Scottish Agricultural Writers and the Creation of their Personal Identities between 1697 and 1790

Abstract

In the eighteenth century, a period of intense agricultural and rural change, the authors of Scottish agricultural books left a large body of evidence on agricultural systems, changes to the farming landscape and attitudes towards them. These writers also recorded a range of information about themselves, their characters and identities, all of which was conveyed in a number of ways. First, in personal details inserted throughout the subject matter of their books. Second, through the dedication, an established device in which they devoted a book to an individual or organisation, demonstrating their esteem of them or encouraging them to adopt the ideas put forward in the book itself A third device was employed by both the author and the bookseller (or bookseller publisher) that published and distributed a given book. This was the title-page, an important feature in a book. Unless a half-title was inserted, the title-page was the first printed page seen by a reader on opening a book. It demonstrated the skills of the compositor and of the printer, and illustrated the status of the publisher and bookseller; it associated their stature with that of the author being published, and it suggested the quality of the book that was to follow. For the author, it provided the context for the book that was to follow, and set up assumptions about it. In essence, the page acted as an advertisement for the book.