Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, Volume 2: Enlightenment and Expansion 1707-1800

Download or read book Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, Volume 2: Enlightenment and Expansion 1707-1800 written by Stephen W. Brown and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies the book trade during the age of Fergusson and BurnsOver 40 leading scholars come together in this volume to scrutinise the development and impact of printing, binding, bookselling, libraries, textbooks, distribution and international trade, copyright, piracy, literacy, music publication, women readers, children's books and cookery books.The 18th century saw Scotland become a global leader in publishing, both through landmark challenges to the early copyright legislation and through the development of intricate overseas markets that extended across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Scots in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Dublin and Philadelphia amassed fortunes while bringing to international markets classics in medicine and economics by Scottish authors, as well as such enduring works of reference as the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Entrepreneurship and a vigorous sense of nationalism brought Scotland from financial destitution at the time of the 1707 Union to extraordinary wealth by the 1790s. Publishing was one of the country's elite new industries.