[Bell Historians] RE: Stedman, the printer

[edward.w.martin at gmail.com]

Hello
 Stedman was not a printer
 As a Stationer/Bookseller, he presented these works for publication
 I had intended to produce a small book about Stedman & his times, but what with being the world's worst procrastinator & moving back to the USA it is still a long way from being ready. In addition I have to go to the hospital for major surgery in about 5 mins time - wish me luck
 If all goes well, I'll still be out of circulation for a while but will get back to you with evidence (of which there is  a reasonable amount to convince yours truly
 Eddie Martin  
 

---In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, <richard at ...> wrote:

 I've spent a short time this morning looking through some of 
 the records of the Worshipful Company of Stationers (of 
 which Stedman was a member) which have been transcribed 
 quite thoroughly in the three-volumn /Transcripts of the 
 Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers: From 
 1640-1708 AD/, London (1913-4).
 
 Under the Licensing of Press Act (1662), all books had to be 
 licensed by an appointed Licenser, who for the duration of 
 the act was Sir Roger L'Estrange. The act lapsed in 1679. 
 So far as I can make out, records of these licensings appear 
 in the records of the Stationers' Company. Certainly the 
 records of the company seem little more than a list of books 
 printed by its members, together with the payment of a 
 nominal 6d fee.
 
 I can only find mention of five works printed by Stedman. 
 They are as follows:
 
 
 16o Junii 1665
 
 Master Fab. Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
 Master L'Estrange and Master Warden Pulleyn a paper 
 Intituled, /To His royall highnesse Duke of Yorke a 
 Congratulatory Poem on that signall victory obteined by his 
 Maties Navy under his heroick conduct agt ye States fleet of 
 the United Netherland on ye 3d of June 1665/ . . . vj.d
 
 
 16o Junii 1665
 
 Master Fab. Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
 Master L'Estrange and Master Warden Pulleyn, a paper 
 intituled, /An Essay uppon the late victory obteined by his 
 royall Highnesse the Duke of Yorke agt the Dutch, uppon
 June ye 3d 1665/, by the author of Iter Boreale/ . . . vj.d
 
 
 February 8 1667 [i.e. 1667/8]
 
 Master Fabyan Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
 Master L'Estrange and Master Warden Royston a booke or copie 
 intituled /Tintinnalogia or the Art of Ringing/ By a Lover 
 of that Art . . . vj.d
 
 
 5th September 1676
 
 Master Fabian Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
 Master Roger L'Estrange and Master Warden Clark a book or 
 copy intituled /The Art of Ringing improved wth plaine & 
 easy rules to guide the practiconer in the ringing of all 
 sorts of changes, to wch is added 98 new crosse peales./
 
 
 11th Decembr. 1676
 
 Master Fabian Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
 Roger L'Estrange Esqr and Master Warden Clark a book or copy 
 intituled /Eighteene very practicall peales upon six & eight 
 hells composed wth mixt grounds, togeather wth a second 
 Imperiall Bob/, Composed by F. S.
 
 
 
 Of the five works, three were described as "a book or copy" 
 and were on ringing; the other two were merely "a paper" 
 congratulating the Duke of York (later James II). The 
 Stationers' records may well be incomplete, but there seems 
 no reason why they should favour ringing works rather than 
 others, so I can only assume that a high proportion of his 
 works were on ringing.
 
 Stedman had been apprenticed to Daniel Pakeham, a master 
 printer, on 7 July 1656. Apprenticeships had been fixed at 
 seven years by the Statute of Artificer (1562), and very 
 nearly seven years later on 4 July 1663, Stedman became a 
 Freeman of the Stationers' Company. He was not yet a master 
 printer, and it's unlikely he ever became one. Stedman may 
 have been the licensed publisher of these works, but he did 
 not have a press on which to print it. If he had continued 
 as a printer, he would have been a journeyman in the employ 
 of some other master printer, but John Eisel speculates that 
 he had become a bookseller (c.f. RW 2010 p.489-90).
 
 Of the five works mentioned above, I have only heard of 
 three of them. There is a copy of the essay to the Duke of 
 York in the British Library, but the congratulatory poem, so 
 far as I can tell, has not to have survived. Tintinnalogia 
 is well known. The fourth work, 'The Art of Ringing 
 improved' is clearly Campanalogia, although the title of 
 first edition of Campanalogia (1677) concludes "Ringing of 
 all kinds of Changes, to Which is added, great variety of 
 new peals." Other than changing "all sorts" to "all kinds", 
 the title no longer concluded "added 98 new crosse peales": 
 "crosse" had been removed, and "98" changed to "great 
 variety of".
 
 This leaves the fifth work, also on ringing. /Eighteene very 
 practicall peales upon six & eight hells composed wth mixt 
 grounds, togeather wth a second Imperiall Bob/, Composed by 
 F.S. Was this another early ringing book that has since 
 become lost? Or had the contents of it become merged with 
 that of his other planned book of 1676 to form the 1677 
 Campanalogia? This could explain why the "98 new crosse 
 peales" was changed on the cover. It might also explain 
 Trollope's observation that Tintinnalogia bore L'Estrange's 
 imprimatur, where Campanalogia did not (c.f. Trollope MS vol 
 ii, p.428). Maybe Campanalogia was not ever licensed for 
 publication in its final form, but produce by combining the 
 two works that had both been licensed?
 
 Has there ever been a facsimile reprint made of the 1677 
 Campanalogia? I have copies of the third (1733) and sixth 
 (1766) editions, but I do not have access to the first 
 edition to check this. If there were a "second Imperiall 
 Bob" composed by Stedman in the first edition Campanalogia, 
 this would be a strong clue.
 
 RAS

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