God in the Mount

No, this isn't the title of a Shel Silverstein poem about baseball, it's a pamphlet by John Vicars that's titled with virtuosic print composition.

John Vicars appears to have printed two editions, the first in two parts, in 1641 and 42. As with other Vicars work, Oxford has unique holdings that aren't reproduced in EEBO. According to the Oxford DNB, Oxford held a special place in Vicars' heart: "my Sacred Mother the most famous University of Oxford."

This copy is interesting because I can dig into the text for a proper description of the typesetting on each page. The title-page reports that it was printed by a mysterious "T. Paine" and M. Simmons for John Rothwell and John Underhill. The Oxford DNB describes Simmons as "a favoured printer for independents and radicals during the civil war period." That same source says Simmons printed at least nine of Milton's Civil War tracts. But on the title of Milton's Tetrachordon, Simmons is acknowledged alongside T. Paine. Indeed, T. Paine and M. Simmons appear together on at least 15 imprints. In some cases, Paine printed what Simmons published; in other cases, they published together. Those entries show T. Paines name to be "Thomas Paine."

Save one playbook, Thomas Paine appears to have been a radical of Simmons' (and Vicars') stripe. The exception appears on DEEP. Thomas Paine printed Henry Glapthorne's Albertus Wallenstein (no, I did not make up any of those names), which the Annals categorizes as a "Foreign History."

As for Johns Rothwell and Underhill, Rothwell appears to have been a bookseller at St. Paul's (at the sign of the sun) who mainly published devotional fare. Rothwell's name appears in 335 ESTC entries between 1632 and 1661. After 1662, a "M. Rothwell" may have taken over the family imprint, though she sells in Cheapside rather than St. Paul's.

I'm attending to the status and collaboration of Paine and Simmon, because the typography of God in the Mount reveals the amount of type available in both print shops, or both publishers. Furthermore, the two editions with this title-page suggest that the printers kept the title-page bound, and therefore kept their type tied-up in what must have been a costly speculation.