When Cromwell took the reins of power as Lord Protector of England he enforced the press laws very strictly. Cromwell was a masterful man and was not disposed to permit criticism of his person and government or discussion of matters of public policy upon which the government had decided. On the death of Cromwell there followed a period of political uncertainty during which the enforcement of the act was relaxed, only to be renewed at the accession of King Charles II in 1660.
Shortly after the accession of King Charles a group of the best printers unsuccessfully petitioned for the incorporation of a Company of Printers as distinguished from the Stationers. They alleged that the Company of Stationers was controlled by the booksellers and that they cheapened printing and impoverished the printers, that the Company of Stationers was so large that only old men could attain to the dignity of masters or wardens, and that only once in ten or twelve years was it possible for a journeyman printer to become a master printer. They claimed that a new Company would free the printing industry from these shackles, that it would improve the quality of printing, and that it would secure for the government better supervision of the output of the press. This last was probably a bait to the hook. The petition was not granted, however, and things went on in the old fashion.
In 1662 a new act similar to the preceding ones was passed, containing only one important variation by which the privilege of having a printing press was extended to the city of York. This act was for a time very strictly enforced. The police power necessary to the enforcement of the act was taken away from the Stationers’ Company and entrusted to Sir Roger Lestrange, who was appointed censor of the press. He was given control of the printing office and power of search. With a few reserved exceptions the entire licensing of books was placed in his hands and he was given a monopoly of the publication of news. Sir Roger seems to have taken himself quite seriously and to have discharged his functions for some years with a considerable degree of efficiency. Many books, however, were published without licenses. Some were published clandestinely, while it is probable that Sir Roger was more concerned to exercise the powers of office for the suppression of political and religious controversy and for the protection of his monopoly than for the control of pure literature. The act was reënacted in 1685 for a period of seven years. It was then reënacted for a period of one year and finally disappeared in 1694.
In spite of the wretched condition of printing at this period a few lights appear in the gloom. Thomas Roycroft did some very excellent printing. He achieved one of the most remarkable tasks which had yet been accomplished by an English printer in the publication of his famous Polyglot Bible. This Bible gave the text in Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Chaldean, Syriac, Arabic, Samaritan, Persian, and Ethiopic. Of course, these languages did not all appear in all parts of the Bible. The Greek, Latin, and Arabic texts appear throughout. The Hebrew and Chaldean appear in the Old Testament, the Ethiopic in the Psalms and New Testament only, and the Persian only in the New Testament. The types used came from four foundries, one of them being a face cut by John Day. The work was published in six great volumes, pages 16 x 10 inches. The text was so arranged that when the Bible was opened at any point each double page showed all the languages used for that particular passage. The first volume was published in September of 1654. The second appeared in 1655, the third in 1656, and the other three in 1657. Cromwell encouraged the work by ordering the admission of the paper duty free.
In 1688 the largest office in London was that of James Fletcher, who had five presses and employed thirteen journeymen and two apprentices. One of the printers of this period, John Barber, arrived at the distinction of Lord Mayor of London. He was a very popular Lord Mayor and he must have been very prosperous in business or he would not have acquired the means necessary to holding the position. He was in no way remarkable as a printer, however.
During this period there were four type-founders of importance—Joseph Moxon, the Andrews brothers, the Glover brothers, and Thomas James. The most famous of these was James Moxon. Primarily a man of science, he was distinguished as a mathematician and hydrographer. To these interests he added type-founding. Like Dürer in Germany and Geoffry Tory in France, he worked out a theory of type design in exact mathematical proportions, but like these and other attempts of the same sort it was not successful. While it is true that there must be proportion in type-faces, it is also true that a beautiful and legible type-face must have qualities other than a mere mathematical exactness. Moxon is known chiefly by his important work, “Mechanick Exercises.” Part II of this book is an exhaustive study of printing and type-founding. So thorough was Moxon’s study of these subjects and so accurate his presentation that the work is yet a standard authority on many fundamental points.
Joseph and Robert Andrews, although not very good workmen, made an extensive variety of type and found a good sale for it. They used the Moxon fonts, but added to them new roman and italic fonts, learned fonts, so called, Anglo-Saxon, and Irish. James and Thomas Glover cast two fonts of black letter from the matrices cut by Wynkyn de Worde and some foreign letters. They do not appear to have undertaken competition with Andrews and James in the ordinary forms of letter. Thomas James, who shared with the Andrews brothers a large portion of the business, used two sets of matrices cut in Holland. Of course, these few type-founders hardly made a beginning of supplying the English printers with type. The greater part of the printing of this period was done from type imported from Holland. It was in order to compete with this imported type that James obtained possession of the two fonts of Dutch matrices which were the backbone of his type-foundry.
After the Restoration of 1660, we find the Oxford Press rapidly advancing to the commanding position in English printing which it came to occupy in later years and still holds. Oxford had been a centre of royal influence in the civil wars. King Charles I held court there for some time and the university was always staunchly loyal to the Stuarts. Naturally it enjoyed the sunshine of royal favor when the Stuarts came back in the person of Charles II.
In 1667 Dr. John Fell, Vice-Chancellor of the University and afterward Bishop of Oxford, gave the University a complete type-foundry with matrices of roman, italic, black-letter Saxon, and several Oriental tongues. Ten years later Francis Junius added to the equipment of the foundry a splendid collection of out-of-the-way types, including Runic, Gothic, Saxon, Icelandic, Danish, and Swedish, together with a considerable number of types of the more common sorts. This equipment of type for learned work and foreign language printing enabled the Oxford Press to take a position without a rival as a producer of learned literature. The presswork and composition done at Oxford were well maintained on the level of their type equipment, so that the Oxford University Press soon came to hold a unique position.