Database
Making the Database
The chief collaborative output of the Civility Project will be the creation of an open-access database of all extant courtesy, conduct, and civility books published in England, from 1500 to 1700. Although several extant sources detail the fortunes of certain sub-sets of conduct books in the early modern period, no one has yet mounted this data in a single digital repository.
Our primary digital sources for data are the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), the Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC), A.W. Pollard and G.R. Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue of English Books 1475-1640, Donald Wing’s Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America 1641-1700, Early English Books Online (EEBO), and Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO). These physical and digital reference materials have been key in gathering and amending information on our selection of courtesy, conduct, and civility texts. The information entered into our database has also been enriched through first-hand bibliographical analysis of certain texts from key rare book libraries around the world.
Beyond enabling our own investigations into the patterns of translation, publication, marketing, and commercial reception of conduct books in England, our database is also intended for use by students and scholars around the globe. The goal is to create an accessible repository of data which researchers at every stage can draw on to formulate new insights on the nature and importance of conduct books in the intellectual and cultural milieu of early modern Europe.
What's in the Database?
An important feature of our Database is that it provides expansive, informative descriptions of each distinct edition of each chosen text. For example, each entry in our database includes:
- The text’s title, date of imprint, location of imprint, and imprint information;
- The text’s format, page range, leaf range, and language of publication;
- A description of any frontispieces, title page ornamentation, and internal illustrations found in the text;
- Detailed notes on epitaphs, and translations of important Greek/Latin/European vernacular phrases, where needed;
- Information on the text’s internal structure and how this structure relates to the text’s contents;
- Notes on the date of the first edition, and the total number of editions for each particular text;
- Information on the author and/or translator of each text;
- A catalogue of the paratextual material found in each text;
- Generic labels that help group together particular genres of texts (for example, ‘On Nobility’, ‘For the Education of Children’, and ‘The Conduct of a Gentlewoman’);
- Extensive notes on other interesting bibliographical features of the text, alongside commentary to help readers understand the importance that each text held at the time of their publication.
Our Database entries extend upon the information held for conduct, civility, and courtesy texts found in resources like the ESTC, for the benefit of scholars and students alike.