Selling Books from the Sheldonian Theatre 1677-1720

Catalogues were produced from time to time at Oxford by the University Press at the Sheldonian Theatre in the hope of selling good and learned books. In what numbers they were produced is not clear, but it is likely to have been some hundreds of copies in most years between 1694 and 1716. These catalogues must be regarded first in the light of the history of the university press in Oxford in these years; second, in the context of booksellers' catalogues in general. They reveal much about the selling of learned books in Oxford in this period, an account of which is provided, along with a descriptive list of the relevant documents.