Whether  from  its  unpretending  character,  its  short-Hved  existence,
or  the  paucity  of  works  to  which  it  gave  birth,  certain  it  is  that  our
earliest  printing  press  seems  to  have  been  deemed  unworthy  of  even
a  passing  notice  by  any  of  the  writers  of  the  time.  Hence  we
may  account  for  the  fact  that  for  nearly  three  hundred  years  total
ignorance  prevailed  as  to  the  individuals  to  whom,  and  the  period
to  which,  Scotland  owes  the  introduction  of  the  typographic  art.
Not  until  the  end  of  last  century  were  these  interesting  par-
ticulars revealed,  it  being  reserved  for  George  Chalmers  to  make
them  known  to  the  world.  "  Inquisitive  men,"  says  he,  in  his  Life
of  Ruddiman,  "have  often  endeavoured,  without  success,  to  discover
when  the  typographic  art  was  first  introduced  into  Scotland.     The


2  Iiitmdnciory.
discovery,  which  has  eluded  so  many  enquiries,  hath  at  last  been
made  by  searching  the  Records.  It  was  the  intelligent  and
industrious  William  Robertson,  of  the  General  Register  House,
who,  to  gratify  my  desire,  discovered  a  patent  by  King  James  IV.,
which  plainly  demonstrates  that  a  printing  press  was  established  at
Edinburgh  during  the  year  1507."  Mr.  Chalmers  adds,  in  a  note,
that  "  he  had  the  honour  to  present  a  paper  to  the  Antiquarian
Society  of  London,  which  gave  an  account  of  the  discovery  of  the
before-mentioned  patent,  and  which  was  read  before  that  learned
body  on  the  first  of  December,    1791."

This  patent  is  the  foundation  of  all  our  positive  knowledge
regarding  the  introduction  of  printing  into  Scotland,  although,
before  its  discovery,  several  writers  had  been  led  to  speculate  upon
the  subject.
