Exeter Working Papers in Book History. Guide to contents

Exeter Working Papers in Book History

This extensive collection of historical, biographical and bibliographical information on the book trades has been built up since the 1970s. Until 1996 publication was solely in print format with much material from talks and lectures remaining in manuscript. From 1987 texts of publications have been prepared digitally and in 2001 these were mounted on Devon Library Services local studies website from which they were removed in 2008. In 2006 a blogger account was opened and coverage began to be more international in scope. In 2013 the linked Devon bibliography website was started after the withdrawal of specialist staff and funding from the Westcountry Studies Library and also the Etched on Devon's Memory website in 2017 when the Devon County Council local studies website was closed at short notice. The aim was always to make this data accessible as work progressed and now the resources amassed over half a century are being made freely available to the Exeter UNESCO city of literature project. They are all on the open web and available as HTML text files to be downloaded and used by city of literature projects without restriction. The following notes give an indication of coverage with some highlights and lowlights.

Ian Maxted

September 2020 

The Exeter working papers in book history website has extensive biographical details on book trade personnel for all of Britain, particularly for the later 18th century, but is especially strong for Devon and Exeter. The Devon biographical dictionary covers book trade personnel from 1500 to the present day, as the extract for Exeter, letter A indicates. Books printed or published in Exeter are listed in the books with Devon imprints and this has been extended beyond the initial cut-off date of 1800, as this entry for the educational publishing firm of Wheaton shows. There are several special listings, for example of election ephemera from 1760 to 1900 with many illustrations. Many of these items are uncatalogued in library collections. Broadside ballads are also well covered. The listing of ballads with Devon content may not itself have illustrations but it links to a website that does and where it is also possible to hear performances of the ballads. Linked to ballad collecting is the Exeter born polymath and pioneering folk song collector Sabine Baring-Gould whose extensive library, split between Lewtrenchard Manor, Exeter University Library, the Devon Heritage Centre, and Plymouth, has been provided with a union catalogue. International coverage started with Project 1781 an attempt to chart the book trades across Europe on the eve of the French Revolution through the early directory of Antoine Perrin. There is also extensive material on Lower Normandy and Weimar. The most recent international addition is the World Book Heritage initiative, which aims to bring together a wide range of data on the heritage of the book into a coherent form. Much of this is still in manuscript and assistance might be required to make it generally available, but the framework is here. There are two parallel strands, one covering Devon and the other the wider world. Its point of departure is the From script to print to hypertext exhibition, originally mounted in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in 1999 to bring together highlights from ten libraries, museums and archives in Exeter in celebration of two millennia of Devon's written heritage. And there is also an anti-book index to reflect the dark side of access to knowledge. 

The Devon Bibliography was revived in 2015 following the withdrawal of resources from the Westcountry Studies Library and it now has more than 100,000 records. The main listing is a chronological listing of more than 50,000 printed documents from 2020, which shows ideas for coping with documenting Covid-19, back to 1505 and the first printed publications linked to Devon. An occasional newsletter gives updates on current activity. Among special listings are a bibliography of Devon newspapers, originally prepared for the British Library and listings of periodical articles arranged by place. The example shown is for Exeter. There is also a listing of around 20,000 maps of Devon. The digital dimension is provided by a digital archive, which requires much more work. Also accessible are links to more than 5,000 web pages recently recovered from the Devon local studies website, 1999-2005. Other resources include an index of Exonian biography.

One major resource to which easy access was lost when the old local studies web page was closed was the lottery funded Etched on Devon's Memory project. These listings with images of some 4,000 topographical prints of Devon between 1660 and 1870 and associated text are now being reconstructed in an open-source format. I am currently conducting research on this in collaboration with a scholar in Germany.

Finally some listings of special collections in the Westcountry Studies Library and Exeter Central Library which may not be represented in the main library catalogues:

Special collections in Westcountry Studies Library. 
Handlists prepared before 2005 with some revision since.

Brooking Rowe bookplate collection.
Monumental brasses - nationwide coverage.
Playbills - especially for the 18th century.
Literary manuscripts.

Non-Devon heritage collections in Exeter Central Library.

Early children's books including the annotated catalogue by Marjorie Moon. .
Heber Mardon collection of Napoleana.
Early printed books 1480-1800.
Pocknell collection on shorthand.

Some locally published resources in which I have been involved:

From script to print to hypertext : two millennia of Devon's written heritage. - Exeter: Devon County Council, 1999. Published catalogue of the Exhibition at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. 

Boney : or, Napoleon through English eyes. - Exeter : Devon Library Services, 1985. Catalogue of the exhibition at the Bibliothèèque municipale de Caen, later travelling in the Westcountry. A catalogue in French was also prepared. 

The Exeter garland : facsimiles of early items in Devon libraries. - Exeter : Devon Library Services, 1991. Chiefly 18th century. 

Devon's testimony of war : personal reminiscences of the second world war. - Exeter : Devon Books, 1995. 

Abbots Bickington to Zeal Monachorum : a handlist of Devon parish histories compiled on the occasion of the centenary of parish councils. - Exeter : Devon County Council Libraries, 1994. - 

Devon bibliography 1985-2004. - Exeter : Devon Library and Information Services, 1986-2005. Annual, later issues only on the internet.  

In pursuit of Devon's history : a guide for local historians in Devon. - Exeter : Devon Books, 1997. In need of updating. 

Copies are available in the Westcountry Studies Library, Devon and Exeter Institution Library, University of Exeter Library and Exeter Central Library. 

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The page last updated 16 September 2020.