Location and Genre

Introduction

Data Collection

All data referenced and utilized for this research are in the ProQuest Early English Books Online (EEBO) data archive which denotes genres and types of literature with both an EEBO-assigned “Subject” and also a “USTC subject classification” in which USTC refers to the Universal Short Title Catalog, another database containing early modern print works whose subject classification system is now widely used amongst other databases¹.

We were provided a list of relevant authors in London during the early modern period, and to collect our data, we searched the author’s name (in EEBO) and set the date range such that it only included the time the author was alive since we wanted to highlight participatory social connections and, hopefully, not impersonal connections solely founded on the literature. We then recorded the title of each work, the publisher, and any indicative information about where the work was sold. Because details about where items were being sold were often very specific (i.e., providing a specific sign name under which the print shop would be located), we had to develop a system to generalize these specific locations into larger geographic areas while also maintaining the distinctions between similar locations versus distinctive streets or neighborhoods. We used the Agas Map of Early Modern London² which allowed us to see, visually, what areas of the city were close to one another.

After identifying the location of each work, we had to sort the data based on genre or subject. In sorting our data, we chose some classifications from both EEBO and USTC. The USTC subject classifications were generally more broad than the EEBO subjects, but we did choose to include some groupings based on EEBO subjects since it allowed us to generalize larger classifications of the same type of work (such as “Plays”) as opposed to using specific genres of plays (“Dramas”, “Tragedies”, “Comedies”, etc.). Thus we were able to ensure that the works classified by EEBO as “Dramas”, “Tragedies”, “Comedies”, and more were not considered “Plays” which is important to denote during the early modern period in London considering plays had much different social implications than other forms of literature [REFERENCE OTHER SECTION].

Alternatively, we also opted to use the EEBO subjects to refine our groupings in some cases. For example, the USTC classifications generalized many pieces as “Drama” whereas the EEBO subject was a bit more telling and often specified the type of genre (for our work we only found/used works categorized as “Tragedies”, “Comedies”, “Masques”, and “Satires”). Our other classifications (“History and Chronicles”, “Literature”, “Newsbooks”, “Poems”, and “Religious”) are all derived from USTC subject classifications.

We have included the list of relevant authors, our system for generalizing locations, and tables of all the data we initially collected in the Appendix at the bottom of the page.

Data Visualization

Upon sorting the works into locations and subjects, it was necessary to compile the data in a meaningful, readable way that maintained relativity to the driving questions. We decided to use the software Gephi³ to construct social networks linking different individuals by selling locations of the works they wrote or published. This required the creation of nodes and edges CSV files by hand. [EXPLAIN].

It was determined that a network for a given genre would not be created if the genre contained less than two network connections across two different locations thus there were several discounted from the final presentation here due to the fact that they either (i) only contained connections within one location or (ii) there were less than two connections for each given location. The following genres were excluded from both the author and publisher networks for the reasons provided above: “Poems”, “Masques”, “Satires”, “Religious”, “Literature”, and “Newsbooks”.

Social Networks

Author_Location_Networks

Publisher_Location_Networks

Discussion of Findings and Contextualization

History and Chronicles

In investigating the social networks for the USTC subject classification “History and Chronicles” we find four general areas of interest. Of course, the most populous location for both authors and publishers is St. Paul’s, but there are also interesting connections for Cornhill, St. Dunstans, and St. Mildred’s.

We first investigated the connections for Cornhill starting with publisher Peter Cole. Cole is documented as being a printer and publisher who both apprenticed and worked in Cornhill. Cole started his career as an apprentice to John Bellamy, the shop operator at Three Golden Lions in Cornhill who also previously served as an officer for the Parliamentary Army during the English Civil War in which he is noted for having a vigor for the political aspirations of the London Common Council. Cole took his mentor’s political affinity in stride and is cited as being “an active participant in the City’s political life” (CITE). He was known for publishing and selling pamphlets, petitions, and books for the Independents (CITE), and through such a strong connection with the Independents, he made himself “one of the most resourceful and opportunistic, as well as political, publishers in London” (CITE).

Upon looking closer at our data, it can be observed that Cole was the publisher of the works linking two out of three authors, John Eliot and William Cavendish, to Cornhill. These connections are particularly interesting considering each individual represents a different perspective on the Civil War. As previously mentioned, Cole worked closely with Independents, but Eliot was a Parliamentarian who actually worked in Parliament whereas Cavendish was a Royalist commander during the war (2 CITE). This seems contradictory at first considering Eliot and Cavendish were on two opposite sides of the war, neither of which Cole was known for working with, but considering the publish dates of the two works and the political climate at the time, this choice begins to make a bit more sense. Cole published Cavendish’s work first in 1643. At this time during the war, the Royalists, Cavendish’s party, were on a winning streak with alliances with the Irish and Catholics (CITE), so it would make sense that Cole wanted to or perhaps felt more comfortable publishing a Royalist commander’s material at this time. Cole then published Eliot’s work 10 years later in 1653. The bulk of the war was over with the Parliamentarians having rendered the Royalist cause effectively obsolete (CITE), so, again, it would make sense for Cole to publish a Parliamentarian’s work under the given political climate. Despite the political affiliations of his collaborators, it is said, “For Cole…profit was more important than their [collaborators’] political beliefs.” (CITE)

Considering the other two publishers linked to Cornhill, William Barley and W. Ferebrand, there was not much readily available information on either of them. This is not particularly surprising considering both men are only credited as publishers of “History and Chronicles” works because of their collaborations with Thomas Dekker who was quite the prolific author in general. It could be possible that these men did not usually publish “History and Chronicles” works and were just known collaborators of Dekker’s that he enlisted for these specific works.

Now we turn our attention to one of the other locations of interest, St. Dunstans. At first glance, there is an interesting disparity between the publisher and author networks in regard to St. Dunstans. There is an interesting closed loop amongst four publishers who are linked to St. Dunstans whereas none of the authors are connected to one another via the shared common location of St. Dunstans. Looking at our data, we see that all four of the publishers are connected through Thomas Dekker and he is the only author of works categorized as “History and Chronicles” who worked in St. Dunstans. It is difficult to make a statement on the relevance of St. Dunstan in the genre of “History and Chronicles” considering it was a popular churchyard for bookselling in which Dekker was known for doing business. This collection of connections to St. Dunstans could simply be a byproduct of Dekker’s and St. Dunstans’ popularity without meaning much about the church’s significance in the production and consumption of works categorized as “History and Chronicles”.

In both the author and publisher networks, there is one connection between two men linked to St. Mildred’s. This connection highlights the same two works, author Robert Greene worked with publisher C. Burby and author Thomas Dekker worked with publisher Thomas Archer. Greene and Dekker were very prolific authors at the time, so it is possible Archer and Burby represent the majority of publishers known for working within the genre of “History and Chronicles” implying this was a relatively unpopular genre in the broader vicinity of St. Mildred’s. Looking closer into these relationships, we find that Archer was an apprentice to Burby who was made free in 1603. Burby was a well established bookseller and publisher with a shop connected to St. Mildred’s, and he was known for working with Robert Greene (CITE). Archer worked under Burby presumably in St. Mildred’s, but later opened his own shop in Pope’s Head Alley/Palace (CITE). Considering the work attribute to Dekker and Archer was published in 1604, it is possible Archer had not fully left Burby or St. Mildred’s hence why the work is still associated with a print shop in St. Mildred’s and not Archer’s later residence in Pope’s Head. Additionally, Burby’s collaborator Robert Greene was a known partner of Thomas Dekker, so it is possible that the work between Burby and Greene paved the way for Dekker and Archer’s collaboration. This suggests a strong level of interpersonal connectedness which made way for the creation of “History and Chronicles” in St. Mildred’s that might not have otherwise existed without the connections between Dekker and Greene, Greene and Burby, and Burby and Archer.

References

1. Pettegree, A., & Kemp, G. (2017). The Universal Short Title Catalogue. Creating and Exploiting a Major Bibliographical Resource. La Bibliofilía, 119(1), 159–172. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26407984
2. Janelle Jenstad (Ed.). (2021). Civitas Londinum, 1561? The Map of Early Modern London [Interactive edition of the Agas Map]. Retrieved from http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/map.htm.
3. Bastian M., Heymann S., Jacomy M. (2009). Gephi: an open source software for exploring and manipulating networks. International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media.

Appendix

List of authors:

AuthorList

Standardized Locations:

StandardizedLocations

Data:

Contributors: Ava Bailey, Amy Chou

Written by: Ava Bailey