Scottish Enlightenment Books 1746-1800

December 3, 2025

18th-centuryScottish Enlightenment

This table - which is still in draft form - shows the first British, Irish, and American editions of books published during the Scottish Enlightenment period (1746-1800). The data originally comes from Richard B. Sher's The Enlightenment & the Book: Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), Table 2. I want to thank Prof. Sher for allowing me to display his data online. I have some work to do to make it exactly match what is in his book (all errors are my own).

I should also note that a number of corrections (which I will incorporate) can be found here: "Corrections to the Enlightenment and the Book". Rick has also provided me with some further corrections to the above, which I will incorporate soon.

I will also be publishing an aggregate data analysis.

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Topic Codes

  • PHIL - Philosophy
  • SCI - Science
  • HIST - History
  • LIT - Literature
  • FICT - Fiction
  • MED - Medicine
  • EDU - Education

Popularity ratings: bs (bestseller), gs (good seller), ps (poor seller), ms (moderate seller)