The first edition is known as the Shakespeare edition, because it was used by the great poet, in common with all the Elizabethan dramatists, in the preparation of his historical plays.
That Holinshed used the adjective faithfully in its true sense may be seen by a reference to the dedication of the book to Sir William Cecil, Baron of Burleigh, whose coat-of-arms appears on the back of the title-page. Here he gives an interesting account of the inception and fortunes of the work, with an incidental side-light upon the relations of printer and professional writer:
"Where as therefore, that worthie Citizen Reginald Wolfe late Printer to the Queenes Maiestie, a man well knowen and beholden to your Honour, meant in his life time to publiſh an vniuerſall Coſmographie of the whole worlde, and therewith alſo certaine perticular Histories of euery knowen nation, amongſt other whome he purpoſed to vſe for performance of his entent in that behalfe, he procured me to take in hande the collection of thoſe Histories, and hauing proceeded ſo far in the ſame, as little wanted to the accompliſhment of that long promiſed worke, it pleased God to call him to his mercie, after .xxv yeares trauell ſpent therein, so that by his vntimely deceaſſe, no hope remayned to ſee that performed, which we had so long trauayled aboute: thoſe yet whom he left in trust to diſpoſe his things after his departure hence, wiſhing to the benefite of others, that ſome fruite might follow of that whereabout he had imployed ſo long time, willed me to continue mine endeuour for their furtherance in the ſame, whiche although I was ready to do, ſo farre as mine abilitie would reach, and the rather to anſwere that trust which the deceaſſed repoſed in me, to ſee it brought to ſome perfection: yet when the volume grewe ſo great, as they that were to defray the charges for the Impreſsion, were not willing to go through with the whole, they reſolued first to publiſhe the Histories of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande, with their deſcriptions, whiche deſriptions, becauſe they were not in ſuch readineſſe, as thoſe of forreyn countreys, they were enforced to uſe the helpe of other better able to do it than I."
Reginald Wolfe, so well known and highly esteemed, was a German by birth, and trained in his craft in the office of the Strasburg master Conrad Neobarius, whose device of The Brazen Serpent he afterward adopted. Edward VI appointed Wolfe royal printer in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as bookseller and stationer, with an annuity of 26s. 8d.
We find the names of his executors and the chief promoters of the history in the entry on the Registers of the Stationers' Company, under date of July 1, 1578: "Receyued of master harrison and master Bisshop for the licensinge of Raphaels Hollingshedes cronycles XXs and a copy," which, by the way, Mr. Arber remarks to be the largest fee he had met with. Some copies bear the imprint of one, some of the other; and there are still others with the names of John Harrison (there were four publishers of this name), Lucas Harrison and John Hunne, who were also probably among them "that were to defray the charges for the impression."
No printer's name appears in either volume, but the figure of a mermaid upon the title-pages, and a larger mark of two hands holding a serpent upon a crutch at the end of the first volume, show it to have been from the press of Reginald Wolfe's apprentice and successor, Henry Bynneman of The Mermaid, in Knight Rider Street. Boy and man knowing his master's hopes and fears for his Universal Cosmographie, acquainted with the long travail put upon it, and so properly desirous, like the rest, to see some fruit born of it, who could have done the work so well and faithfully as he?
In the preface to the second volume we are told that it was intended to bring out the histories of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with their descriptions, in one volume, and the descriptions and abridgements of the histories of other countries in another; but that the chronicles of England growing very voluminous it was deemed best to defer printing the histories of the other countries, and to divide the material on hand into two volumes. Here, however, a new difficulty presented itself; the history of England after the Conquest was found to equal in length all the other matter, and, if allowed to follow after the early history of the Island, in its proper order, would make the volumes very unequal in size; so it was given a volume by itself, with the pagination continuing that of the English history in the first volume. The other histories have separate title-pages, paginations, and indexes.
The book is illustrated with woodcuts in two distinct varieties, one, representing the heads of kings, the other, spirited scenes in the history. The last are of a better character than most of those of the period, and show very clearly the influence that Holbein, who had died in London twenty-four years before, had exerted upon English book-illustration. Some of the cuts are repeated. The elaborate woodcut border in the contemporary German style was used by the printer in several other books, before and after this date. A large, well-designed initial C, with a coat-of-arms in the center, printed from a separate block ("mortised"), begins the dedication to Lord Burleigh; and a large I, with a picture of the Creation, probably designed for the first page of a Bible, begins the preface, and The History of Scotland. This last is the largest initial letter, Mr. Pollard says, that he has found in an English book. It had previously been used by Wolfe, in 1563. An initial letter, representing an astronomer (Ptolemy?), is prefixed to The History of Ireland. It is signed with a C having a small I within it. Other initials of a similar character had been used before by John Day, in Cunningham's Cosmographical Years, published in 1559. A royal coat-of-arms begins the Chronicle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and in the second volume, at page 1868, is a folded woodcut of the "ſiege and wynning of Edinburg Caſtell. Anno. 1573." It is signed C T Tyrell.
Folio. Two volumes. Black letter and Roman. Double columns. Woodcuts.
Collation: ¶, six leaves;