BOOK TRADE. The substance r. this notice is condensed, with slight alter ations here and there, from a ' Postscript' to ' William Caxton : a Biography,' by Mr. Charles Knight, which gives a history of the " Progress of the Press in Eng land." The subject may be divided into five periods: I. From the introduction of printing by Caxton to the accession of James I., 1603.
II. From 1603 to the Revolution, If 88.
III. From 1688 to the accession of George III., 1760.
IV. From 1760 to 1800.
V. From 1800 to 1843.
I. One of the earliest objects of the first printers was to preserve from further destruction the scattered manuscripts of the ancient poets, orators, and historians. But after the first half-century of printing men of letters anxiously demanded copies of the ancient classics. The Alduses and Stephenses and Planting produced neat and printed octavos and duo decimos, instead of the expensive folios of their predecessors. The instant that they did this, the foundations of literature were widened and deepened. They probably at first overrated the demand ; we know they did so, and they suffered in consequence ; but a new demand very soon followed upon the first demand for cheap copies of the ancient classics. The first English Bible was bought up ana burnt ; those who bought the Bibles con tributed capital for making new Bibles, and those who burnt the Bibles by so doing advertised them. The first printers of the Bible were, however, cautious—they did not see the number of readers upon which they were to rely for a sale. In 1540 Grafton printed only 500 copies of his complete edition of the Scriptures : and yet, so great was the rush to this new supply of the most important knowledge, that we have existing 326 editions of the English Bible, or parts of the Bible, printed between 1526 and 1600.
The early English printers did not attempt what the continental printers were doing for the ancient classics. Down to 1540 no Greek book had appeared from an English press. Oxford had only printed a part of Cicero's Epistles ; Cam bridge, no ancient writer whatever : only three or four old Roman writers had been reprinted, at that date, throughout Eng land. The English nobility were, pro bably, for mare than the first half-century of English printing, the great encouragers of our press: they required translations and abridgments of the classics—ver sions of French and Italian romances, old chronicles, and helps to devout exer cises. Caxton and his successors abun
dantly supplied these wants, and the im pulse to most of their exertions was given by the growing demand for literary amusement on the part of the great. But the priests strove with the laity for the education of the people ; and not only in Protestant, but in Catholic countries, were schools and universities everywhere founded. Here, again, was a new source of employment for the press—A, B, C's, or Absies, Primers, Catechisms, Grammars, Dictionaries, were multiplied in every direction. Books became, also, during this period, the tools of professional men. There were not many works of medicine, but a great many of law. The people, too, required instruction in the laws which they were required to obey ; and thus the Statutes, mostly written in French, were translated and abridged by Rastell, an eminent law-printer. Even as early as the time of Caxton the press was em ployed to promulgate new laws.
Taken altogether, the activity of the press of England, during the first period of our inquiry, was very remarkable. To William Caxton, our first printer, are assigned 64 works.
Wynkyn de Worde, the able assistant and friend of Caxton, produced the large number of 408 books from 1493 to 1535, that is, upon an average, he printed 10 books in each year. To Richard Pyn son, supposed to have been an assistant of Caxton, 212 works are assigned, between 1493 and 1531.
From the time of Caxton's press to that of Thomas Hacket, with whose name Dr. Dibdin's work concludes, we have the enumeration of 2926 books. The Typographical Antiquities' of Ames and Herbert comes down to a later period. They recorded the names of three hundred and fifty printers in England and Scot land, or of foreign printers engaged in producing books for England, who were working between 1474 and 1600. The same authors have recorded the titles (we have counted with sufficient accuracy to make the assertion) of nearly 10,000 dis tinct works printed among us during the same period. Many of these works, however, were only single sheets; but, on the other hand, there are doubtless many not here registered. Dividing the total number of books printed during these 130 years, we find that the average number of distinct works produced each year was 75.