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
Logographic printing Logographic printing Logographic printing is a form of moveable type printing where the font comprises words or parts of words rather than single letters. The system, whilst not widely adopted, was used to produce a number of books in the eighteenth century, as well as "The Times" or "The Daily Universal Register" as it was originally known. The edition of 12 March 1788, for example was "printed Logographically" by "R. Nutkins" at the Logographic Press, Printing House Square, Blackfriars. The press was owned, though, by John Walter, the founder of "The Times" who had acquired the printing system from its