Jeroen Salman

Introduction: The Distribution and Dissemination of Popular Print

This collection explores the surprising ways by which cheap print moved across Europe, focussing on Italy, the Netherlands and Britain. Looking at pedlars, commerce and communication, it presents a model of textual dissemination and the material and economic premises of European landscapes of print.

Pedlars and the Popular Press

This book studies the itinerant book trade in an English and Dutch, urban context, leading to a new perspective on the role of the pedlars as an intermediary between the established booksellers and an extensive, socially diverse reading public.

The Battle of Medical Books: Publishing Strategies and the Medical Market in the Dutch Republic (1650–1750)

This chapter explores the spatial and temporal aspects of medical publishing strategies in the Dutch Republic in the period 1650–1759. Taking the relation between publication strategies, location and medical knowledge as a starting point, it studies the interaction between cheap, locally oriented print and more durable, widely circulating books, between established and itinerant practitioners and between the local and regional trade in medical publications. The chapter shows how practitioners and publishers, using ephemeral material such as newspaper advertisements and promotional material, created new geographical, commercial and social spaces, for example the ways in which public spaces such as bookshops, squares and coffee houses connected patients, doctors and booksellers on the one hand, and therapies, medicines and medical publications on the other. It also shows how printed material with more durability or broader geographical diffusion was employed to solidify professional reputations.

Books and Book History in Motion: Materiality, Sociality and Spatiality

The introduction advocates a dynamic and interconnected approach to the life cycle of books in early modern Europe. By enriching the existing ‘Darnton model’, the authors contribute to debate on the theoretical and methodological foundations of the history of the book. The editors argue for study of the interplay between three distinct dimensions of early modern book culture: the actions and motives of its participants (sociality); the nature of used and produced spaces (spatiality); and the physical characteristics of printed matter and the infrastructure of the print industry (materiality). In this way, it is suggested, a more dynamic understanding of the early modern book world will emerge. The authors assess the theoretical and methodological value of the concepts of materiality, sociality and spatiality for current book historical research.

Index of Names, Places and Major Topics

This index presents a list of names, places and major topics discussed in this book Pedlars and the Popular Press: Itinerant Distribution Networks in England and the Netherlands 1600-1850. The book is about the pedlar in the Dutch distribution network, and describes the range and characteristics of the itinerant book trade in the Netherlands. It discusses the interplay between the itinerant book trade and the popular press in both the Netherlands and England.Keywords: Dutch distribution network; England; itinerant book trade

Not Dead Things

This collection explores the surprising ways by which cheap print moved across Europe, focussing on Italy, the Netherlands and Britain. Looking at pedlars, commerce and communication, it presents a model of textual dissemination and the material and economic premises of European landscapes of print.

The Pedlar in the English Distribution Network

This chapter analyses the scale and structure of the English itinerant distribution network. Although London, as the chief centre of book production in England receives much attention, the chapter gives extensive consideration to provincial networks, focuses on the city of Exeter, in Devon, as a case study. It highlights the different types of itinerant booksellers in order to gain insight into their roles, functions and specialisations within the English distribution system. The author compares the figures for licensed pedlars in general with the more specific data of the British Book Trade Index (BBTI) to determine the number of pedlars with printed wares in seventeenth-century London. According to the Licensing Act, about one fifth of all licensed pedlars and hawkers from June 1697 until June 1698 gave London as their place of residence, although this group was composed of pedlars and hawkers selling all kinds of wares outside London.Keywords: booksellers; British Book Trade Index (BBTI); English itinerant distribution network; hawkers; Licensing Act; London; pedlars; printed wares

The Pedlar in the Dutch Distribution Network

This chapter addresses the character and extent of the itinerant book trade in the Netherlands. It assesses both the economic impact of this trade in the period 1600 to 1850, when it functioned alongside the extensive official book trade in the highly urbanised Dutch context, and the role of the pedlar as a link in the distribution network. In the Netherlands there were few commercial and administrative obstacles to itinerant trade. Amsterdam played a crucial role within the Dutch book trade in terms of both production and consumption. Demand in Amsterdam was vital for the economic welfare of the book industry. Jews had a share in the itinerant book trade in Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general, but were not dominant. During the period 1730 to 1850, at least 65 pedlars with printed wares were active in Utrecht.Keywords: Amsterdam; book industry; itinerant book trade; Netherlands; pedlars; printed wares; Utrecht

Grub Street in Amsterdam? Jacobus (I) van Egmont, the Devil’s Corner and the Literary Underground in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract This article explores the possibilities of using the concept of Grub Street for the literary underground in eighteenth-century Amsterdam. The metaphorical meaning and physical appearance of Grub Street in London will be compared with the Amsterdam ‘Duivelshoek’, an area around the Botermarkt, currently known as the Rembrandtplein. A typical ‘Grub Street’ publisher and bookseller in this Devil’s Corner is Jacobus (I) van Egmont, who successfully combined the market for popular printing and political news. His network of authors and translators shows how difficult it is to make a clear distinction between real hack writers and respected playwrights or poets. The concept of ‘Grub Street’ helps us to understand the complexity of the Dutch literary underground of the first half of the eighteenth century.

The comptoir-almanacs of Gillis Joosten Saeghman

In research into the history of the Dutch book, the study of the internationally oriented book trade has received more than its share of attention by comparison with the domestic book trade. In the seventeenth century, almanacs formed an important category of Dutch printing. Research into almanacs can therefore give insight into the operation of the domestic book trade. Beyond this, we believe that the almanac as an historical source can - if placed in its social context - enrich our general picture of seventeenth-century society. Using the comptoir-almanacs of the Amsterdam publisher Gillis Joosten Saeghman as an example, this article shows how such research into almanacs in the Republic could be carried out.