A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 Part 8

Never heard of the little book of detestable heresies till the stationers showed it me.'--(_Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII._, Vol.

xiv., Pt. 2, No. 315.)

The 'John Pryntare' can be none other than John Herford. 'b.o.n.e.re' was a misreading for _Bonham_, and these three, Pepwell, Tab, and Bonham, all of them printers or booksellers in St. Paul's Churchyard, were evidently sent down especially to inquire into the matter.

We next hear of John Herford as in London in 1542, but meanwhile a modification of Stevenage's device was used by a London printer named Bourman. From the _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, vol. xv. pp. 115, etc., it appears that after his retirement from the abbey, Richard Stevenage went by the name of Boreman. He is invariably spoken of as 'Stevenage _alias_ Boreman,' so that the Nicholas Bourman, the London printer, was perhaps a relative.

The Rev. S. Sayers in his _Memoirs of Bristol_, 1823, vol. ii. p. 228, states, on the authority of doc.u.ments in the city archives, that a press was at work in the castle in the year 1546. Of this press, if it ever existed, not so much as a leaf remains.

In 1547 Anthony Scoloker was established as a printer at Ipswich. In that year he printed _The just reckenyng or accompt of the whole nomber of yeares, from the beginnynge of the world, vnto this present yeare of 1547. Translated out of Germaine tonge by Anthony Scoloker the 6 daye of July 1547_. He was chiefly concerned with the movements of the Reformation, and his publications were mostly small octavos, the writings of Luther, Zwingli, and Ochino, printed in type of a German character and of no great merit. In 1548 he moved to London, where for a time he was in partnership with William Seres. The adjoining cut, the earliest English representation of a printing press, is taken from the _Ordinarye of Christians_, printed by Scoloker after he had settled in London.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26.--From the _Ordinarye of Christians_, c. 1550.]

A second printer in Ipswich is believed to have been John Overton, who in 1548 printed there two sheets of Bale's _Ill.u.s.trium maioris Britanniae scriptorum summarium_, the remainder of which was printed at Wesel.

Nothing else of his appears to be known.

The third printer at Ipswich was John Oswen, who was also established there in 1548. Nine books can be traced to his press there. The first was _The Mynde of the G.o.dly and excellent lerned man M. Jhon Caluyne what a Faithful man, whiche is instructe in the Worde of G.o.d ought to do, dwellinge amongest the Papistes. Imprinted at Ippyswiche by me John Oswen_. 8vo. This was followed by Calvin's _Brief declaration of the fained sacrament commonly called the extreame unction_. The remainder of his books were of a theological character. He left Ipswich about Christmas 1548, and is next found at Worcester, where, on the 30th January 1549, he printed _A Consultarie for all Christians most G.o.dly and ernestly warnying al people to beware least they beare the name of Christians in vayne. Now first imprinted the x.x.x day of Januarie Anno M.

D. xlix. At Worceter by John Oswen. c.u.m priuilegio Regali ad imprimendum solum. Per septennium_. The privilege, which was dated January 6th, 1548-9, authorised Oswen to print all sorts of service or prayer-books and other works relating to the scriptures 'within our Princ.i.p.alitie of Wales and Marches of the same.'[9]

Oswen followed this by another edition of the _Domestycal or Household Sermons_ of Christopher Hegendorff, which was printed on the last day of February 1549.

Then came his first important undertaking, a quarto edition of _The boke of common praier_. Imprinted the xxiv day of May Anno MDXLIX. The folio edition appeared in July of the same year. Two months later he printed an edition of the _Psalter or Psalmes of David_, 4to. On January 12, 1550, appeared a quarto edition of the _New Testament_, of which there is a copy in Balliol College Library, and this was followed in the same year by Zwingli's _Short Pathwaye_, translated by John Veron; by a translation by Edward Aglionby of Mathew Gribalde's _Notable and marveilous epistle_, and the _G.o.dly sayings of the old auncient fathers_, compiled by John Veron. Two or three books of the same kind were issued in 1551, and in 1552 he issued another edition of the Book of Common Prayer. The last we hear of him is in 1553, when he printed an edition of the Statutes of 6th Edward VI., and _An Homelye to read in the tyme of pestylence_. What became of Oswen is not known. He very likely went abroad on the accession of Queen Mary.

In Kent there was a press at Canterbury, from which eleven books are known to have been printed between 1549 and 1556.

John Mych.e.l.l, the printer of these, began work in London at the Long Shop in the Poultry, some time between the departure of Richard Banckes in 1539 and the tenancy of Richard Kele in 1542. In 1549 he appears to have moved to Canterbury, where he printed a quarto edition of the Psalms, with the colophon, 'Printed at Canterbury in Saynt Paules paryshe by John Mych.e.l.l.' In 1552 he issued _A Breuiat Cronicle contayninge all the Kynges from Brute to this daye_, and in 1556, the _Articles of Cardinal Pole's Visitation_. He also issued several minor theological tracts without dates.

The Norwich press began about 1566, when Anthony de Solemne, or Solempne, set up a press among the refugees who had fled from the Netherlands and taken refuge in that city. Most of his books were printed in Dutch, and all of them are excessively rare. The earliest was:--

_Der Siecken Troost, Onderwijsinghe on gewillichlick te steruen.

Troostinghe | on den siecken totte rechten gheloue ende betrouwen in Christo te onderwijsen. Ghemeyn bekenisse der sonden | met | sc.o.o.n gebeden. Ghedruct in Jaer ons Heeren. Anno 1566_. The only known copy of the book is in Trinity College Library, Dublin.

The Psalms of David in Dutch appeared in 1568, and the New Testament in the same year.

He was also the printer of certain Tables concerning G.o.d's word, by Antonius Corra.n.u.s, pastor of the Spanish Protestant congregation at Antwerp. It was printed in four languages, Latin, French, Dutch, and English.

The only known specimen of Solempne's printing in the English language is a broadside now in the Bodleian:--

_Certayne versis | written by Thomas Brooke Getleman | in the tyme of his imprysoment | the daye before his deathe | who sufferyd at Norwich the 30 of August 1570. Imprynted at Norwiche in the Paryshe of Saynct Andrewe | by Anthony de Solempne 1570._

In this year Solempne also printed _Eenen Calendier Historiael | eewelick gheduerende_, 8vo, a tract of eight leaves printed in black and red, of which there are copies in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Bodleian.

There is then a gap of eight years in his work, the next book found being a sermon, printed in 1578, _Het tweede boeck vande sermoenen des wel vermaerden Predicant B. Cornelis Adriaensen van Dordrecht minrebroeder tot Brugges_. Of this there are two copies known, one in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

The last book traced to Solempne's press is _Chronyc. Historie der Nederlandtscher Oorlogen. Gedruct tot Norrtwitz na de copie van Basel, Anno 1579_, 8vo, of which there remain copies in the Bodleian, University Library, Cambridge, and in the private collection of Lord Amherst.

In 1583, after an interval similar to that at Oxford, another press was started at Cambridge, when, on May 3rd of that year, Thomas Thomas was appointed University printer. His career was marked by many difficulties. The Company of Stationers at once seized his press as an infringement of their privileges, and this in the face of the fact that for many years the University had possessed the royal licence, though hitherto it had not been used. The Bishop of London, writing to Burghley, declared on hearsay evidence that Thomas was a man 'vtterlie ignoraunte in printinge.' The University protested, and as it was clearly shown that they held the royal privilege, the Company were obliged to submit, but they did the Cambridge printer all the injury they could by freely printing books that were his sole copyright (Arber's _Transcripts_, vol. ii. pp. 782, 813, 819-20). He printed for the use of scholars small editions of cla.s.sical works. In 1585 he issued in octavo the Latin Grammar of Peter Ramus, and in 1587 the Latin Grammar of James Carmichael in quarto (Hazlitt, _Collections and Notes_, 3rd series, p. 17). He was also the compiler of a Dictionary, first printed about 1588, of which five editions were called for before the end of the century.

Thomas died in August 1588, and the University, on the 2nd November, appointed John Legate his successor, as 'he is reported to be skilful in the art of printing books.' On the 26th April 1589 he received as an apprentice Cantrell Legge, who afterwards succeeded him. From 1590 to 1609 he appears in the parish books of St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, as paying 5s. a year for the rent of a shop. He had the exclusive right of printing Thomas's Dictionary, and he printed most of the books of William Perkins. He subsequently left Cambridge and settled in London.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27.--Device used by John Legate.]

The books printed by these two Cambridge printers show that they had a good variety of Roman and Italic, very regularly cast, besides some neat ornaments and initials. Whether these founts belonged to the University, or to Thomas in the first place, is not clear. Nor do these books bear out the Bishop of London's statement as to Thomas being ignorant of printing; on the contrary, the presswork was such as could only have been done by a skilled workman.

In addition to the foregoing, there were several secret presses at work in various parts of the country during the second half of the century.

The Cartwright controversy, which began in 1572 with the publication of a tract ent.i.tled _An Admonition to the Parliament_, was carried out by means of a secret press at which John Stroud is believed to have worked, and had as a.s.sistants two men named Lacy and Asplyn. The Stationers'

Company employed Toy and Day to hunt it out, with the result that it was seized at Hempstead, probably Hemel Hempstead, Herts, or Hempstead near Saffron Walden, Ess.e.x. The type was handed over to Bynneman, who used it in printing an answer to Cartwright's book. It was in consequence of his action in this matter that John Day was in danger of being killed by Asplyn.

A few years later books by Jesuit authors were printed from a secret press which, from some notes written by F. Parsons in 1598, and now preserved in the library of Stonyhurst College, we know began work at Greenstreet House, East Ham, but was afterwards removed to Stonor Park.

The overseer of this press was Stephen Brinckley, who had several men under him, and the most noted book issued from it was Campion's _Rationes Decem_, with the colophon, 'Cosmopoli 1581.'

Finally, there was the Marprelate press, of which Robert Waldegrave was the chief printer. He was the son of a Worcestershire yeoman, and put himself apprentice to William Griffith, from the 24th June 1568, for eight years. He was therefore out of his time in 1576, and in 1578 there is entered to him a book ent.i.tled _A Castell for the Soul_. His subsequent publications were of the same character, including, in 1581, _The Confession and Declaration of John Knox_, _The Confession of the Protestants of Scotland_, and a sermon of Luther's. It was not, however, until the 7th April 1588 that he got into trouble. In that year he printed a tract of John Udall's, ent.i.tled _The State of the Church of England_. His press was seized and his type defaced, but he succeeded in carrying off some of it to the house of a Mrs. Crane at East Molesey, where he printed another of Udall's tracts, and the first of the Marprelate series: _O read over D. John Bridges for it is a worthye work. Printed oversea in Europe within two furlongs of a Bounsing Priest, at the cost and charges of M. Marprelate, gentleman_.

From East Molesey the press was afterwards removed to Fawsley, near Daventry, and from thence to Coventry. But the hue and cry after the hidden press was so keen that another shift was made to Wolston Priory, the seat of Sir R. Knightley, and finally Waldegrave fled over sea, taking with him his black-letter type. He went first to Roch.e.l.le, and thence to Edinburgh, where in 1590 he was appointed King's printer.

The Marprelate press was afterwards carried on by Samuel Hoskins or Hodgkys, who had as his workmen Valentine Symmes and Arthur Thomlyn. The last of the Marprelate tracts, _The Protestacyon of Martin Marprelate_, was printed at Haseley, near Warwick, about September 1589.

[Footnote 8: For the materials of this chapter free use has been made of Mr. Allnutt's series of papers contributed to the second volume of _Bibliographica_, to whom my thanks are due.]

[Footnote 9: Forty-second Report of the Worcester Diocesan Arch, and Archaeological Society. Paper by Rev. J. R. Burton on 'Early Worcestershire Printers and Books.']

PRINTING IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY[10]

On the 15th September 1507, King James IV. of Scotland granted to his faithful subjects, Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar, burgesses of Edinburgh, leave to import a printing-press and letter, and gave them licence to print law books, breviaries, and so forth, more particularly the Breviary of William, Bishop of Aberdeen. Walter Chepman was a general merchant, and probably his chief part in the undertaking at the outset was of a financial character. Andrew Myllar had for some years carried on the business of a bookseller in Edinburgh, and books were printed for him in Rouen by Pierre Violette. There is, moreover, evidence that Myllar himself learnt the art of printing in that city.

The printing-house of the firm in Edinburgh was in the Southgait (now the Cowgate), and they lost no time in setting to work, devoting themselves chiefly to printing some of the popular metrical tales of England and Scotland. A volume containing eleven such pieces, most of them printed in 1508, is preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.

Among the pieces found in it are--_Sir Eglamoure of Artoys_, _Maying or desport of Chaucer_, _Buke of Gude Counsale to the Kyng_, _Flytting of Dunbar & Kennedy_, and _Twa Marrit Wemen and the wedo_.

Three founts of black letter, somewhat resembling in size and shape those of Wynkyn de Worde, were used in printing these books, and the devices of both men are found in them. That of Chepman was a copy of the device of the Paris printer, Pigouchet, while Myllar adopted the punning device of a windmill with a miller bearing sacks into the mill, with a small shield charged with three fleur-de-lys in each of the upper corners.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28.--Device of Andrew Miller.]

After printing the above-mentioned works, Myllar disappears, and the famous _Breviarium Aberdonense_, the work for which the King had mainly granted the license, was finished in 1509-10 by Chepman alone. It is an unpretentious little octavo, printed in double columns, in red and black, as became a breviary, but with no special marks of typographical beauty. Four copies of it are known to exist, but none of these are perfect. Chepman then disappears as mysteriously as his partner. In the Glamis copy of the _Bremarium_, Dr. David Laing discovered a single sheet of eight leaves of a book with the imprint: _Impressu Edinburgi per Johane Story nomine & mandato Karoli Stule_. Nothing more, however, is known of this John Story.

In 1541-2 another printer, Thomas Davidson, is found printing _The New Actis and Const.i.tutionis of Parliament maid Be the Rycht Excellent Prince James the Fift King of Scottis_, 1540. Davidson's press, which was situated 'above the nether bow, on the north syde of the gait,' was also very short-lived, and very few examples of it are now in existence; one of these, a quarto of four leaves, with the t.i.tle _Ad Serenissimum Scotorum Regem Jacob.u.m Quintum de suscepto Regni Regimine a diis feliciter ominato Strena_, is the earliest instance of the use of Roman type in Scotland. His most important undertaking, besides the Acts of Parliament, was a Scottish history, printed about 1542.

The next printer we hear of is John Scot or Skot. There was a printer of this name in London between 1521 and 1537, but whether he is to be identified with this slightly later Scottish printer is not known.

Between 1552 and 1571 Scot printed a great many books, most of them of a theological character. Among them was Ninian Winziet's _Certane tractatis for Reformatioune of Doctryne and Maneris_, a quarto, printed on the 21st May 1562, and the same author's _Last Blast of the Trumpet_.

For these he was arrested and thrown into prison, and his printing materials were handed over to Thomas Ba.s.sandyne. In 1568 he was at liberty again and printed for Henry Charteris, _The Warkes of the famous & vorthie Knicht Schir David Lyndesay_; while among his numerous undated books is found Lyndsay's _Ane Dialog betwix Experience and Ane Courtier_, of which he printed two editions, the second containing several other poems by the same author.

Scot was succeeded by Robert Lekpreuik, who began to print, in 1561, his first dated book, a small black-letter octavo of twenty-four pages, called _The Confessione of the fayght and doctrin beleued and professed by the Protestantes of the Realme of Scotland. Imprinted at Edinburgh be Robert Lekpreuik, c.u.m privilegio_, 1561.

In the following year the Kirk lent him 200 with which to print the Psalms. The copy now in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, bound with the _Book of Common Order_ printed by Lekpreuik in the same year, probably belongs to this edition.

Two years later, in 1564-5, he obtained a license under the Privy Seal to print the Acts of Parliament of Queen Mary and the Psalms of David in Scottish metre. Of this edition of the Psalms there is a perfect copy in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Again, in 1567, Lekpreuik obtained the royal license as king's printer for twenty years, during which time he was to have the monopoly of printing _Donatus pro pueris_, _Rudimentis of Pelisso_, _Acts of Parliament_, _Chronicles of the Realm_, the book called _Regia Majestas_, the _Psalms_, the _Homelies_, and _Rudimenta Artis Grammaticae_.

Among his other work of that year may be noticed a ballad ent.i.tled _The testament and tragedie of vmquhile King Henry Stewart of gude memory_, a broadside of sixteen twelve-line stanzas, from the pen of Robert Sempil.

A copy of this is in the British Museum (Cott. Caligula, C. i. fol. 17).