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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2014

By
Vincent Gillespie
Edited by
Vincent Gillespie  and
Susan Powell
With contributions by
Tamara Atkin ,
Alan Coates ,
Thomas Betteridge ,
Julia Boffey ,
James Clark ,
A. S. G. Edwards ,
Martha W. Driver ,
Mary Erler ,
Alexandra Gilespie  and
Andrew Hope
...Show all authors
Vincent Gillespie
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Vincent Gillespie
Affiliation:
J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford
Susan Powell
Affiliation:
Held a Chair in Medieval Texts and Culture at the University of Salford, and is currently affiliated to the Universities of London and York
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Summary

For as the first decay and ruine of the Churche, before began of rude ignoraunce, and lacke of knowledge in teachers: so to restore the Church agayne by doctrine and learning, it pleased God to open to man, the arte of Printyng, the tyme whereof was shortely after the burnyng of Hus and Hierome. Printyng beyng opened, incontinent ministred to the Church, the instrumentes and tooles of learnyng and knowledge, whiche were good bookes and authors, whiche before lay hyd and vnknowen. The science of Printyng beyng found, immediatly folowed the grace of God, whiche styrred vp good wittes, aptely to conceaue the light of knowledge and of iudgemēt: by which light, darkenes began to be espyed, and ignoraunce to be detected, truth from errour, religion from superstition to bee discerned.

Like all totalising narratives, John Foxe's polemical narrative of the invention of printing as a providential preliminary to the wholesale reformation of the Church can only work by omitting much that is inconvenient in the story. But his ideologically biased analysis, mounted from the Protestant haven of Elizabethan England, formed only a few years after the change of regime that marks the terminal date for this volume, has the merit of reminding us that there is much more to the history of printing in England than Caxton and his chivalric and gentry romances that have occupied so much space in literary and general histories of the period.

Type
Chapter
Information
A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476-1558 , pp. 1 - 10
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2014

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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Vincent Gillespie, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, Susan Powell, Held a Chair in Medieval Texts and Culture at the University of Salford, and is currently affiliated to the Universities of London and York
  • Book: A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476-1558
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Vincent Gillespie, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, Susan Powell, Held a Chair in Medieval Texts and Culture at the University of Salford, and is currently affiliated to the Universities of London and York
  • Book: A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476-1558
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Vincent Gillespie, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, Susan Powell, Held a Chair in Medieval Texts and Culture at the University of Salford, and is currently affiliated to the Universities of London and York
  • Book: A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476-1558
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
Available formats
×