Heir endis the maying and disport of Chaucer. Imprētit in the southgait of Edinburgh be Walter chepman and Androw myllar the fourth day of aprile the yhere of God M.CCCCC. and viii yheris.
The Maying and Disport is better known as the Complaynt of a Lover's Life, or the Complaynt of the Black Knight.
Strange to say, we hear no more of Myllar after this. But Chepman comes forward again in connection with the Breviary (though it is uncertain whether he was its printer), and probably printed some other books which have been lost. The Breviary is a small octavo in two volumes, the first of which appeared in 1509 and the other in 1510. It is printed in red and black Gothic characters. The conclusion of the Latin colophon to the second volume may be rendered as follows:—
“Printed in the town of Edinburgh, by the command and at the charge of the honourable gentleman Walter Chepman, merchant in the said town, on the fourth day of June in the year of our Lord 1510.”
The next Scottish printer, so far as is known, was a certain John Story, though only an Office of Our Lady of Pity, accompanied by a legend on the subject of the relics of St Andrew, remains to testify to us of his existence. It was printed “by command of Charles Steele,” and Dr Dickson dates it at (perhaps) about 1520.
Rather more than twenty years later, Thomas Davidson became King's Printer in Edinburgh. His only dated work was The Nevv Actis And Constitvtionis of Parliament Maid Be The Rycht Excellent Prince Iames The Fift Kyng of Scottis 1540. The title-page of this book consists of a large woodcut of the Scottish arms, above which is the title in four lines printed in Roman capitals. This book also displays all three forms of type—black letter, Roman, and Italic. Its colophon, which is printed in Italics, is as follows:—
Imprentit in Edinburgh, be Thomas Davidson, dweling abone the nether bow, on the north syde of the gait, the aucht day of Februarii, the zeir of God. 1541. zeris.
But there is some of Davidson's undated work which is earlier than this, though it is not known for certain when he began to print. Of these undated publications, Ad Serenissimum Scotorum Regem Iacobum Quintum de suscepto Regni Regimine a diis feliciter ominato Strena is notable as affording the earliest example of the use of Roman type by a Scottish printer, for its title is printed in these characters. Only one copy is known, and that is in the British Museum. Opinions differ as to its date, but the majority assign it to the year 1528.
Davidson's most important production, however, was his beautiful folio edition of Bellenden's translation of Hector Boece's work, The hystory and croniklis of Scotland. This, says Dr Dickson, is “an almost unrivalled specimen of early British typography. It is one of those gems which the earlier period of the art so frequently produced, but which no future efforts of the press have surpassed or even equalled.” It has a title-page similar to that of the Nevv Actis, but the title itself is printed in handsome red Gothic characters. Dr Dickson, to whose learned Annals of Scottish Printing (completed, on account of the author's ill-health, by Mr J. P. Edmond) I am indebted for the details of early Scottish typography given above, assigns this book to the year 1542.