A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898

by Henry R. Plomer

In 1542 Dr. Andrew Borde spoke of his Introduction of Knowledge as printing at 'old Robert Copland's, the eldest printer in England.' Whether he meant the oldest in point of age or in his craft is not clear; but it may well be that, seeing that De Worde, Pynson, and the two Faques were dead, this printing house was the oldest then in London.

John Rastell also began to print about the year 1514. He is believed to have been educated at Oxford, and was trained for the law. In addition to his legal business, he translated and compiled many law-books, the most notable being the Great Abridgement of the Statutes. This book he printed himself, and it is certainly one of the finest examples of sixteenth century printing to be found. The work was divided into three parts, each of which consisted of more than two hundred large folio pages. When it is remembered that the method of printing books at this period was slow, at the most only two folio pages being printed at a pull, the time and capital employed upon the production of this book must have been very great. The type was the small secretary in use at Rouen, and it is just possible the book was printed there and not in England.

John Rastell's first printing office in London was on the south side of St. Paul's Churchyard. Williarn Bonham, the stationer with whom Rastell was afterwards associated, had some premises there, and as late as the seventeenth century there was a house in Sermon Lane, known as the Mermaid, and it may be that in one or other of these Rastell printed the undated edition of Linacre's Grammar, which bears the address, 'ye sowth side of paulys.' But in 1520 he moved to 'the Mermayd at Powlys gate next to chepe syde.' There he printed The Pastyme of People, and Sir Thomas More's Supplicacyon of Souls, besides several interludes and two remarkable jest-books, The Twelve mery gestys of one called Edith and A Hundred Mery Talys. The last named became one of the most popular books of the time, but only one perfect copy of it is now known, and that, alas! is not in this country. Rastell was brother-in-law of Sir Thomas More, and up to the year 1530 a zealous Roman Catholic. So strong were his religious opinions that in that year he wrote and printed a defence of the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, under the title of the New Boke of Purgatory. This was answered by John Frith, the Reformer, who is credited with having achieved John Rastell's conversion. By whatever means the change was brought about, John Rastell did soon afterwards become a Protestant; but the change in his belief made him many enemies. He was arrested for his opinions, and if he did not die in prison, he was in prison just before his death, which took place in 1536. During the last sixteen years of his life he does not appear to have paid much attention to his business. A document now in the Record Office shows that he was in the habit of locking up his printing office in Cheapside, and going down into the country for months at a time. But a part of the premises he sublet, and this was occupied for various periods by several stationers—William Bonham, Thomas Kele, John Heron, and John Gough, being particularly named. Like all his predecessors, he dropped the use of the secretary type in favour of black letter, and his books, as specimens of printing, greatly deteriorated. Dibdin, in his reprint of The Pastyme of the People, was very severe upon the careless printing of the original, but it is more than likely that it was the work of one of Rastell's apprentices, rather than his own. Amongst those whom he employed we find the names of William Mayhewes, of whom nothing is known; Leonard Andrewe, who may have been a relative of Laurence Andrewe, another English printer; and one Guerin, a Norman.

John Rastell left two sons, William and John. The former became a printer during his father's lifetime and succeeded him in business, but his work lies outside the scope of the present chapter. The same remark applies to William Bonham.

John Gough began his career as a bookseller in Fleet Street in 1526. In 1528 he was suspected of dealing in prohibited books (see Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., vol. iv. pt. ii. art. 4004), but managed to clear himself. In 1532 he moved to the 'Mermaid' in Cheapside, and in the same year Wynkyn de Worde printed two books for him concerning the coronation of Anne Boleyn. In 1536, whilst still living there, he issued a very creditable Salisbury Primer. He calls himself the printer of this, but it is extremely doubtful if this can be taken to mean anything more than that he found the capital, and, perhaps, the material with which it was printed. Wynkyn de Worde appointed John Gough one of the overseers of his will. Of his subsequent career more will be said at a later period.

Another of the printers who worked for Wynkyn de Worde during the latter part of his life was John Skot. In 1521, when we first meet with him, he was living in St. Sepulchre's parish, without Newgate. In that year he printed the Body of Policie and the Justyces of Peas, and in 1522 The Myrrour of Gold; amongst his undated books are, Jacob and his xii sons, Carta Feodi simplicis, and the Book of Maid Emlyn, all these being in quarto. His next dated book appeared in 1528, with the colophon 'in Paule's Churchyard,' and here he appears to have remained for some years. He is next found in Fauster Lane, St. Leonard's parish, where he printed, amongst other books, the ballad of The Nut Browne Maid. He also appears to have been at George Alley Gate, St. Botolph's parish, where he printed, but without date, Stanbridge's Accidence. His devices were three in number, and several of his border pieces were obtained from Wynkyn de Worde.

Richard Bankes began business at the long shop in the Poultry, next to St. Mildred's church, and six doors from the Stockes or Stocks Market, which at that time stood on the present site of the Mansion House. In 1523 he printed a very curious tract with the following title:—

'Here begynneth a lytell newe treatyse or mater intytuled and called The ix. Drunkardes, which tratythe of dyuerse and goodly storyes ryght plesaunte and frutefull for all parsones to pastyme with.'

It was printed in octavo, black letter, and the only known copy is in the Douce collection at the Bodleian. Another equally rare piece of Bankes' printing was the old English romance of Sir Eglamour, known only by a fragment of four leaves in the possession of Mr. Jenkinson of the University Library, Cambridge. This was also somewhat roughly printed in black letter. In 1525 he printed a medical tract called the Seynge of Uryns, in quarto, and three years later was associated with Robert Copland in the production of the Rutter of the Sea. He also issued from this address A Herball, and another popular medical work called the Treasure of Pore Men. Bankes is, however, best known as the printer of the works of Richard Taverner, the Reformer, but this was later, and will be noticed when we come to them.

Peter Treveris, or Peter of Treves, was working at the sign of the Wodows, in Southwark, between the years 1521 and 1533. He used as his device the 'wild men,' first seen in the device of the Paris printer, P. Pigouchet. The fact of his printing the Opusculum Insolubilium, to be sold at Oxford 'apud J. T.', that is probably for John Thome the bookseller, points to his being at work about the year 1520. In 1521 he is believed to have issued an edition of Arnold's Chronicles, translated by Laurence Andrewe. Two other books of his printing were the Handy Worke of Surgery, in folio, 1525, a book notable for the many anatomical diagrams with which it was illustrated, and as a companion to that work, The Great Herball Treveris also shared with Wynkyn de Worde most of the printing of Richard Whittington's scholastic works, all in quarto, and mostly without date.