The Mighty Engine : The Printing Press and its Impact.

Isaac, P.C.G. ; McKay, B.

ISBN 10: 187304061X / ISBN 13: 9781873040614

Published by St Paul's Bibliographies, Winchester, first edition, 2000, 2000

About this Item

Laminated pictorial boards, 8vo, xi, 205 pp, facs, tables. From the blurb - "This fourth volume in the Print Networks series salutes the impact of the printing press, hailed by the Leicester Chronicle, as John Hinks reminds us, as the mighty engine which assisted the passage of the Reform Act of 1832. Authorities have for centuries tried to control printed matter and its distributors, a theme explored by Richard Suggett and Maureen Bell. Printing has been important in preserving the Welsh language and culture. Appropriately for a Seminar held at Aberystwyth several papers dealt with aspects of this: Rheinallt Llwyd describes the genesis of Gorchestion Beirdd Cymru, outstanding both for its content and typography; Chris Baggs looks at a bookselling dynasty in Pembrokeshire; Philip Henry Jones illuminates the difficulties of Welsh-language publishing in the nineteenth century; and Audrey Cooper describes the Cambrian Traveller s Guide of George Nicholson, a notable provincial printer and publisher in the Welsh marches. To thrive the English provincial book trade made use of wide networks. Brenda Scragg reports on the cultivation of Edinburgh cultural society by the Manchester bookseller, William Ford; Iain Beavan uses the firm s archives to show how Oliver & Boyd developed advertising; David Shaw gives an insight into the regional and national links of the Canterbury book trade in the eighteenth century; and Jim English gives an account of the Mozley family of Gainsborough and Derby with its fictitious London imprints. Two provincial members of the book trade receive individual attention: Margaret Cooper uses the luckily saved records of John Mountfort to indicate something of the activities of a Worcester bookseller in the years immediately after the end of the Licensing Act; and Sarah Gray lets us see William Flackton, Canterbury bookseller and talented musician, at work. The earliest days of English printing are dealt with by Stacey Gee (the 1999 Seminar Fellow) in her account of the coming of print to York, and by David Stoker who tells us what contemporaries wrote of printing at the Red-Well press in Norwich. Diana Dixon writes of the vicissitudes of newspapers in Huntingdonshire; Barry McKay gives the first report on his research into the day-books of John Ware, printer and bookseller of Whitehaven; and John Turner highlights some pitfalls in using on-line catalogues for quantitative bibliography." Very Good.

Seller Inventory # ABE-51188

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Mighty Engine : The Printing Press and its Impact.
• Publisher: St Paul's Bibliographies, Winchester, first edition, 2000
• Publication Date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 187304061X
• ISBN 13: 9781873040614
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Printing History (General)

About this title

Synopsis

This fourth volume in the Print Networks series salutes the impact of the printing press. Taken from the proceedings of the Seventeenth Seminar on the British Book Trade held in Aberystwyth in July 1999, this collection of scholarly essays covers the regulation of printed matter and its distribution, the preservation of Welsh language and culture in print, and various aspects of printing and the book trade in provincial England.