Brent, John

Dates Active in Dublin: 

1687–1704

Business Type: 
Music printer
Address(es): 

Capel Street, 1687–91?
Over against the Sign of the Cock, Capel Street, c. 1691
Weigh-house, Essex Street, c. 1696
The Post Office Coffee House, Fishamble Street, 1697
At the back of Dick's Coffee House, Skinner's Row, 1698–c. 1704

Details: 

Brent worked in a loose partnership with John Brocas and Stephen Powell from 1697 to 1698. From 1689 to 1703 Brent and Powell worked without Brocas, sometimes trading as 'John Brent & Stephen Powell' (Pollard).

Brent and Powell's edition of William Barton's Psalms, 1698 was one of the earliest Irish publications to include music printing.

[Details differ according to sources: Boydell (Calendar) gives the date of 1698 only at the back of Dick's Coffee House, Skinner's Row. Munter gives Capel Street from 1687 to 1691?; the Post Office Coffee House, Fishamble Street from ? to 1697 and the back of Dick's Coffee House, Skinner Row from 1697 to 1701. Pollard gives Over against the Sign of the Cock, Capel Street from before 1691 to after 1681; Weigh-house, Essex Street from before 1696; the Post Office Coffee House, Fishamble Street in 1697 and At the Back of Dick's Coffee House, Skinner Row from 1698 to after 1704. Munter gives the Brent, Powell and Brocas partnership dates as 1697 to 1701 but Pollard gives them as 1697 to 1698.]

Select Product/Work List: 

Printed

  • The Psalms of David in Metre. Newly translated With Amendments by William Barton M.A. And Sett to the best Psalm-Tunes In Two Parts, viz Treble and Bass; With Brief Instructions for the under standing of the same; together with a Table of the Psalms, and Names of the Tunes to each Psalm. by Thomas Smith. The Basses, with the Table, are placed at the latter end of the Book. To God with understanding Praises sing, For over all the Earth he is the King. Dublin Printed by J. Brent and S. Powell, at the Back of Dick's Coffee-House in Skinner-Row, and are to be Sold by Peter Lawrence at his Shop in Bridge-street, near the Old Bridge, [c. 1698] (EEBO)
    • See Also: 

    Brent & Powell
    Brocas, John
    Lawrence, Peter
    Powell, Stephen

    Source(s): 

    'The Psalms of David in Metre' in Early English Books Online <http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:29819> [accessed 12 November 2012]

    Humphries, Charles and William C. Smith, Music Publishing in the British Isles, from the Beginning until the Middle of the Nineteenth Century; a Dictionary of Engravers, Printers, Publishers, and Music Sellers (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 84

    Boydell, Brian, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988), p. 261

    Munter, Robert, A Dictionary of the Print Trade in Ireland: 1550–1775 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1988), p. 35

    Pollard, M., A Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550–1800: Based on the Records of the Guild of St Luke the Evangelist Dublin (London: Bibliographical Society, 2000), pp. 51–52

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Brent, (John) and Powell, (Stephen)’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 12-02-2017