A larger number of books is found in the Holborn types, the most important being the Chronicles of England, of which only one perfect copy is known.
The Speculum Christiani is interesting as containing specimens of early poetry, and The Treatise on the Pestilence, of Kamitus or Canutus, bishop of Aarhus, ran to three editions, one of which contains a title-page, and was therefore presumably printed late in Machlinia's career, i.e. about 1490.
In addition to these, there were three law-books, the Statutes of Richard III., and several theological and scholastic works. One of the founts of type used by Machlinia is of peculiar interest, by reason of its close resemblance to Caxton's type No. 2*, and its still greater similarity to the type used by Jean Brito of Bruges.
Machlinia's business seems to have been taken over by Richard Pynson. There is no direct evidence of this, but like Machlinia he took up the business of printing law-books (being the first printer in this country to receive a royal patent); he is found using a woodcut border used in Machlinia's Horæ; and, in addition to this, waste from Machlinia books has been found in Pynson bindings.
Richard Pynson was a native of Normandy. He had business relations with Le Talleur, a printer of Rouen. His methods also were those of Rouen, rather than of any English master. Wherever he came from, Richard Pynson was the finest printer this country had yet seen, and no one, until the appearance of John Day, approached him in excellence of work.
Fig. 7.—Pynson's Mark.
The earliest examples of his press appear to be a fragment of a Donatus in the Bodleian and the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. The type he used for these was a bold, unevenly cast fount of black letter, somewhat resembling that used by Machlinia at Fleet Bridge. The Chaucer, however, contained a second fount of small sloping Gothic.
The first book of Pynson found with a date is a Doctrinale, printed in November 1492, now in the John Rylands Library. This was followed by the Dialogue of Dives and Pauper, printed in 1493 with a new type, distinguishable by the sharp angular finish to the letter 'h.' Several quartos without date were printed in the same type.
From this time till 1500, the majority of his books were printed in the small type of the Chaucer.