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| Thomas Cotes | |
|---|---|
| Name | Thomas Cotes |
| Birth date | c. 1560s |
| Death date | 1641 |
| Occupation | Printer |
| Years active | 1606–1641 |
| Nationality | English |
Thomas Cotes was an English stationer and printer active in London during the late Tudor and early Stuart periods. He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Booksellers and is principally remembered for his role in the printing of major early modern texts, most notably his participation in producing the 1623 collection of plays commonly known as the First Folio. Cotes operated a large printing shop that served playwrights, poets, and publishers connected to the theatrical and literary culture of Jacobean and Caroline England.
Cotes was born in the late 16th century into a family associated with the London printing and publishing trade. He became apprenticed in the Stationers' Company, the livery company that regulated London's printing and bookselling industries, and later established his own business near the Blackfriars and St Paul's Cathedral districts that formed the capital's print and book markets. His brother, Francis Cotes, is recorded in contemporary Stationers' registers and the family's connections extended to other figures in the trade, including members of the Machell family of stationers and the printers who worked for the King James I court. As a freeman of the Stationers' Company, he participated in the company's governance and in disputes recorded in the Stationers' registers alongside printers such as William Jaggard and Simon Waterson.
Cotes' documented career as a principal printer begins in the early 17th century. He operated a press that printed quartos, folios, and various forms of legal and ecclesiastical material; clients and typographic collaborators included the booksellers Edward Blount, Isaac Jaggard, and John Smethwicke. His shop produced editions of works by dramatists and poets whose publishers included William Aspley, John Benson, and Humphrey Moseley. Technically his shop used types and ornaments consistent with the period's leading presses, such as those of Nicholas Okes and Thomas Creede, and employed compositors and pressmen who had previously worked for Richard Field and Thomas Thorp. Cotes' imprint appears on a range of printed matter: plays by authors like Ben Jonson and John Webster, devotional tracts associated with William Laud's ecclesiastical circle, and legal treatises circulated among the Inns of Court such as Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn.
Cotes is most notable for his connection to the publication of the 1623 folio edition of plays attributed to William Shakespeare, commonly called the First Folio. The First Folio project was organized by the actors and publishers John Heminges and Henry Condell and financed by stationers including Edward Blount and William Jaggard. The printing was distributed among several shops; sheets printed by Cotes' establishment are identifiable by typographic features and by the imprint of the book as issued. Cotes' shop printed at least one portion of the gatherings, working alongside presses run by Isaac Jaggard and William Stansby. His participation placed him in the center of debates over editorial practice, compositorial accuracy, and the commercial logistics of producing large folio volumes in early modern London.
Cotes cultivated relationships with prominent booksellers and theatrical publishers, developing a client list that included Edward Blount, John Smethwicke, William Aspley, and dramatists' proxies such as Philip Chetwinde. He contracted for printing by the sheet and by the job, accepted patents and privileges when available from the Stationers' Company, and engaged in the common exchange of copy and stock that characterized the period's trade, interacting with printers like William Jaggard and Nicholas Okes. His shop produced licensed editions entered in the Stationers' Register and sometimes printed works under the royal printing privileges associated with King Charles I's reign. Cotes' output shows engagement with the theatrical networks surrounding the King's Men, the publication of playtexts circulated by the Blackfriars Theatre and the Globe Theatre, and the broader book market that linked provincial booksellers with London's central publishers such as Andrew Crooke and William Cooke.
Cotes died in 1641, leaving behind a business that reflected the complex commercial and cultural ties of early Stuart printing. His estate and printing debts were settled through Stationers' Company procedures characteristic of the period; apprentices and journeymen who had trained in his shop went on to work for other prominent printers and booksellers. The presence of his sheets in the First Folio and his imprints on plays and treatises have made his shop a subject of study for bibliographers and literary historians interested in the transmission of texts by figures such as William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and Thomas Middleton. Modern scholarship on early modern printing practices, including the work of bibliographers connected to institutions like the British Library and universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, continues to cite Cotes' output when reconstructing the material history of 17th-century English books.
Category:English printers Category:17th-century English people