ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2620 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2620 ************************************ 10 Feb 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our help choosing a name appropriate for a 16th century stationer's business in the Scottish Lowlands. Specifically, you asked us to evaluate , , and . Here is what we have found. We have found no evidence of modern-style named businesses in period Scotland. Until well after our period, Scottish records very rarely refer directly to a business; instead they refer to the person who ran it. For example, we see references like or to the person with whom one is doing business; or descriptions like or of the place where a transaction took place [1]. The concept of a business as an entity separate from its proprietor doesn't appear to have existed in this culture. There was certainly nothing comparable to our notion of a corporation as a legally separate entity. It's worth noting that Scottish towns were very small. Edinburgh reached about 15,000 people by 1600, and that was at least twice as large as the next largest town [5]. Most towns had 1000 or fewer people. With practioners of the same craft doing business on the same street, the need for business names may simply not have arisen. The earliest example we've found of used as an occupational term in Scotland is from 1642 [6]. A better choice is "bookbinder", which appears in Lowland documents in various forms from the late 15th century: "...a buk byndar of Brugis" 1496 [7] "Ihonn and Robert Lokpreuik, buikbinders" 1580 Edinburgh [7] "bookbinder, burgess of Edinburgh" 1586 [8] "Grissel Huchesoun, the spous of Andro Lawder, buikbinder" 1596 [7] "bookbinder, burgess of Perth" 1596 [8] Our best advice is that you identify your business simply by your name, or by your name plus the word . You're right to want to avoid the use of "guild" in the name of your business: the Society's custom of calling businesses "guilds" is an abuse of history. Guilds were not businesses so much as governing associations of tradesmen or craftsmen in the same business. An individual business would never have been called a guild. The term would be particularly inappropriate in Scotland: Each burgh had one , which was the elite body of burgesses who had extra privileges and who were most closely involved in governing the town. Craft organizations in Scotland were called , a term that was also used to describe the practitioners of any craft as a group, whether it had a formal organization or not. Crafts organized much later in Scotland than elsewhere in Europe, and their organizations were much more generic, collecting together related crafts. The hammermen, for example, included all the different kinds of smiths as well as almost any craft that used a hammer, such as skinners and saddlers [9]. You mentioned that you want to locate your business between Falkirk and Edinburgh. Crafts in Scotland were generally located in a burgh. Burghs had a legal monopoly on trade goods: A craftsman couldn't set up shop wherever he wanted [10]. Falkirk was made a burgh in 1600, so it isn't an option. Your choices in that region are Edinburgh or Linlithgow [11]. Not all crafts were practiced everywhere in Scotland. You may want to research who in 16th century Lowland culture actually made the goods you are planning to sell. Papermaking, for example, was introduced to Scotland only in the very late 16th century. Papermaking, bookbinding, and all related crafts were found almost exclusively in Edinburgh in the 16th century, and in many cases were practiced by immigrants. The only 16th century stationers we found connected to Scotland were guildmembers of the Stationers' Company in London who had apprenticed men who later became printers in Edinburgh or, in one case, a London stationer who himself became a bookseller in Edinburgh [12, 13]. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Effrick neyn Kenneoch, Mari neyn Brian, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, and Maridonna Benvenuti. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 10 Feb 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] These examples are typical, but not specifically ones we've found in period documents. The spellings are modernized. Specific examples appear in [2] and [3]. The exception to our general statement is mills, where the mill itself is very often mentioned. However, this is a special case: a mill is a place. Also, mills were usually owned by the town and leased by the miller [4]. [2] The manuscript Aberdeen Council Registers, Volumes 8 - 20 (1501-1551), in the Aberdeen City Archives. [3] _Records of Inverness_, New Spalding Club, vols. 38,42 (Aberdeen: New Spalding Club, 1911-24). [4] The manuscript Aberdeen Council Registers, viii, 954 (4 May 1509). Our translation: "... that the bakers of the town shall observe & keep the acts made before that is to say they shall have all their corns to their Justice Mill when the Over Mill and Nether Mill happens to have no water to serve them and if they fail, to pay their multures to the said mill" [5] Lynch, Michael. _Edinburgh and the Reformation_ (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd, 1981), pp 9-11. [6] ScottishDocuments.com (WWW: The Scottish Archive Network, 2002). A search on "station" before 1660 finds as an occupation, first attested in 1642: "relict of Andro Hart, printer and stationer in Edinburgh". Also in 1657: "stationer, burges of Glasgow". In 1658: "Robert Broune, stationer, burgess of Edinburgh". Spellings in this source have probably been modernized and normalized. [7] Craigie, William and A. J. Aitken, eds., _A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue from the Twelfth Century to the End of the Seventeenth, founded on the collections of Sir William A. Craigie_, 7 vols., vol. 1 - 7 (Chicago (1-4), Aberdeen (5-7): University of Chicago Press (1-4), Aberdeen University Press (5-7), 1931-), s.v. Bukebinder. [8] ScottishDocuments.com. The term doesn't appear until the mid-18th century. [9] Bain, Ebenezer. _Merchant and Craft Guilds: A History of the Aberdeen Incorporated Trades_ (Aberdeen: J. & J. P. Edmond & Spark, 1887). [10] Lynch, Michael, Michael Spearman, and Geoffrey Stell, eds., _The Scottish Medieval Town_ (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd, 1988); and Lynch, Michael, ed., _The Early Modern Town in Scotland_ (London: Croom Helm, 1987). [11] Pryde, George Smith. _The Burghs of Scotland: A Critical List_. London, Glasgow, New York: Oxford University Press for the University of Glasgow, 1965. [12] "Scottish Book Trade Index" (WWW: Scottish National Library, accessed 23 Jan 2003), s.nn. Norton, Wats, Graet Haere, Keysar, Russell, Seillar, Bassandyne, Bonkil, Brown, Chepman, Du Moullings, Gibson, Gourlay, Hart, Lauder, Lekprevik, Quintene, Ross, Sym, Symson, Van Hagen, Vautrollier, Wood, Woodhouse, Air, Chalmers, Lowes. This document describes itself as "an index of printers, publishers, booksellers, bookbinders, printmakers, stationers, and papermakers based in Scotland, from the beginnings of Scottish printing to ca. 1850". http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/resources/sbti [13] We found several websites that discuss the advent of papermaking in England and Scotland: "History of Papermaking in the United Kingdom" (WWW: British Association of Paper Historians, accessed 23 Jan 2003). http://www.baph.freeserver.co.uk/information/papermaking.html "The Quarterly, No 19 - July 1996" (WWW: British Association of Paper Historians, accessed 23 Jan 2003). http://www.baph.freeserver.co.uk/archive/quarterly19.html "Records relating to Papermaking in Britain" (WWW: Archives Hub, accessed 23 Jan 2003). http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/02101505.html For more information about the history of the book trades, you may want read these sections of the website of the National Library of Scotland: First Scottish Books http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/chepman Bookbinding http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/bookbinding