Making Ends Meet

When in 1686 the exiled Scottish preacher Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715) needed a publisher for his travel account Some letters containing an account of what seemed most remarkable in Switzerland, Italy, &c., he turned to a another exile, the Huguenot bookseller Abraham Acher, who had settled in Rotterdam shortly after the Revocation. ¹ This was a somewhat curious choice, because Acher was only known for publishing French polemical works, yet he must have realised that Burnet’s book could become a serious best-seller. Indeed, under the guise of a travelogue Burnet developed an argument that went far beyond a description of his ramblings through Western Europe. As he later admitted, his true aim was ‘to lay open the misery of those who lived under an absolute government and a devouring superstition’. ² His message clearly resonated with Protestant readers: within a year Acher had issued five reprints and had the book translated into Dutch and French, while a royal ban on selling the book in England – where Burnet had been declared persona non grata – only helped to boost his sales. ³