Introduction: print culture, agency, regionality

The introduction explains the central claims of the book: print trade professionals exerted agency to articulate regional identity in the hand press period; they also shaped the development of the regional book and print trades. Part of this book’s intent is a realignment of the dominant terminology used to discuss the book and print trades outside of London, away from the ‘provincial’ and towards the ‘regional’. The introduction therefore establishes the historical context for the chapters that follow and sets out the implications of the terminology. It then goes on to define the book’s key concepts—regionality and agency—before locating them in the existing scholarship. Finally, it summarises the individual chapters.