One of the most prolific printers of his time, Stansby is best remembered for publishing the landmark first folio collection of the works of Ben Jonson in 1616.
And for Blount and William Barret, Stansby printed Thomas Shelton's first English translation of Miguel de Cervantes' 1605 (thus, part 1) novel Don Quixote (2 volumes, 1612).
Musical titles printed by Stansby are listed in an article by Cecil Hill and include The Teares or / LamentacioNs of / a sorrowfvll / Sovle (1614) and MADRIGALES / and / AYRES (1632).
In some cases, printers are identified on title pages only by initials; yet bibliographers can employ title-page colophons and other clues to make identifications.
As a publisher, Stansby's most significant work was certainly the 1616 Jonson folio, which represented the first instance of a collected edition of the stage plays of a contemporary dramatist.
Stansby's editions of two works by John Selden, Titles of Honour (1614, 1631) and Mare Clausum (1635), were notable for being among the earliest English books that printed Arabic and Turkish words.
Probably in 1620, Stansby printed a topical pamphlet for Nathaniel Butter: titled A Plain Demonstration of the Unlawful Succession of Ferdinand II, Because of the Incestuous Marriage of His Parents, the work criticized the 1619 accession of the new Holy Roman Emperor.
While a prison sentence is a more substantive matter than mere fines for breaking guild rules, Butter and Stansby were far from the only stationers who were incarcerated for their professional activities.
Other prominent stationers of the era, like John and Edward Allde, Nicholas Okes, and Thomas Archer, shared similar fates.
Despite these legal problems, Stansby earned in his own time, and retains among modern bibliographers, a generally high respect for the quality of his printed texts.