The letters of Jacob Tonson

"The letters in this edition (Bodleian MS. Eng. lett. c. 129) present Tonson's life as a bookseller, his circle, and his important intellectual and social interests. They are exclusively from Tonson to his nephew and sometime partner, Jacob Tonson the younger, dealing with his affairs from the moment he first took possession of his country estate following his retirement and recent financial success. They concern, among other things, literature, publishing, friendship, and cultural and social affinity, theology, law, public office, and provincial life, agriculture, horticulture, vitriculture, and much more. They are an important archival record in the Bodleian's holdings of the early eighteenth century and should be better known. They are published her for the first time" -- p. 16.