British Museum, and it is the first genuine music-book printed by De
Worde. The book contained songs for four and three parts, but the one
volume known contains the bass only. From this time onwards most of
the printer’s work was confined to reprinting earlier editions, and
only about one in twenty were new books; a good deal of his work was
done by other printers, as can be seen from the type, and in the last
few years we find him printing books for other people. For his old
apprentice John Byddell he printed four or five books in 1533 and 1534,
two editions of Erasmus’ _Enchiridion Militis Christiani_, a _Life of
Hyldebrande_, and another work.
His last book was curiously enough a little poem, _The Complaint of the
too soon maryed_. I do not know whether he considered it applicable to
his own case, but his own marriage had taken place more than 55 years
before.
De Worde died apparently at the very beginning of 1535, for his will
dated June 5, 1534, was proved on the 19th January following. It is
much to be regretted that this most valuable document has never been
reprinted in full, for both the published abstracts (Herbert’s _Ames_,
119, 120, and Plomer’s _Abstract of Wills_, 3, 4) omit important names.
To each of his apprentices, who are not named, he leaves books to the
value of three pounds. To Robert Darby, Robert Maas, John Barbanson,
Hector, Simon [Simon Martynson?], John Wislyn, and Alard, a bookbinder,
bequests are left, and they are described as servants, that is people
who were then working for him, either apprentices who had served their
full time or journeymen. John Butler, James Gaver, and John Byddell
are each described as “late my servant.” Besides these, legacies were
left to Henry Pepwell, John Gowghe, and Robert Copland, and “Nowell
the bokebinder in Shoo lane.” This latter was a certain Noël Havy, a
Frenchman who came to England in 1523, married an English wife, became
a denizen, and continued in business until after 1550. John Byddell
and James Gaver were made executors and continued to live and carry on
business in his house.
De Worde’s wife had long been dead, and no children, if he had any,
seem to have survived him. He ordered his executors to purchase land
in or near London which should produce at least twenty shillings a
year to be given to St Bride’s Church to keep an obit for his soul,
and we learn from the Survey of Chantries made in February 1547 that
the sum thus expended was thirty-six pounds. Of De Worde’s work as a
bookbinder we know little. He inherited the binding tools which had
belonged to Caxton, and there are several bindings on which these are
used, notably, a very fine example in the library of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, which can with certainty be ascribed to him. Early in
the sixteenth century, when panel stamps were generally used, Caxton’s
dies seem to have been parted with, but we cannot at present point to
any panel as having been used by De Worde. It will be noticed, however,
that the three binders mentioned in the will, Alard, who was then in
his employment, James Gaver, a former assistant, and the independent
workman Noël Havy of Shoe Lane were all foreigners, and therefore most
probably used their own panels of foreign design.
James Gaver belonged to a well-known family of Low Country binders
and would doubtless use panels similar to theirs. When we find early
printed English books in their original bindings it is fairly safe to
assume these bindings to have been executed in England, for there could
have been practically no exportation of such books, and we know of a
considerable number stamped with distinctly Netherlandish panels. This
James Gaver continued to live with Byddell after De Worde’s death at
the sign of the Sun and issued one book with his name, an edition of
Stanbrydge’s _Accidence_ from that address in 1539. Whether or no this
book was really printed by him is uncertain; for it is identical, with
the exception of the colophon, with an edition printed nominally by
Nicolas Bourman. At the end of Gaver’s edition is a very rude woodcut
of the Sun (used as a printer’s device and referring to the sign of
the shop), which had been used previously by Lawrence Andrewe in his
edition of the _Mirrour of the World_.
Gaver had taken out letters of denization on March 2, 1535 in which
he is described as James Gaver, stationer, from the dominion of the
Emperor. In 1541 he is entered in the Returns of Aliens and pays a
tax of £1. 7_s._ He died in 1545 and his will was proved on June 15.
He there calls himself a bookseller and requested that he might be
buried in St Bride’s Church, before the altar of St Catherine, “neare
unto Wynkyn de Worde sometyme my master.” The overseer to the will was
William Stewarde, a stationer, his son-in-law.
Julian Notary, who had been printing in Westminster since 1497, moved
soon after 1500 into St Clement’s parish, just outside Temple Bar.
He appears to have taken possession of the shop lately vacated by
Pynson, which during the latter’s tenancy seems to have had no sign. By
Notary it was given the sign of the Three Kings. The first dated book
from this new address was an edition of the _Golden Legend_ issued in
February 1504. Just as from the very full colophon of the preceding
edition issued by W. de Worde in 1498 it is clearly proved that De
Worde began his year on the first of January, so from the colophon of
this edition we can prove that Notary did the opposite and began his
year on the twenty-fifth of March. It runs as follows. “Whyche werke I
dyde accomplysshe and fynysshe at Tempell barr the xvi daye of Feverer.
The yere of oure lorde a Thousande ccccciii. And in the xix yere of the
reygne of kynge Henry the vii. By me Julyan Notary. Thys emprynted at
Temple Barre by me Julyan Notary.” Now the 16th of February 19 Henry
VII was 1504 in our ordinary computation, so that Notary clearly did
not end his year until March 24. This _Golden Legend_ contains a very
curious and mixed collection of illustrations. Some had belonged to W.
de Worde and some to Caxton. There are besides five metal engravings
in the “_manière criblée_,” obtained doubtless from abroad, and some
curious engraved initial letters which had apparently belonged to André
Bocard. It would be exceedingly interesting could we trace the history
of these _criblée_ cuts and discover whence Notary obtained them.
The designs were clearly taken from a set of compositions the work
of a Lower Rhine engraver about 1450-60, known as the “master of St
Erasmus,” of which a complete set may be found in the British Museum.
Notary’s, however, are not direct copies but probably imitations of
some _criblée_ prints copied from the original designs. Such sets are
at Munich and Berlin, and another of a similar class may be found in
the editions of the _Horologium Devotionis_, printed at Cologne by
Ulric Zel about 1490, and John Landen, a few years later. Notary’s are
very exact copies from these, but engraved the reverse way, a common
occurrence in copies.
In 1507 Notary issued a very curious book, the first edition of
_Nicodemus Gospel_, which I mention here slightly out of its turn as it
contains three more _criblée_ cuts and is the only other book except
the _Chronicles of England_ in which they are found. Only one copy of
the book is known and its history is interesting. It appeared in the
auction catalogue (p. 354) of Richard Smith’s books, sold in 1682,
bound up in a volume of tracts, and after the sale it disappeared.
On the authority of the catalogue it was mentioned by successive
bibliographers, but no one had seen it and its whereabouts was unknown.
I was beginning to think that it never existed and that the entry in
Smith’s catalogue was founded on a mistake, when to my delight, on
a recent visit to Dublin, I found the identical volume in Archbp.
Marsh’s library. It had been bought at Smith’s sale in 1682 by Bishop
Stillingfleet, and the whole of his library of printed books was bought
at his death by Marsh and transported to Dublin. As Marsh’s library has
never had a printed catalogue and has not been much used, its contents
are very little known, though I am glad to say a catalogue of the Early
English books is about to be printed. Besides the _Golden Legend_,
Notary printed in 1504 an edition of the _Chronicles of England_, and a
now lost edition of the Sarum _Hymns and Sequences_ of which he issued
another edition in the following year.
At the beginning of 1508 an edition of the _Scala Perfectionis_
appeared, and the copy described by Herbert is similar to the one which
came to the University Library with Mr Sandars’s collection. Herbert
describes his as in an original binding with Notary’s mark, and the one
bequeathed by Mr Sandars is similarly bound.
In 1510 Notary issued an edition of the _Sermones discipuli_ by John
Herolt having on the title-page a very interesting imprint which,
translated, runs as follows, “These [_i.e._ the Sermons] are to be sold
(where they have been printed) at London in the suburb of Temple Bar
near the porch of St Clements in the house of Julian Notary, printer
and bookseller, carrying on business under the sign of the Three Kings.
And they will also be found for sale in St Paul’s Churchyard at the
same man’s little shop [cellula] from which also hangs the same sign
of the Three Kings.” Apparently a sign was personal property and could
be moved by the owner if he moved to another shop. If, however, he
became possessed, on the death of the earlier owner, of a shop with
a well-known sign, he would retain it in preference to his own. As
an example of the first case we find Rastell giving the sign of the
Mermaid to three successive places of business. On the other hand when
Byddell succeeded De Worde, he did not transfer his own sign Our Lady
of Pity, but retained De Worde’s well known sign of the Sun.
What Notary was doing between 1510 and 1515 is unknown, but during that
period he issued no dated book. One thing, however, is clear. He had
given up his printing-office in the Strand and had moved to a house in
St Paul’s Churchyard with the sign of St Mark, and there he issued in
1515 another edition of the _Chronicles of England_. Though the sign is
not mentioned the address is very clear. “Dwelling in Paul’s churchyard
beside the west door by my lord’s palace.” In 1516 he was mentioned as
living at the sign of St Mark at the west door. This sign, however,
did not please him, and by 1518 he had replaced it with the old sign
of the Three Kings. That these two signs succeeded each other on the
same house and did not refer to two different houses is I think clear
from the wording of the following two colophons. “Imprinted in London
in Poules chyrche yarde at the weste Doore besyde my lorde of London’s
palase. At the sygne of saynt Marke”; and “Inprinted in London ... in
Paules chirche yarde at the weste dore besyde my lorde of london’s
palayse, at the sign of the thre kynges.”
Among Notary’s undated books is a very curious little tract called _A
merry gest and a true howe Johan Splynter made his testament_. The
only copy known is in the library of Britwell Court. It begins on the
verso of the first leaf,
This Johan Splynter as every man tell can
Was the Rentgatherer of Delft and Sceydam.
On the title is a curious woodcut which occurs also on another small
tract, the _Mery geste of a Sergeaunt and Frere_.
The best known of Notary’s books is his edition of the _Shepherdes
Calendar_, a curious medley of matter which was first printed in a
translation at Paris by Verard in 1503. That translation was made by
a Scotchman who knew very little French, so that the result is rather
peculiar. The book was revised and printed by Pynson in 1508 and also
later by Wynkyn de Worde. In the only known copy of Notary’s edition
the colophon is mutilated and the date partly destroyed, but as it was
printed in Paul’s Churchyard at the Three Kings the date may be safely
fixed at about 1518.
Notary made use of two panel stamps on his bindings. One contains
in the centre a Tudor rose round which run two ribbons supported by
angels. On the ribbons is the motto
Hec rosa virtutis de celo missa sereno
Eternum florens regia sceptra feret.
In the upper corners are shields with the cross of St George and the
arms of the City of London, while below the rose are the binder’s
mark and initials. The other panel contains an escutcheon bearing the
arms of England and France quartered, ensigned with a royal crown and
supported by a dragon and greyhound; the arms of St George and the
City of London are in the upper corners.
Of these two panels there are two varieties differing in minor details.
They may readily be distinguished by the N in the device, which in the
rarer variety has the cross stroke the wrong way.
Robert Copland was for many years an assistant to Wynkyn de Worde,
and some have suggested even to Caxton himself from the ambiguous use
of the word “master” in the prologue to _King Apolyn of Tyre_, where
he speaks of himself as “gladly followynge the trace of my mayster
Caxton.” As Copland did not die before 1548 it is very improbable,
though not impossible, that he could have worked under Caxton at
Westminster. As an assistant to De Worde he translated a considerable
number of popular books from the French and edited others, often adding
quaint introductions or prefatory verses. About 1514 he appears to have
started in business on his own account, for some copies of the _Dying
Creature_ printed by W. de Worde in that year have his device on the
last leaf. This consists of his mark and initials on a shield hanging
from a tree and surrounded by a garland of roses and supported by a
stag and hind. Round it is the text from Proverbs xxii., “Melius est
nomen bonum quam divitie multe.” Like many English devices of the time
it is copied from a French one. The garland round the shield refers to
the sign of his shop the Rose Garland in Fleet Street, though the first
book from this address was not issued until later. A small law-book
issued about this time, though it contains his name and device was
issued from De Worde’s house, the Sun. In 1515 he began to work at the
Rose Garland and issued a book called the _Justice of Peace_, of which
a copy is in the Cambridge University Library. His next dated book was
Barclay’s _Introductory to French_, and after this there is a gap of
seven years. Altogether before 1535 he printed only some twelve books.
The explanation of this is, I believe, that his press was largely
subsidised by De Worde. Many books issued by De Worde have prefatory
or ending verses written by “Robert Copland the book-printer,” and
most bibliographers have therefore rashly asserted that they must be
reprints of editions which he had previously issued. Copland printed
entire editions for De Worde and therefore they contain De Worde’s name
and address, but Copland as their printer added his introduction.
Another point which seems to prove his dependence on De Worde is that
after the latter’s death in 1535 up to about 1547 we have no trace
of Copland printing at all. He continued to translate and revise for
others but the only reference to him as a practical printer is to be
found in Andrew Borde’s _Pryncyples of Astronomye_ printed about 1548,
in which the author speaks of his _Introduction to Knowledge_ as “now
a pryntyng at old Robert Copland’s the eldest printer of England.”
As this book was finished and issued by William Copland, it may be
presumed that Robert died about 1548.
Henry Pepwell, who worked at the sign of the Trinity in St Paul’s
Churchyard, was a native of Birmingham. Of his life we know nothing
before the year 1518, when he issued an edition of the _Castle of
Pleasure_. In 1520 he printed an edition of the _Christiani Hominis
Institutum_, a translation into Latin verse by Erasmus of a little
tract by Colet. In this he made use of a device which had belonged to
his predecessor at the sign of the Trinity, a stationer named Henry
Jacobi, but with the name Jacobi erased from the block. Between 1518
and 1523 Pepwell printed eight books, and their rarity may be gauged
from the fact that two are only known from fragments, four from single
copies, and of the remaining two there are in one case two copies, in
the other four.
Pepwell must have been a leading member of the trade, for in 1525 he
was appointed, together with Lewis Sutton, a warden of the Company of
Stationers. He was a friend of Stokeslay, the Bishop of London, and
of his agent Thomas Dockwray, who was afterwards the first warden of
the new Stationers’ Company. In 1531 he issued an edition of Eckius’
_Enchiridion locorum communium adversus Lutheranos_, printed for him
at Antwerp by Michael Hillenius. Bale in one of his works mentions
this book as follows “No lesse myght harrye pepwell in Paules church
yearde have out of Michael Hillenius howse at Antwerp at one tyme than
a whole complete prynte at the holye request of Stokyslaye. In a short
space were they dyspached and a newe prynte in hande, soche tyme as he
also commaunded Barlowes dyaloges to be preached of the curates through
out all hys dyocese.” The existence of this book was for long doubtful
until I finally found the title-page in one of the volumes of Bagford’s
collections and shortly afterwards I found a perfect copy which had
belonged to Latimer in the library of Westminster Abbey.
Pepwell as an important bookseller and good Catholic was probably of
great assistance to the authorities in their crusade against heretical
books. In 1533 Vaughan writes to Cromwell, “The Bishop of London,
Stokeslay, has had a servant [Dockwray] in Antwerp this fortnight. If
you send for Henry Pepwell, a stationer in Paul’s Churchyard, who was
often with him, he will tell you his business.”
In 1535 he received by the will of W. de Worde a legacy of four pounds
in printed books. In 1539 he issued two grammars of Lily for the use
of St Paul’s School, but though he is clearly stated in the imprint
to have been the printer, there is very little doubt that they were
printed at Antwerp. The only copies known of these grammars are bound
up with some others by Colet in a small volume now in the Pepysian
Library bought by Pepys at Richard Smith’s sale in 1682.
In October, 1539, Pepwell, accompanied by William Bonham and Henry Tab,
was sent by Cromwell to St Albans to inquire about a heretical book
which had been issued from the press there. This I believe to have been
a hitherto unknown and unique book “_A very declaration of the bond and
free will of man_” issued at St Albans without date or name of printer.
The printer was however John Herford, who came to London, in custody of
the three stationers to be dealt with by Cromwell.
Pepwell died at the beginning of 1541 and his will was proved on the
8th February, William Bonham the printer being one of the supervisors.
Two-thirds of his property was left to Ursula his wife and the
remaining third to his children, who were all under age and are
not mentioned by name, though no doubt the Arthur Pepwell who was
afterwards a member of the Stationers’ Company was one.
John Skot commenced to print in 1521, and issued on May 17 _the Body of
Policy_, of which there is a copy on vellum in the Cambridge University
Library. At this time he was living in St Sepulchre’s parish without
Newgate and printed there six books. The _Mirror of Gold for the Sinful
Soul_, the _History of Jacob and his twelve sons_, the _Book of maid
Emlyn_, and two law tracts. In these is found his first device, having
his mark and initials on a shield surmounted by a helmet and supported
by two dragons. He used a fount of narrow black-letter, and it is clear
that besides his own books he printed several for De Worde.
His next move was to St Paul’s Churchyard, where he printed eight
books, but only two are dated, the _Commendations of Matrimony_ of 1528
and _Nicodemus Gospel_ of 1529. Besides these there were three law
tracts, two grammars, and an edition of _Every Man_. At this address
he began to use a device, exactly copied down to the misprint in the
motto, from one used at Paris by Denis Rosse, but so carelessly cut
that both his name and monogram are printed backwards. He also made
use of his first device with his monogram inserted on the shield in
place of his mark. Either before or after his residence in St Paul’s
Churchyard, but probably before, he printed an edition of Stanbridge’s
_Accidence_ “Without Bishopsgate in saint Botolphs parish at George
Alley gate.”
In 1531 John Toy issued an edition of the _Gradus_ _comparationum_
which has Skot’s device at the end and was probably printed by him,
though his name is not mentioned. By 1537 he had moved to Fauster
Lane in St Leonard’s parish, but before this he had got into trouble
over a book of which apparently no fragment remains. This publication
was an outcome of the extraordinary religious troubles connected with
the impostures of Elizabeth Barton, the Maid of Kent, which were put
down by Cranmer, and the maid and her associates executed in 1533.
Amongst the documents connected with the case was the confession of
the printer, and Cranmer entered among his notes “to remember that Dr
Bokking did put unto Skotte all the Nun’s book to print and had five
hundred of them when they were printed and the printer two hundred.”
This perhaps refers to a tract entitled “_A miraculous work of late
done at Court of Strete in Kent, published to the devoute people of
this tyme for their spiritual consolation by Edward Thwaytes, Gent._,”
of which some manuscript copies exist.
At Fauster Lane Skot printed one book the _Rosary_, dated 1537, and
five undated books, _The Golden Litany_, _Nicodemus Gospel_, _The
Nut-browne Maide_, _The Book of Herbs_, and _The Battle of Agincourt_.
After 1537 we have no trace of him.
Several writers have supposed that he may have been the same person
as a printer of the same name who appeared at Edinburgh in 1539, and
passed an adventurous career in that town and at St Andrews up to about
the year 1571. There seems nothing to support the theory beyond the
similarity of names, and an examination of the typography of the two
printers shows that they must have been different people.
Of John Butler, the next printer to be noticed, next to nothing is
known. Ames asserted on the authority of Maurice Johnson, a gentleman
to whom he was indebted for many startling pieces of information, that
he was a judge of the Common Pleas. There was a John Boteler a judge,
but when he was sitting on the bench our John Butler was engaged as
a journeyman with Wynkyn de Worde, who in 1535 left by will to “John
Butler late my servant as many printed books as shall amounte to the
value of vi£ sterling,” a very considerable legacy for the time.
His only dated book, an edition of the _Parvulorum institutio ex
Stanbrigiana collectione_ was issued in 1529. The colophon states
that it was printed “for John Butler,” but it absolutely agrees
typographically with other grammatical tracts printed “by John Butler”
though the type of all is apparently identical with that used by John
Skot. Besides the one dated book there are eight undated. Five are
grammatical tracts of little interest, and the remaining three are _The
Jeaste of Sir Gawayne_, _The Doctrynale of good servantes_, and _The
Convercyon of Swerers_. It is interesting to notice that of all the
books printed by Butler but one copy is known.
The _Expositiones terminorum legum Anglorum_ of 1527, attributed by
Herbert and others to this printer, is clearly the work of Rastell.
Butler carried on business at the sign of St John Evangelist in Fleet
Street and used as a device a small woodcut of St John with the
inscription cut upon it “Initium sancti euangelii secundum Johannem.”
This cut was not originally intended for a printer’s mark, but was one
of a series engraved for a _Horae_. Whether or not he was really a
practical printer it is impossible to determine, for the words “printed
by” are not always to be taken as literally true. Several books of
this period are known, identical except as regards the wording of the
colophon, which profess to have been printed by different printers; and
many books which bear the name of one printer in the colophon can be
clearly proved to be the work of another.