The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume IV. Prose and Poetry: Sir Thomas North to Michael Drayton.
§ 34. Printing in Ireland
The beginning of printing in Ireland is represented by the Book of Common Prayer which was printed in Dublin in 1551 by Humphrey Powell, who had migrated from London a year or so previously. The other extant productions of this press are two or three broadsides, and a theological tract which he issued in 1566. In 1571, a broadside poem on Doomsday, and John Kearney’s ABC and Catechism (Aibidil Gaoidheilge, agus Caiticiosma) were printed in the first fount of Irish characters. John Franckton, who began printing in Dublin apparently in 1600, printed also, in Irish characters, archbishop Daniel’s Irish versions of the New Testament (1602) and Book of Common Prayer (1608). In 1618, Franckton’s press was acquired by the Stationers’ company of London, who continued it until about 1640, when it was taken over by William Bladen; but the only productions of any literary interest before the publication of Sir James Ware’s History of Ireland in 1633, are editions of Sidney’s Arcadia in 1621 and Sir Thomas Overbury’s Wife in 1626.