The options on this page enable you to restrict the data that is taken into account when using the 'Map' menu function or generating Queries, Rankings, and Comparisons. Note that this will not affect anything on the Browse menu, however, where all items and full totals will still be shown, nor will it limit results from any searches.
Data Source: This menu is intended to allow users to make data outputs more consistent, though this will be at the expense of chronological coverage. By limiting sources to types which contain similar data or data structures, users can ensure that the responses to queries are more directly comparable over time. However, as no source type survives for the entire time span recorded in the database (1769-1794), restricting source types will inevitably create gaps in the data. Fortunately the richest data source for most of our purposes (the Day Books) survives for the bulk of the period covered in the project, and gaps in the Day Books are mostly filled by the second best source, the Stock Books.
Client Data Source: This option menu is only intended for use when conducting searches on client networks (as opposed to book trade transactions). It relates to the source of data on clients, which is more or less comprehensive according to where it comes from.
Edition Type: This menu allows users to compensate for the over-representation of Swiss and particularly STN / Neuchatel editions in the database, and for distortions resulting from the sending of large consignments of a single commissioned work to an author, bookdealer or other sponsor. It can also be used to study the long and short range trade in books coming from particular regions in Switzerland or abroad. In combination with other options, it might be used to locate the destinations of illegal works sourced from the Netherlands or to facilitate similar complex searches. Users should note that the usual caveats apply about the difficulties of positively identifying editions. Generally our evidence is more solid for Swiss and particularly STN editions than those produced elsewhere. In addition, bibliographic information informing this option menu is primarily drawn from the 'actual place of publication' field in the database, which is based on library records. Thus in some cases false imprints and bibliographical errors may have been imported. Figures returned using this option should therefore be treated as indicative rather than definitive.
Client Type: This option menu enables users to exclude client categories that may distort the results of certain types of query. They allow for the exclusion of purchasers who had strong tendencies to forward books to locations well beyond their own locality, the interrogatation of particular sectors of the book trade, or the examination of demand from beyond the book trade.
Client Gender: This option menu enables users to exclude or include clients on account of their gender, in order to allow analysis of the differing practices, locations etc. of male and female clients. This option is provided not only because gender is a well established class of historical analysis, but also because historians have identified the book trade as one of the areas of commerce where women were able to compete most actively, effectively and independently alongside men.
Markers of Illegality: This option menu enables users to exclude or include books according to a variety of measures of illegality drawn from a variety of sources and ancien regime jurisdictions and covering the years up to 1789. As legality and illegality were flexible concepts under the ancien regime, particularly in France, there was no one way of determining what was illegal; and illegality embraced a wide spectrum, from innocuous works published without going through the proper system of legal permissions and censorship, through pirate editions which violated the privileges of authorised publishers (including many Swiss editions), to works considered a serious threat to order, religion or public morals. This means that any measure of illegality can only be indicative rather than comprehensive. Note that the option is inclusive: i.e. if a book falls into one of the categories that is switched on, it will feature in responses to data queries, even if it falls into another category that is switched off. Note that many works have more than one marker of illegality, and also that works published for the first time after 1789 are unlikely to feature. In addition, no one measure is comprehensive, and some works which would have been found highly reprehensible in many jurisdictions feature on none of these lists. In addition, we have made no effort to identify pirate editions. It should also be noted that the majority of religious works traded by the STN would be considered illegal (and sometimes highly so) in France and some other Catholic jurisdictions.
Languages: This option menu is intended to limit queries to corpuses of texts published in various languages or combinations of languages. However, as STN sales of all other language corpuses were tiny in comparison with French, this option will probably only usually be used to refine other options, either by limiting queries to French language texts or to refine searches using the Original Languages option. Languages and language combinations are listed here in descending order of sales. For sales figures for each language, select 'Languages' from the Rank drop down menu.
Original Languages: This option menu is intended to allow analysis of the foreign language corpuses and hence cultural and literary transfers. It allows users to limit their queries to editions that are direct or indirect translations from another language (usually into French). N.B. A very small number of editions were translations between two languages other than French. These can be isolated and included in or excluded from user queries by judicious use of the Language Corpus option menu. The corpuses listed below are listed in descending order of sales. Note that when a work is known to have been translated through an intermediary language, this is also recorded.