The printers, stationers and bookbinders of Westminster and London from 1476 to 1535

by E. Gordon Duff

LECTURE V.

WYNKYN DE WORDE AND THE POPULAR PRINTERS.

In the four lectures which I had the privilege of giving as Sandars Reader in the Lent term of 1899 I dealt with the printers, stationers, and bookbinders of London and Westminster in the fifteenth century. In the present series I propose to continue their history up to the year 1535.

The date which has been fixed upon is not a purely arbitrary one, but has been chosen for two reasons. In the first place, it is the year in which Wynkyn de Worde, by far the most important and prolific of all the early English printers, died, and secondly, it just includes and allows us to examine the remarkable change brought about in the English book trade by the passing of the Act relating to printers in the twenty-fifth year of Henry VIII, which came into force on Christmas-Day, 1534.

Though Westminster was joined with London in the earlier lectures, it ceased after 1500 to have any printers of its own, for in that year De Worde moved to London to be nearer the centre of trade, and he was followed almost immediately by Julian Notary. In this lecture I am going to take, besides De Worde, all the printers and stationers who were connected with him in business, and who formed what might be called the popular school of printers, who neglecting legal, political, and learned books, such as were issued by the King’s Printers, confined their attention to books of a lighter and more ephemeral kind.

Wynkyn de Worde, who had probably been an assistant of Caxton’s from the time of the introduction of printing into England in 1476, was certainly married and settled in Westminster by 1480, in which year his wife Elizabeth is mentioned in a deed. He inherited all Caxton’s printing material and continued to lease his old house and printing-office from the Abbot of Westminster, John Esteney, in whose account-book he is entered from the year 1491 onward. Mr Scott, of the British Museum, who first made known these entries, which he had found when calendaring the Abbey muniments, noted that he was called Jan Wynkyn in them, and wrote a letter to the Athenaeum to point out that the printer’s Christian name, hitherto unknown, was John. It appears to me that about this name there is some confusion or mistake.

Wijnand or Wynkyn is itself a Christian name, and De Worde like most other foreign printers made use of his Christian name joined to the name of the place from which he came. Thus we have Joannes Lettou (John of Lithuania), Willelmus de Machlinia (William of Malines), Jan van Doesborch, Christopher van Ruremond, John Siberch, and so on, while we have no example of a surname joined with the name of a place. In all the hundreds of colophons to De Worde’s books, in his patent of denization, even in his will, there is no hint of such a name as Jan, and the combination Jan Wynkyn could only mean John the son of Wynkyn. We must presume that De Worde knew better than the Abbot what his own name was and that the Abbot’s entry is the result of some confusion. I am the more anxious to point out this confusion about the name because entirely without my knowledge and after I had returned my last proof the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography inserted this piece of information, extracted from Mr Scott’s letter, in my notice of Wynkyn de Worde, and thus made me responsible for a statement which I do not in the least believe.

De Worde continued to print in Caxton’s house until some time in 1500, when he moved to the sign of the Sun in Fleet Street. The position of the house can be settled almost exactly. It is described as over against, that is, opposite the Conduit, and this was situated in Fleet Street, just where Shoe Lane entered it on the north side. De Worde’s house being in St Bride’s parish and near the church must have been on the south side of the street and therefore opposite the entrance of Shoe Lane. He rented two houses, one no doubt a dwelling-house, the other his printing-office, and for these he paid a rent of sixty-six shillings and eight-pence. On leaving Westminster De Worde either destroyed or parted with a considerable portion of his printing material. Some of his type used up to this time never appears again, and many of the wood blocks used to illustrate his books are found in the hands of other printers, more especially Julian Notary.

The year 1501 was apparently mostly taken up with settling into his new premises; for this year his output was the smallest during his whole career, and we know of but one dated book issued in it, a new edition of Bishop Alcock’s Mons Perfectionis which appeared on May 27. Three copies of this book are known, in the libraries of Peterborough and Lincoln Cathedrals, and the third in the University Library, which came in the bequest of Mr Sandars.

On April 22, 1502, De Worde issued an edition of the Manipulus Curatorum, which is worthy of notice. It is a very small octavo, printed in a small neat black-letter, and all the copies I have seen, with one exception, have on the title-page the small square early device of the printer. The copy, however, which belonged to Richard Farmer and is now in the Bodleian, has a device of De Worde which so far as I know is found in no other book. It is, like his most common device, divided into three parts. The upper contains the sun, two planets, and thirty-six stars, the middle Caxton’s mark and initials, and the lower the unicorn and Sagittarius above a ribbon containing De Worde’s name in full. The engraver has made a not uncommon mistake and has engraved the large initial C so that it prints the wrong way about. Another device of De Worde’s had the mark reversed, but that was not so obvious an error; in this case the printer seems to have thought the mistake too flaring and to have suppressed the device.

There is a curious little undated tract in the University Library which cannot be later than the beginning of 1502, describing the doings of Margerie Kempe of Lynn, a religious enthusiast who travelled about the country with an axe asking people to cut her head off. In this De Worde used, probably for the last time, the beautiful cut of the Crucifixion which he had inherited from Caxton, but which beginning to split in 1499 had now broken in half and was in other ways more or less damaged.

Unrecorded device of W. de Worde.

In 1504 De Worde began the use of his best known device, first used in a Grammar of Sulpitius, of which the unique copy is in the library of Shrewsbury School. It is square in shape and divided into three parts. In the upper are the sun, two planets, and twenty stars, in the middle Caxton’s initials and mark, and in the lower the printer’s name on a ribbon, above which are a dog and a centaur. This device was used until 1518, when having got cracked and broken it was replaced by an almost exact facsimile. This in its turn was used until 1528, when it was replaced by a third copy. So similar to the eye are these three varieties that no writer on bibliography has noticed the differences, though they form the most valuable date test we have for De Worde’s books, as it was this device he most generally used.

Towards the end of 1508 when Pynson was appointed printer to the King, De Worde appears to have received some sort of official appointment as printer to the Countess of Richmond and Derby, the King’s mother. He had printed several books before this time at her request, a phrase which I suppose meant that she had helped to defray the cost, but he had not called himself specially her printer. In most of the books printed in 1509 before the 29th June, when the Countess died, he gives himself an official title, as printer to the King’s mother.

Among the books printed in 1508 is one entitled The Book of Kerving, of which there were several editions. A copy of one of these editions, which was in the collection of Rawlinson, contained the following rhyme in an old hand,

Wynken de Worde

Sate at the borde

Wyth hys cosyn forde

And kyld hym with a sworde.

Below this the learned owner has written “Whether this last writing be not a whymsy I know not but feare much it is.”

Two books of 1508 were printed on vellum, Fisher’s Sermon on the Fruitful Sayings of David, and Richard of Hampole’s Devout Meditacions, and there are copies of both in the British Museum.

The year 1509 was a very important one in De Worde’s life. The death of Henry VII was very soon followed by that of Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, De Worde’s special patroness. However, the output of books this year was the largest of any year of his life. The royal funerals and the coronation would no doubt attract large crowds to London and so encourage business. Out of some thirty books printed this year I can only trace five as having been issued before Henry VII’s death, that is roughly during the first four months of the year. To one of these I should like to draw your particular attention. It is called Nicodemus Gospel and there is a copy in the University Library. Its colophon runs “Enprynted at London in Flete strete at the sygne of the sonne by wynkyn de worde, printer unto the moost excellent pryncesse my lady the Kynges moder. In the yere of our lorde god MCCCCC.ix. the xxiii. daye of Marche.” This colophon and that to the Golden Legend of 1498 are two of the proofs we possess that De Worde began his year on January 1 and not as was very common on March 25. The book you will notice was issued on March 23, 1509, and Henry VII and his mother the Countess of Richmond are both referred to as alive. Had De Worde begun his year on March 25 and meant by March 23, 1509, March 23, 1510, both these persons would have been dead. The point is interesting because the custom of printers varied, and, as I shall show later, De Worde’s contemporary Julian Notary dated the other way. In a few books printed between the death of Henry VII and that of the Countess of Richmond and Derby De Worde calls himself printer to the King’s grandmother.

About this time De Worde had a second shop in St Paul’s Churchyard with the sign of Our Lady of Pity, but he does not appear to have kept it long and it is only mentioned in some colophons of this year. It was perhaps in reference to this sign that in some of his books he placed at the end a small cut of Our Lady of Pity in place of his usual device.

The books issued in 1509 were of all kinds. Funeral sermons on Henry VII and the Countess of Richmond, congratulatory poems addressed to Henry VIII, and a very large number of popular poems and stories, among them such books as Richard Cœur de Lion, The Conversion of Swearers, The Fifteen Joys of Marriage, The Parliament of Devils, and Hawes’s Pastime of Pleasure. Perhaps the most interesting of all is the edition of Henry Watson’s version of the Ship of Fools. Only one copy of this beautiful book is known, which is printed on vellum and is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Henry Watson was an assistant of De Worde’s and acted partly as printer and partly as translator. Another book of this year is worth noticing, the first edition of the York Manual. Though it has a full and clear colophon stating that it was printed by De Worde, in fact the statement is repeated twice over, there can be no doubt that it was printed abroad; the type both of text and music, the illustrations, the device, the peculiar size of the paper all go to prove this.

In 1510 a much smaller number of books, only about eight, were issued. The printer seems to have been taking a rest, for he never in any future year prints so small a number. Two curious books were issued in this year, King Apolyn of Tyre, and the Birth of Merlin, and in the following year The Demaundes Joyous. This delightful though sometimes unedifying little book of riddles contains specimens which I remember having been asked as a child, and I suppose they are asked yet. “How many cows’ tails would it take to reach the moon?” with the simple answer “One if it were long enough.” “How many sticks go to a crow’s nest?” “None, for lack of feet.”

In 1512 appeared the History of Helias, Knight of the Swan, another book only known from a single copy printed on vellum, now in the library of Mr Hoe of New York. One fact about the book is worth noting for the benefit of future bibliographers and that is that neither in the catalogue of the sale in which it appeared nor, consequently, in Mr Hazlitt’s description in his last volume of Bibliographical Collections and Notes, is there any reference to the book being printed on vellum.

In 1512 there appeared also the first grammatical work by Whittinton, whose various books became so popular that De Worde sometimes issued as many as four editions of one work in a year. At that time printers had not enough type to admit of their keeping it standing for any length of time, and as labour was very cheap they preferred to reset the type for small editions and not print off a very large edition, which perhaps might lie on their hands for a long time.

So many and so varied were the productions of De Worde’s press—he printed between seven and eight hundred known books—that it is hard to pick out any for special notice. In 1515 he issued an edition of the Way to the Holy Land, which was reprinted in 1524. In 1516 Capgrave’s Nova Legenda Angliae, of which a copy on vellum is in the Bibliothèque Nationale. In 1517 we have Troylus and Cressede; in 1518 Oliver of Castile. In 1519 the Orchard of Syon, of which several copies were printed on vellum. In 1521 he issued a book of Christmas Carolles, of which there is a fragment in the Bodleian; it contains the well-known carol,

“The bores head in hande bring I

With garlands gay and rosemary

I pray you all synge merely

Qui estis in convivio.”

In 1522 an edition of the Mirror of Golde for the sinful soul appeared with De Worde’s name in the colophon, but the edition is identical with one issued simultaneously by John Skot. From the type it is clear that Skot was the printer, and an examination of several of De Worde’s books about this time shows that they were also produced by Skot.

Erasmus begins about this time to be represented amongst De Worde’s books by his Colloquiorum formulae, De copia verborum, Good manners for children, and a few others, but the printer does not seem to have printed many editions, which is the more remarkable as the booksellers’ accounts of the time point to a large demand for Erasmus’ books.

In 1530 appeared the Book of Songs, of which there is a copy in the British Museum, and it is the first genuine music-book printed by De Worde. The book contained songs for four and three parts, but the one volume known contains the bass only. From this time onwards most of the printer’s work was confined to reprinting earlier editions, and only about one in twenty were new books; a good deal of his work was done by other printers, as can be seen from the type, and in the last few years we find him printing books for other people. For his old apprentice John Byddell he printed four or five books in 1533 and 1534, two editions of Erasmus’ Enchiridion Militis Christiani, a Life of Hyldebrande, and another work.

His last book was curiously enough a little poem, The Complaint of the too soon maryed. I do not know whether he considered it applicable to his own case, but his own marriage had taken place more than 55 years before.

De Worde died apparently at the very beginning of 1535, for his will dated June 5, 1534, was proved on the 19th January following. It is much to be regretted that this most valuable document has never been reprinted in full, for both the published abstracts (Herbert’s Ames, 119, 120, and Plomer’s Abstract of Wills, 3, 4) omit important names. To each of his apprentices, who are not named, he leaves books to the value of three pounds. To Robert Darby, Robert Maas, John Barbanson, Hector, Simon [Simon Martynson?], John Wislyn, and Alard, a bookbinder, bequests are left, and they are described as servants, that is people who were then working for him, either apprentices who had served their full time or journeymen. John Butler, James Gaver, and John Byddell are each described as “late my servant.” Besides these, legacies were left to Henry Pepwell, John Gowghe, and Robert Copland, and “Nowell the bokebinder in Shoo lane.” This latter was a certain Noël Havy, a Frenchman who came to England in 1523, married an English wife, became a denizen, and continued in business until after 1550. John Byddell and James Gaver were made executors and continued to live and carry on business in his house.

De Worde’s wife had long been dead, and no children, if he had any, seem to have survived him. He ordered his executors to purchase land in or near London which should produce at least twenty shillings a year to be given to St Bride’s Church to keep an obit for his soul, and we learn from the Survey of Chantries made in February 1547 that the sum thus expended was thirty-six pounds. Of De Worde’s work as a bookbinder we know little. He inherited the binding tools which had belonged to Caxton, and there are several bindings on which these are used, notably, a very fine example in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which can with certainty be ascribed to him. Early in the sixteenth century, when panel stamps were generally used, Caxton’s dies seem to have been parted with, but we cannot at present point to any panel as having been used by De Worde. It will be noticed, however, that the three binders mentioned in the will, Alard, who was then in his employment, James Gaver, a former assistant, and the independent workman Noël Havy of Shoe Lane were all foreigners, and therefore most probably used their own panels of foreign design.

James Gaver belonged to a well-known family of Low Country binders and would doubtless use panels similar to theirs. When we find early printed English books in their original bindings it is fairly safe to assume these bindings to have been executed in England, for there could have been practically no exportation of such books, and we know of a considerable number stamped with distinctly Netherlandish panels. This James Gaver continued to live with Byddell after De Worde’s death at the sign of the Sun and issued one book with his name, an edition of Stanbrydge’s Accidence from that address in 1539. Whether or no this book was really printed by him is uncertain; for it is identical, with the exception of the colophon, with an edition printed nominally by Nicolas Bourman. At the end of Gaver’s edition is a very rude woodcut of the Sun (used as a printer’s device and referring to the sign of the shop), which had been used previously by Lawrence Andrewe in his edition of the Mirrour of the World.

Gaver had taken out letters of denization on March 2, 1535 in which he is described as James Gaver, stationer, from the dominion of the Emperor. In 1541 he is entered in the Returns of Aliens and pays a tax of £1. 7s. He died in 1545 and his will was proved on June 15. He there calls himself a bookseller and requested that he might be buried in St Bride’s Church, before the altar of St Catherine, “neare unto Wynkyn de Worde sometyme my master.” The overseer to the will was William Stewarde, a stationer, his son-in-law.

Julian Notary, who had been printing in Westminster since 1497, moved soon after 1500 into St Clement’s parish, just outside Temple Bar. He appears to have taken possession of the shop lately vacated by Pynson, which during the latter’s tenancy seems to have had no sign. By Notary it was given the sign of the Three Kings. The first dated book from this new address was an edition of the Golden Legend issued in February 1504. Just as from the very full colophon of the preceding edition issued by W. de Worde in 1498 it is clearly proved that De Worde began his year on the first of January, so from the colophon of this edition we can prove that Notary did the opposite and began his year on the twenty-fifth of March. It runs as follows. “Whyche werke I dyde accomplysshe and fynysshe at Tempell barr the xvi daye of Feverer. The yere of oure lorde a Thousande ccccciii. And in the xix yere of the reygne of kynge Henry the vii. By me Julyan Notary. Thys emprynted at Temple Barre by me Julyan Notary.” Now the 16th of February 19 Henry VII was 1504 in our ordinary computation, so that Notary clearly did not end his year until March 24. This Golden Legend contains a very curious and mixed collection of illustrations. Some had belonged to W. de Worde and some to Caxton. There are besides five metal engravings in the “manière criblée,” obtained doubtless from abroad, and some curious engraved initial letters which had apparently belonged to André Bocard. It would be exceedingly interesting could we trace the history of these criblée cuts and discover whence Notary obtained them. The designs were clearly taken from a set of compositions the work of a Lower Rhine engraver about 1450-60, known as the “master of St Erasmus,” of which a complete set may be found in the British Museum. Notary’s, however, are not direct copies but probably imitations of some criblée prints copied from the original designs. Such sets are at Munich and Berlin, and another of a similar class may be found in the editions of the Horologium Devotionis, printed at Cologne by Ulric Zel about 1490, and John Landen, a few years later. Notary’s are very exact copies from these, but engraved the reverse way, a common occurrence in copies.

In 1507 Notary issued a very curious book, the first edition of Nicodemus Gospel, which I mention here slightly out of its turn as it contains three more criblée cuts and is the only other book except the Chronicles of England in which they are found. Only one copy of the book is known and its history is interesting. It appeared in the auction catalogue (p. 354) of Richard Smith’s books, sold in 1682, bound up in a volume of tracts, and after the sale it disappeared. On the authority of the catalogue it was mentioned by successive bibliographers, but no one had seen it and its whereabouts was unknown. I was beginning to think that it never existed and that the entry in Smith’s catalogue was founded on a mistake, when to my delight, on a recent visit to Dublin, I found the identical volume in Archbp. Marsh’s library. It had been bought at Smith’s sale in 1682 by Bishop Stillingfleet, and the whole of his library of printed books was bought at his death by Marsh and transported to Dublin. As Marsh’s library has never had a printed catalogue and has not been much used, its contents are very little known, though I am glad to say a catalogue of the Early English books is about to be printed. Besides the Golden Legend, Notary printed in 1504 an edition of the Chronicles of England, and a now lost edition of the Sarum Hymns and Sequences of which he issued another edition in the following year.

At the beginning of 1508 an edition of the Scala Perfectionis appeared, and the copy described by Herbert is similar to the one which came to the University Library with Mr Sandars’s collection. Herbert describes his as in an original binding with Notary’s mark, and the one bequeathed by Mr Sandars is similarly bound.

In 1510 Notary issued an edition of the Sermones discipuli by John Herolt having on the title-page a very interesting imprint which, translated, runs as follows, “These [i.e. the Sermons] are to be sold (where they have been printed) at London in the suburb of Temple Bar near the porch of St Clements in the house of Julian Notary, printer and bookseller, carrying on business under the sign of the Three Kings. And they will also be found for sale in St Paul’s Churchyard at the same man’s little shop [cellula] from which also hangs the same sign of the Three Kings.” Apparently a sign was personal property and could be moved by the owner if he moved to another shop. If, however, he became possessed, on the death of the earlier owner, of a shop with a well-known sign, he would retain it in preference to his own. As an example of the first case we find Rastell giving the sign of the Mermaid to three successive places of business. On the other hand when Byddell succeeded De Worde, he did not transfer his own sign Our Lady of Pity, but retained De Worde’s well known sign of the Sun.

What Notary was doing between 1510 and 1515 is unknown, but during that period he issued no dated book. One thing, however, is clear. He had given up his printing-office in the Strand and had moved to a house in St Paul’s Churchyard with the sign of St Mark, and there he issued in 1515 another edition of the Chronicles of England. Though the sign is not mentioned the address is very clear. “Dwelling in Paul’s churchyard beside the west door by my lord’s palace.” In 1516 he was mentioned as living at the sign of St Mark at the west door. This sign, however, did not please him, and by 1518 he had replaced it with the old sign of the Three Kings. That these two signs succeeded each other on the same house and did not refer to two different houses is I think clear from the wording of the following two colophons. “Imprinted in London in Poules chyrche yarde at the weste Doore besyde my lorde of London’s palase. At the sygne of saynt Marke”; and “Inprinted in London ... in Paules chirche yarde at the weste dore besyde my lorde of london’s palayse, at the sign of the thre kynges.”

Among Notary’s undated books is a very curious little tract called A merry gest and a true howe Johan Splynter made his testament. The only copy known is in the library of Britwell Court. It begins on the verso of the first leaf,

This Johan Splynter as every man tell can

Was the Rentgatherer of Delft and Sceydam.

On the title is a curious woodcut which occurs also on another small tract, the Mery geste of a Sergeaunt and Frere.

The best known of Notary’s books is his edition of the Shepherdes Calendar, a curious medley of matter which was first printed in a translation at Paris by Verard in 1503. That translation was made by a Scotchman who knew very little French, so that the result is rather peculiar. The book was revised and printed by Pynson in 1508 and also later by Wynkyn de Worde. In the only known copy of Notary’s edition the colophon is mutilated and the date partly destroyed, but as it was printed in Paul’s Churchyard at the Three Kings the date may be safely fixed at about 1518.

Notary made use of two panel stamps on his bindings. One contains in the centre a Tudor rose round which run two ribbons supported by angels. On the ribbons is the motto

Hec rosa virtutis de celo missa sereno

Eternum florens regia sceptra feret.

In the upper corners are shields with the cross of St George and the arms of the City of London, while below the rose are the binder’s mark and initials. The other panel contains an escutcheon bearing the arms of England and France quartered, ensigned with a royal crown and supported by a dragon and greyhound; the arms of St George and the City of London are in the upper corners.

Of these two panels there are two varieties differing in minor details. They may readily be distinguished by the N in the device, which in the rarer variety has the cross stroke the wrong way.

Robert Copland was for many years an assistant to Wynkyn de Worde, and some have suggested even to Caxton himself from the ambiguous use of the word “master” in the prologue to King Apolyn of Tyre, where he speaks of himself as “gladly followynge the trace of my mayster Caxton.” As Copland did not die before 1548 it is very improbable, though not impossible, that he could have worked under Caxton at Westminster. As an assistant to De Worde he translated a considerable number of popular books from the French and edited others, often adding quaint introductions or prefatory verses. About 1514 he appears to have started in business on his own account, for some copies of the Dying Creature printed by W. de Worde in that year have his device on the last leaf. This consists of his mark and initials on a shield hanging from a tree and surrounded by a garland of roses and supported by a stag and hind. Round it is the text from Proverbs xxii., “Melius est nomen bonum quam divitie multe.” Like many English devices of the time it is copied from a French one. The garland round the shield refers to the sign of his shop the Rose Garland in Fleet Street, though the first book from this address was not issued until later. A small law-book issued about this time, though it contains his name and device was issued from De Worde’s house, the Sun. In 1515 he began to work at the Rose Garland and issued a book called the Justice of Peace, of which a copy is in the Cambridge University Library. His next dated book was Barclay’s Introductory to French, and after this there is a gap of seven years. Altogether before 1535 he printed only some twelve books. The explanation of this is, I believe, that his press was largely subsidised by De Worde. Many books issued by De Worde have prefatory or ending verses written by “Robert Copland the book-printer,” and most bibliographers have therefore rashly asserted that they must be reprints of editions which he had previously issued. Copland printed entire editions for De Worde and therefore they contain De Worde’s name and address, but Copland as their printer added his introduction.

Another point which seems to prove his dependence on De Worde is that after the latter’s death in 1535 up to about 1547 we have no trace of Copland printing at all. He continued to translate and revise for others but the only reference to him as a practical printer is to be found in Andrew Borde’s Pryncyples of Astronomye printed about 1548, in which the author speaks of his Introduction to Knowledge as “now a pryntyng at old Robert Copland’s the eldest printer of England.” As this book was finished and issued by William Copland, it may be presumed that Robert died about 1548.

Henry Pepwell, who worked at the sign of the Trinity in St Paul’s Churchyard, was a native of Birmingham. Of his life we know nothing before the year 1518, when he issued an edition of the Castle of Pleasure. In 1520 he printed an edition of the Christiani Hominis Institutum, a translation into Latin verse by Erasmus of a little tract by Colet. In this he made use of a device which had belonged to his predecessor at the sign of the Trinity, a stationer named Henry Jacobi, but with the name Jacobi erased from the block. Between 1518 and 1523 Pepwell printed eight books, and their rarity may be gauged from the fact that two are only known from fragments, four from single copies, and of the remaining two there are in one case two copies, in the other four.

Pepwell must have been a leading member of the trade, for in 1525 he was appointed, together with Lewis Sutton, a warden of the Company of Stationers. He was a friend of Stokeslay, the Bishop of London, and of his agent Thomas Dockwray, who was afterwards the first warden of the new Stationers’ Company. In 1531 he issued an edition of Eckius’ Enchiridion locorum communium adversus Lutheranos, printed for him at Antwerp by Michael Hillenius. Bale in one of his works mentions this book as follows “No lesse myght harrye pepwell in Paules church yearde have out of Michael Hillenius howse at Antwerp at one tyme than a whole complete prynte at the holye request of Stokyslaye. In a short space were they dyspached and a newe prynte in hande, soche tyme as he also commaunded Barlowes dyaloges to be preached of the curates through out all hys dyocese.” The existence of this book was for long doubtful until I finally found the title-page in one of the volumes of Bagford’s collections and shortly afterwards I found a perfect copy which had belonged to Latimer in the library of Westminster Abbey.

Pepwell as an important bookseller and good Catholic was probably of great assistance to the authorities in their crusade against heretical books. In 1533 Vaughan writes to Cromwell, “The Bishop of London, Stokeslay, has had a servant [Dockwray] in Antwerp this fortnight. If you send for Henry Pepwell, a stationer in Paul’s Churchyard, who was often with him, he will tell you his business.”

In 1535 he received by the will of W. de Worde a legacy of four pounds in printed books. In 1539 he issued two grammars of Lily for the use of St Paul’s School, but though he is clearly stated in the imprint to have been the printer, there is very little doubt that they were printed at Antwerp. The only copies known of these grammars are bound up with some others by Colet in a small volume now in the Pepysian Library bought by Pepys at Richard Smith’s sale in 1682.

In October, 1539, Pepwell, accompanied by William Bonham and Henry Tab, was sent by Cromwell to St Albans to inquire about a heretical book which had been issued from the press there. This I believe to have been a hitherto unknown and unique book “A very declaration of the bond and free will of man” issued at St Albans without date or name of printer. The printer was however John Herford, who came to London, in custody of the three stationers to be dealt with by Cromwell.

Pepwell died at the beginning of 1541 and his will was proved on the 8th February, William Bonham the printer being one of the supervisors. Two-thirds of his property was left to Ursula his wife and the remaining third to his children, who were all under age and are not mentioned by name, though no doubt the Arthur Pepwell who was afterwards a member of the Stationers’ Company was one.

John Skot commenced to print in 1521, and issued on May 17 the Body of Policy, of which there is a copy on vellum in the Cambridge University Library. At this time he was living in St Sepulchre’s parish without Newgate and printed there six books. The Mirror of Gold for the Sinful Soul, the History of Jacob and his twelve sons, the Book of maid Emlyn, and two law tracts. In these is found his first device, having his mark and initials on a shield surmounted by a helmet and supported by two dragons. He used a fount of narrow black-letter, and it is clear that besides his own books he printed several for De Worde.

His next move was to St Paul’s Churchyard, where he printed eight books, but only two are dated, the Commendations of Matrimony of 1528 and Nicodemus Gospel of 1529. Besides these there were three law tracts, two grammars, and an edition of Every Man. At this address he began to use a device, exactly copied down to the misprint in the motto, from one used at Paris by Denis Rosse, but so carelessly cut that both his name and monogram are printed backwards. He also made use of his first device with his monogram inserted on the shield in place of his mark. Either before or after his residence in St Paul’s Churchyard, but probably before, he printed an edition of Stanbridge’s Accidence “Without Bishopsgate in saint Botolphs parish at George Alley gate.”

In 1531 John Toy issued an edition of the Gradus comparationum which has Skot’s device at the end and was probably printed by him, though his name is not mentioned. By 1537 he had moved to Fauster Lane in St Leonard’s parish, but before this he had got into trouble over a book of which apparently no fragment remains. This publication was an outcome of the extraordinary religious troubles connected with the impostures of Elizabeth Barton, the Maid of Kent, which were put down by Cranmer, and the maid and her associates executed in 1533. Amongst the documents connected with the case was the confession of the printer, and Cranmer entered among his notes “to remember that Dr Bokking did put unto Skotte all the Nun’s book to print and had five hundred of them when they were printed and the printer two hundred.” This perhaps refers to a tract entitled “A miraculous work of late done at Court of Strete in Kent, published to the devoute people of this tyme for their spiritual consolation by Edward Thwaytes, Gent.,” of which some manuscript copies exist.

At Fauster Lane Skot printed one book the Rosary, dated 1537, and five undated books, The Golden Litany, Nicodemus Gospel, The Nut-browne Maide, The Book of Herbs, and The Battle of Agincourt. After 1537 we have no trace of him.

Several writers have supposed that he may have been the same person as a printer of the same name who appeared at Edinburgh in 1539, and passed an adventurous career in that town and at St Andrews up to about the year 1571. There seems nothing to support the theory beyond the similarity of names, and an examination of the typography of the two printers shows that they must have been different people.

Of John Butler, the next printer to be noticed, next to nothing is known. Ames asserted on the authority of Maurice Johnson, a gentleman to whom he was indebted for many startling pieces of information, that he was a judge of the Common Pleas. There was a John Boteler a judge, but when he was sitting on the bench our John Butler was engaged as a journeyman with Wynkyn de Worde, who in 1535 left by will to “John Butler late my servant as many printed books as shall amounte to the value of vi£ sterling,” a very considerable legacy for the time.

His only dated book, an edition of the Parvulorum institutio ex Stanbrigiana collectione was issued in 1529. The colophon states that it was printed “for John Butler,” but it absolutely agrees typographically with other grammatical tracts printed “by John Butler” though the type of all is apparently identical with that used by John Skot. Besides the one dated book there are eight undated. Five are grammatical tracts of little interest, and the remaining three are The Jeaste of Sir Gawayne, The Doctrynale of good servantes, and The Convercyon of Swerers. It is interesting to notice that of all the books printed by Butler but one copy is known.

The Expositiones terminorum legum Anglorum of 1527, attributed by Herbert and others to this printer, is clearly the work of Rastell.

Butler carried on business at the sign of St John Evangelist in Fleet Street and used as a device a small woodcut of St John with the inscription cut upon it “Initium sancti euangelii secundum Johannem.” This cut was not originally intended for a printer’s mark, but was one of a series engraved for a Horae. Whether or not he was really a practical printer it is impossible to determine, for the words “printed by” are not always to be taken as literally true. Several books of this period are known, identical except as regards the wording of the colophon, which profess to have been printed by different printers; and many books which bear the name of one printer in the colophon can be clearly proved to be the work of another.

John Toy has to be included as a printer in this lecture on the faith of the colophon of one book, but probably, like some early stationers, he was not always strictly truthful and said “printed by” when he meant “printed for.” However, in the Bodleian Library there is an edition of the Gradus comparationum whose colophon runs, “Imprinted at London in Poules chyrche yard, at the sygne of saynte Nycolas by me John Toye. The yere of our lorde God M.D.XXXI, the XXX day of May.” But the book ends with the device of the printer John Skot, and it is probable that he really printed it. In 1534 Toy had an edition of the Shorter Accidence of Stanbridge printed for him at Antwerp by Martin de Keyser, and of this there is a copy in the Cambridge University Library. In 1534 Leonard Cox wrote a letter to “The Goodman Toy at the sign of St Nicholas in Pauls Churchyard” relating to the printing of some translations of portions of the Paraphrase of Erasmus, perhaps the Epistle to Titus which appeared some time later. Toy, like many in his business appears to have married the widow of another stationer Nicholas Sutton. Toy died in 1535 and his will is preserved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

Richard Bankes, who began to print in 1523, was the first of a series of printers who lived at “The long shop in the Poultry beside St Mildred’s church door at the stocks,” and the first book he issued was a collection of stories which he called “goodly and right pleasant,” though they hardly merit that description, entitled The IX Drunkardes.

This very curious little book, of which the only copy known is in the Bodleian, sets forth the evils of drink as exemplified by various Scriptural characters. It is a translation from the Dutch and is illustrated with a number of foreign woodcuts and borders.

From 1523 to 1526 Bankes printed five dated books and then ceased to work for thirteen years, though he had one book printed for him by Robert Copland in 1528. When he next appears as a printer in 1539 he was living next the White Hart in Fleet Street and was apparently subsidised to print the works of Richard Taverner, an ardent reformer, a religious writer, and M.P. for Liverpool.

In 1540 immediately after Cromwell’s death a series of ballads attacking and defending him were written by Thomas Smyth, clerk of the Queen’s Council, and William Gray, a servant of Cromwell’s. These came before the notice of the Privy Council and the two authors together with Richard Bankes the printer were summoned to appear at eight o’clock in the morning on Sunday, 3rd January 1541. The notice of this trial brings up a new point of great interest to bibliographers. Copies of these ballads are still extant in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, several with Bankes’s full imprint, and in the indictment he is spoken of as “noted to be the printer.” When the case came on however Bankes absolutely denied that he had printed them and laid the blame on Robert Redman lately deceased, and Richard Grafton, who confessed he had printed some of them. On January 4 Smyth, Gray and Grafton were committed to the Fleet. This account shows that the colophons of the early printers, especially in the case of small fugitive pieces, are not to be implicitly trusted, and emphasizes the necessity of a careful study of type. Such a study also often shows that some of the smaller printers were probably not printers at all, but had their books printed for them.

Bankes last appears in 1545, when he issued with Richard Lant the Booke of Cookery, of which there is a copy in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow.

Lawrence Andrewe, who printed in Fleet Street near Fleet Bridge at the sign of the Golden Cross, was a native of Calais and seems to have had some connexion with John of Doesborch, the Antwerp printer, for whom he translated several Dutch books into English, among them the Valuation of gold and silver, and a book called The wonderful shape and nature that our Saviour Christ Jesu hath created in beasts, serpents, fowls, etc. He only issued two books with a date, two editions of Jerome of Brunswick’s Boke of Distillacyon; and not only were they printed in the same year, but they were finished on two consecutive days, the 17th and 18th of April. These two editions vary throughout, and the reason for the double issue seems inexplicable. His undated books comprise editions of Aesop’s Fables, and the Mirror of the World, in folio, the latter being ornamented with a profusion of miscellaneous woodcuts obtained from various sources; and the Directory of the conscience and the Debate and stryfe betwene Somer and Wynter in quarto. The Debate was to be sold “at the signe of seynt John Evangelyst in saynt Martyns parysshe besyde Charynge crosse” presumably by Robert Wyer and may therefore be dated about 1530. In 1529 Andrewe was apparently associated with Peter Treveris in the production of the Grete Herball, for some copies contain his device. This device consisted of his mark on a large shield within a frame of pillars and festoons of very florid work. In some of the initials in his books his mark will be found, showing that they were specially engraved for him. About 1534 a certain printer named Leonard Andrewe, who may have been a relation, was an assistant to John Rastell.

Though about all these early printers we have but meagre information, the career of Thomas Godfray is particularly obscure. His name is found in over thirty books; only two contain an address, in each different, and only one a date. The dated book is the Chaucer of 1532 printed at London by Thomas Godfray, itself a curious puzzle. It was edited by William Thynne and had a preface by Sir Brian Tuke, and a copy discovered by Henry Bradshaw in the library of Clare College, Cambridge, has the inscription “This preface I sir Bryan Tuke knight wrot at the request of Mr Clarke of the Kechyn then being, tarying for the tyde at Grenewich.” Now Leland, the antiquary, distinctly states that this edition was issued by Thomas Berthelet, and as he was a contemporary of Godfray and Berthelet his words cannot be lightly passed over. The title-page border used by Godfray in the Chaucer and the Gift of Constantine [1534] was used by Berthelet as early as 1535; and he used in the same year another border frame which Godfray employed in the Introductorie for to lerne French by Giles Dewes and which was cracked during the printing of that book. Though we have no direct evidence of the fact it would seem as though Godfray’s press was subsidized by Berthelet, to a great extent, perhaps, owing to the latter’s occupation with official work. Another point to be noticed is that Godfray never mentions any sign, and this is nearly always found to be the case with printers who worked for others and not for themselves. Two of Godfray’s books can be dated from outside evidence. The Gift of Constantine was issued early in 1534, for on April 1 Marshall, at whose expense it was published, wrote to Cromwell, “I send you two books now finished of the Gift of Constantine. I think there was none ever better set forth for defacing of the pope of Rome.” He also writes, “On the book of Constantine I have laid out all the money I can make, and for lack of it cannot fetch the books from the printers.” The second book is Christopher Saint-Germain’s Answer to a Letter which cannot be earlier than 1535, a date found in the book itself. Godfray worked at one time in the Old Bailey and at another, probably later, at Temple Bar, where he would be close to Berthelet. He made no use of any device.