Anthony a WoodによるAthenae Oxonienses初版と17世紀イギリスの予約出版

概要

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Anthony a Wood's Athenae Oxonienses is an indispensable piece of work for 17^<th> century studies. It was published through subscription in 1691-1692. The subscription publication is a publishing method developed in seventeenth-century England, and it enabled the authors and publishers to publish more specialized, expensive, academic books. This study discusses how the proposals for printing Athenae were announced, who subscribed to it and for what reasons a list of the subscribers was revealed in the book. The proposals were made by the London stationer Thomas Bennet several times, both in a printed prospectus and in the Term Catalogues, and there we can see from his advertisements when the book was meant to be published, how people could subscribe to it, how much the book cost and how they should pay, etc. Eventually in the very book a catalogue of the subscribers was inserted. The list shows the names and often the titles of over 300 people. Basically the names appear in alphabetical order, but those who bought a larger copy would come first, with an explicit dagger mark. Taken as a sort of paratext, the list would involve some special meanings. It could be regarded as the publisher's business tactics to attract more subscribers, as the subscribers' prestige, and as a sign of the writer's gratitude to the subscribers or even to the stationer who helped to publish the book itself.