Publications of the booksellers

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 by the booksellers

  • The present negotiations of peace vindicated from the imputation of trifling. London: printed and sold by the booksellers, [1712]. ESTC No. T56946. Grub Street ID 283314.

Sold by the booksellers

  • Cibber, Theophilus. The tryal of a cause for criminal conversation Between Theophilus Cibber, Gent. Plaintiff, and William Sloper, Esq; Defendant. Dublin: re-printed and sold by the booksellers, M,DCC,XXXXIX. [1749]. ESTC No. N13612. Grub Street ID 3510.

Printed for the booksellers

  • The paths of virtue delineated; or, the history in miniature of the celebrated Clarissa Harlowe, familiarised and adapted to the capacities of youth. Glasgow: printed for the booksellers, M.DCC.LXXXIV. [1784]. ESTC No. N10993. Grub Street ID 983.