Foreign-Language Printing in London, 1500-1900 (review)

The history of foreign-language printing in London from 1500 to 1900 is admirably laid out in this tome from the British Library. Each article is a survey or case study by an expert from the British Library staff, past and present. The bulk of the essays are from a conference that was held at the British Library in May 2000. The foreign languages in question encompass Western Europe broadly, in this case, including Greek, Russian, Polish, and Hungarian language materials. While the surveys are by their nature broad, they paint a general picture that is then fleshed out by case studies that discuss either the publication history of particular books or the work of particular printers in detail. Since the book originates from the British Library, it is not surprising that the bulk of the research has been completed using the British Library's collections. This can render the surveys, in some cases, a little narrow in coverage.

Many of the contributors relied heavily on the online version of the English Short-Title Catalog (ESTC) for their research. Unfortunately, as mentioned in Clive Field's introduction, although a useful tool, the digital incarnation of ESTC in 2000 was far from complete: not all major libraries had yet reported their holdings, and many items contain false imprints. The problem of false imprints in particular warrants further study; many items in the ESTC database that were printed on the Continent claim to be published in London, and there are items that were published in London that purported to be printed on the Continent; if these latter items were not in the English language, they are not included in the scope of the ESTC and therefore would have been excluded from the studies in this volume.

What is revealed throughout these pages is that foreign-language printing was part of a vibrant printing community not necessarily separate from the Stationers' Company. Many foreign-language printers printed works in English, and English printers were known to dabble in foreign-language printing as well. Some, like Richard Field, deliberately took on pseudonyms in order to disguise themselves as being foreign. Some materials, although published in London, were printed abroad, evidence of the strong ties between immigrant printers and their homelands. Instructional books, both for native speakers learning English and those English speakers wishing to acquire a foreign language, were the bread and butter of the industry; later, translations of fiction, art, history, and the like gained in popularity. Periodicals and newspapers often did not appear until the nineteenth century and were then short-lived, lacking an audience.

This history of printing is also a history of the book trade: functions such as printing and bookselling were often inseparable during the period discussed. Therefore, it is necessary to bring the other book-related trades into the discussion to shed light on printing practices and their origins. Unfortunately, some of the members of the book trades less involved in the production of the physical page but important to the distribution of these materials, such as booksellers, get shorter shrift. There is, however, significant discussion of the rise and fall of markets for these books in several of the essays, sketching the shift from an audience of a small immigrant community with limited literacy to later native English speakers who dabbled in foreign-language literature as fashion dictated.

In short, this is a lively, engaging survey of the foreign-language printing trade in London through the end of the nineteenth century. Although the primary audience for this work is undoubtedly academics and academic libraries, the essays are written in a crisp, unpretentious prose style, making this title suitable for more general collections as well.