LECTURE IV.
TAVISTOCK, ABINGDON, ST ALBAN’S SECOND PRESS,
IPSWICH, WORCESTER, CANTERBURY, EXETER,
“WINCHESTER,” AND “GREENWICH.”
The next place after Cambridge is Tavistock, where a book was printed in 1525. It was an edition of the De consolatione philosophiæ of Boethius, translated into verse and divided into eight-line stanzas. In most manuscripts of the poem the author is given as Johannes Capellanus, but at the end of this edition are some verses whose first and last letters give the names of the patroness, Elizabeth Berkeley, and the translator, Johannes Waltwnem or Walton, said to have been a canon of Oseney. The colophon runs: “Enprented in the exempt monastery of Tavestok in Denshyre. By me, Dan Thomas Rychard, monke of the sayd monastery. To the instant desyre of the ryght worshypful esquyer Mayster Robert Langdon, anno d. MDXXV.” It was no doubt produced at the expense of Robert Langdon of Keverell, a rough woodcut of whose arms occurs at the end of the book. He was a wealthy Cornish gentleman, who married an heiress and died in 1548.
The book is printed in a neat and clear black-letter. On the title-page is a woodcut of the Almighty seated in a diamond-shaped panel, the outside angles being filled with symbols of the four evangelists. Copies of this book are not so rare as is generally supposed. There are two in the Bodleian, and one in Exeter College, Oxford. One is in the Rylands Library, another in St Andrews University, while Lord Bute, Mr Christie Miller, and the Duke of Bedford all have examples.
The only other Tavistock book known is the Charter and Statutes of the Stannary, printed nine years later. The colophon runs: “Here endyth the statutes of the stannary, Imprented yn Tavystoke ye xx. day of August, the yere of the reygne off our soveryne Lord Kynge Henry ye viii. the xxvi. yere.” The book is in quarto, and contains twenty-six leaves of thirty or thirty-one lines. On the title-page is a woodcut of the King’s arms supported by angels, which occurs several times elsewhere in the book. The colophon is on the penultimate leaf, and on the recto of the last leaf is a woodcut of the crucifixion of St Andrew, on the verso the same woodcut of the Almighty as is used in the Boethius. Of this book only one copy is known, in the library of Exeter College, Oxford. It is a most beautifully preserved example, entirely uncut, and was bequeathed to the college with a number of other rare books by the Rev. Joseph Sandford.
The press at Abingdon is represented by one book only, and of that only one copy is known, preserved amongst Archbishop Sancroft’s books in the library of Emmanuel. It is a Breviary printed for the use of the brethren of St Mary’s Monastery, the black monks of the order of St Benedict. It is printed in red and black, in double columns, with thirty-four lines to the page, and there are no headlines, catchwords, or numbers to the leaves. When complete it should have contained 358 leaves, but unfortunately two leaves of the Kalendar containing the months from May to August are missing. The Kalendar at present consists of four leaves, three signed AI, AII, AIII, and one unsigned leaf; and the missing two leaves should have come between AII and AIII, which looks as though the printer had originally omitted them by mistake. But so important an error could not remain uncorrected. A very curious point about the book is that one part is set up entirely in quires of sixes, while the rest is set up in a way common to several early English printers, in quires alternately of eight and four leaves, thus doing away with the half sheet. The colophon states that the book was printed by John Scolar in the monastery of the blessed virgin at Abingdon, in the year of our Lord, 1528, and of Thomas Rowland, the abbot, the seventeenth year. Another colophon gives the more exact date of September 12. Throughout the book occur some curious woodcut initials. Two, a large E and S, are exceedingly bad copies of good work. A large C contains the figure of a knight in armour, a very close copy of one used earlier at Cambridge.
The printer, John Scolar, is doubtless the Oxford printer of 1517-18, but where he had been or what he had been doing in the intervening ten years we have not the slightest evidence to show. Since he is not mentioned among the stationers and booksellers in the Oxford Lay Subsidy Roll of 1524, we may presume he was not in the town.
The last of these monastic presses was at St Alban’s. The earlier press, spoken of in a previous lecture, was at work from about 1480 to 1486, but we have no reason for believing that it was connected with the abbey. The town is specifically mentioned in the colophons with no reference to the abbey, nor is any person connected with the abbey mentioned as favouring or assisting in the production of the books. As regards the revived press the case is quite different. The books were produced at the request of the abbot, Robert Catton, or his successor, Richard Stevenage, and the latter’s close connexion with the press is shown by the occurrence of his initials in the device placed at the end of some of the books.
The second St Alban’s press was at work from 1534 up to the time of the suppression of the abbey in 1539. One book, however, may be earlier than this date, a Breviary of St Alban’s use. The unique copy is in the library of the Marquis of Bute at Cardiff Castle, but I have never had an opportunity of examining it, nor have any facsimiles from it been published, so that it is impossible to determine when or where it was printed. The librarian at Cardiff Castle considers it to have been printed at the abbey about 1526.
In 1534 was issued the Lyfe and passion of Seint Albon prothomartyr of Englande, translated by John Lidgate, and printed at the request of Robert Catton, abbot of St Alban’s. This book, of which two copies are known, has no printer’s name or place of printing, but is generally ascribed to Herford’s press. The next book is Gwynneth’s Confutation of Frith’s Book, dated 1536. Of this there is a copy in the University Library. It again contains no printer’s name, but has a device having in the centre the initials R. S. joined by a band, standing for Richard Stevenage, the last abbot of St Alban’s. In 1537 there is an edition of the Introduction for to lerne to reken with the pen. A copy was mentioned by Ames as in the possession of W. Jones, Esq., but this has since disappeared, though a last leaf containing the device is said to be amongst the Bagford fragments. There may be some confusion between this and Bourman’s edition, whose device was very similar to the one used by Herford. The description given by Herbert makes no mention of printer, place, or device, merely the date 1537.
Three more books are quoted by Herbert under the year 1538. A godly disputation between Justus and Peccator, The rule of an honest life, written by Martin, bishop of Dumience, and An epistle against the enemies of poor people. Two, if not three, appear to have had full colophons, stating that they were printed at St Alban’s by John Herford for Richard Stevenage, but unfortunately no copies of any of these books are now known, so that we have no book which contains Herford’s name which was printed at St Alban’s. These three books were originally mentioned in Maunsell’s catalogue, but Herbert’s entries are considerably fuller and must have been derived from some other source. There is no reason to doubt their genuineness, and we know from other evidence that Herford was at St Alban’s.
An undated book, printed at St Alban’s by Herford, was in Lord Spencer’s collection, and is now at Manchester. It is entitled, A very declaration of the bond and free wyll of man: the obedyence of the gospell and what the very gospell meaneth. This book, hitherto unknown to bibliographers, contains the name of the place only, and has no date or printer’s name.
In 1539 Herford appears to have been indiscreet and to have printed some very unorthodox book. Among the State papers is a letter from Stevenage, the abbot, to Thomas Cromwell, in which he writes: “Sent John Pryntare to London with Harry Pepwell, Bonere [Bonham] 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.” The book spoken of must have been considered to be of importance, when three of the leading London stationers were sent down to make inquiries about it. It may be that this was the undated book last mentioned, for it alone is without the name or device of the abbot himself, yet if the printer had thought that he was publishing anything obnoxious to the powers, he would hardly have added “printed at St Alban’s” to his book. The abbot’s letter was dated October 12, and two months later the abbey was handed over to Henry VIII.’s commissioners. Of Herford we hear nothing more for five years.
On the suppression of the abbey the printing material was moved to London, where it was used for a short time by a printer, Nicholas Bourman. Now the name of the last abbot of St Alban’s was Richard Stevenage or Boreman, and it is quite probable that this Nicholas was some relative to whom the presses and type were entrusted during Herford’s absence. The device used by Bourman was almost identical with that used at St Alban’s by Herford, the initials of Richard Stevenage in the latter being replaced by N. B., and a book which had been printed in the abbey, the Introduction to learn to reckon with the pen, was reprinted by Bourman in 1539. The last definite date in a St Alban’s book is 1538, and, in the following year, Herford, the printer, was taken to London and presumably imprisoned or punished. The abbot was left with the printing material on his hands, which we may suppose from the occurrence of his initials in the device to have been at any rate partly his property. He therefore transferred it to London for the use of his relative until such time as Herford could resume work. This Herford did in 1544, and Bourman transferred the material back to him. After this Bourman’s name is found in no book, though he was a member of the Stationers’ Company and lived to the year 1560.
The death of Henry VIII. and the accession of Edward VI. in 1547 gave a fresh impetus to printing, and presses were set up in three new towns, Ipswich, Worcester, and Canterbury. For some years previous to this no book had been printed outside London, and with the religious opinions changing from day to day, even the London printers themselves hardly knew what they might or might not issue without fear of prosecution. Numbers of persons who had fled abroad returned, and with them came an immense number of foreigners seeking refuge from their own religious persecutions abroad. As might be expected, the three new presses were mainly devoted to printing books on the religious questions then occupying the attention of the public.
At Ipswich, some years before printing was introduced there, we find a book issued by a publisher. This was an edition of the Historia Evangelica of Juvencus, and its imprint stated that it was to be sold at Ipswich in 1534 by Reginald Oliver. A copy occurred in the first part of Heber’s sale and was bought by Thorpe, the bookseller, but since then all trace of it has disappeared. The edition was probably that printed by Joannes Graphaeus at Antwerp with Oliver’s imprint added to a certain number of copies, and this is rendered more likely by the fact that the same printer issued in the same year an edition of the Rudimenta-Grammatices, a school-book which had been prescribed in 1528 by Cardinal Wolsey for use in the school which he had just founded at Ipswich. Wolsey prescribed the use of this book and others, not only for the use of his special school at Ipswich, but throughout England, and we find a number of editions printed at Antwerp to be sent over to England for sale. Juvencus was one of the authors whose book was recommended for use.
Of Reginald Oliver we hear nothing more. He took out letters of denization in 1535 in which he is described as “of Phrisia,” and is perhaps the Reynold Oliver who translated a tract about an earthquake in Mechlin in 1546 printed by Richard Lant.
As a stationer Oliver would be also a bookbinder, and perhaps the panel stamp may be assigned to him signed with the initials R. O. and a trade-mark. The panel is divided by a vertical line into two halves each filled by a large medallion. That on the right contains the Tudor rose, the left the Royal arms. In the left-hand upper corner is a shield with the cross of St George, in the right the binder’s mark. If he had been a London binder, this would have contained the city arms. There is nothing to connect this binding with Oliver except the initials, but these are uncommon, and no other stationer with them is known.
The first person to begin printing at Ipswich was a certain Anthony Scoloker, whom most writers have considered to be a foreigner, but who is definitely spoken of in the Subsidy Rolls as an Englishman. He was an educated man, printing translations of his own from French and German, and it is not improbable that he had left England on account of religious persecutions, and had returned under the milder rule of Edward. His settlement in Ipswich for a few months may perhaps be traced to the influence of Richard Argentine, a schoolmaster and physician of that town, who was a vigorous reformer in the reign of Edward, a violent Catholic in the time of Mary, and a penitent Protestant again under Elizabeth, dying in 1568 as rector of St Helen’s in Ipswich.
Of the seven books printed by Scoloker at Ipswich, three were translations by himself, three by Argentine, while the seventh was translated by Richard Rice, Abbot of Conway. The first book issued was The just reckoning of the whole number of years to 1547 translated by Scoloker from the German; of this an imperfect copy is in the University Library. His two other translations were A Godly disputation between a shoemaker and a parson, of which there is a copy in a private library, and The Ordinary for all faithful Christians. Of this there is a copy in the Rylands Library. Argentine’s three translations are Luther’s Sermon upon John xx. and the true use of the keys, Ochino’s Sermons, and Ulrich Zwingli’s Certain precepts. Copies of these three books are not uncommon. The book translated by Rice was Hermann’s Right Institution of Baptism.
The Just Reckoning was translated by July 6, 1547, and, we may presume, printed shortly afterwards, but the remaining six books were all printed in the first five months of 1548. The dates of the translations of the three books by Argentine are January 28, January 30, and February 13. At the end of Zwingli’s Certain precepts, the earliest of Argentine’s translations, occurs Scoloker’s device, a hand reaching from the clouds and holding a coin to a touchstone inscribed “Verbum Dei.” From the clouds in the left-hand corner a face, representing the Holy Spirit, blows upon the stone. Below is printed the text, “Prove the spirits whether they be of God.”
Scoloker’s residence in Ipswich was a short one, probably because he did not meet with sufficient encouragement, and by June 1548 he was settled in London, for a book by John Frith, dated June 30, was issued by Anthony Scoloker and William Seres, dwelling without Aldersgate. This was printed by Scoloker and has his device on the last leaf. At London he continued in business until at least 1550.
The next printer to be noticed is John Overton, if indeed he ever existed, for it may be stated at once that nothing is known of him but his name. This is found in the colophon of Bale’s Catalogue of British Writers from the time of Japhet, son of the most holy Noah, up to the year 1548, which states explicitly that the book was printed at Ipswich in England by John Overton on July 31, 1548. On the other hand we find on the title-page of a number of copies a no less definite statement that the book was printed at Wesel by Theodoricus Plateanus on July 31, 1548. One thing is clear from an examination of the book itself, and that is that it was certainly printed abroad, and Bale himself, in the introduction which he wrote to John Leland’s little book, entitled The laborious journey and search of John Leland, writes, “Since I returned home again from Germany where as I both collected and emprinted my simple work De Scriptoribus Britannicis.” Most writers have tried to make the two statements agree by suggesting that the main body of the book was printed abroad and brought over in sheets, and that it was completed after its arrival with two sheets printed by Overton at Ipswich. But these sheets unfortunately are in exactly the same type as the rest of the book. The Ipswich colophon occurs in all copies of the book, but the Wesel imprint only in some. A possible explanation may be found in the legal restrictions regarding the importation of foreign books. As regards copies sold abroad it would not matter where they were printed, but imported copies might meet with difficulties. Hence perhaps the Ipswich colophon and the suppression of the Wesel imprint.
The suspicion which gathered round the book and its imprints naturally spread to the printer himself, Theodoricus Plateanus. Was he a real person or not? Like John Overton, his name was only known from its occurrence in this book, and it was often assumed to be fictitious. A recent fortunate discovery made by Mr Murray of Trinity has proved that he was a genuine printer. Fragments of several books in Latin and German were found used in the binding of an English law-book, and on one of these was a colophon, dated 1548, the same date as Bale’s De Scriptoribus, “Drück tho Wesel by Dirick van der straten,” and leaves of Bale’s book were among the fragments. The discovery is particularly fortunate, not only as supplying the printer’s real name, which may enable us to trace him further, but also as showing us new founts of type undoubtedly used by him, and which were used also in several foreign printed English books which up to now could only be conjecturally assigned to certain towns or presses. Besides the De Scriptoribus Britannicis several other of Bale’s works can now be definitely assigned to him.
The last of the three Ipswich printers and the most important was John Oswen, perhaps from his name and later connexion with Wales, a Welshman. He printed in the town apparently only during the latter half of 1548, but in that period issued ten if not more books. These are all without exception works of the reformers, Calvin, Oecolampadius, Melanchthon, and others. Calvin is represented by two books, A brief declaration of the feigned sacrament, and A treatise on what a faithful man ought to do dwelling among the papists. Of the latter book there is a copy in the University Library, of the former no copy is at present known.
Melanchthon’s book Of the true authoritie of the Church, and Oecolampadius’ Epistle, that there ought to be no respect of personages of the poor, are both quoted by Herbert though no copies seem to be known at present.
Of the remaining six books, there are copies of two in the University Library, bequeathed by Mr Sandars. These are: A new book containing an exhortation to the sick, of which another copy is in the British Museum, and a curious little 16mo volume, An invectyve agaynst dronkennes, of which the Cambridge copy is the only one known. Several bibliographies speak of it as a fragment, but though not in good condition it wants only the last leaf which would have been blank, or contained a device: all the text is complete.
There are copies of two other books in the library of Clare College, Peter Moone’s Short treatise of certain things abused in the Popish church long used, and John Ramsey’s Plaister for a galled horse. Both these books are rhyming attacks on the Catholics. There is another copy of the first in the British Museum, but the two leaves in the University Library which were supposed to belong to this edition are really from the press of William Copland in London. Of Ramsey’s book the copy at Clare is the only one known, but another edition was printed at London by Raynalde in the same year. The next book is a translation of Anthony Marcourt’s work, entitled, A declaration of the Mass; of this there is a copy in the Bodleian, and finally there is another issue of Hegendorff’s Domestical or household sermons, of which there is a copy in the British Museum.
Title-page of the Exhortation to the Sick, printed at
Ipswich by John Oswen in 1548.
Oswen and Scoloker between them printed within a year at least eighteen books at Ipswich, all of them expounding the religious views of the reformers, and examples of fourteen are known. Though there may have been other inducements which caused these printers to settle in that town, no doubt one of the chief reasons was its accessibility to the Continent. Numbers of English people who had fled abroad during the religious troubles of Henry’s reign were pouring back into the country, and many would pass through Ipswich, and would purchase to carry with them for their own use and for their friends copies of the books which set forth the religious views for which they had undergone such hardships, but which seemed at last to be on the winning side. Again Ipswich, while easy to get to, was equally easy to get away from, so that perhaps discretion caused the printers to wait and see how their books were received before they definitely settled in an inland town.
Oswen, though he continued in business a few months longer than Scoloker, seems also to have found Ipswich an unremunerative centre for his work, and towards the end of 1548, crossing with his material from the east to the west of England, settled at Worcester. On January 6, 2 Edward VI., that is at the beginning of 1549, Oswen obtained a privilege from the King to print “every kind of book or books set forth by us concerning the service to be used in churches, ministration of the sacraments, and instruction of our subjects of the Principality of Wales and marches thereunto belonging for seven years, prohibiting all other persons whatsoever from printing the same.” What this privilege definitely meant, or what use Oswen made of it, is not clear. He certainly printed nothing concerning the service of the church, or for the instruction of the subjects, specially adapted to the Principality of Wales. He printed editions of the Prayer-book and New Testament, but they were in English and varied in no respect from the editions put forth by the authorised printers, Whitchurch and Grafton. The three or four Welsh books issued in the vernacular during the period in which his privilege was in force, Salisbury’s Dictionary in English and Welsh and Introduction to Welsh pronunciation, extracts from the laws of Hoel, and the Epistles and Gospels in Welsh, books both for the instruction of the subject and the service of the Church, were printed by other printers. For these, or some of them, at any rate, privileges had been obtained from Henry VIII. By the beginning of 1549 Oswen was settled in Worcester in the High Street, issuing a book as early as January 30. Besides his printing office in Worcester he appears to have had another shop absolutely on the Welsh border, for at the end of some of his colophons are the words: “They be also to sell at Shrewsbury.”
Oswen’s four editions of the New Testament, from 1548 to 1550, as given by Herbert, seem to resolve themselves into one quarto edition dated January 12, 1550. Of the Prayer-book there were certainly three issues. The first is a quarto dated May 24, 1549. It contains an injunction which “streightly chargeth and commaundeth that no maner of person do sell this present boke unbounde, above the price of II Shillinges and two pence ye piece. And the same bound in paste or in boordes, not above the pryce of thre shillynges and eyght pence the piece.” The next edition, a folio, dated July 30, 1549, has a similar injunction fixing the price at two shillings and sixpence unbound, and four shillings bound. It will be noticed that His Highness’s Council in their wisdom decreed that the cost of binding a quarto and a folio should be exactly the same, namely eighteen pence. The last issue, the rarest of all, was a folio printed in 1552. Apart from Prayer-books and Testaments we know of seventeen books printed by Oswen in the four years between 1549 and 1553. Seven in 1549, five in 1550, three in 1551, and two in 1553.
The first book issued in 1549 was Henry Hart’s Consultorie for all Christians. This is dated January 30, but is probably 1549 rather than 1550, since the printer has printed at the beginning his newly-granted privilege in full.
Six other books are dated 1549. Of these three, Hegendorff’s Household Sermons, The Dialogue between the seditious anabaptist and the true Christian, translated by John Veron, and the Spiritual Matrimony between Christ and the Church, are given by Herbert, but he had apparently never seen copies and none are at present known. Of Certeyne sermons appointed by the King’s majesty to be read, there are two copies in the British Museum. Herbert quotes A message from King Edward VI., concerning obedience to religion, as printed by Oswen at Worcester, August 5, 1549. This is apparently another edition of the message “to certain of his people assembled in Devonshire” printed by Grafton in July, but addressed to the people of Wales.
The last of the year’s books was a Psalter printed in red and black and issued on September 1, of which there is a copy in the British Museum.
For the year 1550 there are four books, and of these one St Ambrose, Of opression, said to be translated by Oswen himself, is known only from the entry in Herbert, derived from Maunsell’s catalogue. The other three, Zwingli’s Short pathway to the Scriptures, The godly sayings of the old, ancient faithful fathers translated by John Veron, and Gribald’s Notable and marvellous epistle, are known, the first two from copies in the University Library and elsewhere, the last from a copy in the Bodleian. To the end of this year we may ascribe a very rare little octavo, Almanack and prognostication for the year of our Lord 1551. Practised by Simon Heringius and Lodowyke Boyard. In April 1551 a new edition was issued of Bullinger’s Dialogue between the rebel Anabaptist and the true Christian, which is known from copies in the Bodleian and Brasenose College Library. Herbert had quoted an earlier edition of 1549, of which no copy is known and which is perhaps due to some confusion with the present edition. Bullinger’s Most sure and strong defence of the baptism of children, translated by John Veron, was also issued this year, and a copy is in the Bodleian. The third and last book of 1551 was issued in May, Hooper’s Godly and most necessary annotations in the XIII. chapter to the Romans, of which there is a copy in the University Library.
From May 1551 until May 1553, exactly two years, no dated book is known from Oswen’s Worcester press, except the folio Prayer-book of 1552. Nor is there any undated book to be ascribed to these years, for Oswen’s books, so far as we know, are all dated. This is another of those unaccountable gaps that we so often find in the career of a printer.
The last two Worcester books were issued in 1553, a Homily to be read in time of pestilence, written by Bishop Hooper and dated May 18, and the Statutes of the seventh year of Edward VI. A copy of the Homily is in the University Library. It is a handsomely printed thin quarto, and has on the title-page besides four border-pieces, a woodcut of the Royal arms with supporters, and another of the youthful king seated on his throne. The Statutes are described by Herbert from a copy in his own possession, but where it is at present is not known.
Oswen printed altogether at Worcester some twenty-one books, so that it heads the list of provincial presses as regards numbers. The press is also noticeable for the comparative excellence of the printing and the variety of good border-pieces and initial letters, very much superior to the material used by most of the contemporary printers. From the class of books he issued we can well understand the cessation of his press as soon as Mary succeeded to the throne.
There remain three books to be noticed which appear to be connected with Oswen. These are John Sawtry’s Defence of the marriage of priests, another book with a similar title by Philip Melanchthon, and lastly a Treatise of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The colophon of the first runs: “Printed at Awryk by Jan Troost, 1541 in August,” that of the second, “Printed at Lipse by Ubryght Hoff,” while the title-page says, “Translated out of latyne into englisshe by Lewes Beuchame in the yere of the Lorde 1541 in August.” The colophon of the last runs: “At Grunning 1541 April 27.” The three books are obviously from the same press; initials, borders, type, all agree, and copies are in some cases bound together. They are no less obviously printed in England, but by whom? The only clue so far is an initial M which appears identical with one used by Oswen, while on the other hand the borders do not occur in any of Oswen’s books though he uses a large selection. Again, why should all three books be dated 1541 which, if they were the work of Oswen, must be a false date. Though admitting the clue which connects them with Oswen, it would be safer for the present until more evidence is forthcoming to class them under “printer unidentified.”
At present, though a good start has been made in the Catalogue of Early English Books in the University Library, a very great deal remains to be done, and if done at all to be done very carefully, on the subject of books with fictitious imprints or with none at all. Hitherto if there was anything the least strange in the appearance of a book, or if its subject were of a controversial nature, it was promptly docketed “printed at a secret press on the Continent.” That many such books were printed at Continental presses is quite clear, but in the majority of cases any danger in connexion with such books was not to the printer, but to the person who introduced them into this country. In consequence the foreign printers rarely tried to deceive, and once their types are properly identified, it is not difficult to ascribe foreign printed books to their right printers. But on the other hand, I suspect that a considerable number of books now generally ascribed to Continental presses were really produced in this country. The wording of various enactments against seditious books makes it clear that the authorities of the period at any rate considered that numbers were printed in this country, and if that is so we must look for them outside the ordinary and known productions of our regular printers. If we take away all the unsigned books which may be clearly ascribed to foreign presses, a very large number will still remain about which we know, for the present at any rate, little or nothing.
Canterbury was the last of the provincial towns to start a press, and its first book was an edition of the Psalter printed in 1549. One or two early writers, however, quoted a book printed there about 1525. The title runs: A goodly narration how St Augustine the Apostle of England raysed two dead bodies at Longcompton, collected out of divers authors, translated by John Lidgate, Monke of Bury. Printed at St Austens at Canterburie in 4to. No copy of the book is at present known, but it is conjectured that, like another book connected with Canterbury, The history of King Boccus and Sydracke, it may have been printed by a London printer, “at the coste and charge of Dan Robert Saltwoode, monke of St Austen’s at Cantorbery.”
John Mychell, the first printer, seems to have begun his career in London, where he printed two books, the Life of St Margaret and the Life of St Gregory’s mother, at a printing office with a long and interesting history, The long shop in the Poultry. He probably worked there between the tenancies of Richard Kele, who left it in 1546, and his apprentice Alde, who worked there later. Mr Allnutt, in an article on Provincial Presses, asserts that he quitted Canterbury for London in the reign of Queen Mary and quotes these two books as proof, but that would mean that he came to London after 1555, in which case we might expect to find some mention of him in the Stationers’ Registers, and at that time, too, the long shop in the Poultry was occupied by another printer. I think it may be taken for certain that he went from London to Canterbury.
Mychell’s first Canterbury book, the Psalter or psalms of David after the translation of the great Bible, printed in 1549, is an extremely rare book. The only copy quoted by bibliographers is one which was in Dr Lort’s sale in 1791. This copy passed to Lord Spencer and is now in the Rylands Library. It was reissued again in 1550 and a copy is in the University Library. The only known copy of the other book issued in 1550, John Lamberd’s Treatise of predestination, is also in the University Library. In 1552 and 1553 there were at least three issues of a Breviat Chronicle compiled or at any rate edited by Mychell himself.
The nine undated books which he issued were mainly theological and controversial. One of these, entitled Newes from Rome concerning the blasphemous sacrifice of the papisticall Masse, was printed for E. Campion. It is curious, considering the title of the book, that this E. Campion was in all probability the London bookseller of the time, Edmund Campion, the father of the celebrated Jesuit martyr.
Two others are quoted by Herbert, A short epistle to all such as do contempne the marriage of us poor preestes and The spirituall matrimonye betweene Chryste, and the Soul, no copies of either being at present known, though a title-page of the second is among the Bagford fragments.
Mychell printed also an edition of Stanbridge’s Accidence, of Lidgate’s Churl and Bird, and of Robert Saltwood’s Comparison between four birds. Saltwood was keeper of the chapel of the Virgin Mary at Canterbury when on December 4, 1539, he signed the surrender. His name is not found after this nor does he appear in the list of pensioners. He seems to have taken an interest in poetry, and it was for him that the Boccus and Sydracke was printed, so perhaps we may trace to his instigation the separate works of Lidgate which Mychell printed. In the colophon to his own book Saltwood is described only as monk, with no mention of Canterbury, and the place of printing is not stated, so that it may have been issued by Mychell at London.
Mary’s succession seems to have caused the cessation of the press, and certainly the class of theological works, which had been its main output, was not such as would be received with favour under the changed conditions.
Mychell, however, still remained at Canterbury, though his press was idle. The only piece of printing that can be assigned to him after Mary’s accession is a semi-official tract of four leaves. Articles to be enquyred in thordinary visitacion of the most reverende father in God, the Lorde Cardinall Pooles grace Archebyshop of Caunterbury wythin hys Dioces of Cantorbury. In the yeare of our Lorde God M. V. C. Lvi. Pole was only consecrated Archbishop in March 1556, so that the pamphlet must have been printed after that date. No perfect copy is known, but the first and last leaves, which belonged to Herbert and which he described in his Typographical Antiquities, are now in the Douce Collection in the Bodleian. The pamphlet is unique in another respect, as it is the only piece of provincial printing in England issued during Mary’s reign.
Ames in his History of Printing, published in 1749, mentions two books printed for Martin Coffin, a stationer living at Exeter. The first, an edition of Stanbridge’s Vocabula, was printed at Rouen by Lawrence Hostingue and Jamet Loys. This would put the date about 1505 when these two printers were in partnership and before 1508 when Hostingue left Rouen.
The other book is an edition of Catho cum commento, also printed at Rouen by Richard Goupil who was at work about 1510. This is also mentioned in Bagford’s notes. The first of these books was sold in Thomas Rawlinson’s sale where Ames probably saw it, and the second may perhaps have been bound up with it, but since that sale in 1727 all traces of them have disappeared.
Martin Coffin remained some time longer in England, for we find him taking out letters of denization in the year 1524 on April 28, and in these he is described as a bookbinder.
Lastly we may notice two books printed abroad which, by having the names of English towns printed in their colophons, have sometimes been considered as the productions of English provincial presses. The earlier of the two is The Rescuyinge of the Romish Fox written by William Turner under the pseudonym of William Wraghton. The book is a violent attack on Stephen Gardiner, then Bishop of Winchester, and ends with the colophon: “Imprinted have at Winchester. Anno Domini, 1545. By me Hanse Hit Prik.” The obvious meaning is that the fictitious Hans Hitprik has imprinted the book against the bishop, not at the town, of Winchester. Nevertheless the book has been quoted over and over again as a Winchester printed book.
The second book is Luther’s Faythfull admonycion of a certen true pastor, with the colophon, “Imprinted at Grenewych by Conrade Freeman in the month of May 1554. With the most gracious licence and privilege of God almighty, King of heaven and earth.” This last sentence is quite enough to show the nature of the work, and that the name of the place and printer are alike fictitious.
Both books are apparently from the press of Christopher Froschover at Zurich, a prolific printer of controversial books.
In Seyer’s Memoirs of Bristol, published in 1823, the claim was put forward for the existence of an early press at Bristol on the strength of extracts from some manuscript Kalendars to the effect that “In the year 1546 a press for printing was set up in the castle which is used daily to the honour of God.” No trace of anything printed at Bristol in the sixteenth century has been found, and perhaps the date quoted may be an error for 1646, about which time a press was certainly at work in the town issuing sermons and other tracts.
When we consider the places where presses were at work during this period, or where stationers lived who commissioned books, it seems surprising that other towns of equal or greater importance have nothing to show printed or published in them. So much that has come down to us has survived by so slender a chance that there is always the hope that further information may be found and other towns added to our list. Hereford is only represented in a colophon by the unique copy of one book, Exeter by two books which have been lost for over a hundred and fifty years.
Chester, for example, is a town where we might have expected to find books printed or published. The stationers there were certainly important, for they formed themselves along with the heraldic painters and embroiderers into a company which obtained a charter from the Mayor and Aldermen on the feast of St Philip and St James in 1534, formally enrolled in 1536. After some trouble I ran the registers of the Company to earth, but unfortunately the first volume has been lost, so that the records between the years 1536 and 1587 are missing, and any information about the period we are now concerned with, irrecoverable at present.
Chester was the centre of a large and important district, and was also the chief port of embarkation for Ireland (it was from there that Edward King set out on his ill-fated voyage), so that we might well expect its stationers to have published something, or some printer to have set up a press. And there are many other towns in a similar position. We know from records that they supported a number of stationers, and it is hard to believe that nothing was printed for them, even an almanack.
Within the period we have been examining, roughly the hundred years since the invention of printing up to the passing of the Stationers’ Company’s Charter in 1557, printing had been practised in nine provincial towns. The two fifteenth-century presses, Oxford and St Alban’s, ceased simultaneously in 1486. York, away in the north of England, had a press at work between 1509 and 1516. Then comes a curious revival; a second press at Oxford from 1517 to 1519, a press at Cambridge in 1521 and 1522, at Tavistock in 1525 and 1534, at Abingdon in 1528, and a second at St Alban’s from 1534 to 1538. Then came the Reformation and the accompanying changes in the old order of things after which not one of the old presses ventured to start again. The accession of Edward VI. seems to have given a new impetus to book-production, and the remaining three of the early provincial presses were started during his reign, Ipswich working in 1547 and 1548, Worcester from 1548 to 1553, and Canterbury from 1549 to 1556.
When we come to sum up the books produced, it must be admitted that the output was miserably small. Between 1478 and 1556 the provincial presses of England issued about one hundred and eleven books, not three books in two years; twenty-one more books were printed for provincial stationers, bringing up the number to one hundred and thirty-two, not two books a year. Between 1478 and 1516, thirty books were printed in three towns; between 1517 and 1538, twenty-six in five towns; and between 1548 and 1556, fifty-five books in three towns. The output of many foreign provincial towns far surpassed that of all the English put together.
But in looking at the history of the book trade in England during the period, one point is especially striking, the very great disproportion between the numbers of printers and of stationers. The books produced by the English presses formed but an infinitesimal portion of the literature circulated in the country. The number of printers we can reckon fairly accurately, for there must be few, if any, who have left no trace; with stationers it is quite otherwise, for we are almost entirely dependent on records and registers, of which vast numbers have utterly perished. In these early times, fortunately for us, if unfortunately for themselves, people seem to have been continually engaged in lawsuits, and it is from records of law pleas and actions that much of our information is derived, though often it consists of mere names.
It is very difficult for us now to arrive at a clear conception of the position of a stationer or the character of the book trade of that period. Reading and writing were not very common accomplishments, books were relatively expensive and purchasers must have been few, yet in a small town like Bury St Edmund’s we find about the year 1505 no fewer than six stationers. We know the names of six, there may have been more, yet how were even six to earn a livelihood? The trade of a stationer then was more comprehensive than now, for he was a bookseller and a bookbinder, but even then his business cannot have been large and would hardly be sufficient to keep him. It is clear, however, from numerous contemporary references, that stationers often engaged in other business apart from their own. We find them dealing in various things besides books, but by far the most favourite occupation supplementary to selling books was to keep a public-house. Numbers of the early stationers are spoken of also as beer brewers. In the Oxford University Archives we constantly find licences granted to the booksellers to sell wine or beer. The early English printer, Jean Barbier, who had worked at London and Westminster at the end of the fifteenth century, is cited in a London lawsuit as “Johannes Barbour nuper de Coventre, bere brewer, alias dictus Jehanne Berbier nuper de Coventre, prenter.” Anthony de Solen, the first printer at Norwich, was admitted a freeman of that city on the condition “that he shall not occupye eny trade of marchandise eyther from the parts beyonde the seas or from London, but onely his arte of prynting and selling of Renysh wyne.” References to this dual business are very frequent, and it seems to have continued as late as the seventeenth century.
The importation of foreign books into England during the end of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth centuries must have been very large. The revival of learning was setting in, the country was gaining a reputation for scholarship and attracting foreign students, and every encouragement was given by the authorities to the book trade. In the grant given to Peter Actors, he was allowed to import books without paying customs, so that there was some tax upon imported books, though it was probably very slight.
For almost every class of book of a learned character the English purchaser was dependent on the foreign printer, and English scholars as a rule sent their own works to the Continent to be printed on account of the greater facilities and probably also for the lesser cost.
The two classes of tradesmen who dealt in books were well described by Fuller in the seventeenth century. The one he calls “stationarii, publickly avouching the sale of staple books in standing shops, whence they have their names,” the other he designates “circumforanean pedlers, ancestors to our modern Mercuries and hawkers.” No doubt, as on the Continent, the stationer was accustomed to send round periodically a van laden with books from town to town, and village to village, and, putting up at the village inn, advertise and show his wares there.
The chief opportunity for selling books was at the various fairs, and to these the agents of the London booksellers would journey, not only to sell books to the public, but to do wholesale business with the local stationers. It is quite clear that a large number of important foreign printers and publishers kept premises in London, and their representatives would also be present at the fairs. These fairs were very important centres of trade. They continued for a week, sometimes two, and while they continued, the ordinary shops of the town were compelled to close. There is evidence to show that to the principal fairs many of the London booksellers went themselves, leaving their shops in charge of an assistant. In 1487 an attempt was made by the Corporation of London to prevent London freemen attending local fairs, but a general outcry was made that many goods, amongst them books, would not be obtainable, and the ordinance was repealed. The subject of the book trade at fairs is too large to be considered here, but it must be remembered that by far the largest fair in England, a not unworthy rival to Frankfurt, was held at Sturbridge by Cambridge, and it retained its reputation for bookselling for some centuries.
After the first quarter of the sixteenth century the freedom of the foreign book trade was menaced by many ominous acts culminating in the act of 1534, which seriously interfered with the sale of foreign books and the trade of the foreign stationer, and about the same time the disuse and suppression of the various service books destroyed another branch of the trade.
The book trade received a further severe blow from the literary side by the advent in England of what was contemptuously styled by many of the old scholars with distrust and dislike, the “New Learning,” the teachings of Luther, Melanchthon, and the reformers. The revival of learning and classical study which had given so great an impetus to the book trade was superseded by religious and doctrinal quarrelling, which, though for a time encouraging the importation of controversial pamphlets, soon brought down upon all concerned the heavy hand of authority, with the result that, while the literature of the “New Learning” was prohibited, the demand for books of other classes had ceased.
The last twenty years of Henry VIII.’s reign was an anxious time for printers and booksellers; it seemed impossible to foretell what might safely be printed. Books which one year were condemned to be burnt appeared a couple of years afterwards, “cum privilegio regali.” During these years, therefore, we find the provincial press almost entirely unrepresented: between 1538 and 1548 not a single book was printed, at any rate overtly, and in the ten years before that, hardly half a dozen. As we have seen, the short reign of Edward VI. saw more books printed in the provincial towns than had been produced since the invention of printing, but this fruitful time was short.
The accession of Mary was marked by an outpouring of seditious books which naturally did not please the ruling powers. Several enactments were issued against them, seemingly with little effect. Finally, in 1557, Philip and Mary, “considering and manifestly perceiving that several seditious and heretical books, both in verse and prose, are daily published, stamped and printed by divers scandalous, schismatical, and heretical persons, not only exciting our subjects and liegemen to sedition and disobedience against us, our crown and dignity, but also to the renewal and propagating very great and detestable heresies against the faith and sound catholic doctrine of holy mother the church,” determined upon a decisive step. The weapon they forged was ingenious. They granted a Charter to the Stationers’ Company forbidding anyone to print who did not belong to it. The stationers were naturally active in putting down anything which competed with themselves, while the King and Queen could in their turn keep a firm grasp on the stationers. The various enactments of the Stationers’ Charter practically put an end to the provincial book trade.
In my brief survey of the subject I hope I have at any rate shown some of the many points of interest with which it abounds. It is one moreover eminently associated with the name of Mr Sandars. The provincial presses always had a great attraction for him, and to his liberality the University Library is indebted for many of the specimens it possesses.
Perhaps what may have struck you most is how much we have yet to learn on the subject, how little we really know. A good deal of what has been said has been, not about books which we now possess, but about books which we have lost. A cloud of obscurity still hangs over the subject, but the cloud has a silver lining. Think how much there still remains for us to discover.