OXFORD AND ST. ALBAN’S.
As early as 1664, when Richard Atkyns issued his _Original and Growth
of Printing_, the assertion was put forward that printing in England
was first practised at Oxford. ‘A book came into my hands,’ says
Atkyns, ‘printed at Oxon, Anno Dom. 1468, which was three years before
any of the recited Authours would allow it to be in England.’
The book here referred to is the celebrated _Exposicio sancti Jeronimi
in simbolum apostolorum_, written by Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia;
and in the colophon it is clearly stated that the book was printed in
1468. ‘Impressa Oxonie et finita anno domini.M. cccc. lxviij xvij. die
decembris.’
Many writers have argued for and against the authenticity of the date;
and though some are still found who believe in its correctness, it is
generally allowed to be a misprint for 1478. In the first place, the
book has printed signatures, which have not been found in any book
before 1472. Again, copies of this book have been found bound up in
the original binding with books of 1478, In the library of All Souls
College, Oxford, is a copy bound up with one of the 1479 books, and
though the present binding is modern, they were originally bound
together; and we find a set-off from the damp ink of the second volume
on the last leaf of the first. A copy in another Oxford library, bound
up with the 1479 books, has been marked for or by the binder with
consecutive signatures all through the several tracts. Instances of
misprinted dates are far from rare. The _Mataratius de componendis
versibus_, printed at Venice by Ratdolt, is dated 1468 instead of
1478, and was on that account sometimes put forward as a proof of
early printing there. Spain, too, claimed printing for the same year
on account of a misprinted ‘1468’ in a grammar printed at Barcelona.
A _Vocabularius rerum_, printed by John Keller at Augsburg, has the
same misprint of 1468. However, the surest test of the date of a book
is to place it alongside others from the same press, and compare the
workmanship. In this case the book falls naturally into its place at
the head of the Oxford list in 1478, taking just the small precedence
of the two books of 1479, which the slightly lesser excellence of its
workmanship warrants. A break of eleven years between two books which
are in every way so closely allied would be almost impossible, and
quite unsupported by other instances. Accepting 1478 as the correct
date, it is clear that Oxford lost no time in employing the new art,
for Caxton had only commenced at Westminster the year before.
The first three books, the _Exposicio_ of 1478 before mentioned, and
the _Ægidius de originali peccato_, and _Textus ethicorum Aristotelis
per Leonardum Aretinum translatus_, both of 1470, form a group of
themselves. They are printed in a type either brought from Cologne or
directly copied from Cologne work, and strongly resembling that used by
Gerard ten Raem de Berka or Guldenschaff. None have a printer’s name,
but they are ascribed to Theodore Rood of Cologne, the printer of the
other early Oxford books.
The earliest of these three, the _Exposicio_, is a small quarto of
forty-two leaves, with twenty-five lines to the page, and the other
two are generally similar in type and form. There are, however, one or
two differences to be noted in it. The edges on the right-hand margin
are often uneven, the letters Q, H, g are often wrongly used, the text
begins on A1 instead of on the second leaf, and it was printed one page
at a time. These faults were all rectified in the two later books,
which leave little to be desired in the way of execution.
The next dated book appeared in 1481, and it has the advantage of a
full colophon giving the name of the printer. It is a Latin commentary
on the _De Animâ_ of Aristotle, by Alexander de Hales; a folio of 240
leaves, printed in type which had not been used before,—a curious,
narrow, upright Gothic, not unlike in general appearance some of the
founts used at Zwoll, or by Ther Hoernen at Cologne. A copy of this
book was bought in the year that it was published for the library
of Magdalen College, Oxford, where it still remains, for the sum of
thirty-three shillings and fourpence. In 1482 was issued a _Commentary
on the Lamentations of Jeremiah_, by John Lattebury, a folio of 292
leaves. This is one of the least rare of the early Oxford books, and
three copies of it are known printed upon vellum. The most interesting
of these is in the library of All Souls College, Oxford. It is a
beautiful copy in the original Oxford binding, and the various quires
are signed by the proof-readers. Shortly after the issue of the
_Lattebury_, the press acquired an extremely beautiful woodcut border,
and the copies still remaining in stock of the _Lattebury_ and the
_Alexander de Hales_ were rendered more attractive by having this
border printed round the first page of text, and at the beginning of
some of the divisions. In this second issue of the two books, some
sheets also appear to have been reprinted.
With these two books may be classed two others, in both cases known
only from fragments, an edition of _Cicero pro Milone_ and a Latin
Grammar. The _Cicero pro Milone_ is a quarto, and would have contained
about thirty leaves. At present only eight leaves are known; four in
the Bodleian, and four in Merton College Library. This was the first
edition of a classic printed in England. Of the Latin Grammar only two
leaves are known, which are in the British Museum.
The third and last group contains eight books, of which only one
contains a printer’s name. This is found in the colophon to the
_Phalaris_ of 1485, a curious production in verse running as follows:—
‘Hoc Teodericus rood quem collonia misit
Sanguine germanus nobile pressit opus
Atque sibi socius thomas fuit anglicus hunte.
Dij dent ut venetos exuperare queant
Quam ienson venetos decuit vir gallicus artem
Ingenio didicit terra britanna suo
Celatos veneti nobis transmittere libros
Cedite nos alijs vendimus o veneti
Que fuerat vobis ars primum nota latini
Est eadem nobis ipsa reperta patres
Quamvis semotos toto canit orbe britannos
Virgilius, placet his lingua latina tamen.’
From this we learn that Rood had taken as his partner one Thomas Hunt,
an Englishman, who had been established as a stationer in Oxford as
early as 1473. He was probably associated with Rood in the production
of all the books in the last group, and his influence may be perhaps
traced in the new founts of type used in them, which are much more
English in appearance than any which had been used at this press before.
One of the earliest of the books of this last group is the Latin
Grammar by John Anwykyll, with the _Vulgaria Terencii_. Of the first
part, the Grammar, which contained about 128 leaves, only one imperfect
copy, now in the Bodleian, is known. Of the other part, the _Vulgaria_,
at least four copies are known, and an inscription on the copy
belonging to the Bodleian gives us a clue to the date. On its first
leaf is written the following inscription:—‘1483. Frater Johannes
Grene emit hunc librum Oxonie de elemosinis amicorum suorum’—Brother
John Grene bought this book at Oxford with the gifts of his friends.
1483 is, then, the latest date to which we can ascribe the printing of
the book; and this fits it into its place, after the books of 1481 and
1482 printed in the earlier type.
[Illustration: FIRST PAGE OF THE “EXCITATIO.”
(_Printed at Oxford_, c. 1485.)]
After the _Anwykyll_ comes a book by Richard Rolle of Hampole,
_Explanationes super lectiones beati Job_, a quarto of sixty-four
leaves, of which all the three known copies are in the University
Library, Cambridge. With this may be classed a unique book in the
British Museum, a sermon of Augustine, _Excitatio ad elemosinam
faciendam_, a quarto of eight leaves. This book, bound with five other
rare tracts, was lot 4912 in the Colbert sale, and brought the large
price of 1 livre, 10 sous, about half-a-crown in our money. Another
quarto, similar to the last two, follows, a collection of treatises on
logical subjects, usually associated with the name of Roger Swyneshede,
who was most probably the author of one only out of the nineteen
different parts. It is a quarto of 164 leaves, and the only perfect
copy known is in the library of New College, Oxford; another copy,
slightly imperfect, being in the library of Merton College.
Next in our conjectural arrangement comes the Lyndewode, _Super
constitutiones provinciales_, a large folio of 366 leaves. This is the
first edition of the celebrated commentary of William Lyndewode, and
of the Provincial Constitutions of England. On the verso of the
first leaf is a woodcut, the first occurring in an Oxford book.
Ascribed to the year 1485 are the _Doctrinale_ of Alexander Gallus and
the Latin translation of the _Epistles of Phalaris_, whose colophon has
been already noticed.
The _Doctrinale_ of Alexander Gallus is known only from two leaves in
the library of St. John’s College, Cambridge. These leaves are used
as end papers in the binding of a book; and a volume in the library
of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, bound in identically the same
manner, has also as end papers two leaves of an Oxford printed book.
That these two books must have been bound by the same man, almost at
the same time, is shown from the fact that in both we find used vellum
leaves from one and the same manuscript along with the refuse Oxford
leaves.
The Latin translation of the _Epistles of Phalaris_, by Franciscus
Aretinus, is in many ways the most interesting of this last group
of Oxford books, containing as it does a very full colophon. It was
printed, so the colophon tells us, in the 297th Olympiad, which those
who write on the subject say was the year 1485. It is a quarto of
eighty-eight leaves, and a very fine perfect copy is in the library of
Wadham College, Oxford; two other copies are known, belonging to Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, and the Spencer Library.
The last book issued by the Oxford press was the _Liber Festialis_,
a book of sermons for the holy days, by John Mirk. Several imperfect
copies of this book are known, the most complete being in the library
of Lambeth Palace. It is a folio of 174 leaves, and contains a series
of eleven large cuts and five small ones. This series of large cuts
(together with the cut of an author at work on his book, which occurs
in the _Lyndewode_, and which is clearly one of the set), were not cut
for the _Festial_, but appear to have been prepared for some edition of
the _Golden Legend_. It was to have been a large folio book, for when
we find the cuts used in the _Festial_, they have been cut at one end
to allow them to fit the smaller sized sheet.
The _Festial_ is dated 1486, but has no printer’s name. After this we
know of no other book produced in Oxford during the fifteenth century,
and we have no information to account for the cessation of the press.
It is possible, however, that Rood left Oxford and returned to Cologne.
Panzer (vol. iv. p. 274) mentions two books, _Questiones Aristotelis
de generatione et corruptione_ and _Tres libri de anima Aristotelis_,
printed at Cologne by a printer named Theodoricus in 1485 and 1486. In
the library at Munich is a copy of the first book, and a facsimile of
a page was published lately in Burger’s _Monumenta Germaniæ et Italiæ
Typographica_.
Now the type in which this book is printed bears the very strongest
resemblance in many respects to that used by Rood at Oxford in 1481
and 1482, and the similarity of the names makes it possible, if not
probable, that Rood was the printer. The _Questiones Aristotelis
de generatione et corruptione_ was finished at Cologne, ‘anno
incarnationis dominice 1485 in vigilia S, Andreæ apostoli per
Theodoricum impressorem colonie infra sedecim domos.’[33]
[33] At this same address, where, in 1470, Ther Hoernen was living,
we afterwards find John Landen. It is not, however, quite clear that
‘infra sedecim domos’ was the denomination of a particular house.
The vigil of St. Andrew was the 29th of November, so that Rood had not
much time to move from Oxford and start his new office between the date
of the publication of the _Phalaris_, 1485, and the 29th of November of
the same year.
Ennen and Madden consider that this Theodoricus was a certain Theodoric
de Berse, whose name occurs in a list of printers and stationers of
Cologne in 1501.
It is impossible with our present knowledge to say any more on the
question; but if Rood did return to Cologne, the _Festial_ must have
been printed by Hunt alone. With it the fifteenth century printing
at Oxford suddenly ceased, after a fairly prosperous career of eight
years, during which at least fifteen books were issued.
From 1486 onward we have no further record of printing there till the
year 1517. In the meanwhile the stationers supplied such books as were
required; and to some of them we find incidental references, both in
accounts and in the colophons of books printed for them.
In 1506, Pynson printed an edition of the _Principia_ of Peregrinus
de Lugo, at the expense of Georgius Castellanus, who was living at
the sign of St. John the Evangelist. Between 1512 and 1514, Henry
Jacobi, a London stationer, moved to Oxford, and started business at
the sign of the Trinity, the sign which he had used when in London.
He died at Oxford in 1514. In 1517 the new press was started by John
Scolar, who lived ‘in viculo diui Joannis baptiste.’ The first book
he issued was a commentary by Walter Burley on apart of Aristotle,
and this was followed in the next year by another book by the same
author, _De materia et forma_. In 1518 were also issued the _Questiones
super libros ethicorum_, by John Dedicus [15 May], the _Compendium
questionum de luce et lumine_ [5 June], and Robert Whitinton’s _De
heteroclitis nominibus_ [27 June]. To the same year may be assigned
a _Prognostication_ by Jasper Laet, of which there is a copy in the
Cambridge University Library. In 1519 there is only one book, printed
by a new man, for Scolar has disappeared. It is the _Compotus manualis
ad usum Oxoniensium_, printed by Charles Kyrfoth, who lived like Scolar
‘in vico diui Joannis baptiste,’ and perhaps succeeded the latter in
business. From this time forward no books were printed in Oxford till
1585, when the University Press was started by Joseph Barnes, and
commenced its career by issuing the _Speculum moralium quæstionum_ of
John Case.
One more early Oxford stationer must be mentioned as connected with
printing, and this is John Dorne or Thorne, who was in business about
1520, and whose most interesting Day-book was edited some years ago by
Mr. Falconer Madan for the Oxford Historical Society. He was originally
a stationer, and perhaps printer, at Brunswick. A small educational
work, the _Opusculum insolubilium secundum usum insignis scole paruisi
in alma universitate Oxonie_, printed by Treveris, was to be sold ‘apud
I. T.’ These initials stand probably for John Thorne, and we find the
book mentioned in his accounts.
ST. ALBAN’S.
The schoolmaster printer of St. Alban’s has left us no information
as to his life, or even told us his name, and we should know nothing
whatever about him had not W. de Worde referred to him as ‘sometime
schoolmaster of St. Albans.’
The press was probably started in 1479; for though the earliest dated
book is dated 1480, an edition from this press of _Augustini Dacti
elegancie_, in quarto, is evidently earlier, being printed throughout
in one type, the first of those used by this printer. Of this book one
copy only is known, in the University Library, Cambridge.
In 1480 the schoolmaster printer issued the _Rhetorica Nova_ of
Laurentius de Saona, a book which Caxton was printing about the
same time, and very soon after it the _Questiones Alberti de modo
significandi_. These were followed by three more works in Latin,
the _Questiones super Physica Aristotelis_ of Joannes Canonicus,
the _Exempla Sacræ Scripturæ_, and Antonius Andreæ _super Logica
Aristotelis_. The remaining two books from this press, in contrast to
those that had preceded them, are of a popular character. These are the
_Chronicles of England_, and the treatise on hawking, hunting, and coat
armour, commonly known as the _Book of St. Alban’s_.
All the eight St. Alban’s books are of the greatest rarity. More than
half are known only from single copies; of some, not a single perfect
copy remains.
The very scholastic nature of the majority of the books from this press
renders it more or less uninteresting; but the two latest works, the
_Chronicles_ and the _Book of St. Alban’s_, appeal more to popular
taste. Editions of the _Chronicles_ were issued by every English
printer, and there is nothing in this particular one to merit special
remark. The _Book of St. Alban’s_, on the other hand, is a book of very
particular interest. It consists of three parts; the first is devoted
to hawking, the second to hunting, and the third to coat armours or
heraldry. Naturally enough it was a popular book--so popular that no
perfect copy now exists. It also possesses the distinction of being the
first English book which contains specimens of printing in colour; for
the coats-of-arms at the end are for the most part printed in their
correct colour. Later in the century, in 1496, W. de Worde issued
another edition of this book, adding to it a chapter on ‘Fishing with
an angle.’
In these eight St. Alban’s books we find four different types used. The
first is a small, clear-cut, distinctive type, but is only used for the
text of one book and the signatures of others. Type NO. 2, which is
used for the text of the two English and one of the Latin books, is a
larger ragged type, with a strong superficial resemblance to Caxton’s.
Type No. 3, which is used in four Latin books, is a smaller type, full
of abbreviations and contractions; while the last type is one which had
belonged to Caxton (his type 3), but which he gave up using about 1484.
This use of Caxton’s type has led some people to imagine that there was
a close connection between the Westminster and St. Alban’s press; and
a writer in the _Athenæum_ went so far as to propound a theory that
Caxton’s unsigned books were really printed at St. Alban’s.