[Illustration: WALTER LYNNE.]
The consideration of the Printer’s Mark as an institution in this
country is characterized by extreme simplicity, both as to its origin
and to its design. From an entry in one of the Bagford volumes (Harleian
MSS. 5910) in the British Museum, we learn that “rebuses or name devices
were brought into England after Edward III. had conquered France: they
were used by those who had no arms, and if their names ended in Ton, as
Hatton, Boulton, Luton, Grafton, Middleton, Seton, Norton, their signs
or devices would be a Hat and a tun, a Boult and a tun, a Lute and a
tun, etc., which had no reference to their names, for all names ending
in Ton signifieth town, from whence they took their names.” Even in
England, therefore, the merchant’s trade device was the direct source of
the Printer’s Mark, which it antedated by over a century. It will be
convenient, first of all, to explain that the first printing-press in
England was that of William Caxton at Westminster, whose first book was
issued from this place November 18, 1477; the second was that of
Theodoricus de Rood, at Oxford, the first book dated December 17, 1478;
the third was that of the unknown printer at St. Albans, 1480, and the
fourth was that of John Lettou, in the city of London, 1480, the
last-named being soon joined by William de Machlinia, who afterwards
carried on the business alone. The earliest phases of wood-engraving
employed at one or other of these four distinct houses were either
initial letters or borders around the page. At Caxton’s press, as the
late Henry Bradshaw has pointed out in a paper read before the Cambridge
Antiquarian Society, February 25, 1867, simple initials are found in the
Indulgences of 1480 and 1481; at the Oxford press an elaborate border of
four pieces, representing birds and flowers, is found in some copies of
the two books printed there in October, 1481, and July, 1482. Of
illustrations in the text, we find a series of diagrams and a series of
eleven cuts illustrating the text of the first edition of “The Mirror of
the World,” 1481; a series of sixteen cuts to the second edition of “The
Game of Chesse Moralised,” 1483; and two works of the following year,
“The Fables of Esop” and the first edition of “The Golden Legend,” each
contains not only a large cut for the frontispiece, but in the case of
the former, a series of 185 cuts, and, in the latter, two series of
eighteen large and fifty-two small cuts. At the Oxford press only two
books are known with woodcut illustrations, in neither case cut for the
work; at the St. Albans press the only known illustrations in the text
are the coats-of-arms found in the “Book of Hawking, Hunting and
Coat-Armours,” 1486; at the press of Lettou and W. de Machlinia there is
no trace of illustrations.
These few introductory facts, condensed from Mr. Bradshaw’s paper above
mentioned, have a distinct interest to us as leading up to the
employment of the Printer’s Mark. It is certainly curious that at
Caxton’s press the very familiar device was only first used about
Christmas, 1489, in the second folio edition of the Sarum “Ordinale.” At
first this bold and effective mark was used, as in the “Ordinale,” the
“Dictes of the Philosophers,” and in the “History of Reynaud the Fox,”
at or close to the beginning of the volume. In Caxton’s subsequent books
it is always found at the end. At the St. Albans press the device with
“Sanctus Albanus” is found in two of the eight books printed there, “The
English Chronicle,” 1483, where it is printed in red, and in “The Book
of Hawking,” etc., 1486; it is formed of a globe and double cross, there
being in the centre a shield with a St. Andrew’s cross.
So far as regards Caxton’s device, it is easier to name the books in
which it appeared than to explain its exact meaning. The late William
Blades accepts the common interpretation of “W. C. 74.” Some
bibliographers argue that the date refers to the introduction of
printing in England, and quote the colophon of the first edition of the
“Chess” book in support of this theory. But the date of this work refers
to the translation and not to the printing, which was executed at
Bruges, probably in 1476. Caxton did not settle at Westminster until
late in that year, and possibly not until 1477. In all probability the
date, supposing it to be such, and assuming that it is an abbreviation
of 1474, refers to some landmark in our printer’s career. Professor
J. P. A. Madden, in his “Lettres d’un Bibliophile,” expresses it as his
opinion that the two small letters outside the “W. 74 C” are an
abbreviation of the words “Sancta Colonia,” an indication that a notable
event in the life of Caxton occurred in 1474 at Cologne. Ames, Herbert,
and others have copied a device which Caxton never used: it is much
smaller than the genuine one (which, in other respects, it closely
resembles) which we reproduce from Berjeau. The opinion that the
interlacement is a trade mark is, Mr. Blades points out in his
exhaustive “Life,” much strengthened by the discovery of its original
use. In 1487, Caxton, wishing to print a Sarum Missal, and not having
the types proper for the purpose, sent to Paris, where the book was
printed for him by G. Maynyal, who in the colophon states distinctly
that he printed it at the expense of William Caxton of London. When the
printed sheets reached Westminster, Caxton, wishing to make it quite
plain that he was the publisher, engraved his design and printed it on
the last page, which happened to be blank. Mr. Blades gives 1487 as the
year in which this Missal (of which only one copy is known) was printed,
but Mr. Bradshaw puts it at 1489. The former enumerates twelve books
printed by Caxton in which his device occurs--all ranging from the
aforesaid Missal to the year 1491, the date of his death.
[Illustration: WILLIAM CAXTON.]
[Illustration: THE ST. ALBANS PRINTER.]
Wynkyn de Worde, a native of Lorraine, who was with Caxton at Bruges or
Cologne, carried on the business of his master at Westminster until
1499, when he removed to the sign of the Golden Sun, Fleet Street,
London. He had nine Marks, the earliest of which is often described as
one of Caxton’s, from the genuine example of which, as we have already
stated, it differs in being smaller, with a different border, and in
having a flourish inserted above and below the letters. The second is an
elongated variation of No. 1, with the name Wynkyn de Worde on a narrow
white space beneath the device. The next four devices are more or less
elaborations upon that of which we give a reproduction; the seventh is
the Sagittarius device in black with white characters: between the
sagittarii is seen the sun and flaming stars, and below the initials
“W C” in Roman letters, with the name Wynkyn de Worde at the foot; the
eighth is a picturesque Mark copied from one belonging to Froben, with
the omission of part of the background; it consists of a semicircular
arch, supported by short-wreathed pillars, with foliated capitals,
plinths and bases: on the top of each is a boy habited like a soldier,
with a spear and shield bending forwards; a large cartouche German
shield is supported by three boys. The ninth Mark of this printer was a
large and handsome one, being a royal and heraldic device which Wynkyn
de Worde used as a frontispiece to the Acts of Parliament, in the form
of an upright parallelogram which encloses a species of arched panel or
doorway, formed of three lines, imitating clustered columns and Gothic
mouldings, and two large square shields, that on the left charged with
three fleurs-de-lys for France, and the other bearing France and England
quarterly, each of which is surmounted by a crown. For a very minute
description of these Marks, and their variations, the reader is referred
to Johnson’s “Typographia,” and Bigmore and Wyman’s “Bibliography of
Printing,” the former of whom enumerates 410 books which issued from
this press.
[Illustration: WYNKYN DE WORDE.
wynkyn de worde
W C]
[Illustration: R. PYNSON.