DIRECTORY OF LONDON STATIONERS AND BOOK ARTISANS 1300-1500.|A

New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1990. cloth. 8vo. cloth. 254 pages. The history of the book trade in Medieval London before the age of print has long remained a matter of speculation. Few records survive that name the book artisans and entrepreneurs involved with this early trade venture or that document directly their methods of producing books and creating markets for them. In this directory, C. Paul Christianson assembles an extensive body of alternative data drawn from archival documents that identifies 262 participants in the London trade during a period of 200 years. This group includes stationers, manuscript artisans (called limners), textwriters, bookbinders, parchment sellers, and other London citizens active in book production and sale. This book provides a summary of information about the independent book craftsman working in London during this period. Four appendices contain indexes, and two maps, one modern and one from the sixteenth century, illustrate the historical area of the craft community around St. Paul's. Manuscripts and books cited are also listed. Designed by Abe Lerner. Distributed for the Bibliographical Society of America.