Fig. 29.—Device of Alexander Arbuthnot.
On the 7th March 1574-75, in partnership with Alexander Arbuthnot (who was not the same as the Alexander Arbuthnot who had been appointed to exercise a supervision of Bassandyne's books in 1568), Bassandyne laid proposals before the General Assembly for printing an edition of the Bible, the first ever printed in Scotland. The General Assembly gave him hearty support, and required every parish to provide itself with one of the new Bibles as soon as they were printed. On the other hand, the printers were to deliver a certain number of copies before the last of March 1576, and the cost of it was to be £5. The terms of this agreement were not carried out by the printers. The New Testament only was completed and issued in 1576, with the name of Thomas Bassandyne as the printer. The whole Bible was not finished until the close of the year 1579, and Bassandyne did not live to see its completion, his death taking place on the 18th October 1577.
Like most of his predecessors, Bassandyne was a bookseller; and on pp. 292-304 of their work Annals of Scottish Printing, Messrs. Dickson and Edmond have printed the Inventory of the goods he possessed, including the whole of his stock of books, which is of the greatest interest and value. Unfortunately such inventories are not to be met with in the case of English printers.
Bassandyne used as his device a modification of the serpent and anchor mark of John Crespin of Geneva.
Arbuthnot was now left to carry on the business alone, and was made King's printer in 1579. But he was a slow, slovenly, and ignorant workman, and the General Assembly were so disgusted with the delivery of the Bible and the wretched appearance of his work, that, on the 13th February 1579-80, they decided to accept the offer of Thomas Vautrollier, a London printer, to establish a press in Edinburgh.
Arbuthnot died on September 1st, 1585. His device was a copy of that of Richard Jugge of London, and is believed to have been the work of a Flemish artist, Assuerus vol Londersel.
Another printer in Edinburgh between 1574-80 was John Ross. He worked chiefly for Henry Charteris, for whom he printed the Catechisme in 1574, and a metrical version of the Psalms in 1578. For the same bookseller he also printed a poem, The seuin Seages, Translatit out of prois in Scottis meter be Johne Rolland in Dalkeith, a quarto, now so rare that only one copy is now known, that in the Britwell Library.
In 1579 Ross printed Ad virulentum Archbaldi Hamiltonii Apostatæ dialogum, de confusione Calvinianæ Sectæ apud Scotos, impie conscriptum, orthodoxa responsio, Thoma Smetonio Scoto anctore, a quarto, printed in Roman letter, and followed it up with two editions of Buchanan's De Jure Regni apud Scotos dialogus.
Ross used a device showing Truth with an open book in her right hand, a lighted candle in her left, surrounded with the motto 'Vincet tandem veritas.' This device was afterwards used by both Charteris and Waldegrave. Ross died in 1580, when his stock passed into the hands of Henry Charteris, who began printing in the following year. As we have seen, he employed Scot, Lekpreuik, and Ross to print for him. Up to 1581 he confined himself to bookselling. His printing was confined to various editions of Sir David Lindsay's Works and theological tracts. He used two devices, that of Ross, and another emblematical of Justice and Religion, with his initials. He died on the 9th August 1599.