CHAPTER V
JOHN DAY'S CONTEMPORARIES
ost notable of all the men who lived and worked with Day, was Reginald or Reyner Wolfe, of the Brazen Serpent in St. Paul's Churchyard. Much as we have to regret the scantiness of all material for a study of the lives of the early English printers, it is doubly felt in the case of Reginald Wolfe. The little that is made known to us is just sufficient to whet the appetite and kindle the curiosity. It reveals to us an active business man, evidently with large capital behind him, setting up as a bookseller, under the shadow of the great Cathedral, and rapidly becoming known to the learned and the rich. We see him passing backwards and forwards between this country and the book-fair at Frankfort, executing commissions for great nobles, and at the same time acting as the King's courier. Later on we find him adding the trade of printer to that of bookseller, and I have very little doubt that it was partly to the advice and influence of Reginald Wolfe that we owe the improvement that took place in John Day's printing after his return from abroad. As a printer he stands beside Day in the excellence of his workmanship, and he was the first in England who possessed any large stock of Greek type.
Reyner Wolfe was a native of Dretunhe(?), in Gelderland, as shown by the letters of denization which he took out on the 2nd January 1533-4. (State Papers, Hen. 8. vol. 6. No. 105.) He had been established in Saint Paul's Churchyard some years before this, however, as in a letter from Thomas Tebold to the Earl of Wiltshire, dated the 4th April 1530, he says he has arrived at Frankfort, and hopes to hear from his lordship through 'Reygnard Wolf, bookseller, of St. Pauls Churchyard, London, who will be here in two days.'
Again, in 1539, in the same series of Letters and Papers (vol. xiv. pt. 2. No. 781), is an entry of the payment of 100s. to 'Rayner Wolf' for conveying the King's letters to Christopher Mounte, his Grace's agent in 'High Almayne'. But it was not until 1542 that he began to print. The British Museum fortunately possesses copies of all his early works as a printer, which began with several of the writings of John Leland the antiquary. The first was Naeniae in mortem T. Viati, Equitis incomparabilis, Joanne Lelando, antiquario, authore, a quarto, printed in a well-cut fount of Roman. This was followed in the same year by Genethliacon, a work specially written by Leland for Prince Edward, with a dedication to Prince Henry, the first part being printed in Italic and the second in Roman type. On the verso of the last leaf is the printer's very beautiful device of children throwing at an apple-tree, certainly one of the most artistic devices in use amongst the printers of that time.
Fig. 22.—Wolfe's Device.