Books for Sale

Advertising and Patronage in Late Elizabethan England

Bibliographic Data

ID16615442
AuthorsPaul J Voss (corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume29
Issue3
Pages733-756
Publication date1998-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSixteenth Century Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-0160 • E-ISSN: 2326-0726
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/2543686
OpenAlexW2478672326
LanguageEN
Citations received7

The final decade of Elizabeth I's reign witnessed a sharp decrease in the number and generosity of literary patrons. This decline, however, did not cripple the rapidly growing book market. To offset the loss of potential income from wealthy benefactors, printers, publishers, and authors courted a new group of patrons-the growing number of individual readers in and around London. The printing press allowed advertisements, usually found on the title page or placed in the preliminary matter, direct access to potential customers, altering the increasingly archaic system of patronage. Printers and publishers employed many sophisticated forms of advertising, attempting to compensate for the decline in revenue while creating a new patronage system, a system where courting a large number of consumers became more important than pleasing an individual aristocrat

Advertising · Art · Business · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

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