A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 | Page 2

to leave the printers alone, even this source of information lapses, and the pioneer has to gather what he may from the imprints in books which come under his hand, from notices of a few individual printers, and stray anecdotes and memoranda. Through this almost pathless forest Mr. Plomer has threaded his way, and though the road he has made may be broken and imperfect, the fact that a road exists, which they can widen and mend, will be of incalculable advantage to all students of printing.
Besides the indebtedness already stated to the works of Blades, Mr. Gordon Duff, Mr. Arber, and Mr. Reed, acknowledgments are also due for the help derived from Mr. Allnutt's papers on English Provincial Printing (Bibliographica, vol. ii.) and Mr. Warren's history of the Chiswick Press (The Charles Whittinghams, Printers; Grolier Club, 1896). Lest Mr. Plomer should be made responsible for borrowed faults, it must also be stated that the account of the Kelmscott Press is mainly taken from an article contributed to The Guardian by the present writer. The hearty thanks of both author and editor are due to Messrs. Macmillan and Bowes for the use of two devices; to the Clarendon Press for the three pages of specimens of the types given to the University of Oxford by Fell and Junius; to the Chiswick Press for the examples of the devices and ornamental initials which the second Whittingham reintroduced, and for the type-facsimiles of the title-page of the book with which he revived the use of old-faced letters; to Messrs. Macmillan for the specimen of the Macmillan Greek type, and to the Trustees of Mr. William Morris for their grant of the very exceptional privilege of reproducing, with the skilful aid of Mr. Emery Walker, two pages of books printed at the Kelmscott Press.
That the illustrations are profuse at the beginning and end of the book and scanty in the middle must be laid to the charge of the printers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in whose work good ornament finds no place. It was due to Caslon and Baskerville to insert their portraits, though they can hardly be called works of art. That of Roger L'Estrange, which is also given, may suggest, by its more prosperous look, that in the evil days of the English press its Censor was the person who most throve by it.
ALFRED W. POLLARD.
[Illustration: Decorative]

CONTENTS AND LIST OF PLATES
PAGE
EDITOR'S PREFACE, vii
CHAPTER I
Caxton and his Contemporaries, 1
CHAPTER II
From 1500 to the Death of Wynkyn de Worde, 31
CHAPTER III
Thomas Berthelet to John Day, 61
CHAPTER IV
John Day, 79
CHAPTER V
John Day's Contemporaries, 103
CHAPTER VI
Provincial Presses of the Sixteenth Century, 122
CHAPTER VII
The Stuart Period (1603-1640), 154
CHAPTER VIII
From 1640 to 1700, 187
CHAPTER IX
From 1700 to 1750, 228
CHAPTER X
From 1750 to 1800, 261
CHAPTER XI
The Present Century, 282
INDEX, 323

LIST OF PLATES
Portrait of William Morris, Frontispiece
Portrait of Roger L'Estrange, at p. 203
Portrait of Caslon, " 239
Portrait of Baskerville, " 265
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Device of William Caxton.]
CHAPTER I
CAXTON AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
The art of printing had been known on the Continent for something over twenty years, when William Caxton, a citizen and mercer of London, introduced it into England.
Such facts as are known of the life of England's first printer are few and simple. He tells us himself that he was born in the Weald of Kent, and he was probably educated in his native village. When old enough, he was apprenticed to a well-to-do London mercer, Robert Large, who carried on business in the Old Jewry. This was in 1438, and in 1441 his master died, leaving, among other legacies, a sum of twenty marks to William Caxton.
In all probability Caxton, whose term of apprenticeship had not expired, was transferred to some other master to serve the remainder of his term; but all we know is that he shortly afterwards left England for the Low Countries. In the prologue to the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye he tells us that, at the time he began the translation, he had been living on the Continent for thirty years, in various places, Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zealand, but the city of Bruges, one of the largest centres of trade in Europe at that time, was his headquarters. Caxton prospered in his business, and rose to be 'Governor to the English Nation at Bruges,' a position of importance, and one that brought him into contact with men of high rank.
In the year 1468 Caxton appears to have had some leisure for literary work, and began to translate a French book he had lately been reading, Raoul Le Fevre's Recueil des Histoires de Troyes; but after writing a few quires he threw down his pen in disgust at the feebleness of his version.
Very shortly after this he entered the service of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV. of England,