The newly incorporated company included nearly all the men connected with the book trade, not only printers, but booksellers, bookbinders, and typefounders. There were some who, for some unexplained reason, were not enrolled. On the other hand, two of those whose names appeared in the charter died the year of its incorporation. These were Thomas Berthelet, who was dead before the 26th January 1556, and Robert Toy, who died in February.

In the registers of the Company were recorded the names of the wardens and masters, the names of all apprentices, with the masters to whom they were bound, and the names of those who took up their freedom. The titles of all books were supposed to be entered by the printer or publisher, a small fee being paid in each case. As a matter of fact many books were not so entered. Entries of gifts to the Corporation, and of fines levied on the members, also form part of the annual statements.

Literary men of the eighteenth century were the first to discover and make use of the wealth of information contained in the Registers of the Stationers' Company; but it fell to the lot of Mr. Arber to give English scholars a full transcript of the earlier registers. In order to make it complete, he has supplemented the work with numerous valuable papers in the Record Office and other archives, and a bibliographical list down to the year 1603, which is of such immense value that it is impossible to be content until it has been continued to the year 1640.

The first master of the Company was Thomas Dockwray, Proctor of the Court of Arches; and the wardens were John Cawood, the Queen's Printer, and Henry Cooke.



It does not follow that because Day's name occurs in the charter that he was in England in 1556, but he certainly was so in the following year, for there is a Sarum Missal of that date with his imprint, besides several other books, including Thomas Tusser's Hundred Points of Good Husserye (i.e. Housewifery); William Bullein's Government of Health, and sundry proclamations. But it was not until 1559 that his books began to show that excellence of workmanship that laid the foundation of his fame. In that year he issued in folio The Cosmographicall Glasse of William Cunningham, a physician of Norwich. As a specimen of the printer's art this was far in advance of any of Day's previous work, and, moreover, was in advance of anything seen in England before that time. The text was printed in a large, flowing italic letter of great beauty, further enhanced by several well-executed woodcut initials. Amongst these was a letter 'D,' containing the arms of the Earl of Leicester, to whom the work was dedicated. There were also scattered through the book several diagrams and maps, a fine portrait of the author, and a plan of the city of Norwich. Some of these illustrations and initials were signed J. B., others J. D. The title-page was also engraved with allegorical figures of the arts and sciences. There can be very little doubt that Day had spent his time abroad in studying the best models in the typographical art.

Students and lovers of good books may well pay a tribute to the memory of that scholarly churchman, who rescued so many of the books that were scattered at the dissolution of the monasteries, and enriched Cambridge University and some of its colleges by his gifts of books and manuscripts. But Matthew Parker did not stop short at book-collecting. He believed that good books should be well printed, and on his accession to power under Elizabeth, he encouraged John Day and others, both with his authority and his purse, to cut new founts of type and to print books in a worthy form.

In 1560 Day began to print the collected works of Thomas Becon, the reformer. The whole impression occupied three large folio volumes, and was not completed until 1564. The founts chiefly used in this were black letter of two sizes, supplemented with italic and Roman. The initials used in the Cosmographicall Glasse appeared again in this, and the title-page to each part was enclosed in an elaborate architectural border, having in the bottom panel Day's small device, a block showing a sleeper awakened, and the words, 'Arise, for it is Day.' At the end was a fine portrait of the printer.

Another important undertaking of the year 1560 was a folio edition of the Commentaries of Joannes Philippson, otherwise Sleidanus. This Day printed for Nicholas England, the fount of large italic being used in conjunction with black letter.

Sermons of Calvin, Bullinger, and Latimer are all that we have to illustrate his work during the next two years. But in 1563 appeared a handsome folio, the editio princeps of Acts and Monumentes of these latter and perillous Dayes, touching matters of the Church, better known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

During Mary's reign Foxe had found a home on the Continent, and may there have met with Day. In 1554, while at Strasburg, he had published, through the press of Wendelin Richel, a Latin treatise on the persecutions of the reformers, under the title of Commentarii rerum in Ecclesia gestarum maximarumque persecutionem a Vuiclevi temporibus descriptio. From Strasburg he removed to Basle, and from the press of Oporinus, in 1559, appeared the Latin edition of the Book of Martyrs. He did not return to England until October of that year, when he settled in Aldgate, and made weekly visits to the printing-house of John Day, who was then busy on the English edition.



Foxe's Actes and Monumentes is a work of 2008 folio pages, printed in double columns, the type used being a small English black letter, the same which had been used in Becon's Works, supplemented with various sizes of italic and Roman. It was illustrated throughout with woodcuts, representing the tortures and deaths of the martyrs. A very handsome initial letter E, showing Queen Elizabeth and her courtiers, is also found in it. A Royal proclamation ordered that a copy of it should be set up in every parish church. From this time Foxe appears to have worked as translator and editor for John Day, and was for a while living in the printer's house.

Archbishop Parker meanwhile had induced Day to cast a fount of Saxon types in metal. The first book in which these were used was Aelfric's 'Saxon Homily,' i.e. the Sermon of the Paschal Lamb, appointed by the Saxon bishop to be read at Easter before the Sacrament, an Epistle of Aelfric to Wulfsine, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, all of which were included in the general title of A Testimonye of Antiquity, 'shewing the auncient fayth in the Church of England touching the Sacrament of the body and bloude of the Lord here publykely preached and also receaved in the Saxons tyme, above 600 yeares agoe.'

Speaking of Day's Saxon fount, the late Mr. Talbot Reed, in his Old English Letter Foundries (p. 96), says:—

'The Saxon fount ... is an English in body, very clear and bold. Of the capitals eight only, including two diphthongs are distinctively Saxon, the remaining eighteen letters being ordinary Roman; while in the lowercase there are twelve Saxon letters, as against fifteen of the Roman. The accuracy and regularity with which this fount was cut and cast is highly creditable to Day's excellence as a founder.'

Although this book (an octavo) bore no date, the names of the subscribing bishops fix it as 1566 or 1567. In the latter year appeared the Archbishop's metrical version of the Psalter, which he had compiled during his enforced exile under Mary. In connection with this it may be well to point out that Day printed many editions of the Psalter with musical notes. In 1568 he used the Saxon types again to print William Lambard's Archaionomia, a book of Saxon laws. Amongst his other productions of that year must be mentioned the folio edition of Peter Martyr's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans; Gildas the historian's De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, 1568, 8vo; and a French version of Vandernoot's Theatre for Worldlings, 'Le Theatre auquel sont exposes et monstres les inconveniens et miseres qui suivent les mondains et vicieux, ensemble les plaisirs et contentements dont les fideles jouissent.' There is a copy of this very rare book in the Grenville collection. The Theatre for Worldlings was translated into English the following year, and contained verses from the pen of Edmund Spenser, then a boy of sixteen. But Day's press played little part in the spread of the romantic literature with which the name of Spenser is so closely linked. Day's work was with the Reformation and the religious questions of the time. Nevertheless, that he felt the influence of the coming change is shown from a publication that issued from his press in 1570. This was the authorised version of a play which had been acted nine years before by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple before Her Majesty. It had shortly afterwards been published by William Griffith of Fleet Street as:—

'The Tragedy of Gorboduc, whereof Three Actes were wrytten by Thomas Norton and the two last by Thomas Sackvyle. Set forth as the same was shewed before the Queenes most excellent Maiestie in her highnes Court of Whitehall, the xviii day of January Anno Domini 1561, By the gentlemen of Thynner Temple in London.' Day's edition was entitled:—

'The Tragidie of Ferrex and Porrex, set forth without addition or alteration, but altogether as the same was showed on stage before the Queens Maiestie about nine yeares past, viz. the xviii day of Januarie 1561, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple.'

Another important work of this year (1570) was Roger Ascham's Scholemaster, in quarto. In 1571 Day was busy with Church matters. There was just then much talk of Church discipline, and it shows itself in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, a quarto of some 300 pages, published by him this year. In this book we find a new device used by Day. It represents two hands holding a slab upon which is a crucible with a heart in it, surrounded by flames, the word 'Christus' being on the slab. From the wrists hangs a chain, and in the centre of this is suspended a globe, and beneath that again is a representation of the sun. Round the chain is a ribbon with the words 'Horum Charitas.' This device was placed on the title-page, which was surrounded by a neat border of printers' ornaments.

The Booke of certaine Canons, 4to, was another publication of this year for the due ordering of the Church. This, like most public documents, was in a large black letter. There were also 'Articles of the London Synod of 1562.' As a specimen of the religious sermons or discourses of the time, we have a very good example in another of Day's publications in 1571, a reprint of The Poore Mans Librarie, a discourse by George Alley, Bishop of Exeter, upon the First Epistle of St. Peter, which made up a very respectable folio, printed in Day's best manner, and with a great number of founts.

But Day's prosperity roused the envy of his fellow-stationers, and they tried their best to hinder the sale of his books and cause him annoyance. This opposition took a violent form in 1572, when Day, whose premises at Aldersgate had become too small to carry on his growing business, his stock being valued at that time between L2000 and L3000, obtained the leave of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to set up a little shop in St. Paul's Churchyard for the sale of his books. The booksellers appealed to the Lord Mayor, who was prevailed upon to stop Day's proceedings, and it required all the power and influence of Archbishop Parker, backed by an order of the Privy Council, to enable the printer to carry out his project.[4]

The Archbishop meanwhile had been busy furnishing replies to Nicholas Sanders' book De Visibili Monarchia, and amongst those whom he selected for the work was Dr. Clerke of Cambridge, who accordingly wrote a Latin treatise entitled Fidelis Servi subdito infideli Responsio. From a letter written by the Archbishop to Lord Burleigh at this time, we learn that John Day had cast a special fount of Italian letter for this book at a cost of forty marks.[5]

By Italian letter is here meant Roman, and not Italic, as Mr. Reed supposes, for the Responsio was printed in a new fount of that type, clear, even, and free from abbreviations.

In the same year (1572) Day printed at the Archbishop's private press at Lambeth his great work De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae in folio, in a new fount of Italic, with preface in Roman, and the titles and sub-titles in the larger Italic of the Cosmographicall Glasse. It was a special feature of Day's letter-founding that he cut the Roman and Italic letters to the same size. Before his time there was no uniformity; the separate founts mixed badly, and spoilt the appearance of many books that would otherwise have been well printed.

The De Antiquitate is believed to have been the first book printed at a private press in England. The issue was limited to fifty copies, and the majority of them were in the Archbishop's possession at the time of his death.

But while he encouraged printing in one direction, Matthew Parker rigorously persecuted it in another. Just at this time there was much division among Protestants on matters of doctrine and ceremonial, and one Thomas Cartwright published, in 1572, a book entitled A Second Admonition to the Parliament, in which he defended those who had been imprisoned for airing their opinions in the first Admonition. This book, like many others of the time, was printed secretly, and strenuous search was made by the Wardens of the Stationers' Company, Day being one, to discover the hidden press. The search was successful, but unpleasant consequences followed for John Day. One of the printers of the prohibited book turned out to be an apprentice of his own, named Asplyn. He was released after examination, and again taken into service by his late master. But the following year the Archbishop reported to the Council that this man Asplyn had tried to kill both Day and his wife.

Day's work in 1573 included a folio edition of the whole works of William Tyndale, John Frith, and Doctor Barnes, in two volumes. This was printed in two columns, with type of the same size and character as that used in the 'Works' of Becon, some of the initial letters closely resembling those found in books printed by Reginald Wolfe. In the same year Day issued a life of Bishop Jewel, for which he cut in wood a number of Hebrew words.

In 1574 we reach the summit of excellence in Day's work. It was in that year that he printed for Archbishop Parker Asser's Life of Alfred the Great (Aelfredi Regis Res Gestae) in folio. In this the Saxon type cast for the Saxon Homily in 1567 was again used in conjunction with the magnificent founts of double pica Roman and Italic. With it is usually bound Walsingham's Ypodigme Neustria and Historia Brevis, the first printed by Day, and the second by Bynneman, who unquestionably used the same types, so that it may be inferred that the fount was at the disposal of the Archbishop, at whose expense all three books were issued.

Another series of publications that came from the press of John Day, in 1574, were the writings of John Caius on the history and antiquities of the two Universities. They are generally found bound together in the following order:—

1. De Antiquitate Cantabrigiensis Academiae.

2. Assertio Antiquitatis Oxoniensis Academiae.

3. Historia Cantabrigiensis Academiae.

4. Johannis Caii Angli De Pronunciatione Graecae et Latinae linguae cum scriptione noua libellus.

The 'Antiquities' and 'History' of Cambridge were both books of considerable size, the first having 268 pages, without counting prefatory matter and indexes. The other two were little better than tracts, the one having only 27 and the other 23 pages. Some editions of the De Antiquitate are found with a map of Cambridge, while the 'History' contained plates showing the arms of the various colleges. All four were printed in quarto. The type used for the text was in each case an Italic of English size, with a small Roman for indexes. The title-page was enclosed in a border of printers' ornaments, and the printer's device of the Heart was on the last leaf of two out of the four.

Matthew Parker died in 1575, and the art of printing, as well as every other art and science, lost a generous patron. But Day's work was not yet done, though he printed few large books after this date. A very curious folio, written by John Dee, the famous astronomer, entitled General and Rare Memorials concerning Navigation, came from his press in 1577. This work had an elaborate allegorical title-page, by no means a bad specimen of wood-engraving. It was a history in itself, the central object being a ship with the Queen seated in the after part.

In 1578 Day printed a book in Greek and Latin for the use of scholars, Christianae pietatis prima institutio, the Greek type being a great improvement on any that had previously appeared. Indeed, it has been considered equal to those in use by the Estiennes of Paris.

The year 1580 saw Day Master of the Stationers' Company. Two years later he was engaged in a series of law-suits about his A B C and litell Catechism, a book for which he had obtained a patent in the days of Edward VI.

As we have already noted, the aim of the Corporation of the Stationers' Company was not primarily the promotion of good printing or literature. Printers were looked upon by the authorities as dangerous persons whom it was necessary to watch closely. Only six years after coming to the throne, Elizabeth signed a decree passed by the Star Chamber, requiring every printer to enter into substantial recognisances for his good behaviour. No books were to be printed or imported without the sanction of a Special Commission of Ecclesiastical Authorities, under a penalty of three months' imprisonment and the forfeiture of all right to carry on business as a master printer or bookseller in future, while the officers of the Company were instructed to carry out strict search for all prohibited books.

On the other hand, while thus retaining a tight rein on the printing trade, the Queen, no doubt for monetary considerations, granted special patents for the sole printing of certain classes of books to individual master printers, and threatened pains and penalties upon any other member of the craft who should print any such books. In this way all the best-paying work in the trade became the property of some dozen or so of printers. Master Tottell was allowed the sole printing of Law Books, Master Jugge the sole printing of Bibles, James Roberts and Richard Watkins the sole printing of Almanacs; Thomas Vautrollier, a stranger, was allowed to print all Latin books except the Grammars, which were given to Thomas Marsh, and John Day had received the right of printing and selling the A B C and Litell Catechism, a book largely bought for schools, and which Christopher Barker, in his Complaint, declared was once 'the onelye reliefe of the porest sort of that Company.' On every side the best work was seized and monopolised. Nor did the evil cease there. These patents were invariably granted for life with reversion to a successor, and they were bought and sold freely. Hence the poorer members of the Company daily found it harder to live. There was very little light literature, and what there was had few readers. Their appeals for redress of grievances, whether addressed to the State or to the Company, which pretended to look after their welfare, were alike in vain, and at length they rose in open revolt. Half a dozen of them, headed by Roger Ward and John Wolf, boldly printed the books owned by the patentees. Roger Ward seized upon this A B C of Day's, and at a secret press, with type supplied to him by a workman of Thomas Purfoot, printed many thousand copies of the work with Day's mark. Hence the proceedings in the Star Chamber. They did very little good. Ward defied imprisonment; and the agitators would undoubtedly have gained more than they did, and might even have saved the art of printing from falling into the hopeless state it afterwards reached, had it not been for the desertion of John Wolf, who, after declaring that he would work a reformation in the printing trade similar to that which Luther had worked in religion, quietly allowed himself to be bought over, and died in eminent respectability as Printer to the City of London, leaving Ward and others to carry on the war. This they did with such effect, that, forced to find a remedy, the patentees of the Company at length agreed to relax their grasp of some of the books that they had laid their hands upon. Day is said to have been most generous, relinquishing no less than fifty-three, and this number is in itself a commentary on the magnitude of the monopolies.



John Day died at Walden, in Essex, on the 23rd July 1584, at the age of sixty-two, and was buried at Bradley Parva, where there is a fair tomb and a lengthy poetical epitaph on his virtues and abilities. He was twice married, and is said to have had twenty-six children, of whom one son, Richard, was for a short time a printer, and another, John, took Orders, and became rector of Little Thurlow, in Suffolk.

John Day had three devices. His earliest, and perhaps his best, was a large block of a skeleton lying on an elaborately chased bier, with a tree at the back, and two figures, an old man and a young, standing beside it. This may have been typical of the Resurrection, the sign of the house in which he began business. Then we find the device of the Heart in his later books, and finally there is the block of the Sleeper Awakened, but this almost always formed part of the title-page.

[Footnote 4: See Strype's Life of Parker, p. 541. Arber's Transcript, vol. ii.]

[Footnote 5: Strype's Life of Parker, pp. 382, 541.]

APPENDIX

LIST OF PRINTERS AND STATIONERS ENROLLED IN THE CHARTER

Alday, John.

Baldwyn, Richard. Baldwyn, William. Blythe, Robert. Bonham, John. Bonham, William. Bourman, Nicholas. Boyden, Thomas. Brodehead, Gregory. Broke, Robert. Browne, Edward. Burtoft, John. Bylton, Thomas.

Case, John. Cater, Edward. Cawood, John. Clarke, John. Cleston, Nicholas. Cooke, Henry. Cooke, William. Copland, William. Cottesford, Hugh. Coston, Simon. Croke, Adam. Crosse, Richard. Crost, Anthony.

Day, John. Devell, Thomas. Dockwray, Thomas. Duxwell, Thos.

Fayreberne, John. Fox, John. Frenche, Peter.

Gamlyn or Gammon, Allen. Gee, Thomas. Gonneld, James. Gough, John. Greffen or Griffith, William. Grene, Richard.

Harryson, Richard. Harvey, Richard. Hester, Andrew. Hyll, John. Hyll, Richard. Hyll, William. Holder, Robert. Holyland, James. Huke, Gyles.

Ireland, Roger.

Jaques, John. Judson, John. Jugge, Richard.

Kele, John. Keball, John. Kevall, junior, Richard. Kevall, Stephen. Kyng, John.

Lant, Richard. Lobel, Michael.

Marten, Will. Marsh, Thos. Markall, Thomas.

Norton, Henry. Norton, William.

Paget, Richard. Parker, Thomas. Pattinson, Thomas. Pickering, William. Powell, Humphrey. Powell, Thomas. Powell, William. Purfoot, Thomas.

Radborne, Robert. Richardson, Richard. Rogers, John. Rogers, Owen. Ryddall, Will.

Sawyer, Thomas. Seres, William. Shereman, John. Sherewe, Thomas. Smyth, Anthony. Spylman, Simon. Steward, William. Sutton, Edward. Sutton, Henry.

Taverner, Nicholas. Tottle, Richard. Turke, John. Tyer, Randolph. Tysdale, John.

Walley, Charles. Walley, John. Wallys, Richard. Way, Richard. Whitney, John. Wolfe, Reginald.

Amongst the men whose names were not included in the charter were:—

Baker, John, made free 24th Oct. 1555. Caley, Robert. Chandeler, Giles, made free 24 Oct. 1555. Charlewood, John. Hacket, Thomas. Singleton, Hugh. Wayland, John Wyer, Robert.



CHAPTER V

JOHN DAY'S CONTEMPORARIES

Most notable of all the men who lived and worked with Day, was Reginald or Reyner Wolfe, of the Brazen Serpent in St. Paul's Churchyard. Much as we have to regret the scantiness of all material for a study of the lives of the early English printers, it is doubly felt in the case of Reginald Wolfe. The little that is made known to us is just sufficient to whet the appetite and kindle the curiosity. It reveals to us an active business man, evidently with large capital behind him, setting up as a bookseller, under the shadow of the great Cathedral, and rapidly becoming known to the learned and the rich. We see him passing backwards and forwards between this country and the book-fair at Frankfort, executing commissions for great nobles, and at the same time acting as the King's courier. Later on we find him adding the trade of printer to that of bookseller, and I have very little doubt that it was partly to the advice and influence of Reginald Wolfe that we owe the improvement that took place in John Day's printing after his return from abroad. As a printer he stands beside Day in the excellence of his workmanship, and he was the first in England who possessed any large stock of Greek type.

Reyner Wolfe was a native of Dretunhe(?), in Gelderland, as shown by the letters of denization which he took out on the 2nd January 1533-4. (State Papers, Hen. 8. vol. 6. No. 105.) He had been established in Saint Paul's Churchyard some years before this, however, as in a letter from Thomas Tebold to the Earl of Wiltshire, dated the 4th April 1530, he says he has arrived at Frankfort, and hopes to hear from his lordship through 'Reygnard Wolf, bookseller, of St. Pauls Churchyard, London, who will be here in two days.'

Again, in 1539, in the same series of Letters and Papers (vol. xiv. pt. 2. No. 781), is an entry of the payment of 100s. to 'Rayner Wolf' for conveying the King's letters to Christopher Mounte, his Grace's agent in 'High Almayne'. But it was not until 1542 that he began to print. The British Museum fortunately possesses copies of all his early works as a printer, which began with several of the writings of John Leland the antiquary. The first was Naeniae in mortem T. Viati, Equitis incomparabilis, Joanne Lelando, antiquario, authore, a quarto, printed in a well-cut fount of Roman. This was followed in the same year by Genethliacon, a work specially written by Leland for Prince Edward, with a dedication to Prince Henry, the first part being printed in Italic and the second in Roman type. On the verso of the last leaf is the printer's very beautiful device of children throwing at an apple-tree, certainly one of the most artistic devices in use amongst the printers of that time.



To this work succeeded, in 1543, the Homilies of Saint Chrysostom, of which John Cheke, Professor in Greek at Cambridge University, was editor. The whole of the first part of the work, with the exception of the dedication, was in Greek letter, making thirty lines to the quarto page. The second part, which had a separate title-page, was printed with the Italic, and the supplementary parts with the Roman types. Some very fine pictorial initial letters were used throughout the work, and the larger form of the apple-tree device occurs on the last leaf, with a Greek and Latin motto.

A very rare specimen of Wolfe's work in 1543 is Robert Recorde's The ground of artes teachyng the worke and practise of Arithmetike moch necessary for all states of men, a small octavo printed in black letter, but of no particular merit. In the same type and form he issued in the following year a tract entitled The late expedicion in Scotlande, etc. Chrysostom's De Providentia Dei and Laudatio Pacis were printed in the Roman and Italic founts during 1545 and 1546, and are the only record we have left of Wolfe's work as a printer during those years. In 1547 he was appointed the king's printer in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and was granted an annuity of twenty-six shillings and eightpence during his life (Pat. Rol. 19 April 1547).

In 1553 trouble arose between Wolfe and Day as to their respective rights of printing Edward the Sixth's catechism. The matter was settled by Wolfe having the privilege for printing the Latin version, and Day that in English, but neither party reaped much benefit, as upon the king's death the book was called in, having only been in circulation a few months. During Mary's reign the only important work that seems to have come from Wolfe's press was Recorde's Castle of Knowledge, a folio, with an elaborately designed title-page, and a dedication to Cardinal Pole. In 1560 Wolfe became Master of the Company of Stationers, a position to which he was elected on three subsequent occasions, in 1564, 1567, and 1572. His patents were renewed to him under Elizabeth, and he came in for his share of the patronage of Matthew Parker, whose edition of Jewel's Apologia he printed in quarto form in 1562. In 1563 appeared from his press the Commonplaces of Scripture, by Wolfgang Musculus, a folio, chiefly notable for a very fine pictorial initial 'I,' measuring nearly 3-1/2 inches square, and representing the Creation, which had obviously formed part of the opening chapter of Genesis in some early edition of the Bible. It was certainly used again in the 1577 edition of Holinshed's Chronicle.

Almost his last work was Matthew Paris's Historia Major, edited by Matthew Parker, a handsome folio with an engraved title-page, several good pictorial initials, and his large device of the apple-tree, printed in 1571. Without doubt the printer was greatly interested in this work. He had himself collected materials for a chronicle of his adopted country, which he amused himself with in his spare time. But he did not live to print it, his death taking place late in the year 1573. His will was short, and mentioned none of his children by name. His property in St. Paul's Churchyard, which included the Chapel or Charnel House on the north side, which he had purchased of King Henry VIII., he left to his wife, and the witnesses to his will were George Bishop, Raphael Holinshed, John Hunn, and John Shepparde.[6] His wife, Joan Wolfe, only survived him a few months, her will, which is also preserved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury,[7] being proved on the 20th July 1574. In it occurs the following passage:

'I will that Raphell Hollingshed shall have and enjoye all such benefit, proffit, and commoditie as was promised unto him by my said late husbande Reginald Wolfe, for or concerning the translating and prynting of a certain crownacle which my said husband before his decease did prepare and intende to have prynted.'

She further mentioned in her will a son Robert, a son Henry, and a daughter Mary, the wife of John Harrison, citizen and stationer, as well as Luke Harrison, a citizen and stationer, while among the witnesses to it was Gabriel Cawood, the son of John Cawood, who lived hard by at the sign of the Holy Ghost, next to 'Powles Gate.'

From a document in the Heralds' College (W. Grafton, vi., A. B. C., Lond.), it appears that John Cawood, who began to print about the same time as Day, came from a Yorkshire family of good standing. He was apprenticed to John Reynes, a bookseller and bookbinder, who at that time, about 1542, worked at the George Inn in this locality. Cawood greatly respected his master, and in aftertimes, when he had become a prosperous man, placed a window in Stationers' Hall to the memory of John Reynes. Reynes died in 1543, but there is no mention of Cawood in his will, perhaps because Cawood was no longer in his service; but in that of his widow, Lucy Reynes, there was a legacy to John Cawood's daughter.

Cawood began to print in the year 1546, the first specimen of his press work being a little octavo, entitled The Decree for Tythes to be payed in the Citye of London.

With few exceptions the printers of this period easily enough conformed to the religious factions of the day. Thus Cawood prints Protestant books under Edward VI., Catholic books under Mary, and again Protestant books under Elizabeth. Upon the accession of Mary he was appointed royal printer in the place of Grafton, who had dared to print the proclamation of Lady Jane Grey (Rymer's Foedera, vol. xv., p. 125). He also received the reversion of Wolfe's patent for printing Latin, Greek, and Hebrew books, as well as all statute books, acts, proclamations, and other official documents, with a salary of L6, 13s. 4d. The British Museum possesses a volume (505. g. 14) containing the statutes of the reign of Queen Mary, printed in small folio by Cawood. From these it will be seen that he used some very artistic woodcut borders for his title-pages, notably one with bacchanalian figures in the lower panel signed 'A. S.' in monogram, evidently the same artist that cut the woodcut initials seen in these and other books printed by this printer, and who is believed to have been Anton Sylvius, an Antwerp engraver. Cawood was one of the first wardens of the Stationers' Company in 1554, and again served from 1555-7, and continued to take great interest in its welfare throughout his life. In 1557, Cawood, in company with John Waley and Richard Tottell, published the Works of Sir Thomas More in a large and handsome folio. The editor was William Rastell, Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, son of John Rastell the printer, and nephew of the great chancellor.

The book was printed at the Hand and Star in Fleet Street by Tottell, but the woodcut initials were certainly supplied by Cawood, and perhaps some of the type. On the accession of Elizabeth, he again received a patent as royal printer, but jointly with Richard Jugge, whose name is always found first. Nevertheless, Cawood printed at least two editions of the Bible in quarto, with his name alone on the title-page. They were very poor productions, the text being printed in the diminutive semi-gothic type that had done duty since the days of Caxton, and the woodcut borders being made up of odds and ends that happened to be handy. His rapidly increasing business had already compelled him to lease from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's a vault under the churchyard, and two sheds adjoining the church, and in addition to this he now took a room at Stationers' Hall at a rental of 20s. per year.

In conjunction with Jugge he printed many editions of the Book of Common Prayer in all sizes. He also reprinted in 1570 Barclay's Ship of Fools with the original illustrations. Cawood was three times Master of the Company of Stationers, in 1561, 1562, and 1566. In 1564 he was appointed by Elizabeth Toye, the widow of Robert Toye, one of the overseers to her will, and his partner Jugge was one of the witnesses to the document (P. C. C, 25 Morrison). His death took place in 1572, and from his epitaph it appeared that he was three times married, and by his first wife, Joan, had three sons and four daughters. His eldest son, John, was bachelor of laws and fellow of New College, Oxford, and died in 1570; Gabriel, the second son, succeeded to his father's business, and the third son died young. His eldest daughter, Mary, married George Bishop, one of the deputies to Christopher Barker; a second, Isabel, married Thomas Woodcock, a stationer; Susannah was the wife of Robert Bullock, and Barbara married Mark Norton.

Richard Jugge was another of those who owed much to the patronage and encouragement of Archbishop Parker. He is believed to have been born at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, and was educated, first at Eton, and afterwards at Cambridge. He set up at the sign of The Bible in 1548, and used as his device a pelican plucking at her breast to feed her young who are clamouring around her. In 1550 he obtained a licence to print the New Testament, and in 1556 books of Common Law. Under Elizabeth in 1560 he was made senior Queen's Printer. When the new edition of the Bible was about to be issued in 1569, Archbishop Parker wrote to Cecil, asking that Jugge might be entrusted with the printing, as there were few men who could do it better. In this way he became the printer of the first edition of the 'Bishops' Bible,' a second edition coming from his press the year following. In this work he used several large decorative initial letters, with the arms of the several patrons of the work, as well as a finely designed engraved title-page, with a portrait of the Queen, and other portraits of Burleigh and Leicester. In his edition of the New Testament were numerous large cuts, evidently of foreign workmanship, some of them signed with the initials 'E. B.' Richard Jugge died in 1577.

Another of Day's contemporaries, whose name is remembered by all students of English literature, was Richard Tottell, who lived at the Hand and Star in Fleet Street, and printed there the collection of poetry known as Tottell's Miscellany.

There is reason to believe that Richard Tottell was the third son of Henry Tottell, a famous citizen of Exeter. The name was spelt in a great variety of ways, such as Tothill, Tuthill, Tottle, Tathyll, and Tottell. Richard Tottell at the time of his death held lands in Devon, and some of the same lands that belonged to the Tothill family of Exeter. Moreover, his coat of arms was the same as theirs. But before 1552 he was in London, for in that year he received a patent for the printing of law books, and was generally known as Richard Tottell of London, gentleman. He appears to have married Joan, a sister of Richard Grafton, and in this way became possessed of considerable land in the county of Bucks. From this we may assume that he had business relations with Richard Grafton, and it becomes only natural that he should have printed various editions of Grafton's Chronicle, and come into possession of some of his finest woodcut borders.



It was in June 1557 that he printed his 'Miscellany,' an unpretentious quarto, with the title: Songes and Sonnettes, written by the Ryght Honorable Lorde Henry Hawarde, late Earl of Surrey and other. Before the 31st July a second edition became necessary, and several new poems were added. The third edition appeared in 1559, the fourth in 1565, and before the end of the sixteenth century, four more editions were called for. Another of Tottell's works was Gerard Legh's Accedens of Armory, an octavo, printed throughout in italic type, with a curiously engraved title-page, besides numerous illustrations of coats of arms, and several full-page illustrations. It was printed in 1562, and again in 1576 and 1591.

The best of Tottell's work as a printer is to be found in the law-books, for which he was a patentee. In these he used several handsome borders to title-pages, one of an architectural character with his initials R. T. at the two lower corners, another, evidently Grafton's, with a view of the King and Parliament in the top panel, and Grafton's punning device in the centre of the bottom panel.

In 1573 Richard Tottell tried to establish a paper mill in England. He wrote to Cecil, pointing out that nearly all paper came from France, and undertaking to establish a mill in England if the Government would give him the necessary land and the sole privilege of making paper for thirty years (Arber, i. 242). But as nothing was ever done in the matter, the Government evidently did not entertain the proposal. Tottell was Master of the Company of Stationers in 1579 and 1584. During the latter part of his life he withdrew from business, and lived at Wiston, in Pembrokeshire, where he died in 1593. He left several children, of whom the eldest, William Tottell, succeeded to his estates.

In the precincts of the Blackfriars, Thomas Vautrollier, a foreigner, was at work as a printer in 1566, having been admitted a 'brother' of the Company of Stationers on the 2nd October 1564. He soon afterwards received a patent for the printing of certain Latin books, and Christopher Barker, in a report to Lord Burghley in 1582, says:—

'He has the printing of Tullie, Ovid, and diverse other great workes in Latin. He doth yet, neither great good nor great harme withall.... He hath other small thinges wherewith he keepeth his presses on work, and also worketh for bookesellers of the Companye, who kepe no presses.'

In 1580, on the invitation of the General Assembly, Vautrollier visited Scotland, taking with him a stock of books, but no press, and in 1584 he again went north, and set up a press at Edinburgh, still keeping on his business in London. The venture does not seem to have turned out a success, for Vautrollier returned to London in 1586, taking with him a MS. of John Knox's History of the Reformation, but the work was seized while it was in the press (Works of John Knox, vol. i. p. 32).

As a printer Vautrollier ranks far above most of the men around him, both for the beauty of his types and the excellence of his presswork. The bulk of his books were printed in Roman and Italic, of which he had several well-cut founts. He had also some good initials, ornaments, and borders. In the folio edition of Plutarch's Lives, which he printed in 1579, each life is preceded by a medallion portrait, enclosed in a frame of geometrical pattern; some of these, notably the first, and also those shown on a white background, are very effective. His device was an anchor held by a hand issuing from clouds, with two sprigs of laurel, and the motto 'Anchora Spei,' the whole enclosed in an oval frame.

Vautrollier was succeeded in business by his son-in-law, Richard Field, another case of the apprentice marrying his master's daughter. Field was a native of Stratford-on-Avon, and therefore a fellow-townsman of Shakespeare's, whose first poem, Venus and Adonis, he printed for Harrison in 1593. But we have no knowledge of any intercourse between them.

Field succeeded to the stock of his predecessor, and his work is free from the haste and slovenly appearance so general at that time. Another work from his press was Puttenham's Arte of English Poesy, 1589, 4to. The first edition, of which there is a copy in the British Museum, had no author's name, but was dedicated by the printer to Lord Burghley. In the second book, four pages were suppressed. They are inserted in the copy under notice, but are not paged. This edition also contained as a frontispiece a portrait of the Queen. Another notable work of Field's was Sir John Harington's translation of Orlando Furioso (1591, fol.). This book had an elaborate frontispiece, with a portrait of the translator, and thirty-six engraved illustrations, that make up in vigour of treatment, and breadth of imagination, for shortcomings in the matter of draughtsmanship. The text was printed in double columns, and each verse of the Argument was enclosed in a border of printers' ornaments. A second edition, alike in almost every respect, passed through the same press in 1607. In 1594 Field printed a second edition of Venus and Adonis, and the first edition of Lucrece. His later work included David Hume's Daphne-Amaryllis, 1605, 4to; Chapman's translation of the Odyssey (1614, folio); and an edition of Virgil in quarto in 1620.

Foremost among the later men of this century stands Christopher Barker, the Queen's printer, who was born about 1529, and is said to have been grand-nephew to Sir Christopher Barker, Garter King-at-Arms. Originally a member of the Drapers' Company, he began to publish books in 1569 (Arber, i. p. 398), and to print in 1576, and purchased from Sir Thomas Wilkes his patent to print the Old and New Testament in English. Barker issued in 1578 a circular offering his large Bible to the London Companies at the rate of 24s. each bound, and 20s. unbound, the clerks of the various Companies to receive 4d. apiece for every Bible sold, and the hall of each Company that took L40 worth to receive a presentation copy (Lemon's Catal. of Broadsides).



In 1582 Barker sent to Lord Burghley an account of the various printing monopolies granted since the beginning of the reign, and expresses himself freely on them. He also attempted to suppress the printers in Cambridge University. In and after 1588 he carried on his business by deputies, George Bishop and Ralph Newbery, and in the following year, on the disgrace of Sir Thomas Wilkes, he obtained an exclusive patent for himself and his son to print all official documents, as well as Bibles and Testaments. At one time Barker had no fewer than five presses, and between 1575 and 1585 he printed as many as thirty-eight editions of the Scriptures, an almost equal number being printed by his deputies before 1600. Christopher Barker died in 1599, and was succeeded in his post of royal printer by Robert Barker, his eldest son.

On the 23rd June 1586 was issued The Newe Decrees of the Starre Chamber for orders in Printing, which is reprinted in full in the second volume of Arber's Transcripts, pp. 807-812. It was the most important enactment concerning printing of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and formed the model upon which all subsequent 'whips and scorpions' for the printers were manufactured. Its chief clauses were these: It restricted all printing to London and the two Universities. The number of presses then in London was to be reduced to such proportions as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London should think sufficient. No books were to be printed without being licensed, and the wardens were given the right to search all premises on suspicion. The penalties were imprisonment and defacement of stock.

[Footnote 6: P. C. C., 1 Martyn.]

[Footnote 7: P. C. C., 32 Martyn.]



CHAPTER VI

PROVINCIAL PRESSES OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY[8]

In the first half of the sixteenth century, before the incorporation of the Stationers' Company and the subsequent restriction of printing to London and the Universities, there were ten places in England where the art was carried on. Taking them chronologically, the earliest was the city of York. Mr. Davies, in his Memoirs of the York Press, claims that Frederick Freez, a book-printer, was at work there in 1497; but Mr. Allnutt has clearly shown that there is no evidence in support of this, no specimen of his printing being in existence. The first printer in the city of York who can be traced with certainty was Hugo Goez, said to have been the son of Matthias van der Goez, an Antwerp printer. Two school-books, a Donatus Minor and an Accidence, as well as the Directorium Sacerdotum, dated in the colophon February 18th, 1509, were printed by him, and it is believed that he was for a time in partnership in London with a bookseller named Henry Watson (E. G. Duff, Early Printed Books). Ames, in his Typographical Antiquities, mentions a broadside 'containing a wooden cut of a man on horseback with a spear in his right hand, and a shield of the arms of France in his left. "Emprynted at Beverley in the Hyegate by me Hewe Goes," with his mark, or rebus, of a great H and a goose.' But this cannot now be traced.

Another printer in York, of whom it is possible to speak with certainty, was Ursyn Milner, who printed a Festum visitationis Beate Marie Virginis, without date, and a Latin syntax by Robert Whitinton, entitled Editio de concinnitate grammatices et constructione noviter impressa, with the date December 20th, 1516, and a woodcut that had belonged to Wynkyn de Worde.

The second Oxford press began about 1517. In that year there appeared, Tractatus expositorius super libros posteriorum Aristotelis, by Walter Burley, bearing the date December 4th, 1517, without printer's name, but ascribed from the appearance of the types to the press of John Scolar, whose name is found in some of the similar tracts that appeared the following year. These included Questiones moralissime super libros ethicorum, by John Dedicus, dated May 15, 1518. On June 5th was issued Compendium questionum de luce et lumine, on June 7th Walter Burley's Tractatus perbrevis de materia et forma, on June 27th Whitinton's De Heteroclitis nominibus. The latest book, dated 5th February 1519, Compotus manualis ad usum Oxoniensium, bore the name of Charles Kyrfoth, but nothing further is known of any such printer.

No more is heard of a press at Oxford until nearly the close of the sixteenth century, a gap of nearly seventy years, and a strange and unaccountable interval. At any rate, the next Oxford printed book, so far as is at present known, was John Case's Speculum Moralium quaestionum in universam ethicen Aristotelis, with the colophon, 'Oxoniae ex officina typographica Josephi Barnesii Celeberrimae Academiae Oxoniensis Typographi. Anno 1585.'

Joseph Barnes, the printer, had been admitted a bookseller in 1573, and on August 15th, 1584, the University lent him L100 with which to start a press. During the time that he remained printer to the University, his press was actively employed, no less than three hundred books, many of them in Greek and Latin, being traced to it. In 1595 appeared the first Welsh book printed at the University, a translation into Welsh by Hugh Lewis of O. Wermueller's Spiritual and Most Precious Pearl, and in 1596 two founts of Hebrew letter were used by Barnes, but the stock of this letter was small.

In 1528, John Scolar, no doubt the same with the Oxford printer, is found at Abingdon, where he printed a Breviary for the use of the abbey there; only one copy has survived, and is now at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.



The first Cambridge printer was John Siberch, whose history, like that of so many other early printers, is totally unknown. Nine specimens of his printing during the years 1521-22 are extant. The first is the Oratio of Henry Bullock, a tract of eight quarto leaves, with a dedication dated February 13, 1521, and the date of the imprint February 1521, so that it probably appeared between the 13th and 28th of that month. The type used was a new fount of Roman. The book had no ornamentation of any kind, neither device nor initial letters. A facsimile of this book, with an introduction and bibliographical study of Siberch's productions, was issued by the late Henry Bradshaw in 1886. The title-page of the second book, Cuiusdam fidelis Christiani epistola ad Christianos omnes, by Augustine, shows the title between two upright woodcuts, each containing scenes from the Last Judgment. The third book, an edition of Lucian, has a very ugly architectural border. The fifth book from Siberch's press, the Libellus de Conscribendis epistolis, autore D. Erasmo, printed between the 22nd and 31st of October 1521, contains the privilege which, it is believed, he obtained from Bishop Fisher.

In the far west of England a press was established in the monastery of Tavistock, in Devon, of which two curious examples are preserved. The first is The Boke of Comfort, called in laten Boetius de Consolatione philosophie. Translated into English tonge ... Enprented in the exempt monastery of Tauestock in Dennshyre, By me Dan Thomas Rycharde, monke of the sayde monastery, To the instant desyre of the ryght worshypful esquyer Mayster Robert Langdon. Anno d.' M.Dxxv., 4to. The Bodleian Library at Oxford has two imperfect copies of this book, and a third, also imperfect, is in the library of Exeter College, Oxford. The latter college is also fortunate in possessing the only known copy of the second book, which has this title:—

Here foloweth the confirmation of the Charter perteynynge to all the tynners wythyn the County of devonshyre, with there Statutes also made at Crockeryntorre.

Imprented at Tavystoke ye xx day of August the yere of the reygne off our souerayne Lord Kyng Henry ye viii the xxvi yere, i.e. 1534.

To this same year, 1534, belongs the first dated book of John Herford, the St. Albans printer. It seems probable that he was established there some years earlier, but this is the first certain date we have. In that year appeared a small quarto, with the title, Here begynnethe ye glorious lyfe and passion of Seint Albon prothomartyr of Englande, and also the lyfe and passion of Saint Amphabel, whiche conuerted saint Albon to the fayth of Christe, of which John Lydgate was the author. It was printed at the request of Robert Catton, abbot of the monastery, and it would seem as if Herford's press was situated within the abbey precincts. The next book, The confutacyon of the first parte of Frythes boke ... put forth by John Gwynneth clerk, 1536, 8vo, was the work of one of the monks of the abbey, who in the previous year had signed a petition to Sir Francis Brian on the state of the monastery (Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ix. p. 394). Another of the signatories to that petition was Richard Stevenage, who was at that time chamberer of the abbey, and was created abbot on the deprivation of Robert Catton in 1538. Of the three books which Herford printed in that year, two were expressly printed for Richard Stevenage. These were A Godly disputation betweene Justus and Peccator and Senex and Juvenis, and An Epistle agaynste the enemies of poore people, both octavos, of which no copies are now known. In some of Herford's books is a curious device with the letters R. S. intertwined on it, which undoubtedly stand for Richard Stevenage. His reign as abbot was a short one, for on 5th December 1539 he delivered the abbey over to Henry VIII's commissioners. Just before that event, on the 12th October, he wrote a letter to Cromwell in which the following passage occurs:—

'Sent John Pryntare to London with Harry Pepwell, Bonere and Tabbe, of Powlles churchyard stationers, to order him at your pleasure. 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. 'Bonere' 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 documents 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.



A second printer in Ipswich is believed to have been John Overton, who in 1548 printed there two sheets of Bale's Illustrium 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 Godly and excellent lerned man M. Jhon Caluyne what a Faithful man, whiche is instructe in the Worde of God 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 godly and ernestly warnying al people to beware least they beare the name of Christians in vayne. Now first imprinted the xxx day of Januarie Anno M. D. xlix. At Worceter by John Oswen. Cum 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 Principalitie 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 Godly 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 Mychell, 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 Mychell.' 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 scoon 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 God's word, by Antonius Corranus, 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 Gentleman in the tyme of his imprysonment 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 classical 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.



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 entitled 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 assistants 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, Essex. 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 entitled 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, entitled 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 Rochelle, 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.



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: Impressum 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 Constitutionis 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 title Ad Serenissimum Scotorum Regem Jacobum 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 Bassandyne. 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, Cum privilegio, 1561.

In the following year the Kirk lent him L200 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 entitled 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). In 1568 there was danger of plague in Edinburgh, and Lekpreuik printed a small octavo of twenty-four leaves, in Roman type, with the title, Ane breve description of the Pest, Quhair in the Cavsis signes and sum speciall preservatiovn and cvre thairof ar contenit. Set furth be Maister Gilbert Skeyne, Doctoure in Medicine.

In 1570 he printed for Henry Charteris a quarto edition of the Actis and Deides of Sir William Wallace, and in 1571 The Actis and Lyfe of Robert Bruce. This was printed early in the year, as on the 14th April Secretary Maitland made a raid upon Lekpreuik's premises, under the belief that he was the printer of Buchanan's Chameleon. The printer, however, had received timely warning and retired to Stirling, where, before the 6th of August, he printed Buchanan's Admonition, and also a letter from John Knox 'To his loving Brethren.' His sojourn there was very short, as on the 4th September Stirling was attacked and Lekpreuik thereupon withdrew to St. Andrews, where his press was active throughout the year 1572 and part of 1573. In the month of April 1573 Lekpreuik returned to Edinburgh and printed Sir William Drury's Regulations for the army under his command. But in January 1573-74 he was thrown into prison and his press and property confiscated. How long he remained a prisoner is not clear, but in all probability until after the execution of the Regent Morton in 1581. In that year he printed the following books—Patrick Adamson's Catechismus Latino Carmine Redditus et in libros quatuor digestus, a small octavo of forty leaves, printed in Roman type; Fowler's Answer to John Hamilton, a quarto of twenty-eight leaves; and a Declaration without place or printer's name, but attributed to his press: after this nothing more is heard of him.

Contemporary with Lekpreuik was Thomas Bassandyne, who is believed to have worked both in Paris and Leyden before setting up as a printer in Edinburgh.

His first appearance, in 1568, was not a very creditable one. An order of the General Assembly, on the 1st July of that year, directs Bassandyne to call in a book entitled The Fall of the Roman Kirk, in which the king was called 'supreme head of the Primitive Church,' and also orders him to delete an obscene song called Welcome Fortune which he had printed at the end of a psalm-book. The Assembly appointed Mr. Alexander Arbuthnot to revise these things.

In 1574 Bassandyne printed a quarto edition of Sir David Lindsay's Works, of which he had 510 copies in stock at the time of his death.



On the 7th March 1574-75, in partnership with Alexander Arbuthnot (who was not the same as the Alexander Arbuthnot who had been appointed to exercise a supervision of Bassandyne's books in 1568), Bassandyne laid proposals before the General Assembly for printing an edition of the Bible, the first ever printed in Scotland. The General Assembly gave him hearty support, and required every parish to provide itself with one of the new Bibles as soon as they were printed. On the other hand, the printers were to deliver a certain number of copies before the last of March 1576, and the cost of it was to be L5. The terms of this agreement were not carried out by the printers. The New Testament only was completed and issued in 1576, with the name of Thomas Bassandyne as the printer. The whole Bible was not finished until the close of the year 1579, and Bassandyne did not live to see its completion, his death taking place on the 18th October 1577.

Like most of his predecessors, Bassandyne was a bookseller; and on pp. 292-304 of their work Annals of Scottish Printing, Messrs. Dickson and Edmond have printed the Inventory of the goods he possessed, including the whole of his stock of books, which is of the greatest interest and value. Unfortunately such inventories are not to be met with in the case of English printers.

Bassandyne used as his device a modification of the serpent and anchor mark of John Crespin of Geneva.

Arbuthnot was now left to carry on the business alone, and was made King's printer in 1579. But he was a slow, slovenly, and ignorant workman, and the General Assembly were so disgusted with the delivery of the Bible and the wretched appearance of his work, that, on the 13th February 1579-80, they decided to accept the offer of Thomas Vautrollier, a London printer, to establish a press in Edinburgh.

Arbuthnot died on September 1st, 1585. His device was a copy of that of Richard Jugge of London, and is believed to have been the work of a Flemish artist, Assuerus vol Londersel.

Another printer in Edinburgh between 1574-80 was John Ross. He worked chiefly for Henry Charteris, for whom he printed the Catechisme in 1574, and a metrical version of the Psalms in 1578. For the same bookseller he also printed a poem, The seuin Seages, Translatit out of prois in Scottis meter be Johne Rolland in Dalkeith, a quarto, now so rare that only one copy is now known, that in the Britwell Library.

In 1579 Ross printed Ad virulentum Archbaldi Hamiltonii Apostatae dialogum, de confusione Calvinianae Sectae apud Scotos, impie conscriptum, orthodoxa responsio, Thoma Smetonio Scoto anctore, a quarto, printed in Roman letter, and followed it up with two editions of Buchanan's De Jure Regni apud Scotos dialogus.

Ross used a device showing Truth with an open book in her right hand, a lighted candle in her left, surrounded with the motto 'Vincet tandem veritas.' This device was afterwards used by both Charteris and Waldegrave. Ross died in 1580, when his stock passed into the hands of Henry Charteris, who began printing in the following year. As we have seen, he employed Scot, Lekpreuik, and Ross to print for him. Up to 1581 he confined himself to bookselling. His printing was confined to various editions of Sir David Lindsay's Works and theological tracts. He used two devices, that of Ross, and another emblematical of Justice and Religion, with his initials. He died on the 9th August 1599.

In 1580, at the express invitation of the General Assembly, Thomas Vautrollier visited Edinburgh, and set up as a bookseller, no doubt with the view of seeing what scope there was likely to be for a printer with a good stock of type. The Treasurer's accounts for this period show that he received royal patronage.

On his second visit, a year or two later, he went armed with a letter to George Buchanan from Daniel Rodgers, and set up a press in Edinburgh. But in spite of the support of the Assembly and the patronage that an introduction to Buchanan must have brought him, he evidently soon found there was not enough business in Edinburgh to support a printer, for he remained there little more than a year, when he again returned to London. During his short career as a printer in Edinburgh he printed at least eight books, of which the most important were Henry Balnave's Confession of Faith, 1584, 8vo, and King James's Essayes of a Prentice in the Divine Art of Poesie, 4to.

Scotland's next important printer was Robert Waldegrave, who, after his adventures as a secret printer in England, set up a press in Edinburgh in 1590, and continued printing there till the close of the century.

One of his first works was a quarto in Roman type entitled The Confession of Faith, Subscribed by the Kingis Maiestie and his householde: Togither with the Copie of the Bande, maid touching the maintenaunce of the true Religion. Among his other work, which was chiefly theological, may be mentioned King James's Demonologie, 1597, 4to, and the first edition of the Basilikon Doron, in quarto, of which it is said only seven copies were printed.

Contemporary with him was a Robert Smyth, who married the widow of Thomas Bassandyne, and who in 1599 received license to print the following books:—'The double and single catechism, the plane Donet, the haill four pairtes of grammar according to Sebastian, the Dialauges of Corderius, the celect and familiar Epistles of Cicero, the buik callit Sevin Seages, the Ballat buik, the Secund rudimentis of Dunbar, the Psalmes of Buchanan and Psalme buik.'

The only known copy of Smyth's edition of Holland's Seven Sages is that in the British Museum.

The last of the Scottish printers of the sixteenth century was Robert Charteris, the son and successor of Henry Charteris, but he did not succeed to the business until 1599, and his work lies chiefly in the succeeding century.

It may safely be said that the earliest press in Ireland of which there is any authentic notice was that of Humphrey Powell, of which there is the following note in the Act Books of the Privy Council (New Series, vol. iii. p. 84), under date 18th July 1550:—

'A warrant to ——, to deliver xxli unto Powell the printer, given him by the Kinges Majestie towarde his setting up in Ireland.'

Nothing is known of Humphrey Powell's work in England beyond several small theological works issued between 1548 and 1549 from a shop in Holborn above the Conduit.

On his arrival in Ireland he set up his press in Dublin, and printed there the Prayer Book of Edward VI. with the colophon:—

'Imprinted by Humphrey Powell, printer to the Kynges Maieste, in his Highnesse realme of Ireland dwellynge in the citie of Dublin in the great toure by the Crane Cum Privelegio ad imprimendum solum. Anno Domini, M.D.L.I.'

Timperley, in his Encyclopaedia (p. 314), says that Powell continued printing in Dublin for fifteen years, and removed to the southern side of the river to St. Nicholas Street.

In 1571 the first fount of Irish type was presented by Queen Elizabeth to John O'Kearney, treasurer of St. Patrick's, to print the Catechism which appeared in that year from the press of John Franckton. (Reed, Old English Letter Foundries, pp. 75, 186-7.) It was not a Pure Irish character, but a hybrid fount consisting for the most part of Roman and Italic letters, with the seven distinctly Irish sorts added. A copy of the Catechism is exhibited in the King's Library, British Museum, and in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is a copy of a broadside Poem on the last Judgement, sent over to the Archbishop of Canterbury as a specimen.

This type was afterwards used to print William O'Donnell's, or Daniel's, Irish Testament in 1602.

[Footnote 10: For the material of this chapter I am chiefly indebted to the valuable work of Messrs. Dickson and Edmond, Annals of Scottish Printing.]



CHAPTER VII

THE STUART PERIOD

1603-1640

One of the first acts of King James on his accession to the English throne was to strengthen the hands of the already powerful Company of Stationers. Hitherto all Primers and Psalters had been the exclusive privilege of the successors of Day and Seres, while Almanacs and Prognostications, another large and profitable source of revenue, had been the property of James Roberts and Richard Watkins. But now, by the royal authority, these two valuable patents were turned over to the Stationers to form part of their English stock. At the same time, the privileges of Robert Barker, son and successor to Christopher Barker, and king's printer by reversion, were increased by grants for printing all statutes, hitherto the monopoly of other printers. On the other hand, Robert Barker did not retain the sole possession of the royal business as men like Berthelet and Pynson had been wont to do, but had joined with him in the patent John Norton, who had a special grant for printing all books in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and John Bill, who probably obtained his share by purchase. These three men were thus the chief printers during the early part of this reign.

Robert Barker had been made free of the Stationers' Company in 1589, when he joined his father's assigns, George Bishop and Ralph Newbery, in the management of the business. He was admitted to the livery of the Company in 1592, and upon his father's death succeeded to the office of King's printer by reversion. In 1601-2 he was warden of the Company, and filled the office of Master in 1605. Some time before 1618 he sold his moiety of the business to Bonham Norton and John Bill, and this arrangement was confirmed by Royal Charter in 1627.

Upon the death of Bonham Norton, Barker's name again appears in the imprint of the firm, and he continued printing until about 1645. It is said by Ames (vol. ii. p. 1091), and has been repeated by all writers since his day, that Robert Barker was committed to the King's Bench Prison in 1635, and that he remained a prisoner there until his death in 1645. No confirmation of this can be found in the State Papers; indeed the fact that he accompanied Charles I. to Newcastle in 1636, and was printing in other parts of England until 1640, proves that he could not have been in prison the whole of the time from 1635 to 1645.

Robert Barker's work was almost entirely of an official character, the printing of the Scriptures, Book of Common Prayer, Statutes and Proclamations.

His work was very unequal, and his type, mostly of black letter, was not of the best.

His most important undertaking was the so-called 'authorised version' of the Bible in 1611. As a matter of fact it never was authorised in any official sense. The undertaking was proposed at a conference of divines, held at Hampton Court in 1604. The King manifested great interest in the scheme, but did not put his hand in his pocket towards the expenses, and the divines who undertook the translation obtained little except fame for their labours, while the whole cost of printing was borne by Robert Barker. Like all previous editions of the Scriptures in folio, this Bible of 1611 was printed in great primer black letter. It was preceded by an elaborately engraved title-page, the work of C. Boel of Richmond, and had also an engraved map of Canaan, partly the work of John Speed.