Early Printed Books

by E. Gordon Duff

‘And John Tate the younger, joye mote he broke,

Whiche late hath in Englond doo made this paper thynne

That now in our englisshe this boke is prynted Inne.’

In 1496 appeared the curious reprint of the Book of St. Albans. It seems never to have been noticed that this book is entirely printed with the type which was obtained from Godfried van Os about the time of his removal to Copenhagen. Besides the Book of St. Albans, it has an extra chapter on fishing with an angle, the first treatise on the subject in English. An edition of the Dives and Pauper, with a handsome title-page, was issued this year, as well as a number of smaller books of considerable interest, as the Constitutions of Lyndewode, the Meditacions of St. Bernard, and the Festial and Quattuor Sermones. Among the dated books of 1497 are the Chronicles of England, an edition copied from the one printed at St. Albans; and it is from the colophon to this edition that we learn that the printer at St. Albans was ‘sometyme scole mayster’ there.

In 1498 three large and important books were printed; of these the first was an edition of the Golden Legend, of which only one perfect copy is known, in the Spencer Collection; the next, a second edition of the Morte d’Arthur, the first illustrated with woodcuts. The only known copy of this book, wanting ten leaves, is also in the Spencer Library. The third book was an edition of the Canterbury Tales. In 1499 a large number of books were printed, the most curious being an edition of Mandeville’s Travels, illustrated profusely with woodcuts of the wonders seen by the traveller, who got as far as the walls of Paradise, but did not look in. Of this book two copies, both imperfect, are known. A Book of Good Manners and a Psalterium, both known from single copies, were also printed in this year. An Ortus Vocabulorum, printed in 1500, is the last book which was issued by De Worde at Westminster. Altogether, from 1491 to the time he left Caxton’s old house at Westminster, W. de Worde printed about a hundred books, certainly not less; and he also had a few books printed for him, and at his expense, by other printers.

In a very large number of De Worde’s early books he inserted the cut of the crucifixion, which is first found in Caxton’s XV Oes. In 1499 the block split at the time when they were printing an edition of the Mirror of Consolation, sometime after the 10th July, so that all the books which contain the cut in its injured state must be later than 10th July 1499.

The year 1500 gives us an excellent date-mark for W. de Worde’s books, for in that year he moved from Westminster ‘in Caxton’s house,’ to London, in Fleet Street, at the sign of the Sun. Upon moving he seems to have destroyed or disposed of a good deal of printing material. Some of his woodcuts passed to Julian Notary, who was also at that time a printer in Westminster. One of his marks and some of his type disappear entirely at this time. The type which he had used in the majority of the books printed in the last few years of the fifteenth century we find in use up to 1508 or 1509, when it disappears from London to reappear at York; but his capitals and marks had changed. From 1504 onward he used in the majority of his books the well-known square device in three divisions, having in the upper part the sun and moon and a number of stars, In the centre the W. and C. and Caxton’s mark; below this the ‘Sagittarius’ shooting an arrow at a dog. It has not hitherto been noticed that of this device there are three varieties, identical to a superficial view, yet quite distinct and definitely marking certain periods. The first variety in use from 1505 to 1518 has in the upper part eleven stars to the left of the sun and nine to the right, while the white circular inlets at the ends of the W. are almost closed. The second variety used from 1519 to the middle of 1528 has the same number of stars, but the circular inlets at the ends of the letters are more open. The last variety has ten stars to the left of the sun and ten to the right. It was used from 1528 to the time of De Worde’s death. In the colophons of some of his early books De Worde mentions that he had another shop in St. Paul’s Churchyard, with the sign of Our Lady of Pity.

Wynkyn de Worde was essentially a popular printer, and he issued innumerable small tracts; short romances in prose and verse, books of riddles, books on carving and manners at table, almanacs, sermons, grammars, and such like. Many of these books were translations from the French, and were made by Robert Copland, who was one of De Werde’s apprentices. The later books of De Worde are often puzzling. He seems to have employed John Scot to print for him, and many books which have only De Worde’s name are in Scot’s type. One book is particularly curious. It is an edition of The Mirror of Golde for the Sinful Soul, 29th March 1522. Some copies have a colophon, ‘Imprinted at London withoute Newgate, in Saint Pulker’s Parysche, by John Scot.’ Other copies have the first sheet and the last leaf reset, while the colophon runs, ‘Imprinted at London in Fletestrete, at the sygne of the Sone, by Wynkyn de Worde.’

De Worde died at the end of 1534. His will is dated 5th June 1534, and it was proved 19th January 1535. His executors were John Bedill, who succeeded him in business, and James Gaver, probably a bookbinder, and one of the numerous family of that name who exercised their craft in the Low Countries. In the forty years that he printed, Wynkyn de Worde produced over six hundred books, that is, more than fifteen a year, a much higher average than any other early English printer attained.