[DCRM-L] ESTC printer tracings: a question about assignees

[John Lancaster]

Wouldn't this be handled by references?  (Even though there are none as yet.)  "Assign(e) of T. Morley" would refer to Barley; both Barley and Morley would have see also refs. to each other, all with appropriate explanatory notes in the authority record.  (Apparently Morley had more than one assign, separately, and perhaps even simultaneously - but that's another issue.)

For groups, it seems to me that someone decided that e.g. "Assigns of Edward Sayers" was the preferable form to use for "E. and R. Nutt and R. Gosling (the assignes of Edward Sayers)" [or similar formulations] - and I'm not disagreeing, but I think a case could be made for the form "E. and R. Nutt and R. Gosling", especially since the composition of the group of assigns changed over time (but only the one form is authorized for the assigns).

Strangely, in this case, there are 500s from "Assigns ..." to the individuals who acted in that capacity but no 500s in the records for the individuals leading to the "Assigns ..." heading.

A digression:  My practice is to add name information in the form "T.M. [i.e Thomas Morley]", simply because in some (most?) OPACs and other data bases, a search for "printer/publisher" looks at the 260 and is put off by internal punctuation, including brackets.  For instance, a search of ESTC for "morley" in the "publisher" field does not turn up this record, but "m[orley" does.  This is widespread in ESTC, and any search for a name not likely to be in controlled field has to take the possibility into account.

John Lancaster


On Dec 7, 2011, at 4:17 PM, Deborah J. Leslie wrote:

> London : Printed by [i.e. for] William Barley, the assigne of T. M[orley] and are to be sold at his shop in Gracious streete, 1602. Cum priuilegio.
>  
> http://shakespeare.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=100307
>  
> For those of you who trace booktrade personnel, what would you do with T. Morley in this record? Trace as bookseller? Not trace at all? Unlike formal groups of assigns, which are given existence as a formal body with reciprocal references to the person who assigned the rights, this is a case of two individuals without any connection embedded in their NARs.
>  
> Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Head of Cataloging, Folger Shakespeare Library | 201 East Capitol St., S.E. | Washington, D.C. 20003
> djleslie at folger.edu | 202.675-0369 | http://www.folger.edu  
>  
>  
>   
>  

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