Publications of Robert Battersby

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.

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 Robert Battersby

  • The complete academy: or a drawing book, containing the pencil's improvement, with the ground-vvork of the art of drawing, limning, painting, graving, and how to whet the graver: and also etching. The real art of mixtures of all sorts of colours both for painting and limning; also how to cleanse any old painting, and preserve the collours; and the plainest method for colouring maps and prints, are faithfully discovered. With some geometrical rules for ovals, escutcheons, circles, &c. With an addition of that necessary parts the trunks of bodies. In the drawing part Abraham Bloemaert and Jean Cozyne are followed, answering to Fiolets discourse of the measures of whole bodies and parts. In the limning part you have from a manuscript (which came happily to hand out of the collection of Mr. Garrat, limner to Queen Elizabeth) the perfect discourse how to prepare, mix, and work all those colours; with directions what lights to use in drawing by the life, with the height and distance the party o. The second edition, with many experienc'd additions, by the author.. London: printed by R[obert]. Battersby, for John Ruddiard, and are to be sold at the Unicorn in the Piazza, under the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, 1672. ESTC No. R174203. Grub Street ID 67458.
  • Basset, Thomas. A catalogue of books, printed for Thomas Basset, and are to be sold at his shop at the George near Cliffords Inne in Fleet-street. London: printed by R. Battersby for Thomas Bassett, bookseller at the George near Cliffords Inne in Fleetstreet, 1672. ESTC No. R172284. Grub Street ID 66219.
  • Huet, Pierre-Daniel. A treatise of romances and their original. By Monsieur Huet. Translated out of French. London: printed by R. Battersby, for S. Heyrick, at Grays Inn Gate in Holborn, 1672. ESTC No. R38997. Grub Street ID 121018.
  • Heylyn, Peter. Aërius redivivus: or the history of the Presbyterians. Containing the beginnings, progresse, and successes of that active sect. Their oppositions to monarchical and episcopal government. Their innovations in the church; and their imbroilments of the kingdoms and estates of Christendom in the pursuit of their designs. From the year 1536 to the year 1647. By Peter Heylyn, D.D. and chaplain to Charles I. and Charles II. monarchs of Great Britain. The second edition.. London: printed by Robert Battersby for Christopher Wilkinson at the Black Boy over against S. Dunstans Church, and Thomas Archer under the Dial of S. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet, and John Crosley in Oxford, M. DC. LXXII. [1672]. ESTC No. R6051. Grub Street ID 126428.
  • Caryll, John. The English princess; or The death of Richard III. A tragedy. London: printed by R. [i.e. Robert]. B. [i.e. Battersby]. for Thomas Basset, and are to be sold by William Cademan at the Popes Head in the lower walk of the new Exchange in the Strand, 1673. ESTC No. R170910. Grub Street ID 65413.

Printed for Robert Battersby

  • J. W, Gent. A poem occasion'd by the general peace. By J.W. Gent. London: printed for Robert Battersby at Staple-Inn-Gate, near the Barrs, in Holbourn, 1698. [i.e. 1697]. ESTC No. R10602. Grub Street ID 58955.
  • Brydall, John. Jus primogeniti. Or, The dignity, right, and priviledge of the first-born. Inquisited and defended against the impious practice of some fathers in disinheriting their first-begotten sons. In a letter to a friend in the country. By B.J. Esq;. London: printed for R. Battersby, at Staple-Inn next the bars, in Holborne. 1699. Price 2d., [1699. ESTC No. R2489. Grub Street ID 108628.
  • Brydall, John. Pietatis in parentes disquisitio: or, the duty of children towards their parents: truly examined and stated. In a letter to a friend in the city. London: printed for R. Battersby at Staple-Inn, next the Barrs in Holborn, 1700. ESTC No. R215721. Grub Street ID 90694.
  • Johnson, Charles. A congratulatory verse, to Her Grace, the Dutchess of Marlborough: on the late glorious victory, near Hochstet in Germany. August the 2d 1704. London: printed for Robert Battersby, at Staple-Inn-Gate, next the Barrs in Holbourn, 1704. ESTC No. N1468. Grub Street ID 4457.

Printed by and for, or by/for and sold by Robert Battersby

  • Hale, Matthew. De successionibus apud Anglos: or, A treatise of hereditary descents: shewing the rise, progress and successive alterations thereof. And also, the laws of descent, as they are now in use. With a scheme of pedigrees; and the degrees of parentage and consanguinity. London: printed, and are to be sold by Robert Battersby, at Staple-Inn-Gate, next the Bars in Holborn, 1700. ESTC No. R173. Grub Street ID 66716.