15. First Printing

Oct 16, 2004

French chronicles of the day claim he mass-produced Christian sermons, but all hard evidence was lost with the collapse of the old capital in 1767.

In the period that followed, a Catholic priest founded a printing house at Santa Cruz Church in Thon Buri and published the book “Kham Son Christang”, using Roman script. The Thai alphabet had yet to be cut into printing blocks.

That changed some time after 1819, when another missionary, American Ann Yudson, and a Burmese printer created the first complete set of Siamese font. Two books were published using Siamese text: a group of Baptists released “Christian Preaching” in Burma, and James Low issued “Tamra Waiyakorn Thai” (“Thai Grammar”) in Calcutta.

Before he moved to Siam, American physician and missionary Beach Bradley was offered Yudson’s printing press and Thai font while in Singapore.

He launched his own printing business in 1836 in Thon Buri’s Santa Cruz district before moving to what is now Captain Bush Lane off New Road and later to a house near Wat Prayoon.

The first book Bradley printed was “The Ten Commandments”, the first Thai-language book published in Siam.

In 1839 the government hired Bradley to print an announcement outlawing opium smoking. This is regarded as the country’s first official published announcement.

Bradley two years later, with the skills of a Singaporean printer, developed a far more beautiful Thai font.

In 1861 he published “Niras Muang London” (“A Voyage to London”) by Mom Rachothai, Siam’s first copyrighted book.

Bradley continued tinkering with Thai fonts. By the end of King Rama IV’s reign there were four known fonts. The font he devised became the basis for the printed Thai still used today.

Nithinand Yorsaengrat

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