Dossier 05 - Memorandum books: Liber A

1 volume

Copies of assorted records concerning the Company, including precepts of the Lord Mayor of London, Acts of Common Council, minutes of the Court of Assistants, Orders of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, Orders of the Star Chamber, petitions, letters, extracts from wills, receipts, lists of subsidies, bills of assessment, warrants, agreements and opinions on cases.

Spine reads 'Orders of Parliamt & Ld. Mayor Liber A'.

Inserted into front endpapers are 4 documents:

1. undated typescript information card reading 'Liber A containing, inter alia, the Company's donation towards the foundation of the colony of Virginia, 1609', with manuscript addition 'do not film this'.

2. undated manuscript note reading 'Names of Licensees for printing various classes of Books 1643', with addition 'do not film this'.

3. pamphlet dated 1902 titled 'Index to Liber A of the Records of the Worshipful Company of Stationers'.

4. first page of undated typewritten account titled 'The Importance of Liber 'A'', author unknown.

Records copied into volume include:

folio 81r: 'The Copy of the receipte under Sir Thomas Smithes hand for the Comp[a]nies adventure into Virginia', 28 Apr 1609; receipt is for £125.

folio 81r: bill of adventure for the Company's excursion into Virginia, 10 May 1609, and list of contributors to the above £125 donation.

At rear of volume are copy Cases and Opinions:

folios 186r-187v: 'The Case betwixt the Printers of London and the Printers of Cambridge'; opinion given by anonymous lawyers, date unknown.

folios 188r-189v: Case regarding the importation of books; opinion given by P Yorke, 2 Oct 1731.

folios 189v-191r: Case regarding the question of whether, as all the Feoffees of the Company's real estates were dead, 'it were better to continue these Estates in Feoffees or to take a Conveyance from the Heirs or Devisees of the surviving Feoffee immediately to the Company'; opinions given by Serjeant Glynn, 17 Jan 1771 and 25 Apr 1771, and William Rivet, 14 May 1771.

folios 191r-193r: 'Case upon the exclusive Right of the Company of Stationers to Primers Psalters Almanacks etc. under their Grant from King James the first'; opinions given by Sir William Jones and Sir Creswell Levings, 1 and 4 Nov 1679, and Henry Trinder, 29 May 1681; case is copied from Court Book E, folio 122.

folios 193r-195v: Case regarding the publication of several memorandum books or pocket books, thought to infringe upon the Company's exclusive right to print these; opinion given by George Hill, Sep 1771.

*Leaves of volume sticking together [possibly caused by previous conservation treatment].

Leaves previously treated with soluble nylon and barium hydroxide; leaves previously mended with lens tissue and handmade paper.* Note: these problems were corrected by an extensive conservation project in 2017.

Court Book entries regarding Liber A are as follows:

Court book n, page 321: 'Liber A. That the repair and restoration of this work be undertaken by Mr Sydney Cockerell of Grantchester at an estimated cost of between £70 and £100'. 3 November 1964.

Court book n, page 344: 'Liber A. That the repair of this volume had been completed by Sydney Cockerell of Cambridge'. 2 March 1965.

MA Pearson, 'Stationers' Company 'Liber A' Index', MA Dissertation, University of Wellington (1980)

Summaries of 11 entries 1632-1771 are given in AW Pollard, 'Catalogue of Records at Stationers' Hall', Transactions of the Bibliographical Society (March 1926)

Anonymous, 'Index to Liber A of the Records of the Worshipful Company of Stationers' (London: 1902)

John Noorthouck, 'Abstract of the Orders of Court, And other Proceedings, of The Worshipful Company of Stationers: Serving as an Index to the Court Books, From the earliest entries. Compiled under the Inspection of the Clerk of the Company', 1780 [TSC/1/B/06/02]

Anonymous, draft index to Court Books A and B, 17th century [TSC/1/B/xx/xx]

A microfilm copy is on reel 71, 'Records of the Stationers' Company 1554-1920: 115 Reels of Microfilm with Printed Guide', published by Chadwyck-Healy Ltd (1989)

A full transcription is contained in MA Pearson, 'Stationers' Company 'Liber A' Index', MA Dissertation, University of Wellington (1980), pp. 1-493

Transcriptions of folios 79r-183r are given in William A Jackson, 'Records of the Court of the Stationers' Company 1602 to 1640' (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1957), pp. 340-437

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