Read Ebook: A Short History of English Printing 1476-1898 by Plomer Henry R Henry Robert Pollard Alfred W Alfred William Editor

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Lant, Richard. Lobel, Michael.

Marten, Will. Marsh, Thos. Markall, Thomas.

Norton, Henry. Norton, William.

Paget, Richard. Parker, Thomas. Pattinson, Thomas. Pickering, William. Powell, Humphrey. Powell, Thomas. Powell, William. Purfoot, Thomas.

Radborne, Robert. Richardson, Richard. Rogers, John. Rogers, Owen. Ryddall, Will.

Sawyer, Thomas. Seres, William. Shereman, John. Sherewe, Thomas. Smyth, Anthony. Spylman, Simon. Steward, William. Sutton, Edward. Sutton, Henry.

Taverner, Nicholas. Tottle, Richard. Turke, John. Tyer, Randolph. Tysdale, John.

Walley, Charles. Walley, John. Wallys, Richard. Way, Richard. Whitney, John. Wolfe, Reginald.

Amongst the men whose names were not included in the charter were:--

Baker, John, made free 24th Oct. 1555. Caley, Robert. Chandeler, Giles, made free 24 Oct. 1555. Charlewood, John. Hacket, Thomas. Singleton, Hugh. Wayland, John Wyer, Robert.

JOHN DAY'S CONTEMPORARIES

Most notable of all the men who lived and worked with Day, was Reginald or Reyner Wolfe, of the Brazen Serpent in St. Paul's Churchyard. Much as we have to regret the scantiness of all material for a study of the lives of the early English printers, it is doubly felt in the case of Reginald Wolfe. The little that is made known to us is just sufficient to whet the appetite and kindle the curiosity. It reveals to us an active business man, evidently with large capital behind him, setting up as a bookseller, under the shadow of the great Cathedral, and rapidly becoming known to the learned and the rich. We see him passing backwards and forwards between this country and the book-fair at Frankfort, executing commissions for great nobles, and at the same time acting as the King's courier. Later on we find him adding the trade of printer to that of bookseller, and I have very little doubt that it was partly to the advice and influence of Reginald Wolfe that we owe the improvement that took place in John Day's printing after his return from abroad. As a printer he stands beside Day in the excellence of his workmanship, and he was the first in England who possessed any large stock of Greek type.

Reyner Wolfe was a native of Dretunhe, in Gelderland, as shown by the letters of denization which he took out on the 2nd January 1533-4. He had been established in Saint Paul's Churchyard some years before this, however, as in a letter from Thomas Tebold to the Earl of Wiltshire, dated the 4th April 1530, he says he has arrived at Frankfort, and hopes to hear from his lordship through 'Reygnard Wolf, bookseller, of St. Pauls Churchyard, London, who will be here in two days.'

'I will that Raphell Hollingshed shall have and enjoye all such benefit, proffit, and commoditie as was promised unto him by my said late husbande Reginald Wolfe, for or concerning the translating and prynting of a certain crownacle which my said husband before his decease did prepare and intende to have prynted.'

She further mentioned in her will a son Robert, a son Henry, and a daughter Mary, the wife of John Harrison, citizen and stationer, as well as Luke Harrison, a citizen and stationer, while among the witnesses to it was Gabriel Cawood, the son of John Cawood, who lived hard by at the sign of the Holy Ghost, next to 'Powles Gate.'

From a document in the Heralds' College , it appears that John Cawood, who began to print about the same time as Day, came from a Yorkshire family of good standing. He was apprenticed to John Reynes, a bookseller and bookbinder, who at that time, about 1542, worked at the George Inn in this locality. Cawood greatly respected his master, and in aftertimes, when he had become a prosperous man, placed a window in Stationers' Hall to the memory of John Reynes. Reynes died in 1543, but there is no mention of Cawood in his will, perhaps because Cawood was no longer in his service; but in that of his widow, Lucy Reynes, there was a legacy to John Cawood's daughter.

Richard Jugge was another of those who owed much to the patronage and encouragement of Archbishop Parker. He is believed to have been born at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, and was educated, first at Eton, and afterwards at Cambridge. He set up at the sign of The Bible in 1548, and used as his device a pelican plucking at her breast to feed her young who are clamouring around her. In 1550 he obtained a licence to print the New Testament, and in 1556 books of Common Law. Under Elizabeth in 1560 he was made senior Queen's Printer. When the new edition of the Bible was about to be issued in 1569, Archbishop Parker wrote to Cecil, asking that Jugge might be entrusted with the printing, as there were few men who could do it better. In this way he became the printer of the first edition of the 'Bishops' Bible,' a second edition coming from his press the year following. In this work he used several large decorative initial letters, with the arms of the several patrons of the work, as well as a finely designed engraved title-page, with a portrait of the Queen, and other portraits of Burleigh and Leicester. In his edition of the New Testament were numerous large cuts, evidently of foreign workmanship, some of them signed with the initials 'E. B.' Richard Jugge died in 1577.

Another of Day's contemporaries, whose name is remembered by all students of English literature, was Richard Tottell, who lived at the Hand and Star in Fleet Street, and printed there the collection of poetry known as Tottell's Miscellany.

The best of Tottell's work as a printer is to be found in the law-books, for which he was a patentee. In these he used several handsome borders to title-pages, one of an architectural character with his initials R. T. at the two lower corners, another, evidently Grafton's, with a view of the King and Parliament in the top panel, and Grafton's punning device in the centre of the bottom panel.

In 1573 Richard Tottell tried to establish a paper mill in England. He wrote to Cecil, pointing out that nearly all paper came from France, and undertaking to establish a mill in England if the Government would give him the necessary land and the sole privilege of making paper for thirty years . But as nothing was ever done in the matter, the Government evidently did not entertain the proposal. Tottell was Master of the Company of Stationers in 1579 and 1584. During the latter part of his life he withdrew from business, and lived at Wiston, in Pembrokeshire, where he died in 1593. He left several children, of whom the eldest, William Tottell, succeeded to his estates.

In the precincts of the Blackfriars, Thomas Vautrollier, a foreigner, was at work as a printer in 1566, having been admitted a 'brother' of the Company of Stationers on the 2nd October 1564. He soon afterwards received a patent for the printing of certain Latin books, and Christopher Barker, in a report to Lord Burghley in 1582, says:--

'He has the printing of Tullie, Ovid, and diverse other great workes in Latin. He doth yet, neither great good nor great harme withall.... He hath other small thinges wherewith he keepeth his presses on work, and also worketh for bookesellers of the Companye, who kepe no presses.'

Foremost among the later men of this century stands Christopher Barker, the Queen's printer, who was born about 1529, and is said to have been grand-nephew to Sir Christopher Barker, Garter King-at-Arms. Originally a member of the Drapers' Company, he began to publish books in 1569 , and to print in 1576, and purchased from Sir Thomas Wilkes his patent to print the Old and New Testament in English. Barker issued in 1578 a circular offering his large Bible to the London Companies at the rate of 24s. each bound, and 20s. unbound, the clerks of the various Companies to receive 4d. apiece for every Bible sold, and the hall of each Company that took ?40 worth to receive a presentation copy .

In 1582 Barker sent to Lord Burghley an account of the various printing monopolies granted since the beginning of the reign, and expresses himself freely on them. He also attempted to suppress the printers in Cambridge University. In and after 1588 he carried on his business by deputies, George Bishop and Ralph Newbery, and in the following year, on the disgrace of Sir Thomas Wilkes, he obtained an exclusive patent for himself and his son to print all official documents, as well as Bibles and Testaments. At one time Barker had no fewer than five presses, and between 1575 and 1585 he printed as many as thirty-eight editions of the Scriptures, an almost equal number being printed by his deputies before 1600. Christopher Barker died in 1599, and was succeeded in his post of royal printer by Robert Barker, his eldest son.

'Sent John Pryntare to London with Harry Pepwell, Bonere and Tabbe, of Powlles churchyard stationers, to order him at your pleasure. Never heard of the little book of detestable heresies till the stationers showed it me.'--

In Kent there was a press at Canterbury, from which eleven books are known to have been printed between 1549 and 1556.

The Norwich press began about 1566, when Anthony de Solemne, or Solempne, set up a press among the refugees who had fled from the Netherlands and taken refuge in that city. Most of his books were printed in Dutch, and all of them are excessively rare. The earliest was:--

The Psalms of David in Dutch appeared in 1568, and the New Testament in the same year.

He was also the printer of certain Tables concerning God's word, by Antonius Corranus, pastor of the Spanish Protestant congregation at Antwerp. It was printed in four languages, Latin, French, Dutch, and English.

The only known specimen of Solempne's printing in the English language is a broadside now in the Bodleian:--

The books printed by these two Cambridge printers show that they had a good variety of Roman and Italic, very regularly cast, besides some neat ornaments and initials. Whether these founts belonged to the University, or to Thomas in the first place, is not clear. Nor do these books bear out the Bishop of London's statement as to Thomas being ignorant of printing; on the contrary, the presswork was such as could only have been done by a skilled workman.

From East Molesey the press was afterwards removed to Fawsley, near Daventry, and from thence to Coventry. But the hue and cry after the hidden press was so keen that another shift was made to Wolston Priory, the seat of Sir R. Knightley, and finally Waldegrave fled over sea, taking with him his black-letter type. He went first to Rochelle, and thence to Edinburgh, where in 1590 he was appointed King's printer.

The printing-house of the firm in Edinburgh was in the Southgait , and they lost no time in setting to work, devoting themselves chiefly to printing some of the popular metrical tales of England and Scotland. A volume containing eleven such pieces, most of them printed in 1508, is preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.

Three founts of black letter, somewhat resembling in size and shape those of Wynkyn de Worde, were used in printing these books, and the devices of both men are found in them. That of Chepman was a copy of the device of the Paris printer, Pigouchet, while Myllar adopted the punning device of a windmill with a miller bearing sacks into the mill, with a small shield charged with three fleur-de-lys in each of the upper corners.

Contemporary with Lekpreuik was Thomas Bassandyne, who is believed to have worked both in Paris and Leyden before setting up as a printer in Edinburgh.

On the 7th March 1574-75, in partnership with Alexander Arbuthnot , Bassandyne laid proposals before the General Assembly for printing an edition of the Bible, the first ever printed in Scotland. The General Assembly gave him hearty support, and required every parish to provide itself with one of the new Bibles as soon as they were printed. On the other hand, the printers were to deliver a certain number of copies before the last of March 1576, and the cost of it was to be ?5. The terms of this agreement were not carried out by the printers. The New Testament only was completed and issued in 1576, with the name of Thomas Bassandyne as the printer. The whole Bible was not finished until the close of the year 1579, and Bassandyne did not live to see its completion, his death taking place on the 18th October 1577.

Bassandyne used as his device a modification of the serpent and anchor mark of John Crespin of Geneva.

Arbuthnot was now left to carry on the business alone, and was made King's printer in 1579. But he was a slow, slovenly, and ignorant workman, and the General Assembly were so disgusted with the delivery of the Bible and the wretched appearance of his work, that, on the 13th February 1579-80, they decided to accept the offer of Thomas Vautrollier, a London printer, to establish a press in Edinburgh.

Arbuthnot died on September 1st, 1585. His device was a copy of that of Richard Jugge of London, and is believed to have been the work of a Flemish artist, Assuerus vol Londersel.

In 1580, at the express invitation of the General Assembly, Thomas Vautrollier visited Edinburgh, and set up as a bookseller, no doubt with the view of seeing what scope there was likely to be for a printer with a good stock of type. The Treasurer's accounts for this period show that he received royal patronage.

Scotland's next important printer was Robert Waldegrave, who, after his adventures as a secret printer in England, set up a press in Edinburgh in 1590, and continued printing there till the close of the century.

Contemporary with him was a Robert Smyth, who married the widow of Thomas Bassandyne, and who in 1599 received license to print the following books:--'The double and single catechism, the plane Donet, the haill four pairtes of grammar according to Sebastian, the Dialauges of Corderius, the celect and familiar Epistles of Cicero, the buik callit Sevin Seages, the Ballat buik, the Secund rudimentis of Dunbar, the Psalmes of Buchanan and Psalme buik.'

The last of the Scottish printers of the sixteenth century was Robert Charteris, the son and successor of Henry Charteris, but he did not succeed to the business until 1599, and his work lies chiefly in the succeeding century.

Nothing is known of Humphrey Powell's work in England beyond several small theological works issued between 1548 and 1549 from a shop in Holborn above the Conduit.

This type was afterwards used to print William O'Donnell's, or Daniel's, Irish Testament in 1602.

THE STUART PERIOD

One of the first acts of King James on his accession to the English throne was to strengthen the hands of the already powerful Company of Stationers. Hitherto all Primers and Psalters had been the exclusive privilege of the successors of Day and Seres, while Almanacs and Prognostications, another large and profitable source of revenue, had been the property of James Roberts and Richard Watkins. But now, by the royal authority, these two valuable patents were turned over to the Stationers to form part of their English stock. At the same time, the privileges of Robert Barker, son and successor to Christopher Barker, and king's printer by reversion, were increased by grants for printing all statutes, hitherto the monopoly of other printers. On the other hand, Robert Barker did not retain the sole possession of the royal business as men like Berthelet and Pynson had been wont to do, but had joined with him in the patent John Norton, who had a special grant for printing all books in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and John Bill, who probably obtained his share by purchase. These three men were thus the chief printers during the early part of this reign.

Robert Barker had been made free of the Stationers' Company in 1589, when he joined his father's assigns, George Bishop and Ralph Newbery, in the management of the business. He was admitted to the livery of the Company in 1592, and upon his father's death succeeded to the office of King's printer by reversion. In 1601-2 he was warden of the Company, and filled the office of Master in 1605. Some time before 1618 he sold his moiety of the business to Bonham Norton and John Bill, and this arrangement was confirmed by Royal Charter in 1627.

Robert Barker's work was almost entirely of an official character, the printing of the Scriptures, Book of Common Prayer, Statutes and Proclamations.

His work was very unequal, and his type, mostly of black letter, was not of the best.

His most important undertaking was the so-called 'authorised version' of the Bible in 1611. As a matter of fact it never was authorised in any official sense. The undertaking was proposed at a conference of divines, held at Hampton Court in 1604. The King manifested great interest in the scheme, but did not put his hand in his pocket towards the expenses, and the divines who undertook the translation obtained little except fame for their labours, while the whole cost of printing was borne by Robert Barker. Like all previous editions of the Scriptures in folio, this Bible of 1611 was printed in great primer black letter. It was preceded by an elaborately engraved title-page, the work of C. Boel of Richmond, and had also an engraved map of Canaan, partly the work of John Speed.

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