Robert Redman set up a printing press at the house quitted by Pynson, just outside Temple Bar, and called the George. He seems also to have adopted a colourable imitation of his device, and altogether to have taken great advantage of his opportunities to undermine the business of his rival. In the 1525 edition of Lyttleton's Tenures, printed by Pynson, the latter takes Redman roundly to task, and in an edition of Magna Charter, dated 1527, a similar strain of abuse is maintained. The first book known to have been printed by Redman bears date 1523. He died somewhere about the year 1540.
Fitzherbert's Diuersite de Courtes, black letter, 24 ff., 1528, 16mo, £2 10s.
This prolific printer was in business, "in the felde besyde Charynge Crosse," from 1527 to about 1542, but as the greater number of his books were published without dates, it is possible that he may have lived beyond the year given. The number of his books catalogued amounts to 68, and they consist chiefly of treatises on Astrology, Medicine, and, more rarely, Poetry.
Towards the middle of the sixteenth century the popular demand for biblical legends and treatises on scholastic divinity began to decline, and a taste for classical literature to take its place. The productions of Berthelet, which give evidence of the improvement in this respect to no slight degree, are intrinsically valuable, as well as unusually numerous. Berthelet died about Christmas, 1555, as appears by an entry in the Stationers' Hall books for 26th of January, 1555-6. The number of his works, as catalogued, amounts to 190.
The Praise of Folie, by Erasmus, translated by Chaloner, black letter, wormed, and title mended, 1549, 4to, £2 8s.
Gower's De Confessione Amantis, black letter, Berthelet's first edition, wormed, oak boards, covered in stamped leather, 1532, folio, £8.
Institution of a Christen Man, black letter, woodcut border to title by Holbein, morocco extra, 1537, 4to, £22 10s.
Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christen man, black letter, morocco extra, 1543, 4to, £12.
Psalms or Prayers, black letter, wanting title and signature Lv, calf, no date (1548), 8vo, £10 5s.
Henrici VIII. Pia et Catholica Christiani Hominis Institutio, morocco extra, by Pratt, fine copy, 1544, 4to, £5 5s.
JOHN BYDDELL, 1533.