Laurence Andrewe, who lived for some years at Calais, translated one or more books for John van Doesborch, the Antwerp printer, set up a press in London about 1527, and printed a second edition of the Handy Worke of Surgery, above noticed, a tract called The Debate and Strife betwene Somer and Winter, to be sold by Robert Wyer at Charing Cross; The destillacyon of Waters, in 1527; and a reprint of Caxton's edition of the Mirroure of the Worlde, in folios, 1527. His printing calls for no special notice, but Mr. Proctor, in his monograph on Doesborgh, surmises that he learnt his art in an English printing house rather than abroad, and the presence of a Leonarde Andrewe in the service of John Rastell may mean that the two men were related and were both pupils of the same master.
Turning now westwards, we find 'in the Bishop of Norwiche's Rentes in the felde besyde Charynge Cross,' that is near the present Villier Street, a printer named Robert Wyer, the sign of whose house was that of St. John the Evangelist. There are several early references to the house as that of a bookseller's, but without any name mentioned. For instance, Richard Pynson printed, without date, an edition of the curious tract of Solomon and Marcolphus, to be sold at the sign of St. John the Evangelist beside Charing Cross; the Debate between Somer and Winter, printed by Laurence Andrewe, has the same colophon, and the De Cursione Lune, from the press of Richard Faques, has the same words, but not Wyer's name. His first dated book was the Golden Pystle, printed in 1531. It was printed in a small secretary of Parisian character. His great primer, for which he has been especially noted by some bibliographers, was very probably that used by Richard Faques. He had also a number of woodcut face initials similar to those used by Wynkyn de Worde, and many of the small blocks found in his books were copies of those belonging to Antoine Verard, the famous Paris publisher.
Fig. 14.—Robert Wyer's Device.
Robert Wyer was essentially a popular printer. Many of his publications were mere tracts of a few leaves, abridgments of larger works, and the subjects which they chiefly treated were theology and medicine. Unfortunately, the great bulk of his work bears no date, but several circumstances in his career, coupled with internal evidence gathered from the books themselves, enable us to get very near their date of issue. Like his contemporaries he abandoned the secretary type in favour of black letter, but neither so readily nor so entirely as they did. His first black letter, in use before 1536, was also a very well cut and beautiful letter; with it he printed the Epistle of Erasmus, in octavo, and the Book of Good Works, of which the only copy known is in the library of St. John's College, Oxford. But unquestionably the two most important books known of this printer are William Marshall's Defence of Peace, folio, 1535, printed in secretary, and the Questionary of Cyrurgyens, which he printed for Henry Dabbe and R. Bankes. In 1536 the house in which he was working changed hands, passing into the possession of the Duke of Suffolk, consequently all books which have in the colophon 'in the Duke of Suffolkes Rentes,' or 'Beside the Duke of Suffolkes Place,' were printed after that year. As Wyer continued to print until 1555, this circumstance does not help us much; it may, however, be taken as some further guide that all his later work was done in black letter.
Robert Wyer appears to have done a great deal of work for his contemporaries, notably Richard Bankes, Richard Kele, and John Gough.
Most of his books have woodcuts, the most profusely illustrated was his translation of Christine de Pisan's Hundred Histories of Troy. This book had been printed in Paris by Pigouchet, and the illustrations in Wyer's edition are rude copies of those in the French edition. They are, without doubt, wretched specimens of the woodcutter's art; but in this respect they are no worse than the woodcuts found in other English books at this date, and the number and variety of them speak well for the printer's patience. Robert Wyer's device represented the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos, with an eagle on his right hand holding an inkhorn. With this he used a separate block with his name and mark. He had also a smaller block of the Evangelist from which the eagle was omitted. This is generally found on the title-page or in the front part of his books.