THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

Printers' and booksellers' devices not in McKerrow

Following the publication of Ronald B. McKerrow's Printers' & Publishers' Devices in England & Scotland 1485–1640 (London : Printed for the Bibliographical Society at the Chiswick Press, 1913), a few articles have been published giving further datings for the devices listed by McKerrow and recording additional devices which McKerrow had not discovered.

An electronic version of McKerrow's Devices can be consulted on the web site of the Royal Library, Copenhagen , which undertook digitisation of the book on behalf of CERL (Consortium of European Research Libraries) and the Bibliographical Society.

The individual images of the devices are also available as links in the entries for each bookseller or printer in CERL's Thesaurus of names of persons, places, owners, etc. for the history of the printed book up to c. 1830.
[Use the “Imprint names” menu to search for an individual printer or bookseller.]

The following articles offer further documentation of new datings and new devices.
Images extracted from these articles are reproduced below.

A. E. M. Kirwood, 'Richard Field, printer, 1589–1624', The Library, 4th series, XII (1931–2), 1–39; p. 26–27.
See also: Peter McCullough, 'Print, Publication, and Religious Politics in Caroline England', The Historical Journal, 51 (2008) 285–313.
W. Craig Ferguson, 'Some additions to McKerrow's Printers' and publishers' devices', The Library, 5th series, XIII, 3 (1958) 201–203.
J. A. Lavin, 'Additions to McKerrow's Devices', The Library, 5th series, XXIII, 3 (1968) 191–205
Hope Johnston, 'Catherine of Aragon's pomegranate, revisited', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, XIII, 2 (2005) 153–173; p.162 and plate 4a.
See also: David J. Shaw, '‘Not in McKerrow': an English bookseller's device used in Paris c. 1512', The Library (forthcoming).

You are invited to submit further contributions of unrecorded devices or bibliographical references to relevant publications for addition to this page.
Please send an email to Dr David Shaw.

A. E. M. Kirwood, 'Richard Field, printer, 1589–1624', The Library, 4th series, XII (1931–2), 1–39; p. 26–27.

Click on an image to see an enlargement.

(c. 52 x 55 mm.)

J. A. Lavin, 'Additions to McKerrow's Devices', The Library, 5th series, XXIII, 3 (1968) 191–205

In Lavin's article, the caption to figures 1–6 notes that they are reproduced at "Original size". Unfortunately, the text does not give the actual dimensions for these woodcuts. The sizes of the images on this page should not be relied on.

Click on an image to see an enlargement.

Hope Johnston, 'Catherine of Aragon's pomegranate, revisited', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, XIII, 2 (2005) 153–173; p.162 and plate 4a.

Click on an image to see an enlargement.

McKerrow 57
(77.5 x 53.5 mm.)
Used by J. Siberch in Cambridge in 1521 and 1522. Passed to Peter Kaetz, used in Antwerp in 1525, 1527.

McKerrow 57α
(76 x 52 mm)
An unrecorded device of Henry Jacobi found in a unique Diurnale Sarum (1512; STC 15861.7).
(Johnston, plate 4a).
It is similar to (but not the same as) Siberch's device McKerrow 57.
Reproduced by permission of Lambeth Palace Library.

Page created and maintained by David Shaw.

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Pages updated: 26 November, 2009