The Edinburgh Book Trade and Popular Wares, 1660–1785

Abstract

Chapter 3 traces the continued development of the book trade in Edinburgh during the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, focusing in particular on the lower end of the market. It examines the printers who specialised in cheap wares, the booksellers who purveyed them in the city, and the chapmen who carried them out into the towns and villages of Lowland Scotland. It examines the roles of book auctions and circulating libraries, of cheap reprints and popular imports, in extending the reach of popular works down through society in Edinburgh and beyond.