Three Poems of the Seventeenth Century

Three Poems of the Seventeenth Century

£39.00

Three Poems of the Seventeenth Century from the Manuscript Cabinets of Chetham's Library Manchester, transcribed and with an introduction and notes by Dr Joel Swann

In the early years of the seventeenth century, when these poems were written down, print was becoming the dominant medium for the transmission of information.  Nevertheless it was still common for popular pieces to be copied by interested readers, by hand, over and over again, reaching a vast audience without ever meeting the printing press. While early printed books are digitised and celebrated, there is a whole body of Renaissance poetry which, because it has never been printed, is unknown to the modern reader.

Thus argues Dr Joel Swann, who selected  and added the notes for the three poems for this book from manuscript miscellanies written during the beginning of the seventeeth century at Chetham's Library. In his brief introduction he provides a context for these poems, telling us a bit about how and where these miscellanies originated. He also talks a bit about the three poems he chose,  'On Struggling to Write', 'To a Brother' and 'The Strongest Beasts' two of which are printed here for the first time.

The 14-page text is set in Centaur with Blado for the red shoulder notes. The titling is Russell Maret's newly designed Baker from Swamp Press & Letterfoundry.  We chose 190gsm Bockingford for the paper. The book was hand set and printed at Incline Press and was bound by hand by Roger Grech. We set out to print 120 copies, but ended with fewer than that.

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