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VI.
That the problems of Irish printing of the seventeenth century offer a wide opportunity for investigation will, I trust, be granted: it is not simply a matter of provincial printing with inferior craftsmen. Aside from the intrinsic interest of Irish printing itself, it is evident that if we are to have authoritative knowledge of English printing, we must establish clearly what was printed elsewhere, in Scotland and in Ireland particularly. For this all the resources of bibliographical research will be required: a knowledge of type, of paper, of binding, and of printing practices, as well as of the social background which provided the substance for the publications themselves.
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