The scientific and technical periodicals of the 17th and 18th centuries are a primary source for the study of one of the most interesting periods in our intellectual history. The author has collected and collated titles and information regarding them from a large number of sources to construct an alphabetical list of 1,851 periodicals, including those issued by the scientific and learned societies of this period in all the countries of Europe and America, from 1665, when Philosophical Transactions made its first appearance, to the end of the eighteenth century.

Fifteen readable essays examine topics such as editorial policy in the early journals, the economic side of scientific publishing in the 17th and 18th centuries, aspects of journal indexing, early modern scientific networks, and the issues of authorship and authority. The whole constitutes a body of work that reveals both the richness and scope for further inquiry that has motivated Kronick for decades.