THE SPREAD OF THE ART IN GREAT BRITAIN.
The introduction of printing into Scotland did not take place till 1508, in which year a printer named Andrew Myllar set up his press in the Southgait at Edinburgh. At this time the countries of Scotland and France were in close business communications, and many Scotsmen sought employment on the Continent. In 1496 a certain David Lauxius, a native of Edinburgh, was in the employment of Hopyl, the Paris printer, as a press corrector, an employment often undertaken by men of learning. Lauxius afterwards became a schoolmaster at Arras, and is several times spoken of by Badius Ascensius in the prefatory letters which he prefixed to his grammars. Such books as were needed were sent over to Scotland from France, and the probable cause of the introduction of printing into the former country was the desire of William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, to have his adaptation of the Sarum Breviary for the use of Aberdeen produced under his own personal supervision. Two men were readily found to undertake the work; one, Walter Chepman, a wealthy merchant, who supplied the necessary capital; the other, Andrew Myllar, a bookseller, who had several times employed foreign presses to print books for him, and had himself been abroad on business expeditions.
The books which had been printed for Myllar were, Multorum vocabulorum equivocorum interpretatio magistri Johannis de Garlandia, in 1505, and Expositio sequentiarum secundum usum Sarum, in 1506; both being without a printer’s name, but most probably from the press of P. Violette of Rouen.[37]
[37] Dr. Dickson, relying on the authority of M. Claudin, has ascribed these books to the press of Lawrence Hostingue of Rouen. From the facsimiles which he gives it is clear that the types are not identical. The books should rather be ascribed to Pierre Violette, who used, as far as can be seen, the same type; and who also used in his Expositio Hymnorum et Sequentiarum ad usum Sarum, printed in 1507, the woodcut of a man seated at a reading desk, which is found on the title-page of Myllar’s Garlandia.
As was to be expected, Myllar obtained his type from France, and probably from Rouen, but it bears no resemblance to that used in the books printed for him. Among the Rouen types it is most like that used by Le Talleur, but the resemblance is not very close. The capital letters seem identical with those used by De Marnef, at Paris, in his Nef des folz, and are also very like those of the Lyons printer, Claude Daygne.
Supplied with these types, Myllar returned to Edinburgh, and in the spring of 1508 issued a series of nine poetical pamphlets, the only known copies being now preserved in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh. These were all issued within a few days of each other, and neither the type nor the woodcuts show any indication of wear or blemishes which might enable some order to be assigned to them. These books, like Pynson’s early-quartos, are signed by the sheet, an indication that the printer learnt his art at Rouen.
In 1510 the Breviary was issued, and, were it not for the colophon, would pass as the production of a Norman press, It is in two volumes; the Pars Hiemalis, containing 400 leaves, the Pars Estivalis, 378. Only four copies are known, all imperfect. With the production of this book the Edinburgh press stopped for some while.
There is no doubt much yet to be learnt about the history of the first Scottish press, especially in its relations to those of Normandy, and there seems no reason why in time it should not become quite clear. Not only are the original books in existence, but also the acts relating to them. One other book must be noticed as having been printed in Scotland before 1530. This is the De compassione Beate Virginis Marie, a ‘novum festum’ issued for incorporation into the Breviary, and printed at Edinburgh, by John Story, about 1520. Of this little tract but one copy remains, which is bound up in the copy of the Aberdeen Breviary belonging to Lord Strathmore at Glamis. It consists of a single sheet of eight leaves, and, according to Dr. Dickson, is not printed in the same type as the Breviary.
From this time onward till Davidson began to print, it seems as though Scotland had no practised typographer. Hector Boece, John Vaus, and others, were obliged to send their books to be printed at a foreign press; Vaus indeed went over to Paris to superintend the printing of his Grammar by Badius, who was at that time the printer most favoured by Scottish authors.