Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song-Book is the oldest extant anthology of English nursery rhymes, published in London in 1744. It contains the oldest printed texts of many well-known and popular rhymes, as well as several that eventually dropped out of the canon of rhymes for children.
History
Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book was published in London by Mary Cooper in May, 1744. It was originally a sequel to a now-lost first volume published earlier that year.[1][2][3][4] The rhymes and illustrations were printed from copper plates, the text being stamped with punches into the plates, a technique borrowed from map and music printing. The book measures 3×13⁄4 inches and it is printed in alternate openings in red and black ink.[5]
For many years, it was thought that there was only a single copy in existence, now in the British Library.[6] However, another copy appeared in 2001, which was sold for £45,000[7] and is now in the collection of the Cotsen Children's Library.[8] In 2013 a facsimile edition with an introduction by Andrea Immel and Brian Alderson was published by the Cotsen Occasional Press.
The two extant copies of Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song-Book are the oldest printed collections of English nursery rhymes known to still exist. Although Tommy Thumb's Song Book is an older collection, no copies of its first printing have survived. The only other printed copies of nursery rhymes that predate the Pretty Song-Book are in the form of quotations and allusions, such as the half-dozen or so that appear in Henry Carey's 1725 satire on Ambrose Philips, Namby Pamby.[5]
Contents
The book contains forty nursery rhymes, many of which are still popular, including;
