A detailed historical survey traces the development and activity of printers, stationers, and bookbinders operating outside London up to 1557, examining the presses established in university towns and provincial centres. It catalogs the towns where printing occurred, outlines careers of individual practitioners, and analyzes typographical features such as types, woodcuts, ornaments, and devices. The narrative situates provincial output within religious and political contexts, notes misleading imprints and externally printed works intended for local sale, and reproduces representative title-pages and colophons. Two appendices provide a title list with locations of surviving copies and a bibliography to guide further research, while chronological and institutional changes culminating in the 1557 charter are explained.