1st Edition
The Contemporary Printed Literature of the English Counter-Reformation between 1558 and 1640 Two Volume Set
In 1956 Allison and Rogers published A Catalogue of Catholic Books in English Printed Abroad Secretly in England, 1558-1640. Known simply as A & R, it is the standard listing of the clandestine vernacular output of English Catholics during that period. Now, after more than thirty years work, Allison and Rogers have produced a substantially updated, comprehensive catalogue published in two interlocking volumes. Volume One: Works in Languages other than English (published in 1989) describes books which are linked to specific English Catholic writers, including translators and editors, or to various English bodies, and nearly two hundred other publications which concern English Catholic affairs. It is a major reference tool for historians and bibliographers. Volume Two: Works in English with Addenda & Corrigenda to Volume one is an annotated bibliography of Catholic books printed in English. It includes all the 930 items listed in the A & R, except for a handful which, for reasons of consistency, were described in Volume I and it adds a further twenty-five on which information has come to light more recently. The annotations, historical, literary and bibliographical, are very much fuller than those in A & R and include a vast amount of evidence now brought together for the first time. The true authors of many anonymous and pseudonymous books are identified and many books issued with a false imprint, or no imprint at all, are assigned to particular presses. A concordance links the entries with those in A & R to facilitate cross-reference from one to the other, and indexes of titles, printers and publishers, and persons (including foreign authors) mentioned in the text are provided. Volume II concludes with a short list of Addenda and Corrigenda to Volume I.
Biography
A.F. Allison served on the staff of the British Museum Library (now part of the British Library) for nearly thirty years, with special responsibility for early printed books. D.M. Rogers worked for more than thirty years in the Department of Printed Books of the Bodleian Library and finally became Head of Special Collections.
'a remarkable achievement...If there is such a thing as an absolute bibliography, then this is it' TLS on volume I 'a substantive contribution to scholarship and a tribute to the dedication and expertise of its two compilers...Scholars should be indebted to Allison and Rogers for this work and for their lifelong commitments to recusant studies. Their work not only constitutes a valuable asset to all who study in this area, but also serves as a model to a new generation of students.'
