_Introductorium linguæ latinæ_, edited very likely by Horman, which
has the words in the preface, “Nos sumus in anno salutis Millesimo
quadringentesimo nonagesimo quinto (1495),” which I certainly take to
be the year of printing, especially as another edition of the same
book in the Bodleian, also unique, has the last word of the date,
quinto, altered to nono, and must have been printed before July, 1499.
The small tracts printed from 1495 to 1497 are very difficult to date
with any precision, but there are a few of particular interest which
may be ascribed to that period, such books, for instance, as the
_Information for Pilgrims to the Holy Land_, a work well worth reading
for amusement, which cannot be said of many of these books; Fitzjames’s
_Sermo die lune in ebdomada Pasche_, the _Sermo pro episcopo puerorum_,
the _Mirror of Consolation_, and the _Three Kings of Cologne_.
1496 is the year usually ascribed to the edition of Trevisa’s
translation of the _De proprietatibus rerum_ of Bartholomæus Anglicus,
and I quoted earlier four lines of verse saying that Caxton had printed
the book in Latin at Cologne. The three last lines of the same stanza
referring to another matter are also very interesting. Having spoken of
Caxton it continues:--
And John Tate the yonger joye mote he broke
Whiche late hathe in Englond doo make this paper thynne
That now in our englyssh this boke is prynted inne.
The watermark of this paper is an eight-pointed star in a circle. The
supply of this paper does not appear to have been kept up for long, for
I have only found it in two other English books. The _Bartholomæus_
contains some very good woodcuts, finer than others of the period,
and the press-work seems rather more regular than usual, so that
perhaps we may accept the statement of Dibdin that “Of all the books
printed in this country in the fifteenth century, the present one is
the most curious and elaborate, and probably the most beautiful for
its typographical execution.” It is only fair to say, however, that
the copy described by Dibdin was a very exceptional one. In 1496 also
came out a reprint of the well-known _Book of St Alban’s_, as it is
generally called, a treatise on hunting, hawking, and heraldry, with
the addition in this issue of the delightful chapter on fishing with an
angle, our earliest printed treatise on the art. There is a woodcut of
the angler at the beginning, and we see him busily at work with a large
tub beside him, just like the German fisher of to-day, into which he
may put his fish and keep them alive.
This book would naturally appeal especially to the richer class, and
De Worde not only took especial pains with it, but struck off copies
upon vellum, some of which have come down to our own day. From a
typographical point of view the book is of great interest, for it is
printed throughout in a foreign type which made its appearance in
England on this occasion only. It was used at Gouda by Govaert van
Os, but he seems to have discarded it about 1490 when he removed to
Copenhagen. Besides acquiring this fount De Worde also obtained a
number of woodcut capital letters, which are used in all his earliest
books, and one or two woodcuts, which he used frequently until they
were broken and worn out. It has always been a puzzle to me why, if De
Worde had had this fount of type beside him for several years, he never
used it before, and why, having used it this once, he never used it
again. Not a single letter ever appears in another book, and yet the
type is a handsome one.
1498 saw the issue of three fine folios: the _Morte d’Arthur_, of which
the only known copy is in the John Rylands Library at Manchester,
the _Golden Legend_, of which the only known perfect copy is in the
same library, and lastly the _Canterbury Tales_ of Chaucer. The only
perfect copy of this book was sold lately in the Ashburnham sale for
£1000, and is now in a private library in America. The first of these
three books, the _Morte d’Arthur_, is a reprint of Caxton’s edition,
but it differs from it in having illustrations. These are no doubt of
native workmanship, and might be justly described as the worst ever
put into an English book, being coarsely drawn, badly designed, and
incompetently engraved. The _Golden Legend_ is a mere reprint of the
earlier editions, but is interesting for two points in the colophon.
The first is an example of the carelessness of the printers. The words
in the earlier editions run, “Thus endeth the legend named in latin
legenda aurea, that is to say in Englysshe the golden legende, for lyke
as golde passeth all other metals, so this legende exceedeth all other
books, wherein be contained all the high and great feasts of our lord”
and so on. In this edition a line has been omitted, and the words run,
“For like as golde passeth all other metalles, wherein ben contained
all the highe and grete festes of our lord.” Now although the omission
makes nonsense of the whole sentence, it is reprinted exactly the same
in the later editions issued by De Worde and Julian Notary.
The other point is the date in the colophon, which runs, “Fynysshed at
Westmynster, the viii day of Janeuer, the yere of oure lorde Thousande
. cccc. lxxxxviii. And in the xiii year of the reygne of kynge Henry
the VII.” Now as the 13th year of Henry VII ran from August 22, 1497,
to August 21, 1498, it is clear that De Worde in speaking of January
8, 1498, meant 1498 as we would calculate, and not 1499, and therefore
that he began his year on the first of January and not on the 25th of
March, a most important point to be settled in arranging dated books.
Another later proof as to De Worde’s dating may be mentioned. In the
tracts which he printed between January 1 and March 25, 1509, he speaks
of himself as printer to the king’s mother, but after Henry VIII
succeeded in 1509 he styles himself printer to the king’s grandmother,
so that he clearly used our method of dating.
About the year 1498, De Worde introduced his second device, the largest
of the three used in the fifteenth century. It is almost square, with a
broad border, and having Caxton’s mark and initials above a flowering
plant. Between July and December, 1499, a series of small nicks was cut
all round the outside edge, and this gives us a useful clue to checking
the dates of several books.
In 1499, De Worde brought out an edition of _Mandeville’s Travels_. It
was not the first edition published in England by a year or two, but it
was the first with illustrations, and most realistic illustrations they
are. No doubt it was a very popular book, and the two copies known,
one in the Cambridge University Library, the other at Stonyhurst, are
both imperfect. Fortunately by means of the two we can obtain an exact
collation. This year seems to have been a very busy one. While the
dated books in the other years of the fifteenth century never rise
above four, in this year there are ten, and a considerable number of
undated books can be assigned to this year as well. Among them are
a number of small poetical pieces by Lidgate, reprints of Caxton’s
editions. One of these reprints shows how careless a printer W. de
Worde was. He reprints the _Horse, the Shepe, and the Ghoos_, from a
copy of Caxton’s wanting a leaf, but never noticing anything wrong
prints straight ahead, making of course nonsense of the whole.
All De Worde’s quarto tracts were got up in the same style, the title
at the top of the first leaf printed in one of Caxton’s types, below
this a woodcut not always very apposite to the subject of the work.
There were two stock cuts of masters with large birches and their
pupils seated before them, one of these being among the material
obtained from Govaert van Os. These of course were suitable for
grammars and school-books. Caxton’s cuts for the Sarum _Horae_, the
Crucifixion, The tree of Jesse, the three rioters and three skeletons,
the rich man and Lazarus, and David and Bathsheba, came in very useful
for theological books. The only special cut, that is, one specially
cut for the particular book and not belonging to a series, that I have
found, is that on the title of the _Rote or mirror of consolation_,
which depicts seven persons kneeling before an altar, above which two
angels hold a monstrance.
At the end of the year 1500, De Worde moved from Westminster into Fleet
Street at the sign of the Sun, the earliest book from the new address
being dated May, 1501. This from the point of view of the bibliographer
was an extremely well-timed move, for we can at once put all books
with the Westminster imprint as before 1501, and all with the London
one after 1500, thus dividing clearly the fifteenth and sixteenth
century books. At the time of his moving he seems to have got rid of a
considerable portion of his stock; some seems to have been destroyed
and some sold, for many cuts which had belonged to De Worde or to
Caxton are found afterwards in books printed by Julian Notary. De Worde
seems to have been a successful business man, for when he moved into
Fleet Street he occupied two houses close to St Bride’s Church, one his
dwelling-house and the other a printing-office, for which he paid the
very high tithe rent of sixty-six shillings and eightpence.
The number of books printed by Wynkyn de Worde in the fifteenth
century, counting in different editions of the same book, is 110, and
of a considerable number of these only a single copy is known. It would
seem probable that the printer, when issuing a small book, printed
only a small number of copies, preferring to set up the type for a new
edition rather than burden himself with much unsaleable stock. And it
is curious how these various editions have been accidentally preserved.
Only two copies are known of a book called the _Rote or mirror of
consolation_, printed by De Worde in the fifteenth century, one of them
is in the Pepysian library, the other in Durham Cathedral. Yet these
two are of quite different editions, the one at Durham being certainly
about 1496, the other certainly after the middle of 1499. Of the _Three
Kings of Cologne_ we have two editions, though only three copies are
known. Indeed, for some time it was thought that each copy represented
a different edition, as the copy in the British Museum, evidently bound
up separately out of a volume of tracts, had had the last page of the
tract preceding it bound in in place of the correct title-page.
Looking at the very large number of small books which De Worde printed
between the end of 1496 and 1500, it is surprising how many are known
from single copies. I have kept for many years a register of all the
copies of early English books which are to be found anywhere, and
taking the quartos printed by W. de Worde, which number altogether 70,
I find that out of that number 47, that is more than two-thirds, are
known to us now from single copies or fragments. And I feel certain
that we owe the preservation of the majority of these to a cause
we are now doing our best to destroy. A few worthy people centuries
ago made collections of these tracts and bound them up in immensely
stout volumes, which gave them an air of importance in themselves, and
tended to preserve the tracts inside in a much better manner than if
bound separately. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that a
hundred and fifty of the rarest that De Worde printed during his whole
life would have been found a hundred years or so ago bound up in about
twelve volumes. Some twenty-two of the rarest of W. de Worde’s in the
Heber Library came to him in one volume. Thirteen unique tracts which
sold at the Roxburghe sale for £538, were in a single volume when the
Duke purchased them fourteen years before for £26. I need only refer
you to the University Library, a large number of whose unique Caxton
and De Worde tracts came in three or four volumes. Then again, when so
many are known only from fragments or single copies we may imagine what
a large number have absolutely disappeared.
Some have been lost of late years or have disappeared since they were
described. Three unique W. de Worde books of the fifteenth century were
supposed to have perished in a fire in Wales in 1807 but fortunately
they had been sold by the owner of the library a short time before the
fire. Others seem to have drifted into libraries whose owners know
nothing about them. There is a unique De Worde printed before 1501,
entitled the “_Contemplacyon or meditacyon of the shedynge of the blood
of our lorde Jhesu Cryste at seven tymes_.” This was seen and described
by Herbert, who very likely saw it when it was sold at the Fletewode
sale in 1774. Since then we have no record of the book, and though
every year more information about private collections is published I
can come upon no trace of it.
Beside the genuine books which have disappeared, by this I mean books
which have been described by a trustworthy bibliographer, there are
others which may reasonably be supposed to have existed, and one clue
to these is afforded by the woodcuts. W. de Worde for example had
certain series of cuts, specially made for certain books; but when
he wished to decorate the title-page of a small tract, which was not
itself to be otherwise illustrated, he used an odd cut out of his
sets. Now when we can trace in different tracts odd cuts, manifestly
belonging to a series, we may reasonably suppose that the book for
which the series was engraved must have been printed.
To give a couple of instances. In the unique copy of Legrand’s _Book
of good manners_ in the University Library without date, but printed
about the middle of 1498, are two cuts, which really belong to a series
made to illustrate the _Seven wise masters of Rome_. These cuts are
fairly accurate copies of those used by Gerard Leeu in his edition of
1490. At a considerably later date De Worde did issue an edition of
the _Seven wise masters_, illustrated with the series of which the two
mentioned above formed part, and showing at that time marks of wear.
Now as De Worde had the series cut by the beginning of 1498, I think it
most probable that an edition of the book was then issued, for it is
unlikely that he would go to the trouble of cutting the set unless he
was preparing to print the book.
[Illustration: There begynneth a lytell boke called good manners.]
Again, before the end of the fifteenth century De Worde had a series
to illustrate _Reynard the Fox_. One cut is found on the first leaf
of an edition of Lidgate’s _The Horse, the sheep, and the goose_, in
the University Library, another on the title-page of Skelton’s _Bowge
of Court_ in the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh. In the collection
of the University Librarian is a fragment of an edition of _Reynard_,
evidently printed by W. de Worde about 1515, and this contains a third
cut agreeing absolutely in size, in workmanship, and in style with the
other two.
In this case again it seems probable that an edition illustrated with
these cuts appeared before 1500.
The last press at Westminster during the fifteenth century is that of
Julian Notary, which while it started in London about 1496 and only
moved to Westminster in 1498, is more suitably taken in this place on
account of its connexion with Wynkyn de Worde.
The first book issued was an edition of _Albertus de modis
significandi_, printed in a neat Gothic type, but containing no
information in its colophon beyond that it was printed in London at
St Thomas the Apostle’s, probably close to the church of that name,
and not at a house with that sign. There is also a printer’s mark
containing three sets of initials, I. N. for Julian Notary, I. B. for
Jean Barbier, and I. H. for someone unidentified, but who there are
some reasons for supposing to have been Jean Huvin, a printer at Rouen,
who was associated in the production of books for the English market.
In 1497 the same printers issued an edition of the _Horae ad usum
Sarum_, very neatly printed, and with delicate borders round the
pages. All that remains of the book is a fragment of four leaves,
rescued from a book-binding, but this luckily contains the colophon,
telling us that it was printed at St Thomas the Apostle’s, for W.
de Worde. This book also contains the device with the three sets of
initials.
In 1498 appeared a Sarum _Missal_, the first edition printed in
England, and though otherwise well got up, the musical parts have the
drawback of being without notes, only the staves having been printed,
though whether this was done by design or merely because the printers
had no musical type remains unknown. From the colophon of the _Missal_
we learn that the printers, Julian Notary and Jean Barbier, had settled
at Westminster, and had printed the book at the command and expense of
W. de Worde. On the last leaf is Caxton’s device, and on the title-page
that of the printers. Of this book five copies are known, and of the
four I have examined, the copy in the University Library is the only
perfect one. About the fifth, belonging to the Duke of Sutherland, I
have no information.
I. H. it is clear had left the firm, and though the printers use the
same device as before, the initials I. H. have been cut out of it.
In 1499 Jean Barbier also disappeared, for in the edition of the _Liber
Festivalis_ and _Quattuor Sermones_ which appeared in that year the
printer’s mark has again been altered. All initials have been cut out
and the name Julianus Notarii inserted in type. This form of the name
suggests that he was not a notary as is generally stated, but the son
of one. I have never been able to see a perfect copy of this book
though Herbert describes one which he said was in the Inner Temple
Library, but my inquiries there met with no success. Hain in his
_Repertorium Bibliographicum_ mentions a copy which seems not to be the
one noticed by Herbert.
In April, 1500, Notary printed a most minute edition of the _Horae
ad usum Sarum_, it is in 64s as regards folding, and a printed page
measures an inch and a quarter by an inch. Only a fragment of it is
known, a quarter sheet containing sixteen leaves, but that luckily
contains the colophon. It was very likely copied from another edition
of the same size, which was printed at Paris the year before, but
this point cannot be determined, as the only copy of the latter which
existed was burnt with the greater part of the Offor collection. All
we know now of it is the meagre note in the auctioneer’s catalogue,
“imperfect, but has end with imprint”--and he has not given the imprint!
The colophon of Notary’s _Horae_ tells us that it was printed in King
Street, Westminster. King Street is the short street at the bottom of
Whitehall in a straight line between Westminster Abbey and the Foreign
Office, though in Notary’s time it appears to have extended from
Westminster to Charing Cross. Lewis, in his life of Caxton, says that
Caxton’s printing-office was in King Street, but I do not know of any
reason for his assertion.
The last of Notary’s books printed at Westminster is an edition
of Chaucer’s _Love and complaintes between Mars and Venus_, with
some other pieces. This rare little book, having passed through the
collections of Farmer, the Duke of Roxburghe, Sir Mark Masterman Sykes
and Heber, is now at Britwell. The colophon runs: “Thys inpryntyde in
westmoster in kyng strete. For me Julianus Notarii.” In spite of the
word For, I think the book was printed by Julian Notary himself. It
contains two cuts, reversed copies of two of Caxton’s.
At what time Notary left Westminster cannot at present be settled, but
probably almost immediately after W. de Worde. When his next dated
book was issued in 1503 he had moved to London, and with his departure
from King Street to Pynson’s old house near Temple Bar printing ceased
altogether in Westminster.
LECTURE II.
THE PRINTERS AT LONDON.
The art of printing was introduced into London in 1480, three years
after Westminster, two years after Oxford, and probably one year after
St Alban’s, by a printer called Joannes Lettou. The name evidently
denotes that he came originally from Lithuania, of which the word
Lettou is an old form. One thing is at once apparent when we come to
examine his work, and that is that he was a skilled and practised
printer, producing books entirely unlike Caxton’s, and bearing every
appearance of being the work of a foreign press. Where he learned to
print it is impossible to find out, but whence his type was obtained no
one can have the least doubt: it was certainly brought from Rome.
The type is identical with that used by a printer at Rome in 1478 and
1479, who really ought to have some connexion with English printing
as his name was John Bulle. In his Roman books he describes himself
as from Bremen. If it were possible to arrive at any explanation how
a man from Bremen could be described as a Lithuanian, I should at
once assume John Lettou and John Bulle to be identical, since the
one apparently begins where the other leaves off. However, until some
reasonable explanation is forthcoming it will be best to consider them
as different people.
Lettou seems to have been assisted during the first two years of his
career by a certain William Wilcock, but who this man may have been I
have not been able to discover, unless he was a certain William Wilcock
who is mentioned in the State Papers as having been presented to the
living of Llandussell in 1487. The two books printed by Lettou were
the _Questiones Antonii Andreae super duodecim libros metaphisice_ and
the _Expositiones super Psalterium_ of Thomas Wallensis. Both these
books are printed in a neat small Italian gothic, with two columns to
the page and forty-nine or fifty lines in a column. The first of the
two books, the _Antonius Andreae_, is a small folio of 106 leaves,
and almost all the six known copies are imperfect. The book is very
probably reprinted from the edition printed at Vicenza in 1477, the
only earlier edition than the present, which, like it, is edited
by Thomas Penketh. Penketh was a friar of the Augustinian house at
Warrington, but went later as teacher of theology to Padua. He returned
to Oxford in 1477, where he also taught theology, and was probably
living there when his book was being printed at London.
The second of these two books is printed in exactly the same style and
form as the first, with the exception of having fifty lines to the
column in place of forty-nine. In the imprint the book is ascribed
to the “Reverendissimus dominus Valencius,” that is Jacobus Perez de
Valentia, who was, however, not the author of this work, though he did
write a commentary on the Psalms. The real author was a certain Thomas
Wallensis or de Walleis. Henry Bradshaw, who discovered the mistake,
gives the following explanation of it: “This edition is printed from
an incomplete copy, and from the words of the colophon ‘Reverendissimi
domini Valencii,’ the final s having been misread as an i, the work has
been confounded with the commentary of Jacobus Perez de Valencia, which
was printed at that place in 1484 and 1493. The v for w and the absence
of the Christian name would also serve to create the confusion, or at
any rate to perpetuate it.”
Three editions of the indulgence of John Kendale were printed by Lettou
in 1480. The first two have been preserved in a very curious manner.
It was a common custom of the early binders to paste a thin strip of
vellum down the centre of each quire of paper in order to prevent
the thread which ran down the centre of the quire and stitched it to
the bands of the binding from cutting through the paper. A copy of a
foreign printed Bible, which appears to have been bound in England,
perhaps by Lettou himself, and which is now in the library of Jesus
College, Cambridge, has the centre of each quire throughout the book
lined with a strip of vellum, part of cut up copies of these two
indulgences. Indulgences having their year printed upon them soon
went out of date, and as they were of vellum and printed only on one
side were very much used by bookbinders for lining bindings. These
two indulgences were issued early in the year and have the date 1480,
but no mention is made of the pontifical year of the pope. The third
indulgence, of which a copy is in the British Museum, also dated
1480, has besides, the date of the pontifical year, “the year of our
pontificate the tenth,” and as the popes dated like the kings, from the
exact date of their accession or coronation, this copy must have been
printed after August 7, 1480, on which date the tenth year of Sixtus IV
began.
After the printing of his two books and editions of the indulgence,
Lettou entered into partnership with a printer called Wilhelmus
de Machlinia, a native, as his name shows, of Mechlin in Belgium.
Together they printed five books, the _Tenores Novelli_ of Littelton,
the _Abridgement of the Statutes_, and the _Year-books_ of the
thirty-third, thirty-fifth, and thirty-sixth years of Henry VI.