A Quantitative Study of History in the English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC), 1470-1800

Abstract

This article analyses publication trends in the field of history in early modern Britain and North America in 1470-1800, based on English ShortTitle Catalogue (ESTC) data.2 Its major contribution is to demonstrate the potential of digitized library catalogues as an essential scholastic tool and part of reproducible research. We also introduce a novel way of quantitatively analysing a particular trend in book production, namely the publishing of works in the field of history. The study is also our first experimental analysis of paper consumption in early modern book production, and demonstrates in practice the importance of open-science principles for library and information science. Three main research questions are addressed: 1) who wrote history; 2) where history was published; and 3) how publishing changed over time in early modern Britain and North America. In terms A Quantitative Study of History in the English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC), 1470-1800 88Liber Quarterly Volume 25 Issue 2 2015 of our main findings we demonstrate that the average book size of history publications decreased over time, and that the octavo-sized book was the rising star in the eighteenth century, which is a true indication of expanding audiences. The article also compares different aspects of the most popular writers on history, such as Edmund Burke and David Hume. Although focusing on history, these findings may reflect more widespread publishing trends in the early modern era. We show how some of the key questions in this field can be addressed through the quantitative analysis of large-scale bibliographic data collections.

A Quantitative Approach to Book-Printing in Sweden and Finland, 1640–1828

“…A similar trend is also evident in the English Short-Title Catalogue (Lahti, Ilom€ aki, and Tolonen 2015), but further investigation is needed to show the extent to which the octavo book spread throughout Europe. It is indicative of a change in reading and publishing habits that coincided with the expansion of reading material, the rise of a literary culture, the further professionalization of publishing, the emergence of leisure reading, and the introduction of a market driven printing press (Forselles-Riska and Laine 2011).…”

“…Nevertheless, library catalogs have seldom been deployed as digitized resources for studying questions stemming from historical research. In a recent study, Lahti, Ilom€ aki and Tolonen (2015) used the English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC) to trace publishing trends in the English-speaking world, whereas Myrdal and S€ oderberg (2012) analyzed secularization and the rise of economic interest in Sweden and Britain based on the catalog of the National Library of Sweden and the ESTC. Although Myrdal and S€ oderberg's study is innovative in the use of large-scale quantitative data in library catalogs to analyze major trends in modernity, their use of the catalog is limited to regular searches relying on keywords, which considerably limits the level of detail that can be achieved in the analysis.…”

Bibliographic Data Science – Konceptualizacja Obszaru Badawczego

“…Jest to szczególnie widoczne w badaniach z obszaru historii, w tym historii książki (np. Lahti et al, 2015Lahti et al, , 2020 i literaturoznawstwa Underwood, 2020). W tych pracach pytania badawcze są zdeterminowane dziedzinowo, ale przyjmowana postawa poznawcza zakłada możliwość opisu rzeczywistości na podstawie metadanych publikacji.…”

Bibliographic Data Science and the History of the Book (c. 1500–1800)

“…24 We have analyzed the relevance of the rise of octavo with respect to book printing in the case of "history" publishing earlier. 25 Of course, larger formats in book printing carried certain prestige also in the 18th century, even when reading started to be partly removed from stately mansion libraries and the price of the book turned out to be a decisive factor for dissemination of ideas. 26 When considering quarto and octavo publications, it is quite telling that David Hume (1711-1776) wanted his History of England to be printed in quarto-sized fine-paper six-volume set in late 1760s (as it had appeared earlier), but the editions that were actually published after 1767 until Hume's death (including the 1778 posthumous edition) are octavo editions in eight volumes.…”