2021/01/01 by Leah Orr · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Cultural History and Identity Formation #Digital Humanities and Scholarship
paper · doi:10.1353/ecs.2021.0092
openalex publication_date 2021/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This article asks the same question of four different types of sources: traditional literary histories, the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), contemporary newspaper advertisements, and contemporary records of reading. By examining how these sources represent what was in print in Britain in the year 1728 differently, this article argues that close attention to the methods of digital book history and the origins, assumptions, and limitations of different archives is needed. While digital databases are more comprehensive than previous sources were, they too have limitations—but when used in combination, they can provide new answers to old questions and allow for new avenues of research.