A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 Part 2

Wynkyn de Worde died in 1534, his will being proved on the 19th January 1535. His executors were John Byddell, who succeeded to his business, and James Gaver, while three other London stationers, Henry Pepwell, John Gough, and Robert Copland were made overseers of it, and received legacies.

Julian Notary remained at Westminster two years after the departure of Wynkyn de Worde, when he too flitted eastwards, settling at the sign of the Three Kings without Temple Bar, probably to be nearer De Worde. He combined with his trade of printer that of bookbinder, and probably bound as well as printed many books for Wynkyn de Worde. His printing lay princ.i.p.ally in the direction of service books for the church, but he printed both the _Golden Legend_ and the _Chronicle of England_ in folio, one or two lives of saints, and a few small tracts of lighter vein, such as 'How John Splynter made his testament,' and 'How a serjeaunt wolde lerne to be a frere,' both in quarto without date.

In the _Golden Legend_ of 1503 and the _Chronicles of England_ of 1515, the black letter type used was identical in character with that of Wynkyn de Worde.

No book is found printed by Notary between the years 1510 and 1515. In the former year he appears to have had a house in St. Paul's Churchyard, as well as the Three Kings without Temple Bar. In 1515 he speaks only of the sign of St. Mark in St. Paul's Churchyard, and three years later this is altered to the sign of the Three Kings. It is just conceivable that this last was a misprint, or that the St. Mark was a temporary office used only while the Three Kings was under repair.

In 1507 Notary exchanged the simple merchant's mark that had hitherto served him as a device for one of a more elaborate character. This took the form of a helmet over a shield with his mark upon it, with decorative border, and below all his name. From this a still larger block was made in the same year, and this was strongly French in character. It showed the smaller block affixed to a tree with bird and flowers all round it, and two fabulous creatures on either side of the base. The initials 'J. N.' are seen at the top. This he sometimes used as a frontispiece, subst.i.tuting for the centre piece a block of a different character.

Richard Pynson also changed his address shortly after Wynkyn de Worde, moving from outside Temple Bar to the George in Fleet Street, next to St. Dunstan's Church. He also appears to have entirely given up the use of Gothic type in favour of English black letter about this time. It is not easy to form a conjecture as to the motive which led to the abandonment of this type, and it is impossible to regard the step without regret. Even in its rudest forms it was a striking type; in the hands of a man like Pynson it was far more effective than the black letter which took its place. With regard to this latter, there seems reason to believe, from the great similarity both in size and form of the fount in use by De Worde, Notary, and Pynson at this time, that it was obtained by all the printers from one common foundry. Nor is it only the letters which lead to this conclusion, but the common use of the same ornaments points in the same direction. The only difference between the black letter in use by Pynson in the first years of the sixteenth century and that of his contemporaries, is the occurrence of a lower case 'w' of a different fount.

In 1509 Pynson is believed to have introduced Roman type into England, using it with his scholastic type to print the _Sermo Fratris Hieronymi de Ferraria_. In the same year he also issued a very fine edition of Alexander Barclay's translation of Brandt's _Shyp of Folys of the Worlde_. In this, the Latin original and the English translation are set side by side. The book was printed in folio in two founts, one of Roman and one of black letter. It was profusely ill.u.s.trated with woodcuts copied from those in the German edition.

About 1510 Pynson became the royal printer in the place of W. Faques, and continued to hold the post until his death. At first he received a salary of 40s. per annum (_see_ L. and P. H. 8, vol. 1, p. 364), but this was afterwards increased to 4 per annum (L. and P. H. 8, vol. 2, p. 875). In this capacity he printed numbers of Proclamations, numerous Year-books, and all the Statutes, and received large sums of money. In 1513 he printed _The Sege and Dystrucyon of Troye_, of which several copies (some of them on vellum) are still in existence. Other books of which he printed copies on vellum are the _Sarum Missal_ of 1520, and _a.s.sertio Septem Sacramentorum_ of 1521.

Besides these and his official work, Pynson printed numbers of useful books in all cla.s.ses of literature. The works of Chaucer and Skelton and Lydgate, the history of Froissart and the Chronicle of St. Albans; books such as _aesop's Fables_ and _Reynard the Fox_, romances such as _Sir Bevis of Hampton_ are scattered freely amongst works of a more learned character. On the whole he deserves a much higher place than De Worde.

It is rare, indeed, to find a carelessly printed book of Pynson's, whilst such books as the Boccaccio of 1494, the Missal printed in 1500 at the expense of Cardinal Morton, and known as the Morton Missal, and the _Intrationum excellentissimus liber_ of 1510 are certainly the finest specimens of typographical art which had been produced in this country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 10.--Richard Pynson's Device.]

Pynson's earliest device, as Mr. Duff has noted, resembled in many ways that of Le Talleur, and consisted of his initials cut on wood. In 1496 he used two new forms. One shows his mark upon a shield surmounted by a helmet with a bird above it. Beneath is his name upon a ribbon, and the whole is enclosed in a border of animals, birds, and flowers. The other was a metal block of much the same character, having the shield with his mark, and as supporters two naked figures. The border, which was separate and in one piece, had crowned figures in it and a ribbon. The bottom portion of this border began to give way about 1500, was very much out of shape in 1503, and finally broke entirely in 1513. This border was sometimes placed the wrong way up, as in the British Museum copy of _Mandeville's Ways to Jerusalem_ (G. 6713). It was succeeded by a woodcut block of a much larger form, which may be seen in the _Mirroure of Good Manners_ (s.a., fol.). The block itself measures 5-5/8'' x 3-5/8'' and has no border. The initials print black on a white ground. The figures supporting the shield have a much better pose, and those of the king and queen differ materially. The bird on the shield is much larger, and is more like a stork or heron.

Pynson died in the year 1529, while pa.s.sing through the press _L'Esclarciss.e.m.e.nt de la Langue Francoyse_, which was finished by his executor John Hawkins, of whom nothing else is definitely known.

Whilst these three printers had been at work, many other stationers, booksellers, and printers had settled in London. They seem to have favoured St. Paul's Churchyard and Fleet Street; but they were also scattered over various parts of the city and outlying districts, even as far west as the suburb of Charing.

In 1518, Henry Pepwell settled at the sign of the Trinity in St. Paul's Churchyard, and used the device previously belonging to Jacobi and Pelgrim, two stationers who imported books printed by Wolfgang and Hopyl. His books fall into two cla.s.ses--those printed between 1518-1523, and those between 1531-1539. The first were printed entirely in a black-letter fount that appears to have belonged to Pynson. The second series were printed entirely in Roman letter. A copy of his earliest book, the _Castle of Pleasure_, 4to, 1518, is in the British Museum, as well as the _Dietary of Ghostly Helthe_, 4to, 1521; _Exornatorium Curatorum_, 4to, n.d.; Du Castel's _Citye of Ladyes_, 4to, 1521. His edition of _Christiani hominis Inst.i.tutum_, 4to, 1520, is only known from a fragment in the Bodleian. Several books have been ascribed wrongly to this printer (Duff, _Bibliographica_, vol. i. pp. 93, 175, 499).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 11.--William Faques' Device.]

In the year 1504, a printer named William Faques had settled in Abchurch Lane. He was a Norman by birth, and Ames suggested that he learnt his art with John Le Bourgeois at Rouen, but this is unconfirmed. He styled himself the king's printer. Of his books only some eight are in existence, three with the date 1504, and the remainder undated. His workmanship was excellent. The _Psalterium_ which he printed in octavo was in a large well cut English black letter, and each page was surrounded by a chain border. The Statutes of Henry VII. are also in the same type with the same ornament, but the _Omelia Origenis_, one of the undated books, is in the small foreign letter so much in vogue with the printers of this time. His device has the double merit of beauty and originality. It consisted of two triangles intersected with his initials in the centre and the word 'Guillam' beneath. His subsequent career is totally unknown, but his type, ornaments, etc., pa.s.sed into the hands of Richard Fawkes or Faques, who printed at the sign of the Maiden's Head, in St. Paul's Churchyard, in the year 1509, Guillame de Saliceto's _Salus corporis Salus anime_, in folio. Not only is the type used in this identical with that in the _Psalterium_ of William Faques, but the chain ornament is also found in it. After this we find no other dated book by Richard Faques until 1523, when he printed Skelton's _Goodly Garland_ in quarto, in three founts of black letter, and a fount of Roman, and a great primer for t.i.tles. Amongst his undated works is a copy of the _Liber Festivalis_, believed to have been printed in 1510, and an _Horœ ad usum Sarum_ printed for him in Paris by J. Bignon.

During the interval he had moved from the Maiden's Head in St. Paul's Churchyard to another house in the same locality, with the sign of the A. B. C, and he also had a second printing office in Durham Rents, without Temple Bar, that is in some house adjacent to Durham House in the Strand. The earliest extant printed ballad was issued by Richard Faques, the _Ballad of the Scottish King_, of which the only known copy is in the British Museum, and amongst his undated books is one which he printed for Robert Wyer, the Charing Cross printer, under the t.i.tle of _De Cursione Lunae_. It was printed with the Gothic type, and the blocks were supplied by Wyer. Richard Faques' device was a copy of that of the Paris bookseller Thielmann Kerver, with an arrow subst.i.tuted for the tree, and the design on the shield altered. The custom of adapting other men's devices was very common, and is one of the many evidences of dearth of originality on the part of the early English printers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 12.--Richard Faques' Device.]

The latest date found in the books of this printer is 1530.

Another prominent figure in the early years of the sixteenth century was that of Robert Copland. He was a man of considerable ability, a good French scholar, and a writer of mediocre verse. Apart from this, he was also, in the truest sense of the word, a book lover, and used his influence to produce books that were likely to be useful, or such as were worth reading. In the prologue to the _Kalendar of Shepherdes_, which Wynkyn de Worde printed in 1508, he described himself as servant to that printer. This has been taken to mean that he was one of De Worde's apprentices. But in 1514, if not earlier, he had started in business for himself as a stationer and printer, at the sign of the Rose Garland in Fleet Street. Very few of the books that he printed now exist, and this, taken in conjunction with the fact that he translated and wrote prologues for so many books printed by De Worde, has led all writers upon early English printing to conclude that he was an odd man about De Worde's office, and that he was in fact subsidised by that printer. There is evidence, however, that many of the books printed by De Worde, that have prologues by Robert Copland, were first printed by him, and that in others he had a share in the copies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13.--Robert Copland's Device.]

In the British Museum copy of the _Dyeynge Creature_, printed by De Worde in 1514, it is noticeable that on the last leaf is the mark or device of Robert Copland, not that of the printer, while in the copy now in the University Library, Cambridge, De Worde's device is on the last leaf.

This would appear to indicate that both printers were a.s.sociated in the venture, though the work actually pa.s.sed through De Worde's press, and that those copies which Copland took and paid for were distinguished by his device. Again, in several of these books, found with De Worde's colophons, Copland speaks of himself as the 'printer,' or 'the buke printer,' and the inference is that they were reprints of books which Copland had previously printed. Indeed in one instance the evidence is still stronger. In 1518, Henry Pepwell printed at the sign of the Trinity the _Castell of Pleasure_. The prologue to this takes the form of a dialogue in verse between Copland and the author, of which the following lines are the most important:--

'Emprynt this boke, Copland, at my request And put it forth to every maner state.'

To which Copland replies:--

'At your instaunce I shall it gladly impresse But the utterance, I thynke, will be but small Bokes be not set by: there tymes is past, I gesse; The dyse and cardes, in drynkynge wyne and ale, Tables, cayles, and balles, they be now sette a sale Men lete theyr chyldren use all such harlotry That byenge of bokes they utterly deny.'

If this means anything, it is impossible to avoid the inference that Robert Copland printed the first edition of this book. Amongst others that he was in some way interested in may be noticed a curious book by Alexander Barclay, _Of the Introductory to write French_, fol., 1521, of which there is a copy in the Bodleian; _The Mirrour of the Church_, 4to, 1521, a devotional work, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, with a variety of curious woodcuts; the _Rutter of the Sea_, the first English book on navigation, translated from _Le Grande Routier_ of Pierre Garcie; Chaucer's _a.s.semble of Foules_ and the _Questionary of Cyrurgyens_, printed by Robert Wyer in 1541.

Copland was also the author, and without doubt the printer, of two humorous poems that are amongst the earliest known specimens of this kind of writing. The one called _The Hye Way to the Spyttell hous_ took the form of a dialogue between Copland and the porter of St.

Bartholomew's, and turns upon the various kinds of beggars and impostors, with a running commentary upon the vices and follies that bring men to poverty. _Iyll of Brentford_, the second of these compositions, is a somewhat different production. It recounts the legacies left by a certain lady, but the humour, though to the taste of the times, was excessively broad.

In 1542 Dr. Andrew Borde spoke of his _Introduction of Knowledge_ as printing at 'old Robert Copland's, the eldest printer in England.'

Whether he meant the oldest in point of age or in his craft is not clear; but it may well be that, seeing that De Worde, Pynson, and the two Faques were dead, this printing house was the oldest then in London.

John Rastell also began to print about the year 1514. He is believed to have been educated at Oxford, and was trained for the law. In addition to his legal business, he translated and compiled many law-books, the most notable being the _Great Abridgement of the Statutes_. This book he printed himself, and it is certainly one of the finest examples of sixteenth century printing to be found. The work was divided into three parts, each of which consisted of more than two hundred large folio pages. When it is remembered that the method of printing books at this period was slow, at the most only two folio pages being printed at a pull, the time and capital employed upon the production of this book must have been very great. The type was the small secretary in use at Rouen, and it is just possible the book was printed there and not in England.

John Rastell's first printing office in London was on the south side of St. Paul's Churchyard. Williarn Bonham, the stationer with whom Rastell was afterwards a.s.sociated, had some premises there, and as late as the seventeenth century there was a house in Sermon Lane, known as the Mermaid, and it may be that in one or other of these Rastell printed the undated edition of Linacre's _Grammar_, which bears the address, 'ye sowth side of paulys.' But in 1520 he moved to 'the Mermayd at Powlys gate next to chepe syde.' There he printed _The Pastyme of People_, and Sir Thomas More's _Supplicacyon of Souls_, besides several interludes and two remarkable jest-books, _The Twelve mery gestys of one called Edith_ and _A Hundred Mery Talys_. The last named became one of the most popular books of the time, but only one perfect copy of it is now known, and that, alas! is not in this country. Rastell was brother-in-law of Sir Thomas More, and up to the year 1530 a zealous Roman Catholic. So strong were his religious opinions that in that year he wrote and printed a defence of the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, under the t.i.tle of the _New Boke of Purgatory_. This was answered by John Frith, the Reformer, who is credited with having achieved John Rastell's conversion. By whatever means the change was brought about, John Rastell did soon afterwards become a Protestant; but the change in his belief made him many enemies. He was arrested for his opinions, and if he did not die in prison, he was in prison just before his death, which took place in 1536. During the last sixteen years of his life he does not appear to have paid much attention to his business. A doc.u.ment now in the Record Office shows that he was in the habit of locking up his printing office in Cheapside, and going down into the country for months at a time. But a part of the premises he sublet, and this was occupied for various periods by several stationers--William Bonham, Thomas Kele, John Heron, and John Gough, being particularly named. Like all his predecessors, he dropped the use of the secretary type in favour of black letter, and his books, as specimens of printing, greatly deteriorated. Dibdin, in his reprint of _The Pastyme of the People_, was very severe upon the careless printing of the original, but it is more than likely that it was the work of one of Rastell's apprentices, rather than his own. Amongst those whom he employed we find the names of William Mayhewes, of whom nothing is known; Leonard Andrewe, who may have been a relative of Laurence Andrewe, another English printer; and one Guerin, a Norman.

John Rastell left two sons, William and John. The former became a printer during his father's lifetime and succeeded him in business, but his work lies outside the scope of the present chapter. The same remark applies to William Bonham.

John Gough began his career as a bookseller in Fleet Street in 1526. In 1528 he was suspected of dealing in prohibited books (see _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, vol. iv. pt. ii. art. 4004), but managed to clear himself. In 1532 he moved to the 'Mermaid' in Cheapside, and in the same year Wynkyn de Worde printed two books for him concerning the coronation of Anne Boleyn. In 1536, whilst still living there, he issued a very creditable Salisbury _Primer_. He calls himself the printer of this, but it is extremely doubtful if this can be taken to mean anything more than that he found the capital, and, perhaps, the material with which it was printed. Wynkyn de Worde appointed John Gough one of the overseers of his will. Of his subsequent career more will be said at a later period.

Another of the printers who worked for Wynkyn de Worde during the latter part of his life was John Skot. In 1521, when we first meet with him, he was living in St. Sepulchre's parish, without Newgate. In that year he printed the _Body of Policie_ and the _Justyces of Peas_, and in 1522 _The Myrrour of Gold_; amongst his undated books are, _Jacob and his xii sons_, _Carta Feodi simplicis_, and the _Book of Maid Emlyn_, all these being in quarto. His next dated book appeared in 1528, with the colophon 'in Paule's Churchyard,' and here he appears to have remained for some years. He is next found in Fauster Lane, St. Leonard's parish, where he printed, amongst other books, the ballad of _The Nut Browne Maid_. He also appears to have been at George Alley Gate, St. Botolph's parish, where he printed, but without date, Stanbridge's _Accidence_.

His devices were three in number, and several of his border pieces were obtained from Wynkyn de Worde.

Richard Bankes began business at the long shop in the Poultry, next to St. Mildred's church, and six doors from the Stockes or Stocks Market, which at that time stood on the present site of the Mansion House. In 1523 he printed a very curious tract with the following t.i.tle:--

'Here begynneth a lytell newe treatyse or mater intytuled and called The ix. Drunkardes, which tratythe of dyuerse and goodly storyes ryght plesaunte and frutefull for all parsones to pastyme with.'

It was printed in octavo, black letter, and the only known copy is in the Douce collection at the Bodleian. Another equally rare piece of Bankes' printing was the old English romance of _Sir Eglamour_, known only by a fragment of four leaves in the possession of Mr. Jenkinson of the University Library, Cambridge. This was also somewhat roughly printed in black letter. In 1525 he printed a medical tract called the _Seynge of Uryns_, in quarto, and three years later was a.s.sociated with Robert Copland in the production of the _Rutter of the Sea_. He also issued from this address _A Herball_, and another popular medical work called the _Treasure of Pore Men_. Bankes is, however, best known as the printer of the works of Richard Taverner, the Reformer, but this was later, and will be noticed when we come to them.

Peter Treveris, or Peter of Treves, was working at the sign of the Wodows, in Southwark, between the years 1521 and 1533. He used as his device the 'wild men,' first seen in the device of the Paris printer, P.

Pigouchet. The fact of his printing the _Opusculum Insolubilium_, to be sold at Oxford 'apud J. T.', that is probably for John Thome the bookseller, points to his being at work about the year 1520. In 1521 he is believed to have issued an edition of Arnold's _Chronicles_, translated by Laurence Andrewe. Two other books of his printing were the _Handy Worke of Surgery_, in folio, 1525, a book notable for the many anatomical diagrams with which it was ill.u.s.trated, and as a companion to that work, _The Great Herball_ Treveris also shared with Wynkyn de Worde most of the printing of Richard Whittington's scholastic works, all in quarto, and mostly without date.

Laurence Andrewe, who lived for some years at Calais, translated one or more books for John van Doesborch, the Antwerp printer, set up a press in London about 1527, and printed a second edition of the _Handy Worke of Surgery_, above noticed, a tract called _The Debate and Strife betwene Somer and Winter_, to be sold by Robert Wyer at Charing Cross; _The destillacyon of Waters_, in 1527; and a reprint of Caxton's edition of the _Mirroure of the Worlde_, in folios, 1527. His printing calls for no special notice, but Mr. Proctor, in his monograph on _Doesborgh_, surmises that he learnt his art in an English printing house rather than abroad, and the presence of a Leonarde Andrewe in the service of John Rastell may mean that the two men were related and were both pupils of the same master.

Turning now westwards, we find 'in the Bishop of Norwiche's Rentes in the felde besyde Charynge Cross,' that is near the present Villier Street, a printer named Robert Wyer, the sign of whose house was that of St. John the Evangelist. There are several early references to the house as that of a bookseller's, but without any name mentioned. For instance, Richard Pynson printed, without date, an edition of the curious tract of _Solomon and Marcolphus_, to be sold at the sign of St. John the Evangelist beside Charing Cross; the _Debate between Somer and Winter_, printed by Laurence Andrewe, has the same colophon, and the _De Cursione Lune_, from the press of Richard Faques, has the same words, but not Wyer's name. His first dated book was the _Golden Pystle_, printed in 1531. It was printed in a small secretary of Parisian character. His great primer, for which he has been especially noted by some bibliographers, was very probably that used by Richard Faques. He had also a number of woodcut face initials similar to those used by Wynkyn de Worde, and many of the small blocks found in his books were copies of those belonging to Antoine Verard, the famous Paris publisher.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14.--Robert Wyer's Device.]

Robert Wyer was essentially a popular printer. Many of his publications were mere tracts of a few leaves, abridgments of larger works, and the subjects which they chiefly treated were theology and medicine.

Unfortunately, the great bulk of his work bears no date, but several circ.u.mstances in his career, coupled with internal evidence gathered from the books themselves, enable us to get very near their date of issue. Like his contemporaries he abandoned the secretary type in favour of black letter, but neither so readily nor so entirely as they did. His first black letter, in use before 1536, was also a very well cut and beautiful letter; with it he printed the _Epistle_ of Erasmus, in octavo, and the _Book of Good Works_, of which the only copy known is in the library of St. John's College, Oxford. But unquestionably the two most important books known of this printer are William Marshall's _Defence of Peace_, folio, 1535, printed in secretary, and the _Questionary of Cyrurgyens_, which he printed for Henry Dabbe and R.

Bankes. In 1536 the house in which he was working changed hands, pa.s.sing into the possession of the Duke of Suffolk, consequently all books which have in the colophon 'in the Duke of Suffolkes Rentes,' or 'Beside the Duke of Suffolkes Place,' were printed after that year. As Wyer continued to print until 1555, this circ.u.mstance does not help us much; it may, however, be taken as some further guide that all his later work was done in black letter.

Robert Wyer appears to have done a great deal of work for his contemporaries, notably Richard Bankes, Richard Kele, and John Gough.

Most of his books have woodcuts, the most profusely ill.u.s.trated was his translation of Christine de Pisan's _Hundred Histories of Troy_. This book had been printed in Paris by Pigouchet, and the ill.u.s.trations in Wyer's edition are rude copies of those in the French edition. They are, without doubt, wretched specimens of the woodcutter's art; but in this respect they are no worse than the woodcuts found in other English books at this date, and the number and variety of them speak well for the printer's patience. Robert Wyer's device represented the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos, with an eagle on his right hand holding an inkhorn. With this he used a separate block with his name and mark. He had also a smaller block of the Evangelist from which the eagle was omitted. This is generally found on the t.i.tle-page or in the front part of his books.

[Footnote 2: It is rather remarkable that of the eight books dated 1534 six are in octavo. Readers of the works of Erasmus, Colet, and Lily seem to have shown a preference for this form, which is used most frequently for the works of these friendly authors.]