considerable danger, he would not be anxious to advertise himself and
would therefore let his books go out without any imprint or with a
fictitious one. Then comes in the study of type. It affords a far more
conclusive argument than any theories drawn from where the author was
living or where he would probably like to have his book printed. Then
again there is the common danger of taking for an early or original
edition what is merely a reprint with the original colophon unaltered.
An important English library purchased not very long ago at a high
price, a so-called first edition of Tindale’s _Parable of the Wicked
Mammon_, printed at Marlborowe in the land of Hesse by Hans Luft,
1528. But in spite of its having this information emblazoned in gold
upon its morocco cover, it is a reprint made about twenty years later
by Berthelet, a fact that should have been patent to anyone at all
conversant with English printing, seeing that the title-page is within
one of Berthelet’s best-known border frames.
Then, again, many of the books with foreign imprints were certainly
printed in this country. Upright Hoff of Leipsic and Ian Troost of
Aurich are both names assumed by John Oswen, the printer of Ipswich.
Cambridge has made an important start towards a real bibliography of
this subject by the publication of the third volume of Mr Sayle’s most
admirable _Catalogue of the Early English Books in the University
Library_. Only those who have worked on the subject can understand
how much patience, how much untiring labour, and how many often
disappointing searches must have been expended on every small fact
chronicled in the volume.
To return to these Early English Testaments printed in Antwerp. It
is quite clear that as soon as the edition printed by Schoeffer in
1525 had been issued and found a ready sale, the Antwerp printers set
to work to print rival editions. Fortunately we have a very clear and
contemporary account which there seems no reason for doubting. It
occurs in Joye’s _Apology_, written about 1534, and I will abbreviate
it as far as possible. “Thou shalt know that Tyndale translated and
printed the New Testament in a mean great volume but yet without
Kalendar, Concordances in the margin, and Table in the end. And anon,
after, the Dutchmen got a copy and printed it again in a small volume
adding the Kalendar in the beginning, Concordances in the margin, and
the Table in the end.” After speaking of the many faults in it he
continues: “After this they printed it again also without a corrector
in a greater letter and volume with the figures in the Apocalypse which
was therefore much falser than their first. When these two prints
(there were of them both about five thousand printed) were all sold
more than a twelvemonth ago [that is about the middle of 1533] Tyndale
was pricked forth to take the Testament in hand. But Tyndale prolonged
and deferred in so much that in the mean season the Dutchmen printed
it again the third time in a small volume like their first print, but
much more false than ever it was before.” Before this edition was put
in hand Joye had been asked to correct it, but refused, saying that
Tindale was about to bring out a revised edition: however two thousand
copies were printed and sold almost at once. A fourth edition was then
put in hand and Joye was again asked to correct it. He continues: “I
answered as before that if Tyndale amend it, with so great diligence
as he promiseth yours will be never sold. Yes, quod they, for if he
print two thousand and we as many, what is so little a number for all
England? and we will sell ours better cheap and therefore we doubt
not of the sale.” Joye seeing clearly that they were determined to
print whether he corrected or not, and seeing he was more qualified
than a native, undertook the task, and for the modest remuneration of
fourpence halfpenny for every sheet of sixteen leaves corrected the
edition published by the widow of Christopher van Endhoven in August,
1534. According to this statement, which is a very lucid one, between
the issue of Tindale’s octavo version in 1525 and Joye’s revision in
1534, three other Antwerp editions had been issued. The first in a very
small volume with a Kalendar, marginal notes, and a table. This must
be the edition printed by Christopher van Endhoven in 1526 for which
he was prosecuted. The second was of a larger size and had woodcuts
to the Apocalypse. The third was similar to the first, but much more
incorrectly printed. Here then are three editions as yet entirely
unidentified, and there are most probably more. The late Dr Angus
possessed the title-page of an edition of 1532 which from the tracing
reproduced in Demaus’ book on Tindale must have been a quarto.
Antwerp continued to print Testaments in increasing numbers. In 1534
and 1535 four editions were issued, and in 1536 when they were more
freely circulated, no less than seven. These are beyond our period,
but I cannot resist chronicling a fact lately come to light, which
gives the solution of a long-standing puzzle. In all the three quarto
editions of 1536, none of which has a printer’s name, is a woodcut
of St Paul with his foot resting on a stone. These cuts though almost
exactly similar are not identical. In one cut nothing is engraved on
the stone, and the edition containing it is known as the “blank stone”
edition. In another cut a mole is engraved on the stone, and the
edition is known as the “mole” edition. In the third there is what is
called an engraver’s mark, with the initials A. K. B., and that issue
is called the “engraver’s mark” edition. Now about this engraver’s
mark nothing was known. Not long ago, however, in turning over a large
volume of miscellaneous woodcuts in the Bodleian I came across an
example of this cut on what was manifestly the last leaf of a book.
Below the cut was this colophon, “Antwerp. Mattheus Cromme voor Adriaen
Kempe van Bouckhout, 1537.” Between 1537 and 1539 Crom printed for
Kempe several editions of Branteghem’s _Vita Jesu Christi_. In 1536
the cut occurs in the _Storys and prophesis out of the holy scriptur_
printed by Simon Cock. It would thus seem that Kempe first employed
Cock as his printer, but left him for Crom when the latter began
printing about 1537.
The specimens of bookbinding of this period, the best so far as stamped
bindings are concerned, offer a very difficult problem to the student.
What are English bindings and what are not, and how are they to be
distinguished? The more the subject is studied, the more difficult
these questions appear. There are bindings which are obviously English
just as there are others obviously foreign, but the great majority are
doubtful. It must be remembered that a very large number of binders
in England were foreigners, who would very likely bring their dies
and stamps with them from abroad, and finish their work in a foreign
manner. As their bindings were produced in England, they must be called
English bindings though in a foreign style, for we would not call
the Berthelet bindings, produced for Henry VIII in London by foreign
workmen with foreign dies, anything but English.
As an example of this confusion I would mention the binding on a copy
of the _Horae ad usum Sarum_ of 1506, printed for Pelgrim and Jacobi,
and now in the Bodleian. In the centre of the cover are two purely
Netherlandish panels, while round these runs a frame composed of two
dies which had belonged to Caxton. We know that the partners owned
several of Caxton’s dies, because they are found in conjunction with
Jacobi’s signed panels. As the _Horae_ was printed for them and has
their dies on the binding, it is clear they are the binders, but had
the Caxton dies been absent, no one could have put down the binding as
anything but Netherlandish.
The favourite English binding of this time consisted of two panel
stamps, one having the Royal Arms, the other the Tudor Rose with
mottoes, which I described before. In the base of these panels the
binder’s initials and mark generally occur. In some cases these
initials can with certainty be ascribed, because they occur with the
mark and full name in some printed book. Thus there is no mistake
about the bindings of Pynson, Notary, Jacobi, or Reynes. But in a
large number of cases there are merely initials, or initials with a
mark which has not been identified. Here the imagination steps in with
usually fatal results.
One set of these panels is signed R. O., and as O is an uncommon
initial for a surname the natural inclination is to attribute the
binding to Reginald Oliver. Another set has the initials R. L.: who
more likely than Richard Lant? All such suggestions are worthless
without proof, and until proved are not worth setting down. Other
binders using these panels were H. N. and G. G.
A binder whose initials were G. R. had two very handsome pairs of
panels. One panel contains the Royal Arms surrounded by the verse
beginning, “Confitemini dominum quoniam bonus,” while the corresponding
panel contains figures of four saints. The first of the second pair
is also the Royal Arms with the verse beginning “Laudate Dominum de
terra,” and the other has the figures of the four saints, George,
Barbara, Michael, and Katherine.
The Annunciation was a very favourite subject with bookbinders. One
of the handsomest panels of this kind was used by a binder, A. H.,
who used also a panel with the Tudor Rose. Though this shows that the
bindings were produced for the English market, the leather employed,
apparently sheepskin, suggests that they were executed abroad, perhaps
at Rouen.
Two other panels were in common use containing figures of St Sebastian
and St Roche. These were extremely popular, for at that time the
country was periodically visited with outbreaks of the plague, against
which these two saints were considered the guardians. Very often the
saint chosen for the binder’s panel had reference to his own Christian
name. John Reynes has a panel with St John Baptist. St George as the
patron saint of England was naturally popular. One beautiful binding
has on one side St George and the Dragon, and on the other St Michael
with the binder’s devices, a maiden’s head on a shield. This might be
the work of Richard Faques, who lived at the sign of the Maiden’s Head.
The roll binding, as apart from the panel binding, was ornamented by
means of a rolling tool, and at first these were large and ornamental,
but they gradually narrowed, and so became meagre or weak in detail.
Those in use at Cambridge are perhaps the finest of all, but this
is not the time to speak of them. Among London binders John Reynes
produced the best known roll, containing figures of a hound, a falcon,
and a bee with flowers and foliage. Another with an unknown binder’s
mark, contains a hound, a falcon, and a double-headed eagle on a
shield. The roll of another unknown binder bears a Tudor Rose, a
pomegranate, a shield with the arms of France and England, a turreted
gateway, a portcullis, a fleur-de-lys, and the binder’s mark.
Another handsome roll has the initials of I. G. and W. G. with figures
of a dragon, a gryphon, and foliage, and is not at all uncommon. In
Archbishop Marsh’s library at Dublin there is an example of such a
binding, tooled entirely in gold, the only example I have ever seen of
such work.
In the main design of all these English rolls there is very little
variation, the various royal emblems amidst foliage and flowers.
It is unfortunate that while we have so many initialled bindings which
cannot be definitely ascribed to particular binders, so also we have
the names of plenty of binders to whom we cannot allot bindings;
Alard and Noel Havy, De Worde’s binders, Giles Lauret, who lived
close to Havy in Shoe Lane, and John Rouse, who lived next door. John
Richardson, and John Row who was punished for buying Testaments. John
Pollard and Thomas Stoke who received pardon for some unknown offence
in 1533. Martin Dotier, the third offender, we do find afterwards, for
he commissioned one edition of a Sarum _Manual_ in 1543, and ended his
days as a brother of the Stationers’ Company.
Few binders or stationers of the time have left any definite record. I
have notes of at least four hundred persons connected with the English
book-trade between the years 1500 and 1535, but of very few is anything
known beyond the name. A mention in a will, an entry in a record or
tax-roll, or a mention in church or municipal accounts, is all that
remains to tell us of their existence.
I have referred before to the various difficulties with which the
foreign stationer had to contend, and year by year these difficulties
grew worse. The educated man was still entirely dependent on the
Continent for such books as he required, for before 1535 the literature
of the Renaissance was untouched by the native printers. Wynkyn de
Worde from start to finish, roughly speaking, never printed a classic,
but was content to turn out rhymes and romances to catch the popular
taste. Pynson, the more scholarly worker, was engaged on official or
semi-official publications. There was no press that could print in any
but ordinary type; even the most learned printer had not sufficient
Greek letters to print quotations; and this when foreigners came to
England to learn Greek.
No doubt the large importation of books was galling to the native
printers, but they do not seem to have lacked work, or if they did
it was only through their own want of energy. The bookbinders were
in a much worse case, because so many binders in this country were
foreigners, and no doubt large consignments of books came over ready
bound. The probability is that the foreigners had been better trained,
and could turn out cheaper and better work, and though that might
appeal to the purchaser, it would certainly injure their native rivals.
While for forty years the Italians had been issuing beautiful little
volumes in gilt bindings, the use of gilding on bindings was almost
unknown in England. It was not as though English printing was improving
as time went on. Indeed it became more and more careless and slovenly.
A printer here and there who had a subsidy and was sure of work, such
as Pynson and Berthelet, cast fine type and produced handsome books.
But the majority lagged far behind, and worn-out type and broken cuts
were the stock-in-trade of the ordinary printer. Then was passed the
Act of 1534, which declared the English printers to be at least the
equals of any foreign competitors, and restricted the importation of
foreign books. With the removal of the foreign competition native
work sank to its lowest level, and it was only when the religious
persecutions abroad drove numbers of refugee foreign printers to
England that English printing began to revive--for the time.
On Christmas Day, 1534, probably but a few days before the death of
Wynkyn de Worde, the famous Act of 25 Henry VIII concerning printers
and binders of books came into operation. The preamble is extremely
clear and interesting: “Whereas by the provision of a statute made in
the first year of the reign of king Richard III [1484] it was provided
in the same Act, that all strangers repairing into this realm, might
lawfully bring into the said realm printed and written books to sell
at their liberty and pleasure. By force of which provision there hath
come into this realm sithen the making of the same a marvellous number
of printed books, and daily doth; and the cause of making of the same
provision seemeth to be, for that there were but few books, and few
printers, within this realm at that time, which could well exercise and
occupy the said science and craft of printing; nevertheless, sithen
the making of the said provision, many of this realm, being the king’s
natural subjects, have given themselves so diligently to learn and
exercise the said craft of printing, that at this day there be within
this realm a great number of cunning and expert in the said science or
craft of printing, as able to exercise the said craft in all points,
as any stranger in any other realm or country. And furthermore, where
there be a great number of the king’s subjects within this realm, which
live by the craft and mystery of binding of books, and that there be a
great multitude well expert in the same, yet all this notwithstanding
there are divers persons, that bring from beyond the sea great
plenty of printed books, not only in the Latin tongue, but also in
our maternal English tongue, some bound in boards, some in leather,
and some in parchment, and them sell by retail, whereby many of the
king’s subjects, being binders of books, and having no other faculty,
wherewith to get their living, be destitute of work, and like to be
undone, except some reformation be herein had. Be it therefore enacted
by the king our sovereign lord, the lords spiritual and temporal, and
the commons in this present parliament assembled, and by authority
of the same, that the said proviso, made the first year of the said
king Richard III, from the feast of the nativity of our Lord God next
coming, shall be void and of none effect.”
This part of the Act, which seems to me essentially fair, simply
removed special privileges and put the foreign printers and stationers
on an equal footing with all other aliens. Then come two special new
enactments.
“And further, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no
persons resiant or inhabitant within this realm, after the said feast
of Christmas next coming, shall buy to sell again, any printed books,
brought from any parts out of the king’s obeysance, ready bound in
boards, leather or parchment, upon pain to lose and forfeit for every
book bound out of the said king’s obeysance, and brought into this
realm and bought by any person or persons within the same to sell again
contrary to this Act, 6_s._ 8_d._”
This enactment was a great protection to native binders as prohibiting
all dealing in foreign bound books. The next paragraph was for the
benefit of the printers. “And be it further enacted, by the authority
aforesaid, that no person or persons inhabitant or resiant within this
realm after the said feast of Christmas shall buy within this realm of
any stranger born out of the king’s obedience, other than of denizens,
any manner of printed books brought from any the parts beyond the sea,
except only by engross and not by retail upon pain of forfeiture of
6_s._ 8_d._ for every book so bought by retail contrary to the form and
effect of this estature.”
The remainder of the Act treats only of penalties and restrictions as
to the price of books and bindings.
The clause about printing amounts to this, that no person not a
native or denizen could retail foreign printed books, and it seems
pretty clear that it was not so much intended for the advantage of
printers, as for giving fuller power to suppress the importation and
surreptitious sale of controversial books.
The alien printer, stationer, or binder, when denizened, was in this
position. He paid double subsidies and taxes, he could have none but
English-born apprentices and only two foreign workmen. He was under the
rule of the Warden of the Craft. He could not deal in foreign bound
books, nor buy books from foreigners except by engross. The alien
not denizened had the further restrictions that unless he had been a
householder before February 1528, he could not keep any house or shop
in which to exercise any handicraft, nor could he sell any foreign
printed books by retail.
Weighed down by these various disabilities the small foreign stationers
rapidly disappeared. A certain number who had lived here for some
time took out letters of denization and stayed on, but it was only to
struggle on.
If you wish to have a practical idea of what foreign work meant to
England, just glance at the list of Contents in Mr Sayle’s admirable
_Catalogue of the Early_ _English books in the University Library_.
Taking all the persons given in the list, from the earliest printing to
1510 connected with English books, we have the astonishing result of
three Englishmen, Caxton, a printer, Hunte, the Oxford stationer, and
W. Bretton, merely a patron of printing. The foreigners on the other
hand number forty-two. After 1510 the relative numbers rapidly alter,
and by 1535 the great majority were English. The hatred of the natives,
and the various Acts levelled against him, compelled the foreign
workman to disappear, and I am afraid that with his disappearance the
necessary competition which produced good printing disappeared also.
The fifty years of freedom from 1484 to 1534 not only brought us the
finest specimens of printing we possess, but compelled the native
workman, in self-protection, to learn, and when competition was done
away with his ambition rapidly died also. Once our English printing was
protected, it sank to a level of badness which has lasted, with the
exception of a few brilliant experiments, almost down to our own day.
INDEX.
Aberdeen University Library, 81
_Abridgement of the Statutes_, 44, 46, 114, 124
Actors, Peter, 77, 98, 169
Acts affecting printers and stationers, 74, 129, 187, 189-191, 208,
212, 236-239
Adryan of Barrowe. _See_ Berghen, A. van
_Advertisement_, Caxton’s, 9
Aeneas Sylvius. See _Eurialus_
Aesop, _Fables_, Caxton, 15;
Andrewes, 156
Alard, bookbinder, 107, 139, 140, 235
Albertus, _De modis significandi_, Notary, 37;
_Liber aggregationis_, Machlinia, 48;
_Secreta mulierum_, Machlinia, 48
Alcock, John, _Gallicantus_, Pynson, 1498, 66;
_Mons perfectionis_, Pynson, 1497, 66;
W. de Worde, 1501, 132
Aldus bindings, 124
Alexander VI., pope, 55
Alexander Grammaticus, _Doctrinale_, Pynson, 59, 60, 66, 109
Alien printers and stationers, 74-76, 120, 188-191, 235-240
_Almanack_, 1529, A. van Berghen, 216;
1530, C. van Ruremond, 223
Alost, 5
Althorp Library, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 114
Ames, Joseph, 8, 11, 50, 152, 171
Andreae, A., _Questiones_, Lettou, 1480, 42
Andrewe, Lawrence, 140, 155, 156, 221
_Anelida and Arcyte_, Caxton, 10
Angus, Dr, 230
_Antiphoner, Sarum_, W. Hopyl, 205, 218
Antoine, Jean, 206
Antwerp printing, 79, 85, 88, 91, 148, 149, 153, 155, 176, 200, 213
Antwerp stationers, 214-231
Anwykyll, J., _Grammar_, 79
Appleby Grammar School, 60
Arnold, Richard, 221;
_Chronicle_, 169, 214-216
_Ars Moriendi_, Caxton, 21, 22, 90
_Art and Craft to Know Well to Die_, Caxton, 64;
Pynson, 64
Arundel, Earl of, 14, 16
Ashburnham sale, 30, 53
Atkyns, R., _Original and growth of printing_, 1
B., A. K., engraver, 231
Badius, J., 96, 193, 195
Bagford, John, 8, 11, 148
Baldwin, John, 193
Baligault, Felix, 84, 86
Bankes, Richard, 125, 154, 155
Barbanson, John, 139
Barbier, Jean, 37, 38, 194, 196
Barclay, Alexander, 162, 206;
_Introductory to French_, 147
Barker, Christopher, 76
Barnes, Robert, 125
Barrevelt, Gerardus, 92, 93
Bars, John, 69
Bartholomæus, _De proprietatibus rerum_, 4, 29
Barton, Elizabeth, 151
Basle, 78
Bath, Marquis of, 54
_Battle of Agincourt_, J. Skot, 151
Beauchamp, Earl, 66
Bedford, Duke of, _Epitaph of_, 63
Bedfordshire General Library, 106
Bellaert, Jacop, 88, 89
Berclaeus, Thomas, 177
Bercula, Thomas, 177
Berghen, Adrian van, 91, 214-216
Bernard, St, _Meditations_, W. de Worde, 90
Berthelet, Anthony, 183
Berthelet, Edward, 183
Berthelet, Margaret, 182
Berthelet, Thomas, 156, 157, 158, 175, 176, 177-183, 192, 208,
228, 236;
bindings, 124, 232
_Bible_, Grafton and Whitchurch, 1539, 209;
Petyt and Redman, 1540, 176;
Dutch, C. & H. van Ruremond, 1525, 223, 226
_Bible, New Testament_, English, 208, 222-231;
Dutch, 1528, 223
Bibliothèque Nationale, 68, 73, 136, 137
Binder, royal, 181
Binders, 97, 101-126, 231-235
Bindings, 101-126, 231-235
Armorial, 123
Cambridge, 108, 117, 120, 122, 234
Characteristics, 122-3
Clasps and Ties, 123
Durham, 102, 104
Early English, 101-111
Foreign, importation prohibited, 76, 238
Fragments in, 107, 110, 124-5
Gilt, 182, 234, 236
Greek books, 123
Italian, 123
London, 102
Norwich, 108
Oxford, 103-4
Panel stamps, 111-121, 145, 197-8, 200-1, 232-4
Prices, 182
Roll ornaments, 120, 200, 202, 234
Rouen, 121, 233
Venetian style, 124, 182
Winchester, 102-4
Birckman, Arnold, 198, 200, 201, 219
Birckman, Francis, 195, 217-219, 222, 226
Birckman, Francis, jun., 218, 219
Birckman, John, 201, 219
_Birth of Merlin_, W. de Worde, 1510, 136
Blades, Wm, 3, 8, 19, 22, 23, 58, 106, 107
_Blanchardin and Eglantine_, Caxton, 19, 20
Blandford, Marquis of, 9, 61
Bocard, André, 97, 142, 193
Bodleian Library. _See_ Oxford
_Body of Policy_, J. Skot, 1521, 150
Boethius, A. M. T., _De consolatione philosophie_, Caxton, 106-7
Bonaventura, _Speculum vitae Christi_, Caxton, 16, 20, 58;
W. de Worde, 26;
Pynson, 58, 62
Bonham, William, 149, 184
_Book of Cookery_, Pynson, 1500, 69, 71, 159;
Bankes and Lant, 1545, 155