Publications of publick good

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 publick good

  • Gouge, Thomas. The surest and safest way of thriving. Or, a conviction of that grand mistake in many, that what is given to the poor, is a loss to their estate; which is directly contrary as to the experiences of the Charitable; so to the testimony of God's Spirit in divers places of Scriptures: As, Prov. II. 24. There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth. There is that with-holdeth more than is meet, but it undeth to poverty. Prov. 19. 17. He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will be pay'd him again. Luke. 6. 38. Give, and it shall be given to you again, good measure, pressed do will, and shaken together, and running over. Psalm 37. 26. He is ever merciful and lendeth, and his seed is blessed. Dens bi-folvit foenus, scilicet semel in terra, secundo in coelo. In terra enim eleemosynariis multiplicat opes, in coelo autem longe plura, & majora rependit. Cornelius a Lapide, in Prov. 19. 17. By Thomas Gouge, Minister of the Gospel. London: printed for publick good and promoting of charity, 1703. ESTC No. T118273. Grub Street ID 169825.