Literature in the other languages of Britain The most important work of literature surviving from the Middle Cornish period is "An Ordinale Kernewek" ("The Cornish Ordinalia"), a 9000-line religious drama composed around the year 1400. Three plays in Cornish known as the Ordinalia have survived from this period. The spread of printing affected the transmission of literature across Britain and Ireland. The first book printed in English, William Caxton's own translation of "Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye", was printed abroad in 1473, to be followed by the establishment of the first printing press in England in 1474. The establishment of a printing press in Scotland under
Subiaco Press Subiaco Press The Subiaco Press was a printing press located in Subiaco, Italy. The Press was established in 1464 by the German monks Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweinheim in the Abbey of Santa Scolastica at Subiaco. It was the first printing press in Italy. The first book printed at Subiaco was a Donatus; it has not been preserved. This was followed by Cicero's "De Oratore" in September 1465 (which is extant - a copy is in the Buchgewerbehaus at Leipzig). The next book was Lactantius's "De divinis institutionibus" printed in October 1465. In 1467, Augustine's "The City of God" was