Description: This title was first published in 2002: This collection of essays looks at how the urban environment was fundamental to the development of printing, and how in turn, towns and cities used print culture to spread urban ideas and values to society at large. It sets out to demonstrate the centrality of printing and publishing to the understanding of urban culture, and in so doing engages with a number of recurrent historical issues, such as the role of printing in urban economies, the construction of metropolitan identities and the testing of moral boundaries.
Review Quotes: 'Ashgate is rapidly becoming a major publisher in the field of book history... This collection of essays is as enjoyable as it is wide-ranging. The editors have done a good job in assembling this unique book... Printed matters deserves to be read - and enjoyed - widely, not least because it reminds us through some delightful case-studies, of the power of print as, primarily, a medium of urban culture.' Journal of the Printing Historical Society