Reading Plague in Seventeenth-century London

Abstract

Interest in plague and mortality in seventeenth-century London was fed by the weekly and yearly Bills of Mortality, and by the composite or commemorative plague bills issued in epidemic years. Some surviving examples are annotated, suggesting keen engagement with the content. This paper shows that some of the weekly bills and probably some of the composite bills now in Guildhall Library, London, were owned and annotated by the city law-officer and bibliophile, Richard Smyth (1590-1675). This links up with Smyth’s personal experience of plague, his other reading and writing on the subject, and his general reading practices, to illuminate one man’s response to a fearful and recurrent feature of London life. Keywords: London, plague, Bills of Mortality, 1665