The schoolmaster printer of St. Alban’s has left us no information as to his life, or even told us his name, and we should know nothing whatever about him had not W. de Worde referred to him as ‘sometime schoolmaster of St. Albans.’
The press was probably started in 1479; for though the earliest dated book is dated 1480, an edition from this press of Augustini Dacti elegancie, in quarto, is evidently earlier, being printed throughout in one type, the first of those used by this printer. Of this book one copy only is known, in the University Library, Cambridge.
In 1480 the schoolmaster printer issued the Rhetorica Nova of Laurentius de Saona, a book which Caxton was printing about the same time, and very soon after it the Questiones Alberti de modo significandi. These were followed by three more works in Latin, the Questiones super Physica Aristotelis of Joannes Canonicus, the Exempla Sacræ Scripturæ, and Antonius Andreæ super Logica Aristotelis. The remaining two books from this press, in contrast to those that had preceded them, are of a popular character. These are the Chronicles of England, and the treatise on hawking, hunting, and coat armour, commonly known as the Book of St. Alban’s.
All the eight St. Alban’s books are of the greatest rarity. More than half are known only from single copies; of some, not a single perfect copy remains.
The very scholastic nature of the majority of the books from this press renders it more or less uninteresting; but the two latest works, the Chronicles and the Book of St. Alban’s, appeal more to popular taste. Editions of the Chronicles were issued by every English printer, and there is nothing in this particular one to merit special remark. The Book of St. Alban’s, on the other hand, is a book of very particular interest. It consists of three parts; the first is devoted to hawking, the second to hunting, and the third to coat armours or heraldry. Naturally enough it was a popular book—so popular that no perfect copy now exists. It also possesses the distinction of being the first English book which contains specimens of printing in colour; for the coats-of-arms at the end are for the most part printed in their correct colour. Later in the century, in 1496, W. de Worde issued another edition of this book, adding to it a chapter on ‘Fishing with an angle.’
In these eight St. Alban’s books we find four different types used. The first is a small, clear-cut, distinctive type, but is only used for the text of one book and the signatures of others. Type No. 2, which is used for the text of the two English and one of the Latin books, is a larger ragged type, with a strong superficial resemblance to Caxton’s. Type No. 3, which is used in four Latin books, is a smaller type, full of abbreviations and contractions; while the last type is one which had belonged to Caxton (his type 3), but which he gave up using about 1484. This use of Caxton’s type has led some people to imagine that there was a close connection between the Westminster and St. Alban’s press; and a writer in the Athenæum went so far as to propound a theory that Caxton’s unsigned books were really printed at St. Alban’s.
CHAPTER X.
LONDON.