Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 3 - Printing

  • from TECHNIQUE AND TRADE
  • Edited by Lotte Hellinga, J. B. Trapp
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    09 December 1999, pp 65-108

  • Summary

    Printing had forced the book-trade rapidly to develop channels by which to market the merchandise that could now be produced on a big scale. In the medieval England, book production was almost entirely dependent on materials, techniques and skills brought in from overseas. Typographers and printers had to decide what was relevant to convey their message, and what variant forms could be dispensed with. A set of conventions regarding styles of type was developed early and was based on distinctions made in scribal traditions. In the period up to 1557 (and long after), printers in England and Scotland were almost fully dependent on the printing types that could be obtained from suppliers on the Continent. The printing press was a less sensational invention than that of movable type, and developed over the first decades of printing. Procedure and practice could vary considerably between different countries, towns and individual printing houses.