Printing Places: Locations of Book Production and Distribution since 1500

Citation

Simpson, M. (2006), "Printing Places: Locations of Book Production and Distribution since 1500", Library Review, Vol. 55 No. 8, pp. 541-542. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530610689446

A book with such a title might be expected to be a directory of all places in the world in which printing has taken place since 1500. This expectation would be completely erroneous: the book is restricted to Britain and is not a directory. It comprises 14 individual essays covering a wide variety of subjects, all related in some way to printing activity in particular locations and the distribution of printed matter. It is the seventh title in the “Print Networks” series which has, since 1997, published papers originally delivered at annual Conferences on the History of the Book Trade. This volume comprises material from the 2002 conference. The editors themselves in their introduction readily admit that what makes “for diverse and interesting conferences” often does not help with “the choice of a title for each annual volume”. Any such title as the one chosen cannot hope to encapsulate the content, but in the end it does not really matter: each chapter stands by itself, and together they comprise in their variety an important and useful addition to the body of published material on the history of the book in Britain. This is a worthy addition to the series.

The essays are arranged chronologically, starting with a piece by Lucy Lewis on the printing in Tavistock in 1525 of an edition of Boethius, a contribution more concerned with textual matters than with placing the edition in the context of the contemporary book trade. The volume ends with an investigation by Graham Law of three hugely popular Victorian novelists whose work was disseminated through popular periodicals. No chapter deals with the 20th century matters; only one essay strays into that century at all, and even then the terminus is 1906. I had never heard of any of the novelists examined by Law, and his essay was for me a high point.

Other chapters which I particularly enjoyed were Stephen Brown's bravura performance on the late 18th‐century Edinburgh printer, journalist and balloonist James Tytler, Stephen Colclough on the emergence of the Victorian railway bookstall, 1840–1875, and David Stoker's meaty “Norwich ‘publishing’ in the seventeenth century”. Ian Jackson's examination of advertising in two 18th‐century Northampton and Reading newspapers and David Hounslow's study of false imprints in certain York and Gainsborough publications are likewise stimulating, while Keith Manley entertains and informs on pre‐1825 West Country subscription and circulating libraries. The late Peter Isaac, founder of the conference series and dynamo for much else besides, discusses the relationship between John Murray II and his Edinburgh agents Oliver and Boyd, to which Iain Beavan adds supplementary observations from his research. The book is well produced and presented. There are some black and white illustrations in the text, short notes on contributors and an index.