Peter Short (died 1603) was an English printer based in London in the laterElizabethan era. He printed several first editions and early texts ofShakespeare's works.^[1]

Short became a "freeman" (full member) of theStationers Company on 1 March 1589, and operated his own business from that year until his death; he was partnered with Richard Yardley until 1593. His shop was at the sign of the star on Bread Street Hill (the southern continuation ofBread Street).

About a third of his titles involved translations fromLatin or contemporary European languages. Short began publishing music in 1597; he issuedThomas Morley'sA Plaine and Easy Introduction and bothCanzonets, Dowland'sFirst Book of Songs,Holborne'sCittharn School, and Hunnis'sSeven Sobs. Short used type which was passed on and used by his successors (Humphrey Lownes, James Young).^[2][3]

In an era when the functions of publisher and printer were often largely (though not entirely) separate, Short was primarily a printer and only secondarily a publisher; he printed just over 170 works in his career, and the publishers of about 100 are known.^[4] Short likely published a good portion of the others himself.

Apart from Shakespeare's works, Short's most important printing tasks were: the famous1600 first edition ofWilliam Gilbert'sDe Magnete; the1601 edition of theAnnals ofJohn Stow; and the completion of the fifth edition (1597) of theActs and Monuments, or Book of Martyrs ofJohn Foxe. He also printed the first edition (1600) ofMarlowe's translation ofLucan'sPharsalia forThomas Thorpe. In music publishing, Short was responsible for printingJohn Dowland'sFirst Booke of Songes or Ayres, the most successful music anthology of the era, as well asThomas Morley's important theoretical treatiseA Plaine and Easie Introduction to Musicke, both printed in 1597

Regarding Shakespeare, Short printed:

• Thefirst quarto ofHenry VI, Part 3 (1595), for publisher Thomas Millington. This was the "bad quarto," the early alternative text of Shakespeare's play known asThe True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York.
• The firstquarto ofHenry IV, Part 1 (1598), for Andrew Wise.
• The second edition ofThe Rape of Lucrece (1598), for John Harrison. This was the first edition of that poem inoctavo rather than quarto format (O1).
• The fifth edition ofVenus and Adonis (1599), for William Leake; the third octavo edition (O3).

ForCuthbert Burby, Short printedPalladis Tamia (1598) byFrancis Meres, a book that contains an important early reference to Shakespeare and a list of his plays performed up to 1598.

Short printed a few non-Shakespearean play texts as well:

• For Burby, Short printed Q1 and Q2 ofThe Taming of a Shrew (1594, 1596), the early alternative version of Shakespeare'sThe Shrew.
• ForWilliam Ponsonby, he printed the closet dramaAntony (1595), translated from the French ofRobert Garnier by theCountess of Pembroke.
• For Simon Waterson, he printed the third, 1598 edition ofSamuel Daniel'sCleopatra.
• And for William Holme, Short printed one of the three editions ofJonson'sEvery Man Out of His Humour that appeared in a single year, 1600.

Short's connection with the Shakespeare canon has led scholars to study his printed output and learn details of the workings of his shop, including the compositors he employed.^[5]

After his 1603 death, Short's widow, Emma Short, continued their business, reissuing Dowland´sFirst Book of Songs; she married Humphrey Lownes, another member of the Stationers Company, in 1604.

• 1603 deaths
• 16th-century English businesspeople
• 16th-century births
• 17th-century English publishers (people)
• Businesspeople from London
• English printers
• Music printers

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