In 1528, John Scolar, no doubt the same with the Oxford printer, is found at Abingdon, where he printed a Breviary for the use of the abbey there; only one copy has survived, and is now at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Fig. 25.—Device of Joseph Barnes.
The first Cambridge printer was John Siberch, whose history, like that of so many other early printers, is totally unknown. Nine specimens of his printing during the years 1521-22 are extant. The first is the Oratio of Henry Bullock, a tract of eight quarto leaves, with a dedication dated February 13, 1521, and the date of the imprint February 1521, so that it probably appeared between the 13th and 28th of that month. The type used was a new fount of Roman. The book had no ornamentation of any kind, neither device nor initial letters. A facsimile of this book, with an introduction and bibliographical study of Siberch's productions, was issued by the late Henry Bradshaw in 1886. The title-page of the second book, Cuiusdam fidelis Christiani epistola ad Christianos omnes, by Augustine, shows the title between two upright woodcuts, each containing scenes from the Last Judgment. The third book, an edition of Lucian, has a very ugly architectural border. The fifth book from Siberch's press, the Libellus de Conscribendis epistolis, autore D. Erasmo, printed between the 22nd and 31st of October 1521, contains the privilege which, it is believed, he obtained from Bishop Fisher.
In the far west of England a press was established in the monastery of Tavistock, in Devon, of which two curious examples are preserved. The first is The Boke of Comfort, called in laten Boetius de Consolatione philosophie. Translated into English tonge ... Enprented in the exempt monastery of Tauestock in Den̅shyre, By me Dan Thomas Rycharde, monke of the sayde monastery, To the instant desyre of the ryght worshypful esquyer Mayster Robert Langdon. Anno d.' M.Dxxv., 4to. The Bodleian Library at Oxford has two imperfect copies of this book, and a third, also imperfect, is in the library of Exeter College, Oxford. The latter college is also fortunate in possessing the only known copy of the second book, which has this title:—
Here foloweth the confirmation of the Charter perteynynge to all the tynners wythyn the Coūty of devonshyre, with there Statutes also made at Crockeryntorre.
Imprented at Tavystoke ye xx day of August the yere of the reygne off our souerayne Lord Kyng Henry ye viii the xxvi yere, i.e. 1534.
To this same year, 1534, belongs the first dated book of John Herford, the St. Albans printer. It seems probable that he was established there some years earlier, but this is the first certain date we have. In that year appeared a small quarto, with the title, Here begynnethe ye glorious lyfe and passion of Seint Albon prothomartyr of Englande, and also the lyfe and passion of Saint Amphabel, whiche conuerted saint Albon to the fayth of Christe, of which John Lydgate was the author. It was printed at the request of Robert Catton, abbot of the monastery, and it would seem as if Herford's press was situated within the abbey precincts. The next book, The confutacyon of the first parte of Frythes boke ... put forth by John Gwynneth clerk, 1536, 8vo, was the work of one of the monks of the abbey, who in the previous year had signed a petition to Sir Francis Brian on the state of the monastery (Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ix. p. 394). Another of the signatories to that petition was Richard Stevenage, who was at that time chamberer of the abbey, and was created abbot on the deprivation of Robert Catton in 1538. Of the three books which Herford printed in that year, two were expressly printed for Richard Stevenage. These were A Godly disputation betweene Justus and Peccator and Senex and Juvenis, and An Epistle agaynste the enemies of poore people, both octavos, of which no copies are now known. In some of Herford's books is a curious device with the letters R. S. intertwined on it, which undoubtedly stand for Richard Stevenage. His reign as abbot was a short one, for on 5th December 1539 he delivered the abbey over to Henry VIII's commissioners. Just before that event, on the 12th October, he wrote a letter to Cromwell in which the following passage occurs:—
'Sent John Pryntare to London with Harry Pepwell, Bonere and Tabbe, of Powlles churchyard stationers, to order him at your pleasure. Never heard of the little book of detestable heresies till the stationers showed it me.'—(Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII., Vol. xiv., Pt. 2, No. 315.)