This printer is known in connection with a few books, about half-a-dozen in number, which, as usual, are excessively scarce and very valuable. The dates of his birth and death are uncertain. The first of his books, however, is dated 1499, and the last 1508.
Although the date of the first book printed by Richard Fawkes is given as 1509, it is more than likely that the date on the title-page (Salus Corporis, Salus Anime, folio, 1509) is a misprint. The next in point of date is a book of Hours, 1521, and it is hardly likely that twelve years should have elapsed without his printing anything. Still, time has spared such a few of this printer's publications that it is quite possible the date may be correct. Specimens from Fawkes' press are excessively rare, none having been offered for sale, so far as I am aware, for many years.
Our information about this printer is very meagre, so much so that little seems to be known of him beyond the fact that he was the first printer in the borough of Southwark. He printed for John Reynes, a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard in 1527; also for Laurence Andrewe, who carried on business in Fleet Street about the same date. Anthony à Wood, in his History and Antiquities of Oxford, says that Treveris printed some of Whitinton's pieces there in 1527, but no evidence of the fact appears to be forthcoming. The first book known to have issued from his press is the Disticha Moralia, 4to, 1514, though some bibliographers deny that Treveris was the printer. The whole number of his productions, inclusive of the grammatical treatises of Whitinton, which, on the authority of Wood and for purposes of convenience, are ascribed to him, does not amount to 30. They are, as usual, very scarce.
The Grete herball whiche gyueth parfyt Knowledge, &c., black letter, woodcuts, badly cut down, 1529, folio, £5.