“I care not greatly, so that I now and then
May get a peny as wel as I can.”
Consequently they took no pride in the appearance of their books, but used the first block that came to hand regardless whether it harmonized with the type or not.
A third reason for this paucity of ornament in books of the fifteenth century was assuredly lack of encouragement on the part of the English buyer. Caxton and his successors worked for many royal and noble patrons, as King Edward IV., Henry VII. and Henry VIII., Margaret, Duchess of Richmond, Earl Rivers, the Earl of Arundel, some of whom, we may be sure, were acquainted with such Continental masterpieces as the Fior de Virtu, Mer des Hystoire, or the Hypnerotomachia, and many similar works. If they had called upon De Worde or Pynson to produce books of that kind the printers would certainly have done so, and we may therefore ascribe their absence as much to lack of support on the part of the reading public of that day as to lack of enterprise or want of skill on the part of the printers. Here again we may quote from the Seven Sorrows, where Quidam pronounced the opinion, “A peny I trow is enough on books.”
This theory receives strong confirmation from the fact that when a rich book-lover like Cardinal Morton was willing to pay for the work to be done, it was done, and was a credit both to the printer and the nation, for, leaving out of account the service books printed by foreign printers for the English market, Morton’s Missal, printed by Richard Pynson in 1500, may be said to be the first artistic book produced in this country.
Foreign influence as to design is there, no doubt—possibly that of Rouen rather than Paris—but the workmanship was English. Pynson was, in fact, a far better printer than Wynkyn de Worde, and while we know that he obtained material from Basle and Rouen, he used it with better effect. Down to the date of Caxton’s death the ornaments found in English printed books were singularly few. Caxton began to use paragraph marks with his type 4 and 4a, i.e. between 1480 and 1485; then in 1486 he began to use type 6, in which the Maltese cross is found. These were the only two small ornaments he possessed; but in addition to these one or two woodcut initial letters and one border are found in his books.
Wynkyn de Worde, immediately after his master’s death, obtained a fount of type and various blocks from a printer in Gouda, Govaert van Os. The type he used once, the blocks he used until they were worn out, and there is no doubt that he obtained border-pieces from other printers on the Continent. Julyan Notary procured decorative blocks from a foreign source before 1500; but it may safely be said that the paucity of ornament in English books referred to by Mr Duff continued to the opening of the sixteenth century.
The Reformation gave a stimulus to book decoration. The great folio Bible and Books of Common Prayer were ordered to be placed in every church throughout the kingdom, and editions were put on the market as fast as the presses could turn them out. Their title-pages were surrounded by specially engraved borders, and every printing office in Europe was ransacked to provide ornamental initials, of which great numbers were required. How far native talent was employed in this work we have no means of knowing, but there is very little doubt that Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch did employ English workmen. Thomas Berthelet, who succeeded Pynson as King’s printer, printed some notable books, but he seldom used illustrations, though most of his ornaments were good. Richard Tottell and Reyner Wolfe both used decorative blocks with the best effect; but it was left to John Day, with the help of Archbishop Parker, to bring English Printers’ Ornaments to their highest excellence.
John Day was a native of the old town of Dunwich in Suffolk. His father is believed to have been a ‘stringer’ or bow-string maker. Nothing is known with any certainty as to his apprenticeship, but he is found in possession of a device previously in the hands of Robert Gibson, a protégé of Cromwell, and he may have served his term with Gibson.
The first heard of him as a printer is in 1546, when he was in partnership with William Seres at the sign of the Resurrection in Holborn.