Liber B, folio 297 verso
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The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.
Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber B
Date: 1576-1696
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 297v
Terms of use
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.
Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber B
Date: 1576-1696
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 297v
Heather Wolfe, "Stationers' Register entry for Venus and Adonis," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/109.
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Maker, Liber B, folio 297 verso. See Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/109.
Venus and Adonis was William Shakespeare’s first work to be entered into a Stationers’ Company register. This epic poem was entered on April 18, 1593 into the Stationers' Liber B by Richard Field (entered as "ffeild"), a printer from Stratford-upon-Avon. It was in print by June 12, 1593, when Richard Stonley recorded his purchase of it in his diary. A second edition appeared in 1594, also printed by Field. The registers chiefly served to record a publisher’s right to print and circulate written works, and were somewhat irregular in recording authors' names.
A marginal note on this entry states that Field later assigned the work to John Harrison, Senior, on June 25, 1594.
Liber B and the other registers with Shakespeare’s works are still kept by the Stationers’ Company in their archives.
[This transcription is pending final vetting]
[Current transcription based on Arber; check back soon for a transcription that conforms to Shakespeare Documented conventions]
1593 35to: Eliz
13. Aprilis
Jo. wolf Entred for his copie vnder the hand of
the lord bysshop of London a
book intituled . . A short answere
to the reasons which the popishe
Recusantes alege why they will not
comme to our churches /. ffrauncis
Bonny beinge the Author vjd
xviijo Aprilis
Richard ffeild Entred for his copie vnder the handes
Assigned ouer to of the Archbisshop of Canterbury
mr Harrison senior and mr warden Stirrop, a booke
25 Junij 1594 / intituled / Venus and Adonis./ vjd S./
G*S
23. Aprilis
Mr woodcock Entred for his copie. A book
entituled. Idea. The shepherdes
garlond. ffasshioned in x. ecloges.
and alowed vnder master Hartwelles
hand. intratur in curia vjd S.
Wydowe Entred for her copie. A booke
Charlwood intituled. Gervis Mackwm
his Thyrsys. and Daphne vjd
2 maij
Richard ffeild / Entred for his copie a booke intituled, the
first parte of christian passions conteyninge
a hundred Sonnettes of meditacion
humiliacon and prayer, aucthorised
vnder the hande of the Lord Bisshop of London vjd S.
7 maij
Tho. Orwin Entred for his copies by assent of A
Court holden this Day these bookes
folowinge whiche were first kingstons
and after George Robinsons whose widowe
the said Orwin hath married vs viijd
viz
The whetston of wytt.
mr Wilsons Retorik and logik
mr Calvins Cathechisme.
Virgil in Latin. Sturmius epistles
Tullies offices Latin. Susembrotus figures
Acolastus. pueriles confabulatincule
pueriles Scripture
Written by Heather Wolfe
Sources
Edward Arber, ed., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London: 1554–1640 A.D. 5 vols. (London: privately printed, 1875–94): 2:630.
The British Library, "2. William Shakespeare's poems and sonnets," Rev. 1.0.1., in Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto. Last modified December 2, 2004. <bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/poems.html>.
Last updated May 17, 2020
