Moses Pitt (c. 1631 - 1697) was one of the largest British book publishers, printers, and booksellers of the second half of the seventeenth century. A very ambitious man who's plans eventually led to bankruptcy, Pitt was a small bookseller and publisher before he embarked on some enormous, very expensive, ventures. The largest was the 'English Atlas', which he intended to contain 900 pages of text and 600 plates in eleven volumes, and partnered with Jan Jansson's heir Johannes Waesberger. The first volume was published in 1680, but rising costs contributed to only four volumes being published. Pitt's ambitions did not stop him there, as he began a huge property speculation scheme in Westminster and took over the printing office of Oxford University. By 1685, however, he was forced to sell of much of his stock at auction, which marks the end of his print publishing. His final bankruptcy and arrest for debt happened in 1689 and he spent the following eight years in prison, only to be released shortly before his death. Pitt published The Cry of the Oppressed: Being a True and Tragical Account of the Unparallel'd Sufferings of Multitudes of Poor Imprison'd Debtors In Most of the Gaols in England, an appeal on behalf of people imprisoned for debt, in 1691.



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