PRINTING 



637 



Ireland. Printing was not known in Ireland till about the year 1551, when a book 

 in black letter was issued from a press in Dublin ; but till the year 1700 very little 

 printing was executed in Ireland, and even since that period the country has acquired 

 little celebrity in this department of the arts, although possessing some respectable 

 printing establishments. 



America. The art of printing has readily taken root and flourished among the 

 civilised inhabitants of North America. The first printing press established in the 

 American colonies was one set up at Cambridge, in Massachusetts, in the year 1638, 

 the era of the foundation of Harvard College of that place. It was only established 

 by the exertions and joint contributions of different individuals in Europe and America ; 

 and there is no doubt that the mechanism and types were imported from England. 

 The first work which issued from this press was the ' Freeman's Call,' and the second 

 the 'Almanac for New England,' both in 1639 ; the first book printed was the New 

 England version of the Psalms, an octavo volume of 300 pages, In 1676 books began 

 to be printed at Boston ; in 1686 printing became known in Philadelphia ; and in 

 1693 in New York. In the year 1700 there were only four printing presses in the 

 Colonies. Since that period, and especially since the revolution, which removed 

 everything like a censorship of the press, the practice of the art has undergone 

 enormous expansion. Among the occupations enumerated in the Census of 1850 were 

 14,740 printers and 3,414 bookbinders. In their style of typography and bookmaking 

 the Americans are still inferior to the English, sacrificing beauty and durability to 

 economy and despatch. Ckambers's Information. 



France. The activity of the French press has very greatly increased since the time 

 of the first Napoleon. Count Daru, in 1827 (Notions Statistiques sur la Libraire), 

 estimated the number of printed sheets (exclusive of newspapers) produced by the 

 French press in 1816, at 66,852,883; and it appears that in 1836 the number of 

 printed sheets (exclusive of newspapers) had increased to 118,857,000 ; so that it may 

 now bo fairly estimated at from 130,000,000 to 140,000,000 of sheets. The quality of 

 many of the works which have issued from the French press is also very superior, 

 such as the ' Biographic Universelle,' the ' Art de verifier les Dates,' and ' Bayle'g 

 Dictionary ; ' and it is doubted whether such books could have been published in any 

 other country. 



Germany. The German printing press is always in a state of the greatest activity; 

 and the trade in books is very much facilitated by the book-fairs of Leipzic, the Easter 

 fair especially being frequented by all the booksellers of Germany, besides those of 

 France, Switzerland, Denmark, Livonia, &c., in order to settle their mutual concerns 

 and form new connections. In 1814 began a literary deluge, which still continues to 

 increase. For the 5,000 works which then sufficed for the annual demand, we have 

 now from 6,000 to 8,000. Private libraries are diminishing, and the public ones are 

 daily increasing. 



In Austria the printing press has made rapid strides of late years. The Imperial 

 Printing-office in Vienna, under the able management of M. Auer, has become an 

 establishment of the highest interest. At the Exhibition of 1851, he presented to 

 the notice of the public a collection of the Lord's Prayer, printed with Boman type 

 in 608 languages and dialects, the second section of which contained 206 languages 

 and dialects, printed in the characters proper to the language of the respective nation. 

 He has collected together the following founts, many of which are, however, to bo 

 found in the British type-foundries : 



