scale. An edition of the _Opus Insolubilium_, a book used in the
schools at Oxford, and printed by Peter Treveris at Southwark for
I. T., has been known for some time from a copy in the library of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The I. T. was considered to stand for
John Thorne, the English form of Dorne. This has been confirmed by a
recent discovery. From the sale in 1906 of the library of the Duke of
Sutherland at Trentham Hall, a most interesting volume was secured
for the University Library. It contained three tracts connected with
Oxford. The first was the _Libellus Sophistarum_ printed at London by
Wynkyn de Worde, of which there were several editions. The second was
another copy of the _Opus Insolubilium_ mentioned above; but the third
was an entirely unknown book, an edition of the _Tractatus secundarum
intentionum logicalium_. This has a clear imprint starting that the
book was to be sold by John Thorne in the year 1527. At the end of
the last two pieces is the device of the printer, Peter Treveris. We
find frequent entries of these two books in Dorne’s ledger of 1520,
so that evidently, finding the sale so good, he determined to have
editions printed for himself. It is only from this recent discovery
that we are able to attach the date of 1527 to these books printed
at Oxford, but this fits in most curiously with an assertion made
by the Oxford antiquary, Anthony a Wood. Herbert, in his account of
Treveris, wrote: “Mr Wood thought he had printed a Latin grammar of
Whitinton’s at Oxford in 1527 as also books about and before that time,
but we have not met with any such.” Wood does not speak of any other
books except the edition of Whitinton’s grammar, and from his giving
the exact date we must either conclude that he was referring to a
genuine book which he had seen, or else had seen a copy of this book
printed for Dorne and had confused it with some other tract. Wood is
also responsible for the assertion that Wynkyn de Worde printed for
a while in Oxford, and asserts that a lane called Grope Lane had its
name altered to Wynkyn Lane as a memorial of his work there. For this
statement there seems no foundation, but it is quite probable that W.
de Worde had more considerable dealings with the Oxford stationers
than we know at present. He printed a book for Jacobi, to which I have
already referred, and when the press was restarted at Oxford in 1517
he supplied some of the material. So much new information has come to
light recently about the Oxford book-trade, that we may fairly hope for
more, and perhaps discover further dealings there of De Worde.
From the twelfth century onward Oxford appears to have been a great
centre of book-binding, not only as the seat of a University, but from
the number and importance of the religious houses in its immediate
neighbourhood. From various records and registers we get the names
of individual binders in an unbroken series. While we can point to
exquisite bindings produced at London, Durham, and Winchester as early
as the twelfth century, and while doubtless similar fine bindings were
produced in Oxford, yet strangely enough and very unfortunately we
cannot point to any definite specimen of a decorated Oxford binding
earlier than the second half of the fifteenth century. From about 1460
to the end of the century, on the other hand, examples are plentiful,
and the bindings of this period have a very distinctive style of their
own. The old styles of binding seem to have lingered on in Oxford and
even some of the old tools.
The earliest binding which we can definitely point to as executed
there is on a volume of sermons written in 1460. The decoration
consists of stamps arranged as parallelograms one inside the other and
covering the main part of the side. One of the stamps used on this
binding, depicting a strange bird, is the identical stamp found on a
twelfth-century binding in the British Museum. On the back are found
small roundels arranged in sets of three, an ornament very common
on all early Oxford bindings, and a single stamp on which the three
roundels are engraved seems peculiar to Oxford work. Three manuscripts
in Magdalen College, Oxford, written and bound between 1462 and 1470,
are of similar early style, and might from their appearance and dies
be considered two centuries older. The advent of Rood in Oxford agrees
in point of time with the introduction of a class of binding very
distinctive in style. The centre of the side contains a panel composed
of horizontal rows of stamps and enclosed by a frame formed with an
oblong stamp of foliage twined round a staff. On spaces outside the
frame are stamped roses and roundels in sets of three. The stamps
employed on these bindings show a distinct foreign influence, and many
of them are almost identical with those used by foreign binders notably
of the Low Countries. Some bindings, certainly produced in Oxford about
this time, have not only foreign dies upon them but have them disposed
in quite a foreign style, and are probably the work of foreign binders
settled in the town. The number of different dies used on Oxford
bindings, between 1480 and 1500, is very large. Gibson, in his work on
the subject, gives drawings of nearly a hundred; and though some of
these are of the simplest character and in no way distinctive, many of
them are both clever in design and extremely well engraved.
One or two Oxford bindings of the time show a curious return to another
early English style in which the ornament was disposed in circles
or part of circles. The finest example is on the Lathbury in the
University Library. The centre of each side is ornamented with a circle
formed by the repetition of a die depicting two birds drinking from a
cup. This die was evidently cut for use in this special way, for the
top is wider than the bottom, like the stones of the arch of a bridge,
so that when stamped side by side they would work round into a circular
form. Another binding of the same style is in the library of St John’s
College, Cambridge, and both bear the most extraordinary resemblance,
allowing for the different shape and style of the dies, to the covers
of the Winchester Domesday book written in 1148 and bound about the
same time.
Early bindings fall into three classes, those ornamented with small
dies, in vogue until about the end of the fifteenth century, panel
stamped bindings used in the early part of the sixteenth, and, finally,
the bindings decorated by a roll tool which begin about 1520. We cannot
suppose that the Oxford stationers did not use panel stamps, but so
far none can be identified as peculiar to Oxford. The panels of Peter
Actoris have been already spoken of, but it is not certain they were
ever used in Oxford. Henry Jacobi, who came to Oxford from London
about 1512 and died in 1514, had certainly various panels which he had
used in London, but he may not have transferred them to Oxford. Of
stationers or binders who lived and worked in Oxford alone no single
panel has yet been identified. Unfortunately, not a single book printed
for or at Oxford in the early sixteenth century is known in an original
binding.
In good specimens of roll-tooled bindings again Oxford is singularly
deficient, in curious contrast to Cambridge, which rivals if not
surpasses London in this class of work. There are no fine broad rolls,
and only one bearing initials. This is a roll engraved with a waving
spray of foliage containing in the curves the initials R. H. M. I. What
these initials stand for is unknown, and the roll is only claimed as an
Oxford one from its use on the covers of a Brasenose College register.
For the rest of the century Oxford binding is entirely uninteresting.
LECTURE II.
SAINT ALBAN’S, YORK, AND HEREFORD.
The only other provincial town besides Oxford which possessed a
printing press in the fifteenth century was St Alban’s, where an
unnamed printer started to work about the year 1479. As to who the
printer was we have no clue beyond the simple statement made by Wynkyn
de Worde in the colophon of his edition of the _Chronicles of England_,
“Here endyth this present cronycle of Englonde wyth the frute of tymes,
compiled in a booke and also enprynted by one somtyme scole master of
saynt Albons, on whoos soule God have mercy.” The printer is therefore
generally known as the schoolmaster-printer. Sir Henry Chauncy, when
he wrote his history of Hertfordshire, was not to be deterred by this
vagueness from giving this printer a name, and he appears in that work,
and others based on it, as John Insomuch. The proof is clear. The
printer printed only two books in English. One begins: “In so muche
that it is necessari to all creaturis of cristen religyon;” the other,
“In so much that gentill men and honest persones.” What further proof
could be wanted that the printer’s surname was Insomuch? As to the
printer’s Christian name having been John, the arguments would appear
to have been less weighty, at any rate no authority has condescended
to mention them.
Whoever the printer may have been, he was probably not a foreigner,
at any rate no foreign design can be traced in his type, which is
perhaps modelled on Caxton’s, though differing considerably. Though
as a schoolmaster he might be supposed to have been connected with
the Abbey, there is no reference to it in his colophons, which always
mention clearly the town of St Alban’s. The saltire on a shield, which
occurs in his mark, was alike the arms of the Abbey and of the town.
The first book issued from this press was a small work of Augustinus
Datus, usually called _Super eleganciis Tullianis_, of which the only
known copy is in the Cambridge University Library. It is a small quarto
of eighteen leaves and is printed in a peculiarly delicate gothic
letter. It has no date, only the simple colophon, “Impressum fuit opus
hoc apud Sanctum Albanum.” The type is very graceful and clear; it
looks almost like the production of an Italian workman copying from a
Caxton model, though, as I have said, we have no reason for supposing
the printer to have been a foreigner. For some reason he seems not to
have been satisfied with it, and so far as we know no other book was
ever printed in it and beyond being used for signatures in two later
books, no further use was made of it. This first book also stands apart
from the rest in being without printed signatures, which would at
once place it without any further proof at the head of the list of St
Alban’s books.
In 1480 the printer issued his first dated book, the _Rhetorica Nova_
of Laurentius de Saona, and in this the influence of another press
can be clearly traced. The printer had discarded his first fount and
obtained a new one with a strong superficial resemblance to Caxton’s
Type No. 2*, the very type which Caxton had used to print his edition
of the same book. There is one curious point about this book which is
rarely met with, it is partly a quarto and partly an octavo; that is,
it is partly made up from large sheets of paper folded three times, and
partly from small sheets folded twice. A somewhat similar example may
be found in the _Chronicles_ printed by Machlinia, which is a folio,
with a few pages quarto. This is the most common of the Latin books
issued by the St Alban’s printer, for at least five copies are known,
one of which is in the University Library.
The other book which the printer issued in 1480 is printed in
another new type, quite the ugliest and most confusing of English
fifteenth-century types, and full of bewildering contractions. It is
an edition of the _Liber modorum significandi_ of Albertus, and the
only known copy, which had belonged to Tutet and Wodhull, is now in the
Bibliothèque Nationale. Three more books were printed in this type,
Joannes Canonicus on the _Physica_ of Aristotle, Antonius Andreæ on
the _Logica_, and the _Exempla Sacræ Scripturæ_. The first of these is
a folio printed in double columns, and two copies are known, one in
the Bodleian, and the other in the library of York Minster, while a
number of odd leaves are in the library of Clare College, and a few at
Peterhouse.
Of the _Antonius Andreæ_ three copies are known, one in Norwich
Cathedral, another wanting two leaves in Jesus College, Cambridge,
and the last wanting eight leaves in Wadham College, Oxford. The
Cambridge and Norwich copies are both in their original bindings. The
signatures in this book are curious, for the printer, having come to
the end of his first alphabet, continued with contractions and then
signed two more sheets one “est” and the other “amen.” Bradshaw,
comparing the Cambridge and Norwich volumes side by side, found some
variations pointing to the reprinting of certain sheets. The _Exempla
Sacræ Scripturæ_ is known from two copies, one in the British Museum,
and one said to be in the Inner Temple Library, though its existence
is doubtful. For a long time the Museum copy was lost sight of. When
Blades began to work on the St Alban’s printer with a view to writing
a preface to the facsimile of the _Book of St Alban’s_, he was anxious
to see a copy of this book. Herbert had quoted copies as in His
Majesty’s library and the Inner Temple, but neither were forthcoming.
The authorities in London thought it probable that the book was in the
Bibliothèque Nationale. In those days there were no special catalogues
of the British Museum Incunabula, or Early English Books, though as a
matter of fact this book has not been included in the latter, and his
researches were at a standstill. Finally, quite by accident, Bradshaw
found it in the general catalogue, under the heading, “Bible, Latin,
Parts of, Incipiunt.”
The book is a quarto of eighty-eight leaves, the Museum copy wanting
five. It has a plain colophon stating that it was printed in the town
of St Alban’s in 1481.
After the issue of these six books within a period of about two years,
the printer seems to have ceased work for a time. When he recommenced
in about three years, both the character of his work and of the books
he issued had changed. He gave up the printing of Latin and discarded
the very confused type he had been using previously.
The _Chronicles of England_, one of the two English books issued by
the St Alban’s printer, is undated, but is ascribed to the year 1485.
It agrees generally with the _Chronicles_ printed by Caxton, but
has histories of popes and ecclesiastical matters interpolated. The
prologue states that it was compiled at St Alban’s in 1483, and W. de
Worde tells us that it was compiled and printed by the schoolmaster.
The book is a folio of 290 leaves, and, though at least twelve copies
are known, only one, that in the library of the Marquis of Bath at
Longleat, is perfect. One copy is known printed upon vellum. It
belonged at an early date to the old family library of the Richardsons
of Brierly Hall in Yorkshire, and passed by inheritance to Miss Currer
of Eshton Hall in the same county, herself a collector of some note
in the early part of the nineteenth century. It wanted a leaf and a
half, and four leaves, though original, were printed on paper. On the
advice, I believe, of Dibdin, these four genuine leaves were replaced
by facsimiles on vellum, and the two missing leaves also similarly
supplied. At the Currer sale in 1862 the volume was sold for £365, and
passed later into a private collection.
For the first time at this press we find red printing used for the
initials and paragraph marks; there are also a few diagrams and
one small rough woodcut depicting a jumble of towers, spires, and
turrets, and equally suitable for the two cities which it professes to
represent, London and Rome. At the end is the printer’s device, Italian
in style, a double cross rising from a circle. In the circle is a
shield bearing a saltire cross, the arms alike of the town and abbey of
St Alban’s.
The last book from this press was the famous _Book of St Alban’s_, “the
book of hawking and hunting and also of coat armours.” It is a small
folio of ninety leaves. As might be supposed from its popular nature
copies are now excessively scarce, and out of some dozen which are
known, not one is absolutely perfect. This book marks another advance
in printing, for it contains the earliest known examples of colour
printing in England, the shields of arms being printed in red, blue,
and yellow inks. About the authorship of this book there has been much
controversy. The middle portion, on hunting, which is in verse, ends
with the words, “Explicit Dam Julyans Barnes in her book of hunting.”
The authoress has been variously identified with ladies of very varying
degrees, from the high born if somewhat mythical Juliana Berners,
prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell, down to the lowly dame who wrote it
to instruct the infants who attended St Julian’s school at St Alban’s,
that is St Julian’s bairns!
Of the book of blasyng of arms it is distinctly stated that it was
translated and compiled at St Alban’s, and it seems to have been
derived to a great extent from a treatise on the subject written by
Nicholas Upton in 1441, and dedicated to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.
Whatever may have been the share taken by Juliana Berners in the two
books of hawking and hunting they were certainly not original work, but
appear to have been derived in great part from a fourteenth-century
treatise, the Venerie de Twety. Hawking, hunting, and a knowledge of
heraldry were considered necessary accomplishments, so that the three
treatises were collected and published in one volume for the education
of “gentlemen and honest persons.” Two types are used in these English
books, the text type, first used in the _Laurentius de Saona_ of 1480
and then superseded, which is a fairly close imitation of Caxton’s type
2*, and a larger church type for headings, used only in the _Book of St
Alban’s_. This last is identical with Caxton’s type 3, and it is clear
that the printer had obtained from Caxton the small amount necessary
for its occasional use. Far too much importance has been attached to
this appearance of Caxton’s type at St Alban’s, and a good deal of
nonsense written about the transference of type to St Alban’s in 1486
and its recurrence in London at a later date. As Caxton possessed the
punches and matrices and type-moulds, there was nothing simpler than
for him to supply sufficient type to his fellow-worker at St Alban’s
to enable him to vary his page by setting up his chapter headings in a
larger type contrasting with the text.
A little over thirty years ago a most preposterous attempt was made
in a series of letters published in the _Athenæum_ to prove that the
schoolmaster printer of St Alban’s was the real printer of many of
the books attributed to Caxton at Westminster. A number of quite
irrelevant assertions were made and vague arguments brought forward
of which the following is apparently the strongest. Because Caxton’s
edition of the _Description of Britain_, printed in 1480, has not
the place of printing mentioned in the colophon, while some of the
later editions speak of the _Chronicles_ and _Description of Britain_
as printed by the schoolmaster of St Alban’s, therefore Caxton’s
edition was printed at St Alban’s. This is surely a quite unwarranted
argument from the fact that W. de Worde preferred to reprint the St
Alban’s edition rather than Caxton’s. The writer sums up as follows.
“Putting all these facts together they form very strong circumstantial
evidence that Caxton had two presses at work at one and the same
time, at Westminster and St Alban’s; that what he could not print at
Westminster, for lack of time and space, he had printed for him by this
schoolmaster at St Alban’s, and that all the books of Caxton’s which
bear no date or place come from St Alban’s.” The writer also asserts
that all Caxton’s early books were printed by him at St Alban’s before
he moved his press to Westminster. One other strange assertion about
the St Alban’s press remains to be noticed. It is both the newest and
the most absurd. Under the article, St Alban’s, in the latest edition
of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, the history of the early press is
summed up in these few lines. “On a printing press, one of the earliest
in the kingdom, set up in the Abbey, the first English translation of
the Bible was printed.”
As at Oxford, the St Alban’s press ceased its work in 1486 for no
reason that we can explain, but most probably owing to competition.
The Oxford and St Alban’s printers must both have seen that in Latin
books they could not hope to compete with their foreign rivals, either
in excellence of workmanship or in cheapness, and each made a final
effort by the production of books in English where foreign rivalry
would not be felt.
Just as at Oxford, too, a second press was at work for a few years in
the sixteenth century, which will be noticed later; but a period of
nearly fifty years elapsed between the stopping of the first, and the
beginning of the second.
York, both as the leading city in the North of England and from its
ecclesiastical importance, was from very early times an important
centre of book production. The text writers and illuminators of
manuscripts had formed themselves into a guild as early as the time of
Edward III., while the bookbinders became a separate company in 1476.
Like most of the leading provincial towns, York was very jealous of
its privileges and made stringent regulations as regards its trade and
business. In 1488 the various crafts connected with books passed a
bye-law enacting that no person, secular or religious, not franchised
or allowed by the craft, should bring in or set out any work. Poor
priests were allowed to augment their salaries by the practice of text
writing and illumination, and any priest might write and illuminate
books provided they were for his own use, or to be given away in
charity.
York books may be divided into three groups. 1. Those actually printed
in York. 2. Those printed elsewhere but containing a York stationer’s
name. 3. Those printed elsewhere, without a stationer’s name, but
obviously intended for sale in the city.
The earliest book connected with York belongs to the last group. It is
a _Breviary_ for York use, and was printed at Venice by a well-known
printer of such books, Johann Hamman or Hertzog of Landau in 1493, at
the costs of Frederick Egmont, an English bookseller. The book is a
beautifully printed octavo of 478 leaves, printed in double columns
in red and black. One copy only is known, now in the Bodleian. It
belonged at one time to Ralph Thoresby, the Yorkshire antiquary, then
to Marmaduke Fothergill, whose widow presented his library to the
Dean and Chapter of York in 1731. This volume, however, did not reach
the Minster library, but passed into the collection of Edward Jacob,
the antiquary, who died in 1788. At his sale it was bought by Richard
Gough. Gough in his will bequeathed his topographical collections
to the Bodleian, and English service books being connected with the
uses of Salisbury, York, and Hereford were fortunately classed as
topography. By this means the liturgical collections of the Bodleian
were increased with thirty-nine _Missals_, twenty-one _Breviaries_,
twenty-five _Horæ_ and twenty-one _Manuals_ and _Processionals_ besides
_Psalters_, _Hymnals_, _Graduals_, and other books.
This _Breviary_ is the only book printed for York in the fifteenth
century, yet though text writing seems to have flourished well up to
1500, the importation of printed books soon showed the advantage of
printing over writing, and the stationers began to commission service
books.