- Joseph Ames (author)
Joseph Ames (
January 23 ,1689 –October 7 ,1759 ), Englishauthor , was born at Yarmouth. He wrote an account ofprinting inEngland from 1471 to 1600, entitled "Typographical Antiquities" (1749).Ames sent out circular letters with a list of two hundred and fifteen English printers with whose works he intended to deal, asking for any available information. He earned the gratitude of subsequent
bibliographer s by disregarding printed lists and consulting thetitle page s of the books themselves. An interleaved copy of the work with many notes in theauthor 's hand is now in theBritish Museum . Editions of his works were published with added information by William Herbert (3 vols., 1785-1790), and TF Dibdin (4 vols., 1810-1819). Ames's occupation is variously given. It is uncertain whether he was a ship chandler, a pattern-maker, a plane iron maker or an ironmonger; but he led a prosperous life atWapping , and amassed valuable collections of antiquities.His other works are catalogues of English printers, of the collection of coins which belonged to the earl of Pembroke, of some two thousand "English portraits, and Parentalia" (1750), a memoir of the Wrens, undertaken in conjunction with
Sir Christopher Wren 's grandson,Stephen Wren . Part of his correspondence in bibliography is included in Nichols's "Literary Anecdotes and Illustrations".References
*1911
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