The Bowyer Ledgers

1991

Special Collections Z232 B79 BS59

The Printing Accounts of William Bowyer, Father and Son. London: The Bibliographical Society; New York: The Bibliographical Society of America

Maslen and Lancaster’s The Bowyer Ledgers offers a vast amount of information to researchers on book production and book distribution in 18th century London. More than 5,000 works by some 1,000 authors were commissioned by some 500 customers, including booksellers, institutions and private gentlemen. Copies were delivered to more than 1,500 people, members of the trade or representatives of the reading public at large. The ledgers record what happened to the text as it moved through the printing house, noting paper, types, format, corrections, number printed and the like. The bibliographical details for Cheselden’s The Anatomy of the Human Body (1741) are registered at entry no. 2914.