Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1554-2001 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
17 sub-series
Context area
Repository
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Records of trade activities specific to the Stationers' Company, chiefly concerning print regulation, legal deposit and the Stationers' Register. Additional trade activities were carried out by the Company's joint stock company dealing in titles owned by the Company, the English Stock; for ease of reference, English Stock records are catalogued in a separate subfonds, TSC/STO.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Trade records have been arranged into 17 subseries:
TSC/E/01: Acts of Parliament
TSC/E/02: Printed proclamations
TSC/E/03: Petitions and warrants
TSC/E/04: Papers of trade committees and groups
TSC/E/05: Trade financial records
TSC/E/06: Registers of entries of copies
TSC/E/07: Draft register of entries of copies
TSC/E/08: Transcripts of entries of copies
TSC/E/09: Copyright register indices
TSC/E/10: Records of the Stationers' Hall Registry (voluntary Registry)
TSC/E/11: Copyright administrative records
TSC/E/12: Registers of books for deposit libraries
TSC/E/13: Index to register of books for deposit libraries
TSC/E/14: Registers of books for the British Museum
TSC/E/15: Copy indentures for sending books to the Bodleian Library
TSC/E/16: Deposit libraries administrative records
TSC/E/17: Records relating to search and seizure
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
English
Script of material
Latin
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Catalogued
Note
Open
Note
While the Stationers' Company always represented professions relating to every aspect of book production, including paper-making and book-binding, from the sixteenth century printing was the activity that attracted most attention from Crown and Church authorities. In particular, the Stationers' Register, or Entry Book of Copies, foreshadowed the development of copyright and intellectual property laws.