Photozincography of the Domesday Book
Encyclopedia
In the 1860s the first facsimile
Facsimile
A facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in terms of scale,...

 of the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 was created by the process of photozincography
Photozincography
Photozincography, sometimes referred to as Heliozincography but essentially the same process, known commercially as zinco, is the photographic process developed by Sir Henry James FRS in the mid-nineteenth century....

 (later termed zinco), and was executed under the directorship of Henry James
Henry James (Ordnance Survey)
Major General Sir Henry James FRS MRIA RE was the director-general of the Ordnance Survey, the British Government mapping agency, from 1854 to 1875. Sir Henry was described by the agency itself as "perhaps Ordnance Survey's most eccentric and egotistical Director General"...

 at the Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

 offices of the Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

.

Initial stages

Having developed the photozincographic process, in a meeting arranged between James and William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...

, then Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...

, Sir Henry expressed his ability to produce photozincographic copies of ancient documents at 'a very trifling cost.' James outlined for his superiors the cost of a complete reproduction of the Domesday Book (an estimate of £1575 for 500 copies or £3.3s per copy) using his process. In addition to this James further outlined the cost of a single county to demonstrate the affordability of the process, using Cornwall as an example of one of the shorter entries in the volumes (eleven folio pages) and estimated the cost of 500 copies to be £11. 2s. 4d. In doing so he selected the first extract of the Domesday Book that he would photozincograph.

On the 24th January 1861, Sir Henry was granted permission to photozincograph the Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 fragment of the Domesday as a Treasury funded experiment to determine the success of the process. Joseph Burtt
Joseph Burtt
Joseph Burtt was an archivist and an Assistant Keeper of the Public Records. He began working in the public service in 1832 at the Chapter House in Westminster Abbey under Sir Francis Palgrave, and in 1840 became a member of staff at the Public Record Office...

, one of the Assistant Keepers of the Records was directed to assist the Record Office binder, Hood, to unbind the relevant pages from the Domesday and on Monday the 4 February 1861 Burtt transported the Domesday to Southampton by train.

The Domesday in Southampton

Upon arrival at the Ordnance Survey offices in Southampton, Burtt expressed his satisfaction with the buildings’ ‘fireproof principles, and…military guard,’ and was given use of the best room in the building in which the Domesday was placed in a fireproof safe, and the key entrusted to Burtt. Burtt’s description of the preparations extends to the actual photozincographic process, including James’s insistence that all plates should be developed and printed before the folios were returned. Nevertheless, the photozincography of Cornwall was completed in 11 days and Burtt returned to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. The process was carried out in the Ordnance Survey photography building nicknamed the glasshouse.

Permissions and difficulties

Having completed Cornwall, James requested permission to photozincograph the rest of the Domesday. Despite his claim that the public sale of the bound and engraved copies could cover the entire cost of the photozincography of the counties, The Lords of the Treasury wished to consult the Master of the Rolls
Master of the Rolls
The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the second most senior judge in England and Wales, after the Lord Chief Justice. The Master of the Rolls is the presiding officer of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal...

 regarding the comparison of James’s photozincographic reproductions with a rival process employed by Rev. Lambert Larking of Kent. Larking (a local antiquarian) had employed an artist to assist the reproduction of the county of Kent using the lithographic process - a much more expensive means of reproduction than photozincography. However, in order to secure this permission over Larking's process James had to provide the Treasury with evidence of public interest and a guarantee of low-cost production. Thomas Letts
Thomas Letts
Thomas Letts was an English stationer and printer who popularised the diary. He was born at Stockwell, London, the son of John Letts, a bookbinder and printer of the Royal Exchange...

 of Letts Son & Co. Limited, London distributed a circular nationally bearing a foreword from James encouraging subscription, and by late October more than fifty subscribers to each county had been amassed. On the 28 November 1861 Burtt returned to Southampton once more with the Domesday for the aforementioned counties’ photozincographing, and by December James had secured permission from the Treasury to copy the remainder of Great Domesday – but he was explicitly forbidden from reproducing Kent, in defence of Larking’s lithograph. By 1864 the facsimile of the entirety of Great Domesday had been completed, and had been published in 32 county volumes including Kent following Larking's death, who granted James permission to complete the reproduction of the county due to his infirmity in the final stages of his life.

Today


'The books which were printed by James's method are still sought after even if they are not up to the standard of later facsimiles. His edition of Domesday Book is still the only facsimile of it available and can be found reasonably cheaply, whereas the letterpress is extremely rare and very expensive.'
In Aspects of Victorian Lithography

See also

  • Domesday Book
    Domesday Book
    Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

  • Publications of the Domesday book since 1086
    Publications of the Domesday book since 1086
    The Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England. This article is about the various ways the Domesday Book was published, beginning in the eighteenth century...

  • Zinco
  • Henry James (Ordnance Survey)
    Henry James (Ordnance Survey)
    Major General Sir Henry James FRS MRIA RE was the director-general of the Ordnance Survey, the British Government mapping agency, from 1854 to 1875. Sir Henry was described by the agency itself as "perhaps Ordnance Survey's most eccentric and egotistical Director General"...

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