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Tag Archives: Irish

Book of the Week — Platōnos epta eklektoi dialogoi

14 Tuesday Aug 2018

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booksellers, boycott, Dublin, English, English Copyright Act, gilt device, Greek, Ireland, Irish, Joseph Leathley, leather, London, Plato, raised bands, sprinkled calf, Trinity College, University of Utah


“Books are immortal sons defying their sires.” — Plato

Platōnos epta eklektoi dialogoi
Plato
Dublinii: E typographia academiae, MDCCXXXVIII [1738]
PA4279 A3 1738

This is the first book printed at Trinity College’s printing house, built in 1734, and the first complete Greek text printed in Ireland. Thirty copies were printed on large paper and specially bound as gifts for important people, while the remaining seven hundred and fifty copies were awarded as prizes for the best answers at examinations.

This copy was presented in 1752 and was likely bound at Joseph Leathley’s Binder. The style is similar and the leather identical to many of this shop’s bindings.

In 1735, London booksellers lodged an official complaint that the Dublin book trade was undercutting London book-prices. Given the choice of a London “original” or a Dublin reprint at the same price, Irish readers often chose the former, except in times of patriotic boycott of English goods. The driving force behind choice, however, was cost. Foreign and colonial customers also preferred London imprints, but only if Dublin imprints were equally priced.

English booksellers objected to Dublin booksellers for the obvious: they spoiled the market for English editions in Ireland, and illegally imported copies threatened sales in English provinces and, to some extent, in English colonies. In 1709, the English Copyright Act allowed the reprinting of works first issued in other countries. This opened the trade considerably for Dublin printers. Throughout the 18th century, London booksellers resented the ensuing competition and often accused Dublin of piracy.

While this edition was clearly not a threat to retail commerce, Trinity College’s printing house took jobs away from English printers.

University of Utah copy bound in contemporary sprinkled calf with gilt device of Trinity College on both covers; gilt spine with raised bands, decorated with star, spade, and wavy line tools. Edition of one thousand copies.

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Book of the Week – Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World

28 Monday Sep 2015

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Benjamin Motte, Dublin, eighteenth century, English, engraving, Enlightenment, Irish, John Sturt, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Lemuel Gulliver, London, portrait, Robert Steensma, seventeenth century, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Teerlink AA, Teerlink B, The University of Utah, travel, William Sheppard


Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
London: B. Motte, 1726
First edition
PR3724 G7 1726

When Travels by “Lemuel Gulliver” was first published, only a few close friends knew that the real author was Jonathan Swift, the Dean of the Anglican St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Swift, a native Dubliner, was involved in several political controversies during his lifetime, particularly in relation to the treatment of the Irish by the English.

Travels was a none-too-subtle, bitter satire of English royalty, politicians, scientists, and historians. Styled after popular travel and exploration narratives of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the imaginative storytelling lambastes the much-lauded human reason of the Enlightenment. In Travels, Swift suggests that no change in governmental form would ever effect any lasting change in political behavior. Mankind, never noble for long under any circumstances, would always face the same unequivocal self: full of greed, excess, corruption, exploitation, violence, and decadence.

Benjamin Motte, a London printer, received an anonymous letter requesting that “Captain Gulliver’s” memoirs be published. A manuscript, probably copied in a hand other than Swift’s, was delivered, and one short month later, the book went on sale, after the publisher negotiated the softening of several passages. The book’s first printing sold out in a week. The combination of deadpan reporting, exotic experiences, and jaundiced backward glances at English society made the book an immediate success. Thus, the successful publication of a book politically loaded in a time before freedom of the press was but a gleam in a few revolutionary’s eyes.

The frontispiece is a fine example of eighteenth-century English book illustration. The engraved portrait of Swift is by John Sturt and William Sheppard (II?). University of Utah copy (“Teerlink B” edition) gift from Robert Steensma, second University of Utah copy (“Teerlink AA” edition) gift of Anonymous.

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The Winds Have Welcomed You With Softness

17 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Balloon Race Scholarship Committee, Black Rock Press, Irish, Nevada, prayer, Reno, University of Nevada

Z232.5-B4-W57-1999The Winds Have Welcomed You With Softness
Reno, NV: Black Rock Press, 1999
Z232.5 B4 W57 1999

The “Balloonist’s Prayer” is believed to have been adapted from an old Irish sailors’ prayer. Printed at the Black Rock Press for the Balloon Race Scholarship Committee of the University of Nevada, Reno, September 1999.

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