The English provincial printers, stationers and bookbinders to 1557

by E. Gordon Duff

The son of Peter Actors, Sebastian, certainly lived in Oxford in the parish of St Mary the Virgin, and was a stationer and bookbinder. In the University archives is the record of a grant of administration after his death dated April 23, 1501. In this a claim is made by a John Hewtee, who had married his sister Margaret, on behalf of her father, Peter Actors, for the tools used in binding.

Among the binding material belonging to the father we may probably include three panel stamps of which impressions are known. Two of them are ornamented with spirals of foliage and flowers enclosing fabulous animals in the curves, while in the centre are two dragons with their necks entwined. Round one of these panels runs the inscription, “Ho mater dei memento Maistre Pierre Auctorre,” while the other has an inscription in French, but no binder’s name. The third panel has a conventional acorn design upon it without any inscription. So far we have not traced these panels to a date early enough for them to have been used by Sebastian Actors, but about 1520 they are used in conjunction with other tools found on Oxford work.

Another stationer, George Chastelain, is first mentioned in the imprint of a grammar printed by Pynson about 1499, “Here endeth the Accidence made at the instance of George Chastelayn and John Bars.” There is no indication where he was then at work, but in 1502 he was admitted as a servant to the liberties of the University. About 1507 Pynson printed for him an edition of the Principia of Peregrinus de Lugo, an extremely rare book, of which, however, there is a copy in the University Library. In this his address is given as the sign of St John Evangelist in the street of St Mary the Virgin. He was a bookbinder as well as a stationer, and in the registers of Magdalen College frequent mention is made of him between 1507 and 1513 as binding books for their library. He died in 1513, and his will was administered by Mr. Wutton and Henry Jacobi, a stationer. An inventory of his goods was made by Howberch, a University stationer, and Richard Pate, and the value returned at £24.

Some time between 1512 and 1514 a stationer named Henry Jacobi migrated from London to Oxford. From 1506 to 1508 he had been in partnership with another bookseller named Joyce Pelgrim, and assisted by a wealthy London merchant named Bretton they issued several books together. Between 1509 and 1512 Jacobi published books alone, though he appears to have still been helped by Bretton.

One book is known printed for Jacobi at Oxford, an edition of the Formalitates of Antonius Sirectus. An imperfect title-page and a few leaves were found by Proctor in the binding of a book in New College Library, and shortly afterwards a copy of the book, wanting a greater part of the title, was identified in the British Museum. It is a quarto of twenty-two leaves, and was printed in London by W. de Worde. On the title-page is the very finely engraved device of Jacobi, probably newly cut, and found in no other of his books, though it was used again in a mutilated state by his successor; and below the device an imprint stating that the book was to be sold in the University of Oxford at the sign of the Trinity, by Henry Jacobi, a London bookseller. His shop in London in St Paul’s Churchyard had also the sign of the Trinity. Jacobi made his will on September 8, 1514, and died shortly after. On November 9 his wife renounced her executorship, and administration was granted to William Bretton, the rich merchant who had assisted him throughout his career. On December 11 administration of the effects of Jacobi was granted at Oxford also to Bretton through his agent, Joyce Pelgrim, Jacobi’s former partner.

Title-page of the Antonius Sirectus, Printed for H. Jacobi.

The most interesting figure among the early Oxford stationers is undoubtedly John Dorne or Thorne. In 1507 he was a printer at Brunswick, and printed an edition of the grammar of Remigius entitled Dominus que pars, the first book to be printed in that town. In 1509 he printed an edition of the Regimen Sanitatis, and with this second book his career as a printer seems to have ended. Later he moved as a bookseller to Oxford, and a valuable memorial of his stay there is preserved in the shape of his day-book or ledger for the whole year 1520. This curious little manuscript is in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was for long erroneously catalogued as a catalogue of books in the monastery of St Frideswide. Its great interest remained unrecognised. Dibdin was shown it on a visit to Oxford, but as might be expected failed to see its value and took no further notice of it. Coxe, in his catalogue of manuscripts preserved in college libraries, gave a correct account of it in 1852, and finally in 1885 it was admirably edited by Mr Madan and published in the Collectanea of the Oxford Historical Society. At the end of January 1886 a separate copy was sent to Henry Bradshaw, who immediately set to work upon it, and on the 4th of February he sent to Mr Madan a thin bound folio volume of notes, to which he had prefixed a title-page, “A Half-Century of Notes on the Day-book of John Dorne.” This was the last piece of work which Bradshaw finished, and within a week of sending it he was dead.

Dorne’s ledger throws full light on the trade of an unprivileged stationer in a University town. His supply of books necessary for the schools was small. These no doubt would be mostly bought from the licensed University stationer; but all other classes are well represented. Of liturgical books he sold a very large number, and naturally the various works of Erasmus were in great demand. The number of English books sold was relatively small, though there are frequent entries of single sheets, almanacks, and ballads. Such cheaper and popular stock would find a ready sale when he set up his stall at the St Austin’s and St Frideswide’s fairs. Towards the end of May when business was quiet after St Austin’s fair, he went abroad for a couple of months, presumably to arrange for the supply of fresh stock, though his absence did not coincide with the time of the Frankfurt fair. The ledger begins again on August 5, “post recessum meum de ultra mare.” In October came St Frideswide’s fair, when he sold books to the amount of £17, 9s. 6d. as against the £14, 4s. 10d. which he received at the St Austin’s fair in May. Probably during fair time he would have to close his ordinary shop, and transfer his business for the time to a stall in the precincts of the fair itself.

Besides being a bookseller, Dorne was also a publisher on a small scale. An edition of the Opus Insolubilium, a book used in the schools at Oxford, and printed by Peter Treveris at Southwark for I. T., has been known for some time from a copy in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The I. T. was considered to stand for John Thorne, the English form of Dorne. This has been confirmed by a recent discovery. From the sale in 1906 of the library of the Duke of Sutherland at Trentham Hall, a most interesting volume was secured for the University Library. It contained three tracts connected with Oxford. The first was the Libellus Sophistarum printed at London by Wynkyn de Worde, of which there were several editions. The second was another copy of the Opus Insolubilium mentioned above; but the third was an entirely unknown book, an edition of the Tractatus secundarum intentionum logicalium. This has a clear imprint starting that the book was to be sold by John Thorne in the year 1527. At the end of the last two pieces is the device of the printer, Peter Treveris. We find frequent entries of these two books in Dorne’s ledger of 1520, so that evidently, finding the sale so good, he determined to have editions printed for himself. It is only from this recent discovery that we are able to attach the date of 1527 to these books printed at Oxford, but this fits in most curiously with an assertion made by the Oxford antiquary, Anthony a Wood. Herbert, in his account of Treveris, wrote: “Mr Wood thought he had printed a Latin grammar of Whitinton’s at Oxford in 1527 as also books about and before that time, but we have not met with any such.” Wood does not speak of any other books except the edition of Whitinton’s grammar, and from his giving the exact date we must either conclude that he was referring to a genuine book which he had seen, or else had seen a copy of this book printed for Dorne and had confused it with some other tract. Wood is also responsible for the assertion that Wynkyn de Worde printed for a while in Oxford, and asserts that a lane called Grope Lane had its name altered to Wynkyn Lane as a memorial of his work there. For this statement there seems no foundation, but it is quite probable that W. de Worde had more considerable dealings with the Oxford stationers than we know at present. He printed a book for Jacobi, to which I have already referred, and when the press was restarted at Oxford in 1517 he supplied some of the material. So much new information has come to light recently about the Oxford book-trade, that we may fairly hope for more, and perhaps discover further dealings there of De Worde.