The Irish book trade has hitherto been viewed as a footnote to the English trade. This is the first book-length study of Irish bookselling practices, particularly those of Dublin, in their own right. The study draws on a wealth of material - daybooks, imprints, advertisements, and the books themselves - to build up a detailed picture of the fortunes and practices of Irish bookselling. The English book trade bore heavily on the Irish,
especially in the areas of legal restraints and censorship. Interestingly, there are documented instances of book-smuggling to Britain. But the study does not concentrate solely on relations with London: it
looks at the market at home, the structure and economic background to the Dublin trade, and at what books were published and for whom. In particular, it examines the significant expansion of the book trade during the eighteenth century, and surveys imports and exports for the first time.
Industry Reviews
`important study ... Her conclusion, arising from a mastery of recondite bibliographical skills and a patient examination of scattered and often unfamiliar materials, is that Dublin books could be produced more cheaply than their English counterparts ... Her study, one of the most original and stimulating to have appeared in its period, throws much light on the nature of Dublin society in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the place of
print in it.'
EHR Oct 1993
`a cause for celebration ... one of the most welcome books on the early modern book trade to appear in recent years ... Written with great economy and verve, it is brimful with original evidence ... Pollard gives many leads for further research ... her book sets the highest standards for its successors.'
Times Literary Supplement
`a significant contribution to our knowledge of the early Irish book trade'
Journal of Educational Administration and History
`a book which will be the standard work on its subject fo the foreseeable future, and, like all such works, the starting point for future research....This is an indispensable book for all who study the book trade of the British Isles; that was to be expected. But it is also of vital interest to historians of the politics and culture of Ireland during the century or more from Revolution to Union.'
John Feather, British Jnl for 18th century Studies.
'the nearest thing we have to a general history of the Irish book trade during the early modern period ... Her intimate understanding of the many and fragmentary sources, very amply listed, coupled with a scrupulous concern to make of them no less and no more than they deserve, give this work an undeniable authority ... The Lyell Lectures of 1986-7 have been turned, and quite promptly, into an important book that, as a physical object fits pleasingly into
the hand, where it intrinsically deserves often to be.'
Keith Maslen, University of Otago, Notes and Queries, June 1991
'admirable monograph ... this is an admirable book, clearly written, heavily footnoted, impeccably produced ... Dublin's Trade in Books 1550-1800 is simply required reading for anybody interested in the theme or period.'
Kevin Whelan, University College, Dublin, Irish Economic & Social History, Volume XIX, 1992
'By examining primary records, Pollard has pieced together a tremendously impressive history ... meticulously researched volume'
Sidney E. Bergr, University of California, Riverside, Libraries & Culture, Vol. 27, No. 4, Fall 1992
