Davies in his History of the York Press has been singularly unfortunate in his account of this book. He quotes the very inaccurate transcript of the colophon printed by Ames, and then adds: “Neither the copy in the library of Sidney Sussex College nor that belonging to the Dean and Chapter of York now contains the leaf upon which this colophon was printed. It is to the valuable work of Ames that we are indebted for the only record of it that has been preserved.” Davies or his informant was probably misled by its occurring three pages before the end of the book. It gives full information, stating that the book was printed at York by Hugo Goes in the street called Steengate on the 18th of February 1509. The work begins with a preface by Thomas Hannibal, doctor of laws and canon of York, who, later, brought the golden rose from the Pope to Henry VIII., praising the edition as revised and corrected by Thomas Hothyrsall, vicar choral of the Minster. Then follows another preface in which it is stated that “the pica with its table which was composed by Robert Avissede, priest and formerly chaplain of the church of St Gregory in the great city of York, will last as long as the world endures.” It has still 118 years to run.
The book is printed with a fount of type which had belonged to Wynkyn de Worde, and which he had discarded shortly after 1500.
Besides the Directorium Goes is credited with two other books, editions of the Donatus Minor cum Remigio and Accidence. In 1664 Christopher Hildyard, a barrister in York, issued a little book on the antiquities of the city, and his own copy with manuscript additions is now in the British Museum. One of his notes relates to these books, of which he gives a fairly full description with the titles and imprints. They were bound up with a grammar printed by W. de Worde in 1506. He ends his note thus: “The book I have by me, new bound up by Mr Mawburn of York, bookseller, 1667, July 12.” Of the Wynkyn de Worde grammar of 1506, we know of an imperfect copy in the library at Lambeth, but of the two grammars printed by Goes in the Steengate, all traces have disappeared. Hildyard’s description is so clear and exact that there is no reason whatever for doubting his accuracy, and we can only hope that they have not been destroyed, but may be rediscovered some day on some unexplored library shelf.
What became of Goes is not known, but his name is connected with another very mysterious lost book. Amongst the numerous manuscript collections made by John Bagford, with a view to writing a history of printing, is the following entry, copied apparently from a colophon. “Donatus cum Remigio impressus Londiniis juxta Charing Cross per me Hugonem Goes and Henery Watson with the printers device H. G.” Puzzling as this entry is, I think it must be taken as representing something which Bagford had seen, for he was hardly clever enough to invent, if it is a forgery, so tantalisingly ingenious an imprint. He would not have known, unless he carefully studied prefaces and epilogues, that at this time W. de Worde had in his employment an assistant named Henry Watson, nor was his eye correct enough to recognise that the type used by Goes at York was obtained from W. de Worde, even had he seen a copy of the York Directorium, which is most improbable. Yet here he combines in one address as partners two men who had both been closely connected with Wynkyn de Worde.
Whatever may be said against Bagford, there is no doubt that he was assiduous, if not always very accurate, in transcribing titles and imprints of scarce books that came in his way, and it is from his memoranda that much information on missing books has been recovered. Whether Goes worked in London before or after his sojourn in York, is impossible to determine until some further information, or the lost Donatus itself, is forthcoming. The earliest printer, at present known, who was established near Charing Cross is Robert Wyer, who was at work as early as 1524. Ames, under H. Goes, gives the vague entry: “He also printed a Latin Grammar at London in quarto, formerly among Lord Oxford’s books,” but this may merely be derived from Bagford’s notes. Lastly Ames quotes a broadside in the possession of Thomas Martyn, “A wooden cut of a man on horseback with a spear in his right hand and a shield, with the arms of France, in his left. Emprynted at Beverlay in the Hye-gate by me Hewe Goes, with his mark or rebus of a great H and a goose.” Martyn died in 1771, and since his time no trace of this broadside has been found.
Ursyn Mylner, the second printer in York, has a much clearer history than his predecessor. He was born in 1481, but we find no mention of him until 1511, unless he is the Ursyn who supplied some books for the King’s library in 1502. In 1511 he was a witness in the lawsuit which we have previously described. About 1513 he printed two Nova Festa of York use. The first is an edition of the Festum Visitationis Beate Marie Virginis, and the colophon stated that it was newly printed by Ursyn Mylner dwelling in the churchyard of the minster of St Peter. This book was chronicled by Ames as in the collection of Thomas Rawlinson, and again I must add the sad statement, all traces of it have since been lost. I searched through Rawlinson’s sale catalogue—sixteen volumes—without result, but last year in the Bodleian I came across a note-book among the Rawlinson manuscripts in which he had entered fairly full notices of some of his books, and here I found the colophon as given by Ames. The date of the book can be accurately settled. In 1513 the Convocation of York ordered the Feast of the Visitation to be kept as a Festum Principale; by 1516 Mylner had moved to a new address.
The second of the Nova Festa was a small supplement to the Sanctorale of the Breviary and the only copy known, found in the binding of a book, is in the library of Emmanuel College. The book in which it was found was printed in 1512, and from the fact that these leaves, which are printer’s waste, were used in the binding, this binding may perhaps be attributed to Mylner. The tract consists of four leaves in 8°, with thirty-three and thirty-four lines to the page, and commences with a large initial P printed in colour. The text is in red and black, and many of the lines end with small type-ornaments. It is slightly mutilated, but has most of the colophon, which runs: “Impressum Ebor per me Ursin Mylner commemorantem in simiterio ministerii Sancti Petri.” In the colophons to both these Nova Festa we find commemorantem in place of commorantem. It is probably the tract referred to vaguely in the introduction to Wordsworth and Proctor’s edition of the Sarum Breviary as “An English monastic Breviary supplement, with anthems and responds for St Thomas and St Edmund of Canterbury, was printed at York about 1513.” Presumably their information about it was obtained from Henry Bradshaw. In the more recently issued book on the Old English Service Books, York is credited with no printed Nova Festa.
After printing these two small tracts Mylner moved to a new workshop. In the lawsuit of 1511 he was spoken of as living in the parish of St Michael le Belfry, and the two tracts were printed “in cimiterio ministerii Sancti Petri,” but both addresses probably refer to the same place, as the church of St Michael’s le Belfry stands alongside the minster on the south side. A small passage adjoining this church, and forming the south entrance to the minster close, was formerly known as Bookbinders Alley.
Colophon and Devices from Whitinton’s Grammar, printed
at York by Ursyn Mylner in 1516.