Book Trade Probate

A searchable database of probate material from and about members of the early modern English book trade. Launch date TBA. Tweets by @bre_weber

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

If you're interested in

- early modern England
- the early English book trade
- social networks & histories
- gender & print culture
- labor history
- material culture
- early modern literature (esp. drama!)
- economic history
- &c.

then you'll want to give us a follow!

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

It's rare to find a #will that was written in its #testator's own hand, but Bartholomew Downes's (1637) is! He didn't want us crying over spilled #ink, so he left a #note: "the blot that is aboue I did it my selfe bee fore I sealled this my last will Bartholomew Downes"

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

There are some material similarities in how wills were stored; even paper wills have vellum tags at times, and memoranda might be slipped between the folded pages. Other times, they used a pin to attach codicils and memoranda, like this! #MaterialCulture #BookHistory #Probate

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

@letterlocking Thanks for sharing!😁

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

My (@bre_weber's) current personal favorite: Thomas Nichols' (1641) skull & crossbones! (If anyone knows or can make out the motto around the outside I'm all ears, it looks like "tempus" and "venit" at least...).

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

Wax Seals: A Thread 🧵

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

George Cole's (1678) has a really clear coat of arms:

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

Inventories take a lot of forms: some are on pieces of folded #vellum, but the majority have been vellum rolls. They're often one roll about an inch in diameter, but Luke Meredith's 1700 #inventory is gargantuan in comparison! #twitterstorians #archives #bookhistory #archives

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

@onslies It was exciting to see! I’m hoping we see lots more of this! & love the alliterative hashtag 😎

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

Inventories tell us what a #stationer owned when they died & give us a sense of what their homes looked like. Maurice Atkins's 1688 #inventory details lots of items in his "coffee roome," including "copper potts," a #coffee iron & "some tin things" #twitterstorians #bookhistory

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

Hercules Francois's 1604 #will explains that while he's living in the city of #London at the time of writing, he was born in #Holland. This unusual comment at the top of the original will notes that it's *actually* a #translation "owte of frenche"! #bookhistory #earlymodern

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

Next week we’ll get back to sharing some of our great finds so stay tuned, turn on your notifications, etc. etc. so you don’t miss them!

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

Hi all! BTP is back on Twitter after a short hiatus, but it has definitely NOT been a hiatus from the project: in fact, we've been pretty busy in London over the past few weeks gathering hundreds more stationers' wills, inventories, administrations, & more for the database!

[Book Trade Probate @BookProbate]

In case you're curious what this process looks like, it requires a LOT of lists and spreadsheets, microfilm, crumbly document sorting, stacks and stacks of book weights, patience, and no problem at all with grit because it leaves your hands looking like this: