Early Printed Books

by E. Gordon Duff

PAGE OF THE SARUM HORÆ.
(Printed by Machlinia.)

In the Holborn type there are a larger number of books, at least fourteen being known. Of these the best known and most common is the Speculum Christiani, supposed, from the occurrence of the name in a manuscript copy, to have been compiled by one Watton. It is interesting as containing specimens of early poetry. Another book was popular enough to run through three editions; this was the Treatise on the Pestilence, written by Kamitus or Canutus, bishop of Aarhuus. It is impossible to say when it was printed, or whether some panic connected with the plague caused a run upon it. One of the editions must have been almost the last book which Machlinia issued, for it contains the title-page already referred to. The most important book in this set in point of size is the Chronicles of England, of which only one perfect copy is known. In the copy in the British Museum occurs a curious thing. The book is a folio, but two of the leaves are printed as quarto. In this type are three law-books, Year-Books for years 34 and 37 of Henry VI., and the Statutes of Richard III. There are also two school-books, the Vulgaria Terentii and an interesting Donatus in folio, whose existence is known only from duplicate copies of one leaf. The remaining books are theological, and comprise two separate Nova Festa, or services for new feasts; one for the Visitation of the Virgin, the other for the Transfiguration of our Lord. These services were almost at once incorporated in the general volume of the Breviary, so that in a separate form they are very uncommon. The last book to be mentioned is the Regulæ et ordinationes of Innocent VIII., which must have been printed some time after 23rd September 1484, when that pope was elected. Of a later date still is a Bull of the same pope relating to Henry VII.’s title and marriage. It must have been printed after 7th November 1485 (the date of Parliament), and after 2nd March 1485-86 (the date of the Bull).

Another book should be mentioned here, which, though it cannot with certainty be ascribed to any known English printer, resembles most of all the work of Machlinia. It is an English translation by Kay of the Latin description of the Siege of Rhodes, written by Caorsin; a small folio of twenty-four leaves. Many of the letters seem the same as Machlinia’s, but with variations and modifications.

The number of founts of type used in this office throughout its existence was eleven, and of these two are very peculiar. One of the larger sets of type seems to have been obtained from Caxton, but it was hardly used at all. Another set of capital letters, which must have been obtained from abroad, occur in some of the latest books. They bear no resemblance to anything used by any other printer, and look rather as though they belonged to a fount of Roman type.

Though 1486 is the latest date which we can fix to any of Machlinia’s productions, it is probable that he continued to print up till about the year 1490.

Soon after the cessation of Machlinia’s press, his business seems to have been taken on by Richard Pynson, whose first dated book appeared in 1493. Though it is impossible to prove conclusively that Pynson succeeded Machlinia in business, many small points seem to show that this was the case. We find leaves of Machlinia’s books in bindings undoubtedly produced by Pynson, and he was also in possession of a border used by Machlinia in his edition of the Sarum Horæ. It is often said that Pynson was an apprentice of Caxton’s; but we have no evidence of this beyond the words in the prologue to the Chaucer, where Caxton is called ‘my worshipful master’—a title applied sometimes to Caxton by printers living fifty years after.[35]

[35] Blades, in his Life of Caxton, not only says that Pynson was Caxton’s apprentice, but that he used his mark in some of his books. This mistake has arisen from a doctored copy of Bonaventure’s Speculum vite Christi in the British Museum, which has a leaf with Caxton’s device inserted at the end.

In his patent of naturalisation of 30th July 1513, Pynson is described as a native of Normandy; and we know that he had business relations with Le Talleur of Rouen, who printed some law-books for him. These books, three in number, may be ascribed to about 1490, or to some time after Machlinia had ceased printing, and before Pynson had begun. It was probably very soon after 1490 that Pynson set up his printing establishment at the Temple Bar; for though his first dated book, the Dives and Pauper, is dated the 5th July 1493, there are one or two other books that can with certainty be placed before it.

A fragment of a grammar, consisting of the last leaf only, among the Hearne fragments in the Bodleian, is all that remains of one of his earliest books. It is printed entirely in his first large coarse type, which bears so much resemblance to some of Machlinia’s; and was used as waste to line the boards of a book before Passion Week, 1494.