What is Early Modern Scribbling?
This site is generally about the history of Tudor and Stuart England, particularly that which demonstrates how cheap print and popular culture interacted. Inexpensive pamphlets exploded in popularity during this period, powered by a colourful cast of booksellers, printers, and writers. Some of these writers were labelled ‘scribblers’ by their detractors. Their works are invaluable for understanding popular religious belief, social history, and the emergence of journalistic writing.
For the most part, articles published here aim to shine a light on the way that short books, broadside ballads, and other accessible printed stories shaped the experience of ordinary, everyday life in England between 1500 and 1700. The primary audience of pamphlets at this time was the ‘middling sort’ of society — skilled craftsmen, artisans, lawyers, yeomen, shopkeepers and businessmen who were able to read and could afford to purchase books.
This site is not only about what the presses churned out, however. The world of print literature was not at all disconnected from that of the theatre and was also inextricably linked to an oral culture which made up the very fabric of social life. Books had the power — as indeed they still do, though their influence has waned with the advent of social media — to entertain and excite, but also to agitate and radicalise.
It is both extraordinarily curious and rather sad that the literature which touched so many lives back then and was the cause of such fretting for England’s authorities should have nearly vanished from popular consciousness — and with it the fascinating characters who made it all possible. This is the historical wrong which Early Modern Scribbling seeks to right.
Contact
To get in touch, please email piersmucklejohn@earlymodernscribbling.com and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
I am very open to the possibility of hosting articles written by guest contributors which align with the focus of Early Modern Scribbling, though please note that this website does not generate any revenue and so I cannot offer payment. If you think this site would make a good home for a relevant written piece, please email me with a prospective title and article summary.
Copyright
Email me if you believe there is an issue with copyright. Where images or words come from an external source (i.e. a quotation or photograph), the relevant copyright license is followed and credit included where necessary.