Francis Burges' "Observations on printing" 1701:A reconstruction of the text'

The printer Francis Burges mistakenly believed he had introduced his trade to Norwich in September 1701 with the production of his own work entitled Some observations on the use and original of the noble art of printing. All copies of his small pamphlet now appear to have been lost, but almost all the text was either copied or paraphrased in one or other of five later printed books or manuscripts, dating between 1707 and 1829. This article seeks to describe the background to Francis Burges's lost work, to reconstruct his original text, and to provide annotations concerning his own sources of information.An account and reconstruction of a 'lost' history of printing published in Norwich 170