quite plain and simple, just as we find them printed on the title-page
of the _Lyndewode_. In the second series the ornament was a little
more profuse and the mark and initials are omitted under the rose,
leaving the space blank. In the last series the ornamentation is more
complicated and the initials and mark are so much elaborated that the I
of Iacobi looks almost like an A. In conjunction with the second series
of panels a square die containing the figure of a dragon is found which
had belonged to Caxton and must have been obtained from W. de Worde.
Two other panels which belonged to Jacobi are much more foreign in
appearance. On one is a figure of Christ seated on a tomb surrounded
by the emblems of the Passion, on the other Our Lady of Pity. Round
both runs a legend, and at the end of the second the binder’s initials,
H.I., occur joined by a knot.
The example of this binding in the Bodleian, very much rubbed and worn,
is on some small tracts by Savonarola, two of which were printed for
Jacobi in 1510. The binding has on the end fly-leaf an inscription
saying that the book was bought by John Yonge, “Aconensis,” in 1510,
and this must be after September 10 of that year, when Yonge was
appointed Master of St Thomas of Acres. If Jacobi really was in Paris
in 1510 and 1511, this book must have been bound there, and perhaps
these two small panels were cut abroad for the purpose of stamping
these small volumes for which his other panels would have been too
large.
Though Jacobi died in 1514 and Pelgrim is not mentioned after this
date, the business at the sign of the Trinity still continued. This we
know from a unique but unfortunately imperfect book in the Bodleian. It
is called “_Donate and accidence for children enprynted at Parys. Anno
Domini 1515._” The imprint on the title states that it was to be sold
at Paris at the sign of the Striped Ass by Philippus de Couvelance and
in St Paul’s Churchyard at the sign of St Katherine or the Trinity. The
last leaf which might have contained a colophon is wanting. This Philip
de Couvelance was apparently the son of Jean de Cowlance, whose device
was the striped ass (asinus riguatus) and who was the same person as
Joannes Confluentinus or Jean de Coblentz, whose name occurs frequently
in the prefaces of early books.
Birckman perhaps may have had something to do with the sign of the
Trinity, for he seems to have been in partnership with Jacobi in
1512 and used the device of the Trinity on some of the service books
of English use which he issued. However by 1518 the shop was in the
occupation of Henry Pepwell, who has been noticed before.
The sign of the “striped ass” commemorates the exhibition of a zebra,
the first seen in France, which was shown at the Saint-Germain fair
towards the close of the fifteenth century.
John Reynes, in many ways the best known of these early stationers, was
a native of Wageningen in Gueldres and took out letters of denization
on June 7, 1510. Though described in the Subsidy rolls of 1523 as a
stationer, he appears to have undertaken other kinds of business, for
in 1524 we find him supplying cloth and cotton at the funeral of Sir
Thomas Lovell. In 1527 he began his business as publisher by issuing
a magnificent edition of Higden’s _Polycronicon_, printed for him at
Southwark by Peter Treveris, which is remarkable for the excellence of
the illustrations. Very fortunately too his mark is engraved at the
foot of the title-page and thus gives us the only clue by which we
can identify his large series of stamped bindings. In this same year,
Reynes in partnership with W. de Worde and Ludovicus Suethon, which
name is I believe a misspelling for Sutton, commissioned a magnificent
edition of the Sarum _Gradual_, which was printed for them at Paris by
Nicolas Prevost, and of which the fine copy, formerly Gough’s, is in
the Bodleian. In 1530 another service book was printed for him abroad,
an edition of the _Psalterium cum Hymnis_ for the use of Sarum and
York. Ten years later he issued an _Introductorie for to lerne to rede
Frenche_ written by Giles Duwes, sometime librarian to Henry VIII, and
Tutor of the French language to the Princess Mary. The latest book
which Reynes issued was a Sarum _Processional_ which was printed for
him at Antwerp by the widow of Christopher van Ruremond.
Reynes was certainly in his time the most important stationer of
foreign birth settled in England, and his goods valued in 1523 at
£40. 3_s._ 4_d._ had risen in 1541 and 1544 to £100. The only other
foreigner of like importance was Arnold Birckman, who, however, was not
settled in this country, but only paid it passing visits and carried on
business by an agent.
Reynes’s chief fame now, however, rests on his bindings, which are the
most frequently found and best known amongst all the early English
series. The commonest are those ornamented with a broad roll containing
his mark and figures of a hound, a falcon, and a bee, with sprays of
foliage and flowers. He had also several series of panels. One pair
is particularly good. The first represents the baptism of Christ,
who stands in the stream while St John, kneeling, pours the water
on His head. The other is a spirited picture of St George and the
dragon fighting within an enclosure, round which run various animals
and huntsmen. Below are the initials I. R. joined by a knot which
must stand for John Reynes, as I have found these two panels used in
conjunction with his roll on a binding in the library of St John’s
College, Oxford.
A more ambitious panel contains what is called the “Arma Redemptoris
Mundi,” the emblems of the Passion displayed heraldically upon a
shield with two unicorns as supporters, and two small shields with
Reynes’s mark and initials. The companion panel is divided into two
parts, one containing the shield with the arms of England and France
supported by the dragon and greyhound, the other the Tudor rose with
the scrolls bearing the usual verses and supported by angels. These
contain, besides Reynes’s initials and mark, a shield with the arms
of the City of London, so that when these were cut he was probably a
freeman.
The last pair, which are late in style and were probably only made for
him near the end of his career, contain busts of warriors in medallions
between renaissance pillars, connected by ornamental arches, and the
whole enclosed within an ornamental border. In the centre between the
medallions is the binder’s mark.
Reynes died at the beginning of 1544 and his will, made April 8th,
1542, was proved on February 26th. It is a long document and contains
many points of interest. His two apprentices, Thomas Holwarde and
Edward Sutton, are to receive on coming out of their apprenticeship
one hundred shillingsworth of books to be valued according to the way
that Arnold and John Birckman sell them to the booksellers. Edward
Wright and Robert Holder, his assistants, are left ten pounds in books
on condition that they work for Lucy Reynes, the widow, for two years
and assist her to realise the stock. Money is left to the poor and for
a breakfast to the stationers who come to the funeral, and the residue
to the widow Lucy Reynes. It is clear from the fact that Reynes had
English apprentices, and from the way he speaks of the stationers, that
he had been made a freeman and member of the Company in spite of his
foreign birth.
Lucy Reynes did not long survive her husband, for her will, dated April
28, 1548, was proved October 25, 1549. She, like her husband, requested
to be buried in the Pardon Churchyard near St Paul’s.
Another stationer and binder whose work can fortunately be identified
is Thomas Symonds, a stationer of St Paul’s Churchyard. His name first
occurs in 1514 when he was a witness in a lawsuit quoted by Foxe in his
_Book of Martyrs_. He was employed by the officials of London Bridge,
and in their accounts for 1525-6 is the entry “paid to Thomas Symonds
for binding in boards 17 quires in parchment containing 17 accounts of
the bridge works, 6_s._” This original binding is still preserved and
is ornamented with a broad roll containing the binder’s mark, a castle
and portcullis, a fleur-de-lys, a unicorn, a rose, a pomegranate and
the royal arms.
Lewis Sutton was apparently a very important stationer, and must I
think be identified with the Ludovicus Suethon who in partnership with
John Reynes and W. de Worde commissioned the great Sarum _Gradual_
printed for them at Paris by Prevost in 1527. In foreign printed books
mistakes in names are not uncommon, and the rare Christian name Lewis
combined with two such similar sounding names as Suethon and Sutton,
renders the suggestion probable. In 1526 he and Henry Pepwell were the
two wardens of the Company of Stationers, which shows that he must
have held a high position in the trade. In 1534-5 he was defendant
along with Richard Draper, warden of the Goldsmiths, in an action
brought by John Gough and John Rastell the printer concerning the
latter’s printing-office. A later notice of him occurs in the letters
and papers of Henry VIII under the date of August 12, 1539. “Receipt
by Lewys Sutton, bookbinder of London, of 5 marks from William Hatton
of Haldenby for lands in Northamptonshire sold to him.” The will of
a Lewis Sutton described as belonging to the parish of St Michael le
Querne, London, and dated 1541, is amongst those preserved in the
Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and is probably that of the stationer.
There was another Sutton named Nicholas who was a stationer in London
and died shortly before 1531, who lived in St Paul’s Churchyard and was
probably related to the stationers named Toy.
A stamped binding is known having upon it the initials N. S. followed
by a tun, apparently a rebus on the name N. Sutton, and may very likely
be his work.
Another person who ought to be mentioned, though neither printer nor
stationer, is William Marshall, quoted by many writers as both. He was
strongly interested in the Reformation, and spent both time and money
in procuring the printing of books in support of the movement. He was
a friend of Cromwell, who assisted him with money, and there are in
the State papers many interesting letters from the one to the other
relating to the publication of such works as the _Gift of Constantine_
printed by Godfray, and _Erasmus on the Creed_ by Redman, issued in
1534; _De veteri et novo Deo_, printed by Byddell, and the _Defence of
Peace_ by Wyer, both of 1535. Of this latter book he sent twenty-four
copies to the monks of the Charterhouse, which they, under the order
of their superior, returned, with the exception of one copy which they
burnt. Two books, his _Pictures and Ymages_ and _The Chrysten Bysshop
and Counterfayte Bysshop_, were apparently printed by Gough, though
according to Herbert the latter book has a distinct colophon “Emprynted
by Wyllyam Marshall.” The most beautiful book printed for him was
the reformed _Prymer_ of 1535, the work of John Byddell. It is much
superior to the usual work of the time, and at least three copies are
known printed upon vellum. Like William Bretton, Marshall has printed
at the end of some of the books he had commissioned a large woodcut
representing his coat of arms.
John Growte, stationer and bookbinder, lived in the Blackfriars next
the church door. In 1532 and 1533 he commissioned the widow of Thielman
Kerver to print for him two editions of the Sarum _Horae_, which were
followed by another in 1534. Growte is identical with the mythical
Rouen stationer Jean Groyat, an error which has arisen through the
misreading of a colophon. An edition of the _Horae_ was printed in 1536
at Rouen “per Nicolaum le Roux pro Johanne groyat et Johanne marchant
in parochia sancti Macuti ad signum duarum unicornium manente.” A hasty
glance has assured someone that Groyat and Marchant were partners
living at the sign of the two unicorns, overlooking the fact that the
last word used in the colophon “manente” must apply to Marchant alone.
Groyat may very well be the proper spelling of Growte’s name, for he
was a foreigner, as we know from his being entered in the Returns of
Aliens.
During the period of which we are now treating the presses of Paris
and Rouen were actively at work producing books intended for the London
market. At Paris, Hopyl, Kerver, Petit, Chevallon, Hardouyn, Prevost,
Pigouchet, Higman, Rembolt, in fact all the best known printers and
stationers were thus employed. At Rouen we find Morin, Caillard,
Olivier, Violette, Bernard, Cousin, Richard, and others, and when we
consider that many printed twenty or thirty different editions, we can
arrive at some idea of the magnitude of the trade. The most important
of the Paris printers was Hopyl; his _Lyndewode_, his Sarum _Missals_,
and above all his _Antiphoner_, are splendid specimens of work which
no English printer of the time could have attempted to rival. Prevost
among other books is represented by a magnificent _Gradual_. Chevallon
issued the great Sarum _Breviary_ of 1531. Pigouchet and Kerver
continued the work they had done so well in the previous century, and
issued many editions of the Sarum _Horae_, while Higman and Rembolt
printed _Missals_.
Among the Rouen printers Martin Morin undoubtedly took the leading
position for beautiful work. He and Olivier produced a large number
of Sarum _Missals_ remarkable for their fine printing. With regard
to these missals there is one point to which I should like to draw
attention. Both Morin and Olivier possessed a very large initial M
for the title Missale, round the middle stroke of which their name
is engraved, Morin or Holivier. Now these letters being practically
indestructible, passed to their successors and were still used. This
at any rate in the case of Olivier has given rise to considerable
confusion, for he is quoted as the printer of books, as for instance
the York _Missal_ of 1530, which were issued long after he was dead.
Among other printers and stationers connected with the English trade
may be mentioned Macé, Bernard, Cousin, Violette, and Caillard.
Almost the entire French output consisted of liturgical books. Verard
however issued three--well, British--books, for two were in Scottish,
and we have it on Pynson’s authority that no one could understand them.
The third was Barclay’s translation of Gringore’s _Castle of Labour_,
printed when Barclay was himself in Paris about 1503.
Besides these a few grammatical tracts were issued, Violette issued an
English Donatus and Jacques Cousin a Stanbridge at Rouen.
The series of beautiful liturgical books which came from the presses
of Paris and Rouen afford us information also about many visiting
foreign stationers. The _Missal_ issued in 1500 by Jean du Pré, but
generally ascribed through a misreading of the colophon to 1502,
speaks of several new prayers just brought over from England by Jean
Antoine the stationer. A Terence of 1504, of which the only copy known
is in the University Library (picked up from a small old-book shop in
Liverpool), and a Sarum _Breviary_ of 1507 were printed for several
stationers living in London, one of whom was a certain Michael Morin,
no doubt a relative of the famous Rouen printer Martin Morin. Another
stationer whose name is found in the Terence is John Brachius, but
his name occurs nowhere else, and I have not been able to find out
anything about him. Guillaume Candos, at whose cost a Sarum _Missal_
was printed in 1509 by Pierre Violette, was apparently in England
for a time. Another Sarum _Missal_ quoted by Herbert, of which I can
trace no copy, was printed for W. de Worde and Michael de Paule, both
living in London. Jean Richard of Rouen, who printed so many fine Sarum
service books, also came over and was one of the parties in a lawsuit
in England at the beginning of the century. From another lawsuit we
find that Frederick Egmont, an important stationer of London in the
fifteenth century, was still in England, after 1500. I think it will be
found, as more documents come to light, that all the principal foreign
stationers paid visits to this country or kept agents in London. In
very many foreign printed service books we find the expression “to
be bought of the booksellers in Paul’s Churchyard.” I do not know
whether that is the equivalent of the modern “to be obtained of all
booksellers” or whether it only refers to a small clique of foreign
stationers.
Of all the foreign stationers who traded in this country none was more
important than Francis Regnault. He was the son of an earlier Francis
Regnault, and when a young man started as a stationer in London towards
the end of the fifteenth century. Though he returned to Paris about
1496 he still continued to keep a shop in London and probably paid
frequent visits to this country. When on the death of his father,
about 1518, he succeeded to the great printing business, his English
sympathies at once showed themselves, and from that time onward he
poured out a continuous flood of books for the English market. Between
the years 1519 and 1535 by far the larger portion of the service
books produced for England came from his presses. The Act of 1534, and
perhaps other causes, seem to have hampered his business to a serious
degree and in 1536 he addressed a letter to Cromwell on the subject.
The writer states that he lived in London forty years ago and since
returned to Paris and continued his trade as bookseller in London,
and likewise printed missals, breviaries, and Hours of the use of
Sarum and other books. That he has entertained at his house in Paris
honourable people of London and other towns of England. He understands
that the English booksellers wish to prevent him printing such books
and to confiscate what he has already printed, though he has never been
forbidden to do so, but his books well received. He asks permission to
continue to sell the said “usaiges” and other books in London and the
neighbourhood, and asks Cromwell to speak on his behalf to the King,
the chancellor and others. He adds that if any faults have been found
in his books he will amend them. Considering the date of this letter,
it seems much more probable that his troubles were caused not so much
by the jealousy of the English booksellers as by the falling off in the
demand for the class of books he produced.
Besides printing on his own account, Regnault printed also for English
printers. In 1534 he printed for Berthelet the _Interpretatio Psalmorum
Omnium_ of Joannes Campensis, and in 1538 an edition of the English
_New Testament_ for Grafton and Whitchurch, edited by Coverdale, and
intended to supersede the incorrect version printed shortly before at
Southwark by James Nicholson.
One of the latest important undertakings on which Regnault was
engaged was a folio edition of the English Bible printed for Grafton
and Whitchurch and overseen by Coverdale. The work was progressing
favourably when pressure was brought to bear upon the French
authorities, and the press, type, and the sheets already printed were
seized, most of the printed matter being burnt. By the influence of
Cromwell the type seems to have been recovered and conveyed to London,
where the work was finished in 1539. The usual account speaks of the
printers and presses being brought over as well, but that must, I
think, be a little poetical exaggeration, for the presses of England
were surely by that time adequate for such work.
In the library of St John’s College, Cambridge, is the unique copy on
vellum which was printed specially for Cromwell. The titles, woodcuts,
and all the initials throughout the volume are beautifully illuminated.
Regnault again attempted to obtain some favour for his books in
England, and a letter was written to Cromwell by Coverdale and Grafton
on his behalf. Speaking of him they write, “Whereas of long tyme he
hath bene an occupier into England more than xl yere, he hath allwayes
provyded soche bookes for England as they moost occupied, so that
he hath a great nombre at this present in his handes as Prymers in
Englishe, Missoles with other soche like: wherof now (by the company
of the Booksellers in London) he is utterly forbydden to make sale to
the utter undoying of the man. Wherfore most humbly we beseke your
lordshippe to be gracious and favourable unto him, that he may have
lycence to sell those which he hath done allready, so that hereafter
he prynte no moo in the english tong, onlesse he have an english man
that is lerned to be his corrector.”
From the concluding sentence it would appear that a special attack
had been made on these foreign printed service books because of their
incorrect printing, and everyone who has examined the very numerous
editions of the _Horae ad usum Sarum_ printed abroad must admit
that any complaints were fully justified. The booksellers evidently
succeeded in their opposition, for no more Paris printed service books
came to this country until the reign of Mary.
A solitary fragment, rescued like so many others from the binding of a
book and now preserved in the Bodleian, is the only record we possess
of the presence in England, nominally at any rate, of one of the most
important Paris booksellers of the sixteenth century. The fragment
consists of the first and last leaves of a little tract of four leaves
entitled, “_Psalterium beate marie virginis cum articulis incarnationis
passionis et resurrexionis domini nostri iesu xpi nuper editum_.”
Of the liturgical interest of the fragment this is not the place to
speak; our interest lies in the colophon, which runs “Imprynted at
London in Flete aley the .xxi. daye of October by Simon Voter.” This, I
take it, can refer to no one but the celebrated printer of that name,
but whether the colophon exactly means all that it states is another
matter. It would seem unlikely that so important a man should come to
London to print so small a tract, and besides it has no appearance of
English work. Like many others, he had probably an agent of his own in
London and printing the tract in Paris sent it to London for sale. The
type in which it is printed, a neat black letter, is what may be called
a stock type, that is, it was made by a man who made type-founding his
business and supplied various printers. On the title-page is a woodcut
of the Assumption of the Virgin which I have seen in no other book, but
which I hope may some day be the means of settling the real printer.
While speaking of these French stationers and their work, there is
one book which though without name of printer or place was printed in
English and intended for the English market and should certainly not
be passed over, especially as it is in some ways the most remarkable
book of the period. It is entitled _The Passion of our Lord Jesu
Christ with the Contemplations_, and was translated from the French
in 1508 and printed about the same time. The language is peculiar and
uncouth and mixed up with foreign expressions. The book is a very
large quarto equal in size to the ordinary small folio of the time,
printed in double columns. But the extraordinary point about the book
is the illustrations, large full-page woodcuts some twenty in number
and obviously and unmistakeably German. The style of woodcutting, the
dresses, the high-gabled houses, the storks nesting on the chimney-tops
are all distinctive. This last gave the immediate suggestion of
Strasburg and a very little search showed that the illustrations
were almost exact copies of a series engraved by Urs Graf and first
published in a volume entitled _Passio Jesu Christi_ printed in 1506 by
Knoblouch at Strasburg.
One of these cuts, the Crucifixion, occurs in the York _Manual_
printed ostensibly by Wynkyn de Worde in 1509 for John Gachet and James
Ferrebouc. Although the colophon of the book states emphatically twice
over that it was printed in London for De Worde I have always thought
it was printed abroad, not only because of this woodcut, but because
the type both of text and music is not De Worde’s and because the
device used in it is one only found in his foreign printed books and
therefore presumably kept abroad.
Much seems to point to Paris as the place of production of both
books, and a further piece of evidence exists in the fact that these
cuts are found in an edition of _Les Exposicions des epistres et
evangiles_ printed for Verard in 1511-12. I wrote on the subject of
the English book to M. Delisle, who very kindly made some enquiries at
the Bibliothèque Nationale, but at present no French original can be
traced nor could the Keeper of the Prints throw any further light on
the history of the cuts. The translation would appear to have been done
in England as it was done at the command of Henry VII. The only perfect
copy known is in the Bodleian, but there are fragments in bindings in
several libraries, among others Westminster Abbey and Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge.