language, (printed for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755).
  • D.F. McKenzie, The London Book Trade in the Later Seventeenth Century (Sandars lectures in bibliography, 1977).
  • Michael Treadwell, "London Trade Publishers 1675–1750," The Library sixth series, vol. 4, no. 2 (1982).

Printed by Christopher Wilkinson

  • Wolley, Edward. Ho typos, or The pattern of grace & glory. In our lord and saviour Jesus Christ, to be admired, adored, and imitated. Collected out of the Holy Scriptures. Illustrated by the antient fathers and expositors. Presented with 1. Contemplations. 2. Observations. 3. Confirmations. 4. Doxologies. by Dr. Edward Wolley, Lord Bishop of Clonfort in the Kingdome of Ireland. Imprimatur, Mich. Dublin. Canc. Printed at Dublin: and are to be sold in London by Christopher Wilkinson at the Black Boy against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet, 1670. ESTC No. R226929. Grub Street ID 99842.

Printed for Christopher Wilkinson

  • Pen neer the Covent of Eluthery.. A pleasant treatise of witches. Their imps, and meetings, persons bewitched, magicians, necromancers, incubus, and succubus's, familiar spirits, goblings, pharys, specters, phantasms, places haunted, and devillish impostures. With the difference between good and bad angels, and a true relation of a good genius. By a pen neer the Covent of Elutheri. London: printed by H[enry]. B[rugis]. for C. Wilkinson at the Black Boy in Fleetstreet, and Tho. Archer and Tho. Burrell under St. Dunstans-Church, 1673. ESTC No. R234424. Grub Street ID 105771.
  • Curate of the same county.. A letter of religion to the Protestant-dissenters from the Church of England, of what denomination soever in the county of Kent; wherein is reported the ground of their dissent, their worship, way of instruction, and behaviour towards laws and government. To which is added a perswasive to conformity, at least an acquiescence in the religion established: by a curate of the same county. London: printed by F. Leach, for Chr. Wilkinson over against St. Dunstans Church, in Fleetstreet, 1675. ESTC No. R11508. Grub Street ID 59787.
  • Reasons against a registry for lands, &c. Shewing briefly, the great disadvantages, charges and inconveniences that may accrue to the whole nation in general thereby, much over-ballancing the particular advantages that are imagined to arise therefrom; in answer to a late book entituled, Reasons for a registry; with some reasons for a registry of personal contracts, humbly offered to consideration. London: printed for C. Wilkinson, and T. Burrel, at their shops in Fleetstreet, 1678. ESTC No. R14488. Grub Street ID 62506.
  • Dugdale, William. Origines juridiciales; or, Historical memorials of the English laws, courts of justice, forms of tryal, punishment in cases criminal, law-writers, law-books, grants and settlements of estates, degree of serjeant, Inns of court and chancery. Also a chronologie of the lord chancellors and keepers of the great seal, lord treasurers, justices itinerant, justices of the Kings Bench and Common Pleas, barons of the Exchequer, masters of the rolls, Kings attorneys and sollicitors, and serjeants at law. By William Dugdale, Kt. now Garter, Principal King of Arms. The third edition with additions.. London: printed for Christop. Wilkinson, Tho. Dring, and Charles Harper, and are to be sold at their shops in Fleetstreet, 1680. ESTC No. R5556. Grub Street ID 125987.
  • Blount, Thomas. The academy of eloquence: containing a compleat English rhetorique, exemplified; common places and formula's digested into an easie and methodical way to speak and to write fluently, according to the mode of the present times: with letters both amorous and moral, upon several occasions· By T.B. of the Inner Temple, esq;. The fifth edition, with additions.. London: printed for Chr. Wilkinson, and Cha. Harper, at their shops over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet, 1683. ESTC No. R24204. Grub Street ID 108008.
  • Read, Alexander. Chirurgorum comes: or The vvhole practice of chirurgery· Begun by the learned Dr. Read; continued and completed by a member of the College of physicians in London. Licensed, Feb. 15. 1686/7. London: printed by Edw. Jones, for Christopher Wilkinson; and sold by John Salisbury at the Atlas in Cornhil, 1687. ESTC No. R217760. Grub Street ID 92508.
  • Vega, Garcilaso de la. The royal commentaries of Peru, in two parts. The first part. Treating of the original of their Incas or kings: of their idolatry: of their laws and government both in peace and war: of the reigns and conquests of the Incas: with many other particulars relating to their empire and policies before such time as the Spaniards invaded their countries. The second part. Describing the manner by which that new world was conquered by the Spaniards. Also the civil wars between the Piycarrists and the Almagrians, occasioned by quarrels arising about the division of that land. Of the rise and fall of rebels; and other particulars contained in that history. Illustrated with sculptures. Written originally in Spanish, by the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, and rendred into English, by Sir Paul Rycaut, Kt. London: printed by Miles Flesher, for Christopher Wilkinson at the Black-Boy against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, MDCLXXXVIII. [1688]. ESTC No. R11045. Grub Street ID 59369.
  • Ray, John. A collection of English words not generally used, with their significations and original, in two alphabetical catalogues, the one of such as are proper to the northern, the other to the southern countries. With an account of the preparing and refining such metals and minerals as are gotten in England. The second edition, augmented with many hundreds of words, observations, letters, &c. By John Ray: Fellow of the Royal Society. London: printed for Christopher Wilkinson, at the Black Boy over against S. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, 1691. ESTC No. R14631. Grub Street ID 62643.