The secret printing and publishing career of richard overton the leveller, 1644-46

Abstract

The arrest of Richard Overton in August 1646 marked the end of one of the most notorious and successful underground presses of the Civil War period. Over the previous twenty months, a steady stream of distinctive and radical tracts had issued from Overton's press. This article begins by offering an account of Overton's complex political and business dealings, and goes on, through detailed type analysis, to identify works not hitherto attributed to Overton which tell us much about his alliances in this period. The article concludes by suggesting that, despite the fact that the output of figures like Overton was shrouded in secrecy, the traces left by the printing technologies that they used can allow the scholar to recover much about their activities. © 2010 The Bibliographical Society.