PRINTING. 



at Subiaco in the Roman territory, and then at 

 Rome. The present Roman type was first used 

 by an Italian printer, John of Spira, in an edition 

 of Pliny's Natural History, printed at Venice in 

 1469. The first printed books imitated every 

 peculiarity of the contemporary manuscripts, 

 and as printing was first practised in Ger- 

 many and the Netherlands, the first types were 

 copies of the Gothic or black-letter (38lfldt- 

 Itetttr), used in the manuscript-writing of these 

 countries at the time. These types spread 

 with the art of printing into various European 

 states. In France and Italy they were at once 

 slightly modified, and the classic taste of Italy 

 still further changed them, till they assumed the 

 present Roman shape. The Roman letters soon 

 spread from Venice all over Western Europe, but 

 the Gothic or black-letter, although supplanted 

 for general use, was long retained for special 

 purposes, such as, in this country, the printing of 

 Bibles, prayer-books, proclamations, and acts of 

 parliament. Black-letter is still the recognised 

 type of Germany. The first set of Greek char- 

 acters was also cast by the Italians whether at 

 Venice, Milan, or Florence, is a disputed point 



So rapid was the spread of the new art of 

 printing, that by 1475 attempts at printing books 

 had been made in most of the principal towns of 

 Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands, 

 often, as in the case of the Spiras of Venice, with 

 eminent success. It was introduced into Russia 

 about the year 1 560, or more than a century after 

 its general practice in Southern Europe. 



About the year 1496, the letter which we now 

 call Italic was invented by Aldus Manutius, a 

 Roman by birth, who set up the business of a 

 printer in Venice. 



Printing in Britain. 



The early history of printing in England is 

 obscure. The credit of introducing the art into 

 that country is generally believed to be due to 

 William Caxton, a mercer and citizen of London, 

 who, during his travels abroad, and his residence 

 for many years in Holland, Flanders, and Ger- 

 many, had made himself thoroughly acquainted 

 with the process, and upon his return was induced, 

 by the encouragement of many men of wealth and 

 rank, to set up a press in Westminster Abbey about 

 the year 1474. It has indeed been contended 

 that books were printed at Oxford several years 

 before this. There are copies extant of a work 

 professing to have been printed at Oxford in 1468 ; 

 but internal evidence discredits this date, and, as 

 the testimony in favour of Caxton is strong and 

 direct, there seems no sufficient ground for depriv- 

 ing him of the fame which he enjoys. 



After the art of printing had been introduced 

 into London, it spread to Cambridge, Tavi stock, 

 Worcester, Canterbury, Ipswich, &c. ; in almost all 

 cases by the encouragement of the churchmen of 

 these places, and generally with the view of printing 

 works of piety. About the year 1 500, or probably 

 somewhat earlier, Pynson was, by patent of Henry 

 VII., invested with the office of king's printer, 

 which may be regarded as the first instance of an 

 -appointment of this nature. At the close of the 

 fifteenth and the commencement of the sixteenth 

 century, London possessed a number of printers, 

 but none whose name has been so celebrated as 

 that of Wynken de Worde, a foreigner, who had 



been instructed under Caxton. He improved the 

 art considerably, and was the first printer in Eng- 

 land who introduced the Roman letter all pre- 

 vious printing, and much of a later date, being 

 m the black or German letter. 



Although at first countenanced by the clergy 

 the art of printing was soon looked upon with 

 extreme jealousy by the Church, which at length 

 discovered that this invention was but too cer- 

 tainly calculated to revolutionise the whole fabric 

 of society. The earliest efforts of the art, as we 

 have seen, were directed to the multiplication . f 

 the Bible ; but for a period of sixty or seventy 

 years from the date of the invention, all the copies 

 of the Scriptures which were printed, were in the 

 Latin or some other classic language, not under- 

 stood by the people. But now a new era com- 

 menced. Certain printers began to issue the 

 Bible in the English tongue, translated from the 

 original, and this gave mighty offence to the 

 Church, or Romish hierarchy. 



The progress of the art in England, after its 

 first rush into notoriety, was remarkably slow. I n 

 the sixteenth century it was interrupted by the 

 broils consequent on the Reformation, and in the 

 seventeenth century by the still greater harassment* 

 of the Civil War, and the gloomy religious spirit 

 which prevailed up till the Restoration. Even this 

 last event was unfavourable to it, by introducing 

 a general licentiousness and contempt for any 

 solid and respectable literature At this period, 

 there was an act of parliament still in force pre- 

 venting more than twenty printers to practise 

 their art in the kingdom. 



The whole number of books printed during the 

 fourteen years from 1666 to 1680 has been ascer- 

 tained to amount to 3550, of which 947 were on 

 divinity, 420 law, and 153 physic so that two-fifths 

 of the whole were professional books ; 397 were 

 school-books ; and 253 on subjects of geography an I 

 navigation, including maps. Taking the average 

 of these fourteen years, the total number of work-, 

 produced yearly was 253 ; but deducting the re- 

 prints, pamphlets, single sermons, and maps, we 

 may fairly assyme that the yearly average of new 

 books was much under 100. Of the number of 

 copies constituting an edition, we have no record ; 

 we apprehend it must have been small, for th^ 

 price of a book, as far as we can ascertain it. 

 considerable. The following abstract of the 

 return for 1872 of the books lodged by publisher- 

 at the British Museum, in terms of the Copyright 

 Act, will serve to shew the enormous increase in 

 the production of books during the last aoo yean : 

 Complete works, 8345 ; parts of volumes, w 

 in progress, and periodicals, 17,796 ; single 

 articles, including playbills, songs, broad* 

 &c. 5871 total, 32,012. 



After the Revolution of 1688, the business of 

 printing rapidly increased, by the demands for 

 sheets of intelligence or news, as well as for a 

 better class of literary productions. In the reig^i 

 of Queen Anne, printing was increased <ti 

 further by the issue of the Guardian, Sfff/atir. 

 and other literary sheets ; and in 1731 it received 

 considerable impetus by the establishment of the 

 GfHttemares Mageaine, being the first of the class 

 of larger periodicals. 



Printing was introduced into Scotland, and 

 begun in Edinburgh, about thirty years after 

 Caxton had brought it into England Mr Wat<on, 



