The stationers of Cambridge, like the stationers of Oxford, were of two classes, those officially appointed by the University and those who traded independently. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there are frequent references to the rights of the University over the stationers. They had certain official duties, such as the valuation of books and the supply of the necessary school books at fixed rates, and the stationers chosen by the University received a small fee or salary for such work. After the middle of the fifteenth century the stationers can be traced in an unbroken series, but though we know their names and find entries of their business in accounts, there, at present, our information ceases. Five names are given in Mr Gray’s account of the early Cambridge stationers for the second half of the fifteenth century, Gerard Wake, John Ward, Fydyon, perhaps Fitzjohn, William Squire, and Walter Hatley. Of these, two, Wake and Hatley, were bookbinders, and perhaps some of their work may yet be identified, and if one single volume could be ascribed to either with certainty and the stamps they used definitely ascertained, then much of their work could be traced. William Squire is only known from receiving a settled fee of thirteen shillings and fourpence between the years 1482-6. He may perhaps, since we find the names Squire and Lesquier often used indiscriminately, be identical with the stationer William Lesquier whose goods were administered at Oxford in February 1501-2. Peter Breynans, another bookbinder, is mentioned in 1502, and a Lawrence Topfeller in 1506.
In May 1503 the award of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, and three other arbitrators was agreed to and signed. This covenant between the town and University contained special references to stationers, and enacted that only those stationers and binders who had always practised their trade should be considered under the jurisdiction of the University, a certain number, then in business, being exempted.
Our knowledge of early Cambridge bookbinding is curiously different from what we know of Oxford. There our knowledge of fifteenth-century work is full, and of early sixteenth almost a blank. For Cambridge there is a splendid series of early sixteenth-century work, while fifteenth-century specimens are almost unknown or at any rate unidentified. Mr G. J. Gray’s excellent monograph, lately published by the Bibliographical Society, has fully put on record what is known about Cambridge binding, and has the advantage of being well illustrated. The earliest examples facsimiled in his work are ornamented by means of the roll-tool, but there is a series of bindings ornamented with dies in the earlier manner produced probably about 1500, which may with considerable probability be ascribed to a Cambridge binder. These bindings are very distinctive in appearance and may easily be distinguished from others of the same period. One peculiarity enables us to identify this binder’s work even when on the shelves. He always ruled two perpendicular lines down the back. The leather used is nearly always the red-tinted variety which seems peculiar to Cambridge. The scheme of decoration of the sides consisted of a large centre panel divided by diagonal lines into a kind of diamond-shaped lattice work, and in each division thus formed a die was stamped. These dies, mostly square or diamond-shaped, contained conventional flowers or strange animals and birds. The best two, which are very finely engraved, have two cocks fighting and a pelican feeding her young. This binder also made frequent use of a small tool of a spray of foliage, plain and not enclosed in a frame, and this he used to build up borders and to finish the ends of the bands, a noticeable peculiarity. The boards were usually lined with vellum.
When Dr James prepared his catalogue of manuscripts in the library of Pembroke College, the librarian, Mr Minns, added an appendix containing an account of the early printed books and a plate of facsimiles of stamps used on some of the bindings. Those numbered 21 to 32 belonged to this binder and occur on four bindings. Three of these are on printed books ranging between 1478 and 1490. The fourth specimen is more important as affording a definite clue to a Cambridge origin, for it is on the second volume of the college register. A search for and examination of such bindings as remain in Cambridge might result in the discovery of some inscription or other evidence which might enable us to identify the binder.
The earliest of the important sixteenth-century binders and stationers is Garret Godfrey, and his name is first found affixed to a deed in 1503 which itself relates to the position of stationers and bookbinders in the University. He was a native of the Low Countries, and from the occurrence of the name Graten on some waste sheets extracted from some of his bindings, is supposed to have come from Graten in Limburg. He seems to have occupied a good position in Cambridge, and was chosen as one of the churchwardens of St Mary the Great in 1516, and continued to fill offices in connexion with the church for several years. He died in 1539 and was buried in St Mary’s, while his will, dated September 12, was proved on October 11.
Godfrey was well supplied with binding tools, and we find him in possession of at least five rolls. The most important contains figures of a griffin, a wyvern, and a lion, separated from each other by branches of foliage. Below the lion are the binder’s initials, the second having a sign like an arrow-head springing from the top, representing presumably his merchant’s mark. The workmanship of this roll very much resembles that of some of the fine London rolls of the time, those for example of John Reynes or Thomas Symonds, and it is quite probable that they may all have been engraved by the same man.
Godfrey’s second roll is divided into five divisions. The first four contain a turretted gateway with portcullis, a fleur-de-lys, a pomegranate, and a Tudor rose, each under a canopy and surmounted by a Royal crown. The fifth contains the binder’s initials G. G. and between them a shield charged with three horse-shoes. This introduction of a private heraldic shield into a bookbinder’s ornament, is, so far as my experience goes, quite without parallel and certainly requires explanation. Occurring as it does, between the binder’s initials, it must obviously have some connexion with him, and the initials are certainly those of Garret Godfrey. The late Sir Augustus Franks suggested that the initials stood for Guido Gimpus. The name is not mentioned by Burke in his Armorial, but Papworth allows a coat “sable, three horse-shoes argent,” to a family, Vytan-Gimpus, on the authority of Glover’s Ordinary. A third roll containing the Royal emblem in compartments, in the same order as in the previous one, also contains his initials, but with no arms. This is a much narrower roll than the second, and poorer in design. The fourth and fifth rolls have no mark or initials, one is of diaper work, the other of interlaced strap work. In addition Godfrey used a few small dies.
Nicholas Speryng, the second stationer, came originally from the Low Countries, and is found settled in Cambridge, perhaps as early as 1506, certainly by 1513. It seems likely that he had worked as a binder before coming to Cambridge, and that he brought some of his binding tools with him. An examination of his bindings shows that he often worked in a more old-fashioned style and with older tools than Godfrey. The ornamental frames on the sides of his bindings are in many cases built up by a repetition of single stamps, a troublesome system superseded by the invention of the roll. As he possessed the stamps he would naturally use them, but he would not have had them engraved had the use of the roll been then known to him. The two panel stamps which he used are also probably of foreign make. These contain representations of the Annunciation on the one side, and St Nicholas restoring the three murdered children on the other. The Annunciation was a very favourite subject with bookbinders, especially those of the Low Countries, while the St Nicholas had reference to the binder’s Christian name. It is curious to notice that the surname has been wrongly engraved, and reads Spiernick in place of Spierinck. Some years ago some fragments of an edition of Holt’s Grammar, the Lac Puerorum, printed in English at Antwerp by Adrian van Berghen, were found in the Bodleian, which, from the indentations still remaining on them, had clearly formed the boards of one of these bindings, and on one of the fragments the name Speyrinck was written. The piece of paper had doubtless formed the wrapper of a parcel addressed to him.
Speryng’s rolls were all engraved after he came to England. The finest, apparently engraved by the same hand as Godfrey’s, contains figures of a dragon, a lion, and a wyvern amidst sprays of foliage. Between the wyvern and dragon, in a wreath, are his mark and initials. A smaller roll is divided into five compartments, the first four containing a fleur-de-lys, a turretted gateway, a pomegranate, and a Tudor rose, each surmounted by a Royal crown and under a canopy, while the fifth contains his mark and initials. It is an almost exact copy of one of Godfrey’s rolls, with the badges arranged in a different order. There are two varieties of this roll. In the earlier the binder’s initial S is a rather badly engraved letter of a curious script form, but at a later date it has been re-engraved in the more usual form. Weale, describing the earlier state in one place, reads the initials N. G., and in another ascribes the roll to Segar Nicholson, a later Cambridge stationer.
Speryng had also a roll of diaper work resembling, though clearly differing from, Godfrey’s, and another roll with a graceful pattern of twining foliage and flowers. He also, like Godfrey, had several dies.