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Liber B
April 18,
1593

Liber B, folio 297 verso

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Liber B, folio 297 verso
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Institution Rights and Document Citation

Terms of use
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.

Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber B
Date: 1576-1696
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 297v

Item Creator
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspapers Makers
Item Title
Liber B
Item Date
1576-1695
Repository
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call Number
Liber B, fol. 297v

Institution Rights and Document Citation

Terms of use
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.

Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber B
Date: 1576-1696
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 297v

Heather Wolfe, "Stationers' Register entry for Venus and Adonis," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/109.

The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Maker, Liber B, folio 297 verso. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/109.

Venus and Adonis was William Shakespeare’s first work to be entered into a Stationers’ Company register. This epic poem was entered on April 18, 1593 into the Stationers' Liber B by Richard Field (entered as "ffeild"), a printer from Stratford-upon-Avon. It was in print by June 12, 1593, when Richard Stonley recorded his purchase of it in his diary. A second edition appeared in 1594, also printed by Field. The registers chiefly served to record a publisher’s right to print and circulate written works, and were somewhat irregular in recording authors' names. 

A marginal note on this entry states that Field later assigned the work to John Harrison, Senior, on June 25, 1594

Liber B and the other registers with Shakespeare’s works are still kept by the Stationers’ Company in their archives.

Semi-diplomatic transcription

[This transcription is pending final vetting]
[Current transcription based on Arber; check back soon for a transcription that conforms to Shakespeare Documented conventions]      

                               1593  35to: Eliz
                                   13. Aprilis

Jo. wolf          Entred for his copie vnder the  hand of
                       the lord bysshop of London a
                       book intituled . . A short answere
                       to the reasons which the popishe
                       Recusantes alege why they will not
                       comme to our churches /. ffrauncis
                       Bonny beinge the Author                                 vjd

                             xviijo Aprilis

Richard ffeild             Entred for his copie vnder the handes 
Assigned ouer to        of the Archbisshop of Canterbury 
mr Harrison senior     and mr warden Stirrop, a booke
25 Junij 1594 /           intituled / Venus and Adonis./    vjd S./ 
                                                                                             G*S

                           23. Aprilis 

Mr woodcock            Entred for his copie. A book
                                  entituled. Idea. The shepherdes
                                  garlond. ffasshioned in x. ecloges.
                                  and alowed vnder master Hartwelles
                                  hand.  intratur in curia                                 vjd S.    

Wydowe                   Entred for her copie. A booke
Charlwood               intituled. Gervis Mackwm 
                                 his Thyrsys. and Daphne                             vjd

                                             2 maij

Richard ffeild /       Entred for his copie a booke intituled, the
                               first parte of christian passions conteyninge 
                               a hundred Sonnettes of meditacion
                               humiliacon and prayer, aucthorised
                               vnder the hande of the Lord Bisshop of London               vjd S.           

                                          7 maij

Tho. Orwin          Entred for his copies by assent of A
                             Court holden this Day these bookes
                             folowinge whiche were first kingstons
                             and after George Robinsons whose widowe
                             the said Orwin hath married           vs viijd
                                               viz
                              The whetston of wytt.
                              mr Wilsons Retorik and logik
                              mr Calvins Cathechisme.
                              Virgil in Latin.   Sturmius epistles
                              Tullies offices Latin. Susembrotus figures
                              Acolastus.   pueriles confabulatincule
                                                    pueriles Scripture

Written by Heather Wolfe

Sources
Edward Arber, ed., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London: 1554–1640 A.D. 5 vols. (London: privately printed, 1875–94): 2:630.

The British Library, "2. William Shakespeare's poems and sonnets," Rev. 1.0.1., in Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto. Last modified December 2, 2004. <bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/poems.html>.

Last updated May 17, 2020