Harte

Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History; 13
The inventory of Michael Harte, bookseller of Exeter

The inventory transcribed below is in the Devon Record Office, Exeter Court of Orphans records (Ref: DRO/ECA/Book 144 p.129-134. Attention was drawn to it by W.G.Hoskins "An Exeter bookseller's stock in 1615", Devon and Cornwall notes and queries, vol. 21, 1940, p.36-7. The numbers 1 to 91 have been added to the first items in the inventory to facilitate reference in the commentary which follows the transcript and some of these have links to a table which identifies the items. The small images of each folio can be clicked on to produce an enlarged image, and these images in turn can be clicked on to view them full size. The essay following the transcript first appeared in Devon documents in honour of Margery Rowe, edited by Todd Gray (Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, 1996)

		The Inventory of all the goods of Michaell Hart deceased taken and appraised the Nynth day of December 1615 by John Mongwill John Warren and Georg Prouz sen
		Bookes in the Hall
	1	Inprimis 1 gallens Workes in fo old	xxv s
	2	it 2 Willetts Sinopses in fo:	xxvi s
	3	it 2 Spannishe histories in fo:	xxiiii s
	4	it 1 French historie in fo:	xi s
	5	it 1 History of Venys in fo:	vii s
	6	it iii Greenhams Workes in fo:	xviii s
	7	it 1 Babintons Workes in fo:	vii s vi d
	8	it 1 Willett vppon Samuell in fo	iiii s vi d
	9	it ii Willetts vppon the Romans	xi s
	10	it 1 French Dixsnary in fo:	vi s vi d
	11	it 1 Penedam in Solimomons	vii s
	12	it 1 Church bible	xxx s
	13	it 2 Jewells workes in fo	xxiiii s
	14	it iii wolloms of Peeter Marters workes in fo:	xiii s iiii d
	15	it 1 gualter uppon the Corinthes	v s
	16	it 1 Dallingtons Aphorismes in fo:	iiii s
	17	it 2 Sezaries ii wolloms in fo:	x s
	18	it 1 Boddyms Derepublica in fo:	iiii s
	19	it 1 Tagnes Esses in fo	iiii s
	20	it 27 old fo: bookes	xl s
	21	it 1 old latten bible in 6 parts	iii s iiii d
	22	it 12 peecs & v perfitt bookes	x s
	23	it 60 books in 4°	vii li x s
	24	it 40 bookes in 4°	iii li
	25	it 100 bookes in 4°	iiii li iii s iiii d
	26	it 1 Hebrew bible in 4°	vi s
	27	it 1 Zanchy Tractacions in 4°	iiii s
	28	it ii Vrcineus Catthesme in 4°	ix s
	29	it 1 Smithes Sermons whole	v s
	30	it 1 Cooper vppon the Romans	iiii s vi d
	31	it 3 king vppon Jonas in 4°	vii s vi d
	32	it 1 Maloonett vppon the profitts	iii s vi d
	33	it 1 second & 3 parts of the French Ackedemea	iiii s
	34	it iii Blundivills exercises 4°	vii s vi d

	35	it ii xpian warfares 2 & 3 parts	v s vi d
	36	it iii Downhams Defenses in 4°	iiii s vi d
	37	it ii Dod vppon proverbes in 4°	iiii s
	38	it ix books in 4°	xiii s iiii d
	39	it 200 bookes in 8° in parchemt	v li
	40	it 20 bookes in 8° in parchemt	xx s
	41	it 160 bookes smale in viii°	xx s
	42	it 60 new schoole bookes in viii°	xl s
	43	it 120 old schoole bookes in viii°	xl s
	44	it 40 small stitch bookes	vi s viii d
	45	it 2 bundles of Stitch bookes	iiii s
		Summa	xlv li is vi d
		The bookes in the warehouse behynd the Shoppe
	46	Inprimis 53 old bookes in fo:	xxx s
	47	it 100 old bookes in iiii°	xxx s
	48	it 100 old bookes in viii°	x s
	49	it 30 bundles of Stitch books 4o	v li
	50	it 1 parcell of psalmes & geneoligy	v s
	51	it 1 parcell of unperfit bookes & waste papers	v s viii d
	52	it 49 bundells of stitch bookes in viii°	iii li
		Summa	xii li viii d
		The bookes in the Shopp
	53	Inprimis 20 bookes in fo	iii li x s
	54	it 64 bookes in fo	vi li viii s
	55	it 52 bookes in fo	lii s
	56	it 100 bookes in iiii°	xlvi s viii d
	57	it 1 shelfe Cont 80 bookes in viii°	xxvi s viii d
	58	it 340 bookes in viii°	iii li
	59	it 40 bookes in viii°	xl s
	60	it 50 bookes in viii°	xv s
	61	it 100 bookes in 4°	v li
	62	it 147 bookes in iiii°	l s
	63	it 100 bookes in viii°	xxxiii s iiii d

	64	it 260 bookes in viii°	xliii s iiii d
	65	it 2 old lating bibles	ii s
	66	it 1 parcell of French books	x s
	67	it 400 bookes in a presse	l s
	68	it160 bookes in viii°	iiii li x s
	69	it 310 bookes	l s
	70	it 18 School books	xii s viii d
	71	it 143 old books in 16°	xx s
	72	it 5 prayer books gilt over	viii s
	73	it 5 bookes in viii° veller and filts	iiii s
	74	it 27 bookes veller and filts	xviii s
	75	it 16 bookes in xii°	xx s
	76	it 164 books in xii°	xxx s
	77	it a parcell of old Mapps	xii d
	78	it a parcell of wast paper	ii s
	79	it 54 Stitch bookes in the Chest	v s
	80	it 4 unperfitt & one perfit psalmes in quiers	ii s
	81	it 1 old parchmt S[kin?] and a Shepes Skynn	iiii s
	82	it for Inkhornes and quills	xii d
	83	it 2 pr of old Skales	xviii d
	84	it 1 nest of boxes 2 old deskes	iii s iv d
	85	it in Claspes bosses & pots of brasse	xviii d
	86	it the Chest in the Shopp	x s
	87	it 1 Cutten presse wth the plow	iiii s vi d
	88	it 1 presse pynn of Iron	viii d
	89	it 1 Sowing presse	xviii d
	90	it for the Shelves in the Shopp	x s
	91	it for the borde of thenterclose behind the Shopp	ii s
		Summa - li li xix s viii d
		The houshold stuffe in the kitchin
		Inprimis 95 li of pewter	iii li iii s iiii d
		it 28 li of Brasse	xviii s viii d
		it 2 little brasse potts	v s
		it 1 morter	viii d
		it 1 warming pann	iii s

	it 2 old brasse Skeends and ii brasse ladles	xx d
	it 2 Andirons with brasse Topps	iii s
	it 1 Dryping pann	ii s
	it 5 broches	iiii s
	it 1 litle pr of Andirons & two pair of Doggs	ii s vi d
	it 2 pr of pott hooks 4 Crooks	iii s
	it 1 old pr of Tongs & a fleshook	ix d
	it a parcell of old Iron	xii d
	it 1 Amery	vi s viii d
	it 1 parcell of Cloame & Cupps	iiii s
	it for Trenchers Trencherkniffes & two Rolers	ii s
	it 4 Timber boales	iii s
	it 1 beating hammer & a stoane	ii s
	it 2 litle Table bords	iiii s
	it for Shelves windowes & bords	vi s
	Summa	vi li xvi s iiii d
	In the litle Buttery
	Inprimis 1 old Amery	ii s vi d
	it in wooden vessell	ii s vi d
	it 1 old Chare	vi d
	it for thenterclose of the Buttery & the Shelves	x s
	it 2 Dores	ii s
	Summa	xvii s vi d
	Household stuffe in the Hall
	Item one Cubbord	xv s
	it 1 latten basen & Ewer	xv s
	it 4 glasses 1 little erthen pott	xii d
	it 5 pictures & a mapp	vi s viii d
	it 1 Galleaver with a Flask & Titch box & a Dagg without lock or Snappance	vi s viii d
	it iii Chares iii low stooles	ix s
	it 6 Joyne stooles	v s
	it 1 Stayne Clothe	iiii s
	it 5 green Cushins	iiii s
	Summa	lvi s iiii d

	In the Chamber over the Hall
	Item one Tablebord	iii s iiii d
	it 1 wecker Chare	xii d
	it 1 Trunke	iii s iiii d
	it 1 great Trunk Chest	vi s viii d
	it 1 bedd ii bolsters 4 pillowes	iii li ii s iii d
	it 1 Old Doust bed 1 pr of blancketts	viii s
	it 1 bed ii bolsters 1 pyllow of Flox	xiii s iiii d
	it 1 old Arris Coidlitt 1 Arris Carpett	iiii s vi d
	it 2 other old Coidlitts	iii s
	it 2 Ruggs	viii s
	it 2 pr of Curtaines 1 old	xviii s
	Summa	vi li xi s v d
	More in the said Chamber
	Inprimis ii Dornex Carpetts	v s vi d
	it ii Cloakes	xxx s
	it ii Sutes of Apparrell 1 Dublett & Jerkyn	xxx s
	it 1 pr of Stockins 1 pr of Busgins & one wastecoat	ii s vi d
	it 1 Redd Capp 1 Rideing hood	xviii d
	it 1 ounce 3/4 of Silver old	vii s
	it 6 bands 3 Capps 1 pr of Cuffes ii handkerchers	x s vi d
	it ii Shirtes	vi s
	it iii pr of Sheets	xv s
	it 6 bord Clothes	xvi s
	it 7 pilloties	xx s
	it 2 dozin Napkins & 1 Towell	x s vi d
	it 2 remnants of old black stuffe	xii d
	it 4 Carrick Dishes	xviii d
	it for brushes	xii d
	it 1 looking glasse 5 other glasses	xvi d

	it for flaskitts & baskitts	ii s
	it 1 Trendlebedsteed	ii s
	it 1 hatt & band wth Siphers	iiii s
	it for the painted Cloth	xviii s
	Summa	ix li v s iiii d
	In the Last in the said Chamber
	Inprimis 1 standing bedsteed	xviii s
	it 1 Trendlebed steed	ii s
	it 6 old Coffers & boxes	vii s
	it for old Hampers	xii d
	it 1 pr of old bootes	xii d
	it 1 old stool & a bord wth a brandiz
	wch was at the house at Dawlishe	iiii s
	it 1 Trowell	xi d
	it for the lease of halfe the Shopp	iii li
	it in reddy money	v s vi d
	it in Doubtfull Debts	xx iiii li xvi s ix d
	Summa Total	Clxv li xiiii s xi d
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A common culture? : the inventory of Michael Harte, bookseller of Exeter, 1615

The 1615 inventory of Michael Harte of Exeter is that of a substantial provincial bookseller of the early 17th century1. It is one of only thirteen recorded for English provincial towns outside Oxford and Cambridge during the 17th century and, as both were of a similar size, it invites comparison with that of John Foster of York compiled the following year. But while Foster had succeeded to a well-established York business run by his uncle Anthony, Harte was the son of an Exeter shoemaker and went to London to learn his trade2. He was apprenticed to John Windet, citizen and stationer of London on 29 September 1585 and was turned over to Andrew Maunsell and then to Robert Dexter when he succeeded Maunsell at the sign of the Brazen Serpent in about 1590. He was admitted freeman of the Stationers Company on 5 October 1592 and the following year his name appeared in the imprint of George Gifford's Dialogue concerning witches and witchcraft. However he soon after returned to Exeter, becoming a freeman of Exeter by succession on 31 December 1593. He obtained a licence dated 20 November 1596 to marry Rebecca Harding and the wedding took place on 16 January 1596/7 in the church of St Petrock. His business was in the parish of St Martin where he is recorded in subsidies from 1595 onward. Two children are recorded in the parish register of St Martin: Joan, baptised on 7 October 1600 and Michael, baptised on 15 December 1601. One apprentice is also recorded: John Moungwell, who became a freeman of Exeter in 1604/5 and was one of those who drew up Harte's inventory in 1615. As Moungwell was active as a bookseller in his own right until the 1650s, one can therefore place some credence in the values assigned to the stock. Harte's burial is recorded in the registers of St Martin for 12 November 1615. The inventory was drawn up for the Exeter Court of Orphans on 9 December 1615. Michael's son, also named Michael, was subsequently free of the city on 2 December 1622 but is not recorded as an active member of the book trade3.

One could wish that John Moungwell, John Warren and George Prouze had not lost interest in listing individual titles so soon. In the case of the York inventory some three quarters of the 3373 copies listed can be individually identified, a total of some 750 different titles. Nevertheless some analysis is possible and some comparisons can be drawn. In the following paragraphs figures for Foster's inventory are given in parentheses.

For statistical purposes the parcels of books in Harte's inventory have been assumed to contain ten items each, a reasonable estimate based on comparison of prices. With this assumption we arrive at a total of 4558 volumes for Harte's stock (Foster 3373) with a total value of £103/8/2d (Foster £144/16/4d), 71 per cent of the total value of the inventory including household goods, which amounted to £165/14/11 (Foster 88 per cent of £163/15/8d). Rather more than half the number, 2572 volumes, were shelved in the shop, although their value at £47/0/0d was less than half the total value of his stock. The most valuable items, a total of 923 volumes assessed at £44/7/6d, including all those individually listed, were stored in the hall, while the remaining 1063, worth a mere £12/0/8d were in the warehouse. A fuller analysis is given in table 1.

Table 1. Numbers and value of Harte's stock by location and format

	Hall		Warehouse		Shop		Total
	Vol	Value	Vol	Value	Vol	Value	Vol	Value
Folios	56	£14-5-2	53	1 £0-10-0	136	£12-10-0	245	£28-5-2
Quartos	230	£18-1-8	400	£6-10-0	247	£7-10-0	877	£32-1-8
Octavos	560	£11-0-1	590	£3- 10-0	1035	£15-12-4	2185	£30-2-4
12s & 16s	0	0	0	0	323	£3-10-0	323	£3-10-0
Miscellaneous	77	£1-0-8	20	£0-10-8	831*	£7-17-8*	928	£9-9-0
Totals	923	£44-7-6	1063	£12-0-8	2572	£47-0-0	4558	£103-8-2

* Excludes maps.

Like Foster, Harte also undertook bookbinding and his equipment, worth 12/2d (Foster £8/6/6d) was stored in the shop.

Perhaps because of the more perfunctory nature of Harte's inventory, his volumes, at an average unit value of 5.4d, were consistently valued much lower than Foster's (10.3d), although full comparisons are difficult because of the different forms of binding, whether gilt, vellum, stitched or in quires, but the different sizes and unit values of the various formats of stock in the two inventories are best summarised in the following table. Prices are given in old pence.

Table 2. Proportions of volumes and value of Harte's stock by format with unit values.

Format	Volumes		Value		Unit value
	Per cent		Per cent		Old pence
	Harte	Foster	Harte	Foster	Harte	Foster
Folio	5.4	4.4	27.3	30.1	27.7	70.6
Quarto	19.2	19.5	31.0	30.0	8.8	15.9
Octavo	47.9	60.8	29.1	29.3	3.3	5.0
12s & 16s	7.1	10.5	3.4	8.3	2.6	8.1
Miscellaneous	20.4	4.8	9.2	2.3	2.4	4.8
Total/average	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	5.4	10.3

The currency of Harte's stock is difficult to assess as the dates of the editions are not recorded. In the identifications in table 3 the date of the latest editions recorded by the Short-title catalogue4 before Harte's death are given. It would seem that editions of about two thirds of the titles which can be identified had appeared in the five years before Harte's death. Over that period only about 2331 titles are recorded as having been published in Great Britain in the Short-title catalogue5. With a stock of 4558 volumes, even if many, such as psalms and schoolbooks, are duplicates Harte should have had a wide-ranging and up-to-date stock, perhaps some 1000 different titles, if duplication is similar to Foster's. There is a little evidence of foreign books such as the Galen (item 1), the Pineda (item 11), the Caesarius (item 17), the Hebrew Bible (item 26) and a parcel of French books (item 66) but Foster too only had seven per cent of continental books. There are also several entries referring to old books (items 1, 21, 43, 46-48, 65, 71 and 77).

Harte's subject coverage would seem to be broadly similar to Foster's. Religious works figure large, with prayerbooks, psalms and commentaries on the Bible. Religious works made up 28.8 per cent of Forster's stock. Schoolbooks both old and new are loisted in Harte's inventory (items 42. 43, and 70), and this is a category which made up 27.8 per cent of Foster's stock. Of the 30 titles that can be identified in Harte's inventory, almost half find probable counterparts in Foster's stock.

So are we talking about a common culture? While there is much in common, there is some suggestion of a difference in emphasis. Harte's stock shows a significant ineterest in other countries in the histories of Spain, France and Venice. As well as the French dictionary there are translations of Montaigne and La Primaudaye. Perhaps this reflects an interest in foreign lands generated by Exeter's position as a major port. The contrast can perhaps be epitomised by the works of Thomas Blundeville in each inventory.While Foster stock his work on horsemanship6, Harte's inventory lists his Exercises which, in its second part, contans a description of Mercator's globes and Drake's circumnavigation. Harte seems to be responding to a community which, while it shared much wih the rest of the country, nevertheless maintained some cultural distinctiveness.

Table 3. Notes on the first 37 items (* indicates the same or similar title in Foster's inventory, STC refers to the Short-title catalogue number, and BLC to the British Library catalogue.)

Item	Title	STC no
1.*?	Galen. No folio English editions noted in STC. Quarto editions 1521-85	11531-7
2. *	Willet, Andrew. Synopsis papismi. 4th ed. 1613	25699
3.	Mayerne, Turquet Louis de. The generall historie of Spaine. 1613	17747
4.	The historie of France. The four first bookes. 1595	11276
5.	Fougasses, Thomas de. The general history of Venice. 1612	11207
6.	Greenham, Richard. The works. 5th ed. 1612	12318
7. *	Babington, Gervase. The workes. 1615.	1077-8
8. *	Willet, Andrew. An harmonie upon the first [second] booke of Samuel. 1614.	25679-80
9.	Willet, Andrew. Hexapla: that is a six-fold commentarie upon the epistle to the Romanes. 1611.	25690
10.	Cotgrave, Randal. A dictionarie of the French and English tongues. 1611	5830
11.	Pineda, Joannes ed. ... ad suos in Salomonem commentarios ... New ed. Mainz, 1613.	BLC
12.	Bible (insufficient detail to identify)	-
13. *?	Jewel, John. Works. 1611	14580
14. *?	Vermigli, Pietro Martire. (Various folio editions 1564-83)	24667-72
15.	Walther, Rudolph. (Title not apparent in STC, Prof D.R.Woolf suggests:)	25013
16. *	Dallington, Sir Robert. Aphorisms civill and militarie. 1613	6197
17. *	Caesarius, Joannes. Dialectica (or other continental editions on rhetoric)	BLC
18.	Bodin, Jean. The six bookes of a commonweale. 1606.	3193
19. *	Montaigne, Michel de. Essayes written in French. 1613	18042
20-25.	(Insufficient detail)	-
26.	Bible. Hebrew (no English edition traced in STC, various continental eds.)	BLC
27.	Zanchius, Hieronymus. Speculum christianum. 1614. Octavo edition.	26121a7?
28. *?	Ursinus, Zacharias. Summe of christian religion. 1611.	24537
29.	Smith, Henry. Sermons. Quarto. 1614.	22729
30.	Cowper, William. Three heavenly treatises upon the eight chapter to the Romanes. Octavo. 1612	5936
31. *	King, John. Lectures upon Jonas delivered at Yorke ... 1594. 1611	14979
32. *	Marlorat, Augustine. Propheticae. 1574.	17409
33. *	La Primaudaye, Pierre. The French academie. 1601, 1605	15239-40
34.	Blundeville, Thomas. Exercises. 4th ed. 1613.	3149
35.	Downame, John. The christian warfare. 2nd ed. 1608.	7134
36.	Downame, George. Defence of the sermon preached at the consecration of the Bishop of Bath. 1611.	7115
37. *	Dod, John & Cleaver, Robert. Briefe explanation of the whole booke of the proverbes of Salomon. 1615.	5378

References:

1. The inventory is in the Devon Record Office, Exeter Court of Orphans records (Ref: DRO/ECA/Book 144 p.129-134. Attention was drawn to it by W.G.Hoskins "An Exeter bookseller's stock in 1615", Devon and Cornwall notes and queries, vol. 21, 1940, p.36-7. The numbers 1 to 91 have been added to the first items in the inventory to facilitate reference in the commentary.

2. A detailed analysis of Foster's inventory is given by John Barnard and Maureen Bell in The early seventeenth-century book trade and John Foster's inventory of 1616. Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 1994.

3. The main facts of Harte's life are given by Ian Maxted in The Devon book trades: a biographical dictionary. Exeter: J.Maxted, 1991, p.78.

4. A short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English books printed abroad 1475-1640. - London: Bibliographical Society, 1976-91.

5. Maureen Bell and John Barnard. "Provisional count of STC titles 1475-1640", Publishing history, 31, 1992, p.54.

6. The fower chiefyst offices belongyng to horsemanshippe. Six editions 1565-1609. STC 3152-57.

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This page last updated 12 Feb 2005
© Ian Maxted, 2005.