![](https://assets.cambridge.org/97811080/73394/cover/9781108073394.jpg)
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Online publication date:
- February 2015
- Print publication year:
- 2014
- First published in:
- 1771
- Online ISBN:
- 9781107446021
- Subjects:
- Literature, Printing and Publishing History
12th August 2024: digital purchasing is currently unavailable on Cambridge Core. Due to recent technical disruption affecting our publishing operation, we are experiencing some delays to publication. We are working hard to restore services as soon as possible and apologise for the inconvenience. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
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.
* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.
Usage data cannot currently be displayed.