Edition & Censorship: the materiality of Sir Roger L’Estrange’s pamphlets in the early 1660s

ABSTRACT

Sir Roger L’Estrange was an author, pamphleteer, journalist, translator and censor, whose activities had a great impact on the development of press control systems in the period of Charles II’s Restoration to the English throne. Combining both his role as the Surveyor of the Press and his writings, L’Estrange persecuted opponents of the government by means of his repressive actions and his agile pen. His printed pamphlets and newspapers were dedicated to denouncing the abuses committed by seditious authors, printers and booksellers, who produced and dispersed texts against the king and the Church aiming to agitate the people towards a new revolution. The composition of his writings, which commonly depended on the work of his bookseller and ally Henry Brome, was peculiar. His texts congregated Roman, Italic and Gothic typefaces, marginal notes and a variety of typographical signs. This multiplicity of fonts and graphic elements had important consequences on the transmission and comprehension of his messages since it associated writing/reading, visuality and orality. Even though this structure was not unusual for the polemic genre, employed to combat political and religious adversaries, it seems possible to affirm that Roger L’Estrange had a particular typographical style, which was convenient to his repressive objectives. By analyzing the materiality and textuality of his pamphlets published at the beginning of the 1660s, this article aims to discuss the implications of the author-censor role performed by L’Estrange during the Restoration.

KEYWORDS:
Censorship; Polemics; Printing Press; Pamphlets; Book History; English History