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PRINTED BOOKS, BOOK-TRADE, LIBRARIES 56!
year Humphrey Powell printed an edition of the Book of
Common Prayer in Dublin.
It is an interesting fact that the majority of books printed by
Caxton, including his first, were in English, many being of a
popular character. His successor, De Worde, also issued a
large number of small popular poems and tracts. Besides this
popular literature, service-books, law treatises, and minor theo^
logical and scholastic books were printed in considerable
numbers by the earlier English printers, but for editions ofthe
Bible, Latin and Greek classical texts, and works ofscholarship generally, England was dependent on the Continent.
The first classical text published In England Is an edition of
Cicero's Pro Milone printed by Theodoric Rood of Oxford
about 1480 (Fig. 105). The earliest specimen ofGreek movable
type is found in a motto on the tide-page of a book printed by
Siberch at Cambridge in 1521. De Worde had previously
used a few Greek words in some of his books, but they had
been printed from wood-blocks. A Chrysostom printed by
Wolfe ofLondon in 1543 is the earliest Greek text printed in
England.
The editio
princess of the English Bible was printed on the
Continent in 1535 at someplace unknown (Fig. 106). This was
Coverdale's translation- The first Bible actually printed in
England was produced by James Nycolson of Southwark in
1537. In the same year appeared "Matthew's Bible*, another
continental printed version. This was followed by the *
Great
Bible* of 1 5 39, printed partly In France and partly in England.
In 1560 the Geneva version was published. This, the first
popular edition of the Bible, Is noteworthy for its compact
form, the use ofRoman type, and the division of chapters into
verses. The next important versions were the 'Bishops* Bible*
(1568) and the Authorized Version (1611).
The press used by printers of the fifteenth century was made
ofwood, and ofsimilar construction to the small platen presses
of today. Two men sufficed to work it, one laying the paper
and 'pulling* the press, the other 'beating', i.e. Inking the type
with ink-balls*