William Morris
Printer 1891-1896.
EDITED BY
ALFRED POLLARD
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
ENGLISH PRINTING
1476-1898
BY HENRY R. PLOMER
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER
AND COMPANY, LIMITED
1900
The English
Bookman's
Library
Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty
EDITOR'S PREFACE
hen Mr. Plomer consented at my request to write a short history ofEnglish printing which should stop neither at the end of the fifteenthcentury, nor at the end of the sixteenth century, nor at 1640, butshould come down, as best it could, to our own day, we were not withoutapprehensions that the task might prove one of some difficulty. Howdifficult it would be we had certainly no idea, or the book would neverhave been begun, and now that it is finished I would bespeak thereader's sympathies, on Mr. Plomer's behalf, that its inevitableshortcomings may be the more generously forgiven. If we look at what hasalready been written on the subject the difficulties will be more easilyappreciated. In England, as in other countries, the period in thehistory of the press which is best known to us is, by the perversity ofantiquaries, that which is furthest removed from our own time. Of allthat can be learnt about Caxton the late Mr. William Blades set down in[Pg viii]his monumental work nine-tenths, and the zeal of Henry Bradshaw, of Mr.Gordon Duff, and of Mr. E. J. L. Scott, has added nearly all that waslacking in this storehouse. Mr. Duff has extended his labours to theother English printers of the 15th century, giving in his Early EnglishPrinting (Kegan Paul, 1896) a conspectus, with facsimiles of theirtypes, and in his privately printed Sandars Lectures presenting adetailed account of their work, based on the personal examination ofevery book or fragment from their presses which his unwearied diligencehas been able to discover. Originality for this period being out of thequestion, Mr. Plomer's task was to select, under a constant sense ofobligation, from the mass of details which have been brought togetherfor this short period, and to preserve due proportion in theirtreatment.
Of the work of the printers of the next half-century our knowledge ismuch less detailed, and Mr. Plomer might fairly claim that he himself,by the numerous documents which he has unearthed at the Record Officeand at Somerset House, has made some contributions to it of considerablevalue and interest. It is to his credit, if I may say so, that so littleis written here of these discoveries. In a larger book the[Pg ix] story of thebrawl in which Pynson's head came so nigh to being broken, or of JohnRastell's suit against the theatrical costumier who impounded thedresses used in his private theatre, would form pleasant digressions,but in a sketch of a la