Melanchthon’s book Of the true authoritie of the Church, and Oecolampadius’ Epistle, that there ought to be no respect of personages of the poor, are both quoted by Herbert though no copies seem to be known at present.
Of the remaining six books, there are copies of two in the University Library, bequeathed by Mr Sandars. These are: A new book containing an exhortation to the sick, of which another copy is in the British Museum, and a curious little 16mo volume, An invectyve agaynst dronkennes, of which the Cambridge copy is the only one known. Several bibliographies speak of it as a fragment, but though not in good condition it wants only the last leaf which would have been blank, or contained a device: all the text is complete.
There are copies of two other books in the library of Clare College, Peter Moone’s Short treatise of certain things abused in the Popish church long used, and John Ramsey’s Plaister for a galled horse. Both these books are rhyming attacks on the Catholics. There is another copy of the first in the British Museum, but the two leaves in the University Library which were supposed to belong to this edition are really from the press of William Copland in London. Of Ramsey’s book the copy at Clare is the only one known, but another edition was printed at London by Raynalde in the same year. The next book is a translation of Anthony Marcourt’s work, entitled, A declaration of the Mass; of this there is a copy in the Bodleian, and finally there is another issue of Hegendorff’s Domestical or household sermons, of which there is a copy in the British Museum.
Title-page of the Exhortation to the Sick, printed at
Ipswich by John Oswen in 1548.
Oswen and Scoloker between them printed within a year at least eighteen books at Ipswich, all of them expounding the religious views of the reformers, and examples of fourteen are known. Though there may have been other inducements which caused these printers to settle in that town, no doubt one of the chief reasons was its accessibility to the Continent. Numbers of English people who had fled abroad during the religious troubles of Henry’s reign were pouring back into the country, and many would pass through Ipswich, and would purchase to carry with them for their own use and for their friends copies of the books which set forth the religious views for which they had undergone such hardships, but which seemed at last to be on the winning side. Again Ipswich, while easy to get to, was equally easy to get away from, so that perhaps discretion caused the printers to wait and see how their books were received before they definitely settled in an inland town.
Oswen, though he continued in business a few months longer than Scoloker, seems also to have found Ipswich an unremunerative centre for his work, and towards the end of 1548, crossing with his material from the east to the west of England, settled at Worcester. On January 6, 2 Edward VI., that is at the beginning of 1549, Oswen obtained a privilege from the King to print “every kind of book or books set forth by us concerning the service to be used in churches, ministration of the sacraments, and instruction of our subjects of the Principality of Wales and marches thereunto belonging for seven years, prohibiting all other persons whatsoever from printing the same.” What this privilege definitely meant, or what use Oswen made of it, is not clear. He certainly printed nothing concerning the service of the church, or for the instruction of the subjects, specially adapted to the Principality of Wales. He printed editions of the Prayer-book and New Testament, but they were in English and varied in no respect from the editions put forth by the authorised printers, Whitchurch and Grafton. The three or four Welsh books issued in the vernacular during the period in which his privilege was in force, Salisbury’s Dictionary in English and Welsh and Introduction to Welsh pronunciation, extracts from the laws of Hoel, and the Epistles and Gospels in Welsh, books both for the instruction of the subject and the service of the Church, were printed by other printers. For these, or some of them, at any rate, privileges had been obtained from Henry VIII. By the beginning of 1549 Oswen was settled in Worcester in the High Street, issuing a book as early as January 30. Besides his printing office in Worcester he appears to have had another shop absolutely on the Welsh border, for at the end of some of his colophons are the words: “They be also to sell at Shrewsbury.”
Oswen’s four editions of the New Testament, from 1548 to 1550, as given by Herbert, seem to resolve themselves into one quarto edition dated January 12, 1550. Of the Prayer-book there were certainly three issues. The first is a quarto dated May 24, 1549. It contains an injunction which “streightly chargeth and commaundeth that no maner of person do sell this present boke unbounde, above the price of II Shillinges and two pence ye piece. And the same bound in paste or in boordes, not above the pryce of thre shillynges and eyght pence the piece.” The next edition, a folio, dated July 30, 1549, has a similar injunction fixing the price at two shillings and sixpence unbound, and four shillings bound. It will be noticed that His Highness’s Council in their wisdom decreed that the cost of binding a quarto and a folio should be exactly the same, namely eighteen pence. The last issue, the rarest of all, was a folio printed in 1552. Apart from Prayer-books and Testaments we know of seventeen books printed by Oswen in the four years between 1549 and 1553. Seven in 1549, five in 1550, three in 1551, and two in 1553.
The first book issued in 1549 was Henry Hart’s Consultorie for all Christians. This is dated January 30, but is probably 1549 rather than 1550, since the printer has printed at the beginning his newly-granted privilege in full.
Six other books are dated 1549. Of these three, Hegendorff’s Household Sermons, The Dialogue between the seditious anabaptist and the true Christian, translated by John Veron, and the Spiritual Matrimony between Christ and the Church, are given by Herbert, but he had apparently never seen copies and none are at present known. Of Certeyne sermons appointed by the King’s majesty to be read, there are two copies in the British Museum. Herbert quotes A message from King Edward VI., concerning obedience to religion, as printed by Oswen at Worcester, August 5, 1549. This is apparently another edition of the message “to certain of his people assembled in Devonshire” printed by Grafton in July, but addressed to the people of Wales.