This chapter talks about the editing in Britain of patristic texts, classical texts and the writings of Shakespeare. The broader field of the editing of Greek and Latin classical texts similarly reflected cultural, academic and social issues, though in more complicated ways. Classical editing of course addressed itself to that audience which had access to knowledge of the learned languages, public- and grammar-school and university educated, primarily male. Major editorial work was carried on by gentleman scholars and by professional men. The editing of vernacular literary classics in the long eighteenth century shows a still more extensive and dramatic dissemination of reading, and development of professional institutions and practices and communities of scholarship. Shakespeare is the exemplary case: a native text, even by the beginning of the eighteenth century the great representative of a characteristically British literary genius, played with increasing frequency in the theatre, and the central ground of the exercises and battles of an emerging English literary scholarship.

Scientific and medical texts represented a small percentage of all titles published in eighteenth-century Britain. Yet, this literature contributed greatly to both the progress of the Enlightenment and the establishment of natural knowledge in British culture. The commercial histories of scientific and medical books share some common characteristics, but their cultural roles tended to be quite different. More often than not, medical books were written by medical practitioners and read by students preparing for medical careers. In contrast, writers of scientific books often earned their livings in occupations that typically had no direct relationship to the subject of their work, while their readers generally did no. anticipate using the knowledge gained from their study to earn money. At the high end of the market for scientific and medical works were those books published in large format with multiple illustrations.