A Poetical Rapsody, first published in 1602, is said to be the ‘last’ of the Elizabethan poetry anthologies. This anthology, however, like others studied here, has a much longer afterlife, and continued to be published in revised editions until 1621. The publication history of A Poetical Rapsody, along with that of Englands Helicon, highlights some of the problems with the limits imposed by the terminus points of conventional periodisation. Instead, the history of anthologies in print in large part depended on publishers, their careers, how they read the market. Like other anthologies, the story of the compilation of A Poetical Rapsody also extends well before its first appearance in print, thus bringing in other collaborations along the way. A Poetical Rapsody provides a valuable case study for understanding this aspect of anthology-making because, fortuitously, manuscript lists put together by Francis Davison survive that allow us to glimpse at least some of the stages of compilation before the book was printed. Davison, as we have seen in the previous chapter, was a studious reader of anthologies. A Poetical Rapsody differs from earlier multi-authored poetry anthologies in that, rather than the publisher, it is the gentleman compiler, Francis Davison, who takes command of the front of the book. We may remember that The Phoenix Nest was said to be the work of a gentleman compiler, identified only by his initials, R. S., yet, unlike Davison, he is otherwise absent from the book. Davison is often exclusively credited with compiling this anthology. That said, even the account he provides in his preface situates this anthology within overlapping networks of production, from friends and kin to the printing house. Davison’s surviving manuscripts, which take the form of various catalogues and lists of textual material, reveal well-developed habits of record-keeping and systems for organising textual material. Recent studies have drawn much-needed attention to the labour and skill involved in organising material into compilations, from commonplace books to miscellanies. Scribal cultures fostered manual crafts and relied on systems of assembly that reveal shared cultures of compilation across manuscript and print. Davison’s catalogues provide evidence for systematic practices of textual assembly and the dynamic processes of compilation, during which skills were learnt and put into use.