Andrew Hart

HART, ANDREW, deserves a place in this record, as one of the most distinguished of our early typographers. He flourished in the reign of James VI. Previous to 1600, he was in the habit of importing books from abroad; he was at this time exclusively a bookseller. From a mere bookseller he seems to have gradually become a publisher; several books were printed in Holland about the years 1600 and 1601, "at his expense." Finally, he added the business of printing to his other dealings. The productions of his press specify that his shop was in the High Street of Edinburgh, on the north side, opposite the cross; being, by a strange chance, the identical spot, from which Mr Archibald Constable, two hundred years after, issued so many noble efforts of Scottish genius. Hart’s edition of the Bible, 1610, has always been admired for its fine typography. He also published a well-known edition of Barbour’s Bruce. In addition to all other claims upon our praise, Hart was a worthy man. He died in a good old age, December 1621, as we learn from a notice in Boyd of Trochrig’s Obituary.