View source for Chapbook

{{Short description|Short inexpensive booklet}}
{{hatgrp|{{Redirect|Chap-Book|the 19th-century American magazine|The Chap-Book{{!}}''The Chap-Book''}}
{{Distinguish|chapter book}}}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
[[File:Chapbook Jack the Giant Killer.jpg|thumbnail|Chapbook (c. 1800) of ''[[Jack the Giant Killer]]'']]
A '''chapbook''' is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for [[street literature]] throughout [[early modern Europe]]. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude [[woodcut]]s and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 12, 16, or 24 pages, sometimes bound with a [[saddle stitch]]. Printers provided chapbooks on credit to chapmen, who sold them both from door to door and at markets and fairs, then paying for the stock they sold. The tradition of chapbooks emerged during the 16th century as printed books were becoming affordable, with the medium ultimately reaching its height of popularity during the 17th and 18th centuries. Various [[ephemera]] and popular or folk literature were published as chapbooks, such as [[almanac]]s, [[children's literature]], [[folklore]], [[ballads]], [[nursery rhyme]]s, [[pamphlet]]s, [[poetry]], and political and religious [[Tract (literature)|tract]]s. The term ''chapbook'' remains in use by publishers to refer to short, inexpensive booklets.

==Terminology==
''Chapbook'' is first attested in English in 1824, and seemingly derives from ''[[chapmen|chapman]]'', the word for the itinerant salesmen who would sell such books.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spufford |first=Margaret |author-link=Margaret Spufford |title=The Great Reclothing of Rural England |publisher=Hambledon |year=1984 |isbn=0-907-62847-8 |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leitch |first1=Roger |title='Here chapman billies tak their stand': A pilot study of Scottish chapmen, packmen and pedlars |journal=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland |date=30 November 1991 |volume=120 |pages=173–188 |doi=10.9750/PSAS.120.173.188 }}</ref> The first element of ''chapman'' comes in turn from Old English {{lang|ang|cēap}} 'barter', 'business', 'dealing',<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', s.vv. ''chap-book, n.'' and ''chapman, n.''.</ref> from which the modern adjective ''cheap'' was ultimately derived.

Chapbooks correspond to Portuguese [[Cordel literature]], and to French {{lang|fr|[[bibliothèque bleue]]}} 'blue library' literature, because they were often wrapped in cheap blue paper that was usually reserved as a wrapping for sugar.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=121}} Chapbooks are called {{lang|de|Volksbuch}} 'people's book' in German, and as {{lang|es|pliegos sueltos}} 'loose sheets' in Spanish, with the latter name referring to their method of assembly.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=121}} ''[[Lubok]]'' books are the Russian equivalent.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=158}}

==History==
[[File:Fairies dancing in a ring woodcut.png|thumb|Woodcut of a [[fairy-circle]] from a 17th-century chapbook]]
[[Broadside ballad]]s were popular songs, sold for a [[penny]] or [[halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|halfpenny]] in the streets of towns and villages around Britain between the 16th and the early 20th centuries. They preceded chapbooks but had similar content, marketing, and distribution systems. There are records from [[Cambridgeshire]] as early as in 1553 of a man offering a scurrilous ballad "maistres mass" at an [[alehouse]], and a pedlar selling "lytle books" to people,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spufford |first=Margaret |title=Small books and pleasant histories: popular fiction and its readership in seventeenth-century England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-521-31218-9}}</ref> including a patcher of old clothes in 1578. These sales are probably characteristic of the market for chapbooks.

The form factor originated in Britain, but was also used in North America. Chapbooks gradually disappeared from the mid-19th century in the face of competition from cheap newspapers and, especially in Scotland, from tract societies that regarded them as ungodly.

Chapbooks were generally aimed at buyers who did not maintain libraries, and due to their flimsy construction they rarely survive as individual items. In an era when paper was expensive, chapbooks were sometimes used for wrapping, baking, or as [[toilet paper]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spufford |first=Margaret |title=Small books and pleasant histories: popular fiction and its readership in seventeenth-century England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-521-31218-9 |pages=48–49}}</ref> Many of the surviving chapbooks come from the collections of [[Samuel Pepys]] between 1661 and 1688 which are now held at [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]]. The antiquary [[Anthony Wood (antiquary)|Anthony Wood]] also collected 65 chapbooks, including 20 from before 1660, which are now in the [[Bodleian Library]]. There are also significant Scottish collections, such as those held by the [[University of Glasgow]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scottish Chapbooks |url=http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/chapbooks/search/ |access-date=2015-10-22 |publisher=University of Glasgow}}</ref> and the [[National Library of Scotland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chapbooks |url=https://www.nls.uk/collections/rare-books/collections/chapbooks |access-date=2020-05-28 |publisher=National Library of Scotland}}</ref>

Modern collectors  such as [[Peter Opie]], have chiefly a scholarly interest in the form.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bishop |first1=Julia C. |title=The Working Papers of Iona and Peter Opie |journal=Oral Tradition |date=October 2013 |volume=28 |issue=2 |id={{Project MUSE|561822}} |doi=10.1353/ort.2013.0012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bishop |first1=Julia C. |title=The lives and legacies of Iona and Peter Opie |journal=International Journal of Play |date=2 September 2014 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=205–223 |doi=10.1080/21594937.2014.993208 }}</ref> Modern small literary presses, such as [[Louffa Press]], [[Black Lawrence Press]] and [[Ugly Duckling Presse]], continue to issue several small editions of chapbooks a year, updated in technique and materials, often to high fabrication standards, such as [[letterpress]].

==Production and distribution==
Chapbooks were cheap, anonymous publications that were the usual reading material for lower-class people who could not afford books. Members of the upper classes occasionally owned chapbooks, and sometimes bound them in leather. Printers typically tailored their texts for the popular market. Chapbooks were usually between four and twenty-four pages long, and produced on rough paper with crude, frequently recycled, woodcut illustrations. Millions of chapbooks were sold each year. After 1696, English chapbook peddlers had to be licensed, and 2,500 of them were then authorized, 500 in London alone. In France, there were 3,500 licensed [[colporteur]]s by 1848, and they sold 40 million books annually.{{sfn|Lyons|2011|pp=121–122}}

The centre of the chapbook and ballad production was London, and until the [[Great Fire of London]] in 1666 the printers were based around [[London Bridge]]. However, a feature of chapbooks is the proliferation of provincial printers, especially in Scotland and [[Newcastle upon Tyne]].<ref>See the "Introduction" ''in'' Simons, John (1998) ''Guy of Warwick and other Chapbook Romances'' University of Exeter Press, Exeter, England, {{ISBN|0-85989-445-2}}, for issues of definition.</ref> The first Scottish publication was the tale of ''[[Tom Thumb]],'' in 1682.<ref name=":0" />

==Content==
[[File:CalasChapbook.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.1|The frontispiece of a late 18th-century chapbook edition of [[Voltaire]]'s ''The Extraordinary Tragical Fate of Calas'', depicting [[Jean Calas]] being [[broken on the wheel]]]]
Chapbooks were an important medium for the dissemination of popular culture to the common people, especially in rural areas. They were a medium of entertainment and information. Though the content of chapbooks has been criticized as unsophisticated narratives which were heavily loaded with repetition and emphasized adventure through mostly anecdotal structures,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hoeveler |first1=Diane Long |title=Gothic Chapbooks and the Urban Reader |journal=The Wordsworth Circle |date=June 2010 |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=155–158 |doi=10.1086/TWC24043706 }}</ref> they are valued as a record of popular culture, preserving cultural artefacts that may not survive in any other form.

Chapbooks were priced for sales to workers, although their market was not limited to the working classes. Broadside ballads were sold for a [[halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|halfpenny]], or a few [[pence]]. Prices of chapbooks were from 2d. to 6d., when agricultural labourers' wages were 12d. per day. The literacy rate in England in the 1640s was around 30 percent for males and rose to 60 percent in the mid-18th century. Many working people were readers, if not writers, and pre-industrial working patterns provided periods during which they could read. 

Chapbooks were used for reading to family groups or groups in alehouses. They contributed to the development of literacy, and there is evidence of their use by [[autodidact]]s. In the 1660s, as many as 400,000 [[almanac]]s were printed annually, enough for one family in three in England. One 17th-century publisher of chapbooks in London stocked one book for every 15 families in the country.{{Clarify|date=February 2024|reason=How many is that?}} In the 1520s the Oxford bookseller John Dorne noted in his day-book selling up to 190 [[ballads]] a day at a halfpenny each. The probate inventory of the stock of Charles Tias, of ''The sign of the Three Bibles'' on London Bridge, in 1664 included books and printed sheets to make approximately 90,000 chapbooks (including 400 reams of paper) and 37,500 ballad sheets. This was not regarded as an outstanding figure in the trade. The inventory of Josiah Blare, of ''The Sign of the Looking Glass'' on London Bridge, in 1707 listed 31,000 books, plus 257 reams of printed sheets. A conservative estimate of sales in Scotland alone in the second half of the 18th century was over 200,000 per year.

Printers provided chapbooks on credit to chapmen, who sold them both from door to door and at markets and fairs, then paying for the stock they sold. This facilitated wide distribution and large sales with minimum outlay, and also provided the printers with feedback about what titles were most popular. Popular works were reprinted, pirated, edited, and produced in different editions.

Publishers also issued catalogues, and chapbooks are found in the libraries of provincial [[yeomen]] and [[gentry]]. John Whiting, a Quaker yeoman imprisoned at [[Ilchester, Somerset]], in the 1680s had books sent by carrier from London, and left for him at an inn.

Samuel Pepys had a collection of ballads bound into volumes, under the following classifications, into which could fit the subject matter of most chapbooks: 
# Devotion and Morality
# History – true and fabulous
# Tragedy: viz. Murders, executions, and judgments of God
# State and Times
# Love – pleasant
# Ditto – unpleasant
# Marriage, Cuckoldry, &c.
# Sea – love, gallantry & actions
# Drinking and good fellowship
# Humour, frollicks and mixt.

Stories in many chapbooks have much earlier origins. ''Bevis of Hampton'' was an Anglo-Norman romance of the 13th century, which probably drew on earlier themes. The structure of ''[[The Seven Sages of Rome]]'' was of Eastern origin, and was used by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]. Many jests about ignorant and greedy clergy in chapbooks were taken from ''The Friar and the Boy'' printed about 1500 by [[Wynkyn de Worde]], and ''The Sackfull of News'' (1557).

Historical stories set in a mythical and fantastical past were popular, while many significant historical figures and events appear rarely or not at all: in the Pepys collection, [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], and [[Oliver Cromwell]] do not appear as historical figures, [[The Wars of the Roses]] and the [[English Civil War]] do not appear at all, [[Elizabeth I]] appears only once, and [[Henry VIII]] and [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] appear in disguise, {{Clarify|date=February 2024|text=standing up for the right}} with cobblers and millers and then inviting them to court and rewarding them. There was a pattern of high born heroes overcoming reduced circumstances by valour, such as [[Saint George]], [[Guy of Warwick]], [[Robin Hood]], and heroes of low birth who achieve status through force of arms, such as Clim of Clough, and William of Cloudesley. Clergy often appear as figures of fun, and foolish countrymen were also popular (e.g., ''[[The Wise Men of Gotham]]''). Other works were aimed at regional and rural audience (e.g., ''The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse'').

From 1597, works were published that were aimed at specific trades, such as [[cloth merchant]]s, [[Weaver (occupation)|weavers]] and [[shoemakers]]. The latter were commonly literate.{{Clarify|date=February 2024}} Thomas Deloney, a weaver, wrote ''Thomas of Reading'', about six clothiers from [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]], [[Gloucester]], [[Worcester, England|Worcester]], [[Exeter]], [[Salisbury]] and [[Southampton]], traveling together and meeting at [[Basingstoke]] their fellows from [[Kendal]], [[Manchester]] and [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]]. In his ''Jack of [[Newbury, Berkshire|Newbury]]'', set during [[Henry VIII]]'s reign, an apprentice to a [[broadcloth]] weaver takes over his business and marries his widow on his death. On achieving success, he is liberal to the poor and refuses a knighthood for his substantial services to the king.

Other examples from the Pepys collection include ''The Countryman's Counsellor, or Everyman his own Lawyer'', and ''Sports and Pastimes'', written for schoolboys, including magic tricks, like how to "fetch a shilling out of a handkerchief",<ref>{{cite book |author1=J. M. |title=Sports and pastimes, or, Sport for the city and pastime for the country with a touch of hocus pocus, or leger-demain / fitted for the delight and recreation of youth |date=1676 |publisher=Printed by H.B. for John Clark |location=London |page=4 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A51802.0001.001 |access-date=2 September 2025}}</ref> write invisibly, make roses out of paper, snare wild duck, and make a maid-servant fart uncontrollably.

The provinces and Scotland had their own local heroes. [[Robert Burns]] commented that one of the first two books he read in private was "the history of Sir [[William Wallace]] ... poured a Scottish prejudice in my veins which will boil along there till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lockhart |first1=John Gibson |title=Life of Robert Burns |date=1828 |publisher=Hurst, Chance & Co. |location=London |page=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofrobertburn00lock_0 |access-date=2 September 2025}}</ref>

==Influence==
Chapbooks had a wide and continuing influence. Eighty percent of English folk songs collected by early-20th-century collectors have been linked to printed broadsides, including over 90 of which could only be derived from those printed before 1700. It has been suggested the majority of surviving ballads can be traced to 1550–1600 by internal evidence.

One of the most popular and influential chapbooks was Richard Johnson's ''Seven Champions of Christendom'' (1596), believed to be the source for the introduction of [[Saint George]] into English [[folk play]]s.

[[Robert Greene (16th century)|Robert Greene]]'s 1588 novel ''[[Dorastus and Fawnia]]'', the basis of Shakespeare's ''[[The Winter's Tale]]'', was still being published in cheap editions in the 1680s. Some stories were still being published in the 19th century, (e.g., ''Jack of Newbury'', ''Friar Bacon'', ''Dr Faustus'' and ''[[The Seven Champions of Christendom]]'').

==Later production==
[[File:Chapbook.JPG|thumb|right|A modern chapbook]]
''Chapbook'' is also a term currently used to denote publications of up to about 40 pages, usually poetry bound with some form of [[saddle stitch]], though many are [[perfect bound]], folded, or wrapped. These publications range from low-cost productions to finely produced, hand-made editions that may sell to collectors for hundreds of dollars. More recently,{{when|date=February 2024}} the popularity of fiction and non-fiction chapbooks has also increased. In the UK they are more often referred to as [[pamphlet]]s.

The genre has been revitalized in the past 40 years by the widespread availability of first [[mimeograph]] technology, then low-cost copy centres and digital printing, and by the cultural revolutions spurred by both [[zines]] and [[poetry slam]]s, the latter generating hundreds upon hundreds of self-published chapbooks that are used to fund tours. The Center for the Humanities at the [[City University of New York]] Graduate Center has held the NYC/CUNY Chapbook Festival, focused on "the chapbook as a work of art, and as a medium for alternative and emerging writers and publishers".<ref>{{Cite web |title=NYC/CUNY Chapbook Festival |url=http://chapbookfestival.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917155034/http://chapbookfestival.org/ |archive-date=2017-09-17 |access-date=2018-11-23 |publisher=City University of New York}}</ref>

==Collections==
{{cleanup list|date=May 2024}}
* The [[National Library of Scotland]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chapbooks |url=https://www.nls.uk/collections/rarebooks/collections/chapbooks |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=National Library of Scotland}}</ref> holds a large collection of Scottish chapbooks; approximately 4,000 of an estimated total of 15,000 published – including several in [[Lowland Scots Language|Lowland Scots]] and [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Hagan |first=Anette |date=August 2019 |title=Chapbooks: the poor person's reading material |url=https://blog.europeana.eu/2019/08/chapbooks-the-poor-persons-reading-material/ |access-date=2019-10-10 |website=[[Europeana]]}}</ref> Records for most Scottish chapbooks have been catalogued online. Approximately 3,000 of these have been digitized and can be accessed from the Library's [https://digital.nls.uk/chapbooks-printed-in-scotland/archive/104184103 Digital Gallery]. A project is underway to add every chapbook in the collection to [[Wikisource]] called [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:WikiProject_NLS WikiProject NLS].
* The [[Glasgow University Library]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Introduction to our Collections |url=https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/specialcollections/introductiontoourcollections/ |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=University of Glasgow}}</ref> has over 1,000 examples throughout the collections, searchable online via the Scottish Chapbooks Catalogue of c. 4,000 works, which covers the Lauriston Castle collection, Edinburgh City libraries and Stirling University. The University of South Carolina's G. Ross Roy Collection is collaborating in research for the Scottish Chapbook Project.
*The [[Bodleian Library]] of the University of Oxford<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads |url=http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ballads/ballads.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040404051546/http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ballads/ballads.htm |archive-date=2004-04-04 |access-date=2006-01-07}}</ref> has over 30,000 ballads in several major collections. The original printed materials range from the 16th to the 20th century. The Broadside Ballads project makes the digitized copies of the sheets and ballads available.
*Sir [[Frederick Madden]]'s Collection of Broadside Ballads, at [[Cambridge University Library]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Publisher's Introduction: Madden Ballads From Cambridge University Library |url=http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Introductions/30330FM.htm |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Library}}</ref> is possibly the largest collection from London and provincial presses between 1775 and 1850, with earlier 18th-century garlands and Irish volumes.
*The [[Lilly Library]], Indiana University<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-08<!--date from page source--> |title=Chapbooks: Specialized Databases: Lilly Library |url=https://libraries.indiana.edu/lilly-library/specialized-databases |access-date=29 July 2025 |publisher=Indiana University |location=Bloomington}}</ref> has 1,900 chapbooks from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and the United States, which were part of the Elisabeth W. Ball collection. Online search facility
*[[Rutgers University]], Special Collections and University Archives<ref>{{Cite web |title=Special Collections and University Archives |url=https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/scua.shtml |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=Rutgers University}}</ref> houses the Harry Bischoff Weiss collection of 18th- and 19th-century chapbooks, illustrated with catchpenny prints.
*The [[John Rylands University Library]] at University of Manchester<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sharpe Chapbook Collection |url=http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data2/spcoll/sharpe/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991007083550/http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data2/spcoll/sharpe/ |archive-date=7 October 1999 |access-date=14 January 2022 |publisher=University of Manchester}}</ref> contains 600 items in The Sharpe Collection of chapbooks, formed by [[Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe]]. These are 19th-century items printed in Scotland and Newcastle upon Tyne.
*Literatura de Cordel Brazilian Chapbook Collection Library of Congress, [[American Folklife Center]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 January 2006 |title=2005 Junior Fellows Program Projects (Junior Fellows Program, Library of Congress) |url=http://www.loc.gov/rr/jrfell/2005-proj.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060113080859/http://www.loc.gov/rr/jrfell/2005-proj.html |archive-date=2006-01-13 |access-date=2 August 2019 |website=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> has a collection of over 7200 works of [[cordel literature]]. Descended from the medieval troubadour and chapbook tradition of cordel literature has been published in Brazil for over a century.
*The Archival and Special Collections at the [[University of Guelph Library]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 December 2005 |title=Scottish chapbook collection |url=http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/resources/archives/Scottish/chapbooks.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051231070112/http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/resources/archives/Scottish/chapbooks.htm |archive-date=2005-12-31 |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=University of Guelph Library}}</ref> has a collection of more than 550 chapbooks in its extensive Scottish holdings.
* The [[National Art Library]], Victoria & Albert Museum in London<ref>{{Cite web |title=Search Victoria and Albert Museum |url=https://nal-vam.on.worldcat.org/discovery |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=National Art Library}}</ref> has a collection of approximately 800 chapbooks, all catalogued.
* The [[McGill University Library]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chapbook Collection |url=http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/chapbooks/index.php |publisher=McGill Library}}</ref> has over 900 British and American chapbooks published in the 18th and 19th centuries. The chapbooks have been digitized and can be read online.
* The Grupo de investigación sobre relaciones de sucesos (siglos XVI–XVIII) en la Península Ibérica, [[Universidade da Coruña]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 September 2010 |title=Relaciones de Sucesos |url=http://rosalia.dc.fi.udc.es/relaciones/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918043533/http://rosalia.dc.fi.udc.es/relaciones/index.html |archive-date=2010-09-18 |access-date=2 August 2019 |language=es}}</ref> Catalog and Digital Library of "Relaciones de sucesos" (16th–18th centuries). Bibliographical database of more than 5,000 chap-books, pamphlets, Early modern press news, etc. Facsimilar reproduction of many of the copies: [https://web.archive.org/web/20110921192809/http://rosalia.dc.fi.udc.es/RelacionesSucesosBusqueda/ Catálogo y Biblioteca Digital de Relaciones de Sucesos (siglos XVI–XVIII)] 
* The [[Ball State University]] Digital Media Repository Chapbooks collection<ref>{{Cite web |title=CONTENTdm |url=https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/chapbks |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=Ball State University}}</ref> provides online access to 173 chapbooks from the 19th and 20th centuries.
* The Elizabeth Nesbitt Room, [[University of Pittsburgh]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 September 2011 |title=The Elizabeth Nesbitt Room: A Goodly Heritage |url=http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/is/enroom/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927023910/http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/is/enroom/index.html |archive-date=2011-09-27 |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh}}</ref>
* [[Cambridge Digital Library]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spanish Chapbooks |url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/spanishchapbooks |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=Cambridge Digital Library}}</ref> hosts a growing number of digital facsimiles of Spanish chapbooks from the collections of Cambridge University Library and the [[British Library]].
* The [[Biblioteca Nacional de España]] has a digitized collection of chapbooks.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Search results |url=http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/Search.do?destacadas1=Pliegos+sueltos&home=true&languageView=en |access-date=2 August 2019 |publisher=Biblioteca Digital Hispánica |language=es}}</ref>
* The project [https://desenrollandoelcordel.unige.ch/inicio.html ''Untangling the cordel''] offers a collection of almost 1000 ''pliegos de cordel'', the Spanish equivalent of English chapbooks, kept at the University Library of the University of Geneva.<ref>{{cite conference |last1=Carta |first1=Constance |last2=Leblanc |first2=Elina |date=May 2021 |title=Le projet « Démêler le cordel » : une bibliothèque numérique pour l'étude de la littérature éphémère espagnole du XIX e siècle |trans-title=The project "Untangling the cordel": a digital library for the study of XIXth century Spanish chapbook literature |url=https://hal.science/hal-03526522 |language=fr |conference=Humanistica 2021 }}</ref>
* ''[http://biblioteca.cchs.csic.es/MappingPliegos/ Mapping Pliegos]'' is a portal dedicated to 19th-century Spanish chapbook literature. It brings together the digitized collections of over a dozen partner libraries.

== See also ==
{{portal|Novels}}
* [[Gothic bluebooks]]
* [[Penny dreadful]]
* [[Reclam]]
* [[Špalíček (ballet)]]
* [[Zine]]

==References==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Works cited ===
{{Refbegin}}
*{{Cite web |last=The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections |title=The Scottish Chapbook Project |url=http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/britlit/cbooks/cbook.html |publisher=University of South Carolina}}
*{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/captaincoxhisba01lanegoog |title=Captain Cox, His Ballads and Books |year=1871 |editor-last=Furnivall |editor-first=F. J. |editor-link=F. J. Furnivall}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lyons |first=Martyn |title=Books: a living history |publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-606-06083-4 |location=Los Angeles}}
*{{Cite book |last=Neuburg |first=Victor E. |author-link=Victor E. Neuburg |title=Chapbooks: A guide to reference material on English, Scottish and American chapbook literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries |publisher=Woburn |year=1972 |edition=2nd |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |last=Neuburg |first=Victor E. |author-link=Victor E. Neuburg |title=The penny histories: a study of chapbooks for young readers over two centuries ''(illustrated with facsimiles of seven chapbooks)'' |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1968 |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |last=Neuburg |first=Victor E. |author-link=Victor E. Neuburg |title=Chapbooks: a bibliography of references to English and American chapbook literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries |publisher=Vine |year=1964 |location=London}}
*{{Cite book |last=Neuburg |first=Victor E. |author-link=Victor E. Neuburg |title=A select handlist of references to chapbook literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries |publisher=J. A. Birkbeck |year=1952 |location=Edinburgh}}
*{{Cite book |last=Spufford |first=Margaret |author-link=Margaret Spufford |title=Small Books and Pleasant Histories: Popular Fiction and its Readership in seventeenth Century England |publisher=Methuen |year=1981}}
*{{Cite book |last=Weiss |first=Harry B. |url=https://archive.org/details/bookaboutchapboo0000weis |title=A book about chapbooks |publisher=Folklore Associates |year=1969 |location=Hatboro |url-access=registration}}
*{{Cite book |last=Weiss |first=Harry B. |title=A catalogue of chapbooks in the New York Public Library |publisher=New York Public Library |year=1936}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Chapbooks}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Chapbook |volume=5 |short=x}}
*[https://libguides.stir.ac.uk/c.php?g=530467&p=3628581 Chapbooks with Scottish imprint from 1790-1890 Collection at University of Stirling Archives]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Chapbooks| ]]
[[Category:1820s neologisms]]
[[Category:Book formats]]
[[Category:Early modern literature]]