Three Editions: Evolution of a Book

I looked at three editions of Guy of Warwick at the Houghton Library at Harvard. One was an expensive bound edition from the 1500s, one was a short chapbook from 1695, and the third was a longer chapbook from the 1700s. The differences between the three editions show us something about oral residue in printed works, as well as the role print played in fixing the English language as standard and unchanging.

The earliest version that I examined was a bound book of 282 pages from the 1500s. It would have been affordable only to the rich, and it was written in verse and difficult language. Its intended audience was the educated, upper-class man. Its print conventions display its extravagance, as well as the changes in print between the Sixteenth Century and today. The text was entirely in gothic print, with large letters and margins. The lines were justified only on the left, leaving lots of white space to the right of the words. Page numbers were not printed, and only a few woodcuts were included. The large amount of empty space and large type were signs of luxury. Paper was the most expensive part of the book, so to leave parts of it empty showed that one had money to spare.

This book was very hard for me to read, showing the many changes that have occurred in printing and language. The gothic text and different symbols for letters made trying to read like breaking a code. Many words present in the book have since gone out of use, and had to be inferred from the context. Spellings of words were also different from today.

The 1695 version was a twenty-four page chapbook, five and a half by seven inches. It was written in prose, and was sold for he price of 3d., which would have been in the price range of a larger audience. The story was cut down to fit the short length, and many of Guy's adventures were left out. The print in this edition was very small, with hardly any margins. The book seems to be printed as cheaply as possible, although it is still on good paper by today's standards. In contrast to the earlier version of the story, this one was easy for me to understand. The type still is made up of some gothic print, but is mainly the font we are used to today. The words and spellings were the familiar ones in current use, for the most part. Sometime between the 1500s and 1695, print stabilized the English language to the point where it has not changed significantly in three hundred years. The printing of the dictionary, and the influence of print on thought and speech combined to stop the changes that made Old English and Middle English incomprehensible to readers today.

The last version I looked at was a 144 page chapbook printed in the 1700s, three by six and a half inches. This version restored the full story for readers of lesser means. The print was small, as were the margins. Gothic type was gone, replaced by italic interspersed with the standard typeface of today. The increased number of people who could read at this time would have presented a larger audience for the book. The fact that the copy I looked at was from the eleventh printing shows that it was popular and sold well. Continue