It is now fifty years since a young American graduate student, James Phillips, arrived in Dublin to investigate the book trade of 18th-century Dublin. Phillips intended his work to be merely part of a study of Robert Bell, a Dublin bookseller who migrated to Philadelphia in the middle of that century. But he soon discovered that very little work had been done on the book trade in 18thcentury Dublin and the PhD thesis Phillips went on to write and to submit to TCD in 1952 became a full-length study of that fascinating subject.
Though it was not published as a book at the time, Phillips's thesis - a tour-deforce for a doctoral dissertation - has developed almost legendary fame among scholars of 18th-century Ireland to the extent that everyone interested in the field has consulted (or meant to consult) the microfilm or the typescript of Phillips's thesis at some time or another. Now, unchanged except for a short introduction by Paul Pollard, the greatest living expert on 18th-century Irish book trade, Phillips's 1952 thesis appears as a handsome, well designed, well printed book - a credit, incidentally, to presentday Irish book design, typesetting, printing and publishing.
One can see immediately why everyone interested in the cultural history of 18thcentury Ireland must consult this book. It is as complete, as accurate and as entertaining a guide to the Dublin book trade as one could possibly need, particularly valuable because of the author's meticulous use of primary sources.
Phillips was graced with a sense of disinterested intellectual curiosity and also had the ability to write entertainingly about such apparently arcane subjects as literary property, the decorations used in 18th-century Dublin books, and watermarks in the paper used in Dublin. In fact, Phillips's chapter on paper would fascinate anyone interested in cultural and mercantile life in 18th-century Dublin. There is a full account of Irish papermaking, and a discussion of the reasons why Irish printers used paper from France, Holland, England, Scotland, Genoa and Venice as well as from Ireland. Phillips examined over five hundred Dublin printings for watermarks, and the chapter gains added appeal from his drawings of some of them.
The book trade was central to Dublin life in the 18th century - not just because the copyright laws allowed Irish booksellers and printers to engage in the lucrative business of reprinting English books for export to America, but also because the inhabitants of the second city of the British empire were eager readers and purchasers of books of every variety. Phillips examined all kinds of bookselling - from the most specialised to the most general - and all kinds of book production, from school books to sumptuous editions of the classics. His comments show not only a keen interest in the mechanics and history of the Dublin book trade but also a fine sense of the significance of small detail to the drawing of the cultural history of a nation and a people. This volume includes all Phillips's original tables as well as newly prepared illustrations of title pages, decorations and decorated initials. It has an excellent index and a valuable bibliography.
Though much work has been done on the 18th-century Irish book trade since Phillips's day, virtually none of his conclusions has been proved wrong. On the contrary, his analysis of the 18th-century Dublin book trade and of its cultural and mercantile importance remains unchallenged, and his work will provide an invaluable base for future scholars in the field. This book must be welcomed wholeheartedly by anyone who is interested in 18th-century Ireland.
Andrew Carpenter's anthology, Verse in English from Eighteenth-Century Ireland, was published earlier this year