Professor Mazella:
English 3301: Special Collections Group Worksheet
Each group should examine (slowly! carefully! with respect for the books!) a variety of Swift
materials in the first 20 minutes or so (if you'd like, one person can act as secretary for the group,
though each member should sign off on the lines below).
While looking at these books, we’ll be following some sourcing questions to help us identify
what we’re dealing with. For any source, these questions would be (with suggested follow-up
questions in the bullet-points):
1. Who wrote it?
 What is the title?
 If the book is a set of collected works, is anyone else credited with compiling it or
writing about Swift?
2. When (and where) was it published?
 What is the publication-date?
 Is it a first or other edition?
 Where was it printed? (If the exact printing location is listed, provide that as well).
Was it printed in more than one place?
 Who were the publishers/printers/booksellers?
3. What type of document is it?
 Can you describe the genres (types of writing) contained within this volume? (e.g.,
poetry, periodical journalism, essays, treatises, narratives, etc.)
 Is it a single, stand-alone volume of the author’s work, part of a set of collected
works of the author, a small reading edition, or a larger, more formal “library”
edition?
 What kinds of features do you see that might be typical of 18th century printing, such
as paper with chain lines or catchwords? (these will be explained)
 Does the book include any other decorative features, such as gilt on the binding,
marbled paper, or illustrations?
4. What type of audience was it written for?
 What kinds of user do you think this book was intended for? (rich people? Scholars?
Students?) What evidence of this kind of use can you offer?
 Are there any signs of ownership, such as owner’s signatures or bookplates?
After sampling a number of works and editions, settle on two different items to do the following
comparative assignment. Follow these steps on your worksheet:
STEP I: Comparison: Focus on the item assigned to your group. If possible, compare different
versions of the same work, to see what kinds of differences you can find; record below which
editions you compared. (This means editions published in different years, or editions by
different publishers or editors). If not, just try to find two items as different from one another as
you can, to see how the size, appearance, etc. of a book affects your perceptions of its “content.”
1
On the basis of the title-pages etc., provide the following information:
1. Example 1:
A. Author? Title? Editors, if any? (Who wrote it?)
B.
i. What was the date of publication? (When published?)
ii. Where was it printed? (If the printer's exact location is listed, provide that, as well)
(where published?)
iii. Who printed it? (who published?)
C. What kind of writing (genre) does your item represent? What type of book is it contained in?
(what type of writing or volume?)
D.
i. Are there any other publisher's notices in the front or back of the book? Other books or
authors advertised? (Which intended audience?)
ii. Is there any physical evidence for intended audience (scholarly footnotes or apparatus;
editorial introductions and prefaces; bookplates, illustrations, bindings etc.)? (Which intended
audience?)
E. Other information?
2. Example 2:
A. Author? Title? Editors, if any? (Who wrote it?)
B.
i. What was the date of publication? (When published?)
ii. Where was it printed? (If the printer's exact location is listed, provide that, as well)
(where published?)
iii. Who printed it? (who published?)
C. What kind of writing (genre) does your item represent? What type of book is it contained in?
(what type of writing or volume?)
D.
i. Are there any other publisher's notices in the front or back of the book? Other books or
authors advertised? (Which intended audience?)
ii. Is there any physical evidence for intended audience (scholarly footnotes or apparatus;
editorial introductions and prefaces; bookplates, illustrations, bindings etc.)? (Which intended
audience?)
E. Other information?
2
STEP II: Research. After examining your items, post a group report on the blog by FRIDAY
evening that answers the following questions:
a) What kinds of differences could you discern between your two items? What physical features
of this edition might suggest the differing ways that this book was used, or Swift read, at various
times?
b) Using either the courseblog Resource or Biography pages, do enough research to provide
about a paragraph’s worth of information about just one of the following:



the work treated above, including its publication date, subject matter, and circumstances
of composition ;
the editor or bookseller, if he is named, and any connections to Swift;
any historical person named in the work, and his or her connection to Swift.
Be sure to include the link(s) to your sources of information.
Post online by Friday evening.
3