Joseph Cottle, publisher, bookseller and author, had his shop here. Cottle published many Romantic poets, including Coleridge and Wordsworth. Cottle also published Charles Fox, poet and translator. Fox translated Poems containing the Plaints, Consolations, and Delights of Achmed Ardebeili, Persian Exile, by Achmed Ardebeili. The frontispiece describes Ardebeili as a 'Persian exile'. Little is known of him: it appears he held a court position in late seventeenth century Azerbaijan, and had to flee to England as a refugee to escape political violence. Cottle's publication of Fox's translation marks the first Arabic characters to be printed in Bristol, as well as one of the first books to use Arabic characters printed prior to 1800 in all of England. Islam had a great influence on Romantic poets in Bristol, especially on Robert Southey, Fox and Cottle's friend, who drew from Middle Eastern literature and the Qu'ran in his poetry.
