El. knyga: Stationers' Company and the Printers of London, 1501-1557

'Blayney's book is quite an extraordinary feat of scholarship. Any future writing about this period by book historians, bibliographers, students of censorship and of press control, and literary or textual scholars will have to use his book as a starting point.' John Barnard, University of Leeds 'Written by an author who over the course of a lifetime has become the world's leading authority on printing and the book trade in early modern (and especially early Tudor) England, this book represents a triumph and the gold standard. No one can match Peter Blayney's expertise. His book is a monumental work in every sense.' John Guy, University of Cambridge 'Monumental an unprecedentedly detailed view of printing in England during the previously understudied period between the innovations of Caxton and the latter half of the sixteenth century.' The Times Literary Supplement 'A short review will inevitably struggle to convey the scope of the project and the many discoveries made, but it is an enterprise worthy of the undertaking for the simple fact that these volumes should occupy a place on the shelves of anyone concerned with, or interested in, early printing.' Carol M. Meale, The Book Collector ' [ this] two-volume study is illuminating, engrossing [ and] overwhelming never anything less than invaluable [ lays] out with exquisite precision the formative years of the London book trade this history should serve as an essential reference work to be consulted for years to come. In the masterful narrative lives of Stationers great and small, in the meticulous archival and quantitative details, even in the smallest footnotes, scholars will find bountiful information and insights to enrich their own labours.' David I. Gants, The Library ' from now on, anyone making statements about printing, publishing, or the Stationers before the Charter had better look at Blayney, and we await, with great anticipation, the next two volumes which will take the subject up into the seventeenth century.' William Proctor Williams, Notes and Queries '[ This book] is an expression of a quantity of archival labour and expertise that may never be surpassed: it is a great piling up of new, neglected or (Blayney's favourite category) disastrously misunderstood pieces of archival evidence.' Adam Smyth, London Review of Books 'Blayney has sought to examine all the available evidence concerning the book trade, not least the books themselves, and to use this material to correct and revise the historical record of book production in the period and so also the history of the period itself. As in all his work, he has set himself to achieve a formidably high standard of industry, understanding, knowledge, analysis, and exposition; he has succeeded triumphantly in achieving and exceeding it.' H. R. Woudhuysen, Common Knowledge