In the long list of works printed by Berthelet which is given by Ames, there are statutes dated as early as 1529; and besides official publications, there are numerous miscellaneous books of an important character. Among these are several written by Sir Thomas Elyot and Erasmus; Gower’s Confessio Amantis; Lyttylton’s Tenures; bibles, dictionaries, plays, and chronicles.
On the title-page of a copy of Marcus Aurelius’s golden book is an ornamental border. This border consists of a design of boys in procession, one being carried on the shoulders of four others, and has at the top a medallion with two sphinxes; the same design, however, if not the same block, was used by other printers besides Berthelet. Berthelet’s own device is a figure of Lucretia stabbing herself, with a landscape in the distance and an architectural framework.
The colophons in Berthelet’s books are found both in Latin and in English, one of the most usual being:—
“Imprinted in Fletestrete in the house of Thomas Berthelet nere to the condite at the sygne of Lucrece.”
Common forms are also:—
“Londoni in Aedibus Tho. Bertheleti,” “Thome Bertheletus regius impressor excudebat,” and “Impressus Londini in edibus regii impressoris.”
And of rarer occurrence are the words:—
“In Aedibus Thome. Bertheleti typographi regii typis impress,” and “Impressum in Flete-Strete prope aquagium sub intersignio Lucretiae Romanae.”
There is a curious limit given as to price in a note at the end of a copy of the “Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man,” printed in 1543, which says: “This boke bounde in paper boordes or claspes, not to be sold aboue XVIᵈ.”
A few books were printed from 1556 to 1560 with Berthelet’s colophons, after his death, on which the word “late” is prefixed to his name, but this does not appear always to have been done.