Scribleriana Transferred: English Verse 1701–1750: Recent Listings, Especially from Ximenes and C. R. Johnson

112 nonexpendable. While Mr. Bannerman argues that pragmatic economic concerns trumped political patronage in the awarding of contracts, he notes that the Jacobite rebellions altered this scenario in Scotland, where loyalty became a credential for employment. Mr. Bannerman’s analysis of procedures and patronage lays bare the technical considerations that underlay government employment. Merchants had to demonstrate possession of a sufficient credit line to underwrite expenses in the face of lagging government payments, and a contact network that would guarantee their ability to supply the troops. London merchants dominated this field. Arguing against the conventional image of contractors as war profiteers, Mr. Bannerman points out that few made fortunes. The majority of contractors were established businessmen, who pursued government employment as one of many commercial endeavors. Contractor John Willan, for example, had previous interests in supplying horses and wagons , or bread and hay, which were issued to troops. While a few were politically prominent, most simply were successful merchants. Well-researched and analytical, Merchants and the Military draws together multiple separate threads of historical inquiry to plumb a vital, neglected, area of eighteenth-century British history. William P. Tatum III Brown University SCRIBLERIANA TRANSFERRED ENGLISH VERSE 1701–1750: RECENT LISTINGS, ESPECIALLY FROM XIMENES AND C. R. JOHNSON James E. May • Antiquarian dealers Chris Johnson (C. R. Johnson) and Steve Weissman (Ximenes ) have begun listing in parts a remarkable collection of British poetical publications from the period covered by D. F. Foxon’s bibliography. Thus far they have released English Verse 1701–1750: Part I: A–G, largely written by Weissman, on 202 pages covering 438 items. Two or three more catalogues will follow (one devoted to Pope), with the process taking another year (the delay is partly required to describe, reference, research, and comment on the works). This part includes substantial listings for Sir Richard Blackmore (12 items), James Bramston (9), Daniel Defoe (14), Robert Dodsley (8), and John Gay (20). The gems include not only highpriced rarities by major figures like Defoe, Fielding, and Gay, but also unrecorded editions and works. In corresponding, Weissman wrote, recently we have acquired an enormous collection of Foxon verse (1701–1750), largely built by one collector [James O. Edwards], over the last twenty years or more . . . but also with additions from other sources, including some interesting things from Roger Lonsdale [and both dealers’ stocks]. The breadth is pretty spectacular . . . we probably have 20 per cent of Foxon plus a good array of miscellanies. I’ve completed the first catalogue now, covering A to G. And having so much material together at one time, I found it hard to resist doing very elab- 113 orate descriptions. There have been a fair number of discoveries. (email, 22 August 2010). He adds with justice, ‘‘I don’t think there has been anything like this since Dobell’s catalogue in the 1930’s.’’ Many but not most of the listings in the A–G catalogue are also found on ABEBOOKS (perhaps those on ABE are only previous holdings by Weissman and Johnson bundled into the newly catalogued)—fanfare over the new list should allow direct sales. Weissman’s discoveries and revelations include unrecorded titles and corrections to Foxon and the ESTC for known items (as regards authors, special issues, variant states). His remarks on collections and miscellanies are particularly valuable given Foxon’s focus on separately printed poems. There is valuable copy-specific information about MS additions to copies, such as transcriptions of authorial comments on copies of the Earl of Orrery’s elegiac tribute to Edmund Sheffield (‘‘annotated with an explanation of the history of the poem on the first four and a half of the sixty-four pages’’). The expert observations involve binding, paper-stocks, provenance , authorship, contexts of publications, arguments for prioritizing editions, and scholarly references to the works. The superb commentary, equal to the collection, includes hundreds of informative essays treating poets, publishers and printers, and cultural and political affairs, always lively and often amusing. Anyone working on the period should request the catalogue as a PDF (steve@ximines.com) even if he or she has never bought an eighteenth-century book—normally one pays a hundred dollars to get a book without...