Leah Wenger
MA class of 2024, Johns Hopkins University
Francis Coles (d. 1680) was a book publisher and Ballad Partner in 17th century London. His name was widely associated with the broadside ballad trade, as he co-commissioned works to be printed alongside T. Bates, W. Gilbertson, T. Vere, and Jo. Wright (Blagden, 161; Plomer, 49). Coles made his living by selling vast quantities of cheap prints like ballads, treatises, prayer books, bills, and astrologies.
Through his print commissioning practices, Coles held high regard for black letter printing even as the style was falling out of style by the end of the sixteenth century in favor of the new Roman type. Cyprian Blagden theorized that this eventually led to the demise of his business as Coles did not keep up with the public taste (Blagden, 179), but this seems unlikely when considering more recent scholarship on black letter print as demonstrated by Gerald Egan (2007). Zachary Lesser proposes that black letter text, as a vehicle for meaning, conveys a sense of nostalgia and identity for lower to middle class people, a useful tool for a publisher of cheap print for the general public.
Coles sold his books at the Old Bailey before it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. His location was described as “at the signe of the Lamb in the Old-Bailey” (Parker 1660) or “at the signe of the Half-bowle in the Old-Baily” (Siston, 1650), or simply “in the Old-Bayly” (Taylor, 1653).
Works Cited:
Blagden, Cyprian, “Notes on the Ballad Market in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century.” Studies in Bibliography, 6 (1954), 161–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40371127
Egan, Gerald, “Black Letter and the Broadside Ballad”, Patricia Fumerton, dir., English Broadside Ballad Archive, 2007, University of California at Santa Barbara, Department of English. https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/page/black-letter
Lesser, Zachary, “Typographic Nostalgia: Playreading, Popularity and the Meanings of Black Letter,” in The Book of the Play: Playwrights, Stationers, and Readers in Early Modern England, edited by Marta Straznicky (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006), 99-126
Parker, Martin, The famous history of that most renowned Christian worthy Arthur King of the Britaines,: and his famous Knights of the Round Table (London: printed for Francis Coles at the signe of the Lamb in the Old-Bailey, 1660)
Plomer, H. R. (Henry Robert). A dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667 (London: Printed for the Bibliographical Society, by Blades, East & Blades, 1907)
Siston, Joshua, A new catichisme for ever: or, The mite of a minister. Cast into a catechisme, for the preparation of his people, before they receive the supper of the Lord. By Joshuah Siston, minister at Grauby, in the vale of Bever (London: printed for Francis Coles, at the signe of the Half-bowle in the Old-Baily, 1651)
Taylor, John, Christmas in & out: or, our Lord & Saviour Christs birth-day. (London: printed by T.H. for Francis Coles, and are to be sold at his shop in the Old-Bayly, 1653)