Isaiah Thomas' Catalog, part 2

What were Americans reading in 1801?

May 17, 2024

Here are the “B” entries in Isaiah Thomas’ 1801 wholesale book catalog. I am not sure how many of these titles Thomas produced himself in his own publishing house. It certainly would have been more profitable to reprint British or European titles, but some of the books listed probably only sold in small quantities. There was probably a well-established network of publishers who traded their titles on better-than-wholesale terms. For much of his career, Thomas would have been one of the very largest publishers in the United States. But it would have made business sense to trade with other publishers, especially for titles that probably did not sell in large enough quantities to set the type and reproduce the book.

Here are the “B” titles, with as many links as I could find. Some of the publication dates on the linked editions are much later than this catalog, but I tried to find older versions whenever possible to see what the books probably looked like at the time of the catalog. When the title is a multi-volume set, I have tried to link the first volume of the series. In addition to the sizes we have seen before in the “A” titles, several of these books are printed in Quarto (4to, 9.5” x 12”).

Bacon's Abridgment. 7 vols. 8vo. new Edition $37.00

Backus's Sermons, 12mo. $0.62 1/2

Bagnall's Telemachus. 2 vols. 12mo. calf $1.75

Bailey's English Dictionary. 8vo. $2.50

Barbauld's Hymns. 12mo. $0.12 2/3

Barbauld's Lessons for Children. 3 parts. $0.33 1/3

Baron Stuben's Military Exercise. 12mo. Various prices.

Barneveldt (Madam de) a Novel 2 vols. 12mo. $2.00

Barnwell, a Novel, by C. Smith, 12mo. $1.00

Basiliade, or the Reign of Truth and Nature. 2 vols. 8vo. $2.00

Baxter's Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul. 2 vols. 8vo. $3.50

Baxter's Call to the Unconverted. 12mo. $0.25

Beawes's Lex Mercatoria, or a complete Code of Commercial Law, being a General Guide to all Men in Business, folio, new edition. $12.00

Beauties of Poetry, 12mo. $0.85

Beauties of Watts. 12mo. $0.75

Beauties of History. 2 vols. 12mo. $1.87 1/2

Beauties of Creation. 12mo. $0.75

Beauties of the Muses. 18mo. plates. $0.62 1/2

Beauties of the Muses. 18mo. Calf, gilt, plates. $0.75

Beauties of Nature and Art. 13 vols. 18mo, with Plates. $9.25

Beauties of Hervey. 12mo. $0.75

Beauties of Sterne, 18mo. $0.56 1/2

Beattie's Evidences of the Christian Religion. 12mo. $1.00

Beattie's Elements of Moral Science. 2 vols. 12mo. $1.75

Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments, with Voltaire's Commentaries, 8vo. $1.75

Beggar Girl, a new and much celebrated Novel, 3 vols. 12mo. $3.00

Belknap's History of Newhampshire, 3 vols. 8vo. $5.00

Belknap's American Biography. 2 vols. 8vo. $3.50

Bell on the Venereal Disease. 2 vols. in 1. 8vo. $2.00

Bell on Ulcers. 8vo. $1.50

Bell's Surgery, 4 vols. 8vo with plates. $8.50

Bellamy on the Nature and Glory of the Gospel. 12mo. $87 1/2

Bellisarius, by M. Marmontel, $0.75

Benjamin's Country Builder's Assistant, 4to. $2.50

Benyowsky's Travels in Poland, Kamscatka, &c. 2 vols. 4to, with plates. $8.00

Bennet's Christian Oratory, or the Devotion of the Closet. 2 vols. 12mo. $2.25

Bennet's Strictures on Female Education. 12mo. $0.40

Bennet's Letters to a Young Lady. $0.70

Betsey Thoughtless. 4 vols. 12mo. $4.00

Bible, large Folio for Pulpits. calf, gilt, Plates. $18.00

Bible, Folio for Pulpits, with 50 Copperplates, in elegant binding. $19.00

Bible, Folio, Archer's, with Copperplates, in elegant binding. $15.00

Bible, large Royal 4to. 48 Copperplates, with Concordance, in elegant binding. $13.00

Bible, larger Royal 4to, without Plates or Concordance. $8.00

Bible, large Royal 4to. with Concordance. $8.50

Bible, 8vo. or small family Bible. $2.25

Bible, 12mo. for schools, plain. $0.75

Bible, 12mo. finer paper and better bound. $1.25

Bible, 12mo. for the pocket, in one or two volumes, handsomely or elegantly gilt. $1.75

Bible, 12mo. fine paper, bound in Morocco, elegantly gilt; a suitable present to young Ladies. $2.25

Bible, 4to. Doway Translation. $5.50

Bible, Hieroglyphic, for Children, with a Copperplate Frontispiece. 12mo. $0.40

Bible, with Dictionary. 12mo. $2.00

Bibles, very small history of, for children. $0.20

Bigg's Military History. 8vo. $1.66 2/3

Billings's Continental Harmony. $0.95

Black (Peggy) History of. 5 vols. 12mo. $5.00

Blackstone's Commentaries. 4 vols. 8vo. a very correct and good edition. This is a valuable work for every man; but no Justice of the Peace ought to be without it. $5.00

Blair's Lectures. 12mo. abridged. $0.75

Blair's Lectures. 4to. $3.75

Blair's Lectures. 2 vols. 8vo. $3.75

Blair's Sermons. 2 vols. 8vo. $3.00

Blair's Sermons. 3d vol. separate English Edition. $1.50

Bligh's Voyage to the South Sea. 8vo. calf with plates. $1.75

Blind Child. $0.25

Boarding School. 12mo. Lessons of a Preceptress to her Pupils, calculated to improve the Manners, and form the Characters of Young Ladies. $1.00

Bonnycastle's Arithmetic. 12mo. $0.62 1/2

Book of Common Prayer. 12mo. $1.00

Book of Knowledge. 12mo. $0.25

Book of Martyrs, containing their Lives, Prosecutions and Sufferings under horrid Tortures &c. a complete work in two large Quarto volumes, with elegant Representations of their Sufferings $12.00

Boston Theater. 2 vols. 12mo. A collection of Plays. $2.25

Boston Orations, 12mo. delivered annually March 5. $1.00

Boston on the Covenant of Grace. 8vo. $1.75

Boston's Fourfold State. 12mo. $87 1/2

Boulanger's Christianity unveiled. fine paper. 12mo. $1.00

Bourgoanne's Travels in Spain. 2 vols. 8vo. $4.00

Bowden's Tour through Ireland. 12mo. $0.87 1/2

Bracken's Art of Farriery. 18mo. with plates. $0.56 1/2

Brady & Tate's Psalms and Hymns. 18mo. $0.37 1/2

Briggs's Cookery. 12mo. $1.25

Brissot on Commerce of America with Europe. 12mo. $1.00

Brissot's Travels through the United States. 12mo. $1.00

British Poets. 5 vols. royal 8vo. boards. $15.00

British Grammar. 8vo. $1.00

British Album, with plates. 12mo. $1.25

Brooks's Gazetteer. 8vo. $2.87 1/2

Brothers's Prophecies on the Times, wherein he has discovered great and Remarkable Things, which are not revealed to any other person on Earth, and published as he asserts by the command of God. For this work he was prosecuted by the Briotish Government in 1795. 12mo. $0.87 1/2

Brown's Surgeon's Assistant. 8vo. $1.00

Brown's Elements of Medicine. 8vo. $1.50

Brown's Oracles of God. 12mo. $0.62 1/2

Brown's Catechism explained $0.80

Brown's Dictionary of the Bible. 2 vols. 8vo. $5.00

Brown's Concordance. 12mo. $1.00

Brown on Equality. 12mo. $0.75

Bruce's Travels, to discover the source of the Nile. 12mo. $1.00

Brydone's Tour through Sicily and Malta. 2 vols. 8vo. $4.00

Brydone's Tour—the same. 1 vol. 12mo. $1.00

Buchan's Domestic Medicine; or, Family Physician. 8vo. $1.75

Buffon's Natural History. 8vo. with plates. calf. $3.00