Radical religious book networks during the English Revolution, 1640-1660

Abstract

This PhD project focuses on the book trade networks and their connections with the spreading of radical religious printings during the English Revolution. In seventeenth century England, the printing and publishing activities were commonly collective, because they were tasks that involved the participation of different agents, such as typographers, booksellers and bookbinders. The collective work diminished risks and production costs. Nonetheless, we consider that there might have been other motivations for the organization of these associations, as religious and political beliefs and ideas. There are historical sources which indicate that some booksellers, printers and bookbinders produced texts together aiming to disseminate their own political-religious perspectives in a faster and safer manner, avoiding the censorship. Thus, this project aims to investigate these cases, demanding the following questions: How did the book networks were organized? Could ideological perspectives be a fundamental issue to create them? If so, how did them work and operate inside the seventeenth century book trade? Were there differences between the publishing of radical religious texts and other sorts of contents? We suggest that, by examining the editorial activities of these agents and their networks, it might be possible to notice the forms through which they expressed their ideas, participated on the political and religious debates occurred between the 1640s and the 1660s, and utilized the printing press not only as a manner to obtain profit, but also as a political tool. (AU)