Flora with cornucopia; title-page to John Payne's Flora, c.1620The following section presents contextual information for understanding British printed images in the 16th and 17th centuries: a description of techniques; a brief history of printmaking in early modern Britain; descriptions of the main genres of printed images; a survey of the main historiography on British printed images to 1700; a directory of the most important printmakers from the period; and a directory of publishers and printsellers, based largely on the research of curators and cataloguers at the British Museum's Department of Prints and Drawings, above all that of Antony Griffiths; a list of references used throughout the site; and a list of links to print collections and other useful online resources.