Читать книгу A Brief History of Printing in England. A Short History of Printing in England from Caxton to the Present Time онлайн

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While Caxton was at work a few other printers made their appearance in England. Some time before 1478 Theodoric Rood, of Cologne, opened a printing office at Oxford. The office was open for about eight years, but seems to have done only a small business. We have fifteen books which are known to have come from this press. They were printed from three different fonts of type. Two of them were good letters imported from Cologne. About 1487 Rood disappeared and is supposed to have gone back to Cologne. In 1479 a press was started at the abbey of St. Albans. This press published eight books that we know of, all for church use or the direct use of the abbey. These books were printed from four fonts of type, two of which are identical with two of Caxton’s. It is possible that this was a side enterprise of Caxton’s, although it is equally possible that the abbey may have bought the type of Caxton or obtained the use of his matrices or even hired some type of him. The conclusions based on apparent identity of type-faces are always doubtful, as this identity may be accounted for in a considerable number of ways.