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 _Horæ_. 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 Vitæ
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
Bartholomæus' _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 _Horæ_, 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.
In the _Golden Legend_ of 1503 and the _Chronicles of England_ of 1515,
the black letter type used was identical in character with that of
Wynkyn de Worde.
No book is found printed by Notary between the years 1510 and 1515. In
the former year he appears to have had a house in St. Paul's Churchyard,
as well as the Three Kings without Temple Bar. In 1515 he speaks only of
the sign of St. Mark in St. Paul's Churchyard, and three years later
this is altered to the sign of the Three Kings. It is just conceivable
that this last was a misprint, or that the St. Mark was a temporary
office used only while the Three Kings was under repair.
In 1507 Notary exchanged the simple merchant's mark that had hitherto
served him as a device for one of a more elaborate character. This took
the form of a helmet over a shield with his mark upon it, with
decorative border, and below all his name. From this a still larger
block was made in the same year, and this was strongly French in
character. It showed the smaller block affixed to a tree with bird and
flowers all round it, and two fabulous creatures on either side of the
base. The initials 'J. N.' are seen at the top. This he sometimes used
as a frontispiece, substituting for the centre piece a block of a
different character.
Richard Pynson also changed his address shortly after Wynkyn de Worde,
moving from outside Temple Bar to the George in Fleet Street, next to
St. Dunstan's Church. He also appears to have entirely given up the use
of Gothic type in favour of English black letter about this time. It is
not easy to form a conjecture as to the motive which led to the
abandonment of this type, and it is impossible to regard the step
without regret. Even in its rudest forms it was a striking type; in the
hands of a man like Pynson it was far more effective than the black
letter which took its place. With regard to this latter, there seems
reason to believe, from the great similarity both in size and form of
the fount in use by De Worde, Notary, and Pynson at this time, that it
was obtained by all the printers from one common foundry. Nor is it only
the letters which lead to this conclusion, but the common use of the
same ornaments points in the same direction. The only difference between
the black letter in use by Pynson in the first years of the sixteenth
century and that of his contemporaries, is the occurrence of a lower
case 'w' of a different fount.
In 1509 Pynson is believed to have introduced Roman type into England,
using it with his scholastic type to print the _Sermo Fratris Hieronymi
de Ferraria_. In the same year he also issued a very fine edition of
Alexander Barclay's translation of Brandt's _Shyp of Folys of the
Worlde_. In this, the Latin original and the English translation are set
side by side. The book was printed in folio in two founts, one of Roman
and one of black letter. It was profusely illustrated with woodcuts
copied from those in the German edition.
About 1510 Pynson became the royal printer in the place of W. Faques,
and continued to hold the post until his death. At first he received a
salary of 40s. per annum (_see_ L. and P. H. 8, vol. 1, p. 364), but
this was afterwards increased to £4 per annum (L. and P. H. 8, vol. 2,
p. 875). In this capacity he printed numbers of Proclamations, numerous
Year-books, and all the Statutes, and received large sums of money. In
1513 he printed _The Sege and Dystrucyon of Troye_, of which several
copies (some of them on vellum) are still in existence. Other books of
which he printed copies on vellum are the _Sarum Missal_ of 1520, and
_Assertio Septem Sacramentorum_ of 1521.
Besides these and his official work, Pynson printed numbers of useful
books in all classes of literature. The works of Chaucer and Skelton and
Lydgate, the history of Froissart and the Chronicle of St. Albans; books
such as _Æsop's Fables_ and _Reynard the Fox_, romances such as _Sir
Bevis of Hampton_ are scattered freely amongst works of a more learned
character. On the whole he deserves a much higher place than De Worde.
It is rare, indeed, to find a carelessly printed book of Pynson's,
whilst such books as the Boccaccio of 1494, the Missal printed in 1500
at the expense of Cardinal Morton, and known as the Morton Missal, and
the _Intrationum excellentissimus liber_ of 1510 are certainly the
finest specimens of typographical art which had been produced in this
country.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Richard Pynson's Device.]
Pynson's earliest device, as Mr. Duff has noted, resembled in many ways
that of Le Talleur, and consisted of his initials cut on wood. In 1496
he used two new forms. One shows his mark upon a shield surmounted by a
helmet with a bird above it. Beneath is his name upon a ribbon, and the
whole is enclosed in a border of animals, birds, and flowers. The other
was a metal block of much the same character, having the shield with his
mark, and as supporters two naked figures. The border, which was
separate and in one piece, had crowned figures in it and a ribbon. The
bottom portion of this border began to give way about 1500, was very
much out of shape in 1503, and finally broke entirely in 1513. This
border was sometimes placed the wrong way up, as in the British Museum
copy of _Mandeville's Ways to Jerusalem_ (G. 6713). It was succeeded by
a woodcut block of a much larger form, which may be seen in the
_Mirroure of Good Manners_ (s.a., fol.). The block itself measures
5-5/8'' x 3-5/8'' and has no border. The initials print black on a white
ground. The figures supporting the shield have a much better pose, and
those of the king and queen differ materially. The bird on the shield is
much larger, and is more like a stork or heron.
Pynson died in the year 1529, while passing through the press
_L'Esclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse_, which was finished by his
executor John Hawkins, of whom nothing else is definitely known.
Whilst these three printers had been at work, many other stationers,
booksellers, and printers had settled in London. They seem to have
favoured St. Paul's Churchyard and Fleet Street; but they were also
scattered over various parts of the city and outlying districts, even as
far west as the suburb of Charing.
In 1518, Henry Pepwell settled at the sign of the Trinity in St. Paul's
Churchyard, and used the device previously belonging to Jacobi and
Pelgrim, two stationers who imported books printed by Wolfgang and
Hopyl. His books fall into two classes--those printed between 1518-1523,
and those between 1531-1539. The first were printed entirely in a
black-letter fount that appears to have belonged to Pynson. The second
series were printed entirely in Roman letter. A copy of his earliest
book, the _Castle of Pleasure_, 4to, 1518, is in the British Museum, as
well as the _Dietary of Ghostly Helthe_, 4to, 1521; _Exornatorium
Curatorum_, 4to, n.d.; Du Castel's _Citye of Ladyes_, 4to, 1521. His
edition of _Christiani hominis Institutum_, 4to, 1520, is only known
from a fragment in the Bodleian. Several books have been ascribed
wrongly to this printer (Duff, _Bibliographica_, vol. i. pp. 93, 175,
499).
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--William Faques' Device.]
In the year 1504, a printer named William Faques had settled in Abchurch
Lane. He was a Norman by birth, and Ames suggested that he learnt his
art with John Le Bourgeois at Rouen, but this is unconfirmed. He styled
himself the king's printer. Of his books only some eight are in
existence, three with the date 1504, and the remainder undated. His
workmanship was excellent. The _Psalterium_ which he printed in octavo
was in a large well cut English black letter, and each page was
surrounded by a chain border. The Statutes of Henry VII. are also in the
same type with the same ornament, but the _Omelia Origenis_, one of the
undated books, is in the small foreign letter so much in vogue with the
printers of this time. His device has the double merit of beauty and
originality. It consisted of two triangles intersected with his
initials in the centre and the word 'Guillam' beneath. His subsequent
career is totally unknown, but his type, ornaments, etc., passed into
the hands of Richard Fawkes or Faques, who printed at the sign of the
Maiden's Head, in St. Paul's Churchyard, in the year 1509, Guillame de
Saliceto's _Salus corporis Salus anime_, in folio. Not only is the type
used in this identical with that in the _Psalterium_ of William Faques,
but the chain ornament is also found in it. After this we find no other
dated book by Richard Faques until 1523, when he printed Skelton's
_Goodly Garland_ in quarto, in three founts of black letter, and a fount
of Roman, and a great primer for titles. Amongst his undated works is a
copy of the _Liber Festivalis_, believed to have been printed in 1510,
and an _Horœ ad usum Sarum_ printed for him in Paris by J. Bignon.
During the interval he had moved from the Maiden's Head in St. Paul's
Churchyard to another house in the same locality, with the sign of the
A. B. C, and he also had a second printing office in Durham Rents,
without Temple Bar, that is in some house adjacent to Durham House in
the Strand. The earliest extant printed ballad was issued by Richard
Faques, the _Ballad of the Scottish King_, of which the only known copy
is in the British Museum, and amongst his undated books is one which he
printed for Robert Wyer, the Charing Cross printer, under the title of
_De Cursione Lunæ_. It was printed with the Gothic type, and the blocks
were supplied by Wyer. Richard Faques' device was a copy of that of the
Paris bookseller Thielmann Kerver, with an arrow substituted for the
tree, and the design on the shield altered. The custom of adapting other
men's devices was very common, and is one of the many evidences of
dearth of originality on the part of the early English printers.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Richard Faques' Device.]
The latest date found in the books of this printer is 1530.
Another prominent figure in the early years of the sixteenth century was
that of Robert Copland. He was a man of considerable ability, a good
French scholar, and a writer of mediocre verse. Apart from this, he was
also, in the truest sense of the word, a book lover, and used his
influence to produce books that were likely to be useful, or such as
were worth reading. In the prologue to the _Kalendar of Shepherdes_,
which Wynkyn de Worde printed in 1508, he described himself as servant
to that printer. This has been taken to mean that he was one of De
Worde's apprentices. But in 1514, if not earlier, he had started in
business for himself as a stationer and printer, at the sign of the Rose
Garland in Fleet Street. Very few of the books that he printed now
exist, and this, taken in conjunction with the fact that he translated
and wrote prologues for so many books printed by De Worde, has led all
writers upon early English printing to conclude that he was an odd man
about De Worde's office, and that he was in fact subsidised by that
printer. There is evidence, however, that many of the books printed by
De Worde, that have prologues by Robert Copland, were first printed by
him, and that in others he had a share in the copies.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Robert Copland's Device.]
In the British Museum copy of the _Dyeynge Creature_, printed by De
Worde in 1514, it is noticeable that on the last leaf is the mark or
device of Robert Copland, not that of the printer, while in the copy now
in the University Library, Cambridge, De Worde's device is on the last
leaf.
This would appear to indicate that both printers were associated in the
venture, though the work actually passed through De Worde's press, and
that those copies which Copland took and paid for were distinguished by
his device. Again, in several of these books, found with De Worde's
colophons, Copland speaks of himself as the 'printer,' or 'the buke
printer,' and the inference is that they were reprints of books which
Copland had previously printed. Indeed in one instance the evidence is
still stronger. In 1518, Henry Pepwell printed at the sign of the
Trinity the _Castell of Pleasure_. The prologue to this takes the form
of a dialogue in verse between Copland and the author, of which the
following lines are the most important:--
'Emprynt this boke, Copland, at my request
And put it forth to every maner state.'
To which Copland replies:--
'At your instaunce I shall it gladly impresse
But the utterance, I thynke, will be but small
Bokes be not set by: there tymes is past, I gesse;
The dyse and cardes, in drynkynge wyne and ale,
Tables, cayles, and balles, they be now sette a sale
Men lete theyr chyldren use all such harlotry
That byenge of bokes they utterly deny.'
If this means anything, it is impossible to avoid the inference that
Robert Copland printed the first edition of this book. Amongst others
that he was in some way interested in may be noticed a curious book by
Alexander Barclay, _Of the Introductory to write French_, fol., 1521, of
which there is a copy in the Bodleian; _The Mirrour of the Church_, 4to,
1521, a devotional work, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, with a variety of
curious woodcuts; the _Rutter of the Sea_, the first English book on
navigation, translated from _Le Grande Routier_ of Pierre Garcie;
Chaucer's _Assemble of Foules_ and the _Questionary of Cyrurgyens_,
printed by Robert Wyer in 1541.
Copland was also the author, and without doubt the printer, of two
humorous poems that are amongst the earliest known specimens of this
kind of writing. The one called _The Hye Way to the Spyttell hous_ took
the form of a dialogue between Copland and the porter of St.
Bartholomew's, and turns upon the various kinds of beggars and
impostors, with a running commentary upon the vices and follies that
bring men to poverty. _Iyll of Brentford_, the second of these
compositions, is a somewhat different production. It recounts the
legacies left by a certain lady, but the humour, though to the taste of
the times, was excessively broad.
In 1542 Dr. Andrew Borde spoke of his _Introduction of Knowledge_ as
printing at 'old Robert Copland's, the eldest printer in England.'
Whether he meant the oldest in point of age or in his craft is not
clear; but it may well be that, seeing that De Worde, Pynson, and the
two Faques were dead, this printing house was the oldest then in London.
John Rastell also began to print about the year 1514. He is believed to
have been educated at Oxford, and was trained for the law. In addition
to his legal business, he translated and compiled many law-books, the
most notable being the _Great Abridgement of the Statutes_. This book he
printed himself, and it is certainly one of the finest examples of
sixteenth century printing to be found. The work was divided into three
parts, each of which consisted of more than two hundred large folio
pages. When it is remembered that the method of printing books at this
period was slow, at the most only two folio pages being printed at a
pull, the time and capital employed upon the production of this book
must have been very great. The type was the small secretary in use at
Rouen, and it is just possible the book was printed there and not in
England.
John Rastell's first printing office in London was on the south side of
St. Paul's Churchyard. Williarn Bonham, the stationer with whom Rastell
was afterwards associated, had some premises there, and as late as the
seventeenth century there was a house in Sermon Lane, known as the
Mermaid, and it may be that in one or other of these Rastell printed the
undated edition of Linacre's _Grammar_, which bears the address, 'ye
sowth side of paulys.' But in 1520 he moved to 'the Mermayd at Powlys
gate next to chepe syde.' There he printed _The Pastyme of People_, and
Sir Thomas More's _Supplicacyon of Souls_, besides several interludes
and two remarkable jest-books, _The Twelve mery gestys of one called
Edith_ and _A Hundred Mery Talys_. The last named became one of the most
popular books of the time, but only one perfect copy of it is now known,
and that, alas! is not in this country. Rastell was brother-in-law of
Sir Thomas More, and up to the year 1530 a zealous Roman Catholic. So
strong were his religious opinions that in that year he wrote and
printed a defence of the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, under the
title of the _New Boke of Purgatory_. This was answered by John Frith,
the Reformer, who is credited with having achieved John Rastell's
conversion. By whatever means the change was brought about, John Rastell
did soon afterwards become a Protestant; but the change in his belief
made him many enemies. He was arrested for his opinions, and if he did
not die in prison, he was in prison just before his death, which took
place in 1536. During the last sixteen years of his life he does not
appear to have paid much attention to his business. A document now in
the Record Office shows that he was in the habit of locking up his
printing office in Cheapside, and going down into the country for months
at a time. But a part of the premises he sublet, and this was occupied
for various periods by several stationers--William Bonham, Thomas Kele,
John Heron, and John Gough, being particularly named. Like all his
predecessors, he dropped the use of the secretary type in favour of
black letter, and his books, as specimens of printing, greatly
deteriorated. Dibdin, in his reprint of _The Pastyme of the People_, was
very severe upon the careless printing of the original, but it is more
than likely that it was the work of one of Rastell's apprentices, rather
than his own. Amongst those whom he employed we find the names of
William Mayhewes, of whom nothing is known; Leonard Andrewe, who may
have been a relative of Laurence Andrewe, another English printer; and
one Guerin, a Norman.
John Rastell left two sons, William and John. The former became a
printer during his father's lifetime and succeeded him in business, but
his work lies outside the scope of the present chapter. The same remark
applies to William Bonham.
John Gough began his career as a bookseller in Fleet Street in 1526. In
1528 he was suspected of dealing in prohibited books (see _Letters and
Papers of Henry VIII._, vol. iv. pt. ii. art. 4004), but managed to
clear himself. In 1532 he moved to the 'Mermaid' in Cheapside, and in
the same year Wynkyn de Worde printed two books for him concerning the
coronation of Anne Boleyn. In 1536, whilst still living there, he issued
a very creditable Salisbury _Primer_. He calls himself the printer of
this, but it is extremely doubtful if this can be taken to mean anything
more than that he found the capital, and, perhaps, the material with
which it was printed. Wynkyn de Worde appointed John Gough one of the
overseers of his will. Of his subsequent career more will be said at a
later period.
Another of the printers who worked for Wynkyn de Worde during the latter
part of his life was John Skot. In 1521, when we first meet with him, he
was living in St. Sepulchre's parish, without Newgate. In that year he
printed the _Body of Policie_ and the _Justyces of Peas_, and in 1522
_The Myrrour of Gold_; amongst his undated books are, _Jacob and his
xii sons_, _Carta Feodi simplicis_, and the _Book of Maid Emlyn_, all
these being in quarto. His next dated book appeared in 1528, with the
colophon 'in Paule's Churchyard,' and here he appears to have remained
for some years. He is next found in Fauster Lane, St. Leonard's parish,
where he printed, amongst other books, the ballad of _The Nut Browne
Maid_. He also appears to have been at George Alley Gate, St. Botolph's
parish, where he printed, but without date, Stanbridge's _Accidence_.
His devices were three in number, and several of his border pieces were
obtained from Wynkyn de Worde.
Richard Bankes began business at the long shop in the Poultry, next to
St. Mildred's church, and six doors from the Stockes or Stocks Market,
which at that time stood on the present site of the Mansion House. In
1523 he printed a very curious tract with the following title:--
'Here begynneth a lytell newe treatyse or mater intytuled and called The
ix. Drunkardes, which tratythe of dyuerse and goodly storyes ryght
plesaunte and frutefull for all parsones to pastyme with.'
It was printed in octavo, black letter, and the only known copy is in
the Douce collection at the Bodleian. Another equally rare piece of
Bankes' printing was the old English romance of _Sir Eglamour_, known
only by a fragment of four leaves in the possession of Mr. Jenkinson of
the University Library, Cambridge. This was also somewhat roughly
printed in black letter. In 1525 he printed a medical tract called the
_Seynge of Uryns_, in quarto, and three years later was associated with
Robert Copland in the production of the _Rutter of the Sea_. He also
issued from this address _A Herball_, and another popular medical work
called the _Treasure of Pore Men_. Bankes is, however, best known as the
printer of the works of Richard Taverner, the Reformer, but this was
later, and will be noticed when we come to them.
Peter Treveris, or Peter of Treves, was working at the sign of the
Wodows, in Southwark, between the years 1521 and 1533. He used as his
device the 'wild men,' first seen in the device of the Paris printer, P.
Pigouchet. The fact of his printing the _Opusculum Insolubilium_, to be
sold at Oxford 'apud J. T.', that is probably for John Thome the
bookseller, points to his being at work about the year 1520. In 1521 he
is believed to have issued an edition of Arnold's _Chronicles_,
translated by Laurence Andrewe. Two other books of his printing were the
_Handy Worke of Surgery_, in folio, 1525, a book notable for the many
anatomical diagrams with which it was illustrated, and as a companion to
that work, _The Great Herball_ Treveris also shared with Wynkyn de
Worde most of the printing of Richard Whittington's scholastic works,
all in quarto, and mostly without date.
Laurence Andrewe, who lived for some years at Calais, translated one or
more books for John van Doesborch, the Antwerp printer, set up a press
in London about 1527, and printed a second edition of the _Handy Worke
of Surgery_, above noticed, a tract called _The Debate and Strife
betwene Somer and Winter_, to be sold by Robert Wyer at Charing Cross;
_The destillacyon of Waters_, in 1527; and a reprint of Caxton's edition
of the _Mirroure of the Worlde_, in folios, 1527. His printing calls for
no special notice, but Mr. Proctor, in his monograph on _Doesborgh_,
surmises that he learnt his art in an English printing house rather than
abroad, and the presence of a Leonarde Andrewe in the service of John
Rastell may mean that the two men were related and were both pupils of
the same master.
Turning now westwards, we find 'in the Bishop of Norwiche's Rentes in
the felde besyde Charynge Cross,' that is near the present Villier
Street, a printer named Robert Wyer, the sign of whose house was that of
St. John the Evangelist. There are several early references to the house
as that of a bookseller's, but without any name mentioned. For instance,
Richard Pynson printed, without date, an edition of the curious tract of
_Solomon and Marcolphus_, to be sold at the sign of St. John the
Evangelist beside Charing Cross; the _Debate between Somer and Winter_,
printed by Laurence Andrewe, has the same colophon, and the _De Cursione
Lune_, from the press of Richard Faques, has the same words, but not
Wyer's name. His first dated book was the _Golden Pystle_, printed in
1531. It was printed in a small secretary of Parisian character. His
great primer, for which he has been especially noted by some
bibliographers, was very probably that used by Richard Faques. He had
also a number of woodcut face initials similar to those used by Wynkyn
de Worde, and many of the small blocks found in his books were copies of
those belonging to Antoine Verard, the famous Paris publisher.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Robert Wyer's Device.]
Robert Wyer was essentially a popular printer. Many of his publications
were mere tracts of a few leaves, abridgments of larger works, and the
subjects which they chiefly treated were theology and medicine.
Unfortunately, the great bulk of his work bears no date, but several
circumstances in his career, coupled with internal evidence gathered
from the books themselves, enable us to get very near their date of
issue. Like his contemporaries he abandoned the secretary type in favour
of black letter, but neither so readily nor so entirely as they did. His
first black letter, in use before 1536, was also a very well cut and
beautiful letter; with it he printed the _Epistle_ of Erasmus, in
octavo, and the _Book of Good Works_, of which the only copy known is in
the library of St. John's College, Oxford. But unquestionably the two
most important books known of this printer are William Marshall's
_Defence of Peace_, folio, 1535, printed in secretary, and the
_Questionary of Cyrurgyens_, which he printed for Henry Dabbe and R.
Bankes. In 1536 the house in which he was working changed hands, passing
into the possession of the Duke of Suffolk, consequently all books
which have in the colophon 'in the Duke of Suffolkes Rentes,' or 'Beside
the Duke of Suffolkes Place,' were printed after that year. As Wyer
continued to print until 1555, this circumstance does not help us much;
it may, however, be taken as some further guide that all his later work
was done in black letter.
Robert Wyer appears to have done a great deal of work for his
contemporaries, notably Richard Bankes, Richard Kele, and John Gough.
Most of his books have woodcuts, the most profusely illustrated was his
translation of Christine de Pisan's _Hundred Histories of Troy_. This
book had been printed in Paris by Pigouchet, and the illustrations in
Wyer's edition are rude copies of those in the French edition. They are,
without doubt, wretched specimens of the woodcutter's art; but in this
respect they are no worse than the woodcuts found in other English books
at this date, and the number and variety of them speak well for the
printer's patience. Robert Wyer's device represented the Evangelist on
the Island of Patmos, with an eagle on his right hand holding an
inkhorn. With this he used a separate block with his name and mark. He
had also a smaller block of the Evangelist from which the eagle was
omitted. This is generally found on the title-page or in the front part
of his books.
[Footnote 2: It is rather remarkable that of the eight books dated 1534
six are in octavo. Readers of the works of Erasmus, Colet, and Lily seem
to have shown a preference for this form, which is used most frequently
for the works of these friendly authors.]