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.
(State Papers, Hen. 8. vol. 6. No. 105.) 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.'
Again, in 1539, in the same series of _Letters and Papers_ (vol. xiv.
pt. 2. No. 781), is an entry of the payment of 100s. to 'Rayner Wolf'
for conveying the King's letters to Christopher Mounte, his Grace's
agent in 'High Almayne'. But it was not until 1542 that he began to
print. The British Museum fortunately possesses copies of all his early
works as a printer, which began with several of the writings of John
Leland the antiquary. The first was _Naeniae in mortem T. Viati, Equitis
incomparabilis, Joanne Lelando, antiquario, authore_, a quarto, printed
in a well-cut fount of Roman. This was followed in the same year by
_Genethliacon_, a work specially written by Leland for Prince Edward,
with a dedication to Prince Henry, the first part being printed in
Italic and the second in Roman type. On the verso of the last leaf is
the printer's very beautiful device of children throwing at an
apple-tree, certainly one of the most artistic devices in use amongst
the printers of that time.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Wolfe's Device.]
To this work succeeded, in 1543, the _Homilies_ of Saint Chrysostom, of
which John Cheke, Professor in Greek at Cambridge University, was
editor. The whole of the first part of the work, with the exception of
the dedication, was in Greek letter, making thirty lines to the quarto
page. The second part, which had a separate title-page, was printed with
the Italic, and the supplementary parts with the Roman types. Some very
fine pictorial initial letters were used throughout the work, and the
larger form of the apple-tree device occurs on the last leaf, with a
Greek and Latin motto.
A very rare specimen of Wolfe's work in 1543 is Robert Recorde's _The
groūd of artes teachyng the worke and practise of Arithmetike moch
necessary for all states of men_, a small octavo printed in black
letter, but of no particular merit. In the same type and form he issued
in the following year a tract entitled _The late expedicion in
Scotlande_, etc. Chrysostom's _De Providentia Dei_ and _Laudatio Pacis_
were printed in the Roman and Italic founts during 1545 and 1546, and
are the only record we have left of Wolfe's work as a printer during
those years. In 1547 he was appointed the king's printer in Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew, and was granted an annuity of twenty-six shillings
and eightpence during his life (Pat. Rol. 19 April 1547).
In 1553 trouble arose between Wolfe and Day as to their respective
rights of printing Edward the Sixth's catechism. The matter was settled
by Wolfe having the privilege for printing the Latin version, and Day
that in English, but neither party reaped much benefit, as upon the
king's death the book was called in, having only been in circulation a
few months. During Mary's reign the only important work that seems to
have come from Wolfe's press was Recorde's _Castle of Knowledge_, a
folio, with an elaborately designed title-page, and a dedication to
Cardinal Pole. In 1560 Wolfe became Master of the Company of Stationers,
a position to which he was elected on three subsequent occasions, in
1564, 1567, and 1572. His patents were renewed to him under Elizabeth,
and he came in for his share of the patronage of Matthew Parker, whose
edition of Jewel's _Apologia_ he printed in quarto form in 1562. In 1563
appeared from his press the _Commonplaces of Scripture_, by Wolfgang
Musculus, a folio, chiefly notable for a very fine pictorial initial
'I,' measuring nearly 3-1/2 inches square, and representing the
Creation, which had obviously formed part of the opening chapter of
Genesis in some early edition of the Bible. It was certainly used again
in the 1577 edition of Holinshed's _Chronicle_.
Almost his last work was Matthew Paris's _Historia Major_, edited by
Matthew Parker, a handsome folio with an engraved title-page, several
good pictorial initials, and his large device of the apple-tree, printed
in 1571. Without doubt the printer was greatly interested in this work.
He had himself collected materials for a chronicle of his adopted
country, which he amused himself with in his spare time. But he did not
live to print it, his death taking place late in the year 1573. His will
was short, and mentioned none of his children by name. His property in
St. Paul's Churchyard, which included the Chapel or Charnel House on the
north side, which he had purchased of King Henry VIII., he left to his
wife, and the witnesses to his will were George Bishop, Raphael
Holinshed, John Hunn, and John Shepparde.[6] His wife, Joan Wolfe, only
survived him a few months, her will, which is also preserved in the
Prerogative Court of Canterbury,[7] being proved on the 20th July 1574.
In it occurs the following passage:
'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 (W. Grafton, vi., A. B. C.,
Lond.), 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.
Cawood began to print in the year 1546, the first specimen of his press
work being a little octavo, entitled _The Decree for Tythes to be payed
in the Citye of London_.
With few exceptions the printers of this period easily enough conformed
to the religious factions of the day. Thus Cawood prints Protestant
books under Edward VI., Catholic books under Mary, and again Protestant
books under Elizabeth. Upon the accession of Mary he was appointed royal
printer in the place of Grafton, who had dared to print the
proclamation of Lady Jane Grey (Rymer's _Fœdera_, vol. xv., p. 125).
He also received the reversion of Wolfe's patent for printing Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew books, as well as all statute books, acts,
proclamations, and other official documents, with a salary of £6, 13s.
4d. The British Museum possesses a volume (505. g. 14) containing the
statutes of the reign of Queen Mary, printed in small folio by Cawood.
From these it will be seen that he used some very artistic woodcut
borders for his title-pages, notably one with bacchanalian figures in
the lower panel signed 'A. S.' in monogram, evidently the same artist
that cut the woodcut initials seen in these and other books printed by
this printer, and who is believed to have been Anton Sylvius, an Antwerp
engraver. Cawood was one of the first wardens of the Stationers' Company
in 1554, and again served from 1555-7, and continued to take great
interest in its welfare throughout his life. In 1557, Cawood, in company
with John Waley and Richard Tottell, published the Works of Sir Thomas
More in a large and handsome folio. The editor was William Rastell,
Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, son of John Rastell the printer, and
nephew of the great chancellor.
The book was printed at the Hand and Star in Fleet Street by Tottell,
but the woodcut initials were certainly supplied by Cawood, and perhaps
some of the type. On the accession of Elizabeth, he again received a
patent as royal printer, but jointly with Richard Jugge, whose name is
always found first. Nevertheless, Cawood printed at least two editions
of the Bible in quarto, with his name alone on the title-page. They were
very poor productions, the text being printed in the diminutive
semi-gothic type that had done duty since the days of Caxton, and the
woodcut borders being made up of odds and ends that happened to be
handy. His rapidly increasing business had already compelled him to
lease from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's a vault under the
churchyard, and two sheds adjoining the church, and in addition to this
he now took a room at Stationers' Hall at a rental of 20s. per year.
In conjunction with Jugge he printed many editions of the _Book of
Common Prayer_ in all sizes. He also reprinted in 1570 Barclay's _Ship
of Fools_ with the original illustrations. Cawood was three times Master
of the Company of Stationers, in 1561, 1562, and 1566. In 1564 he was
appointed by Elizabeth Toye, the widow of Robert Toye, one of the
overseers to her will, and his partner Jugge was one of the witnesses to
the document (P. C. C, 25 Morrison). His death took place in 1572, and
from his epitaph it appeared that he was three times married, and by his
first wife, Joan, had three sons and four daughters. His eldest son,
John, was bachelor of laws and fellow of New College, Oxford, and died
in 1570; Gabriel, the second son, succeeded to his father's business,
and the third son died young. His eldest daughter, Mary, married George
Bishop, one of the deputies to Christopher Barker; a second, Isabel,
married Thomas Woodcock, a stationer; Susannah was the wife of Robert
Bullock, and Barbara married Mark Norton.
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.
There is reason to believe that Richard Tottell was the third son of
Henry Tottell, a famous citizen of Exeter. The name was spelt in a great
variety of ways, such as Tothill, Tuthill, Tottle, Tathyll, and Tottell.
Richard Tottell at the time of his death held lands in Devon, and some
of the same lands that belonged to the Tothill family of Exeter.
Moreover, his coat of arms was the same as theirs. But before 1552 he
was in London, for in that year he received a patent for the printing of
law books, and was generally known as Richard Tottell of London,
gentleman. He appears to have married Joan, a sister of Richard Grafton,
and in this way became possessed of considerable land in the county of
Bucks. From this we may assume that he had business relations with
Richard Grafton, and it becomes only natural that he should have
printed various editions of Grafton's _Chronicle_, and come into
possession of some of his finest woodcut borders.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Richard Tottell's Device.]
It was in June 1557 that he printed his 'Miscellany,' an unpretentious
quarto, with the title: _Songes and Sonnettes, written by the Ryght
Honorable Lorde Henry Hawarde, late Earl of Surrey and other_. Before
the 31st July a second edition became necessary, and several new poems
were added. The third edition appeared in 1559, the fourth in 1565, and
before the end of the sixteenth century, four more editions were called
for. Another of Tottell's works was Gerard Legh's _Accedens of Armory_,
an octavo, printed throughout in italic type, with a curiously engraved
title-page, besides numerous illustrations of coats of arms, and several
full-page illustrations. It was printed in 1562, and again in 1576 and
1591.
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 (Arber, i. 242). 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.'
In 1580, on the invitation of the General Assembly, Vautrollier visited
Scotland, taking with him a stock of books, but no press, and in 1584 he
again went north, and set up a press at Edinburgh, still keeping on his
business in London. The venture does not seem to have turned out a
success, for Vautrollier returned to London in 1586, taking with him a
MS. of John Knox's _History of the Reformation_, but the work was seized
while it was in the press (_Works of John Knox_, vol. i. p. 32).
As a printer Vautrollier ranks far above most of the men around him,
both for the beauty of his types and the excellence of his presswork.
The bulk of his books were printed in Roman and Italic, of which he had
several well-cut founts. He had also some good initials, ornaments, and
borders. In the folio edition of Plutarch's _Lives_, which he printed in
1579, each life is preceded by a medallion portrait, enclosed in a frame
of geometrical pattern; some of these, notably the first, and also those
shown on a white background, are very effective. His device was an
anchor held by a hand issuing from clouds, with two sprigs of laurel,
and the motto 'Anchora Spei,' the whole enclosed in an oval frame.
Vautrollier was succeeded in business by his son-in-law, Richard Field,
another case of the apprentice marrying his master's daughter. Field was
a native of Stratford-on-Avon, and therefore a fellow-townsman of
Shakespeare's, whose first poem, _Venus and Adonis_, he printed for
Harrison in 1593. But we have no knowledge of any intercourse between
them.
Field succeeded to the stock of his predecessor, and his work is free
from the haste and slovenly appearance so general at that time. Another
work from his press was Puttenham's _Arte of English Poesy_, 1589, 4to.
The first edition, of which there is a copy in the British Museum, had
no author's name, but was dedicated by the printer to Lord Burghley. In
the second book, four pages were suppressed. They are inserted in the
copy under notice, but are not paged. This edition also contained as a
frontispiece a portrait of the Queen. Another notable work of Field's
was Sir John Harington's translation of _Orlando Furioso_ (1591, fol.).
This book had an elaborate frontispiece, with a portrait of the
translator, and thirty-six engraved illustrations, that make up in
vigour of treatment, and breadth of imagination, for shortcomings in the
matter of draughtsmanship. The text was printed in double columns, and
each verse of the Argument was enclosed in a border of printers'
ornaments. A second edition, alike in almost every respect, passed
through the same press in 1607. In 1594 Field printed a second edition
of _Venus and Adonis_, and the first edition of _Lucrece_. His later
work included David Hume's _Daphne-Amaryllis_, 1605, 4to; Chapman's
translation of the _Odyssey_ (1614, folio); and an edition of _Virgil_
in quarto in 1620.
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
(Arber, i. p. 398), 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 (Lemon's _Catal. of Broadsides_).
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Christopher Barker's Device.]
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.
On the 23rd June 1586 was issued _The Newe Decrees of the Starre Chamber
for orders in Printing_, which is reprinted in full in the second volume
of Arber's _Transcripts_, pp. 807-812. It was the most important
enactment concerning printing of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and formed the
model upon which all subsequent 'whips and scorpions' for the printers
were manufactured. Its chief clauses were these: It restricted all
printing to London and the two Universities. The number of presses then
in London was to be reduced to such proportions as the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Bishop of London should think sufficient. No books
were to be printed without being licensed, and the wardens were given
the right to search all premises on suspicion. The penalties were
imprisonment and defacement of stock.
[Footnote 6: P. C. C., 1 Martyn.]
[Footnote 7: P. C. C., 32 Martyn.]