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

by E. Gordon Duff

LECTURE VI.

RICHARD PYNSON AND THE LEARNED PRINTERS.

Having treated in my last lecture of Wynkyn de Worde and his followers who represent the popular printers of the time, I come to-day to Richard Pynson and his school, who represent the more learned press. We have Haukins and Redman, Pynson’s successors; William Faques who preceded and Thomas Berthelet who succeeded him as printer to the King; and the two Rastells, John and William, brother-in-law and nephew to Sir Thomas More, distinguished in the law.

Pynson, who had learned to print in Normandy, came to England some time before 1492 and started as a printer outside Temple Bar, near the church of St Clement Danes, where he continued up to 1500. In 1500, while still living there he along with his servants were the victims of a murderous attack from a riotous gathering headed by one Henry Squire. In his evidence before the Star-Chamber Pynson stated that his servants were so terrified by frequent threats and attacks that they had left him, and his business was suffering in consequence. This is quite likely to have been the cause of his moving, since he would be much safer and better protected within the City. The move was not a distant one for it was to a house which had belonged to the College of St Stephen in Westminster with the sign of the George next to St Dunstan’s Church in Fleet Street, at the corner where Chancery Lane runs into it. He was still but a few doors from Temple Bar, but this time on the right side of it. The year 1500 was also an important one to Pynson, for in that year Cardinal Morton died, who had been a valuable patron, and at whose cost the beautiful Sarum Missal of 1500 had been produced.

The first book issued by Pynson at his new address was an edition of the Sarum Directorium Sacerdotum, of which there is a perfect copy at Ripon, and an imperfect one in the British Museum, which belonged to Cranmer. The colophon sets forth that it was printed “intra barram novi templi” in 1501, so that the date of Pynson’s move to St Dunstan’s parish is clearly defined as between the publication of the Book of Cookery in 1500 and this Directorium in 1501.

The only other book issued this year was a small tract describing the escort and reception to be accorded to Katherine of Aragon.

Before speaking further of Pynson I should like to refer to a point which I emphasized when speaking of De Worde and Notary, that is, the method he followed in dating his books. In my former lectures I asserted that he probably began his year on January 1, and for this reason. The beautiful Missal printed at the expense of Cardinal Morton was finished on January 10, 1500, and the Cardinal died in September of that year. If Pynson meant by his January 10, 1500, what we should call 1501, then the book would have been issued after the Cardinal’s death, and though the colophon tells us that the book was printed at his command and expense, it has no mention of his being dead.

The book called the Rule of St Benet has sometimes been pointed out as a proof of Pynson beginning his year on March 25. The words in the preface run, “We have ... caused it to be emprinted by our wel beloved Rycharde Pynson of London printer. The XXII. day of the monethe of January, the yere of oure Lorde M.CCCCC.XVI. and the VIII. yere of the reigne of oure soverayne lorde kynge Henry the VIII.” In this case January 22, 1516, is clearly what we should call 1517, but then the words are not those of the printer but of the author, and it is noteworthy that the printer in his colophon gives no date at all. Doubtless a detailed examination of all books printed between January 1, and March 25, would settle the question, but such an examination is at the present time very difficult. To perform such work exactly a very large number of minute tests have to be formulated and applied, and library after library visited, frequently three or four times as new developments are discovered. When the day comes that our best libraries have adequate photographic facilities these questions will be nearer solution. In 1502 Pynson printed nine books, mostly of a liturgical or scholastic nature, the only one deserving of particular notice being the Sarum Processional issued in November. Of this book one copy is known printed upon vellum, which is now in the library of St John’s College, Oxford.

In 1503 Pynson printed three books, the first English translation of the Imitatio Christi, a new edition of the Directorium Sacerdotum, and an edition of the Mirror of the Life of Christ. This last book I can only give on the authority of the catalogue of Edwards the bookseller, in 1794, for I do not know where any perfect copy is preserved. A slightly imperfect copy however presumably of this edition was sent to me to examine a few years ago. In 1504 the only dated book is a very fine Sarum Missal, of which there is a copy in Emmanuel College and a copy on vellum, slightly imperfect, in Manchester. A curious work on natural philosophy by Hieronymus de Sancto Marcho issued in 1505 has Pynson’s device on the title, though it seems probable that he was not the printer. The printer, whoever he was, had not a full supply of numerals, and in place of the two 5’s in the date he has printed two small black-letter h’s as the nearest approach in type to the numeral. The remaining books of this year are of small interest.

In 1506 Pynson issued an edition of the Principia of Peregrinus de Lugo for the Oxford bookseller George Castellain. The imprint runs “per Ricardum Pinson cum Solerti cura ac diligentia honestissimi juvenis ac prudentissimi Hugonis Meslier.” Nothing whatever is known of this assistant of Pynson’s, whose name occurs only in this book. In this same year was issued an edition of the Kalendar of Shephardes, which has a curious preface referring to the earlier edition of 1503, which was translated from the French into the Scottish language and printed at Paris by Antoine Verard; and also a Sarum Manual of which there are two copies on vellum, one in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the other at Stonyhurst. In 1507 two noteworthy books were issued, an edition of the Golden Legend, of which the unique (and happily quite perfect) copy is at Lambeth, and a Sarum Breviary, of which two copies are known, both printed on vellum and not quite perfect. The copy in the Rylands Library, the one described by successive bibliographers, was in the collections of Ratcliffe and Count MacCarthy but the date had been cut out of the colophon and the book was usually ascribed to 1508. However, four years ago another copy appeared for sale in an auction and was bought by a private collector. In it the colophon was quite perfect and gave the exact date, August 25, 1507.

Some time after May, 1508, on the death of William Faques, Pynson succeeded to the office of Printer to the King; so that he was not as usually stated appointed by Henry VIII. At first an annuity of two pounds was paid him and in 1515 the sum was raised to four pounds. The office of King’s Printer though in many ways lucrative was not without its drawbacks. Though he obtained all Government work he was compelled to lay aside his other work until it was finished, which must sometimes have been inconvenient.

The stirring events of 1509 seem to have had no effect on Pynson’s work, and while W. de Worde issued some thirty dated books he contented himself with five, and only one was of any importance from a literary point of view. This was Alexander Barclay’s translation of Brant’s Ship of Fools. This fine folio is printed in black-letter and roman type and contains a number of excellent woodcuts. It also contains the full-page cut of Pynson’s arms here used for the first time, and probably only lately granted to him on his appointment as King’s Printer, which carried with it the title of Esquire. A small work of Savonarola issued on the eighth of September this year is interesting as being the first dated work issued in England printed entirely in Roman letter, though it is not improbable that the undated oration of Peter Gryphus also issued this year may be a month or two earlier.

It is quite evident on examining the various accounts paid to Pynson by the King that a great deal of his official work has absolutely disappeared. In the many cases where definite proclamations, statutes, or similar productions are quoted, hardly any evidence of their existence is now to be found. Of course having once served their purpose they would become obsolete and mere waste, but as many were printed on vellum—in one case we find 400 skins printed, in another 450—it seems impossible that all could have been entirely destroyed. Numbers no doubt found their way into the hands of the bookbinders and were used to line bindings, for which purpose, having one side blank, they were very suitable; and it is from old bindings that the greater number of those extant have been recovered.

In 1511 he issued the Pylgrymage of Sir Richard Guylforde, a most interesting book to read, as it gives a vivid description of a journey to the Holy Land and of the death and burial of Sir Richard while there.

Among the books of 1513 was an edition of Lidgate’s Sege and Destruccyon of Troye, of which he printed several copies on vellum, one of which is in Pepys’s collection, as he did also of the Statutes of War, which appeared in the same year, though no copies are now known. Another lost book of this year would have had peculiar interest. Ammonius wrote to Erasmus, shortly after Flodden, “Petrus Carmelianus has just published an epitaph on the King of Scots, stuffed full of womanly abuse, which you may soon read printed in Pynson’s type.” For the next few years there is little of interest to chronicle in his work.

In 1521 was issued Henry VIII’s book the Assertio septem sacramentorum. As might be expected many copies were printed on vellum and sent round as presents to the princes of Europe, generally containing an inscription in the King’s hand. Four copies at least are now in existence, two being in the Vatican. About this book there is a curious story. Montaigne in the journal of his voyage to Italy in 1581 said, “I saw the original of the book that the King of England composed against Luther which he sent about fifty years since to Pope Leo X subscribed of his proper hand with this beautiful Latin distich, also of his hand,

Anglorum rex Henricus, Leo decime, mittit

Hoc opus, et fidei testem et amicitiae.

Unfortunately there is still extant among the State papers a letter from Cardinal Wolsey to Henry in which the Cardinal writes, “I do send also unto your highnes the choyse of certyne versis to be written in the booke to be sent to the pope of your owne hande.” So much for the royal author.

Between 1522 and 1525 the first edition of Froissart was issued in two folio volumes, and it is one of those books that puzzle the bibliographer as there are many variations and cancels in the different copies. In 1522 appeared Tunstall’s De arte supputandi, generally described as the first English printed book on arithmetic. A presentation copy on vellum is in the University Library and another imperfect vellum copy in Christ’s College. In 1526 appeared an edition of Chaucer to which I think proper attention has not been paid. It is generally described as consisting only of the Canterbury Tales, but this is not the case. The book was issued in various parts of which the Canterbury Tales is one, and other works were issued in other parts though no library contains a complete set. How many parts really existed I do not know, but it looks as if the intention had been to issue the complete works. In 1526 and 1527 editions of Henry’s VIII letters against Martin Luther were issued, but unlike the Assertio no copies seem to have been printed on vellum.

Beyond the issue of three small law-books in 1528 Pynson seems to have issued nothing up to his death in 1530, and there is no obvious reason to account for this. There is something rather mysterious about the relations between Pynson and Robert Redman, who will be noticed later, for all the books printed by the latter between 1528 and the death of Pynson, when he succeeded to his shop, bear no address, and it is just possible that some arrangement had been made between them. The bindings produced by Pynson are of very rare occurrence. He used two panels of a small size. One contains his mark within a broad border and is very similar in design to his device. The other contains the Tudor rose in the centre with a border of foliage and flowers and vine-leaves in the corners. There is an example in the British Museum.

Pynson died at the beginning of the year 1530 and his will dated November 1529 was proved on the 18th of February following. He left property in Chancery Lane and Tottenham but there is little of interest in the will itself. He left bequests to his two apprentices John Snowe and Richard Withers on condition of their faithfully serving out their apprenticeships. At the time of his death he had only one child alive, his daughter Margaret, who had married first a certain William Campion, probably a stationer, by whom she had two daughters, Amye and Joane, and secondly a man named Warde. Pynson’s son Richard is described as lately deceased, but he had left a daughter Joan who was old enough to be married in 1537. It is almost certainly this son Richard, and not as usually asserted his father, who took out letters of denization in 1513, for Richard Pynson the elder could never have risen to be King’s Printer and to have the right to bear arms without having been made a denizen. Everything points to the fact that he was not only denizened but naturalised, but the son who from his age must have been born abroad would require letters of denization also.

After Pynson’s death at the beginning of 1530 a certain John Haukins completed and issued the curious book on which Pynson had been at work for some time, L’Eclarcissement de la langue Française by John Palsgrave. The history of this book is somewhat mysterious. At the end of 1523 an indenture was made out between John Palsgrave and Pynson for the printing of 60 reams of paper at six and eightpence a ream. Another indenture of the same year was for printing 750 copies of Lesclarcissement de la lange Francoys, containing three sundry books. Pynson engaged to print daily a sheet on both sides [that is four pages] and Palsgrave agreed not to keep him waiting for copy.

The final indenture dated January 18, 15 Hen. VIII [1524], between John Palsgrave, prebendary of St Paul’s, and Richard Pynson citizen and stationer of London, arranges for the printing of a book named Lez le Clarissimaunt de la lange Francois, containing three books, with certain tables and a French vocabulist. Palsgrave will pay six and eightpence for each ream of paper 20 quires; 750 copies are to be printed, of which Pynson shall have as many as, at a price agreed between them, will pay him at the above rate. Clauses to be inserted that Pynson shall not print more than 750 till that number is sold, and that Palsgrave shall deliver the copy from time to time truly corrected. The book as we now have it consists of three parts. The first has the title, introduction, and index, and a privilege from the King dated September 2, 1530, so that the printing must be after that date. The second contains two books, one on pronunciation, the other on the nine parts of speech and ends with Pynson’s device. The third part contains the third book with tables of words and ending with this colophon, “Thus endeth this booke called Lesclarissement de la langue Francoyse, whiche is very necessarye for all suche as intende to lerne to speke trewe frenche; the imprintyng fynyssed by Johan Haukyns the XVIII daye of July. The yere of our lorde god, M.CCCCC. and XXX.” In the preface of the author to the King he speaks of his having formerly written two “sundrie” books on the subject which he had “offred” to the Princess Mary, the King’s sister, and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, her husband. These two books I take to be the two contained in the second part of Lesclarcissement which were certainly printed by Pynson. A curious piece of information about the book occurs in a letter dated April 13, 1529, written by Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell. In it he says that “he wishes to learn French and when in London asked Mr Palsgrave for one of his books, which he refused. Requests Cromwell to get one for him, as Palsgrave will not refuse him. Hears he has told Pynson to sell them only to those he names lest his profit as a teacher should be diminished. Would esteem one no less than a jewel and will send Cromwell something of greater value in return.”

Now in Pynson’s first agreement he was to print 60 reams of paper, that is 1200 quires and 750 copies of the book. This gives to each copy of the book 1-3/5 quires of paper, and taking twenty sheets to the quire, each book would contain 64 leaves. The middle part of Lesclarcissement consists of 60 leaves without any title-page or prefatory matter. My theory is that this portion with a title and preface was issued in or soon after 1524. We see that Palsgrave was very chary of selling copies, so that many would remain in the printer’s hands. At a much later date the large third part containing the vocabularies was put in hand and finished in July, 1530, by John Haukins. The copies of the middle part were added to it, their old title and prefatory matter cancelled and a new title, index, and prefatory matter printed for the whole book some time after September 1530.

As the wording of the agreements mentioned above is slightly ambiguous, a word of explanation is necessary. The 6s. 8d. which Palsgrave paid per ream was the price of the paper itself and not the printing of it. Palsgrave was to pay for the paper and Pynson was to have so many copies to sell at a rate agreed upon as would repay him his outlay in printing. The average cost at that time for printing in comparison to paper was as four to one. The ream costing 6s. 8d., the printing and printer’s profit of the ream would amount to £1. 6s. 8d., thus the total cost of a ream, paper, printing, and all would be £1. 13s. 4d. I have collected many notices of the price of printing-paper from the time of Arnold’s Chronicle (about 1496) during the whole of our period, and while writing-paper went so high as thirty-four shillings and fourpence a ream, printing-paper was invariably 6s. 8d.

William Faques, who succeeded Peter Actors, the first stationer to the King, as the first King’s Printer, is but a very shadowy figure, and of his life we know nothing. He was a native of Normandy, and Herbert suggests, but without any reason, that he may have learned his art with Jean le Bourgeois. The only date connected with his books is 1504, in which year he printed a proclamation on the coinage, the Statutes of the Nineteenth Year of Henry VII, and a Latin Psalter. This last book shows that unknown or not Faques was a skilful printer, for it is one of the most beautiful books issued from the early English press. The type is sharp and brilliant, the printing in red well done, and each page is surrounded with a chain-like border. On the first leaf is the printer’s device, a very uncommon one, consisting of two triangles. On one is the verse (Psalm xxxvii. 16) in black letters on a white ground, “Melius est modicum iusto super divitias peccatorum multas.” On the second triangle in white letters on a black ground the text (Prov. xvi. 32), “Melior est patiens viro forti et qui dominat.” Thus stopping suddenly, not only in the middle of a verse, but the middle of a word.

In the centre is his monogram transfixed by an arrow. The presence of this arrow is very puzzling, for it also plays an important part in the device of Richard Faques, William’s successor. The early printers were very fond, where possible, of introducing punning allusions into their devices, and this arrow may have some connexion with the name Faques.

Of the Psalter some six copies are known, and one printed upon vellum is in the library of Emmanuel College.

The Statutes, of which only the British Museum copy is known, has a fairly full colophon, “Here endeth the statutes holden at Westmestyr the xxv day of Janiuere in ye xix yere of ye moste nobyll reigne of kynge Henry the VII. Enprynted in London within Seynt Helens be Guillam Faques ye kyng Prynter.” St Helens was in Bishopsgate Ward. Two other books with Faques’ name are known, an edition of the Vulgaria Terentii, and the homily of Origen, De beata Maria Magdalena. Both these little books are without date and both are stated to have been printed in Abchurch Lane. Two copies are known of the Origen, of the Vulgaria the only known copy is in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. These books are curious in having the top part of the title cut in wood, a peculiarity which Pynson copied immediately afterwards, perhaps employing the same woodcutter.

William Faques no doubt died in 1508 for R. Pynson was appointed King’s Printer in that year. He was succeeded in business by Richard Faques, who was presumably a near relation and a foreigner, and we may discard as a fable the statement made to Ames by “Mr Thomas Wilson of Leeds, in Yorkshire,” who in a letter 2 April, 1751, informed him that Richard Fawkes, printer, was second son of John Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, in the said county, Esq.; and in a pedigree he had of that family he was called printer, of London.

In 1509 Richard Faques issued the Salus corporis salus anime of Gulielmus de Saliceto, a book printed with his predecessor’s type and with the chain ornament, and in 1511 issued with W. de Worde an edition of the Sarum Missal. His device, very well cut, is a copy of that used by Thielman Kerver, but with some alterations. Two unicorns standing amid flowers and foliage support a shield hung from a large arrow on which are the initials R.F. and a maiden’s head, in reference to the sign of the shop where he carried on business, the Maiden’s Head in St Paul’s Churchyard. Below on a ribbon his name is cut, Richard Faques. In 1521 when we next find a dated book he had removed to another shop in the churchyard with the sign of the A. B. C. He had also made a change in his device, anglicising his name by cutting out the “ques” of Faques and inserting “kes” in its place in type. It is interesting to notice that in all the five dated books which he issued he made a change in the spelling of his name, each time making it more English. In 1509 it was Fax, in 1511 Faques, in 1521 Fakes, in 1523 Faukes, and in 1530 Fawkes. In 1523 besides his shop in St Paul’s Churchyard he had a dwelling-house, where probably he printed, in Durham Rents, in the Strand. In the assessment of Aliens for the subsidy of 1524 as printed by the Huguenot Society a Richard Far is given in the Strand, and I think it is quite likely that Far is a misreading for Fax. A good deal of the Strand was in Westminster, and in the Westminster denization roll of 1544 is one Amelyne Faxe, widow, aged 70 years, in England 55 years. “Hath the Kinge’s Magestie’s proteccion of his grace gyft to Richard Faxe her husbond, late deceased, to remayn and dwell within this realm, but her landlorde will not suffre her to dwell in house.”

The Richard Fawkes here mentioned, if he was the same as the printer, died in 1538 and was buried in the parish of St Martin in the Fields.

The last book issued by R. Faques was the Mirrour of Our Lady of 1530 printed at the desire and instance of the abbess and general confessor of the Monastery of Syon. It is a beautiful volume with several woodcuts, one of them signed E. G. similar to one in a Pynson book, and a number of curious initial letters. A certain Michael Fawkes was joined with Robert Copland in 1534-5 in printing an edition of the Tree and XII frutes of the holy goost, and also printed the Consolation of timorouse and fearfull consciencys of which there is a copy in the British Museum, but beyond this nothing is known of him.

Robert Redman began to print in the year 1523, his first book, of which there is a copy in the Cambridge University Library, being an edition of Fitzherbert’s Diversite de courtz. His next dated book, an edition of the Magna Charta, was issued in 1525, and in this his address is given at the sign of the George in St Clement’s parish, elsewhere described as just outside Temple Bar. Considering the custom of printers in successively occupying the same houses, it is probable that this is the same printing-office as that used first by Pynson and then by Julian Notary. Now at this time Pynson was at work close by on the other side of Temple Bar and his sign was also the George, and when Redman not only used his sign but began to issue editions of the books he had been accustomed to print, we can understand the older printer becoming very indignant. The publication of an edition of Littleton’s Tenures by Redman apparently brought matters to a crisis, and Pynson in his edition of the same book issued in 1525 gave expression to his feelings in a somewhat strongly worded “letter to the reader.” In it he points out how much more correct and well printed his work is as compared with that of Robert Redman, or more properly Rudeman, for among a thousand it would be hard to find one more unskilled. He wonders how he can call himself a printer, unless the devil made him one when he made the cobbler into a skipper. Formerly the scoundrel professed himself as skilled a bookseller as ever came from Utopia, well knowing a thing can be called a book when it has merely the appearance of one and little else. He finishes up by abusing him for daring to promise that he could print the laws of England properly, and asks the reader to judge for himself. To this invective Redman returned no answer but continued to issue his books as before, and though Pynson on one or two other occasions repeated his attacks they produced no effect, unless perhaps the addition to his colophons which Redman sometimes printed, “Si deus nobiscum quis contra nos.”

It was suggested by Herbert and others that Redman removed into Fleet Street before April 18, 1527. There certainly is an edition of the Modus tenendi unum hundredum of that date with a distinct colophon stating that the book was printed by Redman at the George in St Dunstan’s parish that is within Temple Bar, outside being St Clement’s parish. But this date must be a misprint, not only because colophons of 1528 again give him as living in St Clement’s parish, but also he could hardly have occupied Pynson’s house while the latter was still at work. It is a curious point to notice that during the period between 1528 and 1530 Redman gives no address in his books. Immediately on Pynson’s death, however, at the beginning of 1530 Redman not only moved into his house, but took over part of his material, and for the future made use of one or other of his old rival’s devices. Previous to this he had no distinctive device, but made use of some small cuts, one of the Infant Christ seated, another of St George, and a third of the Trinity. He used in all, three of Pynson’s devices, the original black block with the white monogram with which Pynson had first started, a rarer small metal device, not often used, which has a pierced ribbon at the bottom in which the printer’s name could be inserted in type, and the large late wood-block. On March 23, 1530, he issued the first book from his new address, an edition of the Natura Brevium. The book is dated March 23, 1529, but this must of course mean 1530, and shows that at any rate as regards law-books Redman began his year on March 25. To law-books Redman mainly confined his attention, and the books in other classes which he issued are not as a rule of much interest. He appears not to have had much initiative, but contented himself with reprinting popular books. In 1533 this practice led him into trouble, for in February of that year he was bound over in the sum of 500 marks not to sell the book called ‘The division of the Spiritualty and the Temporalty’ nor any other book privileged by the King. The printing of this book had been granted to Berthelet, who as King’s Printer would be in a position to enforce his rights. It was of this book that More wrote in his Apology, “And in this poynt they lay for a sample the goodlye and godlye, milde and gentle fashion used by him, whosoever he was, that now lately wrote the booke of the division betwene the temporaltie and the spiritualtie, which charitable mild manner they say that if I had used, my woorkes would have been read both of many moe, and with much better will.” The authorship though unknown to More is generally ascribed to Christopher St Germain.

Among the more interesting books printed by Redman may be mentioned editions of the Life of Christ, The Frute of Redempcion, The Pomander of Prayer, Fewterer’s Myrrour of Christes Passion written in 1533 and printed the year after, and Whitford’s Dayly Exercise in which he complains, like Caxton, that having been asked to write out his book over and over again he had thought better to print it and thus save himself so much labour.

A very curious border piece was sometimes used by Redman, as for instance in the English translation of Lyndewode’s Constitutions of 1534 and the Book of Justices of Peas, which contains in the lower margin the initials I. N. and I. M. Who these initials refer to I have not been able to discover, but the design of the border was popular and was used by Pynson and at Antwerp by Michael Hillenius, while it is also found in some of Tindale’s books. It may have been engraved for some stationer and afterwards obtained by Redman. The last important work on which Redman was engaged was a folio edition of the Bible, which he printed in partnership with Thomas Petyt for Berthelet.

Redman died in 1540 between October 21, the date of his will, and November 4, when it was proved. He left his property to be divided into three parts. The first for bequests and funeral expenses, the second to his wife, and the third to his children. One of his executors was his son-in-law Henry Smith, a stationer and printer of law-books who lived at the sign of the Trinity, without Temple Bar, in St Clement’s parish, perhaps the very house which had once been in the occupation of Redman, who had used a device of the Trinity as one of his early marks. Redman’s wife Elizabeth, whose maiden name had been Pickering, continued to carry on the business by herself for a short while, but retired on her remarriage with Ralph Cholmondeley, when the printing-office and its effects passed to William Middleton.

Title-page to R. Redman’s edition of Lyndewode’s ‘Constitutions’
of 1534.

A certain John Redman, born in 1508 and who was in business as a stationer at least as early as 1530, may have been a relation, though there is no direct proof. He printed at Southwark a small work of Cicero for Robert Redman which lends some probability to the theory, and on Robert’s death in 1540 he appears to have moved to London to a shop in Paternoster Row with the sign of Our Lady of Pity.

Thomas Berthelet, Pynson’s successor as King’s Printer, seems to have been at one time in his employment as apprentice or assistant, and may most probably be identical with the Thomas Bercula or Berclaeus who speaks of himself as the printer in several books issued by Pynson. The earliest in which this name appears is an edition of the Vulgaria of Whitinton issued in 1520, and after the editor’s preface is a short address to the reader by Thomas Bercula Typographus. There is no definite statement to connect Bercula and Berthelet and yet it is hard to see who else the name could apply to. Berthelet may have come into the business to take the place of Pynson’s son Richard who had died, but it is curious that there is no reference to him in Pynson’s will. In 1524 Berthelet married his first wife, for it seems most probable that he is the person referred to in the following entry in the register of marriage licences granted by the Bishop of London, “1524 August 23 Thomas Barthelett of St Dunstan in the West and Agnes Langwyth, widow, at St Bride’s, Fleet Street.” In 1528 he started business on his own account, his first book being Thomas Paynell’s translation of the Regimen sanitatis Salerni: ‘This boke techying al people to governe them in helthe.’ The colophon runs “Imprinted in London in Flete Strete in the House of Thomas Berthelet nere to ye cundite at ye signe of Lucrece. Anno domini 1528, mense Augusto.” Another work of Paynell’s, entitled The Assault and Conquest of Heaven, was issued in 1529. Berthelet’s shop must have been further east than Pynson’s and close by Wynkyn de Worde’s, though it is impossible to say on which side of Fleet Street it stood. Two other early books often quoted as earlier than 1530 may be noted here. One is a work by Wakefield on the divorce controversy, quoted by Wood in the Athenae Oxonienses and dated by him 1528, the other is an edition of the Statutes, the first book of Berthelet’s given by Herbert and said to be dated 1529. The first of these, of which there is a copy in the Bodleian, is without date, but from the subject-matter cannot be before 1533 and from the fact that the printer is styled King’s Printer could not be earlier than 1530. For this latter reason also the Statutes of 1529 must be non-existent. One or two books, such as Erasmus on the Lord’s Prayer, in which he does not style himself King’s Printer, may perhaps be assigned to before 1530.

On February 15, 1530, immediately after Pynson’s death, Berthelet was appointed Printer to the King with an annuity of four pounds. Just a few days before he had issued an edition of Paynell’s translation of the Regimen sanitatis Salerni which is very interesting as illustrating a point I have several times referred to. The book is dated February, 1530, and Berthelet is not spoken of as King’s Printer, a fact he emphasized very particularly as soon as he had risen to that position. We may conclude therefore that in this colophon February 1530 does not mean February 1531 and that therefore Berthelet calculated his year as beginning on January 1.

After the Royal appointment Berthelet’s press started on an active career, and the first book issued, naturally one on the political question then engaging the attention of Europe, was an important work on the subject of the royal divorce. This was the first edition, in Latin, of the Determinations of the most famous Universities, written and collected for the purpose of strengthening the King’s position. It was issued in April and an English translation appeared in the following November. In June two proclamations were issued, one for the punishing of “vagabondes and sturdy beggars,” the other for “dampning” erroneous books and heresies, and prohibiting the translation of Scripture. The first of these is printed on one sheet of paper, the second on a sheet and a half, and the printer was paid for 1600 of the two £8. 6s. 8d., that is, one penny each for the single sheet and a penny halfpenny for the sheet and a half. In each penny the cost of the paper represented one-fifth, for “paper royall” which was then used for printing cost six and eightpence a ream, the remaining four-fifths representing all the cost of printing and the profit.

The number of proclamations printed by Berthelet now in existence is very large, but nothing to compare with the number which he must really have printed. Looking at such documents as his three year’s accounts which have been preserved, and casual entries in records, it is clear that not a tithe is represented by existing specimens, though we are more lucky in his case than in Pynson’s, almost every one of whose productions in this class has been destroyed.

In 1531 Berthelet issued the first edition of Sir Thomas Elyot’s Book named the Governour, a work he frequently reprinted, and he seems to have published all Elyot’s works, which with their various editions amount to a considerable number. In 1533 he issued the Dialogue betwixte two englyshe men, wherof one was called Salem and the other Bizance. This work written by Christopher St Germain was an answer to Sir Thomas More’s Apology, which in its turn was an attack upon St Germain’s Division of the Spiritualty and Temporalty.

More’s answer to the first mentioned book was printed by William Rastell in the same year and entitled The Debellacyon of Salem and Bizance.

Among the many beautiful borders which Berthelet used for his books there is one about which a word of warning should be said. It has engraved upon it the date 1534, and as it was in use for several years it has given rise to great confusion in the dating of books.

In 1537 was issued the celebrated Institution of a Christian Man, called the Bishops’ Book in contradistinction to the Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man, or King’s book, issued in 1543. Both are versions of the same work, but the first has a Preface of the Prelates to Henry VIII, the second has an introduction by the King.

In 1542 Sir Thomas Elyot published his Latin dictionary, and he appears to have issued or intended to issue a copy on vellum, for in the Bodleian are five leaves so printed, consisting of the title, the prologue to Henry VIII in English, an address to the reader in Latin, and the table of errata. In 1542 he printed another book upon vellum, Lily’s Introduction of the Eight Parts of Speech.

In 1540 a work by Nicholas Borbonius was issued at Basle in which there is a Latin poem addressed by the learned author to Berthelet and worded in a most laudatory style. There is no doubt that Berthelet’s printing and beautiful type were alone in England able to rival the work of the foreign printers.

On the accession of Edward VI in 1547, Berthelet lost his position as King’s Printer, and a new one, Richard Grafton, was appointed, a custom now for the first time introduced, as hitherto the appointment had been for life. For the succeeding eight years of his life we lose the familiar “Regius Impressor” of his colophons, and this helps in a small degree in the dating of undated books. He seems, however, to have become much less active after the loss of his privilege and probably left much of the printing business in the hands of his nephew Thomas Powell, who succeeded him, and his servants. The various purchases of land which he made from time to time point to his having built up a considerable fortune, and apart from his purchases in or about London he had estates in Hereford.

Besides being printer to Henry VIII Berthelet was also the Royal bookbinder, and it is hard to speak too highly of his skill and taste in this direction. The beauty of the Italian bindings seems to have greatly struck his fancy and it is supposed that he brought over some workmen from Venice both to work for him and to teach his own men. In his accounts rendered to the King, some of which fortunately have been preserved, he speaks of books decorated in the Venetian manner, and the tools used on them are direct copies of those used by Aldus of Venice and other contemporary Italian binders. He made use of one very distinctive tool, similar to some found on Oriental work, by means of which the design appears upon the leather plain while the whole background is gilt. A good deal of the King’s binding was done in velvet or white leather. To show the relative value of books and binding take the following entry, “Item delyuered to the kinges the XXIII day of January [1542] a booke of the psalter in Englishe and Latyne, the price VIIId., and a booke entitled Enarracones Evangeliorum Dominicalium, the price XIId. and for the gorgious byndyng of them backe to backe IIIIs. IVd.” Or again, “Item delyuered unto the kinges highnes the XV day of January [1542] a New Testament in Latyne and a Psalter Englishe and Latyne bounde backe to backe in white leather, gorgiously gilted on the leather, the bookes came to IIs. the byndynge and arabaske drawyng in golde on the transfile IIIIs.”

It is worth noticing, however, that such tenants of Berthelet as were bookbinders were all Frenchmen.

The date of Berthelet’s death has been only surmised and never given correctly by bibliographers. Fortunately he held land from the King, so that at his death an inquest was held by the escheator, and full and interesting details are preserved among the Inquisitiones post mortem. From this source we learn that his death took place on September 26th, 1555; that Margaret Berthelet was his second wife, and that his eldest son Edward was born on July 24th, 1553. His will, made two days before his death, was proved on November 9th, and by it he left estates to his widow and his two sons Edward and Anthony and legacies to apprentices, godchildren, and charities. A considerable bequest also went to his nephew Thomas Powell, presumably his sister’s son, who succeeded him in business.

We have an account of Berthelet’s funeral, preserved in Henry Machyn’s diary:

“The sam day at afternone was bered master Barthelet sqwire and prynter unto Kyng Henry; and was bered with pennon and cote-armur, and IIII dosen of skochyons, and II whytt branchys and IIII gylt candyllstykes and mony prestes and clarkes, and mony mornars, and all the craftes of prynters, boke-sellers, and all stassyoners.”

Among all the early presses that of Berthelet was preeminent for good workmanship. Though he avoided as far as possible the use of illustrations, all the ornamentation he used was in good taste, and in beauty and variety of type he surpassed all printers of the century.

John Rastell stands quite apart from other early English printers. Nearly all we know about them comes from the books they printed while we know little or nothing about their lives. In the case of Rastell we know a good deal about his career, but little about his books. He is said to have been born in London, and was educated at Oxford, afterwards entering Lincoln’s Inn and practising the law, in which he was very successful. He must have been of considerable social position, for he married Elizabeth More, the sister of Sir Thomas More. Some time before 1516 he printed an edition of the Liber Assisarum, in which he refers to the projected publication of Fitzherbert’s Great Abridgement, which appeared in three majestic volumes in that year.

About 1520 he moved his printing establishment to a house, “next Paul’s gate,” which he named the Mermaid, the same sign that he had previously used elsewhere, and a lawsuit which took place about 1534 in connexion with this house throws considerable light on the printer’s habits. He appears to have left all practical work to his assistants, going off to his house in the country for months at a time and subletting part of the printing-office to other tenants, among whom were successively William Bonham, John Heron, Thomas Kele, and John Gough, all of them stationers.

Up to the year 1526 Rastell had issued only four dated books, all connected with the law, but in that year he started out in an entirely new style and published two extraordinary books, The merry jests of the widow Edith, and the Hundred mery tales, neither such as we should have expected from so grave a printer. About 1529 appeared his Pastime of People, remarkable for a number of large, clumsy woodcuts. Much has been written about this book and its variations, and it is generally asserted that the British Museum copy is the only perfect one known. There is, however, a very fine and perfect copy in a private library in this country. Another curious book he issued is Lucian’s Necromantia, of which there is a copy at Shirburn Castle.

In 1530 Rastell was drawn into the religious controversies then becoming violent, and wrote and printed his New Boke of Purgatory in defence of the Romish doctrine. This was answered by John Fryth in his Disputation of Purgatory. Several controversial pamphlets were written by the two opponents with the result that Rastell became a convert to the Protestant religion. This change appears to have been a cause of trouble to Rastell, who writing to Cromwell in 1536 laments the loss of both business and friends. His law earnings, which had been over twenty nobles a term, had fallen to under forty shillings a year and his printing business had fallen off proportionately, and there is no book definitely known to exist dated later than 1530. While most of Rastell’s books are legal in character, he is also the printer of several curious interludes or plays such as the Interlude of the four elements, the Interlude of women, Play concerning Lucretia, Skelton’s Magnificence, Heywood’s Gentleness and Nobility. The reason for his printing these is not far to seek. He was extremely fond of giving performances of plays at his house and the records have been preserved of a curious lawsuit brought against him by a theatrical costumier on account of dresses supplied. Rastell in 1536 freely expressed his opinions against the paying of tithes, and perhaps on this account or some other not now known was thrown into prison, where he shortly after died. His will dated April 20 and proved October 12 is a rather remarkable document. He had but little to leave. His house which had been made over to his wife on their marriage he bequeaths to her. To his eldest son William only forty shillings, and to his other son John a small annuity he had been left by his grandmother. Other small sums were left to Cromwell and the Lord Chancellor, and for one of his two executors he nominated the King himself, who very naturally renounced probate.

John Rastell’s son William was born about 1508 and went to Oxford in 1525, where though according to Wood he studied diligently he took no degree. His first book, issued in 1530, while his father was still printing, was an edition of Caesar’s Commentaries in Latin and English. His books, like his father’s, may be divided into three distinct classes, legal treatises, controversial works mostly by More, and plays and interludes. Amongst the latter are Heywood’s Play of Love, The Pardoner and the Friar, the Play of the Weather, and Johan Johan the husband and Tib the wife, copies of them all being in the library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Another play, Medwall’s Interlude of Nature, is in the British Museum. While still a printer he appears to have studied law, having been admitted a student in 1532, while he was called to the bar in 1539, where he practised with considerable success. Unlike his father he remained through life a staunch Catholic, and when Edward VI succeeded to the throne, he with many others of his faith sought refuge abroad. He lived in Louvain until Mary came to the throne when he returned to England and was rapidly advanced in his profession, until in 1558 he was made a judge in the Queen’s Bench, a position which he retained until 1563. Shortly afterwards he returned to Louvain, where he died on August 27, 1565. After he had given up printing on his own account William Rastell compiled and edited a considerable number of important law-books which continued to be reprinted for a long period. But the work by which he is best known is the edition of the complete works of his uncle Sir Thomas More, published in two volumes folio in 1557 by Richard Tottell.