Complete sets of the catalogues of the Royal Academy's century of exhibitions are possessed by very few.

And of playbills of the English stage from the Restoration down to the present time, although the British Museum can certainly boast a rich collection, yet this is disfigured here and there by gaps and deficiencies which cannot now possibly be supplied.
The playbill is an ancient thing.

Mr.Payne Collier states that the practice of printing information as to the time, place, and nature of the performances to be presented by the players was certainly common prior to the year 1563.

John Northbrooke, in his treatise against theatrical performers, published about 1579, says: "They used to set up their bills upon posts some certain days before, to admonish people to make resort to their theatres." The old plays make frequent reference to this posting of the playbills.

Thus, in the Induction to "A Warning for Fair Women," 1599, Tragedy whips Comedy from the stage, crying: 'Tis you have kept the theatre so long Painted in playbills upon every post, While I am scorned of the multitude.
Taylor, the water-poet, in his "Wit and Mirth," records the story of Field the actor's riding rapidly up Fleet Street, and being stopped by a gentleman with an inquiry as to the play that was to be played that night.