Besides being printer to Henry VIII Berthelet was also the Royal bookbinder, and it is hard to speak too highly of his skill and taste in this direction. The beauty of the Italian bindings seems to have greatly struck his fancy and it is supposed that he brought over some workmen from Venice both to work for him and to teach his own men. In his accounts rendered to the King, some of which fortunately have been preserved, he speaks of books decorated in the Venetian manner, and the tools used on them are direct copies of those used by Aldus of Venice and other contemporary Italian binders. He made use of one very distinctive tool, similar to some found on Oriental work, by means of which the design appears upon the leather plain while the whole background is gilt. A good deal of the King’s binding was done in velvet or white leather. To show the relative value of books and binding take the following entry, “Item delyuered to the kinges the XXIII day of January [1542] a booke of the psalter in Englishe and Latyne, the price VIIId., and a booke entitled Enarracones Evangeliorum Dominicalium, the price XIId. and for the gorgious byndyng of them backe to backe IIIIs. IVd.” Or again, “Item delyuered unto the kinges highnes the XV day of January [1542] a New Testament in Latyne and a Psalter Englishe and Latyne bounde backe to backe in white leather, gorgiously gilted on the leather, the bookes came to IIs. the byndynge and arabaske drawyng in golde on the transfile IIIIs.”
It is worth noticing, however, that such tenants of Berthelet as were bookbinders were all Frenchmen.
The date of Berthelet’s death has been only surmised and never given correctly by bibliographers. Fortunately he held land from the King, so that at his death an inquest was held by the escheator, and full and interesting details are preserved among the Inquisitiones post mortem. From this source we learn that his death took place on September 26th, 1555; that Margaret Berthelet was his second wife, and that his eldest son Edward was born on July 24th, 1553. His will, made two days before his death, was proved on November 9th, and by it he left estates to his widow and his two sons Edward and Anthony and legacies to apprentices, godchildren, and charities. A considerable bequest also went to his nephew Thomas Powell, presumably his sister’s son, who succeeded him in business.
We have an account of Berthelet’s funeral, preserved in Henry Machyn’s diary:
“The sam day at afternone was bered master Barthelet sqwire and prynter unto Kyng Henry; and was bered with pennon and cote-armur, and IIII dosen of skochyons, and II whytt branchys and IIII gylt candyllstykes and mony prestes and clarkes, and mony mornars, and all the craftes of prynters, boke-sellers, and all stassyoners.”
Among all the early presses that of Berthelet was preeminent for good workmanship. Though he avoided as far as possible the use of illustrations, all the ornamentation he used was in good taste, and in beauty and variety of type he surpassed all printers of the century.
John Rastell stands quite apart from other early English printers. Nearly all we know about them comes from the books they printed while we know little or nothing about their lives. In the case of Rastell we know a good deal about his career, but little about his books. He is said to have been born in London, and was educated at Oxford, afterwards entering Lincoln’s Inn and practising the law, in which he was very successful. He must have been of considerable social position, for he married Elizabeth More, the sister of Sir Thomas More. Some time before 1516 he printed an edition of the Liber Assisarum, in which he refers to the projected publication of Fitzherbert’s Great Abridgement, which appeared in three majestic volumes in that year.
About 1520 he moved his printing establishment to a house, “next Paul’s gate,” which he named the Mermaid, the same sign that he had previously used elsewhere, and a lawsuit which took place about 1534 in connexion with this house throws considerable light on the printer’s habits. He appears to have left all practical work to his assistants, going off to his house in the country for months at a time and subletting part of the printing-office to other tenants, among whom were successively William Bonham, John Heron, Thomas Kele, and John Gough, all of them stationers.
Up to the year 1526 Rastell had issued only four dated books, all connected with the law, but in that year he started out in an entirely new style and published two extraordinary books, The merry jests of the widow Edith, and the Hundred mery tales, neither such as we should have expected from so grave a printer. About 1529 appeared his Pastime of People, remarkable for a number of large, clumsy woodcuts. Much has been written about this book and its variations, and it is generally asserted that the British Museum copy is the only perfect one known. There is, however, a very fine and perfect copy in a private library in this country. Another curious book he issued is Lucian’s Necromantia, of which there is a copy at Shirburn Castle.
In 1530 Rastell was drawn into the religious controversies then becoming violent, and wrote and printed his New Boke of Purgatory in defence of the Romish doctrine. This was answered by John Fryth in his Disputation of Purgatory. Several controversial pamphlets were written by the two opponents with the result that Rastell became a convert to the Protestant religion. This change appears to have been a cause of trouble to Rastell, who writing to Cromwell in 1536 laments the loss of both business and friends. His law earnings, which had been over twenty nobles a term, had fallen to under forty shillings a year and his printing business had fallen off proportionately, and there is no book definitely known to exist dated later than 1530. While most of Rastell’s books are legal in character, he is also the printer of several curious interludes or plays such as the Interlude of the four elements, the Interlude of women, Play concerning Lucretia, Skelton’s Magnificence, Heywood’s Gentleness and Nobility. The reason for his printing these is not far to seek. He was extremely fond of giving performances of plays at his house and the records have been preserved of a curious lawsuit brought against him by a theatrical costumier on account of dresses supplied. Rastell in 1536 freely expressed his opinions against the paying of tithes, and perhaps on this account or some other not now known was thrown into prison, where he shortly after died. His will dated April 20 and proved October 12 is a rather remarkable document. He had but little to leave. His house which had been made over to his wife on their marriage he bequeaths to her. To his eldest son William only forty shillings, and to his other son John a small annuity he had been left by his grandmother. Other small sums were left to Cromwell and the Lord Chancellor, and for one of his two executors he nominated the King himself, who very naturally renounced probate.