A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 Part 1

A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898.

by Henry R. Plomer.

PREFACE

When Mr. Plomer consented at my request to write a short history of English printing which should stop neither at the end of the fifteenth century, nor at the end of the sixteenth century, nor at 1640, but should come down, as best it could, to our own day, we were not without apprehensions that the task might prove one of some difficulty. How difficult it would be we had certainly no idea, or the book would never have been begun, and now that it is finished I would bespeak the reader's sympathies, on Mr. Plomer's behalf, that its inevitable shortcomings may be the more generously forgiven. If we look at what has already been written on the subject the difficulties will be more easily appreciated. In England, as in other countries, the period in the history of the press which is best known to us is, by the perversity of antiquaries, that which is furthest removed from our own time. Of all that can be learnt about Caxton the late Mr. William Blades set down in his monumental work nine-tenths, and the zeal of Henry Bradshaw, of Mr.

Gordon Duff, and of Mr. E. J. L. Scott, has added nearly all that was lacking in this storehouse. Mr. Duff has extended his labours to the other English printers of the 15th century, giving in his _Early English Printing_ (Kegan Paul, 1896) a conspectus, with facsimiles of their types, and in his privately printed Sandars Lectures presenting a detailed account of their work, based on the personal examination of every book or fragment from their presses which his unwearied diligence has been able to discover. Originality for this period being out of the question, Mr. Plomer's task was to select, under a constant sense of obligation, from the ma.s.s of details which have been brought together for this short period, and to preserve due proportion in their treatment.

Of the work of the printers of the next half-century our knowledge is much less detailed, and Mr. Plomer might fairly claim that he himself, by the numerous doc.u.ments which he has unearthed at the Record Office and at Somerset House, has made some contributions to it of considerable value and interest. It is to his credit, if I may say so, that so little is written here of these discoveries. In a larger book the story of the brawl in which Pynson's head came so nigh to being broken, or of John Rastell's suit against the theatrical costumier who impounded the dresses used in his private theatre, would form pleasant digressions, but in a sketch of a large subject there is no room for digressions, and these personal incidents have been sternly ignored by their discoverer.

Even his first love, Robert Wyer, has been allotted not more than six lines above the s.p.a.ce which is due to him, and generally Mr. Plomer has compressed the story told in the _Typographical Antiquities_ of Ames, Herbert, and Dibdin with much impartiality.

When we pa.s.s beyond the year 1556, which witnessed the incorporation of the Stationers' Company, Mr. Arber's _Transcripts_ from the Company's Registers become the chief source of information, and Mr. Plomer's pages bear ample record of the use he has made of them, and of the numerous doc.u.ments printed by Mr. Arber in his prefaces. After 1603, the date at which Mr. Arber discontinues, to the sorrow of all bibliographers, his epitome of the annual output of the press, information is far less abundant. After 1640 it becomes a matter of shreds and patches, with no other continuous aid than Mr. Talbot Reed's admirable work, _A History of the Old English Letter Foundries_, written from a different standpoint, to serve as a guide. His own researches at the Record Office have enabled Mr. Plomer to enlarge considerably our knowledge of the printers at work during the second half of the seventeenth century, but when the State made up its mind to leave the printers alone, even this source of information lapses, and the pioneer has to gather what he may from the imprints in books which come under his hand, from notices of a few individual printers, and stray anecdotes and memoranda. Through this almost pathless forest Mr. Plomer has threaded his way, and though the road he has made may be broken and imperfect, the fact that a road exists, which they can widen and mend, will be of incalculable advantage to all students of printing.

Besides the indebtedness already stated to the works of Blades, Mr.

Gordon Duff, Mr. Arber, and Mr. Reed, acknowledgments are also due for the help derived from Mr. Allnutt's papers on English Provincial Printing (_Bibliographica_, vol. ii.) and Mr. Warren's history of the Chiswick Press (_The Charles Whittinghams, Printers_; Grolier Club, 1896). Lest Mr. Plomer should be made responsible for borrowed faults, it must also be stated that the account of the Kelmscott Press is mainly taken from an article contributed to _The Guardian_ by the present writer. The hearty thanks of both author and editor are due to Messrs.

Macmillan and Bowes for the use of two devices; to the Clarendon Press for the three pages of specimens of the types given to the University of Oxford by Fell and Junius; to the Chiswick Press for the examples of the devices and ornamental initials which the second Whittingham reintroduced, and for the type-facsimiles of the t.i.tle-page of the book with which he revived the use of old-faced letters; to Messrs. Macmillan for the specimen of the Macmillan Greek type, and to the Trustees of Mr.

William Morris for their grant of the very exceptional privilege of reproducing, with the skilful aid of Mr. Emery Walker, two pages of books printed at the Kelmscott Press.

That the ill.u.s.trations are profuse at the beginning and end of the book and scanty in the middle must be laid to the charge of the printers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in whose work good ornament finds no place. It was due to Caslon and Baskerville to insert their portraits, though they can hardly be called works of art. That of Roger L'Estrange, which is also given, may suggest, by its more prosperous look, that in the evil days of the English press its Censor was the person who most throve by it.

ALFRED W. POLLARD.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorative]

CHAPTER I

CAXTON AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

The art of printing had been known on the Continent for something over twenty years, when William Caxton, a citizen and mercer of London, introduced it into England.

Such facts as are known of the life of England's first printer are few and simple. He tells us himself that he was born in the Weald of Kent, and he was probably educated in his native village. When old enough, he was apprenticed to a well-to-do London mercer, Robert Large, who carried on business in the Old Jewry. This was in 1438, and in 1441 his master died, leaving, among other legacies, a sum of twenty marks to William Caxton.

In all probability Caxton, whose term of apprenticeship had not expired, was transferred to some other master to serve the remainder of his term; but all we know is that he shortly afterwards left England for the Low Countries. In the prologue to the _Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_ he tells us that, at the time he began the translation, he had been living on the Continent for thirty years, in various places, Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zealand, but the city of Bruges, one of the largest centres of trade in Europe at that time, was his headquarters.

Caxton prospered in his business, and rose to be 'Governor to the English Nation at Bruges,' a position of importance, and one that brought him into contact with men of high rank.

In the year 1468 Caxton appears to have had some leisure for literary work, and began to translate a French book he had lately been reading, Raoul Le Fevre's _Recueil des Histoires de Troyes_; but after writing a few quires he threw down his pen in disgust at the feebleness of his version.

Very shortly after this he entered the service of Margaret, d.u.c.h.ess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV. of England, either as secretary or steward. The d.u.c.h.ess used to talk with him on literary matters, and he told her of his attempt to translate the _Recueil_. She asked him to show her what he had written, pointed out how he might amend his 'rude English,' and encouraged him to continue his work. Caxton took up the task again, and in spite of many interruptions, including journeys to both Ghent and Cologne, he completed it, in the latter city, on the 19th September 1471. All this he tells us in the prologue, and at the end of the second book he says:--

'And for as moche as I suppose the said two bokes ben not had to fore this tyme in oure English langage | therefore I had the better will to accomplisshe this said werke | whiche werke was begonne in Brugis | and contynued in Gaunt, and finyshed in Coleyn, ... the yere of our lord a thousand four honderd lxxi.' He then goes on to speak of John Lydgate's translation of the third book, as making it needless to translate it into English, but continues:--

'But yet for as moche as I am bounde to contemplate my fayd ladyes good grace and also that his werke is in ryme | and as ferre as I knowe hit is not had in prose in our tonge ... _and also because that I have now G.o.d leyzer beying in Coleyn, and have none other thing to doo at this tyme_, I have,' etc.

Then at the end of the third book he says that, having become weary of writing and yet having promised copies to divers gentlemen and friends,--

'Therfor I have practysed and lerned at my grete charge and dispense to ordeyne this said book in prynte after the maner and forme as ye may here see,' etc.

The book when printed bore neither place of imprint, date of printing, or name of printer. The late William Blades, in his _Life of Caxton_ (vol. i. chap. v. pp. 45-61), maintained that this book, and all the others printed with the same type, were printed at Bruges by Colard Mansion, and that it was at Bruges, and in conjunction with Mansion, that Caxton learned the art of printing. His princ.i.p.al reasons for coming to this conclusion were: (1) That Caxton's stay in Cologne was only for six months, long enough for him to have finished the translation of the book, but too short a time in which to have printed it. (2) That the type in which it was printed was Colard Mansion's. (3) That the typographical features of the books printed in this type (No.

1) point to their having all of them come from the same printing office.

Caxton's own statement in the epilogue to the third book certainly appears to mean that during the course of the translation, in order to fulfil his promise of multiplying copies, he had learned to print. He might easily have done so in the six months during which he remained in Cologne, or during his stay in Ghent. That it was in Cologne rather than elsewhere, is confirmed by the oft-quoted stanza added by Wynkyn de Worde as a colophon to the English edition of _Bartholomaeus de proprietatibus rerum_.

'And also of your charyte call to remembraunce The soule of William Caxton, the first prynter of this boke, In laten tongue at Coleyn, hymself to avaunce That every well-disposed man may thereon loke.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.--Part of Caxton's Preface to the 'Recuyell of the Histories of Troye.' (Type 1.)]

If any one should have known the true facts of the case it was surely Caxton's own foreman, who almost certainly came over to England with him. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that type No. 1 is totally unlike any type that we know of as used by a Cologne printer, and, moreover, Caxton's methods of working, and his late adoption of s.p.a.cing and signatures, point to his having learnt his art in a school of printing less advanced than that of Cologne. In the face of the statements of Caxton himself and Wynkyn de Worde, we seem bound to believe that Caxton did study printing at Cologne, but the inexpertness betrayed in his early books proves conclusively that his studies there did not extend very far. In any case it must have been with the help of Colard Mansion that he set up and printed the _Recuyell_, probably in 1472 or 1473. In addition to this book several others, printed in the same type, and having other typographical features in common with it, were printed in the next few years. These were:--

_The Game and Playe of the Chess Moralised_, translated by Caxton, a small folio of 74 leaves.

_Le Recueil des Histoires de Troye_, a folio of 120 leaves.

_Les Fais et Prouesses du n.o.ble et vaillant chevalier Jason_, a folio of 134 leaves, printed, it is believed, by Mansion, after Caxton's removal to England. And,

_Meditacions sur le sept Psaulmes Penitenciaulx_, a folio of 34 leaves, also ascribed to Mansion's press, about the year 1478.

About the latter half of 1476 Caxton must have left Bruges and come to England, leaving type No. 1 in the hands of Mansion, and bringing with him that picturesque secretary type, known as type 2. This, as Mr.

Blades has undoubtedly proved, had already been used by Caxton and Mansion in printing at least two books: _Les quatre derrenieres choses_, notable from the method of working the red ink, a method found in no other book of Colard Mansion; and _Propositio Johannis Russell_, a tract of four leaves, containing Russell's speech at the invest.i.ture of the Duke of Burgundy with the order of the Garter in 1470.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.--Part of Caxton's Epilogue to the 'Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers.' (Type 2.)]

On his arrival in England, Caxton settled in Westminster, within the precincts of the Abbey, at the sign of the Red Pale, and from thence, on November 18th 1477, he issued _The Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers_, the first book printed in England. It was a folio of 76 leaves, without t.i.tle-page, foliation, catchwords or signatures, in this respect being identical with the books printed in conjunction with Mansion. Type 2, in which it was printed, was a very different fount to that which is seen in the _Recuyell_ and its companion books. It was undoubtedly modelled on the large Gros Batarde type of Colard Mansion, and was in all probability cut by Mansion himself. The letters are bold, and angular, with a close resemblance to the ma.n.u.scripts of the time, the most notable being the lowercase 'w,' which is brought into prominence by large loops over the top. The 'h's' and 'l's' are also looped letters, the final 'm's' and 'n's' are finished with an angular stroke, and the only letter at all akin to those in type No. 1 is the final 'd,' which has the peculiar pump-handle finial seen in that fount.

_The Dictes and Sayinges_ is printed throughout in black ink, in long lines, twenty-nine to a page, with s.p.a.ce left at the beginning of the chapters for the insertion of initial letters. It has no colophon, but at the end of the work is an Epilogue, which begins thus:--

'Here endeth the book named the dictes or sayengis | of the philosophers, enprynted, by me william | Caxton at Westmestre the yere of our lord M | CCCCLXXVij.'

Caxton followed _The Dictes and Sayinges_ with an edition of Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, a folio of 372 leaves. The size of the book makes it probable that it was put in hand simultaneously with its predecessor, and that the chief work of the poet, to whom Caxton paid more than one eloquent tribute, engaged his attention as soon as he set up his press in England. He also printed in the same type a Sarum _Ordinale_, known only by a fragment in the Bodleian, and a number of small quarto tracts, such as _The Moral Proverbs of Christyne_, which bears date the 20th of February; a Latin school-book called _Stans Puer ad Mensam_; two translations from the Distichs of Dionysius Cato, ent.i.tled respectively _Parvus Catho_ and _Magnus Catho_, of which a second edition was speedily called for; Lydgate's fable of the _Chorl and the Bird_, a quarto of 10 leaves, which also soon went to a second edition; Chaucer's _Anelida and Arcite_, and two editions of Lydgate's _The Horse, the Sheep, and the Goose_.

During the first three years of Caxton's residence at Westminster he printed at least thirty books. In 1479 he recast type 2 (cited in its new form by Blades as type 2*), and this he continued to use until 1481.

But about the same time he cast two other founts, Nos. 3 and 4. The first of these was a large black letter of Missal character, used chiefly for printing service books, but appearing in the books printed with type 2* for headlines. With it he printed _Cordyale, or the Four Last Things_, a folio of 78 leaves, the work being a translation by Earl Rivers of _Les Quatre Derrenieres Choses Advenir_, first printed in type 2 in the office of Colard Mansion. A second edition of _The Dictes and Sayinges_ was also printed in this type, while to the year 1478 or 1479 must be ascribed the _Rhetorica Nova_ of Friar Laurence of Savona, a folio of 124 leaves, long attributed to the press of Cambridge.

After 1479 Caxton began to s.p.a.ce out his lines and to use signatures, customs that had been in vogue on the Continent for some years before he left. In 1480 he brought the new type 4 into use. This was modelled on type 2, but was much smaller, the body being most akin to modern English. Although its appearance was not so striking as that of the earlier fount, it was a much neater letter and more adapted to the printing of Indulgences, and it has been suggested that it was the arrival of John Lettou in London, and the neat look of his work, that induced Caxton to cut the fount in question. The most noticeable feature about it is the absence of the loop to the lowercase 'd,' so conspicuous a feature of the No. 2 type. With this type No. 4 he printed Kendale's indulgence and the first edition of _The Chronicles of England_, dated the 10th June 1480, a folio of 152 leaves. In the same year he printed with type 3 three service-books. Of one of these, the _Horae_, William Blades found a few leaves, all that are known to exist, in the covers of a copy of _Boethius_, printed also by Caxton, which he discovered in a deplorable state from damp, in a cupboard of the St. Albans Grammar School. This was an uncut copy, in the original binding, and the covers yielded as many as fifty-six half sheets of printed matter, fragments of other books printed by Caxton. These proved the existence of three hitherto unknown examples of his press, the _Horae_ above noted, the _Ordinale_, and the _Indulgence of Pope Sixtus IV._, the remaining fragments yielding leaves from the _History of Jason_, printed in type 2, the first edition of the _Chronicles_, the _Description of_ _Britain_; the second edition of the _Dictes and Sayinges_, the _De Curia Sapientiae_, Cicero's _De Senectute_, and the _Nativity of Our Lady_, printed in the recast of type 4, known as type 4*.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.--Caxton's earliest Woodcut. Headline in Type 3.]

The first book printed by Caxton with ill.u.s.trations was the third edition of _Parvus_ and _Magnus Chato_, printed without date, but probably in 1481. It contained two woodcuts, one showing five pupils kneeling before their tutor. These ill.u.s.trations were very poor specimens of the wood-cutter's art.

To this period also belongs _The History of Reynard the Fox_ and the second edition of _The Game and Play of Chess_, printed with type 2*, and distinguished from the earlier edition by the eight woodcuts, some of which, according to the economical fashion of the day, were used more than once.

In type 4, Caxton printed (finishing it on the 20th November 1481) _The History of G.o.dfrey of Bologne; or, the Conquest of Jerusalem_, a folio of 144 leaves. In the following year (1482) appeared the second edition of the _Chronicles_, and another work of the same kind, the compilation of Roger of Chester and Ralph Higden, called _Polychronicon_. This work John of Trevisa had translated into English prose, bringing it down to the year 1387. Caxton now added a further continuation to the year 1460, the only original work ever undertaken by him. Another English author whom Caxton printed at this time was John Gower, an edition in small folio (222 leaves in double columns) of whose _Confessio Amantis_ was finished on the 2nd September 1483. In this we see the first use of type 4*, the two founts being found in one instance on the same page. The first edition of the _Golden Legend_ also belongs to 1483, being finished at Westminster on the 20th November. This was the largest book that Caxton printed, there being no less than 449 leaves in double columns, ill.u.s.trated with as many as eighteen large and fifty-two small woodcuts. The text was in type 4*, the headlines, etc., in type 3. For the performance of this work Caxton received from the Earl of Arundel, to whom the book was dedicated, the gift of a buck in summer and a doe in winter, gifts probably exchanged for an annuity in money. Several copies of this book are still in existence, its large size serving as a safeguard against complete destruction, but none are perfect, most of them being made up from copies of the second edition. The insertions may be recognised by the type of the headlines, those in the second edition being in type 5. Other books printed in type 4* were Chaucer's _Book of Fame_, Chaucer's _Troylus_, the _Lyf of Our Ladye_, the _Life of Saint Winifred_, and the _History of King Arthur_, this last, finished on July 31, 1485, being almost as large a book as the _Golden Legend_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 5.--From Caxton's 'Golden Legend.' (Types 4* and 5.)]

No work dated 1486 has been traced to Caxton's press, but in 1487 he brought into use type 5, a smaller form of the black letter fount known as No. 3, with which he sometimes used a set of Lombardic capitals. With this he printed, between 1487 and 1489, several important books, among them the _Royal Book_, a folio of 162 leaves, ill.u.s.trated with six small ill.u.s.trations, the _Book of Good Manners_, the first edition of the _Directorium Sacerdotum_, and the _Speculum Vitae Christi_. During 1487 also he had printed for him at Paris an edition of the _Sarum Missal_, from the press of George Maynyal, the first book in which he used his well-known device. The second edition of the _Golden Legend_ is believed to have been published in 1488, and to about the same time belongs the Indulgence which Henry Bradshaw discovered in the University Library, Cambridge, and which seems to have been struck off in a hurry on the nearest piece of blank paper, which happened to be the last page of a copy of the _Colloquium peccatoris et Crucifixi J. C._, printed at Antwerp. This was not the only remarkable find which that master of the art of bibliography made in connection with Caxton. On a waste sheet of a copy of the _Fifteen Oes_, he noticed what appeared to be a set off of another book, and on closer inspection this turned out to be a page of a Book of Hours, of which no copy has ever been found. It appeared to have been printed in type 5, was surrounded by borders, and was no doubt the edition which Wynkyn de Worde reprinted in 1494.