A Brief History of Printing in England / A Short History of Printing in England from Caxton to the Present Time

by Frederick W. Hamilton

The eighteenth century was a very important time in the history of English printing. It was the period of the changes and inventions which led over from the mediævalism of the seventeenth century to the modernism of the nineteenth. Three special changes took place: first, the invention of stereotyping; second, the rise of the modern publisher; and, third, the dawn of modern ideas in types and typography.

The story of the invention of stereotyping is the tale only too common in industry of the inventor who is ahead of his time, the selfish and thoughtless crowd who opposed him, the apparent failure of the enterprise, and final success for the idea when the inventor is no longer alive to enjoy his triumph. About 1720 it occurred to a Scotchman named Ged that it ought not to be difficult to cast type by the page. He hit upon the idea of making a plaster-of-paris mould of the type-set page and from it casting the plates. As usual in such cases, he needed a partner with capital and some technical knowledge. In 1727 he associated himself with an Edinburgh printer, who soon became alarmed at the apparent prospective cost and withdrew from the enterprise. Soon after this Ged got acquainted with a London stationer named William Fenner. Fenner in turn introduced him to Thomas James, the type-founder, and the three associated themselves in partnership for the development of the new process. For some reason James proved treacherous. Apparently the investment which he was making should have served to keep him faithful. Whether he became alarmed by a fancied danger to his business or was frightened or bought off by the printers is not clear. At any rate, his cooperation was only halfhearted. Instead of furnishing Ged with the best of type from which to make his moulds he furnished him with very poor type and his workmen wilfully damaged the forms.

While this was going on Ged was appointed printer to the University of Cambridge, where he met with the same experiences at the hands of the printers. Under great difficulties and discouragements he succeeded in producing two prayer books which were printed from his plates, but the animosity of the printers was so violent that the authorities suppressed the books and destroyed the plates. The reason for this animosity is not far to seek. The journeymen had not yet recovered from the fear and danger caused by the old statutes which had limited the number of shops without limiting the number of journeymen, thus causing extensive lack of employment. It must be remembered also that the old customs were still in force which limited editions and prohibited keeping type standing. It looked to the printers as if the invention of a process which would fix type by pages and make possible indefinite reprints from one setting of type was a most serious threat to the industry. From the point of view of the knowledge and the conditions in the second quarter of the eighteenth century we shall have to admit that their fears were well founded. They could not possibly foresee the enormous increase of printing which was to make the stereotype indispensable.

To complete the tale of his misfortune, Ged’s partners, James and Fenner, now fell out between themselves. The partnership was broken up and Ged, discouraged and bankrupt, went back to Edinburgh. His discouragement was not permanent, however, and he made another attempt, but not a printer could be found in Edinburgh who would set type for him. Ged’s son learned composition and set up a few books, working by night, which were printed at Newcastle. Ged died in 1749, apparently defeated. Later in the century, however, his work was taken up and made practical by Didot in France and his invention developed to great proportions.

The early printers were their own publishers and booksellers. Previous to the invention of typography the maker and seller of the book were not ordinarily the same person. It was only natural that in a short time the stationers, that is to say, the sellers of manuscript books and of writing materials, should sell printed books also. Both the printer and bookseller were interested in an attempt to cut out one profit. If the printer sold to the bookseller and the bookseller sold to the public, both must profit by the transaction. If the printer could sell directly to the public or the bookseller could print his own books, obviously the whole or the greater part of both of these profits might go to one man. In this competition, however, the bookseller had three advantages. One came from the fact that the carrying on of a printing plant was a business enterprise and the additional care of maintaining a selling organization for marketing books with the public was more than most printers were equal to. The second was that the bookseller could buy a whole edition or contract for its publication. In this way while he reduced the printer’s profits he also greatly reduced his risks. The third was that privilege and copyright attached themselves to manuscripts. If the bookseller bought the manuscript it could not be printed except by arrangement with him. When the bookseller became the owner of manuscripts, or became sufficiently confident of his power to market books to employ the printer to produce such books as he could use, he became a publisher in the modern sense of the word. He might either set up a printing establishment of his own or he might have his work done by contract by one or more outside printers.

The business methods of the old printers were very simple. We have seen how Schoeffer did the first piece of commercial printing when he struck off for distribution a list of the books which he had on sale. We have seen how Jenson and Aldus and the other early printers sold their books at their printing offices, advertised them by correspondence, and sent them to the Frankfort Fair and other similar places. The Plantin workshop, which is still maintained as the Plantin Museum in Antwerp, still shows the little salesroom which was part of the original business. Caxton, with his sound business sense and trained business habits, had a way of assuring or forecasting beforehand the sales of his books, thus anticipating to a considerable extent the methods of the modern publishers.

It soon became the habit of the printers to open shops apart from their printing offices for the sale of their productions. These salesrooms developed into book-shops through carrying in stock the books of other printers. In the old-world cities trades had a habit of congregating in one place. If a man wanted to open a book-shop, instead of trying to find a good location where there were no other book-shops very near at hand, he tried to get a location as near as he could to all the other book-shops. In this way certain streets or quarters of the cities, and particularly of London, were given up to certain industries. The centre of the English book trade of the seventeenth century was the churchyard of the old St. Paul’s Church. This was the smaller church which occupied the site where now stands the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral built by the great architect Sir Christopher Wren after the fire of 1660.

A glimpse of the way in which the business was done may be obtained from the following description of John Day’s book-shop: “He got framed a neat handsome shop. It was but little and low, a flat roof, and leaded [covered with sheets of lead] like a terrace, railed and posted, fit for men to stand upon in any triumph or show.” Evidently thrifty John Day was not above turning an honest penny by renting the roof of his shop to those who desired to see the Lord Mayor’s show or some other glittering procession. All processions of any importance passed St. Paul’s. We are told that this shop cost £40 or £50, which would be equivalent, making allowance for the difference in the purchasing power of money, to from $1200 to $1600 to-day. We are told that £150,000 worth of books were burned at St. Paul’s churchyard and in the crypt of the church in the fire of 1666. This represents no less than $4,000,000 in our present money.

Advertising was done largely by means of the so-called “title post,” a sort of primitive bulletin board. On a post in the shop were put up the titles of new books on sale, with perhaps a brief bit of description. Books were sold either bound, stitched, or in sheets. The bindings in favor were leather-covered boards, perhaps vellum with silk ties to counteract the tendency of vellum to warp, or velvet and other textiles, often ornamented with elaborate embroidery. The books which were sold bound, however, were ordinarily in the plainer styles of binding. The more wealthy and particular book buyers preferred to buy their books in sheets and to have them placed in bindings which were ornamented with their coats of arms or with other devices of a personal nature. The stitched books were at first sewed by being pierced through the sheets with a bodkin and tied with a string. In 1586 a limit was set to the size and thickness of books which might be sold in this form. Those beyond the limit must be sewed on a regular binder’s machine and made ready for the cover to be put on. Sewed books were often covered with cloth or pasteboard to preserve them and keep them clean. This was substantially what is now known as binding in cases.

For a long time the relations between printers, booksellers, and authors were confused and irregular. Up to the end of the seventeenth century there was nothing in the nature of copyright except registration with the Stationers’ Company, but that registration was made by the owner of the manuscript, who was not necessarily the author. Originally these owners were generally the printers because the printers and publishers, as has just been pointed out, were the same. Later, as the ascendency of the booksellers increased, it was they who held the manuscripts. Sometimes due regard was paid to the rights of the author and sometimes not. This appears to have depended entirely upon the arrangements which author and publisher were able to make. In many cases the author got decidedly the worst of the bargain. The protection which the Company undertook to extend was limited to the holder of the copyright. The situation was further complicated by the survival of privileges or monopolies of various sorts.