{"id":664,"date":"2025-01-01T03:15:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T03:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/?p=664"},"modified":"2025-11-13T00:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T00:55:16","slug":"audiences-readership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/2025\/01\/01\/audiences-readership\/","title":{"rendered":"AUDIENCES & READERSHIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I established in my<\/span> last blog post<\/span><\/a>, the physical construction of <\/span>The Historie of Fovre-Footed Beasts<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>The Historie of Serpents <\/span><\/i>shows clear signs of frequent use\u2014and occasional abuse\u2014by past readers. A rebinding and damage ranging from scratched-out illustrations to ripped-out pages, abundant marginalia, and scribbling suggests that, while the book was well-consulted, as Topsell hoped, it was not always well-treated (Figures 1, 2, & 3).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Figure 2<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Figure 1<\/p><\/div>\n

There is abundant evidence of a readership for <\/span>Beastes, <\/span><\/i>but I can deduce little else; uncovering who these folks might have been has proven to be a difficult calculus. <\/span>It was my initial hope that by working my way backward from the most recent owner of this book, I could perhaps find one of its first. <\/span>Beastes <\/span><\/i>once belonged to Edwin E. Willoughby, Dickinson alumnus, former Chief Bibliographer of the Folger Shakespeare Library, and scholar of early printed Shakespeare works and the King James Bible. After his death in 1959, his sister and executor, Col. Frances Willoughby, coordinated with the College archivist and librarian Charles Sellers to donate <\/span>Beastes <\/span><\/i>along with Edwin’s dizzying collection of over four hundred rare books; it was his wish that future students\u2014like myself\u2014could learn about bibliography through these books. And what a gift. I only wish <\/span>Beastes<\/span><\/i> and the Willoughby files accompanied accession documents, bills of sale, receipts, <\/span>anything<\/span><\/i>, as without them, I cannot trace ownership past the Willoughbys\u2014alas<\/span>, a dead end<\/span><\/i>. (I have reached out to the Folger Shakespeare Library to see if, by chance, they possess any pertinent documentation which is unlikely. I have not yet heard back. Hopefully, they do. I can use whatever they find to establish this book\u2019s \u2018afterlife\u2019 in my next and final blog post).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Figure 3<\/p><\/div>\n

In working on the previous blog post, I did discover a reader who inscribed his name in ink in the front matter: a \u201cJohnathan Yates,\u201d signed 1660 (Figure 5). If he is the same as the one found in the <\/span>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography<\/span><\/i>, \u2018John Yates\u2019 (c. 1586\u20131660) was an Anglican clergyman, theologian, and physician (\u201cJohn Yates,\u201d 2004)(Sprunger, 697-698). He was admitted as a sizar to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1604, matriculating the same year, and earned his B.A. in 1607\/08, M.A. in 1611, and B.D. in 1618, and was a fellow of the college from 1611 to 1616. Yates was ordained deacon and priest in September 1614 and later served as a preacher at St. Andrew\u2019s, Norwich, from 1616 to 1622. In 1622, he became rector of Stiffkey, Norfolk, where he remained until his death in 1660. I cannot determine definitively that the present John Yates is the same who inscribed his name in <\/span>Beastes<\/span><\/i>, as the accompanying date\u20141660\u2014is the year he died, and \u2018John,\u2019 though an abbreviated form of \u2018Johnathan,\u2019 is not necessarily the same name. Notwithstanding my inability to corroborate his relationship to this book, John Yates might yet serve as a point of departure from which to hypothesize the likely reader of <\/span>Beastes<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yates was by all accounts a learned and notable controversialist: as an author, he wrote many theological works; he also had a license to practice medicine in 1629, presumably issued by the Royal College of Physicians\u2014I cannot, however, determine the capacity in which he exercised this license for we know so little about his local ministry (\u201cJohn Yates,\u201d 2004). If this Yates is indeed the same individual, his position as a clergyman and scholar would suggest that he was part of the audience Topsell hoped to reach with <\/span>Beastes<\/span><\/i>: the \u201clearned men\u201d of England. As an educated man no doubt with interests in intellectual stimulation and spiritual edification, Yates would have been drawn to Topsell\u2019s bestiary, especially given its theological overtones. More generally, Yates\u2019 interests in \u201cpractical theology\u201d would have aligned well with Topsell\u2019s conception of natural philosophy, which often connected the study of animals to both spiritual and medical concerns (Springer, 702, 704-706).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Yates likely would have been interested in the systematic approach that Topsell and Gesner both advocated.<\/span> However, contrasting the \u2018notes to readers\u2019 in <\/span>Beastes <\/span><\/i>with the \u2018note to readers\u2019 in<\/span> Serpents<\/span><\/i> provides more clues about the intended audience and their relationship with the author. <\/span>Topsell\u2019s objective with the publication of <\/span>Beastes<\/span><\/i>, as he states in \u201cTo The Learned <\/span>Readers,\u201d <\/span><\/i>was not only to gather all that had been written of beasts into one \u201cDictionary\u201d for the consultation of \u201clearned men\u201d in their vulgar tongue but also to show to his \u201ccountrymen\u201d the moral instruction God provides in all animals. To achieve this goal, Topsell, somewhere between tribute and theft, lifted his text and woodcuts almost wholesale from Conrad Gesner\u2019s <\/span>Historiae Animalium, <\/span><\/i>including a famous broadside of \u201cThe Rhinoceros\u201d\u2013\u2013a woodcut which Gesner himself \u2018borrowed\u2019 from Albrecht D\u00fcrer (Kusukawa, 311) (Figure 4). Topsell was indeed an assiduous compiler but a profoundly unoriginal man.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Figure 5<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Figure 4<\/p><\/div>\n

Topsell recognizes that a compilation as ambitious as his must yield to a certain tentativeness; it is better, he believes, to publish an incomplete treatise than to let it languish unprinted in the potentiality of his untimely death. Therefore, he appeals to readers to contribute insights, add information, or correct mistakes. And his readers did just that: since Topsell published <\/span>The Historie of Fovre-Footed Beastes <\/span><\/i>in 1607 and <\/span>The Historie of Serpents <\/span><\/i>in 1608, one\u2014or several\u2014of the proprietors bound them to create a more complete reference book (<\/span>when <\/span><\/i>they did this, however, I cannot determine). Topsell responded in kind to his readers: in the \u201cTo The Reader\u201d preface to <\/span>Serpents,<\/span><\/i> Topsell acknowledges the many protestations he received from the readers of <\/span>Beastes <\/span><\/i>because of the typographical mistakes therein; <\/span>Serpents<\/span><\/i>, he assures readers, features no such errors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This dynamic between Topsell and his readers reveals something about the intellectual context in which audiences received <\/span>Beastes<\/span><\/i>. Readers like Yates, whoever they may have been (<\/span>scholars<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> clergymen<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>aspirant zoologists<\/span><\/i>\u2013\u2013we may never know definitively), were far from passive consumers of <\/span>Beastes <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Serpents<\/span><\/i>: they actively engaged the text<\/span>,<\/span><\/i> provided feedback, pointed out errors, inscribed their names, marked passages for later use, and even altered its material form through rebinding. While we cannot identify the readers of <\/span>Beastes<\/span><\/i>, they were as instrumental in shaping it as Topsell himself. Indeed, this book was not a static receptacle for animal lore but a dynamic, material space where reader and author cooperated\u2014at times, competed\u2014to articulate and cultivate knowledge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WORKS CITED<\/span><\/p>\n

Kusukawa, S. (2010, July). <\/span>The sources of Gessner’s pictures for the Historia animalium<\/span><\/i>. Annals of Science. 67 (3): 303\u2013328. <\/span>http:\/\/www.rhinoresourcecenter.com\/pdf_files\/128\/1286404337.pdf<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sprunger, Keith L. \u201cJohn Yates of Norfolk: The Radical Puritan Preacher as Ramist Philosopher.\u201d <\/span>Journal of the History of Ideas<\/span><\/i>, vol. 37, no. 4, 1976, pp. 697\u2013706.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Yates.\u201d <\/span>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography<\/span><\/i>, Oxford University Press, 2004, <\/span>https:\/\/www.oxforddnb.com\/display\/10.1093\/ref:odnb\/9780198614128.001.0001\/odnb-9780198614128-e-30193?rskey=Aup4DQ&result=1<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WORKS CONSULTED<\/span><\/p>\n

Carpo, Mario.\u00a0 <\/span>Architecture in the Age of Printing: Orality, Writing, Typography, and Printed Images in the History of Architectural Theory<\/span><\/i> (2001 translation), p. 110.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heltzel, Virgil B. \u201cSome New Light on Edward Topsell.\u201d <\/span>Huntington Library Quarterly<\/span><\/i> 1, no. 2 (1938): 199\u2013202.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaac, S. (2018, March 16). <\/span>The familiar and the fantastic: The Historie of Foure-Footed beastes by Edward Topsell, 1607.<\/span><\/i> Royal College of Surgeons. <\/span>https:\/\/www.rcseng.ac.uk\/library-and-publications\/library\/blog\/the-familiar-and-the-fantastic\/<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lancaster, James A.T. \u201cNatural Knowledge as a Propaedeutic to Self-Betterment: Francis Bacon and the Transformation of Natural History.\u201d <\/span>Early Science and Medicine<\/span><\/i> 17, no. 1\/2 (2012): 181\u201396.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lewis, G. “Topsell, Edward (bap. 1572, d. 1625), Church of England clergyman and author.” <\/span>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.<\/span><\/i> 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ong, Walter. \u201cWriting Restructures Consciousness: The New World of Autonomous Discourse\u201d in <\/span>Orality and Literacy: 30th Anniversary Ed. <\/span><\/i>Milton Park OX: Routledge, 2014. 77\u2013114.<\/span><\/p>\n

University of Washington. University Libraries. \u201cThe Historie of Serpents.\u201d <\/span>Edward Topsell, 1608. <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/www.lib.washington.edu\/preservation\/preservation-services\/conservation\/topsell<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

Westhrop, H. (2007, March). <\/span>Edward Topsell, <\/span><\/i>The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents<\/span>, 1658. Special Collections featured item for March 2006 by Helen Westhrop, Rare Books Library Assistant. <\/span><\/i>University of Reading. <\/span>https:\/\/collections.reading.ac.uk\/special-collections\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/01\/Featured-Item_Topsell_compressed.pdf<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I established in my last blog post, the physical construction of The Historie of Fovre-Footed Beasts and The Historie of Serpents shows clear signs of frequent use\u2014and occasional abuse\u2014by past readers. A rebinding and damage ranging from scratched-out illustrations to ripped-out pages, abundant marginalia, and scribbling suggests that, while the book was well-consulted, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5250,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audience","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":701,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}