Joyce Pelgrim, a native of the Low Countries, was early settled in London and in 1504 issued the first book specially printed for him, an edition of the Ortus Vocabulorum printed at Paris by Jean Barbier, who had himself but lately left England. This book is only known from some fragments preserved in a binding in Lord Crawford’s library. Before 1506 he entered into partnership with Henry Jacobi, and the two, assisted with money by a wealthy merchant, William Bretton, a grocer and member of the Staple at Calais, issued several books connected with the service of the Church. The first and most important was an edition of the Constitutiones Provinciales of William Lindewode, issued some time after May, 1506. It was printed at Paris by Wolfgang Hopyl in a most ornate manner and the title-page is one of the most beautiful to be found in an early book, the combination of small woodcuts, woodcut borders, printer’s devices, and red and black printing forming a most rich and harmonious whole. Two service books, a Sarum Horae and a Psalterium cum Hymnis, followed at the beginning of 1507. In 1510 for the same patron they issued the Pupilla Oculi of Joannes de Burgo and the Speculum Spiritualium of Richard of Hampole printed by Hopyl, as well as another Horae printed by Kerver.
On their own account the stationers did little, issuing in 1507 and 1508 three school books. Pelgrim, after the publication of the Ortus Vocabulorum of 1504 does not seem to have issued any books on his own account, but he was always connected with William Bretton, and acted as his agent in 1514. He lived in Paul’s Churchyard at the sign of St Anne, though nothing is heard of the shop after 1506. It may be that it was one of the many swept away to make room for the new schools built by Colet, for we know that the Trinity, where Pelgrim’s partner Jacobi lived, was close by.
Henry Jacobi, probably a Frenchman, was apparently a much more important stationer than Pelgrim and some things point to his having been a citizen of London. He is first mentioned in 1504 as a stationer, and in 1505, as we learn from a note in a MS. in the British Museum, he supplied a large number of books to the King. Shortly after this he joined as a partner with Pelgrim and together they printed books for William Bretton. In 1509 he appears to have separated from his partner, for in the colophon of the Ortus Vocabulorum printed by Pynson his name is found alone. In 1510 he went over to France and his name is found in the colophons of some small tracts of Savonarola, printed in Paris in 1510 and 1511 by Badius Ascensius. In 1512 he was back in London, and issued an edition of the Sarum Diurnale printed for him at Paris by Hopyl. Francis Byrckman also appears to have been concerned in the publication of this book for his device is printed at the end. About this time Jacobi issued a Legenda Francisci printed for him by Jean Barbier at Paris and a Regula Benediciti printed by W. de Worde.
Soon after 1512 Jacobi migrated to Oxford, where he opened a shop with his old sign of the Trinity and published there an edition of the Formalitates of Antonius Sirectus, printed for him in London by Wynkyn de Worde. A copy of the title-page was found by Mr Proctor in a binding in New College, Oxford, and a copy of the book itself, minus the greater part of the title, was subsequently traced in the British Museum. Jacobi did not long survive his migration to Oxford, but died there in 1514, and on the 11th December administration of his effects was granted to William Bretton through his agent Joyce Pelgrim, while his will was proved the same year in London.
The devices used by Pelgrim and Jacobi were four in number. In the books printed for W. Bretton a large block containing his coat of arms is used. After its first appearance a mistake in the heraldry was discovered and the shield was cut out and a new one inserted in the block, a very early example of what is technically known as plugging. It is curious that this device, though a private coat of arms, was afterwards copied and used as a device by the Paris printer Egidius Gourmont. The device used by Pelgrim and Jacobi together was a blank shield on a ribbon with the motto “Nosce teipsum” with their initials and marks on either side. Jacobi used in the Sirectus a representation of the Trinity with his mark and name in full below on a ribbon. In the books printed for them by Hopyl another device of the Trinity is found.
The bindings produced by the Trinity stationers were of two classes. The folio books were tooled with small dies, the smaller books stamped with panel stamps. Several copies of the Lyndewode of 1506 are in existence tooled with identical dies, and one of these copies is lined with unused sheets of the Ortus Vocabulorum printed for Pelgrim in 1504. The panel stamps all appear to have belonged to Henry Jacobi, for at present none have been found with Pelgrim’s mark. Like many other stationers of the time he used the two panels, having on one side a shield bearing the arms of France and England and supported by a dragon and greyhound and on the other the Tudor rose between two scrolls, supported by angels and containing these verses,
Hec rosa virtutis de celo missa sereno
Eternum florens, regia sceptra feret.
Of these he had three series. In the first his initials and mark are quite plain and simple, just as we find them printed on the title-page of the Lyndewode. In the second series the ornament was a little more profuse and the mark and initials are omitted under the rose, leaving the space blank. In the last series the ornamentation is more complicated and the initials and mark are so much elaborated that the I of Iacobi looks almost like an A. In conjunction with the second series of panels a square die containing the figure of a dragon is found which had belonged to Caxton and must have been obtained from W. de Worde. Two other panels which belonged to Jacobi are much more foreign in appearance. On one is a figure of Christ seated on a tomb surrounded by the emblems of the Passion, on the other Our Lady of Pity. Round both runs a legend, and at the end of the second the binder’s initials, H.I., occur joined by a knot.
The example of this binding in the Bodleian, very much rubbed and worn, is on some small tracts by Savonarola, two of which were printed for Jacobi in 1510. The binding has on the end fly-leaf an inscription saying that the book was bought by John Yonge, “Aconensis,” in 1510, and this must be after September 10 of that year, when Yonge was appointed Master of St Thomas of Acres. If Jacobi really was in Paris in 1510 and 1511, this book must have been bound there, and perhaps these two small panels were cut abroad for the purpose of stamping these small volumes for which his other panels would have been too large.