The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the

Stationers' Company The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in ...

of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The Register itself allowed publishers to document their right to produce a particular printed work, and constituted an early form of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

law. The company's charter gave it the right to seize illicit editions and bar the publication of unlicensed books. For the study of English literature of the later sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries—for the

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

, the

Jacobean era The Jacobean era was the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of James VI of Scotland who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I. The Jacobean era succeeds the Elizabethan era and precedes the Ca ...

, the

Caroline era The Caroline era is the period in English and Scottish history named for the 24-year reign of Charles I (1625–1649). The term is derived from ''Carolus'', the Latin for Charles. The Caroline era followed the Jacobean era, the reign of Charles's ...

, and especially for

English Renaissance theatre English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson ...

—the Stationers' Register is an crucial and essential resource: it provides factual information and hard data that is available nowhere else. Together with the records of the

Master of the Revels The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberlain ...

(which relate to dramatic performance rather than publication), the Stationers' Register supplies many of the certain facts scholars possess on the works of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

, and all of their immediate predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. It is also an invaluable source of information about ephemeral publications, such as popular broadside ballads, of which no printed copies survive. By paying a fee of 4 to 6 pence, a bookseller could register his right to publish a given work. One example: the Stationers' Register reveals that on 26 November 1607, the stationers John Busby and

Nathaniel Butter Nathaniel Butter (died 22 February 1664) was a London publisher of the early 17th century. The publisher of the first edition of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'' in 1608, he has also been regarded as one of the first publishers of a newspaper in Engl ...

claimed the right to print "A booke called Master William Shakespeare his historye of Kinge Lear, as yt was played before the Kinges maiestie at Whitehall vppon Sainct Stephens night at Christmas Last, by his maiesties servantes playinge vsually at the Globe on the Banksyde." (They paid sixpence.) Enforcement of regulations in this historical era was never as thorough as in the modern world; books were sometimes published without registration, and other irregularities also occurred. In some cases, the companies of actors appear to have registered plays through co-operative stationers, with the express purpose of forestalling the publication of a play when publication was not in their interest.''

Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...

,'' ''

Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1 ...

,'' '' As You Like It,'' and ''

Every Man in His Humour ''Every Man in His Humour'' is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the " humours comedy," in which each major character is dominated by an over-riding humour or obsession. Performance and pu ...

'' were registered, apparently for such a purpose ("to be stayed"), on 4 August 1600. Yet if this interpretation is correct, the strategy to forestall publication had limited success; the first two plays were published later in 1600, and the last in 1601. Only ''As You Like It'' remained out of print at the time. Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 359; Halliday, pp. 216, 326. In 1710, the Copyright Act or Statute of Anne entered into force, superseding company provisions pertaining to the Register. The company continued to offer some form of registration of works until February 2000..

References

{{reflist

Sources

* Arber, Edward, ed
''A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London 1554–1640 A.D.''
5 Volumes, London, privately printed, 1875–94. Reprinted New York, P. Smith, 195

* Edmund Kerchever Chambers, Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923. * Eyre, G. E. B., and G. R. Rivington, eds
''A Transcript of the Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers from 1640–1708.''
3 Volumes, London, privately printed, 1913–14. * Greg, W. W., and E. Boswell, eds. ''Records of the Court of the Stationer's Company, 1576 to 1602.'' London, The Bibliographical Society, 1930. * Halliday, F. E. ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964.'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964. * Jackson, William A., ed. ''Records of the Court of the Stationers' Company 1602 to 1640.'' London, The Bibliographical Society, 1957. * Rollins, H. E
''An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) in the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London.''
University of North Carolina Press, 1924.

External links

"The Stationers' Company: History and Heritage"
(official site of the Stationers' Company in its current incarnation)
"Stationers' Register Online"
(searchable database of entries based on Arber's edition, corrected against the original manuscripts) Bibliography English Renaissance plays Mass media in the United Kingdom