Tradition (from Latin "passing on"): A literary tradition is whatever is passed on or revived from the past in a single literary culture, or drawn from others to enrich a writer's culture. "Tradition" is fluid in reference, ranging from small to large referents: thus it may refer to a relatively small aspect of texts (e.g., the tradition of iambic pentameter), or it may, at the other extreme, refer to the body of texts that constitute a canon. Translation (Latin "carrying across"): the rendering of a text written in one language into another. Vernacular (from Latin "verna," servant): the language of the people, as distinguished from learned and arcane languages. From the later Middle Ages especially, the "vernacular" languages and literatures of Europe distinguished themselves from the learned languages and literatures of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Wit: Originally a synonym for "reason" in Old and Middle English, "wit" became a literary ideal in the Renaissance as brilliant play of the full range of mental resources. For eighteenth-century writers, the notion necessarily involved pleasing expression, as in Pope's definition of true wit as "Nature to advantage dressed, / Wha t oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed" (Essay on Criticism, lines 297�98; see vol. 1, p. 2503). See also Johnson, Lives of the Poets, "Cowley," on "metaphysical wit" (see vol. 1, p. 2766). Romantic theory of the imagination deprived wit of its full range of appre
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hension, whence the word came to be restricted to its modern sense, as the clever play of mind that produces laughter.
D. Publishing History, Censorship By the time we read texts in published books, they have already been treated� that is, changed by authors, editors, and printers�in many ways. Although there are differences across history, in each period literary works are subject to pressures of many kinds, which apply before, while, and after an author writes. The pressures might be financial, as in the relations of author and patron; commercial, as in the marketing of books; and legal, as in, during some periods, the negotiation through official and unofficial censorship. In addition, texts in all periods undergo technological processes, as they move from the material forms in which an author produced them to the forms in which they are presented to readers. Some of the terms below designate important material forms in which books were produced, disseminated, and surveyed across the historical span of this anthology. Others designate the skills developed to understand these processes. The anthology's introductions to individual periods discuss the particular forms these phenomena took in different eras.
Bookseller: In England, and particularly in London, commercial bookmaking and -selling enterprises came into being in the early fourteenth century. These were loose organizations of artisans who usually lived in the same neighborhoods (around St. Paul's Cathedral in London). A bookseller or dealer would coordinate the production of hand-copied books for wealthy patrons (see patronage), who would order books to be custom-made. After the introduction of printing in the late fifteenth century, authors generally sold the rights to their work to booksellers, without any further royalties. Booksellers, who often had their own shops, belonged to the Stationers' Company. This system lasted into the eighteenth century. In 1710, however, authors were for the first time granted copyright, which tipped the commercial balance in their favor, against booksellers.
Censorship: The term applies to any mechanism for restricting what can be published. Historically, the reasons for imposing censorship are heresy, sedition, blasphemy, libel, or obscenity. External censorship is imposed by institutions having legislative sanctions at their disposal. Thu s the pre- Beformation Churc h imposed the Constitutions of Archbishop Arundel of 1409, aimed at repressing the Lollard "heresy." After the Reformation, some key events in the history of censorship are as follows: 1547, when anti-Lollard legislation and legislation made by Henry VIII concerning treason by writing (1534) were abolished; the Licensing Order of 1643, which legislated that works be licensed, through the Stationers' Company, prior to publication; and 1695, when the last such Act stipulating prepublication licensing lapsed. Postpublication censorship continued in different periods for different reasons. Thus, for example, British publication of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) was obstructed (though unsuccessfully) in 1960, under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959. Censorship can also be internationaclass="underline" although not published in Iran, Salman Bushdie's Satanic Verses (1988) was censored in that country, where the
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leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, proclaimed a fatwa (religious decree) promising the author's execution. Very often censorship is not imposed externally, however: authors or publishers can censor work in anticipation of what will incur the wrath of readers or the penalties of the law. Victorian and Edwardian publishers of novels, for example, urged authors to remove potentially offensive material, especially for serial publication in popular magazines.
Codex (Latin "book"): having the format of a book (usually applied to manuscript books), as distinguished originally from the scroll, which was the standard form of written document in ancient Rome.
Copyright: the legal protection afforded to authors for control of their work's publication, in an attempt to ensure due financial reward. Some key dates in the history of copyright in the United Kingdom are as follows: 1710, when a statute gave authors the exclusive right to publish their work for fourteen years, and fourteen years more if the author were still alive when the first term had expired; 1842, when the period of authorial control was extended to forty-two years; and 1911, when the term was extended yet further, to fifty years after the author's death. In 1995 the period of protection was harmonized with the laws in other European countries to be the life of the author plus seventy years. In the United States no works first published before 1923 are in copyright. Works published since 1978 are, as in the United Kingdom, protected for the life of the author plus seventy years. Copy text: the particular text of a work used by a textual editor as the basis of an edition of that work. Folio: Books come in different shapes, depending originally on the number of times a standard sheet of paper is folded. On e fold produces a large volume, a folio book; two folds produce a quarto, four an octavo, and six a very small duodecimo. Generally speaking, the larger the book, the grander and more expensive. Shakespeare's plays were, for example, first printed in quartos, but were gathered into a folio edition in 1623. Foul papers: versions of a work before an author has produced, if she or he has, a final copy (a "fair copy") with all corrections removed. Manuscript (Latin, "written by hand"): Any text written physically by hand is a manuscript. Before the introduction of printing with moveable type in 1476, all texts in England were produced and reproduced by hand, in manuscript. This is an extremely labor-intensive task, using expensive materials (e.g., animal skins); the cost of books produced thereby was, accordingly, very high. Even after the introduction of printing, many texts continued to be produced in manuscript. This is obviously true of letters, for example, but until the eighteenth century, poetry written within aristocratic circles was often transmitted in manuscript copies. Paleography (Greek "ancient writing"): the art of deciphering, describing, and dating forms of handwriting. Patronage (Latin "protector"): Man y technological, legal, and commercial supports were necessary before professional authorship became possible. Although some playwrights (e.g., Shakespeare) made a living by writing for the theater, other authors needed, principally, the large-scale reproductive capacities of printing and the security of copyright to make a living from writing. Before these conditions obtained, many authors had another main occupation, and most authors had to rely on patronage. In different periods,