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		printing

		The museum's first priority is preserving anything that relates to the written word. However, we also hold a small but representative collection of printed work as books are, of course, the main means by which a written text can be copied in print and circulated to many thousands of readers. Over the centuries, the influence of writing on printing styles during their parallel development can be seen Printing is said to have been inroduced by the Chinese many centuries before it became known in the West. Having invented paper in 105 AD, maybe they had a head-start. The first book printed by movable type was the '42-line Bible' published in 1486. William Caxton, a merchant and self-taught printer, was the first to set up in England, in 1476. The top item in our picture shows a page from Caxton's press. The genius of the Italian Aldus Manutius, working in Venice, brought about the victory of the lighter Roman/Antique type over the heavy gothic style, which had prevailed since the introduction of printing. Aldus's printing mark from 'The works of Cicero' dated 1519 is the second of our examples shown. One type that closely followed the written word can be seen in our third example. It is the 'Friends, Romans, countrymen..' speech as printed in the 1632 Second Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. At the head each page is the title of the play. On one page is 'The Tragedy of Julius Caesar', whilst on the other is 'The Tragedie of...'. Also Mark Antony's name is spelled 'Marke'. This is due to the fact that more than one compositor made up the type and spelt the words as they saw it. The early Victorian age saw massed produced books with varying qualities of print, of which some were very poor. There was a revolution and revival of good printing at the Kelmscott Press, set up in the 1890's by William Morris, known as the father of modern printing. Our final example is the elaborate title-page of Morris's 'The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer' printed in 1896. In addition to printed history, the museum has a large number of reference books covering every aspect of our collections.
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