Worshipful Company of Stationers
History of the Book Trade & Digitized
Formed in 1403 the Worshipful Company of Stationers regulated and disciplined the industry, defined proper conduct and maintained its own corporate privileges.It included text writers, limners (illuminators), bookbinders or booksellers who worked at a fixed location (stationarius) beside the walls of St Paul's Cathedral.1
The Stationers' Company and the Printers of London, 1501–15572 by Peter Blayney is a detailed chronological overview of the book trade and the individual printers in London as a whole, Blayney places the role of the Company and its members within the wider development of printing in the capital. The two volumes open in 1357 with a brief introduction to the book trade before the arrival of the first printing press in England and ending with the granting of the Stationers' Company monopoly under Queen Mary I in 1557.
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive.
The majority of the Company’s historical records have now been digitised, and are available through the Adam Matthew online resource Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive. In addition to high resolution, full colour digital versions of this extensive archive of documents, LPC includes resources such as seven introductory essays, notably The Records of the Stationers’ Company; Their History, Importance and Use and two online exhibits REMOTE ACCESS AND WEB RESOURCES
The Stationers’ Company Archive is one of the most important resources for understanding the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding. Explore extremely rare documents dating from 1554 to the 21st century in this invaluable resource of research material for historians and literary scholars.3
Blayney, Peter W. M. The Stationers' Company and the Printers of London : 1501-1557. Vol. 1 Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013.
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive, 1554-2007 showcases a diverse range of material from the archive of the Stationers' Company archive.