A History of Booksellers, the Old and the NewCurwen, Henry
History
A History of Booksellers, the Old and the New
Curwen, Henry
Book industries and trade -- Great Britain -- History; Booksellers and bookselling -- Great Britain -- History
We have already referred so often to the Scotch publishers, that we can
only find room for Glasgow as representing the Scotch provincial trade.
Printing was introduced there in the year 1630 by George Anderson,
who was succeeded in 1661 by Robert Saunders, and the whole printing
business of the West of Scotland (except one newspaper) was carried on
by Saunders and his son until 1730, when the art was further improved
by R. Uric. Five years later it appears from Morrison’s “Dictionary
of Decisions of the Court of Sessions” that a new comer “was debarred
from any concern in bookselling within the city of Glasgow, because
the place was judged too narrow for two booksellers at a time.” In the
teeth of this arbitrary decision Robert Fowlis, who as a young barber
had attracted the notice of some of the university professors, and had
been encouraged to attend the lectures, opened a book-shop in 1739. In
1743 he was appointed printer to the university, and in the following
year he produced his celebrated immaculate edition of “Horace,” which
was hung up on the college walls with a reward appended for every
mistake discovered. In the course of thirty years they produced as many
well printed classics as Bodoni of Parma, or Barbon of Paris, and their
books, in exactness and beauty of type, almost rival the Aldine series.
They endeavoured to devote the money which their success brought them
in to the establishment of an academy for the cultivation of the Fine
Arts, but this grand, and then novel, project produced their ruin,
without in any way affecting the artistic taste of Scotland. After
the death of his younger brother, Robert was compelled to send the
collection of pictures to London for sale, and as he was in immediate
want of money he insisted upon the auction taking place at a time when
the picture market was glutted. The sale catalogue forms three volumes,
and yet after all expenses were defrayed the balance in his favour
amounted only to fifteen shillings. He died on his way back to Glasgow
in 1776.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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