The History and Art of Printing
In Two Parts

The technical information provided by this 1771 book was still valid and used until the middle of the twentieth century.

Philip Luckombe (Author)

9781108073394, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 November 2014

528 pages, 19 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 3 cm, 0.66 kg

Philip Luckombe (1730–1803), printer, author and shell-collector, published this work in 1771. (He had published a shorter version, A Concise History of the Origin and Progress of Printing, anonymously in the previous year.) Born in Exeter, he learned the printing trade there, and became a freeman of the city in 1776, but moved to London, where he wrote travelogues and several books on printing, edited dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and became an authority on shells. The first part of the book is concerned with the history of printing, including the various charters issued to the Stationers' Company, and the second with the practicalities of 'the art and mystery of printing' and 'the necessary materials used in a Printing House', including typefaces, presses and paper, and the duties of a warehouseman. This technical information continued to be used and quoted until the middle of the twentieth century.

To the public
Preface
A concise history of printing
Introduction of the art into England
Progress abroad
By whom practised in London
Where practised in the country
A specimen of printing types, by William Caxton
The Stationers' charters, etc.
Of printing materials
The printing press
Compositors business
A table shewing the first folio of a sheet of folio, for nine alphabets
Characters
A collection of English words, which agree in sound, yet differ in sense
Business requisite in the warehouse
Technical terms used in printing
Contents.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]