A Short History of English Printing, 1476 to 1898

H >> Henry R. Plomer >> A Short History of English Printing, 1476 to 1898

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But in addition to type 6, which Blades believed to be the last used by
Caxton, there is evidence of his having possessed two other founts
during the latter part of his life. With one of them, type No. 7 (see E.
G. Duff, _Early English Printing_), somewhat resembling types Nos. 3 and
5, he printed two editions of the _Indulgence of Johannes de Gigliis_ in
1489, and it was also used for the sidenotes to the _Speculum Vitae
Christi_, printed in 1494 by Wynkyn de Worde. Type No. 8 was also a
black letter of the same character, smaller than No. 3, and
distinguished from any other of Caxton's founts by the short, rounded,
and tailless letter 'y' and the set of capitals with dots. He used it in
the _Liber Festivalis_, the _Ars Moriendi_, and the _Fifteen Oes_, his
only extant book printed with borders, and it was afterwards used by
Wynkyn de Worde.

Caxton died in the year 1491, after a long, busy, and useful life. His
record is indeed a noble one. After spending the greater part of his
life in following the trade to which he was apprenticed, with all its
active and onerous duties, he, at the time of life when most men begin
to think of rest and quiet, set to work to learn the art of printing
books. Nor was he content with this, but he devoted all the time that he
could spare to editing and translating for his press, and according to
Wynkyn de Worde it was 'at the laste daye of his lyff' that he finished
the version of the _Lives of the Fathers_, which De Worde issued in
1495. His work as an editor and translator shows him to have been a man
of extensive reading, fairly acquainted with the French and Dutch
languages, and to have possessed not only an earnest purpose, but with
it a quiet sense of humour, that crops up like ore in a vein of rock in
many of his prologues.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--From Caxton's 'Fifteen Oes.' (Type 6.)]

Of his private life we know nothing, but the 'Mawde Caxston' who figures
in the churchwarden's accounts of St. Margaret's is generally believed
to have been his wife. His will has not yet been discovered, though it
very likely exists among the uncalendared documents at Westminster
Abbey, from which Mr. Scott has already gleaned a few records relating
to him, though none of biographical interest. We know, however, from the
parish accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, that he left to that
church fifteen copies of the _Golden Legend_, twelve of which were sold
at prices varying between 6s. 8d. and 5s. 4d.

Caxton used only one device, a simple square block with his initials W.
C. cut upon it, and certain hieroglyphics said to stand for the figures
74, with a border at the top and bottom. It was probably of English
workmanship, as those found in the books of foreign printers were much
more finely cut. This block, which Caxton did not begin to use until
1487, afterwards passed to his successor, who made it the basis of
several elaborate variations.

Upon the death of Caxton in 1491, his business came into the hands of
his chief workman, Wynkyn de Worde. From the letters of naturalisation
which this printer took out in 1496, we learn that he was a native of
Lorraine. It was suggested by Herbert that he was one of Caxton's
original workmen, and came with him to England, and this has recently
been confirmed by the discovery of a document among the records at
Westminster, proving that his wife rented a house from the Abbey as
early as 1480. In any case there is little doubt that Wynkyn de Worde
had been in intimate association with Caxton during the greater part of
his career as a printer, and when Caxton died he seems to have taken
over the whole business just as it stood, continuing to live at the Red
Pale until 1500, and to use the types which Caxton had been using in his
latest books. This fact led Blades to ascribe several books to Caxton
which were probably not printed until after his death. These are _The
Chastising of Gods Children_, _The Book of Courtesye_, and the _Treatise
of Love_, printed with type No. 6; but, in addition to these, two other
books, probably in the press at the time of Caxton's death, were issued
from the Westminster office without a printer's name, but printed in a
type resembling type 4*. These are an edition of the _Golden Legend_ and
the _Life of St. Catherine of Sienna_. Wynkyn de Worde's name is found
for the first time in the _Liber Festivalis_, printed in 1493. In the
following year was issued Walter Hylton's _Scala Perfectionis_, and a
reprint of Bonaventura's _Speculum Vite Christi_, the sidenotes to which
were printed in Caxton's type No. 7, which de Worde does not seem to
have used in any other book. Besides this, there was the _Sarum Horae_,
no doubt a reprint of Caxton's edition now lost. He used for these books
Caxton's type No. 8, with the tailless 'y' and the dotted capitals.
Speaking of this type in his _Early Printed Books_, Mr. E. G. Duff
points out its close resemblance to that used by the Paris printers P.
Levet and Jean Higman in 1490, and argues that it was either obtained
from them or from the type-cutter who cut their founts.[1]

To the year 1495 belongs the _Vitas Patrum_, the book of which Caxton
had finished the translation on the day of his death, and beside this,
there were reprints of the _Polychronicon_ and the _Directorium
Sacerdotum_. The reprint of the _Boke of St. Albans_, which was issued
in 1496, is noticeable as being printed in the type which De Worde
obtained from Godfried van Os, the Gouda printer. This broad square set
letter is not found in any other book of De Worde's, though he continued
to use a set of initial letters which he obtained from the same printer
for many years.

Among other books printed in 1496, were _Dives and Pauper_, a folio, and
several quartos such as the _Abbey of the Holy Ghost_, the _Meditations
of St. Bernard_, and the _Liber Festialis_. In 1497 we find the
_Chronicles of England_, and in 1498 an edition of Chaucer's _Canterbury
Tales_, a second edition of the _Morte d'Arthur_, and another of the
_Golden Legend_, in fact nearly all De Worde's dated books up to 1500
were reprints of works issued by Caxton. But amongst the undated books
we notice many new works, such as Lydgate's _Assembly of Gods_, and
_Sege of Thebes_, Skelton's _Bowghe of Court_, _The Three Kings of
Cologne_, and several school books.

In 1499 De Worde printed the _Liber Equivocorum_ of Joannes de
Garlandia, using for it a very small Black Letter making nine and a half
lines to the inch, probably obtained from Paris. This type was generally
kept for scholastic books, and in addition to the book above noted,
Wynkyn de Worde printed with it, in the same year or the year following,
an _Ortus Vocabulorum_. From the time when he succeeded to Caxton's
business down to the year 1500, in which he left Westminster and settled
in Fleet Street, De Worde printed at least a hundred books, the bulk of
them undated.

As will be seen, several printers from the Low Countries seem to have
come to England soon after Caxton. The year after he settled at
Westminster, a book was printed at Oxford without printer's name, and
with a misprint of the date, that has set bibliographers by the ears
ever since. This book was the _Exposicio sancti Jeromini us simbolum
apostolorum_, and the colophon ran, 'Impressa Oxonie et finita anno
domini M.cccc.lxviij., xvij. die decembris.' The facts that two other
books that are dated 1479 (the _Aegidius de originali peccato_ and
_Sextus ethicorum Aristotelis_) have many points in common with the
_Exposicio_, that the _Exposicio_ has been found bound with other books
of 1478, and that the dropping of an x from the date in a colophon is
not an uncommon misprint, have led to the conclusion that the
_Exposicio_ was printed in 1478 and not 1468. The printer of these first
Oxford books is believed to have been Theodoric Rood of Cologne, whose
name appeared in the colophon to the _De Anima_ of Aristotle, printed at
Oxford in 1481. This was followed in 1482 by a _Commentary on the
Lamentation of Jeremiah_, by John Lattebury, and later editions of these
two books are distinguished by a handsome woodcut border printed round
the first page of the text.

About 1483 Rood took as a partner Thomas Hunt, a stationer of Oxford,
and together they issued John Anwykyll's Latin Grammar, together with
the _Vulgaria Terencii_, Richard Rolle of Hampole's _Explanationes super
lectiones beati Job_, a sermon of Augustine's, of which the only known
copy is in the British Museum, a collection of treatises upon logic, one
of which is by Roger Swyneshede, the first edition of _Lyndewode's
Provincial Constitutions_ (a large folio of 366 leaves with a woodcut,
the earliest example found in any Oxford book), and the _Epistles of
Phalaris_, with a lengthy colophon in Latin verse. The last book to
appear from the press was the _Liber Festivalis_ by John Mirk, a folio
of 174 leaves, containing eleven large woodcuts and five smaller ones,
apparently meant for an edition of the _Golden Legend_, as they were cut
down to fit the _Festial_. After the appearance of this book, printing
at Oxford suddenly ceased, and it has been surmised that Theodoric Rood
returned to Cologne. Altogether the Oxford press lasted for eight years,
and fifteen books remain to testify to its activity. In these, three
founts of type were used, the first two having all the characteristics
of the Cologne printers, while the third shows the influence of Rood's
residence in England. A full account of these will be found in Mr.
Falconer Madan's admirable work _The Early Oxford Press_.

The St. Albans Press started in 1479. Only eight books are known with
this imprint, not all of them perfect, none give the name of the
printer, and only one has a device. Most of them are scholastic books,
printed for the use of the Grammar School. These included the _Augustini
Dati elegancie_, a quarto, dated 1480, the _Rhetorica Nova_, which
Caxton was printing at Westminster at the same time, and Antonius Andreae
_super Logica Aristotelis_. But in addition to these, two other notable
works came from this press, the _Chronicles of England_ and the _Book of
St. Albans_.

Out of the four types which are found in these books, two at least were
Caxton's type No. 2 and type No. 3. There was plainly some connection
between the two offices, and as it was a frequent custom for monasteries
to subsidize printers to print their service books, it seems possible
that Caxton may have had some hand in establishing this press, and that
it was for St. Albans Abbey that he cast type No. 3, which (putting
aside its subordinate employment for headlines) we find used exclusively
for service books.

Three years after Caxton had settled at Westminster, viz. in 1480, an
_Indulgence_ was issued by John Kendale, asking for aid against the
Turks. Caxton printed some copies of this, and others are found in a
small neat type, and are ascribed to the press of John Lettou. _Lettou_
is an old form of Lithuania, but whether John Lettou came from Lithuania
is not known.

In this same year 1480, Lettou published the _Quaestiones Antonii Andreae
super duodecim libros metaphysicae Aristotelis_, a small folio of 106
leaves, printed in double columns, of which only one perfect copy is
known, that in the Library of Sion College. The type is small, and
remarkable from its numerous abbreviations. Mr. E. G. Duff in his _Early
Printed Books_, p. 161, speaks of its great resemblance to those of
Matthias Moravus, a Naples printer, and suggests a common origin for
their types. In his _Early English Printing_, on the other hand, he
writes: 'There are very strong reasons for believing that he [Lettou] is
the same person as the Johannes Bremer, _alias_ Bulle, who is mentioned
by Hain as having printed two books at Rome in 1478 and 1479. The type
which this printer used is identical (with the exception of one of the
capital letters) with that used in the books printed by John Lettou in
London.'

A few years later Lettou was joined by William de Machlinia. They were
chiefly associated in printing law-books, but whether they had any
patent from the king cannot be discovered. Only one of the five books
they are known to have printed, the _Tenores Novelli_, has any colophon,
and none of them has any date. The address they gave was 'juxta
ecclesiam omnium sanctorum,' but as there were several churches so
dedicated, the locality cannot be fixed.

We next find Machlinia working alone, but out of the twenty-two books or
editions that have been traced to his press, only four contain his name,
and none have a date. All we can say is that he printed from two
addresses, 'in Holborn,' and 'By Flete-brigge.' Mr. Duff inclines to the
opinion that the 'Flete-brigge' is the earlier, but it seems almost
hopeless to attempt to place these books in any chronological order from
their typographical peculiarities.

In the Fleet-Bridge type are two books by Albertus Magnus, the _Liber
aggregationis_ and the _De Secretis Mulierum_. The type is of a black
letter character, not unlike that in which the _Nova Statuta_ were
printed, and is distinguishable by the peculiar shape of the capital M.
In the same type we find the _Revelation of St. Nicholas to a Monk of
Evesham_, a reprint of the _Tenores Novelli_, and some fragments of a
_Sarum Horae_ found in old bindings; a woodcut border was used in some
parts of it. Besides these Machlinia printed an edition of the _Vulgaria
Terentii_.

A larger number of books is found in the Holborn types, the most
important being the _Chronicles of England_, of which only one perfect
copy is known.

The _Speculum Christiani_ is interesting as containing specimens of
early poetry, and _The Treatise on the Pestilence_, of Kamitus or
Canutus, bishop of Aarhus, ran to three editions, one of which contains
a title-page, and was therefore presumably printed late in Machlinia's
career, _i.e._ about 1490.

In addition to these, there were three law-books, the _Statutes of
Richard III._, and several theological and scholastic works. One of the
founts of type used by Machlinia is of peculiar interest, by reason of
its close resemblance to Caxton's type No. 2*, and its still greater
similarity to the type used by Jean Brito of Bruges.

Machlinia's business seems to have been taken over by Richard Pynson.
There is no direct evidence of this, but like Machlinia he took up the
business of printing law-books (being the first printer in this country
to receive a royal patent); he is found using a woodcut border used in
Machlinia's _Horae_; and, in addition to this, waste from Machlinia books
has been found in Pynson bindings.

Richard Pynson was a native of Normandy. He had business relations with
Le Talleur, a printer of Rouen. His methods also were those of Rouen,
rather than of any English master. Wherever he came from, Richard Pynson
was the finest printer this country had yet seen, and no one, until the
appearance of John Day, approached him in excellence of work.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Pynson's Mark.]

The earliest examples of his press appear to be a fragment of a
_Donatus_ in the Bodleian and the _Canterbury Tales_ of Chaucer. The
type he used for these was a bold, unevenly cast fount of black letter,
somewhat resembling that used by Machlinia at Fleet Bridge. The
_Chaucer_, however, contained a second fount of small sloping Gothic.

The first book of Pynson found with a date is a _Doctrinale_, printed in
November 1492, now in the John Rylands Library. This was followed by the
_Dialogue of Dives and Pauper_, printed in 1493 with a new type,
distinguishable by the sharp angular finish to the letter 'h.' Several
quartos without date were printed in the same type.

From this time till 1500, the majority of his books were printed in the
small type of the _Chaucer_.

Another printer who worked at this time was Julian Notary. He was
associated in the production of books with Jean Barbier, and another
whose initials, J. H., are believed to be those of J. Huvin, a printer
of Paris. They established themselves in London at the sign of St.
Thomas the Apostle, and their most important book was the _Questiones
Alberti de modis significandi_, which they followed up in 1497 with an
octavo edition of the _Horae ad usum Sarum_. In 1498 Barbier and Notary
removed to King Street, Westminster, where they printed in folio a
_Missale ad usum Sarum_. Soon afterwards Notary was printing by himself,
his partner, Barbier, having returned to France. Two quartos, the _Liber
Festivalis_ and _Quattuor Sermones_, are all that can be traced to his
press in 1499, and a small edition of the _Horae ad usum Sarum_ is the
sole record of this work in 1500.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Notary's Mark.]

Notary was also a bookbinder, and some of his stamped bindings are still
met with.

[Footnote 1: E. G. Duff, _Early Printed Books_, pp. 84 and 139.]

CHAPTER II

FROM 1500 TO THE DEATH OF WYNKYN DE WORDE

In the year 1500 Wynkyn de Worde moved from Westminster to the 'Sunne'
in Fleet Street. His business had probably outgrown the limited
accommodation of the 'Red Pale,' and the change brought him nearer the
heart of the bookselling trade then, and for many years after, seated in
St. Paul's Churchyard and Fleet Street. He carried with him the black
letter type with which he had printed the _Liber Festivalis_ in 1496,
and continued to use it until 1508 or 1509, when he seems to have sold
it to a printer in York, Hugo Goes. He brought with him also the
scholastic type in use in 1499.

Besides these, we find, _e.g._ in the 1512 reprint of the _Golden
Legend_, two other founts of black letter. The larger of the two seems
to have been introduced about 1503, to print a Sarum _Horae_. The smaller
fount came into use a few years later. It was somewhat larger, less
angular, and much more English in character, than that which the
printer had brought with him from Westminster. The bulk of Wynkyn de
Worde's books to the day of his death were printed with these types.
They were, doubtless, recast from time to time, but a close examination
fails to detect any difference in size or form during the whole period.

De Worde first began to use Roman type in 1520 for his scholastic books,
but he does not seem ever to have made any general use of it, remaining
faithful to English black letter to the end of his days. The only
exceptions are the educational books, which he invariably printed, as in
fact did all the other printers of the period, in a miniature fount of
gothic of a kind very popular on the Continent in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, being used by the French and Italian printers as
well as those of the Low Countries. De Worde's, however, was an
exceptionally small fount. Those most generally in use averaged eight
full lines of a quarto page, set close, to the inch, whereas De Worde's
averaged nine lines to the inch. But in 1513 he procured another fount
of this type, in which he printed the _Flowers of Ovid_, quarto, and in
this the letters are of English character, as may be seen particularly
in the lowercase 'h.' This fount, which was slightly larger, averaging
only eight lines to the inch, he does not seem to have used very
frequently. As Julian Notary printed the _Sermones Discipuli_ in 1510,
in the same type, it may have been lent by one printer to the other. In
or about 1533 De Worde introduced the italic letter into some of his
scholastic books, and in Colet's _Grammar_, which was amongst the last
books he printed, we find it in combination with English black letter,
the small 'grammar type,' and Roman.

In these various types, between the beginning of the century and his
death in 1534, Wynkyn de Worde printed upwards of five hundred books
which have come down to us, complete or in fragments. Thanks to the
indefatigable energy of Mr. Gordon Duff, we possess now a very full
record of his books, enabling us not only to estimate his merit as a
printer, but to see at a glance how consistently as a publisher he
maintained the entirely popular character which Caxton had given to his
press.

As regards books which required a considerable outlay, he was far less
adventurous than Caxton, his large folios being confined almost entirely
to those in which his master had led the way, such as the _Golden
Legend_, of which he issued several editions, the _Speculum Vitae
Christi_, the _Morte d'Arthur_, _Canterbury Tales_, _Polychronicon_, and
_Chronicles of England_. The _Vitas Patrum_ of 1495 he could hardly help
printing, as Caxton had laboured on its translation in the last year of
his life, and it may have been respect for Caxton also which led to the
publication of his finest book, the really splendid edition of
Bartholomaeus' _De Proprietatibus Rerum_, issued towards the close of the
fifteenth century, from the colophon of which I have already quoted the
lines referring to Caxton's having worked at a Latin edition of it at
Cologne. The _Book of St. Albans_ was another reprint to which the
probable connection of the Westminster and St. Albans presses gave a
Caxton flavour; and when we have enumerated these and the _Dives and
Pauper_, produced apparently out of rivalry with Pynson in 1496, and a
few devotional books such as the _Orcharde of Syon_ and the _Flour of
the Commandments of God_, to which this form was given, very few Wynkyn
de Worde folios remain unmentioned.

But to one book in folio, Wynkyn de Worde printed some five-and-twenty
in quarto, eschewing as a rule smaller forms, though now and again we
find a _Horae_, or a _Manipulus Curatorum_, or a _Book of Good Manners
for Children_ in eights or twelves.[2]

He was in fact a popular printer who issued small works in a cheap form,
and without, it must be added, greatly concerning himself as to their
appearance. Popular books of devotion or of a moral character figure
most largely among the books he printed; but students of our older
literature owe him gratitude for having preserved in their later forms
many old romances, and also a few plays, and he published every class of
book, including many educational works, for which a ready sale was
assured. The majority of these books were illustrated, if only with a
cut on the title-page of a schoolmaster with a birch-rod, or a knight on
horseback who did duty for many heroes in succession. When the
illustrations were more profuse, they were too often produced from worn
blocks, purchased from French publishers, or rudely copied from French
originals, and used again and again without a thought as to their
relevance to the text. It must also be owned that many of Wynkyn de
Worde's cheap books are badly set up and badly printed, and that
altogether his reputation stands rather higher than his work as a
printer really deserves. But he printed some fine books, and rescued
many popular works from destruction, and we need not grudge him the
honour he has received--an honour amply witnessed by the high prices
fetched by books from his press whenever they come into the market.

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--De Worde's 'Sagittarius' Device.]

There was no originality about Wynkyn de Worde's devices, of which he
used no fewer than sixteen different varieties. The most familiar, as it
was the earliest of these, was Caxton's, and next to this must be placed
what is usually described as the Sagittarius device. There were two
forms of this, a square and an oblong. It consisted of three divisions,
the upper part containing the sun and stars, the centre, the Caxton
device, and the lower part, a ribbon with his name, with a dog on one
side and an archer on the other. There are three distinct stages of
this device, that used between 1506-1518 being replaced in 1519, and
again in 1528. This last is distinguished by having only ten small stars
to the left of the sun and ten to the right, whereas the two preceding
had eleven stars to the left of the sun and nine to the right. The
oblong block had the moon added in the top compartment, and in the
bottom division the sagittarius and dog are reversed. This block
continued in use from 1507 to 1529, and the stages in its dilapidation
are useful in dating the books in which it occurs. Besides these, and
some smaller forms, Wynkyn de Worde used a large architectural device,
sometimes enclosed with a border of four pieces, the upper and lower of
which seem to have afterwards come into the possession of John Skot.

Wynkyn de Worde died in 1534, his will being proved on the 19th January
1535. His executors were John Byddell, who succeeded to his business,
and James Gaver, while three other London stationers, Henry Pepwell,
John Gough, and Robert Copland were made overseers of it, and received
legacies.

Julian Notary remained at Westminster two years after the departure of
Wynkyn de Worde, when he too flitted eastwards, settling at the sign of
the Three Kings without Temple Bar, probably to be nearer De Worde. He
combined with his trade of printer that of bookbinder, and probably
bound as well as printed many books for Wynkyn de Worde. His printing
lay principally in the direction of service books for the church, but he
printed both the _Golden Legend_ and the _Chronicle of England_ in
folio, one or two lives of saints, and a few small tracts of lighter
vein, such as 'How John Splynter made his testament,' and 'How a
serjeaunt wolde lerne to be a frere,' both in quarto without date.

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