Thread by @dbellingradt

How to get your manuscript into print and published? Often authors needed to approach and meet a publisher. And this was regularly a painful experience for early modern authors. Here, in 1666, an author enters a publisher's office.
#bookhistory
1/x

The imagined scene is from a copperplate print of the 1666 book business mocking print by Aegidius Henning: "Gepriesener Büchermacher Oder Von Büchern/ und Bücher machen ein zwar kleines/ jedoch lustiges und erbauliches Büchlein..." (VD1:048499D)

resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?PPN780169…

2/x

The publisher was mainly a financing agent, sometimes in early days running the print shop as well. He needed to calculate his material productions: how expensive was the paper needed? Do we have enough ink? Was the type ready? Workload: Worry, pay attention, write letters.
3/x

So the early modern author approached usually a business man, not always a literary expert with a mission. The best an accepted author could expect in 1666 (and still much later) was a couple of hard copies of his own book after production. No fees, no extra payments.

4/x

As we know not all publisher's got rich (and dressed in expensive clothes) like the imagined publisher on the copperplate print. In fact, many #earlymodern publisher's ended up bankrupt. However, every author was an investment for them: time and material. Fingers crossed.
5/5