Oliver Mundy on 28 Mar 2019  •  Link

Cornelius Bee deserves to be better known. As a publisher he devoted himself to large scholarly projects, often in the field of mediaeval history, such as the works of Matthew Paris (1639–40), the first printing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1644) and Roger Twysden's collection of ten mediaeval chronicles, known as 'Scriptores Decem' (1652). In addition, he seems to have insisted on high production standards from his printers; at a time when British printing was for the most part deplorably slapdash, these printers (who included Miles Flesher and his son Jacob, Richard Hodgkinson, and Roger Daniel of Cambridge) produced work which bears comparison with all but the finest Dutch printing of the period. The court case mentioned by Pepys was an early attempt to establish a rule of copyright which, unlike the 'privileges' often granted to earlier publishers, did not depend on a specific protection granted by the Crown or a similar authority; the attempt failed and Bee was ruined, but the need for legislation on the subject finally gained recognition in an Act of Parliament passed in 1710.