Control of information has been a battle since a stylus was first placed to clay tablet, knowledge is seen as power and a way to control people. There are large areas of human endeavor that have been lost because of purposeful behavior or carelessness. Throughout the ages, censorship is one of these acts that has shaped what we see today in our heritage of printed texts. Our topic today focuses on the censorship of books and pamphlets in seventeenth century Great Britain where texts deemed to be seditious were burned.

Charles Ripley Gillett (1898-1926) was librarian of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Through his work with the library collections and students he amassed a wealth of knowledge about the British book history. His two-volume set “Burned Books: neglected chapters in British history and literature”, catalogs hundreds of books that were condemned to be burnt at the demand of royal, parliamentary, ecclesiastical and local authorities. Gillett suggests, that, while there are many reasons for this censorship there are two circumstances where authorities resort to extreme measures to restrict the distribution of books and pamphlet.

Gillett’s first case was that when a, …civil government found its cornerstone threatened or its fundamental principles attacked, and, given the power, into the fire went either the rebel or his book. ¹ Second, Gillett noted that When an …ecclesiastical establishment found its practice or its tenants attacked in writing or in a printed book, and, lacking the convincing scriptural authority on which it claimed to be founded, it had recourse to the argument of force, and the offending book was burned. The fiery trial was quicker than the course of protracted debate, and in controversy there is always the danger of defeat. ²

Given these observations, even though Gillett gives similar weight to works that are political and theological, he tends to focus more on the political realm rather than theological examples. For some this is welcome given his statement that one has difficulty in appreciating the sense of fear and apprehension with which multitudes in England and Scotland regarded the Church of Rome. ³ He goes on to state that It was due in part to dread concerning the danger in which the reformed faith was believed to stand, and also to the apprehension as to the effects of political ascendancy guided by a foreign power, ⁴ which we take to be the Church of Rome, France and other European powers.

Gillett documents how the process played out once the decision had been made to prosecute the judgment of the authorities. Upon the confirmation of a proclamation the condemned books were gathered by the Usher of the House or by Wardens of the Stationers Company. Once they were gathered up, the books were given to the hangman of the local jurisdiction and a great fire was set. Official witnesses were assigned, and members of the crowd were often pressed into throwing the books into the fire. As a part of this ceremony the author was often present and forced to throw his books or pamphlets on the fire. Other times the author was locked in the pillory to experience his humiliation. But this was not always the end for the accused, many times the author was imprisoned or executed.

As to the effectiveness of the practice of burning books Gillett notes that the:

purpose to be achieved by burning an offending book was quite intelligible, though the procedure was far from intelligent. It was a lurid logic, but its premise was wrong and its conclusion was false. As an argument, fire has never been conclusive either in the case of a man or a book. ⁵

One interesting example, highlighted by Gillett, is the story of a pamphlet created, and published under a pseudonym, by Charles Blount (1654–1693) with the lengthily title of King William and Queen Mary, conquerors, or, A discourse endeavouring to prove that Their Majesties have on their side, against the late king, the principal reasons that make conquest a good title : shewing also how this is consistent with that declaration of Parliament, King James abdicated the government, &c. : written with an especial regard to such as have hitherto refused the oath, and yet incline to allow of the title of conquest, when consequent to a just war.. It was published in London and printed for Richard Baldwin in 1693.

Under the laws of the time the book was to be reviewed by the Licenser of the Press, a position that acted as a pre-publication censor. Edmund Bohun was a newly appoint “licenser” when he received this pamphlet for his scrutiny ⁶. Gillett suggests that this publication was a “trap for the licenser by a man who has a personal grudge to satisfy” ⁷. Using a purposeful sarcastic style, Blount argued in favor of William and Mary. Blount, was an English deist and a freethinking philosopher who was critical of the existing English order. His works were mostly credited to anonymous authors or written under a pseudonym Junius Brutus Philopatris.

Blount argued that William and Mary were, in fact, conquerors of England and the people should support them as their protectors. But it was written in a obscured manner thus it is no surprise that the pamphlet was licensed by Bohun. Nine days later there were more than 20 complaints ⁸ from the Commons and in 1695 Parliament undertook a sharp debate concerning the fate of the work and determined that it, too, should be burned by the common hangman. In the anticipated ironic twist, Bohun was fired from his new position.

Take a look at Gillett’s examination of book burning. This study will lay a foundation for an understanding of censorship in seventeenth century Britain but also pay attention to his pro Anglo-British and anti-European bias. In future posts we will explore other examples of research into censorship.

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DLWA Call Number: Z658.G7G54 1932

Worldcat: Link

• Title: Burned Books: neglected chapters in British history and literature
• Language: English
• Setting: Seventeenth Century British Censorship

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1. Charles Ripley Gillett : Burned Books: neglected chapters in British history and literature (Vol 1 4-9).
   Date – 1814
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. ibid
5. ibid
6. Charles Ripley Gillett : Burned Books: neglected chapters in British history and literature (Vol 2; pp. 549-559).
   Date – 1814
7. ibid p.550
8. ibid

–DLW

While looking at the great variety of bindings found in our stacks, I was thinking about the advent of the paperback book. In looking up the history of paperbacks I found that common knowledge would say that this style of book originated in the 1930’s with publications by Penguin Books. ¹ But, as always, if you dig a little deeper the real story is quite different. It is recognized that Dime Novels, pamphlets and other ephemera were printed with paper covers in the 19^th century. Even recognizing these publications preceded 1900, I found that the history of the paperback goes much further back. During the Late Medieval period, prior to the invention of the printing press, manuscripts were sold in an unbound form so that the purchaser could choose a binding of their own. Collections of books were often bound with the same style for a wealthy patron. This made their libraries personally distinctive. Printing and binding were separate industries. This custom was followed after the 1450’s with books made by the printing press. Sometime in the next 50 years printers covered the text block with paper to prevent the copy from being soiled by dirt and stains. While most books were bound with a hardback case binding there are examples throughout this period where books were bound with plain and decorative papers. Here are a few examples from our collection:

De Rebus Ad Historiam by Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, was published in 1781 and on the title page is found the imprint excudebat Pompejus Campana, Fulginiae. This two-volume work examines the topic of ancient church history. Both volumes can be found bound together, or individually, in vellum. It is also found in various forms of leather binding. Our library has the two volumes bound separately in a coarse, heavy paper.

Ensayo sobre la supremacía del Papa was published in Lima Peru in 1831 by José Masias for Jose Ignacio Moreno. Moreno argued for the supremacy of the Pope and the authority of Rome over all ecclesiastical affairs. This volume is bound with thick thread in a pamphlet style. It is interesting that this book came from the library of the noted Peruvian author Father Antonine Tibesar (1909-1992).

Our next example, De optima legendorum ecclesiae Patrum methodo was published in 1742 by ex typographia Regia, Augustae Taurinorum. Written by Bonaventure d’ Argonne this book provides a methodology for reading the Early Church Fathers. Here we see an intermediate type of binding with vellum on the spine and corners over a binding of decorated boards.

In the same tradition, the 1783 edition of Della Forza Della Fantasia Umana by Lodovico Antonio Muratori caries on the practice of vellum combined with printed paper. This book presents a bold theatrical representation of the celestial mechanics of imagination.

Finally, in this short survey of early bindings in our collection, is the 1830 book The romance of history: Spain printed in London and written by Joaquín Telesforo de Trueba y Cosío (1799?-1835). Here Joaquín provides a survey of the history of Spain from the Gothic Dynasty to the early 1800’s. In the same tradition of inexpensive bindings, we see a transition from paper and vellum to a low-cost cloth cover with paper titles.

Once we enter the 19^th century a wide variety of bindings are used. Popular and inexpensive coverings of paper emerge. Where the majority of pre 19^th bindings were sturdy leather and vellum the numbers of books bound with and paper prevail in the 20^th century.

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DLWA Call Number: BR143 .Z13 1781 v.1 & v.2
Worldcat: Link – Volume 1
Worldcat: Link – Volume 2

• Title: De rebus ad historiam atque antiquitates ecclesiae pertinentibus dissertationes Latinae
• Author: Francesco Antonio Zaccaria
• Language: Latin
• Setting: Ecclesiastical history

DLWA Call Number: BX1810 .M67 1831
Worldcat: Link

• Title: Ensayo sobre la supremacía del Papa especialmente con respecto a la institución de los obispos
• Author: José Ignacio Moreno
• Language: Spanish
• Setting: Ecclesiastical history

DLWA Call Number: BR 67 .A74164 1742
Worldcat: Link

• Title: De optima legendorum ecclesiae Patrum methodo in quatuor Partes tributa
• Author: Bonaventure d’ Argonne
• Language: Latin
• Setting: Ecclesiastical history

DLWA Call Number: BF408 .M8 1783
Worldcat: Link

• Title: Della forza della fantasia umana
• Author: Ludovico Antonio Muratori
• Language: Italian
• Setting: Mind and body

DLWA Call Number: PR5699.T453 .R66 1830
Worldcat: Link

• Title: The romance of history : Spain
• Author: Joaquín Telesforo de Trueba y Cosío
• Language: English
• Setting: Spanish history

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1. Smithsonian Magazine

–DLW

Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827) was a prolific English artist known for political and satirical prints. Much of his art was in the form of engravings and etching that were then printed individually or in collections. Because these prints could be inexpensively produced his art was available to the general public. Rowlandson was often censured, as much for his biting social commentary on the powerful of the day, as the bawdy caricatures of their private and public life. Rowlandson’s art is distinctive in its style and was copied by many others in the newspapers and gazettes in Europe and America.

The subject of The Dance of Death finds its origin in the Late Middle Age allegory of the Danse Macabre. Whether this genre developed because of the horrors of the Black Death, or the deprivations and unending wars of feudal Europe, it became a popular subject expressed in art, dance, and song. Some of the earliest recorded depictions of The Dance were murals painted on the walls of charnel houses of Paris in the 1420’s. While dancing was an important part of the iconography of this genre, dancing was not always portrayed in the art work. These early depictions show lines of people from Pope to Pauper being led by skeletons to their death. Death was the great leveler of the time.

The Dance appeared in the Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles), often known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, printed in 1492. Draped with shrouds the skeletons appear to be quite festive. The everyday presence of death was so prevalent that even the children’s rhyme Ring Around the Rosie has been attributed to memories of the plague. With the advent of the printing press The Dance was represented in many books, pamphlets and prints.

Hans Holbein the Younger created one of the best-known series of The Dance during the period of 1523 to 1526. Death comes in many disguises and no one escapes the skeletal hand. Sold individually and in book form his prints were extremely popular.

Now back to Thomas Rowlandson. Following in the tradition of The Dance, and echoing the morality prints of William Hogarth, Rowlandson created a series of prints collected together in the two-volume set The English Dance of Death. The English Dance of Death was originally issued in twenty-four monthly subscriptions. Published between 1814-16 the cartoons were accompanied by verses, written by the comic poet William Combe under the pen name Doctor Syntax. Again, Rowlandson presents Death as the universal marauder, stretching out his bony hand to clutch at his prey at in the most unexpected and inopportune occasion. Rowlandson shows us the vanity of human life and the futility of human pleasures and pursuits

Plutus commands. & to the Arms
of doting Age, She yields her Charms.

There is a proverb that is known
By ev’ry lively Miss in Town,
For whom Love lies in ambuscade,
— That Marriages in Heaven are made.
Thus, when the Fair, resolv’d to wed,
Receives the Captain to her bed,
Whose only fortune is his pay
Of nothing like a pound per day,
A father’s anger to assuage,
And calm an humbled Mother’s rage,
She says, in hopes to be forgiven,
The nuptial knot was tied in Heaven.
How could she help it — when her Love
Was govern’d by the powers above ;
And therefore would Papa persuade
That this same match was wisely made ;
Nay, asks the Dower he would accord,
As if her Spouse had been a Lord.
— But ’tis not Birth, nor is it gold
That does the sacred Union hold.

There is a not so subtle hint that the marriage is not for love:

But ’tis not form’d by Nature’s plan
To give such Happiness to Man :
It would be folly then to wonder
That Love and Plutus keep asunder ;
For Hymen ‘s ever at their will
Their sep’rate pleasure to fulfil ;
Though Plutus seems to take the lead
Of Love, in matrimonial deed :
Such is, at least, the gen’ral creed : —
And such Amelia’s tale will prove
Who married Wealth, nor thought of Love.

Tis not the time to meet one’s fate.
Just ent’ring on a large Estate.

What sudden changes do we see,
What wonderful Variety,
In all that passes here below.
From Grief to Joy, from Joy to Woe !
How oft do the transitions seem
The rapid movements of a dream :
But no where does the change appear
So oft within one fleeting year ;
So oft display the motley mien
As in the pantomimic scene
Which Fashion, by her magic power.
Forms to enliven every hour.

The parable ends with the following:

The Chaise was high, the Gate was low,
His Head receiv’d the fatal blow
From the rude arch ; — He loos’d the rein.
And fell, no more to rise again.
— Thus, as Joy brighten’d Sorrow’s gloom,
He sunk, untimely, to the Tomb.
But ah, those Sorrows did not wait
Upon his unexpected Fate,
Which mourn’d Lord Ronald good and
great.

‘Twere well to spare me two or three
Out of your num’rous Family

Doctor Syntax expounds on the woes of man:

Broken with toils, with arms opprest,
The Soldier thinks the Merchant blest ;
And when the threat’ning Tempests rise,
Arm me for war, the Merchant cries :
While he, who in the City lives.
Sighs for the peace the Country gives ;
The Country Folk unheard, unknown.
Think there ‘s no pleasure but in Town.

But in this tableaux Death has his eye on more, Jemmy Guest’s family:

One morn at breakfast, as He sat,
Attentive to their various chat.
Death at the door in form appear’d ;
And, as aloft his arm he rear’d,
Jemmy began to stir and stare
And ask’d the Shape his errand there.
He grinn’d a ghastly smile, and said —
To follow his old-fashioned trade.
To get a pretty little picking
Among this brood of human chicken.
Jemmy replied — I ’11 ne’er consent
To such a barbarous intent :
Touch not, I pray, a single feather.
Take none, or take us all together.
— Think not, said Death, I ’11 march away
And let my arrow lose its prey :
Why, here ‘s this brat so loudly squalling —
Leave him to me — I ’11 stop his bawling.
— Poor little dear, it scarce can walk.
And has but just begun to talk.
— Then, there’s the Babe in t’ other room,
Who will not talk for months to come.
— If from her Nursling forc’d to part,
T’would break the Angel Mother’s heart.
Indeed I cannot spare you one.
So take us all, or pray be gone.
But if you must employ your dart.
E’er from this chamber you depart.
To me and mine delay the curse,
And make your meal upon the NURSE.

Did death take them all? During this time it was a great possibility.

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DLWA Call Number: D11 S32
Worldcat: Link

• Title: Liber Chronicarum (The Nuremberg Chronicle)
• Author: Hartmann Schedel
• Language: Latin
• Setting: book history

DLWA Call Number: PR3359 .C5 E5 1815
Worldcat: Link

• Title: The English dance of death
• Author: Thomas Rowlandson and William Combe
• Language: English
• Setting: Prints, Early Modern Political Satire

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1. Pencil sketch portrait of Thomas Rowlandson by George Henry Harlow (d. 1819), currently in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
   Date – 1814
2. Klein, Augusta Julia, “Death in the City of Light : The Culture of Death in Paris from the Middle Ages through the NineteenthCentury” (2017).Senior Projects Spring 2017. 273
3. Schedel, Hartmann, and Anton Koberger. 1493. Liber chronicarum. Nürnberg: Anton Koberger.
4. Holbein, Hans, Hans Sebald Beham, François Gryphius, Joannis Bittner, Richard Copley Christie, Ignatius Gunther, Wenceslas Kail, F. Maillard, Tom Webster, and Thomas White. 1542. Biblia, insignium historiarum simulachris, cùm uenustati, tũ ueritati accomodis illustrata. Cætera sequens pagina docebit. [Paris]: Excudebat Fran. Gryphius.
5. Rowlandson, Thomas, and William Combe. 1815. The English dance of death. London: Pr. by J. Diggens.
6. ibid.
7. ibid.

–DLW