Broadsheets: Single-Sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print

by Andrew Pettegree (Editor)

A landmark study of single-sheet publishing during the first two centuries after the invention of printing. Long disregarded as ephemera or cheap print, broadsheets emerge as both a crucial communication medium and an essential underpinning of the economics of the publishing industry.

562 pages, ebook

Published July 17, 2017

About the author

I began my career working on aspects of the European Reformation. My first book was a study of religious refugee communities in the sixteenth century, and since then I have published on the Dutch Revolt, and on the Reformation in Germany, France and England, as well as a general survey history of the sixteenth century. In the last years the focus of my research has shifted towards an interest in the history of communication, and especially the history of the book. I run a research group that in 2011 completed a survey of all books published before1601: the Universal Short Title Catalogue. This work continues with work to incorporate new discoveries and continue the survey into the seventeenth century.

In 2010 I published an award-winning study of The Book in the Renaissance, and in 2014 The Invention of News: a study of the birth of a commercial culture of news publication in the four centuries between 1400 and 1800. I return to the Reformation for a study of Luther’s media strategy, published in 2015 by Penguin as Brand Luther, 1517, Printing and the Making of the Reformation. I am now engaged in a study of the book world of the seventeenth century Dutch Republic, to be published in 2019 as Trading Books in the Age of Rembrandt.

I am the lead editor of two monograph series: the St Andrews Studies in Reformation History, and The Library of the Written Word. In 2012-2015 I served a three year term as Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society.

I welcome enquiries from potential postgraduate students working on any aspect of the Reformation or Book History.

Reviews

[Chantal · Rating 3 out of 5]

How on earth did I finish this within 24 hours??? Time to write an academic review now, first thoughts: nice articles and interesting case studies but too much repetition, quantitative research whilst this is not always possible, no clear definition of the broadsheet, and more details which should be cleared up in future research. Broadsheets are great for research though, love how this is currently being re-evalued in Renaissance Studies.