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Group a Early Imprints and Private Publications

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Group a Early Imprints and Private Publications GROUP A EARLY IMPRINTS AND PRIVATE PUBLICATIONS 1 768 - 1954 INTRODUCTION This group comprises (1) early imprints issued in Mauritius, both private and official, and inclusive of leaflets and broadsides (but exclusive of almanacs, periodicals and newspapers which are listed in group B), from the introduction of printing in 1768 to the end of French rule in 1810 ; (2) private non-serial public- ations issued from 1811 to the end of 1954 (serial publications for the same period being listed in group B). The main source utilized for early imprints was the unpublished catalogue of early Mauritian imprints which forms the supplement to Dr. Toussaint's main work on that subject published in Paris in 1951 under the title : Early printing in the Mascarene Islands. Several additional specimens were traced in the Archives Nationales, in Paris, especially in series AF III : Collection Moreau de St. Méry and Colonies : Fonds Rodde, Ile de France, in the private library of M. Auguste Brunet, at Toulon, and in the John Carter Brown Library, in the United States. The total number of entries recorded amounts to 426. There are also 27 entries in group B for th almanacs, periodicals and newspapers for the period 1769-1810. The entries are recorded in full and listed in chronological order of issue. In the case of broadsides the dimensions are given in cms. The location is also given in brackets at the end of each entry. With a few exceptions, entries were made from the imprints themselves. The material is available in the following repositories : Archives Nationales (Paris) Auguste Brunet Library (Toulon) Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris) British Museum (London) Curepipe Carnegie Library (Mauritius) Doyen Collection (Mauritius) John Carter Brown Library (U. S. A.) Mauritius Archives Department Mauritius Supreme Court Library Public Record Office (London) Of these the most important is the Mauritius Archives whose collection was recently enriched by the gift of the imprints in the Doyen Collection presented in 1953 by the Leclézio family. On the beginnings of printing in Mauritius little need be said here since the subject has been fully studied in Dr. Toussaint's book, and it will suffice to note that the printing record of this island for 1768-1810, which is listed here in full for the first time, is quite remarkable in the history of colonial printing, especially when it is compared with that of other countries of the Indian Ocean. Apart from their purely bibliographical interest the early imprints recorded here and in group B are also of main importance for the student of Mauritius under French rule. For the ears 1811-1954 the only source available was the series of quarterly Memoranda of books printed in Mauritius and registered in the Archives Department under Ord. 21 of 1893, which has been published regularly by this Department since 1893. For very many years, however, the Ordinance was not strictly enforced, so that these Memoranda are not fully representative of the actual output. They had to be supplemented by searches in the Curepipe Carnegie Library, Mauritius Institute Library, Port-Louis Municipal Library, British Museum, Colonial Office Library and Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and by a thorough scrutiny of the files of the Mauritius Gazette for 1811-31 and of the Cernéen for 1832 onwards for any accounts of and references to local publications. A few series in the Mss Section of the Archives Department, especially series HA (British Govern- ment : Early Years : Miscellaneous (1811-40) and RA (Secretariat: In-letters (1811-80) also yielded a certain amount of material embedded in official papers. 4 It should be noted that the registration Ordinance of 1893 excluded annual reports, trade circulars and other publications of a purely commercial nature. Considering that the registration of corporate bodies, too, was not regulated until fairly recently, it was not possible to trace all such publications. Wherever possible the entries were made from the books themselves, but in many cases, especially for the books issued during the period 1811-1892, the material could not be examined and the recording had to be made from second-hand information. All doubtful titles are given in square brackets. The entries are listed in chronological order of issue. The place of printing is, unless otherwise stated, Port-Louis. Very few printing presses were active in other towns and only 18 books bearing the imprints of printing establishments situated in the rural districts are recorded. Location is not indicated, as most of the items are available in the chief libraries of Mauritius, especially the Curepipe Carnegie Library, which is the most important in this respect, and in the Archives Department for 1893 onwards. A total of 1630 entries were recorded, of which 807 are for the years 1811-1900 and 823 for the years 1901-1953. The relatively small number of imprints for 1811-32 (70 only) is due to the fact that the press was not free then and that a strict control was exercised during those years over all publications. A critical study of this output would, of course, be out of place here, but a few general remarks may be offered. The first and most obvious remark is that it is predominantly French. Out of the 1630 entries recorded there are 1334 for French books, 276 for English, 14 for Creole and 4 for Hindi books. There are also 2 books in Latin and 3 bi-lingual (English and French) publications. For the period 1811-1900 there are 689 French as against 107 English books. For the period 1901-53 the figures are 645 and 169 respectively, which shews a definite increase of publications issued in English. The proportion of English to French books, however, is only about 1 to 5. The other languages are negligible. The books in Creole are not the work of " creole " writers but actually of French writers and, although Creole is the lingua franca of Mauritius, there is no creole literature to speak of. The actual number of books issued in Hindi is probably larger than that recorded here, since the law on the registration of books was ignored by Oriental printers just as it was by other printers. With regard to publications in Chinese, none were traced other than those that are recorded in group B. The beginnings of Oriental printing in Mauritius have not been investigated yet. The earliest reference to a publication issued in an Oriental language is for 1868 (The Mercantile Advertizer issued in Tamil and English, see group B, no. 147), but no copies of it were traced and it seems that the first Oriental press worth mentioning was that of the Hindusthani which began to function in 1909 (see group B, no. 346). No publication was traced, however, bearing its imprint. From 1811 to the present day some 80 book-producing establishments were active in Mauritius. At present there are altogether 33 printing establishments, of which, however, 16 do not produce books. The total number of persons engaged in the printing trade amounts to 394 according to the last census (1952). This is the highest figure recorded since 1846, when the first proper census was held. An attempt was made to compare the printing record at various dates with the population figures, but, as the number of literates is not available in most census returns, the comparison would have served little purpose. The 1846 and 1852 figures are given, however, for what they are worth. In 1846 Mauritius had a total population of 161,089 of whom about 30,000 were literate in European languages. There were about 10 printing establishments employing 78 people and the output was 15 publications.* *Exclusive, of course, of periodicals, newspapers and official publications. 5 In 1952 the total population was 501,471 of whom 180,507 were returned as literates (although this figure probably includes a large number of semi-literates). There were about 30 printing establishments employing 394 people, and the output was 25 publications. * From these figures it will be seen that in quantity book-production in Mauritius does not seem to have kept pace with the increase of the population. With regard to quality it is not for the bibliographer but for the literary historian to make an appraisal, and, in fact, several essays have already appeared on the subject, the chief of which is W. Ithier's La littérature de langue française à l'ile Maurice (Paris, Lib. Lac, 1930). This, however, bears only on purely literary publications issued in French, but, as will be seen from the present record, there are many others to be taken into account. It will be for future students of the Mauritian record to give the matter fuller treatment. *Exclusive, of course, of periodicals, newspapers and official publications. A 1-10 7 1768-69 1768 1. DISCOURS prononcé par M. Poivre, Commissaire du Roi, l'un à l'assemblée générale des habitans de l'Isle de France lors de son arrivée dans la colonie, l'autre à la première assemblée publique du Conseil Supérieur nouvellement établi dans l'Isle. A l'Isle de France, de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1768. 50 p? (ABL). 2. EPYTRE présentée à Madame La Dauphine par le Sieur Saunois, Ingénieur Mécanicien. A l'occasion d'une nouvelle Presse d'Imprimerie de son invention qu'il a eu l'honneur de présenter à cette Princesse l'année 1756. A l'Isle de France, de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1768. Fol. 22.3x10.1 (MA. Lib. A1). First Isle de France imprint. Fully described in A. Toussaint : Early printing in the Mascarene Islands, 1951, p. 30-31. 3. LÉGISLATION pour les Colonies des Isles de France et de Bourbon.
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