John Bagford

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Bibliography

An Essay on the Invention of Printing, by Mr. John Bagford; with an Account of his Collections for the same, by Mr. Humfrey Wanley (January 1706)

An essay, towards a historical treatise, on that most universally famous, as well as useful art of typography, by John Bagford (1707)

John Bagford and His Collections, by W. Y. Fletcher, Transactions of the Bibliographical Society (1898)

https://archive.org/details/transactions04bibluoft

Bagford -- brought up as a shoemaker; believed to have written "Art of Shoemaking and Historicall Account of Clouthing of ye foot," Harley manuscripts

employed by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, Sir Hans Sloane, and John Moore, Bishop of Ely

participated in 1707 in founding of Society of Antiquaries

amassed two great collections: ballads (Bagford Ballads), and collection of title pages, fragments of books, specimens of paper, catalogues, book-plates, drawing, engravings, bindings, advertisements, and various interesting and curious pieces"

was going to write a history of printing; 1707, published "Proposals for printing an Historical Account of that most universally celebrated, as well as useful Art of Typography

this proposal is printed on a half-sheet, with a Life of William Caxton, first printer in the Abbey of Westminster and a list of his books

Bagford's Notes on Bookbinding, by Cyril Davenport (1903)

Wanley describes Bagford's collection in Philosophical Transactions; later by A. W. Pollard

1707, Bagford attempts to secure subscriptions to his history of printing (with help of Sloane and Wanley); outline of project printed in Philosophical Transactions 1706-7 and in "Proposals for printing an historical account of that most universally celebrated, as well as useful art of typography," a pamphlet to attract subscribers with life of Caxton attached

"Of booke binding ancient" (Harl. 5910 f 131 a) -- vellum rolls and waxen diptychs; boards, pasteboards, boards made of old ropes, and sewing and headbandings; chained books are condemned

"Of Booke binding modourne" - explains processes of collating, folding, beating the leaves, ruling the books with red; at beginning of Harl 5943 are 20 pgs of thick blue paper, pasted with various speciens of bindings and MS notes; Bagford's handwritten notes on pg 8-9; "some [bindings] may have been added since, but none have been taken away" (126)

Bagford and Sloane, by Margaret Nickson (1983)

Bagford's business was well underway by the 1690s

Sloane as a custome; name "Bagf[ord]" inscribed in Sloane's hand on the flyleaves of two medial manuscripts acq around 1700 (Slaone 292 and 297)

Around 1703, John Jackson (Pepys's nephew) wrote to Bagford saying he understood B had taken Sloane to see some Italian MSS in hands of a shoemaker (51)

Bagford's account book -- Harley 5998, vols. 6, 9, 11v, 16v, 79

Caxton's second edition of the Canterbury Tales (IB.55095 in BL) was acquired by Sloane from Bagford

Sloane 885, 893, and 923 were acquired by Sloane from Bagford -- all contain notes by Bagford on the history of books

Summer 1704, Sloane and Bagford went to Bunhill Fields to see "printing and card-making" -- in Sloane 4039, fol. 330, and printed in Fletcher 1898, pp. 189-90.

1707: Bagford ready to produce his Proposals for printing 6 May 1707: Wanley wrote to Sloane of Bagford's design June 1707: Bagford's essay and Wanley's letter were published in Phil. Trans., through Sloane, who was then secretary

Sloane MS 1435, "Papers of Mr Bagford relating to printing", acq about end of 1707 -- Sloane included them in a misc volume numbered MS 1317; also included is "and early draft of the 'Essay' in the form of two letters in Bagford's hand. These are neither dated nor addressed but were obviously intended for perusal by Sloane and Wanley. In addition to material used in the 'Essay' they contain a description by Bagford of the source of his 'specimens' which is of great interest, not least because it helps to refute the charge of 'biblioclasm' made against him in the last century." (Nickson 1983, p. 52) Nickson transcribes some of these notes.

Sloane 1106, formerly MS. 997, is a collection made by Bagford relating to the history of London, acq by Sloane

Sloane MS. 932, "Samples of parchment papers & writings of severall hands", now Sloane 3972B, fol. 59?

Other Sloane acq from Bagford:

MS. 975 [now A. 798]. Prints of the ancient ways of writing, specimens of old hands MS. 976 [now A. 799]. Specimens of ancient books in MS. & printed MS. 977 [now A. 200]. Collections out of books relating to printing, old printed books MS. 978 [now A. 800]. Specimens of writing on vellum, ancient books

One Bagford collection acquired by Sloane included a Gutenberge fragment

John Bagford as Collector and Disseminator of Manuscript Fragments, by Milton McC. Gatch (1985)

detailed bibliographical account of various Bagfordian collections and their locations

Two volumes: fragmenta manuscripta at Unniversity of Missour at columbia, Fragmenta varia at Cambridge; deposited around 1707 in Thomas Tenison's library with invitation to interested persons to inspect the materials; "Re-bound and re-mounted in the mid-nineteenth century, the Fragmenta manuscripta and Fragmenta varia were sold to separate buyers when the Tenison library was broken up in 1861; and both passed through the hands of several different owners before reaching their present repositories." (95)

Bagford "famous (or infamous -- depending on one's view of how he got his materials) mainly as a collector of title-pages from printed books" -- at least 544 pre-1701 items in Bagford's title page collection that aren't in STC

article is about how Bagford obtained his mss and fragments

"The fact that Bagford deposited the Fragmenta manuscripta and varia in the Tenison library as a kind of advertisement for his history of printing may suggest that, in addition to selling fragments in the usual market, he made gifts of fragment collections or sold them to potential patrons." (97)

see spreadsheets for more on mss and Bagfordiana tracked by Gatch

see Gatch also for list of subscribers to Bagford's project to complete a history of printing; account book at MS Harley 5998 helps verify information from subscribers; also includes at fol. 104 a printed blank form for subscribers to fill out

at MS Harley 5910.iii, fol 120, is "Of Several sorts of Ink not only used to write with; but Printers Ink", where Bagford "acknowledges his indebtedness as a collector to the respected bookseller Christopher Bateman --

"at all times hath given me the liberty of looking over when he hath bought any parcels, & for his time he hath had more good and valuable books pass through his hands than all the Booksellers in England. Besides he always gave me notice when he had any waste boosk to sell, & freely gave me Liberty to take out of them what I thought fit, as the blank leaves at the beginning of them, old pieces of MSS, Titles, Frontispieces, borders, Printers' devies, & by this civility hath very much added to my collection." (qtd 107)

where did he get his fragments?

"As Bagford's own account would lead one to believe, the majority of his materials came from bookbindings. Bagford's friend Humfrey Wanley had understood the potential value of the pieces from manuscripts taht were frequently used in the bindings of books 'in former ages'; and, like Wanley, Bagford (who preserved a copy of Wanley's paper on the subject in one of his albums) saw nothing wrong with dismembering bindings to retrieve the leaves and strips of manuscript preserved therein. At least seven cases can be documented in which fragmenta from Bagford's collection come from the same manuscripts as fragmenta in other collections. In four of these instances, the non-Bagford fragmenta elsewhere cannot at present be connected with Bagford, and it is unlikely suhc a conneciton will be discovered." (108)

outlines other fragments that are connected to other fragments

"Making allowance for the standards of his time, one must probably conclude that John Bagford's own account of his acquisition of his collection is correct and that, with regard to manuscripts at least, he can be credited with having preserved fragments and leaves that would otherwise almost certainly have been lost. Most of his manuscript fragmenta came from bindings, and they derived from volumes that ahd been cut up in the sixteenth century. A few others came from codices that were almost certainly pillaged -- usually for their decorative pages -- before Bagford came into contact with them. The cases in which his activitie are most questionable concern leaves from already-damaged or partially incomplete mss, which Bagfrod may have removed before selling the manuscripts theemselves to two of his most distinguisehd patrons, Bishop Moore and Samuel Pepys. It is difficult to imagine, in view of the apparently high esteem in which those two patrons held him, however, that Bagford would have damaged books he was selling to Moore and Pepys in ways that would also have damaged his relationship with people on whom his livelihood depended." (114)

John Bagford, Bookseller and Antiquary, by Milton McC. Gatch (1986)

19c saw Bagford as a biblioclast, "yet balanced scholarship in the present century has found Bagford to be a credible dealer and collector, despite his manifest shortcomings" (150)

despite Dibdin's believe the Wanley must have edited Bagford's proposal for a history of printing, surviving evidence shows that "Bagford was very much in control of the composition and development of this descriptive advertisement for and sample of the history of printing" (161)

Gatch identifies mss of "Proposal"

"Despite all this evidence, it is difficult for a modern scholar to believe that Bagford could ever have produced a satisfactory history of the very difficult subject of the technology and bibliography of printing. Yet it is necessary to respect the opinion of contemporaries of the magnitude of Hearne, Sloane, and Wanley that the collection was an important one and that Bagford himself, despite his manifest limitations, was an impressive and learned figure." (161)

seems strange today to have title-pages as primary source for Bagford's research; but "it should be recalled that B's title-page collection contained some 3,600 items printed in English alone. Of these some 800 items -- 544 of them printed before 1701 -- are not recorded in the short-title catalogues" (164)

autograph memorandum from Bagford on history of printed editions of Chaucer's works; helped stimulate Urry's edition of 1721

Manuscripts Supplied to Robert Harley by Bagford: Further Information from BL, Harl. MS. 5998, by Colin Tite (2012)

Most of volumes that Harley received from Bagford are listed in Wright, Fontes Harleiani; but Harley MS 5998 include considerable list of books transferred or to be transferred to Harley, Wanley, etc.

Tite transcribes list of books meant to go to Harley, identifies a few -- but many are probably not identifiable

The Bagford Chapel Rules: A Set of English Printing House Regulations ca. 1686-1707, by Alan Boehm (2008)

generally thought that only 3 sets of English printing house regulations - "chapel rules" - have come down to us from period before 1800: from the Bowyer firm, written in a ledge book in late 1750s by William Bowyer; from Samuel Richardson's printing house, preserved in a broadsheet bearing date of 30 August 1734; and in Joseph Moxon's Mechanick Exercises -- se Boehm n1 for where to find these rules

4th "and practically unknown set of chapel rules from the period" preserved in Bagford title page collection, Harley 5915, f. 112; marked item 217 in the volume

On Antiquaries

  • Antiquaries, book collectors, and the circles of learning, edited by Robin Myers and Michael Harris (1996)
  • Antiquaries : the discovery of the past in eighteenth-century Britain, by Rosemary Sweet (2004)
  • Making history : antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007 (2007)
  • The trophies of time: English antiquarians of the seventeenth century, Graham Parry (2007)
  • Antiquaries & archaists : the past in the past, the past in the present, edited by Megan Aldrich and Robert J. Wallis (2009)
  • The Antiquary: John Aubrey's historical scholarship (2016)
  • Papers of British antiquaries and historians

on British historiography of the tiem:

  • Noelle Gallagher, Historical literatures: writing about the past in England, 1660-1740
  • The Social circulation of the past: English historical culture, 1500-1730, by D. R. Woolf (2003)
  • D. R. Woolf, Reading history in early modern England (2000)
  • The historical imagination in early modern Britain: history, rhetoric, and fiction, 1500-1800, ed. Donald Kelley, David Harris Sacks (1997)

Copyright and histories of printing

see Johns 1998 chapter 5; points out that there was a need to tell the history of printing because of its relationship to powers of Stationers' Company and copyright law; was printing always common, or was it owned by the King? brought to England by Caxton independently, or as part of crown-funded expedition to steal it from Continental printers? competing stories of the history of printing as a technology would be used to adjudicate who had the right to print, who had the right to copy

Bagford's proposal is mentioned briefly in Johns but not examined in full

"Book trade conflicts conditioned the making and content of histories of printing; and historical knowledge in turn conditioned the outcome of book trade conflicts." (Johns 1998 372)

Other histories of printing at the time

<< also look at Royal Society, Cl.P. 17/45, Proof sheet from an Arabic book on the art of printing amongst the Turks: https://collections.royalsociety.org/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Browse2.tcl&dsqItem=Cl.P/17/45&dsqKey=RefNo

https://collections.royalsociety.org/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Browse2.tcl&dsqItem=Cl.P/17/45&dsqKey=RefNo

Richard Smyth, "Of the first Invention of the Art of Printing", BL Ms. Sloane 772

Michael Bull, friend and customer

See Last Will and Testament in folder, dated 1763; bequeathed to his cousen Elizabeth Dyer "her Choice of a few Books out of my study":


"This Will was proved at London the Day of September in the year of our Lord One thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty three before the Worshipful George ... of Laws Surrogate of the Right Worshipful Sir Edward Simpson Knight also --- of Laws Master Keeper or Commissary of the --- Court of Canterbury lawfully --- by the Oath of James i Bovingdon the son of the

I Michael Bull Minister of Brasted in the County of kent most Humbly Commanding my Soul -- Christ Jesus into the Hands of Almighty God who Gave it Do by this my last -- Will and Testament Dispose of my Worldly Goods in fforward manner following Imprimis I Give five pounds in Money to the most Deserving Poor of the Parish aforesaid at the Discretion of my Executor I leaue and bequeath to my Cousen George harris the Elder Ten pounds in Money and all what Is contained in the upper Draw of the lower part of my --- Standing in my Bed Chamber I leave and bequeath to my Cousin Elizabeth Dyer her Choice of a few Books out of my Study I Give to my Servant Elizabeth Lookudson five pounds in Money To Joseph Crosslaus the Elder Two Guineas the remainder of my Goods and Chattels Moneys Debts and whatsoever I shall die possessed of I leave and Bequeath to my Cosen Thomas Harris the Elder whom I Appoint Solo Executor of this my last will and testament Trusting that he will most faithfully [---] it, It is for Want of present ability that i do not have more Legacys To others whom i wish well to. I desire that my ffunerall May be as private and as little expensive as [...]"


Elizabeth Dyer is mentioned as having a monument in Throwley Church; died in Belmont, near Brasted, 14 November 1814, age 80; monument erected by her cousin Lord Harris (a Harris is also mentioned in Bull's will): https://archive.org/stream/epitomeofcountyh01greeuoft#page/n471/mode/2up/search/elizabeth+dyer

if E Dyer is the same related to Michael Bull, she would have been about 30 when he gave her his books

see her will in the folder

Christopher Bateman, printer

Seems to have a close relationship with Bateman; see Gatch 1985, Nickson 1983 p. 52

In Dictionary of Printers and Printing, Bateman says he has suffered much from people taking leaves out of the books in his shop: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3O8DAAAAQAAJ&lpg=PA596&ots=5vf9-ycHqt&dq=christopher%20bateman%20bookseller&pg=PA596#v=onepage&q&f=false

Adriaan Beverland, pornographer

Adrian Beverland seems to have feuded with Bagford, as well as Michael Bull and the publisher Pierce Tempest, who produced Cryes of the City of London; see bio here, and "Discovery of Three Imposters": http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=73751

Mentioned in the Biographical History of England (1775): https://archive.org/stream/biographicalhist04gran/#page/96/mode/2up/search/hadrian

Feminization of collecting

Bagford's Essay on the invention of printing was satirized by King as "An Essay on the Invention of Samplers; communicated by Mrs. Judith Bagford: with an Account of her Collections of the Same." Oddly, if you search ECCO for "Bagford," this comes up, but as a page or leaf tacked to the end of Mary Chudleigh's "Ladies defence," a feminist poem! Why? Would have to consult the original at the BL. Prob just microfilm fluke.

Johns 1998 cites this -- see 352n78

Tracking fragments: possible case studies

Fragment 177 in Fragmenta manuscripta at University of Missouri comes from Pepys 2030, which also has note at beginning from Bagford about the book; this same ms also has initials cut out and sewn back in: http://vm133.lib.berkeley.edu:8080/xtf22/search?rmode=digscript;smode=basic;text=bagford;docsPerPage=1;fullview=yes;startDoc=178

Sources

Ralph Thoresby's diary, mentions buying materials from Bagford: http://drc.usask.ca/projects/ark/published/ThoresbyDiary2.pdf

Pepys's diary, editor's intro

Letters of Humfrey Wanley 1672-1726 (Oxford, 1989) [some additional typescript letters that didn't make it into the book are at the Bodley: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/online.htm#1500-1900

Bagford prints removed to British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=133642

McKenzie, Cambridge printing house

C. E. Wright's papers at BL also contain some transcripts and notes on correspondence between Wanley and Bagford: http://searcharchives.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=IAMS040-001964492&indx=29&recIds=IAMS040-001964492&recIdxs=8&elementId=8&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&dscnt=0&fctN=facet_rtype&rfnGrp=1&frbg=&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BL%29&fctV=archives&tab=local&dstmp=1499100722749&srt=rank&mode=Basic&dum=true&rfnGrpCounter=1&vl(freeText0)=bagford&vid=IAMS_VU2

manuscripts

Lambeth Palace LIbrary MS 1742, misc. papers, includes Bagford's Proposals for printing an historical account of typography: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/1154b8d4-7183-42e7-bbb0-1d0ceea7e04c

Cambridge UL, Dd X 56-57, MS History of Typography and account of first English impressions of the Bible: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13645175

Bodleian, MS Rawl D 375, papers relating to the history of printing: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13967649